Rell lifted one foot over Renata’s threshold and onto the hard pavers outside the door. She willed the other foot to move, but it remained planted solidly inside Renata’s home.
"Here, wear this." Renata placed a band of black fabric on Rell's head.
It fluttered over Rell's eyes, blocking out the bright lights pulsing around her.
"The sun will be up soon. Trust me, you won't want to be without a veil." Renata smoothed the fabric around Rell's face. "Now, go to The Leaping Dog Inn. It's on the corner. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Listen to others. There is so much to be learned."
Brightly colored signs blinked, advertising everything imaginable. Food. Shelter. Water. There were so many signs for water. Adults, wearing skintight outfits and hair in every shade of blue, red, and yellow, walked at hurried clips. This was nothing like the jungle she and her father had seen when they emerged, just one time, to look at the stars.
"Maybe I should stay here with you. I just arrived. I'm not ready." Rell leaned backward into Renata.
"No." Renata gave her a little shove. Rell stumbled out of the doorway, barely catching herself before she toppled over. "If I let every person who came through here stay, my place would be teeming with buried from underground. Just be glad I was the first person you met. Others might not have been so kind."
The door slammed shut in Rell's face. She had to admit, Renata excelled at tough love. It was just another sign she'd grown up underground.
Rell squared her shoulders, assuming her new role. She'd need confidence to convince the innkeeper to hire her. Rell strolled down the pebbled walk beside the street, her boots quickly blanketed in a fine dust. Her leather pants, too, collected the dirt, but Rell was able to wipe them clean with a swipe of her hand. So they weren't just fashion—they were useful. Far better than the white robes Rell had worn underground. She’d spent time every night before bed cleaning the fabric so it would be spotless in the morning. The council couldn't be met with filthy clothing. It was disrespectful to the guardians of the Menelewen Dored.
Rell wondered how much easier her old life would have been with a simple change of fabric. She started, then stopped in the middle of the pathway, her hand resting over her heart.
No. It was not for her to question the demands of the gods. Rell closed her eyes and said a quick prayer, and her heartbeat calmed as the gods’ forgiveness washed over her.
Rell passed by others on the street, observing their interactions with each other. Many of them smiled or nodded. Some reached out, briefly touching fingertips. Rell balled her hands into fists and kept her eyes on her feet for the remainder of the walk.
It wasn't long before she was standing in front of The Leaping Dog Inn.
Rell pushed the wooden door open and was greeted by the roar of a rowdy crowd. She cringed. Couldn't Renata have sent her somewhere quieter? Her head pounded. Underground no one spoke above a murmur, and never all at once like this.
How many things could there be to talk about? They had no religion here. What else would they talk about?
Rell weaved her way through the crowded room, heading straight for the bar. A man stood behind the long countertop, a towel thrown over his shoulder. He smiled at her. "What can I get for you?"
"My friend sent me here, to look for Tatsuru. I need a job. I can cook. I can clean. I can wash dishes. Really, I can do anything." Rell bit her lip. It wasn't going to be enough. Why would he consider taking on a girl he'd never met?
"I am looking to hire on someone new. My regular girl just took a life mate and needed time off. I'm sure she won't be back. They never are." The man winked at Rell.
She gave him an awkward smile. If she had a life mate, she would want nothing more than to get away from him.
"I'm Tatsuru." He held out a hand, his fingers splayed.
Rell touched her fingertips to his, just as she'd seen the people do outside. His skin was strangely soft and cool. "I'm Rell."
"Good to meet you. There's a room for you, too, if you need one. Now, the bucket and mop are in the corner." Tatsuru pointed to the far side of the room. "You can get water from the well out back. I'm lucky, I have my own. Don't have to share with the neighbors if I don't want to."
Rell smiled at Tatsuru and crossed the room to the cleaning supplies. She grabbed the mop in one hand and the bucket in the other. Tatsuru gestured to a dark hallway off to the side and quickly went back to serving his customers. Rell entered the passageway, letting her thoughts flow now that she was alone.
What would she do once she found them? How could she, a lowly servant girl from underground who knew nothing about the rest of the world, stop four defenders? They probably had guns and training in combat. Her greatest skill lay in prayer, and if that would stop them, she could have done it underground.
No, she would have to figure out something else.
