Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  She touched another screen by the door, but no voice spoke to her this time. The screen made no sound at all. It didn’t have to. The sound stayed on the inside, where it belonged. In half a second, the door glided back and an old lady burst through it. “There you are! What took you so long? Don’t you know we’ve been dying of anticipation? Get in here, girl. Don’t lag about the doorstep. You must be starving.”

  Eden laughed. “Not really, Grandma. I just had breakfast.”

  Tamar Hood pulled Eden into the apartment. Like most older women in Arion, she wore immaculate clothes in the latest style. Her black pencil skirt touched her bare knees, and her black wool blazer buttoned over a crisp white blouse with wide flared lapels. The white accentuated her dark brown skin, and her polished black hair swept away from her keen face. A gleaming gold and diamond necklace set off her throat, and a dozen rings sparkled on her hands.

  Her eyes sparkled when she surveyed her granddaughter. “Well! This is a great day, Eden Black! This is the first day of the rest of your life.”

  Eden couldn’t stop smiling. “Thank you very much for having me, Grandma. I hope it all works out for the best.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it will. Come on. Come in. I want to hear all about your plans.”

  Eden blushed, but she let her grandmother lead her into the apartment. Stately windows gave a panoramic view of the city. Soft leather couches surrounded the sunken living room, and a crystal chandelier gleamed against the ceiling. Eden knew this place well. She spent weeks here every year, and the luxury and ease of city life started to wipe her rough home on the surface out of her mind.

  Just then, another young woman strolled into the living room from another side of the apartment. She stood a few inches taller than Eden, and she wore her hair in a short bob around her ears. They could have been sisters. She sauntered over to Eden. “Hey, girl. I wondered when you would show up.”

  “Here I am,” Eden replied. “How are you, Serenity?”

  “I’m just fine. Thanks,” Serenity replied. “How about I show you to your room? You’ve got the room next to mine, so we’ll be seeing each other a lot.”

  Eden’s eyes widened. “Are you staying here, too?”

  Tamar joined them. “Your cousin is studying for the medical entrance examinations, so she won’t have too much time to socialize. Shouldn’t you be working now, Serenity dear?”

  “I’m taking a break to talk to my cousin,” Serenity replied. “She just walked in the door. It would be rude if I ignored her, wouldn’t it?”

  Eden grinned. She always enjoyed spending time with Serenity. She got closer to Serenity than her own sister in the years they grew up together. “So you’re going for the medical entrance. Good for you. You’re sure to get in.”

  “I’m sure to get in. I just have to take the exam.”

  Tamar crossed the room to a computer screen and punched some buttons flashing on the surface. Serenity drew Eden down on the couch. “How about you and I go over your wardrobe later? I’m sure you want to get out of those clothes.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.” Eden studied Serenity’s pressed blue suit. “You can give me some style tips.”

  “I can help you,” Serenity replied, “but Grandma will probably want the final say in whatever you decide to wear. You know how she is.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “We can program the computer to do your hair, too.”

  Eden fingered one of the tiny braids dangling from her scalp. Everyone on the surface wore them, but she didn’t see anybody with them downstairs. She might as well wear a sign saying she just got off the train. “Thanks.”

  58. Chapter 2

  The computer beeped, and a panel opened in the wall. Tamar took out a glass bowl piled with fruit. She set it on the table in front of the girls. “Eat something. I have to log you on the system to say you arrived. Don’t dilly-dally too long, Serenity.”

  “Okay, Grandma.” Serenity leaned close and murmured to Eden, “Cluck, cluck, cluck.”

  Eden laughed. “She never changes, does she? I’m glad I have a second mother looking after me. I’m sure my parents can rest easy, knowing she’s monitoring my every move.”

  Serenity got serious. “We heard about Abel.”

  “Well, it’s not as hopeless as it sounds. He could come back at any time. Tell me about your family. How’s Uncle Declan?”

