Then, finally: “Fire!” someone gasps, barely audible. An elder runs out of the hall, trying to shout a warning, but mostly just choking. Almost immediately Mira and Carnelian rush up to him. Too fast! Will he be suspicious? No, the elder is too distraught to notice that they just happened to be nearby, to respond so quickly. He must know all the people here will take decisive, swift action. He’s not surprised that two responsible young people are on hand to help.
I see the three of them confer briefly. The elder looks like he is going to run for more help, which would be disastrous. We need as few people here as possible. Carnelian catches his arm and points inside. I know he’s saying that any delay might doom those who remain in the building. Together, the three of them run in, and the general alarm isn’t sounded. The rest of Harmonia sleeps soundly.
How I wish I could be with them! But though I’ve defrayed most suspicion, it would all return if the elders saw me there now. It makes sense that Mira and Carnelian are on hand. A happy couple kissing under her family’s tree house, running to help at the first sign of danger? Only coincidence. But if the girl from Eden showed up at a suspicious fire where an Eden prisoner was held, all their suspicion would come flooding back. They’d try to restrain me.
Then you’d have to use that knife for something other than vegetables, Yarrow jibes.
At last, the elder and Mira come out supporting a coughing woman. Mira runs back in, and she and Carnelian come out with another man. In and out they go, bringing five more people out, until at last Elder Night emerges, walking unassisted with a cloth pressed to her face. But where is Lachlan? Are they going to leave him to die?
No! There he is! Carnelian comes out at the head of a stretcher, with one of the guards behind. Oh no, Lachlan is still unconscious. This is going to make things a lot harder. Running tends to help in an escape.
I see lights come on in nearby tree houses. Any moment, half the village will be thronged around us. There is only the smallest window of opportunity. Come on, Mira! Do it now!
I see her run out of the building one last time, her face smeared with soot. She staggers to the elders and gasps out the story we decided on. I can’t hear her from my hiding place, but I know what she’s saying.
“There’s someone trapped in one of the rooms. A beam fell across the door, and I can’t move it. Quick, the fire is almost there! I need everyone, or he’ll burn to death!” The elders all follow her. Inside, in the smoky darkness, I know Mira will loose them and run back out again.
Now is my moment.
Breaking from cover, I dash to Lachlan’s side. I can’t waste time looking at him, but the glimpse I get of his haggard, unconscious face makes me fear the worst.
“Stop!” Elder Night cries, coming at me as though she could physically stop me. She must have been just inside, in the shadows where I couldn’t see her. “How dare you? Help! Help!”
I clench my fist around the hilt of my knife. Part of me wants to strike her. Stupid old woman, so bound by rules that she can’t even protect a helpless, desperate, harmless young man! What good is wisdom if you put it to this use? I don’t know if it is Yarrow or me thinking these thoughts.
I don’t know what I would have done if I was alone. Luckily, this is part of the plan. Carnelian comes up behind her with a big hemp sack, the kind we usually use for storing apples, and slips it over her head. While she struggles, he winds a cord around her arms and legs. Her shouts are muffled as he carries her just past the edge of the woods and lays her down gently. Someone will find her eventually.
Mira runs out, a look of fierce glee on her face.
“Let’s go!” she says, and joins me at the front of the stretcher. We each take half, while Carnelian picks up the back. Before the elders can realize they’ve been tricked, before any more villagers come to help with the fire, we’ve carried Lachlan into the woods.
In the confusion of the fire, it will be a while before anyone realizes what happened. When the elders come out to see Elder Night gone, they’ll think she commandeered some villagers to take Lachlan somewhere safe. With her voice muffled in the sack and the cacophony of rescue efforts, no one might find Elder Night and learn the truth until daybreak, a few hours from now.
We did it. Everything went perfectly. I can’t believe it. So many things could have gone wrong, but here we are, with Lachlan safe!
* * *
WE’RE FREE.
