The Moon Dwellers (44 page)

Roc sighs
.
“I have
thought that at times,” he says
.
“But then I think how noble it is that you’re following your heart, taking a risk, defying your father.
I don’t know how it’s a
ll going to end, but if we do
n’t go, we might regret it for the rest of our lives.
I feel like maybe we’re
meant
to be doing this.
”

Roc sounds so solemn as he speaks
, as if o
ur trek across the Moon Realm i
s a sacred quest and not just me chasing some girl
with a pretty face, who happens
to be an escaped convict and possibly dangerous.
He also mak
e
s it sound like we’re in it together.
It isn’t my quest, but his
,
too, and he i
s in it to the end w
ith me.
Given the argument we
had just before we were abou
t to be roasted on a spit, it’
s a complete one-eighty for him.

“So we keep going?” I say
.

“I was just trying to
make you feel better,” Roc says
with a smirk.
“It’s not like we have another choice—can’t go back.”

He’
s trying to downplay th
e wisdom in his words, but I know better.
He i
sn’t just trying to make me
feel better.
He truly believes—like me—that we are meant to be on the path we a
re on, for better or worse.
Better would be finding Adele and not having her slap me and walk away; worse would be falling into the evil clutches of a mad cannibal woman with super strength.
My guess: we might end up somewhere in between.

But Roc’s words have
more than ju
st cemented my belief that we a
re doing the right thing.
They
also mak
e
me think about what we a
re doing
and why.
To this point, it has
all been about finding Adele, keeping her safe, and potentially, if the fake suns and moons and
stars of the Tri-Realms align
, getti
ng to know her.
But now it feels like there i
s some deeper
purpose to it all, one I want
to explore.

“
What did you mean when you said you thought we were
meant
to be doing this?” I ask as we continue
walking.

Roc wrinkles up his face, squints
his eyes.
“I don’t know, it’s probably nothing, but…”

“What?”

“I just feel like we have a chance to make things better.
You know, for everyone.
I mean, the secrets your father is keeping from the moon and star dwellers, people should know that stuff.”

It’s
been a while since Roc and I
have
spoke
n
about my father’s secrets.
Well, one
particular secret really.
I am
one of o
nly a handful of people that kno
w
, but I told Roc anyway.
At first I was stunned, but later I realized it wasn’t that surprising.
It
i
s
my father, after all.
I do
n’t see the connection to our current situation
,
though.

“What’s
that got to do with us?” I say
.

“I don’t know.
It kind of popped into my head just now.
It just feels like we’re in the middle of something big, or at least something bigger than just a guy who likes a girl, or vice versa.”

“You think she likes me
,
too?”

“No…I mean, I don’t know, maybe.
In any case, that’s not important.
What’s important is what we do at the end of all of this, or maybe at the same time, whichever makes more sense.
I think we need to tell people about what your dad is doing
.”

I think about it.
I guess I’m not as big a thinker as Roc.
I’m
so focused on my own little wo
rld, my own feelings, that I do
n’t really consider whether we could—or whether we should—do anything to help other people, particularly the mo
on and star dwellers.
I think
back to before my heart was revived—when
I saw Adele for the first time.
At that point
I would’ve brushed off Roc’s words like pesky gnats.
After all, I hated my own life so much that I couldn’t worry about the miserable lives of
others.
But now, because
of my
unexpected feelings for
a moon dweller, albeit one I’
ve
never met, Roc’s words resonate
powerfully with me.

Despite the plethora of thoughts runnin
g through my head, all I reply i
s, “Maybe you’re right.”

“As usual,” Roc says
.

We have no idea where we are, so we just keep
walking in a straight line, hoping to emerge from the
Lonely Caverns
soon.
We still have
plenty of food in the pack—our moon dweller captors hadn’t even bothered to empty i
t out.
Still, if we don’t find our way out soon we’ll
have little chance of tracking down Adele.

Thus, I am ecstatic when we ru
n into one of the main tun
nels through the caverns.
I am
cautious, too, because I h
ave
no idea where our captors were
headed
—for all I kno
w they might be just in front of or behind
us, waiting to pounce
.
We move
swiftly through the main tunnel without incident, meeting no other travelers.

