The Lost City: The Palumbra Chronicles: Book Two

by L. D. Fairchild

  "Water," he cried.

  Tristan looked in the direction Gray pointed, and he, too, broke into a grin. "Did you hear that, Emery? Water ahead."

  "But that's the wrong direction," Ginger said. "It will take hours to reach it and get back on course."

  "What choice do we have?" Tristan asked. "It's the only sign of water we've seen. We can't hit the desert without water."

  Ginger looked at the shimmer of the lake or pond in the distance and back at Emery's wan face. "I guess we'd better get moving then."

  ###

  Maeve didn't know how long she sat in the chair next to Emma's bed. She must have nodded off because when she woke, the thin rays of afternoon sun coming in through the window had disappeared into darkness. After her conversation with Emma, she felt the weight of the guilt she had been carrying start to lift. Emma was right. Maeve couldn't change the things she had done. She had to forgive herself and move forward.

  Careful not to wake Emma, she rose from the chair on shaky legs and went back to her room. Her stomach rumbled. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten. Once in her room, she pulled on some clean clothes and made her way slowly down the stairs to the kitchen. She put together a protein paste sandwich with a side of carrots from their garden and a glass of fresh milk. John must have taken care of the animals before he left.

  When she sat at the table, Rufus's head appeared in her lap.

  "Hey, boy." She gave him a piece of her sandwich. He swallowed it in one gulp and looked up at her with his pleading brown eyes. "I know it's not great, but it's what we have."

  Maeve finished her meal, sharing the rest of her sandwich with Rufus, although he turned his nose up at the carrot she offered him. The food did Maeve almost as much good as the antidote. She drained the last of her milk and walked to put her dishes in the sink on legs that were weak but no longer shaking. She rinsed her dishes and left them to dry. Wiping her wet hands on her pant legs, she said, "Well, Rufus, what do we do now? I can't leave Emma here alone, but I need to do something to find my friends." She sat back in her chair at the table at rubbed Rufus's ears.

  "What do you think, boy?"

  Rufus whined.

  "I know you miss him. We'll find him, I promise."

  Rufus's ears perked up at a noise at the door.

  "I hope that's John."

  The door opened and John walked through, his shoulders slumped and his steps slow. Maeve rose from her chair.

  "John?"

  John jumped, startled at the sound of her voice. "Maeve. What are you doing out of bed?"

  "I needed something to eat." She motioned toward the drying dishes in the sink. "I'm feeling much better, but you look exhausted."

  John sank wearily into a chair and dropped his head into his hands, massaging his scalp with his fingers.

  "How's Emma?"

  Maeve returned to her chair. "Not good, but she's hanging in there."

  John lifted his face from his hands and looked at Maeve in the dim light of the lamp she had lit. "There's no antidote coming, Maeve."

  Maeve stared at him with horror-struck eyes. "They can't get the plagoran venom," he continued.

  "But I told them where to look," Maeve said in an unsteady voice.

  "They sent out a team, but they haven't come back yet." Tears pooled in John's eyes. "I don't think they're going to find it in time."

  "What are we going to do?" Maeve whispered.

  John heaved a sigh. "Cleo really needs to talk with you about everything that happened. I put her off saying you were too sick to be of help, but if you really are feeling better, then you need to go down to government headquarters and talk with her."

  Maeve nodded slowly. She knew this summons would be coming. Her eyes drifted to the ceiling. "What about Emma?"

  "I'll stay here with her. I'll let you know if there's any change."

  Maeve nodded and got to her feet. "Come on, Rufus. You can go with me."

  Maeve and Rufus slowly made their way through the streets of Palumbra. Though nothing had changed since she left, the once familiar buildings looked strange to her. In just a week, she had changed, and the trappings of her old life no longer seemed to fit. They passed her parents' house, and Maeve's feet slowed. She remembered her resolve to make things right with her parents when she was sitting alone in a cell, but she knew Cleo was waiting. "Later," she told Rufus. "We'll stop later."

