No one had ever spoken to a Regent like that before. But there was no folding in Vardan Saah. He recovered quickly.
“And have you acquired proof of these crimes?” He said it smugly. He knew Robinson hadn’t. So he decided to tell the truth.
“No. But my mother did.”
Looking back, he couldn’t say for sure why things had unfolded the way they had. The books all told that survival was about the power of will, letting go, and believing in one’s self. But no one could survive in a vacuum. Everyone needed help. On the forbidden continent, Robinson had had Friday, Resi, and even the Old Man. He was alive because they had earned his trust. And that was how he knew Slink would come through for him. There were few he trusted more.
When all the heads in the crowd snapped up, Robinson didn’t even have to turn around. He didn’t need to see the footage to know the content and its import.
The first video was Saah inside his office with his conspirators.
“I want electronic devices planted in every Tier home from Regen 1 to Regen 8. Not a single word gets spoken that I don’t hear about.”
The crowd gasped and Saah’s head snapped nervously around.
Then came a second clip of Iron Fists shooting rifles in a field.
“Faster!” Saah ordered. “The renders on the Forbidden Continent are not as soft as our own!”
A third clip had him stepping inside a flyer.
“Are you sure it has the capacity to cross the Atlantica? I don’t want to have to transport additional fuel cells unless it’s necessary.”
“This is a fabrication!” Saah screamed as the crowd turned on him. “These are lies! I’ve never been off the Isle! I’ve never—”
The fourth clip showed him stepping out of a flyer at the Air Force base. Three men were pulled out in shackles after him. This time, the crowd was stupefied.
“That’s Tier Frostmore! He walked the Red Road!” someone in the crowd shouted. “And Tiers Cork and Ulay were exiled!”
“Look, it’s Taskmaster Satu! He was said to have died!”
“Cut the Feed! Someone—! These are technological fabrications!”
But the blood of the crowd was already up. The Red Guard held them back as they surged forward, but it was clear they were in danger of being overrun. Robinson realized that the wall needed one last brick pulled before it completely toppled.
“Vardan Saah is the real perpetrator of treason! He even had the Regent murdered!”
“Lies!” Saah screamed. “Where is your evidence?”
“Here!” a booming voice called. To everyone’s surprise, Slink’s father pushed through the crowd. He had an Iron Fist by the scruff!
“It was this man’s hand that yielded the killing stroke! Tell them!”
“It’s true!” the soldier lamented. “Brapo Liesel stole the knife from Tier Crusoe’s house. He threatened to kill my family if I didn’t help him!”
“This is fabrication!” Saah said and then a final image appeared on the Feed, showing Brapo Liesel handing the blade to the Iron Fist with Saah watching. Robinson quickly turned and saw Slink’s father smile. He had helped his son load this final footage from the Crown’s secret security cameras.
“Murderer!” the crowd screamed. Then everything turned to chaos.
The Iron Fists rushed forward, their truncheons arcing with killing blows, but the crowd was too many. Robinson heard Tessa scream and turned to see her fighting desperately to hold on to her mother’s hand as she was pulled into the mob, her face gouged by women. Jaras was trying to get to his father but quickly realized his sister needed him more. He pulled a hidden pistol from his coat and started firing into the crowd. At last he reached Tessa and dragged her away.
On the stage, Leodore and the other prisoners were freed from their shackles.
“Robinson!” Leodore yelled over the din. “We have to go!”
“The case! We need the case!”
Robinson pointed to the case on the stage. Saah must have heard him, because he lunged for it, his fingers just missing the handle.
“If he sets it off, everything Mother sacrificed will be for nothing!”
“Go!” Leodore yelled.
They fought against the crowd, but on the other side of the stage, Saah dropped to the floor and pulled the case to him. His fingers moved quickly to enter the ICARUS password. Robinson didn’t know if he was doing it out of spite or if he really believed destroying the cure would save the Isle from some worse threat, but when he was yanked just short of pushing the EXECUTE button, Robinson knew it was now or never.
He tore through the mob, using every manner of attack Friday had taught him. He was aware he was hitting his own people, but he had no choice. The fate of the world hung in the balance.
Just as he caught sight of the case, a truncheon slammed into his head and he fell to the stage. Behind him, Leodore struggled with an Iron Fist. Robinson crawled forward, blood running down his face, his vision blurred. The silver case was inches away. Robinson’s fingers stretched out, about to latch onto it, when Saah made one last leap and hit the EXECUTE button.
He smiled at Robinson’s look of horror. And then someone in the crowd gasped.
The riot ceased as all heads turned toward the sky. High in the clouds, a ring of fire grew brilliantly outward. A thunderous boom descended a moment later and people screamed.
Robinson had failed.
He scrambled to his feet and turned to his father. The pain in his eyes was almost unbearable. And then someone said, “Look!”
Back up in the sky, a dozen smaller rockets sped out from the center of the blast like rays of the sun. Contrails marked their path as they sped far apart and then detonated themselves in a nimbus of colored light.
Robinson raised both hands in the air and shouted triumphantly, “MOTHER!”
Only Leodore understood what had happened. But when he wrapped his son in a stifling embrace with tears filling his eyes, people seemed to realize it was a good thing.
At their feet, Saah groaned with defeat. But his troubles were far from over as the crowd grabbed him and hauled him up.
“The Road!” someone shouted. “Make him walk the Red!”
