by Anne Schlea
Leaving Anna in the living room, he retrieves a blanket from his bed to drape over her. Now he pauses to brush her hair away from her face while he thinks about what he’s doing. She doesn’t have any external injuries that need to be tended. Any internal damage will either heal or it won’t, there’s nothing a medic or nurse will be able to do to help her. Anna needs time and the energy of another Fallen to begin the process of healing.
He’s familiar, his energy is familiar. There was a time when their energies mixed and mingled like they flowed from the same being. She’ll heal better and faster here, with him, then in a medical wing surrounded by people she doesn’t know or barely remembers.
Moving to his small kitchen, he pours himself a glass of pineapple juice. If Anna is going to pull as much from him as he thinks she will, he’s going to need to replace the minerals in his body before too long. He sets the glass on table next to the sofa and removes his shoes. Lifting her again, he maneuvers her sleeping form, so he can join her on the sofa, wrapping his arms around her so she can utilize his energy from more contact points.
As a secondary measure, he unbuttons his shirt to remove the fabric barrier between them.
Settling down with the intention of sleeping to limit the use of his own energy, Riley tries to ignore the sting of unhealed injuries on his back. Still too fresh, he hopes they’ve healed enough to not tear open and bleed on his sofa.
He can deal with the pain. The pain will pass. Closing his eyes, he runs his hand over Anna’s head, feeling the strands of hair between his fingers. It’s dull brown now, the streaks of red in it barely visible anymore. He remembers how it used to shine in the sunlight, a dance of color and life around her face.
Everything about Anna had been a dance of light and life. She was strong and vibrant, the center of his world.
He locks down the thought before he can dwell on it. There’s no need for her to ever know that. They were battle partners and friends, nothing more. Anything else he might have felt needs to stay in the past.
Taking a deep breath, he pushes all thoughts of the past from his mind. This starts over today, Anna is a different woman than she was and he’s a different man. Tomorrow, they’ll start to get to know each other all over again.
Settling to sleep, Riley smiles. Despite the weight on his chest from Anna’s sleeping body, he feels like today is the first time in a long time he’s able to take a deep breath.
Chapter Five
Anna wakes up slowly for the first time in years. Normally the pain in her arms and legs wake her with a start long before her mind is ready to rouse; she’s constantly sleep deprived. She can’t remember the last time she slept until she woke up naturally. Pain rules her life, not any alarm clock.
Not today.
She moves her legs gently, waiting to feel the ache start in her joints and spread out into the muscle. Nothing happens except that her legs rub up against someone else’s.
Her mind comes completely alert all at once. She’s never slept with anyone in her life. She’s Fallen. She can’t afford that kind of bond. Vague images flicker through her mind. Her last memory is the Committee Chambers. If she collapsed, she should be in the infirmary with a Fallen nurse sitting nearby.
Anna keeps her eyes closed and reaches out with her other senses. She feels the tactile smoothness of skin under her cheek and the heavy weight of arms around her body. A man’s steady breath rises and falls beneath her. His arms are tight, he holds her like she means something to him. A long pillow runs along her body to keeps her from sliding off the man underneath her. She must be on a sofa.
Her eyes pop open and she scrambles to scoot away from the stranger she’s sleeping with.
It’s Riley.
His eyes come open just as quickly. He slides away from her carefully, his movements slow and measured like he doesn’t want to scare her. “I’m sorry. You were ill and this was the best way to help you. I thought your body would react better to someone familiar than from a random nurse down in the infirmary wing.”
Anna backs away until she falls on the floor. “Ow.”
He smiles and sits up from the sofa. “Come on, I’m not that bad to look at first thing in the morning.”
“I just wasn’t expecting…” Anna reaches up to rub her face. She feels more alive and awake than she has in months. “How long have I been here?”
“You passed out yesterday afternoon.” His shirt is undone so that more of his skin can touch hers. He reaches around to close and button the shirt. His shoes are off and his hair is tussled. “I’ve been with you ever since. Marissa is with Mia. I promised Marissa you’d see her today. She’s very worried.”
“God, I feel…” Anna searches through her mind for the right word but it doesn’t come. She doesn’t know what she feels.
“Hungry?” Riley pushes up from the sofa and moves into his small kitchen. He comes back with a glass of juice and a muffin. “You didn’t eat yesterday at all. You must be famished.”
“I was going to say amazing.” She reaches up and takes what Riley is offering. The pineapple juice is cold and fresh, she can feel it moving all the way down her throat. Why didn’t juice taste this good in the city? “I haven’t woken up pain free in years.”
“Welcome home.” He smiles and starts coffee.
Anna watches his back through the arch that leads into the kitchen. He’s stronger with more muscle tone than when she knew him before. His movements are gentle and not hurried, but very deliberate. When the coffee is done he reaches into a cabinet and pours himself a cup.
“Would you like some?” He looks at her over his shoulder.
“No.” She smiles. “Thank you.”
“Still tea? I don’t have any.”
“Still tea.” He comes back to sit on the sofa. Anna glances around the room to look for any sign of a wife or children. “You live here alone?”
