Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Reprieve

Will couldn’t sleep.  After watching Chleo fall to her possible death, he’d sat in the back of the wagon pleading with Eelock to stop so they could search using every negotiation tactic he knew.  He was ignored.

They continued on the river road until the tangy, charred scent of the Pits hung heavy in the air.  Hints of purple haze grew into a glowing fog swallowing them until they couldn’t see the forest.  Eelock pulled them off the road and parked in a muggy clearing.

Will hadn’t stopped berating them since the cliffs.

“Enough,” Eelock cut into his monologue. “The girls are fine.  They’re camping near the river until morning.  When there’s enough light, they’ll attempt crossing the Steam Pits.”

Will’s eyes widened.  “Wha-”

“Here,” Merk said, reached up to fiddle with his ear.  He mimed unwrapping something and began to pull it out.  For the life of him, Will couldn’t tell what.  The moment Merk’s hand passed the lip of his hood, a device materialized. Will’s mouth dropped.

“How-”

“Just put it in your ear,” he said. “You’ll be able to hear your friend.”

“Chleo,” Will told him, grabbing the twist of gears, too thin tubes, and what looked like the same material as the stangers’ jackets.  He was skeptical but willing to try anything to talk to her.  

“Sure.”  Merk shrugged, indifferent.

Will raised the contraption to his ear.

“Hello?” he yelled.

“Whoa.” 

“Shh.” 

Both men in the wagon swung their heads around searching for movement in the fog.

“Just talk like she’s sitting right next to you.  Why don’t you use Merk as a stand in?  Just talk to him and pretend it’s her,” Eelock said.

“Wait, what?” Merk’s head snapped up from the pack he was rummaging through.  

Eelock smirked.  “Just sit and give your best impression of a seventeenish-year-old girl.”

Grumbling, Merk moved, sitting to face Will.

Looking at the hulking man glowering down at him, Will raised an eyebrow.  “The resemblance is uncanny.”

“Shut it,” the man said his muscles flexing.

Will’s lips quirked as he turned his attention back to the gadget he was holding next to his ear. “Hello?” he repeated, using Eelock’s advice and pretending he was talking to someone as close as Merk.

“Will?” His name rang through device, blasting into his ear.  He jerked the device away.  Merk and Eelock let out soft laughs.  Carefully, he moved it closer.  It sounded like someone was talking in the background.

“Will,” Chleo’s voice spoke again, this time at a normal volume.  He smiled.  At least he wasn’t the only one struggling with the odd gadget.  “Are you ok?”

“Am I ok?” he repeated. “You’re the one who fell off a cliff.”

“Will, I’m fine,” she said softly.  The sound was comforting. “Barely a scratch.”

He let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding.  “Good. Wait, Eelock said something about crossing the Pits.”  He was holding his breath again keeping his face carefully blank.

Silence.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “Dai’s leg, it…  there’s no way we could climb the cliff.  Mic just dropped off supplies.” She sounded as confident as he felt.  “We have a plan.”

“Sure,” he said, making sure to keep the strain out of his voice. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Neither spoke.

“Chleo?”

“Yeah?”

“Just, if there’s another way…”

“There’s not,” she assured.

“Right.”  He took a breath.  “Be safe.”

Will lay sandwiched between the two strangers in the bed of their D.I.M wagon and couldn’t sleep.  The air was sticky with tang and char.  The fog glowed purple, reflecting the nearby Dancing Lava.  Occasionally, they would hear a blast of rock swallowed by a hiss of steam in the distance.  

He turned on his side replaying his conversation with Chleo again.  The words echoed in his ears as a rain of soil pattered back down among the trees from the Pits.

They had a plan.  She would be fine.

~*~*~*~

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Chleo woke from the best sleep of her life.  When Mic’s bird dropped a supply pack off the night before, she was ready to curl up in the grass.  Dai convinced her to wait for the tent and, Chleo’s new favorite thing in Luna, sleeping bags.

