The Markings

by Catherine Downen

  “You’ll make lots of friends Molly,” I say as I brush her hair from her warm face. Her cold has gotten worse. A damp sweat keeps her hair stuck to her cheeks and forehead, and her skin is pale. It hurts, even more, knowing Molly is getting more and more ill, but all she cares about is making new friends. She is so pure and naive, and this world is too twisted and dark for someone like her.

  “Time to get some rest,” Mio says as he lays a heavy hand on my shoulder. Tomorrow we will be in Libertas. After all this, we will finally get to our destination. We move to get ready for bed and Mio announces that he and Marin will take the first shift tonight. I lie out my blanket next to Alexander’s on the hard wooden floor of the boat and place my pillow down too. As soon as my head hits the pillow I start to feel myself being pulled under.

  Today was the first time I stayed awake for more than five minutes, and it’s definitely catching up with me. I look up at the stars and get lost in their beauty as I get pulled into a deep sleep.

  “Look!” I hear Molly’s little voice scream as I start to wake up. I break open my eyelids and white light from the sun rushes in. I prop myself up on my elbows and see that almost everyone else has gotten up and is looking at something in front of the boat. I get up and join Alexander at the tip of the boat.

  “There it is,” he says.

  I feel my heart stop as Libertas starts to come into view. “It’s magnificent,” I say. From what we can see out on the ocean it seems that Libertas is completely closed in by a large stone wall. The island seems to just be one giant mountain, and as we look up the mountain you can make out the bricked pathways and houses that line the town.

  On top of the island is a large castle that makes Garth’s seem like nothing. As we get closer to the island a small docking area comes into view at the base of the rocky shore.

  “And if you look to our right you can see the magnificent wall that surrounds all of Libertas,” Mio says narrating our arrival.

  A smile starts to break across my face and I throw my arms around Alexander’s neck, bringing him into a tight hug. “We made it Alexander!” I say.

  Mio and Cinder pull the boat up to the dock and tie it up. We all file out of the boat and onto the dock. The wall that surrounds the island is so tall that I have to tilt my head back to see the top of it. Every ten feet or so there is a guard post, and all eyes are on us.

  I look forward to where the dock meets the stone wall and wonder how we get into this place. Marin leads the group and starts to walk down the wooden dock. We all follow in step behind her since she is the only one that’s been inside the wall. When she reaches the wall she stops and starts to study the bricks. She raises a hand to one and pushes slightly against it.

  Nothing seems to happen at first, but then suddenly a large section of the wall in front of us starts to sink into the earth revealing the breath-taking city behind it.

  “It can read my fingerprints,” Marin says, explaining how the door works, and I remember this isn’t her first time at Libertas since she had been helping my father bring people with gifts here for a long time. This all seems normal to her. I lift my hand, examining the skin, and I wonder what the wall would read to unlock itself.

  We all file in past the wall and see a woman is walking toward us wearing a fitted red dress that ends just above her knees. She has bright red lipstick to match and tall red shoes.

  “Welcome to Libertas,” she says, her voice ringing in my ears. Her red lips part into a large smile. “Quite the crowd you’ve brought us,” she says to Mio. She curls her nose at him and scans the group, letting her curious gaze hang a little longer on the non-gifted members.

  “We lost the paper work,” Mio says as he approaches the woman. “Our ship was wrecked.” Mio stops when the lady rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed with him.

  “Excellent,” The lady responds, the aggravation is clear in her voice. “We will have you fill out new forms right away,” she says. Her eyes land on mine and I can feel a small chill run up my spine. “You must be Adaline,” she says and walks toward me, shaking my hand. “And you must be Alexander,” she says when she looks to him. “We’ve been waiting a long time for you two.”

  “We hope to help in whatever way we can,” Alexander says.

  The lady turns and starts to walk deeper into Libertas and we all fall into step behind her. I look back at the wall and see the spot that once lowered to let us in rise again. The lady leading us starts speaking, “You can all stay in the castle until your paperwork is filled out and reviewed, oh and you can call me Linda. I keep track of everyone who enters or exits the island.”

  As we walk together along the stone roadways through the town everyone’s eyes are on us. It’s a much different site than Garth. Everyone seems to be healthy and everyone has clothes on their back and clean skin. The stone architecture is magnificent. We have a similar style in Garth, but it looks like rubble compared to what they have done here. I grab Molly and usher her to the front of the group to Linda.

