by Liv Daniels
“Dangerman will believe that you killed me over a spilled inkwell?” Leina had believed it only a few minutes ago, but now that she had calmed down it was beginning to seem like a stretch.
“The person Dangerman thinks I am would do that without a second thought.”
Leina narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t—“
“Of course I haven’t killed anyone. But you know what my reputation is. Now, at the bottom of the crevice, under an overhanging rock, you’ll find a bag. Everything you’ll need for a journey across the Desert will be there, but more importantly, there will be a letter. Don’t open it. Keep it safe at all costs. Destroy it rather than let anyone else see it.
“Keep going toward the setting sun for a week or so until you come to a mountain range at the border of the Desert. Just beyond that you’ll see two identical hills. Past them is an outpost town, in a hidden cove known only to a few. Go there and ask for the Agency, and give them the letter.”
“That’s it?” Leina asked, relieved that he wasn’t asking anything more. This all seemed too easy and too sudden to be true.
“That’s it. Can you do that?”
“One question. If you’re not on Dangerman’s side, why did you get me in trouble for telling the truth about him?”
“It’s not my job to save you. I’m an actor. If I am to have any hope of keeping my position, I have to play the part. The more emphatically I play it, the more Dangerman trusts me, and the more hope there is of shutting this place down someday. I can’t risk that for one person. Plus, I wanted to see how you would respond. I expected that you would hold out against Dangerman for 24 hours at most. You held out for five days. I like to know who my allies are, and how strong they are, in the case that I need them. Like right now.”
“Hmm… you’re a convincing actor.” She absently fingered the whip scar still visible on her hand.
“Terribly sorry. I really hated to do that to you. But that’s the kind of game we’re in.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Good. Don’t forget what to do. You never talked to me. You still hate me, got that?”
She stopped him. “One more thing. Is it hard to be here, to take part in all this? Don’t you want to be free of it?”
“Oh, but I am free here. Freer than Dangerman himself. People misunderstand what freedom is, you know. If someday because of me, all these people are saved, I can hope they’ll forgive me for who I had to be to them.” He was himself again, with the same look in his eyes that Leina had noticed when she first saw him. As he spoke, he pried the lid off one of the crates with a crowbar that had been lying on the ground unused. Leina got in, and he handed her the crowbar. “And now you are free,” he said. “Don’t fail me.”
Chapter 12
Leina waited a long time, huddled in a ball inside the small dark crate. The whole box had shuddered as Sam nailed the lid back on, and then there was silence. Leina could only hope that the crowbar in her hands would be enough to get her out.
After what seemed an age, heavy stomping and a foul smell that pervaded even the sturdy sides of the crate heralded the arrival of the monsters. Leina’s stomach lurched as her crate was heaved into the air and balanced in a position that seemed impossibly precarious. She remembered Sam’s last words to her: “Don’t move until they’ve dropped you, or you’ll be found out.” That had been hard enough when the box wasn’t moving. Now she felt like a fish trapped in a hurricane, and every muscle in her body begged to tense, to steady her against the ever-moving liquid-like sides of the box. It won’t help, she told herself over and over again. In a few minutes you’ll be free if only you can stay still! Her thoughts shifted to the idea of freedom, and that steadied her as she allowed herself to flop around in the box like a ragdoll.
All of the sudden Leina felt as if there was nothing under her, and then there was a great shattering force. She gave an involuntary low moan, and was certain that she had given herself away, but she was met only with stillness.
Leina closed her eyes and listened to her breath falling up and down. Finally she shifted her aching limbs, grappled for the crowbar, and strained to pry the lid open. It came off more easily than she had expected, and she was met with a flood of light—real light, unlike any she had seen in a very long time. It was such a poignant reminder of all that had been before she came here that she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
As soon as her eyes had adjusted to the light, Leina crawled out of the box and studied her surroundings. The crevice that the crates had been dumped into was not deep, but it was barren. It seemed that there had once been a river running through it, because the hardened sand still held smooth, wavy impressions that could only have been created by the passage of water.
Leina found the low outcropping of rock not too far away, and sure enough, there was a bag under it. She immediately recognized it as her own, the one that she had brought into the Desert so long ago. She opened it and discovered that an insignia depicting an eagle in flight had been sewn under the flap; the symbol of the Agency, no doubt, whatever that was. The bag was filled with food, flasks of water, blankets, and other supplies. To Leina’s surprise, even the book that she had brought with her from home was tucked at the bottom. She took it out and ran her hand over its worn cover, then reluctantly put it back.
She found the letter in one of the bag’s inside pockets. The envelope was sealed and unmarked, but she could feel a thick stack of paper inside. Whatever was written within, she knew, was of vital importance to Sam and whatever Agency he worked for, but it was hidden from her. She toyed with opening the letter, but thought better of it and replaced it in the bag. Sam had gotten her out of Dangerman’s fortress, so she would trust him still.
