Meadowcity Read online

  Above them, two sharp bursts of light and sound marked the beginning of the celebration. Without thought, Sorin turned and took her face in his other hand and kissed her. Her smooth lips pressed against his as he just as suddenly pulled away.

  She opened her eyes and Sorin could see the bright white fireworks reflected there, the cheers of the crowd behind them and the sound of more neighborhood fireworks filled his ears.

  The book could wait until tomorrow.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ven had stood watch over Sylvia and Flint as the sun rose through the pine forest. When Sylvia woke, she could see it hanging between the trees, spreading its light through the green needles.

  From her pine needle bed, she laced her fingers above her head and stretched, sending her toes down past the edge of her deerskin blanket. She reached out and then back in, bending forward to sit up. After rubbing her calves and returning her boots to her feet, she rose and began to ready herself for another day of journeying.

  The smell of roast meat wafted to her and she realized Ven had started a fire and apparently cooked the rabbit they had caught last night.

  Ven crouched by the tiny fire—only embers now—and grinned.

  “Breakfast,” he gestured to three big green leaves each holding an equal portion of the rabbit meat.

  Sylvia’s stomach rumbled. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten—especially anything but the heavy brown bread she had in her pack. Flint reached over and grabbed the nearest rabbit-leaf parcel. Ven stood and brought one to Sylvia, as he bit into his own portion of meat.

  Flint ate a bite of rabbit with a satisfied moan then began rummaging in his pack. He took out the tiny canister of burn cream, and began to carefully apply it to his face with his finger as he chewed. Sylvia couldn’t help but notice that the wound looked rather better than when they had first met.

  “That’s looking better,” she said, picking a piece of meat out of her leaf and eating it.

  Flint met her eyes and his fingers paused briefly at his face.

  “It is?”

  Sylvia nodded. She reached into her pack for her water canister. It was nearly empty, since they last filled their canisters at the river.

  “Must be some potent cream then,” he wiped his fingers on the edge of his dark colored top and closed the lid of the canister. “I got a good look at my face before we left, it didn’t look too pretty.”

  “Caylee’s a good Healer,” Ven said, shrugging. Ven silently offered Sylvia his water canister when he saw her finish hers off. She shook her head. He couldn’t have much left either.

  “Oh right, I forgot she was your girlfriend,” Flint grinned mischievously.

  “All right, no more rabbit for you,” Ven smirked and lunged for Flint’s leaf.

  Flint rocked backwards to keep it out of Ven’s reach. They both chuckled as Ven relaxed back to his seat.

  “Fine, you can have it—but you get first watch tonight.”

  “Done. I haven’t had any yet and I imagine they’re thrilling,” he waggled his eyebrows at Sylvia.

  She just snorted and shook her head with a smile.

  The rabbit in her belly filled her with content, and she began mapping today’s route in her head, idly drawing her fingers through the pine needles near her feet as she thought.

  She guessed that they still had about two full days of traveling left until they reached Riftcity. However, that didn’t count how much time it would take to find Flint’s hidden passageway in the woods. Sylvia was hoping that between the three of them, they could locate it quickly—Ven and Sylvia were trained in studying the contours of the land, and Flint had actually seen the place.

  They decided that they would keep up last night’s routine from now on and keep moving at night, taking two short sleeping shifts. It seemed the best plan to follow—the sooner they got to Riftcity, the better. Sylvia knew Flint was keen on finding his sister, but the danger of the hunters in the woods was making Sylvia anxious to finish their task. The sooner they got back to Meadowcity, the better.

  Sylvia led them on no real path, and she had to constantly stay focused on where they were going. Normally she didn’t have to plan out each step she took, but this time she was forging her own path, and remaining hidden was imperative to their survival. She took point from now on, and let Ven follow from the back, keeping his eyes trained on the forest around them for signs of wolves or lions—or people and lions.