Or, as free as we can be carrying a heavy, unconscious man, with an entire village about to come after us, maybe in minutes, maybe in hours. Him being unconscious for very long wasn’t part of the plan. Feeling a sense of déjà vu, I try to wake him, but he remains completely out of it. We were counting on him being mobile. Having to carry him will slow us down so much we might be caught.
“We have to find a place to hide until he wakes up,” I say.
“But where?” Carnelian asks. “This close to the village, there’s no place that they don’t know about. There’s nowhere to hide.”
Mira and I exchange a look, both thinking the same thing.
“And it could be hours until he wakes up,” Carnelian continues. “We don’t know what they gave him and . . .”
“There’s one place,” she says. “It’s a bit of a hike, but not too far. We can hole up there and then when he’s awake make a break for it. If we’re careful about tracks, and if they don’t come for us until morning, and if he wakes up relatively soon, we should be okay.”
That’s a lot of ifs, Yarrow comments.
“If only there was a way to wake him up faster,” I muse.
“The place we’re going might be able to help with that, too. I’m just not sure . . .” She bites her lower lip. “I wish I had paid more attention!”
She won’t tell us any more now, though, but leads us onward as we laboriously hike with our heavy burden. We clamber over roots, through tangles of vines and thorns, and all the while I just want to take Lachlan in my arms, cover him with kisses, weep just to see him again.
“How come I never knew about this place?” Carnelian asks when we finally make it. “It seems like it would be a perfect place to be alone with your boyfriend and . . .”
“That’s why I never showed you!” she quips. She parts the thick tangle of rhododendron branches in exactly the right spot and unlatches the well-hidden door.
We set him down near the fountain of the strange half-man, half-fish creature. Lachlan looks like death, so limp and helpless, his cheeks gaunt, still covered in the dry dust of his desert crossing.
Mira is busying herself with some of the plants. This is so not the time for gardening, Yarrow quips, but I pay attention when Mira comes back with an assortment of leaves, blossoms, and a narrow yellowish root. She kneels down by Lachlan, next to me, holding the collection of plants in her lap.
“We all learn about the healing power of plants,” she says. True, that has been part of my training these last three months, but after a lifetime without any living, growing things beyond a few hardy kinds of algae and moss, I’m afraid that plants mostly look alike to me. Marvelously beautiful, of course, but I think I’m too overwhelmed simply by the fact that plants exist to pay attention to how many lobes a leaf has, or the number of petals on a flower. I’m making progress, but it is slow.
“My father was fascinated by medicinal plants. After he got sick . . .” She gulps, and it is a moment before she can go on. “He tried every remedy the Elders could suggest, but nothing worked. So as he got worse, and had less to lose, he started trying the plants in this garden. They don’t grow anywhere else, you see, so he hoped there might be something that could work, something we’d never find in the woods.
One thing he tried put him to sleep, another made him have visions. He tried different combinations. One mixture helped the cramping that came with his wasting disease. Another made his mind feel like it was floating, so he didn’t worry about the future. Other herbs and combinations had less beneficial results. One made him vomit for da
ys. Another slowed his heartbeat so much I thought he was going to die then and there. But this combination,” she says as she holds up the plant material, “made him exceptionally alert. His pulse increased, he couldn’t sit still, and he didn’t sleep for two days. So I was thinking, maybe if we give that combination to Lachlan, it will wake him up.”
“It’s worth a shot,” I say. “The longer we stay near the village, the greater our chances that someone will track us and try to stop us.”
“There’s only one problem,” Mira says.
Of course there is, Yarrow gripes. Although, it’s nice to have only one for a change. Usually there are a dozen problems at least.
“When my father tried his different medicines, he took them home and made them into tea. We don’t have any way of doing that here.”
“We have water,” Carnelian says, gesturing to the fountain.
“And we have fire,” I say, taking out the flint.
“But we don’t have anything to boil it in,” Mira says.
My shoulders slump in defeat.
“Of course, he was only in the beginning of his experiments. Maybe the plants don’t need heat to bring out their properties, I don’t know. But the bottom line is we can’t just shove the plants into his mouth. He can’t chew them if he is unconscious. So one of us is going to have to chew up the leaves, flowers and the root, and then . . .”
