Kingdom Above the Cloud

by Maggie Platt

  “No.”

  “Why?” Silas asked, unfazed.

  “You could be lying to me. You might even be working for His Majesty. If you were really Adwin, you wouldn’t want me in Adia. I’ve done terrible things.”

  “That voice in your head is telling you lies. When you are ready to let me in, we will start answering all of those lies with the truth.”

  Xanthe bit her lip.

  “May I come in?” Silas asked.

  Her eyes looked hopeful for just a moment before she closed them. She shook her head and walked to the far corner of her cell, lying down and curling into a ball. “I will be here, Xanthe. Every day for as long as it takes. You are worth it.” She didn’t respond.

  Tovi’s heart pounded. She knew it was her turn, and she clutched at the bars to help her stand on her shaking legs. After all she had been through, this took every last ounce of effort.

  She expected his anger. His hatred. His disapproval of everything she had done and everything she had become. Still, she longed for her turn to look into his eyes, to see him again. She wanted to go back in time, back to the ridge and their mornings together. She wanted to see all of it more clearly. She wanted to hear him say that she was worth it. But would he?

  Silas finally turned his gaze on Tovi. The grin she knew so well appeared as he crossed the small expanse between cells. Her ugly, heart-rending sobs doubled in intensity, and she reached through the bars, needing him near. Instead of staying on the outside of the cell like he had for the other prisoners, he walked straight inside—through the solid barrier—and took her in his arms, holding her tightly to his chest. Instantly, the voice in her mind quieted and her bloodied hand mended.

  “I have missed you, Tovi,” he said into her hair.

  “Silas,” she wept, trying to catch her breath. Her fingers gripped the back of his shirt.

  “Are you ready to go home?”

  She nodded, unable to speak.

  “I need to explain some things to you first,” he said, pulling away just enough so he could look at her. “This is going to be the hardest thing you have ever done. The pain you feel because you are in this prison is nothing compared to what will happen as you try to leave it. It is dark, ugly magic, the last project that Damien completed before I revoked his powers. It is one of the final weapons against you, but you must remember that none of it is real. Damien knows that it feels better in the dungeon than it does trying to make your way out, and he thinks that will keep people inside. Many times, it has worked.

  “As long as you are with me, you will make it. Focus completely on me. If you feel like you are about to break, ask for help. Got it?” Tovi nodded before he continued. “Here’s what’s going to happen. We are going to run right out of here, through the hidden door. The guards at the top of the stairs won’t know, but we will be seen by others once we’re outside. They will come after us. There is no way around it. We will have to keep running as fast as you can. Once we are on the other side of the cloud and in the forest, it will be harder for them to find us. But while we are out in the open on these city streets, we will be vulnerable.

  “If all does not go as planned, and believe me, it rarely does, you must listen to me very closely. I will give you instructions as you need them, and you must obey them immediately. Understand?”

  “Yes,” she answered with a sniffle.

  “All right.” He smiled. “Let’s go.”

  He began to walk back through the bars, holding one of Tovi’s hands. “How am I supposed to get out?” she spluttered.

  He surprised her by smiling. “Nothing about this prison is real. These bars only exist to those still imprisoned by them. The minute you decided to leave, they became nothing but a bad memory. Come on, you’ll see.”

  Still unsure, she stepped her foot forward. The bars looked very solid and very real. Ismene was still staring. Xanthe watched from the corner of her cell.

  Tovi took another step, not knowing what to expect. Then, just where the bars met the ground, she moved her foot forward. Looking up at Silas, she smiled.

  Boldly she walked into the corridor, and searing pain coursed through her. Her back felt like it was lit on fire. She gasped and let go of Silas’ hand. As soon as their touch expired, the voice flooded back, more merciless than ever.

  No one loves you! You are deceptive, spiteful, ruined! Run away from this man! Hide in your cell! You don’t have what it takes to leave here!

  Silas caught her before she hit the ground, and the thoughts were silenced. The pain still raged.

