Barren Sky, page 19
Dia spat and stood up, but several Venganza warriors emerged from the darkness, surrounding the campsite.
“I shot the flare this morning. What took you so long?” Mel asked Shiva.
“I had other business.”
The pilot shrugged and continued eating his cakes.
“Can I see your log?” Shiva asked.
Mel reached behind his back and grabbed a leather-bound journal. He flipped through the pages and pointed at the right side.
“Here,” he said. “I made some last-minute calculations based on estimated wind speed. I think I can get this baby up tomorrow or the day after.”
“And the flight plan is here? Everything you need to do to get airborn, right?”
“That’s right. A good pilot is detail-oriented. Documents everything. You gotta make sure anyone could fly the craft in case something happened to the pilot.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Mel’s eyes went wide, the air filling with the bitter tang of copper. The man fell forward, just missing the fire. He writhed for several seconds and then stopped moving, the blade of a knife buried in his back to the hilt.
Dia stood up and Shiva laughed.
“Sit down.”
The Venganza warriors pushed her down.
“He was a maniac. You and I both know it. I can put that balloon to better use.”
“You’re going to fly it back to Erehwon?”
“No. Of course not. I don’t know about flying. I’d be lucky if I could get us to the other side of the bay.”
Dia cocked her head and looked at Shiva, waiting till she spoke again.
“You are.”
Chapter 42
Shiva’s warriors had dragged Mel’s body into the forest, hastily burying it to keep the wolves at bay for several days. They’d then be back and digging up the shallow grave in search of whatever food they could find.
Dia hadn’t slept much that night, and Shiva hadn’t said much else. The girl had dreams of flying over the Rocky Mountains, looking down at the majestic white peaks like a soaring eagle. She had startled from sleep, rolling over to see the Venganza warriors watching her, then fallen back asleep.
The morning slid into afternoon and, by the time the sun had chased the fog away, Shiva and her soldiers had led Dia up a path that wound through the foothills that sat hovering over the bay. When they reached the top, Dia realized that it was the same overlook she’d stood upon when she’d first arrived in the California territory—the exact spot where she’d gazed upon the Pacific with the wonder of a child. The deep blue waters and the silver-tinted ruins looked the same, but Dia felt a pit in her stomach this time, but of dread rather than awe.
“I can’t fly a balloon.”
“The only man who could is dead. That means you’re just as qualified as anyone else.”
Dia shook her head. “Then why did you kill him?”
“Because there is only room and supplies for one, maybe two. And now that I have his flight plan, there’s no need for the pilot. I’ll navigate, and you’ll fly the craft. I’ve already sent my warriors back to Erehwon.”
Had the leader of Venganza finally lost her mind? She had killed the man who had spent months, maybe years, preparing to float across the continent on the jet stream. The man who had repaired and prepared the balloon, and who had presumably had experience flying one before, although Dia had no way of knowing for sure if that was true. At the very least, he had known much more about ballooning than either of them did.
“Listen,” Shiva said as her warriors stood behind them on the ridge, preparing for the trip east. “I’m sick and tired of chasing you. Looking for you in the ruins or trying to threaten, negotiate, or coerce you into doing what I need you to do. If you want to save the women of Erehwon, you’ll work with me. You’ll take me to the journal so we can secure it for the flight home. Once we land back in Ohio, you’ll use the technology to build us a plant like the one that they operated on the island.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll die.” Shiva paused. “I don’t want to kill you—”
“Because the journal will be lost forever.”
“Yes, true. But I honestly don’t want to kill you. I want to work with you. I’m getting older. I won’t be the leader of the clan forever, and when there is a challenge to my leadership, I want it to be you. You’re empathic, smart, and strong. When the time comes, you’ll be the perfect woman to save the Venganza and take us into the future. Don’t you see? You can hate me for who I am and what I’ve done. You can despise me for whatever reasons Hado explained to you. But nothing matters in this world anymore except results. Either you’re alive or you’re dead. You’re either protecting and building a clan or destroying one. You have the opportunity to put aside your personal feelings for me, and whatever judgment comes along with that, and do something that will not only save your life, but the lives of everyone in Erehwon—those there now and those who will join us in the future. I’m trying to give you every opportunity to do what’s right for the future of the Venganza, but you’re testing my patience.”
