by Jason Letts
Roselyn could see the effect of her power on their faces. They’d abandoned so much of their self-conscious efforts of self-protection, bearing the hard truth of it for all to see. Though they had all made mistakes, no one judged them harshly or offered even a glimpse of condemnation. She knew they would be stronger for this, that their respective weaknesses would bind them together.
“It’s all my fault,” Mary said, suddenly standing before them. She had been crying, weeping more like it. She looked absolutely miserable, as though she were choking on the bulk of unseemly and despair-ridden thoughts. “I’ve been so terrible, the worst friend and the worst person. I should’ve accepted it and moved on, but instead I had to drive myself in between you and Aoi just because I wasn’t happy with what I had in my life.
“Always being the one left out felt like sleeping on hot coals. It was embarrassing and humiliating, but after all I’ve done to get out of it I can see it’s exactly what I deserved. I carried you around in my pocket for so long, Vern, hoping you would be the key to my happiness. But now I know there’s only one outcome for those who end up second in line, and that’s sheer disappointment.”
Mary reached into her pocket and pulled out the small Maraka dice. She looked into the etching of Vern’s face and then clutched it hard. Pulling her fist to her face and shutting her eyes, she quickly tossed it into the pit. It hit the side and the loose sand buried it. She wheezed and slipped to the ground. Roselyn wanted to give her a hug, but she didn’t. Mary nodded haltingly, running her fingers through her hair.
“Now I’m truly alone,” she declared, sounding resigned to it.
“Not at all, Mary, you’re more a part of us than ever,” Will said, coaxing her closer. She scooted closer to him and put her head on his shoulder. Under the circumstances, Roselyn supposed she could allow this. She was impressed Mary had overcome her obsession, and with any luck she’d be stronger for it.
“But there is one of us who is still alone,” Vern lamented, standing up. “She’s been forced to endure more than I should’ve ever allowed. I don’t deserve her forgiveness, but I’m still going to ask for it. Mary, is Aoi still over that way?”
“In the exact same spot,” Mary replied.
“Let’s see if I can’t fix this,” he said.
Marching off, Vern followed the paths to the end of the camp and hopped over the words in the sand. It was exciting to see him so determined and for such a good cause. Roselyn hoped Aoi would leap right into his arms and everything would be better than it had ever been. Chucky and Will got up to go after him, and so did Mary. Mira grabbed Knoll and the carafe shard, cradling them in blankets.
“You’re coming too,” she said to Jeremy and Gloria, guiding them away from the campground. Smiling, Roselyn too rose from her seat and joined the progression heading into the open desert.
“Is there anything you’d like to apologize for?” Mira asked her captives, plodding through the sand.
“I’m sorry I sabotaged our team during the tournament trial,” Jeremy said, glancing back to Roselyn. “I knew I couldn’t win the Final if I didn’t do something drastic, but I never would’ve done it if I’d known where it would take me.”
Gloria cleaned her throat and hung her head a bit.
“I shouldn’t have made Will hit you. I thought it would be fun at the time, but even I felt bad after, not that I’d ever told anyone. I always knew it was you he really liked. Blame it on jealousy, if you want.”
Mira slowed for a step or two until she walked alongside Roselyn.
“Would you look at that?” she mused. “All this, and not a word out of your lips. You do have your own special kind of amazing, Roselyn.”
Nodding and accepting the compliment, Roselyn strolled on, expecting she’d heard the end of it. Mira took the same demure, vulnerable expression she had back at the fire pit. She leaned in to whisper, lowering her eyes.
“I think you did it. You did what I couldn’t. Nothing changes overnight, but you got us to be honest, and that’s something we can build on. Even after the effect of your power fades away, some of that truth we’ve shared will remain.”
Roselyn hoped she was right.
Vern dipped over the edge of the dune, losing his foot and falling on his hands and knees. Turning his head, he saw Aoi there, sitting as still as a statue in the shaded underside of the small hill. He felt impatient to make things right, the memories of laughter and joy urging him on. He would finally be able to give her what she wanted, and the satisfaction of it bloomed inside him.
His friends trailed behind, but he couldn’t wait for them. He shuffled through the sand toward Aoi, hunching over because of the low, encrusted roof. It had been so long since he’d been able to make her smile, and it ached for him to realize how much he missed it.
“Aoi!” he called, approaching her swiftly.
She didn’t react in any way, however, and he realized her eyes were closed as he got closer. Maybe she was asleep.
“I’ve got something to tell you. You’re going to like it,” he said, collapsing onto his knees next to her. The others stampeded around the corner and raced to catch up. Vern touched her on the shoulder and gave her a gentle shake. She exhaled deeply and raised her eyelids. Turning her head to face him, she seemed to stare through him as though he had disappeared in her eyes. Chucky and Will slid onto the sand behind them. There was no way Vern could do this in private. He would have to own his affections and make the decision he’d been so scared to before.
“I choose you, Aoi. I came to tell you that I’m choosing you. It’s all right now. Mary won’t get in the way again and I’ll never shy away from how I feel about you. I love you, and I’m ready to be with you.”
