Chapter 5:

It all happened so fast. The Rajas was leading Mayah away from Sukren, all the way to the other side of the room, and Mayah didn’t want to go with them, she wanted to stay with Sukren, but how could she say no to a princess? You are a princess, you are a princess, a voice inside her whispered but it didn’t feel real, it didn’t feel right. Everything was a blur, everyone was so pretty, a clear bioplastic bulb was being thrust into her hand, voices were telling her to drink. She did, and oh, it was yucky, it was so yucky!

Then she turned and saw him. Instinctively she reached out for him; he was Sukren, he was her guardian, he was everything that made her feel safe and secure. All her life he’d been there. All her life he’d cared for her. And he was reaching for her too, his arms were outstretched and –

Mayah blinked. Sukren was grabbing hold of some other Rajas’ hand, not hers, and the princess was screaming. “He’s touching me, he’s touching me!” Another Rajas shouted, “He’s not wearing gloves!” Out of the corner of her eye Mayah saw red-clothed Eenta rushing towards them. One of them had his spear out. It looked sharp and shiny and, by the rock-god, was he pointing it at Sukren? Yes, yes, he was, he was coming closer, he was jabbing it into Sukren, he was hurting him!

She tried at once to go to him, but was jostled this way and that as other Rajas and soldiers rushed in. Soon she was at the edge of the crowd. Panicking, Mayah started shoving her way back in when she felt a pair of gloved hands on her shoulders. One second she was on her feet, the next, she was being yanked away from the crowd. Immediately Mayah tried to get free. Pushing, pulling, but the grip on her shoulders was too strong! Not until she was all the way back in the arches was she released. Sobbing, Mayah tried again to get back to Sukren but someone was blocking her. “Let me go!” she wept. “Let me go!”

“Hide in the lift here. I’m going to get him. As soon as we’re inside, press L3 on the panel. Do you understand?”

Mayah stopped crying. She turned to look at the grim-faced Eenta soldier holding her back. He didn’t meet her eyes, his focus on the clamoring crowd in the nave. “I understand,” she whispered.

“Good.”

As soon as he let her go Mayah ran to the lift. She rubbed away the tears on her face. Oh please, oh please, she prayed, let Sukren be okay. Please please please please please…

She was inside. L3, what did the soldier mean by press L3? Was there an L and a number 3 somewhere? She looked at the panel – no, there was one button with L3 on it, yes, that had to be it, this row of buttons was the panel, then. All Mayah needed to do was wait, now, for him to bring Sukren to her. She touched the back of her hand to her forehead. It was hot, her cheeks were flushed, she didn’t like this, she didn’t like seeing the soldier hurt Sukren, she didn’t like it at all, not one bit. Again she rubbed away the tears in her eyes. I shouldn’t have told Sukren I wanted to see the Rajas, she thought unhappily. This is all my fault. I should have listened to him, now he’s getting hurt, and it’s because of me, it’s all because of me.

I have to press the L3 button. I have to do that right, at least. Oh, I wish the soldier would hurry, I wish he would hurry!

As if in response, Mayah saw the crowd break open. The Eenta soldier who had told her to hide in the lift was dragging a limping Sukren towards her. One of Sukren’s arms was slung around the soldier’s shoulders but the other arm was hanging loose. Mayah watched as they got closer and closer, but the crowd behind them was following, and getting closer too. She ducked behind the lift panel, her finger on L3. Hurry, hurry...

The protests rising up from the approaching crowd were getting louder and clearer. Mayah heard a princess say in Rajim, “You’re just going to take him?” Another voice called out, “He can be put in custody later, a violation of the purity laws requires immediate sanction!”

She peeked around the edge. They were almost there, they were almost at the lift…

But the crowd was starting to pull both Sukren and the soldier back. Mayah watched, aghast, as the soldier jerked his shirt-sleeve out of someone’s grasp. He stumbled, then met Mayah’s eyes. After a tiny hesitation, he thrust Sukren forward into the lift and turned to face alone the anger of the mob.

Mayah didn’t know what to do. The soldier had said to wait until he and Sukren were both inside! But was he coming? Could he even get away from the crowd?

“Press the button!” she heard Sukren cry out hoarsely. “What are you waiting for?”

Mayah jabbed her finger into L3 at once. Even before the doors were closed she ran to kneel by Sukren’s side. Blood was welling up out of a stab wound on his arm. “Take off my hood,” he rasped. Fingers trembling, Mayah did as she was told. “Press it over – stop the flow –”

Mayah positioned the hood with both hands then placed all her weight onto it. Sukren cried out through tight-clenched teeth. “Sorry!” she gasped. “I’m sorry!”

To her relief, Sukren actually breathed out a laugh. “The rock-god is paying me back for not taking Vek’s injury seriously.”

Mayah had no idea what Sukren was talking about. “What do I do?”

“Keep pressing.” He closed his eyes. He was still sprawled out onto the floor of the lift, his brown village suit almost matching the car’s dark beige. “Need water, some point.”

Mayah almost lifted her hand to point but remembered in time. At least ten minutes to stop a blood flow, that was what Sukren had taught her. “There are some water bulbs on that shelf-thing over there.”

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“They probably have a full bar,” Sukren mumbled.

Mayah didn’t know what that was. She didn’t know anything, it felt like, about the castle. She certainly hadn’t known how mean it would be. Mayah glanced at Sukren’s face. His eyes were open now, and she felt a sudden spike of anger.

“Don’t do that again,” she said, her voice trembling. “Don’t ever do that again.”

As she expected, Sukren tried to shift onto his side to reach out to her but he couldn't, not with her pinning his arm down with his hood. “I had to,” he said softly. “I had to get us out of there.”

Mayah shook her head, unable to wipe away the tears flowing down her face. “No,” she sobbed. “Don’t do it again.”

