by H. J. Lawson
“There were guards at the entrance, and we knew there were more inside … there was simply no way in,” Father says, shaking his head and pressing his overgrown eyebrows together.
“You didn’t even try?” I snap with hostility. Before the kidnapping I would never have spoken to him that way. But I am a different person now.
“How dare you!” he yells, as he rises to his feet. I can’t help but tremble a bit. “You are my daughter. We tried for seven moons … we lost many men. We tried to get in through the gate—but it was impassable.” He puts his fists on his hips and frowns.
“Sorry, Father.” I lower my head in shame and look down at the ground. Well, not quite the ground … we are on top of the pyramid, but there is earth here with grass and delicate flowers swaying in the soft breeze.
“On the eighth day, the Aurum Sanction sent two men out … the men that had captured you,” he adds. He means Benjamin and Yceon. My body feels heavy once again, as if the heavy metal collar is around my neck, pulling me down.
“They left them there for us to take, and at first we thought it was a trap … our first thought was right,” Father says, shaking his head and closing his heavy eyelids.
“What happened?” I ask, both wanting and not wanting to know.
“We captured the men and brought them back to the square,” he says, waving his hand.
“The men were quiet … too quiet, as though their souls had already left their bodies and had moved on to their next life—in hell, with the other demons.”
His voice hitches when he uses the words hell and demons. That’s what they were. There are many demons working this earth … I have met too many.
“I asked them what they had done to you and Zuri.” He lowers his body and takes his seat back down next to me and takes my hand.
Zuri … is she still alive? I wonder. I hope not. I hope she didn’t have to become the Aurum Chancellor’s sexual pet—as I did for the Purenet Chancellor.
“They told me they chained you up like animals.” He pauses for a moment as he thinks of what had happened to me. “…And that you fought them … that you killed the man’s brother,” he continues with a proud tone, nodding with approval. “They told us that they sold you to Aurum Chancellor, and that he had given both of you as gifts to the Emperor.”
The Emperor?
I swiftly shake my head. “They didn’t … they sold me to the Purenet Chancellor.”
Father looks confused once again. “You were at the Emperor’s Sanction,” he states.
“I know where I was,” I retort. A soft breeze brushes across my face, bringing with it the sweet smell of the jungle. I take a deep breath … I’ve missed the smell. I give myself a moment … just a moment away from the nightmares.
Father turns the spear in his hands, digging it into the muddy earth. “Trinity, you have to believe me … we tortured the men to the ends of their lives and they just kept repeating that you were at the Emperor’s Sanction,” he says earnestly.
“Well, they were lying,” I say and shrug my shoulders.
“These men had no reason to lie. They truly believed you were there—that you both were there.” Father shakes his head in disbelief. “Because of that … we went to the Emperor’s Sanction. We lost many men on the way … from sickness … a sickness which we’d never had before.” He looks off into the jungle.
“What sickness?” I ask, confused.
“Our warriors would start walking away from us and not stop—walking to their deaths. We tried to stop them, but they had the blank, emotionless look on their faces … the two intruders had brought a deadly illness with them.” Father frowns with anger. “I should have never brought them back here,” he adds, as he stabs the spear into the ground.
“You didn’t know,” I say, trying to make him feel better.
“But I did … I knew there was something wrong with them. You could tell by the looks in their eyes … they weren’t scared to see us. They walked toward us freely. Anger blurred my mind, allowing my heart to control my decisions.” He slams his spear down once again; this time he’s hit the stone of the pyramid.
“Did you kill the men?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“We skinned them alive, then burned them on top of the Sun pyramid as an offering to the Sun God.”
“Thank you,” I reply. I have seen many intruders sacrificed for their entry, and this is one of the most painful ways to pass over to the other side. It is a good preparation for their journey to hell.
My father places his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in toward him as he did when I was a child.
“Why didn’t you get sick?” I ask him.
“I was one of the lucky ones. We don’t know why this illness didn’t kill everyone … it just didn’t. At times I thought I had it—my mind would just turn blank, as though everyone I cared for was never there ... that you were never here….” He pauses. I have never seen my father cry—not even when my mother passed over to the other side. But now it seems like he wants to.
Then he moves his hand up and down my spear, with his fingers tracing over the carvings. “But when I let my fingers travel over the spear, the one we carved together when you were younger, I knew I had you and that I needed to find you … to break this sickness.” He lets out a sigh, and his lips curve down at the edges.
“I told the remaining men to think about their loved ones. It was all we had. We spent days … weeks ... telling each other stories of our families. We took our strength from our tribe, and we killed the illness. Banishing it from our mind … it wasn’t welcome!” Father stops as he takes a drink from his leather flask, and then he passes it to me.
“Thank you,” I reply, as I take a much-needed drink. The cool, crisp water races down my throat.
“By the time we got to the Emperor’s Sanction, there were only five of us left. We tried to get inside … we just couldn’t.” He sighs, disappointed. “We had no choice but to return and get more men. But the illness didn’t come with us as we hoped; it took over those who stayed here, making some of them crazy, as if it was the second wave of the illness. They were wandering around in the jungle unaware, or simply not caring what happened to them.”