Aoi pursed her lips and already Vern was disappointed. Her face was supposed to light up like Mira’s fireworks, instead the news passed over her no differently than the clouds in the sky.
“That’s unfortunate,” she said.
Squinting, Vern peered into her bottomless black eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. What on Earth could’ve happened? He heard some mumbling behind him, so he twisted to look back and it fell silent immediately.
“Why is that unfortunate? This doesn’t make sense. I thought you wanted to be with me?”
“I do, but it can never be. Things are different now than when we began. I’m different. I can’t depend on you for my happiness or my stability. There’s too much at stake. I have to return to my old teachings and become what I was meant to be,” she stated.
Vern cringed, feeling the same heartache she must’ve felt when he didn’t give her what she wanted. He felt embarrassed to have everyone watching him.
“But it won’t be like that anymore. I promise I won’t disturb you or distract you. You’ll be fine, stronger even, and I can help.”
“I know you would,” she added, showing the hint of a smile for the first time. It sprung up like the first light of day. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to help myself though. It’s sad because I’m not meant to be with anyone. Either I will die at the end of our journey or I will never die. And that’s to say nothing of what might happen to any of you.”
“What?”
“Please don’t make me say it again. It’s just too hard,” she went on. “Never forget what we had. It’ll have to be enough.”
He was failing and couldn’t figure out what to do. She had made up her mind, and the force of it knocked the wind out of him. At least she could see the tears welling up in his eyes, which was something he could trust only to her.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he whispered.
Aoi reached out and put her hand to his cheek.
“Don’t despair, Vern, least of all for me. I’ve known love because of you, and that’s a blessing I never thought I’d be lucky enough to have. There is plenty left to fight without butting against this intangible truth. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it must be time for us to move on. I’m sorry to make you all
wait. Let’s continue at once.”
Aoi and Vern rose together, though it had none of the sweetness and joy he’d envisioned. His heart seemed to thud against his ribcage, sending short pulses of melancholy into his veins. She was right that they needed to focus on their journey, which was so near drawing to a close. Deserts can’t go on forever, and soon they would find the end of this one.
Gloria struggled against the rope holding her hands. Each time she took a step, she rubbed her wrists together or coated the rope with goo. Except for Jeremy, who plodded alongside, her writhing went unnoticed because they’d been allowed to straggle back as Mira and the others traversed the sprawling desert.
“We’re on the bottom again. You know what that means,” she said, shooting Jeremy a cold look.
“They did save us after all,” Jeremy reminded her, getting a frumpy snarl for his trouble.
“Save us from what? This was your idea. We rip it right out from under them. That’s what we decided on.” She spoke in a sharp whisper, hissing at times, which proved more than disconcerting.
Jeremy had concocted their plan out of both necessity and greed. They’d only been in the desert for a few hours when he realized they’d die there, but he wasn’t ready to give up on the carafe either. Seeing Mary, Roselyn, and Gloria undergo startling changes only made his desire to have its power for himself grow. He understood making the carafe whole could transform him into something nearly invincible. Salivating at the thought of what it might do, it seemed logical the expansion of power would allow him to control all living things, not just insects. He wanted to become what he always knew he could be, but he needed the carafe to do it.
Taking advantage of Mira’s generosity ate at him in a way he hadn’t expected though. It wasn’t enough to be stronger than her or smarter, which he always knew he was. He had to be a better person than her too, to beat her at her own game. That’s how you dominate someone, crush them from the inside. He wondered how to make her crack. What could he do to make her try to kill him?
He imagined that moment when he held something so vitally precious to her and she came at him in a murderous rage. That’s when he would break free from his bonds, shocking her still, and deliver her final due. The desert was mostly devoid of life, but he’d found a few hungry lice to do his bidding. To keep them alive, he allowed them to feed on him when they weren’t nibbling at the strings, which soon would be just for show. But securing his vindication would be much more difficult than getting free, and it would require much more thought as well.
“Come on, help me slip out of these. No one’s looking,” she said, showing him her back. Though her fluid soaked the strings, it neither ate away at it nor allowed her to wriggle out.
“No,” Jeremy refused. “Can’t you see we’re on the losing side here? They’ve given us a chance. Why don’t we try helping them?”
Gloria giggled, throwing her head back and letting her tongue slide over her lower lip. He’d decided he’d needed to distance himself from her. It was all a part of his plan. If she freed herself on her own and left him, that’d provide the perfect cover for his own strike. If only Chucky weren’t so big, he’d be the perfect way to get to Mira. She always walked by his side, and he bet she’d do anything to rescue him. He laughed to himself. It made sense for his class’s two biggest losers to drift together.
Predictably, Gloria rested on her unshaken faith in their former master.
“You’ll wish you hadn’t said that when he comes for us. He’s out there, you know. I can tell. It’s something in the air blowing down from the north, a smell or a texture. He’s waiting for us. He wants to know who has been truly faithful to him, and that’ll be my moment to shine,” she gloated.
“You’re going to put yourself in the hands of another captor?” Jeremy asked.
“Of course not! But he deserves a choice, he can either join me or perish.”
