Rite of Revelation (Acceptance Book 2)

by Sarah Negovetich

  Shutting the door softly behind me, I crunch across the loose rock of the roof to where he’s sitting, his own blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

  “Looks like I’m not the only one who couldn’t sleep. Mind if I join you?”

  Eric nods without looking up. “The stars are the same here. And the moon, it looks just like the moon of the PIT. But there aren’t any waves. The night is too quiet without them.”

  I sit down, purposefully leaving space between us. He’s right. The night sounds wrong without the waves. Of course, it’s also missing the screams and shouts and angry guards, but I don’t miss that at all. The forest around us has its own sounds. Frogs and crickets and the wind through the trees and a river somewhere not too far away.

  “Why did you save us?” The words blurt out before I have a chance to think about them first.

  Eric is silent for minute. Nothing answers me except the unfamiliar sounds of this new kind of night. “You needed rescuing.”

  “I may not know you as well as I once thought, but even I know that’s not the truth.”

  Eric stiffens like a guard hit him with a shock stick.

  “I’m not saying you didn’t want us to escape. Last year was more about saving yourself than stopping us. But there is more to it, isn’t there?”

  Eric glances over at me. His eyes stare at my face, but he’s seeing something far away.

  “When I…when I joined the guards, the Cardinal had to give me a new identity. I kept my name since it’s common enough, but everything else changed. My background, where I came from, who my family was…my birth date.”

  I wrap my arms tighter around my blanket. I’ve never given much thought to what happened to Eric after he turned traitor, sabotaged our escape mission, and joined up with the Cardinal. At the time, I figured anything better than rotting in a fiery hole was too good for him.

  “I had to be old enough to go through Assignment. He made me almost twenty, which means, according to the official Cardinal record, I’m almost twenty-one.”

  I nod, understanding instantly what comes next. “How many months until your Compulsory?”

  “Three.”

  If he had stayed, Eric would have been forced into a Compulsory marriage in only three months, four years ahead of his actual birthday. A Compulsory used to be my greatest fear, back when the PIT was nothing more than my mother’s threat to keep me under her thumb. I shake my head at how much everything has changed since then.

  “I couldn’t keep living the lie anymore.” Eric stands up and buries his face in his hands for a minute. “It’s not so much the marriage. That would have been just one more layer of facade the Cardinal made me wear. It was the finality of it. I kept pretending that the guard’s uniform was a costume I put on. A role I played to survive. But the marriage would have changed that. I didn’t think I could keep pretending and I didn’t want to be that man anymore. When you hacked the feed and got thrown back in Quarantine, I knew it was now or never.”

  Cold seeps into my pants from the night-chilled rocks, so I stand up and stomp my feet a bit, working to put heat back into my legs.

  “It’s kinda funny, you know.”

  “No, Eric. None of it sounds funny to me.”

  “Really?” He turns to me. His eyes are bloodshot and every feature of his face sags. He hasn’t slept at all tonight. “Out of all of us, I’m the only one the Machine Rejected for the right reasons. The rest of you were in there because of how special you are, because the Cardinal can’t stand that. I’m the one who’s evil.”

  “You’re not evil.”

  “Really?” Eric spits the words out. “Because even helping you came about for selfish reasons.”

  We both stare out into the inky black sky in silence. What can I say to that? He did help us, but would he have done it if he wasn’t facing a Compulsory marriage?

  “I will say this.” Eric’s voice breaks through the quiet sounds of the night. “I meant what I said that day before the ceremony. If I could go back and change what I did, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I regretted what happened pretty much from the minute it was too late to stop it. I know that doesn’t change anything, but it’s the only reason I have to think I might deserve this second chance.”

  Cardinal help me with what I’m about to do. “You were young and afraid and put in an impossible situation.” I take a deep breath. I can do this. “I’m not going to say I agree with what you did or that I’d do the same, because obviously I didn’t. But, I understand why you turned us in.” I can do this. “I forgive you.”

