The Refugee (The Korvali Chronicles Book 1) (36 page)

A group of young men approached from the other direction, removing their hoods. Perhaps the others, on their way out, had no reason to notice the table, whereas those coming in might. Sure enough, one of the men glanced toward the sign… but then kept walking. Catherine grew angry and uttered a quiet curse, until the young man looked back at the sign, this time stopping to inspect it.
 

He gestured at the sign and commented to the other men. The others halted, one of whom raised his eyebrows, much like Eshel did when something surprised him. They began talking. Catherine didn’t understand what the men said, but the one with raised eyebrows gestured in a particular direction, up and to the left, and the others followed suit and looked that way. She also recognized the Korvali word for prison and the name Elisan, which was mentioned multiple times. When the young man gestured in that direction, he used a word that sounded like “kervasis.” He picked up the sign, glancing around him, and he and the other men resumed walking.
 

Catherine took the stone steps two at a time to the second floor and headed in the direction the young Korvali had gestured toward, which was northwest. Many of the doors had no signs. Others did; but once translated, the words made no sense to her. She immediately went to the third floor.

More doors with no labels. Three people to avoid. Other doors with signs that, when partially translated by her, bore no resemblance to the word the young man had said. When she arrived at the end of a hallway, she found two more doors with identical labels on them. She attempted to translate the letters, but the word contained unfamiliar symbols. Skipping over the symbols she didn’t know, the word bore a slight resemblance to “kervasis.” She felt a surge of encouragement.

The two doors had no windows, and no other indication of what was behind them. As her heart began to pound, she chose the door on the left. After carefully decoding it and hearing the lock unlatch, Catherine opened the door and stepped in the room. Still holding the door, she leaned beyond the foyer wall and glanced around, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. The small room contained only a bed, a desk, and an adjoining room she couldn’t see. To be thorough, she needed to check the adjoining room, which meant letting go of the door. She pulled a rag from her pack, scrunched it up, and carefully let the door rest on it. She rounded the corner; the room was a bathroom. It was uninhabited.
 

She grabbed her rag and quietly closing the door, turning her attention to the other door. It shared the same code as the first. When the door unlatched, she felt her heart pounding again as she gently pushed the door open. Immediately, she saw light. Someone was inside. Her breathing quickened as she slowly entered the small room, which appeared identical to the first one. The wall that separated her from the bathroom obscured her view. As she emerged from behind the wall, her hand still holding the door open, her throat tightened.
 

A hooded figure sat on the bed, leaned up against the stone wall, the hood obscuring the occupant’s face. The figure sat perfectly still, its long webbed hands resting on its legs and a dark magenta marking peeking out from the left sleeve. She exhaled, hoping the figure would hear something and show a face. But it sat, unmoving.
 

She tried to swallow, her throat dry, as she gently shut the door. She approached the still figure, never considering what she would do if it weren’t Eshel. Finally, she stood in front of the figure. And she reached out and gave the hood a tug, letting it fall back.

Eshel’s eyes opened at her touch, and he stared up at her for a long stretch of moments. Then, his cold, blank stare turned into something else, something that conveyed emotion. It was a look she’d never seen.

Relief engulfed her. Her throat tightened and her eyes burned as she felt tears begin to form. She willed them away.

Eshel looked up toward the ceiling. When she followed his look, she saw the surveillance cell.

But how could he see her? Her device was still engaged. Catherine immediately recalled the initial scan she’d conducted on Eshel to follow up Vargas’s medical scanner results: four altered genes… two involved in visual processing, two with a regulatory function. Had he genetically altered his vision?
 

She made a face, pointing to her device and shaking her head, then gesturing toward the door.

Eshel stood up and walked into the bathroom, motioning for her to follow him. He pointed at her feet. She pulled Eshel’s pair of sound absorbing boots from her pack and he put them on. She gave Eshel one of the black devices Tom had made; he examined it briefly, turned on its power, and placed it in a hidden pocket.
 

