Chapter 42:
Mayah screamed, and immediately let go of Vek’s hand. Her cry was smothered as she went underwater. When she sputtered back up to the top, she gasped for breath, and oh Sarana, the air, it was fresh and free, it was outside, and the darkness around her too, it was tinted by the colorful lights of the bio-dome oh so high above them, just where it was supposed to be, and oh, Mayah could almost weep from how normal everything was, except for the fact that she was drowning.
“Swim!” she heard Vek shout, and it occurred to Mayah that she did know how to swim, that she had in fact learned how to do so just last year in a special junior Rajas pool class. Her hands and feet began moving as she started treading the water. Panic struck her briefly when she thought about the Dome Ring – but then she checked her pocket, and it was still there.
“Good,” she heard Vek say. His head was bobbing up and down. He had removed his goggles; Mayah could clearly see the relief in his face through her now water-streaked lenses. “You do know how to swim.”
Mayah laughed, then spat out the gulp of water that filled her mouth. “The only thing I don’t know how to do is drown,” she tried to joke, but she only ended up sputtering on another mouthful of lake.
“Are you up for swimming to shore?” asked Vek.
Mayah craned her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of land. “Which way is shore?” she asked, letting her kicks and paddles take her away from the Temple. She was glad it was dark. Even the little light that was gleaming down from the bio-dome above was hurting her eyes. More than hurting them, in fact. Her eyes were stinging, and her vision was blurring.
She felt something brush past her and she shied away, her hands splashing at the water. “Vek, was that you?” she called, her eyes still watering too much for her to see anything.
Another something rushed by her and a moment later Vek responded, “Something just went by me in the water!”
By Sarana. Was the entire bio-dome populated with monsters and things out to hurt her? And why now, when she couldn’t see anything? Why after they left the Temple, when everything was supposed to be better? She opened her mouth to ask Vek if he was having trouble seeing too, but another wave splashed inside it. As she swallowed Mayah felt something snake around her leg before moving on. “Vek?” Mayah called, the panic starting to rise in her voice. “Vek, I can’t see anything, and there are things in the water.”
The world was a gray blur that spun around and around. Mayah felt a strong pressure around her wrist. It was warm and firm and Vek’s voice followed. “You can’t see? What do you mean?”
“Everything is blurry.”
“We should go back to the Temple. We need to get on land.”
Bile rose in Mayah’s throat. “No,” she tried to say, but she only ended up choking. Vek guided her through the water and all at once a vision came to Mayah’s mind of spending the rest of her life on the inside of a wall that blocked out the world’s light…
I shouldn’t have taken the goggles off inside the Temple, she lamented, latching onto the only thing she could think of to explain her sudden blindness. I’m always doing something stupid that ends up hurting me. If I hadn’t taken them off I would probably be able to see right now. But that’s so unfair! If I had kept them on, we’d still be inside the Temple, drowning, because I wouldn’t be able to see the handle!
“Don’t cry,” Vek was saying. Well, you can see fine, Mayah thought resentfully. And I’m not even crying, it’s just my eyes are watering so much, and maybe I’m crying a little bit, but anybody would if they were about to go blind.
But as Mayah blinked away her tears, images began superimposing themselves onto her eyes. Was that the Temple she was seeing? Mayah broke Vek’s grasp to pull both hands up to rub her eyes under her glasses. Yes, yes, it was!
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They had drifted to the side of the Temple, where, Mayah saw, there was a shoreline of black rocks. From where she was in the water, only the Temple’s eastmost column was visible, all the way to her left. It stood white against the Temple’s darkness.
Mayah squinted at something on the rocks to the right of the column. “Vek, is that a boat?”
“Shh.” Vek placed a hand on Mayah’s shoulder and pushed her deeper into the water. “Yes, it is, and there’s a soldier next to it. We can take him. Follow me.”
Mayah slunk beneath the surface of the lake until just her eyes and the top of her head were above it. She could hear nothing but the quiet song of the water. She kept her eyes on the soldier as she used silent strokes to propel herself forward. She wondered what Vek’s plan was. We can take him. Did that mean something other than wait in the water while Vek attacked the soldier? Or did it mean they were going to make something up together when they arrived? At any rate, she was glad she could see. It made everything less frightening.
Vek tapped her on the shoulder. Underwater, the movement felt more hesitant than she was used to from him. They were now about five strokes away from the shore where the black rocks rose out of the water. The soldier was jumping back and forth on them. Mayah almost smiled at the sight. It looked like he – she? – was playing a serf children’s game, jumping from stone to stone, one leg jutting out to the side at a time.
Mayah looked at Vek, to see what they should do next, when the soldier whipped around and stared out into the lake. Mayah ducked underwater. She kept herself beneath the surface for as long as she could, fighting her natural buoyancy. When she had to emerge, she found the soldier was gesturing at them. Mayah turned to Vek. He looked as confused as she felt.
“Does she think we’re drowning?” Mayah murmured, treading water to stay where she was. Now that Mayah was closer she could tell that the soldier was indeed a woman, quite a young one, in fact, maybe around Mayah’s own age.
“No, she wouldn’t care about that, I don’t think,” Vek murmured back. His face was still a mask of confusion. The soldier was continuing to wave at them but had not made a sound. More than once she had nervously looked over her shoulder to where the other soldiers would be standing at attention by their columns.
“We still need a boat,” Mayah pointed out. “And if she wants to turn us in, she would have already shouted to someone. It’s not like we have anywhere to go. If they see us, they’ll catch us.”
Her arms were getting tired. Mayah relaxed them, letting herself float in the dark waters. Strange that the lake was so black. She supposed there was some sort of mud coating on the bottom of the lake, and long thin things growing up out of it, reaching out to grab her and pull her down…
“I’m going in,” Mayah announced.
The soldier continued to wave at them. Once Mayah was closer she could see that the soldier was a pretty Eenta girl, her curly hair pulled back into a hairtail. Making sure to keep to the right of the Temple’s single visible column, Mayah swam to the boat and used it to pull herself up onto the rocks. It was the same kind of boat that had carried Mayah and Vek to the Temple, only filled with bioplastic-wrapped bundles, and with two seats instead of just the stern seat.
“What took you so long?” the soldier hissed. Confused by the question, Mayah glanced at Vek. His shaved head was streaked wet and water dripped down his face as he opened his mouth, then shut it.
Mayah turned back to the soldier. “What?”
“I’ve been waiting here for the past two hours,” the soldier continued in a low, angry tone. “Do you know how much trouble the Free Serfs would have gotten in if I had been caught? You were supposed to come out of the Temple by the eastmost column before the start of 54th’s first nightsleep, weren’t you told that? What in the name of Jroya and Pal were you doing in the lake?”
“No, we weren’t told,” Vek finally replied. “I mean – we ran into trouble. But we’re here now, and ready to go. Is that boat for us?”
“No, it’s for the Lost Princess,” the soldier snapped. “Of course it’s for you, serfhead. Get in it now and get out of here. The next agent will be meeting you at the end of darkwake in the crosspoint of Industrilia’s forest.” She took another glance around the lake, then snapped her fingers at Mayah. “Hurry up, do you want to get caught?”
“Lovely girl,” Vek commented dryly, as the soldier disappeared around the corner of the Temple. “Gives good advice, too.”
“Let’s follow it,” Mayah replied, and then she joined Vek in shoving their boat across the black rocks into the blacker water.