The Taking 02: Hover (16 page)

Chapter 21

I go to Lydian, eager to see for myself which side she is on. Jackson left me with one request: Avoid anything overly dangerous until he returns. I have to wonder if he felt the words were a waste before he said them. After all, he knows I will do nothing less than what is necessary—dangerous or not.

Lydian is already waiting behind the glass when I arrive in the blue room, her expression full of worry.
Yes. I altered the brew
, she says into my mind before I can ask.
I know what you plan to do. I want to help…if you will let me.

“How do I know if I can trust you?”

She shrugs. “You could ask that question of anyone. I guess you have to decide for yourself. But Mami and I have developed a plan that may help you. Zeus drinks a mind vial daily to maintain his mental strength. I brew it for him and give him enough for his weekly consumption. I restocked his supply this morning. Instead of his normal brew, I have altered the concoction so it slows down the mind, his reflexes, everything. It is a gradual thing so he isn’t likely to notice for a few days.”

I walk closer to the glass. “I don’t understand. Why would you help me? He’ll know you did it. He’s too smart to think it’s a coincidence. He’ll know and he’ll kill you for it. I can’t let you—”

She tosses up her hands to stop me. “I am already dead here, Ari. He treats us as though we are his property, disposable at any time. I can’t live like this any longer, I won’t. Just promise me one thing.” I wait, afraid of what she is about to say, when she says, “My daughter—Madison. Take her with you. I can’t let her suffer the way I have, the way all healers suffer. Promise me you will take her with you and I will do whatever I can to guarantee your success.”

Madison. I knew her mother was a healer, but I had no idea her mother was Lydian. I wonder if Lydian has talked about me to Madison. I wonder if she knows that her mother has been torturing me.

I glance up to see the certainty in her face. I knew Zeus had made enemies here, but I never imagined so many Logeans would betray him. When I left Earth, I felt sure humans were in the wrong, and while I didn’t trust Zeus, I thought he at least had the Logean’s best interests in mind. Now I know Zeus only cares about winning. He no longer cares about anything other than destroying humans, which makes it all that much easier to convince myself that he deserves to be dead.

I fix my gaze on her, my body filled with a new resolve. “I promise,” I say, the words more than just a sentiment to Lydian that I will protect her daughter. I’m making a promise to myself, because at the end of the day I have no idea how bad this fight will get, no idea what shape Earth will be in when we return. Law says we will be safe, that the neurotoxin has diminished, but what if he’s wrong? What if I bring these people there just to watch them die?

Lydian’s eyes turn soft. “Trust yourself, child. We do. Now go. Emmy is waiting for you.”

…

Emmy is sitting on the bench between the gardens and the Taking Forest when I arrive. She doesn’t look up, though I know she senses me nearing. I sit beside her and she reaches out to take my hand. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course. What is it, Emmy? Is something wrong?”

She grips my hand tighter. “You will act when he returns, yes?”

I nod.

“And you are prepared to do what you must?”

I swallow. “I’m prepared to die if that is what you mean.”

At this she turns to me and grips the sides of my head hard. “Then take this.” A force surrounds my head and I pull and jerk against Emmy to try to free myself from the pain.

“Emmy, stop. Stop!” I claw at her hands, but her fingers lock down still tighter around my head. My body begins to shake from the pressure, my vision blurring. “E-mmy.”

“Take it!” she screams.

Suddenly it’s as though a crack, a tiny sliver of light, bursts from my scull and little by little the force around my head seeps through the crack, warming my mind, my eyes, my nose, my ears, heightening my senses to the point that I feel as though I am no longer trapped by my body, but free in the air, experiencing everything at once. All sounds, all smells, all feelings. I gasp as Emmy releases me, and I fall back against the bench.“What did you do?” I ask, breathless.

“I gave you some of me.”

I glimpse up at Emmy. She looks tired, older. “I don’t understand,” I say, closing my eyes. I feel jittery, as though I’ve taken too many energy shots.

Emmy takes my hand again, patting it in the way she does that always brings me comfort. “You needed to heal, so now you can.” I open my eyes and stare into hers, a strange beat in my chest that hits in opposition to my heart, like a second heartbeat. And suddenly I realize what she’s telling me. Emmy has just breathed life into me, as she would for one of the flowers in the garden, but with her breath of life, she gave me a greater gift—she gave me her ability to heal.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Emmy smiles. “Say nothing. Now you’re ready.”

Chapter 22

An hour and a half later, I find myself sitting in front of the communicator screen in Jackson’s office, waiting for Law. I need to be sure before I move forward that we have the same agenda. The last thing I want is to bring Logeans to Earth just to have them killed or thrown into execution chambers. I came here the moment I left Emmy and have been staring at a blank screen ever since.

