The Legions of the Rise Read online

  A weird part of her missed Jonah. She hadn't really had time to mourn his betrayal or his death. Jonah was a lot of things. A liar and a betrayer; and still his last breaths were telling her she and Gideon could stop the Priestess. And now she only wanted to remember him as the friend who made her laugh. And kept her safe from Lucius. Not the one who lied.

  Then, she thought of Gideon again. She didn't want to live her life without him. What if she couldn't fix him? What if he broke just like everything else the Priestess had touched? Rolling herself into a ball she lay her head on Gideon's pillow and let herself cry. Soon, she was sobbing uncontrollably. There was too much inside of her and she couldn’t make herself stop.

  She reached for the dusty blanket and pulled it tight around her. She grasped the journal to her chest and wept and wept. She closed her eyes tight wishing the tears away until everything faded into the background of her mind and she slept.

  Chapter Two

  Lena jolted from her sleep. Gasping, she looked around Gideon's old room. The dusty and abandoned room looked exactly the same as when she'd fallen asleep. How long had she been asleep?

  The sun was shining through the broken window but she had no indication of the time. She could see dust particles floating lazily in front of the window. She pushed the blankets away from herself. They had gotten tangled around her legs. Sitting on the side of the bed, she wiped the sleepiness from her eyes and readjusted her ponytail.

  Sitting on the bed, she suddenly felt completely alone. She had never felt alone in this home, especially this room. It had always been filled with laughter and teasing, maybe even a little bit of fighting when she and Gideon were younger. But as much as they fought, she loved it when he visited. He made their home complete.

  "There ya are," Tern said,standing in the doorway. His toned arms held the doorframe in a relaxed way. He wore the same type of jumper that the caverns had stores of, but Tern had torn the sleeves from his, only emphasizing his strong build and tanned skin.

  "You startled me," she said, heart pounding. She had been so lost in memories she hadn't heard Tern approach. Though, if Tern didn't want you to hear him, you wouldn't. He was stealthy that way.

  "Thora's got the whole place looking fer ya," Tern said as he tucked his loose, long hair behind his ears. "It even took me a bit to find out where ya had gone.”

  Lena rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing here? How did you even know where I was?" she asked.

  "It was hit and miss, but I eventually picked up your trail," he said. He studied the room, his eyes scanning every detail before landing back on where Lena sat tangled in the blankets on Gideon's bed.

  "I take it this ain't yer room," Tern said.

  Lena felt the warmth spreading across her face. "Gideon's," she said, feeling slightly embarrassed at having fallen asleep in his bed. Though, as she looked around, she noticed there was nothing to indicate that it was his room to begin with. No pictures or trinkets from his childhood. Nothing to show that he was part of the house. She tried to remember if he had ever decorated. She couldn't remember anything. He did travel a lot as a child, and Lena knew he liked to travel light, but why didn't he keep more stuff here?

  Tern's voice brought her back to the present. "Thora thought ya should know that Suki is back with Evren," he said, as he studied her face.

  Lena stood and ran her hands across her face. Her face felt kind of grimy and she realized the dirt from the blanket had probably mixed with her tears. She was glad Tern didn't comment on her disheveled appearance. "How long have I been gone?" she asked, using her sleeve to attempt to wipe the grime away.

  "Most of the day," Tern said. "Thora ain't too happy with ya either."

  "I imagine she's not," she answered. She looked back at her mother's journal now on Gideon's bed and picked it up.

  "What ya got?" Tern asked.

  She held up the journal for him to see. "It was my mother's," she said. "I found it in my father's office."

  "Most people of Mir don't understand the importance of handwritten work," Tern said. "That's part of the dangers of technology. Part of why the people of the woods shun technology. Yer mother must have been an intelligent woman."

  "She was. She loved writing with pen and paper. She told me it was therapeutic. I didn't understand what she meant back then, but I can now."

  "Come on, I gotta get ya back," he said.

  Lena gave the room one more look before joining Tern. There was nothing here that could make her feel truly better.

