One of the elders began to speak. He had a deep voice and spoke slowly, as if each word carried great weight. “A horrible illness came to the Mountain. We feared we would all die, women, children, our fiercest hunters. It was decided that our two strongest men would trek to the City. They would ask for help, medicines or supplies. Winter was upon us and we worried that our entire people would be wiped out. We sent them down and waited for days and then weeks. It was a long, cruel winter and when spring came, we were half of who we’d been. The men never returned. We came to find out later that not only had the City refused to help us, but they had captured these men, holding them in underground chambers as prisoners.”
I gaped at the elder in disbelief. There were no Prims in the City. “How do you know this?”
This time, it was Ezekiel who answered. “The question is, how do you not know this? Your City is full of secrets, Kaia. You are taught to fear us, but perhaps the real danger lies inside the dome, not outside.”
At his words, even the warmth of the fire couldn’t drive out the chill that ran up my spine.
Lev
The adrenaline rush of the attack kept me alert as we moved further up the Mountain. For the rest of the day my eyes darted around at the slightest sound in the trees looking for a flash of fur. I was surprised when Raf stopped before night had fallen. “We need to make camp.” He stabbed his walking stick into the ground and leaned on it. The animal’s blood on his cheek had dried, fading to brown.
I nodded in agreement, relieved. “Not on the ground,” I muttered. Since the beasts had attacked, I’d started to feel the effects of being untethered. I didn’t get dizzy like Raf, but my moods swung between euphoria and a raging anger. Each rolled through me, confusingly quick. “The surges,” I muttered. “They’re giving me a headache.”
“Me too. And we’re dehydrated. We need to rest.” Raf’s eyes swept the forest and landed on a slab of rock on the other side of the stream. Not part of the Mountain, it looked as though it had tumbled down from the peak and this was where it had landed.
“How do we get up there?”
Raf pointed to where a tree trunk had fallen, making a ramp to the top over the stream.
“We can climb it,” he said. He didn’t ask my opinion. An unreasonable rush of anger filled me. I pushed it away, reminding myself it was the hormone surges. I kept myself in check. His footsteps were deft and sure, and seconds later, he was standing on top of the stone, surveying the forest beneath him. “Throw me your pack,” he shouted. I hurled it up, took a deep breath and began the climb. I wanted to go on all fours and crawl, but Raf was watching, appraising. Holding my arms out to balance myself, I concentrated on placing each foot carefully. Beads of perspiration popped out on my forehead and I wondered how he’d done it so effortlessly.
“Don’t look down,” Raf called to me.
Too nervous to nod, I kept walking. My palms were sweaty. I paused to steady my footing and saw the ground below. The stream passed under me, but the bed was shallow and littered with sticks and stones. A tumble off the tree would be a disaster. Taking a steadying breath, I looked at Raf. He was close, no more than an arm’s length or two away.
My breath quickened. I was almost there.
“You can do it,” Raf said, holding out his hand.
A sudden burst of movement caught me off guard. A swarm of small birds exploded from the trees to my right. Hundreds of them filled the sky, swooping down and skimming the top of my head. I ducked and wobbled on the tree trunk. “Raf!” I shouted and spun my arms, but there was nothing to hold on to. I felt myself falling.
Raf lunged, catching my arm. “I got you!” My legs slipped out from under me so my bottom half was hanging off the tree trunk. “Swing your leg up.”
“I can’t!” Fear left me paralyzed.
“You have to!” Raf tugged on my arm. “You’re slipping, Lev.”
It was true. He was losing his grip on the survival suit. With a grunt of effort and a strength I didn’t know I had, I swung one leg up. My toes touched the trunk but fell off. “I’m going to fall!”
Raf adjusted his grip, leaning further off the rock. If I fell, we were both going down. I hauled my torso further up and then hooked my heel around the tree.
“That’s it,” Raf encouraged.
I inched myself closer to the rock until my chin was resting on it. Raf yanked me the rest of the way and I landed in a heap. I wanted to laugh with relief and cry in frustration. How many more brushes with death would we have before we found Kaia?
If we found Kaia.
Kaia
Ezekiel had nodded for me to leave the elder’s meeting place after his revelation about the City. Had he wanted to shock me? Or was he sincere that I know the truth? I barely registered the looks the Prims gave me as Gideon escorted me through the clearing. “I can’t believe the City would do that,” I said shaking my head. “It’s so,” I tried to think of the right word. “Savage.”
Gideon looked at me thoughtfully. “We’ve heard about balancings, where you kill the old and weak.”
“But that’s because they don’t produce energy. A city can’t run if its own Citizens can’t support it.”
Gideon stopped walking and held on to my elbow. “We help each other. We survive.”
“It’s different here,” I replied.
“How?”
“Because you’re—” The word ‘desperate’ was on the tip of my tongue, but that was a lie. No one here looked desperate. They lived simply, but that wasn’t the same. None of the Prims had expressed any interest in going to the City. To them, we were the ones to be pitied.