“Come on, Law,” I say under my breath. “Be there. Come on.” But still only silence greets me. I pull my legs in tight in the chair and rest my forehead on my knees. I have two days to kill Zeus, two days to get everyone to Earth. Thinking through everything I have to do is enough to cause my mind to want to shut down, though I know I don’t have time for a mental breakdown. I don’t have time for worry or fear or anything other than action. That’s the only way I have a chance of succeeding, and I have no choice but to succeed.

“Ari?”

My eyes snap to the screen, but instead of Law, Gretchen stares back at me. “Gretch?” Her face is creased with concern and she looks tired, like days-of-no-sleep tired. “What’s happened?” I ask as I scoot closer to the screen.

She looks around, though I can’t see anyone else in the room. “I don’t know how long I have. They wouldn’t—”

“Gretchen.”

“I’m not supposed—”

“Gretchen.”

“It could be—”

“Gretchen!”

Her head jerks straight, her eyes wide.

“Just tell me what’s going on.”

“We’re told Zeus will be attacking in less than a week. They’re taking…preventative measures.”

I stand, coming closer to the screen as though being closer will help me get something more out of what she is saying. “I don’t understand. Preventative…?”

“They are shutting down this communication, Ari. We’re not supposed to talk to you. It’s dangerous. Things are getting intense here.”

“I don’t understand. You can’t talk to me? What about the plan? Has it changed? I’m helping to get everyone back home. I need to know it’s safe there for them. Please…tell me it’s safe.”

Gretchen glances around again. She’s so nervous, too nervous. What has happened there to make her so afraid? And where is Law? Where is Dad?

“Gretchen?”

Her eyes settle on mine, her expression more frightened than I’ve ever seen her. “No one is safe.”

“What?”

Static fills the air and the screen blurs in and out of focus, black and white lines running through the image. “Can you hear me? What’s happening? Gretchen?” I grip the sides of the screen, panic searing my chest.

“Ari?” The screen flashes—static, Gretchen, static, Gretchen. She’s close to the screen, her voice a whisper of terror. “Ari, are you there? If you can hear me, don’t—”

And then she’s gone.

Chapter 23

“She didn’t say anything else?” Cybil asks as we make our way out to the field before her training. The Operatives have reached a sort of half citizenship in Triad. They can come and go as long as they communicate where they’re going and with whom. The rest of the humans are on lockdown, their existence now tied to Zeus’s threat to Earth’s leaders.

I went to see Cybil the moment I was sure Gretchen wasn’t returning. I tried again and again to reconnect to Earth, to get someone—anyone—to answer me, but after an hour I knew the connection was gone and whatever had Gretchen so rattled had begun on Earth. My mind is filled with worry and dread. We can’t stay on Loge, not with the planet dying and Zeus growing crazier by the second. Even if I’m successful and I kill him, we are still living on a planet that is ticking toward its death.

“No, the screen went black. There was static at first, and then nothing, as though someone pulled the plug. She was afraid, Cybil. Really afraid. And something tells me her fears were deeper than just what Zeus is planning. I think she’s afraid of someone there. Or maybe what they plan to do. I’m not sure. Do you have any idea what they could be planning?”

Cybil stops in the grass and glances around. “There was once talk of moving everyone below ground and releasing toxins into the air that would make the surface unlivable for a year. Operatives would stay above to fight just in case there were Ancients that were able to make it past the toxins. The thought was that Loge would be dead by then and Zeus would have no choice but to find another planet to inhabit. The problem was that it would take time to build a fully contained belowground environment and we didn’t have time.”

“That might be what Zeus is wanting when he keeps asking me about an entrance. Maybe he knows they’re belowground and wants to know how to breach their hideaway. And maybe that’s why the connection was lost. Surely they couldn’t get as good of a frequency belowground.”

Cybil shakes her head. “No. That wouldn’t have been a problem. They had worked through all ways of communicating so we could stay in contact with the other Trinities. This is something else.”

“Do you think it’s safe there?”

She shrugs. “As safe as it is here.”

I swallow hard, letting the truth of her words sink in. These people, the Logeans, none of them want to fight. Back on Earth, I thought I had to choose a side. I thought either the Ancients were good or the humans were good. It didn’t seem possible that maybe there were bad and good within each group and that like with any war throughout history, the people—the everyday people—were the truly good ones and the ones to suffer the most. I realize in that moment that I will never be a commander to the Engineers or a commander to a Logean army. Not after everything I’ve seen. From now on my role, my job, is to protect the lives of those who are unable to protect themselves, the humans and Logeans who have no stake in this war beyond their goal to live through it. I am their commander. And I will not fail them.

