In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death (Shadows of Death Book 1) (13 page)

“What about last night?” Tristian asked, dropping all pretense.

Nodding his head, he said, “Good, it’s better if we don’t pretend. I believe what you said last night is true and that’s the problem.” Holding up his hand, he continued. “Our current government is very much intertwined with the city’s. It has, how shall we say, greatly expanded their personal wealth.” Watching our faces, he continued. “It’s exactly what you are thinking.”

“So what do you want us to do, leave?” I asked, already making a list of what to take in my head.

Shaking his head, he said, “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an option at the moment. Marcus who was at dinner last night is deeply intertwined financially with the city and will be reporting what you said. If you tried to leave now, you would be hunted and disposed of.”

Closing my eyes in defeat, I knew I had done this. If anything happened to Tristian it would be my fault. “Why are you telling us this? Wouldn’t it just be easier for you to kill us if we didn’t know it was coming?”

Leaning forward, he said, “Because I have no intention of killing you. In fact I spent all of last night trying to figure out how to keep the two of you alive.”

Opening my eyes, I looked at him and saw he truly believed what he was saying, but why? Beating me to the question, Tristian warily asked, “Why would you risk your life for ours, if we’re not your people?”

“I would risk my life for yours because you and Misty are more my people than the government I serve,” he said, seeing our disbelieving looks. “While I am not a historian, I do know our history and the thing I have noticed the most is that it tends to repeat itself. I’m not alone in being unhappy with the current government and its ties to the City to the West. While it’s been many generations since we were forced into the darkness of the caves, our Elders make sure that each generation remembers who put us down there and why it was done. They make sure that we remember that the old government would have rather seen us dead than free. When the representatives from the City to the West come here, they bring their servants and the Elders are quick to remind us that that could easily be us.” Taking a drink from the glass in front of him, he rubbed its side, staring in at the contents before continuing. “In the last hundred years, our government has begun to slowly instituting laws that take the people’s power away and restrict what is taught within the schools. It’s my fear that if something is not done soon it will be as it was before the cleansing. I believe that the City to the West currently controls our officials through their greed and is just waiting for the right moment to strike and seize full control. Their spies are everywhere.”

Taking a deep breath, I looked to Tristian––this I could understand. I could understand his willingness to help and trust complete strangers if it meant that his people would be free. Reaching out, I clasped Tristian’s hand before turning back to Johnathon. “What do you want us to do?”

The relief in his eyes was easy to see. “Pack your things, we’re going to leave here and move you to a safer place. They could make you disappear from here and no one will know, but where I’m taking you, if they tried to harm you there would be rioting in the streets. Your best chance at survival is to make friends fast.”

Great, the one thing I’m not good at. Getting up from the table, I hurried into the other room, grabbing our bags and an extra one that I stuffed full of clothing. It’s probably best if we blend in. It should make it harder for them to find us. Coming out of the bedroom, I met them by the door. Taking his bag, we waited as Johnathon checked the hall before motioning for us to come out. Moving away down the hall, we just made it inside the stairwell when soldiers began exiting the elevator. Quickly we raced down the stairs and out the back exit to Johnathon’s waiting vehicle. Climbing in the back, we hunched down so we wouldn’t be seen.

It took several hours to reach our destination. I don’t know if that is because it was that far away or because of all the twists and turns we seemed to take. By the time the vehicle stopped, I was stiff from not moving. Getting out, Johnathon came and opened the back door, motioning for us to join him. When we stepped from the vehicle I was surprised to see where we were, not hidden away in some far-off home but in a large village.

Seeing the look on my face, Johnathon smiled at me. “Not what you expected?” Dumbly, I shook my head. “Come on, there are some people I’d like you to meet.”

Grabbing my hand, Tristian kept me slightly behind him as he sharply watched our surroundings. Stepping through the doorway of a large building, I blinked to adjust to the dim light. Discreetly placing my hand on the knife that I had hidden at my side, I stepped closer into Tristian’s side as the people in the room turned to stare at us.

