by Jeff Giles
“You have served your purpose, little girl,” he said.
Zoe stumbled toward Regent, and begged him to turn back and help X and Maudlin.
“Forget Dervish,” she said. “Come with me.”
“When did you become my commander?” said Regent.
“When I thought of a plan,” said Zoe.
She brushed past him, praying he’d follow.
He did.
Outraged, Dervish shouted after Regent: “For heaven’s sake, you are a LORD! At least PRETEND that you deserve that golden band! Let the insects fight each other!”
Regent didn’t answer.
Three guards were pummeling X with their fists. X could barely stand. He was just taking the blows.
Zoe looked at Regent. It was time to see what he thought of her plan.
“Give X his powers,” she said. “Don’t think—just do it.”
Regent looked shocked.
“No prisoner has ever been allowed that sort of strength here in the Lowlands,” he said. “Not even a bounty hunter.”
“You’re thinking,” said Zoe, “and while you’re thinking they’re beating the crap out of X.”
The guards were now holding X up just so they could hit him.
“I will do it,” said Regent.
“Thank you,” said Zoe.
She looked at Maudlin, who was trying to help X, trying to crawl to him. Dervish’s men struck her and kicked her, but she kept coming back. It was awful to watch.
“And also give her some powers,” said Zoe. “I’m not kidding. Don’t look at me like that.”
Zoe bent over, put her hands on her knees, and drew the first real breath she’d had since Dervish released her.
“And I want some, too.”
twenty-two
Regent spread his hand over Zoe’s face.
She felt her cheekbones ignite.
The heat shot down her neck. It made a path of her bones, her veins, her muscles, anything it could find. It was terrifying. Also awesome. Zoe felt like she was being eaten by fire.
“Is it—is it supposed to feel like this?” she said.
Regent seemed not to hear her. No, that wasn’t it—she hadn’t actually said it out loud.
The heat drowned her other senses. She felt her skin redden, her thoughts melt into each other. The flames crinkling in the rivers, the prisoners drumming on their doors … She couldn’t tell if the noises were real or not, if they were happening inside of her or out.
She wriggled her fingers to prove to herself that they were still hers, that she was still present in her own body.
Yes, she was still in control.
Or maybe she hadn’t really wriggled her fingers?
The heat seemed to hold her for ages, but when it vanished she discovered that not even a second had passed: Regent was still taking his hand away from her face.
As Zoe’s skin cooled, the heat was replaced by a kind of euphoria. She felt golden. Invincible. Her legs, her arms, her fists—everything pulsed with power.
She gazed around the arena, her senses on overdrive. That fire in the river: she could feel the minute fluctuations in the temperature of the flames. The screaming statue: she could see into the dark pits of its pupils.
“We must test your powers to see if they have taken root,” said Regent.
“Oh, they’ve taken root,” said Zoe.
How she loved saying words, all of a sudden! She could feel her mouth and tongue shaping them. Words!
“We must test your powers,” said Regent more forcefully.
Zoe couldn’t stop smiling.
She punched him in the face.
They darted back to the fight, Zoe just a few steps behind Regent. She was nearly as fast as him now. She felt as if there were stars in her blood.
X lay at the guards’ feet. The Cockney was kicking him savagely in the head, as if he held a personal grudge. The other men chanted encouragement.
The Cockney heard something, and turned to see Zoe fly at him. He gave her a patronizing grin.
Mistake.
However protective she’d felt of X up in the world, Zoe felt a hundred times more protective of him now. Maybe it was because she had seen the sickening place he’d been forced to grow up in. Maybe it was just that the powers Regent had given her were amplifying her feelings like they amplified every other stimulus.
She lowered her head, and tackled the Cockney like a linebacker. She hadn’t planned it. She didn’t know it was going to happen until it was happening. Her muscles moved faster than her mind.
The Cockney crashed onto his back, with Zoe on top of him. He was startled but, for the benefit of the other men, he said, “Hopin’ for a kiss, luv?”
Another mistake.
