Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) - Marissa Meyer Page 0,40
at it openly, though no one shied away as she took another step closer.
“I’m sorry about the dust,” she said, gesturing to the cloud. “But this is an emergency. I need to find someone. A man. This tall, old, wears glasses and a hat. Have any of you—”
“I saw her first!” a girl squealed. She ran out from the crowd, her flip-flops smacking the dirt, and grasped Cinder’s arm. Startled, Cinder tried to pull away, but the girl held firm.
Then there were two boys, not older than nine or ten, emerging from the crowd and arguing over who had seen the ship drop out of the sky, who had seen it land, who had seen the docks open, and who had first spotted the cyborg.
“Step away from Miss Linh, you greedy little vultures.”
Cinder whirled around.
Dr. Erland was striding toward them, though she almost didn’t recognize him. Barefoot and hatless, he wore a pair of khaki shorts and a striped shirt that hung lopsided, as he’d missed a buttonhole and the rest of the buttons were all wrong. His gray hair stuck out along his bald spot like he’d recently been electrocuted.
None of that mattered. She’d found him.
“I suppose you can all share the prize for finding her, even though the deal was to bring her to me, not make me come all the way down here in this center-of-the-sun heat.” He pulled a bag of gummy candies from his pocket and held it up over the children’s heads, forcing them to promise to share before he handed it over. They snatched it and ran away squealing.
The rest of the townspeople remained where they were.
Dr. Erland planted his hands on his hips and glared up at Cinder. “You have much explaining to do. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you, watching the—”
“I need your help!” she said, stumbling toward him. “My friend … he’s dying … he needs a doctor … I don’t know what to do.”
He scowled, then his attention caught on something over Cinder’s shoulder. The Lunar guard emerged at the edge of the ship, shirtless and covered in blood and straining to support Wolf’s body.
“What—he’s—”
“A Lunar guard,” said Cinder. “And Wolf is one of her soldiers. It’s a long story, and I’ll explain later, but can you help him? He was shot twice, he’s lost a lot of blood.…”
Dr. Erland raised an eyebrow. Cinder could tell he wasn’t at all thrilled with the company she was keeping.
“Please.”
Harrumphing, he gestured at some of the onlookers and called out a few names. Three men stepped forward. “Bring him to the hotel,” he said. “Gently.” With a sigh, he set about redoing the buttons on his shirt. “Follow me, Miss Linh. You can help prepare the tools.”
Fifteen
“I suppose it’s too much to hope that we landed ourselves near any sort of civilization,” Thorne said, tilting his head to one side.
Cress picked her way through the debris to the nearest window. “I’m not sure we want to be near civilization. You’re a wanted criminal in three Earthen countries, and one of the most recognizable men on Earth.”
“I am pretty famous now, aren’t I?” Grinning, he waved a hand at her. “I guess it doesn’t matter what we want. What do you see out there?”
Standing on tiptoes, Cress peered into the brightness. As her eyes adjusted to the glare, they widened, trying to take it all in.
All at once, it dawned on her. She was on Earth. On Earth.
She’d seen pictures, of course. Thousands and thousands of photographs and vids—cities and lakes and forests and mountains, every landscape imaginable. But she had never thought the sky could be so impossibly blue, or that the land could hold so many hues of gold, or could glitter like a sea of diamonds, or could roll and swell like a breathing creature.
For one moment, the reality of it all poured into her body and overflowed.
“Cress?”
“It’s beautiful out there.”
A hesitation, before, “Could you be more specific?”
“The sky is this gorgeous, intense blue color.” She pressed her fingers to the glass and traced the wavy hills on the horizon.
“Oh, good. You’ve really narrowed it down for me.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just…” She tried to stamp down the rush of emotion. “I think we’re in a desert.”
“Cactuses and tumbleweeds?”
“No. Just a lot of sand. It’s kind of orangish-gold, with hints of pink, and I can see tiny clouds of it floating above the ground, like … like smoke.”