A Girl From Nowhere (The Firewall Trilogy #1) - James Maxwell Page 0,105
Protector wants you to fear those who live outside this city. He raids the Rift Valley and provokes conflict. The invasion he warns you about is part of his plan. As long as you are afraid, he remains in power.”
“Give us blood!” a well-dressed older man shouted from the upper tiers.
But the roughly dressed laborers in the crowd, the poorer and skinnier people, weren’t calling for blood. They were listening.
Taimin knew that any change in the city had to come from them. “When I first came here, I thought Zorn was a place of hatred. But looking at your faces, I can see that isn’t true. You know as well as I do that humans can’t survive as one race against all others.” He thrust out an arm to point at Rathis. “He and his kind mean us no harm. I am not speaking to the commander up there, I am speaking to you. Out in the wasteland, people tell stories of the incredible white city. A haven. A place of peace. You can make the stories true.”
Meanwhile Rathis called out imploringly. “Fight me, Taimin,” he hissed. “Live!”
Taimin spied movement and looked along the perimeter fence to see that in addition to the prison guards, dozens of Galen’s uniformed soldiers stood on the other side.
One of the soldiers stepped up to the fence and called out, “Prisoner, you must fight.”
“No!” Taimin pointed his sword at the soldier. “I will not.”
He threw down his sword. The gesture was unmistakable.
As soon as he did it, the gate in the fence crashed open. The soldiers in crimson uniforms poured through. While the crowd watched in horror, the vicious beating began.
29
Selena explored the Rift Valley. Speeding from place to place, flying as fast as thought, she searched a landscape filled with wrinkles, like the palm of a hand held up for close inspection. She traveled over deep ravines and wide valleys, always casting with a power that wasn’t hers to control.
She knew that back in the tower her body sat erect in the hard-backed wooden chair, and that the young woman’s eyes were glazed and unfocused. Her consciousness was here, separated from the city by a journey that would take days on foot. Arren and Merin directed her attention. Their constant presence would be with her until fatigue meant she couldn’t farcast anymore.
She scanned the terrain and looked for movement. Her vision swept over the rust-colored rock and paused as she focused on the occasional hardy cactus or spindly tree. No matter what she found—warriors or innocents, young or old—when Arren and Merin reported back, the city guard would venture into the wasteland, and bloodshed would follow.
The mountains loomed overhead. Areas that Selena had explored previously were becoming familiar. She was made to descend. What came next would be hours of searching the individual seams of the Rift Valley.
Arren and Merin had now become accustomed to their role. They even allowed her to communicate with them. But if she protested, they caused her pain, or prevented her from re-entering her body for a time as punishment.
As she descended into a wide gully with a dried riverbed along its base, she tried to think of a way to fight back. How did Arren and Merin know how to control her the way they did? Perhaps they had a teacher, someone with even more power.
Someone who might be able to help her.
She ventured a question. Who taught you to do this? She mentally held her breath but Merin seemed happy enough to answer.
Arren and I were lucky. We met as children and learned that what we lacked in other areas, we made up for with our shared talent. We have practiced on each other over many years. Everything that we do to you, we have also done to each other, many times over.
Enough, Arren said. We have work to do.
The search continued.
Hours passed as Selena explored the mazelike chasms of the Rift Valley. As always, Arren and Merin discussed places to search in dry, dispassionate tones.
Should we look closer to the mountains? Arren asked.
When Merin agreed, Selena was made to travel to the base of the peaks, where previously she had found both mantoreans and skalen.
Nothing here either. Where are they?
Back to the canyon?
Even as she was directed back to the Rift Valley, Selena felt fatigue like a crushing weight on her senses. She knew that her body in the tower would be tensed with hands formed into fists. When she returned, she would feel wretched.