The Secrets of Solace

by Jaleigh Johnson

  “You’re right,” Lina agreed. “We have to get hold of that sphere.” She tapped her chin as she spoke. “But sneaking the Sun Sphere out, especially after I already grabbed it once, is going to be tricky. I’m sure they’ve added more security to the Special Collections wing now that they’ve seen how easy it is to steal from there. We’ll have to risk it, though. The archivists stole the Merlin’s heart. The least we can do is steal it back.”

  “And if we can return the power source to the ship, the Merlin could theoretically fly again,” Ozben said. “I mean, it must want to go home, right?” He looked up excitedly and added, “And it could fly me home too!”

  As soon as he said it, Ozben regretted the slip. He’d been so eager—he hadn’t meant to blurt his plan out like that, but it was too late. Lina had heard him loud and clear. She’d been walking over to her worktable, but she stopped and swung around to face him. “What did you say?”

  No point in hiding his intentions now. “I want the Merlin to take me home,” he said firmly. “Back to the Merrow Kingdom.”

  Lina looked at him as if he’d asked to go to the moon. “But you can’t leave. Your parents sent you here to protect you,” she said.

  “It obviously hasn’t done much good,” Ozben said. “The assassin found me here anyway. And the longer I stay, the more people I’ll put in danger. I need to go home, where I can help protect my family.”

  “But you never mentioned anything about going home before,” Lina said. She sounded hurt, and it tore at Ozben’s heart. “I thought you were starting to like being here. I know it’s not your home, but it isn’t so bad, is it?”

  “No,” Ozben said quickly. “Well, yes, but…Oh, Lina, don’t look at me like that.” He was saying everything wrong. “Ortana is a nice place, but it’s your home, not mine. If someone took you away, wouldn’t you do everything you could to get back?”

  “Of course, but it’s not like that. You talk as if you were brought here against your will.”

  “I was,” Ozben said flatly. She needed to know the truth, no matter how much it hurt. “I never wanted to come here, and now I have a way to get home.”

  Slowly, Lina’s expression shifted from wounded to suspicious. “You’ve been planning this all along, haven’t you?” she said. “Since I first showed you the ship, you wanted to use it to get back home.”

  Ozben opened his mouth to deny it—he knew that if he confessed, it would make her angry and even more hurt. But when he looked in her eyes, he knew he couldn’t lie to his friend. “Yes, it’s what I’ve wanted from the beginning.”

  He braced himself for her to shout at him, or to cry, or both, but to his surprise, Lina did neither of those things. She nodded once, a sharp jerk of her head, turned around, and ran from the cavern.

  “Lina, wait!” Ozben cried, but she didn’t even slow down. He took off after her, grabbing one of the lanterns from her worktable. Aethon watched them sleepily from his place on the ground.

  Ozben considered himself a fast runner, but Lina was faster and more agile navigating in the cramped tunnels than he was. The lantern swung wildly as he careened around the stalagmites and stalactites, trying to close the distance between them. “Lina!” he called out again, hoping she’d listen to reason. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings—ouch!” He cut the last corner too tight and banged his shoulder against the unforgiving stone wall. All he could see of her now was the bobbing lights of the lumatites on her wrist.

  He reached the last tunnel, the one Lina called the Hourglass, just as she was about to squeeze through the narrowest gap.

  “Stop following me!” she yelled at him. “You have to stay hidden, you idiot.”

  “Then stop running and talk to me!” he yelled back. “If you leave the tunnel, I swear I’ll follow you, assassin or not.”

  “You’re impossible!” But Lina relented. She stepped away from the Hourglass and turned to face him. Her shoulders were rigid, her fists clenched, and the expression on her face made Ozben wish he hadn’t tried quite so hard to catch up with her. She looked as if she wanted to strangle him or maybe hurl him off the top of a mountain. Or both. Probably both, he guessed.

  “Why did you run off like that?” he said, still out of breath.

