Where was Blue Eyes? Had her note been discovered? Was he in trouble?
She stalked toward him, her face equally grim. “By volunteer do you mean sacrifice?”
“Not you. Anyone else.” He dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
“I’m your volunteer. I won’t allow anyone else to go.”
“Your Tall Chair means nothing to me. I doubt it matters much to the others now, either.”
“You’re wrong, Ralork.” Agathe scurried over to stand beside her. “It means everything to us. The Tall Chair isn’t merely symbolic. It has always been filled by the person most suited to its burden…its occupant elected by those most qualified to identify her. We will follow Jox anywhere. Right, ladies?”
Cheers echoed off the crumbling walls.
“You won’t get a volunteer besides me. Now let’s go,” she used an imperious tone not dissimilar to Nodine’s. It was a voice she despised.
“Wait a minute.” Nodine herself emerged from the crowd of women. “I’ll go.” She glided over the concrete floor to stand by Jox. Her lustrous auburn tendrils were disheveled, but still lovely. Even Ralork seemed taken aback by beauty that hadn’t come from jars or tubes. None of her toiletries had made the journey.
Jox imagined the proximity of angel to demon was quite dramatic. “Nodine, this is no pleasure stroll. Surely you realize that.”
“Yes, of course, I realize that. I’m not as obtuse as you seem to think I am.”
“Let me go,” Agathe said, wedging her fragile body in front of the taller Nodine. “I have a foot in the grave already. You know my pills aren’t for arthritis...”
“Listen, old woman,” Nodine interrupted. “This is my one chance to prove myself worthy. I won’t let you take it from me.”
Agathe looked kindly at her once-despised peer. “Child, this is serious. Deadly serious. Do you understand that?”
The violet eyes watered. “I do. I also understand that I’m the most expendable member of the Table. I didn’t just discover that during your delightful conversation earlier. I’ve known it all along.”
“Take me,” a third voice came from the huddled group. Zania didn’t bother addressing Jox. She went straight to Ralork. “You’ll want a Divinist for maximum impact. I assume you’re trying to prove a point? Let everyone know you’re not afraid of using violence? If you want a sacrifice, I’m your choicest lamb, one who has sworn a blood oath never to raise a hand against another human being.”
With a sense of dismay, Jox watched Ralork’s gaze slide from Agathe to Nodine, and finally fall upon Zania. He began to reach for her arm, then pivoted back to Jox’s dearest friend.
“Come with me, ma’am,” he said to Agathe. Rather than grabbing her, he offered his arm. A frail hand, laden with jeweled rings, didn’t hesitate in resting upon it.
“Stay strong, dear,” Agathe said to her. “You will prevail. I know you will.” She pressed a still-lovely cheek against Jox’s marred one. Then she was gone.
Just before the thudding of the door echoed down the entrance corridor, Agathe’s voice floated back to them.
“I suppose you’ll be wanting your coat back, you irksome savage.”
***
“I wonder if our decision to wait was unwise,” Jox muttered hours later. Worry over her friend ate away at her. It may be that Agathe was already dead. Had they lashed her to a wooden post and set her on fire? Cut off her head and displayed it at the City gates? Were blackbirds pecking at the eyeballs even now?
“Are you suggesting we try to escape down one of the tunnels?” Zania replied from a nearby pallet, interrupting Jox’s morbid thoughts.
“Perhaps we misunderstood Blue Eyes’ message. Maybe he’s not an ally.”
Zania nodded. All the other women were asleep, it seemed. Or at least they had retired to their pallets. After a sparsely eaten dinner, no one had been interested in conversation or games.
“Blue Eyes looks Eastern,” Tova whispered from a few feet away. “I would know. Does that tell us anything useful?”
“He looks so familiar,” Jox said, closing her eyes and picturing the handsome, young face. Suddenly it came to her. “I know who he is! He’s the partner of Guard Scordin, the friendly one from TR1’s security detail.”
