Birdee let out a painful sounding cough. Lena had almost forgotten she was there. Both her and Tern had been so quiet. Birdee buried her head in Tern's side until the fit passed. She was sitting with her leg propped straight and leaning heavily on Tern. She had been tortured and imprisoned. Lena, Gideon, and Tern had just rescued her from the Crags. But Birdee still hadn't gotten the care she needed to heal properly.
Myri ran to the kitchen area in the middle of the cavern and got Birdee some water.
Tern looked worried but Birdee’s eyes were hopeful. "He’ll be okay.” Birdee said as she wiped a loose tear off her bruised cheek. “You got this.” Birdee’s face was pale. She looked exhausted.
“Tern, take Birdee to her room. She needs to lie down.” Thora said then turned to the others. "Dessa, Remiah, check the cave's security," Thora continued. "If Gideon is activated, we need to make sure we can contain him. As for the rest of you, I suggest you rest. We don't know what this may bring."
Tern stood and helped guide the makeshift wheelchair Birdee was using back to the residence hall. Druinn and Myri left to their room. That left only Lena and Thora.
"Thora, we'll fix Gideon," Lena said.
"Of course we will," Thora answered. "Get some rest, Lena. We don't know what the next few days will be like,” she said before leaving Lena alone.
Lena looked around the huge cavern. The crystals sparkled in the light of the room. They reminded her of the necklace she wore underneath her clothing. She pulled it out from under her shirt and gripped it, the edges of it digging into her palm.
The Angel and the Warrior. One with the power to save, the other to destroy, Alone you will accomplish nothing. Only when you work together will you be able to accomplish your destiny.
Lena didn't want to lose Gideon. Not when they had just found each other. Not when they had just made it to Thora, the place they thought they'd be safe. She gripped the medallion even harder in her palm. She wouldn’t loose him again. This time, she would save him.
***
By the time she reached her room, Lena's mind was swirling and her anxiety made the idea of rest impossible. She needed to fix Gideon.
Lena heard Suki rummaging behind their partially closed door. She didn't want to talk to Suki right now. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Instead, she kept walking deeper into the passage. With each step, she forced herself to take deep breaths in an effort to release the pressure building inside of her.
Selene was going to use Gideon to kill her. She walked further, but the more she walked, the more anxious and angry she felt.
Coming to the end of the passageway, she let out a big breath of air and pounded her fist against the wall. She was mad. Mad at Selene, Gideon's mom. How could she do something so evil to her own son?
She hit the wall again. This time, the wall moved. Lena gasped. The whole wall opened up like a sliding door. It revealed a small cavern that led outside. Lena could see light through dried and dead vines that covered the entrance.
The smell of decayed leaves and thawing earth called to her. Her anger turned to shock. She took a step outside. The dirt under her was cold and she could see her breath. She looked around. She knew this cave. This cave was the very cave her dad practiced escape drills too. She pushed aside the dry vines and exited the cave into the clearing by the Everleighan lake.
Lena took one step, then another until she found herself running to its familiar shore. She fell to the earth beside the water and stuck her hand into the crisp coolness. Relief washed over her. This was her lake. Her and Gideon's. This is the lake they played in as children. This is the lake she fled toward when Everleigh was attacked. This is the lake where Gideon shot her. She rubbed at the scar on her shoulder. This is the lake where Gideon had saved her.
The air was cold and the sky clear, but the sun felt warm on her skin. She listened to the waves hit against the lakeshore. Peace surrounded her and she felt calmness. Tucking her legs under herself, she sat on the shore looking across its vast expanse.
The place she sat was surrounded by trees. In the summer, when the leaves were thick and green, she and Gideon would come here to keep away from prying eyes. With winter almost over, new leaves would soon be forming on the trees. For now, she could see little bits of her citadel home through the empty branches. She had to see it. Had to see where she lived. Where her parents died. Where so many died.
She walked the shoreline leading to the city. The first shops and homes she saw were in pieces, most of them a broken mess. Walls were now piles of crystals, stone and wood. Some building had partial floors and walls still standing with stairs leading to floors that were no longer there. She turned down a path that would lead her into the city square. She gasped when she reached the edge of the square and saw what once was her beautiful citadel home.
The stairs that had led up to the front entrance were gone. And outside walls had crumbled. Crossing the debris of the square, she looked for a way inside. Stepping on top of the rubble, she climbed to where a window should have been. She wondered how structurally safe the building was. Looking as far inside as she could, she was surprised the inside wasn't as destroyed as the outside made it seem. Granted, the outer walls were—in places—completely gone. But the inner walls were remarkably still intact.
She crawled through the shattered window and into the citadel being careful not to cut herself on the shards of crystal and glass. The grand staircase that led into the main foyer was mostly undamaged though one side of its railings were gone. She could see her father's office just off the main entry.
Her mother had once told her that anyone was welcomed into their home. It wasn't theirs to begin with. It was the people's citadel. And though they lived there, it was also where all the offices were to run the city of Everleigh and the Resistance. Lena had always thought it was cool to live where there was so much action. Where she got to meet so many people. Her father always introduced her to those visiting, making her feel like an important part of his life. Lena took a step over more loose rubble and towards her father's office.
