Aerro nods.
I was facing Golly, not a nocturne, when I first summoned shimmerdark, but like Aerro, I was afraid. That must be the connection.
I then think about Fifsa’s friend Tury. I thought a shockgun blast killed the nocturne near him, but maybe Tury’s cagic changed—maybe he and the woliev killed each other.
Yet Rutholyn’s been in great danger, and she can’t summon shimmerdark. Is it because she’s too young? It must be.
Drae Devorla will want to know about all of this. I quiver with excitement and even my thoughts feel cagically charged. “Come with us to Kaverlee,” I say to Aerro. I don’t want to share the attention I’ll get for being unique, but this is too important. Shimmerdark might be the greatest discovery of the century, and Aerro’s a part of it. “The Great Drae will be amazed by both of us.”
Yet Aerro tightens his grip on his armrest. “The Great Drae? I don’t want to see her. She killed my family and murdered this town.”
I try to be patient. “That was surely an accident.”
Aerro digs his fingernails into the plush fabric of his chair. “It’s still her fault. Her barrier failed, and she didn’t help us.”
“Maybe there was nothing she could do.” It was nearly impossible for me to defeat a dozen wolievs. I can’t imagine trying to save an entire town. “Look, I know Drae Devorla, and I know she cares deeply about everyone in Kaverlee City and the Periph.”
Aerro leaps up, nearly spilling his goblet of wine. “What do you mean, you know her? Why are you really here? Who are you? Did you come here to find me? Capture me?”
“No, no, no,” I say quickly. “Nothing like that. I had no idea you were here. I only know Drae Devorla because I was her Predrae.”
Aerro’s glare intensifies. “So you’re that Xylia. Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
“People thought so,” I say. “But I survived the shipwreck… just like you survived here.”
“Now there’s a new Predrae.” Aerro eases back in his chair. “Drae Devorla betrayed you too.”
“She didn’t betray me—she didn’t know I was alive.” Feeling defensive, I swirl the rest of my wine into a little whirlpool. “Anyway, can Rutholyn and I stay here for the rest of the Dark Month? As soon as the sun rises, we’ll be on our way.”
He nods and starts rocking again. “You’re welcome to stay, absolutely, but why bother returning to Kaverlee at all?”
That’s an easy question to answer. “Because it’s my home. Besides, when Drae Devorla sees how powerful I am, I believe she’ll make me her Predrae again.”
Aerro looks skeptically at the ceiling, and I understand why he doesn’t trust Drae Devorla, but he’s also never met her. He’s never seen her obsessing over barrier wall schematics or seen her spending hours repairing cagic compressors. I suppose we’ll be here for a few weeks, maybe I can change his mind before we leave.
And although he usually lingersleeps through the Dark Month, Aerro does decide to stay awake. “It’s so nice to have people around,” he tells us the next day, and I’m sure he’s been lonely.
Once we’ve eaten breakfast—an odd combination of dried berries and smoked rabbit meat—Aerro proudly takes us on a tour of the shelter. We’ve already seen his art treasures, the paintings and sculptures, but he also has large stores of clothes, blankets, tools, books, and even several dozen shockguns.
“Why do you have these?” I ask, for it’s chilling to see so many weapons in one place.
Aerro looks at me as if I should already know. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life here, so I need to be prepared for anything.”
Anything, I suspect, doesn’t just include nocturnes.
Aerro doesn’t have a lot of food, but he has enough to share. During Bright Months, he tells us, he tends sleeping crops. “I have several vegetable plots in the forest. I try to make the plants look like they’re growing wild, though, in case anyone finds them.” He keeps some of what he harvests in a cellar, infyroots, crisscross squash, and the like; the rest he dries or pickles.
As for entertainment, Aerro proudly shows us a wardrobe full of games. He has card games, toss games, and notion games that use tiles, beads, and figurines. “I’ve had to make up new rules for all of them,” he says. “That way I can play alone.”
