by Kailin Gow
She sat down on the mat that would serve as her bed and patted the spot beside her. “I should’ve told you, but you were so worried about your Life’s Plan at the time, and I was getting caught up in helping the Rebels get back into Arcadia. What about you? What’s with Liam and this Torrid guy?”
“We’re fighting together. Liam wants to find his father and I need to find my mother. We think Pim might have taken her to the old city.”
“I know you’ll find her, Kama. I think in finding her you’ll also find the love you're looking for.”
I shot her a questioning glare. “What do you mean? I’m not…”
“You're lost between Torrid and Liam, and it shows. I can understand. I know Liam is a fine young man, and Torrid appears to be incredibly in love with you. It’s not an easy decision to make.”
“No,” I said with a solemn shake of my head. “It’s not.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. The hard times you’ll face will be a true test. The man who loves you beyond all else will give everything and anything for you.” I patted her hand and gave her a big hug. The war had changed all of us. In less than a couple of weeks, we had all grown up.
***
I did my best to hide my fears as we crossed the threshold of Arcadia. I was well surrounded with Torrid leading the way, his brother at his side and Liam at mine.
But the moment we left Arcadia, everything felt different. The air was hot and dry. A strange but constant droning sound followed us though we were unable to find its source. The plants that grew in the Outskirts seemed on the verge of death and there was nothing even remotely beautiful about it.
“We’ve only walked a few yards outside the boundaries of Arcadia and already I hate it,” I said.
“Imagine what it must be like for those who’ve been banished.”
Dust floated up around my feet with every step. “I don’t even want to think about it. Sending young adults out here simply because they don’t agree with the Life’s Plan they received is pure lunacy. It’s cruel and vindictive. How on earth can someone be so ruthless?”
Liam remained silent during my rant.
“Everyone who’s been sent here is someone’s child, someone’s sibling, someone’s friend. It’s not only the one who’s been banished who has to suffer, but everyone left behind in the fabricated perfection of Arcadia who has to go to bed at night knowing their loved one is cold or hungry or in pain.”
“There’s strength in numbers,” Liam said.
I turned to him, too engulfed in my grief to grasp his words.
“I don’t know how many citizens of Arcadia were banished and sent to this desolate outskirt,” he said, “but if there’s an established settlement, an encampment, it means they're grouping together and working as one. It may be of little consolation, but at least they're not out here suffering alone.”
I cocked my head and grinned. “Power in numbers, huh. I hope you're right. I saw Melanie when she came back to Arcadia after her exile and she didn’t look too powerful. She was thin, gaunt, emaciated. It’s still painful just thinking about it, but now at least she’s doing well back at the djinn encampment.”
“Maybe while she was in the Outskirts, she had been unable to find the other exiles and the Rebel Camps,” Liam said. “Sarah did mention most of the ones whom she had helped sneak back into Arcadia, were from Rebel Camps.”
“I know,” I said. “So, of course, there must be a few of them out here.”
As a crack of thunder sounded in the distance, a thin mist of cool rain fell on us. At first the droplets were refreshing, bringing much needed moisture to the dry air and cracked earth, but soon the refreshing droplets became cold pellets that left us shivering, and left the earth slippery to walk on. The thickening mud hindered our progress and left us increasingly agitated.
Torrid stopped walking. “Take my jacket,” he said as he pulled it off his shoulders. “It’s thick and warm. It’ll keep you dry.”
Liam kicked the mud off his shoes and shrugged. With only a thin shirt on, he had nothing to offer me.
“Should we fly in?” Rowan suggested.
Torrid shook his head and Liam followed suit.
“I wouldn’t mind flying in,” I said as my teeth chattered.
“Too risky,” Torrid said. “With the threat of General Adar finding them, they’ll be looking toward the skies. It’s better if they don’t see us arriving.”
Liam nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was also hoping for a chance to run into the Rebellion. Their location was approximate and I’m sure they’ve found a setting off the beaten path with little chance of being seen, but we’re sure to miss them if we’re flying overhead.”
Hugging Torrid’s jacket around me, I looked down at my damp feet. “Well this beaten path is looking more and more like a river.”
Liam looked to the sky, analyzing the drifting clouds. “It’s strange. It was so dry when we first arrived out here. Everything was parched. Dried and yellowed leaves dangled on tree branches as if they’d not seen a drop in months.”
“Then we come over and we have a veritable storm,” I added.
A loud clap of thunder emphasized my words.
“Think it’s a sign?” I wondered aloud.
“Yes,” Rowan said. “But from whom?”
The question hung in the air and remained unanswered. We trudged through the mud, each taking our turn slipping, kneeling, falling and stumbling. At times our shoes were heavy with caked on mud making every step a struggle.
“Can’t we whip up a little magic and just get there?” I asked.
Torrid and Rowan exchanged troubled glances.
“What’s wrong?” I pointed to Liam. “Is it because of him? He knows about the magical powers.”
“No,” Torrid said. “It’s not that.”
“I sensed it the moment we stepped out of Arcadia,” Rowan said. “Our magical powers are greatly diminished out here.”