“I do.” He pats the place next to him. “Come up from the floor. I’d like to talk for a little while before I take you to your own place, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course.” Anna pushes up from the floor and settles on the sofa next to him. She knows they need to have a serious talk sooner or later and it seems prudent to get it out of the way early. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be at home.”
“It feels good to have you here.” He takes a drink of his coffee. “I’ve missed you.”
“It was hard to leave you behind.” She picks at her muffin. Hard doesn’t begin to describe it. She lived her whole life in a society where they look out for each other. Everything is provided right here in Orasul. Being on her own, out in the world, had seemed unmanageable most of the time. “The first year was almost impossible. It got easier after that but I never forgot. You can’t imagine what it’s like to live out there, away from everything you know.”
“I don’t want to imagine what that’s like.” He studies her face. “Would you like to know what happened when you left?”
No. Anna suddenly feels a lot worse. Something has to have gone terribly wrong after her departure to cause a civil war. She takes a breath and sets the muffin and its plate on the floor. “I suppose you should tell me.”
“You’ll hear about it soon enough anyway. Eat your breakfast, it isn’t good for you to starve yourself.” Riley sets his cup down on the table next to the sofa and stands. He paces across the room and back before he faces her again. She watches him move and realizes how silent he’s become. His footsteps make no sound; she can’t even hear the crush of carpet and he holds his body so that his clothes don’t rub against each other. There isn’t the brush of cloth. She shivers with the realization he’s become capable of being the killer she always joked they would one day be. “What do you remember? So much of that time is fuzzy to me; I don’t remember exactly when you left. Only that one day…you were gone.”
“I was in the Committee Chambers when Jonathan’s death was discussed.” Anna closes her eyes. She can still see that day as clearly
as it if is happening now. Her sister’s husband had been found gutted on Orasul ground. Death was a way of life to them. It was expected and understood, but no one died like that in their own city. There were more than a hundred Fallen in the Committee Chambers that day and they had all been angry. One of their own had been murdered, that was the cry. She remembered it was difficult for Putere to keep the meeting under control. “There was division, even among the Committee. No one knew what to do.”
“That didn’t change after you left.” He sits back down beside her and lays his arm across the back of the sofa, his body turned so that he can face her. His fingers brush against her shoulder lightly. “We know Lily went after the man she thought killed Jonathan after that meeting and we know you disappeared and so did Marissa. You know Lily did not survive. The problem is Lily was known to be the aggressor so nothing could be done to avenge her death. There would be no punishment or even any investigation to her passing. Since there was absolutely no evidence in Jonathan’s death…well, it doubled the anger and division. With Marissa missing, too…some Fallen thought the Committee was hiding something. Some even thought the Committee might have ordered the deaths of you and the child to finalize the cover up. Then one night, hundreds of Fallen left Orasul. They took their arms and their personal belongings and disappeared.”
“Wouldn’t they get sick like I did away from the city?” Anna shivers. The room seems to drop in temperature. Riley notices and hands her a throw blanket to put around her shoulders.
“They set up their own city.” His fingers come to rest on her shoulder. “We’ve looked for that city ever since and can’t find it. They send soldiers out to attack us while we patrol. We can’t do our jobs without fear of violence from our own. That’s how they’ve decimated our numbers so thoroughly.”
“I don’t understand. If they don’t agree with the Committee’s actions and have left to start their own city – then why does it matter what we do here? Why kill their brethren?” Anna feels like her world is spiraling. It’s hard not to wonder what could be different if she hadn’t left; to wonder if she could have made a difference if she stayed and fought.
“I suspect the man leading the rebels is the same man who killed Jonathan.” Riley stands to pour himself a second cup of coffee. He leans against the kitchen counter and rubs the back of his neck. “I think he killed Jonathan to cause the conflict that divided the city and I think his goal is to take the city and put himself in the place of the Committee.”
“After that, he’ll make a bid for the other Fallen cities and rule the race.” Anna shakes her head. She believes Riley. He isn’t someone to give in to delusions.
“I should probably apologize that I brought you back into this.” He sits down next to her again and rests one of his hands on her knee. “You might have been better off outside the walls of this chaos.”
“I never felt more alive than the moment you put that bow back in my hands.” She touches the top of his hand and feels his gratitude and resignation both bleed through. She draws her hand back; she’s going to need her gloves soon. “I missed my home. I would rather be here than anywhere else. Except maybe the beach. Sunshine and sand might be nice.”
Riley laughs. They’re buried inside a mountain in upstate New York. They’re about as far from the beach as a person can get.
“So now what?” Anna stretches and finishes off her juice. “I need to find a way to serve the Fallen. Is there some kind of job board around here I don’t know about? I can’t exactly sit in my rooms all the time.”
“You’re going to come to work with me.” Riley sounds completely sane and sure of himself, like it’s the obvious reason he brought her home. “I meant it when I said I needed you. You’re still the best I’ve ever worked with and I need you. The race needs you. That’s why I brought you back.”
“You’re serious.” She studies his face for some kind of indication he’s joking. It doesn’t come. He’s being dead truthful with her. “It’s been ten years…”
“You handled your bow beautifully in the city.”
