Violet

by Rae Thomas

  Sensing that I would like an explanation, she begins to speak. “As a small child, I played near The Great Tree often, as my mother was dead and I was very alone. One day, I found this hollow beneath the roots, and that is the day that I became a seer. This is where The Great Tree gives me sight. Many of the things I do not understand; they are of a world that I do not know. Some of the things are about my people.” She pauses. “Some of the things are about your people.”

  “Who else knows about this?” David asks.

  Ramla shakes her head. “Though I wished to show my people the wonders of The Great Tree, I saw what would happen if they knew; people would begin to quarrel. They would all fight for what The Great Tree could give. I knew that I could show no one.

  “When Adanech came and began to teach me, I saw her as my mother. I showed her the power of The Great Tree, but she did not like it. The Great Tree showed her something that made her very afraid.”

  “What did it show her?” I ask.

  Again, Ramla shakes her head. “This, I do not know. She would never speak of her time beneath The Great Tree. She said only that I must never show anyone again.”

  I can see that Ramla’s loyalty to my mother is unfaltering. This leads me to ask, “Ramla, why have you brought us here?”

  “The Great Tree showed me that you would come, and that you would tell the truth. I know that your people, these people—” As she says this, she leans down to draw in the dirt with her finger. She draws a capital V with two floating orbs. She continues, “These people will come to find what you seek. The Great Tree has shown me what they will do with its power.” She looks up at me, strong but afraid. “These people must never possess the heart of The Great Tree.”

  I nod my head in agreement. The Vox must never find The Cube. However, something occurs to me. “Ramla, why give it to us? Why not just keep it hidden?”

  She shakes her head vehemently. “If you do not take it now, then when they come, they will know where to find it.”

  “How?”

  “Someone tells them.”

  “Who? Who could know?”

  “I do not know. I have shown no one else its location. The Great Tree has not shown me who. It has shown me only that they will know where to look, and my people will not be able to protect it. This is why you must take it now.”

  I look toward the bluish glow. I hesitate. I’ve finally found what I seek, but still I falter. Ramla puts her hands softly on my shoulders and looks into my eyes. “You do not know yet what you are. It is only you. You are the only one who can protect our people. You are the only one who can stop what The Great Tree has shown me.”

  I shake my head. It can’t be me. Surely I’m not the only one. “No, Ramla. No, that can’t be right. I do not know what to do. I do not know how to do it.”

  She smiles slightly. “When the time comes, you will do what needs to be done. As I told you, I have seen it. Now,” she says, gesturing toward the blue glow, “you must take the heart of The Great Tree.”

  “Wait.” It’s David. Ramla and I turn to look at him. His expression is pained. “Ramla, if we take it… The Great Tree will die. All of Amara will wither and die. Where will your people go?”

  This is true. I feel that I have acted selfishly; I had not even considered what would happen to the people living in Amara after we remove their life source. Is keeping The Cube away from The Vox worth sacrificing the lives of an entire village?

  Ramla nods. “Yes, I know that The Great Tree will die. It has shown me. But there is no other way. I have sent scouts into the desert; there are other places, though not as plentiful as Amara, where we could settle and survive. We cannot risk the alternative. We will have a little time before everything is gone. By then, we will have found a place.”

  I shake my head. “Ramla, I can’t… I can’t do that to your people, I can’t—”

  “You must!” she shouts. She takes a breath and calms herself. “You must, or you sentence us to death.”

  I begin to understand Ramla’s desperation. If The Vox comes to Amara, they will sacrifice the villagers to find the shard. They do not see value in the lives of people who live on Earth. If Amara is gone and Ramla’s people have relocated, they will live in harsher conditions, but they will live.

