by Jill Cooper
“And you yours.”
“I’m serious.” Sebastian’s eyes briefly deviated over to Ella. “She can sense where the fortress will be by simple meditation, then she can do whatever that just was? She’s no normal scavenger. She may be working against us.”
His words brought dread into my stomach, and it tingled all the way down to my toes. I left silently and headed toward Ella. “Are you all right?”
“You have a nice chat?” Ella asked with disdain, but now I saw it for what it really was: a defensive tactic. She was scared, as was I, maybe even more so. Maybe she wasn’t marked as special like me, but she was special. The ravengers hadn’t been able to consume her life force. She had the power of sound in a way I had never imagined.
Ella was special, and it terrified her.
Terrified me, too.
“Can we just go without getting into another fight?” I asked.
She stared at me for a long time before she bent over into the grass, brushing the long angular blades aside. “This way will keep us hidden from the wolves and the ravengers.”
Sebastian headed our way as I peered down with narrow eyes. “A staircase that goes under the earth?”
Ella nodded, her eyes wide and innocent. “I was going to make you go the long way, but if something is tracking us, this will be safer.”
“Like hell it will,” Sebastian said as he joined my side. “You’d take us underground through the old subway tunnels? If there’s any oxygen left at all, the trolls will slaughter us for dinner—and breakfast, plus everything in-between.”
Trolls? Underground subways?
Ella snorted with a roll of her eyes. “Oh, please. Seems I found something your boyfriend is afraid of, Tarnish Rose. He’s afraid of the dark.”
Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “I don’t trust you.”
“No one should,” Ella agreed, “but my survival is tied to yours. I won’t lead you to your death. Plus, no one really believes in trolls.”
“Are there really trolls?” I asked.
“No," Ella said as Sebastian said, “Yes.” He sighed and took me by the arm and implored me, “You saw the magical creatures of imagination. You also saw the locked doors, the creatures twisted with fear and hatred because of everything Creighton has done. These trolls are no different. If we go down there…”
“It’s a shortcut,” Ella answered. “We’ll cut across the land faster under there than we can possibly do above ground. It’ll take us beneath the dry riverbed. We’ll make it in half the time.”
Was she lying? I looked to Sebastian. He shook his head. “She’s right, but we can’t know what we’ll find in the dark.”
Ella crossed her arms. “Told you he was scared.”
An impossible choice, but one I had to make. “I trust you, Sebastian.” I gripped his hands in mine, and he smiled. “But if we can cut time off our journey, we have to try.” I turned just as his face filled with disappointment—and regret.
“Finally, you made a good decision.” Ella started down the stairs, and I glanced back at the slumbering horses. I hoped they’d be all right and await our return.
The stairs were made of stone, old and brittle, that shifted beneath my feet. I extended my arm for balance, my fingers lightly touching the moist wall, descending into total darkness. I gulped, unable to see, but heard drips of water and clamoring of metal deep inside the tunnel.
“Tarnish,” Sebastian’s whisper echoed around me as he gripped my shoulder. His tone was that of a warning, and I knew how badly he wanted us to reverse course.
“I can’t see a thing. I just need to get the remnant from the bag. Ella? Can we stop a moment?” I stepped down, happy to find solid ground again.
“Keep your bag secure. I’ll light the way.” As Ella said it, her face shined brightly and the light glowed all around so I could see the subway tunnel behind her. There were elevated tracks, spray painted words on the walls screaming words of warning.
Keep Out! Trolls.
Beware of the Dark.
Murder.
So, there were trolls? I took in the sight of Ella’s fearful expression. She had never looked more vulnerable, more afraid as she waited for me to either accept her help or condemn her. Her hand was palm up, from her palm shot a brilliant light that lit a way for us.
We stared each other down as Sebastian made an audible gasp. “I think… think I see a map.”
Ella and I followed Sebastian as he studied something against the old tile wall. I delicately touched the tile, never feeling anything like it. Covered in a thick layer of dirt and grime, my finger brushed it away to reveal a dingy white color. It must’ve been such a grand place once upon a time.
