by Jaymin Eve
I didn’t demand they turn around, for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because it felt slightly too co-dependent, and I was not that. No way. I could totally survive without those five gods.
“For the love of Topia, Will, you’re even more scatterbrained than normal. What is going on?”
Emmy had been talking again, but I hadn’t been listening. Again. Something snapped inside of me. “They’re gone, Em, and now I’m gone. Which means no one is there if something happens. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Cyrus!”
She was silent for a beat, before shaking her head. “That was probably the least understandable sentence you’ve ever uttered, and considering your track record ...”
She trailed off because there was really no need to finish. Before I could snap something back at her, a jar was pressed into my hands. I glanced down to find water, which I immediately chugged. I hadn’t even had time to process what I was doing before the cool liquid was sliding down my throat.
“Is she okay?” I heard Evie whisper. She had been the one to hand me the drink. I swallowed the last of the water down as Emmy replied with, “I don’t think so.”
Before another word could be said, a loud shout came from the head of the cart, and the momentum started to slow, before coming to a grinding halt. The sols were up then, excitement across their faces. Most of them had to duck their heads low to not hit the roof of the cart, and then they were exiting on the left side.
Emmy hauled me up, apparently expecting that I would be unsteady on my feet, but I managed to remain upright, so the pair moved toward the door. I followed, but my shoe got caught in a rope that had been coiled up beneath the seat. My arms flailed about as I plunged headfirst onto the floor of the cart. Well, almost. A strong set of hands caught me just before my skull crashed against the hard timber. My knees and hip still smarted from where they had clipped the wood, but I was at least glad that I wasn’t about to black out for the second time that sun-cycle. My head was already a big old mess, it didn’t need a concussion to add to it.
Rocking back onto my knees, I tilted my head up to find Dru crouched before me, his massive hands still wedged in under my arm pits.
“Careful there, dweller. Your boyfriends wouldn’t like it if you messed up that pretty face.”
Everything inside of me seized up; he filled the space completely and I was immediately wary. He hadn’t been in the cart with us. I knew that for certain. There was no way to miss a mountain-sized sol. My breathing got rapid as I asked, “Are you stalking me? Why are you always around?”
I was mostly steady on my feet now; Dru had to bend himself almost in half to fit in the small back section. “I was riding up the front of the cart, so I was just checking that everyone was off before I went in.”
Swallowing hard, I fought against the rising tide of red that was creeping through my cheeks. I knew it was happening because my face felt like it was on fire.
“Well, great … then. Good work and stuff. See you later.”
I dashed out, catching my foot on the door before practically tumbling down the small steps that had been lowered off the side. Emmy caught me with ease, and before I could do more than mumble out a thank you, she had her hand around my elbow and was yanking me across a small courtyard. The pincer grip was strong with this one.
“You need to stay away from him,” she said firmly. “He’s bad news.”
No shit. “Do I need to remind you of the three sols you’ve been hanging around?”
She visibly shuddered, and that made me feel instantly better. At least she found them as repulsive as I did. Sols were generally shiny and blessed, but those three made my skin crawl.
As my eyes adjusted to being out in the light, I took stock of what was going on. We were somewhere I recognised: the Minateurs’ council chambers and training facility.
Small pockets of people were gathered around the entrance, conversing in loud booming voices. I recognised the sols on account of their general shininess and the confident way they commanded their own space. There was a dweller or two scattered in there also: they were the ones holding bags and folders, standing in the shadows of the blessed ones.
“There’s no way they’re going to let us into this meeting.” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but my annoyance at being there just kept seeping out in everything I said. “Can one of you tell me how I got into that cart when I was passed out?” I had no idea why I hadn’t asked that earlier. For some reason, I kept waiting for one of them to mention how I got there, but they kept acting like I should already know.
Which I really didn’t.
Case in point: Emmy and Evie both stared at me, their eyebrows bunching in close as they gawked as though I had suddenly grown a second head. “What are you talking about, Will?” Emmy finally asked, her hand flying out and resting against my forehead.
I let out a little growl. “I’m not sick. Stop looking at me like that.”
“You were a little out of it when we found you in the sol’s room,” Evie chimed in. “But you were definitely not passed out. We told you that we were headed to the meeting, and you said that you’d received a message naming you the third dweller representative, and that you were supposed to come with us. Emmy didn’t believe you, but you followed us right into the cart.”
Emmy nodded her own head then, as if to reiterate the point. “You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met, Will, but I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the sols—and then you fell asleep before I could get any answers out of you, and we couldn’t wake you up.”
Flashes of images drilled into my brain, Cyrus’s face was so clear for a moment, and then it was gone again. What did he do to me? How long had it been since he switched the soul-link? And were the Abcurses okay?
Five
Dru approached before we could continue our conversation, dropping an arm over my shoulders and nudging Evie out of the way so that he could stand between us. He also dropped an arm over her shoulder, but she was so tiny that she basically started to get sucked into the space between his arm and his meaty torso.
“Evie?” I called out, perhaps louder than was really necessary.