  “Oh, he’s just grand. He can’t fit his head through the doorway ever since Judah joined the Labor Pool committee. You’d think he accomplished it himself.”

  “And is Gunner still on the central computer programming team?”

  Serenity nodded. “He’ll be there forever. He’s got computers on the brain.”

  “You’re lucky you’ve got both your brothers.”

  Serenity squeezed her hand. “Let’s not talk about that anymore. Abel will turn up, and he’ll be just fine. I know it.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Anyway, I gotta go back to my room or Grandma will have my hide.”

  Eden looked around. “Where is Grandpa?”

  “He’s in his office. He’s busier than ever now that he’s one of the Elders. He’s always got his colleagues over. They lock themselves in his office and talk about… well, who knows what they talk about? They’ve been in there for hours, and they could be in there for hours more. That’s one thing you’re gonna learn living here. Don’t wait around for Grandpa to come out of his office.”

  Eden smiled. “Okay. I’ll remember that.”

  Serenity took a ripe peach out of the bowl and disappeared down the hall just as Tamar returned. Eden selected a bright red apple for herself, but before she could take a bite, another door whisked open across the room.

  The first man to emerge wore his greying hair clipped close around his scalp. A bristly salt-and-pepper mustache covered his upper lip, and his egg-shell grey suit hugged his sturdy frame. Eden jumped up. “Grandpa!”

  He didn’t answer. He spoke over his shoulder to another older man coming out behind him. “You know how I feel about this, and we won’t agree talking about it here. We’ll have to wait until the next session to come to a decision.”

  A crowd of men streamed into the living room behind Jeremiah Hood. Two other older men shook his hands, and another three younger men hung back out of the way. Old Jeremiah caught sight of his granddaughter standing there. He extended his arms. “Baby!”

  Eden fell into his embrace. “It’s so good to see you again, Grandpa.”

  He turned to his colleagues with a bright smile. “This is my granddaughter, Eden Black. She’s just come downstairs from the surface. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  He introduced his friends. “This is Micah Law and his son, Ryder. And this is Joshua Powers and his two sons, Eli and Damian. They’re learning the political game. That’s why they sat in on our meeting.”

  Eden nodded at the group, but she didn’t know where to look first. Broad shoulders, glinting black eyes, and smiling faces circled her on all sides. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

  Jeremiah and the other two Elders fell into discussion again. The three younger men turned their attention on Eden. “How long have you been downstairs?” Damian asked her.

  Eden blushed. “Only a few minutes. That’s why I’m dressed like this. You’ll have to forgive my appearance.”

  He smiled, and his whole face lit up. “You look wonderful as you are. I love your hair.”

  Her eyes shot to his face. “You do?”

  “It’s very unique. We never see anybody wearing their hair like that down here. Maybe you could start a new trend.”

  She couldn’t stop her heart pounding. “I doubt anybody in Arion would want to look like a poor clod from the Ridge.”

  “You don’t look like a poor clod,” he returned. “You look like a million bucks.”

  She tried to bite back a smile, but it wouldn’t go away. Her face glowed, and her eyes gravitated to his gleaming black countenanc
e. His skin shone darker than his brother or his father, but his high features and his searching eyes gave him a distinctive look no other man could match. He looked like no one she’d ever seen before. She couldn’t stop staring at him.

  Eli interrupted, “Did your whole family come downstairs, or just you?”

  “Me and my sister. She’s gone to the Engineering Academy.”

  “Maybe you’d like to come down to the council session tomorrow,” Ryder added. “You could see how we make decisions.”

  Eli turned on him. “We don’t make decisions, and I’m sure Eden doesn’t want to sit through a boring old council session. Once you’ve seen it, you don’t need to see it again.”

  “I’m just offering,” Ryder replied. “Are you busy tomorrow, Eden? If you don’t want to go to the session, we could take a boat ride on the river.”

