Meadowcity (19 page)

Chapter Twenty Three

Ven stepped off the bridge and went back in the direction of Flint’s villa, but he could hear the two men following him at a distance.  He thought of Sylvia with Flint, going off to find the Citizen’s Hall, and him, detoured.  Of course, Sylvia had the map, but Ven had memorized it as much as he could.

They hadn’t, however, factored in the mine, so he was going to have to try and find it with the two guards tailing him.

He reached the top of the stairs and was again on the level of Flint’s villa.  He couldn’t very well go inside.  He continued on, passing the door that they’d left cracked open, just as they had found it.  The thought of his bow just behind that stone door in the tunnel was tempting, though.

He had to come up with a way to find Sylvia and Flint again.  Separation wasn’t something they had discussed in their plan, and Ven cursed himself for their carelessness in planning.

Flint wouldn’t be out of place, but the Skycity men were looking for him.  What if he was taken? What would they do with Sylvia?

To his right, the wind whipped out of the rift, bringing a heavy chill to the path.  He kept reminding himself that he was on steady ground, and that the path carved into the cliff very sturdy.  Glancing over the wall separating him from the chasm, he saw nothing but darkness.

Stomach clenched, he focused back on the path. 
Wouldn’t be looking over there again.

Up ahead, Ven saw the older man they had passed before descending a well-lit staircase.  Ven hoped he was going to the mine, so he could follow.  The men would find it curious if Ven didn’t know where it was.

He could still hear them behind him, and he tilted his ear back to get a better idea of how far back they were.  Ven reached the staircase and began to descend, spotting the old man along the lower path now.  The bottom of the staircase narrowed to make room for the stairs leading down to the next level.  Ven continued straight after the old man, but made note of the lower level.

The dirty white stone of the path was getting increasingly dustier, and Ven noted plenty of boot prints crowding the path.  He imagined the citizens being herded to the mine to do labor. 
Why did they need Riftcity’s stone so badly?

Up ahead, he could see light pooling onto the path from a stone doorway.  The old man was still walking though, so this couldn’t be the mine.  Behind him, the men’s footsteps hadn’t yet reached the top of the stairs; Ven could still hear their boots grinding the grit on the path above.

Ven made a quick decision and ducked into the bright door way, hoping the men weren’t really paying attention to him.

Inside, stone pressed in from all sides of a small foyer.  There were plenty of gritty tracks in here too, so maybe this room was also being used for labor.

He hunched himself inside the doorway so the men couldn’t see him as they passed.  Straining his ears, he heard their boots along the stone. 
Keep walking.  Keep walking
, Ven pleaded, frozen against the wall, heart racing.

The men passed, silent but for their steps.

Unmoving, he stood by the door debating whether or not he should hide out here in the foyer until the men passed, and back-track down the path outside.  But the men might come back around, patrolling the path, and who knows what they would do if they found him breaking rules a second time.

His choice was made for him as a Riftcity girl emerged from a room inside carrying a heavy crate, spotting him immediately.  Her hair was covered in a cloth, and her clothes were caked in dust.

“What are you standing there for?” she said, “Give me a hand with this, will you?”

He reached out and took the crate from her, realizing immediately that it was filled with stone.  He carried it to the end of the foyer where she had been headed, two other crates already sitting by the other side of the door.

“So, what were you doing that you shouldn’t have?” she asked, following him to the entrance and peeking out the door for a moment.

Ven considered it must be a common punishment if he was sent here in the middle of the night.  Was this a detention workroom?  She must have broken some rules too.

“Accidentally walking in a group of three,” he grimaced. 

She chuckled.  “That’s stupid, what’d you go and do that for?”

A woman called from the room, “Hey, get back in here—what are you doing out there girl?”

She groaned.  Ven followed her into one of the rooms leading off the foyer, and he was surprised to recognize it as a school room.  Many of the tables were covered in empty crates, with giant bins lining one wall, the rest of the tables pushed haphazardly into a corner.  A cloud of dust lay thick in the air, and the girl brought up a scarf to cover her nose.  There were two others in the room: the woman who yelled, holding a wide wooden hoop with metal mesh woven through it, and a boy about Ven’s age on the other side of the room, nailing a crate shut.

“Oh,” the woman said, grabbing a metal scoop from a big bin and handing it to the girl.  “Well, you can take over this part,” the woman told Ven, “You’ve got much stronger arms than me.”

She held out the mesh hoop to Ven, and sat down on a crate, looking around and then opening her water canister.  Her brown hair was streaked with stone dust, making her look much older than she appeared to be.

Lamps lit the room, and there were no windows except for a line of square slits that might have angled towards the cliff face for air.

Ven took a deep breath and looked at the hoop, and the girl who was scooping up crushed stone from the bin.  He choked on the chalky air on the way out of his lungs though, and coughed through it. 

The older woman pulled a strip of cloth from her pocket. 

“Here,” she said, looking curiously at his hands as he took it.  “Not been down to work in here yet have you?” she asked.

“First time,” Ven said, tying the cloth to cover his nose and mouth.  He looked down at the hoop, and the girl waved the scoop of stones asking if he was ready, and he nodded at her and held the hoop steady.  So now he was stuck doing labor for punishment.  He couldn’t help but think of how well their mission was going.

