The Star Dwellers (38 page)

The thought continues to tumble through my
mind as the train pulls into the station.

When Adele steps onto the platform, she seems
better, herself even. The fire in her that had seemingly been
snuffed out when Ben died is back. I can see it in her eyes, in the
way she carries herself, in the intensity of her hug when she
greets me.

To be honest, I’m relieved. While they’ve
been gone, I’ve been batting around one question in my head: How do
you console someone when your words have lost all power?

That’s how I’ve been feeling. Like anything I
say to her just hangs in the air for a second, maybe two, and then
drops in the abyss of lost and meaningless words. I guess she just
needed time with her mom. The secret I’ve been keeping from her
rolls around in my mouth, trying to take shape, but the time just
doesn’t feel right, so I swallow it back down.

We hold hands all the way back to the
building in subchapter 1 where the Resistance leaders have been
staying. No one wants to meet in the Dome anymore, not after what
happened. There’s been a lot of good news while Adele was gone and
for the first time she seems genuinely interested as I tell her
about it. The star dwellers realized their secure prison, the Max,
was secretly being used, so they launched an attack on it. They
found that sun dweller spies had been using it to hold the families
of the star dweller generals. Now that they’re free, the generals
are able to lead the people the way they want to, without fear.

In fact, the remaining six star dweller
generals just arrived today, along with three or four of their
largest platoons. We expect more to arrive each day. They’ll
dispatch soldiers to all the borders with the Sun Realm, to protect
us until we can prepare for battle.

“What are you going to do?” Adele asks
suddenly, interrupting my monologue of news.

I gaze into her eyes, wondering what she
expects me to say. “Fight,” I say. “I can’t sit on the sidelines
while my father destroys the Lower Realms. I have to help stop him,
kill him if I have to.”

“Good,” Adele says. “Me too.”

W
e’re sitting around
a very large courtyard. Me, Tristan, Roc, Tawni, my mom, all of the
moon dweller VPs—both the incumbents and the newly elected—the star
dweller generals. Discussing the strategy for the war. I don’t feel
like I or any of my friends should even be here. I mean, we’re not
leaders, except Tristan. He would fit right in. But for some reason
they invited us.

Since my dad was killed, Mom has become the
voice of the Resistance. “We’ve come up with a two-pronged approach
to fighting this war,” she says, her voice stronger than I’ve ever
heard before. “The main body of our soldiers will be used in the
subchapters we think are the most susceptible to attack. Although
many of you were of the opinion we should attack first, the
majority has decided that we will let the sun dwellers come to us.
By doing this, we will stretch their resources and allow us to
fight on our home turf. But don’t become complacent, these
advantages are minor considering the firepower President Nailin
will rain down upon us. Any questions?”

Silence. I wait for her to tell us about the
second part of the strategy.

“Adele, Tristan, Tawni, Roc,” my mom says,
and my heart skips a beat.
Why is she addressing us in front of
everyone?
“We have something to ask of you, something that is
hard for me as a general and as a mother.” She pauses, takes a
breath, continues, speaks directly to me.

“This is not a time to be complacent. This is
not a time for fearful mothers to hide away their capable
daughters. It’s a time to be bold, to take risks. Your father
trusted in your strength, in your abilities, and now it’s time for
me to do the same. God knows I don’t want to. I’ve lost a husband
already and my other daughter is in bad condition, but I cannot
hold you back because I’m scared of losing you. You are a
fantastically capable woman and I’m so proud of you, Adele.”

Tears glimmer in her eyes and I know I’m
reflecting them back at her. I don’t know what she wants us to do,
but I know I’ll say yes, not because she’s asking me, but because
it’s the right thing to do.

“Mom, just tell us. It’s okay,” I say.

She cringes as if in pain, like asking me
this is physically hurting her. “We have a special mission for you.
We want you to kill the President.”