Rell threw open the back door and stepped outside into the courtyard. Setting the mop against the stone wall, she grabbed the bucket, tied it to the rope, and lowered it into the pit with the crank. As it dropped lower and lower, Rell turned her eyes to the sky. The sunlight plaguing her on the walk to the inn had already hidden behind dark, thick clouds. She was glad. All of those years of living underground hadn't prepared her for the intensity of the light as the day wore on. The one time her father had taken her aboveground, it had been nighttime. The stars had seemed so beautiful, like the firebugs she’d seen with her father. But this star, so close to their planet, nearly blinded her. She had no idea how those who lived up here could stand it.
Water splashed below. Rell cranked the bucket still lower, then cranked it back up. It was much heavier now. Her shoulders hunched, Rell gritted her teeth and kept cranking despite her muscles' pleas for respite. She dragged the bucket out, setting it on the ground with a thump, half of the water sloshing over the sides.
Wiping her brow with her sleeve, Rell took one last look at the sky. A light flashed. Then another. And another.
Screams ripped through the quiet morning. Dropping the bucket and mop, Rell ran back into the inn. A crowd was fighting for the front door. She elbowed her way through the people, bursting through the doorway. Bodies lay strewn across the road, blood splattering their clothes and running in tiny streams across the dusty surface. A high-pitched whir drew Rell's attention back to the sky.
A red ball of fire coursed through the sky in the straight line, striking a man in the chest. It zinged out of his back, right into the face of the woman who'd been cowering behind him. Their bodies crumpled to the ground.
"It's the dragzhi!" The man next to Rell pointed behind them.
She whirled around, watching with horror as a ship, black as the night with strange tentacles reaching out from its body, rippled through the clouds and hovered over them.
Babies cried. Women screamed. Men cursed. Rell stood there, staring at the thing of legend. A dragzhi warship. She fell to her knees, her hands folded. Muttering the words to every prayer she knew, Rell squeezed her eyes shut. Her palms sweat and her voice wavered. Still, she didn't look. She trusted in the Menelewen Dored, in the gods who had sheltered and protected her.
The screams ceased. The smell of sulfur dissipated. A hand landed on her shoulder.
"You can stop now. They've left. You saved us."
Rell opened one eye and looked up in the sky. The ship was gone. Tatsuru stood next to her, his eyes on her folded hands.
"Prayer worked. It left." His hand gripped her shoulder tightly, as if letting go would bring the ship back. "Everyone! Look! She prayed, and the dragzhi retreated!"
Voices murmured as people came closer to Rell.
Her knees remained planted on the rocky ground. She relished every rock cutting into her skin, every cut dripping blood. It was the way of the gods. They demanded sacrifice for their help. This discomfort was the smallest price Rell could pay.
"Is it true?"
"They were attacking. When she began to pray, they stopped."
"Those defenders came down to the ground today to look for the Key. It can't be a coincidence. The gods are back."
Back? They had never left. Those aboveground were simply too busy with other things to worship like they should. Rell spent most of her day in prayer, begging the gods not to abandon their people in their time of need. She knew about the war in space, and the defenders fighting it. They fought with technology. She fought with prayer. Same goal, different means.
But the Key. The defenders couldn't have it. The Key was too precious to the gods.
Rell stood, her legs trembling. Tatsuru wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Are you okay? Can I do anything for you?"
Rell shook her head. She needed nothing. Certainly not their thanks or admiration. Her prayers weren't done to draw attention to herself, though she realized looking at the people surrounding her she'd done just that.
Renata's blue hair drew Rell's eye. The woman tilted her head to the side, studying Rell, but she couldn't read Renata's expression. Was it gratitude? Irritation? Renata had told Rell not to draw attention to herself. Rell was supposed to be fitting in and learning the ways of the people aboveground. Perhaps Renata was jealous of Rell's devotion to the Menelewen Dored, wishing she had retained enough faith to save the people who were being mercilessly murdered in the street.
"Come back to the inn. Sit. I insist on serving you." Tatsuru guided Rell back to his establishment. Rell couldn't take her eyes off the bodies of the dead. No one was attending to them. Instead, they were all fixated on her.
She shrugged off Tatsuru's arm. "No. We must take care of the dead. They need proper burials to please the gods. They have saved us today, and we must complete the rituals. Otherwise, they may not be so kind next time."
Rell knelt next to the man and woman who had been felled with the same blast. She pulled their eyelids down, kissed their foreheads, and looked back to the others. "I need help. Where do you bury your dead?"
Tatsuru stepped forward. "We have a nearby cemetery. I'll call for the med trucks. They can take them away for burial." He pulled a device out of his pocket, spoke into it, and put it back.
