Relic (The Books of Eva I) (24 page)

As she fingers the amulet she wears around her neck, the tears start again. She says,
“I’ve been praying that you did. I’ve been praying that your silence means you’re safely on that ship and you just don’t have any connectivity. And that soon we will be together again.”
Her eyes narrow and darken.
“I will never forgive my parents for not getting you on their ship. They’ve always been so controlling, but this is evil. I will never—”

The face of the altar—the screen of the computer—goes blank.

“What’s wrong, Lukas?” I clutch his arm. This can’t be the end. I have to hear what happened to Elizabet. What really happened, not what I dreamed up for my Chronicle.

“The battery is dead, Eva. I’ll have to play with the solar charging.”

Battery? Solar charging? He’s speaking another language. This is probably how he feels when we Aerie people speak and read in Latin in his presence. “What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain. I leave for the Boundary lands today. If you’ll let me take this back with me, I might be able to recover the rest of Elizabet’s story.”

“How in the Gods would it help to bring a Relic to the Boundary lands?” I ask, unable to keep the irritation out of
my voice.

Lukas is acting irrationally. He must be playing a card against me. Those who live in the Boundary lands are native to New North—not those chosen by the Gods like the Founders. They are a wild and desperate lot, except for the few selected to serve in the Aerie homes. That’s why they need the support and structure of the Aerie rule. They’re not all like Lukas.

“Eva, the Boundary lands are nothing like you think. Nor are the Boundary people.” Breaking his gaze from the blank altar, he looks up at me. “Tech never died in the Boundary lands, Eva. After the Healing, when all Tech was outlawed, we Boundary people brought it underground and preserved it. I have the tools to fix your computer there.”

I am aghast. I stammer. “In-in-in violation of The Lex?”

“Yes. My people are used to keeping secrets. It’s part of our history.”

“Tech is evil, Lukas. Aren’t you afraid of it? Of Apple?”

Lukas takes his hands off the altar and wraps them around mine. “Eva, Tech is not evil in and of itself. Evil depends on the hand that wields it. And Apple is not a god or a demon, no matter what you’ve been told. The pre-Healing people never thought of Apple as a god. The Apple is just a symbol of their Tech.”

I can’t bring myself to look at him. I stare down at his hands. If the pre-Healing people never thought of Apple as a god, then my Chronicle is a lie. But how can that be true? I want to believe him, but it goes against everything I’ve been taught. Against everything that all of New North has been taught. “Is this what you meant that everything I believed in is wrong?”

“In part.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Nothing makes sense right now.
Not my appreciation of Elizabet and the pre-Healing life. Not my beliefs about Tech and the supposed false god Apple. Not the Lexors and Basilikons and Archons. Not even The Lex itself.

“If I let you take this … thing into the Boundary lands, how will I ever be able to see it again? There’s no guarantee that your next assignment will bring us in contact.”

“You might just have to come to me.”

My eyes fly open. “Seriously?”

“Come on, a Maiden like you who conquered the Taiga, the Tundra, and the Frozen Shores can’t handle the Boundary lands?”

I purse my lips. “I’m not in the mood for a joke, Lukas.”

There’s no humor in his face. “I’m not joking, Eva. There are ways into the Boundary lands that wouldn’t require you to scale the Ring or pass through the Gate. And, after all the stories I heard about you from my uncle, I think you can handle the route I have in mind.”

“Your uncle?” With each explanation Lukas offers me, I end up more perplexed.

“The Boundary Climber with the streak of white hair. I asked him to look out for you.”

So Lukas was with me all along. By proxy, anyway. I find some comfort in the knowledge that not all of my wild imaginings were off-base. I
was
being protected; I just never knew by whom. And it wasn’t my father. “That’s why he helped me.”

Lukas smiles. “So will you come? To the Boundary lands?”

“Even though I could be exiled for trying?” I ask. After the distances I’ve crossed—to survive beyond the Ring, to win the Archon Laurels, to endure my grief over Eamon—does
Lukas truly mean for me to jeopardize everything? I could just as easily say goodbye and forget.

“Don’t you think the truth is worth the risk?” he asks.

Above my bowed head, I hear the Chief Basilikon’s words ring throughout the pristine cavernous walls of the Basilika—the most holy place in the Aerie. One cannot enter its massive inner sanctum without sensing that the Gods are there, too. The Sun: through the ice windows far overhead. The Earth: clumped into ancient brown mud that serves as the Chief Basilikon’s Highest Altar. The Moon: a sliver through the Moon-holes that line the wall. Now more than ever I feel the Gods’ presence. But now, for the first time, I want to shout at them for answers.

“On this morning, we say a special blessing for our new Archon, Eva. Soon, she will embark upon her training, and we ask the Gods for their mercy and counsel as she does. For New North needs a Lex-guided leader.”
The Chief Basilkon’s voice is like a hot bath. He waves incense over me.

In the rear of the chamber, I hear the Aerie people chant back, “We ask for your blessing, O Gods.”