“How do you know what Guard Scordin’s partner looks like?” Zania asked.
“Vyg has a monthly dice game. I haven’t given it much notice, and I never intrude. My husbands have their own diversions, of course. I remember seeing Blue Eyes leaving with Guard Scordin one evening a few months ago.”
“But what does it mean,” asked Tova, crawling over sleeping bodies to get to the other women.
“Maybe their dice game wasn’t a dice game. Maybe they were plotting,” Zania mused.
“Plotting what? What are you thinking?” asked Jox.
Zania continued, “In the beginning, we assumed this uprising was motivated by the disparity between Palantine and the outer Quadrants. The rumor about potential cuts to the Altruism Budget had no doubt leaked out. One of the first things I learned after coming to the Table was that Falsten couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it. I’d heard some talk of unrest. One of my own husbands told me as much, but with no details. What if that was a different movement from the one whose machinations we’re caught up in now?”
“Two rebellions happening simultaneously?” Jox murmured. “Why didn’t you say anything about this unrest?”
Zania shrugged. “I had just arrived at the Table and barely knew you women. I was biding my time, seeing what you were going to propose.”
Jox frowned. “I planned to propose sweeping changes to our antiquated systems, but they didn’t include elevating men to positions of legislative power. The notion never occurred to me, frankly. And then Ralork and his crew burst through that secret door.”
“What is the significance of the marble?” asked Zania.
Jox had been thinking about the marble ever since Blue Eyes slipped it to her. “Perhaps Vyg is the leader of this other rebellion...”
“You said he was the smartest person you knew,” Zania said. “Would such a person be content to idly sit by, playing dice and reading books, while people suffered? If Blue Eyes’ family immigrated here from the impoverished Eastern Quadrant, would he have Vyg’s ear?”
“Yes, of course. Vyg is as kind as he is intelligent,” replied Jox. “I’m trying to imagine two sparring factions: contentious men who crave equality to women, and egalitarians who seek to correct societal disparities. Maybe both are reasonable in their desires. Perhaps we’ve had it wrong all along.”
“Chime-Ra happened a very long time ago,” said Zania, her voice thoughtful. “How long do we punish the ancestors of those who brought its wrath upon us?”
Jox sighed. “Does five hundred years seem about right?”
“Their aggression in space and their need to dominate nearly killed humankind when they brought chime-Ra back with them.” All heads turned to Nodine now, as she sat up on her pallet and joined the whispered conversation. “It decimated our population, thereby disrupting our technologies...our advancements and science...very little of which has been duplicated even half a millennia later. Does that horrible lack of judgment deserve a place at the Table? And what if they want more than equality? What if they want to dominate again, as they did in the old times? You know we can’t have that, Jox. They can’t be trusted. And don’t be so shocked. I know as much of our history as the rest of you. At least the parts that matter.”
“How would you feel if the roles were reversed, Nodine?” asked Jox. “I know it’s difficult to imagine men lording power over us, but isn’t that precisely what we’re doing to them because of events that occurred five hundred years ago?”
“Men haven’t changed their natures. They still carry the Y chromosome. They’re still aggressive. Too impulsive to rule wisely. We all know this.”
“Maybe they’ve evolved beyond that. People can change. People can grow. Peop
le can transcend their natures,” said Zania.
“Not all can. Ralork and his ilk exemplify that,” Nodine replied, then lay back down on her pallet and closed her eyes.
“She’s right about that,” Tova whispered. “Poor Falsten.”
Jox nodded. What should she do?
“Sleep on it,” Zania said, reading her thoughts. “You’ll come up with a solution in the morning. Vyg may be the most intelligent person you know, but you are the most intelligent person I know.”
Jox nodded, then lay back down on her pallet, hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling, while gentle and not-so-gentle snores echoed off the walls. Her eyes never closed that night.