She decoded the door, opened it, and took a look around. The hallway was empty. They emerged from the room and Catherine closed the door behind them before heading toward the exit. Eshel grabbed her arm, urging her to follow him in a different direction. Several times, they waited for others to pass before proceeding. They descended a smaller staircase and walked down a quiet hallway to a door.

Once outside, Catherine let out a breath as she glanced around. She turned to Eshel. “You can see me.”

“Yes, I can see you.” They stood looking at one another. Finally, Eshel walked closer to her and put his cheek to hers, holding the back of her head. Catherine, not expecting the gesture, did the same as Eshel held her for longer than he ever had.
 

When they separated, Catherine spoke. “Are you okay?” He looked tired and his upper cheek had a dark mark, like someone had struck him.

“I am unharmed.”
 

“We need to go,” she told him, looking at the time, then at her device. “The devices don’t hold a charge for nearly as long as they should. Something at Fallal Hall is draining their power.”
 

“How much time has elapsed?”

“Six hours, forty-one minutes.”

“Tell me where you were with each device, and how long each lasted.”

After giving him a quick rundown, she followed Eshel, noticing all that she’d been too preoccupied to notice previously. From this side of the great Hall, one could see the ocean beyond the white stone wall, tiny islands dotting the horizon. As Eshel led her through the gardens, she looked in awe at the extraordinarily large trees with branches that hung down, much like a weeping willow but larger and leafier. Some had benches under the canopy; others had canopies so dense that one couldn’t see the tree’s thick trunk. Small streams meandered in every direction, the bottom of each lined with a magenta moss-like substance. Small, white stone bridges allowed one to cross the streams. Pairs of robed Korvali sat on the benches, talking quietly amongst themselves. In the distance, she saw a series of tall white sculptures in a row, each appearing to have some symbolic meaning.
 

It no longer rained and the sun made an appearance, causing everything to glisten. Another glance at her instrument told her that Eshel headed east, not south. But she said nothing, trusting that Eshel’s less direct route had some benefit that was unknown to her. They came upon another large willow-like tree, its crown so massive that Catherine couldn’t see around it, and its dense-leafed branches so long that their tips reached the ground. Eshel stopped and looked around. Suddenly, he took her arm and led her between the branches, until they stood completely hidden under the tree’s canopy.

Eshel faced Catherine, gazing at her. But he said nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Catherine asked him, concerned. When he hesitated, she put aside her concern for time and stood silent, waiting for Eshel to speak. If Eshel had something to say, it would be important enough to warrant delaying their goal a bit longer.
 

“I know that time passes, that we must not waste it,” he began, recognizing her urgency. “I ask your permission to leave you and complete an important task. It may take two hours. I will meet you at the craft.”

“What? What important task?”

Eshel hesitated.

“This isn’t the time for secrets, Eshel,” she said. “I won’t repeat it.”

“I must gather the remaining evidence regarding my father’s murder.”
 

“Now?” she cried. She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. I don’t know how long these devices will last. You risk detection.”

“I believe I know what drains their power, and how to avoid it. I will know for sure by how long this device lasts.” He placed a webbed hand over his pocket. “If you give me one spare device, I will have enough time. This leaves you with a spare, which is more than enough to protect you.”

Catherine took a deep breath. “Eshel, I know this is important to you. But every moment we linger vastly decreases our chances of success. At some point, they’re going to realize you’re missing,” she added, gesturing back toward the great Hall.
 

“My captors will not discover my absence for some time.”

“They had you under surveillance!”

“They knew I could not leave, and did not watch me closely. I once went into the toilet room for numerous hours, just to test them, with no repercussions. And they won’t bring my meal until the evening.”

