by Abby Dewsnup
The High Prince didn’t say anything more. We exited the Bunker with a single guard, his hood drawn again as we entered the light. My hands trembled as we entered the mechanical worm machine again, the doors hissing closed as we begin our descent from the mountain.
We decided to rest for the night and head for the Oracle Stones in the morning. Roland explained that he still had a dwelling in one of the buildings, if it hadn’t been overrun with Stygian in his absence. The joke didn’t sit well with me.
Jay looked away, staring out the window at the glowing city. Was he aware of me, even now? I didn’t know how far our Bond went, but I was certain it was different for him than it was for me. I could only see his fingers as they clenched the leather seats beneath him, could only understand his troubled gaze.
You haven’t the faintest idea what you are, do you? The High Prince’s words repeated in my head, causing a sickness to spread in the pit of my stomach.
15
Golden Locket
The sun was setting when we finally reached the Blue Light District. I was in awe of the sheer size of the city, how everything glowed a bright, neon blue. People zoomed past me, always going somewhere, never staying. The world outside, especially the Caves, seemed so slow and desolate compared to the life here.
Rain fell hard from the thundering clouds and the metal buildings glittered from the moisture. The air smelled of sewage and dirt, a combination I hoped never to smell again. City rain was hardly as enjoyable as the warm storm in Coppice.
I began to notice signs of the High Prince’s reign, and it finally dawned on me that he wasn’t completely in charge. He used propaganda, relying on the people’s fear of his army to keep them in line. But the billboards and posters couldn’t hide the fact that the Light Districts were bordering anarchy, a city on the edge of a sword. The people love it, I thought. They get their freedom and the High Prince gets his power.
“Good grief man, I thought you three ran off into the mountains and left me.” Warren fluttered to the ground, soaked to the bone from the storm. “I’ve been waiting here for hours.”
Jay and I exchanged a familiar glance. “I’m not even sure where to begin filling you in,” I told Warren. “We met the High Prince, Jay has died and come back to life, he intercepted a blade for me from the future, and we know where the Oracle Stones are. In no particular order.”
Warren stared at us, ready to laugh at the absurdity of it all. “Nice one, Anya. Really got me there,” he deadpanned.
Roland’s expression was serious as he explained it all to Warren, starting with the stone doorway and ending with the High Prince. His words grew coarse as he repeated the bargain and how he must sacrifice himself to the Creation. I knew the Oracle chose who to create and who to destroy, and judging by Roland’s track record, his chances at life were slim. I couldn’t see a way around the High Prince’s bargain, not with the power he wields.
Warren grew solemn. “This is why I stay on the ground with you lot,” he said. “I go into the air for a second and suddenly sparrow boy here appears.” His gaze lingered on Jay, unease plain across his face.
“I think it’s kinda cool.” I looked at Jay, who smiled slightly. “I mean, how often does someone have a second shot at life? Soon we’ll have Kye and James back, and everyone else from the Caves. A big happy family again, and no one had to die.”
Not yet. The words hang unsaid between Roland and I.
“So, where’s this dwelling you speak of? I’m exhausted,” Jay said. It was true — his face looked shallow, and shadows were cast beneath his eyes. He had lost a lot of blood. The wound had long since vanished, but it didn’t compensate for the wear he had taken from the fatal blow before. Jay was normally full of life, serious but kind, his eyes bright. The figure before me was unfamiliar and exhausted.
Roland led us through the streets. We pushed past people, trying not to stand out against the sea of black clothing. It was impossible — strangers gaped at my staff, and Jay and my Cave-Dweller complexions. Nothing stood out more than Warren and his giant metallic wings. It wasn’t long before he chose to follow us from the air, tired of running into people on all sides.
I was glad for the rain, how it hid the tears now streaking down my cheeks. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat, willing myself to get it together. I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually cried — it felt like ages. We were so close to finding the Light Kingdom, so close to finding James. I had every reason to be rejoiceful. Instead, a bitterness settled in my bones. I wasn’t some Light Bringer; I wasn’t anything special. I wanted everything to stop, for the world to be silent for just a moment.
