While Ash patrolled the surrounding woods, the four of us lay on our bellies on a forested rise overlooking the town’s only street. We all still felt the shock of our encounter with Tim, Milly more than any of us. She’d barely spoken since the creek. I added Tim’s fate and Milly’s pain to my long list of reasons to kill Praetor Stanislov.
Ben and I inspected the town through the scopes on our weapons. The lone street was empty—not a rebel in sight. “Looks completely deserted,” I said.
“They’ll be here,” Micah replied. We had stopped briefly for Milly, who always carried a small med kit, to see to his face. Even in her grief, she had mechanically cleaned the gash, closing it with a few hasty stitches. But the wound still looked angry and red. “What about the houses?” he asked.
I scanned the dozen or so houses along the road. Most of them were broken-down, but even the intact buildings appeared uninhabited. I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Could be a trap,” Ben murmured.
I shouldered my weapon. “Let’s check the campgrounds.”
We reconnoitered the woods between Williams and Boulder Creek, finding both campsites just as deserted as the town. The ash was deep there and sucked at our boots, so we reluctantly turned back toward town. We found the wolf nosing around an old mine shaft. He hadn’t found anybody either. I was getting frustrated. My brother was in imminent danger; I couldn’t afford to wait for a band of rebels that might never show.
Ben frowned at Micah. “Maybe you got the town wrong?”
Micah looked frustrated, too. “This is the place. We just need to wait.”
The image of Tim, screaming and stomping through the forest, made my skin prickle with anxiety. It had been three days since David had left the cabin with Private Calhoun. He was certainly with the praetor by now. “I say we keep moving toward Ellensburg,” I pressed.
“And then what?” Ben argued. “Take on Europa by ourselves?”
Micah shook his head. “It’s their central command. There’ll be hundreds of them. I know you’re anxious to find David, Seraphina, but if we go in alone, we won’t be able to save him or ourselves.”
He was right but, in that moment, I wished I’d come alone. Then nothing could have stopped me from crashing the gates of Ellensburg.
We made camp in the mine shaft. The remainder of Hilda’s spätzle made a hearty dinner, but it did nothing for our gloomy moods. We ate in silence on our bedrolls, by the dim glow of diffused moonlight. Before long, Ben’s deep snores filled the space.
I heard the soft muffled sounds of Milly crying.
Crawling toward her bedroll, I found her huddled in a ball, shaking and shivering. I put my arm around my friend’s shoulders. It broke my heart to see her in so much pain.
“Oh, Sera,” she rasped. “What are we gonna do?”
I was suddenly hit by a memory of Milly walking down the hallway at Cle Elum-Roslyn high school in her cheerleader’s uniform. She was always smiling, always looking like she had the world by the tail. I rarely saw Milly smile anymore; now the world had a hold of her.
“We’re going to help him,” I told her. “When the rebels arrive, we’re going to tell Vivica what happened to Tim and that we need some men to help get him to Doctor Reinkann. Tim fought alongside most of the 1st Cascade in the Skaggs war. They’ll want to help.”
She cried for a few more moments, then pulled herself together. “No.” She sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “He almost killed us today. I won’t risk anyone else’s life. What could Reinkann do for him anyway? He can’t even help his own son.”
I wasn’t sure what the doctor could do, but I was willing to try anything if it would make Milly feel better. “Maybe Tim—”
“Don’t call him that.” Milly choked back a sob. “That thing in the forest isn’t Tim. It might have Tim’s memories, but my brother is gone. We stick with the mission. We save David. After that, we find the ogre and…and we put him down.”
Her words brought a lump to my throat. She started to cry again and I held her tighter.
“I hope Micah’s right,” she said. “I hope there is a God. Otherwise all of this is for nothin’.”
I stayed with her until she fell asleep, then I found my own bedroll. I was mentally and physically exhausted, and terrified for my brother. If the rebels weren’t there by sunrise, I was leaving, with or without the others. I wouldn’t wait past morning.
The night wore on. Unable to sleep, I tried not to imagine what might be happening to David, tried not to picture him deformed and raving, but the more I tried the more my mind filled with horrible thoughts and images.
I struggled to keep myself from slipping over the edge. If I fell apart now, David would be lost.
I heard a sound and opened my eyes. Something round and lumpy hovered in front of my face. I blinked and sat up, adjusting my eyes to the dim light, and realized it was a potato. I looked up into Micah’s shadowed face.
“I’m all out of apples,” he said.
I stared at the potato, remembering a boy who’d given me comfort when I needed it, a boy who’d protected me from bullets with his own body, a boy who’d held my hand in a pickup truck after I’d taken a man’s life.
He looked me in the eye. “It’s going to be all right, Seraphina.”
That was all it took. My walls crumbled. Not caring who he was or what he’d done, I threw myself against him as I had before, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face against his shoulder. He pulled me in tight, holding me close as I cried. It felt so good to be held, cared for, protected again. In that one sweet moment I gave in to everything I’d kept tucked away in my heart for so long.
“Why did you leave me?” I cried.
