The Dream Widow (20 page)

To the leader of your tribe:

This fight between our two peoples is a mistake, an accident of misunderstanding. We seek only peace and barter. As an offering of friendship we return these two boys unharmed and will continue a ceasefire through the night. Lay down your weapons before sunrise and no harm will come to your village.

If you wish to talk before morning, approach slowly and carry a torch.

Darius, Senator of the Western Disc

Hausen handed the paper to Badger. “They’re not as bloodthirsty as you said. From what I see, they want peace.”

Badger mouthed the words as she read the letter. Her eyes dropped to the signature and she crumpled the paper into a tight rock at the center of her fist.

TRAN FOLLOWED ROBB to the Barracks cafeteria. He stuffed himself with food and watched the room slowly fill with villagers. The women and even the children carried bags of food, rolled blankets, and useful tools like pots and pans. Tran nodded and listened to the witless comments that Robb constantly made while eating. When the red-haired boy left to get more tea Tran slipped away.

He ran through the dimly-lit tunnels to the connector with Office. He rounded a dark corner and collided with a body. Both boys sprawled on the shadowy floor.

A voice yelled in the tribal dialect.“You idiot!”

Tran helped the other boy stand up. “Parn?”

“Is that you, Tran? I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“I was outside, in the battle.”

“Really? Tell me!”

Tran touched the boy’s shoulder. “Not now. Let’s go somewhere safe.”

The pair ran through the tunnels to Parn’s room. His older brother was inside.

“Where’s your father?” asked Tran.

“At the blockhouse with his cousin. I was there for a while.”

Parn sat on the edge of his bed. “Tran’s come from the battle.”

“Tell us,” said his brother.

Tran shrugged. “Remember when I said, the day will come when we’ll get a chance? A single moment to get back at those two who destroyed our home and brought us here?”

“Childish dreams,” said the brother. “Useless mumblings.”

Tran reached into his trousers. He pulled out two green canisters and a bottle of clear liquid.

“Not useless tonight,” he said.

WITH A LANTERN IN ONE HAND, Mary led a long line of women, children, and wounded men being carried on stretchers toward the Tombs.

Without the boom of gunfire their footsteps crunched loudly through the frozen crust of snow. The village women talked to cover their nervous energy. None were priests, so they had never been to the deepest level of the Tombs. This would be only the second time in their lives to see even the entrance room where the caskets were lowered underground.

Kaya and another girl carried Mina on a stretcher covered with blankets. The ugly black dog trotted beside them.

“This is so exciting,” said Kaya. “After all those stories about the machines underground, we’re going to finally see them!”

“Yes, dear, we certainly will,” said Mary.

She kept up a brave face for Kaya and the other women but her thoughts were on the spider-arms and the black caskets filled with the dead.

The outside door accepted the code Wilson had given her. The Medics with the stretchers entered first while Mary helped the others down the steps. The crimson light and close quarters in the small room hushed everyone. Children shuffled beside their mothers and stared wide-eyed at the warning labels around the wide metal square on the floor.

Mary led the injured across the room to the stairwell entrance. Nearby on the wall lay the yellowed name-tag board and the careful rows of “Founder’s Boots.” She punched the keys of the code and the metal door began to grind open.

Kaya touched Mary’s sleeve and pointed across the room. “What’s wrong with him?”

The mangy animal had curled up in a corner, muzzle on his paws. Kaya waved and called but he stayed in the dark, his eyes shining red circles by the lantern-light.

“Just leave him, Kaya. You can bring water and food up later,” said Mary.

The stretchers would have to be carried at a steep angle down the stairwell, so the severely injured were tied at the arms and waist to avoid sliding off. Mary checked with all the carrying teams then led the way into the black pit with her lantern. Hundreds of soft footsteps rubbed the metal steps in a flurry of sound.

At last the spiral ended in a slab of cracked concrete and a wide, sturdy door. Mary set the lantern down and pressed an ear to the cold metal. She heard nothing like before, when the out-of-control spider arms had crashed into each other and raced along the walls with mad abandon.

Kaya waited at the bottom step, a hand on Mina’s stretcher. “Is it safe?”

“Let’s hope so,” said Mary.

She strained with one hand at the handle and blue light streamed into the stairwell.

“Cubbie––!”

Mary jumped through the doorway.

“Wait!” said Kaya.

Janna helped her carry the stretcher through the hatch, and the two girls set it down a few steps from the entrance. Kaya gasped at the cavern’s vast open space and steadied herself against a nearby wall that glowed with soft light. Rows of shiny black rectangles stretched all the way to a high ceiling covered in dangling silver ropes. In the center of the smooth cavern floor stood the source of the blue light––a glass dome that shimmered like a summer lake––and Wilson.

His back rested against the base of the dome, his hands were folded on his lap, and his chin touched his chest. If his mother hadn’t been shaking him by the shoulders, he could have passed for a tired farm-hand taking an afternoon nap.

Mary yelled into his ear. “Wake up!”

 She noticed the metal circlet around his head and touched it with an index finger.

Kaya and Janna ran across the oddly slick floor. Janna grabbed Mary’s hands and pulled them away from the silver band.

“Wait, Mary! Don’t touch that.”

“Why not? Something’s wrong with him and it’s probably this stupid thing.”

The blonde girl wiped sweat from her nose. “You might be right, or you might not. First we need to find out what’s happened to him. You could hurt him or yourself if anything is moved, especially that band around his head. That’s one of the first rules he told us about medicine––don’t mess with what you don’t understand.”

Mary nodded and covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry. I just need a moment.”

Kaya knelt and put an arm around her shoulders.

