Crossed

CHAPTER 31 KY

When Hunter comes to meet us he has a canteen of water and a pile of ropes slung over his shoulder. I wonder what he intends. Before I can ask, Eli speaks.

“Was she your sister?” Eli points to the newly placed stone.

Hunter doesn’t glance back down at the grave. The smallest flicker of emotion crosses his face. “You saw her? How long were you watching?”

“A long time,” Eli says. “We wanted to talk to you but we waited until you were finished.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Hunter says flatly.

“I’m sorry,” Eli says. “Whoever she was, I’m sorry.”

“She was my daughter,” Hunter says. Cassia’s eyes widen. I know what she’s thinking: His daughter? But he’s so young, only twenty-two or twenty-three. Certainly not twenty-nine, which is the youngest someone with a five-year-old child can be in the Society. But this is not the Society.

Indie’s the first to break the silence. “Where are we going?” she asks Hunter.

“To another canyon,” Hunter says. “Can all of you climb?”

When I was small my mother tried to teach me the colors. “Blue,” she said, pointing to the sky. And “blue” again, the second time pointing to the water. She told me I shook my head because I could see that sky blue was not always the same as water blue.

It took me a long time — until I lived in Oria — to use the same word for all the shades of a color.

I remember this as we walk through the canyon. The Carving is orange and red, but you’d never see this kind of orange and red back in the Society.

Love has different shades. Like the way I loved Cassia when I thought she’d never love me. The way I loved her on the Hill. The way I love her now that she came into the canyon for me. It’s different. Deeper. I thought I loved her and wanted her before, but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be more than a new shade. A whole new color.

Hunter stops ahead of us and gestures up at the cliff. “Here,” he says. “This is the best place.” He begins testing the rock and looking around.

I put up my hand to block the sun so I can better see the climb above us. Cassia glances at me and does the same. “This is where Indie and I came back over,” she says in recognition.

Hunter nods. “It’s the best place to climb.”

“There’s a cave in that other canyon,” Indie tells Hunter.

“I know,” Hunter says. “It’s called the Cavern. The question I need you to answer is about what’s inside.”

“We didn’t go in,” Cassia says. “It’s sealed tight.”

Hunter shakes his head. “It looks like that. But my people have used it since we first came to the Carving. After the Society took it we found a way to get back in.”

Cassia looks puzzled. “But then you know—”

Hunter interrupts her. “We know what’s there. We don’t know why.” He looks at Cassia, his gaze unnerving in its assessment. “I think you might know why.”

“Me?” she asks, sounding startled.

“You’ve been part of the Society longer than the others,” Hunter says. “I can tell.” Cassia flushes and brushes her hand down her arm, as if she wants to remove some taint of the Society.

Hunter glances over at Eli. “Do you think you can do this?”

Eli stares up at the cliff. “Yes,” he says.

“Good,” Hunter says. “It’s not a particularly technical climb. Even the Society could do it if they tried.”

“Why didn’t they?” Indie asks.

“They did,” Hunter says. “But this was one of our best-guarded areas. Anyone trying to climb in we cut down. And you can’t fly an air ship into the canyon. It’s too narrow. They had to come in on foot and we had the advantage.” He finishes another knot and hooks the rope through one of the metal bores on the wall. “It worked for a long time.”

But now the farmers are gone across the plain. Or dead on top of the Carving. It’s only a matter of time before the Society realizes that and decides to come in.

No one knows that better than Hunter. We have to hurry.

“We used to climb everywhere,” Hunter says. “The Carving was all ours.” He looks down at the rope in his hands. I think he’s remembering again that everyone is gone. You wouldn’t think you can forget but sometimes you can — for a moment or two. I’ve never been able to decide if I think that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Forgetting lets you live without the pain for a moment but remembering hits hard.

It all hurts. Sometimes — when I’m weak — I wish that the red tablet did work on me.

“We saw bodies on top of the Carving,” Indie says. She looks up at the climb, assessing it. “They had blue marks like you. Were they farmers, too? And why did they go up if it was better to wait for the Society down below?” In spite of myself I admire her. She’s bold to ask Hunter those questions. I’ve been wanting to know the answers too.

“That place on top is the only area wide and flat enough for the Society to land their ships,” Hunter says. “Lately, for whatever reason, they’d become more agressive about entering the Carving, and we couldn’t guard all of the canyons. Only the one where our township is.” He makes another knot, tightens the rope. “For the first time in the history of the farmers, we had a split we couldn’t resolve. Some of us wanted to go up and fight so the Society would leave the canyons alone. Others wanted to escape.”