  “You can’t take her for a boat ride on the river when you have to attend the session,” Damian added, “unless you want her to go by herself. We all have to attend the session.”

  “I don’t have to attend it,” Ryder replied. “None of us are Elders yet. We’re just observing. Besides, we’ve attended every day for over a year. I think I can take one day off to enjoy myself with a beautiful girl.”

  “Leave her alone,” Damian snapped. “She just got here. She doesn’t want you idiots asking her out.”

  Eden laughed, and Damian’s eyes flashed at her. Eli frowned. “I don’t see you asking her out. Why shouldn’t we?”

  “I’m not asking her out,” Damian shot back. “I have more manners than that.”

  “You’re not asking her out, either, Eli,” Ryder retorted. “Last I checked, I’m the only one who asked her out.”

  At that moment, Tamar appeared at Eden’s side. “That chore is finished. Now let’s talk about your plans. We have to get you down to the Labor Pool and get you registered, unless you have some work in mind you want to do.”

  Eden took the chance to look away from the three young men surrounding her. “I don’t have any plans, Grandma.”

  Tamar drew her back to the living room. “Come on over here. We can go over the roster charts, and you can decide what you want to try first.”

  Eden cast a backward glance over her shoulder. All the men conversed at once so she couldn’t make out what they were saying. They all stole sidelong peeks in her direction. Of the three, Damian stood the tallest. His distinct features still stuck out to her above the rest. She barely noticed the other two, though they were handsome enough.

  Tamar distracted her. She set a small flat-screen computer on Eden’s lap and pulled up the Labor Pool roster sheets. She started talking in Eden’s ear so she lost track of everything else. When Eden looked back, all six men filed out of the apartment and left the place quiet and still.

  Eden stared down at the computer screen. Everything she saw that morning filled her mind so she couldn’t concentrate. One minute, she was sweeping her parents’ floor on the surface. The next, she sat in this stately apartment being admired and argued over by these powerful men in their dignified suits and spotless ties. Their black leather shoes shone under their pant cuffs.

  She let her eyes drift to the windows in front of her. She didn’t hear her grandmother get up and leave. The city spread out below her. Trains and hovercraft whizzed back and forth. Tiny people crisscrossed the streets. They entered buildings, left them, paused to talk to each other, and went on their way.

  She sat still until the lights faded into night. Something waited for her out there. Her life and her future grew up out of that city teeming with potential and possibilities. She just had to find out what it was.

  She found herself searching the city records for something more interesting than the Labor Pool roster sheets. There must be something in this city to spark her curiosity. She had to find her own path in life. She couldn’t wander in confusion forever.

  She remembered something Serenity told her, and she pulled up the genealogical records on her extended family. She studied every detail of her cousins’ lives, but that only made her more depressed.

  Everyone in this city had their own unique and useful job to do. Everyone had his own place. Even Serenity knew what she wanted to do, and she did it.

  Eden envied her sister Luna. Luna never suffered any uncertainty about her path in life. She always knew she would leave the surface to study at the Engineering Academy. Now that she got over the shock of parting from her parents, she could sail away to where she wanted to be. What did Eden have to compare with that?

  Then she noticed something odd. The records listed her aunts and uncles, all her cousins and their children, their jobs—everything. She followed the family tree to her mother Amelia. The records indicated her marriage to Eden’s father, but it didn’t list Eden, Luna, or their brother Abel. That was strange, and yet the computer system registered her arrival in Arion with no trouble.

  She searched some more. Yes, the system logged Luna getting on the train. There was the signature where she got off and where she entered the Engineering Academy building. There was the time mark when Eden got on the train and where she walked into her grandparents’ apartment.

  So why didn’t the family tree show any record of her and her siblings’ existence? Something odd was going on. The mystery sparked Eden’s curiosity. It gave her something interesting to think about, something a lot more interesting than her own sorry life—or the lack thereof.

