Sun Rose (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 1) (3 page)

“Tithonus
as in Greek Mythology?” The lover of Eos, the morning dawn. Jenny has taught me
well in a variety of subjects, mostly covered in University. Dory wasn’t
allowed to attend public schooling and I doubt that I’ll be able to either. She
has her own private professor.

I
don’t know how long we’ve been travelling, but it’s much brighter outside. The
yellow light of early morning is different than the white light of night and I
may have dozed off for some unknown amount of time. I’m more tired than
anything else and I try not to think about my failing liver. What will I do if
something goes wrong with it? We’re very far from the hospital.

Ezekiel
looks from the navigation panel on the side of the car to the electronic pad he
has embedded in his own forearm. His is more of a search engine whereas mine is
a tracking device implanted when I was an infant. Any time I tried to leave the
grounds, it would alert my parents. As I got older, it was programmed to sound
an alarm for Jenny to respond to. It only went off once or twice in my life.

“Can’t
yours be traced, too?” I ask.

Instead
of answering, he waves a magnet over both my wrists to scramble them, leaving
them dead. A short zap of electricity and they go numb. I could have used that
when I was strapped to the hospital bed.

“It
can, but it will take much longer,” he says. “No one’s looking for me.”

Pike
stops staring out the window. He hasn’t said anything since mentioning Nurse
Hara.

“Yes.
And no,” he finally says.

“Yes
and no what?” I ask.

“Yes
and no Tithonus.”

“The
Tithonus of poetry is eternally old,” I mention, looking to fill the space
between us. “While his love is eternally renewed. It’s such a sad story.” I
glance out the window. The sun feels warm on my face. What I know about love is
only what I’ve read.

“Tithonus
is pretty old,” Pike answers.

“What
does he do?” I ask.

“He’s
got the Sight.”

Ezekiel
glances up at Pike’s mention of this.

Pike
continues, “he can retell the past and see the future, even though he can’t
physically see. He’s been known to tell people what is going to happen days,
weeks, years down the line.”

“If
you believe in that sort of thing,” Ezekiel snorts.

“It’ll
give us direction, Zeke. We should know if Hara is okay.”

Looking
out the window, the terrain is rugged, but the car runs above it on seemingly
invisible tracks. The ride is smooth. There is lots of dirt and rocks in the
distance. It’s unfamiliar to me and we’re moving so fast, it’s hard to discern
where we are. My guess would be on the outskirts of the city, somewhere in the
desert. Every major city is surrounded by this kind of scrubby environment with
rubble and occasional ruins. Atrophied towns of times past. No one lives out
here now clearly. I haven’t seen a single soul.

“I
don’t think anyone’s following us,” Pike speaks to Ezekiel and he nods. “We
would’ve been stopped by now.”

“Following
us?” I ask, instinctively glancing back out the window.

“Yeah.
You know, tracking us. Once they learn you’re gone, they’ll send people to find
you,” Pike answers.

“And
they’ll do it with extreme urgency. You were set to undergo artificial organ
replacement. They don’t take that sort of thing lightly, these days,” Ezekiel
adds, smirking.

He’s
making fun of me.

“Who’s
they?” I think I know. Dr. Rush. My father. “We should go back. I need to get
back.”

“The
Imperial Bead,” Pike answers.

“We’re
not going back,” Ezekiel says.

“They
control everything and your father is at the top,” Pike adds.

“But
he’s just an attorney,” I say.

Ezekiel
chuckles.

“They
own everything. They own the hospitals, banks,” Pike interjects.

“Schools?”
I ask. Pike nods.

Jenny.

“You
learn what they tell you to learn.” Pike looks out the window. “And they can
cause a massive amount of trouble if they find us.”

“And
the Imperial Bead doesn’t like your cause,” I state. I’ve never put much
thought into how those things work. I’ve never had to. I’ve always had money
and done what my family has told me to do. I’ve never had to wonder. Or never
been allowed to wonder.
Is that how the Imperial Bead wants it?