“Johnathon, what are you doing here?” said a rusty voice to our right that belonged to the oldest man I had ever seen. His body was slightly bent, his beard and hair completely white.

“It’s nice to see you, too, Victor,” Johnathon smirked, going over to shake his hand.

Completely ignoring the outstretched hand, the old man pulled himself up using a piece of wood as a crutch and hobbled over to me. “Who are you?” he grouched, pulling a smile to my lips. Reaching out my hand, I brought it toward his face, fascinated, wanting to see if his skin was as rough as it looked. Before my finger could touch him, he said, “Hey there girl, what are you doing?” and slapped my hand down.

Blushing horribly, I stuttered, “I’m sorry, it’s just I have never see anyone as old as you. I’m sorry,” I ducked my head, not knowing what else to say.

Off behind him, a voice called out. “Now I know you’re getting old, Victor, slapping that pretty young girl’s hand away. You come over here darling, you can touch anything you want.” The voice quipped, causing the whole room to break out in laughter.

“You go letting pretty young girls touch you, Jackson, and Maureen is gonna be chasing you around the house with her frying pan,” Victor snorted, causing another round of laughter.

“Now girl, you come sit with me, I’ll be protecting you from those dirty old men.” Peeking up through my lashes, I saw Johnathon smiling, motioning with his head for me to follow Victor. Turning to Tristian, I saw a small smile on his face and his hand went to my back, pushing me forward. Slowly following, I listened as he muttered, “As if those old dogs would know what to do with a young thing like her. Young enough to be their granddaughter she is. They’ll be lucky if I don’t make a round and be talking to their wives.” He continued to mutter like this all the way to his seat. Dropping down to his chair with a groan, he waved his stick at the chair next to him. “Come on girl, sit down. You better not be expecting for me to stand and hold it out for you. If that’s what you’re waiting for, best look to those two boys.”

Wide-eyed, I moved quickly to the seat and sat down, earning a smile from the crusty old man. Squinting at me, he said, “Now girl, best you explain yourself.” Staring at him, not knowing what to say, he shook his head at my silence. “Why did you try and poke me in the face?”

Shaking my head, I said, “No, no, I wasn’t trying to poke you, I just wanted to see what your skin felt like. I’ve never seen someone as old as you and I wanted to know if it felt the same as mine.” I fretted, my words tumbling out, horrified that he would think that I would try to hurt him.

Blinking at me, he looked at me like I was some strange creature. “What do you mean you’ve never seen someone as old as me?”

Pushing my hair behind my ear, I said, “The oldest person I’ve ever seen was in their forties, I’ve never seen someone as old as you before.” I was embarrassed, as everyone seemed to be hanging on our every word.

If it was possible he looked at me even more strangely. Luckily, before Victor could ask me anything else, Johnathon spoke up. “She’s telling the truth, Victor. Where she comes from, most people are put to death in their twenty-first year.”

Total silence met with his announcement as every eye stared at me in shock. For long minutes not a sound was heard until Victor asked, “Where do you come from, girl?”

“We,” I began, looking to Tristian, “come from the caverns below the city.”

“We all came from the caverns at one point, child. Are you saying you live in the Stone City in the caverns? But that can’t be right, they don’t put people to death for turning twenty-one,” he said worriedly, looking to Johnathon like he was afraid that they did.

“No, we come from the caverns ruled by the City to the West. We’ve been kept as their slaves since the great cleansing. Until we escaped, we thought that the land above the ground was destroyed and could no longer sustain life,” I quickly said, wanting to calm him, but my words only seemed to make him more upset.

“I told you that those bastards were hiding something,” he yelled, waving his stick at Johnathon, “but I never thought it be something as bad as this.”

Grabbing the stick, Johnathon pulled it out of Victor’s hand, and set it down. “Unfortunately, that’s not the worst thing that they’re doing to their people.”

“What worst thing could they be doing to those people? They have them trapped down there, keeping them as slaves. Killing them when they reach twenty-one. What more could they be doing to those people?” he demanded loudly enough that I think they heard him outside. Looking to me, he grabbed my arm, “What more are they doing to your people, girl?”

