Chapter Twenty-One

The Road to Eden

Ariea stepped into the sunlight. The sky was laced in bands of white cloud. She craned her neck to the view, brimming with a wide smile. Lady roamed back into Merry’s arms with her gawky grin, like they had been apart weeks.

It was over.

Kespin Merr passed Erobo’s verdict to Ishida who ordered that they were compensated for the ordeal. The six of them were to be clothed and fed, each given a room at the Adler Inn indefinitely. They were free to follow their plans. Ariea stared from the edge of the forest and watched over the town to a boat coming into dock beneath them. Her eyes chased the shoreline north, to where the water blended with the land in pale fog. It was their passage to Arwa County, beyond the mountains and Winter’s jurisdiction. Just like they said.

She looked at them all, hustling through the streets, bodies bobbing between bodies like pebbles in the ocean. It reminded her of a nightmare seen in more than her mind.

Her thoughts betrayed her to the figments of herself Erobo had shown. The most awful place. A mire of blackness as wide as all of space, herself lost in some nondescript corner. The solitude imposed itself upon her like a terrible weight that crushed the air from her lungs, the strength from her bones.

Her throat turned dry and tendrils of panic strangled her. The noise of the street became a wailing. Louder and louder. She felt the world change.

Merry said something.

‘Ariea.’

Her breathing steadied. She saw light again.

‘You okay?’

What good was lying anyway? ‘It was so real. I can’t forget that.’

Nodding, Merry placed an arm across her. The nod meant everything; it meant Ariea wasn’t alone. How she felt wasn’t something she could explain with all the words in the world. But Merry understood.

‘You’re safe now. Have you talked about it with Agloff? You two seem a bit chirpier.’ She smiled teasingly.

Ariea brushed her head from side to side. ‘I don’t want him to worry about me.’

‘Girl, you’re owed it after the stuff he’s pulled on you! Maybe it’ll help you understand each other. If you already know each other’s worst fear, you can’t exactly go deeper than that.’

Ariea huffed. ‘I’m still figuring it out. I don’t exactly want him to think I’ve forgiven him over my dad because I haven’t.’ She then turned to Merry. ‘You’re always so nice. How d’you do it?’

Merry laughed cutely, cheeks ripened. ‘Pays to be cynical. But not to be angry. Because the world can be a pretty place most of the time.’

‘Nice way of looking at things.’

‘It’s hard.’ But she said it with a wide smile.

They followed the curves of the land down the hillside as one. For the first time, Ariea walked Wishbone a free woman. No oppressive stares from onlookers and the rope burns round her wrists were fading into purplish bruises.

Kespin Merr led them to the base of the hill and a boxy building marked ‘Adler’. Ariea made to the door, but not before an arm stepped across her, and the oak clapped shut on its hinges.

They jerked back and Ariea saw that they were the centre of a rabble. Men in grey cloaks surrounded them in waves of fabric and funny helmets. Ten of them, or more. Their chests wore a sign Ariea knew too well.

‘A good morning to you.’ Taret Stone of Winter stepped through the veil of cloth with manic delight, furnished into slick uniform. He took a gloved hand to Agloff’s cheeks, clasping them between his raised fingertips. He stepped forwards, holding the boy to the wall of the inn.

Ariea yelled, stepped against him but before she could move to strike, a leg swatted out at hers. Her knee gave way beneath her. ‘Don’t touch him!’ she begged, padding rouged lips by the back of her hand.

‘What do you want?’ Agloff mumbled through Stone’s fingers. His face looked damaged.

The Ambassador relented and degloved his hands, pocketing them while his grey followers closed the circle around them.

‘Agloff Ashborne.’ Stone announced their names to the passing trade. ‘Ariea Finland. Meredith Cutter. Memphis Teller. Oxford Blue.’ He crouched to Lady and dragged her by the wrist from her guardians. ‘Lady.’

He opened his mouth to continue before a babble bounced down the street. A heady voice prodded the passers to their business. ‘Move. Make way. Come on. Don’t be so nosey. Stone!’ it snapped eventually. ‘The hell is this?’

Ariea recognised him from Riddis’ chambers. He was bathed in a verdant robe, and a white beard spilled down his breast.

‘Tariq,’ Stone said warningly.

‘Why are you badgering prisoners? Are they not to be trialled?’

Kespin spoke up. ‘They have been, Councillor. Tried and acquitted.’

‘Then why, dear Ambassador, are you bumblingly badgering them like a beggar in broad daylight? Erobo is never wrong, is he?’

