Aquifer (22 page)

T
here is no way to be heard, not with a torrent rushing feet above our mouths, and we wander silently through the cut keeping our eyes fixed on the pipe overhead. Orbs illumine the length of the walk, and I wonder who maintains them. I didn’t know so many orbs existed in all the earth.

The pipe, the only yellow tube in a snake’s nest of red, twists and loops, finally extracting itself from the others and alone leading us through a narrow tunnel. The rush of water is less pronounced, and I’d talk to Talya, if I knew what to say. But she is far from me, preparing, as I often saw Father prepare for the descent. She knows something — I can feel it — and I don’t wish her to share the thoughts that occupy her mind.

My thoughts are likely more trivial. I know how far it is from my home to downtown: twenty minutes, tops. Hours later, we still wander.

“I need to rest.” Talya releases my hand and sits. Only then do I hear her labored breath.

I ease down beside her.

“What were you doing the day before I appeared below? What were you thinking about?”

She gently scrapes the toe of her boot against the floor. “How to get out of my planned union.” She glances at me. “But an escape to the surface of the world wasn’t on my mind.”

“Suppose not.”

She leans her head on my shoulder. “But you were … on my mind.”

I don’t understand and say nothing, which seems a very good thing to do with Talya.

“Massa didn’t arrive on time. There was talk, there were stories, of you. And I wondered if you remembered me. Faint memories, good memories. I wondered if I’d see you again, and if you would know me, and then, there you were, your hand on my waist.”

“Sorry.”

“And I knew,” she says.

“You knew what?”

“That we who began together would end together. I knew.”

Did hours pass? Did I sit up a little straighter at her words? Her certainty strengthens me.

I love you. That’s what I want to say.

“Are you ready?” That’s what I say.

Together we rise and push on until the pipe disappears upward, and the shaft ends abruptly in front of an elevator door.

“There is no down arrow. I can’t mess up the direction,” I say, and reach for the button.

Talya hesitates, grabs my forearm, and I see her eyes glaze.
“I’m a long way from home. There’s so much pain here. So much.”

“I didn’t know the half of it, or I wouldn’t have —”

Her eyes close and she grabs my shoulders, kisses me full and deep. I stare cross-eyed at her face, her lips gracing mine. I’ve never analyzed a kiss before, certainly never a real one. Am I supposed to shut my eyes? If so, I don’t want to. I want to stand and watch and try to remember my name.

She gently pulls away. “Luca.”

That’s it!

“This is where we need to be.” She faces the elevator and breathes deeply. “Let’s do this.”

I reach forward and press the up button. The doors slide open —

“Hello, Luca.”

Reffarian and three members of the Council stand fixed and somber. They look weary, and I don’t think their presence here was part of their plan.

Reffarian’s voice is no longer confident, and across his forehead traces a trickle of dried blood. The mainland has not been good to him either.

Mape steps from the rear to shield the Council. I can’t imagine he considers us a physical threat.

“Such a trusting soul, Luca,” Reffarian growls as Mape grabs our arms and pulls us inside. “Walery has finally proven useful. His time with Massa seems to have helped him see the error of his ways. Speaking of your father …” He yanks me away from Mape and stares at me with those hypnotic eyes. “Where is Massa? He was in the first boat that left the isle, was he not? You can imagine how important it is that your father remains undone.”

I glance at Mape, who frowns. He’s thinking, even confused. I see it.

You just found out you were lied to, didn’t you? You just found out my father is alive
.

Suddenly, I’m not afraid. Talya reaches over and squeezes my hand.

“I shouldn’t have doubted,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.” I turn to Reffarian. “I don’t keep track of Father. Have you lost him?”

Mape backhands me across the face, and I fall to the floor. I stand slowly. “So violent. So pathetic.” I turn to Reffarian. “His staged undoing has ended up to be your own. Yet, it is not too late. I would think that if the people saw Massa, it would comfort them. If they saw him, they would have no reason to riot. They would know that all was well, that the Deliverer would continue to make the exchange on their behalf. That I would one day take his place. You would have your precious control again.”

