Shuffle, bump, turn, fall—if I knew how far I’d fall each time, I could prepare myself to land more gracefully, but every level seems to vary in height. And when I get to the rooftop . . . then what? The building appeared blurry from the ground too, so this maze extends all around it.
And I don’t have Omega with me. I could have asked it questions about what’s inside, but I have to see things with my own eyes. I have to discover answers by myself. The hard way.
It’s why I left the children’s home the way I did.
Patience. It’s what I told Harmony to have. Breathe, Celeste, and keep moving.
Some of these passages take me far from the rooftop before turning back, and I keep hoping I’ll eventually fall to the ground, but it doesn’t happen. I’m reminded of the slippery seaweed hallways in Harmony’s sandcastle. If Orville hadn’t rescued me, I would have died in there.
But wait! Odin was the one who delivered Orville to me in the form of a wind-up flying frog. He knew I was in trouble. Does he know I’m in trouble now?
I escaped from Asgard without saying goodbye. I left him misshapen in the underwater castle. I could’ve helped him, but I didn’t. Why would he ever feel inclined to help me again? Keep moving, Celeste.
Just when I think I’m almost there, a passageway takes me far, far away from the building. There have been no turns, no bumps, no holes for a long way, and I’m tense with anticipation for my next drop. When I finally do hit a wall and turn back, I notice the sky is less dark. It’s almost dawn. I’ll never make it out before the village awakens.
What will they think? What will they do? What will I do if the beings in this building see me trapped in their ingenious maze? I’ll dissolve in place, that’s what I’ll do.
But for now, just . . . keep . . . moving.
I’m finally over the roof again. I see Bridger’s forced handiwork in building this structure. There are many gaps for me to infiltrate once I get there. If I can find out what’s happening inside without them seeing me, I can relay the information to Harmony and—
I drop through the last hole onto the rooftop, sirens blare, searing pain stings my feet, and everything goes black.
~ 30 ~
“WELL, WELL, THURSTON, who do we have here?”
“Oh, Lilith, I don’t know. Maybe another lost one come to help us?”
“New girl! Wanna see the new girl, Mommy!”
“Blanche, would you please keep this incessant child away from me!”
“Yes, ma’am. Come here, Sharon. Let’s leave the new girl alone.”
“But I wanna see her! She looks like—”
“Put that child in the room with the boy. Do it now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I hear their voices as if in a dream, or a nightmare, and the implications of what I’ve done hit me hard. If I’m identified as being from the village, I’ve just put my friends in danger. They’ll be coming this way soon, today, and without any help from me. My father will be worried sick over my absence. And Nick . . . I never should have promised a quick return. Maybe I never should have left them.
But if I’d stayed, we’d all be walking into combat blind. Here, I can learn how to defeat these scheming people.
Blanche is here. I have to be cautious. I’m not sure what game she might be playing. I know she recognizes me, but she didn’t say anything. I take it as a sign she won’t tell them about me, at least not yet, so I won’t act like I know her either. She’d be in danger then too.
There’s an odd, sterile smell in this place, like the air particles have been charged with alcohol but they still retain traces of disease.
Something’s covering my eyes. My head aches and my feet feel hot. I try to sit up, but my hands and feet are bound to whatever platform they’ve put me on.
“Don’t move yet, girlie.” It’s Lilith—I remember her voice from the visions Harmony shared with me, and how could I ever forget it? It’s the same voice Sharon spoke with when she was controlling the village as the Overleader. I shiver when I recall the spear Sharon had me hold and how it made me relive the nightmare of the day I lost my family. It was the Spear of Sorrow, then. And now it’s buried outside in the sand, useless to me.
If supernatural spears have feelings, then it’s waiting for my return. And so are my friends.
Is the child Blanche was told to take away the same Sharon who instilled such fear in so many people back in the village? She sounds like a three-year-old, but I remember Harmony saying her sister sounded like a little girl from the voices she heard through the chip in her brain. Is it possible to grow younger on this unstable planet?
