The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky
Page 29
A shot rang out, kicking up gravel inches from where the girl had stood.
He changed direction, zigzagging now as he calculated how long it would take to seat a new round. Then a second shot, faster than he’d expected. He stumbled and fell to one knee, almost dropping Kailani. Through blurred vision, he saw Helena race toward him, pointing to his lower pant leg where a red blotch had begun to spread.
“Take her,” he said with little air.
“But what—”
“Benjamin.”
Helena froze, her eyes darting around uncertainly, but only for an instant. She grabbed the child and took off for the barracks.
By now, troopers were rushing everywhere, the honor guard sprinting for weapons, while their comrades mustered outside, helmets and rifles clattering ominously. One helped Jason to his feet and brought him over to the commander.
As Jason briefed him, Sebastian joined in, leaning heavily on his walking staff and showing all of his seventy-eight years.
“I was wrong again, Jason. And now....” Sebastian grabbed the commander’s arm. “Let me go with you.”
“You’d only slow us down.”
“He has a long-range rifle with a scope and is an expert marksman. You’ll have to approach cautiously. I can go that fast. I’ve known him for years. He might listen to me.”
The commander nodded and signaled for his lieutenant to bring him along.
With the aid of the trooper, Jason limped back to the barracks to find Helena huddled with Kailani in a corner on the floor.
“Your leg,” she said. “I’ll get a first-aid kit.”
He winced as she rolled up his pant leg, but once she washed off the blood, the damage didn’t look too bad. He’d been lucky; only a glancing blow from a .308 caliber silvertip intended for Kailani.
While she gingerly bandaged his leg, he squinted into the afternoon sun and pondered what their escape had done—transformed the worshipper into the hunter.
***
Jason sat on a stool and assessed the situation. Benjamin was a stalker, trained to skulk in the woods. The troopers were boys, most of them younger than him, and with no war fought in their lifetimes, he wondered at their experience. Could a squad of heavily armed boys find Benjamin?
Behind him, Helena sat with Kailani, holding the frightened girl’s hand and stroking her hair.
Carlson had gone off to report to his superiors, something hardly necessary since the media had broadcast the attack.
Ten minutes of infuriating silence followed. Jason waited as the throbbing in his leg subsided, studying the tree line and hoping for a hint of what was happening.
He startled at a burst of gunfire. A violent end for Benjamin? Not likely. These new shots were close by and had come from the south, far from where the patrol was searching.
A nearby radio crackled to life, followed by a sharp command. Half a squad was ordered to remain, while the others were dispatched in the new direction. They too soon disappeared into the woods.
Jason stood and tested his leg. It had stiffened but would sustain his weight. He hobbled to the doorway to check outside, taking measure of the men who remained.
They were fingering the safeties on their weapons and nervously scanning the trees. All so young.
But something was wrong.
He’d heard shots but no ricochets. There were no gashes in the ground, no shards of the building ripped away. Benjamin was too good a marksman to be that far off.
He held his breath and listened.
A well-placed round kicked up dust at the squad leader’s feet, a challenge rather than a threat to kill. The troopers scrambled for cover. The squad leader redeployed his men, one to the sentry house by the gate, the others behind trees at the edge of the forest.
Jason tried to follow, but the squad leader stopped him with a hand to his chest. “Stay here.” He pointed to Helena and Kailani. “Stay with them.”
For the next few minutes, Jason tried to gauge the sounds—shouts to the east, cries to the south, but no more gunfire. Then, from beyond the doorway, a clunk and a thud.
He glanced around; only one way in. Anyone trying to get to Kailani would have to pass through him. He lurched down the stairs, trying to tread lightly on his injured leg, and peered past the end of the barracks. By the guardhouse, he saw the soles of boots on the ground. The sentry was down.
A runner’s breath. He was not alone.
Despite the squad leader’s orders, he staggered outside. Benjamin was armed, and he was not. He needed the sentry’s gun, but as he neared the guardhouse, a crunch of gravel from the Lady of Reason made him turn.
Benjamin slipped out from behind the statue’s pedestal, the Browning Mark II Stalker nestled in his arms. “Hello, Jason.” His voice was calm, as if they were planning for another day pulling weeds.
Jason inched toward him, but before he could come within an arm’s length, Benjamin leveled the weapon at his chest.
“I did everything to warn you, Jason. I even learned to send an anonymous message. Bewaaare.” He dragged out the last syllable and punctuated it with a cackle. The barrel of the rifle dipped, but before Jason could take advantage, Benjamin regained focus. “I knew all along you’d never understand. Now out of my way. The apocalypse is at hand.”
Jason’s heart thumped as blood forced its way through his veins. He thought of Helena, of Kailani, of a cause worth dying for. He held his ground.
Benjamin squeezed the trigger, taking up slack.
A cry from behind. “No!”
Jason followed Benjamin’s eyes to see Helena emerge from the barracks.