***
Early the next morning, Jox visited the privy tunnel before anyone else awakened. She did her business, then continued down the length of the tunnel for a few minutes, using one of the lume-tubes to light the way. It was exactly as she had dreaded, full of spider webs and skittering, long-tailed creatures. She shuddered, then stopped and turned back toward the circular room. Not out of fear, but out of resolve to do this thing correctly.
Several of the women greeted her as she reemerged from the tunnel. It was a bittersweet reminder of the times she appeared in the Table Room, ready for the day’s work in the Tallest Chair.
“Ladies, we must take matters into our own hands.”
“You’re planning an escape, then?” Zania said.
“No. A reckoning, but not the type Ralork has in mind. We’ll be having company soon, I expect.”
She stood, arms crossed, waiting for the sounds of people coming through the terminal entrance. It didn’t take long.
She wasn’t surprised when she saw Blue Eyes and several others emerge from the corridor. Nor was she surprised when she saw Vyg among them.
“Greetings, husband,” she said with a smile.
“Greetings, wife. You’re not angry with me for taking so long?”
“Not in the least. You still had a couple more hours. How bad is it out there?”
“Bad enough,” Vyg replied. The grim expression he wore reminded her of Ralork’s. “They’re contained, though. We’re holding the leaders.”
“Ralork?”
“Yes. And the others who took you.”
“Excellent. Is Agathe alive?”
“Yes. We’re caring for her now, but...” He didn’t finish the sentence.
She swallowed hard. “How are Durbin and Sawl?”
“Sawl is fine. Durbin is inconsolable,” he grinned.
Jox smiled too. “Did you tell him you were coming to rescue me?”
“Of course. He didn’t believe we could do it. He thought he had lost you forever.”
“Does he know about your rebellion?” She gazed at him steadily when she said the words.
Vyg’s eyes opened wide. “You know about that?”
“Yes, but first things first. Let’s get out of here. There are spiders, Vyg. Someone will have to pay for that as well as for Falsten.”
Six months later...
“Here we go, Brutin,” Jox said as she approached the massive doors of the Table Room.
“They’re ready for you.” The smile on the man’s face stretched from ear to ear.
She stopped, lowering her voice. “Is it done, then?”
The smile vanished. “Yes. The sentence was carried out. Falsten has found her justice.”
“Very good,” she replied, then continued through the doorway and into the Table Room. She wore her confident, crooked smile as she looked at the Members assembled there. Some of the ladies were familiar. Zania and Tova were seated in their normal chairs. Nodine was absent, but that had been her own decision. Vyg sat in the Tallest Chair, the result of the popular vote put forth at her insistence, not only to the citizens of Palantine, but the Eastern and Western Quadrants as well. Women were given extra votes to offset the disparity in their numbers. Still, Vyg had edged her out of the Tallest Chair by fifty-three votes.
It was a running joke between them now. Did it chafe? Yes. But it was the will of the people.
Henceforth, the three nations would make decisions together to the betterment and well-being of all. Blue Eyes, now known to her as Cedric, sat in Agathe’s chair. The sight still evoked a lump in her throat.
Jox missed her old friend. Today, especially. Agathe would have been proud to vote for the dozens of progressive reforms, inked on parchment, and stacked upon the stone Table before her.
She smiled.
“There you are, Jox,” Vyg said, waving her toward the seat next to his. “Ladies and gentlemen. Let’s get started.”
The In Between
This time, when her consciousness manifested in the black void, something felt different.
She supposed it should. Her seventh incarnation had ended after an exceptionally long life on Centauri Proxima. People lived longer there than on Earth, and she had needed the extra time to get everything done. There had been a lot of lessons to learn that last time: Kindness, Compassion, Empathy, Patience, Benevolence, and Tolerance. She’d definitely gone out with a bang.
Now that she was back in the In Between, she wondered what to do next. Should she materialize in the body from her most recent life, as she had done six times before? For some reason, that didn’t feel right. Instead, she created a kind of amalgamation. She closed eyes that didn’t yet exist and thought of them all. Johnny. Jamila. Jun-Tak. Julietta. Jaeda. Jacob. Jox.
