Dustborn Read online

  “It’s not your fault,” Darius said, reading her mind. “You didn’t cause that man’s death, or the other man’s injury.”

  “Maybe not, but they blame us for it,” Neena said. “You saw the looks on The Watchers’ faces. They hate us.”

  “I’m not sure hate is the right word,” Darius said. “They’re angry about what happened. They want someone to blame.” Darius sighed. “This situation has affected everyone. We heard everyone’s frustrations in the meeting that day, and today’s death fueled the discontent.”

  “I’m worried about the people in the Center Cave, too,” Neena said. “Has anyone talked to them?”

  “I spoke with a few of them earlier,” Kai said. “I don’t think they’re angry at us, like the people in the Left Cave, but they’re worried.”

  Darius’s face was painted with concern. “The food we scavenged today will help, but it will not last forever. Everyone knows it. They might’ve been able to ignore that reality before, but not now. And the death isn’t helping.”

  Neena blew a long breath. She could hardly think about food when a man was dead, but she knew she had to. Looking over at Raj and Samel, who ate with Adriana and some others, she said, “I don’t see a future in these caves. The river is too far away, and so are the crops. Our resources are down there, not up here. It just feels so hopeless.”

  Darius and Kai looked at her gravely, but neither disagreed.

  “The people here want their homes—their colony—back. To do that, we need to kill the monster.”

  Kai went quiet.

  “I was thinking about something similar, while you were down in the colony,” Darius said, between meager bites of food. “I was thinking of all the questions to which we still don’t have answers. And that got me thinking about the carcass in the tunnels.”

  Neena and Kai listened intently.

  “Somehow, the monster that Akron found—the carcass—died all those years ago. Gideon and his men knew about it, because they covered up its existence. If that is the case, then there is a good chance Gideon has more information about it. Or maybe his forefathers did.”

  “Clearly, Gideon knew about my colony,” Kai agreed, “and about the Abomination. But my guess is that he chose not to tell your people, because he didn’t know what to do about either of those things. Fear kept him silent.”

  “Probably true,” Darius conceded. With a shrug, he said, “Thorne and his men certainly had no luck fighting the monster.”

  “But they did make it bleed,” Neena reminded them.

  Kai chewed his lip. “You have a point, Neena. My people have never done that.”

  “Either way, Gideon might have some nugget of information that will help us,” Darius said. “I think it is worth talking to him again. Do you agree?”

  Neena and Kai nodded.

  “Maybe you can get some closure about Akron, while you’re there,” Neena suggested.

  A faraway look crossed Darius’s eyes. “I won’t keep my hopes up on that end,” he said, scratching his stubbly chin. “But talking to Gideon is certainly better than sitting around in these caves, worrying about things we can’t control. I think we should get some sleep, especially after the day you’ve both been through. In the morning, we’ll head to the healer’s coves in the Center Cave and speak with him.”

  Chapter 17: Raj

  Raj lay in his bedroll, opening and closing his eyes. The flickering light of the torches drew his attention from one end of the cave to the other. Snores drifted over to where he lay. Almost all of the hundred and fifty or so people in the Right Cave around him were asleep, or so it sounded.

  With Neena safe, other thoughts returned. For most of the evening, he’d chatted with Adriana, discussing the details of the trip to the colony. She was worried. They both were. He couldn’t take his mind off Adriana’s forlorn expression, when she heard about the man who died. Life had always been a short stay between birth and death, but it felt even shorter now, with so many new concerns.

  Seeing that dead man’s face reinforced everyone’s fears.

  Raj felt powerless. It didn’t help that Neena, Darius, and Kai wouldn’t let him do anything.

  And that made him think about the few things he could control.

  Raj couldn’t change any of the things going around them, but maybe he could change one little thing.

  Maybe he could give Adriana a little bit of happiness.

  Raj rolled over in his bedroll, looking secretly around the room at the bundled, sleeping forms. His eyes roamed to the cave’s entrance, where a few volunteers watched over the ledge. Their silhouettes faced in the opposite direction. Rolling the other way, he saw only one man watching the interior portion of the cave.

  Raj stared at the man’s face in the backlight of the torch. A few times, the man adjusted, clearly boring of his task. Every so often, he sipped from a flask. He wasn’t as experienced as The Watchers. Raj knew how this worked. At some point, the man’s bladder would catch up to his boredom, and he would relieve himself.

  He couldn’t stand in one spot all night.

  Raj waited for a long while, until the man finally headed to a crevice in the wall to do his business. Figuring he had only a moment or so, he slipped from his bedroll and tiptoed to the wall, keeping to the shadows. At any moment, Raj expected a shout, or a hiss. The thought struck him that the man might confuse him for an animal, and attack him.

  He scooted faster, holding the wall and his breath.

  His heart pounded as he turned a curve, grabbing a torch from the wall.

  Clear of the guard, a new fear struck him.

  The plan to sneak down the tunnel had been much easier when it was in his head, and he was safe in his bedroll. Now Raj was alone. He hurried faster, following the path that he and Samel had taken earlier. His heart thudded in his chest.