“Ha!”
Ezekiel laughs, but doesn’t look over. “You have your own money, Miss Campbell.
And because of what your father does, the Imperial Bead makes money off of your
money. If they decide that everyone has to be artificially replaced, then
everyone will be artificially replaced. You may choose a doctor to do those
replacements, but it’s the Beadledom’s decision who gets to be a doctor in the
first place. All choice has been eliminated in society unless you have money. If
the Beadledom wants someone’s parts for whatever reason, they will take them.
Without hesitation. Without asking. Because they have the power and can do what
they want. They sway all forms of media and they control the people who make
decisions within the hospital, in schools, and government.” Ezekiel shakes his
head.

“Beadledom?”
I ask.

“Stupid
government,” Ezekiel snaps.

“They
won’t look too fondly on your, uh, kidnapping. Especially if it becomes public.
It’s bound to become sensationalized in the media because of your affluence.”
Pike’s voice is more level than Ezekiel’s and it puts me more at ease. Ezekiel
frightens me. He seems angry. At me.

Pike
goes back to looking out the window and I think of everything of mine that was
like everyone else’s. Our house is like everyone else’s house. Our cars, our
accessibility to anywhere in the city. My clothes, my family, are all like
everyone else’s. But now that I think of it, we are like all the other people
who have money. The only thing that makes me different are my organs. But those
are set to be replaced. Like everyone else’s. Bile rises in my throat. It
tastes sour and burns.

“How
much farther?” I’ve lost all sense of time and place. I don’t want to think
about the delusion of my existence, about my parents, or my father’s intricate
involvement with this Beadledom. What about Evie and Dory? Does Dory know?

“Not
much farther. Then we’ll rest and double-back–” Pike’s voice trails off and
then stops. My eyes open. I must’ve passed out. “Rose? Rosamund?” Pike shakes
my shoulders. The car is stopped and Ezekiel is talking to someone outside,
though I don’t see anyone else out there. The day has gotten grey.

“Rosamund,
take this,” Pike pushes a pill into my mouth and forces my throat to swallow
it. It’s like a pebble that sticks to the inside of my esophagus. As I try to
get it to slide down, the muscles just tighten, making it hard to breathe. I
need water.

I
take in a deep breath of air, the pill finally down. I am woozy, though not
sick. The car sways a bit from side to side, but we’re not moving. We’ve
stopped and I have a chance to wonder: “Is - is it my liver?”

“I
dunno. I don’t think so. We were talking and you just slumped over.” Pike
shakes his head.

“What
color am I?” I hold my hands up to the light. I will not panic and I will not
pass out. I will not panic.

Pike
looks confused at my question.

“When
I got sick, Dory said I turned yellow. Bile from my liver poisoning my body.” I
look over my arms. Except for goosebumps, they haven’t changed.

“Who’s
Dory?” Pike asks.

“My
sister.” I’m surprised that he knows about me, but apparently nothing specific
about my family other than our connection with the Imperial Bead. How does he
know so much and I know so little? My hand moves over my chest. A pang – no – a
pain, makes me gasp for breath. I’m panicking.

“Tithonus
will see you.” Ezekiel steps back into the car. “I’ll await your return.”

My
eyes strain to see straight. I regulate my lungs with slow, deep breaths in and
then hold it before breathing out.

“Are
you up for it?” Pike stands, putting his hand out again. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,”
I exhale. “I’ll be okay.” I wish Dory were here. She’d steady me. She’d make it
okay. I know she would.

“This
is pretty important. He should give us some good direction.”

“I’ll
have rehydrated something to eat for when you get back.” Ezekiel rummages through
his bag.

I
stifle a groan and grab my stomach. “Rehydrated food is the worst.” Dory leaves
my mind, replaced by revulsion. I am a bit hungry, which surprises me, but not
hungry enough for dried, mashed chickpeas, beans, oats, and modified
vegetables.