  “Because,” Lina said through clenched teeth, “I was afraid if I stuck around, I’d end up hitting you. I ran off so I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Oh,” Ozben said, and cringed at the murderous look she threw him. He should have given her a minute or two to calm down, but surely she wasn’t angry enough to take a swing at him, was she?

  Ozben steeled himself and reached out, laying a hand on her shoulder. “You’d better just let me have it,” he suggested, though he could hardly believe what he was saying. “I can take it.” And then he closed his eyes and hoped he really could.

  Lina took Ozben’s advice. She didn’t hit him, but she did pretty well with words. “So all this time, you were using me!” she yelled, and as she did, fury blossomed inside her, and she did nothing to stop it. Fury was best, because if she let herself feel the hurt that lurked in the shadows around her heart, it would cripple her. She didn’t want to think about how he’d never been interested in her friendship, just what he could get out of her. “You planned to steal the ship and fly it home—as if you could! As if there weren’t a hundred different things wrong with that plan!” Fists clenched at her sides, she took a step closer to him, and Ozben took a step back, his hands raised.

  “I didn’t want to steal the Merlin,” Ozben said, avoiding her gaze. “I hoped that when I explained everything, you’d go along with my plan—holes and all,” he said sheepishly.

  “Then you’re an idiot,” Lina said, her voice quavering on the word “idiot.” “Nobody is taking my ship.”

  “Wait a minute. Your ship?” Ozben crossed his arms. “That’s an interesting way of putting it. Because I was inside the Merlin with you, and even though I wasn’t connected to its mind, I can tell you that ship doesn’t belong to anybody, and it never will. It needs your help, Lina. You can’t just keep the Merlin hidden away because you want it all for yourself.”

  “Are you really lecturing me about taking what isn’t mine?” Lina said, incredulous. “You…you…ship thief!”

  “Fine!” Ozben yelled. He turned and kicked the wall. “You’re right, I’m no better than you, but I don’t know what else to do! I want to get back to my family. They need me.”

  “No, they don’t need you!” Lina cried. She could feel her cheeks turning red in anger and frustration. “They need you to be safe, and if you go home now, you’ll just cause more trouble for them! That’s why they got rid of you!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she instantly regretted them. But she couldn’t take back what she’d said, and so she had to endure the stricken expression that passed over Ozben’s face. It was a knife in her heart.

  He looked into her eyes, and his sadness was visible. “You don’t understand,” he said. “It’s not about me. My grandfather says that everyone has to be strong to protect the family legacy.” He hesitated, and his shoulders slumped, misery dragging him down. “Remember the night you showed me the memory jar? Well, my memory was of Grandfather telling me I didn’t measure up to that legacy, that I was the least important member of the family. I have to go back and prove him wrong. If I don’t at least try…if I just sit here, doing nothing, and something happens to them…” He trailed off, as if he couldn’t bear to think about his family in danger.

  “Oh, Ozben.” Lina reached for him, wanting to offer comfort, but he stepped back, batting her hand away.

  “Don’t!” he snapped. “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me! That’s the last thing I want.”

  “I don’t feel sorry for you!” Lina crossed her arms over her stomach. “Your grandfather’s wrong, Ozben. So wrong.”

  “He’s the king,” Ozben said, as if that trumped everything.

  “That doesn’t make him any less a stupid, cr
uel person,” Lina said. “I’m glad you’re nothing like him. And so what if you don’t fit into his legacy,” she said, as if the word was something sour in her mouth. “Did you ever think that maybe you’re supposed to be here instead? That you fit in my world?”

  “Do I really, Lina?” Ozben said. “Or are you just saying that because I can fit in this crack or that crevice? So I could help you dig out your airship?” Anger and hurt filled his voice. “That’s all you wanted me for, right? I was the perfect partner—safe, someone you could manage. You knew I wouldn’t tell anyone your secret because you knew mine. You never really trusted me.”

