Worlds Between

by Heather Lee Dyer

I guess I didn’t know I did it that often.

  As we turn in our shovels and grab our evening rations, I think about the stone we found. It looked like a chunk from a much larger structure or building. But the lines were too clean, cut with precision. I’m eager to get back to digging tomorrow to see what else we can find. I debate with myself whether or not to tell the girls, but I don’t want to put them at risk, at least until I learn more from Masi.

  I see Elan again as we wait our turn to return to our cell. It crosses my mind that I should warn him about the listening devices. He probably already knows. I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid. Although I’m not eager to spend the rest of my life in the mines, I also don’t want anyone to get hurt. I know I need to talk with him, but the only time I see him we’re surrounded by other people. My fears heighten when Elan passes by with his line and leans in close to whisper in my ear.

  “Be on the alert tomorrow, Rya.” And then he’s gone down the tunnel, and I’m left with my heart racing. I squeeze the data stick between my toes. I still haven’t had a chance to let him know I have it. Technically, since Jamie and I aren’t free, he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, so I don’t feel guilty about keeping it longer. It’s the only leverage I have left, and I don’t want to give it up too freely.

  Our line starts moving and the only reason I get to my cell without stumbling on the loose rock beneath my boots is because I’ve done this trip so many times now. I’ve lost count of the days, has it been a week, or two? My stomach is flatter than it’s ever been, the muscles on my arms tight like wire. Once the cell door closes I turn and put my forehead against the cold bars, taking a deep breath. The air down here feels earthy, but there’s more oxygen than in the tunnels. Maybe they pump it in for us. I ignore the girls behind me as I replay Elan’s words in my head.

  “What did he say, Rya?”

  I open my eyes and see Masi staring at me through the bars. I feel his gaze, even though I can’t see his eyes through the projection on his helmet. When he moves the light from the tunnel shines into his cell, casting him in silhouette. The floor of his cell is barren and rocky.

  “You don’t have a mat to sleep on, Masi?”

  He surveys his lair briefly before turning back.

  “No. But you didn’t answer my question.”

  I sigh. I go over to the corner where the girls and I have put all of our old clothes. There are several mats still there. I grab one and walk back over to the door. I can feel the girl’s eyes on me. I shove the mat through the bars and reach through them to bend it toward Masi.

  He looks down the tunnel. With his cell facing that direction he probably can see all the way down. Then he reaches between the bars and pulls the mat through. The thin foam smells strongly of disinfectant, but it’s better than nothing.

  “Thank you,” he says.

  I nod and push my forehead against the cold bars again. It feels good after a long day of sweating in the mine. “He said I should be careful tomorrow.”

  Masi grabs the bars of his cell door.

  “Is he planning something?”

  He keeps his voice low, but his tone is tinged with anger.

  “I don’t know. Honestly.”

  “Do you trust him?”

  I look over at Masi. “Not like I do with you.” And I realize it’s true. I’d rather dig alongside Masi than Elan any day. Elan hasn’t done anything horrible to me, other than stealing my rabbits which seems like forever ago. There’s just something about Elan that gives me pause. He’s dangerous and reckless, and his smirk makes me feel… confused. I always feel self-conscious around him, and that makes me want to yell and throw things.

  “Even with what little you know of me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well that’s not good, then.”

  “No,” I smile sadly. My father always warned me not to trust strangers, and here I was conspiring in shadows with a man whose face I’d never seen.

  I feel Claryce’s hand slip into mine. I look down and smile at her.

  “I’ll be back,” I say to Masi. “Don’t let my bedtime story put you to sleep. You still owe me an explanation.”

  I hear him chuckle as I walk away.

  Claryce pulls me down to our sleeping mats and the girls sit in a circle around me. I decide to tell them about the legend of Arthur and the sword in the stone. I don’t remember the names or details, but I do the best I can: a blade encased in rock meant for the true king, that blazes with fire when drawn by the worthy; a lady in a lake with magical powers; a scabbard that protects the bearer from any injuries. After losing Mom, I read to Jamie until he was old enough to read to himself. With the girls around me and Masi listening in the darkness, this almost felt like being home.

