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by Jaymin Eve
Warmth settled into the seat beside me, and I turned to find Rome. His huge body was blocking out the sight of his brothers, but somehow I knew they were sitting in the seats in front and behind me. Thanks, soul stealers.
I turned back to the view, pressing my hands to the glass. “Is this what the gods see every sun-cycle?” My words were low, husky. For a click, I let myself bathe in the beauty which was right before me.
Rome leaned in closer, his head resting close to mine as he followed my line of sight. “The gods rarely look beyond their own noses. Sols are the same, always striving to become gods. That’s all either of them see. It’s always the dwellers who stop and appreciate the beauty. The gifts. Why do you think that is?”
I swivelled in my chair so that I could see him better. Rome pulled back a little, the intensity of his eyes dazzling. “What are you dweller? What makes you see the world the way you do?’
I found myself shaking my head, blinking a few times. “I … I don’t know. I guess when this is the best you can hope for, you appreciate it. Gods have Topia. Sols have the hope of Topia and dwellers … we just have Minatsol. This is the best for us.”
That was such an Emmy answer. She would totally be so proud of me right now. Rome didn’t say anything more, but I could tell my words had struck something within him. He seemed thoughtful, his brows furrowed and his eyes searching mine. I jumped as the train let out another loud whooshing noise, and with a jolt we started to move. I settled back into my seat, Rome did the same, and we both kept our heads turned toward the view. The valleys gave way to massive expanses of water, the same water we had crossed in the barges, but this time I got to really see the vastness. It formed a huge circle around Blesswood, the early morning rays of sun highlighted colours across the surface, shifting from the deepest cobalt blue, to the lightest of turquoises.
“I want to learn how to swim.” The demand burst out of me before I could think about it.
Yael’s head appeared above the seat in front of me. “Is this another excuse for you to take your clothes off?”
I glared, narrowing my eyes as far as I could whilst still being able to see him. “No! I will be learning to swim fully clothed. I love clothes. I’m never taking my clothes off again.”
Siret’s mutters drifted up then; he must have been sitting beside Yael. “That’s really disappointing, Soldier.”
Crossing my arms, I dismissed them all, and focused on my water. Unlike the Abcurses, I was going to claim that beauty. It was worth claiming.
Eighteen
The train ride was close to the most awesome thing that I had ever done in my life. Sitting just behind my first view of Topia. Topia was more beautiful, but it also had asshole gods and Jeffreys. Neither of which were comfortable to be around. On the train, it was just me and the Abcurses, and a view which drifted from one beauty to the next. The metal beast climbed up the cliff with the multitude of waterfalls, across the plains of Blesswood’s territory, and then into the rolling hills of Soldel.
A crowd of sols and dwellers were on the platform when we emerged. Siret, Yael, and Coen went out first, and I was next, followed by Rome and Aros. The sols appeared to be waiting for the train. I supposed that it would continue on to Dvadel and Tridel, after leaving Soldel. The dwellers were there to load bags and to clean the station. I knew this because that’s exactly what the few dwellers present were doing.
Of course, there was no time to stop and chat—we had ass-kicking to do and sols to get revenge on. The usual for a sun-cycle with the Abcurses. They moved as a single unit of zero-fucks-given through the crowd. They didn’t get out of the way for anyone … actually they didn’t even have to attempt to avoid anyone, since sols and dwellers alike moved for them. They were striding quickly and with purpose—two things that would have tripped me up, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was wedged right in the centre between Aros and Yael, both of whom had a hand on me, half carrying me.
We moved off the train platform, which I now noticed was located right on the side of the Minateurs’ training facility: the shiny, extra-perfect building I remembered from my journey with Emmy. We didn’t go inside, but passed the wide-open double-doors, and I could see enough to know it’s interior was not quite as fancy as some of Blesswood’s academy buildings, though it came close. Definitely designed by the same sols. No time to think about that though, we were out in the streets now, walking the same path I had driven in the bullsen cart with Jerath. I hadn’t seen that dweller-on-a-power-trip for a while. I wondered where he’d gotten to.
