by Talia Jager
“We’ll have to take a few steps at a time to be far enough from a blast if we trigger one.”
“Okay.”
“Follow exactly in my footsteps.”
“Why do you get to go first?”
I stared at her. “I can only hope I’m fast enough to get us out of the way if one goes off too close.”
She studied me for a minute, but then nodded. She was rubbing her wrist, one of her nervous ticks.
For what seemed like the entire day, we carefully picked our way through the field trying to set off any bombs. Three went off before we reached the city limits.
Chapter Fifteen
Akacia
The stone city before us was surrounded by water. It didn’t have tall buildings or skyscrapers, but it did have two towers. My guess was they were lookout towers to see what was coming. I wondered how long they had been watching us and why they didn’t come to our aid. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
Ever asked the question I was thinking, “Do you think they’re trying to keep people in or something out?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do we get in?”
“There must be a way.” I spun around. “Look at the fields. They’re for farming.”
“So we circle around the city and find it.”
“Okay.”
We were almost at the water when Nero started running around in circles and then took off to the left.
“Dumb thing.” Everleigh sighed.
I stared at him for a minute. “I think he wants to show us something.” I followed him to a tunnel leading under the water. “Looks like that’s the way in.”
Concern darkened her eyes. “Maybe there’s another way?”
I studied her face. “Are you scared?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes.
I raised my eyebrows.
“Maybe a little.”
She looked adorable nibbling nervously on her lower lip. She was so badass, and yet she had a phobia. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and protect her from whatever it was she was afraid of.
“It’s the only way home.”
She fiddled with the button on her pants. “I know.”
I walked to the tunnel entrance and then turned to look behind me. She hadn’t moved a step. I held out my hand. “Come on. I’ve got you.”
Slowly, like each step was a death sentence, she closed the space between us. She looked at my hand and then took it. Our fingers fit together perfectly. The darker it got, the harder Ever gripped my hand. I didn’t think she was scared of the dark or the water, so I was guessing it was either being underground or small spaces. I didn’t ask though. I’d let her open up when she was ready.
It was pitch black in there and even I began to get creeped out after a while. There was a tiny pinprick of light very far away that I headed for. I hoped it was the right way to go.
“Could you talk to me?” Ever asked.
I smiled. “Sure. About what?”
“Anything. I don’t care.”
“What do you think is in the city?”
“I don’t know.”
Laughing, I said, “Well, if you want to talk, we both have to use words.”
“Okay. What do you think is in the city?”
“Hopefully people. And hopefully they have some technology so we can contact our homes. Food would be good. Really good food. And lots of water.”
“A soft bed with a nice blanket.”
“Yes.”
“You said ‘homes’.”
“What?”
“You said you hoped we could contact our homes. I don’t have one. The Nirvana was my home.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said. I wanted to invite her home with me, but there was still a part of me that didn’t trust her. The betrayal ran deep and I was still healing. Would I ever be able to trust her enough to have a relationship with her? Would she want to stay on Valinor with me? Or would she want to be exploring? Too many questions, ones that I didn’t know if I should ask and I didn’t want to know the answers to some of the others.
“Kaci?”
“Hmm?”
“I can tell the mood changed even if I can’t see your face.”
“Just stuck in my head.”
She grew quiet probably guessing what I was thinking. “What are you going to do with Nero?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know, to talk, it requires words.”
I laughed. “Yes, it does. I want to keep him.”
“I guessed that.”
“The light is getting closer. We’ll be there soon.”
“I don’t like tight spots,” she admitted finally.
“I don’t particularly like them either.”
Ever gripped my hand hard and dragged me to a stop. “Something is coming,” she whispered..
“What?”
“I can hear them. They’re coming from that way.” She gestured in front of us.
I glanced behind us wondering if we should go back. What if they were beasts or something worse? Before I could decide, someone yelled, “Stop!”
Bright lights shone in our faces. “Drop the weapons!”
We let the spears fall out of our hands.
“Hands out!” another voice followed.
Large guards wearing dark green uniforms surrounded us with their weapons aimed. I dropped Ever’s hand and put both of mine out in front of me. One of the men with brown hair and a long beard stepped up to us and examined our hands. Raising a gun at my head, he said, “Who are you?”
“I’m Akacia Sparks, Empress of Valinor. We crashed on your planet about fifteen nights ago. We’re not here to harm anyone. We just want to go home.”
He was quiet for a long moment. His eyes moved to Ever and he said, “Who are you?”
“She’s with me,” I said. It was hard to explain why the sudden urge to protect Ever rose up in me after what she had done to me. It just felt like the right thing to do. I hoped she wouldn’t make me regret it. “Do you have a communication device we could use?”