“That was blind luck.” Anna can’t believe they’re having this conversation. “Besides, you’re a General. Do you honestly think your soldiers are going to be comfortable with me at your back? I should be Forsaken.”
“You’re not Forsaken and I don’t really care what they think about this.” He crosses his arms over his chest. Anna knows the move. He isn’t going to be swayed from this idea. “Your debt is paid. They will follow me because they trust me. That will be good enough for them.”
“The Committee needs my bow more than they need their penance.” The thought is heavy on Anna’s shoulders. “I don’t know how I feel about this. It goes against pretty much everything I’ve been taught and believed.”
“If it makes you feel better you can eat nothing but sardines and soda crackers for a month.” Riley grins in response to Anna’s laugh.
She stands up from the sofa and paces around the room. It amazes her how she doesn’t feel the fatigue that usually comes when she first wakes up. She twists at the waist and stretches her arms above her head. “When do we start this craziness?”
“As soon as you’re ready.” He walks over to his small bookshelf and opens a box on the shelf. Inside is a key on a chain he tosses at Anna. “This is a key to the weapons room. You need to get Marissa established into school and meet her teachers. You should probably get yourself settled into your new home, too. Then come find me. Today, tomorrow, maybe next week. Just when you’re ready.”
Anna looks at the key and laughs out loud. The black ribbon she’d tied to the top when she was in school is still there. It’s the same key she left in her barracks when she took off ten years ago. “You’re out of your mind, you know that.”
Riley grins back at her. “Let me put some shoes on and I’ll take you to your new place.”
∞∞∞
Orasul’s levels are divided by position within the race. Since soldiers live close together, Anna expects she’ll be placed on the same floor as Riley’s home. She’s surprised, however, to find herself only two dwelling places down the passageway. She wonders how many other families live on the hallway.
The main hallways are carved out of the rock. Centuries ago they were lit by torches. Today gaslight filled the chambers. It isn’t as strong as electricity, but it is an improvement. No carpet lines these hallways, either. It’s visually very much like living in a medieval dungeon.
A main atrium rises up the center of the mountain. The bottom-most floor houses the Hall of Tapestries and the main underground entrance to the city. The old-fashioned elevator rises up from the bottom floor past common areas – the training facilities for soldiers; the mess hall and dining rooms; the shopping center floor where the butcher, baker, and grocer sell their wares to families who prefer to prepare their own meals; the Hall of Weapons where soldiers are fitted for armor and munitions; the meeting halls where festivals and entertainment can be found; the Hall of Judgment where the Committee meets; and finally the residential halls. These are floor upon floor of housing for all members of the Fallen that live under Orasul’s sacred roof.
Halls run away from the atrium like spokes on a wheel. The spokes with families only hold a few dwellings, ones large enough for multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a common living area. The hallways of single men and women are more like dormitories that crowd dozens of dwellings on one hallway of one floor.
Riley’s home is large for a single man which makes Anna wonder again if he found a wife. He’s alone now, but that doesn’t mean he hadn’t been married and lost her. He has a small kitchen, eating space, and a common room. She has to assume he also had a private bathroom and at least one bedroom. When she lived at Orasul before, those dwellings were reserved for families and married couples. But Riley is also a General and she guesses his rank assures him a measure of comfort not given most; and if the city is as decimated as Riley claims it to be, it’s also possible there aren’t
many families left who need larger dwellings.
Anna lived in a small, one-room apartment in the barracks wing. She’d taken her meals in the mess hall with the other soldiers and shared a common bathroom.
The doorway Riley stops in front of clearly leads to a larger dwelling place. She has Marissa now, she’ll need a bigger space than the barracks allow. He pulls a key from his pocket and looks at Anna. “We installed locks on all the doors after Jonathan’s death. The Committee felt it reasonable to give our people a feeling of safety.”
“Okay.” Anna notices the handles that now hold shiny looking locks. They were not there before.
“This is smaller than your apartment in the city, but I think you’ll be comfortable.” He slides the key home and turns the knob. “If it isn’t to your liking let me know. There are enough empty places now I’m sure we can find one somewhere that will work. I hope you don’t mind, I had furniture brought in so you wouldn’t have to shop today for your own. I can exchange anything you don’t like.”
Anna isn’t sure what exactly to expect until Riley pushes the door open.
This home is more open than any Anna has ever seen in Orasul. The walls have been recently painted white to brighten the darkness of life underground. A pale blue carpet is spread across the floor and a cream colored loveseat anchors the main common room. A comfortable chair that matches the loveseat is next to a tall bookshelf. There’s a large kitchen with a drop leaf table. A dark blue tablecloth has been spread over the table along with a set of candles. Glass fronted cabinets display a set of dishes for four and basic food supplies. A small refrigerator is under the counter and there’s a stainless-steel sink.
A hallway leads away from the common room. At the farthest end of the hallway is a small bathroom with a claw foot tub, modern toilet, and sink with vanity. These walls are also painted white and the floor here has been tiled in an old fashioned black and white pattern. Black towels hang from hooks and Anna sees Marissa’s toothbrush and personal items are already in place next to the sink.
