Текст книги "The Star Dwellers"

Автор книги: David Estes

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

My head jerks to the left and I see Trevor pulling himself to his feet, my gun dangling loosely from his fingertips. His tunic is covered in red, slick and splotchy. Blood. But not his. Brody’s. I turn back to Brody, who I’m straddling, nausea rolling in my stomach, churning and heaving. His dead eyes stare lifelessly at me and I notice the hole in his temple. Frantically, I roll off of him, throw my head to the side, vomit all over the floor. My hair is in my face, mingling with my regurgitated breakfast, but I don’t care.

The guy who was so nice to me when I met him, who taught me to shoot, who nearly kissed me just this morning, is now dead. “You…you killed him,” I manage to blubber, still staring at the floor.

“I had no choice,” Trevor says.

“No—I didn’t mean it that way.” I pull back from the putrid scent of my upchuck, wipe my mouth with the top of my tunic, push my soiled hair away from my face. “Thank you. I meant to say thank you. You saved my life. Both of our lives.”

Trevor’s eyes are steely. “I’d do anything for your mother.” Implying what? He only saved me because it’s what my mother would have wanted?

“And for me?”

“Eh, I guess for you too, by default.” There’s humor in his words, barely betrayed by a wry smile he can’t hide.

“Trevor, I’m, I’m—”

“She’s sorry,” Tawni interrupts, moving between us. “She’s always had trouble with the S-word.” Although I can tell my friend is freaked out, her face ashen, her lips thin, she manages to put a smile on my face with her words.

“I’m sorry—really sorry,” I say.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, thankfully not giving me a hard time. “I know you both must be in a bit of shock, but we don’t have much time. We still need to leave for the Moon Realm soon, but given what’s just happened we’ll need to brief General Ro—I mean, your mom—right away.”

“Can we get cleaned up first?” I say, motioning to Tawni. When I look at her, I realize she’s perfectly clean and tidy and looks ready to go. It’s me who’s a mess. A nervous laugh escapes my throat. “I mean, can I get cleaned up first? Oh, and you’ll probably want to change, too,” I add, trying not to look at Brody’s blood all over Trevor’s clothes.

“Of course. I’ll take you to your mother’s personal quarters for all that.”

“What about…the body?” I say, looking away so Brody’s dead corpse is out of even my peripheral vision.

“Don’t worry about that—I’ll take care of it.” Trevor’s voice is so firm, so calm, I wonder how I never saw this side of him before, how I never trusted him. But then again, after what happened with Brody, I may never trust anyone again.

* * *

It’s one of the best showers I’ve ever had. Not only am I scrubbing away the dried blood, my own filthy bile, and sweat, but I’m exfoliating away Brody’s lies and treachery. Although I’m shaken up, I’m alive, and I feel like it’s a new beginning for me. A chance to stick with the people I know and trust. My family, Tawni, Tristan, and now Trevor. A lot of T’s in the bunch, which is fine by me.

After toweling dry, I leave my dirty tunic in a pile in the corner of the bathroom, where my mom told me to. She said we’ll probably never be coming back to this place anyway. My new tunic feels wonderful against my clean skin. When I move back into her bedroom, she and Tawni are waiting for me.

“Tawni told me everything while you were getting ready,” she says.

“Mom, I’m sorry I didn’t trust your judgment. You too, Tawni,” I say, looking at the floor. I’m ashamed of myself.

“It’s okay. I am completely shocked it was Brody, too,” Mom says.

“Yeah, even though I didn’t think it was Trevor, I was surprised it was Brody,” Tawni agrees.

“You are?” I say, looking up.

Mom answers for both of them. “Yes, I never would have guessed him, which is probably why Trevor and I couldn’t figure it out.”

“About Trevor…” I say.

“That’s okay, too. You’d only just met him, and it was perfectly normal for you to be skeptical of him, especially because I know he can be quite…grating sometimes.”

