The Sun Dwellers (The Dwellers Saga)

by David Estes

  Grinning, I slip on the dark glasses and don the hat. “You ready?” Tristan asks.

  “Ready,” I say, my smile growing bigger than I thought possible, my heart doing leaps and spins, my skin tingling with anticipation. My life is about to be changed forever.

  We step into the light, which, despite the sunglasses and hat, blinds me, forcing me to close my eyes. Still blind, I let Tristan pull me forward a few more steps, feeling more and more warmth on my skin with each pace forward. It’s a beautiful warmth, full of tingles and heat and life. I desperately want to open my eyes, to see the sky, to see the clouds, but I know my eyes aren’t ready yet; they’re still acclimating themselves to this new world.

  We stand in the sun for a few minutes, just soaking it up. “Want to try opening your eyes?” Tristan asks.

  Yes, I nod hungrily. I start with a squint, but am forced to shut my eyes tight again as the sunlight tears through my retinas. Every thirty seconds I try again, each time trying to open them wider and wider before clamping them shut. By the tenth or eleventh try I can keep them open for a few seconds, each time getting a peek at the world around me. First the red of the sky, so alien and bloody and big—bigger than anything I’ve seen in my entire life. Then a scattering of clouds, thin and hazy and yellow-gray and floating—actually moving!—across the sky. But none of it is how my grandma described it to me when she passed a story told by her grandmother to her mother and then to her, down to me. The sky should be blue, rich and majestic and awe-inspiring. The red reminds me so much of death. And the clouds! According to my grandmother, they should be white and fluffy, “like the beds of angels,” but instead they’re like fiery wraiths, scattering blades of sun like instruments of death across the barren landscape.

  Next, something dark with wings loops across the sky. “A bat!” I scream. “They have bats!”

  Tristan chuckles. “They do have bats but they’re in the caves and only come out at night. That’s a bird. A hawk I think they call them.”

  “A bird,” I murmur, growing bolder as I keep my eyes open for good this time. I scan the area around me, trying to commit every detail to memory.

  “I’m happy to be here with you, to share this moment,” Tristan says, cocking his head toward me.

  I let go of his hand, curl both my arms around his back, interlace my fingers just above his waist. Look up into his navy-blue eyes, which glisten with emotion under the brightness of the real sun. We ignore the beauty around us and just look at each other for half a minute, until Tristan finally laughs.

  “What are you thinking?” he asks.

  “I—I…” I can’t get the words out, not because I don’t want to say them, but because I’m feeling so much that I almost can’t breathe.

  Tristan cuts off my awkward stuttering with a kiss that takes any remaining breath I have completely out of me, swells my heart as big as a balloon, brings back the neurologically manufactured tingles and buzzing that we thought we’d lost.

  When he pulls away I can breathe again, and the words that seemed so difficult to say a moment ago, feel so effortless now. “I lo—”

  “I know,” he says, cutting me off. His smile his bigger and more beautiful than ever before.

  I laugh, swatting him playfully on the arm.

  That’s when someone clears their throat off to the side. We both jump slightly, and turn to see who has managed to sneak up on us. Instinctively I draw my sword, which hangs from my belt—a precaution we both agreed was necessary.

  Three young women stand before us, deeply tanned, short-haired and wearing only loose rags to cover their chests and torsos. They are all beautiful in an exotic sort of way, but my eyes are drawn to the one in the middle, a tall, muscled girl with intensely attractive chestnut brown eyes. Her cheeks are high and tight and complement her delicate chin. Her features would rival that of any sun dweller model I’ve seen on the cover of magazines.

  She speaks, her voice firm and full of authority. “In the name of the sun goddess, tell me who you are,” says the first earth dweller I’ve ever met.

  ###

  Keep reading for a special bonus short story about what was happening to the moon dwellers while Adele and Tristan were on their mission, and for a sneak peak at the first book in the Country Saga (a Dwellers sister series), Fire Country, coming in February 2013!

