by Dianne Keep
The group went north, parallel to the mountains. They passed the silent ocher meadows where Bayan usually took her on afternoon rides. Green blades of grass sprouted among the tall tawny shoots while birds frolicked in the scattered bushes, chattering to one another.
A fresh breeze from the mountains tickled Bree’s cheeks, urging her to direct her horse toward them. Nikki whinnied, and broke into a trot. The troops matched her pace. Khrisk rode ahead with fifteen soldiers. At least two men rode out and circled back every twenty minutes or so. Always reporting to Khrisk.
They went farther than she ever had, passing several clusters of crumbling farmhouses with slashed fences. A few small villages had new tall, thick woven mesh enclosures surrounding them that sparked green.
Ehre leaned over. “Powered fences. Keeps out the animals.”
Bree nodded. She turned in her saddle. Stav still appeared huge in the distance. The stadium was a small thing compared to the massive wall around the capital.
A game trail appeared, and they veered west into a dense forest. The path forced them to travel single file. The men unholstered their laser pistols. Ehre’s purple alhor flared.
The silent forest stretched on. No birds sang even though Bree watched them flutter about. A shiver shot down her back. Something was wrong with this land. Even in the warm sun, an unnatural coldness lingered above the ground.
After another forty minutes, they arrived at the base of a mountain. The company halted inside a circle of blue soil roughly the size of the formal dining hall with a water pump and trough in the middle. A breeze of colored dust swirled around the company. Bree wiped it from her face and Nikki’s neck. It held a metallic edge.
What did they want her to do with blue soil?
Bree dismounted. She rubbed her aching legs and sore rear. “I need some water.” She patted her mare’s sweaty neck. “I suspect you do, too.”
Eyeing the water, Bree pulled the empty water pouch from her saddlebag. The water here was probably safe to drink. This ground didn’t carry the same chills of the forest surrounding them. “Is this the site you wanted me to see?”
No one answered, but a soldier came and guided Nikki to the trough. Safe enough for horses. She made to follow, but Shane and the three nameless guards rallied around her, as did Ehre, Khrisk, and Thac.
The soldiers fanned out around the perimeter of the circle, pointing portable blaster cannons and rifles at the trees while the others tended the horses.
Still, no one spoke.
“Can I get some water?” Bree asked.
Ehre took her water pouch, filled it, and returned it to her.
“Thank you.” Bree drank the whole thing. Everyone was so tense. She must be missing something. “Why is no one speaking?”
Pebbles shook beneath her boots.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
On the north side of the circle, the ground opened, and a staircase appeared, descending into pure blackness. The darkness reminded Bree of the emptiness between the palace and Fara’s rooms. The air wafting up smelled like rot and death. Her skin prickled.
“This the place I’m supposed tour?” Nothing down that tunnel could be good. She looked for Khrisk. He was behind Shane. She couldn’t get to him without making a scene, but all she wanted was to hold his hand, to bring some comfort to this diseased place. “We have to go down there?”
“I’ll shield you.” Ehre mumbled some words, and her purple alhor surrounded Bree, Khrisk, Thac, and the quad. The light brought no reassurance they wouldn’t meet their end in the gloom below.
On the twentieth step, a buzzing sound started in Bree’s head. A name to the dank death slept just beyond her grasp, in the back of her mind. The amber necklace tried to send a warning, but it flopped and resorted to a dull pulsing. Her entire body sensed danger.
No one else seemed disturbed, and it gnawed at her wits.
“What’s down here?” Bree’s voice echoed off the walls.
No answer.
She stopped. Shane bumped into her. In the brief moment they touched, she felt his fear. They weren’t calm. They were all just as scared as she was. “If someone doesn’t answer me, I’ll hit Ehre on the head and our shield will be broken.” She peeked at Khrisk. His face paled in the faint purple light of Ehre’s alhor.
“You will not. This is Rysa’s secret. You’ll have to wait,” Ehre said.