  The location of the sun in the sky was Sylvia’s only guide. She was much less worried about the natural predators in the woods now than she was about the humans. They walked in a jagged line, all of them still anxious that the hunters were following them. The best part was that Flint had finally stopped complaining, for the most part.

  All day they trudged on through the old pine forest, their feet silently but steadily treading across the dusky colored pine needles. They walked on through mid-day, only stopping for a brief moment when they found a stream. They all drank as much water as they could and filled their canisters to the brim. Sylvia finally felt like they were making good progress again.

  When it came time to rest for the dusk, Flint took first watch and let Sylvia and Ven sleep. Sylvia gave Flint her knife, and Ven handed over his bow.

  When Flint woke her after sunset, Sylvia silently took back her knife and readied herself for another night’s walk. Leaving the long knife unsheathed, she threw on her pack and began walking.

  Wordlessly they all trudged on through the night, and Sylvia imagined what Ven and Flint were thinking about as they followed her through the darkened wood. Flint would be thinking about his sister Ember. Sylvia really hoped the girl was alright, as it sounded like she was the only family he had now.

  Ven’s family must be worried like mad. By now, all of Meadowcity would know about the lockdown, and there would be rumors flying over the cause.

  The council would be deliberating over the threat. Sylvia imagined them studying the letter, trying to determine Greyling’s meaning.

  And what was his meaning? Why was he doing this? She didn’t envy Gero the task of working with the council to come up with an answer.

  *

  The next day was their last on the road, and found Sylvia, Ven and Flint walking west looking for the stream that would mark their proximity to Riftcity. After Ven and Flint slept at dawn, they had made a steady pace all day, covering a lot of ground, and were getting close now, Sylvia thought.

  The old pines were gone now, and above them swayed the branches of full leafed oak trees. Their leaves were a deep green, and would stay that way until Summer’s End, when they would start to turn magnificent shades of orange, yellow and red.

  Normally, Summer’s End was Sylvia’s favorite holiday, but with the prospect of an attack from Skycity, she didn’t know if Meadowcity would even be able to celebrate. She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to celebrate or set off fireworks in the face of war.

  They wove through the trees, sometimes getting caught up in the brush that blocked their way now and again. Sylvia had to hack away a few bushes with her long knife so they could pass. Once they found the stream, Sylvia would be able to guide them to the city. It would lead them all the way up to Riftcity’s outlying forest—right where they could start searching for the tunnel. They were coming from the south, which would let them avoid being spotted by the gate.

  Sylvia, Ven and Flint hiked on. Eyes on the sky, Sylvia watched the sun’s descent as they continued west.

  Mid-day found Sylvia and Ven hacking away at some thick brush with their knives, tiredly trying to forge a path. As they finally cut through a particularly twisted section of thicket, Sylvia saw a tiny stream just as she was about to step into it.

  Ven grabbed her arm and she caught herself, shifting her weight backwards.

  “Woah, hey, the stream!” Flint said from behind them, bending the green branches aside.

  Ven let go of Sylvia as she gained her balance. She leapt over the strea
m easily onto the other moss-covered side.

  Ven and Flint followed her, and they all stopped to refill their water. Sylvia didn’t know exactly how far it would be to Riftcity, but at least it was a straight shot now.

  “Why don’t we stop for a bit?” she asked.

  Ven and Flint nodded eagerly, sitting down on the mossy bank and immediately opening their packs.

  “How far until Riftcity?” Ven asked.

  Sylvia shook her head. “Probably a day. I’ve never been this far south before, but this stream will lead us there.”

  “Wish I knew more about Arcera,” Flint said, taking a bite out of some bread. “I only really remember the history lessons, not geography.”

  Sylvia shrugged. She hadn’t learned much about geography in lessons either—all of what she knew she had learned from her father.

  “We really only learned Meadowcity history too,” Ven said, leaning into the stream to fill his water canister again.

  Sylvia had spent most of her school days staring out the window of the small school building, dreaming up adventures that her father might be on.

