The Star Dwellers (10 page)

Ram is out of the corner and circling the
table, heat in his narrowed eyes and clenched fists. “Only the last
chance we might have to overthrow this
boy’s
father!” he
spits out with a roar. “I cannot support this.”

“And you are not a member of this council,” a
firm voice says. The voice commands attention, clear and
authoritative. It’s a voice I’ve heard before, but not like this.
Ben’s voice. I turn back to him, and his previously expressionless
face wears a slight grin. He is calm, but beneath the grin lies a
fierce determination betrayed only by the steel in his gaze. When
he looks at me, I get the message: I was right about him; he will
support me in this cause to the bitter end.

When I turn back to Ram, his lips are tight
and his face is red, but not from embarrassment. It’s anger,
coursing through him like an electromagnetic pulse, seeking an
outlet. He takes two deep breaths from his nose, collecting
himself. When he speaks, his voice is remarkably level. “Then why
do you drag me along to these sessions?”

“Because we value your opinion—always
have.”

“Not so much as of late, it appears.”
Surprisingly, he sounds sad, and for the first time I feel bad for
him. I try to put myself in his shoes. Would I trust someone from
the Sun Realm, particularly someone like me, who’s been embedded
from birth in the very government the Resistance seeks to
overthrow? I cannot say for sure. Only that I would have to trust
my gut, which is perhaps exactly what both Ram and Ben are doing.
Their guts are just saying different things.

“I trust him,” Ben says. “He helped me break
out of prison.”

Silence.

Even Ram seems surprised by the revelation,
although he tries to hide it by turning his back and moving to the
corner once more. Thirty seconds pass, and then Vice President
Morgan says, “Is this true?”

I nod once. “I didn’t do it because he’s a
member of the Resistance,” I admit. “I happened to be following his
daughter, and she was trying to rescue him, so I…I just
helped.”

“You did more than just help, Tristan,” Ben
says.

“Look, I left the Sun Realm because I hate my
father’s politics—I hate
him
.” It comes out as a growl. My
hands are aching and I realize they are gripping the table, my
knuckles bare and white. My eyes flit to Morgan, and I see she’s
staring at my hands. Slowly, I release them, letting the throb of
hot blood to return to my fingers. I tuck my hands together under
the table. Take a breath. “I won’t betray you,” I say, mustering as
much fervency as I can. They have to believe me.

“I believe you,” Vice President Morgan says.
“It’s a risk we have to take, anyway.”

“I do, too,” Maia says, flashing a quick
smile.

The young guy next to her says, “I’ll go
along with it, but if you try anything, I’ll personally see to it
that you’re taken down.”
Fair enough
, I think—but I don’t
speak, just nod.

“You’re all making a big mistake,” Ram says,
breaking his silence.

“Only time will tell,” Ben says. “For all our
sakes, I hope you’re wrong.” He’s looking at me when he says it,
almost like a challenge. I meet his gaze and, although it’s
slightly uncomfortable, I hold it, for fear that looking away will
be a sign of weakness, of deceit. Ben breaks the stare first, his
eyes wandering to Morgan’s. “Do you want to start the proceedings?”
he asks.

Morgan’s expression is filled with warmth.
“Ben, I’ve been keeping things moving in the right direction while
you’ve been gone, but I’m not the Resistance leader—you are. After
everything, it’s still you.”

Ben nods, his jaw tight. “Jonas—please
administer the oath,” he says.

Jonas
; the guy has a name. “To both of
them?” he asks.

Ben says to Roc, “It is your choice—one we
cannot force upon you.”

“I’ll do it,” Roc says, his voice determined.
This is a side to Roc I have rarely seen. He is coming into his
own. I am proud of him.

“Stand, please,” Jonas says. We obey, pushing
our chairs back. “Place your right hands out, palm skywards.” A
strange choice of words,
sky
wards. It almost makes me
wonder…

“Repeat after me. I, say your name, vow to
support the Resistance, to do whatever it takes to unite the
Tri-Realms—the Sun, Moon, and Star Realms—as one.” Roc and I repeat
the oath in unison, and Roc even manages to say his name, rather
than repeating ‘say your name,’ like I know he wants to. He really
has changed.

When we finish and sit back down, Ben says,
“Excellent. Now to business. Vice President Morgan, how soon do you
think you can gather the subchapter leaders?”

