The Desert (Song of Dawn Trilogy Book 1)

by Liv Daniels

  Leina worried that Dangerman had seen Ruby. But if that really had happened, why hadn’t she heard any commotion? Dangerman was not the type to capture people quietly. Besides, he had passed through the room quickly, or else he would still be here now. Leina had not been very far behind him. Unless her panic had rendered her completely deaf and incapable of telling time, Ruby must have left before Dangerman arrived. But then where was she? Had she been captured, or had she left of her own accord?

  The size of Esltebey pressed upon Leina like a tangible force. Though it encompassed only a single hill, it was a vast and confusing place. The city was a web of innumerable paths, alleys, shadowy corners, and alcoves, with throngs of people that seeped through every crack in its age-old stone. Leina doubted that she could find an elephant here, let alone a small girl. Not if she was given a week. And she had only twenty minutes.

  Leina struggled to calm her panic. She knew that it would only hinder her. As long as Dangerman’s conversation with the Appeaser had seemed, she reminded herself, she really hadn’t been away very long. Ruby couldn’t have gotten far.

  Leina snatched up her shoes and moved toward the door that they had used to enter the palace, but then hesitated. What if Ruby had stayed inside the palace? Two long hallways and numerous arched doors surrounded the room that she was in now. If there had been any kind of danger, Ruby could have easily ducked into one of them to hide, and could be anywhere within the vastness of the palace.

  Leina turned and advanced toward one of the hallways, but suddenly the palace’s uneasy silence was shattered. All at once, its resonance was swirling with stomping boots and coarse voices. Though Leina could see nothing, the sounds seemed to surround her like a swarm of angry wasps.

  Dangerman had called the raid off. The king’s guards had returned. Leina bolted.

  Chapter 32

  Somehow, Leina found herself in the streets of Estlebey again, stumbling and soaked by the incessant rain. But she wasn’t paying attention to where she was. Her eyes were too busy to notice. She put everything that was left of her sanity toward scanning the people.

  The raid had ceased, but in its wake it had left unthinkable destruction. Leina didn’t have to look past the people’s faces to see that. They were tear-stained, shocked, at an utter loss to comprehend what had happened to them.

  Many of their arms and legs were wrapped in whatever spare rags they had been able to find, and other worse injuries were rampant. Some people lay unmoving on the street. When she passed them, Leina turned her eyes away, whispering a prayer that they were not dead. The monsters had done their work all too well. At the sight of each new face, the anger at Dangerman clawed deeper into Leina’s heart.

  But nowhere among these destitute faces did Leina see Ruby. Before long, they all began to blur together, and Leina feared that even if Ruby’s face did appear in the crowd, she would not recognize it.

  Finally, in desperation, Leina stopped a small, scraggly man. His eyes shifted in distraction, and Leina spoke rapidly for fear of losing his attention. “Have you seen a girl come by here? She’s a little shorter than me, and has blonde hair.”

  Even before she had finished speaking, Leina could feel the futility of her words. That description could easily apply to more than half of the girls in Estlebey. She and Ruby had come here with the intent of being inconspicuous, and they had done that part of their job very well.

  Hardly to Leina’s surprise, the man shook his head and vanished into the crowd. Leina could feel the hopelessness of her search like a great empty void inside of her, but she pressed on. If all she could do was try, then that was what she must do.

  Just past another stagnant fountain, the street came to an end, blocked by a huge rock cliff-face that jutted out from the hillside. Leina grunted in frustration at the obstacle. However hopeless her search was, she needed all the time that she could get. Unless there was a way down, she would have to double back and find a different path. Hurrying past a building that obscured her view, Leina directed her eyes to the street below.

  There was no way down, but something else caught Leina’s eye. The street below also came to a dead end, and many people were there. A couple of children were crying and beating at the side of the stone outcropping, as if they expected it to give way. But most of the people kept their eyes straight ahead, and they were dead silent. Before them the path ducked under the foundation of the building that Leina had just passed, so she couldn’t see what they were looking at.

