Chapter 70:

Later that night, Sukren let himself think about Lady Nari.

He and Rajani were standing by the castra-dome’s edge, Rajani a little closer to the az hedges than he. “I’ve built up a bit of a tolerance,” she explained. “All of us who grew up in the Cursed urb have.” They watched through the dome’s gaps the sheets of rain hitting the broad leaves; a few drops got through the canopy layer and trickled down the red-limestone stems to pool onto the ground.

“How fast would the toxin kill me?” Sukren asked.

He saw Rajani give him a sidelong glance. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t recommend testing it. Fast or slow, it’ll definitely kill you.”

“It’s so strange,” Sukren whispered. He gestured at the castra-dome’s hexagonal gaps. “These gaps at the base, they’re big enough that even I could stoop down and crawl through them and get out. There’s nothing about the structure of the castra-dome itself that traps us inside it. And yet we still can’t leave.”

“Some do,” Rajani said quietly. Sukren could tell she had picked up on his contemplative mood. She was continuing to look out at the rain dripping through the canopy layer, her hands clasped behind her back. “Some Gather’s Children, who know nobody’s coming to get them out, they leave the castra-dome and let the az hedges kill them. I saw someone do it. Before I knew that Papai would do the run for me, I… I thought about doing it myself.”

Rajani had told him the story. “How old were you again?”

“Fifteen.”

Fifteen years old. What a lifetime ago!

“What about you?” Rajani asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What were you doing when you were fifteen?”

All at once images came to his mind: flooded rice meres, mud grandmother huts, blue greenhouse village walls, and Mayah in his arms furiously downing bottle after bottle. How exhilarated he had been! Everything had changed that year. Fifteen was the year he’d been rescued from his doctor-priest, rescued by Lady Nari…

“Sukren? Are you okay?”

How kind she was. How lovely. How much like Lady Nari had been that night she’d asked Sukren if he wanted to be free.

He’d never seen that side of her again. When he’d sought it, he’d been slapped down. Over time Sukren had heard from others that Lady Nari was not like everyone else, that she had to – and did, quite successfully when she felt like it – mimic feelings that others felt naturally. Oh, Sarana, Sukren hadn’t been able to believe it, had he? He’d wanted so badly for it not to be so.

Behind him Sukren could hear the other castra-dome dwellers starting to quiet down as they got ready to sleep. “When I was fifteen,” he whispered, “I was rescued from a bad situation by my patron lady, my lead hunter, you’d call her. But I ran away from her. That’s why I’m here now.”

“Why’d you leave her?”

Sukren barely heard Rajani’s question. His mind and heart were all on Lady Nari. It was for her sake that he’d kept Mayah, whom he loved most of all out of the entire bio-dome, from learning about her true identity as the Promised Daughter. It was for her sake that he’d accepted Mayah’s scorn and distrust. Oh, Sarana, of course it wasn’t fear that motivated Sukren. It was love – for Lady Nari. “I think she did – I think she does care about me. I know she does. They’re wrong, the ones who say she only cares about the Uprising. But it’s not – it’s not enough.”

He was mumbling, he knew. He doubted Rajani understood half of what he was saying. But then she gripped his arm with an intensity that caught his attention. He turned to her. She looked around before beckoning him closer, then closer again; Sukren ducked his head so that his ear was right by her mouth.

“I’m sorry, I need to tell you something, it’s what I was going to tell you earlier,” she whispered. “The hunters are here to kill all the castra-dome dwellers.”

All thoughts of Lady Nari fled his mind. “What?” he breathed. “When?”

“I don’t know. I’m not too worried, because of the vision I saw. The Cursed urb will be restored. But I thought you should know.”

“We need to tell –”

All of a sudden Rajani’s fingers were digging into his arm. It hurt! Sukren tried to pull away but she grabbed him with her other hand. “No.”

“But –”

“If the hunters find out that the overbelters know the plan, they’ll kill us immediately. We have to wait. I’ve got friends outside the castra-dome who are putting a proposal through to have everyone in the castra-dome tried properly. Only those who are guilty of rioting will be put back in here. So we’ll be out very soon.”

Rajani’s face was shining. She clearly believed what she was saying, she believed it with every pore of her being. For a moment Sukren actually felt swayed by her conviction. Could it be true that everything was going to be okay? That the Cursed urb – how had Rajani put it – would be restored?

And Sukren along with it?

He was frightened by the hope that suddenly flooded through him. Why’d you leave her? Rajani had asked. Hadn’t it been for Mayah’s sake? Hadn’t it been so that he and Mayah might learn to know each other again, like in the village? The rhythms of the Cursed urb were simple too. Could it be that he and Mayah might still have a chance to return to such a life?

Sukren immediately countered himself with an admonishment to not be ridiculous. Vision, what vision? You’re about to starve to death inside a Cursed prison, that’s what’s in front of you. And if by some miracle you do get released, it’s the prophecy you’re to follow, nothing else. You brought Mayah over the shelterbelt. Next is the Lake Tower. Focus on that. Focus on why you’re here. Focus on Earth.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Yes, that was right. Earth was the goal. That was the real reason he’d brought Mayah over the shelterbelt. True, she hadn’t shown any inclination to travel any further – legend always placed the Lake Tower outside the bio-dome – but Sukren didn’t mind that. He didn’t need her to go there yet. Not quite yet. Not without him, at any rate.

***

It was when Mayah found the map that she made her decision. She looked out across the meal bench the morning after Rajani was arrested and addressed Lainla. “I think I should go. I’m a burden to you. I’ve been a burden to you this entire time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The open meeting is later today, isn’t it? They’re voting on whether or not to pass Bharan’s proposal, right?”