I heard a muffled reply, before Dru announced, “She’s fine. The important question here is what are you doing here?”
I knew that he was talking to me, because he was staring at me, but I wasn’t quite ready to answer his question yet. Mostly because … I had no idea what I was actually doing there. Apparently, I had blacked out and then returned to consciousness without being aware of what I was doing, whilst actively plotting to join in on a very important meeting for the future of Blesswood—acting as a fake official dweller representative. Either Cyrus had somehow manipulated me into doing something while I wasn’t entirely aware of it, or else I had finally gone insane.
“She was invited,” I finally answered Dru, spurred into saying something simply to escape my thoughts. “She’s an official dweller representative.” I was motioning to Emmy, who was frowning at me.
“I was talking about you,” Dru clarified.
He sounded genial enough, as though we were old buddies and he was pleasantly surprised by my sudden, unwarranted appearance … but there was something more in his eyes. Something that glimmered. Something that didn’t belong there—and I couldn’t place what it was. Anger, maybe? Suspicion. Yes, probably suspicion.
It was suspicious, after all. I wasn’t an official representative, I hadn’t been invited—I shouldn’t have even known about the meeting—and yet there I was, standing right outside a building with stone columns lining a front courtyard and giant oak doors leading into a huge hall teeming with sols. It seemed as though the most important sols of Blesswood had not been the only people fortunate enough to be invited to the meeting.
“I’m here because …” I fumbled for an answer as I stared past the doors, following the robes of the people as they passed into the crowd and began to clump into little groups, conversing with each other in hushed little whispers. “
Someone put an enchanted necklace on me, because my soul was trying to eat me, and then I passed out. Because it hurt, you know? Anyway, when I woke up, I wasn’t really aware of waking up. I don’t remember it at all, but apparently that version of me really wanted to come to this meeting, so I just walked into the cart. I don’t think the other sols cared enough to count how many dirt-dwellers were in the other seat. We were probably just one big, dirty blur to them.”
Dru chuckled. “I never know what’s going to come out of your mouth—but I have to admit, it’s almost worth it to never get a direct or honest answer from you.”
“I just told you everything,” I deadpanned.
“Right.” He chuckled again, before allowing me to escape from beneath his arm.
I reached around for Evie’s arm, and pulled her out too, almost expecting her to have suffocated at some point—though she looked more or less the same, with only a few extra inches of frizz added to her hair.
“So are you going to let me go to the meeting?” I asked Dru, since Emmy and Evie were standing there and staring at him instead of moving toward the building like the others.
I couldn’t actually see any other dwellers standing around, so I assumed that we were waiting for Dru’s approval. There was every chance that the other sols present in the hall would object to our appearance, so we would need everyone from Blesswood, at least, to support our attendance. I supposed that was why Emmy and Evie had spent so much time sucking up to Dipshit, Numbnuts, and Fred.
Dru was sizing me up, his small eyes flicking from my head to my feet, as though trying to visualise what the other sols would see when they looked at me. I also looked down, and then sideways at Emmy, and then at Evie.
“We’re all dressed,” I stated dryly. “We have all the same parts you have. The head. The arms. The legs. The lack of ball—”
“We were assigned to be present at this meeting,” Emmy cut in quickly, “by the new Chancellor himself.”
“Then you’d better get the hell in there,” Dru said, his smile stretching into a grin. “It’s about to start.”
Emmy and Evie didn’t waste another click, and they each grabbed one of my arms and started dragging me toward the hall, as though I would cause irreparable damage if left alone with a single sol for any period of time. They were probably right. I was already craning my neck to look suspiciously over my shoulder as Dru followed us. What was his deal? He gave up that fight way too easily. He was a terrible sol. Sols were supposed to make it hard for the dwellers to feel special. It was basically written into their genetic makeup.
“It’s starting,” Evie whispered to Emmy—speaking right across me.
“Is it?” I said in a normal tone, forcing her to acknowledge me. “That’s nice. And why are we here, again? I mean you guys, not me. I know why I’m here—or not, actually—but why is Blesswood sending dweller reps to a sol meeting?”
“Because the Abcurses demanded two dweller seats on the dweller-relations committee,” Evie replied. “And the entire committee is expected to be present, as well as all other Blesswood committees, and all relevant people from the other academies across Minatsol.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out, and I stumbled, fighting off a sudden, disorientating wave of nausea. Evie and Emmy only tightened their grip on me, half-carrying me all the way across the polished wooden floor, toward the back row of seats. The entire hall was set up with folding wooden chairs, all facing a raised dais at the front.
“You weren’t exaggerating at all,” Evie muttered with a huff. “She really can’t walk on her own.”
You said that about me? I attempted to chastise Emmy, but again, the words wouldn’t surface, and another wave of dizziness hit me. I quickly wrestled out of their grip and took a step back, holding a finger up to Emmy when she tried to reach for me again.
I need a click.