Leina shouldered the bag and climbed out of the crevice. It struck her suddenly that she was alone, and free. She had been neither for—how long had it been? She couldn’t be sure, but knew that she had been at Dangerman’s fortress for at least several months. It was not a place that she would miss. How fortunate she had been to get out! She sunk to her knees and felt the dry cracked earth under her fingers, smelled the dusty air, closed her eyes, took it all in. She had rarely taken notice of such things, but now they seemed like the trappings of a palace.
At length, Leina got up and began her trek. The sun was sinking, so she went in its direction. What lay before her, she didn’t know, but she would hope for the best. She would be happy to meet anyone who opposed Dangerman, secretive agency or no. And anyways, she was only a messenger, happily removed from their affairs. What she would do after she delivered the letter, she did not know, but it didn’t matter. For now, she had food, and a job to do, and freedom, and that was enough.
As Leina walked, she wondered what so-called Dangerman thought he was in charge of. It was not he who had shaped this vast Desert in all its enormity, though he seemed to take great pride in it. The crater in which he lived was not his own. He could not stop the endless shifting of sands, nor dictate the rain. The river of lava surrounding his fortress was a hundred times more powerful than him, and even it could not do these things. He was nothing. All he had control over was a few hundred people, and even them he did not own, nor could he totally suppress. So what gave him such power, if indeed he had not imagined it all?
Now that she was far away from his fortress, she even felt a little sorry for him, though she refused to admit it to herself. Even if the entire Desert was under his command, what happiness would that bring him? Maybe there was some satisfaction in controlling, subduing, but she did not see it. Somewhere in the depths of her heart she wondered what drove him to seek such things.
Leina had seen many sunsets prettier than this in years past, but here it was different. In this empty, desolate land there was only her and the sun and its golden light. There was not a single cloud, or boulder, or tree between them. The distance no longer existed. The Desert had a kind of beauty, harsh and unforgiving as it was, or rather the precious shards of beauty to be fo
und here were a thousand times more acute than in places where they were abundant.
The sky bled red as if pierced when the sun touched the horizon. Then, suddenly, all memory of light and heat was gone. There was no cover anywhere, so Leina stopped where she was and took out the blankets from the leather bag. She wrapped herself in them as she ate dinner, for in the absence of the sun she was already shivering. It was dark now. The sliver of a moon barely provided enough light for her to see the roll of bread in front of her face. She sat and watched the darkness and shivered long before she could think of falling asleep.
Chapter 13
The next day, and indeed the next three days, were very much the same. During the day, under the biting sun, Leina wished only for the cool of the unreachable night. But when it finally came, she found herself shivering on frigid sand or stone, and dreaming of heat. There was no middle ground between the two extremes. She quickly learned to avoid thinking about the temperature. It didn't matter if she was hot or cold; it was all the same. There was one area, however, in which she couldn't complain. Though Sam had had the nerve to send her through this forsaken place, he had kindly packed more than enough food for her, so she was never hungry.
On the fourth day, the Desert’s landscape became increasingly populated with jagged rocks. Soon they were so numerous and tall that the Desert had become a labyrinth. Leina climbed up onto one of the rocks and sought a way around the maze, but the stone formations went on in all directions. She would have to go through; as long as she kept in the same direction she judged that she would reach the end eventually. The stones can’t go on forever, she told herself as she lowered herself back into the maze, though she wasn’t entirely sure that was true.
By midday, the formations were much higher, at least twice her height. The spaces between them became tight, and in some places Leina had to spend long lengths of time searching for an opening in the right direction, or squeezing through a crack just barely large enough to accommodate her. Sometimes, too, she would come to a dead end, and have to double back and find another path. The labyrinth showed no intention of ending, and as the sun sank lower and lower, Leina became increasingly nervous.
The boulder-like confines of Leina’s maze began to approach the size of small mountains, their sides sheer and their summits forming sinister, contorted shapes far above her head. Just as they began to cast shadows into her path, Leina felt emptiness under one of her feet where the ground should have been. She leaped back in alarm from the fissure that she had almost stepped into, sending a stream of pebbles into its dark depths. She couldn’t hear them hit the bottom.
The fissure was not particularly wide, but it was some time before Leina summoned the courage to leap over it. With a pounding heart she cleared the gap, conscious of every stone and grain of sand that disappeared into the blackness under her feet.
After that, Leina watched the ground at all times, and tested it for solidity with her feet before she trusted it with her full weight. Her path twisted and turned more than ever, and wearily she followed it, hoping in vain that she was near the end.
She came to another fissure, and then a third. It did not become easier to jump over them each time, but more terrifying. Scalding steam was rising out of the third one, so Leina couldn’t see the other side. She knew that if she hesitated she would never be able to force herself across, so she backed up, ran for all she was worth, and leaped at the edge with as much strength as she could muster. Her foot barely met the other side, and she had to lurch forward to avoid falling in. Sharp stones dug into her as she crashed to the ground, but she was all too happy to take that over the alternative.
Leina crawled a safe distance away from the yawning crack, heedless of the knife-like pebbles that dug into her knees, and propped herself up against one of the stone walls of her maze. Her heart was pounding in her chest. “If I have to do that again…” she said out loud, but her voice trailed off.