  Leina forced herself to stop puzzling at the sight, and scanned the faces of the people below. She was about to turn away when her eyes locked onto the face she was looking for. Ruby.

  Relief surged through Leina like a torrent. “Ruby!” she called.

  Ruby’s response, however, was anything but one of relief. Her eyes darted up to look at Leina for only a moment, and then they returned to looking ahead, where everyone else was still staring. Without moving her eyes, Ruby very slowly drew her finger to her lips as a signal to be quiet.

  Now what did that mean? There wasn’t time to guess.

  Leina didn’t know how long that she had been searching, but she could be certain that their time was running short. She had last passed a stair more than five minutes ago, and that was more time than she could spare. If she couldn’t get to Ruby and out of the city quickly enough, they would both be trapped in Estlebey.

  Leina could only think of one alternate path. Looking down made her dizzy, but she judged that she could survive a fall of that distance. Whether or not she could survive it with few enough injuries to be able to make it out of the city was anyone’s guess, but her options were running short. About halfway down there was a clothesline that she could grab to help break the fall.

  Determined to act before her common sense could jump in and forbid her, Leina climbed onto the stone barrier at the edge of the street. She balanced there long enough to adjust the mask that still covered her eyes, and then lunged toward the clothesline.

  Ruby gave a shrill shriek of, “Leina, no!” and as Leina plunged through the air, she heard another sound from below that might have been a growl.

  Leina caught hold of the clothesline with one hand, but it snapped instantly under her weight. As soon as her feet touched the hard cobblestone of the street, she crumpled to the ground and expended the momentum from her fall by rolling. Max had told her that this helped prevent serious injury, but the wrenching scraping of stone on her skin as she rolled was enough to make Leina regret following his advice.

  Suddenly, there was another sound, this time unmistakably an angry growl. Leina wrenched her head up from the cobblestone pavement only to be confronted with the face of a monster. It was so close to her that she was blasted with its sickening breath. Its lip was curled up in an ugly snarl, and one clawed hand was raised to strike. So that was the problem.

  Stifling a scream, Leina dove into a roll in the opposite direction. One of the creature’s claws made contact with her arm, leaving a deep scratch that spurted blood. When Leina hit the wall underneath a large garbage chute, she tried to jump up to avoid the next swing, but several garments from the clothesline were wrapped around her. She tripped over them, tumbling back to the hard ground. The monster’s claws skimmed Leina’s head, tearing off a lock of her hair. As she frantically struggled to free herself from the tangled clothes, the monster poised for a final strike.

  Just as the monster sprang for her, Leina managed to pull herself free. She darted out of the way, flinging a sheet at the creature’s face. The monster struggled to rip the sheet from its face, but the momentum from its blind swing at Leina had caused it to lose its balance. It teetered near the edge of the gaping garbage chute.

  On an impulse, Leina ran up behind the monster and gave it a firm shove. With a terrible cry, the monster toppled into the chute. Instead of the dead thump that Leina would have expected, she heard a strange plop from the depths below. But there was no time to speculate on why.

  Lein
a allowed herself one gasping breath, then she ran to Ruby and grabbed her hand. Leina’s body ached from her jump, and the long cut on her arm still stung, but she had miraculously escaped any major injury. Given their predicament, she had little difficulty in forcing herself to run.

  “I’m sorry I left,” Ruby said as they ran. “Dangerman was coming and I was scared, so I ran.”

  “It’s okay,” Leina assured her. “Let’s just try to get out of here before it’s too late. They’re going to close the city.”

  Ruby gasped and started running faster. They worked their way down to the bottom of the hill in a wordless understanding that haste was the only thing that could save them now.

  Halfway down the hill a herald approached them, braying at a trumpet without any degree of skill. A wave of dread washed over Leina. She slowed and waited to hear the message.