Zoe stood, and ripped the laces from one of his boots, her hand like a claw. She pulled the boot off his foot. Beneath it, there was a dingy, yellowed sock full of holes where the guard’s toes peeked through.
Zoe beat the Cockney in the head with the boot, just as he had beaten X. The surge of feeling was so thrilling that she hit him three times before she realized what she was doing was wrong. Even then she couldn’t convince her arm to stop.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Maudlin lifting a man high over her head, and throwing him down. Dervish’s men were so shocked by the turn of events that they’d ceased fighting. They looked to Dervish, hoping he would give them powers, too. But he didn’t trust them, didn’t care what became of them. They were just plastic soldiers to him, like Jonah’s figurines.
Zoe felt a hand on her shoulder. She clutched the Cockney’s boot even tighter, and spun angrily.
But it was X.
He must have seen that she was shaking. He circled her with his arms. Feeling his body was like falling into bed.
“I couldn’t stop myself,” she said. “I couldn’t stop.”
“It is always that way,” said X gently. “It takes you over entirely.”
Zoe saw that the sole of the Cockney’s boot was slick and red with blood. Disgusted with herself, she flung the thing as far as she could. It hit the door of a cell three levels up.
Dervish’s men retreated toward the tunnel under the arch. Now that they were outmatched, they had lost all will to fight.
Zoe saw Maudlin grab one of the guards before he could flee.
“You,” said Maudlin, “are not leaving here on your feet—not after what you did to my friend.”
It was the guard who’d thrown the Ukrainian into the river.
“Don’t, Maudlin,” said Zoe. “It’ll make you feel worse, not better.”
“I killed a surgeon once—he was going to hurt X’s mother,” Maudlin told her. “I’ve never felt bad about it, and I promise you I won’t feel bad about this either.” She paused. “By the way, I’m very glad to meet you. Call me Maud.”
Maud pushed the guard toward one of the fiery rivers. Dervish moved to stop her, but Regent flew at him to hold him back.
At the riverside, Maud stooped to pick up something that glinted on the ground. It was the silver necklace that had belonged to her friend. It must have broken off before he went in the water. Zoe’s eyesight was so sharp now that she could read the necklace from a distance: It said, MAMA.
Zoe watched Maud knock Dervish’s guard down. She watched the guard cower, trying to shield himself both from Maud and from the fire in the river.
He was sorry about the Russian, he said. Very sorry about the Russian.
Maud nodded, though Zoe didn’t think she was listening. Everyone, even Dervish, waited for her to pitch the man into the flames. Instead, Maud just stomped on one of his hands, shattering every bone. Given the situation, it was merciful, Zoe thought.
Maud slid the baseball bat into the water, like an offering. As she walked away from the man, she called over her shoulder, “He was Ukrainian.”
Zoe could see that Dervish had weakened. His gold band had turned his neck a deep, mottled red. He squirmed, and hissed at his men not
to retreat, but Regent restrained him with what looked like very little effort. He told the squad they could return to their hives without fear of retribution.
“Forget every word of Dervish’s that ever fell upon your ears,” he said. “His mind is rotten with disease.”
Strangely, the guards no longer wanted to leave. Zoe understood: they were enjoying the lord’s humiliation.
Dervish spit some words out in disgust.
“Much as I despise you, Regent,” he said, “I never thought you would actually join X’s pathetic rebellion against the Lowlands—that you would jeopardize your OWN freedom for such a creature.”
X surprised Zoe by answering for Regent.
“This is not a rebellion against the Lowlands, Dervish,” he said. “Do you not see that at last? It is only a rebellion against you. The Lowlands will always stand, for there will always be vile men who deserve damnation. But I”—here, X turned to Zoe; she knew what he would say next and approved of it completely—“I am not one of them.”
X moved nearer to Dervish.
“Tell me which of these cells holds my mother,” he said. “Tell me now.”
Everyone gazed up at the hateful black caskets. They were packed as densely as a honeycomb.