  I nod in understanding and reach up toward the bluish glow. I tear away some of the small roots, and now I can see it. A chunk of bluish-grey stone with a smooth, rounded corner. This piece is roughly the size of my palm. I pull my sleeve over my hand so I do not touch it directly; I do not want to see what Ramla saw. I am afraid The Cube will show me what The Vox might do to her people. The Cube shard is held in place by roots twisted around its edges, but I am able to push them away and pry it free. I use my knife to cut a piece of the cloth from my long outer robe and wrap the shard inside it. For some reason, I do not feel the elation that I anticipated upon finding a piece of The Cube.

  Without speaking, we all turn to go. Ramla exits the hollow first, showing us the easiest way to climb out. I motion for David to proceed in front of me. I have not had a vision, but I feel strange. As David climbs through the opening, for some reason that I do not understand, I unwrap the parcel containing the shard. Quickly, I remove it and place it in my survival pack. I pick up a rock from the dirt floor and put it in the cloth, re-wrapping the parcel. I follow David and Ramla out of the hollow.

  As I stand and brush myself off, I have a great feeling of sadness instead of accomplishment. In order to save Ramla’s people as well as the people of Cerno, we must cause her tribe great hardship. Ramla squeezes both of our hands in turn, and then draws a drawstring bag from the pocket on the front of her dress and hands it to David. “For your passage.” Then she adds quietly, “I must go now. As Adanech would say, good fortune on your journey.” She smiles slightly and as she turns, I see her brush a tear from her cheek. I watch her until she disappears over the hill.

  David puts his arm around me, rubbing my far shoulder as we watch the empty space of meadow where Ramla disappeared. I lean against him, and he draws my body to his, pulling me into a tight hug. He sighs. “I thought this would feel better.”

  “Me too.”

  He leans down and kisses me on the top of the head. We begin to walk. I have already put my survival kit on my back when I realize that I am still holding the parcel containing the rock. David has removed his pack to place Ramla’s gift inside, and volunteers, “Oh, here, I’ll take that.” I hand him the parcel, wondering if I should tell him what I have done. I decide against it. Something told me to keep the shard’s exact location to myself; I decide to follow that instinct.

  We walk until we reach a flowing stream, and decide to stop and rest until the sun sets. I fill our ration containers with water from the stream, and David opens the drawstring bag to see what Ramla has given us. We both perk up when we see her gift: the bag is full to the brim with dried fruits and strips of dehydrated meat. We eat some, but decide to save most of it for the trip. To fill our stomachs, we pick fruit from a nearby tree. This fruit looks similar to something that we have on Cerno, so we are confident that it is safe to eat. David slices it open with his knife and we compare it to some of the dehydrated fruit. It seems like a match, so we are convinced. We gorge ourselves on the fruit until we cannot eat another bite, rinsing our sticky fingers in the stream.

  After we eat, we spread our cloaks on the soft grass and lie down to take a nap before we begin walking. As I lie in the crook of David’s arm, resting my head on his chest, he leans down and presses his lips to mine. My pulse quickens and I feel a tingle in my abdomen. Instead of moving away after a moment, I lengthen the kiss and reach up to put my hand on David’s neck. He kisses me hungrily and I return his kiss.

  After a little while, David pulls away and smiles bashfully, saying, “We’ve got to get some sleep.” I want to keep kissing him, but I know that he is right; we must rest. We cannot afford to move sluggishly on our journey. We do not have the luxury of time. I settl
e back into the crook of David’s arm, and just before I fall asleep, an image enters my mind.

  Me, in my father’s office, holding the animal skin open on my palm. I looked at my father’s Cube shard. I was fascinated by it. It was long, and tapered into a point. Suddenly, I understand what my mind is showing me. Again, I call to mind an image, this time of myself pulling the Cube shard from the roots of The Great Tree. This piece is more stout with a rounded corner, not a long point.

  I was right in the assumption that my father believed that there was a Cube shard giving life to Amara, but I was wrong about something else. This piece was intertwined in the roots of a tree that has lived for perhaps hundreds of years. My father could not have placed it there; he only speculated its location. We have found a Cube piece, but we have not found my father’s.

