Together we walk back into my room, and I crawl under the heavy blankets. My mother kisses my forehead and says, “We’re okay without him.” I watch as she leaves and closes the door behind her. I reach over and pull open the drawer of my nightstand. I take out an old picture of my father, Titus, and I.
“I miss you,” I say in a hushed voice, thinking somehow he’d be able to hear me.
I remember when we took this picture like it was yesterday. It’s the last moment I spent with my father. We were celebrating his birthday. Well, all of our birthday’s really. Titus, my father, and I all had birthdays throughout July. My mother said she wanted to take our picture so she had my father and I sit on the couch and he held Titus in his arms. He made some joke about how old he was getting, and my mother captured the picture with us both in mid-laugh, but only half of my father got captured in the picture. My eyes scan the photograph, looking in my father’s face for some explanation to his disappearance, but the answers aren’t captured here. I place it on top of my nightstand and roll over on my side.
Slowly, I start to feel myself drift back to sleep until I hear a loud bang on the front door. A second later I hear the door being smashed down and booming voices fill the house. “This is the Garth Patrol. You are under arrest for failure to maintain your payments to the King.” Suddenly my door is swung open and a guard grabs my arm. He yanks me out of bed, and at the last second, I grab the photograph off of my nightstand.
In the loud chaos that rings throughout my house, I feel my mind fall distant as I watch the world around me crumble away. I wish I had known that night was the last I’d ever get to sit at that dinner table with my mother. The last night I’d have a bed of my own or a bed at all. The last night I would get to be a kid.
“I remember you telling me your father was missing,” Alexander says to me. “I hadn’t realized he left.”
I nod my head. “I hate talking about him,” I say harshly. “He’s the reason we were ever thrown in prison in the first place.” When I say this I realize he is also the reason my mother and brother are dead. I hadn’t thought my hatred for him could grow anymore, but it does. I still have the photograph from that night in my pocket and I feel as though it burns against me.
“So what all happened after you realized my family had been taken in as prisoners? You were in a similar situation except it was your mother that left you,” I ask, turning the conversation off of me. I realize my comment about his mother leaving may have been a bit harsh but he doesn’t seem to think so. I vaguely remember her just telling them she wanted to live a different life and left. At least he got some explanation and she actually said goodbye. I don’t need to explain the rest of what I’ve been through. He isn’t interested in hearing what it was like living in a cell for seven years.
“Well, like I said, after your family was taken in my father went to work for King Renon. I went with him since my mother was gone, and we worked together. We got to live in the castle,” Alexander says as though it is something to brag about. “Although I didn’t work much, I mostly explored the castle, but of course I had my boundaries. Like no going down into the prison, and no going into the treasury,” he pauses and glances to me. “I wanted to walk down and talk to you. To let you know you weren’t alone. I wanted to make sure you were okay, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have people doing the checking on you for me. Alyssa got you those books, right?”
Silence settles between us and I stop walking. “You got me those books?” I ask and scan his face. Those books kept my brother and me sane. Alexander has been trying to help me all this time, but I had no idea.
“Yeah, I found out Alyssa was in charge of taking meals down to the prison and I’d ask about you and your family all the time.” Alexander drops his head and his cheeks flush a light pink. If I’m being honest I haven’t thought about anyone from the outside of the cell for seven years, but he has been doing the exact opposite. Alexander begins walking again and I follow. “She told me you had wanted books to help pass the time so I collected some and had her sneak them down to you.”
Alexander continues to talk about living in the castle and how he still attended school until his father disappeared. He has definitely lived a much more luxurious life than I have. He always had enough food to eat, a bed of his own to sleep in, and a constant feeling of safety. When I imagined escaping the prison hiding in the woods with a former guard was not what I was expecting.
As Alexander tells his stories I catch myself scanning him, and I realize I’m going to need to decide if staying with him is my best option. I want to trust him, but he is the spitting image of the kind of people I hate. The ones who get everything handed to them, and have never had to worry for their lives. As much as my mind tries to place Alexander in that role though, some things stick out to me. Like the books he got me, the effort he put into knowing I was okay, and the way he talked about my mother’s death. My brain sees him as a threat, as the enemy, a guard at the castle, but my heart feels he is a friend. The question is, which one is right?
Chapter 4
The sun is starting to set and we need to find a place to stop for the night. Up ahead I see a formation of large boulders. As we get closer I notice that there is an opening, creating a small cave.
“We’ll stop here for the night,” Alexander says, examining the makeshift shelter.
“Good, looks sturdy enough and right next to a creek. That’ll be good for food and water,” I list off, trying not to be completely useless to him.
“We can eat these berries too,” he says and points to a bush full of colorful yellow berries. They are common in our town. Almost everyone can afford them, but my family was lucky enough to have bushes of them in our backyard. We call them ray berries. Not only because of their bright color but also because of the warm juices inside. “We will start our fire once it is completely dark. That way the smoke is as hidden as possible. No one will be close enough to us to see its flames either. We’ll put out the fire at the first signs of daylight, and cook any fish we catch in the morning on the hot coals. Okay?” he asks bluntly. I agree, feeling just as useless as I had before.