In mere moments, sirens rang out. Large trucks arrived, a black triangle with a red slash through it painted on the side.
It was the symbol of the Menelewen Dored. Her eyes found Renata's again. The woman sighed and turned her back on Rell as she walked back to her home. Rell had thought no one aboveground worshipped, yet there in plain sight was the symbol she focused on during meditation.
Perhaps the grounders were not lost to Menelewen Dored, as Rell had once believed. What if they could be brought back to the gods? Could she be the one to lead them?
A pair of black boots shuffled up next to Rell. She looked up into the eyes of a boy she recognized from the vidscreen.
The lead defender.
The one she was supposed to stop.
Torsten stared at the girl on the ground. She looked like everyone else: pink hair, leather clothes, but she had been doing something he'd never seen anyone do in his lifetime. She had been praying.
The most shocking part was it seemed to work. The dragzhi ship disappeared as fast as it had arrived. What she'd done was blasphemy—outlawed—yet all the grounders were grateful.
He offered a hand to her, his palm up. She stared at him, as if she knew him, then slowly rested her hand on his. Torsten pulled her to her feet. Over the girl's shoulder, Torsten returned his sister's intense gaze. Mellok was next to her, his arm protectively around her shoulder. They were thinking the same thing he was: they’d found someone who might be able to give them a clue in their search.
"I'm Torsten. That was pretty incredible."
Her hand trembled in his for only a moment until she ripped it away. Her eyes steeled. "Thank you for helping me up. I need to get back to work now. If you'll excuse me." She side-stepped him, following a man with dark hair into the inn on the corner.
Torsten waved Leila and Mellok over. The two clasped hands, sidestepping a few dead bodies to get to him.
"I think she can help us," Torsten said. "She was praying in public."
Mellok snorted. "She's lucky she hasn't been arrested."
“She might be able to help us,” Torsten said.
Mellok rolled his eyes. “Maybe she can pray for the Key to appear?”
Torsten ignored Mellok. “If she’s religious, she knows about the Menelewen Dored. Maybe she can help us find the Key.”
“You said it doesn’t exist.” Andessa joined the three of them, closing their circle.
“But other people think it does,” Torsten said.
Torsten's eyes followed the emergency crew in their crisp white jumpsuits lifting the bodies into their vehicles. They gently laid them side by side. He thought for a moment they were going to stack the next line of bodies on top of the first. It would have made sense. But they took the more humane route and waited for more medivacs to arrive. Their bodies would be treated with respect.
"It's against the law to pray in public. If we align ourselves with that girl, we’re just going to get into more trouble," Leila said.
"No one seems to care. The dragzhi ship left after she worked her magic." Andessa rubbed her hands on her pants. They were stained with blood from helping the people in the street. "I think they'll let it slide."
"You really think she’s a worshipper of the Menelewen Dored?" Andessa asked. "I doubt she was the only one who was praying. She just happened to do it out loud. People are weak. When they're threatened, they give in to religion. It's magical. And, this time, for whatever reason, it worked. Or it was a coincidence the dragzhi pulled back."
A pair of eyes looked at Torsten from the inn’s window. Just as quickly as they'd appeared, they were gone. So she was watching him, too. "I'm going to talk to her."
Torsten pushed past his sister and her boyfriend, but before he could go far, a hand grabbed his shoulder. Torsten stopped.
"This is a bad time to get the hots for a girl, Torsten." Mellok stepped in front of Torsten, blocking his path.
"Really, Tor," Leila squeezed his shoulder. "She's cute, I guess. But we have more important things to focus on. I think we should visit the church ruins first. No one here practices the old religion. If they did, they'd be jailed. I think Andessa's right. That girl just had a weak moment. Some people piss their pants. Others pray. History texts say it was the same on Earth when religion was popular. She just took the cleaner route."
Torsten felt compelled to follow the girl with the pink hair. Something inside screamed she was the key to what they were seeking. But, he knew his friends were right. No one practiced aboveground. They needed to find a way to break into the underground warren of tunnels.
Torsten nodded, pulling his eyes from the inn. "We should head to the east. The ruins are outside the town. I've read all about them, studied the files available on the vidscreen. If there's anything left to discover, I'll be surprised. Still, it's the best place to start."
The four defenders left the deadly scene, heading to the outskirts of town. Torsten bit the inside of his lip, fighting the memories flooding back to him around every corner. He'd lived in this town until the age of twelve, until his parents' murder. The market, the inns, the very dirt under his feet felt familiar, but still so far removed from his life, as if he was attempting to remember a dream from long ago.