  Carefully, they exited down the grand staircase and out of the house. Tern walked quietly beside her, not prodding her with unnecessary conversation until they had walked about half the courtyard.

  "There aren't any bodies," Tern said as he stepped over the rubble.

  "What?" Lena asked. She had one hand on a large crystal block as she climbed over some rubble. She looked at Tern confused. "What are you talking about?"

  "Someone has buried the dead, or at least cleaned up the place," Tern said. "From what I heard 'bout the bombing. There was a lot of death the day the Citadel was attacked."

  Lena didn't like to remember that night. But Tern was right. The night that her parents had died was carnage. Lena closed her eyes, remembering and trying to block out at the same time all the blood she had seen. Suki was proof that the night Everleigh had been attacked had left a lot of people dead or scarred beyond repair. And Lena still saw the destruction of that night in her mind. But when she opened her eyes, Tern was right. There were no bodies.

  "Selene wouldn't have done something like this," Lena said. "I mean, bury the dead."

  Tern nodded his head. "From what we know about her, she would want the carnage to remain as a warnin'." Tern said.

  Lena finished climbing over the rubble and stopped in a clear spot on the courtyard ground. Standing with her hands on her hips she looked in a circle. No bodies. No bloodstains. Nothing.

  "Could animals have taken them?" Lena asked.

  "Not without leaving skeletons," Tern answered. "Come on," he said walking towards the dais that lined the one side of the courtyard.

  Lena hesitated. This was the platform that her father had been giving a speech on when Zeke had plunged a knife into his chest, then shot her mother in the head. She felt her heart racing and her chest tighten. She wasn't sure she wanted to see the dais any closer. And at the same time, she didn't want the fear of what Selene had done to them to hold her back. Clenching her fists, she followed after him.

  When she arrived at the dais, Tern was standing on top of it, studying the surface. Where there should have been blood stains, there was nothing. Nothing but the dusty surface of a weather worn dais. There was no sign that any violence had ever happened.

  "The weather could have cleaned some of it up," Tern said.

  "No," Lena said. "This wasn't cleaned up by the weather. Someone has been here and cleaned the bodies and the blood.”

  "Look." Tern pointed towards the lake then moved his arm to the right.

  Lena followed his gaze. On a rise not far from the shore was a great mound with the broken crystal stones of Everleigh lining the edges.

  "Looks like a mass grave," Tern said, walking towards it.

  "Who did this?" Lena asked, falling into step beside him. "Who would go against Selene and take time to bury the dead? Who would go against her ruthlessness?"

  "Don' know," Tern said. "But if the Priestess knew 'bout this, and found them, they'd be as good as dead."

  As they approached the mound Tern bent down and picked up a rock that lay at its base. Running his fingers across the surface, he handed it off to Lena and picked up another one.

  A name was carved on the crystal's surface. A name she recognized as one of the refugees who had come to Everleigh in the years when her father had welcomed anyone who needed a home, a place among the crystal mountains.

  Lena bent down and picked up another stone. The same thing had been done to it. A small name carved on the stone.
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  "Whoever did this, it was someone who knew these people," Lena said showing Tern the name roughly etched into the surface of the stone.

  Who had done this? Lena wondered. She was under the impression that the people in Everleigh had died or been taken prisoner. Were their more like Suki who had hidden and escaped? She put the stone down and scanned the mound. She wondered if her parents had stones here. She wondered who else could have survived the bombing and escaped the Priestess.

  "Ya know what this means, don' ya," Tern said.

  Lena could feel a wave of excitement building inside of her. "Yes," she answered. "There are other's willing to go against Selene."

  Tern nodded with a hopeful look of his own. "From what I heard abou' the number of people who died, it would have taken more than one person to do this." They stood in silence looking at the monument. It was getting to be the time of evening that the sun used to hit the citadel and shine with rainbows through the crystals that made the city.

  "Come on, I better get ya back before Thora tears down the mountain lookin' fer ya.”