Rome and Siret had taken point now—I knew that because they told me, and since I had no idea what ‘point’ was, I just nodded and smiled. Seriously, was there a damn name for everything people did? Anyway, apparently ‘point people’ went in the lead and ran the risk of being taken out by angry Elowins. The Points veered off the path, and we all followed a few steps later. We now walked between small hut-style homes, and interspersed were some of those larger houses with the gates and fences. I still had no idea what they were trying to keep in … or out. Either way, this was a fancy part of town, even in the already-fancy Soldel.
Siret held up a hand and everyone knew that signal. Everyone except me, that was. When Point People hold up a hand, you stop. I, on the other hand, did not stop and ended up crashing right into a pole. Where the hell did that come from?
As I rubbed my face, Aros lifted me up and into his arms. “Quiet,” he murmured into my ear, before he moved with his brothers backwards, right into the shadow of a huge house. “Minateurs on patrol.” The seduction-gifted sol added, before wrapping a hand around my mouth.
Come on, I wasn’t going to talk. Probably not anyways.
His chest moved in a silent laugh, his arm wrapping around me a little tighter. I rested against him, allowing the calming nature of his closeness to soothe my rough edges. I seemed to be more rough than smooth right now, and any comfort was good.
I finally picked up the sound of the patrol, a good five clicks after the Abcurses. I was totally built for this world of stealth. I was a little surprised that they were hiding, though. That didn’t seem like their style.
Coen answered that question once the five guards were past, and we were moving again. “We don’t want Elowin to be warned of our approach,” he said, his voice brittle. “She’ll run again and I’m not in the mood to track her down.”
Yeah, me either. No mood for that.
Siret was back in his position of Point, and from there he cut a straight path to the entrance of a skyreacher.
Holy crap! Emmy was going to lose her mind when she heard about this.
“Don’t let it collapse on me,” I pleaded, my voice a little high as we walked through the door. Or stalked, more accurately. We were all badass again, stalking and shit. Elowin was going down. I would be the sixth in line to take a shot at her … no need to go first, Point had already been claimed. We approached a large, polished cage, and I found myself distracted by the dweller who was standing beside it, his hand resting on a huge, wooden pulley. I was staring at him because he was by far the biggest dweller that I had ever seen. He had muscles upon muscles, and height to go with it. I might have even mistaken him for a sol, except that other than his size, he was typically plain-looking. His clothes were dull and modest—and he was staring back at me, I realised.
I glanced down at myself, at the clothes that were far too fancy for a dweller, even though they were simple and dark-toned. The material was still sol-quality, meaning that the boys had robbed some poor girl who was around my height and stature, or else the clothes were another manifestation of Trickery’s magic. Which was actually a little weird … because that meant that he had designed my underwear. Actually, it was weird in either scenario, because the alternative was that I was wearing some other girl’s underwear.
Muscle Dweller was still staring at me, his mouth popped open a little bit. It must have been obvious that I was a dweller. It was probably the wild curls that h
adn’t been brushed in a few sun-cycles, and the way I barely even topped the triplets’ shoulders, even though they were shorter than the twins.
“Eyes on the wheel, dweller,” Coen snapped to Muscle Dweller, herding us into the cage.
“And eyes on us, Willa,” Siret added. He sounded serious, which was a new tone for him.
I gave him a surprised look, but he only met my eye stubbornly. Challenging me to argue with him. Well … I wasn’t going to argue with him before, but he challenged me, dammit. I opened my mouth, ready to shoot off some retort, but the cage chose that moment to lurch, and I tumbled sideways into Rome. He looked down at me, planting a hand on my shoulder to keep me steady as the cage began to rise. I tried not to squeal, but some kind of a sound must have escaped me, because one of the crazy sols stuffed into the cage with me laughed.