Mostly, I was angry at the universe for how it had treated Jay Kurtis.
Jay kept pace with me, and he didn’t need to look down to know what I was thinking. Slowly, softly, I felt his fingers entwine with my own. I grasped his hand like a lifeline, warmth spreading through me. He squeezed my hand and I did the same, wiping my eyes with my free hand.
All his life he had looked to the horizon, to the future. And if Jay could remain as golden as he was, so could I. Death Bringer or not, he was nothing but good.
I understood then why they called it ‘falling in love’. When my parents left, I had forgotten what exactly that meant. Why wasn’t it called rising in love, or becoming in love — surely those were greater and harder to dwell within. Afterall, love belonged within the wreckage of their disappearance. It was anything but pure and good.
No, love isn’t abandonment. Love is willing, love is selfless. Love is submitting oneself to others. And Jay — with all his years of hardship, of the secrets upon him — can give himself up so easily to those around him. Sure, he was distrustful of Roland to begin with, but anyone who crosses his path comes away undeniably better for having known him. He doesn’t look at the world through his burdens, but through its capability to be something beautiful. And I may be far from knowing what love really is, but I think through him, for just a moment, I glimpsed what it could be.
I felt Jay’s hand in mine, shaking me from my stupor. He looked down at me with eyes as electric at the world around us, his eyebrows raised in this expression of half hope, half wonderment. And then, just to irk me to my core, he smirked.
I cursed silently. For all I knew, Jay could read my mind through this forsaken Bond he had given me. I wasn’t even safe in my imagination.
“So that’s why you were always so careful, isn’t it?” I asked to break the tension. “You can tell when someone is about to die.”
He ran a blood-stained hand through his hair and nodded. “It’s not really a sense so much as a feeling — my hands start to shake and my I can’t really breathe, probably because of, you know, how I died before. It only happens with those close to me. Believe me, most of this is new to me as well. I spent so much time alone in the Caves that I never had anyone to test this all out on.”
“And when you feel like that — you just know that someone is about to die?”
“I guess so.” He shrugged. “The Oracle told my parents that would happen.”
“So why me?” I was hypersensitive of his hand in mine. Raindrops fell from my hair and down my face, and I wiped them away instinctively. “Why would you Bond with me?”
“You know, that woman, Rose, from our group is dead now. I could sense it, same as the others. That is why I steered you and Lynx in the opposite direction when the sandstorm hit in the Boneyards. It’s a guessing game — I know when someone is about to die, so what can I do about it? What can change the future? The funny thing is that I only have a few seconds to make the decision. With you, I wasn’t sure when it was coming.” He looked away, his voice breaking as he said, “You were a goner. I didn’t know any other way to save you.”
“I’d imagine that other people like you wouldn’t use that gift so honorably,” I said.
“No, I suppose they wouldn’t.” He shrugged, but I could see the pain behind his eyes.
Roland rounde
d a corner and led us to a street what wasn’t as busy as the previous one. A few people milled about, and the strange two-wheeled machines zipped past us on the metal roads, but the buildings were shorter, stockier, holding less of a purpose. Above us hung the words There Is No Threat on the glowing boards.
I was anxious to get out of the rain, and I didn’t like the way the machine riders all wore identical helmets to the High Prince. For all I knew, he was here, watching us from behind the glowing engine of his two-wheeled cycle. I recalled what the Captain had said about this city, how it thrived on crime and the underground. It was evident that there was a lot more happening around me than I knew — secret meetings and dealings of all sorts. With advanced technology came advanced wickedness.
Roland finally stopped in front of a tall, twisting building. It resembled the hives that bees lived inside, with pockets of windows in a honeycomb shape. On the ground below our feet was a metallic white stripe. Roland stomped up to the base of the honeycomb, pushing his grimy hair from his forehead. He pressed a circle on the metal, and spoke in a low voice, saying, “B-16, Roland Chance.”