“Deep thought?” Cybil asks as she walks up beside me.

I glance over at Cybil. “We need to talk about what to do once we’re back on Earth. Do we head for Business Park to see Dad? Keep everyone in the woods until we know it’s safe? The port should drop us into the woods, but what if it doesn’t? Again, we should think through—”

“Ari…”

“What?”

“What if they have gone underground? What then? We have no way of communicating with Lawrence or your dad. Anyone left on the surface will be told to shoot first, ask questions later. They aren’t going to care who we are—or who we were to them. We need to prepare for the fact that we may leave an attack here only to go into a full out war.”

A sick feeling swirls through my core, settling there as though I’ve eaten something that doesn’t agree with my system. She’s right. This whole time I’ve envisioned Sydia exactly as we left it, familiar like an old friend, when it could be a stranger to me now. I have to go there assuming I have no allies. I have to go there assuming the war will begin the moment our feet touch land.

“I’m going to meet with Emmy, Lydian, and Mami to finalize their part of the plan. The Operatives all all set, right?”

“Yes, half are leading the Ancients and humans outside the Healer’s Wall to the Taking Forest. The other half will help you defend the port. What about the assignees?”

“They’re ready. I sent a message to each of them on where to be and when. We’re all ready. Think you could spy on the RESs a bit? Find out what their attack strategy is on Earth?”

“Sure, but couldn’t you just ask Jackson when he returns?”

I shake my head and glance around again. Something in the air feels off. Night has settled in, bringing with it a light breeze that moves around us like a ghost, eager to learn our deepest secrets. “I don’t think Zeus would tell him. He’s using Jackson to train them, sure, but it’s almost as though Jackson is just a tool. I’m betting Zeus gave them orders to follow while he’s away with Jackson. And I’m betting Jackson going with him has nothing to do with him being the next leader. He wanted Jackson away from Triad. Why? There has to be a reason.”

Cybil considers this for a moment, and then sighs. “Okay, but I’m taking a weapon.”

I grin and pluck a flower from the ground at my feet, watching as it blooms in my hand, my touch sparking life into it. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

Chapter 24

Instead of taking the main path, I go around the Vortex and cut through the small patch of woods that surround Zeus’s house, where they requested we meet. The trees are different here; though they still have bark and are brown with green leaves, their shape is different, the branches twisting awkwardly and painfully as though they were broken bones that weren’t properly set before healing. I press my palm to the trunk of one as I pass, curious if the connection is still alive, but when nothing happens, remove my hand and continue on to Zeus’s house. The house feels more peaceful now than I remember it from the night Jackson came here to help Mami, as though the house itself knows that Zeus is away and it too can relax.

I reach the front door and hesitate, suddenly hyperaware that I’m about to go into Zeus’s home, the very one responsible for all my troubles here—the very one I am planning to kill. I lift my fist to knock, when the door swings open and Mami stands before me. “Come in, child. The rest have not arrived, but please, come in.” She holds the door for me.

I’m not sure what I expected the inside of Zeus’s home to look like. Cold. Scary. Stuffed humans on the wall. But I never expected it to feel so…familiar.

The front door leads to a wide foyer with tile and stone flooring that meet to create flower-like images that alternate in a pattern. A giant crystal chandelier hangs above our heads, so large and ornate and beautiful it made the one in the Cartier house look like a composite. The walls are empty here except for a single painting on the right wall of Zeus himself, likely there to remind anyone who enters that he is watching.

“This way,” Mami says, and she continues on through the house into a two-story room that I imagine must be a sitting room or family room, though nothing about it has a “family” feel. A fire crackles from a fireplace on the left wall, in front of it a sofa and two chairs, each of them entirely too formal to be in a home.

Mami sits in one of the chairs and motions for me to sit. My eyes drop down to the table in front of the sofa. It is hand carved, the top of it the scene from a war. Soldiers are on the ground, clearly injured or dead, and to the far right corner on top of a hill is a single man, his hands outstretched as though he has harnessed all the power in the world. I wonder if Vill made Zeus this table, and if so, how he managed it without making a comment. The whole thing oozes Zeus’s arrogance.

“You are opinionated, indeed,” Mami says with a smile. “I can see why you bother him.”

My eyes snap up from the table to find her studying me. “He bothers me, too.”

She laughs. “Yes, but he bothers most. You on the other hand…” She moves from the chair to the sofa, her movements so fluid I barely process that she’s in motion before she’s beside me, my hand in hers. “You have a strong spirit. Determined. So brave. How did you become this way? What did they do to you to evoke it?”

