“We’ll hunker down here until we’re safe to move again,” Gideon stated. “With luck, they won’t have the skills to follow our trail.”
Lena walked around the perimeter of the cave. It took her sixty-three steps to walk along the edge and back to her starting point. It was larger than her and Birdee’s room at the Defense Training Facility, and it looked to have another tunnel leading away from the chamber. Their voices and movements felt amplified by the cave’s domed walls and ceiling.
“So, what am I? Your prisoner now?” Jonah asked. His hands were still cuffed behind his back. Lena couldn’t believe how quickly he’d recovered from nearly being killed by Gideon.
Lena didn’t answer as she threw the pack against the cave wall and knelt beside it. She didn’t want the Defenses to get him, but she certainly wasn’t going to be all chummy with him either. Pulling out the contents, she surveyed what they had: a first aid kit with bandages, gauze, disinfecting liquid and an ointment for cuts and bruises; a thermal blanket, a few bars of some type of food, and at the bottom of the bag was a flashlight. She turned the light on and closed her insignia. Lena sat on the ground. Taking off her boots, she turned them upside-down and dumped the dirt from them. She did the same to the other boot pounding the side of it against the palm of her hand to try and get it all out.
When neither Lena or Gideon answered Jonah’s question, he moved to the middle of the cave and began a stretching routine. Lena tried to ignore his nonchalant attitude, but kept catching glimpses of him out of the corner of her eye. The more she tried to ignore him, the more her anger began to grow. Clenching her fists and then shaking them out, she tried again to tune out his movements. The harder she tried to tune him out, the louder he sounded to her. Clenching her jaw, she jerked her head towards him. All the rage she’d felt from the moment he’d betrayed her to now surged to the surface of her emotions. He stopped and looked at her. He raised his eyebrows and smirked when he saw her staring at him.
“You lied to me!” she yelled, standing up to face him.
Jonah straightened his posture. With his chin jutting forward he replied, “I’m good at my job, Lena.”
The anger consumed her. Without thinking, she moved in front of Jonah. Jonah’s eyes flew open wide. She vaguely heard Gideon yelling at her. With one hit to his head, Jonah fell unconscious to the ground. Shaking her hand she turned back to Gideon. “Owe.”
Chapter Seven
Lena sat on the cave floor next to Gideon. The light lay on the ground between them. Lena looked at Jonah’s unconscious body then back at her aching hand.
“I think I lost my temper,” Lena said. She rubbed her knuckles.
Gideon's shoulders shook with a silent chuckle as he rested his head against the wall behind him. His arms hung limp, and his shoulders slumped. His eye was now swollen shut. “If if wasn’t you, it was going to be me,” Gideon replied. Lena smiled sadly. Opening her palm she noticed the first layer of her skin was shredded. Probably from sliding down the mountain.
“He knows about Thora,” Lena said. Gideon blew out his breath. They both stared at Jonah’s unconscious body in silence. “He threatened us that if I tried to escape, then he’d tell. He’d somehow get word to Selene that she was in Everleigh.”
“But he didn’t,” Gideon said. “He hasn’t told anyone.”
“But he might, still,” Lena answered. She studied her hands realizing that only some of the loose and cut skin was from sliding down the mountain. The rest was from climbing into the ravine the day that Jonah betrayed them. She closed her palms and looked back at Gideon.
“Did they give you anything to eat?” Lena asked Gideon.
“No. You?” Gideon asked.
“I had a little. Lena reached for the pile of supplies she’d gotten from the emergency kit. She threw Gideon a small bar of food and found some ointment for her and Gideon’s minor injuries. She felt bruised everywhere. Holding a small mirror to her face, she examined the damage. Purple finger-like bruises striped the sides of her face where Jonah had grabbed her. She brushed her fingers against them, the tenderness making her flinch.
“I wanted to kill him for hurting you like that,” Gideon said. Lena put the mirror away and moved to face Gideon. Kneeling in front of him she examined his bruised and swollen eye.
Applying cream to his eye, Lena shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“He should have protected you, Lena.”
