by J. M. Page
Lina worried on her bottom lip, her foot slipping out from under her with the next step. Bain swooped in and caught her before she fell, setting her back on her feet without a word.
“Do you think I’m one of you?” she finally asked, her voice small.
“I don’t know, but it certainly seems that way. I don’t know who your parents were or what their connection to us was, but I’d wager my crown there was one. Maybe generations ago.”
They were at the mouth of the cave now, a huge wide opening, big enough to drive a human car through, Lina thought. It was odd thinking of things in those terms now that she was in a place that seemed tailor-made for her stature. Being amongst the world of giants felt like another life, another time. It almost didn’t feel real anymore.
It was dark past the first few feet and Lina sucked in a breath. She trusted Bain, but big, dark places would always be scary. There was a reason she was never without a light…
She reached for the diode from Mom before remembering she was in an evening gown without her handy diode. Okay, so almost never without a light.
Bain started forward, but Lina hung back, a cold sweat prickling her skin. The darkness had a weight; it was heavy, pressing forward out of the cave, twisted fingers reaching out for her, grabbing at her, stealing her breath, even stealing her sight. The darkness began to close in around her vision, her ears buzzing as she absently reached again for the diode, cursing its absence.
“Lina?” Bain called, his voice cautious. “Are you alright?”
She forced herself to focus on his face instead of the empty abyss behind him. She traced the square line of his jaw, the sharp angle of his nose, the soft curve of his lashes. She focused on the shadow of stubble on his cheek and the lines around his eyes that could only be from laughing.
“Lina?” he tried again.
She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking her head, her entire body trembling, though she could hardly notice it.
“I can’t.”
His brows knotted together. “Can’t what?”
She shook her head again. “The dark. It’s stupid, I know, but I can’t.”
Now his brows shot up, his eyes widening. “Oh. Well, that’s not a problem,” he said, taking a step backwards from her towards the inky black beyond.
Lina swallowed thickly and shook her head again. “No you don’t understand…”
“It’s perfectly safe, I promise,” he said, holding his arms out wide as he took another step back.
She wanted to lunge for him. To stop him from being swallowed whole by the dark, but she was frozen. Her feet stuck to the floor like magnets.
Bain took another step, and Lina couldn’t make out his silhouette anymore. He was gone to the dark and she was left all alone.
“Bain,” she called, her voice quivering. She tried pushing herself forward, in the direction he’d disappeared, but her feet wouldn’t move.
Then, he was there again, illuminated in a cool blue light. One by one, more lights came to life behind him, revealing a long tunnel that disappeared around a curve.
“I told you, nothing to worry about,” he said, holding his hand out to her.
Lina looked from Bain to the distance behind him that had been dark and unknown only moments before.
“What is this place?”
“I’ll show you,” he grinned.
She slid her hand into his and they set off again.
“So,” Lina said, their joined hands swinging between them, her heart thumping wildly at the contact, “Suriah said you were reprimanded for missing events because of me…”
“Suriah has a big mouth,” he grumbled.
Lina suppressed a tiny smile, unwilling to let him steer the conversation elsewhere. “But you got in trouble? Because of me? I didn’t mean for that—”
Bain stopped and faced her, his eyes burning with a fierce fire she couldn’t look away from, even though it ignited something inside her. “What happens to me as a result of the choices I make isn’t any concern of yours, Lina. I decided to stay with you and shirk my duties and whatever consequences there are for that, I’ll willingly accept them. It’s worth it.”
Her jaw fell open and her mind went blank. Like everything she’d just been planning on saying was written in the sand and washed away by the ocean before she could utter a word of it.
“I… I just didn’t want you to be in trouble on my account…”
He offered her his trademark grin and shrug and Lina’s pulse fluttered. “My life has always been satisfying, routine, and safe, but it’s also always been the same. I’ve…” He sighed, looking down the tunnel, his expression turning more serious. “I wouldn’t say ‘bored’ is the right word, but I’ve been restless. I’ve been wanting more. Something different. And then, like an answer to the prayers I didn’t dare speak, you fell from the sky. Something wholly different and exciting. I don’t know what brought you here, but I’m grateful for it. You’ve broken up the daily monotony of my life quite well and if my mother can’t see that I needed that, she’ll just have to stew about it until she does.”
Lina’s pulse slowed to a normal pace and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. She didn’t know how to respond to any of that. Here, she’d thought that Bain liked her and wanted to spend time with her, but now she wasn’t sure. He’d probably act this same way with anyone that fell out of the sky. It wasn’t her he was interested in, only that she was different.
“I’m glad I don’t bore you,” she said, hearing the bite in her tone before she could stop it. She dropped his hand and walked onward down the tunnel, angry hornets buzzing in her chest. She’d been so stupid to think this was anything more than an interesting puzzle for the prince. How could she have thought there was something real between them? They hardly knew each other!
“Lina!” Bain called, jogging to catch up to her. She heard his footsteps slapping against the wet, stone cave floor, faster and faster. She didn’t run; she marched. Stalked like a predator focused on its prey. Only she wasn’t focused. She couldn’t stop thinking about how foolish she’d been and when she thought about it too hard, she realized that’s what she was running away from. Her own hopes.