I stare at him in disbelief. The jungle is the last place to be wandering around.
“They were really crazy...” He stops and shakes his head. “We only just got them back from wherever their minds took them. That’s when we started to find out that some of the men were taken to work in the mines. When I came back from the Emperor’s Sanction, the plan was to come back for you, it really was. Every day I wanted to go back for you … just my people needed me, and I knew if I went on my own it would be a suicide mission.”
My father’s shoulders droop as his head looks down at the ground. He looks frail, like a weak old man. They did this to him.
“I forgive you.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Skylier
“You need to turn the handle like this.” Enoch squeezes the bike handle, and the bike lets out a roar that bounces off the cave walls, making it sound like there is a whole group of bikes in the tiny tunnel. “The bike has a real kick on it, so don’t turn it too much. Don’t want you falling off before we get you there.” Enoch smiles.
“I got this,” I say proudly.
“Yeah, Enoch, let’s see if she’s got it when she falls off,” Gerel says.
“I’ve ridden one before, okay? And that time I had been shot, so yeah, I’ve got this,” I say, pushing the bike forward through the cave tunnel with my head lowered so as not to bang it like Rian kept doing. Now he’s doubled over like an old man.
“Why haven’t you left Purenet if you have these bikes?” I ask Enoch.
“They don’t have enough power to get us to Cueva, and there is no way we are going to the Grounders’ commute. Living here is way better than that, and well, you get used to the Cavern after a bit. It’s like Cueva, with more freedom,�
� Enoch explains.
These bikes are different to Dax’s sweet black bike. As the light from the tunnel catches on it, it looks like a rusty old bike held together with a prayer. I’m scared that mine may not hold my weight and will break down before we even leave the tunnels. No wonder no one has tried to escape on it. Then again, they don’t seem to think they need to escape.
“Freedom?” I snort.
“Well, like last night, no elders telling us not to have fun,” Enoch smiles, adding, “it was fun until Abaven came along.”
“He wouldn’t have had to if you had done what you were supposed to do,” Gerel says with a tut.
“We can’t all be good little soldiers like you,” Enoch whispers as Rian and I snigger.
“What?” Gerel says, stopping and looking at us. She’s doesn’t have the Cueva hearing; if she had, she would have heard what he said.
“Nothing,” we say in unison.
“Whatever,” says Gerel.
The tunnel around us comes to an end, revealing a swirling whirlwind of the wasteland sand flying through the air.
“Abaven, how bad is it?” Gerel says into her watch. We all fall silent, waiting for a response. Gerel and Enoch nod. Enoch points to his ear at Rian and me, indicating that there is a bud inside of it giving him information, I guess from Abaven.
“Okay, got that,” Gerel says to her wristwatch. “Abaven says a storm is making visibility impossible,” Gerel tells us.
“Are we still going outside?” Rian asks.
“Of course,” Gerel says flatly as she mounts her bike.
“Stay close to me. When we get out there, Abaven and Gerel will guide us,” Enoch says, tapping his watch.
I take my jacket off and wrap it around my face, covering my mouth and nose. I just hope it stops the sand from getting in. Rian and Enoch do the same. “Good thinking, Skylier,” Rian smiles.
Gerel’s engine roars as she revs it. One of her hands forms a tight fist in the air.
I jump on my bike and rev the engine. It lets out a few loud pops. This isn’t going to be a smooth ride.
Gerel lowers her fist and speeds forward into the wasteland, and is instantly eaten up by it.
“Rian, go,” my voice and my mind say at once as I fly forward, trying to find Gerel. Well, not her, but she will lead me to Madison.
Right by you, Rian’s voice echoes in my mind. I can hear the roar of his bike approaching me through the whistling of the wind that batters against my naked arms. The storm stops for a second, allowing me to see the back of Gerel’s bike.
We follow for what feels like too long. How could they have made it this far in just one day?
“Skylier, stop.” Enoch’s voice carries to me in the wind. I release the throttle and slow down as Enoch and Rian come alongside me.
“She’s going the wrong way,” Enoch says as he pulls down his mouth cover.
“Abaven is screaming at her, but she wont stop. The Hosts are this way,” Enoch says.
Gerel can’t be trying to escape on one of these bikes.
Enoch holds his hand to his ear as he tries to listen. “I can’t make out what she’s saying,” Enoch says.
“Can I try?” I ask.
“Sure.” Enoch passes me the earpiece and the watch, which I place on.
Gerel’s words are rambling together. “I can make out the word ‘ukht,’ what’s ‘ukht’?” I say.
“Gerel, what are you saying?” Abaven asks.
Gerel just keeps repeating ‘ukht,’ then adds, “You left my ukht…”
“What are they saying?” Enoch asks.
“I can’t work it out. Let’s get the Hosts out of there,” I say, wrapping my jacket over my face.
Through the breaks in the sand storm, I can see a group of people huddling together on the ground. “Over there,” I yell, the words muffled in the wind and from the cover of my jacket.
Over there, my mind tells Rian.
I see them, his mind responds as clearly as if he’s standing beside me on a sunny day. Which it would have been if not for these frigging sand storms, which can last for days. It’s a way for the earth to remind us that it’s in control.
