by Alexia Purdy
I ran right into Everlee, who wasn’t moving anymore.
“What are you doing? Move!” I snapped. I needed to get out of that awkward space as soon as humanly possible. I didn’t want to be there anymore. The air was thin, and the stone surrounding us felt as though it would cave in on us at any minute. “I can’t… I can’t breathe in here.”
“Hey, Star—look at me.” His voice softened. His hand grazed mine before snapping it up, holding tightly. “It’s okay. Take a breath. Slowly. In and out. Deep, slow breaths.”
I tried to pull away as my heart raced. I felt faint. He held on, refusing to let go. I stopped fighting and concentrated on his voice. In and out. Slow, deep breaths. I could do this. I had to do it.
A few minutes passed until I finally felt the heaviness on my chest release. My heart still raced, but it had slowed down to a tolerable pace. Everlee kept talking, his voice a welcome and centering presence.
“You good now?” he asked after I stopped shaking.
I nodded but realized he couldn’t see me. “Yes. I’m good.”
“Okay, good. Now it’s my turn. I need your help.”
“What do you mean?” How could I help him? I was definitely the definition of a damsel in distress. It hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t the only one in need.
I frowned at this thought. I was so selfish and full of myself, with little regard for others. I never wanted to hurt anyone, but it seemed my actions affected more than just myself, rippling out from me like a stone in a pond, touching everyone I knew. Even Everlee.
“I need you to shove your weight against my side. I’m sort of stuck.”
I sucked in a breath. Great. Puny little old me was supposed to shove a man through a slender crack in a cave? He was overestimating my abilities.
“Okay,” I said. I didn’t know how I would do it, but I had to try. “Just shove my shoulder into you?”
“Yes. As hard as you can. My shoulder is wedged.”
I nodded but stopped, again reminding myself that the pitch dark around us didn’t let him see anything I was doing. I had more room to move than he did, and I managed to turn my body toward his at least three quarters of the way. I moved forward until I could fold my arm against my ribs and pushed my shoulder into his.
“All right. On three, shove and push as hard as you can,” he said.
“Okay,” I breathed out. At least helping him had pushed my own fear out of my mind.
“One… two… three!”
He grunted as I pushed with all my might, hearing something snap loudly. I wasn’t sure if it was him or me or the rocks as we both fell out the other end of the crevasse and into another cavern. We crashed onto the ground, dust billowing around us in a cloud. I’d landed on Everlee, and as the air cleared, I came face to face with him. His eyes deepened as he looked at me.
“Let’s not do that again. But this… I wouldn’t mind it so much.” He grinned but grimaced as I scrambled to my feet, dusting myself off and throwing him a sharp look. My clothes were now torn up along my stomach from the sharp rocks lining the crevasse. The scrapes beneath stung, but I ignored them as best I could.
“Oh, shut it,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. I held out my shirt and pressed my lips together. “Geez, I’m not having much luck with my wardrobe lately. Yours get torn up too?” I asked, glancing toward Everlee, who was unusually silent and remained sitting up on the ground. I could just see him in the dim illumination of the cavern, which had some light streaming in from holes high above us. I couldn’t tell if it was sunlight from the surface or if it had some other source.
“Commander?” My voice came out small, fear creeping back into me. Rapid breathing with small grunts of pain told me he hadn’t made it out quite as uninjured as I had. “You okay? What’s wrong?”
I closed the gap between us, dropping to my knees to find him holding his arm. His shirt was ripped to shreds, and his right arm dangled as though it were no longer attached. I watched in horror as he fiddled with it, blood streaming from above his elbow where his skin had torn, and sparks flew out from the injury. Beneath, I could just see a hint of metal and wires, clicking with tiny gears moving, some sitting still as though broken.
“You—you’re one of them!”
Chapter Three
Star
I gasped, backing away until my shock dropped down a notch or two. “You’re like Fran. A robot, an android… aren’t you?”
He moaned in pain, ripping the bottom of his shirt to wrap around the injury before answering.
“I’m not a robot, thank you. Don’t just sit there. Give me your shirt, it’ll be easier to rip. I need to make a sling for my arm.”
I shook my head. How was he not a robot? He had an artificial limb! He was either an android or….
“Are you a cyborg?” I asked as he tied the tourniquet with his teeth.
“You could say that. Your shirt, please.” His voice was tense from the pain.
“Oh.”
My cheeks reddened as I realized he really meant for me to give him my torn-up shirt. I turned around, took off the jacket, and brought the shirt over my head. I wasn’t wearing anything beneath it. Shivering, I quickly pulled the jacket back over my shoulders and hastily zipped it up, hoping he hadn’t seen much. It was pretty dark, but our silhouettes still stood out in the faint illumination surrounding us. I held out the shirt to him and he took it, grinning slyly, enjoying my inhibitions.
I bet he knew I was as red as a beet, even in the dark. I had no bra on and no camisole, since I’d left the globe prison in my pajamas. I felt oddly naked beneath the jacket, even with it firmly back on. The tears on the arms and back still caused a draft to enter, exposing some skin. I shivered, wrapping my arms around my body.
