House of Midas

by Chloe Garner

  Troy grabbed Olivia’s hand and Cassie started off in a different direction.

  “Don’t get caught,” she called back playfully over her shoulder before she vanished.

  Troy paused to give Olivia his full attention.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. She was shaking her head.

  “All that time down there, completely by herself,” she said. He nodded.

  “I know.”

  “And we just left her.”

  “We couldn’t do anything, today,” he said.

  “She was there last night,” Olivia said. “While we were eating that silly food.”

  He nodded.

  “And they don’t even feed her,” Olivia said. He grimaced.

  “That probably means a lot more to us than it does to them.”

  “Still,” she said, her voice getting weaker.

  “I know,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  She gave him a determined nod, and he marked his location mentally, moving quickly down hallways full of sound and the symptoms of life, keeping them only just out of sight, all the way back to Grand.

  *********

  Grand was waiting for them when they got back. He took them back without much conversation out to the village, where Cassie signaled Troy from the woods and they started back down the mountainside.

  None of them found much to talk about.

  “Are we going all the way back down?” Olivia asked at one point.

  “Yes,” Cassie answered.

  And that was it.

  The sun was setting as they made their way back up the pathway to Kable Telk, and a new set of guards greeted them. They knew to expect Cassie and were unconcerned with Troy or Olivia.

  They sent a runner into the palace and a few minutes later, Ajilla appeared to escort them.

  “Do you require a meal?” she asked.

  “You can bring it to our rooms,” Cassie answered. “We had a very stimulating day in Minan Gartal, and we are all quite tired.”

  Ajilla took this passively, leading through the maze of hallways to their spectacular sleeping quarters and leaving them there with a modest bowing motion.

  “Your evening meal will arrive shortly,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Cassie answered.

  “We just left her there,” Olivia said the moment the door closed. “I can’t believe we just left her.”

  “What do you think she would do, if we took her?” Cassie answered, going to sit next to the window. Troy found a seat nearby, prepared to wait.

  “I don’t know,” Olivia said. “But she’s still there, in the dark, by herself.”

  “The way she has been her entire life,” Cassie said. “In our years, it’s entirely possible that it’s been several hundred years since she was out of that chair. What is she going to do when we go in there and tell her she’s free?”

  “Probably stay,” Troy observed, and Cassie gave him a sympathetic look.

  “So?” Olivia asked. “It doesn’t make it right.”

  “We haven’t even set foot out of the room yet,” Cassie said. “We get her out. Out of Kable Telk. Where does she go? What does she do? She can’t go anywhere that anyone knows who the Gana are, because she has no survival skills, and Kron’s family will just go track her down and bring her back here. She has no independent wealth and no skills. She’s a power plant. It’s all she’s ever been. It’s all she’s ever been expected to do. You may as well go into a coal forge and declare it free.”

  Olivia sat down heavily.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  Cassie looked at her for a long moment, then took a breath.

  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’m going to take her out of here. I’m going to put her somewhere where they’ll never find her. It’s going to take a plan, and it’s going to take some time, but that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “But what about… no skills… all she’s ever been?” Olivia asked. Cassie’s eyebrows went up.

  “Completely unchanged. You just have no idea what it is that you’re asking me to do, and I do. There are consequences to a decision like this.”

  “Where will you take her?” a new voice asked. Troy’s head snapped toward the bedroom where Cassie had slept the night before.

  “I know,” Cassie said, “but I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m just going to take her.”

  “She won’t be able to tolerate crowds,” Asp said, coming out of the room and coming to stand in front of Cassie. Cassie nodded.

  “I know,” she said. “Language is hard for her. She’s not used to noise at all.”

  “I would give you money, but…” Asp said, and Cassie nodded.

  “She can’t use digital currency. They can trace it.”

  “She doesn’t need much,” Asp said.

  “No,” Cassie said. “But she won’t go without. I give you my word.”

  Asp nodded, then looked at Troy.

  “Do they know what will happen?”

  “No,” Cassie said.

  “If you’d go along with this,” Troy said, “why haven’t you gotten her out before?”

  “For someone who can’t use a fork, you’re clever,” Asp answered. Troy heard Cassie laugh. Troy waited, and Asp dipped her head. “She is my sister. Eld says that we must go along with precedent, with history, but this is not the future that my great-mother Ka envisioned for her daughters. I would not choose that chair.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Troy said.

  “She doesn’t have the resources, Troy,” Cassie said. There was a subtle head turn, but Asp managed not to look at Cassie.

  “It’s true,” she said after a moment. “There is no place I could go where they would not follow me. I don’t know how to escape.”

  “You have a child,” Cassie said.

  “Yes,” Asp said, her tone changing. “Even for that, I am a rebel.”

  There was a potent silence and then Asp turned and left the room quickly, moments before the door opened and a Gana woman brought in a cart laden with food. Cassie stood quietly as the woman did her quick work and left, then Asp appeared in the doorway again.

  “I do not want her to be alone,” Asp said.

  “I see no other way for her,” Cassie answered.