“Tarnish,” Sebastian’s voice brought me back to the present. “Can you read this map?”
We brushed away the cobwebs and dirt with our hands. The map was presented with lines of colors intersected in the middle but shot off in their own direction. The words were easy to read, but not much about them made sense.
“Metro, well, that must be short for metropolitan, which is a really big city.”
“Too far in,” Ella said. “The tower will overlook the lava, not be in the lava. We’ll have to dial it further back.”
“How will we know which one to take?” Sebastian asked.
“This one,” Ella said and touched one of the small circles on the line. “That’s close to where the tower will reveal itself.”
“Federal Center?” My eyebrows furrowed. “How do you know?”
“I just do. It’s how it works. I know how to find the Temptress, and everything in me says this is the way. I trust my feelings and instincts. How do you think I’ve managed to get by this far on my own?”
“You’re an opportunist,” Sebastian said. “You lie and manipulate to get what you want. Surely, this doesn’t surprise either of you.”
I held a sigh in. “Sebastian—”
“You mean to trust her?”
“No,” I answered and gazed at both of them. The smirk Ella wore showed she enjoyed watching Sebastian and I argue more than she should’ve. “I don’t trust her, but we took her to be our guide, and now… now we have no choice but to let her.”
Satisfied with my answer, Ella turned back to the map, holding her pinched nose in the air just a bit higher than before. “We’re here. All these tunnels are connected. I can lead us through.”
“Or lead us to our death,” Sebastian reminded me.
“Don’t be so chicken,” Ella egged him on. “What do you have to be so afraid of?”
Everything. We had everything to be afraid of, but Sebastian couldn’t read the spray paint warnings I did. If he knew, he’d lead us away, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.
“Everyone, be ready. We don’t know what lurks in these century-old tunnels.” I needed Sebastian to be on guard, to be ready.
“Follow me,” Ella said as she took up the front. “Keep quiet, don’t scream. Other things make their homes in these tunnels, and we wish not to wake them.”
Sebastian threw me a surprised, sharp glance. I tried to appear strong as we made our way forward, but in truth, I was terrified. The young woman who had tried to kill us, who lied and manipulated whenever she got the chance, had our very lives in her hands.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dani and Timothy
Dani Richardson had never ridden on a train before.
On the long trip to Beantown, she stared out at the rolling landscape, her face plastered to the window. She couldn’t believe how vast the land was between Rottenwood and Beantown. Who knew the world was so big?
The train station of Beantown was dirtier than Rottenwood’s and smelled of burning oil, making her nose twinge. Hardly anyone got off at the Beantown platform, and she walked behind Timothy as he gathered up their two meager bags.
“Where do we go, sir?” Dani asked him as they made their way toward the city gate. Up ahead was a conductor, checking over people’s credentials and
papers to make sure they were allowed into the city.
What if they got turned away? What if Beantown didn’t want them?
“That way, I guess. Please stop calling me sir now; we’re married.”
“Sorry…” Dani couldn’t help saying the word ‘sir’ in her head.
Timothy sighed as he glanced back at her, obviously hearing the unspoken word. Dani couldn’t help it much as they fell into line behind five other people. It was slow moving, and by the time it was their turn to speak to the conductor, her stomach growled with hunger.
“Passes and papers.” The conductor held out his hand, and his eyes shone with a dullness Dani recognized in most working folk.
Timothy placed their papers with the seal of the minister in his hands. The conductor read through the symbols and strokes. “Rottenwood, eh? Recently married. Why… a baby on the way already?” He snapped his fingers.
“Names?”
“Timothy and Dani Richardson, sir,” Timothy said, and Dani offered a little curtsey.
The conductor nodded, his mustache blowing. “We need the fresh blood after everything that’s happened here. We’re fetching someone to show you to your farmstead. It’s small but still workable. Tomorrow, you’ll meet the Minister of City Affairs.”
