Nothing seems to happen at first, but then suddenly a large section of the wall in front of us starts to sink into the earth revealing the breath-taking city behind it.
“It can read my fingerprints,” Marin says, explaining how the door works, and I remember this isn’t her first time at Libertas since she had been helping my father bring people with gifts here for a long time. This all seems normal to her. I lift my hand, examining the skin, and I wonder what the wall would read to unlock itself.
We all file in past the wall and see a woman is walking toward us wearing a fitted red dress that ends just above her knees. She has bright red lipstick to match and tall red shoes.
“Welcome to Libertas,” she says, her voice ringing in my ears. Her red lips part into a large smile. “Quite the crowd you’ve brought us,” she says to Mio. She curls her nose at him and scans the group, letting her curious gaze hang a little longer on the non-gifted members.
“We lost the paper work,” Mio says as he approaches the woman. “Our ship was wrecked.” Mio stops when the lady rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed with him.
“Excellent,” The lady responds, the aggravation is clear in her voice. “We will have you fill out new forms right away,” she says. Her eyes land on mine and I can feel a small chill run up my spine. “You must be Adaline,” she says and walks toward me, shaking my hand. “And you must be Alexander,” she says when she looks to him. “We’ve been waiting a long time for you two.”
“We hope to help in whatever way we can,” Alexander says.
The lady turns and starts to walk deeper into Libertas and we all fall into step behind her. I look back at the wall and see the spot that once lowered to let us in rise again. The lady leading us starts speaking, “You can all stay in the castle until your paperwork is filled out and reviewed, oh and you can call me Linda. I keep track of everyone who enters or exits the island.”
As we walk together along the stone roadways through the town everyone’s eyes are on us. It’s a much different site than Garth. Everyone seems to be healthy and everyone has clothes on their back and clean skin. The stone architecture is magnificent. We have a similar style in Garth, but it looks like rubble compared to what they have done here. I grab Molly and usher her to the front of the group to Linda.
“Do you have medicine here? She’s getting worse. It was just a cold, but now she has a fever.” Linda lifts her hand to cut me off.
Without giving Molly more than a side glance Linda says, “The child will be fine. We have excellent doctors and medicine.” I swallow and my tight throat relaxes. I fall back in step with Alexander and let Linda continue to lead the way.
Children are running around playing, and everyone is smiling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people happy at the same time. I watch as pairs walk from store to store, shopping for who knows what. Each of them looks like what we would call wealthy back in Garth.
“I wonder how they survived out here. How do you go from nothing to this?” I ask Alexander.
“I’m sure it’ll make a great story,” he says, but the tone of his voice tells me he isn’t all that comfortable with being here. He’s just like me. We see this place and immediately have questions about how and why.
Linda stops next to a large wagon that is being pulled by two slick white horses. We file on and she tells us our next stop will be the castle. The wagon twists in and out of the tight brick path up the steep mountain. I look down and see the blue ocean water get further and further from us as we climb to the castle.
Everyone we pass freezes to see who has arrived. I wonder if there were more people like my father and Alexander’s mother that brought people to Libertas, or were they the only ones? If they were the only people bringing in the gifted then these people haven’t seen new faces arrive here in over seven years.
When we reach the top of the island I see the blue ocean come out from all sides. Lush green forest spreads down the island, and beautiful fields of flowers are grouped throughout the levels of the mountain. Although my gut tells me not to relax just yet, I let a smile spread across my face. It is just as magical as I had hoped our safe haven would be. I scan the faces of the group and everyone is just as amazed as I am.
When we reach the castle we are led in the grand doors and into a large hallway. Glossy stone lines the floor of the castle and blue drapes hang from the ceiling. Our steps echo off the stone floors of the castle as we make our way inside. Brilliant statues line the halls as well as different paintings of people I can only guess once ruled Libertas. I count three different past rulers.
“You can all wait down here,” Linda says.
We walk under an archway and into a large room where the ceiling hangs high above our heads. Plush couches line the sides
