The Rise of Azlyn (Book 4): Planet Urth, no. 4

by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

  June shakes her head and chews her lower lip. Then she says, “Avery, what’s ‘drunk’?”

  “Drunk is what happens to a person when they drink too much alcohol. In this case, it’s the moonshine stuff the men were drinking. It makes people sloppy and smelly and stagger all over the place like they’re slipping on ice.” I shrug and hope what I’ve said makes sense.

  “Oh. That doesn’t sound pleasant. Why do people have the alcohol if it makes them like that?” Her head tilts to one side inquisitively.

  “I have no idea,” I answer truthfully. “Belchik essentially dared me to take a sip of the nasty stuff last night.”

  June’s hands fly to her mouth and she gasps. “No! You didn’t, right?”

  I cringe and nod. “I did.”

  “Avery!” she scolds.

  Raising my hands to chest-height with my palms facing her, I say, “I know, I know. It was really stupid. But if you’d have heard the way he was talking to me, you’d understand I had to do it.”

  June tsks at me and shakes her head in disapproval.

  “It tasted worse than anything that’s ever crossed my lips, which makes me even more confused as to why anyone would drink it in the first place.” I close my eyes and allow a small burst of air to puff from my nostrils. “It burned like fire all the way down to my stomach, and then I started to barf.” Just remembering it makes my cheeks blaze and redden.

  “You barfed in front of the mean guy who called you a little girl and made fun of you?” June winces.

  Suffering the embarrassment all over again, I say, “Yup. I did.”

  “Oh Avery! That’s terrible! I’m so sorry that happened to you.” She rubs my back the way I rub hers when she’s upset. “What’re you going to do now?”

  “That’s the problem. I don’t know. I spent the greater part of the night tossing and turning, waking from sleep trying to come up with a way to deal with him that won’t divide the people here, or end in bloodshed.”

  Her eyes widen. “Bloodshed?”

  “Does Belchik strike you as the kind of person who’d shy away from battling his own kind?” I ask.

  “No,” she answers immediately.

  As soon as the word passes her lips, a light knock at the door sounds.

  “Avery, it’s Sully,” the voice on the other side of the door says. “And I’m with Rob.”

  Rob, one of our three scouts, was dispatched as soon as we secured Cassowary. He was charged with the task of obtaining crucial information regarding the Urthmen army’s whereabouts.

  “Come in,” I stand and say.

  Sully opens the door and steps over the threshold with Rob in tow. Dressed in pale clothing with swatches of varying shades of brown interwoven, Rob’s face is as nondescript as his outfit. Fawn colored hair blends with skin a similar shade, and heavily-lidded eyes veil chestnut-hued irises almost completely.

  Both men greet us, though Sully allows his gaze to linger on me far longer than Rob.

  “Good morning,” I greet them. “What’s going on?”

  A slight shift in Sully’s expression divulges they aren’t here for a social call. “We have a problem,” Sully finally says.

  The sensation that my chest is collapsing prevails. “What is it?” I ask and dread the answer.

  Sully turns to Rob and says, “Tell her.”

  “They know we’ve taken Cassowary.” And by “they” he means King Leon and the entire Urthmen alliance. The need to retch returns. “The King’s army is headed here.” His words toll through my body with steely reverberations.

  I swallow the bile rising in my throat. “How long before they reach us?”

  “They’ve been marching for days already.” Rob glances nervously between Sully and me. “They don’t have enough vehicles for all of them to ride so they’re still about a week away from getting here.”

  Looking at Sully, I say, “So we have a week to prepare.” He nods slightly and I turn my attention to Rob. “Good work. Thanks, Rob.”

  Rob, looking relieved to be excused, nods then turns and leaves.

  As soon as he’s out of earshot, Sully says, “They’ll use a truck and drive it straight though the front gate.”

  The gate is the only vulnerability in the seemingly impervious construct of the wall. And they know that because their slaves built it.

  Rubbing my forehead, I say, “Unless we think of a way to stop them.”