“Gideon?” a boy from across the clearing called. “Is that you?” He walked tentatively with a stick in front of him, tapping it on stones embedded in the ground. I hadn’t noticed before, but they ran all over the Prim camp. The boy came closer and I saw he was older than I thought, maybe fifteen or sixteen. His skin was burnished a deep brown and his hair was streaked with blond. He was lean and almost my height, but would grow taller; I saw how his neck had already stretched and was waiting for the rest of his body to catch up and fill out.
He stared straight past me, like I wasn’t there. One eye was cloudy green, as if the white had bled into the colour, and the other was a marled, brownish colour, fixated on something in the distance.
“What’s wrong with him?” I whispered to Gideon.
“He’s blind.”
I took a step back, revolted. “A defective.”
Gideon shook his head. “No, just blind.”
“I’ve never seen one before.” But I’d heard of anomalies in my training. We’d done our best to eradicate weaknesses like his from our genetics. I thought of the female I’d lied to about her fetus. What if he was born like this Prim? The City would balance the infant—and with good reason. A sudden flash of regret filled me. I shouldn’t have been so soft with her. The truth would come out eventually and then she’d have to deal with the consequences.
“It’s me, Sepp. Over here. Take the path to the left.”
Sepp’s stick tapped, looking for the stone path that would lead him to us.
I moved away, behind Gideon, but he pulled me forward. “I want you to meet Kaia.”
“The girl from the City? I heard about her.”
“She’s never seen a blind person before. I think she’s a little nervous.”
Sepp smiled. “I won’t bite. At least, I don’t usually.”
At first, I looked away, not wanting to see him face to face. But then I remembered he couldn’t see me. I stared at him unabashedly, getting an eyeful.
“Does she talk?” Sepp asked.
“Y-yes,” I stammered. “I talk.”
“Good!” Sepp sounded happy. How could he be though? Living a life without eyes? What kind of a cruel progenitor would want this life for their o
ffspring?
“So your mother’s back too?” Gideon asked. “Kaia has a wound on her knee that we need her to look at.”
“He belongs to the healer?” I asked incredulous.
“Yes.” Sepp turned his head in my direction. It was unsettling the way they looked through me.
“Is she at home?” Gideon asked.
“She was when I left. I’m going to check the garden. I’ll see you later.”
Gideon guided him towards a different path. I turned to watch him go. A group of children yelled greetings to him.
“It’s like he’s one of you,” I said when Gideon came back to me.
“He is one of us.”
“I know, I mean you accept him as one of you.”
Gideon took a deep, irritated breath. “You’re going to have to let go of your City ideas. He’s not contagious, he’s blind. You should see the carvings he does. They’re incredible.”
Gideon pulled at a thin cord under his shirt. “Sepp made this for me.”
Intricately carved, it was the face of the bird that had hung over Ezekiel.
“It’s a whistle. We all have them. It’s how we let others know if there’s danger.” He put the whistle to his lips and blew gently. A high-pitched noise pierced the air. I had to admit, I was impressed. “The sound stuns beasts too,” he said.
“The beasts? They’re real?”
“They roam the north side of the Mountain. They’re vicious,” he said warningly, “and travel in packs. As long as you don’t cross the stream, they’ll leave you alone. If the healer’s back, we should go to her.”
“So she can look at my knee?” It felt hot to the touch, but it didn’t look any worse.
“And,” he gave my finger a meaningful look. “My grandfather’s right. It has to come out.”
“How?”
Gideon took my hand and held it palm up. “The healer will make an incision here,” he drew a line along my fingertip. It sent a shiver up my arm. “And take it out. I’m sure it will hurt, but if you survive the wound on your knee…” He shrugged and I pulled my hand away.
I tucked my arms around my body.
“No one’s forcing you to. You could go back to the City,” he said.
His mention of the City reminded me that I wasn’t the only Citizen on the Mountain. The overseers. Were they still looking for me? Or had they gone back to the City. Why had they even come? Sy wouldn’t have told them about my escape—not willingly. With a start, I realized that they could have found him returning from the underland alone and questioned him. If he’d been forced to admit the truth, the overseers might have come after me.
Oh, Sy, I thought with regret. What have you done?
If Raina had been here, like Sy believed, things would have been different. I would have had a reason to stay, but as it was, I was trapped in a place I didn’t belong, with a people I didn’t understand.
Lev
I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. “I hate it out here!” I was still trembling from my failed climb up the tree trunk. The muscles in my torso and arms ached.
“I know,” Raf said. “But you’re doing good. Tar would be proud.” He slapped me on the back.
I clenched my teeth. “I don’t care about Tar.” It was her fault we were out here. Partially, anyway.
“No?”
“No.”
He eyed me, but said nothing. He shoved my pack at me. “We should eat. Try to gain some strength.” I pulled out a rice cake and cold, mushy beans. My food supply was dwindling.
“We’ll head back tomorrow at midday,” Raf reminded me licking his fingers clean. I’d lost my appetite and put the food back in my pack. “You can sleep first and I’ll keep watch. I’ll wake you in a couple of hours. We can start moving again when it’s light out.”
The last wisps of daylight disappeared as I lay my head on a mossy patch of rock.