She burrowed deeper into the sack.  It moved with her, stretching to cover her neck and part of her chin.  The spongy miracle filling it formed to her back and sides, leaving the rocks and twigs under the tent unnoticed. Chleo smiled.  The Shack’s couch was never this soft… or warm.

The tent flap shook open.

“Good, you’re awake.” Dai’s cheery voice filled the space.  “I have breakfast.”

Already dressed and ready for the day, she held up two fish.  Chleo’s mouth watered.

Grudgingly, she left the sleeping bag and followed a limping Dai out to a pile of glowing coals.  She hesitated.  It had been ages since her last good meal.  Chleo closed her eyes.  She had to tell her.

“We can’t eat those.”  Her voice conveyed her despair.

Dai pursed her lips in confusion, “Why? Is the river polluted?” She glanced up at the haze filtering the morning sun in a light purple.

“No,”  Chleo said, looking guilty. “All wild meat belongs to the king and local manors.  We need permission to fish.”

Dai’s eyes slid over her.  “So that’s why you’re so skinny.  I just thought it was your parents’ cooking.”  

Chleo felt a pang.  The familiar question on a repeat since an overheard conversation behind Joe’s echoed through her head.  Where were her parents?

Dai smiled and threw the fish on the coals. “If the king notices they’re missing, I’ll pay the fee.  It can’t be too much.”

Chleo raised an eyebrow. “They pull a tooth per catch.”

Dai paused and seemed to gage whether or not Chleo was serious.  She laughed, raising a shoulder. “Or I’ll hightail it back to Terra.  Either way, we both need to eat.”

The smell of smoked fish filled the air.  Chleo’s stomach rumbled.  

“You know my parents.”  

Dai fumbled one of the fish out of the coals trying to flip it with a stick.  She glanced at Chleo out of the corner of her eye as she worked it back into place.

“They’re old friends,” she said.

“Do you know where they are?” Chleo asked, straining to keep her voice level.

Dai looked at her.  She seemed to weigh her answer.  “No.” It was a sad, fleeting word sitting on the edge of tragic.  Whoever Chleo’s parents were to her, it was clear she cared.

“But you saw Mom, or at least Mic did.  We overheard him say she was taken.  Was Dad with her?” 

Dai looked surprised. “When did yo-” She let out a short laugh.  “You were at the pub.”

She poked the coals with her stick.  They glowed brighter exhaling more smoke.

“Melody was supposed to leave with us.” She stabbed again forcing some sparks. “Mic saw another crew poach her from Port.  We were looking for Jack to tell him, but the Shack was… empty.  That’s when you showed up.”

Chleo shook her head trying to understand.  She focused on the part she knew wasn’t true.

“No,” she said, refusing to believe her. “Mom would never leave us.”

Dai paused, her stick resting in the heat.  She looked Chleo in the eye.  “She would do anything to protect you.”

Chleo blinked.  Yes… yes, she would.  

Dai returned to the fish, removing them from the smoke.  Chleo tried to collect her thoughts as she watched her pull plates from the pack Mic left.  Poached… like the fish.  Taken from their home never to return.  She shook her head.   

“Why did my parents move to Luna?”

Dai handed her a plate, and sat.  She took a bite before answering, chewing as she studied her.  Chleo’s stomach growled.

“What did they tell you?”

“It was safer.” Chleo squashed her guilt over eating stolen fish, and took a bite.  She couldn’t suppress a moan.  It tasted like Lux Diem.  She missed Will.  Forcing herself to pace her bites, she added, “Is that what she was protecting me from, whatever made them move?”

Dai’s pixie face fell.  It was the first time Chleo didn’t see the hint of a smile on the stranger.  “Partly. It’s…  It’s complicated.”

Chleo took another bite and thought.  Dai clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever had happened.  She looked ill at the mere mention of it.  Maybe it was her past, too.

“Is that who took her?”

Dai paused mid-chew.  She swallowed.  “We don’t know.”  She stood, shoving the rest of the fish in her mouth.  “You eat, I’ll break down camp.” 

Chleo watched her flee, limping toward the tent.

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