It’s hard not to cringe when Lilith speaks. “You’ve had quite a fall, and we’re going to keep you here until we know a little more about you.” This sounds more like a threat than concern for my wellbeing, and her breath—too close to my nose—smells like dead fish. “We’ll leave your eyes covered until you’ve had time to recover.”
I suspect they covered my eyes so I can’t see their laboratory—but what if my eyes are actually injured? I move them back and forth beneath my eyelids and they feel okay. Poor Harmony. I’ll never shake my guilt over blinding her. Seems like I deserve this.
“So, tell me, girlie, how is it that you landed on my rooftop? Did a big old birdie pluck you away and drop you from the sky?” I can hear the sneer in her stinking voice.
I shake my head slowly and say nothing.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Could it be you came from the little village near my old home?”
It’s a question she could ask Blanche. I hope she won’t. Would Blanche lie for me if Lilith does ask? I don’t know. I don’t know who Blanche has become yet.
“It’ll be nice to get back to our little house for a bit, won’t it, Thurston?”
“Uh-huh,” he says.
She has no idea their little house was sucked into an enormous hole in the earth after I took the spear from it. After Blanche helped me take it. And I honestly thought returning it to the sea was the key to saving our planet.
The ooze cleared, at least for a while, but it was just an effect caused by the fluxes, probably while Zoya was growing weaker and more unstable. That poor creature!
How could Blanche have left the village for these appalling people?
“Speak up, girlie. Do you have any more friends who might be dropping in on us today? Or did you run away from your friends and home? And where, do tell, is your home?” Her voice makes me feel prickly all over and I really want to dissolve, but I can’t. Not yet.
“Dropping in on us today,” Thurston repeats, and chuckles. “That’s funny, cuz she fell on the roof.” He has a man’s voice, but sounds childlike.
“I . . . can’t remember,” I whisper. Since I don’t yet know the extent of my injuries, faking amnesia is my safest response. How could I be a threat if I don’t remember anything?
“You can’t remember how you landed on my rooftop, or where your home is?” Lilith’s words are sharp and clipped.
“Oh, Lilith, let the girl rest. That was quite a zap she got.” He chuckles again and repeats the word zap a few times. A hand pats the top of my head—Thurston’s hand, I presume—and I question his mental competence.
Maybe it’s just Lilith I need to worry about.
I hear footsteps approaching.
“Sharon’s with Bridger. He’ll watch her.” It’s Blanche. “Your army is back and they’re ready for your instruction. I’ll watch this girl.”
“Good,” Lilith says. “The final drill. Find out what you can from her.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“She must remember where her home is. We’ll start by subduing your old village, Blanche, and then we’ll defeat hers.”
Blanche doesn’t correct her. I breathe more easily, though the smell in here is vile.
“One by one, they’ll fall to me.” Lilith cackles.
“One by one and two by two, roses ar
e red and so are you,” Thurston mumbles, and then chuckles inanely.
My heart pounds in my ears as the clip-clop and shuffle of Lilith’s and Thurston’s feet echo down what sounds like a hallway. I can’t move, I can’t see. I could free myself by dissolving, but I have to find out what Blanche knows, and how this lab functions.
It’s quiet for a very long time. Which one of us will break the silence? I hear a chair being pulled up by my side and I brace. I feel vulnerable not being able to see or move. It’s dreadful.
“What are you going to do, Blanche? You already know everything there is to tell her about me. But you didn’t. I feel like I should thank you.”
“Shut up, will you? I don’t know what I’m going to do. How’d you know we were here? And how’d you get through the maze?” There’s a hint of excitement in her voice, but without seeing her, I don’t know how to interpret it.
“Never mind that. How much time do we have before they return?”
“I don’t know. Lilith could be out there all day, or she could come back looking for answers soon. Why are you here, Celeste?”
