Eighteen
The next morning there was a new closeness between the six of us. Last night had been something beyond my wildest fantasies, and it had been more than perfect. It was clear that I still wasn’t quite up to having all of them in one night, but that was a goal to work toward.
Siret and Yael both laughed at that thought, and I chuckled too as I pulled on my newly borrowed clothing from some of the dwellers, remembering at the last moment to slip the vial of water inside my pocket.
Outside the hut, we ate a hurried breakfast with Adeline and Abil, and then, before the sun had fully risen, we were in a bullsen cart about to set out for Soldel.
“We’ll take care of everything here,” Adeline promised me again. “Do not worry for your dwellers. They will be safe.”
I leaned out over the edge of the cart and surprised her with a hug. She didn’t hesitate to hug me back though, and when I pulled away it was to find her beaming, her beauty almost blinding.
“Look after my boys,” she whispered to me, and I nodded in return.
Abil reached out and pressed his hand to the bullsen at the front. “I’ve given them a little extra energy,” he told Coen, who was controlling the beasts. “You should be there in no time.”
I could tell this was a novel experience for the Abcurses, having never needed to travel by domestic beast before, but since we were conserving energy so I’d have enough to redirect the servers and Adeline’s mortal glass, there was no other way for us to get to Soldel.
The journey was at least a lot faster than it had been the time I came this way with Emmy; Abil hadn’t been kidding about the extra energy.
“Feels like I made that original journey to Blesswood a million life-cycles ago,” I said wistfully, staring out across the lands, seeing the parched dirt turn into forests as we got closer to the centre rings. I turned back to stare between the Abcurses, who were sprawled out in the cart, watching the landscape as I had been doing.
They turned their attention to me then. “Can you believe that I didn’t know you all? That if I hadn’t managed to sneak into the school and change my grades, I might never have met you.”
Siret shook his head, sunlight streaming across his hair bringing the midnight ruby tones to life. “We’d have found you eventually, Soldier. Our bond was always meant to be.”
I would choose them in every lifetime, in every different version of my future, so I understood exactly what he was saying.
When we finally reached Tridel, I was surprised at how quiet the streets were. We did catch sight of Ciune and Gable. Yael jumped out of the cart to quickly confer with them, then caught up to us again in the outer areas of Tridel.
“They said that everyone has moved toward Dvadel and Soldel,” he told us. “Lorda and Haven are in Dvadel now, and all of them will join us as soon as the rest come through.”
“Did you tell them they need to be nice to the dwellers when they make it through?” I was feeling very protective of my people.
Yael nodded. “I did tell them that. But you have nothing to worry about; Mother will rip them a new one if she sees any mistreatment.”
I trusted that about Adeline; she was fierce in ways that not even her sons and Abil were. Double-crossing Staviti the entire time, working with him and against him, at great risk, just to keep her children safe. I’d long wondered what she’d been doing in her “extended disappearances,” and it was nice to finally have some answers.
When we entered Soldel, I was more than a little excited about getting out of this cart. Besides brief rest stops for the bullsen, and bathroom breaks for us, we’d not stopped on our journey.
Soldel looked the same at first: fancy and shiny. But as we got closer to the centre, stepping up the incline, the streets grew very busy. There was a lot of chaos, sols displaced for the first time in their lives, unsure where they were supposed to go next. The skyreachers looked to be packed to the brim, and I was happy to see that dwellers mixed in almost seamlessly with their shinier counterparts.
I’d come to realise that sols were “shinier” because they had the best of everything. The best food, clean water, all the healing they required. Not because they were superior in any way outside of being born as one of the blessed races. Dwellers probably had gifts too, hidden deep down, but they were never given a chance to explore those skills because they were too busy serving.
Our cart was stopped about halfway up Soldel. There were too many sols and dwellers in the streets for us to move through them. When we stepped out, a hushed silence fell over the area. Wide-eyed sols fell to their knees around us, lowering their heads in deference. Surprisingly enough, dwellers remained standing, and it was clear this was not because of any sort of defiance. They appeared to be literally frozen to the spot, unsure if we were about to smite them all.
“Stand, please,” I said, trying not to let my tiredness seep into my words. “We are here to help you, that is all. Right now we need to know where the other gods are.”
A dweller answered me, a young girl of no more than ten life-cycles. “They are at the council chambers,” she squeaked out, brave where others were not.
I strode forward, stopping just before her. The Abcurses hung back slightly, which was probably a good thing because she looked like she was going to pee herself just standing before me. “Thank you,” I told her, leaning down so we were the same height. “What’s your name?”
“C-Cat.” She cleared her throat. “I’m Cat from the fourth ring.”
I held out my hand and she hesitated for a brief moment before placing hers into it. “It’s nice to meet you, Cat. Thanks for your help.”
I released her, and her face was lit up with pride. Glowing. When I rejoined the Abcurses, we were silent, heading toward the top of the Soldel hill. The crowds parted for us, all the sols continuing to drop to their knees as we walked on.
“How can this not make you uncomfortable?” I asked the Abcurses, trying not to look at all the genuflecting. “They’re treating us like—”
