by C. C. York
So he lied, telling himself that getting her home would be a salve against losing her dad. "Right. Of course. But those riders probably took him to the dungeons. We'll need a Rifter to get him out."
She nodded and helped him up. He gathered a few more root vegetables from the kitchen and stuffed them into a satchel he found in the bedroom. Monti brought him pieces of cloth that she had ripped up and put them on top of their food.
"For your arm," she said. She looked to the door and blew out a deep breath as if preparing herself for what lay outside.
Reed stopped her before she opened the door, cupping the side of her face again so that she looked at him fully. Her wide eyes were puffy, dirt marred her fair features, and blood caked one side of her shoulder-length, honey blonde hair. She bit her full, chapped lips as her eyes welled up again.
He stalled her tears by saying, "Goals, Monti. Say them to me."
She nodded quickly, forcing quick breaths through her nose and out her mouth. "Get an Aygir, get a Rifter, get my dad, get the hell out of here."
"Good. No sounds, even above ground if it's still dark outside. Stay close, and if we run into trouble, head as fast as you can to the kingdom by the sea. And whatever you do, don't go to the red woods across the valley. I'll try to distract anything that comes for us to buy you time."
She bobbed her head again and quirked a smile. "Who would have thought I'd be safest with a murderer?"
He huffed a laugh. "I feel the same way about the warden's daughter." He grabbed her hand. "Let's go."
He opened the iron door, wincing at the groan from its hinges, and they stepped into the dark tunnel.
Elaine
Elaine practiced the elements with Kanne Da'Neen under the scorching sun, which amounted to nothing more than getting her hand caked in dirt or cupping palmfuls of water. She'd been nauseous for a full day and night and was tired of the knowing smile Farisha gave her whenever she complained. Reiki’s conversation about Rifters stuck to the insides of her ribcage, hovering on her shoulders, and made her jumpy. She bit back the unkindness she wanted to spew at the smirks and stares from the cluster's bored matriarchs hovering nearby and brushed the sweat-slicked hair off of her face.
Elaine said to Kanne Da'Neen, "I gotta get out of here."
The old crone just spat on the ground and waved her off. Elaine sprinted for freedom up the nearest staircase, ignoring the headache that was trying its best to break her skull apart.
She walked the edge of an upper Tier, tight roping the stone wall with her arms out on either side of her, debating what to do if the voices came back. I’ve only heard them twice since arriving here, so I just need to avoid those two places. Easy. I don’t want to go back to the Lantern Pit anyway, and there’s no reason to go back to that Cluster in Low Town where I first heard something.
She kicked at a pebble, arguing with herself. But what about the girls? If they’re the ones calling you, you can’t just abandon them. Or the voices could be Rifters. Apart from the creepy one, none of the voices seem to talk directly to me. I don’t think they see me, but maybe they can hear me now that I’m in Sakalid?
A merchantress of this Tier stared at Elaine as if an ant marched across her rice crispy treat. This Tier was several levels up from Low Town and around the bend, and though no rules expressly forbade her from exploring it, her plain, oatmeal-colored clothes told everyone that she did not belong here. She glared right back, agitation overwhelming self-preservation, and ducked behind stone townhomes to trapeze through their gardens.
Her mother once took a fleeting interest in gardening. She brought white and purple petunias in black plastic buckets from the hardware store in town and spent an afternoon digging up the dirt around the base of their trailer. She asked Elaine to help her, and Elaine could still conjure up the feel of soil and hair-thin roots between her fingers. It was early spring in Beaufort, so the sun was a welcome warmth on their backs and a promise of ocean swims in weeks to come. Da was out of town for a few days at a job site several hours away.
