Drowning in Deception (33 page)

“No, Clove. What’s to stop them from
shooting all of you?”

She looked him deep in the eye, making
sure he understood. “I don’t want to believe that my dad would let that happen.
But then again he’s not the person I thought he was. But Rye, please
understand. I need to do this. No one will stop me.”

His eyes searched hers hard and she
could tell he saw exactly what she’d needed him to see. He saw her
determination to try and make things right. He saw that little place in her
that somehow felt responsible for her father’s wrongdoings. And he saw her
belief that this was her last chance to do what she needed to do. He stepped
back and nodded.

They all looked up as the sound of the
helichoppers thundered into the quiet night sky. “Let’s go,” called Clover, and
they began to jog through the snow and muck toward the industrial area.

They arrived just as the choppers
landed. The men of Eadin, eight in total this time, hopped out of the choppers
immediately. They wore stern, grim faces as they waved their guns in the air,
gesturing for the people to kneel before them.

Clover and her group quickly made their
way up the few wide steps and through the mass of Carnaes who were lowered to
their knees.

“Up on your feet,” demanded Sera, as she
and Clover walked to the front. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the two girls stopped
right in front of Clover’s father. The men from Eadin scowled as they looked to
see who had made the command. The people of Quell tentatively rose to their
feet.

Bromer’s eyes bulged from their sockets
momentarily. He turned to sneer at one of his men, presumably Niles. “I
instructed that someone be posted at the door. Which man was sent to guard it?”

“I was, sir,” came a voice from behind
Sera.

Bromer whipped his head back. “Gart!”

“Yes, sir.”

Bromer growled and leered at Smith, who
was standing beside Gart. “This is all your doing. You and your teachings.
Shoot this man!” he barked.

But before his men could react, Clover
stepped in front of Smith, narrowing her eyes at her father.

“Clover. Move out of the way. This is
not your concern.”

“It is my concern that you want to
murder my friend.”

“Bahhh!!” Her father’s hands came up to
the sides of his head and scrubbed hard.

Sera cocked her head to the side. “What’s
the matter, Mr. Swelton? Not feeling content? Maybe you’re not drinking enough
milk.”

His nostrils flared as his mouth turned
down in a vicious frown. He stared at Sera hard for a moment, seemed to
suddenly gain his composure, and then looked to his daughter.

“Clover. Don’t you see it’s no use? This
is the way things are meant to be, for the good of everyone. You tried to
change things. But you failed. The people of Eadin are quite simply not behind
you.”

“I…” Clover started, but Gart stopped
her by tapping her on the shoulder. She glanced back at him and he motioned
with his chin. She followed his gaze to the direction of where they had hiked
from and a broad smile formed slowly on her mouth.

A huge mass of bodies, dressed in the
bright and fashionable colors of Eadin, were marching toward them. It was only
a fraction of the number of people who had gathered at the Watch Tower that
morning, but still, there had to be at least two or three hundred bodies. And
they were all being led by Zander.

“That’s my guy,” Sera breathed. “I knew
he’d come through.”

Clover turned to her father with a smug
grin. “You were saying?”

He sighed. “You don’t understand,
Clover. These laws and rules were put into place long before my time. It’s my
job to uphold them, whether you or anybody else agrees with them or not.
These…these…people that live here. They’re not like us. They’re dangerous. Now,
please, take your friends and go home before you all get hurt.” He signaled his
men. They aimed their guns at the people of Quell and readied themselves for
his word to fire.

She crossed her arms. “These people,”
she yelled, “are the people who provide Eadin with everything needed to
survive. Without them, without their hard work there is nothing. But if you
think they’re so dangerous, so horrible, then why don’t you take your guns and
kill them all right now? Why do it just a few at a time? Go ahead. Get rid of
all of them.”

She winced a little as some of the
people of Quell gasped and growled in the crowd at her back. Rye was right
behind her now. She could feel his breath on the top of her head and his warmth
at her back. She reached behind, took his hand and pulled him to stand right
beside her.

Her father’s eyes bulged as he looked
down to their clasped hands. He looked like a man on the verge of combustion.

She turned and smiled at Rye, took a
deep breath and yelled so everyone would hear. “So go ahead and kill them all. But
you’ll have to kill me too. Because… I am one of them.”

The approaching group from Eadin gasped,
as did the group from Quell.

“That’s right,” she continued. “I am a
Carnae. The man before me is no god. He is my father. And he is a Carnae too.
But unlike him, I am proud of what I am!”

A great boom like thunder erupted behind
her as every Carnae cheered. Rye, with a smile stretching across his face, slid
his arm around her waist and pulled her tight to his side.

Zander, followed by his group from
Eadin, had slowly been edging up the steps to the platform as the people of
Quell shuffled around to make room.

He now joined the group at the front,
and taking Rye’s lead, pulled Sera to his side. “Mr. Swelton. I’ve always
admired you, as I’m sure most of the citizens of Eadin do. I know you well
enough to know that you’re a smart man. Surely you can see that the laws of our
ancestors are flawed.”

Bromer cocked his head at Zander and bit
his bottom lip.

“It’s time for change. First of all, our
people shouldn’t be lied to anymore. About anything. They deserve the truth.
And second, well…the monsters, I mean the Carnae, they deserve better too. They
were born to be what they were born to be, and who are we to judge them for it,
or treat them badly for it?”

Bromer sighed as his nostrils flared.

Sera was practically drooling pools of
admiration as she stared at Zander. He continued. “The way I see it, you can
try to keep on doing what you’re doing. And you might win. I don’t know. But
what I do know is that you’re gonna have one hell of a fight on your hands, and
there will be a lot of needless death before you do win. We don’t want a war.
But we’re prepared to fight if it comes to that.”

