Thunder (21 page)

“It's dangerous if you go back. Stay with us,” Selah begged, holding his hand in hers.

Cleon looked over at Raza's body. Words stuck in his throat. “How are
you
feeling right now?” To save his sanity, he needed her to convince him this wasn't his fault.

Selah looked down at her hands. “Right now I'm numb. It will probably hit me later. But my first thought?” She looked up at him. “You can never tell anyone. Mother would have to forgive me . . . but my first thought was,
My tormentor is dead.
”

“I'm sorry he made your life so miserable and Father never defended you.”

Selah shook her head. “That's all over now.”

“We'll have to find a spot to bury his body,” Cleon said in a low voice.

“I've done a lot of things in the past couple days I thought I'd never do. This just adds another to the growing list,” Selah said.

Bodhi refused to let Selah help Cleon bury their brother. He'd spent a lot of his existence acting with deliberate dis
regard for other people's feelings, especially women's, but he would not stand by and let her be responsible for helping to dig a grave and push a body into it. He cared for her too much. He made her stay with the child at the wagon as he helped Cleon haul Raza into the trees and bury him.

It was a strange experience. He'd never handled a dead body, and it was still slightly warm. Felt strange to put a person in the ground and cover him up. He'd never done that before either. Cleon didn't seem to like him much, so the job went quickly with them both digging and no talking. Cleon stood at the freshly covered hole, talking to himself. Bodhi watched for a minute then took the shovels back to the wagon, figuring he wanted privacy. Darkness settled but a full moon lit the night sky, making it easy to see in the eerie glow.

Selah looked up as he came out of the trees. “Is it done?”

“Yes. I think you need some sleep. You look like a raccoon with those dark circles under your eyes,” Bodhi said. He slid the collapsible shovels into the wagon and gave them a push to the back.

“Well, thank you for the compliment. It's from crying,” Selah said.

Bodhi sighed. Wrong thing to say. She felt bad enough.
Never disparage a woman's appearance.
“Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”

“It's fine. I'm fine.” Her voice started to break and her lip quivered. She raised a hand in aimless circles, tears flowing down her cheeks. She turned and leaned against the wagon.

He cursed under his breath and clamped his jaw shut as he reached for her shoulder. He hesitated, rubbing his fingers
together to be sure they were clean after digging, then gently laid his hand on her shoulder. “It will be all right.”

Selah spun into his arms. Bodhi, caught off guard, stood with his arms outstretched.

She buried her head in his chest, sobbing. “It will never be all right. Why did it have to happen this way? Why couldn't he have left us alone and gone home? Cleon can't go back now either, so Father lost two sons today. His heart will be broken.”

She clutched at his shirt. Bodhi slowly wrapped her in his arms and rested his chin on top of her head. He felt the jerky heaving of her chest as she cried. “I'm sorry.” The only thing he could think to say. He needed to find a new word of apology. That one was getting old.

He rocked her back and forth as her body was wracked with sobs. He'd felt her brother needed to die before he killed someone, but Bodhi would never say that to her.

Amaryllis sat on the ground viewing one of her quartz crystal readers, but hearing sobs brought her scurrying to Selah's side. She also started to cry. “What's the matter with Selah? Did you hurt her?” She clutched at Selah's shirt.

“No, I didn't hurt her. She's sad because her brother died,” Bodhi said softly.

Cleon emerged from the woods. With head down, he slowly walked to the wagon, grabbed his bedroll, and headed toward the trees on the other side of the clearing.

Selah pulled herself together, sniffed, and turned to the child. “It's been a long day, and we need some sleep. Grab our covers and make a bed near the trees by Cleon.”

Amaryllis shook her head. “I don't want to sleep on the ground. There may be snakes.”

Selah rubbed the heel of her hand across her eyes to dry them. “Bed down in the wagon then.”

“Will you come with me?”

Bodhi was amazed at how fast the child had stopped crying.