As Alexander starts to collect wood for the fire I go over and fill my hands full of ray berries, and refill our water bottles that Alexander had brought with him. I have been dying to use my gift out here. There are so many possible things I could do, things I could build, but I resist. I’m not ready to tell Alexander about my gift. I’ve always had a problem with trusting people. This is just another one of those cases. Plus, I don’t even really know how to use it and that’s kind of embarrassing.
Once my hands are full of berries I return to the cave. “Maybe we should see how your injuries are doing,” Alexander says and I go and sit next to him.
He starts to unravel the first bandage on my arm and I ask, “What exactly happened last night?” My mind starts to walk through the night’s events over Alexander’s voice; me running through the castle, learning how to teleport, running through the maze, my mother and Titus being killed, and then my train of thought stops. Mother and Titus. I suddenly feel the sorrow and pain I told myself not to have wash over me, but I need to be strong.
“Well, for one, all the injuries came from your fall on the rocks,” I hear Alexander say and I let the thought of my mother and Titus go. “Everything after that was running through the woods downhill. I found a place to stop and bandaged everything up. Unfortunately, I’m not a trained professional so I couldn’t tell you how severe the wounds looked. Plus, it was dark so cut me some slack.” The first bandage falls off my arm and I can see that the wound is just a scratch now. I exhale with relief.
“So I can tell you that you shouldn’t worry about this wound,” Alexander says. Then he unties the one on my head and thankfully, according to what he says, it isn’t bad at all. “There are only a few scrapes that are scabbed up and a couple of bruises. So this one should be just fine.”
I respond, “It’s a good thing your
survival skills are better than your medical skills or else we’d have a problem.” I turn my head and take a look at the scenery around us. Alexander starts the fire and it comes to life in front of us, giving off immense amounts of heat. It’s the only source of light in this pool of darkness. I look up through the thick arch of tree branches and see the thousands of stars that I have been dying to see again. Alexander notices that I’m looking at the stars and he knows that I’ve missed being out here.
He throws his arms over my shoulder and says, “Just like old times, right? Remember when we used to go out and camp in the woods?”
I turn my focus from the stars to him. “Of course. Especially when you would get scared and cry, begging me to walk you back home. I hope you’ve outgrown that fear of the dark,” I say, reliving the memory. I look back up at the stars and for the first time in over seven years, I feel happy and free.
I can barely remember the feeling of both happiness and freedom. Freedom I think to myself and for the first time in a while I let myself think of being free; running through the grass, playing in the creeks, and climbing the trees. I actually think I might even miss school.
This would be my last year since our school levels stop at 12th grade. After that, you have to get a job or go to work with the castle. Then I realize I won’t even get to finish school or get a job in the town I was born in. This freedom I have been granted with is going to be much different from any life I had once pictured having because now I’m a fugitive. Now I have the nation’s best commanders searching for me.
“Alexander,” I say, my weak voice cracking.
“Yeah?” he asks, turning his head to me, but I don’t meet his eyes.
“How long do you think they’re going to search for us? Will we spend the rest of our lives running from them?” I ask as the haunting thought settles in my mind.
He tightens his arm trying to give me some comfort. “It’s hard to say, Adaline. I know that there has to be something important about us if King Renon has sent Paylon out here, but maybe if we can stay hidden long enough they will call off the search.” I can think of a few reasons why King Renon would send someone as important as Paylon out to find us, and my mind lingers on the two soldiers I killed during my escape last night.
“Where are we even going? Do you even know what’s out here in these woods?” I ask.
“Not much I’m afraid. Here,” Alexander pauses and pulls out a tattered piece of cloth from his bag. He unfolds it and I see that it is a map of Dather and all the surrounding islands. He hands the map to me and I hold the fragile piece of fabric in my hands as he continues, “You can pick where we go.”
I let my eyes gaze over the old map. There isn’t much on the map for Dather. I see Garth labeled and the forest. There’s a small town that sits on the very edge of the island called Sard. I’ve heard of it before, it’s where all the factories that produce the clothing we wear and the warehouses that store the food we buy are located. King Renon will have word of our disappearance there before we even wake up tomorrow, and even though Alexander’s survival skills are quite excellent I’m not sure how long we can live off of ray berries. I haven’t even seen a single animal out here.
I’m about to admit that I’m out of ideas when I notice an island just off the shore of Dather by Sard. Libertas is written in a small cursive print next to it. A small memory starts to return to me. I close my eyes and my father’s face swims into view. I watch as he hands me a small book. I see my little hand reach across the cover and open the book. The first page is a map of a single island. Scribbled across the top of the page is the title Libertas.
The island is broken up into five sections with the capital placed directly in the center. I hear my father’s voice say, “This is where we are moving to Adaline. This is where our new home will be.” There’s a loud knock on the door and I see worry rise in my father’s face.
I open my eyes and see the orange flick of a fire in front of me. I’m back in the woods. “Here. We are going here.” I let my index finger grace the map where Libertas is located.