“Which did you want?” Indie says.

Hunter doesn’t answer.

“So those who crossed the plain,” Indie says, pushing for more information, “did they go to join the Rising?”

“I think that’s enough,” Hunter says. The expression on his face keeps even Indie from asking more. She closes her mouth and Hunter hands her a rope. “You have the most climbing experience,” he says. It’s not a question. He can tell somehow.

She nods and almost smiles as she looks up at the rocks. “I used to sneak away sometimes. There was a good spot near our house.”

“The Society let you climb?” Hunter asks.

She looks at him with an expression of contempt. “They didn’t let me climb. I found a way to do it without them knowing.”

“You and I will each take someone up,” Hunter tells her. “It’ll be faster that way. Can you do that?”

Indie laughs in response.

“Be careful,” Hunter warns her. “The stone here is different.”

“I know,” she says.

“Can you climb up alone?” Hunter asks me.

I nod. I don’t tell him that I prefer it this way. If I fall, at least I won’t take anyone with me. “I’ll watch you first.”

Indie turns to look at Cassia and Eli. “Which one of you wants to come with me?”

“Eli,” Cassia says. “You choose.”

“Ky,” Eli says immediately.

“No,” Hunter tells him. “Ky hasn’t climbed as much as we have.”

Eli opens his mouth to protest but I shake my head at him. He glares at me and then walks over to stand by Indie. I think I see a small, pleased smile on Indie’s face before she turns back to the rock.

I watch Cassia as she clips onto Hunter’s line. Then I check Eli to make sure he’s hooked up right. When I look up, Hunter is ready to begin. Cassia’s jaw is set.

I’m not worried about the ascent. Hunter’s the best climber. And he needs Cassia safe to help him in the cave. I believe Hunter when he says he needs to know why the Society did what they did. He still thinks that knowing why might help. He doesn’t yet know that the reason will never be good enough.

Once we all reach the top of the Carving, we run. I hold on to Eli with one hand and Cassia with the other and we all move, our breath quiet and fast and our feet flying along the stone.

We’re exposed and bare out on the rock under the sky for several long seconds.

It’s not nearly long enough. I feel like I could run out here forever.

Look! I want to call out. I’m still alive. Still here. Though your data and your Officials want it otherwise.

Feet fast.

Lungs full of air.

Holding on to people I love.

I love.

The most reckless thing of all.

When we get closer to the edge we let go of each other. We need our hands for the ropes.

The second canyon is a true slot canyon — tiny and narrow — smaller than the farmers’ canyon. After we’ve all arrived at the bottom of the cliff, Cassia points to a long smooth surface. It looks like sandstone but there is something odd about it. “That’s where we noticed the entrance,” she says. Her lips tighten. “The boy’s body is over there, under those bushes.”

The freedom I felt earlier is gone now. The feeling of Society hangs in this canyon like the torn and streaming clouds that linger after a thunderstorm.

The others notice it too. Hunter’s face turns grim and I know it’s the worst for him because he feels the Society in a place that used to be his.

Hunter leads us to a tiny cave in a spot where the canyon wall folds back in on itself. All five of us can barely crouch inside. The back of the cave ends in a pile of rocks. “We made a way in through here,” he says.

“And the Society never found it?” Indie asks, sounding skeptical.

“They didn’t even know how to look,” Hunter says. He lifts up one of the rocks. “There’s a crevice behind all these stones,” he tells us. “Once we’re inside, we can go through to a corner of the Cavern.”

“How do we do it?” Eli asks.

“Move the earth,” Hunter says. “And hold your breath in the tight spots.” He reaches for one of the boulders. “I’ll go first when it’s time,” he says over his shoulder. “Then Cassia. We’ll talk each other through the turns. Go slowly. There’s a place where you need to lie on your back and push yourself through with your feet. If you get stuck, call out. You’ll be close enough to hear me. I can talk you through. It’s the tightest just before the end.”

I hesitate for a moment, wondering if this is a trap. Could the Society have set it? Or Indie? I don’t trust her. I watch her help Hunter with the rocks, her long hair flying wildly around her in her eagerness. What does she want? What’s she hiding?

I glance over at Cassia. She’s in a new place where everything is different. She’s seen people who died in terrible ways and she’s been hungry and lost and come into the desert to find me. All things a Society girl should never have had to experience. I see a glint in her eye as she looks at me and it makes me smile. Hold our breath? she seems to say. Move the earth? We’ve been doing that all along.