Selah sighed. “Yes, I'll come with you, but I want to talk to Bodhi.”

“Then I'll wait,” Amaryllis said. “I don't want to be by myself.”

“Let's sit in the wagon so the child can get to sleep,” Bodhi said. Selah looked like she needed rest too. She needed her wits about her for what they were going to attempt tomorrow.

Bodhi climbed up, pulling Selah up after him. Amaryllis scrambled over the edge and wrapped herself in her blanket on the left side while Selah sat near Bodhi on the right.

She dropped her head. All the fight had gone out of her, and Bodhi sensed her sadness. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his chest. She didn't protest, but it seemed to trigger tears again.

She cried softly into her hands as she pressed against him. “What can I do? This can't be fixed. Raza is dead in the ground.”

“Well, the first thing you should do is talk to Cleon—”

“I don't want to hear solutions,” Selah cried.

Bodhi grimaced and moved to disengage. He felt like he was making matters worse. He'd wait until she made more sense. “I'll let you go to sleep.”

Selah gripped his shirt. “Just hold me.”

Bodhi leaned back against the crates. Selah rested against
his chest, his arm encircling her shoulder, and cried herself to sleep.

Selah awoke to the sounds of birds and gentle sunlight filtering through the trees. She glanced around with blurry eyes. Bodhi was gone. He must have slipped away after she'd fallen asleep. She couldn't explain it, but for the first time since leaving home, she felt safe. She leaned her head back. Beside her, Amaryllis stirred. The child had snuggled with her the past several nights, reminding her that someone counted on her for security. She rubbed the pack Amaryllis was using as a pillow. Her mother's letters in that pack substituted as her own security.

She turned on her stomach and stared at a crate. A large clump of rabbit fur was lodged in the slat lock on the crate. She sat up, plucked the fibers from the crate, and rolled them in her fingers. Bodhi had been telling the truth.

Selah ripped the cover off the crate. Empty. Her brothers had sold rabbits in the Mountain. Had their father condoned this? He must have. He'd allowed them to use the wagon and team for the trip. But maybe he thought they were only delivering the Lander.

Voices drifted through her thoughts. Bodhi and Cleon.

“We need to find a way in there today. I'm getting strong impressions of anxiety,” Bodhi said.

“What are you talking about,
impressions
? You can't just waltz into the Mountain. It's a fortress, and your people are prisoners,” Cleon yelled.

Selah sat up and looked over the side of the wagon. The
two men had obviously just woken. Neither had fixed their appearance, and both had unruly hair spikes like baby birds just out of the shell. She rolled her eyes. They sounded like a pair of fishwives arguing in the sea bass stall at the wharf marketplace back home.

“It's a travesty anyone would be hunted or held as a slave. What kind of a country is this?” Bodhi said.

“Well, if you didn't come to our country—”

“Stop!” Selah jumped from the wagon. “You two need to start acting like adults.”

“Well, he's crazy. I was there yesterday with Raza. The chances of getting in unnoticed are next to none,” Cleon said.

Selah held out the rabbit fur. “That's what I want to talk to you about. What were you doing selling rabbits in the Mountain?”

Cleon rubbed the back of his head. “It wasn't my idea. I was just along for the ride to help deliver the Lander.” He flipped a hand in Bodhi's direction.

Selah got in his face. His breathing grew heavy but she wouldn't break eye contact. “Responsible or not, tell me what you did with the rabbits.”

Cleon turned away, avoiding her stare.

She grabbed him by the shoulders. “You thought all rabbits were poison. Why did you sell them here?”

Cleon shrugged off her hand. “Because the man named Ganston wanted to buy them. Raza set up the deal. He made deliveries here every month for a year.” His voice rose. “I wasn't part of it. I tried to stop him when I found out. He wouldn't listen.”

Selah threw down the fur and started pacing. “Here I
thought Bodhi was lying about you two, but no, you have to be selling contaminated rabbits to the Mountain for who knows what purpose. Meanwhile I'm not trusting him, and he's not trusting me—”

She stopped in mid-sentence. Bodhi and Cleon stared at her as though she had two heads.