“She’s never been in a cage before,” Yael noted, sounding amused.
“I’ve been in plenty of cages,” I returned, huddling into Rome so that I didn’t accidently fall out of the cage—even though I probably wouldn’t fit through the bars. “I got stuffed into a cage by my mother that time a visitor came over to talk to her in private, and Teacher Fern used to lock me in a cage every time we had physical fitness classes. She wasn’t allowed to actually ban me from the class, since attendance was mandatory … so she just put me in a cage in the middle of the back field, and all the other kids ran laps around me—”
“You’re getting off-track again, Rocks,” Coen interrupted.
“Right.” I shook my head. “Point is, I’ve just never been in a moving cage, because cages aren’t supposed to move!”
“It’s how you get to the higher rooms.” Rome’s voice rumbled through his chest, vibrating against my cheek, and I turned my face up a little to look at him.
His hand slipped from my shoulder to the middle of my back, pressing me closer for a moment, before his gem-like eyes flicked away.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked. “Are we going to wait outside her home for her to leave and then … what?”
“We don’t wait. We break in, and then we kill her,” Coen informed me stoically.
“What?” I managed, choking over the word. “I thought you were just saying that. Like being dramatic and stuff.”
Coen spun as the cage groaned to a stop, his intense eyes glittering down at me. “I’m never dramatic and stuff,” he said, grabbing the front of my shirt and hauling me out of the cage.
We ended up in a hallway, with several, numbered doors spaced out right to the end. They were like the dorm rooms back at the academy. Coen took the lead, dropping my shirt to grab my hand instead, and we stopped in front of Number 113. He dropped my hand, and I knew that he was moments away from kicking the door down like a crazy, deranged sol, so I quickly raised my fist and knocked. They all turned to stare at me, looking like I’d just stolen their favourite toy and ripped its head off.
“What?” I asked defensively. “Just trying to be polite.”
“We’re here to kill her,” Siret reminded me, his voice a frustrated groan.
“Don’t see why we can’t kill her politely,” I muttered back. “And … I mean … don’t really see why we have to kill her at all.”
The door swung open then, and Elowin’s shocked eyes took us in for a moment, before she tried to slam the door back in our faces. Coen pounced forward, knocking the door fully open and, as a result, knocking Elowin to the ground as well. I hurried in after Coen, the others at my back. I wasn’t so excited about the kick-ass mission anymore. I didn’t really want to murder anybody, even if they had locked me in a magical dungeon with the intention of eventually getting rid of me.
“Guys—” I started, a little hesitantly, scrambling to Elowin’s side and trying to help her up.
I never got to finish my request, however, because Elowin seized me, dragging me upright as she stood, and a flash of silver was the only warning I got before there was a dagger at my throat. The five Abcurses froze, staring at the knife. I could have sworn that they even stopped breathing.
Elowin laughed. “That’s right. Good boys. You don’t want me to kill your little toy now, do you?”
Yael started forward immediately. I guessed it was only okay when he called me a toy, and not anyone else. I tried to suck in as little air as possible, not wanting to push my throat out against the blade, but it didn’t seem to be working. Either that, or Elowin was beginning to apply pressure. I winced, feeling the break in my skin, and Yael paused, his chest heaving with the heavy motion of his breathing.
“Nobody fucking move,” Aros instructed quietly, as if even the sudden sound of his voice would convince Elowin to cut me deeper.
“Yes, nobody move,” Elowin parroted, skipping over the swear word like a complete, knife-wielding snob.
I could feel the dribble of blood that was creeping down my neck, catching on the material of my shirt. Yet another shirt ruined, not that it was important right now. I wondered if Elowin would actually kill me. It didn’t seem likely, but the tighter she pressed the knife to my skin, the more the likeliness grew, and the higher the panic clawed up through me.
Until Yael spoke.