“So we probably couldn’t have flown there even if we’d wanted to,” I said.
Rowan nodded. “We’ll have to rely on our human powers for now.”
After three hours of slow progress, Liam walked off the path, climbed a small mound and sheltered under an old pine.
“What are you doing?” Torrid snapped. “We’ve yet to find the Rebellion encampment or Pim Seer’s settlement.
“We need to rest, to dry off a bit and to eat.” Liam cast his gaze at me.
I had remained silent throughout the long and endless hours. I had said nothing as I’d slipped and fell, slipped and fell, and slipped and fell again. I was wet. I was cold. I was hungry.
“She needs to rest.”
Not wanting to be held responsible for holding the entire group back, I opened my mouth to argue, but then shut up. I knew it would be of no use. Liam knew me too well. Though I didn’t want to complain, didn’t want to be the whiny girl, he knew everything about how I felt.
“She’s strong,” he said, “and she won’t say anything, but she needs to rest. We all do.”
I looked at his drenched shirt. The fabric clung to him, detailing every muscle. His hands, strong and capable, were clasped together before him, and while he controlled himself well, I too could see that he was cold.
I hurried under the sparse branches of the pine, hoping the few needles that remained attached would be enough to keep us dry.
Though Torrid and Rowan seemed determined to continue, they joined us under the tree.
The pine needles at our feet were dry and I sat at the base of the tree, leaning back against the thick trunk.
“Hungry?” Liam joined me and pulled out a few sticks of licorice and several energy bars.
“More than I thought, yes.” I greedily took a stick of licorice and a couple of bars.
Torrid remained silent, but I looked up and caught the quick glance he shot at the bars. His jaw was set tight and proud.
“You want some, Torrid?” I asked.
&
nbsp; He sat beside me. “You need to build up your energy. Eat all you can.”
“I’m not that famished.” While I was more than ready to share the bars with Torrid, I secretly hoped Liam would be man enough to offer him a few bars.
Before I’d even finished the thought, Liam reached across me and handed a few bars to Torrid and Rowan. The brothers grinned and tore open the bars.
“What size army do you think we’ll be facing?” Rowan asked between handfuls of bars.
“It’s hard to say. I know he’ll have recruited new rogues, but how many? I think many of them are running scared. The few that remain will most likely be by force, and they’ll be hostile. They’ll need training and that can take a while.”
“So we could be facing an army of hundreds of incompetents,” Torrid said.
“Something like that.” Liam munched on nuts for a few thoughtful moments. “Then again, Sanz is sly and manipulative. He’s an efficient gatherer and he has a way of bringing people together that is sometimes surprising. At this stage it’s impossible to say what he’ll come up with.”
“So we better hope we find the Rebellion if we’re to have a chance at winning this.”
“You say this Rebellion consists of citizens who’ve been banished from Arcadia?” Rowan said.
Liam nodded.
“Any estimate on the number?”
“The map I found had a list of the most recent exiles; those from the previous year. That list alone consisted of over two hundred names.”
Torrid leaned forward and looked at Liam.
Sandwiched between the two, their shoulders butted up against mine and kept me warm. Loving both men as much as I did, I wanted desperately to find a way to make everyone happy. Under different circumstances I felt certain they could be friends, and seeing the respect in Torrid’s gaze, I knew they’d make a great team.
“Two hundred in a year,” Torrid said. “And this has probably been going on for twenty years.”
Rowan let out a long and low whistle.
Liam grinned. “And I believe they’ve had plenty of time to train.”
“And they certainly have the motivation. Nothing attacks more fiercely than a dog that’s been kicked one time too many.”
“So I take it we have the makings for a mighty tough fighting machine,” I said.
“Yeah,” Liam said. “Now all we have to do is find that tough fighting machine.” He stood as he looked out at the horizon.
The bleak landscape seemed to go on forever. A handful of trees dotted the mottled fields of crabgrass. Not a flower bloomed and half the trees were dying.
Liam pulled out the map and examined it for the fourth time since we’d left Arcadia. “The area shown as the possible location for the Rebellion is a lot larger than I thought.”
Standing, I looked at his map. “In a way that’s a good thing,” I said, hoping to show him the bright side of the situation. “If your father, or Sanz, drew that circle so large, it means they don’t really know where the Rebellion is.”
He looked at me with that crooked grin he always had when he knew I was right. “You have a point.” His gaze swept across the horizon again. “The sun will be going down soon and we’ll have to find a place to camp.” He pointed to the left. “There’s a shallow outcrop of rocks over there. It doesn’t look like much, barely a few hundred feet high, but hopefully it’ll give us a better view of what’s around us. And if we’re lucky, we’ll find shelter under a slab.”
As the rain persisted, we took to the mud path and headed for the slabs of strewn rocks. Estimating the distances was deceiving. While we’d initially thought an hour or two would have us at the foot of the rocks, we were still far from our goal as the sun inched its way to the horizon.