“And if I say no you’ll kill me. Then what? You won’t have the blueprints for the plant and Erehwon will die, too.”
“Erehwon will die regardless. You and I both know that the fresh water sources of this world are either becoming tainted by industrial pollutants or drying up. I will kill you with a clear conscience if you won’t help us, and then the Venganza living there won’t be much worse off than they are now. It’s true that there’s no way I could search all the ruins and find the journal. But I can go back to the plant on the island or examine the system underneath the castle. It’ll take me some time, but I’ll be able to reverse-engineer what’s there and take the technology home.”
“The people of Erehwon could be dead by then.”
“They could. And that’s why you need to stop this foolish behavior and come with me willingly. Hado was a traitor, selfish and purely interested in her own future. Don’t die in vain like her.”
Dia sighed and bit down hard on her tongue. She didn’t know how much Shiva understood. Dia had learned much of the woman’s political maneuvering, which came at the expense of the clan. She knew how Shiva had manipulated the Council to secure her own future as the water had dried up. But none of that mattered now, and so she said nothing about it.
“You’re assuming that we’ll simply float through the air over thousands of miles and be able to land.”
“Should I assume we’ll hit the ground in a fiery crash somewhere in the Rockies? I’m not a fool. I understand the risks. I got to know Mel. He explained the flight plan; shared the details. People are so eager to share when someone else expresses interests in their passion. I may not have done what the pilot did, but I know how to do it. And we both know the guy was not right in the head. For all we know, he may have never flown a balloon, either. He knew the science and the weather patterns. He recorded those for months. It looks sound to me, and so I’m going to take the chance. I just don’t think there’s time to return on horseback.”
Shiva put a hand on Dia’s shoulder. “Don’t let your personal feelings about me cloud your judgment. I may have done things you think you’d never do, but you won’t know what that feels like unless you’re in my position. We all preserve our own interests. I won’t deny that. But you can’t ignore what I’ve done for the Venganza of Erehwon.”
Dia huffed and looked away.
“But don’t mistake our conversation today for weakness or hesitation on my part. If you don’t retrieve the journal and share it with me, if you don’t agree to help me navigate this fucking basket to the east, I will kill you. I’m tired of playing games and fucking around. The clock is ticking and it’s time for you to decide. You fly home with me or you die. That’s it.”
Chapter 43
She couldn’t be trusted. Her words accumulated into shifting quicksand, threatening to pull one down into a suffocating abyss. Dia had spent most of the day sitting in the outpost on top of the hill overlooking the bay, thinking about everything Shiva had said. She thought about Katy and Decker, the way Shiva had handled them. She thought about Hado and how her mentor had fallen from grace so quickly, becoming an enemy of the tribe she’d given her life to. Dia remembered the whispers of the old crone Lanette, and the way Shiva had manipulated the Council. All of it had been done to benefit Shiva, not the women of Erehwon. If that also happened, so be it, but the woman cared about nobody but herself.
Dusk came, and with it the expectation that she’d need to deliver an answer to Shiva. Dia’s head swirled with so many possibilities, so many questions. How exactly would they navigate the balloon back to Ohio? Yes, Shiva had the flight plan, but she had to assume Mel had been of a sane mind to write it all out clearly, and based on what Dia had seen of the pilot, that was quite an assumption. What of the rest of the Venganza here with Shiva now? Would they also come east to Erehwon? And, if so, how would that settlement support this influx of warriors? Then there was Denver. Hado and Dia hadn’t left the Colorado territory under the best of terms. Was Eneka still here? Would she come east also, seeking vengeance for everything Dia had done?
