“Will he fight with us?” Geth asked.
“It’s doubtful,” Galbraith said. “His passion is peace.”
“I have the same passion,” Geth admitted. “But sometimes peace needs a push.”
“His support would go far,” Anna said honestly.
“Then let’s move,” Geth said, excited to not only have a plan but also volunteers that were finally willing to fight. “We can gather others as we move.”
“There are women in the field around the mountains where Lars lives,” Anna added. “I know them well.”
“Good,” Geth said. “We’ll move immediately. We’ll travel through the fields as far as we can and then wait until night to go farther.”
“What about our caves here?” Galbraith asked. “We have a load of supplies down there, not to mention the scorch stone.”
“Leave it for now,” Geth said. “It’s not safe if there’s still gas in there. But trust me, one day soon you will be able to come and go anywhere in Zendor as freely as you please. Payt will not prevail.”
Anna and Galbraith looked at each other. Galbraith smiled and “yee-hawed.” Even Zale got into the action by looking at least two shades happier than miserable.
“We’re willing to follow,” Anna reiterated. “But we still have our doubts of succeeding.”
“That’s enough for now,” Geth said thankfully.
Anna gathered her troops, which consisted of just over a hundred women. The Stone Holders had twice as many. With everyone organized, they set off walking side by side in a tight line.
The war was on.
Chapter Ten
Smell of Smoke
You don’t want to make me angry. Not that I’ll go all nuts on you, but as a human you just really shouldn’t want to make another human angry. I don’t want to make you mad. In fact I’d prefer to make you happy or contented—or amazed by how I tell the story of Foo. Of course, if you are amazed, it’s most likely because Foo and all its inhabitants are awe worthy. Take Geth, for example. As a child, Geth rarely knew anger—actually, as an adult, Geth rarely knew anger. In fact, it was only with the addition of Ezra that Geth began to feel and experience true frustration. Now, with the effect of Payt’s voice on Geth’s soul, not only was he able to feel anger, but he was fantastic at displaying it. It wasn’t the kind of anger you might see from another driver after you cut him off. And it certainly wasn’t the same kind of anger I experienced after poisoning the wrong criminal. No, the anger Geth displayed was a complete hatred of all things evil or wrong. His desire to move fate in an aggressive and powerful direction bled into every cell he had. There’s no reason to fear Geth’s anger—unless, of course, you are an enemy of fate. In which case it’s probably best to just hide and hope things blow over.
Geth and Clover sat by the small stream at the edge of the field and waited impatiently for the sun to go down. Edgar was asleep, hidden in the field and snoring loud enough to give the stream a little competition in the sound-effects department. Their group had traveled far through the day, but now they were forced to wait until dark to move safely across a large, empty stretch of Zendor and into the mountains on the far side. There had been no sign of Payt, although the air smelled faintly of smoke from the fires with which he had been terrorizing other parts of Zendor. The day had been long and smoky.
Earlier in their travels, a number of the women had insisted on walking right next to Geth. Clover in turn had been constantly reminding Geth that Phoebe was in Foo at the moment being faithful to him.
“Again,” Geth insisted as he and Clover finally sat alone. “My heart belongs to Phoebe.”
“Right,” Clover said. “I just think it speaks volumes about your relationship that she doesn’t even know where you are right now.”
“Does Lilly know where you are?” Geth asked.
“Sycophants are different,” Clover said, waving. “She knows I’m alive.”
“But missing,” Geth reminded Clover.
“Sure, but in fairness to Lilly, I’m missing a lot,” Clover said. “Remember that week I got trapped in that hole?”
“Yeah,” Geth laughed. “You could have just let go of that stick and you would have been able to fit out.”
“It was a great stick,” Clover said defensively. “I didn’t want anyone else to come and take it. Besides, this isn’t about me. I’m just saying, it might be a nice gesture if you called Anna Phoebe instead. You know, to help keep Phoebe on your mind.”
“I think that would be insulting to Anna,” Geth pointed out.
“See,” Clover argued. “You take her side a lot. I’m going to be honest, that looks suspicious.”
“What did I ever talk about before I knew you?” Geth mused affectionately.
“The fact that you can’t remember shows pretty clearly that it probably wasn’t important,” Clover said.
Zale came over and took a seat next to Geth. Zale’s dark eyes seemed clearer and more attentive than before. He had also taken a swim in the stream so he was cleaner and looked considerably less like a vagrant.
“It feels so odd,” Zale said. “Not being locked up. Looking at the sky and knowing that I won’t sleep in a cell tonight.”
“Think how it will feel once all of Zendor can stand freely in the open.”
“I suppose,” Zale said. “It’s just easier for me to feel good about things if I know they will benefit me personally.”
“Wow,” Geth said with disgust. “You’re far from impressive.”
“And you’re on a fool’s errand,” Zale said candidly. “I know what Payt is capable of. He has no sympathy or mercy, and an almost endless supply of boors stands at his service. He will be impossible to defeat.”
“Noooo,” Clover said, digging at his own forehead. “Don’t get Geth started with that impossible stuff.”
