by Kate L. Mary
“Don’t even think about trying to run this time,” Lysander said in a low voice, his eyes darting down to the electroprod in his hand. Then his smile widened and he leaned even closer. “My mother told me you’d come back.”
I swallowed, but could not muster even a sound. I felt wedged in, stuck between this man and the torture device he held in his hand, positive that he would not hesitate to use it on me if I so much as risked batting an eye.
“I was glad to hear it,” he continued. “Your friend, the one you saved that day, she’s been calling to me. For a long time, really, but I wanted to wait. I wanted it to be special.” He cut the distance between us in half and lowered his voice until it sounded terrifyingly similar to the hiss a lygan let out just before it attacked. “I wanted you to be in the house. I wanted you to hear her cries. To be helpless. Again.”
The last word was even more sinister than a hiss. It was like a whisper from the underworld, something that came from the deepest depths, and standing there with Lysander so close, I wanted nothing more than to stab him and send him to the place where eternal fire would consume him. Where he would truly know what suffering was.
I could not, though, just as I could not move when Lysander leaned closer to me. It was as if he meant to kiss me, or maybe even bite me, and I managed to turn my face away. But I kept my eyes on him, not wanting or not able to let him out of my sight. His smile was an insult to the word. It was all evil, all threat. It seemed to wrap around my body in an attempt to pull me closer, and I had to put a lot of effort into staying where I was.
I had been strong since coming back here. I had not bent to Saffron’s intimidation, had kept my head down while staying proud at the same time, but I was no match for Lysander. Not after what he had done to me. Not in the face of what he was threatening to do to Mira.
He reached out, and when his fingers ran down my arm, my entire body jerked. His distorted smile grew, and a tremble shook me from the inside out.
The door opened at my back, and footsteps entered the room, heavy and booming, but I could not look away from the man in front of me to see who it was.
“Sir.” Even Asa’s voice breaking through the quiet could not give me strength.
Lysander’s eyes snapped up, moving past me to the Fortis guard who had interrupted him. “What is it?”
“I believe there is a message for you at the door.”
Lysander let out a snarl, and his upper lip curled. He gave me one more look before flipping the electroprod off and turning away.
I watched him leave, watched him head across the room, still frozen. It was not until he disappeared that I was suddenly freed from my paralysis. My legs wobbled and I stumbled forward, nearly falling, but Asa was there to catch me, his strength once again holding me up when I was unable to keep myself on my feet.
A sob broke out of me, but no words. It was like my tongue had been ripped out.
“Indra,” Asa said, and just the sound of my name on his lips was comfort.
How he was able to do that, I did not know, but it made me feel as if I were no longer alone. As if I had someone here who would back me up if I needed it. Asa had proven himself time and time again, and I knew he would die for me if it became necessary.
“I am okay,” I managed to get out.
His hands were on my arms, gentle but firm. They were the only things holding me up, so I swallowed and forced the strength I had found within myself over the last few months to come out. I was the woman who had killed over sixty Fortis men and women. I had turned their village upside down. I could stand up to Lysander.
“I am okay,” I said again, this time with more confidence, and then I wiggled out of Asa’s grasp. “Thank you.”
He nodded in response, and I suddenly felt like these were the only two things we ever did. Me telling him thank you, and him nodding in response.
Not that there could ever be more between us. We were from two different worlds, and at the end of the day, it did not matter if he thought he loved me or if I would feel indebted to him for the rest of my life for the things he had done to save me. When we left the gates, he went to his home in the Fortis village. A home that had walls provided by the Sovereign, where he ate food handed to him because he had been born in that village. In contrast, I had to walk through the borderland, with the rocky cliffs on my right where the lygan ruled, and the wastelands on my left where marsoapians roamed the desolate expanse, and the mammoth roaches lurked beneath the sand. Asa and I would never understand one another. Not completely.
“I have to go back to work,” I said.
I turned away from him, mimicking the same dance we had done numerous times over the last year.
“I’ll always be here to protect you,” he called after me. “Even if you don’t think you need it.”
I stopped, but I did not look back. “No, you will not. That is what you do not understand, Asa. You cannot be. The distance between us is too great.”
I started walking again, leaving him behind.
My plan was token a close eye on Mira for the rest of the day. I did not tell her exactly what my conversation with Lysander had been about, only that she needed to watch her back and avoid the pantry at all costs. It should have been enough. It was, after all, the same thing we had been doing since the day she started work here.
In the end, though, it turned out there was nothing either of us could have done to stop the chain of events from taking place. Once again, we were powerless.
The kitchen was brimming with activity. All the housemaids were present, scrubbing pots and washing plates, cleaning up from the elaborate lunch the family had stuffed themselves with. It was in the middle of all this that Lysander stepped into the kitchen, stopping just inside, his bulk taking up the entire doorway. His gaze swept across the room and paused briefly on me, just long enough for the hair on my scalp to prickle, and then he was moving. Marching across the room with Mira in his sights, moving much faster than his short legs and chubby frame should have allowed him to.
