Ashes of Twilight (24 page)

He grins as he comes up and pats the water. “Come here.”

“No,” I say playfully and kick water at him.

“How am I supposed to learn how to swim?”

“Just let the water hold you.”

Pace looks dubiously at the surface of the water. “You’re going to have to show me.”

“Only if you promise to be nice.”

“What? I’m always nice.” His grin is mischievous.

“I will let you drown,” I say as I wade out.

He puts his hand over his heart. “I’m wounded.” He pulls his hand away. “Seriously, can’t you see the blood?”

I shake my head. It’s too real of a statement to make fun of. Maybe he’s just trying to forget for a while. As I should. Pace crouches down in the water as I come closer and waves his arms lazily back and forth beneath the surface.

“That’s a good start,” I say.

“This is swimming?”

“Close.” I sink down beside him. “First you need to learn how to float.” I talk him through it and he turns over on his back and carefully stretches out. “Keep your arms moving,” I say. He picks it up quickly, but given his athleticism I’m not surprised. Soon I have him paddling around the water with the glow fish racing ahead of him.

“We should be getting back,” I say finally. My body tells me morning is approaching with that same familiar yearning for the light. We dry off and dress quickly by the light of the glow fish.

“Thank you,” Pace says when we are dressed once more. He puts his hands on my waist and kisses me. His touch is gentle and his hold loose, giving me the choice as to how close and how much I want. I put my hands on his shoulders and surrender once more to the touch of his lips on mine.

Which is why I don’t hear the laughter until it is too late.

“Someone is coming,” I whisper as I break away. I recognize the laugh. It’s Peggy, which means Adam is probably with her.

“Where do we go?” Pace asks.

The escape tunnel is on the opposite bank and in the far corner behind a large boulder. We won’t make it. I can hear them in the short tunnel now. Pace takes my hand and we race to the opposite side of the entrance. There’s a bit of an alcove where the wall fades back. We can only hope that whoever is coming through will turn straight to the water and we can sneak out while they are going away from us. Pace pushes me behind him, even though I protest. I can see better than he can in the dim light, and if it is Peggy I’m hoping I can convince her not to tell. Adam I’m not so sure of since he’s on council. Pace is determined to protect me and won’t budge as he has me trapped in the corner. I have to stand on my tiptoes to see over his shoulder.

I hear Adam’s deep voice and Peggy’s answering laugh. I have my hands on Pace’s back at his waist and we both hold our breath as a head emerges from the tunnel.

It is Peggy. Pace has no way of knowing that she is my friend. He pushes back against me, flattening me against the cave wall. Peggy turns automatically to the water just as Adam’s dark head emerges from the tunnel. He scrambles and catches up with her, throwing his arm around her. Then another head comes out.

“Hey,” James calls out. “You dropped this.” He stands with the soap in his hand. Adam turns and James tosses it to him. It hits the ground because Adam and Peggy are both looking at us. They can see Pace clearly and know by the absence of the shine in his eyes that he does not belong here.

“Wren?” Peggy says cautiously.

“She’s a friend,” I say to Pace and he moves enough to let me step in front of him.

“Are you sure?” he says quietly. I hold my hand up to assure him that everything is fine.

“Tell me I’m wrong now.” James’s disgust is obvious. “I should have known you’d bring him down here.”

Just as quickly as I stepped before Pace, he once more steps before me. James’s hostility is evident and oppressive. He stands before us with his hands curled into fists at his sides.

“I did what I had to do, James,” I say. “He was there when Alex was murdered.”

“What do you mean murdered?” Adam asks.

“It’s all part of her lies,” James says.

“I wouldn’t,” Pace warns. I feel his body tense beneath my hand.

Before I can say anything to Peggy and Adam to defend my actions, James attacks. He lowers his head and charges at Pace with his arms outstretched. He crashes into Pace with his head angled into his chest and pushes him against the cave wall. I am caught in the corner and thrown forward. My head hits a rock and I am dazed. I try to crawl away. I put my hand to my temple and it comes away sticky and wet with blood.