Through the metal grate, a scratchy, robotic voice replied with, “Roland? You’ve got to be kidding me. Roland Chance left this city years ago to become a something with murder in the title, I honestly don’t remember. Move along kid before I call the High Guard on you.”
Roland sighed, rubbing his stubble. “Janis, we’re on orders from the High Prince. Voice identify me and let us in.”
There was silence. I pulled my hand free from Jay’s, crossing my arms instead. I didn’t look back over at him until the voice began to speak again.
“You never called, you never wrote. I thought the worst, with you running around in those castles and villages! You know what they don’t have out there, Roland? Vaccines. You could’ve died from a cold, or worse, polio!”
Roland’s hands flexed in frustration. “Yes well, I’m here now. Send us up to my flat and I promise I’ll talk to you later.”
“Us? You brought other people? A girl? Is that a girl?”
Despite the strange voice’s nagging, the white stripe beneath us began to glow. I felt pressure build up against us as the light gathered. In an instant we were standing in a dimly lit room, the city and street gone.
“What was that?” I asked, grabbing onto the wall for support as I waited for the sensation of falling to pass.
“Janis beamed us up to my old flat. Home sweet home,” Roland said bitterly, throwing his weapons down onto the bed. “Let’s see if she’s been cleaning it all these years or if we’ll be sleeping with the rats.”
A metal table protrude from the far wall, and a bed was pushed against the corner. Back home, I never slept on an actual bed, just the rotten blanket and a collapsed floor. The sight of it sent a pang of melancholy through me.
The same white stripe from below was stretched out by the bed. “And this one leads back to the city?” I asked, aware that there weren’t any doors in the flat, just a matching pair of windows.
“And the roof, if you wanted to see the view,” Roland replied.
“I assume you’ve got some Light District currency up your sleeve? I’d like to go back to those markets we passed a while back and get some food,” Warren said. His lanky form and wings took up a considerable amount of room. “I mean, I was hungry a day ago. Now I’m starved.”
Roland shook his head. “The Glass Traders took my backpack with them. I don’t have anything left.”
“No matter,” Warren shrugged. He reached into what looked like empty space, his forearm vanishing. He pulled his arm back, a handful of metal parts now in hand. “I’ve got a collection. Perhaps they’ll trade.”
As Warren stepped onto the white stripe of ground, he said his desired location loudly and clearly. He dissolved away in the blink of an eye, wings and all.
Roland opened a portion of the wall like a wardrobe, except I had never seen one inside the wall before. He pulled a few spare blankets pillows out of it, each pressed neatly and clean. “Anya can take the bed. I have enough here to make the floor comfortable.”
“Absolutely not. Jay looks like he could pass out at any moment, he should get the bed,” I protested.
Jay smirked, though the shadows under his eyes had lengthened. “Sorry, but I insist. Just let me preserve one last shred of dignity, please.”
“Boys,” I grumbled.
Roland threw a blanket and a pillow onto the dusty ground. Jay sank down and sat on the covering, leaning against the bed. His eyes were empty as they stared out across the room.
I knelt down next to him, hugging my knees tight against my frame. “Hey, you saved my life back there. It’s time to go to sleep.”
When he didn’t respond, I grabbed his broad shoulders and guided him to the ground. He sank down without a fight.
“Goodnight and good morning to you,” I said dryly. “Try to get some rest.”
His gaze finally slid into mine, softening as he watched me pull away. He muttered something about princes and panthers, but I couldn’t make out the individual words. And then he fell asleep, his hard face relaxing into what I believed to be peace for the first time in a long while.
Roland laid on the other side of the room with his hands clasped across his stomach and a brown leather cap over his face. He held the air of indifference even in sleep — I didn’t want to think of what could happen if I accidentally woke him up and triggered some sort of Bounty Hunter survival instinct.
