by Rebecca Rode
Her mouth, drooping in a small frown, struggled to form the word. “Treena.”
With a sob, I threw my arms around her. “Ruby. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
Her lips moved. I leaned in to hear, but her voice was just a breath of air.
“You don’t have to speak, Ruby,” Vance said from the doorway. “Treena just wants to see you.”
Ruby shook her head ever so slightly. Then her mouth moved again and the tiniest of sounds came out. “Water.”
I turned to fetch some, but Vance had already gone. When he returned, he carried two water packets.
He handed them both to me. “Figured you might be thirsty too.”
I smiled at him gratefully and twisted the cap off, then tilted it toward Ruby’s lips. She took only a few drops before swallowing and then closing her mouth. I dabbed at her lips with my sleeve and smoothed her hair back again. “There. Now rest.”
“I’ll be resting forever soon,” she whispered. “First, you listen.”
I brought a fist to my mouth to hide the pain that hit at that moment. “No, Ruby. Don’t talk.” I couldn’t handle this good-bye. She just had to pull through.
“Treena,” Vance said gently. “The others have all slipped into unconsciousness and passed away within hours. She’s hung on for three days. Whatever she has to say, it’s important to her.”
“Vance too,” Ruby managed.
Pain lanced his expression for a moment. Then he stepped through the bodies to join me, crouching by my side. He took Ruby’s hand. “We’re both here.”
“Treena, you—you mourn your lack of power to protect,” Ruby began, her voice barely audible. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her expression had grown more focused. “Vance, you worry you have too much.”
My eyes widened, and Vance’s expression mirrored my own. He seemed rendered completely speechless at Ruby’s words.
“I just want everyone to be safe and happy,” I said carefully. “I wish they had someone wiser to lead them. Someone like you—someone who has experience.”
“Experience is a brittle thing. It only stands against the storm for so long.” Ruby stopped to take in a slow breath. Her voice had grown stronger now, but it seemed to cost her, as if everything in her being was now directed toward her ability to speak. “You young people—you’re flexible and quick. Soon you’ll discover the secret isn’t in building a fortress against the storm but redirecting the wind.”
Vance had gone stiff, his hand still gripping Ruby’s. She reached up with her other arm and took mine. Her hand shook violently.
“Flexible or not,” Ruby said, “the citizens and the settlers must combine their strength if you’re going to survive this. You need each other.”
I knew Ruby referred to our respective groups, but I couldn’t help but see the parallels between me and Vance. He had managed to braid himself into my life so thoroughly and irrevocably that I couldn’t imagine it being any other way. I had borne my soul to him a few minutes ago, and he hadn’t said a word about it.
Vance seemed to catch the double meaning as well. He searched my face for a moment, expressionless, and I resisted the urge to hide the emotions surging within me. No more hiding. If Vance broke my heart, it would be because he no longer cared for me, not because I hadn’t told him how I felt. Regardless, a heavy weight settled in my stomach.
“We’ll remember that,” he finally said. “Thank you.”
“Treena,” Ruby whispered. “I wanted . . . to . . . conquer NORA, to show them how terrible it all was. But now I see that wasn’t my role. It was to help you save it.”
The last word was a whisper. She pulled her hand back as her face contorted in pain.
“What do you need?” I fumbled for the water packet, nearly dumping it out in the process. I raised the water to her lips again, but she pressed her lips together and shook her head slightly.
“How can I help you?” I begged her. “A pain pill? Please. Just tell me what you need.”
Ruby’s eyes opened again, and this time her eyes seemed unfocused. Her lips turned upward into a wry smile. “Just finish it for me.”
I gave her hand a squeeze and opened my mouth to tell her I intended to do just that, but just then a voice floated in from the hallway.
“Treena?” Mom.
She stepped through the maze of bodies and threw her arms around me as I stood. “I’ve been asking about you everywhere. I went to the Council Building, but you weren’t there. And then someone said you were here, and I came rushing back.” She lowered her voice. “I heard about Ruby’s condition. I know how much you care for her, sweetheart. I just—I’m sorry.”
Her words carried far more meaning than they seemed to. Sorry for our strained relationship. Sorry about your failed mission overseas. Sorry about Ruby and the fighting and everything that’s happened since you left.
Ironically, I could say exactly the same thing. Somehow our petty arguments didn’t matter anymore. What mattered were the people I loved and would do anything to protect. Anything.
“I love you so much,” she said into my shoulder. “I’m not leaving your side until all this is over.”
“That’s all I want,” I said. I remembered that dream as a five-year-old on my way to school, each of my parents beside me. There was nothing I wanted more than that feeling and the knowledge that we were a family again. But that wasn’t up to me. “We need to find a cure for this illness right away.”
She gave me a strange look. “It’s not an illness. They’re suffering from the concentrated effects of nitrofaldyne. The medical community hasn’t had to treat it in generations, and even intense hydration with treated water hasn’t done much for these patients. Nobody makes the antidote pills anymore.”
“Can we get a sample of the treatment from the water plant, then? Maybe use traces of the antidote and then increase the dosage if it doesn’t work right away?”
