Blood, Ink & Fire

by Ashley Mansour

  France looks down and wipes her tears with the end of her cape. “You cannot tell anyone. Not even Ferdi. He doesn’t know.”

  “I won’t say anything. But France, I think your grandfather would have wanted you to share the knowledge. I think he wanted it for everyone.”

  “Then why did he create the crossing? Why test us, if only to see us fail?”

  I try to think back to the story. Holofernes’s own brother, his twin, defected to Fell. He had to see whom he could trust. The crossing was a way to find out, to establish loyalty. He was raising an army, after all. Loyalty was the first necessity.

  “France, did you know your grandfather was a twin?”

  “Twins run in our family.”

  “But did you know that his twin left the Rising? Did you know he joined Fell instead?”

  France’s mouth gapes open in genuine surprise. “How do you know this?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I say. “What matters is I don’t think the crossing was a test of ability. I think it was a test of willingness. To build his following and safeguard the knowledge they had created, Holofernes needed to know whom he could trust. After all, his own brother had chosen Fell over the Rising. How could he be sure of anyone he shared the knowledge with after such a betrayal? It was a test of loyalty, France. That’s why they rescued you. It didn’t matter that you failed. It mattered that you tried.”

  “But he wanted us to test them, to see who would be worthy.”

  “Worthy or willing?”

  France goes quiet and looks at the floor.

  “There’s something else you need to know. The knowledge isn’t what you think it is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Risers wanted to access Fell not so they could replace Verity’s stream but so they could reverse it. France,” I say quietly. “They were trying to learn how to reverse immersion.”

  France shakes her head in denial. “All this time I thought the knowledge was the code,” she says. “That we had to beat them. Our fleet of programmers was supposed to take them down.”

  “That’s not what they set out to do. The knowledge they wanted to build was of a much different sort. They wanted to reverse the damage Fell had done. They wanted to help people become readers again.” I rest my hand on France’s shoulder. She meets my eyes. “You have to trust me, France. The Rising was real, is real. Your grandfather would have wanted you to believe that.”

  France stares at her hands again. “I don’t know how you know all of this, Noelle Hartley. But I do believe there is truth in your words.”

  “You do?”

  She nods. “And if you are right, there are still seven other volumes out there you need to find.”

  “I know. But we can do it with your help. If we can keep the volume from Pedanta.”

  France looks off into the distance, and her forehead furrows in resignation. I’m reminded of her grandfather as a young man. I wonder if she knows how much of him is part of her now.

  “Okay,” is all she says.

  *

  We’re escorted to the dining hall. A long line of scholars with trays waits to select their food. They sit in rows of long tables, talking in low voices. The tall, blank walls and slick silver floors make the room echo with a low hum of activity. The air is full of anticipation as Ledger and I join France at the head table, where our food is brought to us, a bowl of hot nutri-cereal and real fruit. I finish the fruit first, grateful for the sweet sustenance as it hits my stomach and lifts my mood. Ledger scoops his fruit into my dish. “Go ahead,” he says. “I’m not so hungry.”

  “Morning, Ferdi,” France says as Ferdinand takes his seat with two other programmers. He nods once in that same odd manner and quickly acknowledges Ledger and me on the other side of the table.

  “We’ve taken the liberty of modifying your vehicle,” France says, suddenly. “It was in need of some . . . improvements. I hope you don’t mind.”

  I look at Ledger. “Thanks.”

  “You’re going to need it for your journey. You have seven other Sovereigns to visit. Not all of them are as hospitable as we are. Isn’t that right, Ferdi?”

  Ferdinand glances up, and his friends mirror him. “Right,” he says, then tips his head back down.

  “If all goes according to plan, you should be able to make the journey in just over a week. We took the liberty of syncing our navigation programs. This way we’ll know where you are at all times, and we can communicate.”

  A warning signal sounds. The white walls of the dining hall flash from white to red. All at once, the programmers rush from the room in hordes. Ferdi stands. “Protocol, France!” he shouts, his eyes wide. “We must follow the protocol!”