  He was one of the most prominent Riders of the time, and was greatly revered for his skill at the trail. He knew shortcuts no one else knew, and he always came away from skirmishes unscathed.

  When Lark was traveling, Sylvia longed for him to return just about as much as her mother did. His absence from the majority of her childhood was nothing compared to the time he actually spent at home. Sylvia prized every moment he was there. These days, she sometimes envied Sonia for getting to spend so much time with him, now that Sylvia was always on the road.

  When she was young, Sylvia would start pestering her father with questions about his journey as soon as he would walk in the door. One day he had jokingly put a rule in place that he must sit down and eat dinner before Sylvia was allowed to ask any questions. At the time she was about Sonia’s age, so she had taken him seriously and would hold her tongue until dinnertime was over.

  “The Cities are basically a misshapen square,” Sylvia said, poking holes in the moss in front of her crossed legs.

  “Skycity and Lightcity are up here, and Riftcity and Meadowcity are down here. Everything in between, you have to figure out yourself,” she grinned. “Can’t go giving away all of my Rider secrets to you two.”

  The land in between was like a puzzle. There were huge forests and valleys to cross, and sometimes wide plains. Giant stones scattered some areas, haphazardly, or sometimes running in long lines. Sylvia gathered that they were old walls, and they were always eerie places place to travel by.

  But the forests used to be a place where Sylvia felt at home—always moving from one place to the next—even if they were filled with predators. But now they held a danger she didn’t understand.

  *

  “Time to stop?” Flint asked, his eyes eagerly roving over the woods around them.

  “Last stop before Riftcity,” Sylvia said. They had been following the stream north all day, and dusk was fast approaching.

  They had found a clearing a little way off from the stream, and Sylvia set her pack down by a tall maple tree.

  Flint crossed the clearing and claimed a spot by a fallen tree, tossing his pack down and sitting on the tree to stretch out his legs.

  “Is it me or you first watch?” he asked Ven.

  Ven set his pack down next to a nearby tree, “Me.”

  “Yes,” Flint hissed under his breath, grinning at Sylvia. She had second.

  “We going anywhere tonight?” Ven asked.

  Sylvia thought for a minute as she reached for her pack and untied her deerskin blanket.

  “I don’t think we should, or need to really. We’re close enough now.”

  She didn’t particularly like walking at night. It was much harder to see if anything—or anyone—was sneaking up on them.

  Ven shrugged, “We probably won’t find the tunnel entrance in the dark either.”

  “Why don’t we do three watches then?” Sylvia said, hiding a grin as Flint groaned from his log.

  “I’ll still take first,” Ven leaned over to Flint, as if doing him a favor.

  “I’ll go last, unless you want to Flint?”

  He groaned again, fully resigning to the fact that he wasn’t going to get a full night’s sleep anymore.

  “Nah, you can do it.”

  Sylvia pulled her long knife from the sheath in her boot.

  “I’m going to go scout the area then. This close to Riftcity, we need to be careful.”

  She headed back to the moss by the stream and walked up it for a minute or two. The stream babbled happily on her right until she turned to begin a circle around the campsite.

  As she paced out the wide perimeter, she studied the forest around them, looking for signs of the lions, or other people in the area. She completed her circle without seeing any tracks or signs on the surrounding trees. Lions like to sharpen their claws by raking them down tree trunks. She hoped they would have a quiet night. They all needed it.

  She returned to the campsite and Flint caught her eye and asked, “All clear?”

  “No, I’ve got two lions tracking me down, I thought I’d bring them back to camp,” she joked, sitting down at the base of her tree and stretching her legs out.

  Ven laughed and Flint shrugged, chuckling sheepishly.

  Sylvia took her knife and thrust it down into the ground next to her as she sat. She reached into her pack for something to eat, coming up with another breadloaf. She bit into it, tilting her head back to rest on the tree, chewing.