“I’ll ask you the same question.” Before she answers, I have to get this thing off my eyes. I have to see her face. I focus on the pungent smell, which makes me queasy, and use it to my advantage. I grimace and make myself gag. “I’m going to throw up! Untie me, quick.”
I hear the chair scratch the floor as she pushes it back, and the binding on my right hand is loosened until I can pull it free. I taste the bile rise in my throat as I turn onto my left side just in time for my insides to heave and splash onto the floor.
“Gross, Celeste!”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve seen worse things, Blanche.” I pull the blindfold off my head but I’m afraid to open my eyes, afraid of what I might see, or not see. I pull at the restraint on my left hand until it’s freed and she doesn’t stop me.
Slowly, so slowly, I open my eyelids just enough to let in a little light. Blurred shapes and dull colors come into focus as I open them a little more until I’m confident I haven’t lost my vision. When I let them open fully, the first thing I see is a worried expression on Blanche’s face.
She’s changed. She looks . . . lost.
I’m hopeful she’ll be able to find herself again, the self she was before children were left to make all the decisions.
~ 31 ~
BLANCHE LOOKS HORRIBLY THIN. I want to be angry at her, but seeing what I’ve seen so far, I can only imagine how grim her life has been since she left the village.
“The last time I saw you,” I say, freeing my feet from the bindings—she still doesn’t stop me,—“you helped me take the spear from the Overleader’s house.”
Does she remember that day? She does. She looks at me like a child who knows she’s done something wrong.
“Blanche? You can come back home, you know. I’ll help you.”
She looks confused and angry. “I thought you were dead. You never came back.” She turns away from my gaze.
Did she want me to return? Would she have stayed in the village if I had? My attention is drawn to some kind of control panel with glowing buttons and wires mounted on a wall not far behind her. I have to get to it.
“I tried to get back,” I say, meandering toward the panel. Trying to get back—my motivating inspiration for more times than I want to remember.
Blanche follows me, and I change the subject. “Where’s Bridger? Is he all right?” I remember his little voice calling for help from the apple tree at the children’s home a lifetime ago. It kills me not to grab him right now and flee, but there are things in this place I’m certain will help me defeat these insane scientists. I’ll bring him home, but not before I do some damage here.
“Bridger’s fine.” She looks guilty. Her forehead wrinkles and I can tell she’s hesitant to ask her next question. “Have you seen . . .”
She can’t even say her brother’s name.
“Yes. Chimney’s doing well. He’s really a remarkable kid. He and Nick risked their lives to find me. But he misses you, you know. He’s grown.” We’re standing right in front of the glowing panel.
Blanche inhales sharply and I see relief flash across her face. She’s guarding her emotions. I want to ask her why, why would she leave him for these horrible people? But there’s no time for that. There’s no time for any more chatter.
Her body shakes and I see she’s struggling not to cry. “I’m so, so tired, Celeste.”
I put my hands on her shoulders and I want to tell her the villagers are on their way when a door opens at the end of the hallway and I hear the clip-clop of Lilith’s shoes. Simultaneously, Harmony’s voice in my head startles me—her timing is horrible. The villagers are well on their way, and she wants to know what I’ve found.
No time to answer her.
I act fast, dissolving and spreading myself throughout the room, infiltrating the control panel and the wires and the walls. It’s so easy for me, this act of dissolving, and each time I do it, it feels more instinctive. More . . . me.
Blanche is startled by my sudden disappearance.
“Lilith! Come here! Fast!” she yells, and for a moment, I fear what she might say.
Lilith speeds her way into the room and her eyes look cruel.
Blanche intercepts her at the empty platform and, dramatically holding her hands out to her sides as if to protect herself, stares at my sick mess on the floor. Her actions are bizarre, and while I try to interpret what my particles are feeling in these wires, I’m also watching her. Not watching, exactly. When I’m in this state it’s more like knowing. It’s as if all of my senses become one and I see, feel, hear, smell, taste . . . know everything.
