Ash Princess

by Eve Langlais

  Thinking of the clothes reminded her that, even if she couldn’t help him, she really should strip him. The fabric could be put to good use. Now if only she could bring herself to rob a dying man.

  Leaning on her haunches, she sighed. I can’t do it. Perhaps once she finished grabbing the mushrooms, he’d be dead, and she could do it then.

  But still Kayda didn’t move. Kept staring. If he truly had traveled here from beyond Diamond, shouldn’t she at least try to keep him alive long enough to ask more questions?

  “What are the chances you’ll still be here if I go get some help?” she muttered aloud. The rule was to always go out in pairs or more. Safety in numbers, in the tunnels at least. Outside, a group was like a buffet.

  However, Kayda was getting tired of always being surrounded by people, looking up to her, trusting her to protect them. She didn’t want the responsibility. Wished she could lean on someone instead. But there was no one else. All the hard decisions lay with her, and she’d foolishly tried to escape from them for a few hours.

  “Chirp.” The noise, accompanied by the rolling of some of stones as her pet came sliding down from one of the many holes dotting the cave, drew her attention. She eyed Gellie sternly. “What have I said about following me out of the compound?”

  Not that she could figure out how Gellie did it. When she left via the tiny side door only she had the key to, she’d done so alone. Had Gellie slipped out the main doors with another group?

  Hopefully not one sent looking for her.

  Her pet cocked its head, and she could have sworn it shrugged off her rebuke.

  “It’s dangerous in the tunnels.”

  And not just for little creatures. It wasn’t safe for her either. The machete at her waist was great for chopping mushrooms and the occasional rodent, but against a bigger predator alone? She wouldn’t stand a chance. Good thing the tunnels were too small for the really dangerous things.

  “Trill.” Gellie hopped on his feet, left then right, then left, then shook his head at Kayda. Someone was giving her a dressing down.

  Funny, given Kayda had been the one caring for Gellie. Kayda found the baby by the body of his dead mother only by chance. Despite knowing resources were scarce, she couldn’t let him die and brought him home. Best decision ever. Gellie had a knack for bringing a smile to her lips.

  “I know. I shouldn’t have come alone.”

  But of late, she needed to get away. Her spirit grew restless as her hope for the future faded. The burden of being responsible for the life and safety of the others weighed heavily on her.

  Gellie cooed and waddled closer for a rub. Kayda ran her hand over the smooth head with only the tiny nubs hinting at the horns that might one day grow. If Gellie lived long enough. Even if her pet made it to adulthood, Kayda doubted she’d be around. The numbers didn’t lie, and every year their group got smaller and smaller.

  “What do you think I should do?” she asked her pet.

  As if Gellie understood, he stood straighter and waddled to the man. He dipped his head low and sniffed then growled before turning to look at Kayda.

  “Yeah, something chewed him. He’s hurt really bad.”

  “Trill.” Hop. “Trill.”

  “I take it that means you think we should help. I don’t even know where to start. If he can even be saved.” She sighed. Trying was the right thing to do in a world with too many wrongs.

  “Coo. Squeak.”

  “I didn’t say I wouldn’t. Just that it will be almost impossible.” But she had to try.

  She eyed Gellie then the man. They might not be able to carry the stranger, but her pet could take a message.

  “Fetch Gorri.” She tapped her lower lip and frowned. “On second thought, better make sure Milo and Lila come, too.”

  Gellie cocked his head and trilled. Definitely smarter than most people expected. At least with her. Funny how no one else seemed able to understand his quirky noises and mannerisms.

  As Gellie scampered off, she stared down at the stranger. “I guess that’s it then. I’m going to help you. That is if you don’t die before they arrive.”

  She did her best to bind his wounds using strips ripped from her already ragged cloak. She could use a new one, or at least one in less disrepair; however, new clothes seemed unlikely to ever happen. Those trapped in the Diamond Kingdom didn’t have stores to buy things. Nor tailors to make garments. They didn’t even have cloth, just whatever animal skin they managed to preserve, which proved scarce. The bigger predators tended to not share with the measly humans that remained.