Stone’s breath shook. ‘I have reasons to believe the beast is protecting them. They are who I believe, Councillor. I know you think little of me, but I am telling the truth.’

‘I don’t think little of you. But you are overzealous. If Erobo acquitted them, you are overstepping your bounds, boy. What are your reasons?’

Stone smiled. ‘Ade!’ The sea of cloaks parted and Ariea saw behind them the haggard figure of Ade Stone, a ghostly puppet suspended in his wheelchair. The sunlight struck him whiter than cloud. Ariea was unsure if it was his illness that did that, or because his uncle had hidden him away from the sun for so long.

‘My nephew,’ Stone said proudly. But that pride was fleeting, Ariea was sure. Ade was his shame. ‘My nephew shared his home with them last night, as they awaited trial. He heard Miss Finland and Master Ashborne talking. They used their names. Their real names.’

‘Preposterous,’ blustered Tariq.

‘I heard it with my own ears, Councillor,’ whispered Ade. He stared at Ariea with dead eyes. She had felt men look at her that same way down Backwater’s streets. Men in the factory. It was a bitter look. A jealous look. ‘She said, “Agloff Ashborne, I am exactly what you deserve”, to him.’

‘You see,’ Stone said. ‘I would take them to Eden. They would be no trouble then, out of your hands.’ He forced a smile.

Tariq chewed on his words. ‘If what you say is true, Erobo had his reasons to keep that from us.’

‘You always did think small.’

‘Riddis will see that this is resolved.’

Stone growled. His patience waned. ‘I’m taking them. To Eden.’

Ariea looked down, to see a hand in her own. Agloff looked at her, dipped his head uphill, whispered, ‘We run?’

She nodded so faintly she wasn’t sure he understood. ‘Yeah,’ she breathed, then mouthed the words to Merry, to Memphis, to Oxford and Lady, as Tariq and Stone exchanged jabs and veiled threats. Each returned a knowing look, a sudden tension in their bodies, a readiness. Ariea felt adrenaline well inside her, heat beat down her spine.

‘NOW!’

Agloff burst forwards, a guard tipped sideways. He burst into the melee, following the angle of the street upwards. Ariea paled into the crowd after him. She weaved seemingly stationary bodies. Oxford yelled something. Merry and Memphis told her to go, that they were behind.

Stone’s cries rang down the street like bells. Don’t look back, she yelled in her head. Don’t look back. They zipped over puddles, below the washing lines of dazed houses. Up to the where the buildings thinned at the edge of the gradient. She thought she heard a guard shout something behind.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Don’t think. Breathe. Keep breathing.

If they just got the forest, we’re safe. Erobo could protect us. Right?

Thoughts whirled in breathless circles as she chased Agloff’s back. That was all her eyes needed. All the reassurance she needed. A stitch punctured her side like a body blow. Her legs became heavy.

‘ASHBORNE!’ Stone’s voice carried the stares of the street. ‘STOP THEM!’

Her stare scattered on the passers-by. Don’t listen to him, she thought at them. As if to will their inaction.

‘STOP THEM!’

Ariea’s head became light and absent of thoughts. The moment was lost from her and she ducked round a lamppost and out into a wide crossroads. But Agloff had already vanished, darted one way or another. The pelt of his steps receded, too scarce to follow, and Ariea felt the dark place impose on her shoulders once more. Her breath came short.

Two grey cloaks closed behind. She darted right, to where the city wall came into view. Another pair of cloaks swept in front of her, spread the width of the cobbles between them.

Bodies ensnared her. A hand reached across her mouth, and Ariea choked on some awful smell. She could not resist. The drug arrested all her strength. Was it a sedative? Or poison?

Her mind turned to nonsense, until only the basest, most desperate panic remained. Feeling without thought. She was raised by strong arms towards the sunlight as it kissed her eyelids. Then the weight of that dark and terrible place crushed all hope from within her, and she presumed that was her final feeling in this world.

*

Agloff reached the walls of Wishbone and pushed into the trees. Whatever horrors Erobo might conjure were stifled below his senses. He was too busy to care. The air snapped, and the trail of a bullet whizzed past him. His ears thrummed. Agloff threw a look over his shoulder, but the shooter was too far back to see.

All the air in the world couldn’t satisfy him. His throat clutched insatiably as his body seized in the cold. Ahead, the land fell into a gully. Agloff dropped to his knees. The wound in his shoulder throbbed.

I just have to get here.

Agloff pulled his arms over the ledge and his body tumbled into a clutch of leaves from autumn-past in a splutter of wheezes. He wiped a hand up the seam of his jacket, brushing away the dirt, then shuffled into the shadow of the ledge over him, guarded by a well of trees. He looked along the ravine. The rock opened into a small cave that dipped under the forest. He moved achingly into its embrace.