  When they reached the modern glass building that served as the government's headquarters at the city center, Maeve paused to look up and down the street. This area had been at the heart of the destruction caused by the WG. Bombs had ruined businesses all along the street, but people were rebuilding.

  At the doors of the building, a guard stopped them. "No dogs in the building."

  Rufus looked at Maeve with his sad, brown eyes, and Maeve scratched his ears before turning back to the guard. "We're here to see Cleo. She'll want to see the dog, too."

  At Cleo's name, the guard raised his eyebrows. "What's your name?"

  "Maeve Jackson." She gestured toward the dog. "This is Rufus."

  At the mention of her name, the guard's demeanor changed. His eyes took on an awed look, and his mouth formed an O. After a week of running for her life, Maeve had forgotten that she was semi-famous in Palumbra. "Just a minute, Miss Jackson. I'll call right up." He walked briskly to the wall and picked up a black phone. After a minute, he hung up the phone and motioned to her.

  "President Cleo says you can go on up. She's on the top floor." He held the door open for her, and his eyes shifted to Rufus. "The dog, too."

  Maeve smiled at him and walked into the lobby. Unlike the rest of Palumbra, this building held all the modern conveniences, including shining tile floors and glass walls that rose into the air. A chandelier hung from the high ceiling, its crystals sending shafts of sunlight throughout the building like fairy lights. While the new government had tried to cut down on the obvious differences between the government building and the dwellings in the rest of Palumbra, there was no hiding that the people who worked here enjoyed a much nicer work environment than most other Palumbrans. Maeve knew it would be a waste not to use the building, but she shook her head at Arabella's monument to her own power. Cleo had converted the lower levels of the building into housing for some of the older residents of Palumbra, a kind of community for those who could no longer work or needed help getting around. Maeve waved to a few residents who were out for a stroll around the lobby then took Rufus over to the bank of elevators. They stepped in and Maeve pushed the button for the top floor.

  Rufus gave a start when the elevator lurched into motion, pressing himself so hard against Maeve's leg that she had to put a hand on the wall for balance. She scratched his ears and said, "It's OK, boy. We're just going up."

  When the doors opened, Maeve stepped out into the large open space that served as the meeting space for the top government officials. A large glass table took up the center of the room, and desks were situated around the edge of the room. Cleo didn't like the idea of having walls between the government leaders, so no one had an office up here. While Cleo had a ground floor office, she rarely used it. They all worked in the same common space. Cleo sat at the table, engrossed in some papers, but she looked up when Maeve and Rufus exited the elevator and gave Maeve a quick smile.

  "Maeve, you look like you're feeling better." She held out her hand for Rufus to sniff. When he sat in front of her, she ruffled his ears and looked at Maeve. "This must be Rufus. I hear he saved your life."

  Maeve gave a grim smile. "He got Emma and John. I think John did the actual saving − at the expense of Emma."

  Cleo's face took on a sober look, and she kept her gaze on Rufus. "I know, Maeve. I'm sorry. There wasn't enough antidote for you both. We all agreed you should get it." She gave Rufus a final pat and straightened, looking Maeve in the eyes. "Our scientists are working around the clock to figure out how to make a new batch, but..." She trailed off.

  "I know.
No plagoran venom."

  Cleo shook her head, and her shoulders slumped slightly. "Our team is out looking for plagoran, but they haven't found any yet." She walked over to the table and pulled out the chair next to her own. "We should talk." She gestured to the chair. "Maybe you'll be able to tell me something that will help point us in the right direction."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Maeve slumped gratefully into the chair. Until Cleo had offered her a seat, she hadn't realized how tired she was from the walk to the building. A protein paste bar and some water appeared in front of her.

  "You look exhausted. Eat."

  Rufus settled himself at Maeve's feet, and she picked up the protein paste bar, broke off a piece for Rufus, and took a bite herself. When she had finished the snack, she set down her cup and turned to face Cleo.