“Someone must be talking about me, because my nose is itching something fierce,” Trevor says, pushing through the half-open door. He’s smirking in that way that I used to find so irritating, but now seems somewhat endearing. It’s amazing how much difference a change in perspective can make to how you view someone.

“Trevor, I just want to say again that I’m so—”

“No more apologies,” he says. “I know how much you hate that word, so I won’t make you say it again.”

“Thanks,” I say, thoroughly humbled. He’s being so nice to me. Why didn’t I see this side of him before?

“I’m just glad you’re all okay,” Mom interjects. “Trevor, I already owe you so much, but now…” I’m surprised when I see tears shimmering in her eyes. My mother the general. Still the same compassionate woman I remember. She blinks them away. “Let’s just say there will always be room for you at our table.”

“I might just take you up on that,” Trevor says. He maintains his smirk, as if everything is no big deal, but I can tell from the lightness in his eyes that he’s touched. He claps his hands together. “Okay, the generals have agreed to meet. They seem very interested in ‘the new developments’ that I told them we want to share.”

“Good. Let’s go,” Mom says, rising, no trace of the weakness that had clouded her eyes only moments earlier.

“Me too?” Tawni asks.

“Of course. You’re all a part of this now and you all have valuable information.”

For some reason I hesitate. “What if the generals are all working for the Sun Realm, too?”

My mom looks at me seriously. “I’ve considered that possibility. But don’t let one person’s lies affect your ability to trust anyone. While one or more of the generals may be against us, I don’t believe they all are. We just have to trust that there are still good people in this world, Adele.”

I don’t know if I can do that, not after what Brody tried to do—what he did do—but I don’t say anything, just nod. I ignored my mom’s judgment once.

I won’t do it again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tristan

I’m still feeling a rush of energy through my chest when Ben walks in. It’s been over an hour since I saw Adele, but the effect is lingering. It’s like there’s a bubble inside me, leaving me airy and light. I expect I feel kind of like Ben felt when he saw his wife again.

The only thing that was weird was when she told me about this Brody guy. He seems like a real creep to me, trying to kiss Adele when they should be preparing for a war. Although I can’t really blame him—I might’ve done the same thing if I was in his position.

I realize Ben is standing over me and I look up, surprised. I expected he was coming in to spend some quality time with Elsey, who’s across the room reading a book with Roc, while I sit and daydream about Adele, bask in the few minutes of uninterrupted conversation I had with her.

“Something’s happened,” Ben says. He’s wearing a frown, which concerns me because I haven’t seen it much from him.

Adele’s hurt—I just know it. Evidently my inner concerns make it to my face because he says quickly, “No one’s hurt, thank god.” I take a sharp breath out that I’ve been holding in.

“Then what?”

“A sergeant in the star dweller army was working for the sun dwellers. He tried to kill Adele and Tawni.”

I suck in a short breath. “What? How? Why?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have all the details. I’ve only just received an encrypted message from Anna. Evidently my wife’s second-in-command rescued the girls from their attacker. Shot the guy—killed him.”

A thought flashes into my head. “Brody?” I ask.

Ben’s head jerks slightly. “How did you know that?”

So Brody is Adele’s mom’s right-hand man. “Uh, Adele mentioned his name.”

“What? In what context?”

I stare at Ben, wondering why he’s so interested in the guy who saved Adele’s life. I’m certainly not going to say he tried to kiss Adele. “I dunno. Just that she met him during training.”

Ben shrugs, as if he was never really that interested anyway. So Brody saved Adele and Tawni, but—

“Who was the attacker?” I ask.

Ben stares at me strangely. “The guy you just said. Brody.”

I put a hand on my head, run it through my hair. So Brody saved them from Brody? Are there two Brodys? “Wait…what? I thought you just confirmed it was Brody who saved them?” I’m getting more confused by the minute, as if Ben and I are running around in circles chasing each other, fake tails stuck to our butts.