He waved them through an old turnstile; it creaked and was rusted, barely budged. Timothy guided Dani and stayed close to her as the conductor turned to them. “Are those all the bags you have? Life must be harder in Rottenwood than I thought.”
“Getting that way, sir,” Dani said.
“Mr. and Mrs. Richardson?” a voice from beyond called them, and Dani searched for where it came from. Finally, she saw a couple coming toward them. A tall man in a bolder hat with kind eyes and a woman.
Oh, the woman was lovely, with long wavy blonde hair and the warmest brown eyes she'd ever seen. Dani wanted to tell her how beautiful she was as the woman placed her hand on top of Dani’s.
“Alessi and Scott,” she said softly. “Welcome to Beantown, such as it is. We’re neighbors, and we’ll be as close as family, such as that is, too. Our homesteads aren’t far from one another. C’mon, we’ll give you the tour.”
“How was the trip out?” Scott asked as he fell beside Timothy.
Timothy shrugged. “Good as can be expected, I suppose. Wasn’t bumpy or anything.”
Scott had a bushy mustache hanging over his lower lip, and some of his brown hair stuck out from beneath his hat. “Well, praise the workmen for that!” Scott laughed, and Dani joined in, too, because she felt so nervous inside.
They walked through the city gates, and Dani’s heart fell to see the condition of the city. The cobblestone roads were broken, and the area was a series of twisted hills with dilapidated farms. Crops that grew in the west were now gray and withered. There were people sitting on the side of the road, wide-eyed and with narrow, bony faces.
The place was a tomb. It wasn’t a home.
Dani gasped without meaning to, and Timothy squeezed her hand.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Scott said kindly, his voice unusually sympathetic, in Dani’s opinion. “We’re going through a dry spell. A drought has robbed us of our crops, but we’ll bounce back.”
“We always do,” Alessi said. “We’ll share with you whatever we get.”
Timothy nodded. “Very kind of you, thank you.”
“Family, like I said. Come on, our homesteads are furthest from town. We’re away from most, which protects us from illness and food borne sickness. These people… weren’t so lucky this time.” Alessi picked up the pace, and Dani struggled to keep up with her.
“Will illness come in the winter?”
“It’s already here, dear,” Alessa said with a quiet stillness that scared Dani. She shivered, afraid for what the future might be. Afraid of what kind of life she was damning her unborn child to.
*****
Twenty chickens, three goats, five cows, two pigs, one of which was pregnant and about to have a litter of piglets.
They were lucky for what the homestead would provide them. It gave them eggs and milk to sell to the ministers, and with luck it would give them enough to survive on when winter hit. Inside the farmhouse cold storage unit, Dani found a bag of oats and two bags of rice with some dried raisins in a small container.
She was used to far more food staples than this, but she could stretch it, and with milk from the goats and cows, they’d get by. Or so she hoped.
While exploring the dark basement, Dani moved the rice to see if anything else was behind it and nearly gasped at what she saw.
Full containers of a thick, colorful substance. Red, purple, and yellow, all vibrant. All beautiful, and if Dani didn’t miss her guess, they were paint. Actual paint.
When she heard the voices coming from upstairs, Dani moved the bag of rice back and hurried up the stairs. It emptied into the small hall that led to the one tiny bedroom she’d share with Timothy. Turning left, she entered the impressively sized kitchen, dining, and living area.
“So, what do you think?” Alessa asked. She clapped her hands together. “It’s clean, not too drafty. Very warm. It should be a nice home for you.”
“I’ll show you everything you need to know about repairing the fences in the fields and making happy chickens,” Scott said.
“Happy chickens?” Timothy scowled.
“Happy chickens, happy eggs,” Alessa and Scott said together and then laughed.
Dani smiled kindly. “Thank you so much. Tomorrow, then? Right now, I could use a lay down, I’m afraid. The journey was much longer than I feared it would be, especially after that walk through town.”
Alessi took her hands. “Breakfast tomorrow at our place, after the minister comes to greet you. We’d like to welcome you to our neck of the woods. It’s been a long while since we’ve met nice people so close to our age.”
