by Azalea Ellis
I leapt forward to aid the outnumbered cat, feeling somewhat numb, and attacked one of the lizards. Claws to the neck seemed to be the fastest way for me to stop them, but they were quick and vicious, and it took me a few moments to bring my opponent down.
By the time I'd done so, more lizards had joined the other two, and they finished off the guard.
He let out one last gurgling roar before he died, calling for backup, but the lizards were already into the hatchery.
Large eggs sat nestled into beds of fur and feathers, and the blooming flowers of the tree were clipped above them, so that blood spilled down onto their shells. The surfaces of the eggs were pockmarked, and they drank up the dark red liquid as it touched them.
The first lizard inside grabbed the nearest egg and bit down on it. The hard shell punctured its gums, but it ignored the irritation, and bit down again on the newly exposed, half-formed kitten within.
The kitten's limbs flailed uselessly, and then it was swallowed with a bobbing jerk of the lizard’s head.
More lizards entered in a frenzy after that, some stomping the eggs, some biting like the first, and some just swallowing them whole.
I threw myself at the nearest lizard, righteous rage nearly blinding me. I fought quickly and viciously, but there were too many, and I was too weak.
But then the cats' leader smashed into the mouth of the hatchery, so big she scraped against the walls of the entrance.
She flailed around with her teeth, wings, and legs, ripping lizards apart left and right. For a second I felt relief.
But more enemies came, and the floor beneath our feet was now pitching back and forth like the deck of a ship during a storm. Between my mindless attacks on the lizards, I saw glimpses of the outside. Corpses lay everywhere, and almost the whole platform had bloomed, the bloodsucking flowers a dark red now. But despite the amount of dead lizards, they kept coming, and there were no reinforcements arriving on our side.
The cat leader and I were pushed toward the back of the hatchery, despite our best efforts, and more and more of the unhatched kittens were killed. My stomach filled with despair and heartbreak.
They might have been cats, and monsters of a type, but the female had shown me they were people too, with feelings and lives to be lived. And the eggs were babies, being killed before they even had a chance to experience those lives.
Even I would do anything to stop tragedy like that, when it was happening right in front of me.
The female used her wing to knock me behind her, then took a huge breath and let out a roar like nothing I'd ever heard before. It literally knocked back the lizards filling the front of the hatchery, stunning them with its force.
She spun then, using her claw to cut through a piece of the wall. A flap swung open, and she pushed me through before wriggling in and securing it again with a thick branch across the back of the newly revealed swinging door. She pushed past me toward the back of the hidden room, where an egg lay on a bed of feathers the same color as her wings. Blood dripped down onto it from one of the tree's clipped blooms, like the others. She nudged it gently, then scooped it up in her wing and held it toward me.
I lifted my hands, and she dropped it into them.
Behind me, the lizards were attacking the door, and I knew they would be through soon.
"Is this...your egg?" I asked.
She stepped forward and pressed her nose to my forehead again. A burst of pain followed, and I started receiving her message. It was like a dream this time, me thinking and moving, but at the same time watching myself and knowing it wasn't real. I had the understanding that I must take her egg, the thing most important to her in the world, but also important in a different type of way that I couldn't understand. Maybe it was next in line for the cat-leader throne? I watched myself wrap it in protective arms and fly far away, though I knew I didn't have wings and it was meant as a plea to leave this place behind and protect her child.
She stepped back quickly so that I wasn't incapacitated by the aftereffects of our communication.
I wrapped my arms around her egg and nodded. "Got it."
She nodded back to me, then turned to the back and ripped open the wall of the hatchery. I stepped out, and she followed for a few steps, making sure I wasn't attacked.
I sent a Window to the other members of my group, telling them to retreat to the lower levels as quickly as possible, and headed that way myself, screaming loudly for any other Players to follow, if any were still alive. I knew I was pretty badly injured, and my ankle kept trying to collapse under my weight, but I could barely feel the pain.