  The woods were bathed in the orange light of the setting sun, and the air crisp and clean. Arcera was beautiful when you stopped to look at it, but lately it was turning dark and threatening. Sylvia hoped they would all live to celebrate Summer’s End.

  At that happy thought, her head perked up as she suddenly remembered she had an apple in her pack. She had been saving it, and now seemed like the perfect time. It was the calm before the storm, and she didn’t know if she would get to eat it any other time.

  She stuck her hand in her pack to dig for the prized apple. Retrieving it with a grin, she bit into it loudly.

  Both Flint and Ven looked up at the sound.

  “What?” she said, mouth full.

  Ven grinned, “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I’ve been saving it,” she said defensively after she swallowed.

  “Hey, if you don’t want to share…” Ven held up his hands.

  Sylvia sighed. Yanking her knife out of the dirt and wiping it off on her leg, she then sliced off a piece for Ven and tossed it to him. She raised her eyebrows at Flint indicating the apple in her hands. He smiled at her and nodded, eyes wide. Reluctantly she sliced off another piece.

  Stabbing the knife back in the ground with a little more force than necessary, Sylvia bit back into her apple, much smaller than when she had started.

  “We don’t grow apples in Riftcity,” Flint said, taking a small, precise bite out of his apple. “I had one once when a Rider came back with some to trade though.”

  Sylvia remembered vaguely that they grew lots of vegetables in Riftcity, but not a lot of fruit. Something about the soil they had there. Not to mention it was probably hard to grow trees on the cliff face.

  Meadowcity’s farming quarter housed the bulk of food and grains for the city. Each villa also grew a portion of their own food, and very often traded with their neighbors. Sylvia’s family traded for apples from their neighbors, the Charwoods.

  Sylvia had never gotten a close look at how Riftcity produced their food; Ven was obviously wondering the same thing when he asked Flint, “So how do you…grow—anything?”

  Flint chuckled.

  “Same as you, I suppose.”

  Ven just looked puzzled.

  “In the ground, I mean.”

  “Above Riftcity?”

  “No way, we never go up there. The lions are vicious out there; they actually c
ome right up to the edge of the cliff sometimes. The farming level is down below everything else. It was designed way after the city was first built—they didn’t have to grow as much food as we do now.”

  “It’s the lowest part of the city, so we have these reflective glass panels angled down—” Flint illustrated with his hands, “—to give the plants light. Below the Staircase the farming level keeps going down, but with these really big ‘steps’. I don’t really know how they do it, but I know the farmers are always experimenting with the soil—it’s too rocky. But we manage.”

  Sylvia and Ven thought about it for several minutes as they finished their pieces of apple.

  “So. Tomorrow we’ll make it to Riftcity,” Sylvia said. “I think before we go looking up and down for the opening to the tunnel, I want to get as close as we can to the city and get a good look at what’s going on.”

  Flint and Ven both nodded.

  “Can we stay at the edge and get a look at the gate and the city, do you think?” she asked.

  “We’re coming up from the south?” Flint asked.

  Sylvia nodded.

  “Yeah, that should work. There’s a clearing between the edge and the woods though, so we’ll have to make sure we come out far from the gatehouse and creep up. We’ll be able to see the city from the edge—but everything’s about two hundred feet down.”

  Ven shuddered.

  “It’s weird planning how to break into your own city,” Flint said suddenly.

  Sylvia met his eyes and looked away. Ven shifted uncomfortably, while Flint stared at his boots.

  “Sorry,” he muttered.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ven said. “None of us have any clue what’s going on—we’ll just have to find out is all.”

  Flint clapped his hands together and said, “Well, I better get to sleep if I’ve got a watch to do later.”

  He gave a lopsided grin to Ven and Sylvia and settled himself onto the ground, wedging himself right up to the log.

  Sylvia looked at Ven and half shrugged. Sylvia stood and handed him her knife in what was now routine. She untied her spear from her pack and all but cuddled up with it at the base of her tree.