“No, no. Brody was the attacker. Anna’s second-in-command rescued them.”

My mind is whirling. “But I thought Brody was her second-in-command.”

“No, that’s Trevor.”

Trevor? Who the hell’s Trevor? Some other guy I don’t know about apparently. Some guy who didn’t try to kiss Adele apparently. Soooo…

The guy who tried to kiss Adele tried to kill Adele? My jaw drops when I finally understand. Funny how changing two little letters in kiss transforms it into the deadly opposite: kill. Just thinking that word and Adele in the same sentence sends shivers down my spine. If he was working for my father, clearly he was trying to get close to her for information. I’m glad she didn’t fall for that crap.

“Adele said Brody was friendly to her,” I say.

“What do you mean friendly?”

“I don’t know—a nice guy, I guess. Trying to get close to her. Perhaps trying to get information as it turns out.”

“Well, he’s dead now.” Ben’s eyes are as sharp as daggers. He’s happy this Brody dude is dead. Not that I’m not.

“Remind me to thank Trevor when I meet him. So are they on their way here now?”

“No, that’s the other thing I wanted to tell you. There will be a slight delay because of what happened. They want to tell the generals they had a mole in their midst, try to get them see what’s happening, that the Sun Realm is playing games with us, hopefully convince them to travel to the Moon Realm with them.”

“So what do we do?”

Ben shrugs. “We wait.” Ugh. Already I’m tired of waiting. “There will be another peace summit, which my wife and at least one other general from the star dweller army will attend, so that’s being planned, but other than that, there’s nothing really for us to do right now.”

“Okay,” I say.

“Get some food. Get some rest. Hopefully by tomorrow they’ll be closer to getting here.”

“Okay,” I repeat, because I’m all out of things to say.

* * *

I swear one of my least favorite things in the world is waiting. It’s not my father’s bad politics, or the sun dweller soldiers, or even the dust-filled moon dweller air that’s killing me. No, it’s none of those things. It’s the waiting that’s killing me. Slowly, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. Sucking the life out of me, making me grind my teeth and pick at my fingers, and bang my head against the wall.

I’d almost welcome Ram to stop by and beat me up again—at least it would kill some time, get my blood pumping again, break up the monotony of the gray stone walls and slap of cards against the table where Roc and Elsey are playing some game.

“I gotta get out of here,” I mumble, to whoever might be listening. No one.

Or Roc. “Okay, master. Let’s go for a stroll down that one tunnel—you know the one, right?—that leads to that other tunnel—the gray one with the brownish rocks. And then we can walk down that other gray tunnel that splits into two other gray tunnels. It’ll be way more fun than sitting here playing cards with two of the coolest cats around.”

I smirk. “One—don’t call me ‘master.’ And two—Elsey’s cool, but I’m struggling to figure out who the other cool person is, unless you’re referring to me?”

“Ha ha, very funny. It’s me, you dolt. Dolt—oh, I kind of like that. It definitely suits you more than ‘master.’” He uses two fingers on each hand for the quotes around master.

Elsey giggles. “Are you sure you aren’t brothers? You fight like Adele and I did when we were little.”

I see Roc’s spine stiffen, so I answer casually. “What do you mean ‘were little’? You still are little.”

“I most certainly am not!” Elsey scoffs.

“Are too! Would I be able to do this”—I leap off the bed, rush over to her, and grab her, picking her up and swinging her around—“if you weren’t little?”

“Put me down! Is that any way to treat a lady?” she squeals, but she’s giggling hysterically and I know she’s enjoying it, so I don’t stop for another ten seconds.

When I do set her down again, she brushes off her tunic with her hand and says, “Hmph. The scoundrel boys in the orphanage were more gentlemanly than you are.”

I’m about to fire back a sarcastic retort, maybe tickle her, maybe pick her up again, when Roc says, “Elsey, we’ve got something to tell you.”