Her words are like a dark fog in the air,
pressing down on our shoulders. It was the last thing I expected
her to say. She rushes on, “Without him at the helm, we believe the
sun dweller army will fall apart, will lose their resolve. He’s the
mastermind behind it all, and if he falls, we think we have a
chance. Realistically, our armies don’t stand a chance against the
Sun Realm, but this might just give us the edge we need.”

“Why us?” I ask.

My mom sighs. “You all have proven what you
can do, and Tristan and Roc know the lay of the land in the Sun
Realm, and, well, we knew none of you would go unless all of you
go.” She’s right. I’ll never leave my friends again—will never
leave Tristan again.

Tristan grips my hand, squeezes twice. A
signal. He’s in. “I’ll do it,” I say, my eyes dry again, my face
firm. I’ll do it for my dad, for my sister, for my mom. For me.

“I’m in, too,” Tristan says.

At the same time, Tawni and Roc say, “Me
too.”

My mom nods. “I thought you would say that.
And Trevor and Ram will be going with you, too, as representatives
of the Star and Moon Realms.”

Trevor nods at me, a slight smile on his
face. A week ago I would have cringed at the thought of spending
more time with Trevor, but now grin back. He’s a friend. Not
because he saved me—twice—but because he stood by me when I needed
him most. Just like Tristan, Roc, and Tawni.

A big, dark-skinned guy, who I assume is Ram,
stands, looks directly at Tristan, and says, “I’ll do whatever I
can to help fulfill this mission. I’ll even follow Tristan into the
belly of the beast. But I’m warning you, if I ever so much as
suspect you’re working for your father, I’ll kill you with my bare
hands.”

I glance sharply at Tristan, expecting his
face to be red as he prepares to fight this Ram guy, but I’m
shocked to see he’s laughing. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from
you, Ram,” he says.

I guess there’s something I don’t know about
their relationship.

* * *

I go to see Elsey one last time before we
leave.

“Do you really have to go?” she says right
when I walk in.

I sigh. “Oh, El. If there was any way I could
stay with you, you know that I would,” I say, sitting next to
her.

She’s beneath the covers, like when I saw her
the last time, just her tiny head sticking out. Her thick raven
hair covers most of the white pillow she’s resting on.
Unexpectedly, she twists her left arm out from the sheets and
pushes off, sitting up straight. I stifle a gasp when I see the
stump of flesh sticking out from the short right sleeve of her
hospital tunic.

“Does it scare you?” She giggles, waving the
stump slightly in the air.

And just like that she’s just Elsey again. My
sister. Not my crippled sister. Despite myself, I laugh, although
not as long or as loud as I’d like to for her sake. “You could
never scare me,” I say, putting my arm around her so she can lean
on me. When I feel her minimal weight against my chest I feel
complete.

We lay there together for over an hour,
sharing memories of Dad, of Mom, of life, sometimes laughing,
sometimes crying—always loving. When she falls asleep I slip my arm
from behind her head, covering her to her neck with the white
spread.

“Goodbye, Elsey,” I say, kissing my hand and
touching it to her forehead.

* * *

The Resistance is full of surprises. We stand
on a large overhang high atop the cavern walls in subchapter 1. The
Dome looks like a giant bulge from up here, sticking out amongst
the toy buildings around it. We’re all sweating from the exertion
of the climb. At least this time we got to use ropes.

We’re shoulder to shoulder on the ledge,
Tawni, then Roc, then Tristan, then me. My mom insisted on
accompanying us this far. I take one last look at the Moon Realm,
perhaps the last time I’ll see it ever, and then turn around to
where Mom is pulling away a big gray tarp from the mountainside,
revealing a hidden ink-black tunnel into the rock. Like I said, the
Resistance is full of surprises.

“We built this during the Uprising, but never
had a chance to use it,” she says.

“We’re using it now,” I say.

When she turns, her eyes are full of
conviction. “You will succeed,” she says.

“Of course we will,” I say, trying to make it
sound like the truth.