The rain soaked earth had given way to small pebbles, making it easier to walk, but that ease only lasted a few hundred yards. Soon the small pebbles turned to fist sized stones that rolled beneath our feet. Every step was treacherous. When the fist sized stones gave way to sturdy looking slabs we all sighed with relief, but again our relief was short lived. Most of the slabs teetered under our weight, making every step a balancing act. Some even cracked and crumbled beneath us.
The gloom of nightfall slowly impeded our progress. Shadows played among the stones, making it harder to assess the possible dangers.
For all the difficulties we faced, Liam was right. Our ascent was slow, almost unnoticeable at times, but when I stopped to look around and to find the setting sun, I could see much further along the horizon than before. With a few hundred feet still left to climb, I felt certain we’d see something that would indicate the location of the Rebellion.
“I knew it,” Liam said. He stopped and pointed at a large slab that was tilted and leaning against another. “That’ll make the perfect shelter and the perfect look out.”
The announcement put a bounce in everyone’s step and the remainder of our trek was filled with hope.
“We’ll need some firewood,” Liam called out as he began picking up dead branches.
Everyone followed suit, though pickings were slim. Few trees grew among the outcrop of rocks, though every one of them had ample dead branches. By the time we reached the mouth of our shelter, we each had armfuls of firewood.
“Looks good,” Torrid said as he examined our home for the night. “Surprisingly dry in here, and, look.” He picked up and held out a handful of dry kindling.
“Perfect,” Liam said as he took Torrid’s offering. “I was beginning to wonder how I would start this fire.”
“Looks like someone’s been here before,” Torrid went on.
Liam fashioned my spindly damp branches around the dry kindling then placed a few larger branches over it all.
The fire was small and timid at first with smoke rising from the damp branches around it, but as they dried and heated up Liam piled on more branches and finally a few logs. Before long we had a blustering fire that had us dry and warm.
“You think the Rebellion stayed here?” I asked Torrid as we sat down for an evening meal of dried beef and bread, which Liam had brought out.
“I think this could possibly be the very route exiles take when they leave Arcadia,” Liam said.
“Makes sense,” Torrid added. “The natural progress leads down this path and the outcrop of rocks and strategically placed slabs make it the perfect shelter.”
“So we’re already one step closer to finding the Rebellion.” I finished my dried beef and gazed at the emerging stars. Only a vague silhouette of the horizon remained visible and the path that had led us to the shelter was now in total darkness.
“All we have to do is wait for the sun to rise and figure out in what direction our next step will be,” Liam said.
His gaze set on the valley to the left of us, Torrid stood. “Maybe not.”
I rose to follow his gaze. “Why? What do you see?”
“A flicker,” he said.
“Like a flame?”
“Like a beacon. Almost like a signal.”
Keeping my eyes steady, I stared out into the black night and saw nothing.
“There,” Torrid said suddenly. “Did you see that?”
Grinning, I nodded.
Liam and Rowan stood and we all waited the next signal; a tiny flicker of light that lasted only a fraction of a second.
“Do you think it’s the Rebellion?” I dared asked. The valley was black for seven seconds before the flicker appeared again.
“Of course. It makes perfect sense,” Liam said. “They’ve all been down this road before. They all know that exiles passed by here, stop here, rest here.”
“They saw our fire,” Torrid added.
“And now they’re directing us straight to them.”
Excited and optimistic, I wanted to head out to find them right away, but logic held out. “First light tomorrow morning and we’re sure to find them.”
But the morning rays, while they illuminated the valley below us, also left us with a
larger area to search than we’d initially thought.
“We know the signal came from that direction,” Liam said. “We just have to keep an eye on that goal and keep steady as we head there.”
The night’s sleep had been difficult and starting the day balancing on shaky rocks wasn’t ideal. My legs were stiff and uncooperative making my progress unnervingly tedious.
“You okay?” Liam asked as we neared the valley floor.
“I’ll manage all right,” I said.
“Sleeping on a cave floor doesn’t make for the best night’s sleep, does it?”
While he’d respectfully kept his distance most of the night, I awoke with my head nestled in the crook of his arm. Looking at him peacefully sleeping besides me, I knew Liam had placed his arm there as a pillow underneath my head while I slept. With Torrid still asleep, I’d quickly gotten up before the situation could become more uncomfortable or embarrassing.
Sleeping between them had made me feel safe throughout the night, but I’d also felt cornered.
“Hopefully tonight will be better,” I said.
The valley floor was a welcomed relief. Flat, sandy and stable, walking the few miles that still separated us from the approximated location of the signal was a breeze.
For three hours our goal got closer and closer. Each lost in our own thoughts we made good time, walking briskly and with determination.
When four young men jumped out from behind a knoll, we all started and I let out an unexpected yelp.
“Who are you and where are you going?” the taller of the four demanded.
For a heartbeat we just stood and stared.
Then Liam stepped forward. “Taylor? Is that you?”
The young man gazed suspiciously at Liam. “That’s my Arcadian name, a name given to me by the Committee. Here I’m known as Trax.”
“Trax,” Liam said as he approached with caution. “I’m Liam; Liam Seer. I was a junior when you graduated. You were the star quarterback and I was a big fan. I never missed a game.”