The large wooden door to his office looked like it had been blown open by some type of explosion. Lena stepped through the broken pieces and stopped in her tracks. She slowly surveyed the room. The office had been completely destroyed. Anything electronic, screens and holograms and everything, were in shattered pieces on the floor. The desk looked like it had been broken apart with a bomb, leaving nothing but scattered pieces of wood. The few books her father had in his office were torn and thrown on the floor. Their torn pages littered the ground.
Carefully she made her way to where the desk once sat. Pushing the wood with her foot, she searched through the mess. She hoped to find something, anything of her fathers that hadn't been destroyed. She turned over another piece of wood with her foot and saw it. Her family photo.
Its frame had been shattered but a picture of her, her mother and her father was unharmed. She couldn't remember when it had been taken. She was young. Picking it up, she pulled the picture from its frame and ran her finger over the surface. She'd almost forgotten how beautiful her mother was with her long flowing hair. And how confident her father was with his broad shoulders and twinkling eyes. She loved his twinkling eyes. They creased in a way that made him always seem happy. Hopeful. Loving. She missed them.
It was painful. It hurt just as much as the day it happened. She looked across the shambled room. This had happened because of Selene. Because the Priestess believed in a prophecy saying the offspring of her greatest threat to power would rise to overthrow her. The Priestess had been looking for Lena and caused all this destruction in the process.
Lena put the photo in her pocket. She continued to push rubble aside with her foot, hoping to find that not everything had been carelessly destroyed. She was nearly through the room when found another treasures. Her mother's notebook. It's brown leather surface was covered in dust and looked a little burned on one corner, but looked otherwise unharmed.
&nb
sp; She pulled it free of the rubble and cleaned it with the edge of her sleeve. Its surface was scratched and cracking. She flipped it open and scanned a few pages. A smile formed on her lips. Her mother's handwriting was in cursive, and a little messy to read, but it was perfect. She had things jotted down like people's names and where they lived. She had inspirational notes written in random places throughout. There was no rhyme or reason to her notes. Sometimes her mother had a date written next to things. But, mostly not. Lena remembered her mom liked to keep them small so she could carry them in her pockets. Lena couldn't believe that she had found something so personal from her mother. She carefully slipped it in her pocket with the photo and continued her search. But that was everything of importance in her father's office. Leaving the room, she returned to the grand staircase.
Feeling each step before she put her weight on it, she ascended the citadel. Her heart was racing as she reached the landing and looked down the hallway towards her old bedroom. The hall was fully intact but judging by what she had seen on the outside of the citadel she worried it wasn't stable. Still, she moved forward staying close to the inside walls.
She passed her parents room first. Gently stepping across the hall, she pushed the door open. Most of the room was gone. The majority of the room's floor had collapsed onto the main floor, and almost the entire outside wall was missing.
From where she stood in her parent's doorway, she could see where her old bedroom had once been. It also had collapsed and the wall between the two rooms was missing. All of it lost to the Priestess' rampage.
She closed the door and kept walking until she was in front of Gideon's old door. His room had been across and down the hall from hers. She opened the door. It was very much the same as it had been the last time she had seen it. The day she had heard Gideon and Zeke arguing through the door. The day that changed the course of both their lives. She walked inside and ran her hand along his dusty dresser.
So much destruction, and yet Gideon's room remained strong. So much like Gideon himself. Until Monmark and the device. Lena shook the thought away. Sitting on the bed, she opened up her mother's journal and started rummaging through the pages
Moving to the middle of the bed, Lena crossed her legs and turned to the last entry.
"Gideon and Zeke returned today. Saw Lena and him sparring in the courtyard. Lena won." Her mother had a little smiley face by the entry. This was the day Everleigh was attacked. The last day she had seen her mother.
She didn't realize she was crying until a tear landed on one of the pages making the ink run slightly together.
She missed her parents. She missed Gideon. She thought about him telling her he loved her. And how he let himself be handcuffed and locked away to protect her. So much had happened in such a little amount of time. So many people were suffering because they knew her. Gideon was inserted with the device. Birdee had been tortured and imprisoned. Jonah was dead.
A weird part of her missed Jonah. She hadn't really had time to mourn his betrayal or his death. Jonah was a lot of things. A liar and a betrayer; and still his last breaths were telling her she and Gideon could stop the Priestess. And now she only wanted to remember him as the friend who made her laugh. And kept her safe from Lucius. Not the one who lied.
Then, she thought of Gideon again. She didn't want to live her life without him. What if she couldn't fix him? What if he broke just like everything else the Priestess had touched? Rolling herself into a ball she lay her head on Gideon's pillow and let herself cry. Soon, she was sobbing uncontrollably. There was too much inside of her and she couldn’t make herself stop.
She reached for the dusty blanket and pulled it tight around her. She grasped the journal to her chest and wept and wept. She closed her eyes tight wishing the tears away until everything faded into the background of her mind and she slept.
Chapter Two
Lena jolted from her sleep. Gasping, she looked around Gideon's old room. The dusty and abandoned room looked exactly the same as when she'd fallen asleep. How long had she been asleep?
