“The Defenses will catch me,” Jonah yelled in a panicked voice. “You can’t let them catch me.” Lena slowed, but Gideon kept pushing her. He was leading her into denser tree cover. Lena stumbled against him. “I know where Thora is,” Jonah yelled. “If they capture me, you can be sure I’ll tell them where she is.” Gideon stopped. Without a word he pushed Lena into a thick copse of brush, and turned back to Jonah.
Lena hadn’t realized that Jonah was following them. With his hands cuffed, he moved with an uncoordinated gate but was still just behind them. Gideon ran to Jonah and grabbed the collar of his shirt. Dragging him into the brush he pressed a gun into the side of his head. “You threatened Lena. You threatened Thora. I promise you will never threaten anyone ever again.” Gideon loaded the gun. Jonah struggled against Gideon’s grip.
“I won’t tell,” he cried.
“You just said you would,” Gideon said, pressing the gun closer to Jonah’s head.
“I won’t,” he cried. “I swear, let me go. I won’t tell anyone.” The three of them froze as the roaring of a Defense ship passed overhead. Lena held her breath waiting for the signal that the Defenses had found them. Gideon tightened his grip on Jonah, they both stayed silent. The ship passed without stopping.
“I don’t trust you,” Gideon said after the ship passed. “Lena, look away,” he said. Lena straightened her posture. The brush scraped against her cheeks. Her legs were shaking. She looked between Gideon and Jonah. Jonah’s face was pale. His eyes were wide and sweat trickled into them. Gideon’s jaw muscles flexed in anger, there was no light behind his eyes, only a determined darkness. Lena had never seen him look like this. She raised her hand and grabbed the barrel of the gun.
“No,” Lena said, “Gideon, don’t. This is something you can never come back from.” Gideon didn’t lower the gun. “You’re better than this,” she said. “We’ll figure something else out.” Gideon’s arm muscles bulged. “Please, don’t do this, Gideon.”
“I’m not risking you or Thora’s life for his,” Gideon said motioning towards Jonah.
“The enemy is coming our way. We’ve got to hide better than this,” Lena said. Lena kept ahold of the gun barrel and moved so she faced Gideon directly. “We’ll take him with us to The Port. Make sure he doesn’t tell anyone,” Lena said.
“What will keep him from telling someone once we’ve left him?” Gideon said.
Lena looked to Jonah who had turned even whiter than she thought possible. “We don’t know what he’ll do, Gideon. We can’t control him. We can only choose what we’ll do, and I’m not going to kill him. Once we’re at The Port, we’ll find a way to warn Thora. She can find another place to hide. Then we can let him go, and nobody gets hurt.”
Lena looked at the insignia. The dots were nearly overhead. “Gideon, come on. We have more important things to do right now.” Gideon relaxed. Nodding his head, he lowered his gun.
Jonah sighed audibly.
“Let’s make one thing clear,” Lena said turning to Jonah. “You do anything else to compromise us, I won’t stop Gideon again.”
Jonah nodded his head.
“Let’s get out of here,” Gideon said.
“There are air bikes in the trees over there,” he said while motioning with his head. The color was returning to his face. “Wow, that landing hurt,” Jonah shook his head as if to clear it. He raised his blue eyes to Lena's. She looked away.
Gideon grabbed the neck of Jonah’s shirt pulling him to his feet. “Show us,” Gideon said.
“They’re hidden in those bushes,” Jonah said, pointing to a tangle of dry trees. “You have my word.”
Gideon grabbed Jonah’s arm and they ran towards the abandoned air bikes. Jonah’s legs kept collapsing under him as Gideon pulled him into the trees. Lena saw the bikes first, two of them. Gideon let go of Jonah’s arm and climbed on one while Lena took the other. Jonah started to climb behind Lena. Lena turned towards him, clenched her jaw and glared. Jonah shrugged his shoulders and redirected his movement to the back of Gideon’s air bike.
Gideon went first with Jonah clinging to the back of the bike with his cuffed hands. Looking to the insignia and then the sky, Lena calculated they had enough time to ride a little way before hiding.