  “Yes, Ferdi,” France says. Guards part the crowd, escorting Ferdinand from the dining hall. Everyone moves aside to let him pass.

  “What’s happening?” I yell to France over the blaring siren.

  “Come,” she says, grabbing my hand. Ledger and I follow her to the control room as the hundreds of scholars take their positions. The multisided display illuminates to show a map of Fell and the Sovereigns. There’s a red alert nearing Pedanta.

  France looks at me, her face a picture of pure terror. “You have to leave, immediately.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “It’s Fell. There’s going to be an attack. Here in Pedanta.”

  “You mean they are coming for the volume?” I ask. “How do they even know it is here?”

  France pulls me close. She whispers in my ear so no one except me can hear her words.

  “No, not the volume,” she says softly. “They’re coming for you.”

  NOELLE

  TWENTY-THREE

  In moments, we’re in a speedboat, racing across Lake Pass. When we get to the other side, a guard waits for us with a soli-cart. We head toward the hospital, then pass it. France preempts me. “Your grandfather is already at the RV, waiting for you. I made sure of it.”

  “Thanks,” I say over the revving engine of the soli-cart. We speed through the town, and I notice everyone is rushing around in a panic.

  “We’ve been preparing for this,” France says. “We have safety measures in place for such an occasion. We will be okay.” She turns in her seat to face me. “When you leave the city, you must not stop for anything. You need to get to Ardenia. The forest is deep there. We will make sure they don’t track you.”

  The soli-cart passes the first set of gates, where the RV is waiting. I spot my grandfather standing, admiring the front, shielding his eyes from the sun. He looks up and sees me approaching. “Elle!”

  “Grandpa!” I leap out of the soli-cart and run to him, my arms open wide. Grandpa steadies himself against the RV as I lock him in a hug.

  “Don’t tell me you were worried about your ol’ Grandpa, now?”

  I bury my face in his chest and nod, trying to hide my tears of relief and joy. “I was,” I mutter. “I’m just so glad you’re okay.”

  “Of course I’m okay. They fixed my leg, Elle. And they didn’t do too bad on the RV. Take a look.”

  He’s right. They did do an amazing job. The bodywork is all brand-new. The wheels have been fitted with all-terrain tires. The exterior has been reinforced with bulletproof siding. I shudder to think why they think we’d need that. Inside, the dashboard is outfitted with a Pedanta display and tracking system. They’ve kept Hale’s display and mounted it on the side, merging it with their own program.

  The Pedantians have even replenished our supplies. Our Winnow clothes have been washed and hung, our food stores restocked. I find John’s jacket hanging up and change quickly into my shorts and shirt, then throw on the jacket.

  Outside, France, Ledger, and Grandpa say their good-byes. I rush to France. “Thank you for everything.”

  She nods. “You are most welcome, Noelle Hartley. And thank you as well.”

  “For what?”

  “For your . . . enlightenment. I shall not forget what
you said.”

  I smile, knowing what she’s talking about. Maybe now France will make the knowledge available to everyone, just as her grandfather had intended. Ledger and Grandpa board the RV, but I linger a moment with France, a single thought troubling me. “France, what will you do when Fell gets here?”

  She smiles weakly. I sense that deep down, even though she doesn’t show it, she is afraid. She lifts her chin proudly and turns to the city. “Pedanta will still be here. You’ll see. Oh, and I almost forgot. Here.” She takes something from a pocket inside her red cape. The weight drops heavy in my hands, and I know instantly what it is: Hale’s gun. “We cleaned it up for you and loaded some spare bullets. May it keep all of you safe.”

  “Thanks.” I pull France in and hug her tight. “Be careful.”

  She hesitates, then hugs me back. “And you.”

  We board the RV, and the first gate opens. As we pull away, I see France still watching us, the sirens lighting up the city. We turn to the road as the arms of Pedanta release us into the outside world.

