by David Webb
But in the end, they would all thank him. They would one day understand and praise his courage to lead in the face of such challenging circumstances.
One day.
“There’s been a development, your Excellency.”
The Chancellor turned to his Adviser, who had rejoined him by the window.
“Yes?”
“We’ve found her, sir. She’s in Shyvale.”
“She didn’t get very far at all, did she?” The Chancellor smiled. “What are you waiting on me for?”
“Your permission, sir. She’s proven to be a slippery one. I believe it will be much easier to catch her if we deploy the asset.”
“Yes, that’s why you’ve kept him alive, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I have your assurance that he will acquiesce to all of your commands?”
His Adviser nodded. “Safeguards are already in place.”
“Good. Send in the asset. Bring the girl in alive.”
“Yes, sir.”
26
“Remember. If you get caught, you die.”
The Shyvale marketplace went about its normal business: throngs of people bartering at various stalls, vendors arguing with them, and the normal flow of people walking in the busy street.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle, no one took notice of the two cloaked girls crouched in a nearby alley.
The Silvers were nowhere to be seen. Maybe the Guard was spread throughout the Web, hunting for Aniya. Maybe they were gathered in the tunnels to trap her in case she came back. Maybe they knew where she was, and they were just waiting for her to show her face.
Aniya didn’t want to think about it.
But the last two weeks had gone by without incident. Kira had proved a trustworthy friend, and with her father’s permission, she had told Aniya she could stay in their home as long as necessary. Even when the Silvers came by a few days after Aniya’s arrival, Kira had helped her hide in the makeshift basement they had constructed, similar to the one in Aniya’s old home, and told the officers that she hadn’t seen their fugitive. Even Urich played along and said he would be happy to help the Lightbringers in any way.
After that, there was no more lying to Kira or her father. Aniya came clean with them both and explained her plight in detail to Urich. He didn’t seem surprised. In fact, he called himself a Sympathetic. During the war, he had both supplied and sheltered rebel forces without actually taking a stand in the war. And now that Aniya was on the run, Urich said he felt duty-bound to help her as well.
But although he encouraged her to stay in the house, Aniya had been getting uncomfortable. A few days ago, she finally convinced Urich to let her roam about the sector, so long as she remain in disguise and keep a low profile.
For Aniya, that meant wearing a cloak with the hood pulled up at all times. Not much of a disguise, but she blended in because most people donned cloaks on the cold Black Days.
However, she found it hard to fully comply with Urich’s second condition, that she keep a low profile. It wasn’t long before Aniya’s boredom drove her to entertain herself with her favorite pastime: stealing.
Though the punishment would be severe if she were caught, Aniya knew the risk was minimal. She had mastered the art in Holendast, a smaller sector with fewer people. Now, in the crowded streets of a more populated sector, she would be undetectable.
Aniya did not feel guilty about breaking Urich’s rule. Besides the rush of adrenaline she got when picking a pocket or pilfering a vendor’s stall, she wanted to teach Kira to steal in a more effective manner. No more whippings for her.
“Really? I get caught, I die? That’s a little drastic.” Kira smirked. “I already know the punishment, and those wounds have pretty much healed by now anyway. It wasn’t my first, you know.”
“Yeah, but with my help, it will be your last. Besides, if you think about a more permanent punishment, you’ll force yourself to be more careful. That’s what I always do, and I’ve never been caught.”
“Guess it’s worth a try. And you’ll show me first?”
Aniya nodded. She poked her head out from the alley, then stepped into the street, sliding past the crowd and letting it move around her. She wanted to make sure Kira could see her actions plainly, so Aniya picked the closest vendor as her target and approached.
It was not the same general vendor that Kira had stolen from two weeks ago. This stand specialized in fruits and sported a collection of apples, oranges, and grapes.
Aniya had not had any fruit in years. With a distaste of the Lightbringers came a distrust of their technology. Such vegetation should have been impossible to produce even if they lived on the surface, thanks to the dead sun. Here, miles underground, it was possible but unnatural to grow such plants and foster them under radioactive lights. At first, she wondered how the vendors still had fruit now that the power had been out for two weeks, but she now realized that no new fruit was actually growing. This fruit had been sitting out the entire time. Her stomach churned as she looked at the synthetic fruit, two weeks old but looking as good as new.
Despite her personal preference, however, the fruit would make a good example for Kira, so Aniya mentally picked out an apple and an orange, knowing that the grapes would be too awkward to steal. It would take only one grape falling loose of the bunch to give her away.
Aniya put her open rucksack on the ground in front of her and continued to stare at the fruit.
“Can I interest you in some produce, little lady, or are you just looking today?” The vendor peered across his stand at her, obviously wary of the girl who had been staring for just a little too long.
Aniya picked up two apples with her hands, letting her large cloak sleeves cover the fact that she had managed to trap a third apple between her elbows. She raised her arms up and pretended to compare the two apples in her hands. “Just making sure they’re fresh.”
The vendor laughed. “You don’t have to worry about that. These things will last for several more weeks before going bad. A miracle, these things are. Though the price has gone up because I have not been able to grow any more since the power’s gone out. Three coppers each.”