“Don't look at me like that, either of you,” she said, waving a hand. “We came north for two reasons. Bodhi's looking for other Landers, and I'm looking for my father.”

“Failure is not an option,” Bodhi added.

“Your failure was coming here.” Cleon glared at Bodhi.

Selah jumped in between them. “Knock it off! We have to work together.”

Cleon backed up. “Why do I need to do anything with
him
?”

She could understand her brother's animosity. He had been taught his whole life to hate Landers. She softened her tone. He'd experienced enough change for a lifetime, and she wanted to slide him into this new world with the least amount of confusion. “He can help me find my father. He gets stronger impressions than I do. I'm just learning how to translate thoughts.”

“That's the second time someone's said that. What are you talking about?” Cleon asked.

No one in the Borough ever knew the extent of Lander abilities. Would it put them in danger for
normals
to know? She wanted to trust her brother. If not him, who?

“Landers can read minds. There's interference with Bodhi hearing the ones inside the Mountain,” Selah said. She searched his face for a reaction.

Cleon didn't say anything at first. He looked at the ground. “Anyone's mind? Am I walking around here with him snooping in my head?”

“No, just other Landers. We're telepathic,” Bodhi said.

Cleon set his jaw and narrowed his eyes.

Bodhi smirked.

Selah raised hands. “Stop. Cleon, over there!” She pointed at a fallen tree.

Cleon started to argue then turned and stormed off. He sat on the log with his hands clasped and his head down. Selah moved to sit beside him and reached for his hand. He pulled away. She lowered her head and looked up into his eyes. It unnerved her to see puddles of moisture in his eyes.

A tear slid down his cheek. She reached out again, and this time he didn't pull away. She held his hand, feeling the warmth pass between them.

“We've lost Raza. Neither of us can go home. You need to stay with us.”

Cleon nodded. A teardrop splashed onto her hand.

“I will always love you, Cleon. We are sister and brother forever.”

Selah sniffled. They wrapped their arms around each other and cried. She felt Cleon's shoulders tighten as they held each other until no more pain washed out.

Bodhi hurried toward them. “I think we have a problem.”

The whine of a squad of JetTrans filled the trees overhead.

S
elah flattened herself on the ground underneath a bush. “Rylla, hide till the hovercraft are gone!” Amaryllis was probably the only person she
wasn
'
t
worried about at the moment. She knew the child was savvy enough to understand the threat. She glanced around. Bodhi and Cleon lay camouflaged in heavy underbrush.

The whine seemed to go on forever. Through the tree canopy she watched the five JetTrans come into formation one by one, arriving from the Mountain platform on the other side of the tree grove. The center JetTrans in the triangular formation hovered directly over her head. What were they doing there so long? Nerves took hold. Had they been spotted?

She lowered her head to think and simultaneously the hovercraft charged their jets and took off. Selah huffed out a huge breath.

They gathered back at the wagon. Selah didn't know what she expected, but breaching the Mountain was not on her
list. Yet Bodhi could feel Landers in there, her father among them. What were the choices?

“I was inside with Raza yesterday. We never saw a single person until we reached our destination,” Cleon said.

“Do you know how to get where they're holding the prisoners?” Selah asked.

“He doesn't need to,” Bodhi interrupted. “I can feel which way to go once we're inside.”

“We've seen the kind of weapons they have.” She held up Raza's pulse weapon. “We can't compete against this with knives or machetes.”

“So then stay out here. I'll go in,” Bodhi said.

Selah jumped to her feet. “No you won't.” He wasn't going to treat her like the boys did. “I go or none of us go.”

Bodhi pulled back his chin. “Since when did you become boss?”

“We're a team. I got you where you wanted to go, and you promised to help me.”

Cleon stared at them. “What's this plan between you two? I assumed you were bringing Bodhi as a prisoner. What's your part in this, Selah?”