“Give me three days to get them all to
subchapter 1.”

“Done. Tristan, may I have a word with you in
private?”

I feel an ache in my belly. Ram had told us
food would be served, but that was apparently a lie. “Can it wait
until after breakfast?” I ask. Roc nods vigorously.

Ben laughs. “Of course. We don’t want you
passing out before you do anything for us. Ram,” he says, and I
groan. Our supportive escort, back on duty, babysitting.

The look on Ram’s face shows he’s about as
happy about it as we are. “C’mon,” he growls.

M
y eyes blink open.
It is dark, of course, so I can’t see, not well anyway. I must’ve
dropped my flashlight when I fell. It’s not on, so either the
batteries died or it broke. I’m surprised to even be waking up. I
thought the Flu or the dehydration would take me away.

My next thought is Tawni. Is she still alive?
Did the Flu spare her life, too?

I put a hand on my head. There’s a bulging
lump on my forehead but it’s not warm. I don’t feel shivery or
sweaty. The fever has broken.

I want to test my legs, so I place a hand on
the ground to push off. The ground has some give to it, like it’s
not made of stone. It’s weird. Maybe I’m still hallucinating, my
fever still raging on while I dream. Or I might still be asleep, in
a viral coma, dreaming of soft ground and blackness.

As I touch the floor again, I confirm: The
ground is definitely soft. I try to stand up anyway, but I can’t
seem to get my legs under me, either because of the plush ground or
my failing muscles. I might still be dying; just not dead yet.

One more time I push upwards with my hands
and I feel my muscles grip, firm and strong. They don’t hurt.
Perhaps I’m in shock. I am up but unsteady on my feet, wobbling and
swaying and holding my arms out to try to get my balance, like a
baby trying to take its first step. Losing the battle, I topple
over, but I don’t hit the soft ground quickly like I expect.
Instead the ground is farther away, as if I’m falling into a hole.
And when I collide with it, the floor is no longer soft, but hard
like…well, like rock. I scrape my arm and bang my knee and cry
out.

“Who’s there?” someone asks. The voice sounds
so familiar. So very familiar. My mind churns, but like the
rock-cutting machines, I come up with only shattered rocks as
thoughts. Nothing makes sense. I’m alone in the tunnels and
yet…

“Tawni?” I say, knowing the voice was hers
but also knowing it couldn’t have been. Surely I’m still
hallucinating.

“Adele?” the hallucination says.

“Yes, it’s me,” I say, right away feeling
stupid for talking to an apparition.

“Thank God. Where are we?”

If it is Tawni, she’s hallucinating too,
confused by the fever that continues to plague us both. “Are you
real?” I say.

“I think so,” Tawni says, her voice rising in
the dark.

“Keep it down!” a third voice grunts. “I’m
trying to sleep.”

Tawni squeals and I cover my head like
someone is about to hit me.

When I pull my arm from my eyes the darkness
is being fought off by an incoming light—a lantern. It bounces and
sways as it approaches. I’m scared of the hallucination but I won’t
show it. My mouth is a snarl.

“Who’s there?” Tawni says and I trace her
voice to her face, which is now lit up by our mysterious visitor’s
lantern. She is scared and it shows on her furrowed brow and wide,
white eyes.

I look back to the light and have to shield
my eyes with my hand as the bright beams flash in my face. A hand
reaches over the lantern and covers it with a thin fabric, dimming
the light. “You’re awake,” a young male voice says. The voice
places the lantern on the ground and steps forward. Backlit by the
light, our visitor is a dark profile, just a shadow in the shape of
a human.

“Who are you?” I ask, my eyes never leaving
the shadow. I’m still on the ground and I finally realize
something: We’re not in the tunnel anymore. Tawni is elevated on a
low bed, similar to one I was lying on, which is why I had so far
to fall when I toppled over. Although I can’t see much of it, in my
peripheral vision I can make out rows of beds extending in either
direction. The room is large. “Where are we?” I add to my initial
query.

Instead of responding, the shadow steps
forward and extends a dark hand. If he wants to hurt me, he will
regardless of whether I take his hand now. I hesitate, but then
take his hand, tightening my muscles in preparation for a fight.
His hand is warm but not sweaty, strong but not angry.

