Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (24 page)

“And have the
Queen hunt you down like a dog?” Another man’s voice replied in agitation.  “Do
you really think she’ll let you live very long if you kill her daughter?  No,
we get what we came for and leave.  That’s the smart move.”

“Who gives a shit
about being smart?  I want that bitch to know what it feels like to lose
someone she cares about.”

I heard the
movement of rubble around me but couldn’t seem to open my eyes or move my body. 
The injuries I sustained in the fall seemed to have not healed sufficiently to
make me mobile.  I felt someone grab me roughly by the hair and bend my neck
back at an awkward angle.  The sharp, cold edge of a blade was pressed squarely
against my throat.

“I hope you rot in
hell,” I heard the man say just as he made the first slice through my skin.

“Get away from
her!”

My head was suddenly
released as something or someone slammed against my assailant.  I heard the
popping sound of flesh meeting bone and the scuffle of feet.  Grunts of pain
and heavy breathing told me the fighting was ferocious.  Finally, I was able to
pry my eyes open enough to see what was happening around me.

Ash was slamming
his fist into the face of the man I had to presume tried to slit my throat just
seconds before.  The man finally lifted his hands palm forward in surrender
before dragging himself as quickly as he could in the opposite direction of Ash 
The other man quickly ran after his friend not wanting to attract Ash’s wrath
upon himself.

Ash spun around to
face me.  His lower lip was cracked and bleeding but other than that I couldn’t
see any other injuries.  With quick strides over the rubble of brick and wood
around me, Ash was by my side in a matter of seconds cradling my head in his
hands.

“Skye, are you all
right? Can you get up?” He asked worriedly.

“I need a minute
to heal,” I whispered, willing my body to heal itself with my innate power
faster than the harvester nanites could.

Ash laid my head
back down gently and stood to survey what remained of the mansion my mother
grew up in.

“What the hell
happened?” He said more to himself than me. 

When he looked
back down at me, he said, “I need to get back to Zoe.  She’s trapped under a
beam over there.”  He pointed to some point behind me.  “I can’t move it by
myself.  I’m going to need your help.”

Before I could ask
him why he thought I would help, Ash strode off to wherever Zoe was.  While my
body healed itself, I had time to ponder Ash’s question.  What the hell
had
happened?  As I looked at the devastation around me, I had to assume some sort
of bomb had been set off in the house.  But who would have the audacity to do
such a thing to the Queen’s residence?

In only a matter
of minutes, I felt completely healed of the wounds I sustained in the
explosion.  I sat up and looked behind me to find Ash crouched near a large
section of the roof.  I got to my feet and walked over to him.  Even though I was
under no obligation to help them, I felt compelled to rescue Zoe.  I knew my
mother wanted the children Zoe carried and reasoned with myself that was reason
enough to help extricate her from the rubble.

“Here comes Skye,”
I heard Ash say in a reassuring tone to Zoe as I approached them. 

Both of Zoe’s legs
were pinned beneath the beam.  Tears born of pain streamed from the corners of
her eyes marking tell tale trails of her distress through the caked on dust
covering her face.

Ash stood to his
feet.  “It’s too heavy for me to lift,” he confessed, not ashamed, just stating
a fact.

I couldn’t stop
staring at Zoe’s face for some reason.  Her anguish reminded me of the first
time I ever saw her cry.  Back then, her pain stemmed from the full weight of
realizing she had lost her entire family years before.  The sorrow filling her
eyes now pulled me in making my heart ache uncomfortably.

“Move,” I told
Ash, “or you’ll just be in my way.”

  In no time at
all I had the section of roof trapping Zoe moved to the side releasing her from
its weighty hold.

I knelt down
beside her legs and forced myself to meet her eyes.

“Can you move
them?” I asked.

“No,” Zoe’s voice wavered,
fighting against the pain she felt to answer me.

Ash sat down by
Zoe gently wiping away her tears.

For a split second,
I debated with myself about the pros and cons of healing her legs but there
really wasn’t any other choice, not if I wanted to ease her pain.  I placed my
hands on her thighs and felt the heat of my healing power take over.  The
process of healing was becoming like second nature to me now.  I no longer had
to struggle to concentrate on what needed to be done.  It was like the nanites
which helped me tap into my ability were on an accelerated learning curve.  I
only had to think about what needed to be done now and they helped me
accomplish the task. 

