Shadows of Empyriad (The Empyriad Series Book 1)

by Josi Russell

  He squirmed. He had hoped no one but him had noticed that.

  “But we did that on purpose, son.” She said, and her voice was earnest. “I wanted you to be like him. Not like them.”

  Sol wanted to ask her if he was like his father. He wanted to know what was good about that, but the growl of the crawler echoed through the valley. It was still pretty far away. If he left now, he wouldn’t get stuck with more chores.

  She must have seen it, too. “You’d better get out of here,” she said.

  Sol jumped off the porch and headed for the truck. As he reached for the handle, she called to him again.

  “And Sol?”

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  Her gaze was fierce, even from the porch, and her tone left no room for argument. “No skimming.”

  When he stopped to pick Juice up, the first thing he noticed was a new, ugly bruise across his friend’s cheek. It wasn’t unusual, and Sol knew where it had come from.

  “Not a great day, then?” Sol asked. Most people just got embarrassed and pretended they didn’t see Juice’s marks anymore, but he and Sol had been friends too long to pretend.

  Juice gave him a half-smile. “Not great. He just found out that I applied to work in the park.”

  The words knifed through Sol. Juice would never have done that if Sol hadn’t. He choked out an apology.

  “Listen, Sol, if it wasn’t that it would have been something else. This isn’t your fault. It’s his.”

  Sol remembered Molly telling Juice that when the kid had come to live with them for three months a couple of years ago.

  “He’s just so angry all the time. And there’s nothin’ I can do about it. The only time he’s happy with me is when I’m training over at the armory. But there’s only a few hours a day I can be there doin’ that.” Juice looked out the window.

  Sol thought of Juice’s father. Mr. Hastings wasn’t a big man, but he burned with a rage that even Sol feared. He had joined the Milguard when he was twelve, and he was known for being a ruthless fighter. Spending his life at war had turned everyone into an enemy. Another reason to get out of here. Sol was glad he hadn’t joined the Milguard.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to go to the immersion theater tonight.” Juice said. “They’re playing that new movie: Ashes, and everyone’s going to be there tonight for a summer kick-off.” There were just a few more weeks of school left, and the end couldn’t come fast enough.

  “Deal,” Sol said, “and it’s on me.”

  Mezina took Sol’s hand on the way out of the theater. She was pretty, and that always made him shy. She squeezed his hand.

  "Let's go out to the river." She said, pulling him away from their group and the rest of the crowd of movie-goers.

  He glanced at Juice, who nodded enthusiastically.

  “I’m going for a burger.” Juice said. Sol ignored the hoots from the rest of his friends and followed Mezina off through the trees. After a few minutes, he was skipping rocks across the dark surface of the Snake River.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the bright moonlight on her dark hair. He could see her sitting on a rock, stretching her bare feet toward the water. He hadn't been with her alone very often, and though he wanted to start a conversation, he didn't know what to say. He skipped another rock.

  "That was a good one!" she said. "Where did you learn to do that?"

  "My Uncle Carl taught me once." Sol's mind drifted to his uncle, and the complicated, angry man he'd become. There had been some good times, though, and Sol thought Uncle Carl probably just didn’t know how to do the things he had to do, like being a father.

  "I saw your uncle yesterday," Mezina said, and Sol glanced at her. "In the hardware store."

  Sol sat beside her on the rock. "Nice," he said.

  "I was getting a capacitor for my new repeater."

  "Repeater?" Sol asked.

  "Yeah, I do a lot of comms stuff."

  This surprised him. He hadn't known she was into that. "Really?"

  "It's pretty fascinating. You can connect with people all over the world."

  "That sounds awesome."

  “Yeah. I started when I joined the Milguard last year, and now I do it for fun, too. Briian’s a comms specialist, with me.”

  Sol wasn’t sure why that made him a little jealous.