Behind me I hear grunts and the sounds of flesh pounding against flesh. I can’t concentrate. I want to stand up. I want to stop James and Pace from fighting, but I can’t. All I can do is crawl away, on my hands and knees, and hope that my head doesn’t cave in upon itself as it feels very fragile on my neck.

Peggy screams. I sense Adam moving past me. Pace can’t fight two of them. Not with a recently separated shoulder. Adam and James have the advantage of their eyes also.

But their eyes make a target for Pace … I’ve got to stop it. Before someone else dies.

It takes every bit of my willpower to come up to my knees. Someone slams against me and knocks me forward again. I feel Peggy’s hands on me and she urges me up. My head spins and my stomach protests the movement. Lights spin before my eyes like the glow fish in the water. Peggy gets me to my feet and we stagger away as once more bodies roll at the back of my legs.

“Stop them,” I gasp. “Please.”

“I can’t,” Peggy cries out. “I don’t know how.”

I am finally able to focus my eyes. It’s hard to tell who is where in the mad scramble of bodies, especially since Adam and Pace both have dark hair. Their clothes are all the same browns and grays. But then I realize that James is on Pace’s back when Pace flips him over. Pace is taller and broader than both Adam and James, but they have a wiry strength from years of work that is easy to overlook because of their smaller stature.

As soon as Pace flips James off, Adam kicks out and sweeps his feet from beneath him and Pace falls backward onto the ground, nearly missing a large rock that would have crushed his skull had he landed on it. James staggers to his feet and shakes his head before rushing back into the fray. I have to stop it. I have to.

“STOP!”
I scream. I throw my body at Pace, who is momentarily stunned by his fall. I turn around to face Adam and James as I crouch over Pace, who backpedals away from me. James keeps coming and I rise to my feet and meet him. I shove with all my strength and he staggers back.

Anger distorts his face and he clenches his hand into a fist and raises it.

“Stop!” Adam shouts. He stops the forward motion of James’s punch. Pace climbs to his feet behind me and once more shoves me behind his body, using it as a shield for me.

All four of us are breathing hard. Peggy stands behind Adam and James with her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide with fear or horror, I cannot tell which. The cut above Pace’s eye has come open again and he moves his left arm gingerly. James and Adam don’t look much better.

“We’ve got you now,” James says. He spits out a gob of blood. “All we have to do is turn you in and we can have whatever we want.”

“They’ll kill him,” I say.

“Why should I care?” James spouts. “Because you love him?” He sneers, like it’s something nasty and disgusting.

“Because they’ll kill her too,” Pace says.

“And you, if they know you’ve been with us. And you and you,” I say, looking at Adam and Peggy.

“Why?” Adam asks. Peggy comes to his side and he puts his arm around her.

“Because Alex got out and he survived until they caught him and brought him back in. Because he saw the sky and knew it was safe. Because they murdered him, by burning him alive, and Pace saw it.”

“They’re afraid I’ll tell,” Pace says. “They murdered my friend Tom, who was with me when they murdered Alex, and then they framed me for it because I got away. They beat him to death with their fists and pipes because of something they thought we might know. It’s the same reason they want Wren. Because they saw her talking to Alex before he died and they think he told her where he got out.”

“Alex got out?” Adam asks. “Out of the dome?”

“You can’t seriously believe them,” James says.

“Shut up, James,” Peggy says. “Let them talk.”

“Are you crazy?”

“No,” Peggy spouts. “But you are. Crazy with jealousy. So let them talk. I want to know how Alex got out.” She looks at Pace. “Do you know where he got out?”

“I have an idea,” Pace says.

“Why don’t they want anyone to know?” Adam asks.

“Would any of us stay here if we had a choice?” I say. “Without us, who would serve the royals?”

“There’ve been rumors,” Pace says. “Of some of the higher-ups in the enforcers, what you call the bluecoats, of them going out and meeting with someone on the outside.”

“Lucy heard it too,” I add. “And there have been a lot of girls disappearing and some boys too.”

“What does people above disappearing have to do with us?” James asks.

“It’s why Alex was above. He wanted to make sure it didn’t happen to Lucy,” I say.

“It could be any of us,” Peggy says. “It could have been you, Wren. You went above every day.”

“To see him,” James says.