  “I am a rebel,” Asp said slowly, looking at the ornate glass in the window, “but my sister is an outcast. Alk has no love for this place.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed that Kron’s daughters were safeguarding the revolution,” Cassie said, and Asp looked at her with a tilted head.

  “Yes, I suppose we are,” she said finally. “Change has long been due for my species. Why should it not be the daughters of the king who accept it?”

  “Can Alk leave?” Cassie asked.

  Asp considered, eyes blinking slowly.

  “I believe so,” she said. “I would have to go now to arrange the details with her.”

  “I need her to get to Minan Gartal,” Cassie said. “Anywhere in the city. I will find her.”

  Asp nodded again, then turned toward the door.

  “I must go,” she said again. She paused at the doorway and turned back. “You know the cost.”

  “I do,” Cassie said. “As do you.”

  “Yes,” Asp said. “Thank you.”

  And with a quick, silent motion, she was gone. Troy frowned at Cassie, who indicated the food.

  “You guys eat,” she said. “I’ve got a lot to get done tonight.”

  “You aren’t staying?” he asked. She shook her head.

  “No. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

  Neither Troy nor Olivia argued with her. She left, and they found themselves alone with each other and a table full of food.

  *********

  “You have to admit,” Olivia said with her mouth full, “for a species who doesn’t eat, they really can cook.”

  Troy laughed. Everything was good. When they weren’t trying to show off, they
made food that was hearty and flavorful and complex, and Troy kept finding himself eating too much.

  “What do you suppose she’s doing?” Olivia asked.

  “She’s got a plan,” Troy said. “Hell if I know what it is, but she’s got one. We’re going to have to sneak that woman out the front door, I expect, and if it were me, I’d be planting weapons along the way, maybe some diversionary bombs somewhere else. Plan a path. Look for ways to cover it.”

  She covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “I didn’t know you thought like that.”

  “It’s just the same as at the lab,” he said, “it’s just less physical space and more political maneuvering. You set an objective, anticipate resistance, and then you strengthen your own position as much as you can.”

  She nodded.

  “With guns.”

  He shrugged.

  “They don’t work here, but Cassie will know what does.”

  “I feel like a spectator,” Olivia said.

  “Yeah,” Troy answered, reaching for another serving of the green fruit piled on top of some kind of grain-based structure. It wasn’t bread, but he didn’t know what else it would be, either. “I wish she’d let us go with her, but I see why she isn’t.”

  Olivia dropped her shoulders to rest her knees on her elbows.

  “Why are we here, Troy?”

  “You keep asking that,” he said. “Why are we where?”

  She sighed and looked down at the ground, letting her hair fall in front of her face.

  “Here, Troy. Why are we here? In the middle of someone else’s fight, someone else’s culture? Following Cassie around while she saves the world?”

  “I thought you wanted to get her out,” Troy said.

  “I did. I do,” Olivia said. “I just… I’m overwhelmed, Troy. This is all just too much. I don’t understand why she even brought us with her. She doesn’t need us here.” She looked up, her brows pressed together. “I’m not even sure she wants us here, sometimes.”

  “Of course she does,” Troy said, baffled. “She brought us.”

  “Why?” Olivia asked. “Why did she bring us?”

  He set his food down, sitting back and crossing his legs.

  “Does it matter?”

  “It does to me,” Olivia said. “At the lab, I know what I’m doing. I know that I’m good at it. This is just… wandering. I don’t understand it.”

  “Well, we’re going to get that Gana woman out of the pit where she’s spent her entire life.”

  “But we didn’t know that when we came here.”

  He shook his head.

  “I don’t understand. You wanted to come.”

  “And now maybe I want to go home,” she said. “I don’t want to leave her there. We should do something to help her. What they’re doing is awful, but…” She pushed her palm under her eye, looking away from him. “I don’t know what we’re doing here.”

  He stood. She wasn’t a soldier. She hadn’t trained her entire life, wanting to do this exact thing. He could try to be sympathetic, even if he might never understand.

  “Soon,” he said. “We’ll get her someplace safe, and then we’ll go. Okay?”

  She looked up at him, shaking her head.

  “You want to come back.”

  He looked around the room, wrinkling his nose, and she laughed, rubbing her nose on her sleeve.

  “Not here, but… somewhere. You want to jump again.”

  He looked at her, feeling the decision of that statement.

  “It’s late,” he said. “We should get some sleep. It’s been a really long day with a lot of messed up stuff in it. I don’t want to talk about anything important, like this.”

  “You do,” she nodded, rubbing at her nose again. “You can’t stand the idea of being stuck on earth again.”

  “Olivia,” he said. “Please.”

  She nodded, pushing her hair back up off of her face and standing.

  “You’re right. You’re right. I’m going to go get ready for bed. We can talk in the morning.”

  He watched her out of the room, frowning, then sat back down.

  It was coming out of nowhere, right? All of this?

  He didn’t make any progress, trying to understand what had happened, before Cassie got back.

  “You ready for tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Did Olivia go to bed?” she asked. He shrugged.