“Can’t
all afford it fresh,” Ezekiel mutters before I leave the car. He doesn’t even
look at me. Instead, he spits on the ground.

The
sun isn’t up, but it’s light out. A fog in the distance blocks my sight too far
in either direction. I can’t tell where I am longitudinally. I think we’ve
travelled east.
Or was it west?

I
step onto the wooden train platform and it is more like a long dock. The planks
are arranged horizontally and they cross over shallow water before getting to a
cobblestone street. The houses beyond are short, no more than two or three
stories, and narrow, all different styles. All in various states of disrepair.
Every house is a different color: Bright blue and pale yellow. Light pink and
dark brown. Different shades of greens and purples. They almost look like
something out of a fairy tale or storybook with their pretty colors and
asymmetric styles, but so haunting with their chipping paint and crooked
shutters.

I
take a deep breath in. The air outside is cool and there is a slight, salty breeze.
Different from inside the car or even from my house and hospital. There, the
filtered air was always cold and sterile. This air is dense, but crisp and
refreshing. It fills my lungs and I think how great it is to be alive, provided
I’m not dying.

“What’s
Tithonus going to tell us?” Will he be able to tell me how long I’ll live? Can
we trust what he tells us?

“I
dunno,” Pike answers.

Then
what are we here for?
We’ve reached the end of the dock and stepping onto
the uneven cobbles of the street, I lose my balance. The butterflies in my
stomach threaten my throat and I shiver. I’m scared of all this unknown. It’s
nothing that I’ve learned in any of my classes with Jenny or conversations with
Dory. We take a left and walk down the road. The stream is on our left and the
rows of houses on our right.

“This
is it.” Pike stops us in front of a purple door, a few houses down. The fog
hangs in front of it. The fog isn’t in front of any other house. Strange.

It
opens before Pike even knocks.

“Please
come in. I’ve been expecting you.” A gravelly voice is quiet in the dim room.
The rug on the floor reminds me of the one in my hospital room. Turkish, I
think, with tassels along the edge.

Why
did I leave again? I can’t go back now.

“Because
you had to come.” The voice tells me, reading my thoughts. I’m convinced and
even more frightened. “Don’t be afraid. You needed to leave. There is something
special about you and because you know what they were going to do to you wasn’t
right.”

I
shift nervously to hide myself behind Pike. He must sense something is wrong
because he pushes me back behind him with his hand as we enter the house.

“Thank
you for seeing us. I’m Pike Pelli and this is Rose Campbell.” Something
flutters and swoops by my face. A moth? No, bigger than that. A bat?

“Ah
yes. Pike and Rose. Rose and Pike. Rose. Rosamund. What a beautiful name. One
for a beautiful girl?”

I
still don’t see Tithonus. The voice comes from somewhere close by, but in the
dark corners of the house. I look up at the low ceilings. The exposed beams are
rotted and I’m wary of the structural integrity of this hovel.

“Yes.
She is very beautiful,” Pike says and looks away. My cheeks warm. I stifle the
urge to giggle.
What did he say? Why am I reacting like this?

All
of a sudden the room gets cold. I can hear the shuffling of feet ahead of us.
An old man steps into the light so we can see him. His body is brittle and his
skin hangs in loose strips on his face. He is bent over and on his back is a
large hump, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He leans on a teak cane, tawny, dark
wood worn along the handle and foot. A white shock of hair falls over his
shoulders and down his back. It reminds me of the cobwebs I’ve read about in
books.

Tithonus
steps forward, the cane leading his way, and I step back. Pike doesn’t move. My
stomach lurches. Cloudy, milky white, the old man’s eyes are open wide,
searching for available light. Water drips on my forehead. A leak from
somewhere above. I dare not look up or away.

“What
are you looking to see?” Tithonus approaches Pike, but speaks to me.