Ashes of Twilight (13 page)

“No. Just ‘the sky is blue.’”

“Doesn’t that make you wonder? About the outside? About why we can’t go out? About what it’s li—”

A sharp ping stops us in our tracks and I drop into a crouch with Pace following on my heels. “Can you see anything?” I feel his breath on my ear as he speaks. His chest is against my back and I have to fight the temptation to just lean back so he will put his arms around me and make me feel safe. I want to turn it all over to someone else. I don’t want to be brave or strong. I just want to go home and have things back the way they were. If that will only make this horror go away.

I look around, my eyes straining to see something, anything, and hoping beyond hope that I don’t.

“It could be a rat,” Pace whispers.

“Shhh.” I turn to look past him. I finally see something behind us. A faint light back the way we came. “Someone’s coming.”

“From above or below?”

“Either way, it’s bad.” I take his hand. “Let’s go.”

We creep forward, staying low and using the pipes as cover. I know it’s all up to me. Pace can’t see anything. My eyes strain desperately to see what’s ahead of us. We need to find another junction. Whoever is behind us could be looking for us, or it could just be maintenance for the pipes. Considering the shape the pipes are in, my guess is that it’s someone searching for us.

Finally I see an opening. It’s on the opposite side of the pipes. My internal compass, as natural to me as breathing, tells me this will take me to the hatch I used this morning. I stop and look behind me. Pace does too. The light is closer. I’m sure he can see it too.

“There,” I whisper. Pace looks but I know he can’t see anything. “We’ve got to go under the pipes.”

“Will I fit?”

“I hope so.” If he gets stuck again we’ll be caught for certain. I put his hand on the pipe and then I slide under. It feels like mud and I don’t even want to think about what I just dragged my body through. “Come on.” Pace drops to the ground. I take his sleeve to guide him through.

The light is closer. It flashes over the ceiling and the top of the pipe. Pace sees it too and quickly slips through.

“Stop!” a voice yells. The light is close enough that Pace can see the opening. We run for it.

“How many are there?” Pace whispers. The pipe is smaller here. I’m certain we’re where we need to be.

“One. Maybe two?”

“We need a weapon.”

“You’re going to fight?” I ask incredulously.

“Better now than later when there’s more.”

What he says makes sense. As we run I look around for something Pace can use. Surely with the pipes in such bad shape there should be something lying about. There is. I trip over a piece of wood and fly forward before I land on my hands and knees. Miraculously Pace stops before he falls on me. I flail around with my hands, desperately searching until I find the piece of wood. It’s stout. It must be from one of the supports for the pipes. I shove it into his hands.

“Find us a place to hide,” he whispers. We can hear them now, two voices raised with excitement. I look behind us and see the light scan across the entrance. I look around once more, desperate for someplace to conceal us. Then I realize just a few steps behind us is where the support came from. The pipe has fallen and is crooked to the left.

“Here.” I pull Pace to the pipe. He feels around with his hand and then nods. He settles into place with a firm hold on the piece of wood.

“Run ahead. Give them something to chase. Then come back on the other side.”

His plan makes sense. They’re in the tunnel now. I take off and swat at the pipe when I’m well beyond Pace’s hiding place. I’m rewarded with a resounding thump. I hear a shout and the light flashes across my back. They find me; my shadow stretches before me like a giant, as large as my fear.

The tunnel curves and there’s a ladder against the wall. An access port to the tunnels above. I could go on, climb it, and leave Pace to his fate. But his words about the executions haunt me. I wouldn’t condemn anyone to the fires, and if he’s caught that will be the result. The two who are chasing me flash the light around. They lost me! I skid to a stop, slide under the pipe, and run back toward Pace.

I hear a thump and a shout. The light now shines on the ceiling. Pace has struck. I hear the sounds of blows landing. How can he fight with his injured shoulder? My heart pounds in my chest as I get closer. I reach the place where the pipe has fallen, brace my foot on a joint, and scramble up the side. One bluecoat lies on the ground, facedown. The other has Pace against the tunnel wall. He pulls his fist back to punch and Pace jerks his head aside so the blow lands on the hard-packed dirt.

