Aquifer

by Jonathan Friesen

  Suddenly, I’m not afraid. Talya reaches over and squeezes my hand.

  “I shouldn’t have doubted,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too.” I turn to Reffarian. “I don’t keep track of Father. Have you lost him?”

  Mape backhands me across the face, and I fall to the floor. I stand slowly. “So violent. So pathetic.” I turn to Reffarian. “His staged undoing has ended up to be your own. Yet, it is not too late. I would think that if the people saw Massa, it would comfort them. If they saw him, they would have no reason to riot. They would know that all was well, that the Deliverer would continue to make the exchange on their behalf. That I would one day take his place. You would have your precious control again.”

  “Not of the Rats!” Reffarian hisses. “I would not control the Rats. For too long they have controlled us. That will end. One way or another, their existence will end. I assure you that if Massa went to warn them, he will not succeed. The Isle of Descent is a fortress. Telling me his location is the surest way to save him.”

  I think. No. Another lie.

  “If it is a fortress, you have nothing to worry about from him or me. You will conquer the Rats and control the water.” I glance around. “Are we going to stay in this elevator forever?”

  Reffarian pounds the wall. “I will ask once more! Where is Massa?”

  “He abandoned me. I don’t care.”

  The Council looks at each other.

  Mape’s jaw tightens. “Do you want me to deal with these two?”

  “Why do you listen to them, Mape?” I ask. “They have misled you in every way.” I pause. “Tell me, where is your family?”

  Reffarian slaps his hand over my mouth. “Yes! Undo them! Do it now!”

  Talya drops into the corner, momentarily out of Mape’s reach. “You were told they would be safe. You were told they would be flown to the PM’s isle. You were told —”

  “Silence!” Another lunges toward Talya, misses, and crashes to the floor.

  Mape pauses. “My family … they are safe on the isle.”

  I glance at Talya and kick Reffarian with all I have. My boot thunks his shin, and his hand flies off my mouth. “Safe? They are lying at the bottom of a pit. I saw it. The site of undoing for thousands of Amongus’s wives and children. Your men were sent to the beach, your families to their doom. Listen to me!”

  With that, all three council members dive toward me. I crumple to the floor, tensing for blows that never arrive.

  I peek up. Mape sits on Reffarian, his hands driving the other men’s chests into the floor. I’ve been on the bottom of that move, and can almost feel the Council’s pain.

  Mape’s eyes are wild. “Talk, Wise Ones. Does Luca speak the truth?”

  “Of course not!” Reffarian bellows. “Off me. Now!”

  Mape peeks over his shoulder at Talya, and then to me. “Massa never lied to me. Never. I nearly stole his life on two occasions, but he was truthful. Luca, where is my family?”

  I recount the story of the kopter ride. Of the pilot’s instructions and the search to save Father. Finally, I tell him of the pit and the smell.

  Mape shakes his head. “It cannot be.”

  “That’s because it isn’t!” Reffarian shrieks.

  “Do you know Connyr’s family?” Talya rises from the corner. “Meline and her two children came with us to the isle. And the pilot, Haifer, do you know of him?”

  His face twitches. “Connyr is a mate.”

  “Connyr is undone,” I say. “I — well, Seward — secured his family a spot on the last kopter out of New Pert. The last one. Do you really believe there are thousands of dwellings on the PM’s isle, prepared as reward for your families? Do your superiors generally lead with gratitude? What are you thinking?”

  Mape looks down at the struggling tunics, but speaks to me. “Why are you here?”

  “Because we can’t let New Pert destroy itself.” I think what to share, what to hold. I wink at Talya. “Maybe if they see me, they will know that a Deliverer lives. Maybe the sight will stay this insanity.”

  “You would risk entering the amphitheater?” Muscles in Mape’s face relax. “Though for you it will mean the end of all things.”

  I swallow hard and nod. “If we can reach it, we’ll tell the people that all is well, and that Watchers are no longer the enemy. We’ll tell them …” I stare at Reffarian, reach forward and grab his locks. I tilt his head until his gaze lands on Talya. “We’ll tell them that the Rats are beautiful and never have been our foe.”