“Well, that wasn’t really in his job description, was it?” Lena snapped. Moving away from him, she sat and pushed her back against the wall. She hated feeling so angry. She forced herself to breathe, just like her weapons instructor taught her. Closing her eyes, she filled her lungs then held it as long as she could before releasing it. Still, her soul stung in anger. Unconsciously, she grabbed at the necklace around her neck. Holding it tight in her hand she felt the sharp edges of the medallion and the cut surface of the Seraphyst Stone. She gripped it until the sharpness she felt in her hand overtook the anger she felt in her heart. After a few moments, the rage began to abate, and Lena filled with sorrow. “You warned me, Gideon,” Lena sniffed. “You told me he wasn’t what he seemed, and I didn’t listen.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Eves,” Gideon replied. “He was good at his job.”
Silence filled the cave. Lena opened her palm and stared at the necklace’s reflective stone. The more she gazed at it, the more it looked as if clouds swirled beneath its surface. Lena shook the thought away and refocused. Lena knew that what Gideon said about Jonah was true, but she still felt so betrayed. Lena rubbed her neck. She felt Gideon studying her. “I feel bruised,” she said. Lena let go of the necklace and looked down at her torn hands again.
Gideon brushed the loose hair away from where it clung to her cheeks. “You’ve seen better days, that’s for sure,” Gideon replied. Lena jerked her head up and saw Gideon was smirking. She hit his shoulder. “Hey, just telling you like it is,” he replied, still smiling at her. Lena couldn’t help but smile back.
She rolled up her sleeve to where she’d been shot. It felt like an eternity ago when she and Gideon fled from Nagar at the lake. But really it had only been a few days. Gideon held up the light to her arm. He pushed against her wound with his fingers. “At least, it’s still healing,” he remarked.
Lena winced. “Though it’s going to scar pretty bad,” Lena said as she watched Gideon probe at her wound.
Gideon stopped and flicked her ear. Annoyed Lena pushed his hand away and gave him an irritated glare. He smirked back. “Scars just add character,” Gideon said winking.
Lena pulled some gauze from the pile and started cleaning her scraped hands. She inhaled sharply and bit her lip as she poured on a disinfecting liquid.
“Let me help you with that,” Gideon said. Grabbing a square of gauze, Gideon took her hand and gently started cleaning it. Lena felt her breath catch. She bit her lip trying not to show how it stung. He took his time making sure every scrape was clean. When finished he looked up at her. His brown eyes studied her for a split second before releasing her hand.
Lena cleared her throat. “Are the Defenses looking for us?”
Gideon pointed to her insignia. “Why don’t you look and find out.”
Lena felt her cheeks getting hot. She opened the image. There were no stationary dots. All the blinking dots were moving in the direction the Cimmerians took. She closed the image. “Looks like they didn’t stop.”
“I expected they wouldn’t. Even if they did see us on radar, I hoped a whole ship would be more alluring than the three of us. But you never know what decisions the Defenses will make. The leaders of the Defenses are kind of erratic that way.”
“Especially the captains,” Lena said in a teasing voice, bumping his shoulder with her own.
Gideon let out a small, sarcastic laugh. “Funny.” He stared at her now. His eyes twinkling in amusement. Lena looked away first.
“Do you think Azara and Ta
rek are waiting for us at The Port?” she asked, trying to deflect the conversation away from her unstable mixture of emotions.
“If Tarek said he would, then he’ll be there,” Gideon said confidently. Lena nodded in confirmation. She didn’t know Tarek very well, but he gave off an air of integrity—so different from his sister.
“Do you love her?”
“Love who?”
“Azara.”
“Oh,” Gideon cleared his throat and his cheeks flushed. He looked away from Lena to the ground in front of him. “Azara is amazing. Witty. Smart and beautiful,” Gideon paused. “But no. I don’t love her.” He looked intently at Lena. Her breath caught again. She swallowed and looked away.
“How did things get so complicated, Gideon?” Lena asked. She drew swirls in the dirt with her finger then zigzagged back and forth over the designs. It made her feel calm.