  Lena pointed to the setting sun. "Just a few more minutes," she said. But as she said it, the sun cast its first rainbow across the ground. Within minutes, thousands of other rainbows joined. If destruction could have a positive moment, this was it. The city was bathed in rainbows. The jagged edges of the building seemed to make even more points for the sun to shine through.

  "Would ya look at that," Tern said, smiling as he took in the beauty of the city.

  Lena looked over the city and then back at the mound again. "We're not alone," Lena responded.

  Tern nodded. They didn't wait for the rainbows to go away. Instead, they walked back to the cave with rainbows dancing in the setting sun behind them.

  ***

  When Lena made it back to the cavern, she saw Tarek and Suki sitting in one of the many lounge area's. Evren stood over them, his arms moving in large motions as he described something to them. Suki said something that made Tarek laugh. Suki laughed with him.

  The usually reserved Tarek looked totally at ease next to Suki. Something he usually wasn't.

  Lena hurried over to them. It wasn't until she was practically in front of them that they even noticed her. Evren straightened his messy hair and looked slightly embarrassed when Lena caught his eye.

  "Evren, I'm so glad you were able to come," Lena said. She looked between Tarek and Suki.

  Tarek blushed when he saw Lena watching them.

  "I though' ya were supposed to be looking' fer Lena," Tern said.

  Suki flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Na, we knew once you started looking it wouldn't take long. Plus, Evren wanted to fill us in on some stuff," she said. "Did Birdee finally go to sleep?"

  "Ya, Aaron said her pain is under control with the meds he's given her, but she's still pretty exhausted. He said he'll operate on her tomorrow."

  "So where'd ya find her?" Suki asked, motioning to Lena.

  "Everleigh," Tern said.

  Suki widened her eyes in surprise.

  "I found an exit that came out by the lake in Everleigh," Lena said. "I went to explore my home and fell asleep. I guess I didn't realize how tired I was. I slept most of the day."

  Suki nodded like she understood. Evren just looked at her with wide eyes and slightly pink cheeks.

  "How did you get here so fast?" Lena asked Evren. When Lena glanced at him he tried again to tame his hair. But it didn't help.

  "I was close," Evren said as he stopped trying to straighten his hair and put his hands in his pockets instead. "After the auction at Monmark I monitored where you went through the lens. I thought that maybe you might need me for something, so I stayed close."

  Lena had forgotten about the lens. She had taken it out the first night in the cavern and didn't put it back in.

  She looked back to Suki.

  "Do you know what happened to my parents bodies?" Lena asked.

  Suki gave her a questioning glance.

  "In Everleigh. There are no bodies. Just a mass grave. Were my parents buried in that grave?"

  Suki looked haunted. She took a moment to reply. "When I left, there were still bodies everywhere."

  "Including my parents?" Lena asked.

  "I didn't look," Suki snapped at Lena. "I couldn't look. It was too much. My father was there too you know, and Migel. I had to leave them both in order to survive and I haven't been back to Everleigh since then.”

  Lena instantly felt guilty. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. I can't imagine what you had to go through.”

  Suki released her breath and flipped her hair over one shoulder. "I'm sorry I snapped. I don't like to remember that day. And I haven't been back since then. At one point, right after Everleigh fell, when I was still healing, I heard rumors that Everleigh had been cleaned. But I didn't ever look into them."

  Thora walked up behind them interrupting their conversation.

  "Evren, I assume Suki filled you in," Thora said in an authoritative voice that Lena was used to hearing when they worked in the Defense Training facility together.

  "Yes, ma'am," Evren replied a little more respectfully than Lena was used to hearing from him.

  "Can you have what I need completed by the time I leave?" Thora asked in a way that made it feel like she wasn't really asking, but more expecting her request to be completed.

  "I've already got most of it compiled together. I'm just having the computer run some analyses to make sure it fit's the criteria that you asked for.”

  "Very well," Thora said, then looked down the end of her nose at Lena. "You don't need to be running away just because you were upset," she stated.