“I shall NEVER tell you,” said Dervish. “You shall have to inspect EVERY BLESSED ONE.”
X tried to lunge at Dervish, but Zoe held him back. It surprised—and thrilled—her to see that she was every bit as strong as him now.
“Your mother’s not here,” she said. “Listen to me: she’s not here. But he said she’s close.”
“Please release my arm,” said X.
He was still raging at Dervish. She could feel it.
“I’ll let you go, but are you going to stay calm?” she said.
“No, in all likelihood, I will not,” said X.
She let him go anyway. He stepped to within a foot of Dervish.
“Where have you put my mother?” he said. “I am going to free her, and then she is going to free me.”
Dervish, even twisting with pain from the gold band, found that funny.
“I doubt it very much,” he said. “For one thing, only I know where your mother is, and only I shall EVER know. For another, she has been in the dark so VERY long now that I would be surprised if she were still—how to put this tactfully?—recognizably human.”
“Where is she?” X shouted. “She suffered enough at the hands of her husband when she was alive. I will not let her suffer another moment here.”
Dervish gave another strangled laugh.
“I repeat: I shall NEVER tell,” he said.
But then he said something that Zoe knew to be genuine and, for the second time since she’d come to the Lowlands, she felt a sliver of sympathy for him.
“Why should your mother have a son who loves her? I never did!”
No one spoke. The stalemate had its own particular silence.
Then a voice—shaky, but loud—called out to them.
Zoe recognized it, but couldn’t place it.
The voice said: “I know where your mother is, X. I was the guard that Dervish took with him.”
It was Tree.
twenty-three
Zoe and X stood by the round canyon in the center of the stadium. The screaming head loomed in front of them. The neck, which was all muscles and veins, disappeared into the water about 150 feet down.
“This is the part where we go over a cliff together,” said Zoe.
She checked to see if X smiled. He didn’t.
“That was a movie reference,” she said.
“From which particular movie?” said X.
“Do you know any movies?” said Zoe.
“No,” said X.
Zoe squeezed his hand fondly. The prisoners must have been watching from their cells because they’d started banging again. Zoe wasn’t sure if they were encouraging them to jump—or warning them not to.
“Do you know how to fall?” she asked X.
“Is there a trick to it?” he said. “My plan was to take one step forward.”
“I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny,” she said. “Keep your hands at your sides, okay? You can cover your mouth, but don’t hold your nose or you’ll break it when you hit the water.” She paused. “Were you trying to be funny?”
“A little,” he said.
They stared into the canyon. The rivers flung themselves into it, as if going to their death. The white noise of the water was weirdly lulling, like the currents wanted to pull them in, too.
“This journey we undertake,” said X, “is it suicidal?”
“Dallas would say yes,” said Zoe. “Val would say yes. Ripper would say, ‘So what?’ ”
“And what do you say?” said X.
“I say let’s go meet your mom,” said Zoe.
X breathed out slowly.
“You make meeting her sound an easy matter,” said X.
“Are you nervous?” said Zoe.
“Yes,” said X.
Tree had told them that X’s mother was imprisoned in a hole in the canyon called the Cave of Swords. When he said it, Dervish flared, broke away from Regent, and raised his hand. The belt from Tree’s tunic slithered up his body and began strangling him. It took even Regent a few moments to tear it away.
“Listen—” Zoe said now.
“You need not tell me that we don’t have to do this,” said X.
“I wasn’t gonna say that,” said Zoe. “We totally have to do this. She’s in a cave. I’m a caver. I think it might be why I’m here.” A thought came to her. “Are you afraid you’re going to be disappointed?”
“By my mother?” said X. “No. Just wait until you hear the story Maud told me. My mother is loyal, kind, and brave. It cannot be a coincidence that I was so drawn to you.”
Zoe waved away the compliment.
“Ripper is all that stuff, too,” she said. “So is Banger—it’s just that he’s also drunk a ton of beer.” She paused. “So if you’re not afraid of your mother being a disappointment to you, what are you afraid of?”