Every step was a battle between flight and fight, and there were hundreds. Bree’s ears popped. The buzzing in her head grew louder. None of the men had brought a lantern, and Ehre’s alhor refused to spread farther than their tight group.
The nothingness put her nerves on edge. She hated the stairs, and the fact that Osling had a place like this and sent her into it. Her alhor flared with her fury, and with that burst of light, she tried to see an end to the stairway.
Nothing revealed itself.
After what seemed like hours of marching down, Bree’s boot struck metal. Ehre continued forward on the flat surface. Ahead, a metal door appeared and opened inward.
A swoosh of steaming air swept over her. Bree froze in place. The air seemed to turn to ice, making it impossible for her to breathe. “I can’t go in there.” She told her body to move, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You have to.” Ehre grabbed Bree’s arm, and Khrisk pushed her from behind.
Though Khrisk’s touch warmed the cold, she still couldn’t make herself walk through the door.
“No.” Bree bent over, hugging her legs.
Let’s see what they’ve been up to.
Power radiated from under her ribs, replacing fear with surety. The urge to run was replaced with fury. Utter rage. Her body shook with it.
“What have you done?” the other girl’s voice asked.
Bree bit her lip, hoping that was the only question the voice had.
Misery touched every feature of Ehre’s face. “You must see for yourself.”
Bree looked at Khrisk. He turned his face away. Shane stepped forward. He looked at her expectantly.
Go in. The other girl forced Bree to step forward. Don’t be afraid. We have nothing to fear in there.
Raw, unbridled energy raced through her body. It hovered under her skin, humming its own tune in her head. Bree tasted a sulfurous sickness in the air. It reminded her of Rishi Fara’s illness.
Ehre went through the doorway and placed her hand on a screen. Bright red lights flickered on, revealing a domed ceiling with catwalks and staircases leading to a vent in the roof. Ehre walked across the room, knocked on another door three times, then returned to the group.
The door opened and smog spilled out, spreading over the floor, crawling up the walls to the latch. The fog surrounded Ehre’s shield but didn’t penetrate it. Green lights blinked in a spiral pattern leading to the ceiling.
Bree’s alhor blazed, chasing the smog, consuming it. How in the world?
I told you. No fear. The other girl had taken over, completely invalidating the charm’s painful web of energy.
Bree watched the specks of gold glittering in the air. The smog had dissolved. This is impossible. How can you use my power?
“How’d you do that?” Ehre asked.
“I don’t know. It just happened.” Bree shrugged. “Instinct, maybe?”
“Time to go in.” Ehre took Bree’s hand. The touch stung Bree, bringing with it Ehre’s overwhelming fear.
Talk to me. What’s happening?
The voice didn’t answer.
The door locked behind them. Blurry figures moved through the haze outside the space of Bree’s alhor. Ehre led her along the wall to a glass box big enough for the group to fit into. Once everyone was inside, it slid along a vertical cable to a second story landing. “We’re almost there,” Ehre whispered.
Thick smoke surrounded the glass, hiding everything outside the box, which stopped two hundred seconds later.
The door slid open and Ehre stepped onto a platform. “Open the vents.” An alarm sounded and metal scre
eched. Billows of fog soared upward through vents the size of houses.
Bree’s alhor sparked, trailing the murk, dissolving it, and no one said a word about it. In less than a minute, her gold light had slashed the last bit of gloom, revealing a vast factory below.
Black matter swirled with green fluid inside a cone at the center of the room—thanum. Workers wearing white robes and gloves tinkered with pipes and wires, and others huddled around a set of screens with a massive control panel.
Crates filled with translucent cubes were stacked next to vats of the swirling black and green substance. People hooked hoses to the cubes, wrote something down, and watched as the cubes filled with thanum. Then they replaced the full cubes with empty ones. This was an energy production plant for Osling’s war. The cube sizes varied from small to large to fit either a laser pistol or a blaster cannon.
“What are we doing here?” asked Bree.