  When Kayda was done binding the wounds, she did what she’d come for, scavenging the mushrooms that grew near the river, their flesh pale, their taste bitter, but food was food. She stuffed them into her bag and had pretty much filled it by the time Gellie returned with her three friends.

  By some miracle, the man was still alive. His breathing was just as ragged, but the cloth she’d bound him with showed no signs of bleeding.

  It was Gorri, only an inch taller than her, his body stout and arms thick with muscle who first said, “You had Gellie fetch us for a dead man? I thought we weren’t supposed to eat humans.”

  A rule she’d insisted on in the little group that remained surviving in the mountains. They might be desperate, but they weren’t monsters. Not yet. But at times, when their bellies gnawed, she understood the temptation. How long would they listen? Hungry people did desperate things.

  “We aren’t going to eat him,” she huffed. “We’re going to help.”

  “Help him what?” Lila asked. “Die more comfortably?” The petite woman, who barely reached Kayda’s shoulder, spoke quite seriously.

  “He’s not dead yet,” Kayda couldn’t help sounding defensive.

  “Key word being yet,” Gorri muttered.

  “Don’t see why you want us to waste our time.” Lila tossed her head, which drew attention to the piercings lining the curve of her ear. She’d recently hacked her curls in favor of a shorter cut that now showed off the pointed tips of her ears. A trait that all those who survived the tainted air had.

  Milo, kneeling beside the man with his fingers on the pulse at his neck, frowned. “Actually, despite his appearance, his heart rate is pretty steady. Strong, too. How long has he been like this?”

  Kayda shrugged. “I found him not long ago. I don’t know where he’s from. When I asked, all he said was he fell.”

  “You spoke to him?” Lila exclaimed.

  “Only briefly. I didn’t learn much before he passed out.” Learned nothing really except his belief that he was dreaming and belonged nowhere. Better nowhere than here was her thought.

  Gorri pointed to the stranger’s outfit. “He’s not from around here, that’s for sure. Look at the shiny shit he’s wearing.”

  Kneeling by the man’s side, Milo fingered the material. “I haven’t seen this kind of sealed suit since the last excursion party left us.”

  Milo’s father had been with them. They never returned.

  “Not so sealed anymore,” Lila muttered.

  “I’ll bet it used to have matching gloves and a helmet. He must have lost them either in the attack or the fall.” Milo was fascinated more by the equipment than the man himself.

  “Doesn’t really matter where he lost them. I’m more interested in where he came from. Which kingdom does he hail from?” Gorri proved more practical. There was no insignia or Enclave colors.

  “Maybe he’s a treasure hunter,” Lila observed.

  The scouting parties used to come across the remains of those adventurers in the early years when they still dared venture from the safety of the tunnels. They used to bring back the things they’d stripped from the stupid people who came into a place of poison ill-prepared. Not that those who actually prepped for Diamond survived it either. There was a reason—a few of them actually—that no one could escape.

  “Check this out.” Milo had found the man’s weapon, which Kayda had left alone. Her sca
venging friends weren’t as restrained.

  “That’s definitely not Ruby or Diamond Kingdom made. I don’t recognize the maker at all.” Gorri handled the gun next, turning it in his hands.

  “Blade’s not from here or Ruby either.” Lila held up the dagger, balancing it on her finger. Sharp things were her specialty.

  “How can you be sure?” Because to Kayda one dagger looked like any other.

  “The color of the metal.” Lila laid it flat on her palm. It glinted in the glowing lichen that provided the light. “The metals that come out of Ruby all have a hint of bronze in them. And the stuff our parents used to make all had traces of obsidian.”

  “That doesn’t leave many options. The only other place that borders us is Sapphire,” Kayda declared with surprise. She’d never heard of anyone who’d managed to make it past the rift that bisected the land. The huge lava river that separated them from the Marshlands apparently flowed into the sea. Not that anyone went checking that information. The crevices were the most dangerous spots to be around day or night.