  A long pause passes between us. June’s heart beats so hard her curls tremble. I regret that she has to hear the Urthmen are coming. She’d have heard it later anyway, but I’d have preferred to tell her after a plan to prohibit their entrance was in place.

  Sully looks up and says, “I’ve been thinking about this all morning, we can dig a moat!”

  “A what?” I’ve never heard the word and wonder what the heck he’s talking about.

  “A moat, is, you know, a, uh,” he fumbles for a moment, his eyes searching some distant, unseen image. “It’s a wide, deep trench that’s dug around a property or a city. A long time ago, moats were used to protect castles and towns against attacks.” He bobs his shoulders and smirks when I quirk an eyebrow at him. “What? I paid attention when my dad forced me to take history class.”

  I smile, grateful that he did, because this moat idea of his may be our only hope. “Okay, tell me more.”

  He brightens and his smile broadens. “Throughout history, some chose to fill their moats with water. We won’t, obviously. We’ll make the channel deep enough and wide enough so the Urthmen vehicles can’t get to our gate or wall.”

  My mind works rapidly, trying to envision an extensive ditch surrounding Cassowary. “How long would it take?” I think aloud.

  Sully’s voice startles me from my brooding, answering my question. “We have more than thirty-thousand people here, most of whom spent their lives working nonstop. I don’t mean to sound cruel or insensitive, but their experience will come in handy.”

  I hold his gaze for a long moment then look to June. The belief that the moat idea could work vibrates in the air around us. “Let’s do it,” I say. “Let’s get started on the moat as soon as possible.” My eyes return to Sully. I gaze upon him and focus all the love I feel for him. “Great idea.” I smile.

  He returns my smile, then thanks me. “Oh, and I have an idea, a way this moat can work even better.”

  “Better?” I regard him questioningly.

  “Explosives,” he drawls the word and lets it hang in the ether. “I have to get as many explosives put together as I can. I can teach some of the ex-slaves that worked in more technical fields to help build them; I just hope they have the supplies I need.”

  “They seem to have almost everything here,” I say.

  “We can blow the monsters to smithereens!” June surprises us both by exclaiming.

  “Yes! That’s the plan, June bug!” Sully mirrors her exuberance.

  I slip my boots onto my feet and together, June, Sully and I walk out into the courtyard. As soon as we spot Derrick, Tom, Andris and Arnost, we fill them in on Sully’s plan. All four men are eager to enact Sully’s plan. They volunteer to assemble a crew to begin working and take off immediately.

  As people begin to fill the square, I stop a former slave and ask where the shovels are kept, and if the stock is plentiful.

  “There are many tools in Cassowary,” he replies meekly. He points to a squat building near the edge of the property. “That’s where they’re stored, in the warehouse. You’ll find hundreds of shovels there.” Though the man’s demeanor is mild enough and his fidgety hands and continual movement implies he’s uncomfortable. I wonder whether it is me, or whether it’s a result of years of mistreatment. Either way, I let him off the hook and thank him.

  When the courtyard is packed full, the roar of their questions is deafening, Sully places a hand on my lower back and says, “I think it’s time for you to explain to everyone what’s happening.”

  I link my arm through the crook o
f June’s elbow and nod in agreement. Together, we head back to my house. Inside and at the uppermost level of the structure, I step out onto the small balcony and pick up the microphone. A sea of faces greets me. As soon as one sees that I’m positioned to address them, a ripple of shushing sounds undulates through the crowd. A hush befalls the group.

  “The Urthmen army is headed here,” I announce. My six words evoke stillness so profound it borders on uncanny. “Our scout tells us they will be here in a week’s time.” I pause, letting the gravity of what I’ve said sink in. I look out, scanning the multitude of expression that range from fear to rage to fierce determination. “A plan to stop their attack has been formulated. But I need every able-bodied man outside the gate armed with a shovel. A low buzz of murmuring ensues. Speaking over it, I say, “We need to dig a large pit hugging the tree line, and curving inward until it meets the outer wall of Cassowary. This will ensure that a vehicle cannot reach our gates. It will prevent our wall from being breached.” Stepping back, I do not say anything further. The low buzz of muttered conversations swells to a loud hum.