Geth kept quiet and reached out to scratch Clover behind the ears.
“You know nothing of hope,” Zale said with sincerity. “Darkness ascends and hope is but a pill that prolongs the suffering.”
“Darkness doesn’t ascend,” Clover complained. “It settles.”
“You’ll feel differently once we finish this and return to Foo,” Geth told Zale, trying to keep his insides from becoming worked up over the stupid things his brother was saying. “Besides, I find hope in the darkest days, and focus in Foo.”
“I don’t even remember Foo,” Zale continued. “I can recall bits and pieces, but my mind is not my own. I do remember our parents. I know they were kind.”
“They were,” Geth agreed. “And they’d be disgusted with you.”
“I don’t care one way or the other,” Zale said. “Fate was their way. Nothing surprised them or concerned them. They felt no disappointment.”
“They knew sorrow,” Geth said. “But they knew that bitterness never lasts. Even the strongest flavors fade.”
Clover cringed.
“Why are you making that face?” Zale asked Clover. “Is that directed at me?”
“No,” Clover said, rolling his eyes at Zale. “Not everything’s about you. For your information, I was making that face because of what Geth said. Sometimes your brother gets a little wordy. ‘Even the strongest flavors fade.’”
“It’s true,” Geth pointed out.
“Maybe,” Clover replied. “But if I were your biographer I’d never include that line.”
“My biographer?” Geth asked.
“Yeah,” Clover said, looking at both lithens. “What? Don’t you ever pretend that a biographer is following you around taking notes?”
“No,” Geth said.
“That’s weird,” Clover said, shrugging. “Well, if I was your biographer I wouldn’t write down some of the things you say. Or maybe I’d write them down, but I’d change them a bit. I’d also make you have a mustache.”
&n
bsp; “I do remember sycophants,” Zale said, looking intently at Clover. “But I don’t remember them ever speaking their minds so freely.”
“Clover is an exception to almost every rule,” Geth informed him.
“Well, don’t you wish he would just hold his tongue on occasion?” Zale asked honestly.
Clover put his hands on his hips and tried to look offended. Geth patted the sycophant on the head.
“Not at all,” Geth replied. “I’d rather hear him speak than listen to some of the garbage you’re spewing.”
Zale looked at Geth and then turned to Clover. “You’re right; he does get a little wordy.”
“I can’t tell if I should feel happy or sad about being right,” Clover said, confused.
The sky began to dim as darkness finally began to work its way onto the landscape and settle over them.
Anna and a woman in a lab coat approached Geth. Anna wanted to know when they would be leaving and the woman in the lab coat wanted to know if Geth thought she was pretty.
“In about ten minutes,” Geth answered. “And as beautiful as my sister.”
The woman in the lab coat looked crestfallen. Apparently she didn’t want to be Geth’s sister. She sulked off while Anna stayed. Anna stared at Geth and then Zale. She tilted her head and blinked.
“I’ll be honest,” Anna said respectfully. “When Eve used to talk about the return of the lithens, I didn’t think it would look like this.”
Geth and Zale looked at each other.
“You are here, I can see that,” Anna said sincerely. “But we won’t succeed.”
“I’ve been trying to tell him that,” Zale pointed out.
“Why don’t you two just get married,” Clover said, bothered. “Then you can both spend your days talking about how nothing will work.”
“See,” Zale complained to Geth. “He really should hold his tongue.”
Clover disappeared as the night deepened. It was now Galbraith’s turn to walk up and join the conversation.
“We’re ready when you are,” Galbraith said, still trying to feel comfortable in the role of someone who was committed to the cause. “Actually, we’re not that ready, but we will follow you.”
Geth stood up. “Wake any who have been sleeping and make sure they all have their stones.”
The sun completely disappeared and black dripped around them like burnt molasses.
“See?” Clover argued. “That is not ascending.”
Clover reached into his void and pulled out his glow stone. Galbraith retrieved one from his pocket, and Anna pulled hers from a pouch on the side of her leg.
In the glow of the stones Geth nodded at Galbraith. Galbraith stuck two of his fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly. All throughout the fields of witt and crops, hundreds of glow stones blinked on. The sight of all those who were now willing to sort of fight for Zendor made Geth’s heart sort of glad.
“I bet this makes you happy,” Clover said quietly from Geth’s left shoulder. “I mean, all these people willing to rough up Payt.”
“It makes me happy to know that it won’t just be you and me,” Geth said back.
“Of course, we could take him ourselves,” Clover bragged.
“Of course,” Geth agreed.
“It’s pretty gracious of us to share the fight,” Clover said.
“Extremely,” Geth replied.
Clover hopped off of Geth and went to wake up Edgar. The Tangle woke easily and joined the band of glowing stones and nervous hearts. They had a long night of walking ahead of them.
Chapter Eleven
Caught Off Guard
I don’t trust numbers. To me math has always been sneaky and something to be cautiously suspicious of. Two plus two equals four? Who really knows for sure? When I received two mysterious gifts in the mail they caused five very real problems. Where’s the logic in that? And how do you explain the fact that when I left the train station transporting six spies who had committed twelve international violations, traveling eighty miles an hour for two days, I ended up with one very severe headache and the remainder of a once-complete map?