The whole time I thought I was rescuing my best friend from a touchy subject, he’d been thinking about it, and I can tell he’s ready to talk about things, starting with telling Elsey our big news. “Like a surprise?” she says, her face lighting up.

“Sort of like that,” Roc says, staring at his hands. He gets up and moves to sit on the side of the bed and Elsey follows him. I remain standing nearby. Roc seems to want to do this on his own.

“What is it?” Elsey asks innocently, staring up at Roc with wide eyes.

“You know how you just asked whether we were sure we weren’t brothers?”

“I just said that not two minutes ago,” Elsey says, in that proper way that only she and people from the seventeenth century could say it.

“Well, as it turns out, Tristan and I, well, we actually…are…brothers. Well, sort of…I mean, we’re half-brothers. We have the same father.”

Elsey’s eyes are bigger than the artificial suns in the Sun Realm. “Your father is the President, too?”

Roc nods. “We both just found out. Like a couple days ago. It’s still a bit of a shock.”

“Wow,” is all she says.

“I don’t really want anyone to know yet though,” Roc says.

“Like a secret?”

“Exactly.”

“I swear on my friendship with my truest friend in the whole wide world, Ranna, that I will never share what you have told me with another soul.”

“Or you can just not tell anybody,” Roc says, chuckling.

“That’s what I just said!”

“Except it took you three times as long to say it,” I add.

“Oh, boys,” Elsey says, shaking her head, like we’re the ten-year-olds.

“Who’s hungry?” I ask, as I feel my stomach rumble. It’s late, but the nice thing about this place is that there’s always food to be eaten.

“Me, me, me!” Roc exclaims, waving his hand in the air like a child trying to get the attention of the schoolteacher. He’s doing it to entertain Elsey and she giggles.

“I would be honored to dine with you two strapping young gentlemen. Thank you for asking,” Elsey says grandly.

Roc and I just look at each other, laughter in our eyes.

We make our way to the commons, which are bustling as if it’s the middle of the day. Members of the Resistance are streaming all over the place, carrying packs of supplies, weapons, and body armor. Everything looks a hundred years old but there seems to be plenty of it. It’s as if the entire command center is readying to move out to war. The soldiers look like ants next to the heights of the honeycomb atrium above them.

Few of them are eating, however, so we easily spot Ben and his sister at a lone table, their heads together, their voices a whisper as if they’re discussing something treacherous, like an assassination attempt on the President; maybe they are. They lift their heads and voices when they spot us, donning big smiles and motioning with their arms for us to join them.

We do. “What’s all this about?” I ask as we sit down, sweeping my hand across the buzzing cave.

Jinny answers. “You didn’t think we’d be going into subchapter 1 without some protection, did you?”

“They’re all coming with us?” Roc asks incredulously.

“Sure,” Ben says. “The Resistance is all about being prepared. In the event that something happens, we want to be ready for it.”

“Will I be coming, too, Father?” El asks.

“Most definitely. You think after all we’ve been through that I’d let you out of my sight again?” he says, pulling his daughter into his side. For once, Elsey is just a kid, melting into Ben’s side, closing her eyes, her face full of love for her dad. It’s not something I’m used to seeing.

“Umm, food?” Roc says.

“Thanks, I didn’t know you were serving tonight,” I joke. “I’ll take some mashed potatoes and bread rolls with gravy, if they’ve got it.”

“Fat chance,” Roc says. “Those days are long over.”

I punch his arm and stand up. “For which I am glad,” I say. “I’ll get the grub.”

After taking Roc’s and Elsey’s orders I go and retrieve the food from the counter, balancing all three plates on one arm like a waiter, while toting three mugs of water with the other hand. “Bon appétit,” I say, dishing it out.

“You’re good at that,” Roc says, winking. “If this whole rebellious-son-of-the-President thing doesn’t work out, you’ve definitely got a future as a servant in the Sun Realm.”