  “Let’s get you down there so you can get them started,” Sully speaks directly into my ear to compete with the clatter outside.

  “What?” June joins me and asks, raising her voice.

  “We’re going down there,” Sully fairly shouts.

  June makes a face that exhibits reluctance.

  “You can stay here if you want. I’ll send Tom up, okay?”

  She nods, relieved, and after kissing her forehead, I descend a steep staircase then exit my house. Many people have already begun making their way to the warehouse. I join them, following a similar path I traveled last night when I discovered Belchik and his drunken cohorts. The gravel path winds for several hundred yards then splits. One trail leads toward the storehouse while the other branches off to a different section of the city. As the rest of the people around me continue toward the warehouse, my gaze lands on a sight that repulses me. Sprawled out and sleeping near the juncture of the two footpaths, Belchik and dozens of his men are on full display. The stink that arises from them rivals garbage. Sour and foul, it carries on the faint, mild breeze and makes me want to gag. But that reflexive reaction is suppressed by another, more powerful one that brews. A tumultuous surge of rage rockets through the very core of my being.

  “Hey!” I say and tap Belchik’s booted foot with my own.

  He stirs briefly then passes gas and resumes sleeping off last night’s drinking.

  Fire sizzles through my veins. “Hey!” I shout and kick his foot harder.

  This time, Belchik wakes. Bloodshot eyes snap open and focus on me. “What is it?” he barks with a voice thickened by sleep and annoyance.

  “We have work to do, all of us, including you.” I glower at him and the other men lazing like a heard of beasts. “The Urthmen army is headed for us.”

  My words spark alertness in his otherwise bleary gaze. Sitting up, his unkempt brows lower. “How far out are they?”

  “A week,” I answer.

  Linking brows that resemble the largest, hairiest caterpillars I’ve ever seen, Belchik glares at me so hard his eyes almost disappear. “And you woke me for that?” he growls. “Bah!” He wipes his nose and scratches his crotch unceremoniously then leans back and closes his eyes.

  Fury cracks through me with the biting sting of a whip. “Hey!” I yell so loudly my throat hurts. “I said there’s work to be done! Did you not hear me the first time?”

  “I head you just fine.” Belchik sits up slowly. “And if you kick me again, little girl, we’re going to have a big problem.” His deep voice quivers with the promise of violence as his black eyes lock on mine. “If there’s a week’s worth of work to be done, you’d better have at it. I’m going back to sleep.”

  Refusing to look away despite the fact that my heart has leaped to my throat and is now lodged there firmly, I say, “You can take the men you arrived with and leave. We’ve no need for lazy, useless men here.”

  A malevolent smirk bends his mouth. “Trust me, girl, when the Urthmen get here, you’ll see how lazy and useless we are,” he says with sarcasm that matches his expression. He starts to turn from me and lie back down then pauses. “And I’d watch my tone if I were you.”

  A trembling vein of panic shivers from my chest to my feet. Is he threatening me, his leader, right here right now? How will I respond? There isn’t much I can do to him physically. He outweighs me by two hundred pounds easily. “Why is that, Belchik?” I ask and can’t keep the terrified tremor from my voice.

  “You wouldn’t want these people to find out the truth about you.” He levels me with a withering gaze.

  “And what’s that truth?” Lightheadedness makes me feel as if I might collapse as my breathing becomes short and shallow.

  “That you’re not what they think you are.” He inspects a sore on his thumb. “They think you’re some mythical character sent to free them from the Urthmen. But the truth is, you two,” he points between Sully and me, “are the reason the Urthmen found the underground city in the first place.” He hocks then spits a gob of nasty mash. “You led The General and his men right to them and ruined a place that’d been safe for two hundred years.” He makes a clucking sound with his tongue. “You think your people would still follow you if they found out you’re the reason for the enemy arriving at their doorstep?” Eyes as dark and deadly as dart tips meet mine. “You weren’t sent here to free anyone. You almost got them killed for your own selfish reasons.”

