Kael stood and walked over to her, his eyes dark and hard again. "You're a Laelite. A puppet. Just doing what you're told. You contribute nothing to the Division, yet you take from us. So excuse me for not being pleased that you're here." He poked his finger hard into her shoulder on the word 'nothing' and when she walked away the feeling of his finger remained, echoing his words.
I’m not a puppet. She bit the inside of her lip. I had no idea Conley existed until today. How could I contribute to a community I knew nothing about? But her heart burned with something deeper. Something worse. Her whole life she'd been told nothing existed outside of Lael except the Borderless, which supposedly stretched on forever. But she'd been lied to.
Frustration and anger clung to her like the soot on her clothing, but she had nothing to spend it on. Who could she blame for the lie she'd been living?
The flutter in her stomach grew stronger. She leaned into it and gripped it with her heart. She was part of something bigger than Lael and the Borderless. Something that no one wanted her to know about. And the Book, that Remiel told her to get, had something to do with it. In Lael, she had no hope of ever getting close to it, especially since Sileas had died trying.
But now the Book was here. Or at least it was.
CHAPTER 34
Aliah
By the time Aliah left the cave, Mara had returned to the children, humming old Laelite lullabies. He'd asked her another question about the Book, but her blank stare told him she'd already forgotten their conversation.
He walked hood-down through the Borderless woods passing abandoned camps with cold fire-pits, but no sign of Shai. His side had grown stiff, but it looked clean enough and seemed to be healing. The sunlight was stronger outside of Lael, the trees greener and... He tipped his head and listened. The sounds of birds, squirrels, and tree frogs a pleasing chorus.
The boundary of Conley appeared suddenly on his right, a line of black-barked trees with a crescent carved into the white wood. He stayed hidden behind the trees and watched groups of people haul charred wood, metal scraps and blackened remains of buildings and their contents onto a large pile near the community's entrance.
His heart leaped in his throat when a fair-haired young girl emerged from behind a smoking pile of wood carrying something. Her hair hung loose and wavy around her shoulders instead of pulled into a bun. A wave of heat flashed across the mark on his chest when she looked up. He pressed tighter against the tree and tried to think invisible thoughts. When he peeked around the tree again she'd gone. He sighed and moved closer to Conley's entrance, a cluster of shorter trees that flanked the road leading in. He crouched, imagining Shai among the Conley's. He never told her anything about the land outside of Lael. As a Watcher he was forbidden to mention anything about the raids or what he saw while watching.
Now that she was aware of life beyond Lael he wondered how she was accepting it. Did it stir up the old Son of Thunder stories and bring her false hope or did it fuel her anger towards him, thinking he'd kept the truth from her?
"Ace." A voice behind him startled him and he twisted around then winced and grabbed his side. The young woman from the previous night stood with her hands on her hips, eyes narrowed. Some of her dark hair had sprung free from her braid and curled around her face and neck. Dark smudges beneath her eyes and on one cheek made Aliah's stomach hollow. He knew he was at least partly responsible for her sleepless night. He stood slowly and kept his eyes on her.
"If my father knew you came back here after..."
"Why don't you tell him then?" He swallowed the guilt as a picture of Akan beating Mallak came into his mind.
"He nearly died, Ace." Her voice wavered and she sniffed. Her green eyes filled, but not a single tear spilled over. Her resolve reminded him of Shai.
"Then arrest me. Punish me for my infraction. I'm sorry about what happened. You're right, I was there, but I can't change what happened." He held his hands up in surrender.
She snorted. "Right. Arresting you won't do any good, considering our Holding House has been burned to the ground." She dropped her hands to her sides and looked him up and down like Ellersly had done earlier, only her face held no compassion.
"I should let my brother know you're here. He'd love to finish you off."
"Your brother nearly did that already." Aliah moved his cloak to expose a dark red stain spreading across his sweater.
Ava laughed. "Kael couldn't have done that. He wouldn't have left you alive."