She and her mother spent the following few afternoons watering and waiting for the patch of petunias to turn into Eden, and Elaine felt a kinship building. She took her bike to the small library in town and checked out all the books on gardening she could. She studied flowers at night so that when she and Ma walked into town for more gardening tools, she could point out her discoveries along the way. But her Ma was Ma, and the more Elaine tried, the less interested her mother became in flowers or her. Elaine watered the petunias diligently that spring, but her mother never brought home more flowers. Elaine cried when they died, though she'd never let her mother see.
Elaine kicked at a white and purple coneflower at the memory, knocking her off balance and onto her bottom. She brushed off the dirt from her backside, wincing at the pain. There’s no mistaking how I got here, she thought. It sure sounds an awful lot like Rifting, but I don’t know how that could’ve happened. There is no way Ma had Rifting magic. She would’ve left a hundred times over. She walked along the edge again. It doesn’t make any sense. I can’t be a Rifter. Maybe it was a Rifter talking to me that lead me here. Like a trap? Can they do that?
She thought back to the night she left her world for the world of Sakalid. At the time, she was too shocked to question why one particular voice seemed to speak directly to her when all the others were snippets of conversations not meant for her. Come, the voice said. Something else dawned on her. That couldn’t have been a Rifter. That was a man’s voice. The same one that occasionally sang a lullaby or gave that creepy laugh. She stopped mid-step. What if I’m hearing the Edicisi? She shivered at the thought of the dark-shrouded monster from Kanne Da’Neen’s stories.
Two women began speaking, and her heart leapt before she realized the conversation came from one of the balconies above her and not in her head. Get it together, Elaine.
"I heard another four Pillars were kidnapped last night above the Trades."
"No! Is that true? If we aren't safe near our homes, how are we supposed to keep our children protected?"
"Exactly. What is the point of us appeasing an Iktidar queen if she cannot control kidnappers within our walls?"
"Can you imagine what it will be like when Queen Firtina dies, and we're left with Princess Alik?"
"Goddesses, no. It will be terrible," the first voice paused. Elaine felt like the politics of Efendi were as far away as her trailer, but gossip helped her forget her own troubles, so she stood still as an oak under the shade of the balcony above.
The voice continued, "If you promise to tell no one who you heard it from, I'll let you in on a secret...Danisha has been purchasing all of the rights to the mines south of Magaran. I don't know how they've come into so much money, but she's established herself in the court faster than anyone has in years. I heard from someone that her daughter Tenida is adept at all but the fire element and would be a direct competitor to Alik Iktidar."
"But no one even knows who they are? I won't believe it until I see it."
"True, but Tenida is well-liked even if her mother is not. Well-liked enough to one day catch the eye of Taavi."
"Goddesses know we need to branch off the Iktidar line. I feel for the poor girl, but we'd be better off if Firtina were the last Iktidar Daughter. I heard there was a Yurutec attack in the stables two nights ago. It's as if the Batiwood is at our Wall."
The voices trailed off as the women walked inside. Elaine meandered under the balconies while formulating a plan to get to the top of the Perimeter Wall one night so she could watch for these Yurutec. And perhaps see where people could enter and exit the walled kingdom. Just in case.
Vines of flowers spilled over the tops of the balconies in thick ropes, and she had to sidestep several unnecessary waterfalls the Elite favored so much. She almost missed the harsh, low voices above her over the cascading water, but she had become adept at listening to conversations not meant for her over the years. She stepped fro
m the protective shade of the balcony to hear better and snuggled herself into a bush fat with hibiscus-like flowers to stay hidden should anyone peer over.
"I don't have the money yet. But I will by the end of Hasateen," a man pleaded.
A second voice, graveled and deep, responded. "And why should I believe that? You've been gambling away in my Pit for weeks now without payment. It's time."
Where have I heard his voice before?
"I don't have access to my wife’s coin now, but I can get it at the end of the week when she's gone and then--"
The man was interrupted by the sharp slash of something metal dragged against stone.
"Hvard, please. A few days!"
Elaine froze at the name. She didn't dare breathe or poke her head out, but she knew this was the same giant, bearded man that even his own mother feared.