“Archon Eva, you may rise,” the Basilkon says.

The Sun’s rays, stained blue and red from their passage through the ice windows, warm my cheeks. I know it is Her signal to arise from my genuflection and face the worshippers. As expected from a Maiden and an Archon, I smile in what I hope looks like benevolent thanks for their prayers during this special ceremony just for me. Truly, no matter my misgivings, I am thankful for their wishes. In their faces—my parents, their friends, and all the rest—I see their hopes for the future of New North. And in Jasper’s face, I see his aspirations for a future Union. I see truth and stories in all.

But I’m not sure I can give them what they want. I am the lone fraud.

T
ONIGHT IS THE NIGHT
for which I’ve been waiting twenty-one days. The Moon has shown Herself in full for the first time since Lukas left. I finally have enough light to make my way to the secret opening in the Ring.

It seems that Lukas is right. The truth is worth the risk.

The past twenty-one days have been interminable. I thought that I’d acted at my life before—as a Maiden, a Testor, as a sister past her grief. But I really had no idea what it meant to play a role. Not until the tick I left Lukas on the turret with my Apple Relic and I was forced to pretend to be Eva the Archon, Eva the dutiful daughter, Eva the possible Betrothed. Even though absolutely everything had changed.

The days of so-called freedom before I enter my Archon training have become a prison. I must abide by the rules of my parents’ household, the directives of the Aerie society, and the edicts for Maidens before marriage. I must pretend I don’t question The Lex, my community, the very history of the Healing, the truth of my people.

During these long days, I learned that I’m not good at the charade. In my
siniks
beyond the Ring, I lost the knack for a double life. So aside from required public engagements, I took exile in this journal and the quiet places of the Aerie. I frequented the diptych in my bedroom and prayer nooks of the Basilika, and everyone acted as though I was purifying myself for the Archon training. It enabled me to avoid Jasper, too. It wasn’t simply that I can’t face the marriage plans. I’ve felt a connection I can’t even articulate with Jasper since that last
sinik
of the Testing. A Union could represent everything good about life in the Aerie. He’s been so supportive since our return, appearing at my side at public events and meals and ceremonies. But I would be unable to hide this change in myself from him for very long.

Even now I feel torn. Yet I know what I must do, even though it means I must leave behind all that I’ve known and loved. I tell myself I have no choice.

After Evensong bell, I retire to my bedroom, allowing Katja to disrobe me and bundle me into my bedclothes like a baby. The very tick she closes the door behind her, I slide out of bed and into my Testor uniform. I will need its warmth as I cross over into the Boundary lands.

Creaking my bedroom door open as slowly as I dare, I pad down the corridor in my
kamiks
. I’ve already prepared an excuse should I get caught—I’m mourning Eamon out
here on the turret, in our old place—but no one appears as I mount the icy stairs. Reaching into my Testor pack, I pull out an ice screw and carefully twist it into a crevice between the turret tower stones. Once it’s secure, I feed the line through the harness I’m wearing under my sealskin cloak and back into the hole. Then I throw the line over the turret wall and belay down.

It’s surprisingly easy. As if I was born for this task.

Mapping out the shadows of Her Moonlight across the Aerie, I dart from one darkened corner to the next. Not a soul appears from a home or Keep or town building, not even a Guard. The Aerie is asleep, it seems. Or following The Lex, at least.

In two bells, I reach the base of the Ring. I still need to skirt a very exposed expanse of ice and snow to reach the tiny gap in the Ring that Lukas described. As I wait and watch for the Guards patrolling the rim of the Ring to pass, I realize this is the spot where Eamon fell to his death. I imagine that I can see the smear of blood that for so long stained this section of the Ring, although I know it’s been washed away.

I stop. I’m not certain I can press forward. Can I really I pass directly under the place where my brother died? How can I not, after coming so far? As I debate, the shadow of a single Guard appears over the flat white surface of the Ring wall. After his lamplight flickers by, I steel myself and make a run for it.

I count off the ticks necessary to reach the gap—ticks that Lukas painstakingly described—but I don’t see the opening. Could I have passed it? I retrace my steps, but I still can’t find it. I start to panic, and consider returning home, when I see a black fissure in the Ring’s wall of ice. I’d discounted
it initially because it resembles nothing more than a springtime ice crack. But when I squint more closely, it seems wide enough to squeeze through. Lukas had mentioned that the aperture was narrow, but this is dangerously so. Pushing myself along, the gap compresses even farther. It’s tight against my chest, and I’m left gasping for air. Any sane person would abandon the attempt as futile. Maybe that’s how the Boundary people have protected this pass for so long.

Without warning, the gap opens. There, in a sizable subterranean cave in the base of the Ring, stands Lukas. Broad shoulders and black hair—but stronger and more substantial than he ever seemed in the Aerie. He has waited for me.

Without a single word, Lukas takes me by the hand, and we start running. It is pitch black except for Lukas’s
naneq
and the jerky light and shadows we cast. I should be scared, but I’m not. Finally, I feel free.