“Osling needs you to test something.” Ehre shared a look with Khrisk. “Then he has a special request.”
Searing heat churned in Bree’s stomach. The power inside nudged to be released, but she had no idea how to let it go or what it would do. The other girl was leaving her alone for now.
A tall, thin man in a white suit approached. A clear face mask covered his eyes, nose, and mouth and was attached to a tank strapped to his back. “Welcome to Stav’s energy production unit, Your Greatness,” he said, bowing to Khrisk.
Bree’s skin crawled. None of the workers on the floor below wore masks. What were they breathing that he wasn’t?
Khrisk stepped forward. “I see the ventilation system has been properly repaired.”
“Yes, Your Greatness, we finished last night.” The man touched the boundaries of his mask.
“Good. We’re here to visit the Hollow and then we’ll be going to the hospital.”
The man’s eyebrows went up as far as the mask allowed. “All of you?” He stared at Ehre then at Bree. “I assumed only the Seyhs would enter.”
“I’m safe as long as Ehre is close.” Khrisk rocked on his heels. “Shall we?”
They followed the man down the walkway. He turned and placed his hand over a piece of glass. Four beeps sounded and the wall slid open. “I’ll wait for you here, Your Greatness.” He bowed.
“Thank you. It should only take a moment. The guards will wait with you.”
“As you wish.” The man bowed again.
Ehre let go of her hand and ushered her into a small, white room. The door closed behind them.
Khrisk placed his hand on a black panel and a voice spoke through the ceiling. “How many?”
“Three,” Khrisk replied.
“Purpose?”
“Testing,” Khrisk said.
Six beeps and a door slid open.
A crisp breeze touched Bree’s cheeks. This place held a fresh, clean scent unlike the rest of the factory. The room was white, and the walls were lined with silver cylinders of all shapes and sizes in different holding stations and shelving units. Some were taller than a house and wider than a horse.
“What are those?”
“Depleted cells from before the Changing.” Ehre motioned Bree over to a chair. “Please, sit down.”
“What is Osling doing with a bunch of depleted cells?” The chair was cold, smooth as silk, and silver like the cells. There were little dips in each armrest, five to be exact. Bree placed her fingers into the dents. The chair vibrated.
She shot up. “It’s moving.”
Ehre sat her back down. “It’s supposed to. Your talent is activation. This chair is an exceedingly rare relic. You’re simply activating it. Place you fingers back in the slots.”
Khrisk came to stand in front of her. “My uncle collects relics. That much you know.” He squatted and placed a hand on her knee. “He also collects the power cells that go with the devices. Since you were able to activate the disk, we wondered if your talent for activation has returned in full.”
“Oh.” The chair continued to purr, the pitch rising the longer she sat in it. “What’s it doing?”
Ehre smiled. “We’re waiting to see if anything happens to give us clues about its use.”
“How long am I to sit here?” The chair suddenly stopped humming. “Did I break it?” Bree removed her hand from the holds. Power dripped off her fingertips. A rush of energy pumped through her veins, making the room spin.
“No, you did wonderfully.” Ehre patted her shoulder.
Khrisk’s face was unreadable. “Your talent is….”
“Useful for turning on old, useless relics?” Bree asked.
He dipped his head, stood, and kissed the top of her head. “Extraordinary.”
Tingles zipped down her head to her toes. Her dizziness vanished. “Thank you.”
Ehre went to the sidewall and picked up one of the smaller cells from the shelf. She placed it into a slot and pressed a red button. The cylinder cell was sucked up into the wall.
“What’d you do that for?” Bree asked. The cells on the wall seemed to shimmer while the ones in the next holding area remained dull.
“Testing. Nothing to worry about,” Ehre said, walking back toward her. “We’ve gathered all the information we need.”
“Time to visit the hospital.” Khrisk ushered Bree and Ehre to the exit.
The man stood to attention at the sight of Khrisk. “Is all as it should be, Your Greatness?”