“Ah, Seraphina,” he breathed, “I didn’t leave you. The Skaggs picked me up a few blocks from your house that night. When I refused to pledge, they put me in an internment camp near Leavenworth. I was cold and hungry and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Then they found out that I’d been friends with Steve, so they let me go.”
My chin trembled. They’d let him go and he hadn’t come back to me. That told me all I needed to know.
I tried to move away from him, but his arms tightened. “You’re wondering why I didn’t come home,” he said against my forehead. “I had a chance to change their minds, to tell them the good news. At home, in Roslyn, I would have been just another enemy to them.”
I looked up into his face. “What good news?”
“That we’ve all been separated from God because of our sin. That the punishment for sin is death. But, because God loves us, He sent His Son to take our punishment, to die in our place.”
Instead of my usual revulsion, I felt a deep, quiet part of me reach out for what Micah was saying. It surprised me. “Did they believe you?”
“Some did. Some didn’t. Frank Skaggs had created a special punishment for those who turned against him. Fear of that kept a lot of people from hearing me and believing.”
“The brand.” I had a vivid picture in my mind of John Voss with the red, blistering word TRAITOR burned into his chest.
“Right.”
“So that day on Widowmaker…you weren’t marching with them?”
“I was marching with them, Seraphina, but not in the way you thought. I knew a lot of those people were marching to their deaths. I used those last precious moments to reach as many as I could.”
I stared into his dark, solemn eyes and knew in my heart he was telling the truth. He hadn’t been a Spathi. He hadn’t been a Skagg. Guilt washed over me like a drowning wave. I’d been wrong about him on every count and that knowledge started me crying all over again. “I’m so sorry, Micah.”
He brushed away my tears as they spilled down my cheeks. “Don’t be. I was the perfect replacement for your grandfather. I can’t be harmed, so I took the bullet, played dead, and snuck off when they weren’t looking.”
My stomach tightened. “But you can be harmed, Micah. Your fa
ce.”
“Yeah.” He grunted and touched his cheek. “That was unexpected. But God knows what he’s doing.”
“How can you be so sure? What happened to you? Why do you believe all this?” I was desperate to understand.
He let out a slow breath. “The morning of the earthquake I woke up hungover. I got dressed, walked into my bathroom, and found myself standing on the most beautiful beach I’d ever seen. Brilliant blue water. Gorgeous, soft sand. There were thousands of men around me, speaking thousands of languages, and I understood every one of them. And then I saw the mountain…”
I sat back from him, my eyes growing wider in the dark.
“It seemed made of solid shimmering gold,” he continued. “I wanted to climb it, to sit down on its peak and never move. But I was told that we had to help other people get to the top first.” His stare intensified. “And then I saw the girl floating in the water.”
My heart collided against my ribs.
“She was drawn to the shore, toward me. Flaming hair. Emerald eyes.” He brushed his finger along my cheek. “She stole my breath away. I knew in that moment that I would give everything I had to protect her.”
“And the dragon?” I asked breathlessly.
“The dragon?” He seemed confused.
I’d assumed we were having the same dream, but maybe I was wrong. “This dream turned you into a Christian?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It wasn’t a dream. I could feel the sun on my face and taste the salt in the air. I was told the good news about the coming King. The truth was undeniable.”
Hilda had called him chosen by God. “Is that when you were sealed?”
“Yes—me and the thousands of others with me.”
“But why?”
“To serve the will of the Father.”
The will of the father. I’d heard that before, first from Steve Skaggs and then from my grandfather. “What’s the will of the father?” I asked.
“John 6:40,” Micah replied. “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.”
Something was happening to me—like the sound of gunfire, I could feel it in my bones. I searched his dark eyes. He believed deeply in what he said and it was getting harder for me to contradict him.
He leaned close, pressing his forehead to mine. “He’s pursuing you, Seraphina,” he whispered. “I can see it in your eyes. Don’t let pride keep you from embracing the truth.”
I could feel his breath on my lips. My heart raced. “But how do I know it’s the truth?”
“Because,” he replied, “it will set you free.”
Like it had for Eliza and Hilda, I thought.
We sat there silently for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. I thought he might kiss me. I waited, hoping, but then he stood abruptly. “Try to get some sleep.” His voice was thick with emotion. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
I watched him disappear into the dark shadows of the mine as I considered the possibilities of what he was saying. “I must be losing my mind,” I whispered to myself. I stretched out on my bedroll.
Did I actually believe that all the chaos around me was all part of the grand plan of some invisible creator?
I drifted off to sleep with that question planted firmly in my mind and my nightmare returned, more detailed than ever before.
I’m floating in the middle of a deep, blue sea. Warm. Peaceful. Safe. I want to stay there forever, but a gentle, invisible force pulls me toward the shore. My feet touch down on the sandy bottom. I walk onto a soft, white beach that squishes, warm and wet, between my toes. I close my eyes, feeling the hot sun on my face, tasting the salty breeze on my tongue.
I’m not alone. Thousands of young men line the beach, standing shoulder to shoulder, each with a shining symbol on their forehead glowing bright as the sunlight. One young man stands out from the rest. Micah. He’s standing in front of me, his eyes dark, solemn. “Truth, Seraphina,” he whispers. “It will set you free.”