“Not of the Rats!” Reffarian hisses. “I would not control the Rats. For too long they have controlled us. That will end. One way or another, their existence will end. I assure you that if Massa went to warn them, he will not succeed. The Isle of Descent is a fortress. Telling me his location is the surest way to save him.”

I think.
No. Another lie
.

“If it is a fortress, you have nothing to worry about from him or me. You will conquer the Rats and control the water.” I glance around. “Are we going to stay in this elevator forever?”

Reffarian pounds the wall. “I will ask once more! Where is Massa?”

“He abandoned me. I don’t care.”

The Council looks at each other.

Mape’s jaw tightens. “Do you want me to deal with these two?”

“Why do you listen to them, Mape?” I ask. “They have misled you in every way.” I pause. “Tell me, where is your family?”

Reffarian slaps his hand over my mouth. “Yes! Undo them! Do it now!”

Talya drops into the corner, momentarily out of Mape’s reach. “You were told they would be safe. You were told they would be flown to the PM’s isle. You were told —”

“Silence!” Another lunges toward Talya, misses, and crashes to the floor.

Mape pauses. “My family … they are safe on the isle.”

I glance at Talya and kick Reffarian with all I have. My boot thunks his shin, and his hand flies off my mouth. “Safe? They are lying at the bottom of a pit. I saw it. The site of undoing for thousands of Amongus’s wives and children. Your men were sent to the beach, your families to their doom. Listen to me!”

With that, all three council members dive toward me. I crumple to the floor, tensing for blows that never arrive.

I peek up. Mape sits on Reffarian, his hands driving the other men’s chests into the floor. I’ve been on the bottom of that move, and can almost feel the Council’s pain.

Mape’s eyes are wild. “Talk, Wise Ones. Does Luca speak the truth?”

“Of course not!” Reffarian bellows. “Off me. Now!”

Mape peeks over his shoulder at Talya, and then to me. “Massa never lied to me. Never. I nearly stole his life on two occasions, but he was truthful. Luca, where is my family?”

I recount the story of the kopter ride. Of the pilot’s instructions and the search to save Father. Finally, I tell him of the pit and the smell.

Mape shakes his head. “It cannot be.”

“That’s because it isn’t!” Reffarian shrieks.

“Do you know Connyr’s family?” Talya rises from the corner. “Meline and her two children came with us to the isle. And the pilot, Haifer, do you know of him?”

His face twitches. “Connyr is a mate.”

“Connyr is undone,” I say. “I — well, Seward — secured his family a spot on the last kopter out of New Pert. The last one. Do you really believe there are thousands of dwellings on the PM’s isle, prepared as reward for your families? Do your superiors generally lead with gratitude? What are you thinking?”

Mape looks down at the struggling tunics, but speaks to me. “Why are you here?”

“Because we can’t let New Pert destroy itself.” I think what to share, what to hold. I wink at Talya. “Maybe if they see me, they will know that a Deliverer lives. Maybe the sight will stay this insanity.”

“You would risk entering the amphitheater?” Muscles in Mape’s face relax. “Though for you it will mean the end of all things.”

I swallow hard and nod. “If we can reach it, we’ll tell the people that all is well, and that Watchers are no longer the enemy. We’ll tell them …” I stare at Reffarian, reach forward and grab his locks. I tilt his head until his gaze lands on Talya. “We’ll tell them that the Rats are beautiful and never have been our foe.”

Talya grins and waves at Reffarian.

I continue. “And we’ll tell them that this Council has pit us against each other for far too long.”

Mape nods. “You will be undone as soon as you enter. The scene in the amphitheater is beyond words. The people there
… Reason finds no quarter within those walls.” He speaks quietly. “They undo and destroy and call it freedom, and broadcast their deeds. I have watched it from afar.”

“What else can I do?” I ask.

Mape stares at me, a look of admiration in his eyes. There is no hate. No anger. My enemy is no more. “Open the elevator door, Luca.”

I reach up and fumble for the button; doors slide open, and Mape flings Reffarian and his fellow Council members into the tunnel. Their bodies thud and roll — such is the power of an Amongus.

Mape breathes deeply. “Now we go up.”

“We?” Talya asks.

Mape presses the button for floor eight, and the elevator jerks and rises. “If my wife is no more, if my children are no more, then this is the end Sonja would have wished for me. She is — she was — good of heart.”