“All right, then that’s where we are headed.” I look up to him and see a confused look on his face.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Nothing, I just realized I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything about that island,” he says perplexed.
“I think I remember my father talking about it before,” I mumble. I hand the map back to Alexander and he places it back in his bag.
“Tomorrow will be another long day of traveling so we should get some rest,” Alexander says between a large yawn. He stands and starts to move his things into the small cave.
“In a second,” I say and lay down on the forest floor. I lay here on my side, watching the glowing orange fire dance against the black night backdrop. The thought of putting myself inside a small and closed space makes me sick. So instead, I lay out by the fire. It doesn’t take long for the bright orange flames to pull me into a heavy trance, and after a while my eyelids fall closed.
I awake to oddly familiar surroundings. The cold stone ground, being surrounded by a dark and dim light, the feeling of soreness in my back, and the eerie silence. It all suddenly reminds me of the cell my mother, Titus, and I were in for seven years. Then, pictures of Alexander and I in the woods appear in my mind. Did I just dream all of that?
My heart quickens as flashes of my life in the prison mix in with those of Alexander and I can’t keep the two straight. I’m caught somewhere between reality and what’s in my head. I hear the screams of the other children in the prison, slowly dying from starvation, their cries ringing in my ears. The man in the cell next to mine, Mr. Stevens, crying over the loss of his wife and daughter still haunting me. “I didn’t want to do it,” he cries over and over on an endless loop trying to force himself to believe he did the right thing by killing them so they wouldn’t have to suffer. All of these horrible things aching inside of me, but there’s one light. I see Alexander’s face, pure and comforting. It’s like coming home after being lost for so long. The flashes from the prison cell stop coming and the only sound in the dark room is my heavy breathing.
I roll over, half expecting to see my mother and Titus lying in the corner on the old torn up mattress, but find myself coming face to face with a sleeping Alexander. Relief and sadness wash over me. Relief that the memories from last night were not a dream, that I actually am here with Alexander, but sadness because it just reminds me again that my mother and Titus are really gone.
Alexander must have moved us into the cave after I had fallen asleep. It’s still dark outside, but I can start to make out rays of sunlight. I crawl to the entrance of the cave and try not to wake Alexander. I take in deep breaths of the morning air and remind myself that I am not locked up. I am not trapped. I look out of our small quiet cave and I see that our fire has died off overnight. I can still make out hints of smoke coming off the still warm stones.
There’s a soft sound of running water from the creek to my left. I look back into the cave and see Alexander still asleep, and then I turn back to the creek and see fish swimming through it. My first thought is to use my gift to move the fish from the creek to the hot stones. I look into the creek and follow the slimy creatures with my eyes. I focus harder and harder and try to see them from the creek to the stones. The creek starts to ripple and splash, but I can’t get control of any of the fish. It’s no use. The adrenaline from escaping the castle made using this gift much easier.
When I was younger my father used to take me out into the woods all the time. I remember one specific summer day when we had gone together. I was only five so my father carried me up on his shoulders. We had been walking along a creek that day and I remember looking down over his head at the little fish swimming in the currents.
“Daddy, I want a pet fish,” I squealed and kicked my feet against his chest.
“Adaline, we can’t take these little guys back with us. We have nothing to carry them in. Plus this is t
heir home,” I remember his warm voice had said to me. He stopped and looked down to the river for a moment. I think I remember crying. I always used to throw tantrums when things didn’t go my way.
He put me down next to the river and started digging a shallow hole at the edge. I remember him explaining to me that he was going to build a fishpond for my fish. He dug a deep round hole next to the river and left a little sliver of dirt between the two. Then he removed the barrier wall and let the water flow into his hole. I remember kneeling there with my face inches from the water, waiting for a fish to swim into it.
Then, the current brought this little shiny yellow sliver of a fish into it. As soon as it did my father got a big rock and put it between my pond and the creek.
“There you go! Your own little fish,” he had said and I’m sure I jumped up and down with excitement. I remember after the excitement had worn off I got really sad because the fish was all by himself so I told my father we needed to get him some friends.
We spent the rest of the afternoon pushing fish into our little pond and I remember lying next to it on my belly, just poking my fingers in and out of the water, watching the fish swim around me. “We’re playing,” I remember telling my father. The memory starts to slip away and I’m back to staring at this creek that has calmed since my gift sent ripples through it. I miss him… but I hate him. I realize I hope he’s dead because it’s not fair he gets to live and my mother and brother don’t. If I ever find him he’s going to wish he were dead.
I kneel next to the creek and watch the fish swim around. I try to push my father from my mind as much as I can because I don’t have the energy to waste on thoughts of him right now. Then, I start digging a deep hole next to the river. If it worked for my father maybe it’ll work for me. After I’ve got a deep enough hole I tear down the barrier between it and the creek. I watch the water slosh into my hole filling it to the top. I grab a large rock to use as my barrier and wait for a fish to swim into my trap.
The Markings Page 4