  That discovery led her to research a lot more interesting things going on in this city. She followed the train loads of food stuffs streaming into the distribution hubs. She studied the work schedules of farming crews, livestock handlers, and even miners on the surface. Anything related to the surface interested her.

  That first night, she learned more about Arion than she ever knew before. She learned how the manufacturing sector piped the smoke and steam from their underground factories through strata of rock within Renegade Ridge to mask it when it finally escaped onto the surface. The NightShade couldn’t have any passing helicopter noticing plumes of smoke billowing out of the bare mountain, now could they?

  Close to twelve, Eden retreated to her room down the hall. The light still shone under Serenity’s door. That girl must be burning the midnight oil again. That’s what it took to be the best. Eden wouldn’t stay up this late again, but her first night in Arion left her jittery and hyper-alert.

  She turned down the lights to darken her room, but she left the curtains open. She wanted to see the streaming rivers of tiny stars flowing everywhere through the great city outside, even in the middle of the night.

  She curled up under the blankets and stared out for a long time before she got tired enough to go to her room to sleep. Arion would watch over her. Arion would take care of her and give her the life of her dreams.

  59. Chapter 3

  After the rest of her family went to bed, Eden drifted down the hall to her new room. She eased the door closed until the latch clicked. She slotted her computer screen into its docking port in the wall.

  Then, for the first time, she let herself look around the room. She looked, not with the eyes of a girl who spent months of her childhood in this city, but as a young woman who lived her whole life on the surface.

  For the first and last time, she compared her life on the surface with this new world in which she found herself. The same towering windows overlooked the city to the far distance. Massive skyscrapers blocked her view beyond a few blocks. Tiny pinpricks of light in those buildings gave evidence of the millions of inhabitants living their lives beneath Renegade Ridge.

  A satin coverlet shone on her soft, broad bed. Cut glass embedded in the wall separated the main compartment from her private bathroom. Every bedroom in this apartment and every other apartment in this city had a indoor bathroom.

  She migrated to the bathroom door to stare at the flush toilet. A girl from the surface didn’t use toilets. She went in the outhouse tucked between the trees behind her father’s cabin
. She had to tiptoe out there in the snow in her bare feet on winter nights and first thing in the morning.

  Eden didn’t have to see the panel by the door to know she could order any food she could dream of on her computer. The panel would slide open, and she would remove it to eat wherever and whenever she wanted. She didn’t have to slave and sweat for hours over an open fireplace or a wood-burning stove to prepare the simplest meal.

  When she finished her food, she slid the plates and cutlery back into the same opening. The computer whisked them away to the recycling center so nothing in this city got wasted. Even the bathroom waste went to composting plants to be prepared for use in the city’s farming operations.

  She sauntered over to the panel. She punched the computer screen a few times, and the panel opened on a folded set of linen pajamas. She lifted them out. They glided over her fingers in silky soft waves. No one on the surface wore clothes like this. They wore scratchy old homespun clothing. Eden and Luna had spent their winter days in front of the fire, carding and spinning, knitting, weaving, and darning for the whole family. They made all their own clothes.

  She laid the pajamas on the bed. With deliberate care and slowness, she peeled off her old clothes until she stood naked before the big windows. She turned this way and that until her skin soaked up as much of Arion as she could get. She wanted to wash the surface away once and for all until she became as much a NightShade of the city as everyone else around her.

  She pulled on the smooth pants and buttoned up the shirt. The pajamas cradled her in the city’s gentle caress. She was part of this city. She belonged here now.

  She picked up her old clothes. Dirt and wood smoke clung to their fibers. They smelled and felt like Renegade Ridge. They gave an electric charge when she touched them. They didn’t want to let her go. They wanted her to keep them, to belong to the surface. They didn’t want her to change.

  She held them at arm’s length and carried them to the panel. She opened it. Just for a moment, her hand holding the clothes hovered in mid-air. Did she want to take this step? Did she want to let it all go? Did she want to forget what it was like up there?