  His words are shrapnel blasting against my skin, ripping me apart so that I worry I’ll never be whole again. The General. The underground city. How does he know? Who told him when so few knew? June? No a chance. Sully? No way. Tom wouldn’t tell him.

  “How do you know that?” I ask, my throat suddenly parched.

  “Oh, a little birdy told me, a jealous, bitter birdy.” Laughter drips like poison from his lips, filling me with anger and betrayal unlike any I’ve ever felt before.

  My entire body shakes. My insides feel as if every cell inside me pulses madly, racing at the speed of thought, vying for the same spot within me; the spot where a dagger has been driven through my heart.

  Only one among us is jealous and bitter. I knew he was hurt, unhappy, but never in my wildest imaginings did I think he’d do this, though.

  “This isn’t over,” I say through my teeth and point to Belchik before turning on my heels and storming off. The rhythmic crunch of my boots over the gravel is the only sound I hear as I march toward the house Will shares with Riley and Oliver. Belchik will be dealt with in the coming days, of that I’m sure. But right now another, more pressing issue needs tending to. My relationship with Will, the tenuous friendship he and I shared, is about to end.

  Chapter 10

  Betrayal is a destructive force unlike any I’ve ever experienced. It leaves ruins in its path that can’t be quantified, that before today couldn’t even be imagined. It changes everything. It damages. And the damage it causes is irreparable. I know that as surely as I know my feet are touching the ground.

  Learning that Will spoke of me, of circumstances that occurred before we arrived here at Cassowary—and with Belchik, no less—causes me to feel as if I’ve been cast into an angry sea. Roiling and churning in uncharted waters, I’m drowning, disoriented that Will, the person I once believed was a safe harbor, has cut me and left me to flounder.

  With every step I take, humiliation and hurt, sorrow and resentment pounds through me with the force of a sledgehammer. Why would he do it? Why? My brain demands an answer but I doubt my heart can handle hearing it. Does he despise me so much that he felt the need to not only undermine my integrity, but expose and exploit a very delicate matter?

  Too many questions crowd my mind. Pressure builds behind my eyes and at my temples. My head feels as if it’s been placed in a vice that’s being continually tightened. Just when I feel as if it will explode from the force, the small house Will
shares with his brother and sister comes into view.

  Stomping up his front steps, I bang my knuckles against the door. Heaving, my chest rises and falls quickly and with an added quiver that is my heart threatening to beat right out of it. When he doesn’t answer, I pound the door a second time, harder and with my fist. And I don’t stop until suddenly, the door swings inward.

  “What the heck is going on?” Will’s broad form fills the doorway. Aquamarine eyes that once haunted my most pleasant daydreams glare at me and no longer resemble the warm, fathomless pools of tropical water I used to lose myself in. They are hard and cold.

  Reconciling who he was to me then and who he is to me now causes a resurgence of turbulent emotions. I feel my upper lip thin as two words erupt from me in a venomous hiss. “Get out.”

  Confusion gathers his brows and he pulls his head back. “Get out of where? This house?”

  “No, get out of my city,” I lean in and growl. My heart patters frenetically and each word I speak makes me lightheaded. “I don’t want you here anymore. You’re a traitor.”

  Adding shock to his confused expression, Will’s eye are wide. “Avery, what’s gotten into you? Traitor? What’re you talking about?”

  If I’d never had the nasty but enlightening conversation I had with Belchik, I would’ve fallen for his flabbergasted innocent routine. But I did, and I know what he is now. No longer interested in catering to the timid façade he had in place the entire time I knew him, I decide to ask Will pointblank about what he’s done. “Did you tell Lord Belchik about the Urthmen being led to the underground city?”

  Relief smoothes his face. The tension in his posture abates. “Oh, that.” He swats the air before him dismissively. “Yeah, I did. So what?”

  My body sways and tiny shards of hot glass charge through my veins. I don’t know what upsets me more, that he freely admits to his disloyalty, or that he seems to think I’m overreacting. “What do you mean ‘so what’?” I demand. “You know what he’s like. You knew he was going to use it against me. Yet you didn’t care!” My agitation mounts. “You deliberately did it to hurt me! You’re a backstabber and I want you gone now!”