The mob dragged Saah into the street and tore at his clothes before marching him toward the Western Gate. Leodore grabbed hold of Robinson.
“Stop them!” he said. “We need to debrief him!”
“I’ll do what I can,” his son replied, but he knew it would be a tough task. “Get Tannis and Tallis out of here.”
Leodore nodded and rushed off. Robinson took off after Saah but couldn’t halt the mob for anything. Along the way, he saw Slink calling out from the balcony of a building, but he couldn’t escape the sea of bodies.
Saah was barely conscious when someone broke open the Western Gate and dragged him through. But just as the crowd was preparing to toss him to his death, a whoosh of dust and air blew everyone back as a flyer rose up, nearly kissing the edge. A door swung open and Jaras appeared, holding a rifle. Robinson screamed for the crowd to take cover, but it was too late. Jaras opened fire.
The crowd scattered and that’s when he saw Tessa standing next to her brother, waving their father in.
“Father!” she screamed. “Jump!”
Saah stumbled forward and leaped, his hand missing Tessa’s but catching the runners beneath. Both Jaras and Tessa reached down to help him up, but it was at that exact moment when someone from the crowd launched a rock that sailed through the cabin and struck the pilot in the back of the head.
The flyer bucked and Tessa fell.
Jaras grasped for his sister at the last moment, but the fabric of her dress tore in his hand. He screamed for all his worth, but she was gone.
Saah seemed momentarily numb, but he regrouped quickly enough to signal the pilot to leave. Just as they were pulling away, Jaras looked up and locked eyes with Robinson. The hate in that glance was pure. It was a fury that would carry Jaras for the rest of his life, or u
ntil he and Robinson met again.
Before the crowd could reform, the flyer banked away and was gone.
The mob raged throughout the evening, burning homes, shops, and even managing to collapse two of the spires, but by morning, the embers of their rage had cooled and wiser heads prevailed. Still, the damage had been done.
Leodore spent time detailing the events that had transpired, specifically how Tier Saah had sought to destroy the FENIX and the cure it carried, but how in the end, Annabess’s final gift had released it into the world instead. Most believed his account. They decided he was the best man to lead the way forward. There were many gifts their forefathers had given them, but to survive, they needed to adapt. They needed change. It would take time.
Early one morning, Slink returned home to find Robinson waiting outside his apartment. Bull had allowed Leodore and the twins to stay there, since Leodore had refused to sleep in the Crown, but Robinson couldn’t rest until he’d thanked his friend.
“There’s one thing I want to know,” Slink said, his face as serious as Robinson had ever seen it.
Robinson raised an eyebrow. “Shoot.”
“How many beds are in the Tower Keep?”
Robinson cracked up laughing and Slink joined him.
Epilogue
The Promise
He stood at the perimeter of the forest at the edge of the airbase. At first, his intention was to land and set off immediately, but he still had one mission to attend to. He sought out Taskmaster Satu’s body, and with Leodore’s help, gave him a proper burial.
The two weeks on the Isle had been a bittersweet homecoming. The family had shared stories of their journeys. Robinson had given the twins a good recounting of their mother’s goodbye. There had been tears and laughter, but in the end, Robinson had grown restless and everyone had known it was time for him to go.
One benefit of his stay was his new outfitting. A dressmaker who had once served the Crown had crafted him a set of trousers, shirts, and boots of some fabric that he swore was indestructible. Whether they were was beside the point. Either way, Robinson would be the best-dressed warrior on the forbidden continent.
He’d also had a blacksmith craft him two war axes fashioned from something called titanium alloy. They were light and sharp and terrified children whenever they saw him coming. Torches, food, and rope filled out the rest of his modest pack.
“You’re sure about this?” Leodore asked, looking out over the forest. “I can have some flyers take you and a league of Red Guard anywhere you want to go.”
“Thank you, but no. This is one task I need to do myself.”
“Mayfus is furious that you left without him. He’s threatening to bludgeon every pilot he sees until one of them agrees to fly him over.”
“Mayfus still thinks I need him to take care of me. I don’t. Besides, his newfound celebrity has afforded him a number of female admirers. He deserves to bolster his own reputation for a while.”
“Any idea where you’ll go?”
“Friday mentioned once that the savages worked their way along the Atlantica in the spring and summer and headed inland by fall, along a route called the Mississippi. I’ll start that way and see where it leads me.”
Above them, the sun shone brightly. It was time.
“Robinson,” Leodore began, about to say the one thing every son longs to hear. But Robinson no longer needed the words. He held his hand out instead.
“I know,” his son said.
After they shook, Robinson turned for the forest.
“Come back alive,” Leodore called after him. “Preferably with the girl. If my eldest son is to get married or mated or whatever they do here, I think the family should meet her.”
“You will,” Robinson yelled as his walk turned into a jog.
“How can you be so sure?” Leodore called.
“Easy!” Robinson responded. “I’m a Crusoe!”
As he entered the forest, he was running at full speed. It felt good to have his legs and heart pumping again. He longed to feel the heft of his axes in his hand, but that could wait. His hand was full anyway, holding Friday’s acorn.
When he passed too close to a bush, he felt a barb cut into his flesh and a small trickle of blood ran down his arm. He smiled at the pain because he knew he was back where he belonged. He was on the path to her.
And she knew he was coming.
— The End —
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