“Cassandra can’t figure it out to save her life,” Sarah jokes.
“I’ve had to brush out many of her attempts,” Essie adds.
“But you can braid?” I turn my question to Essie and she nods yes. “Will you do mine? My mother used to.”
Essie cuts me off, “Of course I can.” She smiles and it feels genuine. All of them do, maybe I can still save this group of people. The mood in the air seems to shift a little and there’s a sign that things could still be okay.
We spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning clothes while Essie braids all of our hair. She does mine straight back into one long tail. She even teaches me how to do it myself, but I don’t pick it up very quickly. Essie reassures me that I’m better than Cassandra and with practice, I could be as good as her.
Albert calls us all to come and eat when the meat is ready. Everyone eats in silence and after we have all finished Mio has us up and running again.
“I can’t believe we are actually running in this heat,” Zavy mumbles.
“Do you realize how often you complain?” I ask her honestly. She doesn’t respond but shoots a cold gaze in my direction.
Suddenly the ground starts to make a steep incline and we are all running uphill and turning in and out of trees. The river here is roaring louder than ever and my legs are starting to throb. We continue straight up this section of the mountain and the river breaks off to our right. I glance up and see the pouring waterfall spilling from the mountain’s peak. I only have a second to take in its beauty before I’m back to weaving in and out of trees and it’s hidden from my view.
When I’m not sure how much more my legs can take I feel the ground flatten out beneath my feet and nearly run into Zavy before I realize everyone has suddenly stopped running. I push through the crowd to see what everyone is looking at and feel the air get sucked right out of me.
“That’s Sard,” Cooper says as he takes a step next to me. We have run up a short nook in the line of mountains. To my right and left they tower above us, but we are high enough that we look down on Sard. The mountain range seems to encircle the city giving it a natural barrier of protection. I look out over the tops of the trees and can see the tall industrial buildings lining on the shore of the Island. I take in a sharp breath when my eyes land on the ocean. I made it to the blue. After all those years of dreaming and wondering if I’d ever get to see it, I am here. My eyes fill with tears remembering how I used to beg my mom and dad to bring me here.
“I made it mom,” I say so softly it’s inaudible. She would have been so happy, and I wish more than anything that she could be with me now.
“I’ve never seen buildings like that before,” I breathe heavy.
“That’s how all of the buildings used to be before the asteroid shower. When the Hawaiian Islands couldn’t get the resources they needed to continue this style of buildings they had to refer back to the Roman style that we are more familiar with in Garth. Almost all of the industrial buildings have collapsed over the years because they didn’t have the right materials to repair them. No one knows exactly why Sard still stands,” my brother explains.
“It’s amazing,” is all I can manage to say.
“Come on everyone,” Cooper turns and addresses the whole group. “Just down this slab of mountain is one step closer to your future.”
Chapter 19
The beauty and magnificence of Sard seem to change the overall mood of the group. Many people point in awe of the city that seems to rise out of the island. Everyone is as mesmerized as I am by the blue ocean. It’s something I know we grow up hearing about, and are always told we’ll probably never see. Toby is so young he thinks the water is trying to swallow up the island, which he also thinks is really cool. Zavy and him walk off to the side and she reminds him of the asteroids and how these buildings are from a world before ours. It reminds me a lot of when I would teach Titus in the cell, and I’m so happy Zavy has her little brother. The thought that I could have been showing this to Titus sends an overwhelming wave of mixed emotions over me. I walk in step with Cooper as we make our way gradually down the side of the mountain and into Sard.
“So we’ll leave for Libertas today?” I ask Cooper.
He laughs and says, “You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself Adaline. We can’t just walk through Sard. The entire city is filled with people working for King Renon. On the outskirts of Sard is an abandoned factory that is starting to collapse. Inside that building is a tunnel that runs under the city and goes to a building that is on the shore of the island. We have connections there that get us a boat and the materials we’ll need for the trip to Libertas. The journey underground will take up the rest of today, and we can’t sail out in the morning without driving attention to ourselves.”
“So we’ll leave tomorrow night?” I ask him.
“If all goes to plan, hopefully,” he says.
The ground beneath our feet starts to level out, as we are approaching the edge of the forest. When we get to the edge Mio