She’d considered that staying here wouldn’t be so bad. That there might be a place for her amongst these people. That maybe Mom would be okay without her back on Earth. But it had all been silly. She was nothing more than a fleeting interest to a bored prince and no matter what her heart told her, she didn’t belong here. She should be back home, and she was going to find a way to get there.
“Lina, wait! What’s wrong?”
The tunnel curved and Lina followed the path, but now Bain was caught up to her and able to keep pace unless she did decide to run. But there was no use for anything quite that dramatic.
“Nothing. But you said it yourself: I’m different. I don’t belong here. I need to go home.”
The prince’s eyes shadowed, no longer sparkling and warm. A stone barrier had dropped in front of them and walled him off from her.
“I thought…” he trailed off, looking further down the cave tunnel. He shook his head like he was clearing it of cobwebs and pressed onward. “Then I guess you should see this even more.”
As he marched ahead, Lina’s brow furrowed, but she followed and soon, the even level of the ceiling began to slope upwards, making the cave bigger and bigger. And still, as they walked, lights automatically sprang to life, illuminating the path ahead so that she was never marching into darkness.
Things were awkward between them now. She didn’t know which of them was the culprit, but they both shared at least part of the blame for the tension hanging in the air now. She wanted to go back to holding his hand, watching the laughter sparkle in his grass-green eyes, but it seemed the time for that was past.
Bain stopped a few feet ahead of her at the mouth of a wide opening and Lina scrambled to catch up to see what laid beyond.
There, the sight she found took her breath aw
ay.
Chapter Seven
The cavern was enormous. Big enough for a whole human house. Maybe even bigger. She could easily get lost in its space and never find her way out again. But it wasn’t the sheer size that was awe-inspiring. It was the heaps of metal and machinery that littered the ground, twisted and broken in a mass grave.
“What…” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence. There were too many questions zooming through her mind at the speed of light.
“This place is forbidden. My mother and other monarchs before her deemed it too dangerous. Surie and I found it as children, just playing around, but I come back here a lot. Just to think… Things were different once, you know? I think this place was once a hangar for starships, but when the civilization collapsed… whatever was happening, it was destroyed. That’s why I think it was a plague. Not very glamorous, but it would explain why we self-isolated once the last survivors arrived. Surely there were people clamoring to go help our brothers and sisters and others who knew that would only lead to more death. So, a difficult decision had to be made…” His expression looked suddenly tired, weary and worn-out as he looked down over the carnage of the cavern.
“So, you just come here to think?” Lina asked, already picking her way down a steep slope that led to the basin full of mangled machines. Pebbles slipped and rolled underfoot, and she finally yanked her dainty gem-encrusted shoes off with a huff and hurled them up to the top next to Bain. “You’ve never looked at any of this?”
He shook his head slowly. “I think I poked around a bit as a child, but I don’t know how any of it works. It might as well be artifacts of a lost ancient civilization.”
Lina looked back over her shoulder at him, blowing hair out of her face as she climbed down. The path had dropped off to a sheer cliff face and she resorted to climbing down the rock wall with bare hands and feet, her beautiful opalescent gown tattered and tangled around her legs. “It kind of is,” she said.
He nodded. “After seeing how you worked out that kettle so quickly, I thought you’d enjoy seeing the graveyard. If nothing else, there might be parts for other things that need fixing around town.”
Lina didn’t acknowledge that because just then, her feet touched the ground and she was immersed in a world of metal. There were jagged hunks ripped apart, scorched parts flung to the far edges… it looked like a bomb had gone off down here.
But no, there was too much damage and there wasn’t an epicenter. It had to have been several bombs. Someone really didn’t want anyone leaving this planet ever again.
“What I don’t understand...” Lina said, picking through the scrap, looking for anything recognizable that wasn’t just a hull or a door. “If you’re such isolationists, what’s up with the delegations? Don’t they come from other planets? Don’t they have ships?”
“The delegations started a few generations ago. They do have ships, and we have been gifted a couple, but they’re for short-range trips only. Within our solar system. No one in our network has discovered further travel.”
“But maybe they’re close. Maybe this technology could help them figure it out.” She wasn’t an inventor. She was a fixer. Taking all of this wreckage and turning it into a flyable ship wouldn’t be the hardest part. The hard part was programming, making sure the parts she didn’t understand worked. And how could she do that without Mom?
“My mother would never allow it. This place is forbidden because whatever happened to our ancestors was a result of their travels. Repeating the past is something we try to avoid.”
Lina looked up at him, his face shadowed at this angle and unreadable. “But you don’t really know that. You don’t know what destroyed your people anymore than I know why my parents got rid of me. What if it didn’t have anything to do with travel?”
Bain opened his arms wide and gestured around. “Then why all this?”
Lina groaned and threw up her hands. “I don’t know, but aren’t you excited that there might be another way?” He was the one who was bored and restless after all.
