by T. C. Edge
That is their gift, a voice inside me says. That is their true power...
"The real question, Amber," the President continues, "is whether or not you are willing to help us. And in doing so, help yourself. It may not be entirely obvious to you right now, but our paths are aligned. You want to save your true people. We want to rid the world of the evil that festers in the north. If we help one another, we might just be able to achieve both."
"And Brie," adds Kira. "I don't know how quite yet, but I'm going to get her back. I did so when she was taken by Nestor, and I'm going to do so again. I just...need time to figure out how."
"She'll be safe in the meantime," the President tells the young warrior, nodding towards her reassuringly. "If what we're discussing is true, then this Overseer is clearly keen to bring Brie back to Olympus. She will be kept safe, at least, until we can work out how to get her back."
Kira nods, going quiet for a moment, a slightly curious expression on her face. "She...will," she whispers. "Somehow, I know it..."
"Of course she will," nods the President. "We cannot think otherwise. But...right now," she says, turning to me, "there's someone you should see, Amber. Someone you can help us with."
"Elian?" I ask, my mind brightening at the thought of the man. "He might be harder to get through to, given his upbringing. But...I can try, certainly."
I think, suddenly, of Jude, out there in the wilds, the counter to Elian in so many ways. It's hard to think of one without thinking of the other...
Can I let him go, I wonder. Can I just leave him to fend for himself with his battered band of slaves, seeking a new life where one, perhaps, cannot be found?
They want my help, I think, looking to the President and the warrior to her side. And, in many ways, I want theirs. Perhaps I could try to add Jude to the bargain...
"I'd want something in return," I say suddenly, watching as President Orlando prepares to respond. "I mean...I appreciate what you're doing for me and...how you're treating me. But there's something I need..."
The President frowns at me, her mouth opening slowly. "Yes?" she asks. "What is it you want, child?"
"Jude," I say, breathing out the name. "I need to know he's safe. If...if you can find him, bring him here, then I'll do anything. I'll do whatever you want of me."
"Caution, Amber," says the President, her voice smooth and always so calm. "Do not agree to such terms. Do not even suggest them. To submit to doing anything I might desire of you is a very dangerous path to tread."
I look at her, quite amazed by the sentiment. I could never imagine Herald Kovas speaking in such terms. He would merely smile with glee at the idea of having another slave to do his will, whatever that might be. This woman, this wise old leader, has more compassion in her little finger than Kovas has within every inch of his squat, ugly little frame.
"We will agree to seek out Jude," the President continues, making her decision after a moment of due thought. She looks to Kira. "Kira is our very finest tracker. She will be able to find him, if he's out there."
Kira's eyes narrow further. She nods. "I'll do it," she says. "In exchange for help when the time comes."
"You have it," I say. "I promise, you have it."
"Good," Kira says. "I'll need a few details to get started. Where you last saw him, the direction he was headed, and so on. Then I can be on my way."
"Amber can speak of them as we walk," the President says to her, and me, her eyes switching between us. "We have someone, as I say, who she must see."
I nod, feeling lighter, a blooming hope swelling inside me. Elian and Jude. Perhaps I'll have them both back soon.
We begin moving towards the door of the cell, heading for the short corridor outside, led by the President as Kira moves to my side, ready to gather the information she needs to start her search. I turn my eyes ahead as we enter into the cold, stone space, and see several more locked rooms either side of the corridor. They look like cells like mine, all fitted with those little slit-windows in the metal doors.
"Is Elian in one of these?" I ask.
He's so close. Was he this close to me all along?
"Oh, I think you misunderstand," the President says, stopping and turning to me. "Young Elian is still resting within the infirmary here in the Oasis. He required monitoring after his fight with Ares, and is still recovering."
"Oh...right,"
"However," she goes on. "It is not him who we are going to meet."
I frown, feeling a little deflated and confused. "Then...who?" I ask.
"Follow me, Amber," says the President. "You will find out soon enough."
112
"So," I whisper, "this is where you were all hiding..."
My eyes take in the gigantic space around me as we exit the prison block, and work into a sprawling underground chamber. It stretches into the distance, and high above my head, many parts here appearing incomplete.
All over, huge construction vehicles sit still and unused, great piles of building equipment heaped here and there. Above, the ceiling is covered in a network of pipes and cables, water dripping from cracks in the rock. It looks dangerous, in places, an area towards the far end cordoned off after what looks like a recent collapse.
Beside me, the President wanders, the two of us now alone. Moments ago, having heard a brief update of my experience with Jude at dawn that morning, Kira rushed right off to set about her mission to find him. I get the impression that she's a young woman who needs to stay active at a time like this. Who, perhaps, relishes in the threat of conflict, enjoys the tension that such difficult times bring.
She would have made a better Herald than me, I think to myself. She really was born for this.
"We have been building this bunker," the President tells me as we wander through the grand chamber, "for many months now." She looks around, referencing the many unfinished areas, construction clearly put on hold for the time being. "As you can see, it is incomplete. Our citizens are currently residing in other sections. This is but a hint of the size of the place."