J didn’t know how she would look when Sarah came for their discussion, but it didn’t matter. It felt right. For the setting, she did something different as well. She did nothing. She left the black void exactly as it had first appeared to her when the process began. And waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“There you are,” came Sarah’s lilting voice. It always filled her with such happiness, and she allowed herself to bask in it now. She finally realized who that voice belonged to.
“Hello, dear Sarah.”
Sarah returned her smile, looking more radiant than ever. In fact, she was glowing, like a celestial body in the cosmic space of the black void.
“How do you feel?” Sarah said.
“Honestly, a bit shaky. That was the seventh, you know.”
“I do know. Did you get it all done?”
J thought about the question for a long time. Perhaps a few minutes or several millennia.
“Yes. I got every bit of it done. Do you want to hear how?”
Sarah shook her head. “I think that part is unnecessary this time. Don’t you?”
“Yes,” J said. “I know who you are, now. Or should I say, I remember who you are. Or were, I guess. Johnny’s mom, Jamila’s leper, Jun-tak’s Onya, Julietta’s Francesca, Jaeda’s Tana, Jacob’s Asha, and Jox’s Zania. You were always with me, helping me on my journey.”
Sarah simply smiled.
“So what’s next? I believe I’ve completed my goal of becoming sublime, since perfection is unattainable.” She remembered those words from her first time in the In Between.
“Do you feel sublime?”
“Utterly.”
“Very good. You’re really going to like this next part.”
Epilogue
Shoemowetochawcawe knew he had died. Had felt the moment his soul left his worn-out body back on the Dakota plains. So when he found himself in a black void, he was confused. He figured he should be soaring through the sky in the body of an eagle or floating down a raging river as a leaf.
He didn’t expect to be in this mysterious non-place. It didn’t feel uncomfortable, though. He waited for whatever was going to happen next.
“Hello, Shoemowetochawcawe.” The voice floated to him through darkness that slowly become lighter. He realized he was sitting on the ground next to his tepee – the first one he had set up near Jacob Payne’s sod house, not the larger one that followed when he married Miriam. Soon the prairie surrounded him, but beyond, the black void remained.
“Hello,” he said
. The woman who appeared before him didn’t look like anyone he knew – she had a lithe body, a pleasant face, and long dark hair. But there was something about her that felt reassuring. Familiar even. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the In Between. Are you comfortable? Do you need anything?”
He shook his head. “I am fine. Am I dead?”
The woman nodded. “It’s true your physical body was left behind in that other place, but it serves a purpose to take on its form again now. It will make all this easier to get through. Do you think you can manage that?”
Shoemowetochawcawe closed eyes he didn’t yet have, then opened them. He felt arms covered in fringed sleeves and a soft leather tunic on his torso. He glanced down at bison-hide moccasins.
“Perfect,” the woman said.
“What is your name?” Shoemowetochawcawe asked.
“You may call me Jox.”
“And you may call me Shoe. It is easier.”
She smiled. “Let’s talk about your life, Shoe.”
“There is not much to tell, really.”
When he heard her laughter, it reminded him of his mother’s beaded necklace, clinking while she made their morning meal. It was a lovely sound.
“Do you remember a Pivotal Moment when you felt your life had just taken a Very Bad Turn or a Very Good one?”
Shoe smiled. “Oh, yes. There was this white fellow named Jacob Payne...”
THE END
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed this book. I'd love it if you posted a review about it on Amazon and Goodreads. Reading a well-written book in the company of snoozing doggies is my favorite pastime. Receiving feedback and reviews from readers about my own books is my second favorite pastime. Which scenes did you like best? What character could you relate to the most? How do you think you'd fare in a post-apocalyptic world?
On a side note, if you've spotted a typo, please email me a [email protected]. I hate those insidious little buggers as much as the next reader.
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