“I think it started with my father betraying yours,” Gideon answered with a sad smirk. “Things just went downhill from there.”
“Gideon, your mom… Selene. She’s the Priestess.”
“I know.”
“For how long? I mean how long have you known?”
“The day Everleigh was attacked,” he answered. “She was the one who volunteered me into the Defenses.”
“She was there in Everleigh?” Lena asked.
“No, she wasn’t there. She was on screen. It was kind of a shock. I don’t have many memories of her as a mother. The ones I do have aren’t filled with happiness. As a child, she was just there. And when she left, I was sad. But, it was my dad who suffered the most. Seeing her on the screen was a shock. The woman my father and I spent our time fighting against was my mother. The Priestess. I didn’t really have the chance to process it all. As you can imagine, she didn’t give me an option about whether I would join or not. And my father, man, I was even more shocked to learn he’d switched sides. But there was nothing I could do. So I joined.”
“Then you betrayed her to save me and now she knows what you’ve done.” The cave was silent. Both of them looked at the ground not saying anything. What could she say to the person who risked his own life for hers? “Are you going to be okay?” It was a dumb thing to say, but she said it anyway.
Gideon raised his eyes in amusement. “I’m beyond anything resembling ‘okay’. But I’ve known for years now that she is the Priestess. And I know the possible repercussions of my choice to save you. I will always choose you over her, Eves. Back when we were kids, you were my best friend. You were my family. I saw a way to save you, so I did. And I’d do it again.”
“What are you going to do now that she knows what you’ve done?” Lena asked.
Gideon shrugged his shoulders. “I’m going to get you as far away from her grasp as possible. Then, I don’t really know. Maybe teach at the Interplanetary Military Academy. Explore other planets. I can’t really come back here, though. My mother would probably have me imprisoned. Or killed.”
Now Lena really didn’t know what to say. She felt Gideon looking at her but couldn’t bring herself to look back at him. She’d never really thought about what it meant for his life, only how it had impacted hers. She felt foolish for being so selfish. Smoothing out her dirt drawing she started over again, this time with sorrow resting heavily in her heart.
Chapter Eight
“The Defenses were infiltrated by the Cimmerians,” Lena said breaking the long silence that followed their last conversation. “Can you believe that?”
“Yes, I can actually,” Gideon answered. “I think we’re just starting to see the rumblings of an attempted overtake.”
“Will they succeed?”
“I think they’re fools. They believe that force and numbers will beat Selene. But her control reaches too far. She’s beguiled too many people. And killed and imprisoned the rest. The overturn of Selene would take a united group bound together, not for the sake of power, but for the sake of liberty.”
“And the Cimmerians don’t have that?” Lena asked.
“No one left on Mir has that passion anymore. In Selene’s rise to power, she killed those who had the resolve to stand against her.”
“Like my parents,” Lena added.
Gideon nodded. “Now it’s all about who is more powerful. What person has the most control. If there were a large enough group on Mir who’d fight for liberty, then Selene would have something to worry about.”
“Then would you fight her?” Lena asked.
Gideon lifted his eyebrows. “There is no one left like that, Lena. Selene has too much control.”
Lena let Gideon’s answer sink in as she thought about Selene’s control. Dorry had talked to her about control one day at the facility. Lena’s mind jumped to Dorry and what he’d told her about a technology that took away people’s agency, and the device Dorry had left her that gave agency back to the people. She didn’t understand what he meant. She had broken, then lost the device anyway. It felt like Selene was winning and the only direction she had was from Xenia. “I’ve been having dreams,” she said as she grabbed her necklace.
Gideon looked confused. “What do you mean?” he said.
“I don’t know. Dreams, visions. That same mystic we met in Everleigh. She’s in all of them.”
Gideon didn’t say anything. He opened his mouth, then closed it again and shook his head. Lena flushed, she wished she’d never told him. She looked around the cave.
“I’m sorry,” Gideon said. “I wasn’t expecting…that.”