  Talya grins and waves at Reffarian.

  I continue. “And we’ll tell them that this Council has pit us against each other for far too long.”

  Mape nods. “You will be undone as soon as you enter. The scene in the amphitheater is beyond words. The people there … Reason finds no quarter within those walls.” He speaks quietly. “They undo and destroy and call it freedom, and broadcast their deeds. I have watched it from afar.”

  “What else can I do?” I ask.

  Mape stares at me, a look of admiration in his eyes. There is no hate. No anger. My enemy is no more. “Open the elevator door, Luca.”

  I reach up and fumble for the button; doors slide open, and Mape flings Reffarian and his fellow Council members into the tunnel. Their bodies thud and roll — such is the power of an Amongus.

  Mape breathes deeply. “Now we go up.”

  “We?” Talya asks.

  Mape presses the button for floor eight, and the elevator jerks and rises. “If my wife is no more, if my children are no more, then this is the end Sonja would have wished for me. She is — she was — good of heart.”

  His face tightens. “You will reach the amphitheater. I will see to that. I cannot promise you a return.”

  “Thank you.” Talya hugs Mape, who stares at her, his arms pinned at his side.

  He glances at me. “She is not from around here.”

  “No.” I pat his back. “You met once before, when we came up from the tunnel with Phale. Mape, meet a Rat.”

  His eyes widen, and then he looks away. “You are the second I’ve seen.

  “I found the first lost at sea.” Mape sighs. “It was my first assignment. I couldn’t believe her to be a Rat. She was … lovely. I thought her adrift from the north. Amerika, maybe Amerika.”

  Elevator doors slide open, and we exit to an empty room.

  “But the order said it was Massa’s wife. They said their union was unnatural, and she needed to be undone. After seeing her, I could barely believe it.” Mape freezes in the doorway. “After the deed, she haunted my sleep. I heard Alaya. She weighed heavy on me for years, until the haunting grew unbearable. I thought if I hauled her up and saw the creature she’d become, her face would disappear from my dreams. All those months with Jasper … I finally saw the remains and convinced myself that my memory of her beauty was mistaken. But that was two years ago, and still the dreams remain. I now see why.” Mape’s voice cracks. “I’m sorry, Luca.”

  Did an Amongus just offer a confession?

  Mape steps inside the elevator, rares back, and punches through the button pad. A shower of sparks covers him, and he emerges brushing his sleeves. “We won’t be followed from below.”

  Mape destroyed my mother; now he’s my protector. I stare at him and shake my head. I should feel something. Rage? Perhaps loss? I have felt these emotions my entire life. But now when the dials mean nothing and wrinkles can flow freely, I’m numb.

  Talya is not. She leans over to me. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

  “There’s no way you could be sure,” Mape answers, stretching out the fingers in his fist. “But you have my word. As surely as I have breath, you will reach the amphitheater.”

  “Good enough for me,” I say.

  We work our way through deserted halls. Rooms stand stripped and gutted. Beds, blankets — all have been removed.

  “They used the bedside tables for firewood,” Mape says. “The sick? I w
ill not speak of their end. Now nothing remains, nobody remains. The doors are sealed from the outside.”

  Though the building stands empty, I walk gingerly down the stairwell, careful to silence each footfall. Mape shows no caution and leaps down steps in twos. I marvel at his driven nature, every ounce fixed on good. How different the shape of our lives if we’d known, from the beginning, the depth of the Council’s treachery.

  Mape bursts into the lobby and marches to the entrance. Talya and I join him and together stare out through the broken glass of the hospital’s revolving door.

  We, uh, just might need another plan …

  On the street, it looks like Water Day on Freemanl. People screaming, running. But it’s not the same. This is no celebration; this scene is horror unrestrained, filled with jostling and fighting, pursuit and surrender. Small groups of men hoist unfortunate others on their backs. Some of the captured go quietly, others with shrieks. The victims’ offences are not clear.

  I turn to Mape, who still sports his Amongus uniform, then glance at Talya, with her fair skin and telltale hair, and think of myself, the newly named Deliverer whom everyone has been taught to recognize. It’s hard to imagine a trio more unable to blend in.