She didn’t know how to tell him what it had done to her to see him cower away from the soldier like that, arm bleeding, pain stamped into his face. Don’t make me watch you go through that again, she wanted to say, not while I’m too little to help, too little to do anything but cry because you’re hurting. Even right now what can I do? You need a grownup’s help and all you have is me.

“I wanted to help, but I couldn’t,” she managed to say.

Sukren’s touch was gentle on her knee. “You’re helping now. And you’ll help again.”

“How?”

“When the lift doors open, stand up straight as you can, in front of me, so nobody sees me. Until – wait. What level? What did you press?”

“The soldier told me to press L3.”

She watched the tension melt away from Sukren’s shoulders. “Good. The other soldier, his partner. She’s waiting there. For now can you – you can –”

Mayah nodded quickly so Sukren didn’t have to keep talking. He gave her a faint smile. “Water. Get me a water bulb, soon as –” He gestured at his injured arm.

“I will,” she said quickly. She could tell Sukren was getting tired. Adrenaline, that was the word, it was probably going away now. She could feel her shoulders start to slump. Sukren had never let her stay up so late before.

“Don’t fall asleep,” she heard Sukren say distantly. “Mayah. Wake up.”

“I’m awake,” she murmured. She yawned. “What about when we get to Zone 6, what do we do then?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

That sounded nice. Sukren always figured things out in the end. And then maybe Mayah could sleep. She was tired. So very tired.

***

I am not in a good spot, Sukren thought. His arm was still bleeding, and the blood loss was starting to make him dizzy. He glanced over at Mayah fighting off drowsiness; she gave him a big sleepy smile. What are my options? I have to get to a clinic. Without papers, though, a clinic might take me in under custody, but then they won’t let me go to Elanex. Maybe I should just keep going up and try to get to Elanex first? Can I last that long?

At least Sukren was in an elevator now. Thank the rock-god for both those soldiers. The man had gotten him out of the crowd, and the woman had been waiting, as planned, on the third level. She’d even taken the time to explain to Mayah the difference between lifts and elevators. Lifts go from level to level within a zone. Elevators go from zone to zone. There are always two elevator stops on each zone, one on Level 3 and another on Level 8. I’m going to escort you to an elevator now and stay with you until Level 8. I’m not authorized to leave Zone 3, so I have to get off at that point, but I’ll get you at least that far.

Sukren closed his eyes. For all he knew, neither he nor Mayah would even make it to Zone 6. From Zone 3, Level 8 to Zone 6, Level 9, where Elanex was, the elevator doors would open six times. If any of the soldiers guarding the bays looked in and saw that Sukren didn’t have an escort, he would be hauled off to a clinic whether he liked it or not. Then, when they found out he didn’t have papers, they would either arrest him and take him away right then and there, or if he were lucky, they would admit him and chain him to his bed until they decided what to do with him.

I’ll just keep going as far as I can. I’ll try to make it to Elanex. If I’m taken to a clinic first and detained there, well, there’s a chance that one of Lady Nari’s agents will be there too, someone who can send word to Lady Nari on our behalf.

Rock-god, if only Vek were here, I could trust him to get me help, even if I were arrested, I could trust him to see Mayah up to Elanex still!

“Mayah,” he murmured.

Her head snapped back up. “Yeah?”

“Can you – water?”

She nodded, letting go of his hood. Sukren felt blood trickle from his wound almost immediately. Damn it. Moving from the lift to the elevator had made the flow worse. He leaned over and pressed down with his other hand, shifting so that he was lying on his side. Don’t do it again, Mayah had asked, and Sukren didn’t want to. He’d known the soldiers would attack him at least to get him away from the princess he’d touched, but Sukren had expected a serf prod, not a spear.

Not that it was all that much fun to be struck by a serf prod, either.

“Here.”

Sukren pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head was swimming. He leaned against the elevator wall behind him. “One moment,” he whispered. Then Mayah bent down and started pushing down on his wound once more, freeing his hand to take the water bulb from her. Gratitude washed over him. He drank eagerly, his shaking fingers spilling half of it onto the front of his village suit, but Mayah got him another one, and another.

They didn’t speak after that. Sukren couldn’t muster the strength and Mayah kept falling asleep. He managed to prod her awake in time to stand in front of him when the elevator doors opened automatically; thank the rock-god and the late hour, nobody came in to join them. The soldiers didn’t even glance inside. A bit of luck at last. Now if it would only hold five more times…

He settled into a pattern. Wait until the elevator reached the next zone, then nudge Mayah awake, then fight sleep himself until the next zone, and then nudge Mayah awake again. Zone 4 passed, then Zone 5. Finally, hours later, the doors opened to Zone 6, Level 8.

By that point Sukren could barely move. Mayah was stumbling from sleeplessness. He felt so bad to force her awake, but he needed her to do one more thing for him. He gathered up everything he had. “Put your hood up. Give me your shoulder. Help me get to the lift.”

They didn’t even make it past the elevator bay. The soldiers outside acted as soon as they saw him. Sukren’s hood was ripped from his grasp; he tightened his jaw against the pain that shot through him as a cuff-like hand gripped him under his arm. Half-frog marched, half-dragged down the hall, Sukren was barely aware enough to keep track of Mayah. He blinked, and saw that Mayah was in front of him, being driven forward by a soldier’s hand on the back of her neck. Sukren didn’t like that. Instinctively he twisted against his captors. He was jerked backward for his trouble, and the soldier holding him by his injured arm jammed his thumb into the wound.

Pain overwhelmed him at once. Sukren tried to fight the onrushing blackness, but it was too late. The last thing he saw was Mayah’s frightened face as she turned her head to look at him, right before the soldier cuffed her back into formation.