She looked into the crystal. She could swear it was changing colors, but didn’t want to bring it up to Gideon. She stared at the Seraphyst Stone. If she looked close enough she saw her image in its depths. “You think I’m crazy.”
“I didn’t say that Eves. But dreams and prophecies, they don’t determine your destiny. They don’t force you down a path that you can’t control.”
“Do you really think the prophecy is about me? The prophecy everyone is talking about? The reason Selene wants me dead?” Lena asked.
“No, I don’t,” Gideon responded with assurance.
“You act so sure,” Lena said.
“You determine your own destiny, Evangeline. That, I am certain of.”
Lena nodded her head, soaking in the information. She pulled her knees up under her chin. “I understand now why you want me to leave Mir. I’m not safe here. The best way to keep me out of Selene’s—or the Cimmerian’s—reach is to hide me somewhere else.”
“But, even after all you’ve seen the last few days, you don’t think that’s what we should be doing.” Gideon said.
Lena lifted her eyes to his. “Me leaving makes the most sense. Especially after what just happened with the Cimmerians.” Lena paused not knowing if she wanted to tell Gideon exactly what she had dreamt. Gideon nodded at her to continue. Lena swallowed. “It’s just that for some reason, part of me thinks we’re needed here. Like somewhere inside me is this notion that there is something for us to do here. I can feel it. Can’t you feel it?”
Gideon stared at the Seraphyst Stone, his shoulders tense. “My goal is to keep you safe. Unless there is evidence that you should stay—something that is more than just a feeling—I’m getting you off Mir.”
Lena nodded. “There is no proof I should stay. It’s just a feeling, Gideon.” Lena bit her lower lip. If Gideon was right, she should leave. It made no sense for her to stay if the dream she’d had was only a dream. Maybe Thora wasn’t waiting for her. She stretched her legs in front of her and watched her feet rock back and forth. “Do you think we’ll be able to get ahold of Thora before we leave?” Lena asked. “I’d like to let her know where I’m going. And at least say goodbye.”
Gideon stayed silent for a minute. “I hope we can contact her, but I have a feeling it won’t be that easy.”
The cave echoed as Jonah moaned. Rolling to his knees, Jonah put his head on the ground. With his hands still cuffed, he scooted to the side of the cave and rested his back against the wall
. With legs bent, he put his head on his knees.
After an awkward silence, Jonah looked up. “You saved me,” he said raising his eyes to Lena.
“I saved Thora,” Lena spat back at him. Lena looked away. Silence filled the cave.
“Tell us your story,” Gideon commanded.
Jonah shrugged his shoulders. “They—the Cimmerians—came to me when I was living off planet. My father had already pledged his honor to the Priestess and showed his loyalty by volunteering me as a recruit. I wasn’t even old enough to join. I was angry. He betrayed me. He also betrayed the Cimmerians. They came to me and asked if I wanted to do something about it. I spent the year before I was old enough to join the Defenses being trained as a Cimmerian Agent.”
Lena shifted uncomfortably under Jonah’s stare. “That’s how Nagar found us by the lake, isn’t it?” Lena looked at Jonah full of hate. “The star you gave me, it had a tracking device in it. Nagar locked onto your signal. You were going to kidnap Gideon, but Nagar got there first.”
“You were never supposed to get hurt, Lena.”
“Only because you didn’t know who I was. How long did it take you to figure it out, Jonah?”
He shrugged sheepishly. “When the rest of the facility found out.”
Gideon huffed. “And you’re the best they got?” Gideon mocked.
Jonah put his head back on his knee’s and didn’t answer.
“We’ll stay here tonight, and leave in the morning,” Gideon said.
“Do you have a plan?” Lena asked.
“Yes. Druinn and Myri are my plan.”
“What?” Lena and Jonah responded at the same time.
“I still have our signal. The one I originally had when Tarek found us in the ravine,” Gideon explained. "We'll start heading to The Port, and with luck, they'll intercept us."
“How did the Cimmerians not find something as obvious as a tracking device?” Lena asked.
The Children of The Resistance (The Mir Chronicles Book 2) Page 4