***
Helena had no need to slow her breathing. It had become strangely measured as she watched the two of them standing there—Jason alone and unarmed, Benjamin with rifle in hand. A sense of loss washed over her, so profound she felt as if her father were dying again. A voice inside her shouted: Not this time. Reason and spirit mixed into an elixir called courage, and the voice became sound.
“No.” She stepped in front of Jason and confronted Benjamin, her eyes unblinking. “You mustn’t do this, Benjamin. It’s not the way of the Spirit.”
The little man bared his teeth and glared at her. “And how would a nonbeliever know the way of the Spirit?”
“Because I am a believer now, thanks to you. You taught me, Benjamin, and what I’ve learned is that the way of the Spirit is the way of life.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught troopers emerging from the woods. One of them had his weapon aimed at Benjamin’s heart.
“The way of life, Benjamin. For all of us. For Jason and Kailani. For me and for you.” She held out a hand, palm up, as if expecting him to hand over the rifle.
At the tree line, more troopers appeared. A dozen safeties clicked off.
One last, deep breath, and what? A prayer? “Time to choose, Benjamin. To choose life.”
Benjamin glanced at the troopers, now an army with every weapon trained on him. Then he gazed skyward and closed his eyes.
The lightweight Stalker slipped from his hands and fell to the ground.
***
Helena surveyed the scene, trying to absorb what had happened. The commander had agreed to withdraw most of the troopers back to their barracks, though he insisted on an extra dozen in the honor guard. The media were thrilled with the turn of events—a better story—but wanted to hurry the ceremony along so it would finish before the light faded.
The sky had begun to darken, but a band of blue had opened between the edge of the clouds and the mountains. As the sun sank low enough to find the gap, it lit up the no man’s land.
Time for goodbyes. Helena and Jason knelt side by side so Kailani could reach them both. The child lingered, leaning in and touching her forehead to each of theirs. Then a quick hug, and she was gone.
Helena watched her float up the hill, neither turning nor pausing until she neared the steel hut at the peak of the land bridge.
A cry, this t
ime from the entrance to the hut. A dark-skinned bear of a man burst through with open arms, thick and broad like the branches of the sentinel tree, and behind him a woman with golden hair and eyes the color of the ocean.
As the sunlight flickered off the stars in her hair, their daughter rushed toward them, not stopping until she basked in the glow of the sea and the sky.
Epilogue
The sun had warmed enough to overwhelm the fog and break through, sending its rays across the Freedom Ocean. Helena’s eyes narrowed as she tried to read the message. Too much glare. She half-squatted and shifted her chair until the shadow of an umbrella fell across the screen.
Better.
At the top of the message, she selected the attached video, the latest enhancement from Jason’s team at the Polytech.
After a moment, Kailani appeared, no longer a child but a gangly young woman of fourteen. The hair was still golden and the eyes the color of the ocean, but her features had elongated, some not quite in proportion. Adolescent awkwardness had replaced childlike grace, the self-consciousness of a growing body. No matter. Time would make adjustments and she’d blossom.
The video began to play. Kailani’s voice was only slightly less dreamy than it had been five years before, when she’d arrived in her small boat. Her father, she said, was working on an agreement with the Republic that would allow for an exchange of students. She hoped someday to go to university there, maybe even to the Polytechnic Institute to study science like Helena and help make a better world. She hoped she could stay at the house on the cliffs with them.
Of course she could, now that it was a happier place.
On the grass before Helena, Juliana crawled to the picket fence, as she’d done earlier that morning when her daddy was watching. She grabbed hold and pulled with all her eleven-month-old might, almost rising to her feet before plopping back down again.
Helena sniffed the salt air and listened to the sounds of the cliffs—the lapping of the waves against the rocks, the sigh of the breeze in the birches. She glanced out at the expanse of ocean her daughter had yet to discover and smiled. Juliana would succeed soon enough, maybe tomorrow or the next day.
After all, it was in the nature of the Spirit to rise up and walk.
---THE END---
About the Author
The urge to write first struck me when working on a newsletter at a youth encampment in the woods of northern Maine. It may have been the night when lightning flashed at sunset followed by northern lights rippling after dark. Or maybe it was the newsletter’s editor, a girl with eyes the color of the ocean. But I was inspired to write about the blurry line between reality and the fantastic.
Using two fingers and lots of white-out, I religiously typed five pages a day throughout college and well into my twenties. Then life intervened. I paused to raise two sons and pursue a career, in the process becoming a well-known entrepreneur in the software industry, founding several successful companies. When I found time again to daydream, the urge to write returned.
There Comes a Prophet, published in July 2012, was the first novel in this new stage of life. My second, Along the Watchtower, came out in June 2013.
My wife and I split our time between Cape Cod, Florida, and anywhere else that catches our fancy. I no longer limit myself to five pages a day and am thankful every keystroke for the invention of the word processor.
For more, please visit my website at www.DavidLitwack.com.
What’s Next?
