A spear came sailing from behind me and stabbed the ground. Not all the clans had forgotten about us just yet.
“Drive faster!” I yelled to Lucaz as we separated from Tuko. It was me they were after. Lucaz weaved back and forth like a dog trying to shake off its fleas. I dove into the cab for cover.
“Is there any clan here on our side?” I asked.
“Depends on what you mean by being on your side. I say a third of the clans are not actively trying to get you. So if not trying to kill you is on your side, then you have a few friends.” Thanks for the sarcasm. I slumped in my seat just as a spear came through the windshield. Its tip was inches from my stomach.
One of clans obviously wanted me dead. I kicked the windshield, and it shattered into a thousand pieces, like little gems, onto the hood of the car. Lucaz swerved as the glass and spear went tumbling into the ground.
“Over there!” I pointed. Two heavy trucks appeared on either side of us. They quickly closed the distance. If they decided to come together, they could crush our vehicle like a peanut. Then I noticed the occupants. They wore goggles. This was the rest of the Miner clan. The message must have gotten through. Their vehicles formed a barrier between the Chycle, Zombies, and who knows whatever other clans wanted my head. For a moment I was overjoyed; even though the Relics were missing and the Armors were nowhere to be seen, some clan I had just met was fighting for me.
Then my joy fled. I watched a Miner clan man tumble to the ground with a spear through the side of his chest. Someone who didn’t even know me had died to protect me. No more. This was enough. And I realized that I couldn’t have any more blood on my hands.
“Slow down,” I commanded Lucaz.
“But we’ll lose our protection.” He slammed his hands on the steering wheel.
“I don’t care. I won’t see innocent people die for me.”
“So, my life, Jinn’s, Tuko’s — our lives don’t matter to you!”
“You made a choice to come with me, and if you don’t like it, you can jump out of this car right now!” I came very close to his face. I didn’t want this argument at this point and time.
“I did make a choice, and so did several other clans. You don’t get to change your mind every time the going gets tough. We’re all adults here. We need Miner clan’s help. Accept the losses.” He continued to drive the car between the vehicles. A Miner man fell onto our hood, wrestling a Chycle member.
I reached through the broken windshield and swung my wooden club. It slammed into the leg of the Chycle rider. He cried in pain, and as he reached for his leg, the Miner man shoved him off the hood. His goggles briefly assessed me before he leaped back onto his own vehicle. Why would these people fight for someone they barely know?
“Look!” Lucaz yelled. Tuko’s car was ahead, stopped before the Cradle. He was waiting for us, but I couldn’t tell if they had found Jinn. Every vehicle slammed on their brakes. The chase was over.
Dust was everywhere, making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of us. I coughed. I heard the impact as vehicles that had driven too close slammed into each other. Tuko’s car was gone behind the curtain of dirt. We slowed to a stop. The only thing I saw was the mountain of the Cradle reaching well above the cloud of dust. Then I saw him. And his clan.
Abraham stepped out of the dust with a beast on either side of him. There was no mistaking his intent. Lucaz reached for his weapon, but I put my hand on his and shook my head. The time for fighting was over. Whatever I was to face at the Cradle, I would be ready for it. I stepped out of the vehicle with Lucaz while Abraham and his animals formed a semicircle around me. He said nothing. He herded us away from the car and toward the Cradle. The dust was settling now, and I could make out some shapes. Vehicles had stopped, and most of the clans had gotten out. They watched us like inmates walking toward their sentence.
Tuko and Valsa appeared on my right, accompanied by four members of the Hunter clan. They were not restrained, but I knew that any movement toward me would bring the Hunter clan on top of them. Their faces were strained. We walked for a full minute without a word. Abraham didn’t need to brag about his capture, and I had no patience to listen. We turned around a large vehicle, and I approached a dozen other people. One was Jinn’s father, but he said nothing to me. I assumed the others were clan leaders, maybe ready to watch my execution. Then I heard a familiar voice.
“So this is the girl who everyone has been after. Innocent of her crimes. Well, my dear, the danger is over.”
I turned and stared into the deep eyes of Luther. The man I supposedly killed. The leader who had never died.
22
Leaders
I was speechless. Nothing made sense. I had been hunted and almost killed for a lie. Why?
“You’re alive! But I saw you die. Everyone did!” Murmuring around confirmed my comments. Luther approached and grasped my shoulders lightly.
“I’m sorry, my dear. You saw what everyone needed to see. My death was planned and packaged for maximum results. Through my death, true allegiances were shown. Much has been revealed, and those clans responsible for our world’s downfall are more apparent now. I’m truly apologetic that you were incriminated in my death.” He let go of me and walked around, slowly measuring his words. I didn’t know if he was playing me or if this was the greatness I had briefly seen in him at the Gathering. But whatever performance he was selling, it had almost gotten my friends killed.
“The shooter?” I asked.
“There never was one.”
“The gunshot sound?”
“A real gun was fired behind you into the air.”
“Your blood?”
“Real, just not my own.”
“But when they examined you…”
“They never had the chance — the dinosaur took all attention away from me. Allowing me to disappear.