"You have two brothers? Is the other one this height?" He held his arm out chest-high and Ava's eyes widened. "Arlie did that to you? He was there? He could've... been killed." Her shoulders slumped.
"Look, I already said I'm sorry about... everything. I'll go... I'm just here to get someone. Her name's Shai. Blonde, blue-eyed."
Ava crossed her arms. "No. She's not here."
"Well I saw here a minute ago over there." He pointed and Ava gave him a hard look.
"I said no, Ace. If she did come here then it was for a reason. We're responsible for her now and I'm not going to just hand anyone over to a... Watcher." She spat the last word out and Aliah cringed. He'd have to think of another way. He turned to go, but Ava's hand on his arm stopped him. He pulled away.
"Oh, did I break one of your Laws by touching you? Force you to commit an infraction?"
Aliah ignored the sarcasm. "It's not that." He looked past her at a tall man with dark hair who walked quickly toward them. "I'll go now."
Ava raised a hand and called out, "Hi Kael. I'll be right there. Just tending to someone who was injured in the fire." She put her arm around Aliah's waist and guided him down the muddy road.
"I'm taking you to my father's house. Our nurse will look after you there, then you need to be on your way."
"Why?" Aliah looked down at her and she glanced up, meeting his eyes briefly then looked away.
"Because you can't stay here. I'm responsible for these people and I can't have a Watcher in my Sector. No matter how... different he is."
He cast a sideways glance at her. "No. Why look after my wound at all?"
Her arm tightened slightly around him and she blew out a slow breath of air before answering. "Like I said, I think you're different. And I don't think you're a true Laelite either. Your eyes... you look like you have Conley in your blood."
They reached a large stone house with a red roof and wide brick steps and stopped.
"Call it a hunch or intuition... whatever. I think you don't really know who you are. But when you figure it out the world had better watch out." She winked then patted his chest.
She left him in the care of an older woman, with pure white hair, who waited for him to climb the steps.
When he reached the last step Ava called out to him. "Leave my father alone, Ace. He won't want to see you. I'll come check on you later."
He stepped inside the bright interior plagued with guilt. He shouldn't be here, allowing these people to look after him. Not after what he had done to them.
He shook himself. Guilt could wait. He had come for Shai. And in the meantime, he could get some much needed rest and maybe find out more about what these people knew about the Book.
CHAPTER 35
Shai
Small groups of people come in shifts to eat in one of the few wood buildings left standing. Long tables had been erected down the center aisle for people to sit on both sides. Shai had never seen so many people of different ages. Men with wrinkles around their eyes and long white beards. Children holding hands with woman whose shoulders stooped and lines creased their faces. Infants carried in the arms of women older than Eliana.
Lael didn't have people like these... raisin people, with their creases and wrinkles. She found their faces interesting and had to force herself not to stare.
A hazy thought came to her. One of her Old World thoughts. The wrinkled face of a man with laughing blue eyes. Grandfather.
She pushed the thought away and focused on the
next group coming in.
Shai looked up at each person as they came to get a bowl of hot food. If she'd found her way here then maybe Eliana did too, if she was still alive.
Someone bumped into her and pushed her aside. She clenched her teeth. She hated being crowded and despised being touched even more. It violated her own Rule about personal space. But it was difficult to open the jars of vegetables and fruits she'd brought in, and serve them to people without brushing their hands, or touching their fingertips. Each time she accidentally touched someone she jumped back like her skin was on fire, ignoring their curious stares.
Her palms got slick with sweat when Kael came in with the next group of people. The dark smudges still on his face along with the familiar frown. She ladled some carrots and beats into a bowl and passed them to him. His fingers grazed hers and she flinched. The green of his eyes, a brilliant hue in the light of the afternoon sun shining through the windows. She tried to smile, but his scowl froze it on her face.
He sat with a noisy group of people that looked similar in age. They chatted constantly, looking comical with their smudged faces and brightly-colored clothing streaked with soot.