"I'm not an unreasonable man, Rellyan. You have four daughters, yes?"
"What? Uh, yes. One is just entering the season, and the other three are twelve, fourteen, and sixteen. I’m begging you, please, they need their father."
"You like gambling, so I'll give you one last gamble. If you do not have the money by the end of this week, I'll come for your youngest. If you do have the money, you and your family can go free. Or, if you give me your daughter now, I'll let you keep your coin and even pay you double what you owe."
"Have you lost your mind? I'm not giving you Ada! I'll go to the Iktidars before I see your slave trade hovering at my door."
"Ah, Ada is her name then? I bet she's pretty. She likes the sticky buns at the cafe around the corner, right?"
"How--"
"Yes. Pretty blue eyes. What is her werk?"
"Get out of my---"
A sharp intake, a gurgle, and then a slop were all Elaine's mind processed in the time it took for Hvard to slit the man's throat and toss him over the balcony to her feet. He landed in a puddle with a thwack, blood splattering Elaine's calves.
She stifled a cry with her hand over her mouth, but not fast enough. Hvard peered over the edge.
She bolted. Not caring where she ran, she dashed over the tidy rows of cut gardens and through waterfalls and under balconies until she came, breathless, to a dead end. The stone house had a matching stone wall separating it from its neighbors, so she shimmied along the thin-lipped edge of the wall and the edge of the Tier. Several heavy footsteps ran down the steps on the other side. They’ll see me if they come past the Tier's edge. I'll be trapped.
A deep baritone of laughter flit through her ears, the same that made her skin crawl and felt different than any of the other voices. She knew she was the only one who could hear the voice ask above a low indiscernible chant, Where are you? They're coming for you.
She glanced down, trying to block out the voice and guessing the distance below. The tops of the Trades stalls are a good three Tiers down. If I jump, I’ll be at least one stairwell ahead of them. Every muscle in her body tensed in alert. She should have feared the fall, but it was as if every cell in her body willed her to jump to the roofs below.
She leapt, or rather fell more than anything, onto the hard, gold tiles of the house below, skinning her knees. Men shouted orders above her. She didn't pause long enough to look over her shoulder before she started slip-running over the tiles. She ignored the ominous laughter echoing in her mind.
She thought frantically, Next Tier, next Tier. A couple more jumps and then through the arches. I'll lose them in the Trades around the bend.
She balanced across a thin arch connecting the two sides of the lower Tier, Efendians shouting in alarm below at her precarious path. She reached the opposite side of the Tier, preparing to jump again, but her footing slipped. She careened face forward over the edge, her eyes on the gold tiles out of reach. She squeezed every muscle in her body just before her face hit the cobblestones.
It felt as if she was pulled through a straw, suctioned in over and over like paper folding into a tiny square, the air squeezed from her lungs. And then, pop!
When she opened her eyes, she was on the next golden rooftop, and not a puddle on the ground like the man she saw a few minutes before. She didn't take time to register the how's and just squeezed again, eyes tight. When she opened, she was in the middle of her favorite alley in the Trades. The plant-filled passage sold exotic trees of every color imaginable, and their heady flowers blocked her from the shoppers at the mouth of the alley.
She landed on one knee, lunge forward, heart racing. For the first time in weeks, she felt free of a weight she hadn't realized she was hoisting. Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! That just happened! Her mind didn’t know what else to do other than spurt a crazed laugh as confusion, bewilderment, anxiety, and joy pummeled her simultaneously. She looked up; Hvard's men nowhere in sight. She wasn't sure if Hvard recognized her from the balcony, but she was giddy with relief despite what happened.
I just Rifted.
Her body practically vibrated with the urge to run. She took off through the maze of flowering trees and sweet-smelling fruits hanging low over the alley entrance. The throng of the Trades was less thick here, which allowed her more space to dart in between shoppers and merchants at a faster and faster pace. She raced to the other side of the bend. She should have gone home or to Kara and Reiki's stall, but she was filled to the eyes with adrenaline.