"And you call it the Oasis?" I ask.
She nods. "Perhaps a word that seems incongruous, given what you're seeing," she smiles. "I assure you, however, that it will earn the name once fully complete and furnished."
"I...I suppose you won't tell me exactly where we are," I say. "You know, just in case."
"It wouldn't mean much to you if I did," the President says. "We are in the southern part of Outer Haven, deep beneath the city. This bunker is impenetrable except via very specific routes. Only a select number of people have the ability to open and navigate the security elevators and doors."
"It's...very impressive," I admit. "No one in our camp knew anything about it."
"I should hope not," she says. "Though, now that they have my granddaughter, perhaps they'll discover its presence."
"And she knows the way in?" I ask.
"Yes," she says. "The way in, yes. But, she has no access codes to enter. Those were not given to anyone who was expected to engage in conflict. That would run the risk of them being captured and interrogated. Knowing of the presence of the Oasis is one thing. Being able to actually get in is another."
"Well, it's super smart, however you look at it. I do wonder, though, how you knew we were coming. You knew, didn't you, that we'd attack through the tunnels beneath the city? The...underlands, as you call them?" I peer at her. "Did you leak that information on purpose? The whereabouts of that secret entrance outside of the city?"
"You are a smart cookie, Amber," the President muses. "Yes, we made sure that Herald Kovas found out where the entrance was. The soldiers we sent out to raid your borders a couple of nights back were armed with that information, in case they were captured. That was, in fact, our intention."
"Right," I say, thinking back. "Right, that makes so much sense now. They were...weak, those soldiers that night. I remember how easily we were able to take them out. You did that on purpose. You sent them out as canon fodder."
"I guess I have a lot to learn about your people," I say. "Con-Cops. Stalkers. Your various types of Enhanced. It's all quite...fascinating to me."
"You have a young and curious mind, that much is clear. We'll feed it, don't worry."
"And...you moved the people down here, when you knew we were going to strike?"
"Yes," she says. "We brought them here, and planned our assault to coincide with your own. We had the benefit, I suppose, of being one step ahead at every turn."
I nod, so intrigued, working my eyes around the space once more. There are many routes leading into other sections, places I imagine the civilians to be. There must be tens of thousands of people down here, probably hundreds of thousand in fact. It's quite an operation. The sort of foresight that can make the difference between the survival of a city and its people, and their complete destruction.
Ahead, monitoring the various entrances and exits, I see soldiers and guards in position. Two stand beside a heavy metal door marked with the words 'Infirmary'. I feel my heart beginning to flutter with a mix of excitement and nerves as we approach.
She said Elian was in there, recovering from his exertions during the battle.
Yet...he isn't who we're here to see.
I ponder things as we approach, one particular question still unanswered, still niggling in my mind. The soldiers guarding the door step aside at the President's order, regarding me with that same caution as Kira harboured in her eyes. They must wonder, I suppose, why the President is so willing to stroll around with me without any protective detail to watch over her. It says a lot about her trust in me.
And that, in turn, makes me wish to repay it.
We step towards the door as the men open it up, clicking in a code as the door hisses and slides open. Beyond lies a corridor, mostly complete, though lacking a proper finish. We step in and begin moving towards another door at the far end, two further guards stationed there.
As we walk, I finally pose the question that's been bothering me.
"How did you you know of our plans?" I ask. "You said you were one step ahead at every turn. You must have gotten your information from somewhere."
"Oh, we did," she says casually. "We had a source that helped us turn the battle in our favour. Without him, I suppose, you'd have carried out your plot. And you, Amber, would have seen to the deaths of thousands."
"I...never wanted that," I say weakly.
"I know. You are not to be blamed."
"But...him?" I ask. "Who had that information? Herald Kovas was so paranoid he barely let anyone know his plans. Even I didn't find out until a couple of days ago."
The President smiles mischievously as we reach the soldiers at the far end. "Open the door, please," she says. "I take it Secretary Burns is already here?"
The soldiers nod. "He came through a few minutes ago, Madam President," one says.
"Good."
The door slides open with another hiss, allowing us entry into a part of the bunker that is, by my initial inspection, predominantly complete. A waft of clean, sterilised air washes up into my nose, beating off the danker scent that marks the rather more gritty corridor behind us. Light blooms, white and bright, as we press on inside, the space ahead opening out into a series of smaller rooms and sections. A hospital, not huge, but well equipped to deal with a decent enough influx of patients should the occasion call for it.
"This...Secretary Burns?" I ask. "Who is he? He's the one I'm here to meet?"
"In part, yes," says the President, marching me through. The various medics, doctors, healers and nurses in attendance watch us pass with a mild interest. Most seem too busy tending to their patients to give us too much of their attention. "Secretary Burns is our senior military commander, and a skilled telepath. You have seen him already, as it happens, during the meeting between our leadership groups several days ago."