I tilt my head in confusion. “Sorry? Do to me? They didn’t do anything. And I’m not sure I’m brave. I do what I have to do.”

“You do what is necessary to protect others. I have yet to see you act out in a selfish manner at all. Surely you can appreciate the bravery in that.”

I swallow hard. She doesn’t know what I know—I am selfish. I act as much because it gives me a sense of purpose as any other reason. I act to prove, even now a million light years away, that I am worthy to my father. I may come across as selfless, but really, I am one of the most selfish people I know.

Mami grips my hand a bit tighter. “Well, that may be true, but if more possessed your selfish tendencies then we may not be in this war in the first place. If others thought of the good of the whole instead of the individual, as you do. You make tough decisions, Ari. You are very special. I’m sure your father is very proud.”

Tears spring to my eyes at her words and I have to look away to keep them from falling. “Jackson is special, too,” I say, hoping to get the attention off me.

She smiles, clearly thinking something she refuses to say. “Very special. Come with me.”

“Why did you ask if they did something to me?” I ask as we make our way further into the house and down a small hallway with photos hanging in perfect order across the wall. I stop short at the first set of photos—all of them of a small boy with white blond hair and a smile I would recognize anywhere. Jackson, even then, held a mystery in his eyes, as though he protected important information.

Mami comes up beside me, reaching out a hand to caress a photo of Jackson at the top of a cliff overlooking a waterfall. I know the spot instantly—I dreamt of this place a long time ago when Jackson first revealed himself to me.

“I know this place…” I say.

Mami just nods. “We believe in the power of words. When words are meditated on and infused into our bodies they can become a part of us.”

My gaze lifts from the photo to Mami. “What do you mean infused into your bodies?”

“Jackson has never shown you?” she asks, but at my confused expression she clears her throat and focuses back on the photo. “This was taken…”

For once I’m the one to grasp her hand. “Mami, what is it? What are you saying?”

“Please…ask Jackson. It isn’t fair for me to divulge what he may want kept private.”

“If something has happened to him…”

She releases a long breath, hesitating. “If an RES lacks speed, as part of his training he will receive a cipher of the word
velocity
and be told to meditate on the word, feeling it sink into his skin and muscles and bones until his body listens, the cipher acting as an injection into his spirit until he is as agile as the wind itself.”

“A cipher? Like a tattoo?”

“We believe every part of our body possesses recollection abilities, and when told to do something, it can and will listen. By placing the word on our skin we are telling our bodies we need whatever the word represents.” She pushes up her left arm sleeve to reveal a tiny symbol in the crook of her arm. A single vertical line with three horizontal lines running through the top of it, each parallel to one another.

“What does it mean?”

“Strength.”

I glance up at her, my heart heavy. What must life be like daily for Mami? Always on edge, always trying to survive. Never able to show who she truly is or how she truly feels. My eyes drift back to the cipher, and then my mind shifts to Jackson after his trainings with Zeus, everything Mami is saying becoming clear. The blood on his shirt. His unwillingness to change in front of me. He must have received a cipher at each of his trainings, but there was so much blood. A tiny symbol like Mami’s would never produce that much blood, so he must have received more than one, more than ten, more than—

I remember his blood-soaked shirt and have to take a step back to steady myself. “What has Zeus done to him?” My words are filled with every ounce of hate I have for Zeus.

Mami’s eyes drop from the photo of Jackson as a boy. “I never wanted this life for him.”

Then before I can respond, Emmy and Lydian walk up, their expressions filled with worry. “He knows,” Lydian says. “The port is completely surrounded. I don’t think we can use it to escape.”

“Zeus always knows,” Mami says. “But he underestimates us.”

Emmy tilts her head at Mami, and then, reading her thoughts, smiles. “I forgot. Do you think he forgot, too?”

“There is only one way to be sure.”

We are well into the woods behind Zeus and Mami’s house before I can fully process what I’ve agreed to. The Earthly port is guarded, and while we could fight the RESs, something tells me that’s exactly what Zeus wants. He knows we’re up to something. We all agreed that for now it’s better to remain low, to appear defeated, which is how we have ended up in the woods, on our way to plan B. For the first time, I’m stepping outside the Healer’s Wall.

“Our mother was never a fan of the Castellos,” Mami says. “So much so that when I agreed to marry Zeus, she vowed to create an exit for me, whenever I should need it. A place I could go to disappear. She wanted to keep me safe. She was an advanced healer, her talent far greater than any other. Still to this date, there has been no one to match her.”