“Yes, and I need to talk to someone about that, I’m sorry, Mayah, but I have to go –”

“Isn’t it better for you if I’m gone?” Mayah burst out. “Your people are turning against the Jinkari because they see me with your Table every day. If I’m gone, they won’t be constantly reminded of how Rajani picked the overbelters over the Cursed.”

The look on Lainla’s face was thoughtful. “You don’t say much, but you listen to everything that’s said, don’t you?”

“I guess,” Mayah mumbled. She felt nervous. Was Lainla trying to make some sort of point? Probably not, that wasn’t like Lainla, but still, Mayah didn’t want to hope for the best.

“So,” Lainla continued. “You want to go back inside the shelterbelt? But what about Sukren?”

Unable to shake off her anxiety, Mayah found herself squirming in her seat. “Sukren would want me to do what’s best for me.”

“What? He’d want you to abandon him in the castra-dome?”

“I don’t want to go back inside the shelterbelt,” Mayah said quickly. “I want to leave the bio-dome. There’s something… there’s something out there that I think will help me. And help Sukren.”

Mayah was relieved that Lainla looked more surprised than suspicious. “You want to leave the bio-dome?”

“Yes.”

“I…”

“If I’m gone during the vote, won’t it help you?” Mayah asked, trying to push what she saw as her strongest argument.

“Yes, but you can stay in the lodge during the vote, you don’t have to leave the bio-dome for that. I mean, I don’t like to tell people what to do, but you’re not a hunter, you’re not even a citizen, you’ve never left the dome before, you’re young, and what are you even looking for out there?”

Mayah wasn’t sure if she should lie or not. On the one hand, she felt bad to be dishonest. On the other hand, she was afraid she wouldn’t get what she wanted if she told Lainla the truth.

“There’s something out there that might tell me why I’m here,” Mayah finally said.

Lainla looked skeptical. “I’ve been out there. There’s nothing but mammoles and volcanoes.”

“No, I’m talking about the other side of the southern mountains. Here, I’ll show you. It’s in this map I found in the book I’ve been reading.” Mayah tugged on the folded pages of the map, pulling them open into a single sheet nearly quadruple the size of the book. First, she touched the circle – the shelterbelt – and the ellipse enclosing it – the bio-dome’s edge. She paused for a moment to marvel at how small they were. The bio-dome and everything in it was a tiny eye in a vast face, the face of Chudami. Peaks and rivers and a forest filled in the surrounding land, and Mayah even thought that was a sea there, along the land’s end.

Mayah knew what a sea was, of course. According to ancient lore, their ancestors’ starship had almost crashed into the sea before landing in the valley, the valley where they’d built the bio-dome. That was how close the valley was to the sea. But Mayah had never before realized how large it might be. The map made the bio-dome’s valley near the sea look as small as a sapling tree on the shore of the holy lake!

It was the second body of water on the map, however, that Mayah wanted Lainla to see. Her fingers traced a path alongside the az hedge fields south of the bio-dome, then up a draw through the southern mountains, then down a cliff wall to land with a splash inside a water-filled gorge. Inside the gorge someone had drawn an X. Next to the X were the Cursed symbols that had so puzzled Mayah: Lake Tower.

“I think this book is a journal,” Mayah continued. “I think whoever wrote it made the journey over the southern mountains and found something there that’ll help me.”

Lainla glanced at the map in Mayah’s hands. “Look, Mayah, I’m sorry, but I don’t have time –”

“Please,” Mayah whispered. “Just give me the gear, and I’ll be out of your way.”

“Mayah…”

“I know I don’t deserve it. I know you’ve done everything for me for no reason. That’s why I’ve tried not to ask you for anything. That’s why I won’t ask you for anything ever again. But I have to go. I have to.”

Lainla hesitated. “Rajani wouldn’t want you to go.”

“Rajani isn’t the lead hunter of the Jinkari anymore,” Mayah replied. “You are.”

Lainla blinked. Then she sighed. “Come with me.”

Holding her breath, Mayah followed Lainla to the Jinkari smokehouse. When Lainla pulled out a breathflower mask and a pre-packed knapsack, Mayah threw her arms around her. “Thank you, oh, thank you, thank you!”

A wry smile touched Lainla’s lips. “Remember, this breathflower mask will only last you two weeks. If you don’t make it back to the dome by then, you’ll die of carbon dioxide poisoning.”

“Two weeks,” Mayah echoed. “I’ll remember.”

“There’s a skygold-lined tent inside this pack, along with some food and my hauberk. Tuck the tent against a boulder for more protection. Put the hauberk on before you leave the dome.”

“Thank you, thank you!”

The wry smile was still on Lainla’s lips. “You might not thank me later. I don’t know if this is right, letting you go like this, I don’t know if I’m doing it for the gods, or for you, or for Bharan’s proposal, but… well, we’ll see. And now, I really have to go.”

After thanking Lainla one last time, Mayah grabbed everything she needed, then made her way towards the west forfend. She’d overheard Soti describing the rope bridge to one of the Jinkari adults; soon enough Mayah was crossing it, step by step, hands clenched tight around the guardrail ropes.

She paused once she reached the mountainside scaffold on the other side. The hunter standing guard gave her a puzzled look but didn’t say anything as she peered over the crest and looked down the castra-dome chute. Was that Sukren standing there, next to Rajani? Yes, yes, it was.

Painful hope spiked through Mayah’s heart. Trembling, barely breathing, she touched her fingers under her glasses to her closed eyelids, first the left, then the right. Then, after making sure her breathflower mask was on tight, and that her eyes were fixed on the ground, she began walking across the spine of the western mountains, the bio-dome and its valley to her left, the sun on her shoulder to her right.

By nightfall Mayah reached the ridge where the western and southern mountains met. She set up her tent and prepared to sleep, all the while still refusing to look up.