I think back. "Right. The middle-aged guy by your side?"
"Indeed."
We press on, moving to a slightly quieter part of the hospital, reaching a private room. I find my eyes turning around in hope, searching for Elian. The President notices. "You'll see him soon enough," she says. "You have my word."
She has an uncanny ability to know what I'm thinking.
"You're not a telepath too, are you?" I ask her.
She smiles. "Alas, no. My daughter was. Brie's mother. That's where she gets it from."
"And, where is she now?" I ask. "Your daughter."
The President's face is overtaken by a flash of grief, her eyes turning momentarily distant. "She...died," she says. "A long time ago."
"I'm sorry."
"As I say," she goes on. "It was a long time ago."
We approach the room, two further guards standing outside. They open the door as we come, opening up a pathway into the private medical quarters. My eyes take it in as we enter; a simple place, fitted with a bed, a couple of chairs, a sink and a few pieces of medical equipment. I see a man in a grey suit standing beside the bed, blocking my view of the figure lying on top of it.
He turns, bringing with him a neutral expression, as he sets his cool blue eyes upon me.
"A pleasure to meet you, Amber," he says. "My name is Leyton Burns, Secretary of Defence for the city of New Haven."
I try to look past him at the patient on the bed. All I can see are a pair of legs extending towards its end. Even beneath the cover of a sheet, I can see that they are large, the man's feet all but hanging over the edge.
"Nice...to meet you," I say vacantly, stepping forward, looking past him towards the figure on the bed.
My eyes run upon the body, the chest, the shoulder, the neck...
I see the chin, scarred, wide like an anvil, hidden behind a glaze of dark stubble. My breath catches as the rest of the face comes into view.
The eyes, shut tight, hiding the dark irises that lie beyond.
The head, always bald and cleanly shaven, now covered in a coating of stubble like his cheeks and chin.
I see the bandages across his chest, on his arms.
I see his chest gently rising and falling as he breathes.
And yet, my own breath is caught, my own lungs emptied and refusing to refill.
"How...how can this be?" I whisper, looking at the man I buried. The man who died in my arms.
My mentor, the true leader of the Olympian army.
Perses, Herald of War, is somehow still alive.
113
"How..." I whisper, stepping towards Perses. "How is he alive? How?"
I look at his face. His skin appears pallid, a shimmer of sweat on his forehead suggesting he's running a light fever. I scan his body and notice the mild stains of red blood where his injuries were most severe.
I think back to that night in the woods when he saved my life, killed all those Haven soldiers as they attempted to snare me. He'd been so badly injured, his chest, his very heart, cut through. Even if Elian had chosen to help that night, he never would have made it.
At least, that's what I thought.
That's what I believed when he took his final breaths in my arms, and died there in the blackened, burnt woods. When I buried him, his heart had stopped. His body was empty of blood.
How...how is he still alive?
"You must have known of his healing powers, Amber," says the President, walking forward. "He isn't an easy man to kill."
"I...I knew," I breathe, staring at his chest as it rises so gently. "But...it can only go so far, right? He was dead, Madam President. This isn't possible!"
"Then your eyes must be deceiving you, child. And they must have deceived us all." She manages a s
mile as I look at her. "Oh, he is very much alive and well. He is healing slowly, but will be just fine."
"His powers are gone as well?" I ask, still in a state of mild shock. How many more revelations are there going to be today? How many more people I care for are going to come back from the dead.
Elian. Perses. Who exactly is next?
"Certainly," says the President. "He is far too formidable a man to not take the necessary precautions. I'm sure he'd heal up rather more quickly if we brought him out of his coma, and stopped giving him our suppression drugs. But, as it is, we've kept him in this suspended state."
I shake my head as I look at him. It still seems scarcely possible to me.
"How did this happen?" I wonder out loud. "How did you find him? I was alone. No one knew where he was but me. I don't understand. I don't..."
"Calm, Amber, just calm," says the President. She moves towards the bed, stepping to the side of Secretary Burns. She looks to him, as if expecting him to take over the reins.
He duly obliges.
"I heard the tale firsthand," he says, his voice precise and clean, the sort that would never get flustered or speak with too much haste. "It was the powerful Neoroman Commander, Ares, who brought Perses in. It seems that they encountered one another during the fight in the woods, and battled to a standstill for a time. Perses then left, and Ares followed shortly after. According to his testimony, when he found Perses again, he was dying in your arms."
"He...he saw me? He saw us?"
I shudder at the thought, thinking I was so alone that night. Yet, really, the enemy's most formidable warrior had been watching me from afar, hidden from my eyes.
"Why didn't he kill me?" I ask, so many questions running through my head. "He had a chance. He could have taken me out right then and there."
"That is not the man Ares is," Burns tells me. "As with this very morning, when you and young Elian were spared, Ares saw no reason to kill you that night. The battle was over. And his interest lay elsewhere."