  “No way is he from Sapphire,” Lila scoffed. “He would have been long dead if he came from there.”

  “He appears to have been well equipped,” Milo pointed out.

  “Lot of good it did him.” Lila, their group naysayer, had a hard time seeing anything positive.

  Then again, given how she’d had to grow up, born in a dying kingdom where food was scarce, danger plenty, and the hope for a future nonexistent… At times it was a wonder any of them still tried.

  “Say he does live, what are you going to do with him?” Gorri asked.

  “I don’t know.” Kayda hadn’t really thought past the fact she couldn’t walk away and let him die.

  “Maybe he can tell us what’s been happening outside our boundaries. I, for one, would like to know the whole world hasn’t gone to shit,” Milo claimed.

  “I’m more interested in how he got here and if we can use that same route to get out.” Gorri still hadn’t given up hope they’d one day find a way to escape.

  “And how many will die if we try? We’re stuck here,” Lila snapped.

  Kayda felt as if she had to refute Lila’s statement. “You can’t give up hope.” Even if, at times, the despair almost drowned her.

  “Why not?” Lila scoffed. “No one’s managed to walk out of here and survive.”

  “We don’t know for sure they all died,” Gorri pointed out as he pulled his ever-present rope from his belt.

  “None have ever come back.”

  “Would you if you escaped?” Gorri knelt and began feeding out his rope.

  “I’d fucking well try,” she snapped.

  And that was the truth. No one who managed to leave Diamond would abandon those left behind. Or so Kayda liked to think.

  Gorri and Lila quickly lashed the man in such a way that they all could carry him, loops of the rope slung over their upper bodies, leaving their hands free. Only idiots weren’t ready to fight when they left their secured home. The tunnels in this area were relatively safe, having had their passages blocked to prevent the predators from making a home in them, but that didn’t mean the creatures wouldn’t find new paths.

  “Everyone ready?” Gorri asked as he looked back at them.

  At the chorus of yeses, they all stood. Even with his weight dispersed among the four of them, the stranger proved hefty.

  “Someone is used to eating well,” Lila grumbled as they set off.

  Kayda didn’t know if it was well, but he was obviously nourished and used to living in the open, given his tanned skin and the thick strength of his body.

  “I didn’t find any food on him,” Milo remarked from his spot at the back.

  “Maybe he lost his pack when he fell,” Kayda surmised.

  “How did he fall in the first place? That would imply he climbed a mountain,” Gorri said, his keen gaze scanning their left.

  Kayda, on the other side, kept an eye on their right. They were coming up to a junction. A good place for an ambush. They remained silent until they were past it.

  “I doubt he climbed. Judging by his wounds, he was probably flown there,” she suggested.

  “And just missed getting eaten.” Lila snapped her teeth and uttered a dark chuckle.

  Having seen the nests of bones, Kayda shuddered. “It’s a miracle he survived.”

  “He hasn’t survived yet.” The reminder came from Gorri.

  “I wonder why he came,” Milo mused aloud.

  “Obviously not to save us.” Guess who that comment came from.

  “No, I doubt he came here for us.” Kayda didn’t disagree.

  “Probably looking for treasure. Betcha he’s going to be sadly disappointed if he ever wakes up.” The guffaw from Gorri was more commiserative than cruel.

  The rest of the journey was spent in friendly arguments about the fabled kingdoms outside theirs. The Ruby Kingdom was known to be that of vice and closed borders. In the early days of the volcano, the Diamond Enclave reached out for help and was rebuffed. Kayda never heard the reason why.

  As for Sapphire, they couldn’t reach it. A shame because she used to love hearing about it. With its marshes, cliffs, and beaches that bordered the ocean, it seemed like a paradise.

  When very young she’d seen the ocean at their own land’s edge. She remembered the ice floes and bergs, the fat bodies of whales that would rise to the surface to blow water from their spouts before opening their mouths wide and swallowing fishing vessels whole. But that was before the lava came. Now a perpetual mist hid the waters and the predators that hunted in the air above them. They’d stopped fishing a long time ago.