China arrived the quickest, holding two branches in lieu of her knives, which had apparently run out. Her cheek was bleeding and she had an already swelling black eye, but other than that she seemed fine. She sagged in relief when she saw me, and I realized she must have thought I died when I fell off the edge.
Sam and Jacky arrived next, both of their eyes widening when they saw me, and then Adam. Adam was bleeding from a deep slice along the palm of his hand, and had blood finger-painted across his face, like Native American warpaint. All of them were injured with varying degrees of severity, but at least they'd all made it. Most hadn't.
"Eve, you're hurt," Sam said, reaching a hand out to me.
I shrugged it off. "Everyone's hurt. We don't have time for that. Come on, we've got to get out of here."
I led the way, running as fast as I could with the surprisingly heavy egg, my pack and my unreliable ankle. We descended faster than we'd risen, and when I turned around to check, I saw that a few other Players had made it in addition to my team. That was good.
When we reached the cube, I saw the count of each team's forces. Two columns separated "TAILOS” from "RETCHIN,” and had a number of monsters still alive. The tailos had a much longer list of Players than the retchin, but the number of tailos was dwindling quickly, decreasing even as I watched.
I reached out and placed a hand on the cube, which pulsed but didn't respond further. "I've got an egg. One will live, though the rest may never see another day. One will live. The tailos will not be annihilated." I hoped to god it would let me through, accepting the unorthodox winning conditions I was providing.
The cube pulsed, and then the words across the screen changed.
CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING THE TRIAL!
EVE REDDING HAS GAINED THE UNHATCHED EGG_
With a series of cracks and shudders from down below, the tree started to pitch sideways.
“No time, hurry up!” I snapped.
The cube complied, skipping ahead to the return message.
DO YOU WISH TO RETURN FROM THE TRIAL?
YESNO
I slammed my hand onto "Yes," and wrapped my arms tight around the egg.
Sam leaned forward and put his hand on my back. "What's your address, Eve?" he shouted.
I frowned at him, but rattled it off. "Why?"
"I'm coming for you, okay? Just stay alive. I'll be there soon."
Then I returned, riding on the vibrating melody of the Boneshaker.
* * *
I collapsed onto the beige carpet of my room, the tailos egg rolling out of my arms. I was suddenly freezing, and noticed the stars floating in front of my eyes, and the blackness creeping in from the edges of my vision. I let out a shuddering breath, and the pain I hadn't felt before hit me like a tsunami. I looked down over myself, and saw the blood staining my clothes dark, and felt the frantic beating of my heart as it tried to pump what little blood was left inside me around fast enough to keep me alive. "Damn," I whispered.
I fumbled at the pack on my back, pulling the half-shredded strap out of the wound the retchin lizard had given me. "I'll need a new one," I said inanely, speaking to myself as a way to keep my eyes open. I dug clumsily for the pouch I'd stuffed inside it before the Trial.
When I shook, three Seeds rolled out, two landing in my hand, and the other bouncing off and rolling away to the far corner of the room, under my bed. I ignored it, an
d held both Seeds to my neck at once. "I wish for more Life," I said. They shot into my veins, and within a few seconds I felt some strength return, and the edging black behind my eyes was pushed back. Only then did the Game notification telling me I’d earned seven Seeds pop up. Waiting to see if I’d live, I thought caustically. I fumbled the large, sturdy tailos egg into my pack.
I sent a Window to Sam, telling him I'd be at the base of the tree in the community park behind my building. He couldn't come to my house, into my room. Not without sparking my family’s curiosity, and thus alerting them to my situation.
No, I needed to meet him somewhere else. So I pushed at the window latch till it broke, too exhausted to use fine motor control. I tossed my pack over my good shoulder, crawled out onto the tree, and looked down onto the manicured grass below. But then suddenly the world twisted like a marbled ice cream cone, and the green changed to the grey-blue of a smoggy summer sky. My pack floated strangely around to my front. I could see the sparkling stars, even though it was daytime. I was pondering this enigma when everything went black.