This book continues the great series that began with the multiple award-winning The Children of Darkness, and continued with The Stuff of Stars:
THE LIGHT OF REASON
(The Seekers – Book 3)
By David Litwack
Watch for the third and final book in The Seekers dystopian sci-fi series, coming November 2016. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
~~~
Orah and Nathaniel return home with miracles from across the sea, hoping to bring a better life for their people. Instead, they find the world they left in chaos.
A new grand vicar, known as the usurper, has taken over the keep and is using its knowledge to reinforce his hold on power.
Despite their good intentions, the seekers find themselves leading an army, and for the first time in a millennium, their world experiences the horror of war.
But the keepmasters’ science is no match for the dreamers, leaving Orah and Nathaniel their cruelest choice—face bloody defeat and the death of their enlightenment, or use the genius of the dreamers to tread the slippery slope back to the darkness.
More from David Litwack
For lovers of dystopian science fiction, this series is suitable for readers 13 and older:
THE SEEKERS
By David Litwack
Book 1 – The Children of Darkness
Book 2 – The Stuff of Stars
This dystopian sci-fi series offers a post-apocalyptic look at the battle between religion and reason, offering not just extraordinary settings and circumstances, but memorable characters. For more information on these books, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
~~~
THE CHILDREN OF DARKNESS:
“But what are we without dreams?”
~~~
A thousand years ago the Darkness came—a terrible time of violence, fear, and social collapse when technology ran rampant. But the vicars of the Temple of Light brought peace, ushering in an era of blessed simplicity. For ten centuries they have kept the madness at bay with “temple magic,” and by eliminating forever the rush of progress that nearly caused the destruction of everything.
Childhood friends, Orah and Nathaniel, have always lived in the tiny village of Little Pond, longing for more from life but unwilling to challenge the rigid status quo. When their friend Thomas returns from the Temple after his “teaching”—the secret coming-of-age ritual that binds young men and women eternally to the Light—they barely recognize the broken and brooding young man the boy has become. Then when Orah is summoned as well, Nathaniel follows in a foolhardy attempt to save her.
In the prisons of Temple City, they discover a terrible secret that launches the three on a journey to find the forbidden keep, placing their lives in jeopardy, for a truth from the past awaits that threatens the foundation of the Temple. If they reveal that truth, they might once again release the potential of their people.
Yet they would also incur the Temple’s wrath as it is written: “If there comes among you a prophet saying, ‘Let us return to the darkness,’ you shall stone him, because he has sought to thrust you away from the Light.”
~~~
Praise for The Children of Darkness:
“A tightly executed first fantasy installment that champions the exploratory spirit.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The plot unfolds easily, swiftly, and never lets the readers' attention wane.... After reading this one, it will be a real hardship to have to wait to see what happens next.” – Feathered Quill Book Reviews
“The quality of its intelligence, imagination, and prose raises The Children of Darkness to the level of literature.” – Awesome Indies
“...a fantastic tale of a world that seeks a utopian existence, well ordered, safe and fair for everyone... also an adventure, a coming-of-age story of three young people as they become the seekers, travelers in search of a hidden treasure—in this case, a treasure of knowledge and answers. A tale of futuristic probabilities... on a par with Huxley's Brave New World.” – Emily-Jane Hills Orford, Readers’ Favorite Book Awards
~~~
THE STUFF OF STARS:
“But what are we without dreams?”
~~~
Against all odds, Orah and Nathaniel have found the keep and revealed the truth about the darkness, initiating what they hope will be a new age of enlightenment. Yet the people are more set in their ways than anticipated, and a faction of vicars whispers in their ears, urging a return to traditional wa
ys.
Desperate to keep their movement alive, Orah and Nathaniel cross the ocean to seek the living descendants of the keepmasters’ kin. Those they find on the distant shore are both more and less advanced than expected.
The seekers, caught between the two sides, face the challenge of bringing them together to make a better world. The prize: a chance to bring home miracles, and a more promising future for their people.
If they fail this time, they risk not a stoning, but losing themselves in the twilight of a never-ending dream.
More from Evolved Publishing
We hope you loved The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky.
If so, you’re sure to love these great books, too.
For lovers of traditional Literary or Women’s Fiction (suitable for readers 16 and older):
Both Books are WINNERS (Summer 2014 and Fall 2015):
BEST FICTION
~~~
HANNAH’S VOICE
By Robb Grindstaff
This up-market literary fiction explores the extraordinary events of one girl’s life and struggles to be understood.
~~~
CARRY ME AWAY
By Robb Grindstaff
This literary coming-of-age novel from the author of the critically-acclaimed Hannah’s Voice features the unique and memorable Carrie Destin.
~~~
For more information on these books, please visit the publisher’s website at Evolved Publishing.
~~~
Description of Hannah’s Voice:
When six-year-old Hannah’s brutal honesty is mistaken for lying, she stops speaking. Her family, her community, and eventually, the entire nation struggle to find meaning in her silence.
School officials suspect abuse. Church members are divided—either she has a message from God or is possessed by a demon. Social workers interrupt an exorcism to wrest Hannah away from her momma, who has a tenuous grip on sanity.