  Lina was so shocked by the accusation that at first she couldn’t speak. How could Ozben think she didn’t trust him? He was the only person she’d let into her workshop. She’d shared the Merlin with him. Wasn’t that proof enough of her faith in him? “Ozben…no, you’re…”

  But Lina couldn’t finish. It hurt to admit it, but maybe Ozben was right. Would she have let Ozben in if he didn’t also have a secret that he was protecting? No, she would never have risked revealing her workshop.

  Or risked opening her heart.

  Ashamed, she gave him a jerky nod. “You’re right. I didn’t trust you,” she said, scrubbing tears from her cheeks. “But why should I trust people? Every time I try, they mess it up, or they leave!”

  “You don’t give people a chance,” Ozben said. “You’re too busy hiding from them—or eavesdropping on them,” he added.

  His words cut like knives, and Lina couldn’t stand it. Ozben didn’t understand anything. She’d given Zara a chance, and her teacher had pulled away from her. “You’re not being fair!” she snapped. “I don’t hide! I go where I want to, I see and hear everything.”

  “But it’s not the same. You’re not really a part of things, are you?” Ozben challenged. He thumped his fist against the side of the tunnel. “There’s still a wall between you and the rest of the world. Admit it, you’re hiding.”

  “You sound just like Zara!” Lina said angrily. “I’m not hiding!”

  But Ozben wouldn’t back down either. “Yes, you are, and you know it.”

  They stared at each other, faces flushed with anger. Lina felt as if a great weight were pressing down on her chest. She didn’t want Ozben to be right about any of it. She wanted to scream at him that there was no way he could understand what she’d been through, the disappointments and loss. At least he had a family; she didn’t.

  Then again, she’d never had a family member who made her feel that she was worthless. She’d never experienced that kind of cruelty. But Ozben obviously cared very much for the rest of his family. Lina had seen the frustration and sadness in his eyes when he talked about getting home to them. He must have been going crazy these last few weeks, worrying about them, not knowing if they were all right. Yet he’d stayed cheerful and brave, never complaining, and he’d helped her accomplish the thing she wanted most in the world: to free the Merlin.

  But he’d done more than that. He’d become her best friend. Lina knew it, because no one else, save maybe Zara, had ever been able to see her heart so clearly.

  Lina let out a sigh and felt some of her fury fading, replaced by weariness and sorrow. “You’re right,” she admitted. Her voice dropped. “I am hiding.” Because she was scared, and the walls were the only thing keeping her heart safe. She hated to admit it, but it was true.

  Ozben’s face softened. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said all those things. Look, it’s true I didn’t want to come here, but I never thought I’d meet someone like you. You’re amazing and weird, and you talk about these incredible artifacts that sound like magic to me. I want to follow you everywhere, even down deep dark tunnels where there might be legions of poscil rats—I’ve never seen one, but after hearing you describe them, I never want to.

  “But I’d follow you into the dark, because you’re not afraid of anything and because when we come out the other side, you’re there to show me a dozen more incredible things. I want to go to the Special Collections wing with you every month and finish my story. You know—the one about the girl and the shipwreck. It’s like a whole other world here, and you made me feel as if I belonged to it. How could I have known any of that would happen?”

  He smiled at her tentatively as he spoke, and as much as Lina wanted to be angry at him, his words and the hopeful expression he wore warmed her heart.

  “I didn’t just want you to help me with the ship,” she said, stepping forward to take his hand. “It might have started that way, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that you’re the only one who understands me. You told me the night we met that you wanted to find a way to make yourself important.” She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I’ve never had anyone be as important a friend to me as you are. That’s why I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay here with me.”

  Ozben squeezed her hand. Lina thought he was going to say something, but then he tugged her toward him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Lina hugged him back, and when they pulled apart, Ozben wiped his eyes quickly.

  “So what do we do now?” he asked. “Where do we go from here?”

  But before Lina could reply, a scream echoed through the quiet tunnel. A voice cried out, “Help! Somebody—” and then it cut off.

  Ozben’s eyes got as round as saucers. “What was that?”

  A chill passed through Lina. “It came from outside the tunnel.” She was sure of it. “It must have been the guard—the one Zara has watching the secret entrance.”