I tried to plead with my eyes, hoping that she got the message. She nodded, and I huffed out a short breath of relief, before quickly running to the back of the hall again and passing through the door we had entered through. I made it around to the side before the next wave of dizziness hit me, and then I was on my knees in the grass, my hands on the outside wall, my head pounding with sudden pressure. There was a blackness edging into the corners of my vision, and panic clawing up to the back of my throat. I suddenly wanted to run back inside and grab Emmy, but as soon as I tried to stand, the blackness reared its head and flooded through me, claiming me completely.
“We have to get her to a healer; she’s never going to make it otherwise.”
Emmy’s voice floated to me through the ringing sound in my ears, and I cracked one of my eyes open. I was back inside the same cart in which I had woken up only what felt like ten or so clicks ago.
“What happened?” I croaked out, searching for Emmy.
I had been crammed into the corner of a seat, and there was a massive arm crossed over my front, clasping the windowsill, as though it had been needed to keep me from slumping to the ground. I didn’t bother identifying who the arm belonged to—I only knew one sol with limbs that huge—but looked past it to the sight of Emmy on the seat opposite me. Evie was stretched across most of the seat with her head in Emmy’s lap, and her arm dangling limply off the side, fingers touching the floor of the cart. Most of her dress was singed black, and there was a cloth covering half of her face, but I could still smell the stench of burnt flesh in the air.
I clenched my teeth against the sickening scent and forced the words out again. “What. Happened.”
Emmy looked up then, her expression shocked, her eyes wide. “We have no idea. The meeting was about to start … and then, suddenly … there was fire everywhere. We couldn’t stop it. The flames were completely surrounding the building. Only a sol could have made fire that quickly, but no sol would have been powerful enough to produce so much of it.”
“It must have been the work of several,” Dru muttered, his voice rumbling out beside me.
“But …” I frowned, fighting against the lingering pain inside my head. “I don’t understand. Why would anyone attack the hall? It was just a meeting.”
“Someone who wanted to stir up the community,” Emmy whispered, her eyes returning to Evie’s covered face. “Someone who wanted to take advantage of the current state of Blesswood to spread the chaos further.”
I stared at the two of them, feeling my body freeze and go hot with panic, all at once.
“How did I get in here?” I finally asked, my tone quiet enough that I almost thought I needed to repeat myself, before Emmy answered.
“You ran right up to us when we were carrying Evie out.” She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me, which I was grateful for—but I could feel Dru’s stare pricking against the side of my face.
“Right,” I forced myself to say. “I … yeah. I think I inhaled too much smoke, it’s messing with my head.” I had no idea whether smoke had the ability to do that, but I didn’t have any better excuses.
I had no idea what was going on, but I had a very bad feeling that whatever it was, it had something to do with me. I needed to get off that cart, and get myself far away from the people I might hurt, before it was too late. I also needed to find Cyrus, because if this did have something to do with me, then it definitely also had something to do with him.
Six
I already knew that the plan was to get Evie to a healer, and I assumed that it would be easy enough for me to separate myself from them in the chaos of the moment, but I had no idea what I was going to do after that. Cyrus had said that he would check on me, which meant that he was somehow already keeping an eye on me. I just needed to get somewhere private before I could test that theory, and I couldn’t do that with Dru breathing down my neck.
“Shouldn’t you be carrying her?” I asked pointedly, as Emmy struggled to get Evie out of the cart.
Dru glanced at them, and then shrugged. “I suppose.” He managed to squeeze himself out of the car
t through the other door, before pulling Evie free and lifting her into his arms. “You,” he narrowed his eyes at me, sticking his head back in through the door, “you need to follow us—you can’t wait here.”
“Sure,” I lied. “I’m right behind you!”
We were in a densely populated area of Soldel, lots of small hut-like dwellings bunched close together. Dru seemed to know where he was going: he moved with purpose, which gave me a surge of confidence that he was really going to get her help. I moved with them for a few clicks, wanting to make sure that they were almost inside before they noticed me gone. Relief hit me as I saw that one of the huts we were moving toward had a small healer symbol above the door. It was a simple emblem: the crossed arms with clenched fists on the end to show the power of a healer.
I turned to bail, but my feet froze. There was one thing I needed to check first. “Are you sure this healer is going to help a dweller?” I called out to Dru. “Sols don’t usually care that much about whether or not we die.”
Evie was most probably injured because of me, and I needed to make sure that she would be taken care of before I disappeared. Dru paused, before turning back slightly to see me better. Some of the sheet had fallen off Evie and I couldn’t stop my gasp. She looked terrible, hanging limply, her pale skin red and splotchy. There were angry weeping sores scattered over every inch of skin that I could see, and it looked as if half of her bushy hair was gone. I had to swallow hard multiple times to keep the contents of my stomach from erupting. At my side Emmy had her hand pressed against her mouth, her face a chalky white as she stared.
Had I actually done that?
“I know this healer.” Dru looked semi-serious, his usual joking façade fading. “She will help if I tell her to.” I must not have looked convinced, because he hurried on. “She’s going to be fine. Right now I’m keeping the dweller unconscious, which will help with the shock and pain. She shouldn’t remember any of this when she wakes.”