Our second night outside and my thoughts drifted to Kaia. Closing my eyes, I conjured the memory of us in the orchard. Without my pulse point to help, it was hard, but eventually the feel of her, the taste of her lips came back to me. A longing filled me that I’d never experienced; the urgency of it made me blush.
Raf was following orders. He was determined to hunt Kaia and bring her back to the City, just as Tar had commanded. But I wasn’t out here because of Tar’s orders. I was looking for Kaia because I couldn’t imagine living without her. I knew what I had to do. Searching the Mountain could take days, weeks maybe. Raf would never agree to let me go on my own. The only way I could keep looking for Kaia was if I slipped away while Raf slept. By the time he woke up and realized I was gone, I’d be too far away for him to catch.
Kaia
Two huts stood in front of us. Gideon walked towards the larger one. It had a stone base and thatched roof, bits of sticks and bones dangled on strings from the trees, tinkling as we walked past. Baskets of plants, some with the roots still attached, lay by the door.
“Healer?” Gideon called softly, rapping on the door.
“Come in,” a voice called.
Gideon pushed the door open. The room was dim, a few tapered candles flickered on the mud-packed floor. Dried plants tied with string hung from the rafters and filled the air with spicy, herbal aromas. A woman bent over a stone bowl, pounding the leaves inside into a fine powder. One thick braid hung down, hiding her face. She was so intent on her work, she didn’t look up when we entered. Gideon cleared his throat.
“Gideon,” she said with a smile, standing up. Her skin was ruddy and drawn, like the other Prims.
“You heard about the refugee?”
Her eyes flickered to me, warily. “Yes. Hello,” she said. “I was just making a fresh dressing for your wound.”
I stared at her mutely.
“Sit,” she gestured to the cot, bigger than Gideon’s and piled with extra blankets. “How was the journey? Besides your knee, were there any other injuries?”
“My skin still hurts from the sun and I have insect bites.”
The candle light made shadows flicker across her face. As she came closer, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. My heart thumped in my chest.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
My mouth went dry. “Kaia,” I whispered. I knew her face.
The stone bowl crashed to the floor and the healer rushed to my side. Her hands shook as she peered into my face. “Kaia?”
When her eyes travelled over my face, a connection, lost long ago, rekindled. A spark lit. My skin prickled.
“Kaia,” my name, so familiar on her tongue, wrapped me in its long-forgotten sound. From somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, her voice found its way forward. “Is it really you?”
Her hands flew to her face, covering her mouth. She shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe it was true. I nodded. Unable to speak.
With trembling fingers, she stroked my cheeks, my hair and reached down for my hands, clasping them to her chest and drinking in every feature of my face. “Oh, Kaia,” she gasped and held me like she never wanted to let go.
And then her sobs turned to laughter. “Go!” she said to Gideon. “Tell Ezekiel my daughter has found us!”
Lev
“Lev!” Raf shook me awake. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes wondering how a few hours could feel like only minutes. “Your turn.” He held his lightstick out for me. Reluctantly, I took it. My mouth was dry and I felt like I could have slept for days. I watched jealously as Raf collapsed on the other side of the rock and was snoring within seconds.
I tried to stay alert listening to the sounds of the forest. I’d planned on leaving when the first streaks of light appeared in the sky, but I was too antsy. I shook my canteen. Half full. I stood up and grabbed the branch I’d been carrying as a weapon. Standing over Raf, I realized how easy it would be to clobber him with it wh
ile he slept.
I shook my head, frustrated at the thoughts that kept entering my brain. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I couldn’t hurt Raf—he’d saved my life. Twice. But if he was hurt, it would be easier to escape him. I could take as long as I wanted to find Kaia.
I reminded myself that he wanted to bring Kaia back to the City to keep her as a prisoner. He thought she was less than him, a half-breed. The competing thoughts crowded my brain. Finally, I put his lightstick beside him and left him there.
I was halfway down the tree trunk when I heard a noise in the trees behind me. A rustling and snapping of twigs. I froze and listened harder.
“What was that?” Raf sat up, instantly alert. His body taut. He hadn’t been sleeping as soundly as I thought. He reached for the lightstick. As soon as he held it, it glowed.
Breath caught in my throat as I waited for him to realize I was running away. The noises in the bush sounded again. Was it the beasts? Or Prims? “What are you doing?” he whispered, frowning. The beam of the lightstick made me squint as he shone it my way. He’d notice my pack and a guilty flush that crept up my neck. “You were leaving.”
My heart hammered my guilt, but I shook my head. “No. I’m thirsty. I needed water.”
“Why are you wearing your pack?” He narrowed his eyes at me, reaching slowly for his knife.
“I didn’t want to leave it.” There was another rustle in the trees. We both turned. “There’s something out there.” I scrambled back up the tree to the rock, not caring how clumsy I looked.
We both stood poised for movement, but the sounds stopped. “Where were you really going?” he asked.
“I told you. To get water.”
“No, there’s more going on.” He looked at me suspiciously. “You’re fidgeting. What are you hiding? Did you see her? Was that the noise in the bushes?” By the glow of the lightstick, I could see his eyes were round and agitated. He was having another spell. “Tar warned me this might happen. She said you were too much like Kellan.”
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