He ripped the shirt, slid the widened neckline around his head, and tucked his dead arm into it. Once secured, he fumbled to his feet and adjusted the sling to keep his arm from flopping out of it like a dead fish.
“What are you?” I asked, trying not to appear shocked, although I was. It wasn’t like I hadn’t met another robot before. Fran had explained how many women in our society were not even real but were actually robots, since females were rarely born, and appearances were important in our society. They filled the empty space caused by the lack of women.
“I’m human, just like you, but I’ve had enhancements and mechanical additions. I lost my arm during a firefight when my unit was ambushed by a group of thieves who salvage metal and machinery. They’d set a trap for us, and the explosion wounded my arm. Most soldiers get prosthetics that allow for normal motility, but I was offered integrated sensory and motion limb replacement.”
“So as I said, you’re a cyborg,” I stated. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
He shrugged, narrowing his eyes at me. “I didn’t think it was even relevant. It’s made to look like human flesh for a reason.”
I stepped forward and eyed the rip in his arm, partially hidden while he bent it. I could still hear the broken gears clicking over and over, failing to do the job they were intended for. He’d have to get it fixed. I briefly wondered if I could do it, but I wasn’t trained for that sort of thing. The mechanical parts I could work with, but there was so much blood. How was that connected to him? The nerves? The live tissue? His skin and bones?
He mistook my curiosity for disgust, tensing up under my inspection.
“If it bothers you so much, don’t look at it. Come on, we’re wasting time,” he snapped, breaking me out of my trance. I looked up and caught a slight look of hurt in his face before he turned away and marched down the cavern to where a tunnel formed and led away. My shoulders slumped. I had offended him with my study of his arm.
“It doesn’t bother me,” I called out to him, but he was muttering to himself as he continued, not waiting or turning around to see if I was following him. I sighed, rubbing my eyes. His moods could get so dark. I definitely preferred it when he was a
mused and snarky than when he was withdrawn and broody.
Everlee continued on in silence, never glancing back at me. I guessed he could just hear me stumbling behind him. Maybe he’d had artificial hearing installed as well. How could anyone tell how much of him was truly Everlee and how much was machine? I wanted to ask him but kept it to myself. Maybe I’d be able to ask him at a later time, when he was calmer, but at that moment, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
“We’re almost there,” Everlee said, breaking the silence as the tunnel expanded in width. The air felt fresher, as though it were circulating somehow, and lacked the mustier smell of the tunnels and ravine. I took in a deep breath, feeling elated. This meant we were closer to the surface or closer to the Glass Sky.
We came to a small room at the end of the tunnel, and Everlee cursed, staring at an enormous stone wall creating a dead-end right in our path.
It looked like something or someone was trying extremely hard to keep us from reaching the city. My heart sank.
Chapter Four
Everlee (Gideon)
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
I flung out curses as I stepped closer to the sheet of rock looming high above us and meeting the edges of the cavern in every direction. How something so large could have been moved into place was beyond explanation. I stood there dumfounded as I took in the expanse of heavy stone blocking our way.
“I take it this isn’t supposed to be here, right?” Star asked, knowing full well what my answer would be.
“Of course not,” I muttered, shaking my head.
Etched into the stone were symbols and letters of a familiar dialect. Star waited as I felt along the wall, sputtering more curses under my breath. I was sweating profusely, drenching what was left of the back of my shirt. It dripped from the ends of my hair as though I’d been soaked by rain.
“Are you all right?” Star asked, her voice full of concern.
I continued to scrutinize the wall with its oddly shaped characters carved into it like an archeological artifact. I looked up toward the roof of the cavern and saw that there was a small opening at the top of the wall. Sweeping my eyes from one end to the other, I realized it was symmetrical in an unnatural way.
“This wall isn’t a natural formation, is it?” Star said.
I slapped the wall in frustration, pressing my forehead to the cold stone. Nothing had gone as planned at all. I couldn’t lose my grip now, not after all the progress we’d made. There had to be something we could do. If I lost my composure now… I didn’t want to think about what could happen. Star was probably thinking this was some pathetic rescue.
“Commander?” Star spoke, snapping me out of my stupor.
“Let me think already,” I grumbled, glaring at her as I pushed off the wall. She pulled her eyes away from my withering look, and I felt bad immediately. “This wall isn’t manmade. It’s made by the Others.”
She stared at me in disbelief. “The Others?”
I looked at her again. My anger had dissipated, and the fatigue had set back in. We were both hungry and dehydrated. I had never planned to hit so many obstacles on the way to the Glass Sky City.
“The way was clear the last time I came through here,” I said. “The wall must’ve been erected within the last four weeks.”
Her eyes grew wider, her jaw dropping. “You mean it wasn’t here at all five weeks ago?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s completely new.”
She tilted her head, studying the wall. “It looks like it’s been here forever.”