When Shai handed a bowl to the last person in the group she took a bowl for herself and sat at the end of table near a lady with white hair and pale blue eyes. She left space between her and the old woman, but the lady reached over and patted Shai's arm.
"Thanks for helping us today, dear. You're from Kent right? I can tell by your eyes. I was born there too, but married my Conley man."
Shai smiled at the old woman, but any words stuck in her throat. Kent? Was that another Sector? She glanced at the woman's 'Conley man.' Specks of orange peeked out of his long grey beard, the remnants of his lunch, his eyes as bright a green as carrot tops.
Shai looked away and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She scanned the room. Kael sat at the opposite end of the room staring straight at her. She refused to be the first to look away. She pressed her lips together and tried to make her eyes as hard his. He pushed his bowl away then stormed out of the building.
Ava set a bowl of sliced peaches and cherries on the table in front of Shai and sat across from her. She crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on them.
"Don't worry about Kael. He doesn't like anyone, not even himself. He's too obsessed with his studies to care about anything else. This fire is just a distraction to him, so that makes him angry. Angrier." She laughed and Shai smiled.
"His studies? What's he studying?"
"Oh, the Coalition, the history of the Division. He says that if the Coalition is ever formed then there will be a great war between the Sectors worse than the original War Between Worlds, and society as we know it will end. He thinks he's some kind of dooms-day prophet or something." Ava rolled her eyes then sat up. "Oh, forgive me. I guess the Borderless don't talk about those things."
Shai shook her head and held her shaking fingers in her lap. "I... I'm not Borderless, Ava."
Ava reached across the table and took Shai's hand in hers. "I know. But you're not a mindless puppet either."
Shai dropped her eyes and Ava squeezed her hand harder. "Do you know anything about the Sectors?"
Shai shook her head unwilling to trust her voice.
"Well I'll tell you about them sometime. But don't listen to Kael. He should've been born in Sector Seven. They're machinists. They provide the Division with metal works and they make weapons. They believe the only way to get things done is by sheer force." She patted Shai's hand then stacked their empty bowls. "I do appreciate the Kent's willpower though." She excused herself to clean up before the next group arrived.
Shai remained sitting, twisting the hem of her dirty tunic in her lap. As much as she didn't want to she had to talk to Kael again to learn more about the Book. She had to know where to find it and what made it so important.
CHAPTER 36
Aliah
His wound had been cleaned and stitched and the old nurse promised with a smile that he would mend.
He laid shirtless under a white sheet on a narrow cot, and surveyed his surroundings. The room had high ceilings, warm wood floors and walls, and a large fire burning in a stone fireplace. Several paintings of meadows with flowers and grassy fields with brightly-colored houses decorated the walls.
A pungent salve had been applied to the bandage to numb his wound and the hot tea the nurse brought him made him feel sleepy. The walls began moving and the ceiling rippled like water. He rubbed his eyes. When he looked up, two Ava's were bent over him, green eyes crinkling with her wide smile.
"I see the remedy's working." She touched his face with the back of her hand like his mother would have.
"A li'l too well, I think. There's two of you."
Ava laughed. "That's the side-effect I'm afraid. But it will take days off your recuperation time."
"You want me outta here that bad then?" Aliah grinned then tried to reach for her arm and missed.
"Well, if anyone found you here..."
"Anyone? Like your big brother?"
Ava just looked at him, her smile disappeared.
"Okay. I told you I'd leave when I can take Shai with me." He sat up on one elbow. The movement spun the room and he fell back against the cot.
"You're in no condition to go anywhere yet, Ace." She busied herself with re-arranging his pillows and blanket.
"In a day or so you can leave. After the nurse makes sure you’re free of any fever or infection."
"It's too late for that. I shoulda tol' you. Death's at my door. Been hunting me down for days already." Aliah closed his eyes and inhaled the sage and lemongrass scent that lingered around Ava.
"Death is near every one of us, Ace."
"No, I mean for real. But the pendant will keep me safe." He sighed and turned his head away from her, suddenly exhausted.