  Eric blinks, his face unreadable. “Why?”

  “Maybe forgiving you is easier than trying to hold on to all the anger.” I shrug the blanket higher up on my shoulders.

  Eric shakes his head and turns away, staring deeper into the forest. “I just don’t understand…you, of everyone here, have the most reason to hate me.”

  He’s right. Eric convinced me he loved me and made promises about our future once we escaped the PIT. I didn’t love him, but I was determined to marry him and make the most of our lives. I was ready to deny my true feelings so we could all find freedom. And then he betrayed us.

  “I can’t keep hating you, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to trust you. You got us out of the PIT, but our escape was as much to help you as it was us.” He looks back at me in the darkness. “You’ll have to earn that trust, and it won’t be done easily.”

  “Of course.”

  “You understand I don’t speak for the group.” I don’t say it, but we both know Elizabeth will be the hardest sell. Eric isn’t the one who killed Molly, but his actions made it possible.

  Eric nods. His face is solemn, but it reads more like determination than defeat.

  To our east, the very lightest edge of pink highlights the forest. “I’m going to try to get a bit more sleep before breakfast. You coming?”

  “I’ll be there in a bit. I just want to…”

  I nod and head downstairs. Back in bed, I snuggle under the covers and welcome Daniel’s warm arm around me as I drift off for another hour of sleep.

  Sixteen

  Ana leads us to breakfast like a mother duck, all of us following behind in our freshly laundered clothes. The street is busy with men and women moving from building to building. Even though everyone acts like they have somewhere to be, the morning is filled with calls of greeting and laughter. The whole village feels alive.

  In the dining hall, the cheerful atmosphere continues, with the last few folks grabbing some food and sharing laughs before starting the day. Whatever the food is, it smells amazing. Warm and nutty and spicy and nothing at all like the PIT. With enough meals like this, I might stop looking like a living skeleton.

  “Bowls and spoons are here,” Ana says, pointing at a long table in the front of the room. “Breakfast and lunch are buffet style since everyone has such different schedules with their jobs around the village. That’s why dinner is such a festive event. It’s the only time during the day when we can all be together.”

  Ana grabs a bowl and ladles a heap of perfectly cooked oatmeal into it. “The oats are seasoned so you can eat them plain, but feel free to add on some apples or toasted walnuts. Sorry to say, we don’t get any meat for breakfast.”

  Is she kidding? As if I would be disappointed with this feast. Real apples! My stomach growls, and none of us wastes any time loading up our bowls with a little bit of everything. I’d almost feel bad except Ana is smiling and keeps pointing out the toppings to make sure we all get some. We grab cups of cool, clean water and dig in.

  Liam joins us as we’re all finishing up, an adorable little girl tagging along behind him. “Nellie and I thought we’d join you for the official tour.”

  “Hi, Mama.” Nellie dashes into Ana’s embrace and wraps chubby little arms around her neck. She pulls back and flashes all of us a toothy grin that lights up her whole face. “Hi, I’m Nellie. I’m three years old, and mama says I’m a handful.”

&
nbsp; Nellie laughs right along with the rest of us. “I bet you are.” Constance leans down closer to her as if she’s going to tell her a secret. “My mommy use to tell me the same thing.”

  Nellie’s warm brown eyes grow wide before she bursts into a fit a giggles. “You’re funny.”

  “I think someone found a new best friend.” Liam ruffles the top of Nellie’s hair. “Are you all ready to see the rest of the village?”

  It takes a minute to clear our bowls and get Nellie settled. She insists on holding Constance’s hand, but doesn’t want Ana to be too far away either.

  “You’ve seen the dining hall. There’s a cellar underneath we use for storage, but it’s not much to look at.” Liam gestures toward the door. “Let’s start with Doc’s office since you stayed there last night.”