  Mezina reached into her pocket and produced a small communications device. “See, we can talk to someone right now." She fiddled with it, then clicked in a string of letters and numbers.

  "Mountaingirl!" came a man's voice. "This is Cheerio. Haven't heard from you in a while."

  "I've been busy," she said, locking her eyes onto Sol's. "Here's my friend." She pushed the device into Sol's hands and whispered, "Say hi."

  He fumbled with it for a moment, then said, "Hello."

  "You're a friend of the mountain girl, huh?" He said, "Got yourself a firecracker there, buddy."

  Mezina giggled, and Sol heard the awkwardness as he responded, "I guess."

  "You helping her with the initiative? She's been doing a lot of that on her own out there—" Mezina grabbed the radio.

  "This is just a friendly call, Cheerio," she said quickly, "we didn't call to talk shop."

  There was a pause, "Got it, Mountaingirl."

  "Well, we gotta go. I just wanted to show him how it works." Mezina seemed edgy now, and Sol wondered what the initiative was.

  "Take care out there. Over."

  "Over," Mezina said, switching it off and slipping it back in her pocket. "See? We can talk to people everywhere in the world with this. He's in Melbourne."

  "Melbourne? Wow." Sol was impressed that she could connect that far. “Does he work for the Leadership?” She looked down, fiddling with her rings.

  “Not really. Kind of.” She snagged a rock and offered it to him, trying to change the subject, “Here, do it again! That last one was a great skip.”

  But Sol couldn’t let it go. Growing up here had left him hypersensitive to discontent and intrigue, and he knew something deeper was going on.

  "What initiative was he talking about?"

  Mezina glanced around unconsciously. "You've probably heard of it." She peered at him. "Your uncle knows."

  Sol was afraid of that. "I'm sure he does. But I don't know. What is it?"

  Mezina looked conflicted. "I'm not supposed to say, but—" she leaned in, her brown eyes searching his.

  A sudden whoop from behind made Sol stand and spin around. Three guys from their class came out of the bushes at the river's edge.

  "Whatcha up to?" A kid named Kade strode up to Sol and gave him a little shove.

  Sol felt the adrenaline surge within him. These guys had given him a hard time before. The last time it had come to blows.

  "What are you doing here with him?" Kade threw the comment over his shoulder, to Mezina. Sol remembered with a sinking feeling that they had been dating a couple of months ago.

  "Same thing I was always doing here with you." Mezina shot back. "Talking."

  That got a couple of laughs from Kade's buddies and made him even madder.

  "Hey, Sol," he asked, "how's the park?"

  How did he even know Sol was working there? Sol didn't know whether Kade was looking for a real answer or just trying to pick a fight.

  "Fine," Sol said, noncommittally.

  "Look out for the Rangers," Kade said, a cruel edge in his voice. "They don't like your family much."

  "Kade!" Mezina cried.

  "Shut up." Was all Sol could think of to say through a wave of pain and embarrassment.

  Kade must have seen that he'd hit his mark. "Come on, Mezina. Why don't we go find something better to do?" He said, reaching for her.

  "I'm fine here, thanks." Mezina stepped back from his hand and slipped her arm around Sol's waist. He blinked down at her, then looked back up at Kade.

  Kade made a disgusted sound.

  "Fine." He said. "But we're not staying around her
e." The three of them swaggered off down the path toward the movie theater.

  Sol let out his breath. As he did so, he felt Mezina's cool fingers on the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about them."

  Sol didn't move away from her. "They'll always see me as an outsider, even though I've been here for ten years."

  "They're just scared because of all the foreigners that have come in lately, and more are probably coming," Mezina said. The tone of her voice made an uneasy feeling rise in Sol's throat.

  "Foreigners?"

  Mezina nodded. "You know, since the aliens came to the park, people are just trying to flood in here, protesting them at the gates. If theMilguard didn’t keep most of them out, Liberty would be packed with people. And probably aliens too unless—” she stopped abruptly. "Hey, what did they mean about the park?”