His face tightens. “You will reach the amphitheater. I will see to that. I cannot promise you a return.”

“Thank you.” Talya hugs Mape, who stares at her, his arms pinned at his side.

He glances at me. “She is not from around here.”

“No.” I pat his back. “You met once before, when we came up from the tunnel with Phale. Mape, meet a Rat.”

His eyes widen, and then he looks away. “You are the second I’ve seen.

“I found the first lost at sea.” Mape sighs. “It was my first assignment. I couldn’t believe her to be a Rat. She was … lovely. I thought her adrift from the north. Amerika, maybe Amerika.”

Elevator doors slide open, and we exit to an empty room.

“But the order said it was Massa’s wife. They said their union
was unnatural, and she needed to be undone. After seeing her, I could barely believe it.” Mape freezes in the doorway. “After the deed, she haunted my sleep. I heard Alaya. She weighed heavy on me for years, until the haunting grew unbearable. I thought if I hauled her up and saw the creature she’d become, her face would disappear from my dreams. All those months with Jasper … I finally saw the remains and convinced myself that my memory of her beauty was mistaken. But that was two years ago, and still the dreams remain. I now see why.” Mape’s voice cracks. “I’m sorry, Luca.”

Did an Amongus just offer a confession?

Mape steps inside the elevator, rares back, and punches through the button pad. A shower of sparks covers him, and he emerges brushing his sleeves. “We won’t be followed from below.”

Mape destroyed my mother; now he’s my protector. I stare at him and shake my head. I should feel something. Rage? Perhaps loss? I have felt these emotions my entire life. But now when the dials mean nothing and wrinkles can flow freely, I’m numb.

Talya is not. She leans over to me. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

“There’s no way you could be sure,” Mape answers, stretching out the fingers in his fist. “But you have my word. As surely as I have breath, you will reach the amphitheater.”

“Good enough for me,” I say.

We work our way through deserted halls. Rooms stand stripped and gutted. Beds, blankets — all have been removed.

“They used the bedside tables for firewood,” Mape says. “The sick? I will not speak of their end. Now nothing remains, nobody remains. The doors are sealed from the outside.”

Though the building stands empty, I walk gingerly down
the stairwell, careful to silence each footfall. Mape shows no caution and leaps down steps in twos. I marvel at his driven nature, every ounce fixed on good. How different the shape of our lives if we’d known, from the beginning, the depth of the Council’s treachery.

Mape bursts into the lobby and marches to the entrance. Talya and I join him and together stare out through the broken glass of the hospital’s revolving door.

We, uh, just might need another plan …

On the street, it looks like Water Day on Freemanl. People screaming, running. But it’s not the same. This is no celebration; this scene is horror unrestrained, filled with jostling and fighting, pursuit and surrender. Small groups of men hoist unfortunate others on their backs. Some of the captured go quietly, others with shrieks. The victims’ offences are not clear.

I turn to Mape, who still sports his Amongus uniform, then glance at Talya, with her fair skin and telltale hair, and think of myself, the newly named Deliverer whom everyone has been taught to recognize. It’s hard to imagine a trio more unable to blend in.

“Search the floor,” I say. “Employee cubicles, especially lockers. We need something different to wear. Something must be left.”

Ten minutes later, Talya returns looking adorable in her powder-blue scrubs. In her hands lie two more sets. She drops them on the floor and steps back. “I can hardly stomach the smell …”

“Where’d you find them?” I gag and pick up a shirt and loose-fitting pants.

She bows her head. “Their owners no longer need them.”

“Three blocks,” Mape whispers. “Down this street. How fast do you run?”

I wince. “I don’t think we’ll make it. Too bad those diverter tunnels didn’t go all the way … Wait. The tunnel. The Birthing Tunnel. I don’t know if people are inside, but it winds into the amphitheater from the Swan, and there was little activity near the inlet the last time around. Its entrance would be three blocks in the other direction, but once we reach it the way in might be clear.”

“There is no good way into that pit, and only painful ways out,” says Mape. “But we will use the tunnel.”

Mape cups his hands and stiffly bows. I accept the gesture, then turn to Talya and do the same — only she places her hands in mine. Mape frowns.