  AcknowledgmentsIt’s strange writing acknowledgments for a single book when those whom I’m indebted to have helped me with far more than just the pages of this novel. First and foremost are my readers, who have taken a chance on one or more of my books over the last whirlwind year, spending your hard earned dollars on an unknown author, and giving me the chance to make my dreams come true, as I’ve embarked on writing as a full-time career. Without you, I’d still be sitting in a cubicle, dozens of stories still stuck in my head, waiting to be told. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

  To my editor, Christine LePorte, we started this journey together with The Moon Dwellers, and now this is our third book together! Your wisdom and dedication to maintaining the quality of the Dwellers Saga is truly admirable. I can’t wait to see how the next three books we create together turn out!

  A super, special (dare I say ginormous) thanks to my creative and dedicated marketing team at shareAread, particularly Nicole Passante and Karla Calzada, who have helped to get a ball rolling down a hill that won’t stop for many years to come. I’m forever in your debt.

  A humble thanks to my magnificent (and honest) beta team who gently pushed The Sun Dwellers in the right direction, and very wisely told me to get Anna’s story out of the novel and into a short story! So thank you, Laurie Love, Alexandria Theodosopoulos, Karla Calzada, Christie Rich, Kayleigh-Marie Gore, Nicole Passante, Kerri Hughes, Terri Thomas, Lolita Verroen, Zuleeza Ahmad, and Kaitlin Metz. And as always, as a special thanks to the boss of the beta readers, my beautiful wife, Adele, who I must agree all edits with. I’m so lucky to have you in my life—I wouldn’t be doing any of this if it wasn’t for you.

  To my unbelievably supportive friends in my Goodreads Fan Group, I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done (and continue to do) for me. To have the group grow to such an incredible size in less than 6 months is simply mind-boggling.

  And last but not least, I just want to say that the cover is once again perfect for the book, which I could never achieve on my own. So thanks to Tony Wilson at Winkipop Designs; you are the finest artist-ninja-surfer I know. I can’t wait to see the cover for the final Dwellers book, The Earth Dwellers.

  Discover other books by David Estes available through the author’s official website:

  http://davidestes100.blogspot.com

  or through select online retailers including Amazon.com.

  Young-Adult Books by David Estes

  The Dwellers Saga:

  Book One—The Moon Dwellers

  Book Two—The Star Dwellers

  Book Three—The Sun Dwellers

  Book Four—The Earth Dwellers (coming November 2013!)

  The Country Saga by David Estes (A sister series to The Dwellers Saga):

  Book One—Fire Country (coming March 1, 2013!)

  The Evolution Trilogy:

  Book One—Angel Evolution

  Book Two—Demon Evolution

  Book Three—Archangel Evolution

  Children’s Books by David Estes

  The Nikki Powergloves Adventures:

  Nikki Powergloves—A Hero Is Born

  Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council

  Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers

  Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure

  Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming in 2013!)

  Connect with David Estes Online

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Estes/130852990343920

  Author’s blog: http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

  Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/davidestes100

  Goodreads author page: htt
p://www.goodreads.com/davidestesbooks

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/davidestesbooks

  About the Author

  After growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David Estes moved to Sydney, Australia, where he met his wife, Adele. Now they travel the world writing and reading and taking photographs.

  ANNA’S STORY: A DWELLERS SHORT STORY

  Chapter One

  The Moon Realm

  The reports are coming so fast that General Rose is not even reading them anymore:

  Sun dwellers troops were spotted in the tunnels around subchapter 9…

  A platoon of red-uniformed men was seen just outside of subchapter 32…

  The shot fired appears to have been a warning shot, but subchapter 14 citizens have been warned to stay indoors, as far underground as possible…

  She stacks the unread reports in a neat pile on the corner of her stone desk, closes her eyes, wonders whether she’s made a horrible mistake in sending her daughter on such a low-odds mission. You had no choice, she reminds herself. Everything is as it was meant to be, as it was planned by two plotting and scheming mothers two years earlier.