  Sol looked at her. He felt her closeness. He’d been carrying the secret too long. He wanted to tell someone. “I’m working in the park.” He said. “I’m hauling supplies for them.”

  Mezina’s mouth twitched in a funny way. She almost looked disgusted.

  “For the aliens?”

  “To the Stracahn, yeah, but for the Park Service. I mean, I work for them.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because they pay well,” he said, defensively.

  “But . . .” she stepped away from him, struggling for words. “It’s blood money, Sol. You, of all people, should know that.”

  Her words stung. No matter how long he was here, he’d always be an outsider to them.

  “I need it to get out of here, Mezina.” He didn’t like the turn the evening had taken, and he walked several steps in agitation.

  She seemed stunned. “But, but why would you leave? You’ve got all of Silver Lake Ranch coming to you."

  Did he? Sol had never thought of it. Had never even thought of it as his home, really. It had always seemed they were just temporarily staying with his uncle. This new idea stayed with him, and he didn’t speak for a moment.

  “But I’m not from here. I’m not a local. I’ll never fit in.” He recognized that half of him wanted her to concede that, while the other half wanted her to deny it.

  “I don’t agree. I think you qualify as a local now, and I'm glad you moved out here." She said, stretching her feet toward the water. “And you fit in with a lot of us just fine.” She reached toward him, and her earlier repulsion was gone. “You fit in with me.”

  Sol was quiet. He wasn't sure about that yet. But he took her hand as he looked out over the water and the bright stripe the full moon was making across it. He did love the landscape here, and there was Juice. Not everyone was like Kade. "I guess I'm glad to be here, too. But I wish people would just get along a little better out here. It seems like everyone’s fighting all the time.”

  “Sometimes you have to fight, Sol. Even if you don’t want to.”

  “Is that what the initiative is about?” Sol asked pointedly.

  Mezina looked him in the eye. “It’s probably better if you ask your uncle about that. If you were inducted, it would be fine, but I’d better not say anything else about it.”

  She must have seen the disappointment in Sol’s eyes because she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "We didn’t come out here to talk politics, did we? There’ll be plenty of time for that. Let’s just talk about us. If you don’t want to run the ranch, what do you want to do?”

  Sol didn't know. He hadn't thought about it too much, because up until this job with the Park Service, there wasn’t much chance of having the money to do anything. "I'm not sure yet. I just know I want to do something like," he watched the river, "like my dad."

  Mazina angled her body toward his. Her hand on his shoulder was light, and her voice was soft when she said, "I'm sorry you lost him."

  Sol hadn't talked like this to anyone his age. He hadn't even talked to his mom with this much honesty for a while. He liked how it felt. "I still miss him."

  She nodded but didn't say anything. Instead, she leaned into him and pulled him closer. Sol knew that this was the moment that he should reach for her, that he should probably kiss her, but this whole night had happened so fast. He was still uneasy about what she was involved with, and his head was still spinning from the run-in with Kade. He didn't want their first kiss to be like this.

  Instead of stepping forward, Sol stepped backward. He took her hand and started toward the parking lot. Mezina stopped, pulling his hand.

  "Hey." She said, her voice low. "Are we leaving so soon?"

  Sol ducked his head. "I've got to be up pretty early tomorrow. I have to do half my chores before school." It was a dumb excuse, and it sounded like one, hanging there in the air between them. She dropped his hand.

  "Sure. I get it."

  Sol followed her back to the parking lot, feeling ridiculous.

  “I promised you a ride in my truck,” he said, “Can I take you home?”

  “I guess.”

  When they got in the truck, she sat far away, by the passenger door. When Juice bounced up to the window, she got out and let him climb in the middle. That was not exactly what Sol had been hoping for.

  He felt stupid. He could have done that better. He did like her, and this might have been his only chance to show her that.