As if sensing my stare, he stirred and removed the hat from his face. “Your friend is dangerous to be traveling with,” he said.
“I think that’s obvious after the Dark House today,” I replied with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll abandon him. Who has he got besides us?”
“He isn’t an orphaned child, Anya,” Roland sat up, rubbing his scruffy face with a stifled yawn. “Jay is nearly a man, only a few years short of me. He knows what he is, what the price will be for creating the Bond with you. If you truly believe that the Light Kingdom will hold some ancient knowledge on the Stygian and the World Shaker, you’d be better off going to the Caves with Warren and I tomorrow. I’m not sure the Oracle will be kind at his return.”
“Why not? The Oracle created him, did she not?”
Roland sighed. “So she did.”
I cocked my head to the side, studying his expression. He wrung his hands, once, twice. He was nervous. “You’re scared, aren’t you? Of the Creation, I mean.”
“That isn’t—”
“You are, aren’t you?” I repeated, firmer. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. Even with all your knowledge and facts, the Creation is the one thing you have never known the answer to. You’re scared.”
Roland reclined back against the wall, propping his knee up in the same manner as the High Prince had done earlier. “I’m happy to be the one to do it. I can’t ask you or Jay to sacrifice a life that has only just begun. And Warren only needed an escape route. No, the High Prince’s choice for the Creation was calculated. I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve a lot of blood on my hands. I should be the one to do it.”
My heart softened. I wanted to embrace him, but I knew Roland would only get all prickly at my touch. “A Death Bringer and a Light Bringer are all somewhat products of the Creation. The Oracle may give you powers beyond your wildest dreams. If there is anything I’ve learned these past few days, it’s that you’ve sold yourself short. You’ve saved my life countless times. I believe the Creation will only make you greater.”
He offered a dry smile. “I hope so, little raven. I hope so.”
Raven. I scowled at the nickname.
“I’m gonna go check out the roof,” I said, rising to my feet. “Care to join?”
“Go on ahead.” He shrugged, his calm exterior returned.
I turned back to him, a question balancing on my lips. “Hey, I forgot to ask. A World Shaker and a Solifeer are from the same story, aren’t they?”
&
nbsp; Roland nodded.
“The World Shaker is a consumer of worlds, is it not? Like a leech that preys on wickedness. I remember that much. A Solifeer is supposed to bring an end to the darkness, to redeem his or her world in the eyes of the World Shaker, I think?” I asked slowly.
Again, Roland nodded.
“If there is a World Shaker, then a Solifeer could be here too, right?” I ventured, watching his eyes flicker as he gazed at me.
“In a sense, yeah. But a Solifeer would have to be chosen, created. They would be a sight to behold, if they were real,” Roland replied. “I have yet to meet someone like that.”
I stepped onto the white strip, wanting to ask one final question. “The World Shaker the High Prince was talking about wasn’t a real World Shaker, right? It’s just a figure of speech, not a doomsday spirit.”
“I don’t think you can judge what is real and not real, Anya. You’re the one with the glowing hands.”
“But still,” I persisted. “The High Prince wasn’t being serious, was he?”
A small smile danced across Roland’s lips. “I suppose we’ll find out. The Lucent people see everything, you know. Maybe soon you’ll know what you are, too.”
I nodded and bit my lip, wanting to say more. Instead, I whispered, “The roof,” over the white stripe and felt myself vanish into thin air.
The rain had stopped, and all that was left above the dripping skeleton city was a mass of charcoal clouds. The rooftop I stood in was square, with rotting old plants drooping from ceramic pots and piles of old metal parts littering the ground.
A bench protruded a few feet away from the ledge, and I sat down on the wet surface. A chill ran through me and I pulled my sleeves tighter over my trembling fingers. My stomach gave a low growl, and I realized I hadn’t thought about how hungry I was. I hoped Warren came back with food soon.