  The network of tunnels they followed led them through the mountain, the path familiar and yet not safe. Despite the land being hard to live on, underground life did still flourish. A good thing or they’d have died of starvation a long time ago. There were only so many lichen and mushrooms they could harvest to feed those that remained. Less and less each year.

  She wondered how long before her people died out. Would she even be alive to see it when it happened?

  Approaching the gate that blocked the entrance to their home, the group paused to ensure those guarding it could see them—guarding it being a misnomer. The twins were only thirteen years old and armed with dull knives. With their dwindling numbers, everyone did their part, even the youngest ones— born after the apocalypse—who at six and seven had never seen a blue sky or a tree in bloom.

  With a mighty groaning of old gears, the doors were cranked open, just enough for them to slip through before they slammed shut again. Curious eyes tracked their passage, and Kayda could just imagine the whispers. While they’d returned with bodies before—those of animals meant for the stewpot—this was their first time bringing back a stranger.

  Not just a stranger but an outsider. They probably wondered what it meant.

  Gorri pointed. “We’ll put him in Opi’s old place.”

  Opi had gone mad a while ago and decided he could fly. He had found a high tunnel and, before his hunting partner could stop him, dove out through an opening. The worst part was he didn’t die on impact. Something snatched him midair. According to his partner, who witnessed the whole thing, he didn’t scream for long.

  Kayda shook her head. “Given his injuries, he’ll need to be watched in case he develops a fever or goes into convulsions.” Not to mention, if he woke, they might only have a small window to get answers before he died.

  “Guess he can come with me,” Milo offered.

  “And freak out your sister?” Kayda shook her head.

  “I’m not doing it,” Lila stated quickly.

  “I wasn’t going to ask. Given what he is, I want him close to me.”

  “Are you insane?” Gorri sputtered. “He can’t stay with you. It’s not proper.”

  “Proper?” She snorted. “I’d say that’s the last thing we need to worry about. Not to mention, the man is unconscious. When he does wake, I want to quest
ion him.”

  “Don’t you mean if he wakes up,” Lila just had to add.

  “He will.” Kayda couldn’t have said where the certainty came from, only that if he’d already survived this long, he obviously had a will to live. Or one last thing to do before he died.

  Her mother used to talk about fate. How everyone had a role to play in the world. How there was a perfect person for everyone. Maybe that was true when people had a future. Kayda would never know what it was like to fall in love.

  For some reason her gaze dropped to the stranger’s face. Handsome. Strong. But there was no point in admiring a man who would die.

  They brought the stranger to Kayda’s room, placed him on the bed, and then heaved a sigh of relief at the loss of his weight.

  “Do you need my help getting him patched?” Milo asked.

  She shook her head. “I can handle it from here.”

  “In that case, I’m going.” Lila waved and left, Milo at her heels.

  Gorri remained behind, removing the rope. “Are you sure you want him in your room?”

  “It’s best if I keep a close eye on him until we know why he’s here.”

  “It won’t stop the kids from talking.”

  She shrugged. “Let them. This is the most exciting thing that’s happened in a while.” The most hopeful, too, because it implied all might not be lost.

  Rather than put the rope back at his waist, Gorri wound it around the man’s wrists in a different set of loops.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Securing him.”

  “You can’t tie him up.”

  “I can and will. What if he wakes and tries to kill you or worse?”

  What could be worse than death? “It seems unnecessarily cruel given his injuries.”

  “I won’t have you risking yourself because you’re too kind.”

  Too kind? That was kind of a funny thing to say given the harsh things she’d had to do in order to survive. “We need him to trust us.”

  “Ayuh. And for that he’ll have to prove we can trust him. You don’t know what kind of man he is.”

  Didn’t she? She looked at his face and didn’t see cruelty etched in his features. When he’d spoken to her by the river, while acerbic, he hadn’t been mean.