Aniya frowned and placed the two apples back, letting the third fall into her open rucksack below. She then reached for an orange near the middle of the stand with her right hand while her left hand stretched farther out, picking an orange in the back. Her left arm masked the motion of her right elbow knocking an orange off the stand and into her rucksack as her right hand pulled back with its orange.
She weighed the two oranges in her hand, tossed them briefly, then put them back.
“I think I’ll just wait until the lights come back on.”
The vendor shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
Aniya picked up her rucksack and made her way back to the alley, where a clapping Kira was waiting for her.
“That was impressive!”
“And that’s just one method. An even easier way is distraction, misdirection. Get them thinking about anything besides what’s in front of them, and you can get away with murder. Now you try. Just be careful.”
Kira moved to leave but hesitated. She turned again and pulled her necklace out from under her shirt, handing it to Aniya, who took it by the large crystal dangling on the end.
“Take care of this for me,” Kira said before turning and leaving the alley.
Aniya sat and made herself comfortable. Her stomach growled, but she couldn’t bring herself to eat the fruit she had stolen. She made a mental note to steal some meat before going back to the house.
Her attention turned to the necklace in her hand. The crystal was nearly the length of her longest finger and twice as wide. It was crudely cut but polished to a brilliant shine, revealing a beautiful, complex interior that was completely clear, though distorting the image of her palm below.
Aniya realized that she had been staring at the crystal for several seconds, and she looked up to find Kira.
<
br /> The girl had disappeared in the crowd, but before Aniya could grow anxious, Kira reappeared in front of a meat vendor.
Or maybe she’ll grab some meat for me.
Aniya watched as Kira stood in front of the stand. She didn’t appear to be taking any action, and Aniya wondered for a moment if Kira had either lost her nerve or didn’t know what to do next.
But a second later, the meat vendor flinched and grabbed at his lower body, squeezing his eyes closed.
In the instant that the man closed his eyes, Kira snatched a bundle of meat and disappeared into the crowd. Within seconds, Kira was back in the alley.
“What did you do?”
“I kicked his leg underneath the stand.”
Aniya laughed. She had never taken such a direct approach before. “Well, I guess that’s one way to do it.”
“Whatever works, right?”
“As long as you don’t get caught!” Aniya rubbed her hand on Kira’s head affectionately, tousling her hair. “Here’s your necklace back, by the way.” She handed the crystal over to Kira, who gratefully took it back and slipped it over her neck.
“Thank you,” Kira said. “I didn’t want to risk the Silvers taking it from me. It was too close the last time.”
“What is it?”
Kira hesitated. She dropped her gaze and fiddled with the trinket around her neck, lowering her voice slightly. “It was my mother’s.”
She paused again, and Aniya waited patiently.
“The Lightbringers use crystals for their technology. Computer chips, medical equipment, the skydome . . . When my father stopped working, my mother took a job refining them and sorting them. She said this one reminded her of me, so she took it. I don’t know how she got it out without them noticing, but she gave it to me for my birthday. Just a month later, she died of radiation poisoning. Apparently, crystals have all sorts of different properties, and some of them retain radiation just as strong as it would have been centuries ago when the bombs fell in the Overworld.”
Aniya bowed her head, unable to think of anything to say that seemed appropriate.
“They took her body and studied it. We never got her back, so this is all I have left of her.” Kira looked up again, tears moistening her eyes.
Aniya embraced Kira and gently stroked her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m glad you have the crystal, and I hope the Lightbringers never get their hands on it. All I have left of my parents are memories. Maybe my brother, but I don’t know if he’s even still alive.” She released Kira and stepped back. “Let’s get back to the house and cook that meat. I’m starving.”
Kira nodded.
But before they could leave, white lights appeared as if from nowhere.
As they drew further back into the alley, Aniya watched dozens of officers flood the marketplace and form a line in the middle of the street as the crowd backed away from them. The last of the Silvers settled into place and stood silently.
The marketplace went silent, and the entire sector seemed to come to a halt.
“Good afternoon, citizens of Shyvale.”
A booming voice came from the square as a man in a black suit stepped into the road, pacing in front of the line of Silvers.
“And good afternoon, Annelise Lyons.”
27
Aniya froze.
Even in the dark alleyway, she felt incredibly exposed, as if the Silvers’ lights were all pointing directly at her. In reality, Aniya was safe, several hundred feet away from the Lightbringers. But as the Operative turned around slowly, surveying the market, she could have sworn that he made eye contact with her.
Kira looked at her and whispered, “How did they find you?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Your presence is requested in the town square, Ms. Lyons,” the voice boomed again, the volume amplified by a megaphone in the Operative’s hand. “We know you’re here. I will grant you that you hid yourself well. We searched each sector top to bottom, but we now have it on good authority that you’re here in Shyvale.”
How? It wasn’t like she had spent much time out in public. Only a few people saw her on the first day, and she had stayed inside for most of the last two weeks.