  “By order of the king,” the herald proclaimed, “all citizens are to report to His Majesty’s castle immediately for an announcement.”

  Leina breathed a sigh of relief. She had expected worse.

  The people in the surrounding area obeyed the herald immediately and began to make their way in the direction of the castle. Of course they didn’t know what the announcement was, so they were oblivious to their danger. Leina didn’t doubt that drawing all of the citizens to the castle to hear the decree instead of just having the heralds read it was only a way to make it much harder for anyone to escape the city. Leina couldn’t help but admire the cleverness of the plan, which was a clear indicator that it was Dangerman’s idea. Nonetheless, she wasn’t about to fall for that trap.

  The girls walked casually to a stair that climbed up the hill, but as soon as the herald had passed they turned around and raced in the opposite direction. They came upon several more heralds during their descent, but managed to dodge them.

  Finally they reached the front gates of the city. They were guarded as before, and it was too much to hope that the guards hadn’t been notified about the decree yet.

  “Maybe we’re too late,” Leina whispered to Ruby as they surveyed the gates from a distance.

  Ruby shook her head. “Didn’t you see? The tide is high now and the city is surrounded by water. I saw boats coming in and out. There must be a dock around here, or something.”

  Leina had been too occupied in searching for Ruby to notice the water, but the idea gave her a whiff of hope. “Let’s find it, then, before it’s too late.” She removed the mask from her head, shaking off the sweat that had accumulated on the inside, and tucked it into the leather bag still slung over her shoulder. Then they set off.

  The street that encircled the lowest part of the hill was both wide and empty, so their search was an easy one, and it did not take them too long to find what they were looking for. A ways past the main gate, there was a line of arched openings at the base of the wall. They let some water in, and in that water bobbed a collection of rowboats and small ferries. But even this small marina was heavily guarded. There was a wrought-iron gate at its border, which was watched by many more guards than necessary. It would be impossible to get past them.

  In despair, Leina turned away, beckoning Ruby to follow her. They retreated in silence. Once the guards were out of sight, the girls sat down aimlessly at the edge of the street, defeated. They could do nothing else.

  Leina brushed out some gravel that had become lodged in a scrape on her arm. It made her grit her teeth, but she almost welcomed the pain because it distracted her from the horrible truth that they were stuck in this place without any hope of ever getting out.

  It was then that the man appeared further up the street. Leina recognized him as one of the people who had been cornered by the monster with Ruby. How he had avoided the heralds, Leina couldn’t guess. When he passed, she appealed to him on an impulse. She said, “They’re closing the city, and we desperately need to get out. Can you help us?”

  The man’s face creased in anger, and he scratched his grizzled beard. Leina caught a glimpse of a tattoo on his arm of a circle divided in four. “I knew something bad was going on. Heralds herald no good these days.” He gave a sidelong glance down the street, in the direction of the marina. “Are there guards down there?” he asked. Leina nodded, and the man muttered angrily under his breath. “Wait here,” he said.

  When the man reappeared a few minutes later, he carried a large brass key. “Drakus doesn’t know all of this city’s secrets,” he said with a toothless grin. “Name’s Colin, by the way.”

  Ruby and Leina eagerly followed Colin down the street. He ducked into an alcove and pushed aside some ivy at the back, revealing a detailed relief carving. The likeness of a keyhole in the center appeared to be only part of the design, but when Colin inserted his key, there was a great grinding and a thick stone doorway opened.

  “What is this?” Ruby asked, hanging back as Colin entered the dark opening.

  “Smugglers’ tunnel. They’re all over the city,” Colin replied. “I reckon the business just got a lot more lucrative, eh?” He cackled at his own joke, and the girls joined in with nervous giggles. Leina gave Ruby a slight nod, and they went in.

  Colin pulled the door shut behind them, and for a moment they were encompassed in a darkness more complete than Leina had ever experienced. Without visible surroundings to distract from it, the tunnel’s musty smell became a presence of its own. Then there was a striking of a match, and Colin lifted a torch over his head, beckoning for the girls to follow him.