She kicked at a stone with the toe of her boot. “I'm pretty sure my father is in there.”

Cleon gaped. “You mean your
real
father could be inside the Mountain?”

“Yes. I came with Bodhi hoping to find a Lander colony so I could pick up a lead. Mother said Father went north, and she tried to follow him until she gave birth to me.” Selah looked toward the Mountain. “There's something terrible
going on in there. Bodhi tapped the energy and I'm able to feel it. Don't ask me to explain.”

Cleon looked like he didn't believe her. “We should think about this.”

“I'm telling you from the impressions I'm getting it is paramount we go now or there will be dire consequences. You go with me or I go alone,” Bodhi said.

Selah rubbed her hand across her forehead.

Amaryllis leaned up against her and slipped her arms around Selah's waist. “Are we going into the scary Mountain?”

“No, you're not,” the other three said in unison.

Amaryllis's bottom lip quivered. “What if something happens to you? I'll be all alone again.”

“Nothing will happen. You'll be fine right here while we're gone. I know you can take care of yourself. You've got to trust me, we'll come back,” Selah said.

Amaryllis chewed on her thumbnail. “I don't want to be alone.”

“We have to go now.” Bodhi grimaced.

Cleon stood beside him. “The sooner we get started, the faster we can be done with . . .” He looked at Bodhi but said nothing more.

Selah gently extracted herself from the child's tight embrace. “You stay here. Promise me.”

Amaryllis dropped her head and mumbled.

“Is that a yes?” Selah asked. She knew the evasion drill from Dane. She'd never realized how much all children acted alike.

Amaryllis nodded.

Cleon pointed to the machete. “You may need that. The overgrowth closer to the Mountain is almost impassable.”

Selah strapped on the sheath. A feeling of dread slid over her like clouds covering the sun. Something felt wrong. Was this a trap?

Stemple tried to avoid Bethany and Everling today. They had both taken on this strange aura of agitation. Everling kept repeating himself, and Bethany—well, she ran unfettered by common decorum. She'd already yelled at two male lab techs enough times that they ran and hid from her, and she'd reduced more than one female assistant to tears in the last few days. Stemple wondered if it was some kind of psychosis involved with their regeneration injections. When he was required to be in the lab with them, he kept his head down and worked.

“The JetTrans squad took off to hunt the girl,” Bethany said. “If you'd listened to me we wouldn't have any future delays in the system.”

Stemple looked out the corner of his eye without turning his head. Everling sat at a lab bench fingering test tube samples. He mumbled something but kept working.

“Noah!” Bethany yelled. She slammed her open hand on the countertop.

“Can't you see I'm busy? What do you want now?” Everling asked. He'd turned into someone Stemple didn't recognize.

“I said you need to listen to me about adding distance to the JetTrans to speed up searches and avoid costly delays in reporting,” Bethany said. “This squad can only search
up to a hundred miles from here. It's going to be sheer luck and not science that finds her.”

“No, no, no. Too big a cost. I own this Company. Sometimes I think you only want my money. Did you ever really love me or was it all just for the power?” Everling asked. He stood, wobbled a few steps, and headed for Bethany.

Stemple moved swiftly in the other direction and left the lab.

Selah chopped their way through the barrier of kudzu overgrowing the grove of trees closer to the Mountain. In many places the weight of the vines left behind snapped and ragged stumps of stalwart maples and pines being enveloped in the monster growth.

She hacked a path inside the mound. There wasn't enough breeze to refresh the stagnant air trapped inside the greenery. They pushed through the humid air, and Selah wiped away the moist tendrils of hair clinging to her face. They exited the foliage near the fence surrounding the utility entrance to the Mountain. Chopping and hacking made her arms feel like fifty-pound weights.

She needed rest and air and longed for her hiding place in the barn where she could be near the horses and hear Mother working in the garden. She stripped off the leather sheath and swiped the moisture from the machete onto her pants.

