by Everly Frost
I didn’t think tears could spring to my eyes in that heat. I was sure they’d evaporate. I’d found my home in Starsgard—I’d finally felt like I belonged somewhere—but it had been torn away from me. Or rather, I’d been torn away from it.
Halfway down the next dune, General Gaza suddenly stopped and shouted. “Halt!”
He held his finger to his lips and the Seversandian warriors were immediately on guard, quiet, their heads tilted and listening. The Evereachers shuffled and waited. Olander looked unhappy but Alexander didn’t seem perturbed.
I studied our surroundings, trying to figure out what was going on and to find purchase in the slippery sand. Walking through it was one thing, but staying still was almost impossible.
A glance seemed to tell General Gaza that halting at that point simply wasn’t going to happen.
“Quickly, onto the flat, but go no further.”
I hurried down the slope to the level sand below. There was another dune ahead of us, but there was a small area where we could stand between them. While the Evereachers plowed toward it, the Seversandians were light-footed, taking up positions around us.
Again, I looked around, wondering what was going on as we milled around. One of the warriors approached Gaza and spoke to him. “A false alarm?”
The General shook his head. “I saw it. There’s never just one.”
For another minute, nothing happened. Sand slithered down the slope behind us where we’d dislodged it. The hot wind cut into my skin and I tugged at my hood, trying to keep my breathing even. I slid the backpack over my arm, hoping one of the bottles contained water and, as I swiveled my head, a golden object glinted in the dune behind me.
Small and triangular, it moved fast, and it wasn’t alone.
The warrior who’d spoken with Gaza shouted. “There!”
General Gaza drew a breath so deep I heard it drawing into his lungs. He bellowed. “Sand sharks!”
My muscles bunched. My instinct was to run from the shining golden fins sliding through the sand. But instead of launching into flight, the Seversandians dropped to their knees.
General Gaza shouted. “Reveal your weapons!”
He, too, dropped to his knees, sweeping his sword from its scabbard in the same motion, dropping it onto the sand in front of him. To my surprise, Alexander did the same, slinging a dagger into the sand as he thudded to his knees, head bowed.
The golden fins raced toward us, maybe a hundred of them, racing down the slope from all directions as if we were a homing beacon.
“Evereachers!” General Gaza’s bellow was angry now. “Reveal your weapons or you will never see the sun again!”
Clearly confused, the soldiers around me dropped to the sand, fumbling with their knives and swords. Michael and my brothers were already on the sand, but had no weapons at all.
Quake simply lifted his head to the sky, staring into the golden light, his big body towering over the soldiers around him, dwarfing even the tallest Seversandian. He lifted his hands at his sides, palms up, as if showing the world that he had nothing.
Tears filled my eyes at the sight. Across the way, Rift and Blaze had done the same. Michael, on the other hand, had formed fists of his hands and lifted those instead.
I flipped the backpack into my hands and dropped it, just in case a medical needle was considered a weapon. I held my breath as the golden fins raced toward me…
…and around me. There was a sucking sensation as they passed, a depth to the movement that was both frightening and exhilarating at the same time.
Several feet away from me, Lanky was the last to drop to his knees. “What is this? Some sort of stupid—”
General Gaza was screaming now. “Reveal your weapons, Evereacher!”
“Fine, here’s my sword.” Lanky held it upright, glaring at the oncoming fins swarming toward him.
“Your dagger too, boy!”
An immense swoosh of sucking sand drowned General’s Gaza’s warning. Lanky twitched toward the dagger at his belt, his mouth dropping open as golden bodies shot from the sand.
What General Gaza had called sand sharks appeared to be just that—small sharks with pointed noses, each no bigger than my arm. But as they flew up from the surface of the sand dune, their mouths opened wide, dislocating three times as wide as their bodies.
Teeth.
Hundreds of teeth.
Sharp as razors. They sank into Lanky’s torso, legs and arms, even his face. The force of the impact propelled him backward and his scream split the air, louder than the whooshing sharks.
One moment he was there and then…
The sand sucked down in the place where he’d been, leaving only a spiral in its place. The remaining fins raced around the other warriors and disappeared into the dunes on the other side.
They were gone as quickly as they’d arrived.
They left silence in their wake.
I stared at the spot where Lanky had been.
Aaron, too, was staring, his eyes wide. “What just happened? What were those things?”
General Gaza rose to his feet, retrieving his weapon. His shout cut across the group as people began to stand.
“You will not bring deceit into this land. You will not bring pride or treachery. It is not human hands that will cut you down here.”
He strode over to us and hauled Aaron to his feet. “Your friend is now in hell, son. A mouth full of sand and sharks feeding off his deceitful bones for as long as he continues to regenerate. I believe your kind like to say … bury the weak.”
He dropped Aaron to the sand, but Aaron stumbled upward. “He wasn’t my friend.”
Gaza’s eyebrows rose. “Those are the first honest words I’ve heard from an Evereacher.” He strode onward. “We continue! It’s not far now.”