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Lachlan. Even chewing up nasty, bitter plants that make my tongue go numb and spitting the resulting juice into his mouth.
We will never speak of this again, Yarrow says.
For a while, nothing happens to Lachlan. If what I’m feeling is any indication, though, this should definitely do the trick. I did my best to spit everything out after I’d chewed it, but I must have swallowed some because I feel my heart racing as if I’d chugged three supercaffeinated drinks. My heart is racing, and I can feel my fingers and toes begin to twitch, itching for activity.
For a long moment, Lachlan just lies there, same as before, his face slack. Then I see his eyes start to move beneath closed eyelids, back and forth, like he’s following some frenetic game. Soon his eyes flutter open. He moans, and instantly I’m pushing his hair away from his brow. He blinks blearily, but then his golden second-child eyes manage to focus on me.
I stroke the cold sweat of his cheek. “Lachlan, you’re safe.” With the entire village coming in search of us within a few hours at best, safe is a bit of a stretch, but it’s what he needs at this moment.
“Are you real?” he gasps. Slowly, as if I might dissolve at any moment, he reaches up to touch my face. “You’re alive? I thought I would never see you again. The explosion . . .”
“I’m as real as you are,” I say, and chuckle, because I can hardly believe that myself.
He smiles back, then winces, but smiles through the pain. “That smile. I dreamed of that smile. The memory of it kept me going, even when knowing I’d never see it again made me almost despair.”
A troubled look crosses his face. “Wait, is this real? Am I . . .”
I can tell exactly what is going through his head. As someone who has woken up in one too many bad situations, I know he is thinking this is too good to be true. He thinks he might be a prisoner in the Center, that everything he sees is the result of a drug or a mind implant. I hasten to reassure him.
“EcoPan set me free. It saved me from the explosion in the Underground, sent me here.”
“And where is here, exactly?” he asks with a touch of lingering suspicion.
“The natural world. You made it out of Eden. But the people of Harmonia—the place we live—wanted to kill you.”
“What?” He looks confused, aghast.
“An outsider came before, and killed people. They don’t trust anyone from Eden, really, but they have to accept the people EcoPan chose. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”
He makes a choking sound of relief, and suddenly I’m in his arms. He’s holding me like he never wants to let me go.
“These are my friends, Mira and Carnelian.”
I help him sit up, and he looks around. His jaw drops in amazement. “Did I make it out? Did I cross the desert? I feel like I’ve been dreaming for days.”
“Harmonian drugs are pretty strong,” I say, making Yarrow chuckle inside of me. “I’ve experienced them quite a bit myself lately. Don’t worry, things will become clearer soon.”
“Where am I?” he asks.
“You made it to Harmonia, a city not too far from Eden. It’s a village that exists close to nature, and sometimes EcoPan selects people from Eden to be set free, to live in Harmonia.”
He’s gazing in wonder at the garden around him. Although it is night, there’s a bright moon overhead. That light is enhanced by the gardening bots disguised as beetles. Every jewel-like carapace is glowing as they scurry about their chores. They illuminate the exotic flowers and foliage with a mystical glow.
Lachlan is entranced. “The living world,” he breaths. “I believed you when you told me—I really did. But even then, I never imagined it could be like this.” He spreads his arms to the orchids, the vines full of white flowers like stars, the heady floral scent that fills the air. He pulls me into his arms, whispering fiercely into my hair, “Oh, Rowan, do you know what this means? It means the people of Eden have hope!”
I feel deliriously, deliciously happy nestled in his arms. I want to stay here forever, in this magical garden with my loved ones all around me. But we’re not safe here. And some of my loved ones are missing.
“Can you walk?” I ask him, breaking the spell. “We have to go.”
Suddenly it hits me exactly what I’ve dragged Mira and Carnelian into. This isn’t just an adventure. This is something that is changing their whole lives, making them leave behind everything they’ve known since they were born. “Not you two,” I add suddenly to Mira and Carnelian. “We can’t let you become involved in this. It’s . . . it’s an Eden matter. You have your own lives here.”