Janna felt Wilson’s wrist and watched the rise of his chest. “His heartbeat is strong and regular. He breathes well, but his skin is cold.”

As the others filed into the cavern they gasped and whispered at the strange machinery and legendary caskets.

“I’m all right, thank you dear,” said Mary. “We need to get everyone settled.”

Kaya knelt beside Wilson. “I’ll stay and watch him.”

Janna went into the medical area and began powering up equipment for treating the wounded, while Mary led the women and children to the series of small rooms near her quarters. She organized groups for cleanup, food preparation, and safety. When she returned to the cavern, Kaya was still sitting beside Wilson, her hands covering his.

Mary stood over them and sighed. “Can you do me a favor, dear? Can you tell Badger?”

Kaya nodded and the chestnut braids on her shoulders bounced. “I’ll bring the second group down here, too.”

She took a lantern from the cold floor of the stairwell and began the long journey to the surface.

CLOUDS STILL COVERED the valley at midnight. The mud froze into brown ice and Hausen rotated defenders back to the warm blockhouse every hour. On the first floor, Badger and Mast huddled around an iron stove with other men from the village.

Mast rubbed his bare hands over the heat. “Do you think he wants to give up?”

“Are you serious?” Badger shook her head. “This is Hausen you’re talking about, remember? The hard-case that made us run every morning and started the knife-fighting lessons? If he needs to pound a nail he uses his thick skull.”

“I know that Hausen. I just didn’t see the same man at the pass or in the trenches.”

“People change,” said Badger. “Take it from me––seeing your friends and family die is not something you can prepare for.”

Mast glanced at the three long scars that ran down Badger’s face from her temple to her neck.

“It’s been hours. Maybe we should check on Wilson.”

“If you saw him rip those machines off me you wouldn’t be so worried. He was like a furious whirlwind. A few months ago that was me. But now, without a working implant ...”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let the bad men get you.”

“Ha! Anyway, his mother is down there. If anything goes wrong you won’t miss the screaming and shouting.”

Mast turned to warm his backside. “So what’s the plan?”

A bead of water dripped from one of Badger’s dark braids and hissed on the metal stove.

“When the women and children are safe, the lines pull back to the blockhouse,” she said. “From here we can defend the Tombs without being flanked.”

The blockhouse door creaked open and let in cold air.

“Parn! Shut that thing,” yelled Mast.

The bundled-up tribal boy closed the reinforced entrance.

“Sorry,” he said, and held up a large kettle. “Hot tea for everyone!”

HAUSEN’S FEET CRUNCHED on the snow. Loud, too loud.

He held both arms out from his sides and felt stupid, like he was expecting a hug. In one hand light gleamed from a candle-lantern.

A pair of soldiers led him through the pass. Bodies lay covered in a dusting of snow and ice, as if the heavens wanted to spare Hausen from his mistakes. He wasn’t grateful, because he couldn’t forget.

The soldiers entered the Circle camp’s grid of tents and cooking fires. They stopped Hausen in front of a blue-green tent. One of the soldiers slid his hands up and down Hausen’s body and checked for weapons again. He took the lantern and waved Hausen forward.

He pushed the thick flap and stepped into the tent. The air inside was thick with a strange, sweet aroma.

“Greetings,” said a pale-faced man in black. He waved a gloved hand at the chair next to him. “Please sit.”

Hausen sat on the edge of the seat. “Are you Darius?”

The man bowed his head. “I’m at a disadvantage. You are?”

“I’m Hausen.”

“I assume you’re here to talk about my letter. As I outlined briefly, if your village flies the white flag at sunrise or before, we’ll stop the attack.”

“Flies the what?”

“My apologies. Give up your weapons before dawn and all of this tragic and unnecessary violence will stop.”

Hausen rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Then what?”

Darius shrugged. “Life goes on, and both of our peoples begin a trading relationship. We have a vast network of merchants, and offer machined weapons, high-powered rounds, quality fabrics, rare spices from the south, and newly-printed books.”

“What do you want in return?”

Darius licked his lips. “Any pile of junk you have from the old days. Dusty old books that nobody reads anyway. Perhaps you’ve odd metal parts lying in a corner, or even working machines?”

Hausen stared for a long moment at a dark splatter on the brown carpet. A metallic clicking sound made him look up. Darius had folded his hands and rapped the sharp metal thumbs against each other.

“I’ll consider your offer,” said Hausen.

Darius smiled. “I ask no more and no less.”

WITH A VERY UNLADYLIKE GRUNT, Kaya pushed the stairwell door until it clicked.

“Why does it have to be so heavy?”

Claws scraped in the dark and the ugly dog trotted from a corner. Kaya rubbed the thick black fur at his neck.

“Hello, boy! Time to go.”

She walked through the red-lit chamber to the surface entrance and pulled a lever. The wide door opened enough for her to squeeze through and she ran through the cold night with the dog at her heels. They raced over the snow, Kaya laughing and the dog barking. At the concrete entrance to Office she hugged the mangy, deformed beast.

Apart from the soft thud of Kaya’s moccasins and the click of the dog’s feet, the underground tunnels were deathly quiet.

“I guess most people are waiting in the cafeteria,” said Kaya, scaring herself with the sound of her voice.

She stopped in front of Delmar’s door and knocked.

“Why don’t they answer? Flora was supposed to wait for me.”

The handle wouldn’t turn. Kaya searched the pockets of her blue dress and pulled out a bent wire.

“Delmar showed me a trick. Look here.”

Kaya pushed the wire into a tiny hole in the base of the door handle and jiggled it. At last a mechanism clicked and the handle turned. She pushed the door open and screamed.