  Maeve noted the worry lines on Cleo's face and the fine streaks of gray around her temples that hadn’t been there six months ago. The weight of leadership had aged her in just a few months, although Maeve reminded herself that Cleo had been leading The Resistance long before she had taken over as leader of Palumbra. She compared Cleo's tired eyes and plain clothes to Arabella's continually youthful appearance and extravagant fashions. Cleo felt the pain of the people; Arabella caused it.

  "Why don't we start with you telling me what you know about the plagoran." Cleo tucked a stray wisp of hair back into the braid on the side of her head.

  Maeve shrugged. "Not much, really. We ran into a couple on our way to the desert and then another one in the desert."

  "Plagoran are dangerous. How did you get past them?"

  Rufus shifted and laid his head on Maeve's feet. "Tristan and Gray wounded one of them. Emery insisted that we stop and help it." Maeve silently wondered where her friends were and if she would ever see them again. She closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to leak out. Cleo squeezed her shoulder and said nothing. Maeve sniffed, took a deep breath and opened her eyes again to find Cleo looking at her with a mixture of impatience and sympathy.

  "I told John that the one we helped had a tag in its ear. I thought it might help in tracking it."

  "It would if we knew the frequency." Cleo tugged a piece of paper out of the stack in front of her. "These are all the frequencies we've tried, but so far we haven't found anything."

  Maeve picked up the paper and scanned the five-digit numbers on the sheet. "I wish Emery was here. She could probably remember the numbers on the tag."

  Cleo leaned forward. "Think, Maeve. Even if you can only remember a few of the numbers, it will help speed things up."

  Maeve leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. The weight of Rufus resting on her feet reminded her of the urgency of getting this right. She sent her mind back to the moments when she and Emery were trying to stop the plagoran's bleeding and Emery had told her the numbers on the tag.

  "The tag was yellow." She spoke without opening her eyes. "Emery said it had been punched through the plagoran's ear. She talked about the numbers on the tag." Maeve scrunched up her nose, desperate to remember. "Maybe 568 were the first three numbers?" She opened her eyes and shook her head in defeat. "I'm sorry. So much has happened since then. That's the best I can do."

  Cleo patted Maeve's arm, wrote the numbers on the piece of paper and handed it to a young man about Maeve's age who was working at the desk closest to her. "That helps, Maeve. It narrows down the search." She returned to her seat and gave Maeve a serious look. "We'll find it, Maeve. We'll do everything we can to save Emma."

  "I know you will," Maeve said quietly. "But will it be enough?"

  Silence fell between them until Maeve finally spoke.

  "What did John do with my tracker?"

  "He walked around with it for a bit, then put it in an empty office. We figured they expect you to get really sick and die, so you're not going to walk around forever. Plus, they had to expect we would isolate you."

  Maeve nodded. It was a good idea.

  "What are we going to do about Thomas and the others?"

  Cleo averted her eyes. "We're working on a plan." She began to shuffle the papers in front of her.

  Maeve leaned forward. "We are going after them, right?"

  Cleo sighed. "Maeve, I've got a team trying to hunt down the plagoran and another team trying to figure out how to repel the invasion Arabella is going to send our way. I don't have a lot of people to spare to go find Thomas and the rest of them. We don't even know where they are."

  At Thomas's name, Rufus lifted his head and whined. Maeve felt like doing the same. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

  "We risked everything, and you can't spare people to find them?"

  Cleo rose and walked to the window, looking out over Palumbra.

  "Maeve, you went on an unsanctioned mission, and you got caught. You brought a plague back to the city that simply by the grace of God didn't annihilate us."

  Maeve rose, too. Rufus gave her a disapproving look as he moved his head out of her way. "We discovered Arabella is still alive and plotting against Palumbra. We went on the mission to try to uncover who was still loyal to Arabella within your own government. And you just want to leave my friends out there to die? Thomas is 10! And he's all alone. Haven't we done enough for Palumbra to warrant being rescued? Tristan is out there. Didn't you practically raise him when his parents died?"