“You’ll make it much easier on all of us if you turn yourself in. There are people who would love to see you again. Your brother. Your boyfriend.”
Aniya’s heart ached. She knew she couldn’t trust the Operative, but she wanted to believe William and Nicholas were both alive.
And Roland? What happened in the tunnels?
“If it makes you feel better, I have very strict orders to bring you in alive. You will be unharmed, untouched. I can promise you that.”
It didn’t make her feel any better.
“If you won’t do it for your family, do it for these poor people. You know better than most the punishment that awaits those who harbor enemies of the Lightbringers.”
The Operative waited.
“Fine.”
The volume increased.
“I now speak to the citizens of Shyvale. In case you’ve forgotten, sheltering fugitives carries the penalty of death. If any of you who have information of this girl’s whereabouts, speak now and you will be forgiven.”
Aniya’s face suddenly appeared on the sky ceiling. For a moment, it seemed like the power had been restored, but she looked down and saw that the image was being projected from a device the Operative held.
She looked back up and clenched her fists as she realized the image, taken from her Assembly identification, had been altered drastically. Her eyes were narrowed, accompanied by eyebrows that had been thickened and tilted, giving the impression that she was angry. Her skin was tinted a pale, sickly color. Her cracked lips were spread open in a spiteful grin, revealing yellowed, slightly pointed teeth.
“She is an enemy of the Lightbringers, and she is an enemy to you as well. She and her family are directly responsible for the power outage. They are the reason you have no light, no heat, no power.”
The crowd lit up for the first time, a buzz arising from Shyvale as people began to whisper to each other and grumble in anger.
“With your help, we can restore order and electricity. But we must have the girl before that’s possible. So, I ask you—not as a superior, but as a friend who wants the power back as much as you do—please, help us find the girl.”
The buzz from the crowd grew louder, but no one singled themselves out.
“Help us so we do not have to resort to unpleasant methods.”
The crowd remained steady, and Aniya smiled. If anyone knew anything, they were not willing to give her up.
But her smile faded as the Operative reached into the crowd and dragged a person back toward the line of Silvers.
Aniya looked closely. It was an older man with a beard so long that she first thought it was a design on his shirt.
Her breath stopped as she recognized him as the man who had given her mole meat for Kira after her whipping.
The Operative pulled a gun from his belt and forced the man to his knees, placing the barrel of the gun against the back of his head.
“Annelise Lyons, step forward or watch this man die.”
Kira tugged on Aniya’s cloak. “Are they really going to kill him?”
“No, Kira. The Lightbringers rely on us just like we rely on them. There’s no way they would publicly kill someone. The last time the public got angry, they started a war that cost the Lightbringers a lot of resources.”
“I don’t know, Aniya. They might get mad at the Lightbringers, but I think they’d be even more mad at you.”
Aniya turned around. “Would you turn me in?”
Kira paused. After a moment, she shook her head. “No. I would never do that.”
“Let’s hope the rest of them feel that way.” Aniya turned back around.
The Operative no longer had his gun to the man’s head. Rather, he was pacing back and forth once again.
Aniya smiled as she realized sh
e was right. He was bluffing.
“Make no mistake, Ms. Lyons. He will die, and then for every day that you fail to turn yourself in, another person will die.”
“Aniya . . .” Kira’s voice grew uneasy.
Aniya spun around. “Do you want me to turn myself in?”
Kira didn’t answer. She simply looked down at the ground, clutching the crystal hanging around her neck.
Aniya’s heart sank as she realized what Kira’s answer had to be. Shyvale was her home. Aniya was a friend, yes, but one that she had known for only two weeks. She had helped Kira, but it was a small act of kindness. Maybe it would have been different if she had stepped in and stopped the Silver from beating her.
This was her sector. These were her friends. Aniya had forced Kira into a position to choose between a stranger and her kinsmen.
She was right.
Aniya stood up but couldn’t bring herself to take a step forward. Her legs turned to jelly, quivering, almost buckling underneath her body.
The Lightbringers mutilated her brother. They killed her family. If she turned herself in, who knew what her fate would be?
Aniya turned around and grabbed Kira’s shoulders.
“Look at me. They’re not going to kill him. I promise. There’s no way they would risk another uprising by killing someone in public. Besides, Shyvale’s not that small. For all their operative knows, I can’t even hear him. Please trust me. That man is going to be safe. You’re going to be safe. I promise.”
Kira stared back at her with an expression that alternated between fear and anger. Finally, she sighed and nodded.
“Okay.”
Aniya hugged her tightly.
“We’re going to be safe.”
Then, a gunshot echoed throughout Shyvale.
Aniya turned around in shock and watched the bearded man fall to the ground, dead.
28
Aniya lay in bed, watching Kira enjoy her last bit of sleep before First Light.
They were alone in the shack. Urich had left the house at some point in the night. Kira had not spoken a word to Aniya since they returned home the evening before, but her father had at least remained pleasant toward her. Apparently, he had not heard the news. Like the rest of the Web’s tech, the public announcement system was down, so the Operative’s ultimatum had been heard only by those within earshot of the marketplace.
