by Kelli Kimble
I laughed. “You wouldn’t take it.”
“Probably not.” He scanned the village again. “There’s someone down there,” he said.
“Is it Ray?”
He firmly pushed me aside. “I can’t see when you stand in front of me,” he said. He looked again. “I think it is him. And I don’t see anyone else.”
“We should go down there, then.” I stood up and started to collect my satchel.
“No. Wait.”
He pursed his lips and made a high-pitched sound. It hurt my ears, and I clapped my hands over them to protect them. “Was that really necessary?” I asked.
He was watching through the glass and didn’t answer. After a moment, I heard an answering sound from below. “It’s him.” He let out a deep breath. “I think it’s safe. Just leave your things here.”
We went down to the village. Ray was pacing in front of the rock. When he saw us, he looked visibly relieved.
“Elliot, Fiona, thank goodness.” He rushed forward and clasped at Elliot’s elbow, then grabbed my face and kissed my cheek.
I stepped back and resisted the urge to wipe my cheek dry. Ray immediately resumed his pacing. “Where is she? Everyone is so worried,” Ray said.
“Who?” asked Elliot.
“Genesee, of course. Isn’t she with you?”
Elliot shook his head. “No, she left before you did. Remember?”
“Yes, I remember,” he said, his voice mocking. “I was here, too. I thought she must have circled back. That she changed her mind and came back to you.”
“We didn’t see her,” I said. What was Ray playing at? He knew that Genesee wasn’t with us.
Ray’s face hardened as he set his jaw. His eyes flicked from Elliot to me and then back to Elliot. His upper lip curled. I felt a tiny movement deep inside myself, like two gears meshing together to create a bigger motion. And I knew we wouldn’t get away from Ray. Ray believed we’d taken the one he loved from him.
I took a step back, and Ray looked back at me. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Elliot moved in between us to shield me. But, Ray brought up his hand and jammed something against Elliot’s shoulder. It made a strange zapping sound, and Elliot fell forward.
Horror overtook me, and I turned to run. But there were others behind us. There was nowhere for me to go. My heart was pumping so loud that I could scarcely hear the words from their mouths as they shouted for me not to move. There was the pressure of something against my thigh, and I looked down to see Ray, pushing his strange weapon against me. My whole body clenched in response. And then, it was dark.
Chapter 7
There was something wet dripping onto my face. I flinched and tried to move away. My body resisted. Groaning, I opened my eyes.
I was in a room, lying on my back. Not inside a cabin or a hut. This was different. Overhead, the ceiling was kind of low and there were strange bars of light across it that hummed. One of them was flickering, and it made a soft ping-ping-ping as it lit up and darkened. Above the lights, the ceiling was an unremarkable, solid grey. Directly above my head, the ceiling was wet, and I could see the water congealing into a drop. I turned my head to the side as it descended, the only motion I could manage.
The drop struck just above my ear. I opened my eyes again. Now, I was looking at a wall. It was also grey but there were seams. It reminded me of the sod-brick dugouts back at the village, where we stored meat as it was being cured. I turned my head to the other side, looking for the door. But there was no door on that side, either.
Making a great effort, I lifted my head to look at the other two walls. The wall near my head was also grey. But, the one at my feet—it was different. It was made of bars. Like a cage.
“She’s awake,” I heard a woman say.
“Best to get him,” said another voice. “He wanted to be notified.”
“Who’s there?” I tried to say. It came out more like a squawk.
Someone walked past the bars. She looked in at me as she went by, openly curious.
“Hey!” I called. But, she didn’t come back. Instead, the owner of the other voice came into view.
Like Ray, he was just a man. But, he looked different, more polished. He was wearing a loose garment over his pants that looked something like a short cape. But, it had sleeves, and the fabric was shiny.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “She went to get the president.”
“The president?”
“Yeah. He’ll explain everything.”
I didn’t know what to say. He stared at me.
“You look different than I thought you would.”
“Different, how?” I was able to turn my head enough to see that I was lying on a rectangular, stuffed pad. It was slightly damp.
“I don’t know. I can’t quite put my finger on it.” He approached the bars and peered at me, as if I were a dangerous animal, caught in a trap. “You’re going to be nice to the president, all right?”
I got a prickly feeling on the back of my neck. “Sure,” I said.
“That’s enough bothering the lady. I’ll take it from here.” A man appeared, accompanied by the woman. He stood and waited patiently for the man in the cape to leave. Then, he turned his attention to me. His eyes were cold, but he smiled, and it seemed genuine.
“Ah. Lady Fiona. How are you feeling? I hope they weren’t too rough with you.”
His question caused me to notice the dull ache at the base of my neck. I raised a hand to touch it and flinched slightly at the contact.
“Oh, you’re in pain. Allow me to see to that.” He made a motion to the woman, and she scurried off. “She’ll get you something to ease the pain. I’m very sorry for the use of force. I told Ray it wasn’t necessary, but he was worried about your companion.”
“Elliot. Where is he?”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the president of the colony here. My name is Leo. I would like to personally welcome you to our home.”