In less than a
minute, Zoe’s legs were healed and her cries stopped.

“Thank you, Skye,”
she breathed, finding relief from her pain.

“There’s the
bitch!” I heard from a great distance.  My eyes were drawn to a crowd down the
street.  I saw the man Ash had beat up leading a pack of at least twenty humans. 
“Let’s kill her!”

I bent down and
lifted Zoe easily.  Just as I settled her into my arms, I suddenly felt the
front of my shirt become drenched with water.  Zoe’s whole body began to
tremble.

I looked at her
and saw the same worry I felt mirrored in her eyes.

“Did your water
just break?” I asked low enough so Ash couldn’t hear.  All I needed was for him
to devolve into an expectant father with a lynch mob on our trail.

Zoe bit her bottom
lip and nodded. 

“Where are you
taking her?” Ash asked warily.

“Honestly, I have
no idea,” I said crisply, “but unless you want to fight that crowd of humans
heading this way, I suggest you follow me.”

Not wanting to
make us an easy target, I headed for the woods behind what was left of my
mother’s house.  A few harvesters were nursing their own wounds as we past and
I ordered them to take care of the approaching humans.

“Should we kill
them,” one harvester asked.

“Only if you have
to,” I answered, “but try to incapacitate them first.  I don’t think the Queen would
want to waste so many breeders unnecessarily.”

I was vaguely
aware of how much my logic sounded like the Queen’s.  The thought didn’t settle
well, especially with Zoe staring at me so intently.  Just from her expression
I knew she was hoping to see the old me return to her.  Just a glimpse of who I
was would be all she needed to feel safe in a place where safety was an
illusion.

In no time at all,
we were in the shelter of the forest hidden from prying eyes.

“So where are we
going?” Ash asked behind me.

“Anywhere that
seems safe,” I told him.

The irony of the
role reversal between Ash and I wasn’t lost on me.  In the old days, I asked
him the exact same question hundreds of times as we traveled through the Eastern
Kingdom.  Back then he was the decision maker; the one who kept track of where
the breeding camps were as well as the hot zones so we didn’t run into them.  I
depended on him to keep me safe in a world where such a word shouldn’t even
exist anymore.  Now, he was depending on me to keep him and Zoe out of harms
way when I wasn’t even sure that was my goal.

After twenty
minutes of walking, we came to a narrow river.  There was a boat house and a
medium sized fishing boat tied off at the dock in front of it.

“We need to stop
here,” I told Ash.  “See if you can find something soft for Zoe to lie on.”

Without question,
Ash did as instructed.  There wasn’t a lot in the boat house except for some
life preservers, sail cloth and rope.  Ash laid the preservers down then piled
the sail cloth on top of them to construct a make shift bed.

After I lay Zoe
down, Ash saw my soaked shirt.  His eyes grew wide as he realized what was
happening.

“Take that bucket over
there in the corner and get some water out of the river,” I told him.  “See if
the boat has a galley so you can boil it first.  Search around for any towels
or cloth while you’re in there too and bring it all back here.”

Ash’s eyes seemed
glued to my shirt.  I snapped my finger in front of his eyes finally forcing him
to focus on my face.

“Did you hear what
I just told you?” I asked in exasperation.

“No,” he
admitted.  “Sorry.”

I repeated my
instructions setting him into action.

After he left I
looked down at Zoe in the dim light of day filtering through the windows.  She
had her eyes closed and was slowly breathing in and out.  How had the little
girl I rescued from Simon’s shield come to this?  She was a child having
children of her own.  Was this her destiny?  To be the mother of Rose and
Simon?  Future me said Rose and Simon were destined to help save the world. 
Should I even let them live?  Since what was left of the world belonged to the
Queen, then that made them her enemies, right? 

“Are you in pain?”
I asked Zoe, feeling confused about what I should do.

Zoe looked up at
me like I had completely lost my mind.

“I’m about to give
birth to three babies,” she grimaced.  “What do you think?”

I found myself
almost smiling at Zoe’s show of spunk.