The most useful items Aerro’s hoarded, though, are bandages, pain pills, and medicinal creams. My foot’s getting better, but my back still burns with infection. And even though Aerro’s medicine stash is probably no longer very potent, it’s still better than nothing. Rutholyn helps me clean and tend my wounds, and I put a fresh bandage on her hand. The two of us also bathe in the shelter’s baths. Aerro knows how to charge the old heating equipment, and once the water’s warm, it’s really very pleasant. Afterward, we dress in outfits from Aerro’s hoard and wash our clothes.
Strangely, Aerro's life reminds me of the Grimshore; he’s isolated and has to take care of himself. Yet while he has many supplies and luxuries, I had company, and company, I realize, is far better.
Because he’s been alone for so long, Aerro spends the next few days constantly with us, constantly talking to us. It’s honestly a bit exhausting, although I am interested when he explains how he uses shimmerdark, which he calls “shadow cagic.”
“I mostly hunt with it,” he says, demonstrating how he creates a loop of energy around an animal’s neck, which he then tightens. “I only hunt during the Bright Month, though.”
He also has excellent balance while riding shimmerdark discs, which makes me jealous. Standing transference surely looks much more impressive than my sitting and kneeling.
Yet he doesn’t know how to compress and heat shimmerdark, and I realize I don’t want to teach him. I suppose I’m being selfish, but if he does return to Triumvirate Hall with us, I still want to be the obvious choice for Predrae.
While trying to sleep at night, I often think about Shimmerlings and our relationship to cagic. Under the right circumstances, could any Shimmerling wield shimmerdark? Both Aerro and I first summoned it when our lives were in danger. But most Shimmerlings live in the Courtyard of Youth, where they never face any peril.
I have so much to tell Drae Devorla when I return and so many questions to ask.
I wish I didn’t have to spend the rest of the Dark Month in Haberdine, though. I’m giving Theandra weeks to spread wire-message rumors about me, and if Golly’s dead, I’m sure those rumors will be vicious. The sooner I reach Kaverlee City the better.
I begin to wonder if I should travel home alone. I’m sure I’d make it if I didn’t need to protect Rutholyn. I could leave her here, and then return for her during the Bright Month. I’d need a good map of the area, though. Glowy Pony might be able to lead me home with his knack for finding things, but I’m not sure how powerful he is. And I might also be able to follow the Sabeline River, but that might not be the most direct route. Yet when I ask Aerro for a map, he claims he doesn’t have one.
“But you have everything else,” I say.
He shrugs his skinny shoulders. “Why would I need a map? I’m not planning to go anywhere.”
I look for maps anyway, searching the chariots and coaches parked in the shelter. Their guideboxes are all empty though, and they also seem to have been recently ransacked. There are fresh handprints on their dusty doors. Does Aerro want us to stay?
My suspicions are confirmed during our third day in the shelter. As we share a meal of dried venison and pickled bird’s eggs, Aerro says, “You’ll love it here when the Bright Month comes. I can show you the library and the old temple. Last month, I found tortrussor eggshells in the amphitheater.”
“We saw a tortrussor on the road!” Rutholyn exclaims, turning to me. “It would be nice to stay here if Vonnet could be here too.”
“You’re more than welcome to stay,” Aerro says, sounding hopeful.
But I’m not even slightly tempted to stay. I don’t want to be stuck on another Grimshore. “Rutholyn, I promised I’d bring y
ou to the Great Drae, and I also need to tell her about shimmerdark.”
I can almost feel Aerro’s frustration. It seems to make the air prickly. “When you return to Kaverlee, you can’t tell Drae Devorla I’m here. If she finds me, I’ll lose everything, and I’ll be downleveled.”
We’re sitting around a silver gilt table in the inner chamber of his apartment. I look across the shiny surface, and I wish I knew how to soothe the sticky fears that keep him trapped here. “I won’t say anything,” I promise. “But I swear on all the realms, Drae Devorla would never hurt you.”
“She already has,” Aerro says quietly. “And she’s hurt you too. You just refuse to see it.”
Once we’re done eating, I put Rutholyn to bed. Yet I don’t feel sleepy. Since I also don’t feel like spending any time with Aerro, I tell him I’m going for a walk.
“A walk?” he says, frowning. “A walk to where?”