The night wouldn’t make any of these questions easier to ponder, and yet Dia knew the answer to Shiva’s ultimatum had formed in her gut even before the woman had proposed it. But it would be impossible for Dia to physically overwhelm the woman, especially with so many Venganza in the camp. She would need to defeat Shiva, but on her own terms.
Dia warmed her hands over the fire she’d started, waiting, knowing that Shiva was coming back for an answer. When the brush rustled with the sound of footsteps and the body odor of warriors who hadn’t been in water for months, she turned her head.
“We launch at dawn.”
Dia nodded as Shiva sat down next to her by the fire.
“Your women smell.” Dia looked at Shiva and then at the warriors surrounding them. “They should bathe.”
“You should know how they feel about water, girl. Many of them never put a foot on the ice again after our siege of Katy’s place on the island.”
Shiva handed Dia a hunk of some dried, salty meat. The girl took it and ripped a piece off with her molars, chewing and staring into the fire.
“When the sun comes up, I’ll take you to the journal.”
Shiva grinned, the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes fading into satisfaction.
“No. We get it now. I want to see if there is anything critical we need to bring with us. It isn’t practical to take parts from either of the filtration plants here, but if there is a small one that is rare, we can certainly take that with us on the flight home.”
“But it’s getting dark.”
“Yes. This entire world is getting dark.” Shiva snapped her fingers and the warriors approached. “Let’s go.”
Dia led Shiva and about twelve of her Venganza warriors down the path that snaked across the hillside and emptied them onto the roadway at the foot of the San Francisco ruins. Three of the warriors carried torches, lighting the way for Dia as the horizon’s orange glow turned into a purple bruise. They walked down the street, Dia making one turn and then another until they stood at the foot of the bridge, in the exact spot where she’d spotted the deer when she’d first arrived in the ruins. She stared at the bridge, or what was left of it. Lane and his men had been able to drop the structure into the bay to keep the Venganza from crossing it and seizing the water filtration plant on Treasure Island.
“It’s not passable, if that’s where you’re headed.”
“It isn’t.” Dia turned and pointed at a building at an intersection about fifty yards away. “There’s a reserve cistern in that old bank. In the vault, in the basement. Willie told me that those old vaults are water-tight, and so they used it to store reserve water. Over a period of months, they’d been able to transport a thousand gallons into the old bank. I’m guessing it’s full, and one of the reasons why they didn’t hesitate to blow up the bridge.”
Shiva smiled and nodded. “Yes. That makes sense.”
“I was only inside the building once, during the day. But that is where I hid the journal. From what I understand, the people of the old world liked to keep their most valuable possessions in banks.”
“Yes,” Shiva said with a low chuckle. “Indeed, they did.”
Dia led the party to the front door of the bank, the windows having long since shattered but the steel frames just as locked in place as they’d been for years. She crawled through the bottom pane and into the darkness, waiting for the others to come in behind her. They stood in a grand lobby, the light of the torches unable to reach the arched ceiling above. Marble columns remained where chairs and desks had been broken or burned over the years.
“Probably one of the first in the city. One of the gold rush banks that then became extremely wealthy.”
Dia nodded, although she didn’t understand what Shiva was talking about. And she didn’t care.
“The vault is in the basement, down those steps.”
Shiva grabbed her arm. “The cistern? I have a full flask and enough water for the journey. I want the journal. Where is that?”
“In the vault. There are steel boxes lining the walls. I put the journal in one of those.”
“Safe deposit boxes. Yes. Okay, let’s go.”
“The water level was high last time I was here. There isn’t room for all of them.”
Shiva turned and addressed the warriors, a growing grin on her face. “Stay and guard the front door. The girl and I will return with the journal.”
Dia led Shiva down the steps, but stopped on the first landing where the water began to lap against the marble stairs.