“Elowin.” It was just the one word, delivered so precisely, so calmly, but it dropped right over my head and knocked me out a little bit.
Suddenly, everything was okay. The panic evaporated, the world slowed down around me, and the pain of the blade against my neck eased.
“Release the dweller,” Yael suggested, his tone almost conversational.
I blinked, trying to figure out why the pleasant suggestion sounded off. I was suddenly sure that Yael and Elowin were close friends, and that we had all come over for a friendly visit. The insistent thought was pushing into my mind, warring with the fact that she was holding a knife to my throat. That didn’t seem like a thing you did on casual visits with your friends. Elowin seemed to come to the same conclusion, because the knife drew further away.
“I’m … I’m so sorry,” she muttered, releasing me.
I stumbled forward a step, and all hell broke loose. Rome grabbed me, lifting me into the air and tossing me to the side. I yelped, sure that I was about to land flat on my face, but hands plucked me from the air easily, catching me against a hard chest. I looked up at Aros, completely disoriented, because it seemed that we were suddenly on the other side of the room, and I couldn’t figure out how we had gotten there so quickly. I wiggled and twisted, trying to see the others, and Aros set me on my feet again, though his hands came down on my shoulders, anchoring me back against him so that I couldn’t actually go anywhere. I fought off the lingering dizziness in my brain, focusing on the other four Abcurses as they surrounded Elowin in an angry circle.
“Good girl,” Yael cooed in approval, even though Elowin had to be about twice his age and the look on his face was more ‘I want to crush you into pieces’ than ‘I approve of your actions’. Still, he said it so persuasively, it was difficult to resolve his expression with the words that came out of his mouth. He reached down, taking the knife out of her hand. “Now why don’t you tell us why you took our dweller, and tried to mess with us, hmm?”
“She doesn’t belong here!” Elowin was back to panicking, even though she hadn’t tried to keep her knife. She actually wasn’t moving at all, her arms were hanging limply by her sides and she was staring up at Yael with a pleading expression, trying to appeal to him as though he would understand her. “She’s just a dweller! You can’t change all the rules for her and expect everyone to be fine with it. The rules are there for a reason!”
Yael exchanged a look with the others, and Siret grinned, taking a small step toward Elowin, so that her attention flicked directly to him.
“What’s the reason?” he asked, conversationally.
“It is how the gods wish it,” she spat back, regaining some of her fire, now that her eyes weren’t locked on Yael. “You’ll all be punished for going against them.”
“It’s true,” Coe
n agreed, grabbing Elowin by the shoulders and spinning her around to face him, “the gods do like their punishments.”
I knew that he was about to kill her. I could see it in his eyes. He had death-eyes again. I really needed to learn to step back and stop defending people who only wanted to hurt me, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I shouted Coen’s name in my head, and his attention wavered, his eyes seeking me out in the corner of the room. As soon as he was distracted, Elowin screamed something that sounded like a cry for help, before erupting into flames.
“Holy crap!” I screamed unnecessarily, pointing right at her. “The lady is on fire!”
The other Abcurses took a step back, but it definitely wasn’t a big enough step to avoid getting killed if Elowin decided to give one of them a hug.
“That’s her gift, I guess.” Aros’s hands tightened on my shoulders. “And stop distracting them, you’ll end up getting someone hurt.”
Elowin lunged for the knife in Yael’s hand, but he pulled it out of the way, side-stepping her. There was a laugh in his eyes. Actually, they all looked amused.
Seriously?
Did nothing ever frighten them?
The door burst open before Elowin could lunge again, and a group of people spilled inside, along with a billowing rush of red smoke. For some reason, it reminded me of Rau—of the scarlet-red cloak that he had worn on both occasions that he had appeared before me. Aros shoved me behind his back, basically squashing me between him and the wall, and I saw boots move in front of us, turning to face the rest of the room. I couldn’t see much else, because of the smoke, but I recognised Rome’s massive feet.