Ashes of Twilight (27 page)

“The maids talk to each other,” Jilly says as an aside. “’Tis a great source of information, if one knows how to listen.”

“I’ve got to find her,” Pace says. “I’ve got to help her.”

I kneel down next to his chair and take his hand in mine. His blue eyes are full of despair and frustration. It is as if his soul lives behind them and they are the windows to view it. Beautiful windows framing a beautiful soul. “We will help her,” I assure him. “The best way we can help her is by finding the way out. Then we’ll have some power over them. They won’t need to keep her once we prove there is a way out and that we can survive outside.”

“It all sounds so simple,” Jon says. “Yet we’re not the first ones to look for it. I’ve heard stories. Stories of it being found and those who found it being killed.”

“Maybe for the same reason Alex was killed,” Alcide says. Alcide is still devastated by his cousin’s death. I know he feels as if he could have stopped it, if only he’d known. I notice that he gives Lucy a wide berth, as if she’s also to blame. Maybe we all are, or maybe we should just accept the fact that Alex made a decision that led to his death.

“David told us about what happened. To you and your friends,” Harry says. “Do you really think it’s there? By the fans?”

Pace still looks ghastly and his mind is on his mother, not the questions at hand. “It’s where he was when they carried Alex back in,” I finally say as I stand. “There are tunnels that run beneath.”

“Alex always thought that would be the logical place,” Alcide adds. “The fans have to have some sort of exhaust system.”

“We’ve got to figure out a way to get close to them,” James says.

“We can’t just walk up to them,” Peggy adds. “Is there a way to get to them underground?”

“Isn’t that where you come in?” David asks.

I listen to them talk, glad to see how quickly we’ve come together as one group with one purpose.

“We need maps,” Adam says. “Maps of the dome and maps of the systems beneath. We could compare them to the tunnels in the mines and see if there’s a way to come up from beneath.”

“That’s simple,” Jilly says. “They have those in the library. ’Tis just a matter of going there to look.”

“Except we’re not permitted in the library,” Lucy says.

“Really?” Jilly asks. “I never realized.”

“You always thought we were just too busy with work?” David asks.

“Jilly is all right,” Harry says. “There’s no need for any of this.”

I can’t help but wonder what their connection is, how these three people found one another and how they in turn found David and Lucy.

“We have enough to fight out there with the filchers and the bluecoats,” I add. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to get on with it.”

“I could take two of you in with me,” Jilly says. “Preferably someone who knows the tunnels.”

“Adam and Peggy,” I say. Adam works on the blasting crew so he knows our tunnels well and would know what was possible once he saw the maps. Plus, I think it would be easier for Peggy or Lucy to pass unnoticed in Jilly’s company than two rough-looking young men.

“What about the rest of us?” Alcide asks.

“We go scout out the fans,” James says. “Let Pace show us what he knows. That way if something happens to him, at least there’s someone else who can carry on.”

I knew there was a good reason not to trust him. James will have his way, apology or not. Unfortunately for Pace, his plan makes sense. Still, I glare at him, letting him know I’m on to his plan. He has the audacity to smile back at me.

“Does anyone have a clue how to find out about my mother?” Pace asks.

“I’ll see what I can come up with,” Lucy volunteers. “I’ll just ask if there’s another place where the enforcers take special prisoners. Someone will know something, or know someone who knows something. It’s the way things work up here.”

“Now would be the time to go,” David says. “The streets are busy and it will be easier to go unnoticed. We should all try to be back here by five o’clock. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“One more thing,” I say. I look directly at James as I speak. “If one of us gets caught, the others have to run, especially if it is before we figure out where Alex got through. As long as some of us are free, then we all have a chance. But if we’re all caught…” There’s no need to finish. We all know what the penalty will be. We also know it will be like Alex’s death, a swift retribution with fire so that we too may be an example. The faces around me show their resolve, even Jilly’s, which surprises me.

But that doesn’t surprise me as much as I’ve surprised myself. When did I become the leader of this tiny revolution? Why do they listen to me when I speak? When did my opinion become so valuable, when it has never been considered as such before?

