Aether (The Shadowmark Series Book 2)

by T. M. Catron

  Emily didn’t answer. Mina sat on the bank and waited, but when the woman didn’t move, she thought it best to leave her with her thoughts. She hiked back up the mountain to the road, wondering again what had happened to Emily.

  When Mina reached the hotel, she stowed her water in her tent after carefully storing more in her pack. She could leave at a moment’s notice if needed.

  The camp bustled with activity. People hauled firewood to the pile beside the lodge. Others returned from hunting, carrying a deer. Solomon and Evan stood near the edge of the parking lot, talking apart from everyone else. Evan frowned and stared at the ground while his grandfather spoke to him.

  Mina steered clear of them and made her way back to the road. Something brown near the rail caught her eye, and she wandered over to check it out. From a distance it looked like roadkill although there hadn’t been any cars. It was a teddy bear. She picked it up and dusted it off.

  The bear was in good condition with soft fur and stuffing just right for cuddling. One eye had fallen off, making it look all the more like a treasured possession. Mina took the toy over to the hotel office and propped it outside against the door frame. A few children lived in the camp, but Mina didn’t know any of them and thought it best to leave the bear in plain sight where its owner could claim it.

  On the opposite side of the hotel, an old wooden shed butted up against the mountain. Junk filled it to the ceiling. Mina found Marty rummaging through the impossible clutter inside, pulling parts out a little at a time and sorting them.

  “Hi, Mina,” he said when she stood in the doorway. “Look what I found.” He pointed to a large green metal box at the bottom of the pile. US Army had been painted on it in white letters.

  “What is it?”

  Marty smiled. “An old surplus generator.”

  Mina smiled too. “You mean . . .”

  “Yep. Soon as we clear this out, we’ll be able to tell if it’s working.”

  “Is that possible after the power surges?”

  “It’s very old. There’s nothing electrical here to fry. As long as all the pieces are there, we can make it work. And if parts are missing, we’ll improvise with all this junk in here.”

  “And then you can hook it up to the hotel?”

  “Exactly. Electricity. Looks like the hotel was built in the fifties. Probably it only relied on a generator at first. Some of these places out here in the mountains weren’t even connected to the grid until the seventies. I bet this is the generator they used.”

  “Why’d it take so long to find?”

  “Well, when we got here a few weeks ago and saw the shed piled with junk, we didn’t get around to clearing it until we’d settled some other things, like finding food and water. All we could think about was deciding whether to stay. As soon as everyone voted yes, I came out here and started digging around. Solomon’s been working on it too. When we get it going, we can get the water pump going.” Marty beamed. “Just think, electricity and running water.”

  “How do you know about all this?”

  He shrugged. “Grew up around here. It’s common for the area.” He returned to sorting through a pile of metal.

  “Marty.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Who were those people that showed up today?”

  Marty’s face soured. “You’ll need to ask Solomon about them.”

  Sensing she’d overstayed her welcome, Mina walked back around the building. A tall blonde-haired man nodded as she approached the lobby door. A few freckles and beard marked his otherwise common face. He carried a rifle over one shoulder.

  Mina had thought he would pass by, but he stopped to look at her. “Hello,” he said.

  “Hi.”

  He extended his hand. “Name’s Iverson. You’ve been here a few days, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” Mina said as she took his hand. His grip was strong. “Mina.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  Mina frowned and let go.

  Iverson smiled. “I asked Solomon, sorry.”

  She nodded, his tone putting her at ease. Of course strangers would know her name. It was easier for the lodgers to learn one name than for her to learn two hundred. “Have you been here long?”

  He shook his head. “Just came in a few days before you did. Where you from?”

  “Boston . . . Well, I called it home for a few years. Now I guess I’m from here. What about you?”

  “Arlington. You walked here from Boston?” Iverson’s eyebrows rose into the hair that fell down over his forehead.

  “No, from Charlotte. It’s a long story.” Mina smiled.

  “You’ll have to tell me sometime.”