It just doesn’t add up.
To get to the far corner of Zendor, it was necessary to leave the main road and cut diagonally across the landscape. As the hundreds of Stone Holders and women marched through the dark night, the glowing stones in their palms made them look like a parade of fireflies. The land they were crossing now was dusty and dry. It was also unsteady and constantly gurgling and groaning, making the dark hike even more uneasy.
Geth led the procession, with Galbraith and Anna a few paces behind. Clover was riding on Geth’s head due to the fact that Edgar smelled sort of funny and was really jarring when he walked. Edgar was near the middle of the pack, directly behind Zale.
“This part’s kinda boring,” Clover sighed atop Geth’s head.
“Sorry,” Geth joked. “Maybe we’ll get attacked or fall into some new hole soon.”
“Promise?” Clover replied, only half joking. “My arm’s getting tired from holding this glow stone.”
“I’ll make sure to tell Lilly about that,” Geth said.
“Actually,” Clover corrected, “I could hold this stone all night.”
“All right,” Geth replied. “I’ll tell Lilly that instead.”
Clover sighed.
“Are you going to be okay?” Geth asked, half serious.
“Probably not,” Clover admitted. “And I wanna go on record as saying that we should have never come here.”
“We didn’t come here,” Geth reminded Clover. “We were captured.”
“And now we’re fighting to get back to Foo?” Clover asked hopefully.
“What we’re doing is the right thing,” Geth said kindly. “Where we end up because of it shouldn’t be our concern.”
“Maybe it’s just the fact that you and I have been spending a lot of time together lately,” Clover observed. “Or maybe it’s because I’m tired. Either way, the things you are saying are kinda making me feel sick.”
“It’s probably because you’re tired,” Geth said.
“Right,” Clover agreed.
The dry, sandy ground they were walking on became partly rocky. Soon the sand was a thing of the past and all they could see beneath them was stone. Galbraith caught up to Geth.
“We Stone Holders are getting tired,” he said. “Maybe we could rest?”
“We’ll find a place before the light,” Geth said. “We have at least three more hours of black and I want to get as far as we can under the cover of this night.”
“To be honest with you,” Galbraith began, “this is more work than we were prepared for.”
Geth didn’t know if he should laugh or chastise.
“We would have been safe underground,” Galbraith continued. “Had you and your menagerie of animals not fallen in on us, we’d be protected and rested in our caves.”
“This is not the time to lose the vision,” Geth said with authority. “We’re doing this for you. Have you already forgotten what almost happened when you were last sleeping?”
“Sorta,” Galbraith said. “A number of us are talking about how this should just be your fight.”
It was dark, but even in the soft light of the glowing stones one could see the flush of red growing up Geth’s neck.
“I can’t make you want this,” Geth said, completely bothered by the shifting commitment. “If you bow out, then we’ll carry on without you.”
“That seems like a good solution,” Galbraith said. “You can do it. Actually . . . we don’t believe that you can.”
Geth stopped and spun around to look Galbraith directly in the eyes. The line of followers behind them came to a sudden halt as hundreds of them bumped into one another.
“Listen,” Geth said strong
ly, “you’re a dream. You didn’t even exist before you were dreamt into Zendor, but now you do. I’ve seen you have fear and even hope. I know you want more and you probably don’t know how to go about getting it. Well, I’m going to show you. I’m going to make it clear that the life you now live is nothing but the opening to a real existence.”
Galbraith just stared at Geth.
“Maybe you should use more cowboy words,” Clover suggested.
“You know what I mean, don’t you?” Geth asked Galbraith.
“We don’t know how to be anything but useless,” Galbraith said honestly. “We have farmed and kept alive, but this is not what we know.”
“Do you know how to walk?” Geth asked.
“Of course,” Galbraith said. “I’ve been doing that since I got here.”
“Perfect,” Geth said. “All I need from you is to keep walking.”
Galbraith stared at Geth’s blue eyes. After a few moments of heavy silence, he spoke.
“We can walk,” he said.
Geth turned around and began moving forward again. It took a few moments, but Galbraith and all the entire procession finally followed after him.
“Eventually they’re going to have to do more than walk,” Clover whispered to Geth.
“I know,” Geth whispered back. “Hopefully by then I’ll have tricked them into fighting.”
“You lithens are a sneaky bunch,” Clover said. “You’re like those aggressive lady men in Reality.”
“Lady men?” Geth asked, confused.
“You know, the ones with the big noses and shoes.”
“You mean clowns?” Geth asked.
Clover shivered and disappeared.
The procession continued to move at a good clip. The rocky ground around them began to rise up, and soon they were walking through a canyon with polished granite walls that were higher than the glow stones could light up. Geth slowed down a bit so that Galbraith could catch up.
“Where are we?” Geth asked the cowboy.
“This here’s the granite passage,” Galbraith answered. “Say something loud.”