Her parting hug filled Dani with warmth. Oh, she could’ve stayed and leaned into a hug like that all day.
Dani saw them out and waved before closing the door. Beantown was a run-down mess, but when was the last time people treated her like a real person and not a spinster—nothing more than the house servant? Even Mitchell, who Dani thought to be the great love of her life, never treated her like a person.
He treated her like property. Property he loved to touch, but something he used when he wanted to and forgot about when he didn’t.
She sighed and turned back into the kitchen. Over by the simple wooden table, Timothy stood staring into a closet.
“Timmy?” Dani asked and stood beside him. She drew her breath sharply to see what he stared at in the closet. It was a tiny crib. That would be their child’s sleeping cove, right off the kitchen where Dani would always be. A child never strayed far from its mother.
“Doesn’t seem real, does it?” Timothy asked, white as a sheet.
Dani put a hand on her rounded stomach. “I’m only sorry you have the curse of raising your half-brother or sister.”
Timothy didn’t answer her directly. “You better get some sleep. We both should. I begin something tomorrow I’ve never done before.”
Dani stared at him, begging for his answer.
“Work,” Timothy said dryly, a slight look of horror on his face.
Dani laughed and slipped her hands around him. “Oh, sir…”
“Timothy now, or Timmy. Remember?” he asked her, resting his finger on her chin.
“Timothy,” she said with a nod. “I’ll get the hang of it eventually, I swear it.”
He led her into the small bedroom, and while the bed was big enough for two, their shoulders and limbs would be touching. Timothy gestured toward the lumpy chair in the corner. “You take the bed. I’ll take this.”
Dani shook her head. “I can’t. You need—”
“I won’t see a pregnant woman sleeping in a chair for the next four months, Dani. You’ll take the bed.” Timothy grabbed a spare pillow and blanket from the bed, and Dani watched him wit
h appreciation.
“Your mother did you a great disservice, Timmy. You’re a far kinder, gentler person than she’d ever know.”
Timothy blushed. “Kinder than she’d like to admit, you mean. She'd rather I be as hard and uncaring as her, but now she’s gone. She’s gone from my life, and maybe that’s a good thing. Even if we have to live in Beantown. She can’t hurt either of us again. We’ll both get to make our own choices.”
And that sounded like music to Dani’s ears.
****
In the morning, Dani awoke feeling refreshed. She tidied up the bedroom while Timothy got started on pressing a pot of coffee. By the time she was done and moved on to the living room, Timothy still struggled with the pressing device used to make the coffee.
“I can do it for you,” Dani said as she stepped into the kitchen.
He pushed away my outstretched hand gently. “You’re no longer the servant, Dani. We are equals.” Timothy went a little green as he said it. Did it horrify him to be her equal now that they were partners instead of master and the servant? “I’ll do my fair share. Please, let me prove I can to myself, more than anyone.”
Dani nodded. “I won’t rob you of that, Timothy. But it doesn’t mean I can’t help. I don’t want to see you suffer any more than anyone else.”
“Thank you, dear Dani. Let’s give it a little bit more time, all right?”
Dani opened her mouth to speak. As a knock came at the door, she realized Timmy was holding her hand, as if they were a real couple. When he noticed it, his eyes widened with shock. Quickly, he dropped it faster than a hot potato and went to answer the door.
“Minister! Welcome,” Timothy said and stepped out of the way.
Dani hurried to be by his side to greet the Minister of City Affairs. “Minister, it’s…” When she saw the minister entering the room, Dani’s breath caught in her throat. He looked just like the minister she had met countless times in Rottenwood, down to the hairs of his mustache and the limp he walked with into the room.
Did all ministers look the same?
“Dani Richardson, it’s a pleasure.” He shook Dani’s hand, studying her midsection. “You’re much further along than expected. A blessing to Beantown! Welcome, even if this start is not conventional.” He swept his hand across Dani’s middle, and she felt a jolt of electricity travel from him into her.