  She would need to think of a good story to tell him. The truth wasn’t exactly open for discussion. “It’s not too interesting,” she said. “Probably about the same as everyone else here.”

  “I wouldn’t know. People don’t seem to talk about it at all.”

  “I know.” Mina nodded. “Too painful maybe.” An unbidden image of her brother Lincoln rose in her mind, alive and scratching out a living somewhere. But Mina had every reason to assume he was dead. Even Doyle said so. Don’t think about them. The feeling of guilt pressed on her chest, guilt that she had abandoned her search for her brother.

  Iverson lightly scuffed the gravel underfoot, bringing her back to the present. “Guess so,” he said.

  Unwilling for the conversation to move into painful territory, Mina changed the subject to the cloudy weather. They chatted a few minutes and then parted. Mina smiled at Iverson as he left, grateful she wasn’t the only outsider at the lodge.

  ***

  Calla stood inside the heart of the Nomad. Beads of sweat ran down her body, soaking her clothes until they looked like she had worn them swimming. She glanced around at the lines snaking in and out of the core. Encased in a capsule in the center of the room, the core contained enough energy to level a small city. The cold dark stone in the outer room contained that energy. But in the intervening space between the cold wall and the core, the air reached stifling temperatures. Sometimes Calla enjoyed feeling the heat on her body, the sweat coaxed out of her hybrid skin. The moisture provided relief somehow. And frustration—it reminded her of her ties to the humans.

  Since their argument, Calla had avoided Doyle, not because she feared him but to remind herself to put the mission first and her revenge second. Doyle had meant every word of his threat. He would kill Calla if she became disobedient. She had witnessed his wrath on other hybrids too many times to assume he would treat her differently than any other subordinate. But she struggled to maintain her distance aboard the Nomad. Unable to avoid Doyle in the ship’s close quarters, she had retreated down here to think. And sweat.

  “Calla.”

  Calla turned to Doyle standing in the door. He barely glanced at her as he said, “I have a plan.”

  Day 95

  MINA WOKE FROM A DEEP sleep. She turned over in the darkness, listening to the deep quiet before dawn. Her entire body ached. Tired of looking for work to do, she had spent the last two days setting snares along game trails in the woods. Now they snaked their way up the mountain, enough lines to feed herself and several others.

  Despite all her hard work, the problem of food and the lack of storage for the winter troubled her. The hotel had a freezer. The plan was for Marty to get the generator working so the lodgers wouldn’t have to dig a cellar out of the rock. Mina thought a cellar was a good idea whether they had a freezer or not, but she didn’t feel comfortable voicing her opinion. She didn’t know everyone in camp. And they didn’t know her.

  A sharp cry caused Mina to spring upright, heart thumping, and reach for her gun. Then another scream echoed over the valley. This time she recognized it as a woman’s. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She rolled her blanket and stuffed it in her pack, preparing to slip it on her shoulders.

  Other voices joined the cry, but they weren’t raised in alarm. Convinced she wasn't in danger, Min
a left her pack and went to find the commotion. Fog cast a heavy blanket over the tree trunks in front of the tent. Everything appeared gray and ghostly in the early morning light. A group of twenty or so had gathered in front of the hotel, looking at something in the center. The woman screamed again, and several onlookers backed away. Mina caught a glimpse through the momentary gap.

  Emily staggered around the ring, followed by a woman Mina recognized as Helen. Emily wailed loudly, the fingers of her right hand clenched in her hair and something brown tucked in the crook of her arm. She babbled incoherently, pulling at her hair. Mina caught the name “Eve” and then “lost” before the crazed woman charged the growing crowd.

  Afraid to touch her bad arm, Helen tried to loosen Emily’s hand from her hair, but the fragile strands only detached from her scalp. Emily whimpered and looked at Helen, moaning something to the older woman who tried to still her by gripping her arm. Emily shrieked again and spun away.

  Solomon stood inside the ring now, quietly urging people to disperse. A few did, but most stood watching in shocked fascination. Mina stood immobile, mesmerized by the scene before her.