Agloff stared out into the forest, paralysed by cold and breathlessness. He begged someone might follow.

He heard a tangle of footsteps overhead and shuffled back into guarded shadow. Legs fell into view down the angle of the ledge and Oxford Blue squatted to stare at Agloff through the darkness. More tired steps followed; Memphis dropped into view, then Lady and Merry.

He stared hard at them, still clutching his knees.

‘Where’s Ariea?’ he said, shaking.

Oxford peered over the cave. ‘Agloff, I—’

‘No, where is Ariea? She was behind me, right. She was right behind me.’

Words of reassurance passed over Agloff as he rocked on his haunches. Seconds as long as years rippled by and Agloff’s eyes clung to the tunnel of light in the centre of his vision, waiting for her to tumble into view next. He counted the moments.

But she never did.

He couldn’t wait.

He lurched from his seat, burst towards sunlight, but Oxford threw an arm out and Agloff was knocked to the floor. Oxford leaned across him and pinned Agloff still by his wrists. He couldn’t think to struggle.

‘Ariea,’ he whispered, begged.

Oxford growled. ‘She’s gone. Okay. If she’s not here, she’s gone. Rest of us stick together. We wait it out ‘till night.’

‘You don’t get to decide that! She is everything.’ He looked at Merry and Memphis beggingly.

Oxford scoffed and his eyes rolled back into their sockets. ‘Too late.’

‘I could scream,’ Agloff whispered. ‘They’d hear. Could be right above us.’

‘You scream, and I’ll save Jask the trouble of killing you myself.’

The thought of capture was more assuring than loneliness, thought Agloff. Because even with them, he was lonely. He supposed this was what he deserved. He had held Eden above her head like some taunt for so long, and now she was gone because he had refused to take his chance.

He tried to scream, but only hoarse silence took its place. Still, Oxford held him as the tracks of tears beat down his wounded cheeks.

At last, Oxford relented and Agloff perched himself on an upturned rock. He stared at the shapes the shadows made in the narrowing sun as it sank through the treeline. Every now and then, they heard the latent cries of grey cloaks searching the forest.

For so brief a moment, Agloff thought he’d stumbled upon something good, where the world might allow him a happy ending.

Eron was right. Agloff needed to be free from the web he had spun himself. Time had made a fool of his dreams. And now, he saw the price of them.

Eron was right. Agloff just needed Ariea. Over and over, in his head, he apologised to her, even though he knew it did no good now. Sorry for all his indecision and indifference. The journey to Wilder. All the time wasted. Now he saw what everyone else had seen all along. And he knew it was his fault. He wept silently against the rocks. Irrepressibly, his mind cut deeper, turned the blade through his wounds. What-ifs and would-have-beens whirled in Agloff’s head like passing clouds.

Eron was right and Agloff knew he could never be wrong, because Eron was only ever Agloff himself. But now, he had nothing, and everything to gain. He had tried hiding and skulking from shadow-to-shadow to avert Winter’s gaze. He hadn’t tried it for long, but he had tried it enough. Why limp on only to the next day but no further, as Tails had. It was no way to live a life.

Agloff knew what he had to do. He tread the warpath now. It was obvious after all. He was never on the road to Eden for Eron. He was going to find Ariea Finland, then he was going to kill Malvo Jask.

The low crunch of leaves pounded above them and Agloff’s mind snapped to the present moment. He shuffled backwards into an alcove of stone and Merry and Memphis followed. Oxford stood, stooped below the angle of the opening, and listened.

‘Get back you idiot!’ said Memphis.

‘What if it’s them?’ Merry said. ‘Lady, come close.’ She drew the girl in, cupped hands over her ears.

They listened.

‘What if it’s not?’ said a vaguely familiar voice. There was a thud as boots hit the foot of the ravine and Kira Stone sheathed a dagger. She looked at them a long time, but no one said anything. She was in the same leather garments, had the same flattened ponytail as before.

Oxford raised a fist. There was a grunt and a second later, his shoulder was pegged between Kira’s arms, folded back on itself. ‘Shut up and listen, friend,’ she said, spreading her fingertips around his lips.

‘Your brother,’ Memphis then said accusingly. Agloff saw again the rage he had worn broodingly at March Town, polishing his shotgun at the bar.

Kira hesitated.

‘I saw what he did. Believe me in it was not my intention.’ She did not elaborate, stood with a wiry look and watched them.