  “Search the floor,” I say. “Employee cubicles, especially lockers. We need something different to wear. Something must be left.”

  Ten minutes later, Talya returns looking adorable in her powder-blue scrubs. In her hands lie two more sets. She drops them on the floor and steps back. “I can hardly stomach the smell …”

  “Where’d you find them?” I gag and pick up a shirt and loose-fitting pants.

  She bows her head. “Their owners no longer need them.”

  “Three blocks,” Mape whispers. “Down this street. How fast do you run?”

  I wince. “I don’t think we’ll make it. Too bad those diverter tunnels didn’t go all the way … Wait. The tunnel. The Birthing Tunnel. I don’t know if people are inside, but it winds into the amphitheater from the Swan, and there was little activity near the inlet the last time around. Its entrance would be three blocks in the other direction, but once we reach it the way in might be clear.”

  “There is no good way into that pit, and only painful ways out,” says Mape. “But we will use the tunnel.”

  Mape cups his hands and stiffly bows. I accept the gesture, then turn to Talya and do the same — only she places her hands in mine. Mape frowns.

  “Customs are different below.” I force a smile. “Listen, Mape, should you make it through the streets, give no thought to me — just stop the drilling. Do whatever you must to make them stop. I’ve felt the tremors from below. You’re drilling will not reach the Aquifer, it will destroy it, and with it vanishes the only hope of two worlds.”

  Mape’s jaw sets, and he nods. “I will consider it my last assignment. Now” — he stiffens — “to the amphitheater.”

  CHAPTER

  38

  The next thirty minutes vanish in a whir of shouts and the whiz of stones. As the head Amongus in New Pert, Mape is too well known, and rocks strike our shoulders, ricochet about our feet.

  Talya urges me forward, and though I should focus on our flight, I take frequent glances back to where Mape pulls up the rear. His footsteps land heavy and uneven as he dodges left and right, plucking well-aimed chunks of concrete out of the air.

  “No good,” he says, and my feet lose contact with earth. I’m caught up in the crook of Mape’s arm, while Talya is hoisted in the other. Between us, an Amongus covered with blood.

  How many blows he must have absorbed! Yet he churns ahead and doubles our speed. We weave through back roads I’ve never traveled, snaking ever nearer the Swan Inlet.

  Rocks no longer fall, and the shouts disappear. Something has happened. The mob no longer pursues. But Mape, he gasps for breath in uneven bursts.

  “Duck in there!”

  A familiar voice. I know it. I obey it.

  Lendi overtakes us, and my mate shoves us into an alley. I want to shout, to embrace my friend, but agony distorts his face and I hold my joy in check.

  Mape gently lays Talya and me to the ground and crumples against the wall. Only then do I see the extent of his wounds.

  Blood oozes from his face and torso. Crimson shreds are all that remain of his powder-blue scrubs. And an arrow plunges deep into his right thigh.

  An arrow?

  Talya already attends to the pierce. “What is the shape of the tip? If I pull, will I leave it behind?”

  “You must try.” Mape braces himself, grabbing a series of pipes, and gives a tight-lipped nod.

  Talya yanks, and both shaft and tip pull free, igniting a fresh weep of blood from the wound. She wipes the tip on her scrub. “It’s out. This barb was not meant to kill.”

  “Yes, it was,” Lendi says.

  I gaze at my mate, a bow across his back, a quiver strung at his side. His hands red with death.

  “Lendi, what have you done?” I reach out and take his hands. He shakes and stares down at his palms.

  “I’m not worthy of that name anymore. I don’t know who I am.” He faces Mape. “My four mates and I chased you. It was me who loosed that arrow. I … I didn’t know you were helping Luca. I still don’t understand. How are you together?”

  I wave off the question. The story is simply too much to tell and time is too short. “We learned of arrows in school,” I say, “but they were supposed to have disappeared centuries ago. Where do these weapons come from?”

