Third Wave: Bones of Eden
Page 32
“They want to kill you!” Whiskey grabbed at her, but Tango shoved her toward the stairs.
“Go.”
“Come with me!”
“I will. Go.”
Whiskey broke into a sprint, and the pigs charged. Tango froze, giving Whiskey just a second’s lead before she spun and pounded after her. The stairs were narrow. The pigs were not made for steps. If she could just...
Something collided with her with the force of a truck, knocking her over the railing. Open air tumbled around her, and she was thrown over the edge of the wall, out into empty space.
As she started to fall, she saw the pigs. Their unbridled fury, mouths open and squealing in rage. She saw Whiskey’s wide, terrified eyes.
“Xícara.” She reached her hands out for safety, but there was only the warm evening air, rushing around her.
It was a long way down.
* * *
They marked Tango’s grave with pig skulls cleaved out of Pigstix and the remains of her sounder. Huge, ugly things, like great white boulders. But there was no ocean here to sail Tango into, so they put her in the ground instead and marked her death with their revenge.
Zebra stood between Fifteen and Sixteen as they buried her remains. The dozen other Numbers who had come to Haven stood with him.
It was about a third of the people that survived, but the others had chosen their own way. The flood had not passed without casualties, but high ground was close there. Many had scrambled up trees and rocks and onto the roofs of buildings that could withstand the water. Those who didn’t come to Haven resettled on the river, planning to rebuild the village, though the servers never booted up again. Spider had vanished, swept away by the floodwaters. But Zebra knew you couldn’t drown a spider.
The Varekai sung their dirge for Tango and wept, but no one wept harder than Xícara. Zebra gathered the Numbers and led them back to the farmhouse, wanting to give the Kai their privacy.
“What will happen now?” Fifteen asked, holding his arm as they walked, the firelight from the cooking pit leading them home.
“We’ll live here,” Zebra said. “Sugar will plan a town, and we will build it, and maybe now we’ll be safe. We’ll have walls and food and each other. No more old blood. Just the children from Edens. A new life. This will be our Haven.”
Haven—The New World
“And then what happened?” Juliet asked. Her baby brother had fallen asleep in her lap, but despite the dying embers she was still wide-awake, sitting on the rug in front of the fireplace. Outside, a soft rain was falling, pattering like tiny feet on the slate roof.
“And then we made you,” Tare said. “And your sister and your brother and all the other children in Haven.”
Juliet pouted. “But what about the lion cubs? And Tango’s baby? And Whiskey and Uncle Xícara and all of it? That can’t just be the end.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, amused. “Well, I don’t know about the lion cubs, but you know what happened to Whiskey and Uncle Xícara. Uncle Xícara lives alone up the mountain, and Whiskey gave you that pretty pony to celebrate your first hunt today.”
“I know, but everyone forgave Whiskey, and she and Uncle Fox had a whole lot of daughters, and life just went on?”
“It wasn’t really that straightforward. There was the thing with the fire buffalo and the raven singing, and the season the goats went mad. There’s still bad blood, but there’s forgiveness too. Love. Despite everything, your mother loves Whiskey. And everyone loves Raven. The first baby—whatever Whiskey took, she gave us that.”
“Do you forgive her?”
Tare tilted his head back, studying the rafters he had placed with his brothers. Remembering every splinter, every laugh, every ill-tempered curse. He could see Love’s name carved into the wood—in India’s hand, not his—and he’d loved her all the more for it.
“I forgive them all. Charlie, Sugar, Whiskey, Zebra. People try and do the right thing, Juliet. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. Life goes on either way. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s less good, and we love the people around us, and if we’re really lucky we get this.”
She sat up straighter, almost bumping her brother off her lap. “What?”
He grinned. “This. A family and a home and safety. But we have to remember what this place cost too. How far we had to come to get here. It was your first hunt today, and I’m so proud of you, which is why I am telling you how much blood we spilled.” He paused. “Funny to think it all started because of some canoes.”
Juliet shook her head. “No, it started because you fell in love.”
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
One last big hurrah for my editor, Alissa Davis, who has been with me on this project from start to finish. These books are as much yours as mine. Thank you.
And to Meg and Annie, who carried me when I couldn’t walk, fed me when I couldn’t eat and changed the channel for me when I couldn’t reach the remote. Your combined efforts talked me down off many metaphorical ledges and all I have to repay you is words, but they’re always words written for you.
And for my crew at Vision Writers for their unwavering, occasionally baffled support. I look forward to many more Sundays, many more lunches and many more stories about me vomiting on people.
Also available from Zaide Bishop
and Carina Press
Eliza’s Awakening
Bones of Eden series
First Fall
Second Heart
Also by Zaide Bishop
Theo
Secret Confessions Backstage: The Complete Collection
About the Author
Born in 1985, Zaide is an Australian writer who spends an unhealthy amount of time reading and watching horror movies. She also loves cats and aquariums, and lives in a house dominated by both.
When she isn’t writing, Zaide is studying psychology, with a particular interest in the sociological effects of the internet on interpersonal communications, learning and information processing. Zaide’s other interests include cooking, rock climbing, lithops, web design, photography and video gaming.
You can visit her website at www.zaidebishop.com.
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SECOND HEART (Bones of Eden, book two)
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ISBN-13: 9781488032820
Third Wave
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
The Tree of Knowledge
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
The Others
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
The Last People
Copyright © 2017 by Zaide Bishop
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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