  Even more serious than before, Silas lifted Tovi’s chin with one finger. “I love you. You are honest, thoughtful, and good. No one has what it takes to leave by herself, but with me you’ll make it.”

  She nodded, beginning to understand the perils of their mission.

  Down the corridor and out the secret door, they ran as quickly as Tovi could manage. They made it out of the palace safely, but within moments they were seen. Tovi clung to Silas’ hand as they sprinted across the courtyard, the formidable royal guards emerging from the palace at top speed, their long swords sheathed but ready at their backs.

  Tovi and Silas passed through arched tunnels and wound through the streets, pushing through crowds and passing the HH as Tovi was reaching the limit of her exhaustion. Every muscle ached and her head was buzzing from the combination of hunger and high adrenaline.

  She despaired as she looked over her shoulder and saw the guards gaining ground. “I’m not strong enough, Silas!”

  “They are following much closer than they ever have before. If I keep running with you, they will follow us all the way to Adia. Everyone will be in danger. You have to keep running. No matter how tired you are, no matter what the voice says, no matter what you see, keep running. You are strong enough, Tovi. Go straight to the mines. Hesper is waiting for you there. Then, when you get to the bottom, run for Adia. You know the paths. I’ve had you practicing this kind of forest running every day for six months.”

  “No! Silas, don’t leave me! I can’t do it!”

  “We won’t be separated for long,” he promised. “It’s time, Tovi. Run straight for the mines. You will make it. Be strong!” He stopped and turned toward the guards. She stumbled forward as the voice shrieked in her head, accompanied by the one calmer, stronger voice.

  Run . . . Stop where you are! Not one step further! . . . Keep running as fast as you can. You know the paths . . . You will never make it! You are too weak! . . . You are strong enough . . . The guards will find you. They will catch you. Turn back now, and I will give you mercy . . . It’s time, Tovi. Run straight for the mines. You will make it! Be strong! . . . Turn around and see what happens to your beloved Silas . . .

  The last, cruel words stopped her in her tracks. Full of fear, she turned back. For one split second she saw Silas standing and facing the oncoming guards. She tried to shout to him, to tell him to run, but she didn’t have time.

  He flung his arms out just as they reached him, as if he was trying to gather them into an embrace. The tips of several blades emerged through his body at different angles, crimson stains spreading in blotchy patterns and soaking his tunic. He hit the cobblestones, arms still outstretched, and began to fade. Iridescent waves of light rose from the ground, starting at his body and stretching along and beyond his arms. Within seconds, these curtains of shimmering color extended so far that Tovi could not see the end. And then, to her horror, he had faded completely. He was gone. All that was left were the waves of light.

  “Silas!” she wailed. “Silas!”

  The guards turned their attention to Tovi and charged in her direction. When they reached the shimmering curtain, they rammed into it as if it was a solid wall. Piling up one behind the other, they could not push past it. They frantically ran along the waves, looking for a gap in the protection, but they found none.

  Unable to ward it off any longer, Tovi succumbed to the blackness of shock, exhaustion, and pain.

&n
bsp; CHAPTER 45

  Rhaxma stared at her brother’s lifeless body encased in glass. The parlor in the family home was brightly lit with candles, even at this hour of the night. They couldn’t leave their beloved Leeto in the dark.

  She hardly registered the tears that fell, one after another, dark streams rolling over her cheeks and past her mouth that hung slightly open.

  He was dead. He was dead. He was dead.

  He was gone. How could he be gone?

  Her mind flashed violently to that scene, to a table engulfed in flames, and Leeto’s body broken on the cobblestones. Her mother beat her to him and was already cradling his head and screaming for help. She could see it all in slow, vivid motion. She was right back in that moment, clutching his bloodied shirt, begging him to be alive.

  She closed her eyes and reopened them, focusing on his face through the glass. His skin so white, his hair so orange. His yellow eyes open, staring at the ceiling. He looked like himself, except for the paleness of his lips and the vacant dullness in his unmoving eyes.