“I think you’re in
a great deal of pain,” I answered.  “Why aren’t you screaming?”

She grimaced as a
contraction hit her.  When it passed, her face relaxed.

“I’m trying not to
scream.  I don’t want to worry Ash.”

“You really do
love him, don’t you?”

Zoe’s eyes widened
in shock, her pain momentarily forgotten.

“I saw the two of
you kissing before the bomb went off,” I explained.  “I heard your little
confession to him.  But I’m wondering why you never mentioned it to me.”

“I know how you
feel about him,” Zoe said, trying to control her breathing.  “I never would
have told him if I thought you actually loved him.”

“Ash has been a
part of my life for eleven years.  You’ve known him for less than a month.”

“You only knew
Jace for a few days before you told him you loved him,” she reminded me.  “Or
was that a lie?”

“No,” I admitted. 
“It wasn’t a lie when I said it.”

“Then stop
badgering me about Ash and help me have these babies.”  Zoe finally let out a
blood curdling scream.  It was like an alarm went off because Ash came barging
through the door of the boathouse just as I knelt down between Zoe’s legs to
check the progress of the birth.

I could see the
head of the first baby crowning as Zoe pushed for all she was worth.  Ash sat
behind her back helping to prop her torso at an angle and letting her squeeze
both his hands as she continued to push.  After a few pushes, I had the first
baby in my hands.  It was a screaming baby boy.  I laid him down on the sail
cloth quickly because the second baby was following right behind.  The second
baby was a girl and just as vocal as her brother.  Both had tufts of blonde
hair crowning their heads.  When I looked back expecting to see the third
baby’s head, I saw the baby’s bottom instead.

“Something doesn’t
feel right,” Zoe moaned.

“Keep pushing,” I
told her.  “You’re almost done.”

She shook her head
vehemently.  “No!  Something’s wrong!”

I looked up at
Zoe’s face and met her eyes.  “The baby’s in a breech position,” I explained. 
“But it’ll come out if you just push.”

“No!  You’re lying
to me.  You just want the babies to take to the Queen!  You don’t care about
them.”

“Either way, you
have to push or you might kill the baby,” I tried to explain to her.  “In this
position, it’s possible it won’t break any bones but the longer you talk about
it the most likely outcome is it’ll suffocate to death or get choked by the
umbilical cord.  Now if you want this baby to have a chance at living you need
to push now!”

With one final
cry, Zoe pushed for all she was worth, spilling out the baby and the
afterbirth.  The umbilical cord was wrapped around the little girl’s neck.  I
quickly tore it away from her throat to allow her to take her first breath of
the world.  If that had been the only problem, I would have felt relief.   But
the true horror of the situation must have been written on my face.

“What’s wrong?” I
heard Zoe scream at me.  “What’s wrong with my baby?”

I stared in
disbelief finding it hard to find the right words to explain what I was
seeing.  With a shaky hand, I gently traced the edges of the baby’s exposed
heart, feeling its life force thump gently against the tips of my fingers.  I
felt hypnotized by its rhythmic pumping of blood.

Before I knew it,
Ash was beside me staring helplessly at his child.

“Can you heal her?”
He asked me, the hope for a miracle in his voice.

I looked up at him
feeling uncertain but finally answered, “No.  I can’t heal this.  She needs a
doctor.”

“Heal what?” Zoe
asked.  “What’s wrong with her?”

I explained the
deformity to Zoe which made her dissolve into a new set of tears.

Ash’s eyes slid
from the baby to look at me.  “You know Lucena will never fix her.  Why should
she waste the time when she has two healthy babies to run her experiments on?”

I knew Ash was
right.  The baby was deformed and expendable.  The Queen would have it
destroyed before spending time and resources to save its life.  She had two
perfect babies who would prove her hypothesis about hybrids to be true.  Each
would inherit their parent’s powers.  I already knew that for a fact.  But, the
small frail creature in front of me would never be given a chance at a normal
life.  She wasn’t worth the effort.

I watched as Ash
reached out to trace the side of his little girl’s cheek, needing to bring the
small life some comfort from the world she had been born in.  Just as his skin was
about to touch hers, he vanished.