“That’s because they use magic to move stone. Their spells are written on the stone. See?” I pointed to the runes carved into the wall. “Each one is a word. A chant to keep the Dark Ones out.” My fingers slid across the indentations of several of the characters.
“You can read their language?” she asked, shocked.
I nodded, facing her. “Yes.”
“How did you learn to read it?” A spark of curiosity grew in her eyes.
“I’ve studied their language for years,” I answered, squirming a bit. The pain in my arm wasn’t the reason why either. There were some things better left unsaid.
“Why would you study them?” She examined the runes with great interest.
Why was I even surprised? Nothing was ever what it was supposed to be in the underground. Star was a bag of tricks herself, more mysterious than I ever could have predicted.
“Because someone has to mediate between us and them. I chose to study their speech so I could interpret. There are a few of us who can interpret, but we always need more people for the job. No one wants to do it. Another thing I volunteered for.”
“Oh,” was all she could say. I didn’t know why I’d expected her to say much more.
“What about the Dark Ones? What are they?”
“The Dark Ones are Others as well, but they’ve been banished from their territories. There’s dozens of them: the Crystal, Obsidian Court, Glass court… just to name a few. The Dark Ones have no loyalties to any of them and thrive on chaos and destruction. You don’t want to run into them alone. They’re extremely dangerous.”
“Why would either of them put a wall here? I thought you said we were heading away from their territories in the deeper caverns.” I could see that I was overwhelming her with information.
“I don’t know. That is the question, isn’t it, Star-girl?” I chuckled but stopped as I caught her acidic glare. “I think the Dark Ones must be moving around, past their domain and into the Crystal Court’s outer realms. If that’s what’s happening, they’re taking precautions and have blocked off access to the Glass Sky City as well.”
Star groaned. “So how are we going to get out of here? We need food and water soon, or we won’t have any energy to continue on. I don’t really want to die of hunger and thirst down here. Not the way I want to go.”
“Me neither, Star-girl.”
She frowned. “Don’t call me Star-girl!”
I didn’t comment, already intently staring back at the wall. I stepped closer to an area on the left side of it, where a small hole had been formed within one of the runes.
“Totem of darkness,” I read aloud. I turned to her and smiled.
“What the heck are you so happy about?” she snapped. She was so hungry and cold; I could forgive her for the outburst. The darkness had a sort of sadness to it, sucking out one’s life force like a leech. I could feel something in the air, something unfamiliar and malevolent. It swirled about us, touching our skin like it wanted a piece of us to study. I shuddered, a bad feeling flooding my guts. That usually meant nothing good was about to happen.
“Give me my totem, Star. I need to try something.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me, probably thinking I was crazy.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I never said I knew everything about the Others. The Obsidian Court has helped me learn some of the runes too, and I’ve helped them when they were in need. In return, I was given this totem.”
“What? You mean your totem is from one of the darker courts?”
I nodded.
“How can you trust them? You said they were dangerous.”
I sighed, scratching my head and rubbing the sweat away from my face. Now it was my turn to groan in frustration as my patience waned.
“They are dangerous. All the courts and Dark Ones are, but nothing is black and white about any of this, Star. The courts are always at odds, but that doesn’t mean any one of them are exclusively good or bad. The Others tend to blur the lines when it comes to that.” I cleared my throat. “Now, can I have my totem back, please?” I held out my hand and motioned for her to return it.
She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she tugged the key out of her pants pocket. As she held it out to me, I threw her a satisfied grin. Taking it, I limped back to the keyhole I’d found in the wall. She looked horrified at the way I was limping. Maybe she thought she was a goner now that her guide w
as injured. I straightened, attempting to hide just how much pain I was in.
The fissure we’d used to get to this spot had been too tight to squeeze through. When we’d fallen through the other side, I’d fractured and torn my arm and probably bruised or cracked a hip or leg. I didn’t doubt my pallor and diaphoretic appearance wasn’t hard to miss. The injury felt darn near unbearable.
She stepped toward me as I struggled to get the totem inserted into the keyhole. My fingers shook and missed each time I tried to insert the key.
“Here, give it to me.” She held out her hand, and I glared in her direction. I wasn’t the kind of guy who accepted help, but it was obvious this wasn’t working. I gave up and placed it in her hand.
“I’m not left-handed,” I explained. “I’ve always used my right, even with the prosthetic. Plus, I can’t stop shaking.”
She turned and peered at the tiny slit in the huge slab of stone. The rune’s design disguised it well. She slipped the key in, pressed her lips together tightly, and glanced over at me.
“Everlee… What if it’s a booby trap?”
I suppressed a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You must have watched a lot of old movies where the characters were always falling into trouble, right?”
“Well, it’s a possibility. Any fiction is always based in reality. You said that yourself.” She rolled her eyes, looking flustered. Maybe I made her nervous with my snarky remarks. She was so naïve, so innocent and unaware of the treacherous world around her. Looking at her, I suddenly felt protective toward her in a way I’d never felt toward anyone.