It is Lucy who gives me the answer. She steps up beside me and squeezes my hand. “I believe in you, Wren,” she says, and just like that, I realize that it’s because I now have something to believe in that I have changed.

I watch Jilly as everyone readies to leave. I can only hope that she doesn’t consider this some sort of great adventure. Yet her reasons are so similar to my own. Risking her life to get out is a better alternative than marriage. I can only imagine what her designated mate must be like.

We disperse. Lucy on her own, Jilly, Peggy, and Adam to the library. Pace and I with David and Alcide. James, Harry, and Jon in another group and taking a different route to the exhaust fans as the seven of us traveling together would surely draw attention. James, Alcide, and I are unfamiliar with the streets so we divide accordingly so we won’t get lost.

The streets are dark and gloomy and covered with a dense gray cloud that is hard to breathe. It’s a situation that makes it easier for us because we’re just among the several that wear goggles and have their lower faces covered with kerchiefs. Pace pulls the hood in place over his dark hair and I wrap a knitted scarf Lucy gave me around mine. In just a matter of seconds we are totally separated from James, Alcide, and the rest as we go our separate ways.

Pace is exceptionally quiet. It’s his concern over his mother that makes him this way. Still, it worries me as even in the direst of circumstances he would usually say something in his dry way that showed me he saw the humor in the situation, if there was any to be found.

I’m used to taking the lead. I’m used to forging the path. Most of our time together has been underground, where I am comfortable and where everything is familiar. Today he takes the lead, pounding ahead with a purpose so I have to hurry to keep up with his long-legged stride.

“Slow down,” David says. “We need to blend in, not shove everyone aside.”

“Pace.” I grab his arm. David is right. We’re practically running. “Stop.”

His head swings around to me. There’s moisture on his face. That’s why he walked ahead. He didn’t want us to know he was crying.

“It won’t help her if we get caught,” I say.

“I know.” He stops, pushes up his goggles and wipes at his eyes. “I’m just scared of what they’ll do to her. You know what they did to Alex. What might they do to her if they think she knows where I am?”

I squeeze his arm. “You can’t dwell on it,” I say. “You want to help her? Show them they can’t control you anymore. That they can’t control any of us. Show us the way out.”

“She’s right,” David says.

Pace nods in agreement. A swarm of people move around us and a few give us curious looks. Pace’s blue eyes will surely give us away. He slides the goggles back into place. The goggles that were my grandfather’s.

“Let’s move,” David says, and we do, pacing ourselves to the others on the street and doing our best to blend in.

I’ve never been in this part of the dome. My innate sense of direction tells me we’re going away from the coal lift to the opposite side of the dome. There is a noticeable lack of scarabs in this area, which makes sense if this is where the exit exists. The bluecoats would want to be able to control the area and having people living on the streets would make that close to impossible.

The buildings here are larger. There aren’t any homes in this area, just places of work, large depressing buildings with narrow windows and cracking and peeling paint and large stains from soot-filled water that drips down from the dome. The roofs here don’t hold gardens as there is too much smoke from the industry contained on this side of the dome. The buildings are close together with narrow alleys barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

The workers on the street all walk with their shoulders hunched and their heads down, as if they carry the weight of the dome on their shoulders. There is no joy here, no happiness, just the everyday drudgery of lives with no choice. Like those of Harry and Jon and even Jilly, who’d rather rebel and face the flames than face a future with a husband not of her choosing.

We’re close to the public works now. The offices of air quality, water, disposal, and waste management—the latter needing to have a serious look at the pipes beneath the street, but only when we’re not using them to travel back and forth. Pace walks with a purpose, he knows where he’s going.

We see the rest of our group on an opposite corner. The roar from the fans is deafening now, as we are so close to the engines. Most of the people we see on the street are men, in old and stained work clothes. They are all headed in the same direction. A steam cart with a half load of coal nearly runs us down as we cut across a street; the blast of its whistle is followed by a long line of curses that can be heard in spite of the fans.