“And you can become a comedian,” I retort.

For a few minutes Roc and I manage to cease our normally nonstop banter as we strive to accomplish the same goal of stuffing our faces. As we eat, we listen to Ben and Jinny discuss the next few days.

“After we arrive in the subchapter, we’ll head straight to the Big House to settle in and get the lay of the land,” Ben says.

“The Big House is the code name for the place we’ll be staying,” Jinny explains for our benefit.

“Right. Hopefully Anna and Adele will arrive shortly afterward and we can have a big family reunion.” At that, Elsey’s eyes light up, but she can’t speak as even she’s forgone manners in order to fill her belly, and her mouth is full, her cheeks puffed out as she tries to chew.

“We’re hoping we’ll get a few minutes together before all the VPs are ready to begin the peace summit.” I’ll drink to that, I think, taking a big gulp of my water. It feels so surreal that I haven’t hung out with Adele in days after having gone through such an emotional two days by her side.

“Then what?” I ask, licking the last bit of mashed potato off of my finger.

“Then we pray for the best,” Ben says.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adele

The star dweller generals listen patiently as my mom explains what happened. I expect looks of shock: wide eyes, open mouths, dropped jaws—something. Instead, they just stare with unreadable expressions and pursed lips.

The only one who reacts is General Baum, the one who’s a member of the Resistance. She’s older than my mother, perhaps by five years, but is in fantastic shape, with strong, sculpted arms and legs that boast years of athletic endeavors. Sort of like my legs. Strong and capable and far from ladylike. Her aging brown hair is peppered with gray, but it’s cut short, like a boy’s, so it’s not that noticeable.

Her eyebrows are raised and her knuckles white on the table. The exact opposite of the other generals who look almost indifferent. When my mom finishes, she rests her hands gently on the table, waiting for a response. The tension in the room is palpable and I have the urge to reach out and try to touch it, as if it’s something solid in the air.

Finally, one of the older generals, a gray-haired man who looks almost fifty, leans back with his hands behind his head. “This doesn’t change anything,” he says.

General Baum slams a fist on the table and looks like she might jump across and throttle him. “Doesn’t change anything? Are you cra—”

One of the other generals, a woman with long blond hair and perfectly smooth skin, silences her with a finger on her lips. Shhh! I can almost hear her say, although she makes no sound. Instead she mouths, They’re listening, and then points to the ceiling. I look up, half-expecting a huge pair of ears to be hanging from above.

I glance at my mom and I can see her eyes are wide and serious. The blonde starts writing frantically on a piece of paper in front of her, as the old general continues speaking. “Honestly, I’m not sure what you expect us to do with this information. So there was a spy. You took care of him, so that’s the end of it.”

The woman finishes writing and passes the note to my mother. Tawni and I read over her shoulder. The sun dwellers are listening to every word. They have our families. They’ll kill them if we don’t cooperate. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, but if Brody had found out…

My heart beats faster as the pieces fall into place. The unwillingness of the generals to listen to reason; the way they used the sun dweller weapons to attack the Moon Realm; this crazy three-day deadline: the Sun Realm—President Nailin—is controlling it all. And on the ground was the puppet master: Brody. Now that he’s gone it will take the Sun Realm time to put another spy in place. We have a narrow window to act.

My mom’s head stays down and she starts writing a note.

The other general keeps speaking as if nothing is happening. “But it doesn’t change the fact that the Moon Realm is not willing to cooperate with us. In less than three days we’ll have no choice but to declare war on the moon dwellers and use every resource at our disposal to crush them.”

I read my mom’s note before she passes it across. We will do our best to protect your families. God bless. She slides a separate note to Baum. You stay here. Do what you can to help them. She nods.

“Fine,” my mom says. “I understand your position, even if I don’t agree with it. For now, we’ll wait and let the peace process run its course. If the Moon Realm won’t join us, we attack.” Her words are cold, harsh, believable. My mom’s a good liar. I never would have thought it six months ago.