  *

  The road to Ardenia unfurls before us. Ledger drives. I sit up front, watching the landscape change, the earth shift from red clay to sand to arid plains and fields. We keep the program open, expecting word from Pedanta, but so far only static comes through. I break up the hours by organizing our new supplies and taking stock of what we have.

  When I’m not at the wheel or arranging our supplies, I’m with the books, reading. I rarely sleep, not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. When I close my eyes, I think of my parents, or John, or France. I think of them lost in the vacuum of time with the words and wonder if somehow I can reach in and pull them out. Who have I become? Will all of this be worth it in the end? Will the books the Rising left behind really help us to a better tomorrow?

  The plains extend for decades. I start to think the forest of Ardenia has become something else. Have the trees shrunken and withered? Has the landscape dried up and become just an abyss of golden land that we passed hours ago? But soon my fears are quelled as trees begin appearing here and there, their foliage dotting the landscape. On the second day of driving, just as the dusk begins to settle, the greenery swells and takes over. The trees pull into tight bunches. Grandfather calls them pines, oaks, and hickory trees, and he says we should be nearing Ardenia soon.

  The sky grows dark, and Ledger turns on the high beams. The paved road ends, turning to bare dirt. The trees enclose us and the terrain steepens. Branches scrape the sides of the RV as we wind through the forest. Soon the dirt road narrows to just a footpath. Ledger rolls the RV to a stop and checks the display. “Several miles to go. We’ll have to walk it.”

  Before I can answer, I hear the RV door open and clang shut, the sound of Grandpa’s footsteps in the dirt. He calls to us from outside the RV. “Come on, you two! Let’s get moving.”

  I go back to grab Hale’s pistol, then stuff it into the backpack with the two volumes. Outside, the air dances with the music of forest critters and the rustling of distant branches. Strange chirps and coo-coos echo in the dark and make everything seem alive. Grandpa walks ahead along the path, familiarity in his footsteps.

  Ledger catches up, flooding the way with the light from the display. “I thought we might need this,” he says. “Just in case.”

  “We’ll be safe enough here,” Grandpa says. “At least I think so.”

  “You’ve been to Ardenia before?” I ask.

  “Once, long ago. It was even greener then, if you can believe it.” Grandpa stops in his tracks. “Listen. Do you hear that?”

  The humming and cooing have ceased. “I don’t hear anything,” I say.

  “Exactly. I don’t like this one bit.”

  “It’s too quiet,” Ledger adds. “Like the forest is listening.”

  “Turn out the light.”

  The pitch-black surrounds us, and the forest stills completely. Up ahead, a small circle of light flickers in the distance. “Look,” I whisper. “Is that it?”

  The loud crack of a weapon echoes through the trees. The light turns red and finds its way through the dark onto Ledger’s face. Another lands on Grandpa’s chest as a third appears on my left shoulder. We freeze in the middle of the dirt path. My mind races, trying to understand how Fell could have traced us.

  “Don’t move,” Grandpa says. “Not a muscle.”

  A peculiar voice calls through the trees: “Those are wise orders, old man.”

  The leaves rustle as a dark figure steps out onto the road, blocking our path. Her face is shielded by the darkness as she raises her weapon. “Wise orders, indeed. Y’all would be even wiser to follow them.”

  My hand itches for Hale’s pistol, but I know if I make a move, we’ll all be shot instantly. The dark figure focuses her weapon on us, and before I know it, Grandpa is speaking. His voice is steady, controlled. My heart races.

  “We mean you no harm. We are fellow Sovereigners. We’ve come here to see Ganymede.”

  “Ganymede?” The figure lowers her weapon. For a split second I feel hopeful, but my heart sinks as the red light snaps to Grandpa’s heart. “Ganymede isn’t even her name anymore. She doesn’t take kindly to strange visitors anyway. Fact is, neither do I.”

  The dark figure steps forward, bringing her face into a tiny patch of light sifting through the trees. Her eyes are black, her skin dark like the bark of a tree. Her curly hair spills out in all directions, like the quills of a poisonous animal. She might be beautiful, if the look in her eyes wasn’t so terrifying. It’s an alarmed, trigger-happy blankness I can’t look away from.