Pace holds up a hand as we come to the corner. The rest are opposite us on the street and they look over our way as we stop.

“Tom and I went into that building,” he’s practically shouting due to the huge fan that hangs behind the building he points out. There’s no sign on it to identify it as anything in particular. “We went down a flight of stairs and that’s where I saw the tunnels that go beneath the fans. We crossed over a catwalk and then went up. There’s a huge space, like a warehouse beneath the ground. That’s where they killed Alex.”

“Did they bring Alex in the same way you came in?” David asks.

“No. They carried him in through a door on the other side.”

“We should go around it,” I say. “See what’s behind it.”

Pace points up. “We can’t,” he says.

I follow where he’s pointing and see a guard stationed on top. He’s carrying something I’ve never seen before. It’s a weapon of some type, but I can’t imagine what it would be.

“Let’s swing out a few blocks and see if we can work our way around,” David suggests. He gives some hand signals to the rest of our group and Harry nods in agreement. We disperse again, us going left and the rest right.

We round a large square building with black smoke pouring from the chimneys. It must house the furnaces that power the fans. The men we passed on the street pour into the door. They work the furnaces.

“Look at the smoke,” I say. There are two huge fans behind it, one on top of the other. The smoke is moving directly to the lower fan and disappearing into it.

“It’s shooting it outside,” David says. “So?”

“Which means there has to be an opening for it to escape through.”

“But is it big enough for a person to fit through? And how can you with the blades going?” Pace says.

“Look at the top fan.”

David and Pace both shrug.

“If the one below is taking air out, then what’s the top one doing?”

Pace and David both stand and look at the smoke drifting into the lower fan. It looks as if someone placed a board on top of it to flatten it.

“It’s bringing air in,” they both say at the same time.

“Fresh air,” I add. “If it was flames wouldn’t it be hot? Wouldn’t the flame shoot right through it?”

“I wonder how long it’s been like this,” David says. “And nobody realized.”

“Or maybe they did and they were killed. Just like Alex,” I say.

“We need to move,” Pace says. I look around and see that we’ve been noticed by a pair of bluecoats. It’s not surprising as we’re the only ones on the street. We’ve been so involved with watching the smoke that we lost track of our surroundings. We also did not notice another guard on the roof who waves at the two bluecoats following us.

“With the strike they will eventually run out of coal,” David says as we move at a quick walk. “Then all the fans will shut down.”

“They’ll still have guards,” Pace says.

“And we might not have enough food to outlast them,” I add. “It’s amazing how your resolve weakens when you see your children going hungry.”

“Could be a moot point,” Pace says. “We better run for it.”

I glance over my shoulder and see that the bluecoats are getting closer. Pace grabs my hand and the three of us take off, running for our lives.

24

The sound of the steam
whistle fills the air. At first I think it’s the alarm, but when men pour into the streets I realize it’s the shift change and the whistle stops as suddenly as it started. The men who fill the street are sweaty and covered in coal dust. If not for their eyes you would not be able to tell the difference between them and a group of shiners. I even hear the familiar cough that is a sure sign of black lung. The three of us head straight for them in hopes we can blend into the crowd and make our escape.

To my horror I see a pair of filchers coming toward us from the other side. David sees them and we turn in the direction the workers are going. We weave our way through, passing men, crashing into them, and moving on as they grunt and curse us. There is no time to apologize. There is no time to explain. We must keep moving. Pace keeps a tight hold on my hand, only this time he leads me as he and David are much faster than I and their lungs are cleaner.

At a distance in front of us I see three men dash across the street. James and Alcide I easily recognize. They moved so fast I didn’t have time to identify the other. It is either Jon or Harry. Since there are only three it means someone got caught or else they split up. I hope and pray it’s the latter.

We finally break free of the group of workers, which puts us out in the open and makes us easy to spot. Something whistles by my ear and David, who was ahead of us, tumbles onto the pavement. Pace and I both stop and pull him up.