I woke up on the ground, with a gasping, white-faced Sam bent over me with his eyes closed, pressing his hands into my sternum, between my breasts.
My head was resting on something warm and supple, and I felt the familiar sting of a Seed injecting into the skin beneath my jaw.
"Are you groping me right now, Sam?" I whispered, and then started to cough.
He gasped again and opened his eyes.
A barrage of muddled and overlapping exclamations assaulted my ears, and suddenly my vision was filled with the faces of my team leaning in around me.
China took the Seed from my neck, and handed the empty shell to Adam. He added it to a handful of other empty Seeds and put them in his pocket.
"Did you guys...use your Seeds on me?"
He scowled down at me, also pale faced. "Well, we had to, you idiot. What the hell, Eve?"
I was taken aback. "What?"
"How could you let this happen to yourself?" He clenched his hands at his sides, for once not twiddling his fingers.
I gaped at him, at a loss for words as a couple seconds of silence passed. "Um, it wasn't on purpose, trust me." I quirked my mouth in as much of a smile as I could muster.
His pale face reddened in anger. "Yeah, we saw that."
“I’ll pay back the Seeds to whoever gave them up,” I muttered, moving my hand a tiny bit as I prepared to sit up.
“Nobody’s worried about the Seeds!” Adam snapped, grabbing my forearm and holding it, and me, down. He turned to Sam. "I know what you did. That wound was meant for you! If you hadn't stepped out of the way, or if you'd at least moved her with you..." Adam's long, dexterous finger trembled as he pointed it accusingly. "You may be angry at her, but what you did is inexcusable."
Sam flinched visibly and swallowed, looking down at me with a sick expression. "It wasn't intentional. I mean, I just—I just dodged. I saw the retchin coming and I moved. I didn't know it'd end up hitting you instead. I swear, it was an accident. I would never, never do something like that on purpose."
Jacky scowled at him. "You shoulda taken that hit. You woulda healed from it just fine."
He opened his mouth, but was cut off by Adam. "Bullshit, you didn't do it on purpose. How convenient."
What was going on here? "Adam. Stop it. All of you." It was news to me that the creature had been aiming for Sam, but it made no difference to the situation.
Adam turned to me and opened his mouth angrily once more, but I cut him off before he could continue. "Sam wasn't at fault. We may not always agree, but he’s never done anything to make you distrust him so. If he didn't want to be here, be part of this team, or wanted harm to come to me, it wouldn’t be too hard for him. Look at him. He looks like he got drowned. If he wanted to hurt me, he wouldn't have jumped off the side of the tree tower to save me, risking his own life in the process. He wouldn't be here right now, and I wouldn't be alive."
Adam knelt beside me, but didn't touch me. "If not for him, you wouldn't have needed saving, or be hurt this bad in the first place."
My breath hitched as I struggled for air, and Sam turned his attention back to my chest as I spoke. "What if he hadn't been there to dodge, and the monster had actually aimed for me in the first place? I just got the accidental swipe. And except for an apparent fall out of my own backyard tree, I'm barely hurt at all."
Adam sputtered, his eyebrows raised. "Barely hurt? Have you seen yourself? You look like a zombie!" He was shouting again.
I chuckled. "Well, thanks. Tell me I look like shit. What a great way to make me feel better."
He gaped at me as if I was crazy.
I actually felt fine, if a little weak. I moved to sit up and prove it, and screaming pain erupted from every inch of my body with the force of a sonic boom. I blacked out again.
Chapter 25
She’s mad but she’s magic. There’s no lie in her fire.
— Charles Bukowski
I woke up in Blaine's house, on the little bed in the closet attached to his lab. An IV bag dripped into a tube attached to my arm.
China leaned forward and smiled at me brightly. "You're awake!"
I frowned. "Guess I passed out again."
"Yeah. Sam healed you up as best he could, then we brought you here. We sent your mom and brother a message from your sheath saying you were staying the night at a friend's house. Hope that was okay?"