She dashed down the wide street of the western Trades, seeing but not registering the colorful art and rugs at this bend. When she finally ran to the brink of exhaustion, she stopped to sit down at the edge of the Trades Tier behind a ruby red stall selling exotic purple furs.
Elaine had few things she missed from back home, but one thing she wished she had was her salvaged Caboodle organizer. The top was pasty pink, the bottom hatch a pale mint, and the Caboodle logo was illegible on its grimy white plastic fastener. She loved opening the tray and unfolding its innards when she was alone, little rocks and dried flowers organized in tiny plastic compartments. Elaine sometimes felt like her mind was like that Caboodle. Put an unwanted thought or a bad memory in a little compartment and fold over the trays to deal with later. She wiped at the man's blood on her calves with a chunk of turquoise moss from the crack in the Tier, trying and failing to not think about the thick squelch of flesh hitting cobblestones. Elaine threw up her breakfast into the overlooked patch of weeds behind the stall.
She forced the memory of the dead man to a small, left corner compartment and focused instead on the sudden, unexpected gift of magic at her disposal.
Or curse. Reiki said they hunt Rifters, and their neighbor thought that Rifters were the ones taking the girls. She needed to find more information out about Rifters, but how? She looked at herself. I don’t look any different. There’s no reason anyone needs to know.
But jeez Louise, I want to do that again! She never kissed a boy, but sometimes when she explored the Trades alone she pretended a boyfriend walked with her. Elaine imagined that a good first kiss might be like that Rift. Knock your socks off scary, but so good you want to do it again.
She felt a lightness in her limbs and let herself be happy while her mind raced. Magic. I have magic! Oh my god, does this mean I was adopted? What if this means my real parents are here? What if it’s my real family I’m hearing? The derision from her mother and the abuse from her father over the last few years made a lot more sense to her if they were not her biological parents. My real parents wouldn’t hurt me. I have freaking MAGIC. I gotta do that again.
She thought back to her map in her journal. Where can I go where no one will see me? There was one place she knew she could practice with plenty of cover. The Hadishis’ explicitly forbade the twins and Elaine to go to the Silos since the girl from the next Cluster disappeared from there, but she could Rift if there was trouble and there was plenty of sun left in the day. Even Hvard and his gang couldn’t catch me if I Rift.
Elaine wound her way down to the Silos where Efendians stored all their grain. The giant vats were a
lmost as tall as a Tier and provided plenty of cover the deeper she walked. She practiced a few Rifts from behind one massive stone cylinder to the next, telling herself it was fine so long as no one saw her.
She had no idea that each Rift reverberated past the Perimeter Wall, far across the valley, and deep into the Batiwood where something listened with rapt attention, waiting. Smiling.
Alik
Alik's father took her sailing to a barrier island a few hours into the Turkaz Sea when she was a child. She basked in the attention afforded to a lone child accustomed to sharing her father with siblings and responsibilities as the two of them leapt in and out of the waves crashing over the glass pebble beach. His joy outside of the Palace was infectious, and his blunt blonde beard dripped water with each dip he took. The day, in Alik's eight-year-old estimation, was shaping up to be the best in her life until her final swim that afternoon.
Waves stacked on top of each other as the sun settled on the horizon. Her father's eyes glittered with adrenaline as he skimmed the cresting waves bare-chested, the sky red and gold behind him. The crush of water on the pebbles drowned out his booming laugh, and Alik imagined herself the world's greatest Waterwerker helping guide him over the waves. He told her to wait on the beach, but she wanted to show him how strong she had become. She waded out into the water and braced herself before what was growing to be the queen of all waves.
Her head tilted back and back as the water built upon itself, its crest curving to block out the setting sun. The seconds it took for the wave to build could have been years for all the fears Alik felt in that moment before the water consumed her.