  Sixteen

  By the time we wake, the sun is already set. We must begin walking immediately; we cannot afford any setbacks. David uses the navigation device to direct our path south—back in the direction of the transport. We take our final sips of the sweet water running in the stream and we begin our trek.

  It does not take long to reach the edge of the grasslands, but now we must pass through the jungle. This place is much more haunting at night than it was during the day. When we first entered the jungle with Saul and Foster, we were weary but invigorated by the bright vegetation and colorful blooms that we had never seen before. There is nothing like this on Cerno. However, now that we make our passage at night, the jungle is dark and full of shadows. Every breeze rustling the leaves is a predator waiting to pounce. Every hanging vine is a poisonous serpent.

  We travel hand-in-hand so we do not get separated, and I am thankful for the comfort that David’s presence gives me. Though I wanted to leave him behind on Cerno, I don’t know how I could’ve made this journey without his support. Just as I have this thought, David stops walking and holds his hand out to motion me to stop. I knock into his outstretched hand because I was lost in my thoughts, and for a moment I am afraid, exclaiming “Wha—?” Before I can finish my thought, David pulls me to him and places his hand over my mouth.

  When he whispers, I can hardly hear him. “Do you hear that?”

  I look at him quizzically. “No…”

  “Listen. Do you hear the rustling?”

  I strain my ears. Yes, I do hear rustling, but it could be the wind again, or animals moving around. I hear lots of things—the night songs of insects and frogs, a nearby stream, birds chattering. I cannot differentiate the rustling from these things until it stops. I nod my head. Yes, I heard it.

  David says, “It stopped. I think we’re being followed.”

  It does seem to be a logical conclusion, but I can’t imagine why we would be followed. The tribe had wanted us to leave Amara, and Ramla knew that we were leaving. The idea just doesn’t really seem plausible. I shrug. I’m not sure what we should do.

  “Let’s keep moving, but when I stop, you stop immediately and get behind me.”

  I nod. We begin to walk again. Now that I am listening for it, I begin to hear the rustling. I watch closely for David’s signal. David stops. I stop immediately and position myself behind him. Both of us have our knives drawn, but we wait for what seems like forever, and we do not need them. No one comes. David and I look at each other and begin to walk again.

  Finally, we reach the edge of the jungle. When we step over the threshold of Amara, we are greeted immediately with the bitter cold of the desert. I wrap my cloak more tightly around myself, and we continue to walk. Though I am glad to be on our way, leaving the beauty of Amara behind is bittersweet.

  Yesterday, as we stretched out on our cloaks, our bellies full of the sweet wild fruit, David had turned to me and said, “Violet, what if we decided not to go back?”

  “Not to go back to Cerno? We’ve found the shard. It’s what we came here for.”

  “I know; it’s just that… I’m tired. I’m tired of running and searching and being afraid. I love just being with you; even if we’re just eating fruit that we’re only ninety percent sure won’t kill us.” He smiled and I chuckled, though I was still unsure what his intentions were. “All I’m saying is, this isn’t our fight. It has nothing to do with us. What if we just left it to the people who started it and decided to live our lives the way we want?”

  “The Vox will never let that happen, David. As far as they’re concerned, there are no innocent bystanders. This will never be over until we find all four pieces of The Cube and find a way to protect it from The Vox forever. We can’t just sit around waiting for someone else to do what needs to be done.”

  David was silent for a moment. He knew that I was right. We can dream of a world where we’re free from The Vox, we can try to hide from them, or we can keep them from attaining The Cube, which would surely make them invincible. If we keep The Cube from them, maybe The Third Stone will have a better chance of changing things. Maybe.

  David sighed, defeated, but the trace of a smile lingered on his lips. “I thought that’s what you’d say.” And that’s when he kissed me.