“That’s what Vance suggested too. Our physicians here were reluctant since the antidote is so concentrated. It would take weeks of testing to determine the right ingredients and dosage for human consumption.”
“We don’t have weeks. These people are dying.”
She smiled grimly. “Vance said that too. That’s about when he went to talk to you.”
“What are their symptoms?”
“Coughing up blood, difficulty breathing. It seems to hit the lungs first, but it’s not pneumonia.”
That sounded familiar. Where had I heard those symptoms before?
“And they sleep a lot,” I said. “Right? Spend days in and out of consciousness?”
“Yes. Have you seen it before?”
Mom’s lungs are bleeding, Richard had said.
It was the residue from the atmosphere bombs. Richard Peak’s mother had died that way. If we left this thing unchecked, these patients wouldn’t last three days. “Mom, send a runner to the water-treatment plant to retrieve some of the antidote. Tell the physicians they have orders to put it into capsules, using their best guess on dosage. We’ll try it on the sickest patients first.”
“I—I’ll do my best.” She hurried out the door with a bewildered look on her face.
“Treena,” Vance whispered.
I turned to see Vance’s grief-stricken expression. Still kneeling over Ruby as if guarding her very soul, he held her limp hand between both of his. Her eyes had slid closed, a half grin frozen on her face.
“She’s gone,” he said.
My breath hitched, my earlier excitement fading. “No.” We were so close to finding the cure. “But we’re getting the antidote. If we can bring her back—”
Our gazes locked, and my words trailed off. He stood and took my hands, pulling me up beside him.
“It’s all right,” he whispered and pulled me into his arms, holding me against his chest. “It’ll be okay.”
After a few rough hours tossing in the night, I finally threw on a uniform and went back
to the hospital. Vance was up as well, helping administer the antidote powder my mom had brought up. They’d tried it on the sickest first, adjusting the dosage, and it had already made a huge difference. But it was too late for many. It hurt to see the bodies covered in sheets here and there waiting for cremation, and realizing we could have saved them too.
My father arrived just before the crematorium workers arrived to take Ruby away. He nodded respectfully to his aunt and told her how sorry he was for missing the chance to know her. Vance said his good-byes next. When it was my turn, I grasped her cold hand and tried to memorize her soft nose, her angular chin. Her gentle smile. If I became like this brave woman near the end of my life, I would have truly lived.
I slid her ruby ring off and cupped it in my palms. The band was worn but clean, still pure after all these years. Just like Ruby herself.
“I’ll finish it,” I whispered to her. “Thank you, dear friend.”
Jasper turned to me as the workers took Ruby away. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but there’s something you need to know. Not all the council members have jumped ship.”
I straightened. “Who’s still here? Konnor?”
Jasper’s mouth twisted in distaste. “He was one of the first to leave. No, it’s Denoux. Showed up at the Academy Building in the middle of the night demanding to be allowed in. He was upset his access code was discontinued.”
I chuckled at the thought. “So he came back. Change of heart?”
“Who knows? I told them to keep him in the lobby until you approved his access. Apparently he wasn’t happy about that, but he’s pacing the room, waiting to hear from you.”
I nodded. “I’ll head there next, see what his intentions are.”
“There’s something else.” Jasper glanced at Vance, and an unspoken communication passed between them.
Worry clutched my chest. “What is it?”
“Our long-range sensors are far inferior to British tech, even our expensive one at the Academy Building. We’re just too far behind. When I heard the first group of citizens would pass through the outer wall at dawn, I hopped into that airship we brought back with us and did a quick global scan for aircraft activity. It’s really quite fascinating, actually. The ships can all communicate with each other and create a pretty detailed—”
“And?” Vance interrupted, pulling me to his side.
“It’s not good. The moment the first group set foot into the desert, the northeastern part of the world lit up like the night sky. I think it’s safe to say they’re watching us somehow, and they didn’t like us sending a group into the desert. They’re making preparations.”
“We may have just triggered the war, then,” Vance said. “They’ll attack soon to keep us from escaping. Today, maybe tomorrow.”
My stomach dropped beneath me. I’d expected this, but we were far from ready. The first group of a thousand refugees was a small fraction of our people. Most of them were unarmed. And the border wall only had one gate. It would take two days to get everyone out.
“We have to stall them, then,” I said.
“Our military only has a few hundred fighters,” Vance said. “We can’t engage them long if they come en masse.”
“Enough to slow them down a bit, though. We have to try.” I chewed my lip. “What if we put people in some of the military supply vehicles instead of provisions? They should make it a fair distance in the desert terrain. But the wall—that’s going to be the center of their attack. We have to protect those crowds.”
“I’ll handle the wall,” Vance said firmly. “You go meet Denoux. If he’s apologetic at all, he could be useful. But stay under the radar. Chiu will seek you out.”
“I’m not putting you over evacuations, Vance. It’s too dangerous.”
“Why, Treena Dowell,” he said with a teasing grin. “Do I detect some overprotectiveness coming from y—”
I didn’t let him finish. I pulled his head down and pressed my lips to his.