  “Maybe we’ll find our own sword,” Janice mutters when I finish, her large eyes fierce, “and use it to kill all the Kreons.”

  I look over at her. She’s probably eight or nine, but the hatred in her expression makes her seem older. It reminds me of Elan, and makes me glance around for more listening devices, even though Masi told me they didn’t watch us sleep. I hope I haven’t influenced her in any way. Statements like that, overheard by the wrong ears, could be grounds for execution.

  “We’ll see what we find,” I say, giving her a stern frown. “But if we find something, we’ll report it to our supervisors. I bet we’ll get extra rations if it’s something they’re looking for.”

  She gives me a strange look, and I wonder if she somehow knows what Masi and I already uncovered, and that we’re basically lying about it. She shrugs and leans back against her mat. I leave the girls to fall asleep and make my way back over to the cell door.

  “Masi?” I call softly.

  After some shuffling Masi is back at his bars, his helmet leaning against the metal.

  “Tell me everything,” I breathe. “What is this thing? Why do the Kreons want it? How do you know about it? You can’t ask us to help if you’re putting me or the girls in danger.”

  His gloved fingers tap against the bars as he listens to me rattle off questions. They’re torn and stained with his blood, but seem dry at least.

  “That story you told,” he says gravely, “is it true?”

  “Of course not,” I respond. “It’s a fairy tale. A legend, meant for kids.”

  Masi sighs.

  “But this legend, it inspired brave knights for centuries. It gave them purpose and meaning. It helped chase away the dark nights and hard times.”

  “I suppose so,” I say, crossing my arms. Suddenly I feel childish. I’m sure I butchered the story, and it seems like Masi is more familiar with it than I am. I wonder for the first time how old he is, and if he was around before the Kreon invasion.

  “It’s my turn to tell a story, one I heard long ago. It’s the only way I can explain things, but to you, it might sound like a fable.”

  “I’m too old for bedtime stories,” I frown. I want answers, and somehow it feels like Masi is patronizing me.

  “This legend is what the Kreons have traveled across the galaxy to seek. It is the reason they are here, because they believe it is founded in truth, no matter how unlikely it seems.”

  “You’re kidding,” I say. “They took our planet because of a story?”

  “The story describes an ultimate power, that nearly toppled their empire a long, long time ago.”

  “And they think it’s here?” I guess. Tessa said the Kreons were digging for a weapon. Maybe Masi did know something after all.

  “Yes,” his voice sounds more serious than I’ve ever heard it and a chill runs down my spine. He almost sounds afraid.

  “All right,” I say. I fold my mat into a pillow and kneel down next to the bars, leaning back against the cold rock of the prison cell.

  “Tell me the story.”

  ***

  Masi takes a deep breath and moves to check down the tunnel, to make sure it’s still clear. Then he tu
rns his helmet toward me. I can see my own reflection in the dim light.

  “There was once a princess with great powers. All of her people had some measure of ability, but hers were very special. One day an alien race invaded her planet and took over, not realizing at first the great powers these people possessed.”

  “Kind of like the Kreons invading our planet, not caring about humans.”

  “Yes. Very much like that.” His voice gets lower. “The battle was long and bloody, but eventually her people surrendered, after her entire family had been slaughtered. This princess was loved by all her people, but was so powerful that the invading king grew nervous. He could not kill her for fear of her people turning against him, and he wanted to find a way to exploit her powers, hoping to someday claim them for himself. So he forced her to marry his son. For the sake of her people, she agreed, at first. But she demanded a proper burial for her slain brother, according to the rites of her people. When the new ruler refused, she snuck out of the palace and did the rites herself, spreading a handful of dirty over his slimy flesh.”