  Juice chattered on between them. That was the best movie ever, he’d eaten three hamburgers, he’d gotten the number of the new waitress at the diner. Neither Sol nor Mezina said anything on the drive home. Sol was slightly relieved as they pulled up to Juice’s house, and since Juice’s dad was staying at the armory for the rest of the week, he didn’t feel bad dropping him off there.

  When they were alone again, Sol tried to explain. “Listen, Mezina, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

  She looked out the window. “Well, you did.”

  “I know.” He said. “But I don’t want our first date to end like this.” At that, she tilted her shoulders just slightly back toward him. “How can I make it up to you?” he asked.

  As he pulled the truck onto the highway, Mezina scooted over to him without warning.

  “Don’t take me home yet, Sol.” She said, and when he glanced at her, he saw that her eyes were sparkling. “There’s something I want to do.”

  Sol ran through a list of possibilities, but she spoke before he could guess.

  “I want to see Yellowstone.”

  The air went out of Sol’s chest.

  “Mezina, I don’t think I can—”

  She pulled away. “Well do you want to make up or not?” she asked curtly.

  “I don’t know if they’ll even let me in at this time of night.”

  “They will,” she said, touching his shoulder, “We just have to stop off at the warehouse for a load. They have supply shifts running around the clock.”

  “How do you know that?” Sol wondered aloud.

  “The Milguard keeps close tabs on the Rangers.” She said. “I’ve done recon on the South gate during graveyard shift twice this month. They’ve got people going in and out all the time. You just need that magic permit.” She smiled. “And you’ve got one!”

  15

  The rule that no one could leave the village was Zyn’dri’s fault. Her mother had been right. She had gotten hungry that night a week ago after she hadn’t eaten her dinner. And somehow, that night and every night since, her mother had procured for her different things to eat. She would wake in the morning to the satisfying crunch of a peeled root, or her mother would slip a few berries into her hand before bed.

  Zyn’dri knew that her mother was gathering them, probably at night, from the grassland around the village. She knew that it was expressly forbidden, and it made her nervous.

  The Rangers knew, too. They knew that Stracahn had been leaving the Village. There came an official announcement that permits were required to leave the Village.

  But her mother wouldn’t let her starve. She kept slipping away. Zyn’dri didn’t know what the Rangers
would do to her mother if they found out, but they carried those guns, and they seemed, always, on the brink of violence.

  Especially Caldwell. She had seen him a time or two since meeting the blind bison, and he looked angrier every time. She began trying harder to get the Earthfood down, and she insisted to her mother that she wasn’t hungry, even sometimes when she was.

  Some of the meals were better than others. She liked the morning oatmeal and the elk and bison meat, and she didn’t mind the white vegetables that the Rangers smashed and served with gravy. After a week of Earthfood, at least she could manage some of it.

  Her mother seemed relieved, too, and the extras from Hayden Valley tapered off.

  The Avowed had instructed that school should start, and Zyn’dri sat next to Asvika and Innueo for a few hours each day in the dining hut learning about Stracahn history and literature. A Ranger came in every afternoon and talked about the many thermal features in the park and how they could scald you, boil you, or fry you respectively. Zyn’dri was glad her mother wasn’t leaving the path anymore, and she never wanted to herself.

  Sometimes, she traced the symbols from Laska’s books on the sides of her notebook. Not the time-slowing one, which she was still a little afraid of, but others that seemed random or innocuous. They calmed her, somehow, and she liked trying to find matches for them in nature, as Laska had done in the lava flows of Empyriad.

  Zyn’dri was walking down the path from school when she noticed several bison on the hill outside the Village. She stopped to watch their easy grazing, their calm dozing in the early evening sun. Glancing away from them she found, near her feet, a wildflower she hadn’t seen before. It was newly opened, and it had a remarkably complex leaf pattern. When viewed from above, it was a match to one of the patterns she had found in the green notebook and which she had sketched in her own. She leaned close to trace it with her finger.