A final note from the woman general. Godspeed and good luck.

My mother nods. The old general says, “Good. This forum is dismissed.”

Everyone rises and we leave.

* * *

When we exit the meeting, darkness has fallen on the Star Realm. My mom has a flashlight, which cuts a triangular arc through the gloom, but because the lighting here is so poor even during the day, my eyes adjust quickly to the dark.

“We need to leave right away,” Mom says.

“Shouldn’t we tell Dad—”

“There isn’t time. He knows about the spy, but the rest can wait. And some things are better told in person.”

“I can’t believe they took their families,” Trevor murmurs. For the first time I see compassion in his expression. Perhaps it was always there and I just couldn’t see it. But he’s a different person to me now. Not a spy—a star dweller. And so he cares about the families of the star dweller generals. He’s a good person, regardless of his faults.

“I can,” my mom says. “Nailin is a heartless, soulless demon who will do anything for power.” Her words are filled with fire. “The only reason they couldn’t get to me is that I was brought in much later, as an outsider. Plus, they thought they already had my whole family imprisoned.”

We walk in silence for a few minutes as we follow my mother through the narrow alleys of the subchapter. Occasionally I hear one of the homeless lying against the walls mumble something in their sleep, or snore. We pass through the alley where Mep and his followers tried to steal our stuff, and I look up at the window I clambered through what feels like years ago. Through the dark, I think I see the outline of legless Mep sitting on the sill, his arm raised, giving me a thumbs-up. I might be seeing things, but I return the gesture. Tawni gives me a questioning look but I just shake my head and picture Mep being carried back inside, where he’ll read a story to the orphans huddled around him. The thought makes me happy and sad all at the same time. They’re the ones we’re fighting for. The unwanted orphans, the beggars in the streets, the wrongly convicted prisoners, the fathers working impossible hours in the mines, the mothers fighting like hell to turn a few potatoes and bags of beans into enough food to fill the bellies of their children: we’re fighting for all of them. I feel adrenaline pump through my veins as I stride forward, following my mother, the warrior.

It’s silent for a few more minutes until we pass by an open doorway in one of the buildings. Heavy music pumps through the opening and I can see bodies gyrating and writhing under crackling red and purple lights. One of them turns to watch us pass by, a genderless form with tattoos all over its face and a white-tipped Mohawk. Red lipstick stands out against its pale skin. Raising a single long-nailed finger, it motions for me to enter the building.

Holding my breath, I pass by the door quickly. Tawni’s face is brimming with fear. I guess there’s more than one dark side to the Star Realm.

Ten minutes later we reach the end of the subchapter buildings. A dark hole stands before us. “Do we have to go in there?” Tawni asks slowly.

“Unfortunately, yes,” my mom replies. “The Star Realm tunnels are small and claustrophobic, but it’s the only way to get where we’re going.”

“And where is that exactly?” I ask.

“The Resistance has maintained a train line hidden from the sun dwellers for many years. We need to access it.”

“And we can’t take a public train?” Tawni asks hopefully. She really doesn’t want to go into that tunnel, not that I blame her.

“We can’t risk it, especially after what the generals told us. There could be more spies that they don’t even know about. If there was any other way, believe me, we’d take it.”

“Let’s get it over with,” I say.

Mom nods and leads us into the tunnel, me then Tawni then Trevor, all of us stooping to avoid hitting our heads on the jagged rocks protruding from the ceiling. The walls close in on us immediately and I fight the urge to turn around and run out.

In ten minutes my back is aching from being hunched over and my arms and legs are scratched and bleeding from frequent accidental brushes against the rough walls. It’s like everything in my life before this point—all the harsh living conditions, my time in the Pen, my harried escape through the Moon Realm—have been preparing me for this. I’m tough. I’ve been around the block. I can handle it.

An hour later I’m doubting myself.