It is late at night when we reach
the exit to subchapter 16, the land of the
waterf
all caves.
Although we’ve
received no authorization to trav
el within the Moon Realm, we
purchased some fake papers before le
aving the Sun Realm.
As we use them at the border, I keep
my head lowered
and my hat on to ensure I’m no
t recognized.

At lo
ng last we a
re back to civilization.
Or at least the closest to civilization that my f
ather’s ridiculous taxes allow
the moon dw
ellers to be.
The subchapter is dark, but has
a decent number of street lights.
I can’t speak for Roc, but I am
desperat
e for a real bed
.

We head
for t
he commercial district.
I can
vaguely remember the city zoning—a domed, circular cave with a r
eservoir around the outside and
the city built outwards from the center—from my previous visits, but Roc remem
bers
far better, so I let him lead.

Although we feel relatively safe, we stick to the shadows, avoiding
passing directly by any late
-
night strollers, and cho
o
se a deserted street from whi
ch to select a hotel.
And it’
s a go
od thing we a
re careful.
We’
ve
just taken a shortc
ut through a seedy alley, and a
re about to turn o
nto a main street, when we hear
a ch
orus of footsteps moving toward
us.

We shri
nk back into the alley, d
eep into the shadows, and peer
to the street beyond.
A group of sun
dweller troops—at least eight
—run past us, moving toward the city center.
I only see
the leader
for a moment as he flashes by, but I’d
recognize him anywhere.

Rivet i
s back in the game.

Chapter Seventeen

Adele

“
T
hey’re here!” Tawni exclaims
.

“Who?” I
ask
, above the roar of the waterfall.

Tawni and Elsey splash
int
o the water to join us.
They a
re breathing hard, already soaked from head to toe like us, a result of jumping through the series of waterfalls.

“Rivet, I think,” Tawni says
.
“We heard them coming down the tunnel.
A man was talking—I think I recognized his voice fro
m the telebox.”
Tawni’s eyes a
re wide and white.

“We don’t know that they’ll come th
rough the waterfalls,” Cole says
.

“Yes
,
they will,” I say.
“They’ll
have maps.
They wouldn’t have wandered down this tunnel by mistake.
It’s probably a shortcut or something.”

“But how
will they get down?” Elsey asks.
Her eyebrows a
re raised and her head
cocked to the side.
She looks more like a child tha
n she has
since we rescued her, innocent and naïve.

“They might have ropes,” I say
.
“But we don’t.”

Finally
,
Cole agrees
with the opinion I had already voiced.
“We’ve got to jump.”

“And
it’s got to be fast,” I second
.
“They could come
through any
moment
.”
I glance
at the waterfall, expecting Rivet’s scarred face to emerge from the water in slow motion, his teeth replaced with fangs, his fingers sporting daggers for nails.

The waterfall remains
untouched.

I feel
like the hourglass
on our lives is all but empty.
We do
n’t have time to sit around
sipping tea and eating muffins
and discuss
ing
the pros and cons of jumping off a
cliff into untested waters
.
Plus we do
n’t have any muffins.
Nor tea.

“Me first, then El
, Tawni
,
and Cole,” I bark.
I do
n’t have time to wait for agreement
from the others.
Waiting means
death.

I step up and jump
, not allowing myself
any time
to chicken out.

I should’ve at least thought about
how
I would jump.
In my mind I’
d pictured a perfect swan dive, floating through the air with grace and elegance.
But my body instinctively tries
to go straight down, feet first.
Be
cause of my uncertainty, I end
up halfway in between, my body horizontal, chest facing down.

Belly flop time.

My heart is in my throat, and I am
feeling something between utter fear
and complete elation.
There i
s no time to think
, but at the last minute I try
to turn my bod
y to improve my landing.
It does
n’t help.

When my shoulder hi
t
s the water I think
I might’
ve jumped too far and landed on the stone—that’s how hard the i
mpact is.
Rather than a splash, I mak
e more of a vicious
thwap!
when I enter
the water
.
Pain sho
o
t
s
through the nerves in my shoulder, running quickly down my ar
m and into my hand.
When I feel
mys
elf sinking, however, I realize it i
s the water that h
as
literally put the smack
-
down on me.