“Nonsense,” Mira says adamantly. “We’re adults who made our own decisions. We want to help Lachlan. We want to help everyone in Eden. I was already planning to get back into Eden to help your brother and friends.”
“Really?” Carnelian asks, surprised. He just got roped into this at the last minute. I think despite what Mira said about his enthusiasm, and his willingness to risk himself and leave the life he knew in Harmonia behind, he hasn’t really thought this through.
“We were raised to help people, to prevent suffering, to bring peace to all living things,” Mira says. “The elders might have forgotten what that means, but we haven’t. We can’t be happy in Harmonia while thousands of people are suffering in Eden.”
“So,” Lachlan says, “what’s your plan?”
“Er . . .”
Lachlan struggles unsteadily to his feet, standing with his shoulders squared, breathing deeply of the nectar-scented night air. He looks at me with that maddening, mocking expression I’ve missed so much. “Let me guess—no plan?”
“Well, not exactly.” I admit. “I hadn’t really gotten that far yet. See, there was this test, and then you showed up . . .”
“Sorry I ruined your complete and total lack of plan,” he says dryly . . . and winks at Mira! I suppress a giggle. The two of them are bonding already.
“Whatever the plan for Eden is, right now we have to get Lachlan far away from Harmonia,” Mira says. “Can you run?” He nods.
“Mira, Carnelian, are you sure about this?” I ask. “No one saw us tie up Elder Night. You can come up with a story to cover yourselves. You ran after us, and lost us in the forest. They’ll believe that. Go back to your peaceful lives.
“No way,” Mira says, and Carnelian echoes her.
“There’s a difference between a peaceful life and a useless life,” he says with sincerity. “We’re blips in time, a few pounds in a biomass of billions. I want my existence to count for something.”
“W
ell said,” Lachlan says, clapping him on the shoulder.
But I’m not ready to go yet. “Tell me what’s been happening inside of Eden,” I beg. “Lark, Ash, what happened to them?”
“Ash is alive. I don’t know where, not exactly. I haven’t seen him, but word got passed to me that he escaped. He told everyone what you did, how you blew up the Underground to disrupt the power system, so all the captive second children could be set free. I . . . I thought you had died that day. I mourned you. Oh, Rowan!”
I’m in his arms again, and I can feel him shaking against me.
“Where is he now?” I ask.
“Somewhere in the outer circles, I think. There’s so much chaos inside of Eden right now. All I know is that he escaped the first attack on the Underground, and was found after the explosion. After that, I haven’t heard anything about him. I’ve been operating in the inner circles, and communication between circles has been hard.”
“What about Lark,” I ask.
I feel him go rigid. “Lark?” he asks, looking completely confused, but then Mira interrupts.
“I know you want to ask him more, but all that won’t do us any good if we’re captured. We have to move!”
“And, if you don’t mind me butting in to your lack of a coherent plan,” Carnelian says with a wry wink, “I know exactly where we should go.”
“Where?”
“Well, I am ranked in the second tier, and we seconds have access to the hypertube codes. Mostly so we can perform maintenance. Not like we’re actually allowed to go anywhere in them. But I can open the doors and activate the motors and programming, so I’m pretty sure I can actually make one go where I want it to go.”
“You mean, you can get us away? Far away?”
“I think so, as long as we get there before anyone thinks to disable my codes.”
Before we leave the enchanted garden, Lachlan plucks a flower, a pink-purple blossom with golden pollen in its heart He tucks it inside his shirt and gives a lingering glance over his shoulder at the magical bower.
“Just wait till you see the rest,” I whisper to him, and lead him out into the woods. He stands stunned, looking up at the trees all around him. Bats soar and dip overhead, searching for insects with chirps and whistles. An owl hoots softly in a nearby pine. “It’s not like I thought,” Lachlan says. “It’s bigger. It’s realer!”
Rebels of Eden Page 14