Looking to Tristian as Victor shook me, I heard Tristian say, “Let her go now,” barely containing his anger.

Shocked, Victor quickly released my arm before turning his attention to Tristian. “Well than boy, you had best be telling me what they are doing to your people,” he growled, his voice just as mean as Tristian’s.

Going down on his haunches until he was eye level with Victor, he said, “First, my name is not boy, it’s Tristian. Second, her name is not girl, it’s Misty. Now you want to know what they do to my people during their twenty-first year? Well, I’ll tell you. They round us up for a lottery and we all have to journey to a place called the Cavern of Death. Once we’re there, one hundred lottery winners are chosen who won’t have to enter and are allowed to age though they rarely last into true old age. The unlucky ones who don’t win are sent into the Cavern of Death to die––or so we thought. What we learned before we escaped was at the beginning of our time within the caverns there was a disease that killed all the animals. Well, this put our government in a food-source shortage that they were able to rectify by saying that the Cavern of Death was a form of population control.” Watching the old man’s face as what Tristian was saying began to sink in, I put my hand on his arm, wanting to stop him. Shaking my hand off of his arm, he turned a hard look to me, telling me without words to remain silent before gluing his eyes back to Victor’s. “Once we reached the surface and heard shots coming from the direction of the city, we figured that all are not used for food for the Loyalist, but some are taken as slaves to work for them as well. Now, old man, do you understand what they do to our people?” He hissed, before rising and stepping back.

Retching sounds and soft weeping could be heard in the aftermath of his speech. Even Johnathon, who already knew, looked green from Tristian’s telling. Standing up, I moved into Tristian’s side, letting my fingers graze his, the stiffness of his body telling me he would allow nothing else.

“They need sanctuary. There are many within the government, both theirs and ours, that will not want their truths to be known,” Johnathon stated, looking at Victor’s still dazed face.

“Yes,” he weakly said before clearing his throat. In a stronger voice, he continued. “Yes, they can have sanctuary among us. Cullen, call a meeting of the council for tonight,” he said, as, a man stepped from the shadows who I hadn’t noticed before.

“Victor, Johnathon should get back, we don’t want there to be any suspicion that he helped them escape,” the shadow man said before leaving.

“He’s right, Johnathon, go, we’ll take care of these two,” said Victor. Nodding his head, Johnathon turned and left without a word.

Focusing his attention back on us, Victor said, “Would you like to rest or”––stopping a moment taking a breath––“or would you like to eat?” he asked, looking nauseas at the words.

“I think it’s best if we rest,” Tristian answered, still tight with anger.

With a wave of his hand, a middle-aged woman stepped forward. “Karen give them a room upstairs so they can rest. I have a feeling that they’ll need all that they can get,” he said.

Following the woman through the room, I was careful to keep my gaze straight ahead, not wanting to see the looks the other people wore. The woman led us up through the stairs several floors before stopping and letting us into a large room. With a small bow of her head, she turned and left. Walking into the room I let my bags fall to the floor. Moving to the window, I stood to the side and looked out, everything seemed to be as it was when we arrived. There was no angry mob pointing to our window, screaming “monsters.” Turning to look at Tristian, I saw that he was sitting on the bed with his head bowed into his hands, his anger still showing through the rigidness of his body.

Slipping off my shoes, I walked on silent feet until I was in front of him. Going to my knees, I sat in front of him, waiting patiently for him to acknowledge me. The tick of the clock sounded the minutes that passed and still he just sat there like stone. A darkness spread out from him that had never been there before. The past and every dark memory enveloped him. Leaning myself forward, I moved toward him, tentatively reaching out my hands. Like a snake, he struck, shackling my wrists, pulling me into him until our faces where inches apart. I didn’t recognize the person that looked at me from the face I had known all my life, instead of my friend, something dangerous stared at me. Hard lips crashed into mine, dominating me as I was pulled tighter into his body. Releasing my wrists that were now pressed between our bodies, his hand dug into my hair, tilting my head to his will. Circling my throat with his free hand, he squeezed, causing me to gasp, giving him access to plunder my mouth.