“How much further?” I say, desperate for a chance to stretch out my back and legs.

“Not even close, honey,” my mom says, somehow managing to sound like the kind and loving mother that she is, even under the harshest conditions.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Tawni says behind me. She’s a lot taller than me, which makes the hunching even worse. I realize this is a time when I’m going to need to be strong for her, another chance to pay her back for the strength she showed when Cole died, when I was at my lowest low.

“Yes you can, Tawni. You can do this. We all can. We all will. Let me know when you need a break, no matter how often, and we’ll stop and try to stretch out.”

I hear Trevor’s voice carry from further back, agreeing with me. “We’re all in this together.” He sounds so supportive—nothing like the jerk I thought he was.

I hear her take a heavy breath out, and she says, “Okay. I’ll do my best.” We continue on, stopping almost every fifteen minutes to rest and so that Tawni—and all of us really—can lie down and stretch out our backs and legs. The splintered rocks on the tunnel floor dig into our skin, but none of us care—it’s like a hardcore massage to us.

Perhaps two hours pass. The tunnel has been moving downwards the whole way, getting steeper and steeper with each step. The temperature has been rising, too, as if we really are descending into the bowels of hell. It certainly feels that way.

My body is dripping sweat from every pore, and the rock particles are clinging to my skin, making it appear gray and dusty. I start to feel faint as the heat feels like it gains another five degrees in an instant. “Mom?” I say.

“Almost there,” she replies, reading my mind.

Two steps, three. Four, five. And then we stumble out of the tunnel, into a long cavern bursting with red light. I’ve never seen it before, but know exactly what it is, where we are.

“The lava flow,” I murmur.

“One of many,” Mom says.

There’s a deep depression, brimming with flowing, churning viscous lava, crackling and popping with energy. The heat is stifling, pretty much unbearable.

I notice Tawni and Trevor stretching out and I follow their lead, touching my toes and twisting from side to side, trying to loosen out the crooks in my back. “Why are we here?” I ask.

Mom answers: “We knew the Sun Realm would never expect a hidden train line this close to the lava flow—nor would they want to come down here. It’s very close to here.”

She gives us a minute to finish stretching and pour delicious water over our lips and tongues, and then we must move on. Breathing is difficult in the oppressive heat as we pass the molten lava flow.

“How would you like to work down here?” Trevor asks.

“No thanks,” Tawni says.

“People can’t really work down here, can they?” I ask.

“They can, and they do,” Trevor says. “My old man was a lava worker, hauling garbage from all across the Tri-Realms down to the flow, dumping it in, watching the flow devour it. He used to tell me stories about the stuff people from the Sun Realm would throw away. Stuff that we would kill for down here. Mountains of uneaten food, soft mattresses, furniture, all kinds of crap. He was under strict presidential orders that everything had to be destroyed, no exceptions. Those who were caught trying to forage through the garbage would have to pay the consequences.”

“That’s crazy,” I say. “What were the consequences?” After my experiences with the Enforcers, I’m almost scared to ask.

“They didn’t say. But this one time my dad gave in to temptation, came home with a beautiful new bed for my brother and me to share. When he gave it to us, he said, ‘To hell with the rules.’” Trevor takes a deep breath. “He seemed so happy to give it to us, and honestly, I was so proud of my dad. He stood up for himself. The next day he didn’t come home from work. We never saw him again.”

My eyelids slowly close and I stumble when I step on a rock that rolls away under my feet. Trevor grabs my arm and steadies me. “Trevor, I’m sorry,” I say, and this time he lets me say it, because I’m not really apologizing for anything, but showing him that I’m saddened by his story.

“It’s okay. We got through it. We always do down here.”

Supreme gratitude fills my chest as I realize how blessed I am that my entire family is still intact, regardless of all the bad stuff that’s happened to us. We are a blessed people. I hear my father’s words ring in my head, from a time long past.