  Cleo fell silent for a moment. "Did you find out who they were?"

  "What are you talking about?"

  "The people trying to undermine my government. Did you find out who they were?"

  Maeve shook her head then realized Cleo couldn't see her. "No. We never got close to the patrol before they were killed by Sarge."

  "Sarge?"

  "You know him?"

  Cleo turned from the window. "If it's who I think it is, he used to be my friend, a leader in The Resistance. But he sold us out for money and power."

  Maeve thought of Elton. "I know the feeling."

  Cleo studied the floor. "A lot of people died because of his greed. I can't let that happen again."

  Maeve joined Cleo at the window where they could just make out the edge of the desert. "You can't just let them die out there."

  Cleo turned from the window to face Maeve. "It's not that I don't want to send people after them, Maeve. I simply can't spare the number of people it would take to mount a rescue mission for Thomas and a search mission to find the others. I have to protect the people of Palumbra. That's my job."

  "How many can you spare?"

  "What?"

  "How many people can you spare to look for them?"

  "Not many. Three, maybe four?"

  "I'll take them."

  "Maeve, you can't go traipsing back through the desert. You're recovering from being sick. Think of how tired you were when you got here."

  "Think of how tired my friends are. Think of how scared Thomas is. I have to go back and find them."

  "What about Emma?"

  Maeve winced. Thinking about Emma hurt.

  "I can't let you go, Maeve. You're too weak, and Emma needs you." She placed a hand on Maeve’s shoulder and looked straight into her eyes, her chocolate brown eyes intense in her dark face. "I promise we'll find Gray and Thomas and the others as soon as we've met the immediate threat from Arabella."

  Maeve saw the determination in Cleo's eyes and knew she was beat. She would have to find another way to get to her friends.

  ###

  "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

  Tristan rolled his eyes at Ginger's question. "Yes. Believe it or not, Gray and I actually trained to become soldiers who can survive in the wilderness. We can tell north from south."

  Ginger rolled her shoulders to ease the discomfort of carrying her own weight plus half of Emery's. Emery was valiantly trying to stand on her own feet, but a few miles back she had started using Ginger for balance.

  "No need to get snippy." She moved closer to Tristan. "She's not going to make it much farth
er."

  "I can hear you," Emery said without much emotion. "I'm fine."

  Ginger gave a short laugh. "You're not fine. You need rest and water."

  Tristan unlooped Emery's arm from Ginger's shoulder and scooped her up.

  "I can walk."

  Tristan grinned down at her. "Sure you can, but right now you don't need to."

  "You can't carry her all the way to Palumbra." Ginger toyed with the end of her long ponytail. "You're going to have to leave us behind."

  "Now that's not gonna happen," came Gray's voice from behind them. "Tristan and I will take turns carrying Emery until we find water. Hopefully, we'll find some food, too. That should give her the energy to go on."

  Gray pushed between Tristan and Ginger.

  "Now, let's get going. We don't have time to waste."

  Tristan and Ginger followed him across the endless rocky ground. Despite having walked several miles, it felt as if they hadn't moved. The scenery was the same everywhere. Rocks of all sizes with the occasional small growth of vegetation, no trees, no large bushes, nothing to relieve the never-ending sameness of the horizon. Ginger was beginning to wonder if they had really seen water or if it was just an illusion.

  "How is he holding up?" Ginger nodded toward Gray whose long legs were eating up the ground about 10 yards ahead of them.

  "Gray?" Tristan grimaced. "He's beating himself up that he's not already on his way back to Maeve, but he won't leave us out here. It's tearing him up inside."

  Ginger kicked a rock, and it rolled forward and dropped into a small crevice in the ground. "I wish we could move faster."

  "I'm sorry," Emery said in a small voice.

  "Oh, Em. It's not your fault. No one blames you."

  "Listen to your sister. Definitely not your fault." Emery looked skeptical. "If you want to blame someone, blame Arabella. She's the one that did this."

  "And Elton," Ginger said bitterly.