  The tunnel was deathly quiet as Raj slipped his knife from his sheath and alternated his gaze between the walls and the edge of his torchlight. At any moment, an animal might shoot out and attack, or a monster might take the opportunity to seize a child in the night.

  He could be dead before he screamed.

  A sharp jab of fear made him reconsider turning around, but the image of Adriana’s face drove him forward. He crept along the tunnel, keeping an eye on the next curve, hoping he’d remember where they’d discovered the crevice. What if he couldn’t find it again?

  He should’ve marked it.

  But the adults had scared him before he had the chance.

  Frustration built as he followed the tunnel and studied the walls, seeing nothing familiar. And then Raj’s torch caught something he recognized: a protruding rock. He bent and scanned the floor. Was that a divot, from where he’d jabbed his knife?

  It was.

  Raj’s adrenaline kicked in harder as he located the crevice, crouched lower, and shined his torch where the dust beetle had scooted.

  The gleaming object was still there.

  He was at a crossroads.

  He could turn around now and make it to safety—perhaps evading the guard and making it back to sleep.

  Or he could get what he promised Adriana.

  It wasn’t a choice, not really.

  Getting on his stomach, Raj crawled into the crevice.

  Chapter 18: Raj

  Raj scurried like a bug into a hole, his heart beating against his ribcage. The smell of urine invaded his nostrils and his throat, making it feel as if he couldn’t breathe. Rat bones jabbed his shirt. Feces stuck to his clothes. All at once, he wondered how the dust beetle managed in the caves.

  He couldn’t crane his neck. He couldn’t lift his arms. He certainly couldn’t turn around. Claustrophobia crept over him.

  What if he got stuck and died before someone ever found him?

/>   Commitment to his mission—to Adriana—pushed him on. The gleaming object was ten feet back, stuck underneath a small crevice in the side of the passage. Past it, the hole opened up. If he could get further, he could turn around, sit up, and catch his breath. He could find a better place to grab it. Sharp rocks protruded from several points ahead of him, but he avoided them, changing direction using his elbows and his boots.

  His torch lit his way, but the sides of him were unknowns. He feared he might draw the attention of some menacing, cave-dwelling creature. The next feeling that he had might be teeth, clamping onto his leg, dragging him deeper.

  Raj crawled within a few feet of the gleaming object.

  Excitedly, he took hold of the end of it.

  Having it in his hand made him forget his fear.

  The gleam he’d seen was only the tip of the object.

  The metallic, strange object extended about as long as his arm, going further back into the shadowy crevice. Raj tugged on it. The object loosened, but not enough.

  Crawling a few more feet, he reached the widened part of the passage, got to his knees, and sat upright in the small cove. Raj looked around the small, open area in which he’d found himself.

  It felt as if he was in some miniature fort, like the sand houses he’d built by the river when he was younger. The ceiling was high enough that he could almost stand. Farther ahead, past a small crevice, he saw only darkness.

  With some more careful wiggling, he turned and was able to get the object free and in his hands. Raj set down his torch.

  His mouth fell open as he studied the strange object.

  A piece of metal as long as an arm comprised the object’s middle, while another, curved piece attached at the end in a half-moon. Thin pieces of metal ran between the two ends of the curved piece. Several smaller pieces and tubes jutted out from various parts of the object, along with carvings he couldn’t identify. On the bottom of the object was a handle. He held it out, trying to make sense of it, even though he’d never seen anything like it.

  Whatever it was, it was larger and more awe-inspiring than even Adriana’s keepsake. More amazing than anything he’d ever laid eyes on before.

  Raj couldn’t believe his fortune. His heart knocked as he looked from the object, to the passage where he’d soon crawl back. He needed to bring his find back. But that posed a problem. He couldn’t fit the object in his bag, and he didn’t think he could hide it in his bedroll. What if he brought it back, and someone punished him by confiscating it?

  Raj hesitated.

  His treasure might turn into a community possession.

  Raj took one last, long look at the object. He needed to make a decision. As much as he wanted to bring the object back, he didn’t want to lose it. Following the only other option that made sense, he tucked it carefully back into its crevice. He’d leave it in the cove. When he returned, he’d tell Adriana, and no one else.

  Chapter 19: Darius

  Ambient morning light filtered through the cave entrance as Darius sat up, rubbed his bleary eyes, and looked around. The hundred and fifty people around him looked like cocooned bugs wrapped inside their bedrolls or blankets. Many slept with their heads covered, or their hands instinctively protecting their faces. Few things were worse than waking up to the scurrying feet of a rat, or the scuttling toes of a lizard. Darius knew that better than anyone.

  Those lucky enough to have relatives shored up close to them. Those without relatives stuck close to the torches. It was strange waking up with so many people around, after spending so much time in the caves alone. The twist of fate wasn’t lost on Darius. Spooning some sleep sand from his eyes, he sat up and found his cane.