Memphis growled. ‘Your intention?’

‘It’s my fault you’re here. Ade asked to see uncle when you left. I didn’t ask. I didn’t know. Uncle never goes to visit Ade, you see. He tolerates him, barely. He acknowledges him as a courtesy. Nothing more. So, when Ade asks to see him, I don’t question it. I fetch him.’

‘Why come here?’ Memphis said. Perhaps he thought better than to let Oxford ask the questions. At last, Kira’s grip on Oxford slackened, and he spluttered.

Merry spoke. ‘Be polite, Memph, she’s obviously not here to take us back.’ She looked at Kira. ‘Are you?’

Kira laughed. ‘No. You’re lucky you make a mess, friends. Followed your tracks all the way from the walls. But you’re luckier that pilgrims couldn’t track a lighthouse from shore.’

Coughing, Oxford rubbed his throat. ‘Why?’ he said. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you here?’

Sighing again, Kira sat, ‘Winter took my brother from me. Cast us both out and I had to look after him, nurse him. While they gave him nothing but pills. And seeing as I still get paid for you… Well, I’d feel a lot better about myself if you got out after what happened to the girl.’ Her guarded manner slackened and Agloff saw a frailty in her. He sensed it was as close to an apology for their capture as they would get.

Agloff leaned forward. ‘You know what happened to Ariea?’

‘They would’ve taken her Eden. They take everyone Eden. They want you, right?’ She poked Agloff and he nodded. ‘I’ll make it simple for you. Eden’s the hook, she’s now the bait.’

Oxford looked down. ‘And we’re the fish.’

‘That’s where we need to go!’ Agloff exclaimed.

The others sat quietly. None came to his support. But none argued.

Kira locked eyes with Agloff. ‘I ain’t gonna try and stop you, friend, but this girl- she worth that?’

He nodded, and she seemed to take him at that.

‘I know a way. I know people who can get you close enough alive, that you stand a chance when you get in.’

Merry leaned forwards. ‘How?’

‘People don’t just go to Eden,’ Oxford said.

‘But people can.’ They all reclined where they sat, back into the walls of the cave, and their eyes narrowed on Kira. ‘Winter isn’t what you think it is. There’s a thing people don’t understand about Eden, mostly because the people who wanna take it down are the ones who haven’t been.’

Agloff raised an eyebrow. ‘Then what is it?’

‘Imagine a spider. Say you don’t like spiders so when you see one, you stay away. It can’t hurt you, but you’ve been brought up to believe it’s dangerous. Winter’s the same. They’ve ruled so long people have just forgotten it could be different.’

Memphis’s features tightened. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘I do.’ Agloff looked up. He saw Kira’s riddle. ‘Winter rules through fear. But fear alone. Just like the spider keeps you away, even if it can’t hurt you.’

Oxford scoffed. ‘Winter can definitely hurt us.’

At that, Kira hummed. ‘But not enough to keep you out. For so long now, Eden has relied on fear. They are undermanned. Jask relies on the children to keep the city running. They outnumber the pilgrims there twenty-to-one, or more! Getting in isn’t the problem.’ She looked at Oxford. ‘There’s a railway line, disused, runs all the way into the city. I work with some people who can escort you.’ She gestured to an insignia emblazoned on her arm; it was some kind of big cat, a leopard perhaps.

‘What’s that?’ asked Agloff.

‘All over the Colony, there’s a group of us who fight every day to cut down Winter’s flag. To liberate the Blocks.’

Merry nodded. ‘We saw one, abandoned though.’

‘Then you know why I’m helping you. I didn’t think who you were before but now… Since Ade got ill, I’ve seen what Winter does to people. No more of that.’

Puffing his cheeks, Oxford glanced at Kira. His face was wired with scepticism. ‘Your people, who are they?’

‘We work for a woman called Abba Yondo, the Spider.’ She gestured her badge. ‘I’m the Lynx. We are everywhere, anyone wronged by Jask. We fight for the kids. So they can have a childhood. Not work in factories twelve hours a day or have to hold a gun or, Cerberus above, get taken to the Red Cathedral, Winter’s cradle.’ Horror plagued her face, but each thought better than to ask.

‘So, where are you taking us?’ Oxford asked.

Kira stared at Agloff. ‘If this is what you want, and what you believe…’

Agloff nodded bravely. Was this not his last chance- his only chance- to make it right.

‘Then I’ll take you to see the Boar.’ With a clap of her hands, she roused them like cattle, and herded her subjects from the cave, into the twilight forest. ‘I heard some grey cloaks say they were sending out a search party tonight. We best move.’