She hugs Tawni first, holding her for a long
time without saying anything. Then she hugs Roc and says, “Elsey’s
sure going to miss you.”

“And I her,” Roc replies. He winks. “Don’t
worry, we’ll see you again soon.” It seems Elsey’s optimism is
rubbing off on him.

Next up is Tristan and she whispers something
in his ear as she pulls him close. He just smiles and nods.

I’m last and we hug the longest. After all,
she’s my mom, and I’m going to miss her. Just as I’m pulling away,
she tugs my ear close to her lips and whispers sharply, “It’s no
accident that you and Tristan met.”

My eyes widen and I open my mouth to speak,
to ask her what she means, but it’s too late, because she’s pushed
me into the thin tunnel and corralled the others behind me,
blocking the path.

I grit my teeth, frustrated at my mom’s
cryptic message, but trying to focus on the task at hand: find the
President; kill the President. I lead the way into the tunnel,
flicking my flashlight on with one hand and gripping my mother’s
emerald necklace in the other.

###

Keep reading for a peek into the
heart-stopping third installment in The Dwellers Saga,
The Sun
Dwellers
, which will be published in December 2012.

Acknowledgments

This time around I’m most thankful to all
the readers who bought
The Moon Dwellers
and wrote the most
wonderful reviews that helped inspire me to write the sequel. Your
words of encouragement and your feedback mean so much to me, I
can’t even put it into words. I was literally tearing up as I read
some of your reviews. I can’t thank you enough for your support and
for your willingness to take a chance on my books.

To my editor, Christine LePorte, thank you
for helping me take my ideas and writing to the next level—the
pearls of wisdom you provide do not go unnoticed.

A HUGE thanks to my marketing team at
shareAread, particularly Nicole Passante and Karla Calzada, without
whom there would be no buzz. You’ve taught me so much.

As always, thanks to my incredible team of
beta readers who embraced
The Star Dwellers
from the very
beginning and who have been so encouraging the whole way through.
You are truly an inspiration. Without your feedback,
The Star
Dwellers
wouldn’t have been nearly as good! So thank you,
Laurie Love, Alexandria Nicole, Karla Calzada, Christie Rich,
Kayleigh-Marie Gore, Nicole Passante, Kerri Hughes, Terri Thomas,
Lolita Verroen, Zuleeza Ahmad, and Kaitlin Metz. And of course, the
biggest thanks to my ultimate beta reader, my always-honest wife,
Adele.

To my friends in my Goodreads fan group, you
are all amazing, I hope you know how highly I think of you, and I
appreciate all your jokes, kindness, and comments. You brighten my
life every day that you’re in it.

I like to wait till near the end of the
acknowledgments to recognize my awesome cover artists/designers at
Winkipop Designs, because they are the first impression everyone
gets, and so they should be the last two. Thank you for all your
hard work within challenging deadlines and for finding a way to sum
up an entire story in a single image. As one of my readers said,
“After reading the book I realized what a work of art the cover
is.” I couldn’t have said it better.

The saga continues in other books by David
Estes available through the author’s official website:

http://davidestes100.blogspot.com

or through select online retailers including
Smashwords.com.

Young-Adult Books by David Estes

The Dwellers Saga:

Book One—The Moon Dwellers

Book Two—The Star Dwellers

Book Three—The Sun Dwellers (coming in
December 2012!)

The Evolution Trilogy:

Book One—Angel Evolution

Book Two—Demon Evolution

Book Three—Archangel Evolution

Children’s Books by David Estes

The Nikki Powergloves Adventures:

Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born

Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council

Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers

Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure

Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws
(Coming in 2013!)

Connect with David Estes Online

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Estes/130852990343920

Author’s blog:
http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com

Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/davidestes100

Goodreads author page:
http://www.goodreads.com/davidestesbooks

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/davidestesbooks

About the Author

After growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
David Estes moved to Sydney, Australia, where he met his wife,
Adele. Now they travel the world writing and reading and taking
photographs.