"Oh. A Laelite belief..." Her voice sounded distant like she spoke to him from the opposite end of a tunnel. He drifted off to sleep.
He woke to Ava humming and folding linens at the foot of his bed.
"Well, look who's awake." Her long dark hair hung loose down her back. The bright pink tunic she wore gave her a more youthful appearance.
His head ached and his lips felt dry. She handed him a glass of water. He struggled to sit up and let the sheet fall off his chest. Ava went back to folding.
"Another side-effect. Sleep for days and wake up starving and with a terrible head-ache because of thirst."
He drained the glass and carefully swung his legs over the side of the bed. His face burned. He was bare-chested and only had on a pair of light beige trousers that weren't his own.
"I've slept for days?" His eyes darted around the room. "You undressed me? Where are my clothes?"
"No, you only slept for twenty-two hours. I had your clothes washed. Don't worry, I didn't undress you, the nurse did." She tossed his folded tunic and trousers casually to him, like he shouldn’t have a problem being undressed while unconscious. He searched his trouser pockets then threw them on the floor. He ran a hand through his hair. His heart raced.
"I... I had something important..."
Ava faced him, her face drawn, the ever-present smile faded. She pulled a folded paper from her own pocket and held it out to him.
"My brother has been looking for hours for his precious Book. I should've known you'd taken it." He expected anger, but not the sadness that showed in her eyes.
He took the paper, stood and tucked it into his waistband then grabbed her arm. She let him pull her towards him.
"Ava, I never meant to hurt anyone. But that Book doesn't belong to him. It belongs to the people in Lael. I don't know how it got here, but I need to find it. I can't let it get into the wrong hands." He turned her wrist over and traced the scar there with his finger. "This... mark you have, that your father gave you on the day of your birth, it identifies you, right? It... tells you where you belong." He looked up at her, surprised at the tears in h
er eyes. He pointed to his chest. "This is my mark. I don't know why, but I believe it's important. There are only three of us who have this mark. I found that out because of the Book. And if I find the other two who have this mark then... well, I need the Book so I know what has to happen next. All I know is if everything goes according to plan, Lael won't have to fear the enemy anymore. That enemy is coming after Shai and I need to protect her."
Ava nodded then pressed her other hand gently against the mark on his chest. His skin prickled beneath her warm palm. "What about Shai? Is she marked like you?"
He dropped her wrist and turned away. He pulled his sweater on before answering, his back to her. "No. At least I doubt it. She would've told me."
"But she knows about yours?" She touched his shoulder and he turned around again.
"No. It's better that she doesn't know. Safer. Until I understand it a little more. "
"Do you love her?" Ava's green eyes were wide and glittered with tears.
Aliah shook his head. "Love is... not something I know. Feelings like that lead to infractions, and as a Watcher I have a responsibility to protect the Laelites from those crimes. I don't have to love someone to protect them." He picked up his trousers and his blanket she'd washed and shoved them into his bag. Ava watched him.
"Ace, there's something you should know. My brother knows a lot about..." She looked around then whispered, "your Book. Kael even knows who wrote it. I feel like I need to warn you not to go to Sector Seven, north of here. The leader there is dangerous. His name is Elchai."
Chills spread through Aliah’s body. He didn't expect Elchai to be in the Northern Borderless territory. He had just sent his mother and Ellersly right into Elchai’s hands.
He swallowed hard and nodded. "Thanks."
"Be careful, Ace. I don't know what's in that Book, but my brother has spent his whole life trying to decipher its secrets. And when it arrived here the other night, they asked him to protect it, now he will do anything to find it."
Aliah slung the bag over his shoulder. "Do you know who brought the Book to him?"
She shook her head. "I didn't see who it was."
He smiled at her. "Thank you, Ava. For everything." He walked to the door then stopped and turned around. "I'll bring the trousers back when I have a chance to wash them." He winked at the young woman then opened the heavy wood door.