“You better have a good explanation for—”
“She was here! She was just here! She . . . I mean, it . . . just flashed like a lightning bolt and dissolved into this disgusting goo! What is this?” She steps back from the mess as if it’s threatening her.
So, she does want to come back home. And there’s still a spark of life lurking in her weary body. I’m impressed by her improvisation.
Where are you? Harmony’s voice interrupts me again—it feels like an invasion of my privacy this time, and I have to stay focused on these wires. Are you in the lab?
She’s blind, but she’s seeing what I’m seeing. If this were a dream, it would make more sense, but it’s not. How I wish it were a dream, along with everything that’s happened since before The Event. Just a nightmare I could wake from.
I feel intensely thirsty, but it’s not my body that thirsts. It’s hers.
Overwhelmed by the disparate tasks demanding my attention at the moment, I feel myself trying to snap back into my body, but that would be disastrous. I have to be in many places, and it’s confusing. I force different particles of my being to focus on each task. It’s difficult, and the more I try to separate my particles, the stronger they want to stay connected.
“Whatever it is, destroy it!” Pointing a crooked finger at the mess, Lilith shouts at Blanche before heading to the control panel, where a part of me waits. I’m stunned Lilith didn’t question Blanche about her story, but then again, her work has been creating anomalies ever since The Event, and possibly before.
Get into the water, fast, another part of me tells Harmony. She’s out of her element, and if she weakens, I’m afraid I might too. And yes, I’m in the lab. That’s all I can tell her. Things are happening too fast.
Patterns in the wires start to make sense to me, and when Lilith reaches for the panel, I’m ready.
“This’ll show any other interlopers,” she cackles, but when her hand makes contact with a button, some of my particles drag an electrical current to her sweaty finger. “Mother of Mephistopheles!” she shouts, and I smell singed hair.
I thought the current would kill her.
Blanche rushes over, but keeps her distance from the frazzled woman. “What can I do?” she asks.
“What can you do? What can you d
o? I told you to destroy the interloper! Can you do that, girl?” Lilith screams at Blanche, and I sense the scientist’s embarrassment at her predicament. She plans to increase the size and complexity of the maze field, but now she’s afraid to touch the controls.
She should be afraid.
My particles feel cool and refreshed—Harmony must be in the water. I sizzle sections of the circuitry controlling the ingenious maze and smoke wafts from the panel.
“My maze!” Lilith screams, and runs past Blanche and down the hall.
She doesn’t know it yet, but her maze is gone.
Blanche looks around the room—she’s searching for me—should I show myself again? It feels too dangerous, but it also feels like Blanche is about to break down. She has to keep Bridger and Sharon safe.
“Celeste? Are you in here? If you are, I just want to say, be careful.” Her voice is strained.
I snap back into my body and approach her purposefully. I need answers. Blanche jumps when she sees me, her eyes wide.
“What’s Lilith’s objective, Blanche? What does she want? And fast.” I hear shouting outside the building.
“Probably the same thing I used to want. I wanted everyone to listen to me, to do what I told them to do. I wanted to be everyone’s stern, protective mother, like the one I lost in The Event. Lilith sees herself as the perfect mother for this new planet, but if anyone fights back, her army is programmed to kill. Those who pledge their allegiance to her will live, but she’ll dictate their lives.”
The perfect mother. And she abandoned her own children.
“Why would anyone agree to that?”
“Because she’ll control the food supply. You’d be surprised what people and animals will do when they’re starving.”
“So why haven’t you stopped her?” It’s probably an unfair question to ask someone who’s managed to keep her head straight in an environment saturated with threat.
“I can’t get near her. She’s paranoid about being touched by anyone other than Thurston, and she’s surrounded herself with a force field like the one she created for the maze. Thurston’s the only one who can get near her.”
Waterwight Breathe Page 13