I jump and land on the bluecoat’s back. He stumbles and we land against the pipe. It knocks the air from me. Lights swirl before my eyes and my head swims. My stomach wobbles against my spine. I can’t let go. I won’t let go.

Pace swings at the bluecoat’s knees with the piece of wood. The bluecoat drops to the ground with a yelp. I let go and stagger back as Pace swings at the side of his head. He drops like a stone.

We stand there for a moment, staring at each other while both of us pant from the exertion. Blood trickles from a cut on Pace’s lip and his right eye is starting to swell. We’re both covered with dirt, sweat, and other stuff that I don’t want to think about.

“Are they dead?” I finally ask.

“Does it matter?” Pace picks up the lamp.

Does it? A choice between us and them and them winning would have meant our death.

“No.”

“Are we close?”

“Yes. I found the way out.”

He steps aside so I can lead the way. I can’t help but wonder, as we quickly run to the curve and the ladder, if my name will be on another wanted poster come tomorrow.

*   *   *

Finally, we finished the long descent into the mines down the same ladder I’d climbed just this morning. I had my doubts at the time as to whether it would hold Pace’s weight. My legs wobble as I drop wearily to the ground and I step back to allow Pace room to dismount. He’d stuffed the lamp in his shirt during the climb and he reaches for it when he’s on solid ground.

“Don’t. Someone might see it.”

“But you said there was light down here.”

“There is. It’s just a long way between them. We don’t use them in this part of the mines. No one can know you’re here.”

He sighs wearily and I can’t help but agree with him. Now the problem is where do I hide him? And then what do I tell my grandfather when I show up covered with shite?

“Where are we, exactly?”

“Close to the library on the surface. In the oldest parts of the mine.”

“Close to the library?” His voice is indignant.

“You’re the one who led us in the wrong direction,” I snap. I’m tired and I’m worried and I want nothing more than to scrub my body clean before crawling into my bed and sleeping forever.

“Sorry.”

He doesn’t really sound that sorry and I’m once more tempted to stomp off and leave him on his own. At least here he won’t have to worry about being caught by the bluecoats, or worse, the filchers. If he’s found then the council will know I’m the one who brought him down and then I’ll be in worse trouble. As if it could get any worse.

“Come on,” I say and take off, not really caring if he follows me or not.

“Ow.”

I hear him trip and keep going.

“Wren.”

I ignore him.

“Wren!”

I stop.

“I can’t see. Either wait for me or I’m turning on the lamp.”

I take a deep breath and look at Pace. He stands beneath one of the supports with his hand on the beam. In the other is the lamp and he’s poised, ready to turn it on if I don’t answer him. His eyes are lost beneath his hair and his face grim yet resolute. His clothes and face are streaked with blood, dirt, and shite. He’s a fighter—the darkness can’t hide it, nor will he let it beat him. I have to admire him for it.

We’re not so different, I realize, in spite of us coming from completely different worlds. We both saw our friends murdered for nothing more than circumstance and now we’ve both become victims. We have no one to depend on and nowhere to turn but to each other.

I go to him. Pace senses me before him and straightens his spine as I put my hand on the lamp. I pull his hand between us and turn on the lamp so he can see my face. We both blink against the sudden brightness. I wait until he looks at me to speak. I see the terror in his eyes, but I also see the determination.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Sorry for everything that’s happened to you. I’m going to find a place for you to hide, someplace safe, and then I have to go home before my grandfather comes looking for me. Can you live with that? Can you be patient until I work things out?”

“I will.”

His voice is nothing more than a whisper. I turn off the lamp and take it in one hand and his hand in the other before I turn.

“Wren, wait.”

I turn back to him. He raises his free hand and feels his way tentatively up my arm until he’s grasping my shoulder.

“I’m sorry too. Sorry that you got sucked into my mess.” He pulls me to him and wraps his arms around me. He bends his head close to mine as he embraces me. For some strange reason, I feel safe and secure. The terror that held me in its grip all day fades away and I’m filled with a warmth that starts on the inside and flows outward. “Thank you for saving my life many times over today.”