“You chose the Hosts over the Bazis. My ukht is a Bazi,” Gerel says through the earpiece.
“What’s an ukht?” Abaven asks.
“My sister,” Gerel replies.
Gerel’s sister is out there? I slow my bike down, worried I will mistake a sand pile for a person.
“Madison, Madison,” I yell.
“My little sister,” Gerel’s voice whispers.
“S-Skylier?” Madison stutters.
Fear drains from my body. She’s here, she’s alive, and her arms fling around my body before I can reach her.
“You left my sister, Beba. You left her to die…” Gerel says through the earpiece.
“You came for me, you came for me…” Madison repeatedly mumbles between sobs.
“Come on, we are going to get you out of here. Hold hands and follow the bikes,” Enoch tells the group of Hosts.
“Madison, get on the back of Rian’s bike,” I tell her. She does as instructed.
Rian stares at me. Skylier, where are you going? his mind asks.
Block.
“Skylier, don’t block me, where are you going?” Rian says, frustrated.
“Enoch, take Rian and the others back. I’m going after Gerel,” I say.
“No, Skylier, don’t go after her. She left us,” Rian says.
“She left us because her sister is out on the wasteland. She was left to die.” I turn the bike in the direction I last saw Gerel. “Imagine if that were Callie. We couldn’t leave her. I have the watch and earpiece. Abaven will guide me. Please get Madison back to the Cavern safely.
“Enoch, look after them,” I say as I ride off into the dust clouds.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Dax
The glowing orange flame flickers in the evening wind. I stare at it, mesmerized by the natural element of fire, as though it’s alive and dancing in the soft breeze. That’s the only thing stopping me from leaving this dark and confined room inside the pyramid. It’s actually more like a tomb than a room, and there is a dank, musty smell.
It’s weird to think that, thousands of years ago, people lived here in the pyramids, the same way as Trinity’s tribe. There was a book in the vault under Purenet about all of the pyramids around the world … there are hundreds of them. I never thought I would see one in person, because they are outside the Sanctions, and here I am laid out in one.
I really want to share their history with them … but I cannot. Not because it’s one of the rules which, as an Untouchable, I must obey, but because somehow it just doesn’t feel right.
They don’t want anything to do with the outside world, and I don’t blame them for that—maybe they are better off not knowing.
I have layer upon layer of animal skins on the cold stone slab they call a bed, which would’ve been more like a torture device if it weren’t for the soft pelts. Tossing and turning to get into a comfortable position, I finally stretch my legs out, hoping my body will get some much-needed rest.
I roll one of the skins up for a pillow, and place my heavy head on it. It feels like the weight of the world is pressing on my eyelids.
The plan was to get a few hours’ sleep before we head to the mines … if only there was a switch to turn off the thousands of thoughts racing through my head.
“Skylier, can you hear me?” my mind asks stupidly, knowing full well we are too far away for her to hear me. It just sucks, really sucks. I found out I have a sister that’s, well, like me. Finally I’m not alone in this screwed-up family. And then he takes her from me. It feels like hot lava is running through my veins, ready to erupt with anger at any given moment, when I think of what Xander has done to her … and to Ayah.
What is he doing to Ayah? And the other Grounders, what tests is he conducting on them? I can only hope that Gavyn is correct in thinking w
e have time before they start their experiments.
Xander has taken everyone from me!
“Xander, are you out there?” my mind shouts. There is nothing but empty darkness, just like my older brother’s heart.
I continue to stare out at the flame, as it dances without a pattern, trying to block out the thoughts of killing my own brother. Because I know one day I will have to.
My eyelids become heavier at the thought. I close my eyes, and my mind plunges into darkness….
*****
“Turn the light on!” I try to shout, but it comes out more like a whimpering sound. He’s going to love that. Sweat pours down my forehead, landing on my lip. I roll up my tongue to catch the salty drop.
“Turn it on!” I repeat, louder.
“Ha ha…” A ferocious laughter comes from the darkness.
“Xander, is that you?” I yell out angrily, knowing it’s him. I shake my head even though no one can see. The one day I forget my flashlight! Xander loves this game.
“I know it’s you,” I shout. I can feel the emotion in my voice. Don’t cry, I tell myself. Why does he have to be my brother?
“Hey, that’s no way to think about me!” Xander’s mind snaps back at me. For a moment I forgot he could read my mind, as I was lost in the books about the world before the wars that created the world we live in today. The vaults under Purenet are my only sanctuary from our current world.
“Xander, get out of my head,” I command.
“Now, now, little brother, you know that’s not the game.” Xander’s mind laughs.
“Xander, I don’t want to play your games. Just turn the light on,” I plead. I hate that he’s here, hiding in the darkness, waiting to jump out at me. I close my eyes, and the smell of the old musty books drifts up my nostrils. I try to block out everything around me, focusing on the sounds in the vault. Just as I have done every time Xander has played this game. Will I ever win?
“Come on, Dax … it’s fun.”
“Maybe for you!” I snap. I can hear the scuffle of his feet moving around the wooden cabinets in the vault.