The next ten minutes felt much longer. The heat oppressed my lungs and burdened my limbs, making me feel as if every step carried led weights. My brothers struggled with it too. I wanted to reach out to them. If we were together, we’d support each other, keep each other going. I wanted to rant against the soldiers keeping us apart, but every breath was spent focusing on shifting my feet.
Finally, Gaza called us to a halt. This time there was no urgency in his orders so I guessed we weren’t stopping because of sand sharks.
The side of the dune in front of us shifted and an outer shell opened into a staircase. Sand drizzled down inside it. Nobody made a move to descend into it until a small cylinder shot from the chasm below—a tiny device no bigger than my hand.
It spun in a quick circle, scanning us so fast that I marveled at the technology. Evereach’s drone technology was human-controlled—large weapons equipped with powerful tranquilizers. You couldn’t miss them. This small object emitted a powerful beam that scanned all of us within moments and then it disappeared again into the abyss below.
“All good,” General Gaza proclaimed and the opening widened even further to reveal a spiral staircase leading down to a brightly lit platform underground.
We followed General Gaza and several of the warriors into it while the remaining Seversandians brought up the rear. I sucked the cooler air into my lungs, grateful for the change in temperature.
Gaza said, “Our land may appear soft and supple, but beneath it lies an iron beast, each cell of its body a pod and its organs made of great cities.”
He gestured around us, and I caught my breath.
Immediately in front of us was some kind of monorail—a pod train—but beyond it was a place that could only be described as a city, even though ‘city’ didn’t match the incredible intricacy of the pods in front of me. They stretched for miles and miles, shafts of light strategically placed between them—openings in the ceiling allowing sunlight to filter through.
The cavern walls themselves were lined with diamonds and precious metals, also strategically placed to maintain the structure and refract the light where needed.
General Gaza said, “This is just a small cavern.
We’ll pass through many more on our way to the Coliseum.”
I struggled to tear my eyes away from the amazing sight of the underground city. Once we were inside the monorail, it shot forward and the General and his warriors held in their laughter as we braced against the force of movement. They passed me ice-cold water and I drank glass after glass of it, checking that my brothers were doing the same.
For most of the day, we rode the rail, speeding past caverns so vast and deep it took forever to pass them even at top speed. Some caverns were full of agriculture—plants cleverly cultivated underground. In another cavern, great iron beasts chewed through rock, excavating and constructing.
Devourers, the General called them. Quake had once warned me about the machines that could chew through the earth beneath Evereach. They were the same machines I suspected had created the tunnels under the river beside Dell city. I had no way of knowing what had happened to the children I’d freed or whether my message to the world about the location of the cells had done any good.
As night fell, the solar vents darkened and lights glowed in the pods that we passed. General Gaza told us to sleep in our seats. He pointed out the amenities at the back of the train and I went there to splash water on my face, trying to ignore the dark rings under my eyes and disguise the tears that fell as I attempted to bury the image of my brother, Josh, lying on a pallet connected to machines.
When I returned, I found that General Gaza had cleared a row of seats at the front for me. Four Seversandian warriors stood guard in the space.
He said, “You’ll sleep here under the protection of my guard.”
“I—” I looked around for Michael and my brothers. They weren’t close enough for my liking.
Olander shoved forward, annoyed, while Alexander scowled from the back. Olander demanded, “You don’t think we’ve come all this way to harm her now, do you?”
General Gaza’s calm demeanor disappeared in an instant. He didn’t move or threaten Olander physically, but his words may as well have been swords.
“Our nations are on the brink of war, President. This girl holds us in balance. We’re not so stupid as to believe you won’t use her to infiltrate our country and bring your weapons with you.”
Olander gritted his teeth. “We’re here in good faith.”
He glared at me, but General Gaza’s words rang true. We’d left behind warships crammed with drones. Mr. Bradley had taken vials of my blood and a week’s travel was long enough to create many mortality weapons.
“Then allow her to sleep,” the General replied, calm once more. “In good faith.”
Olander didn’t look happy but there wasn’t anything he could do. Michael was closest to me and, with a quick glance at my brothers, he took the chance to slip into the seat behind mine before any of the Evereachers could protest.
To my surprise, an approving smile flitted across the General’s otherwise guarded expression. He nodded at Michael, and it was suddenly clear that he considered Michael to be another guard to watch over me.
I should have been afraid of what I was headed into, but for the first time since falling from the Starsgardian cliffs, I felt as though I could sleep safely.
I awoke to a gentle hand on my shoulder. The monorail had come to a stop. Around me, everyone was eating and the General passed me a plate of food without speaking. I found Michael in the seat behind me and he gave me an answering smile as he ate.
Finally, the General spoke. “We’ve arrived at the city closest to the Coliseum, but from here we have to walk again. None may approach the great colossus except by the sand under their feet. For that reason, we will begin before the sun rises.”
He passed us all robes made of the finest white cotton to cover our heads and bodies. The robes appeared to be coated with some sort of shiny substance. I pulled mine on as we ascended a staircase into the sunlight above. The new cloak was far more effective than the flimsy clothing I already wore.