I looked around the room. “Is this how you live? In cages?”
“Right. No. The cage is just a precaution. We actually call it a ‘cell’, not a cage. It’s for your protection, as well as ours.”
I didn’t say anything. He clasped his hands behind his back and began walking slowly back and forth in front of the bars.
“You’re probably wondering what’s going on. All in due time. I’ll make sure you get every detail as it becomes available. But let us begin from the start. You know that you’re inside the mountain, correct?”
I nodded.
“Very good. All right. You are here because Genesee has disappeared. Now, I’m not saying for sure that this is your doing. But, we know that you met with her yesterday. And that, along with Ray and Elliot, you were one of the last people to see her.
“Search parties are out. Hopefully, we’ll turn up something. She’s a member of the council. I’m sure you understand.”
I didn’t respond to the statement. I looked around the cell again. “How do you get out of this cell?” I asked. “There doesn’t appear to be a door.”
“Oh. It’s quite easy. The bars here in the middle. . .” He touched several bars in a row. “. . .they form a door. But right now, the door is locked. For your safety.”
I studied the bars he’d touched. They didn’t reach the ground as the others did, though they were only slightly shorter. “Am I safe from you?” I asked.
“Yes.” He inclined his head. “The bars keep me out, just as they keep you in.”
“Do you want to hurt me?”
His smile faded for a moment. “Only if you’ve hurt Genesee. As I said, she’s a friend.”
“I didn’t hurt her. I saw her last when she left the cabin. And I know Elliot didn’t hurt her, either. Where is he?”
“We haven’t gotten that far. Now. Ray collected you and brought you here. But there is a reason beyond Genesee. I understand you were hoping to come here to live.
To learn with us.”
“That’s what we asked Genesee to present on our behalf,” I said. “But, she thought it was a bad idea. She thought my people might look for us and put you in danger.” I struggled to my feet and approached the bars. “Do you think you’re in danger?”
He moved back a step. “No.” His eyes slid down the surface of the bars and to the floor, then off to the side. Someone was in the hall, someone I couldn’t see.
“I didn’t mean from me. I meant from my people.” I touched the bar in front of me. It was cold.
He didn’t respond. Instead, he turned to the side and resumed walking back and forth. “We’re well protected. And we’ve always kept our distance from each other.”
“You knew we were out there?”
“Just as you knew we were in here.” He licked his lips.
“I didn’t know you were in here.”
He raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “That is a surprising bit of news.” He stopped walking and studied me. “You are Fiona, the future queen?”
“I’m Fiona. But not the future queen. Not anymore. I wish everyone would stop saying that.”
The woman he’d dismissed returned, holding a tray. There was a cup of something murky, and beside that, several small, pebble-like objects. She stood beside him, not looking at either of us. He picked up each pebble and motioned for me to take them.
I held out my hand. As I uncurled my fingers to accept the tiny objects, my hand trembled. My eyes flicked to his face to search for a sign that he’d noticed. Had he seen my weakness?
He waited until my hand cleared the outside of the bars and then he dropped the pair of pebbles into my palm. “These are for the pain. You’ll feel better if you take them.”
I pulled my hand back into the cell and looked at the pebbles. They were small and white. I rolled one between my forefinger and thumb. It felt gritty.
“You swallow them. But don’t chew them. They’ll taste bad. Here, you can drink this to get them down.”
He set the cup on the floor, right outside the bars. The liquid inside sloshed slightly, but it didn’t splash like water would. It looked oily and was green.
“What’s that?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.
“Spyro. It is our primary source of sustenance. Much better for you than the animal-based diet your group prefers.”
I put the pebbles in my mouth, and they immediately began dissolving. The taste was bitter and unpleasant. Quickly, I drank a bit of the liquid and tried not to display my disgust. It tasted like muddy grass. But as he’d promised, it washed the pebbles down.
He laughed. “It’s an acquired taste.”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
He waved the woman away. I listened for the other person, but I could not sense them anymore. Leo tapped a bar with his evenly-trimmed fingernail.
“It’s late. Is there anything I can do to make your stay more pleasant?”
I pointed at the pad I’d woken up on. “It’s wet. There’s a leak in the ceiling.”
He looked around me to assess it. He frowned. “I’ll see you get a new one. Good night, Fiona.”
“Wait. I have questions.”
He raised his hand in a wave as he walked away, disregarding what I’d said. “You need your rest. Good night!” he called.
I heard the murmur of his voice down the hall. The woman reappeared, dragging a new pad. She stuffed it between the bars.
“You might be more comfortable if you put it in that corner,” she whispered, pointing to the far corner. “It’s the driest spot in that cell.”
“Thank you,” I said.
She didn’t look at me. She nodded and hurried back down the hall.
I threw it into the corner and curled up on it. I pulled my cape around me tightly and fell into a fitful sleep.