  “The assassin!” Ozben cried. “We have to help the guard!”

  Without thinking, Lina turned and forced her way through the narrow Hourglass passage, tearing her clothing even more as she went. She thrust the curtain of deepa ivy back, scattering leaves everywhere, and tumbled out onto the ground. Ozben came out right behind her.

  The guard lay sprawled at the end of the hallway, in front of the gates to the museum. It was late, and the gates were closed but not yet locked for the night. The padlock hung open on the latch, as if the guard was just about to lock it when he was attacked. But there was no sign of any intruder.

  Ozben ran down the hall, straight to the guard, and Lina was right at his heels. They both dropped to their knees beside the man, and Ozben leaned down to inspect him more closely.

  “Is he alive?” Lina asked anxiously.

  “Yes, but it looks as if he got hit in the back of the head pretty hard,” Ozben said. “We need to get him to the medical wing.” He looked up at Lina, and his gaze strayed over her shoulder in the direction of the Heart of the Mountain.

  Then his eyes widened. “Lina!”

  Lina started to turn to see what he was looking at when a loud hissing sound filled her ears. At the same instant, Ozben barreled into her, driving them both to the ground with a force that knocked the breath out of her. She ended up on her back, tangled with Ozben in almost the same way as when they’d first met.

  “What are you doing?” Lina gasped. She raised a hand to try to push Ozben off her and became aware of a sharp stinging pain in her left arm. Ozben shifted so he wasn’t crushing her, and that was when Lina saw that her sleeve was torn and blood seeped from a deep gash on her arm.

  Ozben saw the wound and sucked in a breath. “Sorry, I wasn’t fast enough.”

  Lina hissed in pain as she pulled part of her torn sleeve over the wound and pressed down to staunch the bleeding. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed what Ozben had saved her from.

  Protruding from the wall near where they’d just been crouching was a crossbow bolt. A drop of bright blood stained its shaft. Her blood. Realizing this, Lina forgot about her wound. She rolled onto her stomach, pushing Ozben off her so she could get to her feet. She glanced around to see where the shot had come from.

  Then she saw it. At the end of the passage, just inside the Heart of the Mountain, a shadow crouching in the sculpture garden, not far from the stone servoya tree where Lina had hid
den the first night she’d met Ozben. The shadow stood up, stepping forward so she could see him. He was tall and slender, and he wore black from head to toe.

  Ozben’s assassin.

  Lina’s heart stuttered as she realized the deadly danger they were in. Somehow, the assassin had figured out where they were hiding. He’d used the guard’s cries to lure them out. And they’d done exactly what he’d wanted them to.

  As Lina stared, paralyzed by fear, her arm throbbing, the assassin cast aside his empty crossbow and drew a thin, wicked-looking knife from a sheath on his belt. And then he charged directly at them.

  That broke the paralysis. “Ozben, run!” Lina screamed. She grabbed his arm and steered him toward the museum gates. There was no time to squeeze back through to the workshop—the assassin would catch up to them before they got past the ivy curtain. She wrenched open the gates and shoved him in front of her; then, hands shaking, she pulled the gates shut, fumbling to fasten the padlock in place on the latch from the other side of the gate. The assassin closed the distance between them without a sound. Panic gripped Lina’s chest. She’d never seen anyone move like that. Her fingers shook as she tried to fit the padlock into place.

  “Lina, hurry!” Ozben cried. Finally, Lina slammed the lock into place and clicked it closed. They turned and took off running just as the man hit the gates, swiping his knife at them through the bars.

  “You’re not getting away from me this time, little prince.” The man’s raspy voice echoed in the dark gallery, raising the hairs on the back of Lina’s neck. She risked a glance over her shoulder to see the assassin climbing the gates. He would be over the top in a matter of seconds.

  “Faster!” Lina yelled. “This way!” She grabbed Ozben’s arm and steered him left into a long gallery lined with stone pedestals. On top of them was a series of illuminated manuscripts, their colors shining even in the dim glow of the lumatites. Lina flew past them and out a door on the far side of the room.