After only a few minute’s ride Gideon slowed and stopped. “Let’s get rid of the bikes,” he said jumping off the machine. “If they figure out the Cimmerians left us, and the Defenses decide to track us, we can use the bikes to lead them away from our real trail.”
Lena jumped off her machine. Lifting the seat, she looked in the small storage compartment for anything that would be useful. A rope and an emergency bag were stuffed inside the space. Gideon’s bike only had a rope.
He wrapped the rope around his bike’s controls and sent it flying into the canyon below. Lena grabbed the emergency pack out of her bike then tied her rope around her bike the same as Gideon. Jonah watched without talking.
“How are we on time?” Gideon said.
Lena studied the images projected as her bike careened into the canyon below. The dots had increased in number since she’d last looked. “The quicker we hide, the better,” she said. “The first ship went after the Cimmerians. If they do decide to search the area, it’ll be one of the next ships.”
Gideon led the way into another canyon. The terrain dropped steep and fast and Lena lost her footing. Sliding down the steep mountainside, Lena grabbed at the sharp dried shrubs growing out of the soil. Dirt filled her shoes as she pushed against the ground trying to stop herself. When she finally halted, she looked back to see that Jonah and Gideon were only a few steps behind her, still on their feet. Lena pushed out a frustrated breath and stood.
Gideon stepped in front of her and stopped. He looked up at the sky. Lena looked too. All she could see were flat gray clouds with drops of blue peeking through. She thought she heard the roar of engines in the distance. All three of them were panting. Gideon scanned the steep terrain. He stopped and squinted his eyes. “Cave. There,” Gideon gasped pointing diagonally up the mountain before taking off at a run. Lena and Jonah followed, grunting as their feet navigated the terrain.
The ship’s engines were loud now. Lena still didn’t see them, making her think they were probably cloaked somehow. Gideon stood at the opening of the cave. He pushed Jonah and Lena inside the dark opening, then followed. The opening was barely wider than Gideon’s chest. It sloped downward like a slide. The three of them scooted themselves through the tunnel. It gradually got bigger and darker the further down they went. Lena opened her insignia to use as a light. As soon as they got to the bottom, the hole opened up into a room-sized cavern.
“We’ll hunker down here until we’re safe to move again,” Gideon stated. “With luck, they won’t have the skills to follow our trail.”
Lena walked around the perimeter of the cave. It took her sixty-three steps to walk along the edge and back to her starting point. It was larger than her and Birdee’s room at the Defense Training Facility, and it looked to have another tunnel leading away from the chamber. Their voices and movements felt amplified by the cave’s domed walls and ceiling.
“So, what am I? Your prisoner now?” Jonah asked. His hands were still cuffed behind his back. Lena couldn’t believe how quickly he’d recovered from nearly being killed by Gideon.
Lena didn’t answer as she threw the pack against the cave wall and knelt beside it. She didn’t want the Defenses to get him, but she certainly wasn’t going to be all chummy with him either. Pulling out the contents, she surveyed what they had: a first aid kit with bandages, gauze, disinfecting liquid and an ointment for cuts and bruises; a thermal blanket, a few bars of some type of food, and at the bottom of the bag was a flashlight. She turned the light on and closed her insignia. Lena sat on the ground. Taking off her boots, she turned them upside-down and dumped the dirt from them. She did the same to the other boot pounding the side of it against the palm of her hand to try and get it all out.
&nbs
p; When neither Lena or Gideon answered Jonah’s question, he moved to the middle of the cave and began a stretching routine. Lena tried to ignore his nonchalant attitude, but kept catching glimpses of him out of the corner of her eye. The more she tried to ignore him, the more her anger began to grow. Clenching her fists and then shaking them out, she tried again to tune out his movements. The harder she tried to tune him out, the louder he sounded to her. Clenching her jaw, she jerked her head towards him. All the rage she’d felt from the moment he’d betrayed her to now surged to the surface of her emotions. He stopped and looked at her. He raised his eyebrows and smirked when he saw her staring at him.
“You lied to me!” she yelled, standing up to face him.
Jonah straightened his posture. With his chin jutting forward he replied, “I’m good at my job, Lena.”