  “What’s lost, honey?” asked Helen in response to Emily’s muttering.

  Emily looked up to glare at Helen, her eyes no longer dead but fierce and wild. She still held the chunk of hair in her hand, which she held out to Helen. “I lost her!”

  “Who, dear?”

  “Eve! She was right here and now she’s gone! She was RIGHT HERE!” Emily rounded on Solomon, flying at him with a raised fist. “What did you do with my Eve?!” She struck Solomon before he grabbed her arm to stop her flailing, but Emily jerked away as if he had stung her. More people backed away.

  Helen looked around. “Help me before she hurts herself!”

  But the crowd was reluctant to touch Emily who now paced back and forth in the ring of people, crying and shouting, “I lost my Eve. Lost her! Lost my Eve.”

  Not knowing what else to do, Mina pushed her way into the center of the group. The brown object under Emily’s arm was the one-eyed teddy bear Mina had found yesterday. “Emily?” asked Mina. “It’s me, Mina. Remember? Remember the birds?”

  Emily looked at Mina, and recognition dawned in her eyes. Her face was smeared with tears and dirt. “I lost my Eve,” she whispered.

  Without knowing why she said it, Mina answered, “Eve’s safe.”

  “Safe?”

  “Yes, Emily. She’s safe.”

  Mina had uttered the magic words. Emily immediately stopped whimpering and grinned, revealing a mouth full of broken and missing teeth. But the transformation in her eyes caught Mina off guard. They soared from glassy and fierce to soft and luminous, the change so dramatic Helen gasped.

  Emily held up the teddy bear with her good arm. “Will you give this to Eve? It’s hers. She must have dropped it.”

  Mina took the bear. “Of course I will.”

  “Now? So she doesn’t miss it?”

  Afraid Emily would ask to see Eve, Mina said, “As soon as she wakes up. She’s sleeping now.”

  A shadow crossed Emily’s face, then she smiled again and repeated, “Sleeping . . .” rolling the word off her tongue in a whisper. Then she wrapped her good arm around Mina in a tight hug, her frail body nothing against Mina’s strong one. Mina held her breath at the sharp odor.

  Helen patted Emily’s back. “There, there, dear.” Emily continued to hold Mina, whose eyes watered at the stench. Finally, she let go. With the scene over, the crowd began to break up.

  Mina and Helen walked Emily to the lodge, but she dug her heels in at the door, refusing to go inside.

  “What do we do?” Mina asked.

  “I’ll take her to my room,” said Helen. “She’ll be alright.” Helen steered Emily toward the outside stairwell.

  “Can I get anything for her? Water? Something to eat?”

  “You’re . . . ?”

  “Mina.”

  “Mina, she just needs a good lie down, don’t you, Emily? If you would find her quilt and bring it to us. I don’t know where she left it.”

  Since Helen wanted to take charge, Mina walked back to the lodge and checked the common areas for Emily’s quilt, but it had vanished. Realizing she still held the teddy bear, Mina decided to stow it out of sight in her own tent for now. As she walked back toward the road, Solomon came out of the building.

  “Heavy fog, huh?” he asked by way of greeting. The surrounding mountains were still hidden, with no visibility past the parkway.

  “What was that about?” asked Mina, nodding toward the hotel.

  He shrugged. “Who knows? I thought you went with them.”

  “Helen sent me on an errand.”

  He smiled. “Yes, she’s good at that. But she has a kind heart. More than most around here.”

  Mina kicked a rock with her shoe. “Oh I don’t know. Everyone’s been pretty nice.”

  “Sure they have, because you contribute,” he said, “but these people aren’t saints.”

  Mina laughed. “Very few people are.”

  “All the same, I know you feel comfortable here, but very recently some were ready to kill more than a few folks over a question of protection.”

  “Yeah? What do you mean?” Mina perked up, watching Solomon closely. He looked tired in the pale light, with shadows under eyes that did not carry the spark they’d had two nights ago.