  “Then what happened?” I ask, caught up in the story.

  “When the new ruler discovered what she’d done, he punished her for her disobedience. She was entombed in a prison of stone on a faraway planet. She was to live there forever, trapped. A palace of the dead.”

  “That’s awful,” I say.

  “Yes, it is,” Masi agrees. “But it’s not the end of the story. As she lay there trapped beneath a mountain of stone to keep her from drawing on her power, at the edges of the universe, she was still able to get her revenge.”

  “She was that powerful?”

  “Yes,” Masi said. “Some say she had the power of a thousand suns. You see, they’d contained her body, but not her spirit. Her powers defied time and space, and with them she reached out to claim vengeance on the conquering ruler. First enthralling his own son, her betrothed, into death, and then warping his wife’s mind with insanity until she took her own life. Destroyed by guilt and shame, the ruler fell into a deep depression. He left her planet, and scrubbed the official records from what had occurred. Over the centuries, the pain faded to a distant memory, felt by all his people — a gap in their own history, a violence suffered but not remembered. The history became myth and legend, a forbidden trauma at the root of their collective identity, found somewhere between law and crime.”

  “And this dig, the stone we found today, it has something to do with this story?”

  I ask, eager for the ending.

  Masi chuckles. “You haven’t let me finish.”

  “Fine. Then finish.” I grin.

  “In the end, the princess’s body shriveled up and faded to dust. But some say the power remained on the planet, seeping into the spring water, breathing through the leaves of the trees, waiting for the moment it could be reclaimed.”

  I frowned, standing up suddenly and rubbing my arms.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “I thought the Kreons were looking for some kind of weapon.”

  “She was the weapon,” Masi said quietly.

  “Wait. The Kreons think this story is real? They think by looting her grave, they’ll find some kind of powerful artifact, something she left behind? They think it’s on earth?”

  “Yes,” Masi confirms.

  Anger rises inside me. “This whole thirty-year invasion by the Kreons has been because of a legend? They destroyed human civilization, chasing rumors and whispers?”

  “Ultimate power is very attractive to those who desire it. At any cost.”

  Masi says simply.

  “But magic? The Kreons have tech beyond our imagination, yet they’re chasing a fairy tale across the galaxies, trying to right some ancient tragedy, because they got their ass handed to them that one time? I mean a lost princess, seriously?” I grip the bars tightly with my hands.

  “It’s what I’ve been told.”

  “And they’re using us to dig this thing up. They aren’t after our minerals, our world, or our people. They just want this powerful object, which has been down here this whole time. A feather in their cap.”

  “A sword in the stone,” Masi nods.

  “And humanity is just an annoying distraction, like a bug caught in your eyelashes.”

  My mind is numb with the whole idea. I feel nauseous, and neither of us speak for several minutes. This is what I lost my mother to, and my father, and now Jamie. So the Kreons could reclaim some ancient, legendary power that was buried beneath the shopping malls and post offices and sports stadiums—things my father had pointed out to me and tried to explain; remnants of the civilization I’d never get to enjoy.

  “And you believe this story?” I look over at him. “That there really is some sort of magical talisman that could make the Kreons even more powerful than they already are? You think what we found today means we’re close?”

  “Yes. You don’t?”

  I shake my head. Part of me thinks Masi is just making this up, but I can’t think of any reason why he’d go to such lengths to lie to me.

  “I honestly don’t know what to think. I love a good princess story, but it seems pretty far-fetched. Except, something the royals said when I saw them at the landing strip. They called it an artifact. The Vajra. They certainly seemed determined to find it. That’s why they sent me here, they said they needed all the workers they could find, that they were getting close.”

  Masi’s head snapped up when I said its name. I wondered where he’d heard it before, and how he’d gotten all this information. Nobody knew about this stuff. Nobody knew anything about the Kreons. We seemed to know far more than most, and we were buried so deep underground it didn’t matter.