“Wow.” Shiva stopped behind Dia, but the girl noticed she wouldn’t let it touch her feet. “How deep is it?”
“Another twenty feet to the floor of the vault.”
Shiva looked at Dia, at the walls, and then back to the rippling surface of the water in the vault-turned-cistern. The water had risen halfway up the walls, the vault being twenty feet from floor to ceiling. “But aren’t the safe deposit boxes under water?”
“Not those.”
Dia raised her torch and aimed it at a row of boxes to their right, a handful of small steel containers lining the stairs.
“The journal is in one of those?”
“Yes. Box number 747. I stood on a stool to reach it and now it’s somewhere beneath the surface of the water. I can’t reach the box. You’ll have to.”
The woman paused, but only for a moment. Dia thought she could see the greed and satisfaction flickering in Shiva’s eyes.
“I’m not touching the water. You should know that. You should understand Venganza.”
“You don’t have to. You just need to reach for it. Once you flip the steel door open, you’ll feel it.”
Shiva turned and put her hand on Dia’s shoulder. “You’ll understand this someday. When you get older and look back on what happened here, you’ll know why I’ve done what I’ve done.”
“I don’t care what you’ve done. I never will. You’re a selfish, arrogant bitch.”
The woman slapped Dia across the face and then immediately pulled her into a stiff embrace.
“I can forgive your insubordination because you are still a child, although that will need to change once we arrive back in Erehwon.”
“Fuck you, Shiva.”
The woman pushed her away. “Number 747?”
Dia nodded.
Shiva looked down, cringing when the water touched the toe of her boot. She stretched, reaching toward the box with her right hand while clutching the railing with her left. The door of the box was still about four inches from her grasp, and so she reared up onto the tips of her toes until her fingers grasped the latch.
Use her own blind greed against her.
Dia moved to her right. With both hands, she shoved Shiva in the small of her back. The woman turned in mid-air as her body fell toward the water and Dia could see the abject terror on Shiva’s face. A sudden scream was silenced by the inky, black water that pulled the woman down. She splashed and choked, reaching out with frantic arms and crooked fingers.
Dia stood on the steps and watched Shiva drown, standing there until the woman’s body floated faced down in the watery crypt.
Chapter 44
The Venganza warriors had simply walked away. Dia had known the women following Shiva had followed her more out of personal gain than loyalty. They had expected a payoff back in Erehwon, a reward for operating as her henchman and chasing their fellow Venganza across the wastelands of America. So, after they’d rushed past Dia and into the bank vault to find Shiva floating face-down in the cistern, they’d turned and walked into the forest. Dia assumed that some would find their own place in the ruins or in the hills overlooking the bay while others would consider the long journey back to the Denver settlement, and even fewer yet would head all the way back to the Ohio territory. But she’d seen their faces, and there weren’t many she could remember passing on the paths of Erehwon.
The birds chirped, and the sun chased away the fog as it did almost every morning in the bay area. Dia had gotten a fitful few hours in an old pet store across the street from the bank. She’d kept dreaming of Shiva climbing from the water, her skin already waxy and blue, her mouth open in a silent scream. Dia would have to live with her decision for the rest of her life, but right now she just wanted to live.
She stretched, her arms and legs cracking as she twisted at the hip and yawned. A thin line of dark smoke rose from the rubble of Albion Castle, the fires now burning themselves out to leave nothing behind but blackened stone and charred bones. Dia didn’t see smoke rising from anywhere else, and she again thought about the Venganza warriors who had been following Shiva for weeks, possibly months. Had they already left?
It didn’t matter. Dia thought of the women of Erehwon and that got her moving again. She relieved herself in the weeds and gathered some wild berries and a handful of pine nuts from a nearby courtyard threatening to become a new urban forest. After packing her sack and checking her water bottle, Dia took a deep breath and mentally checked off the things she had to do. Retrieve the journal. Take flight. Simple.
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