The sun was shining through the broken window but she had no indication of the time. She could see dust particles floating lazily in front of the window. She pushed the blankets away from herself. They had gotten tangled around her legs. Sitting on the side of the bed, she wiped the sleepiness from her eyes and readjusted her ponytail.
Sitting on the bed, she suddenly felt completely alone. She had never felt alone in this home, especially this room. It had always been filled with laughter and teasing, maybe even a little bit of fighting when she and Gideon were younger. But as much as they fought, she loved it when he visited. He made their home complete.
"There ya are," Tern said,standing in the doorway. His toned arms held the doorframe in a relaxed way. He wore the same type of jumper that the caverns had stores of, but Tern had torn the sleeves from his, only emphasizing his strong build and tanned skin.
"You startled me," she said, heart pounding. She had been so lost in memories she hadn't heard Tern approach. Though, if Tern didn't want you to hear him, you wouldn't. He was stealthy that way.
"Thora's got the whole place looking fer ya," Tern said as he tucked his loose, long hair behind his ears. "It even took me a bit to find out where ya had gone.”
Lena rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing here? How did you even know where I was?" she asked.
"It was hit and miss, but I eventually picked up your trail," he said. He studied the room, his eyes scanning every detail before landing back on where Lena sat tangled in the blankets on Gideon's bed.
"I take it this ain't yer room," Tern said.
Lena felt the warmth spreading across her face. "Gideon's," she said, feeling slightly embarrassed at having fallen asleep in his bed. Though, as she looked around, she noticed there was nothing to indicate that it was his room to begin with. No pictures or trinkets from his childhood. Nothing to show that he was part of the house. She tried to remember if he had ever decorated. She couldn't remember anything. He did travel a lot as a child, and Lena knew he liked to travel light, but why didn't he keep more stuff here?
Tern's voice brought her back to the present. "Thora thought ya should know that Suki is back with Evren," he said, as he studied her face.
Lena stood and ran her hands across her face. Her face felt kind of grimy and she realized the dirt from the blanket had probably mixed with her tears. She was glad Tern didn't comment on her disheveled appearance. "How long have I been gone?" she asked, using her sleeve to attempt to wipe the grime away.
"Most of the day," Tern said. "Thora ain't too happy with ya either."
"I imagine she's not," she answered. She looked back at her mother's journal now on Gideon's bed and picked it up.
"What ya got?" Tern asked.
She held up the journal for him to see. "It was my mother's," she said. "I found it in my father's office."
"Most people of Mir don't understand the importance of handwritten work," Tern said. "That's part of the dangers of technology. Part of why the people of the woods shun technology. Yer mother must have been an intelligent woman."
"She was. She loved writing with pen and paper. She told me it was therapeutic. I didn't understand what she meant back then, but I can now."
"Come on, I gotta get ya back," he said.
Lena gave the room one more look before joining Tern. There was nothing here that could make her feel truly better.
Carefully, they exited down the grand staircase and out of the house. Tern walked quietly beside her, not prodding her with unnecessary conversation until they had walked about half the courtyard.
"There aren't any bodies," Tern said as he stepped over the rubble.
"What?" Lena asked. She had one hand on a large crystal block as she climbed over some rubble. She looked at Tern confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Someone has buried the dead, or at least cleaned up the place," Tern said. "From what I heard 'bout the bombing. There was a lot of d
eath the day the Citadel was attacked."
Lena didn't like to remember that night. But Tern was right. The night that her parents had died was carnage. Lena closed her eyes, remembering and trying to block out at the same time all the blood she had seen. Suki was proof that the night Everleigh had been attacked had left a lot of people dead or scarred beyond repair. And Lena still saw the destruction of that night in her mind. But when she opened her eyes, Tern was right. There were no bodies.
"Selene wouldn't have done something like this," Lena said. "I mean, bury the dead."
Tern nodded his head. "From what we know about her, she would want the carnage to remain as a warnin'." Tern said.
Lena finished climbing over the rubble and stopped in a clear spot on the courtyard ground. Standing with her hands on her hips she looked in a circle. No bodies. No bloodstains. Nothing.
"Could animals have taken them?" Lena asked.
"Not without leaving skeletons," Tern answered. "Come on," he said walking towards the dais that lined the one side of the courtyard.
Lena hesitated. This was the platform that her father had been giving a speech on when Zeke had plunged a knife into his chest, then shot her mother in the head. She felt her heart racing and her chest tighten. She wasn't sure she wanted to see the dais any closer. And at the same time, she didn't want the fear of what Selene had done to them to hold her back. Clenching her fists, she followed after him.
When she arrived at the dais, Tern was standing on top of it, studying the surface. Where there should have been blood stains, there was nothing. Nothing but the dusty surface of a weather worn dais. There was no sign that any violence had ever happened.
"The weather could have cleaned some of it up," Tern said.
"No," Lena said. "This wasn't cleaned up by the weather. Someone has been here and cleaned the bodies and the blood.”
"Look." Tern pointed towards the lake then moved his arm to the right.
Lena followed his gaze. On a rise not far from the shore was a great mound with the broken crystal stones of Everleigh lining the edges.
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 46