I raised an eyebrow at my mother's no doubt pleased excitement that I actually had friends to spend the night with. "Yeah. They're already a bit freaked out at my suddenly booming social life, but it'll be fine. It's not like they'd ever suspect the truth."
She giggled, a surprisingly young sound, and I was reminded again of how difficult it was to live life like this. And how much it had to have aged her, that I only heard sounds like that from her on the rarest occasion.
"What time is it?"
"It's late afternoon, Sunday."
"Whoa. I slept over eighteen hours?" I lifted my arms to push the covers back, and winced as the movement woke the angry wounds covering my body, especially my back.
She shot over and pressed my forearms back down into the bed. "No moving! Blaine gave you something to let you sleep. You shouldn't even be awake right now, but your body keeps adjusting to the dose and metabolizing the sedative faster and faster. I'll go get him, and we'll up the dose again."
"No, no. I don't want to sleep any more. There's a lot to be done."
"You are not to move from this bed," she commanded imperiously, drawing her small frame upright and towering over me with her hands on her hips. "Is that clear?"
I stared at her for a moment, and then leaned my head back into the pillow. "Okay, but could you at least get me my pack? I won't move from the bed, but my mind can still work, even if my body doesn't, right? I have a puzzle I need to solve."
She hesitated, but when I gave her a puppy dog look that was as pitiful as possible, she relented, and brought my ripped and blood-soaked pack to me.
After checking to make sure the dark red-brown egg was okay, I dug out the silver chains I'd gotten from the Oracle, and started to fiddle with the smallest one, the one with the fewest rings, as I'd done every chance I got since she'd given them to me.
There were eleven bent links in the chain, and I had the idea they were a puzzle that would hold together if I could just figure out exactly how they fit. I knew they must be important, but the way to bring out whatever hidden potential they had was still a mystery to me. It was quite frustrating. But, since when had I let a little thing like that stop me?
I slept again for a few hours that afternoon, and woke again at night.
Sam sat beside me this time, looking thoroughly exhausted. "Hey, how are you doing?" he said, smiling weakly.
"Peachy keen," I responded along with a sarcastic smile.
"Well, that's a lie," he chuckled. "But you're going to be okay. In fact, you got quite a few extra Seed
s, so once you're mended and the ones you lost along with all that blood have replenished themselves, you'll be better than ever."
"Thanks."
He leaned forward as if he wanted to grab my hand, but settled for smoothing down the edge of my blanket, instead. "I hope you know, I didn't—I didn't let this happen to you on purpose. I would never do that. I mean, I was angry at you, and to be honest I still am. But it's really just anger at myself, because I let you convince me to kill that guy so I could save myself. I wouldn't ever try to take revenge, or anything—anything like that." By the end, he was whispering.
I slipped my hand out from beneath the cover and patted his own lightly. "I know, Sam. I didn't think you would. I know you better than you think, you know. We're not so different, in some ways."
He raised his eyebrows at that, but didn't respond, and after a few more awkward moments, left me for some work in the lab with Blaine. Apparently everyone was busy preparing to carry out my plan for NIX. At the door, he stopped. “I’m not brave, Eve. I told you before, I’m not the person you want at your back in a fight.” He left.
With no one there to stop me, I made my way out of bed by increments, and moved to a seat at one of the chemist tables. I'd been fiddling with the Oracle's puzzle for a few minutes before Blaine, Sam, and Adam, all working in intense silence, noticed my presence.
Adam tried to tell me to lie down again, but I waved him off. "I'm fine. I'm sitting down, and I'm not straining myself. There's no need to coddle me."
"You said something similar the last time we spoke, if I remember correctly. And then you tried to move and passed out," he said, deadpan.
I raised a challenging eyebrow at him. "Yes. That happened. But I'm staying right here, in this seat, and you're not going to stop me."
He returned my challenge with a glower, but bit back the words he obviously wanted to say, and returned to typing away furiously.
I took a measured breath so as not to stretch my back with the movement, and returned to messing with the puzzle chain.