“The dinosaur! You set that on the crowd. People died because of your actions.” I was red with rage. A man I recognized as Abraham’s father motioned to two people behind me. I was forced down awkwardly on my knees. I felt Lucaz brought down beside me.
“Know your place. Luther doesn’t need to explain his actions to the likes of you.” Great. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. A couple of sentences and I already disliked him more than Abraham.
“Enough! She has a right to know.” Luther motioned to the two men, who released me. “Their deaths are my fault. A distraction was planned so that I could be whisked away without a close examination. But the dinosaur attack was unplanned, although we have a good idea who orchestrated that.” Luther looked around the crowd, and I noticed no one from Chycle clan was represented. “Nonetheless, I arranged that gathering and gave that beast the opportunity to attack so many people in an enclosed place. I am responsible for their deaths and your endangerment. I can’t change the past, but no one will ever hurt you again.”
“But why?” His apology had little effect on me. “Everyone tells me how amazing your speeches are. How you can captivate an audience. In Trall, they were right. The crowd supported your every word. Why stage your own death?” I stared at him and he looked perplexed. He wasn’t used to a teenage girl questioning his judgment. Maybe no one did.
“You deserve an explanation. I’ll use the analogy of a beautiful red apple. From the outside, it looks flawless and you can imagine how juicy it would be to bite. How succulent it would be to eat. But you would be wrong. The apple is full of rot, but no one is aware until you try to eat it.
“Our clan system looks good from the outside. Every clan leader here…” he motioned to the people around us “…will tell you how effective our society is. How important it is to support one another, weaker clans working with stronger clans for the benefit of all.”
“But it’s not working that way,” I interrupted, and a few clan leaders raised their eyebrows at my impertinence. “I’ve seen clans that are starving, some without family, others that only care about themselves, and some that would
destroy everything.”
“That is why the illusion had to be removed. To take my leadership out of the equation and watch how the clan leadership adjusted. My death exposed the rot and those who are causing it. We have failed our people, and the lies had to be exposed.” Luther directed his comments to those around him.
“You couldn’t have just spoken about this at the stadium?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, action trumps speech. In the past, I talked about the greatest of our clans and what they had accomplished. Now,” he waved over to the clan leaders, “I would have talked about how a cancer has spread throughout our clans. We are consumed with taking rather than giving. Clans push to get at scarce resources and then wonder why no one cooperates.”
Luther was right about that. I had seen that over and over in the last few days.
“So why not change this? Staging your death caused hysteria and violence,” I responded.
“I know. I was wrong. I naively thought that the clans who have been causing the most damage to our society would expose their true motives. I thought it would be bloodless. I didn’t trust enough people with my plan to realize how flawed it was. And I didn’t anticipate you and how you would become a focus of everything that is wrong with our system. And for that I am truly sorry.” He looked at me, as well as the other leaders standing around us.
“But the Chycle clan has been exposed, thanks to your friends and the Hunter clan. An evil that has been attacking our people can be removed. Too many lives have been lost, but many more will be saved now that the dinosaur attacks can be stopped.”
“I don’t think Chycle clan was in charge of the camp.” Luther’s face filled with confusion. “Their leader, Dero, bragged about his control, but even up to his death, I felt like someone else was pulling the strings.” The group of men around Luther erupted, and I could tell that many didn’t agree.
“Enough!” He demanded their silence, and they gave it. “Whether you agree with her or not, our problems reach much deeper than the beasts that attack us. Our society is dying. Every year our machinery breaks down and we forget how to fix it. Our society stagnates. We regress every generation. We need a breakthrough.”
“Which is?” one of the clan members asked.
“We need to enter the Cradle, to discover our birthplace and determine where our future lies.”
“And how will we do that?” another clan member asked.
“Actually, the answer is right in front of you.” He pointed directly at me.
Now he shocked me for a second time. What was he talking about?
“You bring something that our clans — these leaders,” he pointed to the other men and women, “seem to lack. I have heard your clan name spoken and they don’t exist. I think you are from beyond the wall, and therefore you can lead us through. If that is true, will you help us?”
Instead of an uproar, everyone was quiet. As if Luther’s claim was so beyond belief that no one could process his claim. Seconds hung like hours as he waited for me to respond. I couldn’t. When I didn’t, he continued.
“These men and women are used to the old way of doing things, the way that has frustrated us for decades at the Cradle. Year after year, failure after failure. No way to enter, lives lost with nothing to show for it. Pene, you have a rare gift, a unique perspective outside of our home. You have survived obstacles that many of us could never overcome. We look to you, hoping for a miracle.”
My voice still did not return.
“Wait a second,” Lucaz interrupted and stepped up from our captors. “You expect Pene to solve a mystery that has stymied the greatest minds for generations. She’s a smart girl, but she’s not that smart.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” My voice was returning, but I wasn’t really offended. I could stand now as well.
“You’re welcome.” He smirked back.
“You could be right,” Luther answered, deflating my confidence a little. “But if she can’t find a way in, those on the other side of the wall may be more willing to speak to her. Perhaps they will come through to get her.”