  Outside there are fewer people about, but the street doesn’t feel deserted. Even with the buildings in need of repair, little touches make the village feel welcoming. Clean curtains hanging in a window, pots of flowers on a porch, and white chalk drawings on the cracked asphalt all add to the sense that Allmore isn’t just a hiding place in the woods. It’s a real home.

  “Most of the buildings here on the main street serve a public function, though there are a few homes, like ours.” Liam points to several buildings along the way. “Beside the dining hall and kitchen, we have storage buildings for supplies. Though we store most of our bulk food items in the storage rooms under the dining hall. Then we have the schoolhouse, the bakery, and PE building, the tannery and the craftsman houses.”

  “What are the craftsman houses?” My head zips from one side of the street to the other, trying to take in everything at once.

  “Some things we have to trade for, but we try to make as much of what we need as possible.” Ana points to a squat building that might have been yellow once upon a time. “We have artisans in there that use the raw fabric we get to keep everyone in clothes that fit. We’ve been experimenting with growing a few specialty plants to spin our own fibers, too.”

  “What else?” Daniel’s face is lit up like a child in a candy store. “Who handles the technology?”

  “That’s an area where we’re lagging behind a bit.” Liam looks apologetic, as if we’ll be disappointed. “We’re still a fairly new village, just settled ten years ago and Frank is pretty much a one man show when it comes to gadgets. Do you have an interest there?”

  “Are you kidding?” Elizabeth calls from behind us. “Daniel would give up his left leg if you let him play with tech all day.”

  “No need for an amputation.” Liam chuckles at his own joke. “Frank would be thrilled with some knowledgeable help. We can head there after Doc’s office.”

  Daniel stops Liam with a hand to his shoulder. “Wait. Are you saying we get to pick what we want to do?”

  “Pretty much.” Liam shrugs as if this is no big deal. “If we have tasks that no one wants to do we take turns and rotate them around the village for a month at a time. Other than that, everyone pretty much does what they’re best at.”

  “And the women, too?” Elizabeth sounds like she just found her own candy store.

  “The Cardinal doesn’t let women contribute outside the home because he thinks we’re incompetent. It’s just an easy way to control half the population.” Fire blazes in Ana’s eyes. This is exactly why she was Rejected. “That’s the difference here. We aren’t trying to control anyone. Plus, we need everyone’s help to keep this place running smoothly.”

  “And what if we don’t want jobs?” Of course Patrice would ask if she actually has to work.

  “No one is going to force you to do anything.” Ana raises her eyebrows at Patrice. “But this isn’t the Capitol. We don’t have country clubs and afternoon tea. Without a job, you’re going to get pretty bored.”

  “We can talk about job assignments later.” Liam pushes open the door to Doc’s office. “Let’s start the real tour.”

  Liam leads us past the lobby with the staircase up to where we slept and straight to the back rooms. We find Doc in one of the exam rooms. Or at least, it’s probably an exam room. It has all the same equipment as the doctor’s office back home, but every surface is covered with boxes and bins of…everything.

  “Liam.” Doc steps out of the midst of a stack of small towels. “I didn’t realize you were stopping by. If I had known I would have…well I wouldn’t have cleaned up, but I would have shut the door and met you in the lobby.”

  “Nah.” Liam shakes his outstretched hand. “The clutter is starting to grow on me. Is this still an unpacked box from when you moved here?”

  “Don’t judge me. One man is not enough to take care of this village. Especially since we keep growing.”

  “I know it’s hard on you, but you’ll never hear me complain that more people want to be a part of what we’re doing here.” Ana looks through an almost empty box. “Are you good on supplies for now?”

  “So how exactly did all of this work?” Elizabeth interrupts as only she can. “You said the village is still pretty new and Doc still hasn’t unpacked. Can anybody just run off, find some abandoned buildings, and start their own village?”

  “I guess you could,” Liam flashes her a crooked smile, “though I wouldn’t recommend it. Most of us used to live in Arbor Glen, but Alan, the leader there, won’t allow PIT runaways to stay.”

  “Yeah,” Daniel snaps out. “We noticed.”