  “Are you a smuggler?” Leina asked.

  “You’re a perceptive one, eh?” He chuckled. “If that’s so, I’ll leave it to you to figure that out.”

  Leina furrowed her brow, trying to decide if he was making fun of her or complimenting her.

  The tunnel was short, and it soon ended in a blank stone wall. Colin felt along the wall for a while until his finger met a small indentation. Leina heard a click, and more grinding. Then the marina was before them once again. But this time they were inside the gates.

  After heaving the door closed, Colin crept toward a rowboat and climbed in. Just as the girls moved to follow him, a harsh yelling erupted nearby.

  “Hurry! They’re coming!” Colin hissed.

  Colin had already started rowing out under the arched opening in the wall. Leina and Ruby jumped for the boat and barely made it.

  The boat skidded out to open water, but soon other boats emerged, manned by guards. There were three guards in each boat, rowing with frightening precision, and it was clear that Colin stood no chance of outrunning them.

  “If you jump, you can escape,” Colin said between heaving breaths.

  Leina nodded. She had only swum a few times in her life, but she was willing to try it rather than face the alternative. “Thank you, Colin,” she said quickly.

  “Wait, Leina—“ Ruby protested, but Leina only grabbed Ruby’s hand to pull her as she plunged into the murky waters below.

  Chapter 33

  When Leina and Ruby emerged from the water, they coughed and sputtered terribly, but were still very much alive. The tide had only partially risen, and the water was not in fact very deep, so for most of the time they had been able to walk on the ground with the water’s surface not too far above their heads. Thanks to the murkiness of the water, the guards above hadn’t seen them even at these shallow depths.

  Now they cast themselves down at the edge of the tide-formed lake, heedless that they were smothering their soaked dresses with mud. When the coughing calmed, Leina lay still on the ground and looked at the once-great city of Estlebey across the water. The boats were nowhere in sight, so there was no way of telling whether Colin had escaped or been captured.

  To Leina, her time in Estlebey was already fading into a dream-like reality: confusing, eye-opening, and just out-of-reach enough to fail to provide any coherent answers to the questions that she still had.

  “We must be late. Do you think Father is still waiting for us?” Ruby sputtered at Leina’s side.


  Leina sat up. She tried to brush the mud out of her eyes, but her hand, too, was covered in mud so she only made it worse. “I don’t know. We’d better go and find out.”

  Wearily, the two girls rose and started south. Neither of them was sorry to leave Estlebey, but the long trek to where Max had promised to meet them didn’t seem too appealing either.

  The last drizzle of rain had been poured out, and the sun reappeared, and all the World was sparkling and wet. It was strange, Leina thought, that the World could be so beautiful no matter how much pain and sorrow was in it. That beauty was always there, and all the evil in the world only made it more starkly apparent. It was always just waiting to be found, discovered all over again. For true beauty is best seen in contrast, and it is for that reason that evil’s very existence is its bane. Though evil destroys much, it can only make that which is truly good stronger. A flower alone in a Desert, perhaps, is more a flower than those among many others in gardens.

  ***

  Leina doubted that Max had ever picked up agents so soaked, mud-splattered, bruised and exhausted before. He actually looked concerned, which was an expression that looked entirely out of place on his naturally strong and intense face. If Leina had the energy, she would have laughed.

  “You’re late,” Max said matter-of-factly, wiping the concern off of his face.

  Ruby shrugged. “We got held up.”

  “And we had a bit of trouble getting out of Estlebey,” Leina added. “It’s closed now.”

  “What—” Max roared, then he stopped himself and scanned their surroundings. “News like that is better left for safer quarters. Let’s get back to the Agency.”

  The flight back passed quickly. A few hours later, after a much-needed bath, Leina found herself in Sasha’s office. Ruby, forgotten for the moment, stood in a corner with a delighted grin on her face at being allowed in.