“No,” I whispered.
He made no effort to hide his intentions when he grabbed her arm, and even though he held the electroprod in his other hand, he did not even pause to turn it on. Mira let out a yelp that seemed to slam into me from across the room as Lysander pulled her toward the pantry, while all around the kitchen the rest of us stood frozen in place. Staring. Doing nothing. Letting it happen. Again.
The door slammed, and my body jerked. I still had not moved, and when the first sob penetrated the door, it felt like I was back on that stage about to watch Bodhi die. I was helpless and on the cusp of death. Useless. Nothing but a worthless Outlier.
But you are more than that, a voice in my head whispered. You were born Sovereign. You are strong. You are a killer of Fortis hunters.
Mira cried out a second time, and I moved. I did not think about what I was doing or what it would mean as I marched across the room. My focus was on the pantry door, but my gaze was moving around the room as I went, searching the counters I passed until I found what I needed.
I swiped the knife up on my way by, my gaze zeroed in on the door. My hold on it was crushing, but my free hand was steady when I reached for the knob. I yanked the door open and stood for a beat, taking the scene in. Lysander’s back was to me, and he had Mira up against the wall. She was sobbing and fighting, but she would never win on her own, and she knew it. Just as I did.
I caught sight of the electroprod on the floor at his feet and made my move.
It happened so fast I did not register what I was doing until the blade had plunged into Lysander’s back. He screamed, and I pulled it out, only to plunge it in a second time. Blood covered my hand, and he went down in a heap of whimpers, and in front of me stood Mira, panting and disheveled, but in one piece.
Only it would not stay that way for long. We had to run.
“Come on.” I held my hand out. “We must go.”
She took the hand I offered her, and toge
ther, we ran. Through the kitchen and past the other housemaids, all of whom were so shocked they had not moved from their original spots, and then we were in the mudroom and heading out the back door.
I was already panting when we made it outside, and it was then that I realized we had nowhere to go. Leaving the city through the front gate was impossible. Even if we did manage to make it there before Lysander’s body was discovered, I was covered in his blood and still holding the knife. No. We needed another way out.
“Xandra.” I gasped out the name of the woman who had led my husband to his death.
We had not spoken in months, not since the day she came to my hut to apologize. My anger had subsided as I was slowly able to acknowledge what she had said was true. Bodhi had followed her, and had she not led him to the tunnel behind the city, he would have died at the gates without ever setting foot inside. At least she had given him a chance, no matter how small. I only hoped she would be willing to give Mira and me the same chance.
“Come on,” I said, pulling my friend with me as I ran down the alley and toward the back of the house, away from the main street.
The houses in Sovereign City had been constructed back to back, with the main streets that ran in front of them being wide enough for carts and people, while the roads that ran behind them were narrow and confining. They were so confining, in fact, that very few people used them unless absolutely necessary, which made it easier for Mira and me to travel unnoticed.
Still, I kept on the lookout as I moved, knowing people did use the road on occasion and not wanting to be taken by surprise. If another Outlier happened upon us, we would be okay. If a Fortis guard found us, I still had the knife.
I stayed close to Mira as we traveled, hoping she would block my bloodied hands and dress from sight in case anyone did pop up. I kept the knife close to my side, knowing I would use it again if necessary but praying it would not come to that.
The city was amazingly quiet, though, and the only thing I could attribute the silence to was the afternoon nap most of the Sovereign were in the habit of taking. I found myself whispering a prayer of thanks that the people living within these walls were so lazy.
We wove our way through the city until we reached the alley I had been searching for. Once there, I stopped and took a look around, surveying the area to make sure no one was in sight. The road in front of me was clear, but simply walking up to knock on the door was out of the question. I had no clue if everyone in the house was trustworthy. We were going to have to wait until someone—another Outlier—came out.
It seemed to take forever, and with each passing moment, my heart pounded harder. Mira was crouched behind me. She had not uttered a word since leaving Saffron’s house, and the expression on her face told me she was in shock. A normal reaction, and one I probably would have experienced, too, had I not already worn so much blood on my hands.
When the door finally opened, it was a young Outlier girl who stepped out. Her shaved head told me she was from the Huni tribe, but she was still an Outlier, and I was certain even though our two tribes did not interact in the wilds, she would not turn her back on us inside the city.
I called out to the girl, and she froze but did not look scared. Not even when I revealed myself, bloody dress and all. “I need Xandra.”
The girl’s gaze moved over me only once before she turned and ran back inside.
When she was gone, I ducked back into my hiding place and took Mira’s hand. “We are going to be okay. I promise.”
“You killed him,” Mira murmured.
“He got what he deserved.”
When she looked at me, her eyes were wide. “I know. I just—” She swallowed. “You killed a man, Indra.”
I wanted to tell her it was not the first time, that I had been hunting Fortis men and women for months, but it was not the right moment to reveal all my deepest and darkest secrets. Instead, I squeezed her hand and remained silent.
Xandra came out a few beats later, and I stood. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me, her dark eyes growing wide as they took in the blood staining my dress and the knife in my hand.