He pulls me to my feet with ease and I
struggle to maintain my balance, but he adds a second hand to the
small of my back to steady me. I don’t like this—relying on someone
else. It makes me uncomfortable.

Gently he guides me to Tawni’s bed, and she
lifts her knees to make room for me. “Sit here,” he says. I obey,
only because I’m not sure I can stay on my feet any longer.

With a deft spin, he turns and sits on the
bed I was on originally. His face is thrust into the light. As I
guessed from his voice, he’s young, no more than twenty. His hair
is chestnut and curly, and his eyes light brown. He’s smiling, but
it’s constrained, like he’s afraid of being too merry given our
present condition.

“I’m Trevor,” he says. “Welcome to the Star
Realm.” His eyes are dancing in the light.

“What? But how?” I ask.

Trevor laughs. “We heard you.”

“Heard us what?” I say, stupefied by how
anyone could have possibly found us. Then I remember: the dim light
I saw up ahead, fighting to reach it, failing, passing out;
darkness surrounding. “I was at the border,” I say, before Trevor
can reply. “But I didn’t make any noise.”

Trevor smirks. “From what I hear, you were
screaming like a banshee. The border guards found you delirious on
the tunnel floor, yelling and screaming about floods and bats and
sun dwellers.”

I don’t remember any of what he is saying so
I’m not sure whether I can trust him. But I’m here, I guess, so it
makes sense.

He continues: “They managed to calm you down,
but you kept mumbling about your friend in the tunnel. At first
they thought it was just the fever, but you kept persisting so we
sent a few men and they found her.” He motions to Tawni.

I look at Tawni. She looks much better. Her
normal pale-pink color has returned, and her eyes are no longer a
tortured red. “You saved me,” she says to me.

“No.”

“Yes. I couldn’t make it any farther, but
you
did.”

I shrug. “I just got lucky.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Trevor says
and I look back at him. His grin is gone and the brown in his eyes
has darkened. He runs a hand through his long hair. “Let me guess:
You drank from the reservoir in the inter-Realm tunnel?”

I nod, feeling somewhat sheepish. I expect
him to mock us for our stupidity. He doesn’t.

“Impressive. You made it nearly forty miles
before the Flu took you.”

Even I raise my eyebrows.
Forty miles.
But I keep my mouth tight. “All the more reason why we were
lucky.”

“If you say so,” he says.

“I do. What is this place, anyway?”

“The infirmary. Kind of like a hospital. We
get a lot of sick people down here. The conditions aren’t
great.”

Looking down the row of beds to either side,
I can make out a few arms, legs, and heads poking from beneath the
sheets. “I need to get out of here,” I say.

“Not gonna happen.”

“What—are we prisoners?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then why can’t we leave?” I don’t like being
told what to do, even by the people who have helped us.

“You’re not well enough yet.”

I take a deep breath and plan my next words
carefully. Tawni, always the mediator, steps in for me. “Thank you,
Trevor. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. But we’re here
on an urgent matter. There’s someone we have to find.”

“Who?”

Tawni looks to me for guidance. I sigh. “My
mom.”

“She’s a moon dweller?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“There aren’t many moon dwellers down
here.”

“I think she’s in the Max,” I say.

Trevor’s eyes light up with understanding. “A
prisoner, huh? Well, you can’t see her.”

I frown, clench my fists, try to stay calm.
Fighting won’t get me anywhere—at least not yet. “Why not?” I
ask.

“You have to see the General first.”

“Why?”

“The General asked me to bring you as soon as
you woke up. It’s been three days and the General is not very
patient.”

“Three days!” I say. I can’t hide the
surprise in my voice.

“You were nearly dead,” Trevor says. “Dead
like the Star Realm.” It’s a weird expression, but somehow it feels
appropriate.

“And after the General?” I ask. I figure
we’ll go see this dude and then be on our way, free to visit the
Max and find my mom.

“The General will decide that.” I’m barely
able to contain my anger, but I do, following Tawni’s lead.

“When do we leave?”

“It’s the dead of night,” Trevor says. I
can’t ignore his second reference to death. Despite his cheery
face, there is something dark about him. I can’t quite put my
finger on it. It could just be my imagination. Or it could just be
the way people are down here—in the Star Realm. “Look, just try and
get a few more hours of sleep and I’ll come to collect you in the
morning.”