He grunted, turned, and began walking away. Just as I was about to call out to him, the other guards closed in on us and forced us to follow the bearded man.
“Where do you think they’re taking us?” Ever asked.
“Would it be too optimistic to say the comms room?” I answered.
We emerged from the tunnel back into the bright light of the sun. The buildings were built out of different colored stones. It looked liked homes were one color and government another, maybe businesses were the third color? The city wasn’t large, but it was full of people who stopped and stared at us as we walked by. It reminded me a lot of where I lived, but Baile was more spread out.
We were led into one tan stone building and down a hall. A door opened and the guard pointed for us to go inside. After taking a deep breath, I entered pulling Ever behind me. The guard followed and the door closed. It was a small room with a table and chairs. Guess they weren’t rolling out the red carpet for us.
“Please hand us everything on your bodies.”
“Why?”
“We can’t have you attacking us.”
I took off my holster and handed it over. I didn’t have anything else.
Ever refused to give them anything, so they took everything. Her guns, her knives, and her jump device. Before he left, he grabbed Nero off my shoulder.
“Pets, too.”
“Hey!”
“We’ll keep him alive.” The guard glared at us.
The door opened and two men and a woman walked in. The men stood to the side, while the woman with long auburn hair and thin stern lips sat down and gestured for us to do the same.
“It’s unusual for us to have visitors. I hope yo
u’ll excuse the rude welcome,” the lady said. “My name is Mellie. I am the leader of Terronda. You certainly got our attention crossing the minefield. We’ll have to go plant some more.”
“They protect you from the beasts?”
“Yes. We surrounded our city with bombs to keep the Grimelings out. They are not smart, but they are strong and unrelenting.” She sat back. “One of our guards said you claim to be the Empress of Valinor, is that correct?”
“Yes. Could you contact Valinor and let them know? They will send rescue.”
“How did you get here?” She didn’t answer my question.
“We crashed.”
“How?”
“I don’t really know. Ship malfunction or something.” I didn’t want to give out the information that there were people after us, that we had been attacked.
The man on Mellie’s left crinkled his forehead.
“And her?” Mellie asked.
“She’s my bodyguard,” I lied.
“Please, stay here. We’re going to verify your story.” Mellie stood and left the room.
Looking as the two guards took their positions outside the door, I said, “They’re not letting us leave anyway.”
“I don’t like this. Something isn’t right,” Ever said.
“I know,” I answered, reaching over and taking her hands in mine. “It can’t be worse here, right?”
Her golden eyes met mine. She leaned close and said, “Keep our secrets.”
I answered her with a nod. There was no way I was telling anyone here about my nanites or Ever’s DNA.
The silence engulfed us as we sat at the table wondering what our fate might be. Maybe we should have stayed in the wild. Built a house? Tried to survive among the monsters and crazy weather? No use fretting about it. We couldn’t change any of that now.
Mellie returned. The guards followed. “Terronda is a beautiful planet. We are thankful for what we have here, but you’ve seen some of what we’re up against. Erratic weather and strong beasts. Our winters are brutal. We barely have enough food to get through it.” She leaned forward. “We have verified your identities. We will hold you here until we are paid for your safe return.”
“You’re ransoming us?” My hands balled into fists.
“Yes. We discovered that both of you have multiple people searching for you. Empress, while Valinor is looking for you, so is someone called Caspar. And you, Everleigh of the Nirvana, along with this Caspar person, you are wanted by the Authority.”
“You’re going to sell us to the highest bidder?” I accused.
Ever jumped out of her chair and I grabbed her hand before she could do anything stupid. I knew she had a violent streak. I had seen it when she came for me and she had told me she had killed before.
“It’s not personal. Please understand. An opportunity came and is giving us the chance to better our lives. Wouldn’t you take it?” Mellie asked, leader to leader.
My body was shaking in anger. There were so many things I wanted to say to them, but it was no use. I could tell they would not consider anything I said.
“They have two moons to decide,” Mellie said.
“And what then?”
“You go to the one who offers the most.”
“Will you allow me to talk to Valinor?” I could not let Ever fall into either Caspar or the Authority’s hands. She had to come with me.
She gave a slight nod. “They requested proof of life anyway.”
She opened her arm gesturing to the door. We both started to follow her, but she turned back and said, “No. Just you, Empress.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could say anything, Ever put her finger on my lips. “I’ll be fine,” she promised.
Leaning close, I whispered, “Don’t try anything.”
I was led to a room with one big screen. It must be their control room and they weren’t lying when they said they didn’t have a lot. It was bare bones. Older communication equipment. Only a few people keeping an eye on things. Nero was in a cage on a shelf. He chittered loud when he saw me.
“Get Valinor on screen,” Mellie ordered.