Torsten focused on the road ahead. The medivacs sped past them, sirens keening long and high-pitched as they carried the dead to the morgue. Blue lights pulsed on the top of the vehicles, blinding Torsten at intervals until they turned a corner, leaving the street quiet.
"We're the only ones out here," Leila said, her voice soft.
"The townspeople are afraid." Mellok squeezed her hand. "As they should be. The dragzhi are out to kill us. They'll be back, and they will take more lives. It's their way."
"Why do you think they went back to space?" Torsten asked. "This is the first time they've ever gotten into our atmosphere."
"Commander Bartok told us the dragzhi broke through our defenses in space,” Andessa said. “That's why she said we were being sent to find the Key. This may be just the beginning of the end.”
Leila stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Torsten had to jump to the side to avoid slamming into her. "We aren't going to die."
The clouds had parted, and the sun was shining again, as if to prove Leila’s point. There were no dragzhi ships to be seen. No threats of any kind. There was also an unusual lack of birds. In a sky usually rife with activity, the silence was eerie.
"What other choice do we have? We should head to the ruins." Leila asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She pouted, just like she always did when she wanted her way.
Mellok kissed her cheek. "You're brilliant, babe. I think we should do it."
"We really don't have much of a choice," Torsten said. "It's not like we can go back to the tower. Bartok made that clear. We have to do something."
"Then let's go. Maybe we can find a way underground before the dragzhi return and obliterate this city." Andessa tromped ahead of them, leading the way east.
The inn was far away now, but Torsten could still see the dog head sticking out of the front of the building. He thought of the girl with the pink hair. There was something about her... something pulling him in a way no other girl had.
It wasn't her looks, even though she was easy to look at. It was something inside her. Torsten hadn't found a girl worthy of his attention before today. He hadn’t even been sure what it would take to grab his eye.
"Come on, Tor!" Leila called from ahead.
He hadn't realized he'd fallen behind. Taking long strides, Torsten jogged until he caught up with the small group.
The city began to change with every step. The buildings became rundown. Cockeyed signs hung on rusted arms. The street was broken and pebbled. An unpleasant smell wafted through the air, a combination of unwashed body and rotten food.
Andessa inhaled deeply. "Ah, home."
"You're from the Commons?" Mellok asked, his nose wrinkled.
"Yeah. It's the best. No one tells you what to do. You live life on your terms. People from the fancier part of town are too afraid to step into the Commons. But, trust me, this is where the real action happens. People here aren't afraid to be themselves. Unlike back there where everyone is trying to be the same."
Unlike the bustling clean part of the city, the Commons was deadly silent. "Is it always like this?" Torsten asked Andessa.
She nodded. "Yeah. We mostly live life at night. When the stars are out, and we can remember where we came from. This planet isn't our home. It's just a temporary stopping point," Andessa said.
"Our people have been stuck on Phoenix for two hundred years," Mellok said. "We aren't going anywhere. Our tech doesn't even allow us to fly much farther than the second moon. We have just enough tech to get our asses up there to fight off the dragzhi. If we could stop them, maybe we would know exactly how far our ships could go.
Torsten pointed ahead. "I see the church steeple. The ruins aren't far away. Andessa, have you ever been there before?"
"Yeah. When I was a kid, we would sneak off and play there. I don't remember seeing any tunnels, but I think it's definitely worth checking." Andessa abruptly took off to the right, stopping in front of a doorway with a crescent moon carved in the wood. She rested a hand on it, and Torsten could have sworn he heard her sniffle.
"Was that your home?" Torsten asked. He had considered going off course and finding his childhood home, too. He hadn't only because he was afraid of what he would find there. Had his childhood been erased, taken over by another family? Or would it bring back more memories of the night his parents were murdered? He wasn't ready to face either.
"Yeah," Andessa said. "It feels strange to be on the other side of this door in daylight." Andessa stepped away, letting her hand drop. "Sorry, let's keep moving. We don't want to be here when the sun sets. People in the Commons aren't accepting of strangers, especially ones wearing military suits."
The group continued their trek once more, not stopping again until they left the outskirts of the Commons. In the distance, a sandy cloud blew through the desert. Each of them pulled a scarf out of their packs. As Torsten tied his scarf around his face, covering everything but his eyes, he could barely make out the church shimmering like a mirage.