X considered the question. A cold mist rose off the water, like a cloud coming to swallow them.
“That I will be a disappointment to her,” he said.
“Shut up,” said Zoe.
“I’m entirely serious,” said X. “When I am with you, I feel like … I feel like I’m worth something. Other times, I wonder if I have ever done anything that was not violent or selfish. I dragged fifteen souls to the Lowlands—and enjoyed their suffering sometimes.”
“Stop,” said Zoe.
“I endangered Maud,” said X. “I endangered Regent and my friend Plum. I endangered you. I endangered a cat! I watched the Ukrainian get pulled down a burning river. If I did not love you so much, I would wonder what my life was for. When I stand in front of my mother, what can I tell her that I am not ashamed of?” He paused. “I apologize for the soliloquy. I do not expect you to answer.”
“Oh, I’m gonna answer,” said Zoe. “You can tell your mother that your heart survived this place. You made Jonah really happy when we lost our dad and nothing could make him happy. You kissed me like I always secretly hoped to be kissed.” She stopped for a second. “Your mother is going to be so proud of you she’s never going to stop crying. Trust me. I know what moms are like.”
X smiled in a way that told her he believed her.
“Thank you,” he said. “Your soliloquy was superior to mine.”
“It was really good, I’m not gonna lie,” she said.
“And I truly did kiss you like that, didn’t I?” he said.
“Don’t get cocky,” she said.
What neither of them had said was that even if Zoe got out of the Lowlands alive, there was no reason to think he’d be coming with her. Zoe remembered what it was like to sit in her weird room at Rufus’s with the torn posters and busted trophies. She remembered what it was like to miss X—and to worry about him—so much that it dug into her,
hollowed her out. Standing close to him now, she tried to record every sensation. His skin smelled so much like his skin.
“I have to ask you,” said Zoe. “When you say you’re going to rescue your mother—do you mean just from the Cave of Swords? You don’t think you can get her out of the Lowlands completely, do you?”
“In truth?” said X. “What I want most dearly, most fiercely, is for you to leave this wretched place. Then my mother. And then? If I have not used up all my wishes? I will happily go myself.”
Zoe wanted X to have everything he hoped for, but feared he was asking too much.
She looked to see if he was ready to jump.
“Keep your knees bent when you fall,” she said.
They plummeted down, sliced the surface, and kept falling. The water was frigid. Zoe waited for the shock, but it never came. Her body was now immune to the cold. She was 30 feet under before she stopped shooting downward. Ordinarily, she would have fought her way back to the surface, but her lungs weren’t aching. She wasn’t desperate to breathe. She opened her eyes, and could see everything in high-definition. The statue’s shoulders and torso lay in front of her, like a sunken ship. Its legs disappeared into the dark.
X waited for her at the surface. Because of all the rivers falling into it, the water was wildly choppy—a cauldron. But the chaos didn’t frighten Zoe. It energized her. She gestured for X to follow her, and they swam the circumference of the canyon, threading in and out of the waterfalls and searching for the Cave of Swords. Tree hadn’t known exactly where it was or what it looked like—when he and Dervish took X’s mother, he had waited up on the canyon’s edge. The water was so cold that, without powers, he’d have drowned within minutes.
Zoe assumed the name Cave of Swords had something to do with stalactites or stalagmites. Her father’s voice, which always came to her when she went caving, bubbled up in her head now: “The name could also refer to ice formations, Zo. Don’t forget all the cool freakin’ stuff our friend ice can do!” Zoe hated that her father could still insinuate himself into her thoughts. She pictured herself pushing him out of a house, swearing at him, slamming the door on his fingers.
There were dozens of fissures in the rock along the waterline. Any of them could have led to caves. Zoe and X took turns crawling into the bigger ones and looking for something, anything, that looked like swords. Zoe didn’t know the extent of her powers, but found that when she needed a particular ability it would appear, as if she had willed it into being. She’d never felt anything as weird and cool and exhilarating as the sensation of light pouring out of her palm.