Bain stood on the edge of the drop-off, looking down at her thoughtfully. Just when she thought he wasn’t going to respond, he jumped down into the wreckage with her.
“You really think this junk could be something?” The lights from above didn’t reach all the way to the bottom of the basin and it left them cloaked in shadows, all alone, his eyes searching hers without trying to hide the glimmer of hope within them.
Lina nibbled her bottom lip, looking around. A lot of this stuff was junk. It would take a ton of work to sift through it to find anything useful. She didn’t want to give him false hope, but already Lina felt the excitement and possibilities welling up within her. This hidden cavern could be her ticket home.
Finally, she nodded. “Yeah, I do. No guarantees, but if we could find someone that has a better understanding of this stuff, I might be able to put one of these ships back together.”
A wide grin split his face and for just a moment, Lina thought he might kiss her. She even thought she might welcome it. But then his expression fell, his eyes darkening.
“If we get a ship working… You’ll go home won’t you?”
Lina looked down to her bare feet, not wanting to meet his gaze. He was terrible at hiding his emotions and she didn’t think she could bear to see the raw anguish there.
“That’s the plan, isn’t it? I don’t belong here. I don’t know anything of your people or your way of life… You’ve all been more hospitable than I could have asked for, but this isn’t home.” Even as she said it, it felt like a great chasm ripped open in her chest, making it hard to breathe. Painful.
The muscles in his jaw tightened and he looked off to the distance, surveying the mountains of debris they’d have to sort through. He gave her one curt, stiff nod. “I understand,” he said. After another beat of silence, he expelled a big breath with another nod. “Alright. We’ll start sifting through this tomorrow then.”
Lina twinged her neck with how fast her head snapped around. “Really? You mean it?”
Bain nodded again, but now it looked more like a reflex than a conscious choice. “I do. I don’t want us to be stuck here forever when we might have the means for exploration, and you don’t want to stay here if we have the means of getting you home. So, the only reasonable answer is…”
Lina squealed and threw her arms around his neck hugging him for dear life. She was going to go home! It might take some time, it might take a lot of work, but she was going to make it happen if it was the last thing she did. And with Bain’s help, how could they fail?
“Thank you thank you thank you,” she cried happily, still squeezing the life from him as he chuckled and his arms rose to envelop her.
“Don’t thank me just yet. We haven’t figured anything out. This could all amount to nothing, you know.”
Lina nodded, refusing to let him hamper her good mood. “Yeah, but it’ll work out. You’ll see. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
She realized she was still clinging to him when his hands drifted down her sides, settling over her hips. The air in the cavern shifted, suddenly stifling and thick. Bain caught her gaze and Lina’s breath stuck in her throat.
“Call me crazy,” he said, his voice hardly more than a rough whisper brushing past her cheek, “but I do, too.”
Lina blinked. What was happening to her? Something pulled her towards the prince. Not physically, though she felt that too, but on a deeper level. Some part of her was linked with him and every time he was near, the magnets within them both fought to pull closer together. Surely he felt it, too. That heated, determined look in his eyes reflected the molten sensation Lina felt deep within.
“Bain, I—” She had no idea what she was going to say, but they’d never find out. The words were lost in the crash of his lips coming down on hers. She froze for only a moment, surprised by his sudden move, but then she paid attention to the warm press of him, the tingles that spread from her lips through her b
loodstream, and she practically melted against him. Her lips parted and she grazed her teeth over his bottom lip, drawing out a low rumble from his chest that sent satisfaction to the tips of her toes. She’d never kissed anyone before, but the way his fingers tightened on her when he made that sound told her she was doing something right.
But then, just as quickly as it had started, the kiss ended. Bain pulled away from her before she was ready, leaving Lina grasping at the air as he extracted himself from her embrace. Her lips still tingled, and she lifted her fingertips to touch them gingerly, wishing she could seal that feeling into her memory forever.
All the air that had closed in on them making her feel hot and stifled now cooled and Lina wrapped her arms around herself, looking to Bain for answers. But the warmth in his gaze was replaced by that cold stone wall yet again. She knew she must look foolish, just hugging herself and staring at him confused, but Bain knew the question lingering on her tongue and he just shook his head.
“We should head back if we want to start working on this tomorrow,” he said, like the kiss had never happened at all.
Lina’s heart dropped through the floor, but she nodded. “I am pretty tired,” she said, her voice sounding robotic even to herself. She scrambled up the cliff-face, no longer concerned for the state of the dress that had been ruined some time ago, and slipped back into her shoes. The party felt like days ago now, not mere hours, and she’d been telling the truth when she said she was tired. It was an understatement really. Maybe Farita had been right and this was all too much for her still. She didn’t like to put restrictions on herself, but who really knew the long-term effects of matter transportation? Maybe she should take it easy.
Bain led the way out of the cave and they traveled all the way back to the village in silence.
Chapter Eight
For the next week, Bain, Suriah, and Lina all trekked to the cave every day and sorted through the debris. They had piles for useless scrap, for things that might still be in working order, for things that could be salvaged for parts, and for ‘I’m not sure what this is, but it looks interesting.’