  “Anything I need to know?”

  She gave him a knowing smile, then dipped the corners of her mouth and shook her head.

  “Just that it’s going to be fun,” she said. “Sleep well.”

  He would have argued, but she left, going into her own room and shutting the door. Troy scratched the back of his head, then sighed. He clearly wasn’t going to figure this out tonight.

  He went to his own room, where he dreamed muddled dreams of being tied to a chair while Olivia asked him questions and Cassie laughed.

  *********

  Cassie woke them before dawn.

  “It’s time,” she said. “That woman doesn’t do another sunrise in that room.”

  Olivia appeared to be feeling better, this morning, so Troy tried to keep conversation light and to a minimum as they crept through the hallways.

  Cassie took them down an entirely different set of paths, leading to the same door, the same dusty hallway.

  There was a bag laying on the floor inside the doorway, there, that she picked up and put over her shoulder.

  “What’s that?” Olivia asked.

  “You didn’t think my magic arm computers were going to do all of the hard work, did you?” Cassie answered with a wink. They followed her quietly down the hallway, the dry and the mutedness of the space pressing in on them again, like yesterday.

  “I’m not going to turn off the alarms on the door this time,” Cassie said, “so if anyone has any reservations, you need to speak up now.”

  Troy looked at Olivia. She shook her head.

  “Do it.”

  Cassie gave them a firm nod and turned to the door again, pulling a strip of membrane off of her arm and affixing it to the door. The dust kicked up again as the bolts gave and the door swung open. Cassie sat her bag down at the Gana woman’s feet.

  “So here’s what’s happening,” she said. “Your sisters want you out. They’re willing to help. But no one is going to make this easy. You have maybe three minutes before all of your brothers, your father, and some other people who are very skilled at ending lives come through that door, which means that my friends and I walk back out of here in ninety seconds. I have fifteen seconds before I need to start detaching you from that table for you to make a decision. Go.”

  The Gana woman gaped.

  “That’s not fair,” Olivia said. Cassie shrugged.

  “Fair isn’t a part of the conversation,” she said. “Ten seconds.”

  Troy looked at the Gana woman.

  “What they’re doing here isn’t right. You deserve to have your own life. Come with us.”

  There was panic, fear, and then a stony resolution.

  “Do it.”

  “All right,” Cassie said. “I would warn you that it’s going to hurt, but that doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

  The Gana woman shook her head. Cassie took a torch out of the bag and began cutting at one of the cords underneath the chair.

  “All that Palta ingenuity, and you’re using a flame gun to cut through metal?” Troy teased.

  “This thing wasn’t built for taking her out of it,” Cassie said through closed teeth. “She’s intended to die in it.”

  “That’s awful,” Olivia said. “How could anyone do that to their child?”

  “People do it every day,” Cassie said dismissively. “Just not quite this literally, most of the time.”

  “I am the goddess,” the Gana woman said. “This was my role from birth.”

  “You’re going to need a name,” Troy commented, sitting on the ground nex
t to her. “Have you ever thought about one?”

  “I’ve never needed one before,” the woman told him.

  “Your sisters are named Alk, Eld, and Asp,” Cassie said. There was a small clink, and she stood. “Now the hard part.”

  Troy looked for any sign of what had happened, but there was none. Cassie drew a set of what should have been tree-pruning shears out of her bag, adding extension poles to the end of them.

  “Seriously,” Troy said. She shrugged.

  “The chair grew with her. Since childhood. It’s only designed to go one way, and that’s in.”

  The Gana woman looked away as Cassie put the blades to the length of metal burrowed into her forearm.

  “I’ll do a cleaner job of it later, but, like I said, thirty seconds and counting.”

  There was a rough snick and the Gana woman’s arm fell loose toward the ground. The Gana woman sobbed.

  “Does it hurt?” Olivia asked.

  “Not yet,” Cassie said. The Gana woman shook her head.

  “I’ve never moved my arm before.”

  “Focus on healing,” Cassie said. “You’ve got the energy for it.”

  “No,” the woman said. “I don’t.”

  Cassie growled.

  “You will.”

  There were more terrible noises as Cassie cut away the rest of the hard metal restraints, then put the cutters away.

  “Ten seconds,” she said. “If I had all the time in the world, I couldn’t be merciful.” She pulled pliers out of the bag. “But like this, all I can say is I’m sorry.”

  She came to stand between Troy and the Gana woman, ripping wires out of her chest one by one. The Gana woman grunted a repressed scream and Olivia looked away.

  “All right,” Cassie said. “Standing.”

  “You can’t expect…” Olivia said.

  “She’s Gana,” Cassie said. “One of the strongest, most resilient species in the universe. She’s going to walk out of here under her own power or not at all.”

  “Now’s not the time for ultimatums,” Troy said.

  “It isn’t an ultimatum,” the Gana woman said, pushing herself to her feet. “It’s simple understanding of Gana nature.”

  Cassie indicated that Troy should give the Gana woman some room, and he took a step back.

  “You ready?” Cassie asked, the first show of compassion Troy had seen from her.