A sound comes from the water. My heart seizes in my chest. An enormous red dragon rises out of the sea, roaring like a wild animal. It has seven heads covered in lethal spiked horns, glowing red eyes, sharp white teeth, and claws that slash the air like razor blades. It eyes the men on the beach and decides on Micah.
Terror knifes through me. I shout for Micah to run, but he can’t; his feet are buried in the sand. The dragon moves closer. I can feel its hot, rancid breath on my face. I raise my arms and feel flames ignite my hands.
I will give everything I have to protect him.
A piercing noise pulled my eyes open. The sun was up. Blinding white light flooded the mine entrance and my mind went back to the church and the earthquake. Endure. I hid my face in the crook of my arm.
I heard running feet, grunts and thumps. The piercing noise came again, echoing against the walls of the mine. I recognized it now. Milly was screaming.
I bolted upright. Chaos confronted me.
Europa soldiers were everywhere. Several of them had a hold of Ben and Milly. My friends were putting up a ferocious fight. I reached for my weapon, only to find it held to the ground by a polished black boot.
“Ah-ah.” The familiar voice crawled in my ears and sent fire racing through my veins. I looked up the trouser-clad leg and the ocean blue overcoat, past the brass buttons and flashy braided epaulets, and into the hateful, smiling face of Praetor Stanislov. “Good morning, Sera.”
For the past year, my hatred of this man had become a living thing, something I’d fed and nurtured with the blood of his soldiers. I’d hoped the next time I saw him would be through a gunsight, but I could improvise in a pinch.
I curled my fingers around a fist-sized rock lying in the dirt beside me.
“It is so good to see you again,” the praetor cooed.
I heard snarls and yips mingled with angry shouts. Two soldiers were trying to force Ash into a cage. They’d managed to get a catch pole around his neck; he flailed at the end of it like a rabid dog. Panic rose in my chest. The wolf didn’t understand what was happening and he was terrified.
“Let him go,” I ground out.
“It belongs to me, my dear. I am simply retrieving my property—”
“Let him go!” I surged to my feet, striking the praetor on the side of the face with the rock.
Blood erupted from his cheek. He cried out in pain and the soldiers trying to wrangle Ash stopped to see what had happened.
Ash seized the opportunity and lunged. He took a chunk out of one of the soldier’s arms, then raced for the woods, dragging the catch pole behind him. My heart leapt in victory as he reached the tree line.
“Run, Ash!” I screamed.
Everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Six
My head ached. I moaned and shifted my legs. Something soft lay beneath me. I wondered if mom was up yet, making breakfast in the kitchen. No school today. I wanted to sleep forever.
Reality intruded and I cracked open my eyes.
I lay in a spacious, empty room with faded outlines on the walls where pictures had once hung. Through a large window to my left, I could see the dim orb of the sun hanging midway in the crimson sky. I’d been out for hours. Or was it days?
I remembered Milly screaming, Ben fighting, Ash running. The praetor found us in the mine. How, I wasn’t sure. But I’d wanted to infiltrate Ellensburg and, although I’d hoped for a more covert entry, it seemed I’d done just that.
New mission: escape.
I needed to find David and the others.
I sat up on the cot and stared at the closed door across the room. I knew without checking that it was locked. A small plate of food waited on the floor by the bed, along with a bottle of water. I ignored them both.
I stood. The world tilted beneath me and I reached down to steady myself. Four deep depressions in the carpet showed where something like a desk had once been. I was a prisoner in somebody’s former office. I ste
adied myself, then walked to the tall, wide window where the sun was pouring in.
Looking out, I had to brace myself against another bout of dizziness. The window, on the third floor, looked out over a complex of buildings connected by courtyards and a maze of cement paths. They’d done a painstaking job of cleaning up the ash, leaving sparkling white pavement, grassy knolls, and planters full of cheery flowers. I could even see a tall water fountain spouting brightly in the distance.
Out beyond the complex, toward the mountains, lay the real world; a desolate gray moonscape littered with destruction. It held nothing but debris, gray dunes, and broken rooftops. The ash was deep out there.
The door clicked open behind me. I turned slowly, mindful of the dizziness. A tall, muscular man walked into the room. He smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. It was like the praetor’s smile, cold and calculating. He stood against the far wall and stared at me without saying a word.
“I want to see my friends,” I said to him.
“Of course you do.”
I frowned. His voice was familiar.
He picked up the plate of food from the floor and held it out to me. “You should eat to counteract the drugs.”
They’d drugged me? That explained the dizziness. I gave him a wary once over, noting the Biotat on the back of his right hand. “Where are they?”
“Your friends are fine. They have their own rooms.”
“Then I want to see my brother.”
He looked amused. “Why?”
“Because I’d like to know that he’s all right.”
He set the plate back down on the floor. “Your brother is better than all right.”
I eyed him carefully. “What does that mean?” Please tell me I’m not too late.
The Goliath Code (The Alpha Omega Trilogy) Page 29