He returned the kiss with a furious hunger, and he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. My fingers slid through his hair as our mouths moved together. Pain and heat melted together in a force much like liquid fire pumping through my veins. Our hearts beat as one.
Jasper muttered something under his breath, but Vance was my world in that moment. This was far more than a good-bye. This was an I’ll-do-anything-to-keep-you moment. It meant we would reunite again soon, no matter what the enemy unleashed. It meant we stood united against the world and the world would fear us.
“I’m protecting the wall,” Vance managed when he finally pulled away. “I’ll get everyone out. And then I’ll come find you for more of this.” He cradled my face in his hand, his thumb brushing against my lower lip.
I could barely find the breath to answer. “Then I’ll hold you to it.”
Maizel and her swarm of guards paced outside the Academy Building when my transport pulled up. She rushed up to the door as I stepped out.
“Don’t rush out without your guards ever again,” she snapped. “I know Vance is a capable bodyguard, but you’re empress now. You should have a full unit with you at all times.”
It was the wrong time to tell her Chiu was mobilizing his military today. I just mumbled an apology and walked into the Academy Building, a group of soldiers and Jasper hurrying after me. Commander Denoux, in all his sunburned, balding glory, stood with hands on his hips near the wide-eyed receptionist.
“There you are,” he snapped. “How dare you tell everyone to keep me out of my own office.”
“How dare you leave your country when you swore an oath to serve them,” I said easily. “And this building is being evacuated, so you were not singled out here. Now tell me why you came back before I have you locked up for desertion.”
Maizel pulled her stunner out for effect and wiped it nonchalantly on her shirt.
Denoux looked taken aback. “There’s nothing out there,” he said slowly, eyeing Maizel warily. “No water, no shelter. Way I figure it, we need to fight for what we have here or we’ll die in the desert.”
“You returned to help us fight.”
“It’d be a shame not to, all that effort and training for my soldiers. Got to show the ECA what we can do.”
“And why should I believe you?”
“I keep my promises. I’m no liar.”
“Interesting. Do you remember a certain conversation you had with an EPIC soldier about how you refused to release him from service even though his contracted time was up?”
That day seemed so long ago. I’d been a completely different person then. The commander was definitely less intimidating than before, and it wasn’t because of the position I now held. I could tell by the way he looked at me that he knew it too.
His face reddened, and he scanned the group, looking for a sympathetic face. When there was none, his shoulders sagged. “While I was out there, I heard the outlanders had come to NORA. They know how to stay alive out there, and I figured if I helped defend this city, I could get some of them to . . . to teach me.”
“Hang on. Did you just admit that you need help from outlanders? Integrants?”
He muttered something under his breath.
“I can’t hear you.”
“It’s not easy, living out there,” he snapped. “Gave me more respect for them, is all.”
The commander looked so broken, so humble, that I knew it couldn’t be an act. Denoux needed us, but we needed him even more.
“We’ll allow you to serve your jail term in defense of your city,” I said. “As long as you promise not to run off again without permission. My permission. Agreed?”
“Fine.” He turned toward the lift as if to go up.
“But we’re not launching our defense from the Academy Building,” I said. “Not the Council Building, either. Too obvious. We need somewhere they can’t find us.”
“I’ve got you covered,” Jasper said. “It’s an old textiles warehouse downtown. Our underco
ver headquarters.”
“Ridiculous,” Denoux said. “It would take weeks to move even the most basic surveillance and communications equipment over there. And we only have, what, days?”
“Hours,” I said.
Denoux stumbled backward and covered his surprise with a racking cough. “No. Absolutely not.”
My father shook his head. “You won’t need to move much. It’s not the most high-tech center of operations ever, and I wasn’t expecting to conduct a battle from there. But our scanners are decent, our communications are only a few years old, and it’s definitely better than being bombed within minutes of an invasion.”
“Let’s do it, then,” I said.
The commander sighed, defeated. “Fine. But I need to get some things from my office first.”
We had to wait for a large transport to arrive before we could move our entourage to the warehouse. I was ready to explode by the time I was allowed to climb in. We had no time to waste.
As the door began to close after the last person, an arm stopped it, and my mom’s face appeared in the doorway. “Treena!”
“Mom?”
Jasper, seated across from me, straightened.
“Is it true?” she asked. “I heard a rumor at the hospital and came looking for you. Are they coming today? Don’t lie to me.”
“We aren’t sure. We’re trying to figure that out now. I’ll send word—”
“Oh no. I’m going with you. I refuse to sit around and wait to hear if you’re all right, and I’m definitely not evacuating without my daughter, empress or not.” She climbed in as a guard scrambled to give her space. Then she slammed the door and turned to a transport full of surprised faces.
When she saw Jasper, her face went pink and she tore her gaze away. She didn’t speak for the remainder of our trip.
The warehouse was old and dirty, but the equipment seemed to work. Denoux went from one panel to the next, barking orders to my confused bodyguards and muttering the word cheap over and over. One of the soldiers made a call on his techband, apparently ordering a few pieces of equipment we still needed. But I was too distracted by the exchange going on behind me as my parents faced each other.