  Solomon gestured to the guardrail. They walked over, and Mina leaned against it, looking down into the green sea of mist below.

  “We all met by chance,” he continued. “A US Army unit was camped a few miles away, not in this valley, but one very like it, and most of us joined them for the protection. And they were pretty welcoming, feeding us as well as their own people. We didn’t know exactly what they were doing there, but we assumed they were mounting some sort of counter-attack or gathering rebels, although the colonel in charge never asked one of us to join—I s’pose for lack of weapons. Anyway, we stayed several weeks, getting more refugees all the time, and food started getting scarce. People got restless. That colonel tried to keep the peace, but folks wouldn’t have it. They were stealing, making trouble, and a couple people even died. After that, the lodgers were real quick to blame it on the colonel and began planning to get him out of there. About thirty men claimed they were going to do what was necessary, didn’t matter who got hurt, et cetera. Even had one of the Army’s own experts give us some tips on how to overthrow them.”

  “What kind of experts?”

  Solomon propped his foot on the guardrail. “Dunno. He wasn’t in uniform. Neither were his friends, but the colonel kept them close, gave them whatever they needed. They popped in and out of camp daily although I never knew where they were going. Had too much else on my mind. It’s that group that showed up a couple of days ago. Some of them, anyway.”

  “So that’s how you knew them!”

  “I didn’t know them well, like I said, but when I recognized them, I realized we couldn’t just turn them away.”

  “Why would it even be an issue? What happened?”

  “Colonel got wind of what was going on. He packed us up into trucks and shipped us out. Dropped us off down the road a ways.” Solomon nodded to the north, from the direction Mina had come.

  “They had trucks?”

  “Yep. Some of them still ran.” Solomon cleared his throat and spat on the ground. “Bunch of fools.”

  “The bunch here at the hotel, or the soldiers?”

  “Here. Even those who weren’t directly involved muttered and complained plenty. I saw the look in people’s eyes when they heard what was going on. They thought the little rebellion was going to be a good thing.” Solomon removed his foot and straightened, turning back to look at the hotel. “But I’m glad they didn’t get the guns. I’m glad we’re here. Maybe they are too. I think that’s why they don’t bring it up.”

  “Solomon, I think . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “I think that mil
itary camp has been destroyed. The Glyphs burned it right before I got here. At least, I didn’t see it, but when I reached the area, there was a big smoke cloud.”

  “You’re right—entire camp's gone. That’s what Nelson told me.”

  “Nelson?”

  “He’s the guy who was helping the rebellion. I don’t blame him. He was just trying to help.” Solomon turned to Mina. “You didn’t see it burn, though? How did you know what was happening?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve been much too close before now. I know what happens, and I didn’t want to see it again.” She shifted from one foot to the other, waiting to see if Solomon would volunteer more information. When he didn’t, she asked, “Do they have any outside news?”

  He looked up and down the road before crossing it, out of habit. Mina followed. “No,” he said. “Other than the old rumor that everything was destroyed. New York, Atlanta, D.C. Haven’t heard about the West Coast, but we assume the same about them . . .”

  Solomon was correct. Doyle had told Mina that the Condarri targeted all metropolitan centers and major infrastructures. He had helped them, maybe was still helping them even though he claimed not. Mina didn’t want to think about Doyle, but he kept coming to mind. At the firewood stacked outside the hotel lobby, Solomon grabbed an armload and then looked at her.

  “Seems strange, doesn’t it?” he asked as they parted. “Aliens. Never thought it would happen. Never. But here we are . . .”

  “Yes,” agreed Mina. “Here we are.”

  As Solomon walked to his own camp, Mina scanned the parking lot and its multi-colored tents. The group of three camped at the very edge, beneath some overhanging vegetation. When she’d caught some game, she could share food with them. Might be a good opening to ask them what they were doing at the bunker. Because after what Doyle had told her, she knew their presence was no coincidence. And she knew too much to ignore the idea that something was happening on a mountain not too far away.

  Day 97