A minute later, Galton and Bristow appeared on the big screen. They both seemed relieved to see me. “Empress! You’re alive,” Galton spoke.
“Yes.”
“Are you okay?”
“I am. I’ve heard about this ridiculous ransom these people are requesting. Caspar wants me, too.”
“I know. Don’t worry—”
“Listen. I need you to offer the most, not just for me, but for Everleigh too.”
His forehead crinkled. “You’re talking about the one who turned you over to Caspar?”
“Yes.”
“Empress—”
“That’s an order, Galton.”
“I think that’s enough,” Mellie interrupted. “You have your proof of life. Two moons.” The screen went dark.
“What will you do with us until then?”
“I can’t let you leave, but I won’t make you suffer.” She turned to her guards. “Take her to a room. Make her comfortable. Keep an eye on her.”
“What about Everleigh?”
“She’s a criminal. We’ve taken her to the prison quarters.” Mellie waved it off, like she could care less what happened to Ever.
“No. She stays with me.”
With lips pinched tight, she said, “Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. She is a criminal.”
“I don’t care.”
“We’re not letting her stay in a suite.”
“Then put me where you’re putting her.”
Her hazel eyes bore into me as I challenged her. “Fine. Take her to the prison quarters.”
The guard took me by the elbow and escorted me downstairs. He pushed numbers on a keypad and a door opened. Ever was sitting on the floor against the wall with her legs out in front of her and cradling her hand. Both cots had been flipped over and a cup lay in a puddle on the floor in the corner.
Our eyes met and a sad smile touched her lips while one of her shoulders shrugged.
As I crossed the small room, the door banged shut behind me. I dropped down next to her and took her hand in mine. Examining the swollen knuckles, I asked, “Are you okay?”
“I keep thinking this can’t get any worse and yet, it continues to.”
We’re together. It was a thought. Just a thought. I didn’t say it out loud. If we were together, we could deal with this.
We sat and we came up with crazy ideas on how to get out of this predicament. We thought up the stupidest, most insane ways to escape. None of them would actually work, but it was fun dreaming up such ideas with her and it passed the time and relieved some of the anxiety.
They brought us food. It wasn’t much, but it was more than we had been eating. Afterward we fixed the cots so we could sleep on them that night.
Mellie graced us with her presence again, calling us to a room to talk about what we experienced since leaving our ship. We left a lot of our adventures out. Just relaying the fight with the beasts and a few bad lightning storms.
“Is there a reason why you don’t colonize the rest of the planet?” I asked.
“You’ve seen the reasons. It’s too dangerous. The city is surrounded by water, which is good because the grimelings can’t swim. But the city is too small to grow food. In order to live, we had to plant crops outside of the city. We built the tunnels so we could get to the crops, but had to add the minefields as an extra layer of protection.”
“Why not just kill them?”
“There are more of them than there are of us.”
“But they’re not intelligent, you said so yourself. Why not just take them out?”
“We don’t have the resources to do that, but now we just might. It’s one of the thing
s the reward money will help.”
“Ransom money. Call it like it is,” Ever said.
Mellie’s eyes shifted to Ever and she frowned. “You’re wanted for many crimes. I could give you over to the Authority just for the fame it would bring me.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“I need the money more.”
Before a fight broke out, I interjected, “If there’s nothing more, could we please go back to our room?”
Mellie nodded and the guards returned us to our cell.
There was no fire to keep us warm that night. I curled up on the cot feeling lonely. Eventually I dozed off into a restless sleep.
My mind and my body battled for control as Caspar burst into the room and pulled out a gun. He shot Ever and then turned to me.
“Don’t worry, Empress. I won’t kill you. Not yet, anyway.”
He grabbed me and pushed my face down in a basin of water. Every time he yanked my head out of the water, I glanced at Ever who was lying still on the floor, eyes open, a bullet hole in her forehead. My body was getting tired. I didn’t know how much more I could take. He held my head under longer and I started to see a light in the distance.
“Kaci?”
Hands were on me.
“Wake up.”
I bolted upright, gasping for air. I reached out and found Ever by my side. She was alive. I was alive. It was a nightmare.
“Breathe.”
“I…I can’t…” My heart was pounding in my chest and my throat felt like it was closing.
She knelt in front of me, cupping my face in her hands. “Look in my eyes.”
I stared into bright, golden depth of her eyes. They were oddly peaceful.
“Breathe.” She took my hand, spread it across her breastbone and inhaled deeply, showing me, helping me. “Do it with me.”
I nodded and copied her breathing as best I could. Slowly the erratic beating of my heart calmed down and my breathing followed.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t even want to think about it. I want it to get out of my head!” A tear dripped down my face. Ever wiped it away with her thumb.