Dew clung to the foliage on the path to the gate, creating a jewel-studded appearance in the bright sunshine. It beckoned like the sparkling entrance to a fairyland, looking as
deceptive as the gentle ocean waves that hid riptides below the surface in her fishing inlet at home.

Cleon showed where to stay out of camera range among the bushes. Apparently, some of the trips he and Raza had made to the Mountain were for more than just deliveries, but he usually remained outside. Selah didn't want to know. The facade was already ruined.

“That's the keypad we pushed to open the door. The one on the left opens the gate to get back out.” Cleon pointed to the brushed metal rectangles on either side of the doorway.

They surveyed the area inside the fence. It continued to the left and right of the opening. Large tubular bays with rectangular stone pads in front were cut into the Mountain at equal spaces as far as they could see. The area became hidden in the trees as it proceeded to the left. Selah saw no other gated entrances, and she wasn't willing to explore the fence line.

“It looks easy, but maybe too easy,” Bodhi said. “How do they secure the entrances?”

Cleon grinned. “Technically, they're very lax. They assume no one can skirt their gates. They don't care about merchants trying to buy or sell goods. It took us quite a few tries to get anyone to answer the gate. The guards only answer when they're in their posted areas.”

Bodhi stared at Cleon. “You sound like you've done this before.”

Cleon stared back. “Everyone has their secrets.”

Selah wondered if she needed to keep these two separated. “It can't be this simple. Did anyone notice there's no clear way over the fence? How do you propose we get to the keypad on the door?”

“We used the identa-card Raza carried,” Cleon said.

“We buried it with him,” Selah said. “It wouldn't have helped anyway. It was coded for his genetic material. I remember from our school lessons about commerce with the Mountain.” She turned to Cleon. “You've been here numerous times. Have you heard of any merchants faking an identa-card, or do you know how?”

Cleon shook his head. “A coal merchant tried to buy a black market identa-card to get more product but they caught him. The biometrics didn't match well enough.”

Selah walked forward and stared at the gate. “So faking credentials won't work.”

“It also registered me on Raza's card. Once inside it caught me when I left the approved pathway. We'll have to bypass the gate registration altogether,” Cleon added.

Selah flopped back on her haunches and covered her head with her hands. The black bars on the ten-foot-tall fencing were a coated iron product spaced four to five inches apart. A wide razor lip attachment that leaned out away from the Mountain completed the top.

She suddenly realized that assessing situations felt normal now. Was this one of her new abilities? Or was she just developing what Mother had taught her now that she was out of the boys' shadows?

“That's a good space between the bars,” Bodhi said.

Selah swiveled to look at him. “I'm small but not that small.”

Cleon sighed. “Maybe we ought to get that kid—”

“No!” Selah said. “I will not put her in danger to help us.”

“Even if it means getting to your father?” Bodhi asked.

Selah chewed on her bottom lip. Maybe if they waited for another merchant to come by, they could sneak in using his wagon as a shield. It didn't seem efficient, but at least Amaryllis wouldn't be at risk.

“Hey, look!” Cleon pointed at the fence.

Selah lifted her head. Amaryllis had run up to the fence and squeezed between the bars six sections from the gate.

Selah scrambled to her feet. “No!” Unlike with Dane at the abyss, she wasn't close enough to save the girl from the foolish move.

Cleon clamped his hand over her mouth. “Don't make a sound.” He pointed at the laser cannon mounted on the side of the Mountain. “I've seen them disintegrate bandits lying in wait for merchants.”

Selah wrenched free from his grasp, all the while keeping her eye on Amaryllis. “Why didn't you think to tell us about the cannon last night?”

“I forgot.” Cleon shrugged.

Selah's head snapped in his direction. Who was this person that knew these kinds of details? “You forgot?” She felt ready to punch him.

“Stop fighting. She did it,” Bodhi said.

The child slithered through the bars, darted to the panel, and slapped the brushed metal pad. The gate slid open.