  “Well, some of us disagreed. When Ana showed up, and was promptly tossed out, it was the last straw. We packed up and headed here since we already knew there were abandoned buildings.” Liam flexes his fingers in and out of a fist while he speaks. “It was miserable at first, but then more people started hearing about what we were doing. Doc found us about a year later and we haven’t been able to get rid of him since.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he says, walking around a few boxes. He gestures to my shoulder. “Mind if I take a look at those stitches? We can’t be too careful with infections out here. The Cardinal doesn’t exactly share his medicine with us.”

  I lift my sleeve, and Doc takes a quick look before moving to the others.

  “Ana.” I move over to where she stands so Doc has more room. “How did you get out without setting off your capsule?”

  “I didn’t.” Ana rolls her sleeve up to reveal a long, ugly scar across her upper arm. “I used to sleep up on the roofs to avoid attacks in the middle of the night. Sometimes I would see people scurry past the fence. I would watch them for as far as I could, and without fail, each of them would hit around a similar distance and fall down dead. It was the same distance, but always a different place, so I figured it had to be something internal. I didn’t know it was poison, but that detail didn’t matter.”

  “So you got your capsule out. But how?”

  “I found a dirty nail and gouged at the lump on my arm until I got it out. Almost bled to death first, but I figured that was better than sticking around in the PIT. By the time I made it to Arbor Glen I was close to death. They let me stay a week to recuperate, and that’s how I met Alan.” She runs a hand over her arm. “My arm’s as ugly as the Cardinal, but it was worth it.”

  “Alright,” Doc says, stepping over another box. “All their stitches look good. Now get out of here so I can get back to work.” He winks at Ana and she leads us all back outside.

  Ana and Liam take us all over the village, stopping at a few other places. As promised, we meet Frank, and Daniel decides to pass on the rest of the tour so he can stay and talk about all the ideas always swimming in his brain. I’m amazed at just how much they’ve done here in ten years. Everything would be considered primitive by Territory standards, but it works for Allmore like a well-oiled machine.

  “Mama, I want to show Constance the flowers.” Nellie pulls at Constance’s arm, forcing her to follow her new shadow.

  Ana looks exhausted, but smiles warmly at the little girl who clearly holds her heart. “Okay, last stop before lunch.”

  Ana leads
us all to the outer edge of the village and through a copse of trees, into a sunny glade. Yellow dandelions fill the space as far as the eye can see.

  “See, Constance.” Little Nellie jumps up and down in front of her, throwing in the occasional spin to mark her excitement. “Aren’t the flowers pretty?”

  “They sure are.” Constance squats down next to her and listens intently as Nellie gives her a mini-lesson of some kind.

  I shoot a questioning look at Ana and she just laughs. “This is our dandelion patch and tending it might be the most important job we have here.”

  “How is that?” Elizabeth questions.

  “Our biggest export is a dandelion ale that many have tried to duplicate, but can’t get quite right. Several other villages have tried to include beer and spirits into the trade routes, but they don’t come close to our ale. When you’re the only game in town, you can pretty much name your price. This ale ensures we can always get exactly what we need.”

  Such a powerful little flower. It reminds me of another powerful dandelion. The one Eric found growing at the corner of Constance’s bunkhouse. Searching for another led to finding Constance’s rope. How different my life would be if she hadn’t caught us trying to take it.

  I walk down a little dirt path running between the flowers and tilt my head back. Is it weird that I have happy memories from the PIT? Constance laughs at something Nellie says, and the tinkling music is contagious. Ana sweeps her daughter up into her arms and spins her around. No, it’s not weird. The PIT wasn’t all bad if it brought me these amazing people. It made me a better, stronger person. Living through the PIT gave me the courage I’ll need to leave this patch of paradise to go back and help the innocent people still suffering at the Cardinal’s hand.

  * * *

  “I tell you.” Elizabeth lounges back against a stack of pillows on her bed. “A girl could get used to sleeping on a full belly.”