She stumbled forward two steps, but the small distance seemed to be all she could cross before gasping, “What have you done, Indra?”
“We need a way out of the city,” I said instead of answering her question.
“What have you done?” she repeated, her eyes moving over me again as she ran her hand over her close-cropped hair.
“I killed a man,” I said, “and I need to get out. Now, Xandra.”
That snapped her out of it, and she barely looked over her shoulder before heading for the alley we had just come out of. When she waved for us to follow, I once again took Mira’s hand, afraid she was still in too much shock to register what was happening, and hurried after Xandra.
The other woman was a head taller than I was, and her strides much longer. I practically had to run to keep up, but I was thankful because it made me feel like we were making real progress. Like it would only be a matter of minutes before we were outside the walls and safe. She took turns with no warning, twisting us deeper into the city and closer to the wall, but the massive structure was still a street away when she finally slowed.
“This is the place,” Xandra said as she approached a door. “The tunnel is through here.”
The house in front of us was larger than Saffron’s and twice as grand, which I could not wrap my head around. Saffron was a very important woman in the city. Not a stateswoman like Paizlee, but a member of one of the original families. Few people had homes as large as hers, and those who did carried important titles. Did the Sovereign living in this house know about the tunnel? Could someone so important be trusted?
“Who lives here?” Mira asked in awe, as if all the thoughts that had just gone through my mind were going through hers as well.
“This is the House of Aralyn,” Xandra replied.
I had worked in the city long enough to be familiar with the name, and I knew this woman was the leader of the minority party, the one that opposed Paizlee. Saffron had mentioned her before, saying Aralyn’s ideas were radical, but I had never heard anyone indicate that she was sympathetic to Outliers. It made no sense that she would be. Why would anyone living inside these walls care about us? They barely had to lift a finger because we existed to serve them.
Xandra entered the house without knocking, and Mira and I followed her inside. We found ourselves in a mudroom much like the one in Saffron’s house, but Xandra did not stop there. She moved into the kitchen without hesitation, and the women working there barely looked up from their work when we stepped in. No one asked what we were doing or who we were as we crossed through the room, and then through the dining room, finally stopping when Xandra reached a door. She pulled it open, and I peered inside, but it was only a closet. At least until she knelt and pried a panel up to reveal a hole in the floor and a ladder descending into darkness.
“In here,” Xandra said, waving to the ladder. “Climb down and follow the wall until you reach a second ladder. I will talk to Aralyn after you are gone. I do not know if she would be willing to help, knowing you have killed a man.”
“What will happen to you?” Mira asked.
Xandra waved to the tunnel more emphatically. “Just go. Do not worry about me. Aralyn is a reasonable woman.” Her gaze went to me. “You should be worried about what you have brought down on our village, though. The Sovereign will retaliate, Indra. You must know that.”
“What would you have me do?” I asked. “Stand by and listen as another one of my people is violated? Do nothing? You do not stand by and do nothing. How can you expect me to do the same?”
Xandra’s expression softened, and she let out a sigh. “I do understand, but this thing you have done… It could be the end of everything you know and love, Indra.”
“No more than when you led Bodhi into the city.”
This time, the expression in Xandra’s eyes turned sad. “That
is always a risk. Now, you must go.”
I did as I was told and moved toward the hole while my heart pounded at Xandra’s warning. She was right. I had not considered the consequences. I had only thought of Mira and what was going to happen to her. Now, though, I was achingly aware of what could happen to our village. To my mother and sister.
We needed to get to them. Fast.
“What do we do once we find the ladder?” I asked.
“Climb. Above that, you will find another door. All you will have to do is push it open, and then you will be outside the city. Be very careful on the way back. The Fortis will most likely be looking for you.”
I turned to climb down, but before I could make any progress, Xandra reached out and grabbed my hand. Her brown skin contrasted with mine, and it made me think of Asa and how there had been no chance to say goodbye to him. I was surprised when the thought caused an ache to spread through me.
“I will see you in the village,” Xandra whispered, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
“Thank you,” I said before pulling my hand from hers and descending into the darkness.
7
The darkness in the tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, and it sent me back to those first few moments in the caves after my torch had gone out and my sense of direction had been destroyed by the blackness that had engulfed me. The memory sent a shiver down my spine.
Only this time, I was not alone.
Mira was behind me, and I reached back into the darkness until I located her hand. She wrapped her fingers around mine and squeezed, and the contact gave me comfort, but also courage to keep moving. I would need it, because the black tunnel stretching out in front of us was only the beginning. After we climbed to the surface, we would have to find a way to make it back to our village without getting caught, and once we had arrived, there was no telling what we would face.
I ran my hand along the wall as I walked, feeling my way since my sight had been stolen from me. It was cold and rough like stone, but also full of grooves that told me blocks had been put down here to reinforce the tunnel. But by whom? That was the question that went through my mind over and over again as I moved. Who had built this tunnel, and what had their purpose been? Why had anyone ever needed a secret way in and out of the city?