Now Leina was faced with the problem of the darkness. The light was growing dim, and in a few minutes she knew that she would be faced with complete blackness. She dreaded the thought of having to spend the night in this labyrinth, but it seemed that there was no other choice. She pulled out a blanket, casting a wary eye at the still-visible steam rising from the last fissure.
It wasn’t long, however, before Leina was faced with a new problem. A blinding flash startled her out of her sleep. It was followed almost immediately by another, bright enough to transform the pitch blackness to an eerie take on daylight for a fraction of a second.
Lightning.
But if this was a lightning storm, its proportions far exceeded any that Leina had thought possible. Between the tops of the stones far above her head, she watched as the black sky was covered in a menacing spiderweb of electricity, which was replaced by another one almost as soon as the last had disappeared. There was thunder, too, and it was so loud and constant that it seemed the stones that walled her in were grinding on each other at all sides.
Cover. I’ve got to find cover. Leina ripped the blankets off of herself and stuffed them into her bag. She stood up slowly, moving her hand along the stone wall at her side, and made her way forward, shuffling her feet to feel for fissures. The flashes of lightning gave her almost enough light to see by, but they brought her no comfort. More than once she was aware of a brilliant stab of white ahead of her or to the side, dangerously close.
With the darkness constantly alternating with confusing flashes of light, Leina could not hold her course. She had no sense of what direction she was headed in, but she knew that she had to keep moving until she could find shelter. An overhanging ledge, a crack in the stone, anything. Anything but a fissure. She didn’t know what she would do if she came upon one of those. She grappled helplessly on, but the stones were sheerer than ever, leaving her dangerously exposed.
All of the sudden, the stone wall that Leina had been following with her hand was no longer there. At first she thought she had fallen, but at length she realized that she was not moving. The dark shapes of stone walls still loomed around her, but it appeared that she had reached a clearing.
Confirming this, the dark disk above her that was the sky shattered into a million pieces of silver, for a moment illuminating the unnaturally round empty space that Leina now found herself in. She thought she saw a gap between two stones directly across from her. She took a deep breath and took one step into the dark, empty void ahead, and then another. Her feet met hard ground. The lightning flashed again, and she saw the opening more clearly, not too far away. It was actually the entrance to a tunnel that bored through the stone ahead, just what she needed to take refuge in for the rest of the night.
Encouraged, Leina took a larger step. She immediately realized her mistake, but it was too late. She was falling.
Chapter 14
As Leina regained herself, thoughts fluttered around in her head, lapsing in and out of her control. First there was an irrationally jubilant No way! I actually survived! then an image of Grandmother flashed into her head, which morphed into a face that she had never seen before, similar to her own, but different in a way that she could not place. Then she began to wonder why lightning was silver and not any other color. It seemed crucially important, but the answer was hiding somewhere within the dark recesses of thought that she could not reach.
All at once, Leina jerked into consciousness. She was immediately aware of being sore and restricted. When she tried to move her arms she was rewarded with a stab of pain. Her vision blurred in and out of focus, but soon she could make out her surroundings. She was lying on the ground next to a blazing fire, at the center of a cavern of some kind. Nice place to set up a camp, she observed wryly; at the bottom of a pit!
On the other side of the fire were two pairs of feet, which she recognized instantly as belonging to monsters of the type that Dangerman employed. She became aware that they were speaking in their gravelly, forced voices, unaware that she was awake.
“No,”
one was saying, “she didn’t fall far. Lucky for her she didn’t strike a deeper pit! Or maybe not so lucky.” The monster spoke in the unnerving, automated way that was characteristic of its kind. Leina had often wondered how the creatures could come up with such ideas without attributing any emotion to them. When they spoke it was like they were reading a script in a language foreign to them, but surely they had some understanding of what they were saying. At the very least they were forming the words. The familiarity of this kind of speech filled Leina with dread.
The other one stomped its foot and made a terrible roaring sound. “Dangerman will want her. He wants all the prisoners.”
At the mention of Dangerman, Leina’s mind went into a panic. After going through all of this, to go back to the crater would be unbearably cruel. Then a new thought, more urgent, raced through her mind. Her bag! The letter! There was something at stake bigger than herself, though she only had a faint idea of what it was.
The monsters continued talking. “Then what are we waiting for? We must take her to Dangerman without delay,” the first one said.
“No,” said the second. “Wait until she wakes up. She could be dead. He said dead prisoners are of no use.”
“Fine. I’ll get more fuel for the fire.” The first monster’s heavy footfalls faded away in the sand.
Leina was glad that she hadn’t made a noise yet. She closed her eyes and lay still while she thought. She had to get away, but she couldn’t fathom how. The bag. Where was the bag? She hadn’t seen it. No use looking now until she had a plan.
There was only one monster in the cavern with her now, and she knew she would much rather deal with one than two. She had to do something quickly before the other came back. But what could she do? She had seen nothing in the cavern but the monsters and the fire. The fire. It was worth a try.
