“The information is there if you want it,” Emmy told me. “I’ve been preparing for Blesswood my entire life. Did you know Teacher Howard was a former Blesswood recruit?”
Teacher Howard?Oh, right, he’d stopped by for one cold season in our sixth school cycle. We’d had a lot of teachers actually, when I thought about it.
“Six stitches and a mild concussion?” I double-checked that I was thinking of the right dweller.
Emmy was trying not to roll her eyes, which was fair considering I’d just summarised an incident that could have occurred with one of at least three other teachers.
I continued. “He loved yellow pants, wore the same socks over and over—despite the fact we could smell his feet even out in the snow—told crazy stories, learned the hard way to never take a weaving class with me. Or at least learned the hard way to never hand me cutters and belts at the same time?”
Still no eye roll. She was practising super-dweller patience.
“Yes, Will, that’s him. He did something to annoy an important sol in Blesswood and as a punishment, he was directed to teach throughout the nine rings. A position of honour, but one which took him far from the blessed capital that he had been working his whole life to get to. He took a liking to me, said I reminded him of his sister, who now serves one of the most gifted of the sol families. He taught me so much. It’s because of him that I worked so hard, studied, and made it my goal to be recruited.”
“And somehow your clumsy-ass best friend got herself invited along on the journey. Very little work and at least one almost-world-ending-disaster per sun-cycle her only claim to fame.”
“I don’t think deliberately altering your records is asomehowthing, Will.” Even as she said it, she was hugging me, hard. “At eight life-cycles I didn’t love you like I do now.” Her voice was muffled against my shirt. “Nope, at eight I was determined to go no matter what. Then you happened, and I knew that one sun-cycle I would have to leave you. It broke my heart. Every morning when I woke up, I questioned whether it was worth it. I would start off wanting to turn it down, and then I wouldn’t be sure. No matter my doubts, I never stopped trying my hardest to be chosen. It was like I had to prove I could be the best, and then if I turned it down I’d know it was my choice.” She pulled back to face me. “You getting chosen with me was the best thing that could ever have happened. For once your clumsy curse was a true gift.”
Agift.
Those weren’t words which had been used to describe my curse before. Nobody would have dared, even to make me feel better. Only sols hadgifts, and my curse was enough of a slap-in-the-face-of-the-people as it was.
“Did you ever consider turning it down, Will?” The question from Emmy was a little hesitant, like she had been thinking about it but was afraid to ask. “I mean … I know things have happened so fast, but …didyou consider turning it down?”
I hadn’t.Not even once, actually. Which was odd because I was pretty certain I would die there. Although, the certainty of death was something I lived with every day, so it was understandable that it didn’t have me in a panic. Well, notthatmuch of a panic.
“Never even crossed my mind,” I finally said to her. “This was meant to be, our friendship and journey was fated by the gods.” I blew her a kiss, and when she was distracted by my sappy face, I reached out and snatched up the container of purple gaja berries she’d picked in the fourth ring. There were only half a dozen left, and she was being so stingy with her sharing.
She glared as I popped the first tart bite of goodness into my mouth. Berries didn’t grow in the seventh ring, but we occasionally got some in trade. Emmy leaned across, but before things escalated into a girl-fight, the cart slowed, and our attentions were diverted to a huge fence across our current path, just to the side of the Minateurs’ building. Standing spread out across the front of the tall barrier were six sols. I was assuming they were sols because they had the same dazzling thing going on, not to mention that one appeared to be holding a naked flame in his palm, and as far as I could tell, he wasn’t in excruciating, screaming pain as his hand burnt down to a stub. Dwellers were great at lots of things: toiling from sunup to sundown; turning three figs into a pie for the entire village; and even dancing around a fire after copious amounts of liquor. But one thing we couldnotdo was control the elements. Gifts of the sols. Lucky bastards.
Jerath pulled the bullsen to a complete halt and got off the cart. He crossed to the closest sol, a female who stood a foot taller than me, had better hair than me, and was altogether much more beautiful and intimidating than me. Not that I was comparing. Words were exchanged—words we couldn’t hear—and then Jerath handed over some papers.
“Why are these sols eyeballing us?” I asked Emmy, trying not to move my mouth too much.
“Standard security checks before entering Blesswood.” She spoke normally, so my stealthy whispers were clearly not required.
They spent a few clicks examining our cart, checking the back sleeping area, and zapping me with sparks of energy which seemed to emit from their bodies as they crossed close by. Eventually, we were cleared to enter, and I found myself sneakily popping gaja berries in one by one as the gates opened. I had to do something to stem the rising tide of nerves which were threatening to erupt from me. Emmy had given up trying to get her snacks back, instead placing a hand on my knee to stop me bouncing it right out of the cart.
The gates took at least eighty-five life-cycles to open. By the time they did, I was over the nerves. Dragging things out helped no one.Bad power play, sols, bad power play.
The bullsen seemed hesitant to cross the final threshold of Soldel into Blesswood. Jerath had to be extra convincing, his belts flying through the air as he encouraged them along. The sols continued to watch us as we wheeled past. None of them smiled, or said anything, but I could feel their judgement.
You shouldn’t be here.
You don’t belong here.
You’re not one of us.
The gate closed behind us. And suddenly … the nerves were back. I twisted my hands in my lap as I tried to take in everything on this side of the barrier. We were still at the very top of the hill we’d climbed and now it seemed it was time to start descending. To the right of our path was a long waterfall, which trickled down into the valley we were heading for. Yes, you heard that right—waterjusttricklingout in the open for all to see. And everything was green. The land was covered in a vibrant green carpet of grass, which was almost too bright to stare at directly. The cart picked up speed and with a rapid warning from Jerath, Emmy and I had to hold on tight to the rails besides us.
After a brief dip, the land levelled out, and despite my need to appear unfazed, there might have been loud gasp slippage. Either that, or the air was thin here and I was having to work harder to breathe.
I knew Blesswood was the very centre of the nine rings and that there were multiple villages in each ring. Those were the things I knew. What I hadn’t known was that Blesswood was pretty much an island.An island?The very concept was like a myth wrapped in a fable shot through with some sparkling magic. Ever since the great rivers and lakes had dried up—since the outer rings of Minatsol had turned into the land of dust and despair—we had no true islands. But Blesswood was doing its very best to come close.
“We’ll need to cross on the barges now,” Jerath said, halting his cart next to a bunch of other carts.
There were other carts!I’d been so caught up in the visage of the centre ring—a mass of land which went further than the eye could see and which seemed to be surrounded by a body of water that was connected to a series of waterfalls, like the one we had passed moments before—that I’d failed to notice the other carts, just like ours, all lined up in rows beside us. It looked as though all the recruits from the nine rings were converging there. They were all waiting for this barge thing to take us across the water.
“What’s a barge?” I asked Emmy.