“Just around the shelter,” I say. “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving.” So I bundle myself up in warm clothes and head out into the chilly shelter. Unsurprisingly, Glowy Pony follows me.
“I feel sorry for Aerro,” I tell the small cagic horse. “But he’s also being really stubborn and stupid.”
I feel silly talking to Glowy Pony as if he’s a friend, yet our one-sided conversation gives me an idea. “You’re good at finding things. Can you find me a map?”
Glowy Pony tilts his head—thoughtfully, it seems—and then he trots confidently off into the darkness.
I follow.
The glittering horselet leads me into an area of the shelter I’ve never been to before. It’s newer, with smooth concrete walls and undamaged tile floors. It’s also dustier than the corridors around Aerro’s apartment. He mustn’t come here much.
Glowy Pony canters down a staircase lined with modern lights that are of course dark because the shelter has no power. At the bottom of the stairs, he stops.
“Are the maps here?” I ask, and we seem to be in a huge chamber for my voice echoes.
All I can see is Glowy Pony, who hops a few times. What’s he trying to tell me?
I fill my hands with cagic, and as light pools around us, I suck in a sudden, surprised breath.
We’re on a subtrain platform.
I didn’t know Haberdine had a station. Although I suppose, there’s no reason I would have known. The station was surely closed after nocturnes destroyed the town, and I was gone during that time. It looks like this station was still being built, too. Sending my shimmerlight around the large space, I see palettes of unused tiles and train tracks only run halfway down the lengthy chamber. Yet a tunnel stretches off into the darkness, and if no nocturnes have entered the shelter, it must be well sealed. If I’m lucky, the passage might connect the station to Kaverlee City. I can’t think of any other towns nearby.
I smile at Glowy Pony. “This is so much better than a map.”
He nods.
I hurry back to Aerro’s apartment, where I find him playing a notion game that involves balancing tiny chariots on small bridges. Rutholyn’s still sleeping.
Aerro looks up. “Do you want to play?”
“No, I’m tired.” I sit in the chair opposite him. “I was thinking though… many shelters have subtrain stations. A protected tunnel would be a safe way for Rutholyn and I to reach Kaverlee. Does Haberdine have a station?”
Without hesitating, Aerro says, “No. Of course not.” It sounds like honesty, but the look in his eyes is more complex.
He surely knows about the station. He’s lived here for years.
Well then.
He says I can’t trust Drae Devorla, but clearly, I can’t trust him.
17
The Tunnel
Icrawl in bed beside Rutholyn and wait for Aerro to go to sleep. Eventually the blue shimmerlight glow in the other room fades, the sofa creaks as Aerro stretches out, and then I hear his raspy, steady snoring.
I stay still and silent for what feels like an hour, making sure he’s truly asleep, and then I push back the coverlet and lower my feet to the floor.
It’s time to continue our journey.
I silently find everything Rutholyn and I brought with us, and I also take some preserved food from Aerro’s supply. I arrange our belongings elsewhere in the shelter, in what might once have been a communal kitchen, and then I return to Aerro’s apartment. With a globe of shimmerlight hovering at my shoulder, I gently shake Rutholyn awake. As soon as her eyes open, I press a finger to her lips and whisper, “We’re leaving. Follow me.”
Rutholyn frowns, maybe unhappy that I woke her. Yet after yawning and stretching her short arms, she stumbles after me. When we reach the communal kitchen, I explain my plan. “Glowy Pony found a subtrain station. There’s no train, but the tunnel surely leads to Kaverlee City.”
“But why do we have to go now?” Rutholyn leans sleepily against a cupboard.
“Well, because…” I’m not sure how honest to be. “Because Aerro will be sad we’re leaving, and he might try to stop us.”
Rutholyn still looks confused. “But how can I say goodbye to him?”
“Don’t worry about that.” I hand her the lighter of the two leather cases, the ones that used to hold Authentication equipment. “Just think about Vonnet. If the Great Drae chooses you, the Maternals will send for him.”