  It was not normal to keep a body in the home for so long. Usually the dead were buried on the third day in a cemetery on the north side of the mountain. But, with the magical wall encircling the city, they could not reach the burial ground. Many friends offered solutions like burying Leeto in their gardens, but the Pyralis family was not satisfied. Leeto must rest with his ancestors in the cemetery. They would wait until they found a way through the wall.

  He was dead. He was gone. Forever.

  It had been several days, and until this night, Rhaxma had stayed away from the parlor. She couldn’t look upon her dead brother. She couldn’t see his lifeless form.

  But tonight, as she lay awake in her large canopied bed, reliving his death repeatedly, she had a sudden urge to be near him. She wrapped herself in a silk robe and quietly descended multiple flights of stairs. No one else was awake, and she felt the vastness of the family estate. It made her feel empty and alone.

  Now, as she stood over his coffin, her grief pouring from her eyes, she began to whisper.

  “How could you leave me like this? I need you. I need you to be here with me.” Her voice broke, and she pressed her hands against the glass, wishing she could touch his face. “I’ve always looked to you for direction, always leaned on you for strength. I don’t think I can do it without you. Why did you leave me?”

  Her crying escalated, and her shoulders heaved with each sobbing inhale. A face she had once loved flashed before her eyes, and a wrathful loathing ripped through her so ferociously that she let out a scream that felt more like a roar. She laid her forehead on the cool glass.

  Calix. He had done this. He had caused this. The marks on her back pulsed with burning pain. Her mind focused on one thing: She didn’t just want Calix to hurt. She wanted to ruin him.

  “Rhax? You okay?”

  She jumped and turned. “Oh, Thad, it’s you,” she said, the animal inside her retreating into its hole in her heart. Thad was the oldest of her four brothers. Three brothers now, she corrected herself.

  Like the rest of the family, Thad had thick orange hair and piercing yellow eyes. Despite turning twenty-eight earlier that year, he still lived in the Pyralis mansion along the Courtyard. So did Simeon and Andi, their other brothers. Most children left the house by twenty five, but not in this family. Their love was too deep, and their anxieties of what could happen were deeper. The death of Leeto confirmed their fear that being out of each other’s sight for too long could only lead to tragedy.

  Thad was a drunk with no aspirations, but she still loved him so. It was nothing like her closeness with Leeto, but she was glad that it had been Thad to come join her tonight. He was simple and sweet and kind.

  Thad put his arm around Rhaxma and looked down at his cold brother. “I still can’t believe this is real,” he said.

  Rhaxma rested her cheek against his shoulder. She didn’t say anything, but her mind raced with thoughts of Calix. Her breathing became ragged again as her hatred mingled with her deep, aching grief.

  She kept returning to the word ruin. She must ruin him. She would get no satisfaction from killing him. She must find something worse.

  CHAPTER 46

  Light played against Tovi’s closed eyelids in strange, rounded patterns, as if dancing through swaying leaves. The first conscious thought Tovi had was: But that’s impossible. There aren’t any trees here on the top of the mountain.

  Images came back to her of her past days. The look on Calix’s face when he saw Leeto’s mark. Eryx being brutally attacked at the first fight. Starving families in the Bottom Rung. Leeto’s body lying contorted on the ground. Dion curled into a ball in the corner of his cell. The evil that reflected in King Damien’s eyes as he cut into her hand. The swords piercing through Silas right before he faded away forever.

  Then, still with eyes shut against the world that had caused so much heartache, she noted the softness she was lying on, the coziness of the material she was wearing, so unlike the silk she had become accustomed to.

  She cracked her eyes open and tried to decipher her whereabouts. Flowers everywhere. Vines in the window. Waving willow leaves in the distance. Home.