  Lena raised her chin to meet Thora's gaze. "I wasn't running away. I just needed time to think." The reply sounded weak even to Lena. But she still held her stance.

  "The caverns are large and you can get lost. I don't like you wandering around by yourself."

  "I was in Everleigh." Lena said, hoping it would solidify her first response. When Thora didn't reply, Lena glanced at Suki who urged her to continue.

  "The caves exit at our lake. Did you know that?" Lena asked.

  Thora gave Suki a look that said she wasn't happy with the unspoken encouragement and Lena could see Tarek's poor attempt to hide a smirk.

  "Yes," Thora said, turning away from Tarek and Suki and looking pointedly at Lena. "There are several exits and entrances to the caverns. Ones you shouldn't be off finding on your own. And you either, Tern," she said, making Tern look like he wanted to slip into the shadows and hide. Even though it was him who had found her.

  "I am capable of taking care of myself," Lena said. "I did make it all the way here without you."

  "Not by yourself, you didn't," Thora said.

  Of course, she hadn't been by herself, Lena thought. Gideon had helped her. Jonah had helped her. And neither were with her now. Lena felt like her breath had been taken from her just thinking of them. She swallowed.

  "How is Gideon?" Lena asked, not feeling as confident as she had before.

  The mood dropped even further in the group. Tarek lowered his head and Suki gave him a concerned glance. Lena only then realized that she wasn't the only one worried about Gideon. They all were.

  "He asked to be left alone," Tarek said. "When I checked on him last, he was sleeping."

  Lena wished it was her checking on him. She wished she were the one taking care of him. Not Tarek. When no one added anything to Tarek's comment, Thora put a tender hand on her shoulder.

  "Come on, we've set up a room for you and Evren," Thora said. "You'll be able to work on the gadget that Dorry gave you. Hopefully, the two of you together can figure out Dorry's technology and then we can all stop worrying about Gideon.”

  Tern excused himself to go be with Birdee, and Tarek took the opportunity to leave as well. He didn't need to say where he was going. He was the only one they trusted with Gideon.

  Suki stretched out on the couch. "I'm going
to catch some sleep," she said. "Not all of us got to nap the day away.”

  Lena and Evren followed Thora past the infirmary to the next open room. It was filled with worktables and walls with tools on them.

  "It's not a formal workshop," Thora said. "But Dessa and Remiah can get you anything you might need and bring it to you here."

  "Yes, I've already talked with Remiah when I arrived," Evren said. "He is already getting me the things I thought I might need."

  "Then I'll leave you two," Thora said.

  Evren walked towards the worktable in the middle of the room. It already had the control device blueprints floating above it. The broken pieces of Dorry's anti control device lay on the table.

  "We've got the control device inside Gideon head and the anti-device here on the table.I've been thinking there are just too many devices. So I've renamed your anti-device, the Nulli. These pieces—when put together properly—render that ineffective." He pointed back to the blueprints of the device inside Gideon's head.

  "What?" Lena said, "Nulli? That makes no sense whatsoever."

  "Oh, yes you're quite right it wouldn't make any sense to you. It will make the control device ineffective. That is what nullifier means. Nulli for short."

  Lena bobbed her head. "Okay. Nullifier it is."

  "Nulli," Evren corrected. Then he pointed to pieces on the table. "I had already been working on fixing it before Suki found me. This is what I've done so far." He touched a screen and another image floated from the table. "I copied each of the pieces of the Nulli so we could move them around on the hologram. Kind of like putting a puzzle together. Then I created a program to simulate different way of putting the pieces back together." He hit a button on the screen and the hologram images rearranged themselves into a completed device. "But it's not working quite right.

  Lena studied the images, her eyes moving back and forth between the pieces on the table and the hologram. "So, these highlighted sections are the pieces or places that are broken or missing?" Lena asked.

  Evren nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix them. I have a program running different simulations and specifications but I've never worked with this type of technology before so I don't know how the missing pieces are made."