Emmy grips my hand. “She who taught me that any can heal, not just those born to it.”

Mami nods. “Emmy and I were both taught well, though of course Emmy’s skills have always far surpassed my own.” Mami smiles over at her sister. “Before she passed, mother took us to a special tree.”

“Wait,” I say, stopping so suddenly the others glance around nervously. “Did you say a special tree?”

Mami’s expression creases with worry. “Yes, why?”

“Jackson took me to a special tree. But it’s not here, it’s on Earth, in Sydia. He called it the Unity tree.”

Emmy laughs. “We should’ve guessed he knew, Mami.”

Mami is silent for several seconds, bringing the eeriness of the woods into full focus. There are no insect or animal sounds here like there are back home, and while you might think owls are creepy, take them away and suddenly the forest feels less like an open place and more like a contained room, where any noise you make is amplified. Even my breaths, so controlled, sound far too loud. “What aren’t you saying, Mami?”

“I’m wondering if Zeus knew about the tree after all, or at least guessed that it existed, even if he couldn’t find it. I’m sure Jackson told you that only those who know of its location can find it. Mother blessed it with an unusual heal. It exists, yet doesn’t, traveling in between the dimensions so that it can appear when needed…and disappear when not. Jackson must have followed me to it at some point. He must have watched me summon it.”

“But if your mother created the Unity tree as an escape for you, why would she place it beyond the wall?”

Emmy grins over at me. “Ah, you make assumptions, child. The wall has not always been.”

“What?” I glance from Emmy to Mami, but it’s Lydian who answers me.

“Triad was not always encaged by the wall,” Lydian says. “There was a time when Loge was comprised of many regions, each with its own leader. As you can imagine, disagreements erupted, arguments became wars, and Zeus, having convinced himself the other regions were corrupted, made it his mission to lead more than just Triad—he wanted to control all of Loge. And he succeeded, but not before gaining a wealth of enemies. He claimed the wall was built to protect Triad from threats, when really it was built to protect him from his enemies. Now, his enemies are long gone and the wall is used to control the health of our land.”

“But there are still other regions, right? What happened to those leaders?”

Lydian’s face turns to stone. “They were handled, as all are handled who get in Zeus’s way.”

We walk the rest of the way through the woods in silence, each of us consumed by our own thoughts and worries. I realize that Mami may be the bravest person I’ve ever met. Not just anyone would have the strength to plot against her spouse, especially when that spouse is Zeus. Whatever horror would lie in store for the rest of us if we were caught would be nothing compared to what he would do to Mami. I feel a sudden pang of guilt for keeping this from Jackson. He would never want her this involved.

Mami drapes her arm around me, hugging me gently. “You have a kind spirit, child. Never let that leave you. War can harden us. I know, I’ve suffered through too many to count. But I like to think I was once like you—full of kindness and bravery.”

“Mami, you are—”

“Look, we’re here,” she says before I can continue. I swallow back my guilt, knowing there is no time for that now. It’s long past time for second-guessing my actions. I have to push forward.

In front of me is the same vine-covered wall that exists in the garden by the Panacea and beyond the fields where we train, the same wall Jackson forced us to walk on our first day of RES assignee training. I’m about to ask how we can get past the wall, when I notice a tiny latch tucked into the greenery. I edge closer, reaching out to move the flowers and vegetation away, and discover that cut within the wall is a gate, barely noticeable to the naked eye. A small lock secures the latch closed, no doubt to keep out anyone who may try to enter.

I peer over my shoulder at Mami. “Do you have the key?”

Emmy laughs. “
We
are key.” And she reaches out a shaking hand to the lock. Her fingertips brush over the key opening, first her thumb, then each of her fingers beginning with her index finger and ending with her pinky. A tingly feeling crawls my spine and I know regardless of how brave Mami thinks I am, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what lies beyond the wall, of what Ancients may have survived there and what they are prepared to do with us—or to us. Then a deeper fear appears in my mind and I have to force myself not to take a step backward.

What if we die the moment we cross through the gate, our bodies becoming as lifeless as the land there?

“Dramatics. Always dramatics, child.” Emmy pushes the gate open and steps through, disappearing into the darkness on the other side. A crisp breeze flows through the gate, sweeping my hair across my face. Lydian and Mami follow, and I’m left alone before the wall, no choice but to push aside my doubts and trust—something more difficult for me to do than anything else in the world. But again, there is no time for second-guessing, no time for doubts, no time for fear. There is no time for anything but action.

I repeat the words again and again in my mind until I feel strong. I draw a long breath, clench my fists tightly together, and step through the gate and into a void.