“Talking about it is dangerous,” Darius whispered. “I understand that. That’s why I was hoping we could meet somewhere more private. I was hoping we could compare what we know.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Helgid said, stepping in front of Neena before she could answer.
Neena smiled grimly. She didn’t need Helgid’s protection, but she was grateful for it.
“I took a risk by showing up here,” Darius said, looking over his shoulder at the closed door. “Surely, you know that.”
“And we aren’t taking one now?” Neena asked insistently, looking back at her family. “You are putting us in danger with your rumors. You need to leave.”
“If what you saw and what I suspect match up, we have much greater worries than a discussion.” Darius watched her with fear-soaked eyes.
Neena said nothing. How could she, when he was right?
“Come to my house after lunch,” Darius insisted, putting the spear in her hand. “Bring the weapon. No one will suspect you of anything but talking about the spear I gave you, which you can say we traded. We can speak about it then.”
Chapter 28: Neena
“What’s going on, Neena?” Helgid asked, closing the door behind Darius.
Neena turned white. It seemed as if all the blood had left her body. Darius was right. Much bigger problems than a jail cell awaited them.
The Abomination was coming.
“I saw the look on your face when he spoke,” Helgid said. “You looked at him like he was more than a crazy old man. And now you look as if you’ve seen a spirit.”
Neena’s expression told more than words.
Helgid’s eyes widened. “So he tells the truth. Your delusions weren’t delusions, after all.”
Neena was still afraid to say anything. Every word seemed like a spear in a Watcher’s hand, jabbing toward her family’s throats.
“Remember what you asked me yesterday, about whether I wanted to talk?” she asked finally.
Helgid nodded. “I assumed you were holding something back.”
Neena watched the door. “You were right.” She thought carefully about her next words. “I’ve never been crazy, Helgid. Everything I saw in the desert was real.”
“What was out there?”
“Something so horrible that I can hardly speak of it.” She paused as she thought of how to put the horrific creature into words. “A monster that no weapons can kill, and no man can stand against.”
She looked across the room, where her brothers still slept. Motioning Helgid to a quiet corner, they huddled where they could whisper even more quietly.
“No one has laid eyes on something as large, or as dangerous, as what I saw,” Neena continued. “The creature was almost as big as the Comm Building, with enormous teeth, and a body as long and as wide as a tunnel. Ever since I saw it, I’ve spent every waking moment, and too many while asleep, thinking about protecting all of you.”
“Protecting us?” Helgid swallowed, feeling the weight of those words.
Neena nodded. “The leaders forbade me from speaking about it. They feared I would spread a panic. They swore I was delusional, and I swore, too, in order to get out. But I wasn’t hallucinating.”
In a quiet voice, Neena told of what happened in the desert. She explained how the Abomination swallowed the Rydeer, and how she and Kai escaped. Helgid’s face registered fear.
When Neena finished, Helgid said, “I knew you weren’t crazy. None of the behavior I heard about sounded like you.”
Neena nodded.
“So the man with whom you came is still in the annex.”
“Yes,” Neena replied. “Kai is still there. And the creature I described is still in the desert. If it comes here, I don’t know what will happen, Helgid.”
A whimper drew her attention across the room. Neena looked over at Samel, who sat up and rubbed his eyes. He hugged his chest. Cutting her conversation short, she crossed the room and met him. “Is everything all right?” she asked, embracing him.
“I had a nightmare.” Samel trembled, looking confused. “I was sitting on the sand by the riverbank with you, Helgid, and Raj, holding my knees, while the wind kicked up. The wind got so bad that we could barely see each other. And then we were all buried in sand. I tried kicking, but I couldn’t get out from beneath it.”
“Everything’s okay, Sam,” she said, squeezing him tighter.
Samel looked around, unsure. “There’s no sandstorm outside, right?” His eyes landed on the door, as if the wind might batter it, or sand might burst around the frame.
“The sky is clear,” Neena reassured him.
Blinking away the last remnants of his nightmare, Samel looked over at his brother.
“How is Raj?”
“I checked on him during the night,” Helgid said. “His temperature is mostly normal.”
“He’s recovering,” Neena reassured him, hoping she spoke the truth.
“I’m going to make breakfast,” Helgid said to both of them. “Why don’t you two relax while you wake up?”
Neena held Samel, who still seemed shaken.
Looking between her brothers, she knew she’d do anything to protect them.
But was she protecting them now, or hiding from an inevitable truth? How long could she live her life pretending that what she’d seen in the desert wasn’t real?
Chapter 29: Kai
Kai sat up, reacclimating to his surroundings. It felt as if someone had shoved a spear into his spine. His back was sore; his legs were numb. He’d fallen asleep against the wall, facing the bars. For too long the night before, he’d sat and thought hopelessly of escape, until a shallow sleep pulled him from one nightmare into another. Rising, he staggered his way to the cell door on shaky legs. Subtle beams of morning light caressed his face.
Looking sideways and down the hallway outside his cell, a pang of loneliness hit his gut. Of course, Neena was still gone. Their plan to get her out had worked. Or at least, it seemed to have.