  Mape breathes deep. “Oh, Luca. Hidden behind the walls of their homes, families hide tools of rage beyond what you can imagine. This riot did not begin with Massa or you. It has been festering, waiting for an opportunity. Beneath the noses of our dials, freedom has been biding its time.” He closes his eyes. “But now that it’s been loosed, we find it has no master.” He winces and clutches at his leg. “People were not meant to be controlled. Their fear now fuels their anger.” Mape looks from the sky to Lendi. “Who could blame them?”

  I peek out at the street. Distant men and distant shouts, but nothing near. “We’re only a block from the tunnel’s entrance. I can hear the crowd. Stay here, Mape. You’ve done your job. I need you to begin that last assignment.”

  I turn to Lendi. “I don’t care what your hands have done. Protect this man, as he has protected me. Please, there’s no time to explain —”

  “No.” Mape looks at his wound. “I need saltwater. I need to kill the infection or I will not reach the isle to complete the task. We run.”

  He bursts free of the alley, and we follow. For a wounded man, he runs with strength and abandon, and soon pulls away, staggering onto the sand and throwing himself face-first into the Swan. Gentle swells of water wash red around him.

  I splash in, muscle him onto his back. “We can’t leave you! Help me, Lendi!”

  “You must.” Mape’s voice is soft, gentle, and he smiles. Mape smiles. “Thank you for the gift.”

  “An arrow in the leg.” I wince at the wound. “Not a very thoughtful gift.”

  “No, Luca. Today … today, I feel. Never lose that in yourself.”

  “Come out, Mape.” Talya glances around. “Please let me tend to your injuries.”

  “Good-bye, Luca.”

  Mape begins a slow swim toward the deep center of the inlet. His stroke is metered, controlled, at peace. Boats patrolling the Swan fire up engines, surge nearer.

  They’ll know him. This is his end.

  “Come, Luca! Lendi!” Talya calls. “He said we would reach the amphitheater. Don’t make his sacrifice in vain. Into the tunnel.”

  “Uh, mate.” A darkness shades Lendi’s face. “You don’t want to go in there …”

  “You’re right, but it is my choice, with or without your aid.” I place my hand on his shoulder. “Though I’d much rather have you at my side.”

  Lendi draws a deep breath. “Yes,” he whispers. “Yes. I can’t undo all I’ve done, but I swear, mate, both you and the
girl will reach the amphitheater alive. I’ll cover your flight from the beach. Now go!”

  I splash toward the tunnel’s mouth, pause to watch three boats converge on Mape, and run. I cannot witness the rest.

  Inside the cool of the tunnel, I stumble into Talya’s arms and together we cry. Every good person we meet ends up undone.

  “Talya, have I loved you well? Have I loved anybody well?”

  She straightens, and then grasps my shoulders and straightens me. “You are a great man, and you are about to be great again.”

  A great man …

  The words, mine for Father, hers for me, give strength to my feet. My legs firm, my heart quickens, and my face sets. “We really shouldn’t have made it this far.”

  “No.”

  And then I hear it. From deep within the tunnel, a chant that sinks my stomach. “Burn. Burn. Burn!”

  Lendi races nearer. “The rest of my band is close behind. There is no returning now. Onward. Deeper into the —”

  He staggers, slumps to his knees, where I catch him in my arms and feel the shaft protruding from his back.

  “No!”

  “Luca, I’m so sorry for everything.”

  I rock him gently. “No, I lied to you about the books, I lied …”

  “Yeah, you did do that.” His voice is faint, and he rests his head on my shoulder.

  “You’re my mate. You’ll always be my mate.” Tears fall down my cheeks, burn hot and fierce on my face.

  “Promise me,” Lendi whispers. “When it’s over …” He cups one palm, coughs hard, and falls limp. “Wash this blood from my hands.”

  “I promise. I promise.”

  He inhales short and sharp, and then Lendi breathes no more.

  An arrow flies over our heads, piercing the tunnel wall. A quick glance at Talya, and she hauls me to my feet even as Lendi slumps onto the ground. We dash toward the amphitheater, the chant strengthening and my body weakening in equal measure. Lendi is gone, and rage fills me. I want to undo something, someone. Such venom! I’ve never felt it before. What will I do when I emerge in front of an angry mob fifty thousand strong? What words of peace can I speak?