  “Do you have medicine here? She’s getting worse. It was just a cold, but now she has a fever.” Linda lifts her hand to cut me off.

  Without giving Molly more than a side glance Linda says, “The child will be fine. We have excellent doctors and medicine.” I swallow and my tight throat relaxes. I fall back in step with Alexander and let Linda continue to lead the way.

  Children are running around playing, and everyone is smiling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people happy at the same time. I watch as pairs walk from store to store, shopping for who knows what. Each of them looks like what we would call wealthy back in Garth.

  “I wonder how they survived out here. How do you go from nothing to this?” I ask Alexander.

  “I’m sure it’ll make a great story,” he says, but the tone of his voice tells me he isn’t all that comfortable with being here. He’s just like me. We see this place and immediately have questions about how and why.

  Linda stops next to a large wagon that is being pulled by two slick white horses. We file on and she tells us our next stop will be the castle. The wagon twists in and out of the tight brick path up the steep mountain. I look down and see the blue ocean water get further and further from us as we climb to the castle.

  Everyone we pass freezes to see who has arrived. I wonder if there were more people like my father and Alexander’s mother that brought people to Libertas, or were they the only ones? If they were the only people bringing in the gifted then these people haven’t seen new faces arrive here in over seven years.

  When we reach the top of the island I see the blue ocean come out from all sides. Lush green forest spreads down the island, and beautiful fields of flowers are grouped throughout the levels of the mountain. Although my gut tells me not to relax just yet, I let a smile spread across my face. It is just as magical as I had hoped our safe haven would be. I scan the faces of the group and everyone is just as amazed as I am.

  When we reach the castle we are led in the grand doors and into a large hallway. Glossy stone lines the floor of the castle and blue drapes hang from the ceiling. Our steps echo off the stone floors of the castle as we make our way inside. Brilliant statues line the halls as well as different paintings of people I can only guess once ruled Libertas. I count three different past rulers.

  “You can all wait down here,” Linda says.

  We walk under an archway and into a large room where the ceiling hangs high above our heads. Plush couches line the sides of the room, and in front of us is a grand double staircase that reaches up to the second floor.

  Two thin men dressed in clean black suits walk down the staircase. My eyes lock on the second, his face is hollow and his brown hair is slicked back from his forehead. His emerald eyes land directly on mine and I feel as though the wind has been knocked out of me.

  “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” his familiar voice echoes through the room, the same voice that has been echoing in my dreams since I was a child.

>   My voice echoes over Alexander’s, and in unison we say, “Father?”

  My eyes flicker from my own father to Alexander’s. Both of them are standing in front of us, healthy and alive. I bring my gaze back to my father’s face and I watch him smile. His joyful eyes linger on me until his face shifts to a worried glaze as he focuses on someone behind me. I turn over my shoulder and see he’s staring at Molly. I glance back to my father and his face has gone pale.

  “What is she doing here?” His words are panicked and he yells, “She can’t be here!” Two guards who had been silently lining the back wall walk up and grab Molly’s thin arms.

  “Stop!” I say, making myself speak over the shock of my father being alive. “We rescued her from the tunnels under Sard.”

  “She’s working for King Renon, I’ve seen it in my visions,” my father says, walking through our group and straight to Molly.

  “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Molly begins to say and nervous tears fill her eyes. The two guards begin to drag her from the group and my father follows them.

  “Leave her alone!” I shriek and start to run after them but my body freezes mid-stride. By someone’s gift, the guard I assume, my feet are stuck to the floor. I watch as my father places his hand on Molly’s forehead. “What are you doing?” I yell at my father.

  “Removing the memories that King Renon had planted in her head,” he replies. Molly screams in protest, her cries echoing in the stone room.

  My father lifts his hand and her head drops limp. Slowly she lifts her head and scans the room confused. Her eyes land on my father and her breath comes short.

  “Where am I?” her small voice questions.

  “You’re in Libertas, Molly,” I say and find my feet able to move again. I run to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. She looks at my hand and steps back from my grasp. She spins around the room as if searching for something.

  “Where’s King Renon?” Molly questions, slowly backing away from us. “Where’s my brother?”

  END OF BOOK ONE