A small, selfish part of him had wished he’d awake to find her, but she was probably home with her family, squeezing them tight. If she was smart, she’d forgotten about him.
He hadn’t forgotten about her, though.
He couldn’t stop thinking of her generosity or her kind brown eyes. She certainly treated him better than the guards at New Canaan.
Clenching the bars, he studied each of the cells across from him, the way he had done too many times in New Canaan. A memory flitted through his head of sitting in the sand on a mountain outside his colony. He recalled the glimmering sun off the huge, round lake in the middle of the oasis, and the slew of stone homes surrounding it. A vision hit him of watching that scenery alongside Neena, the way they’d watched the stars above the alcove.
Of course, that was a stupid fantasy, fit for fools.
Kai was doomed to repeat his mistakes. He swore he’d never end up in a cell again, and yet here he was.
He stood by the cell door for what felt like a long while. Too many years of imprisonment had created a routine. When he tired of standing by the bars, he stretched, using the bars for support. He whistled. He paced. He thought of escape, with no conclusion. His eyes roamed from his flask to his chamber pot, and back again. The flask was still empty, near the wall where he’d left it.
A raised murmur on the other side of the annex door gave him an instinctive jolt of fear.
A key hit the lock on the other side of the door.
The door creaked open.
A tanned guard stuck his head in and peered down the hallway. Kai met the man’s eyes, waiting for him to bark an order, or step inside. The man’s gaze wandered around, as if Kai might’ve escaped and done some impossible damage. Finding nothing suspicious, the guard met Kai’s eyes again.
“No water today?” Kai asked.
The guard closed the door without a word.
Chapter 30: Neena
With breakfast finished, Neena paced the small hovel. She�
�d tucked Darius’s spear into a corner, away from their bedrolls and the hearth, but of course, Samel had noticed. For a while after waking, he’d taken a keen interest in it, asking questions, but Neena forbade him from touching it. She had said it was a gift from a friend.
But was Darius really a friend, or a foe in disguise?
She didn’t know, and that caused her great unease.
Now, with Samel playing outside and Raj asleep, she resumed her conversation with Helgid.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you all those things earlier,” she whispered.
“It’s fine,” Helgid said. “Though obviously, I am even more worried now.” She bit her lip. “So what are we supposed to do?”
“I’m not sure,” Neena admitted, shaking her head, “but maybe talking to Darius is a start.”
“Do you think he really knows something?”
“It certainly sounded like it.”
Helgid didn’t seem convinced. “What if he tells someone about your conversation?”
“It is a risk,” Neena admitted.
Concern crossed over Helgid’s face. “I’ve seen him around for years. He is a strange man, but I’ve always known him to be honest.” Looking back at Raj, Helgid whispered, “Maybe I can have Amos watch over Raj and Samel while I go with you.”
Neena refused. “If I’m going to take a risk, I need to take it on my own.” Neena gave her a determined look.
“You can’t deal with everything by yourself,” Helgid said, gently touching her arm.
“No, but I feel as if I need to do this,” Neena repeated. Taking Helgid’s shoulders, she said, “If anyone asks about our conversation today, promise you will deny it to your last breath.”
Helgid watched her with tears in her eyes. “Of course I will. Be careful, Neena.”
**
Neena walked through the familiar alleys after lunch, keeping her head down and a tight grip on her spear. More than one person turned to stare at her, as if she might pitch her weapon at them, start screaming, and become the woman of rumors. Even those who had treated Neena cordially before her imprisonment remained distant, as if she might lash out at them. She nodded politely a few times, but mostly kept to herself, as she left the vicinity of Helgid’s and blended in better with others.
She made for Darius’s home.
Soon she’d reached an area of old, patched-up hovels. Elderly people shook out their bedrolls, or folded their laundry. Unable to tell whether their interest was casual or fearful, Neena kept her spear in prominent view, hoping she would look like a colonist coming for repairs, or coming to ask a question.
Finally she reached Darius’s old, ramshackle building. The last time she’d visited was several years ago, when her father was alive. They’d bartered for a new spear tip. Darius had offered to attach it, but they’d insisted on doing the work themselves. Bartering for services was a luxury for families with more than two pairs of hands for hunting.
The door to Darius’s house was closed. She walked up to the door, taking only a moment to give a cursory glance around before knocking. At first, she heard nothing.
Then: the quiet shuffle of feet.
Her heart hammered, as she wondered whether the door would open and reveal a dozen Watchers. She was surprised—but relieved—when only Darius answered, holding his cane.
“Come in,” he said.
Neena walked in and inspected the old, dusty hovel. Long, dirty workbenches lined the walls on all sides. Beneath the workbenches were boxes, assumedly containing weapons and tools.
She returned her attention to the old man with whom she’d come to speak.
“You brought the spear I gave you,” he said, gesturing at the weapon in her hands.
She nodded, but said nothing.
“Have a seat,” he said, pointing to a chair next to one of his workbenches. She walked over and sat, clutching the gift, unable to quell her rapid heartbeat.
In a quiet voice, he asked, “Were you followed?”