  She’d never heard from the First Lady after that day. Then came the reports from the Sun Realm that President Nailin’s wife had disappeared mysteriously. Although she was glad the hooded woman had not returned to her abusive husband, she was somewhat surprised that she’d left her two sons behind, in the care of a madman. For a moment she wonders where the First Lady is now.

  A knock on her door snaps her out of her thoughts. “Come in,” Anna says firmly.

  General Ross enters, his typically stolid face grim. His dark skin is like a shadow in the dim lighting. “Have you seen the latest reports?”

  “I skimmed them,” she admits, waving at the pile on her desk. “But that’s all it took to get the picture. We’re screwed.”

  “I’d consider tweaking that speech before you address your soldiers,” he says, his flat face hiding the joke.

  She smiles, despite herself. Ever since the star dwellers generals were released from the President’s threat on the lives of their families they were growing on her. General Ross in particular.

  “All we have to do is hold them off long enough for your daughter to come through for us. Without their leader, they’ll retreat. There’ll be chaos. We’ll be able to take advantage of it.”

  She nods. “I know. Adele will come through. They all will.” But there may not be a Moon Realm left to fight for when they do.

  Anna leaves that part out.

  Chapter Two

  The eve of the Sun Festival brings dark thoughts for her. Earlier, President Nailin made an announcement that the 500-year celebration would “go forward as planned, war or no war!” Anna Rose suspected this might happen, but instructed the other generals not to mention it to the mission team, to her daughter, choosing only to inform Trevor. She wonders now if that was a mistake.

  Her theory: better not to complicate things. For all she knew, the Festival would be cancelled and it would have no bearing on the mission, and even if it weren’t cancelled, it might benefit them by way of a distraction. As they agreed, Trevor will tell them all of that. It’s the same thing she would have told them beforehand.

  But she could have just told them, so they were fully prepared.

  Better not to worry them.

  Should’ve told them.

  Don’t complicate things.

  Either way, she reminds herself, you can’t change things now. You have to trust they’ll adapt on the fly. They will.

  Another distant Boom! shakes her bed, where she lies not to sleep, but to think. Despite the barricades and tripwire, it took less than an hour for the sun dweller army to infiltrate subchapter 1 of the Moon Realm, allowing them to wheel in their launchers and begin the assault. The bombing’s been nonstop for more than two hours.

  There will be no sleep tonight.

  Not for the Resistance, not for the moon dweller troops, not for the thousands of elderly, children, and disabled innocents sitting huddled together, their knees to their chests, in the cellars and basements and safe houses strewn haphazardly across the city—and certainly not for General Rose.

  She closes her eyes and says a silent prayer, for the Moon Realm and for Adele.

  Chapter Three

  The bombing stops at two in the morning. The silence is loud and thick and rings in General Rose’s ears. She waits ten minutes to confirm that it’s not just a normal lull before another round. The rough whispers of hundreds of soldiers paint through the stale bunker air like an artist’s brush. The messages are obvious: eagerness, worry, determination, fear.

  “What do you think it means?” the young woman beside her asks.

  Anna looks at her curiously. Maia. Far too young to be a member of the Resistance Council, and yet she is, nominated and voted in shortly after Anna and her husband were abducted. There’s no fear in her dark eyes, only curiosity. Something about her is as strong as steel.

  “They wouldn’t stop unless they had other plans,” Anna says.

  “You think they’re coming on foot?” Maia asks.

  “I don’t want to speculate,” she says, picking up the phone that’s bolted to the brown bunker wall. “General Suzuki? What’s the status in subchapter twenty-four?”

  The answer crackles through her headset: The bombing has stopped.

  “Do we have eyes on the borders?” she asks.

  It’s too soon.

  “Okay. I’ll call you if I have anything.”