◆◆◆
There was a rustling, and I opened my eyes. It was the woman, the one who’d brought me the dry pad to sleep on. She was kneeling outside the bars, setting food on the floor just inside the bars for me. She looked over and, upon seeing me awake, jerked her arms back through the bars. She nodded once and stood. “It’s time for breakfast,” she said. Then, she walked away. Her footsteps receded out of my view, but stopped shortly after that.
My stomach growled and, though I worried it was stupid to eat the food they provided, I couldn’t help it. There was a cup of the foul spyro, an apple, something gray and mushy-looking in a small bowl, and a piece of meat.
I ate the apple first, even the coarse core. I spit out the seeds and moved on to the bowl of mush. It was smooth and velvety in my mouth and tasted rich. I had eaten something like it long ago at a meal with the queen, but I could not place what it was. I sipped at the spyro. It still tasted terrible, and I couldn’t finish it. I saved the meat for last. It was bland, but it was somehow tender and much easier to chew. I gazed at it. What kind of animal was it from? I couldn’t tell.
When I was done eating, I stood up and surveyed my surroundings again. I looked both ways out the bars and could see nobody in the hall. Tentatively, I reached out and touched one of the bars that didn’t reach the floor. I tried to pull it towards me, and it rattled in its moorings. Startled at the sound, I released my grip and took a step back.
There was no sign that anyone had heard. I studied the bars. On either side of the doors, the bars were sunk into the ceiling and floor. A rectangular piece of metal was sunk into the wall on either side of the bars, and each bar was threaded through it. There was a slight gap in it right before the first bar of the door, and again on the other side of the door. It seemed the door bars were all held in place only by this rectangular support, and the door was hinged on the one stationary bar it was attached to.
Movement around the corner startled me away from my study of the bars. I rushed back to the pad and sat.
Leo appeared. “Good morning, Lady Fiona. I trust you slept well?”
I stared at him. In fact, I had. But, that wasn’t for him to know. “Where’s Elliot?”
“It surprises me that the future queen is not able to display more patience,” he said. “I will get to that. In time. But first, we have other things to discuss.”
“I told you. I’m not the future queen.”
“That’s how it appears to you at the moment. I understand.”
I ignored that. “If you aren’t afraid of me, why am I locked in here?”
“I already explained that. The cell is for your safety, as well as mine.” He bared his teeth, then touched his forefinger to one impossibly white tooth. Then, he closed his lips and ran his tongue over his upper row of teeth. “On to more important things. Can you tell me where Genesee is?”
“I already explained that,” I snapped. “She left the village alone. Before Ray.”
“Mm. Okay. Well, I just wanted to check. Did you enjoy your breakfast?”
A flutter of panic clenched in my chest. There was something in it; I knew it. “It was fine,” I said. Remarkably, my voice didn’t shake.
“Good. Now. I want to discuss the future, Fiona. Are you willing to talk about that?”
I shrugged. I was eager to talk about where Elliot was and when they were going to release us. But, I doubted that was what he was referring to.
“It’s my desire to reunite our two groups. I think we have a lot to gain from each other. Don’t you agree?”
“No. Why don’t you explain what everyone gains?”
“The most obvious thing your village gains is access to knowledge. For whatever reason—a reason I can’t say I understand—your people have allowed the collective knowledge of humanity to fall away. We have that here in the mountain. We have vast stores of data. We could share that with you again.”
I nodded. “And what would your colony gain?”
“Your experience. Though we go outside, we just don’t have practical experience. Most of the people in the colony have never even seen a deer or a rabbit. We need your guidance.”
“Yes, but we’ve become reacclimated to the colony. Any of us can go outside. But, very few choose to do so. The vast majority never see the light of day. I have only seen it three or four times, myself.”
“You have people who do go outside, though. What about Ray?”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Ray is a disappointment.”
“Where is Ray? May I speak to him?”
He shook his head. “I’m the only one you’ll see, until we’re satisfied that you didn’t hurt Genesee.”
I squashed the flash of anger that made me want to rush to the bars, grab his smug little neck, and wring it. “I’ve already told you all that I know about her.”
He inclined his head. “Perhaps.”
“We’re done here,” I said. “I don’t feel like talking right now.”
“Very well. But just so you know, if you want to get out of that cell, you’ll have to play by my rules. Not yours.”
Before I could respond, he spun on his heel and left.
I sank back onto the mattress. That was stupid. He was right, and I shouldn’t have needed him to point it out.
Judging by the meals, he stayed away for two days. I tried to make friendly overtures to the mousy woman who brought my meals. It was something to pass the time, at least. But, the woman couldn’t be engaged in small talk. She would only speak when necessary.
Finally, he returned. I was curled up on the pad, facing the wall. I heard the ping of metal on metal, and then a clanking sound. I turned to see him unlocking the cell door. He swung it open but didn’t step inside. “You’re free to come out,” he said.
I sat up and studied him. He looked rumpled, out of place. “What is it?” I said.
He shook his head. “I’ve made a mistake. You may come out.”
I stood up and approached the door, one slow step at a time. The doorway seemed to stay the same distance away. Or maybe it was just a slowing of time. But, I reached the threshold and stopped. “Something changed,” I said.