The anger consumed her. Without thinking, she moved in front of Jonah. Jonah’s eyes flew open wide. She vaguely heard Gideon yelling at her. With one hit to his head, Jonah fell unconscious to the ground. Shaking her hand she turned back to Gideon. “Owe.”
Chapter Seven
Lena sat on the cave floor next to Gideon. The light lay on the ground between them. Lena looked at Jonah’s unconscious body then back at her aching hand.
“I think I lost my temper,” Lena said. She rubbed her knuckles.
Gideon's shoulders shook with a silent chuckle as he rested his head against the wall behind him. His arms hung limp, and his shoulders slumped. His eye was now swollen shut. “If if wasn’t you, it was going to be me,” Gideon replied. Lena smiled sadly. Opening her palm she noticed the first layer of her skin was shredded. Probably from sliding down the mountain.
“He knows about Thora,” Lena said. Gideon blew out his breath. They both stared at Jonah’s unconscious body in silence. “He threatened us that if I tried to escape, then he’d tell. He’d somehow get word to Selene that she was in Everleigh.”
“But he didn’t,” Gideon said. “He hasn’t told anyone.”
“But he might, still,” Lena answered. She studied her hands realizing that only some of the loose and cut skin was from sliding down the mountain. The rest was from climbing into the ravine the day that Jonah betrayed them. She closed her palms and looked back at Gideon.
“Did they give you anything to eat?” Lena asked Gideon.
“No. You?” Gideon asked.
“I had a little. Lena reached for the pile of supplies she’d gotten from the emergency kit. She threw Gideon a small bar of food and found some ointment for her and Gideon’s minor injuries. She felt bruised everywhere. Holding a small mirror to her face, she examined the damage. Purple finger-like bruises striped the sides of her face where Jonah had grabbed her. She brushed her fingers against them, the tenderness making her flinch.
“I wanted to kill him for hurting you like that,” Gideon said. Lena put the mirror away and moved to face Gideon. Kneeling in front of him she examined his bruised and swollen eye.
Applying cream to his eye, Lena shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“He should have protected you, Lena.”
“Well, that wasn’t really in his job description, was it?” Lena snapped. Moving away from him, she sat and pushed her back against the wall. She hated feeling so angry. She forced herself to breathe, just like her weapons instructor taught her. Closing her eyes, she filled her lungs then held it as long as she could before releasing it. Still, her soul stung in anger. Unconsciously, she grabbed at the necklace around her neck. Holding it tight in her hand she felt the sharp edges of the medallion and the cut surface of the Seraphyst Stone. She gripped it until the sharpness she felt in her hand overtook the anger she felt in her heart. After a few moments, the rage began to abate, and Lena filled with sorrow. “You warned me, Gideon,” Lena sniffed. “You told me he wasn’t what he seemed, and I didn’t listen.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Eves,” Gideon replied. “He was good at his job.”
Silence filled the cave. Lena opened her palm and stared at the necklace’s reflective stone. The more she gazed at it, the more it looked as if clouds swirled beneath its surface. Lena shook the thought away and refocused. Lena knew that what Gideon said about Jonah was true, but she still felt so betrayed. Lena rubbed her neck. She felt Gideon studying her. “I feel bruised,” she said. Lena let go of the necklace and looked down at her torn hands again.
Gideon brushed the loose hair away from where it clung to her cheeks. “You’ve seen better days, that’s for sure,” Gideon replied. Lena jerked her head up and saw Gideon was smirking. She hit his shoulder. “Hey, just telling you like it is,” he replied, still smiling at her. Lena couldn’t help but smile back.
She rolled up her sleeve to where she’d been shot. It felt like an eternity ago when she and Gideon fled from Nagar at the lake. But really it had only been a few days. Gideon held up the light to her arm. He pushed against her wound with his fingers. “At least, it’s still healing,” he remarked.
Lena winced. “Though it’s going to scar pretty bad,” Lena said as she watched Gideon probe at her wound.
Gideon stopped and flicked her ear. Annoyed Lena pushed his hand away and gave him an irritated glare. He smirked back. “Scars just add character,” Gideon said winking.