“You saved mine too.” Tears come to my eyes and I quickly blink them away. It’s because I’m tired and I’ve been so scared. Now is not the time to give in and be weak.

“We’ve got to stick together if we’re going to survive this.”

“I know.”

He lets go of me, and I suddenly feel strange and awkward. I don’t know where to turn or what to do.

“Do you think maybe you can find someplace with running water?” he says jokingly. “I could really use a bath.”

His words inspire me. “I know just the place.” Once more I take his hand. I know exactly where to hide him.

*   *   *

“You mentioned a grandfather?” Pace asks. We’ve been descending, following the tunnels that wind their way deeper into the oldest parts of the mine. We walk side by side and hand in hand. His grip is not desperate now, just steady. We’ve gained a lot of trust in each other the past few hours. Our destination is close to where the seekers met and James betrayed me. It seems like it happened a lifetime ago. I’m puzzled by the fact that all the lamps are dark. They are few and far between in this part but they were lit when I went up this morning. Why are they dark now?

“Yes, I live with my grandfather.” Our voices disappear into the darkness as we walk. “My mother died when I was born and my grandmother soon after.”

“Your father?” He’s making conversation to hold back the darkness. I don’t blame him. How scary it would be to feel as if you were blind, especially in a place you’ve never been before. My eyes strain ahead, hoping to catch sight of the next lamp.

I shake my head but realize he can’t see me. “I don’t know him. He’s from above. She never told anyone who he was.”

“My father died before I was born,” he says. “I never knew him either. It’s always just been me and my mother. I’m worried about her. About what they’ll do to her.”

I’m glad he can’t see the horror on my face. The filchers will stop at nothing to get what they want, and if they think his mother is the key to catching Pace then they’ll use her. It has to be frustrating to him, the not knowing, and not having any way to get word to her. There’s nothing I can do to help his worry, instead I keep him talking. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“Two years older than me.”

“Only if you’re sixteen.”

I laugh. He’s funny, in a dry sort of way that really tickles me. What would he have been like if he’d been born into my world instead of above? Would he have the same fears or different ones? Would he have the same sense of humor? Would we have grown naturally together instead of fate throwing us together?

“I hear water running.”

“It’s part of the river.”

“The one that services the dome? Won’t there be guards there?”

“No, not this part of it. There are many places where it goes beneath and then comes up again. It also splits into many channels before it comes back again. Part of it runs through our village. We have to be careful when tunneling because it could flood the mines, so we have it mapped out.”

“That’s how your kind has survived underground for so many years.”

“My kind?” Is that how he sees me? Another dirty shiner?

“Independent. Self-sufficient. I’ve always envied your way of life. It’s like you thumb your nose at the royals.”

I’d never thought of us that way. I like it. We have been thumbing our noses at the royals all these years. Having our own way of life instead of what they dictated for us when they built the dome. Pride fills me, but I know it’s not all independence or self-sufficiency.

“We still have to work for them. And we’re not self-sufficient. We can’t grow vegetables or fruit. We need the world above as much as you need what we provide.”

“And the royals reap the rewards.”

I have no response to that. It’s strange that I’ve never thought of those above resenting their way of life also, except for the scarabs. Of course they would, but everyone else? The butchers and bakers, the street cleaners and harvesters, the shopkeepers and teachers and bluecoats? Why wouldn’t they resent it? They were all sentenced to the same thing as the shiners. Service to the royals for each and every generation.

The noise of the water is louder now. My skin itches with the need to wash and I would love to burn my clothes, but as I don’t own many, I’ll have to scrub them clean and hope I don’t have to explain how they got so nasty.

“I didn’t realize how thirsty I am until now,” Pace says.

“Me too. And hungry. I can’t remember the last time I ate.”

“Me either.”

“Watch your head.” I put his hand on an overhang. We just have to duck through a short tunnel, no more than three feet long and four feet high, to get to the small cavern that the river has carved out. “It will only take a few seconds to get through.”