“Not that I saw.” She’d paid careful attention, but of course that wasn’t a guarantee.
Pulling up another chair, he scooted close. “I’m glad you came.”
She studied his brown eyes. Several bags beneath them showed his age, but she saw no malice in them. Skipping the pleasantries, Neena said, “At my house, you mentioned some discoveries.”
The same nervousness he’d displayed in Helgid’s house returned, as Darius prepared to speak. “What I am about to tell you amounts to a confession. I hope you will keep that in mind when you consider my trustworthiness.”
Neena nodded and listened, judging his sincerity.
“You might remember the boy who disappeared a few years ago, Akron,” Darius said.
An old memory returned. “I remember him,” Neena said. “I was in the desert, hunting, when he disappeared. The Watchers believe he entered the caves and died. His name was on every tongue after he disappeared. The Watchers searched for him, but they never found his body. His death was a warning to anyone else who dared to get close to the forbidden tunnels.”
“He was a friend of mine, or as close to a friend as an old man can have,” Darius said, a sad expression crossing his face. “Some say he followed my bad example.”
Recalling the stories about Darius, Neena said, “You used to go into the tunnels, didn’t you?”
“When I was younger, yes,” Darius said, looking wistfully at his lame appendage. “My punishment was the loss of my leg’s use. In any case, I told Akron too many nostalgic stories about those explorations. It was because of my stories that he entered the tunnels, where he eventually got lost, and died.” He paused. “Or I used to think he died in that manner.”
Darius launched into his tale. A fright Neena had felt too many times in the desert returned as she listened. She cocked her head, asking him questions, looking for deceit behind his worried eyes. He seemed truthful. Darius told of his search for the boy, his discoveries, and the knife he had seen on The Watcher. Perhaps the most shocking part of his story was the description of the enormous, circular carcass in the tunnels, rotted away by time and buried by the hands of people he suspected were The Watchers. Her pulse sped up even more.
“You think The Watchers killed Akron, and covered up the monster he found,” she said, summing up his story.
“And that might not be the worst part, if what you said when you arrived was true,” Darius concluded. “I’m hoping you will trust me enough to tell me your tale.”
This time it was his turn to listen, and to judge.
Neena’s hands shook as she held the spear. All she could think about was the faces of The Heads of Colony, in that tense meeting. But it seemed Darius was ready to believe her.
After a long pause, she said, “They call the creature the Abomination.”
“Who calls it that?” Darius asked, leaning forward.
“The people of New Canaan.”
“The small group in the desert, you mean.”
“Small?” Neena almost scoffed, as she considered the scope of the leader’s lies. “They are a colony of thousands, much more than we have here.”
“Thousands?” This time it was Darius’s turn for shock. “So, The Heads of Colony deceived us.”
“It certainly seems like it,” Neena said.
Darius watched her for a second, shock on his face, before asking, “What did you see, Neena?”
Neena recounted her trip to the desert. She told of her encounter with Kai, their escape from the monster, and the things she’d learned about New Canaan, concluding with her time in the Comm Building. Unlike the leaders, Darius met her story with belief, rather than accusation. Several times, he leaned forward, asking clarifying questions, or putting things together.
“It sounds like the monster is the same type as the bones in the cave,” Darius said, making an intuitive leap.
“It certainly seems that way,” Neena agreed.
“Those objects I found in the middle—those
spear-like bones—are called quills?” Darius asked.
“That’s what Kai told me,” Neena remembered.
“What do they do?”
“He suspected they help it move through the ground, or protect it, though I’m not sure from what. Kai thought it was the last of its kind. Hopefully the rest are as dead as your carcass.”
“Only one of them is needed to cause the destruction you described,” Darius worried.
“Do you think the leaders knew about this creature?”
Darius thought on it for a long moment. “The more we uncover their lies, the more it seems that way. They lied about the number of people in Kai’s colony. They lied about Akron, and the bones of the miners. And they made sure you would not speak of anything, after you left.”
“Perhaps they are trying to avoid a panic,” Neena said, reiterating what she’d said to Helgid.
“They are trying to keep order, as they always do,” Darius agreed. “But their plans are hopeless. They can’t ban people from going into the desert forever. We will starve, if we are not allowed to hunt.”
“And if someone leads the creature here accidentally, we will have the same problems as New Canaan, if it attacks us,” Neena said. It seemed as if they finished too many of each other’s thoughts. Another memory struck Neena. “When the leaders interrogated me, they spoke about the meeting with the representatives from New Canaan, a while ago. Do you remember that visit?”
“I do.” Darius’s eyes were sharp and intense.
“I recall the nervousness that surrounded the colony. I was only eight years old at the time. No one knew why those people were here, or what would become of it. Eventually, it became an old rumor, like too many things.”
Darius nodded gravely. “Like Akron’s death.”
Something clicked in Neena. “That convinces me the leaders knew about the monster.”
“What do you mean?” Darius bent forward, listening.
“If they met with the visitors from New Canaan a decade ago, surely those people would’ve mentioned the Abomination. It sounds as if it is the greatest danger they face.”
Sandstorm Box Set Page 27