So all the cards were on the table. Either I found a way in or I was a bargaining chip. Suddenly Luther didn’t seem so noble.
The other leaders looked shocked, as if Luther was sharing information with them for the very first time. Despite how poor a liar I had been, how could a man I never met know the truth about where I was from?
“The time of the opening is upon us.” Luther snapped his fingers, and Lucaz and I were moved roughly away. It didn’t take a genius to understand we were being taken to the entrance of the Cradle. I hadn’t seen it when we arrived, but after a couple of minutes of walking, I could make out a small depression in the wall. It was a gouge, like a cut in the skin. Inside this cut was a dirty console well weathered by the elements. It might have been a working screen years ago, but now the whole apparatus looked dead. There was a circular eye at the top of the console, like a camera looking out onto the world. The clan leaders positioned me in front of it. Luther stood before it.
“The one from outside is here. Come take her from us. Show us the way that explains our past and directs our future. We await your response.” Luther projected his voice to the console. I looked at Lucaz. Did Luther really think that I was responsible for those on the other side?
The blank console didn’t change. If there were people watching on the other side, they weren’t answering. We waited thirty seconds, then a minute. Everyone was silent, hoping for something to happen. Nothing did. The futility was evident to everyone.
“This is useless. She is nothing but a child. She is not the key to entry to the Cradle. Send her and her friends away while adults discuss our future,” Abraham’s father’s voiced boomed. The rest of the crowd seemed to agree with him. Tuko and Jinn’s father stepped out of the clan leaders’ crowd and addressed the group.
“Let me talk to Pene and my children. Maybe there is a way to enter that we can’t see just now,” Strika replied.
“Please take them to your tent. I can’t deal with any more failures,” Luther answered and turned to the rest of the group. “Gather all remaining clan leaders to meet. The fate of our society depends on the choices we make next.” Everyone dispersed, and I felt a gentle arm on my shoulder.
Strika walked us briskly to a tent in the distance. Just ahead of us, I could see Tuko and Jinn being led to the same tent. I broke into a run and gave Jinn a big hug.
“You’re okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. You should see the black eyes on the clan members that tried to capture me. I was so not worth any reward.”
“Dad — what is going on? Did you know about Luther faking his own death?” Tuko asked.
His father’s face looked pained and frustrated. “No. I only found out a couple of hours ago. None of the clan leaders knew.”
“I bet the Chycle clan knew,” I commented.
“I don’t know. But his appearance was quite a revelation. It immediately stopped the squabbling between the clan leaders, but most of us are confused on how to move forward.”
“You remove him, Dad. He lied to you. His fake assassination caused hundreds of deaths. He’s not the leader for our clans,” Tuko said.
“If I can speak to my dad, I’m sure we in the Spider clan would support his removal,” Lucaz said
“You kids are missing the point. Luther has considerable authority. People are more in shock about his return than wanting to dispose of him for his actions. Maybe in a few days or weeks…”
“What is it that Luther thinks I can help with?” I asked and was surprised when Jinn spoke up.
“Luther knows that you are not from this world. That you have no clan affiliation. He has often said that the door to the Cradle will open when an outside force was welcomed in.”
“And no one thought to tell me this?” I exclaimed.
“You haven’t exactly been honest with us, Pene,” said Strika.
“I don’t u
nderstand why everyone already seems to know Pene isn’t from one of our clans. When was anyone going to tell me?” Tuko was fuming.
“I figured something was off, but if you’re not from one of the clans, where are you from?” Lucaz asked.
“Far away — in another world with different rules. But I told you the truth when I spoke about my family and friends. They just aren’t from here.”
“You’ve known the whole time, haven’t you?” Tuko asked Jinn.
“Girls are more perceptive than boys, aren’t we?” Jinn gave me a smile.
“We don’t have time for this, children,” Strika said. “If Luther thinks you are the key, he will try to use you. Can you think of any way that would get us into the Cradle?” The console was dirty and forgotten. How could I figure a way in? Yet something had tweaked my curiosity.
“I’ve never been here before. How would I solve something that your whole civilization has never figured out?”
We were all silent, considering the options. I turned my head toward a commotion at the tent entrance. Strika rose, and I could hear him talking to someone. After a minute, the conversation ceased and he came back in.
“Abraham’s father, Isaac, has challenged Luther for leadership. Isaac has considerable influence with many clans, and I think he wants to challenge now while many are questioning Luther’s recent choices. There is going to be war unless the clans can decide on a solution. All clan leaders are commanded now for an audience. You kids stay here. I will come back for you once a decision has been made.” The tent flapped rustled, and he was gone. The four of us were silent, then Tuko laid into me.
“I risked my life for you, ruined my car. I trusted you, Pene, and I have to hear from my father that nothing you told me is true?” I couldn’t face him. He was right. I had kept the truth to myself, and by taking his help, I had been unfair. Before I could respond, Jinn came to my rescue.
“You ever think she had good reason to lie? Maybe she’s trying to protect herself. I doubt you would have believed her if she told you the truth. I had a hard enough time, and I’m not some boy!”
Clan World Page 23