Rutholyn smiles when I mention her brother. So even though I don’t want to raise her hopes too high, I tell her cheerful stories about the Courtyard of Youth as Glowy Pony leads us to the subtrain station. I describe the musicians that often perform in Triumvirate Hall and the special trips Shimmerlings take to the Harbor Playhouse, the Crossriver Parks, and during the Bright Months, to the spreadfarms just outside the city.
When we reach the subtrain platform, Rutholyn stares at the curved, tiled walls in amazement. “I’ll like Kaverlee City if it looks like this.”
“It’s even more impressive,” I say as I lift her off the platform and into the channel of incomplete tracks with me. Because my injured foot feels better, I decide not to create a shimmerdark disc for us to ride on just yet.
We start out at a good pace but soon slow down. It’s the middle of the lunar night so we’re both sleepy, and the tunnel is unchanging and monotonous.
Hoping conversation will keep us awake, I ask, “What was your life like in that labor camp?”
“I don’t always know,” Rutholyn murmurs.
I take her hand. “What sort of work did you do?”
She yawns. “I sometimes mucked out the pens, and I sometimes helped in the kitchens, and I sometimes pulled up weeds.”
“What about your parents?” As soon as I ask the question, I realize they may be dead, so I hastily add, “Never mind. You don’t have to answer that.”
But she does. “Momma went all the way to the realms ’cause she was sick, and Papa was so sad he went there too. Vonnet promised to always take care of me, and now you’re the one doing that.” She lifts her small chin and smiles.
“I’m trying to,” I say, my heart twinging. If I do become the Great Drae, I’m going to insist that the King and Queen investigate the labor agencies. No one should own children’s work hours.
“Where are your momma and papa?” Rutholyn asks.
“My father died,” I say, and for the first time ever, I wish I knew more about him. Why was he so fascinated with the Hidden Gods? Everyone knows they’re only myths. I should have asked more about him. And as for Mother, she mentioned growing up in a labor agency orphanage. I suppose she was a lot like Rutholyn. I wished I’d asked her about that too. How did she meet my father? Why did they settle in Outer’s Cove? There’s so much about my family that I don’t know.
“I always miss my momma and papa,” Rutholyn says, her voice echoing off the rounded brick walls.
Even when I considered traveling to Kaverlee alone, I didn’t like the idea of leaving Rutholyn behind. I suppose it must have been even harder for my parents to give me to the Authenticators, to st
rangers. It’s odd to have something in common with them. I also realize that although I’ve always blamed my family for trapping me on the Grimshore, it’s also kind of good that I was there. Without my cagic to move boulders, catch small prey, and provide warmth, it would have been harder—probably impossible—for Fedorie, Clicks, and Kary to survive. What a strange shift in my perspective.
“I hope I get to be a momma,” Rutholyn says just as a faint blue-green light flashes in the corner of my eye. I turn quickly.
There are two patches of light behind us in the tunnel, one small and high and the other larger and low. They’re both moving closer, and I’m pretty sure I’m looking at Aerro’s transference disc and his shimmerdark companion, Flutter.
“Aerro?” I call, but no one answers as the approaching lights grow brighter and brighter. The faint glow that must be Flutter moves in erratic zigzags, while the other light is level and steady.
At last, I hear Aerro say, “So this is how it is; you pretend to be my friend and then you betray me.”
I still can’t see his face, but the shimmerdark he’s standing on illuminates his laced boots and wrinkled breeches. Flutter's shape is clearer now too. Did she wake him up? Did she lead him to us?
“I’m sorry,” I say, as Rutholyn worries her mitten-covered hand into mine.
“You’re only sorry you’ve been caught,” he snaps, and I can finally see all of him. He wears a heavily embroidered palliumcoat over his rumpled sleeping tago.
“I was stupid to trust you,” he continues. “You—the acolyte of my greatest enemy.”
Rutholyn tightens her grip.
“Don’t be…” I nearly say “ridiculous,” but I’m sure that would only provoke him, so instead I say, “Why did you lie about the subtrain station? You know I need to return to Kaverlee as quickly as possible.”
He stops his glimmering shimmerdark disc about eight paces away from us, and with an ease I wish I had, he steps down onto the concrete floor. “I want you to stay—obviously. It’s for your own good.”
Shimmerdark Page 17