Clover’s father narrowed his eyes at
Zander, considering how to respond to his words. But before he had a chance, a
little voice spoke up as it took Clover’s hand. “Dad.”

Clover looked down to find Sprigg
clutching her hand tightly. He gave her a nervous glance before turning his
wide eyes back to their father.

“Sprigg?” choked Bromer. “What are you
doing here?”

“I watched what happened at the Watch
Tower today, and I came back to the Tower tonight to stand with Clove, like she
said. But she wasn’t there. And all these other people were there.” He gestured
to his fellow Eadinites. “They wanted to help. But no one knew how to get to
the other side of the Wall. So I went to Clove’s new house to find her. She’d
left already, but Zander was there. I told him all these people were at the
Watch Tower because they wanted to help, but they didn’t know the way. So Zander
came, and he showed us.”

Bromer’s face took on a gentler, kinder
look. “But son, you shouldn’t be here. You know the laws, the rules. Haven’t I
taught you to always follow them?”

Not a single shuffling of feet could be
heard within the mass of bodies as all ears strained to hear what this child,
the child of the leader of the gods, had to say to his father.

Sprigg’s eyes were like large globes on
his soft, young face, but he gripped Clover’s hand even tighter and spoke loud
and clear, trying desperately to sound like a man. “Yes. You taught me to
follow the rules. But you also taught me to be nice to people. You always say,
‘How can we be content if we cause discontentment in others?’”

Clover had never been prouder of her
little brother. In fact, at that moment, she felt like she had found herself a
new hero.

Sprigg took a big breath and continued. “So,
I was thinkin’. The way things are now, it’s impossible to follow the rules and
still be nice to people. Following the laws means stealing from the people
here.”

Bromer seemed to have lost his voice.
All he could do was stare at his son with a lost look in his eyes.

Clover ruffled her little brother’s
hair. He was a smart little guy, and she was so happy to have a family member
that she could be proud of again.

Her father looked around at the
uncomfortably silent crowd. It was apparent in each set of eyes that they
waited. They waited for the big, tough leader of the gods to respond to this
little boy who was challenging him with reason.

“Dad?” Sprigg swallowed as a single tear
trekked down his cheek.

Bromer’s eyes shifted back to his son’s
face.

“You’ve always wanted me to be just like
when I grow up, and I’ve always wanted that too. You even said that one day I
would take your place as the man in charge at the top of the Watch Tower.”

His father’s expression altered
slightly, like he expected Sprigg to come to his senses.

“The way I see it, the only thing that
makes sense is to change the laws, to make them better, so that they include
being nice to all people, no matter what side of the Wall they live on. Then
there’s no more problems. No more poison or whatever’s in the milk. No more
stealing. No more killing.”

The silent crowd finally started to
mumble. Theirs were words of agreement with what Sprigg was saying.

But he wasn’t quite finished. “The way I
see it, is that if there’s anyone who can change the laws, it’s the man who is
in charge at the Watch Tower. So, if you’re not going to change them, then I’m
going to do it when I grow up and become the guy in charge.” He finished with a
shrug and a thin smile.

Bromer still had no words. Clover could
see him struggling with how to respond. But how could he argue with the
profound wisdom of his very own son?

Sera shouted, “No more gods! No more
gods!” Clover and Rye joined in the chant, which grew and grew as it seeped
behind them until the words were being shouted by every single mouth there.
Even Bromer’s men eventually lowered their guns and took up the loud mantra.

“No more gods! No more gods!” It echoed
up into the night, so loud that it must have been heard by every soul on the
other side of the Wall. It seemed to break through the dark clouds, which
opened and began dropping large, soft white snowflakes on everyone. It appeared
that even nature agreed that it was a time for new laws, for freedoms and for
no more gods.

As that chant went on and on, they all
watched as Bromer laid his knife on the ground before him. He took a step
forward and went down on his knees before his son. He grabbed Sprigg and pulled
him into a giant bear hug.

Great sobs erupted from the hulk of man
as he clung to his boy. Clover had never once before seen her father shed a
single tear.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled into Sprigg’s
ear. He glanced up at Clover with a tear-streaked face. “I’m so very sorry.”

Clover sat leaning against a wide-trunked
tree in her new writing spot. From this new favorite place she could still see the
Wall, standing as erect and shiny as ever. She could also see the cozy nest of
bushes where she had fallen in love with the wild, earthy boy from Quell.

The hot sun of mid-summer glowed high in
the clear sky and she was thankful for the shade of her tree. Her workbook was
spread across her lap and her pencil clicked between her teeth as she searched
within herself for the right words to end her latest story. With a sigh and a
grin, she scratched down those final words and tapped a period into place at
the end.

“Hey. Thought I’d find you here.”

She smiled and tilted her chin up to
kiss his lips as Rye sat down beside her. “How are things going?” she asked.

“Really good. Over this past week, four
more houses have been finished, complete with running water and electricity.
And six more are getting started.”

“That’s great.” She leaned her head
against his firm shoulder.

They gazed off at the Wall together. “Any
news from the other side?” he asked.

“Yes. All the new crops are flourishing
and five new calves have been born in the past couple of days. They’re doing
really well over there. Oh, and the choppers are coming tomorrow for a few more
building supplies. They’re really working hard to get all the factories built
before winter.”

Clover had spent a couple of hours in
Eadin that morning. The door in the Wall now had two guards posted at it, one
on each side. It was hardly necessary since Clover was the only person who ever
used it. The guard on the Eadin side would administer a dose of the drug to
make sure she didn’t transition during her visits.