  Now, as we walk silently through the desert, I remember that conversation with sadness. I know that I am right; we can’t quit now. But I wonder if David regrets helping me in the first place. After all, if I hadn’t come along, he’d still be living a normal life. Spending time with his mother, attending lessons at Nineteen. Life in Eligo wasn’t that bad. Now he can never go back to that life. I took it from him. David acts like he would have done anything to come with me, regardless of the consequences for himself, but I can’t help wondering… Someday when his love for me is spent, will he hate me for it?

  As if he can hear my uncertain thoughts, David grabs my hand and kisses it. I know that he loves me right now. I suppose that will just have to do.

  After we have walked for a while, we turn to look behind us. Though the light from the moon is dim, the space between us and Amara seems clear. If someone was following us, we’re confident that he’s gone now. It was probably just an animal in the jungle.

  We continue to walk until well past daybreak, finally coming to a familiar rock formation. One of our old camps; this will be a good place to sleep for a while. David volunteers to take the first shift and I am beyond grateful. I think I am asleep before I lay my head down on my pack.

  I wake several hours later when the sun is high in the sky. David sits on guard, his unsheathed blade next to him on the sand. He must hear me stirring because he turns around and smiles sleepily. “Hey. You up?”

  I nod. “Yes. It’s your turn.”

  He stands stiffly and stretches, arms wide and standing on his tiptoes. He shuffles through the sand to where I’ve been resting and holds out his hands to help me up. I grab his hands and he takes a step back, pulling me to my feet. When we’re both standing, he pulls my arms around him, drawing me into a hug and dipping his head to kiss me lightly on the lips. We remain like this for several moments and I find myself wishing, as he had, that we could forget about what we have to do and just be with one another.

  David stifles a yawn and I laugh, pushing him down onto the ground where I was sleeping. He lifts his eyebrows comically and pats the sand next to him. “Hey, why don’t you join me?”

  Smiling, I lean down to give him a kiss, then straighten and say, “You’ve got to sleep. We’ve only got a few hours until nightfall.”

  He heaves an exaggerated sigh and lays his head on his pack, saying, “Always so responsible…”

  In moments, I hear him softly snoring.

  As David sleeps, I realize that this is the first time that I’ve been alone and able to really look around me. This desert is a wasteland, literally everything covered in dust and sand. It’s hard to believe that this entire place was once as lush as Amara. This thought reminds me that soon Amara will be just another wasteland; the unexplainably resilient green patch on Earth will be no more. Its plants and flowers will dry up and wither until no one can even remember where it stoo
d. I have torn the heart from The Great Tree.

  Time passes quickly and uneventfully as I sit and think of the gravity of what I have done. How many compromises will I be willing to make? How will I find the boundary between what is justifiable and what is reprehensible? I can only console myself with the reminder that I can differentiate myself from The Vox because I do not seek The Cube to exploit its power. This does not make me feel much better. I welcome nightfall; it’s time to wake David, so I’ll no longer be alone with my thoughts.

  He is difficult to rouse; I feel that this long trip is taking a toll on him and I am thankful that soon it will be over. Soon we will be back on Cerno. Soon we will… What will we do? What will come next? These are questions that I cannot answer.

  David and I take a few moments to sit and eat some of the dried meat and fruits that Ramla packed for us. The meat is salty; I am glad that I refilled our water rations. After we have quieted our stomachs, we begin to walk again. Though we walk hand-in-hand for the most part, we do not have much conversation. The air is bitterly cold; David remarks that he cannot feel his nose or ears, though the exertion helps. We are trying to cover more ground tonight, so we don’t want to waste our breath talking. There will be plenty of time to talk when we are back on Cerno.

  It must be approaching early morning when I see the ruined village in the distance. I believe that it is the same village that we passed when traveling with Foster and Saul because we have been more or less retracing our path.

  Day has just begun to break when we reach the village, and I can see that David is exhausted. “David, let’s go ahead and make camp here.”

  He shakes his head. “No, it’s too early. We won’t get there on time.”

  I decide to compromise. I don’t want to point out that he doesn’t seem to be able to go on. “We’ll leave a couple of hours early, before night falls.”