  Bittersweet tears began to flow, and when she wiped them away, she noticed they were tinged with black. She was safe and at home, but she couldn’t erase the image of Silas with the swords through him. Strong, loving, perfect Silas. How could she live without him? It had taken her so long to understand, and now he was gone. She tried not to think about the ridge. She tried to force her mind away from her perfect memory of his eyes. She could still hear him, sitting on a fallen tree, telling her how much he loved her.

  She tried to steady herself by taking deep breaths as another surge of guilt rolled over her. How long had she been gone? She ticked through the days in her head. Could Ganya ever forgive her? Who had brought her home? How long had she been here?

  Careful of her aching muscles, she turned her head and prepared to call for Ganya. But the sound was caught in her throat as her eyes expanded to twice their normal size.

  She was speechless. She had watched him die. She had seen the swords push through his body, the blood pooling around him when he fell. The horrible translucence before he was completely gone. This was impossible. How could he be sitting beside her?

  “You forget who I am,” Silas said tenderly, answering her unspoken question and leaning down to kiss her forehead.

  She thought about this for a minute. He was right. There was much more to this man than she had ever known. “What happened?”

  “Damien’s guards have changed their tactics. They are getting smarter. It used to be much easier to get someone away from them. It was time for me to leave a barrier between them and you.”

  “A barrier?”

  “Yes, a barrier. My life stands between you and our enemies, and they can’t get past it.”

  “But what about everyone else? There are people on the mountain who want to know you, Silas. We can’t just leave them there.”

  “Are you referring to Hesper, Lyra, and the rest of the HH?”

  “You know them?” she asked.

  “Of course, I do,” he said, smiling at her underestimation. “They already know that the heart in their palms allows them to pass through the barrier. As for Xanthe, Jairus, and many others, they belong on this side, but it might take some time to help them understand. As it so happens, another Master has already figured it out.”

  There was so much to think about, so many questions to ask.

  Knowing her thoughts, Silas asked, “Where should we start?”

  “Tali. Where is he? Is he safe?”

  “Yes, he is safe. At this very moment he is arriving where I have sent him.”

  “Will I see him again?”

  “Yes, most likely you will.”

  “My family.”

  “What would you like to know about them?”

  “Is it true? Is Damien my grandfather and Ajax my fa
ther? Is Jairus my brother?”

  “Yes, to all of that. Next?”

  She thought through all that she had learned and decided to start from the beginning. “What really happened with Damien on the mountain? Why did you leave?”

  “The story you heard as a child is the truth, although told from a limited perspective. I was very close with Damien when he was just a boy. I knew the potential he had, leadership and innovation that could be used in great or terrible ways. I tried to teach him as much as possible so that he could make wise decisions when it came time.”

  “Why didn’t you stop him?”

  “For the same reason I let you leave,” he answered, amused at the shocked look that came over Tovi’s face.

  “But, I’m nothing like him. It’s not the same thing.”

  “You are both deep thinkers. You both question the way the world works and seek answers to why I have made things certain ways. You dealt with it by listening to Calix and Leeto and running away when they offered answers that seemed to make sense. Damien dealt with it by pushing me out of his life and trying to push me out of everyone else’s life, too.”

  Tovi thought about this with deep frown lines creasing her forehead. “I don’t want to be like Damien.”

  “Actually, some of the traits you share with him are the very best things about him and you. I enjoy the hard conversations, even when they move to difficult territory,” he said.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, the hard questions are always worth it.”

  “What about Ismene and Dion and everyone else still in the prison? How does all of that work? And why do some people have the heart in their palms, and some don’t? And why do you just walk into some cells and stay outside of others? And why do you let it all happen? Why don’t you just help everyone escape? Or destroy the dungeon?” Now that she had started, she couldn’t stop the flow of questions. She began to yell, angrily swiping the tears off her face with the back of her hands. “Why do you let people hurt like that? Why do you let Damien ruin their lives? Why don’t you take care of them? Why don’t you show yourself to them? Why don’t you take them all away? Why do you make me flowers while there is suffering and hunger and pain?”