Lena pulled some gauze from the pile and started cleaning her scraped hands. She inhaled sharply and bit her lip as she poured on a disinfecting liquid.
“Let me help you with that,” Gideon said. Grabbing a square of gauze, Gideon took her hand and gently started cleaning it. Lena felt her breath catch. She bit her lip trying not to show how it stung. He took his time making sure every scrape was clean. When finished he looked up at her. His brown eyes studied her for a split second before releasing her hand.
Lena cleared her throat. “Are the Defenses looking for us?”
Gideon pointed to her insignia. “Why don’t you look and find out.”
Lena felt her cheeks getting hot. She opened the image. There were no stationary dots. All the blinking dots were moving in the direction the Cimmerians took. She closed the image. “Looks like they didn’t stop.”
“I expected they wouldn’t. Even if they did see us on radar, I hoped a whole ship would be more alluring than the three of us. But you never know what decisions the Defenses will make. The leaders of the Defenses are kind of erratic that way.”
“Especially the captains,” Lena said in a teasing voice, bumping his shoulder with her own.
Gideon let out a small, sarcastic laugh. “Funny.” He stared at her now. His eyes twinkling in amusement. Lena looked away first.
“Do you think Azara and Tarek are waiting for us at The Port?” she asked, trying to deflect the conversation away from her unstable mixture of emotions.
“If Tarek said he would, then he’ll be there,” Gideon said confidently. Lena nodded in confirmation. She didn’t know Tarek very well, but he gave off an air of integrity—so different from his sister.
“Do you love her?”
“Love who?”
“Azara.”
“Oh,” Gideon cleared his throat and his cheeks flushed. He looked away from Lena to the ground in front of him. “Azara is amazing. Witty. Smart and beautiful,” Gideon paused. “But no. I don’t love her.” He looked intently at Lena. Her breath caught again. She swallowed and looked away.
“How did things get so complicated, Gideon?” Lena asked. She drew swirls in the dirt with her finger then zigzagged back and forth over the designs. It made her feel calm.
“I think it started with my father betraying yours,” Gideon answered with a sad smirk. “Things just went downhill from there.”
“Gideon, your mom... Selene. She’s the Priestess.”
“I know.”
“For how long? I mean how long have you known?”
“The day Everleigh was attacked,” he answered. “She was the one who volunteered me into the Defenses.”
“She was there in Everleigh?” L
ena asked.
“No, she wasn’t there. She was on screen. It was kind of a shock. I don’t have many memories of her as a mother. The ones I do have aren’t filled with happiness. As a child, she was just there. And when she left, I was sad. But, it was my dad who suffered the most. Seeing her on the screen was a shock. The woman my father and I spent our time fighting against was my mother. The Priestess. I didn’t really have the chance to process it all. As you can imagine, she didn’t give me an option about whether I would join or not. And my father, man, I was even more shocked to learn he’d switched sides. But there was nothing I could do. So I joined.”
“Then you betrayed her to save me and now she knows what you’ve done.” The cave was silent. Both of them looked at the ground not saying anything. What could she say to the person who risked his own life for hers? “Are you going to be okay?” It was a dumb thing to say, but she said it anyway.
Gideon raised his eyes in amusement. “I’m beyond anything resembling ‘okay’. But I’ve known for years now that she is the Priestess. And I know the possible repercussions of my choice to save you. I will always choose you over her, Eves. Back when we were kids, you were my best friend. You were my family. I saw a way to save you, so I did. And I’d do it again.”
“What are you going to do now that she knows what you’ve done?” Lena asked.
Gideon shrugged his shoulders. “I’m going to get you as far away from her grasp as possible. Then, I don’t really know. Maybe teach at the Interplanetary Military Academy. Explore other planets. I can’t really come back here, though. My mother would probably have me imprisoned. Or killed.”
Now Lena really didn’t know what to say. She felt Gideon looking at her but couldn’t bring herself to look back at him. She’d never really thought about what it meant for his life, only how it had impacted hers. She felt foolish for being so selfish. Smoothing out her dirt drawing she started over again, this time with sorrow resting heavily in her heart.
Chapter Eight
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 25