“Yes, Ehre sent a cell up for testing.”
“Very good.” The man’s gaze touched Bree for a moment. “This way, please.”
They retraced their steps to the platform and continued down the opposite end of the walkway. The man pressed several numbers on a keypad, and a door slid open with a suppressed sigh. Ehre went in first. Khrisk placed his hand on Bree’s elbow, and guided her through an arched hallway of metal doors with small rectangular windows. Acidic chemicals laced the air, stinging her nose. Green lights in the floor blinked in the direction of another door.
Ehre pressed a button and a buzzer pealed four times.
“How many?” A man’s voice crackled from a box above the door.
“Eight.”
“Seyhs or humans?”
“Two Seyhs, six humans.”
“Previous exposure?”
Ehre glanced at Shane, Thac, and the other quad guards. They all shook their heads. “One Seyh, one human.”
Bree peeked at Khrisk. He’d been down here before. Was he sick? She wished the other girl inside her head would scan him. But so far, she seemed happy to remain hovering beneath her skin within the molten, churning power.
The door creaked, its hinges groaning. It was thicker than she was tall. Cool air rushed at her, then stilled. They entered a circular yellow room with eight white suits hanging on pegs.
“Are we supposed to put these on?” Bree’s fingers stroked the material, smooth and thin.
Ehre demonstrated how the suit went over her clothes, covering her from head to toe, with a slit for the eyes. Bree pulled hers over her head. Khrisk snapped something on her back, and when he turned, she saw a meter on his back. A needle wavered between a red and green stripe.
“If it gets to the end of the red side, we’re in danger, but only if we are separated from Ehre.” Khrisk’s eyes crinkled with a smile. She wasn’t reassured.
Ehre pushed a red button and a ringer sounded. A different door opened, and streams of yellow mist covered their suits. Three loud thumps and a hiss told her the door had sealed behind them.
Rows upon rows of beds filled a room larger than the grand courtyard.
A person lay in each bed tucked under white covers. Every face was lined with wrinkles just like Rishi Fara.
She turned in a circle trying to count. There were thousands of people.
Ehre kept walking, touching the bedposts as she passed. Khrisk stayed by Bree’s side. Her quad and Thac remained at the door.
She didn’t move. “What caused this?”
“We did.” Khris
k’s voice sounded muffled from behind the mask. “When my grandfather became Resh, he was determined to find another power source to rebuild what we lost in the Changing. Thanum, when it’s being processed, can cause mutations and death.”
She should have known all this. Why had they hidden her memories? She could have helped these people three months ago. Or before her mission to Anthea. How many people had died since she arrived?
“Why are you showing me now?” If they knew she had the ability to heal, they should have assigned her to the hospital instead of the military when she was drafted.
Khrisk shrugged. “You healed the Rishi last night. Osling believes you can heal the rest of Rysa’s sons and daughters.”
That was why he had approved Bayan’s request to marry her. The Resh needed her close to cure all these people for the rest of her life. “He only needed to ask. I would have done it.” Osling had let his people suffer all this time for nothing.
“My father believed you would, but after Anthea, Osling didn’t trust you.”
Her fury boiled over. Her body trembled.
Be still. Her gold alhor flooded the floor and crept up the beds. People moaned. The sound shattered her heart.
I know what to do. The girl had been waiting to touch them.
The amber jewel heated, but it was no match for the radiant fire spilling out of Bree’s body, racing down the rows, flooding the enormous room.
We’re their only hope.
Each person appeared in her mind. They floated in the sparkling gold, and she held them all within. The darkness was syphoning their souls. With a thought, she crushed the parasites.
Releasing the patients, her alhor retreated. Power coiled in her center and went dormant.
The silver woman appeared with six others.
For an instant, she knew their faces, their names.
She remembered.
A scream frayed her throat as the charm’s scorching lattice hid them once more.
CHAPTER TWENTY
No! the girl’s voice wailed. Give them back!