  Neena, Kai, Raj, and Samel were still in their bedrolls, as were most other people, save the guards at the front and rear of the cave. Rising quietly, Darius picked a path through the sleeping colonists and headed to the entrance, where he could get some air.

  One of the guards, a dark-haired man with a bulbous nose and dirty clothing, Salvador, nodded at him.

  “Good morning, Salvador,” Darius greeted.

  “Morning,” Salvador returned.

  He walked out to the ledge.

  Unlike later in the day, when the weather was hot enough to soak a person’s clothes with sweat, the morning sun was refreshing. Stretching out his weary limbs, Darius enjoyed its rays, thinking of those early moments when he used to do the same thing outside his hovel.

  He looked sideways, along the winding, fifteen-foot wide ledge toward the Center and Left Caves.

  And froze.

  A hundred feet away, two guards stood at the mouth of the Center Cave, but farther down, two hundred feet away, a much larger gathering of people stood at the entrance to the Left Cave. Through the sun’s glare, Darius recognized Bryan, several of his Watchers, and the injured man from yesterday, cradling his broken arm. The Watchers spoke in quiet, conspiratorial circles. Of course, he couldn’t hear them from here.

  Unease swept over Darius. The amicable part of him wanted to head down the cliffs and join them, but instinct warned him against it. He watched them for a while, until his presence caught one man’s attention. That person alerted others. Eventually, Bryan turned his head, piercing Darius with a disdain he could detect, even from here.

  Darius let one hand off of his cane, raising it up in greeting, but Bryan turned away. One by one, the people around him filed back into the Left Cave and out of sight.

  “Not one acknowledged me,” Darius explained to a concerned Neena and Kai, as they chewed their breakfast.

  “Maybe we should go talk to them,” Neena suggested.

  Recalling the angry stare he’d received earlier, Darius said, “I don’t think that would be a good idea—not while The Watcher’s death is so fresh.”

  Neena gave him a pensive look.

  “You heard the warning Bryan gave us yesterday,” Kai agreed. “If we approach them now, we might make things worse.”

  “Maybe after some times has passed, we can talk to them,” Darius suggested. “Until then, we should keep away from the Left Cave. For now.”

  Reluctantly, Neena agreed.

  With their early breakfast finished, they doubled down on their earlier plan, heading out toward the Center Cave where they could speak with Gideon, after verifying that Amos could watch over a sleeping Raj and Samel. The morning sun climbed as they walked along the ledge. Thankfully, the gathering of people Darius had seen in front of the Left Cave earlier was gone. Only a few Watchers remained in front of the Left Cave, keeping watch as usual, while a few guarding colonists stood at the mouth of the Center Cave.

  Approaching the Center Cave, Darius asked the men, “Have The Watchers been keeping an eye out for you?”

  They shook their heads. “Not since before the trip. They’re only guarding their own cave. That’s why we’re out here.”

  Darius nodded grimly as he, Neena, and Kai walked inside. It was the same for their cave.

  They squinted as their eyes adjusted to the new darkness. Everywhere around them, people sat up, chatted, and nursed their flasks. Ed and a few other Center Cavers conversed. Darius, Neena, and Kai walked with purpose in their steps, greeting a few people they knew. From some casual conversation, they gleaned that everyone in the Center Cave had the same report: no one had seen much of The Watchers since the night before. It seemed as though they had given up on their responsibilities.

  They headed down the long tunnel, toward the healer’s coves.

  A nervous silence overtook them, and Darius redirected his energy to the questions he might ask Gideon. He still hoped he might get some of the answers he’d wanted for so long—perhaps even some answers about Akron, though he wasn’t counting on it.

  They slowed at the second cove, which contained Gideon. The guards origi
nally stationed there were gone. Seeing them coming, the healer bustled over to greet them.

  “How is he?” Darius asked, looking past him and into the dimly lit room.

  “He’s been slipping in and out of consciousness,” the healer said, smearing sweat from his brow. “I just fed him breakfast. I haven’t had a chance to shave him yet.”

  “Is he up for speaking?”

  “You can try,” the healer said, looking over his shoulder.

  “We won’t bother him long,” Darius promised.

  “If you need anything, my name is Jameson. I’ll be nearby.”

  “Thank you, Jameson,” Neena said, before shuffling into the humid, foul-smelling room.

  Gideon’s head turned slightly as he saw them approaching, revealing some bits of food stuck to his sprouting beard. His hands hung weakly over the blankets. He furrowed his brow, trying to place the people before him. Rather than walking on opposite sides of him, making him turn his head, they stayed on one edge of his bedroll.

  Easing him into conversation, Darius asked, “How are you feeling?”

  Gideon turned his head, rolling his remaining eye toward Darius. “I’m alive. That’s all I can ask for.”

  Darius nodded, unable to help feeling sympathetic. “We were hoping you could answer some questions for us.”

  Gideon looked between them, wincing in pain. It seemed as if he struggled to recognize them. At the same time, Darius couldn’t tell for certain, because the expressions that he knew so well were hidden beneath his mask of scars.

  “We were hoping you could tell us more about the monster that attacked our colony,” Darius continued.