Jeremy continued to feel betrayed and abandoned after Arent left on the ship without him. Gloria’s continuing belief seemed a sickening reminder of what he’d once been. Sometimes he could tell himself it was all a part of growing up, but other times he feared that same sense of blind dependence remained. He knew he should’ve stood up to Neeko. If only he’d been more assertive all along he might not’ve been such a willing fool driving the caravans from the seashore to the mountains.
“Did you really mean what you said back there, that you wished we hadn’t made Will hit Roselyn?” he asked Gloria, who shivered and shook her head.
“The blonde has the slimiest charms of all. Maybe I did when I said it, but I certainly don’t feel that way now. What about you?”
“You mean what if I’d been a team player?” he began, thinking out loud. “What would’ve happened if I’d gone along with the group instead of going off on my own? There must’ve been some point, some decision that could’ve put me where Mira is now. I can’t figure out what it is, but I know it’s there. What could I have done?”
He shut his mouth when the others up ahead started cheering and laughing. They jumped around, frolicked, and did everything they could to disrupt his thoughts. Hustling on to see what the commotion was for, he noticed the ground becoming firm under his feet. A hazy mass hung in the distance that was much too tall to be a sand dune.
“I thought we’d never make it all the way through!” Will cheered.
“It couldn’t have come any sooner,” Vern agreed. “All we’ve got left to burn are the clothes on our backs.”
Jeremy climbed a few steps and veered out to the side. Looking past them, he saw patchy grass and grain spotting the ground. Through the haze, he saw the landscape bunch up and fold into a series of cracks and caverns holding up a tall plateau in the shadow of a great mountain.
“We’re almost there,” said Chucky, looking relieved. “And it’s a good thing too because I was this close to making you carry me.”
Mira laughed, adjusting Knoll in her arms. She set him down on his feet and made sure the blankets around his waist wouldn’t trip him. Exposing the carafe, she touched it to his hand, and the young child instantly jerked forward toward the plateau. He waddled for a few steps, fell, and scampered on. Everyone chuckled at the adorable child taking his mission by the throat.
“Show us the way, Knoll!” she called, and together they followed him.
Shaded by a great peak, a gruff, shabby looking figure sat perched on the edge of an elevated field of rubble and rock. Hunching over, he scanned the narrow pathways in the rock, which led down to the grassland and desert beyond like the roots of a tree. His eye line drifted farther out to a group of tiny specks approaching in the distance.
Arent brought his hand to his cheek and began to scratch himself next to the dark bags hanging under his eyes. While he blew air out his nose in stilted puffs, he dragged his dirty fingernails against his stubbly skin. Tension racked him, the muscles in his thighs and arms contracting spastically. He hardly blinked, instead choosing to glare at his nemeses until his eyes ran red. Scraping his contorted fingers against his face once again, he drew blood that seeped through the sinews in his skin.
Behind him, the surface of the plateau curved like a crater. Though it sloped downward, exposing sculpted columns and crumbled building material, there was still much that remained hidden deep underneath.
Clara had been watching him for a while now, but the way he twitched and jittered unsettled her enough to make her come out of hiding. A few steps behind his broad back and singed hair, Clara etched a space for herself into the air and filled it with her consciousness. Stepping toward the edge, she heard a snort when her old master noticed her, but he didn’t turn in the slightest. She could take her finger and poke him, or imagine a sword to give him a paper cut, but he had nothing to fear from her. Likewise, as her body was so far away, her projection remained impervious.
“Ain’t we done beaten you enough?” she asked, setting herself on the ledge next to him. He brought his knuckles to his lips, breathing hea
vily through his nose. Though he clenched his fists, he stuck to his silence and his forward gaze.
“You know what gonna happen if you stay here. The only way you ever gonna leave’s when vultures get to carrying pieces of you away.”
She watched him carefully from close enough to see his eyelid twitch. There was no doubt in Clara’s mind he would cause plenty of problems if he got in the way, giving her the sense that telling him he’d be defeated once and for all only helped to make up his mind. His intensity was impermeable, which was what she used to like most about him. There was no way to get him to give up, but she could still have fun picking at his anger.
“Look’ atcha here. She chewed you up and spit you out, and now you hanging ’round waiting till she shows up. Since when you become her follower? Next thing you know you gonna be taking orders. She ain’t even needed the carafe but she sure as shoot got to you.”
In a sudden jerk, Arent swung his arm out at her, his hand passing through her head. He growled and huffed, letting his fingers find their way back over his kneecap.
“Stop!” he ordered. “You’re the one pest I can’t get rid of. My mind is set. You call it the end but it’s just the start. I take what’s mine, get back what is mine, and there’ll be no one left to bring me down. Your kin, she’ll have no eyes to shut, no throat to scream, and no place to hide.”
He slowly twisted his neck toward Clara until he stared straight into her eyes. Her nerves flared up under the pressure of his gaze, even though she was completely safe.
“You talk, talk, talk bout these things you wanna do, but you ain’t in no position to do nothing,” she scoffed, avoiding his bloodshot eyes for a moment just to bring them right back.