She poured the crushed stones on the mesh, and as he shook the hoop, the smaller stones and powder passed through; but after a lot of shaking back and forth, a handful of bigger stones remained on top.

The older woman pointed to another bin, and Ven dumped them in there.

The girl dumped two scoops of stone onto the hoop next, and Ven worked his arms to shift it through the mesh.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman stand suddenly from her crate, as the figure of a short woman with a fur vest slipped into the room.  Ven’s stomach tightened as he concentrated on the mesh screen, trying not to pay the Skycity woman any attention.

The older woman had retreated to the back of the room to help the boy nailing crates shut.  The guard walked around the room once, passing by Ven and the girl and looking into the bins surreptitiously.  Her face had angry lines as if she never smiled, and her hair was pulled back in a tight black bun.

Ven was suddenly glad he hadn’t gone wandering out on the paths.  He was safer in here.  He might even be able to figure out what was going on, if these rule breakers wouldn’t mind telling him.  He and the girl kept up their pace; scooping stones, sifting, and dumping the big pieces, all under the eye of the black-haired Skycity woman.

After her stately survey around the room, she exited without a word, apparently finding everything in order.  Ven let out a breath as he dumped the too large stones in the other bin.

The girl rolled her eyes at the door and gave him some more stone, reaching up and scratching under the cloth covering her hair.

“So what got you put in here?” Ven asked, voice low in case the Skycity woman was lingering outside the door.

“Oh, nothing really,” she said.  “There was this Scout being a real jerk in the mine, saying stuff about how the city’s theirs now; so I punched him.”

Ven’s jaw dropped momentarily.

“Ember’s a real firework,” the older woman said chuckling, holding down a crate lid for the boy to nail shut.  The boy kept staring down at the crate, obviously not wanting to partake in conversation.

“Ember?” Ven stuttered, nearly dropping the screen.  Quickly he balanced it to keep from dropping all of the stones in the bin.

“Yeah?” the girl asked, squinting her eyes at him.

“You’re Flint’s sister.”

“Yeah.” She gave him another scoop.  “So what.”

The older woman in the corner was watching them. 

“Nothing.”

He shook the screen vigorously to sift out the stone.  For several long minutes, there was nothing but the sound of hammering and stone sliding over the mesh.  Ven glanced in the corner of the room to see the woman and boy with their backs turned, now getting more wood from a stack.

He whispered through the cloth covering his mouth, “He’s here.  With me.”

Ember’s eyes lit up between the cloths covering her nose and hair.  She gave him another scoop after he dumped the big stones.

“Where?” she asked as the stones dumped onto the screen.

“The Hall now.  I got detoured,” he said shortly.

“Who are you?”

“Ven.  I’m from Meadowcity.”

The scratching of the stone on the screen covered their whispers.  Ven wasn’t sure if he could trust the woman or the boy.

“Are they coming to help?”

Ven’s stomach clenched.  The look in her eyes beat at him.  He shook his head.

“They’re coming for us next.”

She looked down at the bin, glancing at the woman out of the corner of her eyes. 

“He’s in the Hall?  Why there?”

“Looking for you.”

She nodded.

“When can we get out of here?” Ven asked, his arm muscles were beginning to strain from the constant shaking.

“Sunrise.  Shift changes.”

The bin they were shaking the powdery stones into was getting full.  Ember grabbed another scoop and handed it to Ven.  The woman brought over two empty crates, and another scoop.  Together the three of them transferred the pulverized stone into the crates, easier for transport.

After tirelessly filling four more crates from the bin, Ven and Ember brought them into the foyer and stacked them all by the door.

They kept it up through the night, the sneering Skycity woman making regular rounds about every hour to make sure they were still working.  Ven couldn’t believe his luck in finding Ember here in the schoolroom.  Now they just had to find Flint and Sylvia, and get out of here.

The night wore on as Ven and Ember screened the powdered rock.  The screen became heavier and heavier, Ven could barely hold it anymore.  The woman, who had introduced herself as Adra around midnight, came up and took the screen from Ven.

She gestured for him to sit down, which he did gratefully.

“What are you here for Adra?” Ven asked, massaging his left bicep.  The crate he sat on was surprisingly comfortable.

“Well, I didn’t punch a Scout or anything; but I did tell one I hoped he fell into the rift.  He didn’t appreciate it much.”

Ember chuckled and met Ven’s eyes.  He thought she was wondering the same as he.  Could they trust her?

If Adra turned him in, would they lock him up, kill him?

And what about Sylvia and Flint?  Skycity was trying to account for Flint, perhaps making sure no one had gotten out of the city to tell the tale of the attack.

But Ven very much needed to find out what Skycity was
really
up to.  And he couldn’t do it by screening rock dust all night.  He thought if they ducked out just after the Scout checked on the room the last hour before sunrise, he and Ember could sneak out, and head back to Flint’s villa at the very least.  The last thing they wanted to do was get stuck getting herded from one place to the next, unable to escape.

From Ven’s estimate, the Scout would be coming in one last time, soon.

He looked over at Ember and nodded.

“Adra...” she began.  “Ven here, is from Meadowcity,” she whispered.