She felt herself grow more agitated. “Eshel, a lot of people are waiting for confirmation from me, including Tom, who’s probably losing his mind by now.” She pointed to the south, where Tom waited in the craft. “Do you have any idea how many resources are being used to protect you, how much effort so many people have gone to for you? Do you know how difficult it was for me to convince them to let me do this? Why do you put me in this position? If something happens to you, after I already found you… Eshel, I couldn’t live with myself! And the more we blather about this, the more time we waste on our devices.”

Eshel reached over and turned off the device she held in her hand, and then his.
 

“What are you doing?” Catherine demanded in a hushed voice, looking around her.
 

“Please be calm, Catherine. I am saving power. No one can see us in here—”

“God damn you, Eshel! This is my operation! You asked me to do this, and I did. And I’m getting back on that fucking ship, right now, with or without you.”
 

Eshel stood silent for several moments. Finally, he spoke. “I will come with you. And if we must go now, then we will go.” He found the switch to his device and turned it on. He looked at hers. Once she turned hers on, he exited the tree’s canopy and headed south.

Catherine followed him in silence, walking rapidly to keep up with him. It had begun to rain. The light in the gardens darkened and, soon, heavy water drops pelted against her hood. Suddenly, the rain came down in a deluge and the wind thrust it sideways, making it nearly impossible for her to see anything as she tried to focus on Eshel’s gray robe in front of her. She felt a hand grab her arm, and suddenly the rain ceased but for a few drops, and the wind was still. They stood beneath the canopy of another one of the trees.

She coughed, wiping the water from her face and rubbing her eyes.

“Turn off your device,” Eshel said, removing his hood. “We must let this storm pass.”

Catherine frowned, taking off her pack and shaking the water off her jacket. She sat down at the foot of the tree, facing away from Eshel, and checked the time and her device. They still had time. They would be okay. She calmed herself, putting her anger out of her mind.
 

“Catherine.”

“What?” she replied without looking at him. A drop of water hit her nose.

“Why are you angry?”

“You’re coldhearted, Eshel. That means—”

“I know what it means.”

Neither spoke as the rain poured down outside their protective tree. Catherine’s memories of Eshel coldly ending their relationship, and barely nodding at her in the hallway, came flooding back.
 

“Tom also said that,” Eshel finally said.
 

“Said what?”
 

“That I am ‘coldhearted.’” He paused. “Perhaps it is fair for Tom to say that. He does not know my… feelings, as you call them, because I do not share them with him. But you… you shouldn’t call me that.”

“Why not?” She turned to face him.

“I shared much with you, Catherine. Things I have shared with no one. And do you believe I would make such a request if I didn’t care for others?”
 

She sighed and turned away again.
 

“What do I not understand?” he asked.

“Everything,” she said, leaning back against the tree. “You’re not coldhearted about your father, or your loved ones. But you don’t care about the rest of us. Including me.”
 

“I don’t care about you?” he asked, anger in his voice. “It is you who hit me, who ordered me to never acknowledge you, who did not speak a word to me for months. Who is coldhearted?”

Catherine stood up and faced Eshel. “You severed our relationship, Eshel, with no warning and no reason. I could accept that, but then you nodded at me in the hallway like I was some stranger! I did your damned sher mishtar and kept your secrets and took interest in what mattered most to you. And what did it earn me other than being disregarded by you, than being treated like some outsider you care nothing for? Even now, I’m here, running all over Korvalis looking for you—you weren’t where you said you’d be and you wouldn’t believe how I managed to find you—and all you care about is your own agenda!”
 

“That is not all I care about.”

She ignored him. “Tom told me you said, after a couple of drinks, that sexual contact with otherworlders is not only taboo, but an abomination,” she said, her voice shaking. “Then I recalled how many times you kept telling me to never share what we did, and how strange you looked the first time we…” She trailed off. “That was far worse, Eshel, far worse than your cold treatment. I let you into my private world, and you lied about it because you were ashamed.” Overwhelmed, she backed away, making her most valiant effort to relax the constriction in her throat and avoid crying.