“We didn’t meet until the day Alex died,” Pace says. “I saw her with him. I knew they’d murdered him as a lesson to anyone who tried to escape. I needed to know why. Why it was such a bad thing, so I chased her.”

“Then he followed me the next morning, when I followed Lucy,” I add. “That’s when we met. I wanted to know what he knew about Alex’s death so I agreed to meet him the following day after my shift.”

“They killed Tom the morning we met,” Pace continues. “If I hadn’t stopped to talk to her, I would have been dead too. I walked in when they were beating him to death and he told me to run, so I did. The next thing I knew, I was wanted for his murder and would be dead if not for Wren.”

“You brought all this trouble to us by bringing him down here,” James spouts off again. “I killed someone because of you. Your grandfather is dead because of you.”

“James,” Peggy says. “Stop.” She looks at me. “It’s not true. Don’t believe him.”

I am suddenly so very weary and my head hurts. I urgently feel the need to sit down, so I do, on a rock beside the water.

“You’re bleeding,” Pace exclaims. He immediately touches my face, pushes my hair back and examines my wound. Peggy picks up a towel, either mine or hers, I could not tell in all the excitement, and dips it in the water before she comes to me and wipes the blood from the side of my face.

“Can you see it? How bad is it?” Pace asks her.

Peggy holds the towel to my temple to stop the bleeding. “Wait until it stops,” she says to Pace. “I can’t see it clearly now.”

“I’m sorry that you had to kill those men,” I say to James as Peggy ministers to my cut. “If I had known…” I look at Pace. I see the guilt and anger and concern in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have done it differently. I still would have brought him down.”

“Even though it meant your grandfather’s death?” James asks incredulously.

“James,” Peggy says in a low voice. She puts the towel in my hand and steps in front of her brother. “Stop it now.” Her jaw is set and she grinds out the words. In all my life I cannot recall seeing her angry. Nor did I ever expect her to stand between me and James. My heart swells with love for her. My friend.

“My grandfather knew I brought Pace below,” I say. “His last words to me were to fight them.”

“How do we fight them?” Adam asks. He looks at Pace.

“There’s a series of doors where the furnaces for the exhaust fans are located. They are heavily guarded by men who aren’t part of the enforcers. There are also tunnels that run beneath the fans. You can see them if you get close enough. They have to lead somewhere.”

“What makes you think this is where Alex got out?” Adam asks.

“Because I saw the men drag him through those doors. Tom and I were reporting to our squadron commander for our next assignment. They turned Alex over to him and they took him into this large warehouse and roasted him alive.”

“Tell them what he said,” I say.

“‘The sky is blue.’ Over and over again. He didn’t stop screaming it, even when he was burning up,” Pace says in a harsh whisper.

“It’s the same thing he said to me before he died,” I add.

“We have to find the way out,” Adam says.

“Yes,” I say, and this time I believe it with all my heart. “We do.”

“Why should we help you?” James asks.

“Don’t you get it, James?” Peggy says. “If we turn them in, they’re going to think that we might know something too. The only way to beat them is to let everyone know that Alex got out. If not they’ll kill Wren and her friend and anyone else they think they might have come into contact with. They won’t stop until we’re all dead.”

“But they need us,” James protests. “To dig the coal.”

“The coal is running out,” Adam says. “Hans said that they haven’t found a new deposit in any of the exploratory tunnels this year. And the one we’re working now is about exhausted.”

“My grandfather said the same,” I add.

“And they’d just send below people from above to mine,” Pace says. “They don’t care who digs it up, as long as they continue to bring it up.”

“We need to tell the council this,” Adam says.

“We can’t,” Peggy says. “They won’t agree. Some of them might, but not all.” She looks directly at her brother. “And if they vote to turn Wren and Pace over, it will be as if they signed their death warrants.”

“We’ve got to make sure Alex’s death counts for something,” Adam concludes.

“Exactly.” I find it hard to believe that Adam has sided with us. That he’s agreed not to mention it to council. James I’m not so sure of, especially since he looks at Pace with such venomous hatred. He was, however, good friends with Alex. Will that be enough to overcome his hatred for Pace and me?

“So what do we do?” James asks.

I let out a sigh of relief. “We find the way out,” I say.