In the distance, I could just make out the shape of something huge—a low-lying building on the horizon. One of the Seversandians took my shoulder and I flinched before I realized he wanted me to pass my hands through a harness that carried water flasks, equally weighted on either side. I realized that the Seversandians all carried them, grinning at me, as though it was a novelty for them to carry that much water.
“Thank you,” I said, adjusting the harness.
The warrior who’d given it to me tugged my hand, urging me forward, before walking ahead of us.
Aware of Michael and my brothers behind me, I took my first steps into the heart of the Seversandian desert.
Chapter Fourteen
WE ARRIVED AT the Coliseum in time for the sun to begin its descent toward the horizon. I drank copious amounts of water along the way, grateful for the warriors who seemed to take delight in being asked for another water flask. I was also grateful for the cloak they’d given me to wear—my skin didn’t burn and the heat didn’t feel like it was going to crush my lungs.
The Coliseum had appeared from a distance to be low-lying, but as we neared it, it became apparent that it was at least ten stories high, about a half mile wide, and circular—an enormous ring made from stone.
There was no door. Instead, an opening had been cut in the outer wall with an inscription carved above it. I paused to read it, but it wasn’t in a language I understood.
General Gaza passed beneath the stone and gestured me inside. “It says: Victah-Var-Soul. It means: Only the worthy.”
Beyond the opening, corridors led both left and right. Gaza led us to the right and we emerged from the stone corridor into the sunlight. On our right were rooms and staircases. On our left was a ceiling-high glass wall that stretched the entire inner circle of the building.
The glass wall encircled a sandy plain but it was not ordinary sand. This sand was black as ash. It wafted above the surface, rising and falling with the breeze. Creatures scuttled inside it—black creatures I knew only too well.
Scorpions.
In the center of the sandy area, hundreds of feet away, was a mound of blackened wood, so twisted and sunken it barely resembled a living form anymore.
It had to be the midnight tree.
The black branch that had been grafted onto the magnolia tree in Starsgard was difficult to comprehend but even it had been alive and strong, living through the magnolia tree and flush with nectar. But this … thing in the distance was barely alive.
Rift had called it the Tree of Life, but the object I saw now was a thing of death. I checked for my brothers, glad they’d had the benefit of the same protective cloaks as me. As they entered the walkway, they threw back their hoods and stared at the misshapen tree in the distance.
I met their concerned eyes. That twisted mass was nothing like the tree we knew. I stayed close to the glass as General Gaza ushered us toward the hall where he said President Vale waited.
Before we reached it, there was a commotion behind me. The Evereach guards suddenly moved into formation, circling my brothers and surrounding them, pushing them forward. Aaron propelled Michael and I backward before the remaining Evereach soldiers surrounded us too.
There were now two circles of soldiers moving along the corridor. My brothers were inside the first, and Michael and I were inside the second. Olander took up the front and Alexander took up the rear.
General Gaza seemed unfazed. He strode ahead with several of his warriors, while the others followed behind Alexander. Altogether, we made a broad procession through the walkway and it was just as well that there was nobody else in sight.
Without pause, Gaza waved us through an entryway at the right, into an enormous chamber. The walls soared upward, glittering with jewels embedded into the stone: emeralds, amethysts, and sapphires striking a brilliant pattern against sandstone pillars.
Seversandian warriors—all men dressed in golden armor—lined the edges of the room in a double row—one row in front and another row behind. The men in front held swords and
were all giants but the row behind was made up of shorter warriors, barely visible, wearing red armor. Their formation seemed strange. I caught a glimpse of a bow and arrow in the hands of one of the back row warriors and wondered what kind of attack scenario would play out if things didn’t go well. I could tell Michael was puzzling over this also. He inclined his head to the side of the dais. If things went wrong, the safest place would be near President Vale.
President Vale was a magnificent presence on the elevated platform. Like the pictures I’d seen of her, her dark brown hair was tied into a tight, high ponytail, falling all the way down her back. A ring in her nose carried a chain sporting a row of jewels across her cheek. She wore the same warrior’s garb as General Gaza, finished off with straps across her chest that were also dotted with jewels. She carried a single dagger in a case at her waist and a sword at her back.
The guards in front of me halted. President Vale didn’t move from the dais and her gaze didn’t waver from Olander.
Her voice roared into the room, reminding me of a bear—a bear not of snow and ice but of severing sand, the kind that would slash the skin from a warrior’s face.
“Have you brought back what was stolen from me?”
I frowned and Michael shook his head: he didn’t know what she meant either.
Olander’s smile bordered on a smirk. “I have, President Vale.”
With a flick of his wrist, the circle of soldiers surrounding my brothers opened up. I struggled to see them as President Vale prowled closer, leaving the dais for the first time.
She stopped barely inches from Olander, her whole body oozing threat. The warriors around the edges of the room took a step inward. So did the back row, remaining concealed behind the larger men in front of them.
She said, “I see only men. Where are the children who were stolen from me?”
Children? My eyes widened. She meant my brothers. Mr. Bradley had taken them when they were much younger. From their point of view, he’d rescued them from captivity. But she clearly saw it as theft.
Thinking of Michael’s father … I looked around for him, but to my surprise, he was nowhere to be seen. When had he slipped away?