  “If it is there, we need to make sure the Kreons don’t get control of it,” says Masi quietly. I want to roll my eyes or scoff, but I don’t. I hear my father’s voice in the back of my mind, telling me to stay safe, not to get involved. Jamie needs you. But look where that had gotten us. I curl my dirty fingers into fists until my nails cut into my palms. I’m done playing safe.

  Not sure what else to say, I tell Masi goodnight and roll over onto my mat. My mind is still reeling with the story he’s told me. It’s hard to believe it’s true, but Masi doesn’t seem to be the type to make up strange stories just for fun.

  I thought of Elan’s warning. Was he planning an escape? Was he going to get us all killed? Dread fills me as I realize, one way or another, tomorrow might be our last day in the mines.

  ***

  I wake up before the yellow warning light. Since sleep is so precious, this simple act makes me feel unsettled. There are some days you can just feel in your bones. I lay there staring at nothing in the dark, but decide I might as well use the extra time to clean myself up. I yearn for the hot showers of the compounds, cursing the Kreons at the same time for introducing me to them before taking them away.

  Instead, they bring us a daily allotment of communal water, and personal hygiene has always seemed less pressing in the mines than dehydration. I usually make sure the girls drink enough water, and use whatever is left to rinse out the portable toilet that’s been installed in the corner. The guards seem to clean it out every day, and spray our cell with some kind of disinfectant, but the strong chemical scent gives me headaches.

  But I’m tired of smelling my own body odor, and decide to pamper myself with a scrubdown. I rinse a torn scrap of yellow fabric—what’s left of my uniform from the compounds—and wash my face and neck. After glancing through the bars to make sure Masi is still sleeping, I lift my shirt and wipe my breasts and armpits.

  For a moment, I feel a bit more like myself, even though I know I’m just going to get dirty again. This is one small thing I can do, one thing I have control over. I’m anxious about the stones with the writing on it. If Masi’s right, we’re getting close to whatever the Kreons are looking for. I can’t help but wonder what will happen when we find it.

  The yellow
light finally comes on and I get up with the girls and get dressed. They are all excited because of the story I told last night, but I feel like I’ve lied to them, and I can’t forget the anger in Janice’s eyes. We aren’t living in a magical adventure. Each day we don’t tell the supervisor about our find, I’m putting the girls in more danger. If the Kreons got what they wanted, wouldn’t they just leave us alone? Disappear into the starry sky in their great metal ships? Masi wanted to keep it away from them.

  But maybe Janice had the right idea. If it was some kind of weapon, maybe it could be used against them somehow.

  As we line up to get our shovels and morning rations, Elan’s group stops next to us waiting for their turn. He’s a few men behind me, and his expression is dark. He glances at the girls and then glares at Masi’s back. He makes some kind of gesture. I narrow my eyes and turn around. I’m not sure if it’s an insult or a warning.

  His line starts moving past us.

  As he walks past, he bumps me and whispers, “be ready.”

  “For what?” I hiss, but he’s already out of earshot. My heart races as all sorts of scenarios go through my mind. Part of me expects our excavation site to be buzzing with drones and mech guards, but it’s eerily dark and quiet. Our tunnel looks exactly as we left it: a flat wall of dirt, illuminated by the bright torch of a single standing lamp. I think about ripping off the protective panel to access the battery, but I’m already carrying too much contraband as it is, and I didn’t know what use a battery would be against the mech guards.

  I hold my breath as we uncover the piece of stone we found yesterday. It’s as long as my arm and I can barely lift it. I stack it to the side, peering into the darkness behind it, but it’s just more dirt. After a few hours of digging, I’m starting to get frustrated. I jump every time the girls throw a rock into the anti-grav cart. We find several more bricks with designs and symbols on them. They are pretty, with long curving letters and small circles and dots. I put my shovel down and use my hands to carefully dig them out of the earth, pulling them out and stacking them up together against the wall.