  Slipping the phone back into place, she says, “The bombing has stopped everywhere. We need a visual on the borders.”

  “I’ll go,” Maia says without hesitation.

  “No,” Anna says. “It’s my responsibility.”

  “But you’re the general.”

  “Exactly. Stay here.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Maia says, her voice firm.

  Anna considers pulling rank, but then settles for the compromise. “Okay. Let’s go. Sanderson—we’re going above to check things out. You’re in charge.”

  As they make their way to the thick iron door that separates the bunker from the outside subchapter, Anna studies Maia with interest. Her gait is confident, a mirror image of her expression. Despite her mere twenty-five years of age, Anna knows this woman is experienced beyond her years, either by choice or by fate.

  Two burly guards unlock the barrier and pull it open before them, exposing a short tunnel that leads to a flight of stairs that ascend to the surface. A heavy dust-filled mist hangs in the air, swirling eerily before the soft lantern glow. Covering her mouth and nose with her tunic neckline, Anna moves forward quickly, Maia a step behind. The dust haze gets deeper as they climb the steps, and the smell of gunpowder and molten lead remind Anna of the Uprising.

  They reach the surface, where the fog is settling on the debris from the bombing, coating the world in a thin layer of gray powder. Anna gasps as she surveys the extent of the damage.

  “My God,” she says.

  “They’ve destroyed it all,” Maia says.

  Anna nods because she’s right. The subchapter, once beautiful in its elegant design, with symmetrical city blocks and narrow canals, is in shambles, its buildings toppled, its waterways filled to the brim with chunks of large stone blocks. The Dome, the large half-sphere at the center of the city, is ripped in half, mangled beyond recognition, the subchapter’s symbol of solidity and order reduced to ash and debris. And the strange thing: they can see it all from where they’re standing.

  “The lights are back on,” Anna realizes, gazing at the cavern roof, where the rectangular panel lights are shining brighter than she’s ever seen them.

  “And they’re brighter,” Maia says, reading her mind.

  “This can mean only one thing,” Anna says, dread filling her. “The sun dwellers are coming.”

  At that moment, a horn blares, drawing Anna’s attention to the eastern corner of the city,
where an inter-Realm tunnel leads to the Sun Realm.

  Hundreds of red-clad sun dweller soldiers pour from the maw of the tunnel, letting loose a thunderous war cry, climbing over half-crushed stone blocks and cracked gray columns.

  “Move!” Anna shouts, just as a flash of flame erupts in the distance. Her words are unnecessary, as Maia is already on the run, seeking shelter behind one of the few upright stone walls.

  BOOM!

  An eruption of rock and fire and pain—from the splinters of stone shrapnel on her face and arms—announces the arrival of incendiaries preceding the ground troops. Covering her head with her hands, Anna races after Maia, diving for cover just as another blast shatters the abnormally bright night.

  “We’ve got to get back to the bunker…warn the others,” Anna says, breathing heavily.

  “I’ll go,” Maia says, moving out from the wall before Anna has a chance to argue. She begins to pursue the young warrior, but is stopped when another bomb explodes, throwing Maia back and into her arms, knocking them both flat on the ground. Her ribs are on fire and her lungs full of dirt, but she manages to wheeze, “Maia—are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” the girl says, rolling off of her. “You?”

  “I’ll survive.”

  “We’ve got a problem, General,” Maia says, looking back toward the bunker. Following her gaze, she watches as a massive stone block settles over the mouth of the entrance.

  “Dammit,” Anna says. “We’ll have to get to the other entrance.”

  “Follow me,” Maia says, once more surprising Anna with her courage and strength. Moving out from the cover once more, Anna chases Maia across the broken terrain, staying low to avoid detection by the enemy. The war cries have stopped, but she knows they’re still coming, and it’s only a matter of time before the sun dweller soldiers manage to navigate the maze of fallen buildings and clogged canals.