  Grandpa levels up to her weapon. “Last time I checked, Ardenia was a place of peace.”

  “Peace?” The girl’s face wrinkles with distaste. “I hate that word.”

  Eerie laughter from several other voices reverberates among the trees. She tips her head back to the sky and lets out a long, wild cackle. Her smile broadens with amusement, lighting up her eyes like embers. “We will have no peace.”

  NOELLE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  The tiny red light bores a hole in my back as I walk. I keep my head down, my eyes focused on Grandpa’s heels in front of me. We’re marching behind the dark figure—the one they call Ros. Ledger is behind me to my left. We walk in silence. But Ros never stops talking.

  “Listen up, now. If one of y’all takes off running, I’m gonna have no choice but to send my dogs out after you.”

  The men from the trees start hooting and hollering in recognition. One of them barks like a dog, then Ros whistles, and they’re quiet.

  “As I was saying, if one of y’all gets the idea to run, I’m gonna have to take you down. And none of us wants that, now do we?” None of us responds. Not even Grandpa.

  “Now I don’t know where y’all are from, but here in Ardenia, it’s considered rude to come wandering onto someone else’s land uninvited. We operate on a strict policy of manners. But what’s done is done, so best you start telling me what you’re doing here and save me the trouble of shooting each one of you in the head. Bullets are hard to come by, you know.”

  Grandpa lifts his eyes. “I already told you. We’re from the Winnow. We came here via Pedanta. We need to see Ganymede immediately.”

  “That’s some fancy vehicle you have there. Never seen a Winnower drive something like that.”

  Before I can remind myself to be quiet, the words are already coming up. “We had help.”

  Ros turns to me, her hair catching on one of the trees. She rips her head to the side to untangle it. “That wouldn’t be help from the UVF, now would it?”

  “Pedanta, actually.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Ros says. “Doesn’t seem like their work.”

  “We can prove it,” I add. “We have proof from Pedanta.”

  “Show me.”

  “No, not here. Take us to Ganymede. I will show her myself.”

  Ros turns to Grandpa. “She telling the truth, ol’ man?”

&nb
sp; Grandpa nods. “Of course she is.”

  Ros takes a moment, then says, “Fine. I’ll take you to her, but for your information, she’s called G now. Just G. I can’t promise what she’ll say or do. Like I said, she hates nothing more than having her peace interrupted.”

  We march on until the path merges with the woods and disappears. The way is thorny, full of tree limbs and overgrowth. Ledger catches up to me and walks at my side. My grandfather stumbles through the underbrush. I instinctively take his arm.

  “No sudden movements,” says one of Ros’s posse. His elbow jabs into my rib cage, and I stumble forward, tripping on the branches. I fall hard and fast, grazing my knees, then pick myself up and brush the dirt from my hands. I can practically feel Ledger burning up behind me, but to my surprise, it’s my grandfather who says something. He turns around and grabs the guy around the neck with one hand. “Don’t you touch my granddaughter!”

  The man—who I now see is barely older than twenty—fights back, shoving my grandfather backward. I can tell it takes all my grandfather’s strength to keep upright. Ledger rushes the man and pins him to the tree with his forearm braced against his throat. Ros whirls around, cocks her weapon, and aims it right at Ledger’s head.

  My chest pounds as the memory of John’s death seeps up through the cracks in my mind. His eyes searching for me. His body falling. Blood everywhere.

  My hand twitches for Hale’s gun, but I know where that will lead us. There’s been enough conflict, enough bloodshed already. Tonight is not going to end in more heartache.

  “Stop!” I yell. “That’s enough!”

  To my surprise, Ledger and my grandfather release the man, and everyone turns to me. Even Ros lowers her weapon a little. I nod to her. “That’s right. Put down your gun. There’s no need for any of this.” I let the words out calmly, stifling my panic. “I’m sure if we just speak to G, we can sort through this together. After all, we’re all on the same side here.”