The Pearl Savage (24 page)

Charles was arguing with Sarah, who
thought it too risky to leave the sphere immediately after their
first escape attempt. But Charles felt there was no choice, and
besides, his mind was quite made up.

“
She
is with
them,
the
savages
.
Each moment that I do not go after her. Guardian knows what could be
happening to her… as we speak, Sarah!
Surely
you must know that?” Charles’ hands were planted on his hips and
his legs spread wide, glowering down at Sarah.

Clarence said, “Charles, your
voice.”

Charles glared at him then began to
pace the small room, frustrated beyond measure. He must find her.
Already he was a day behind.

He and Clarence looked at each other
and Sarah asked, “What are your thoughts?” Her eyes searched his
face. “You know that if you go now, you may never return while
Queen Ada reigns.”

He knew and cared not. Clara was
most assuredly in grave danger.

“I will go with you,” Clarence
said decisively.

Charles turned. “You know what
this means. Mayhap you would be trapped Outside forever with no clear
future.”

Clarence lowered his voice and said
quietly, “I do not care for our monarch. Without the efforts of
Clara, what does it matter?”

“She will wish to return if she
can. She cares nothing for her own safety. She cares only for her
kingdom, her father’s kingdom.”

“King Raymond,” Clarence said,
laying a fist over his heart as Charles did the same. The three
silently remembering a kingdom governed with a fair and true monarch.

“Aye, she will but a dead ruler
cannot rule,” Clarence said.

“My sentiments exactly,” Charles
said.

“She will argue to come back…”
Sarah said.

They were all quiet for a moment and
Clarence voiced what they had all been thinking, “If she can.
Perhaps she is…”

“Do not speak such,” Sarah said.

Charles looked at Clarence. “I am
sorry, but the odds are not in her favor, Charles…” he looked at
Sarah. “Sarah.”

“I take comfort that they appeared
to be expecting the situation. They were prepared. The manner in
which they dispatched the Prince’s guards speaks of planning. If that
be the case, they may be holding her for reasons unknown. We may be
able to reason with them,” Charles explained.

Sarah
rolled her eyes. “They are
savages,
Charles. Their primitive brains do not comprehend negotiation.”

Charles shook his head. “I do not
think so. They seemed sophisticated in their manner. Supreme
fighters, they employed a degree of stealth that we could never have
managed even with the finest of our guards,” he said, looking at
each of them in turn. “I will take my chances.”

“And I will take them with you,”
Clarence said.

Sarah
huffed and turned her back on them both. Insufferable men! Could they
not see the
tiniest
bit
of patience may result in the element of surprise and an escape which
would not be anticipated?

Charles
swung her around to face him and she gave him a hard stare. “You
were not there, you did not see them
.
I have seen nothing like it. They are very much what the Record
Keeper said they would be.”

“Tales, she bears tales,” Sarah
responded, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Not in this. They are as she
said: fierce, large, great warriors, and tenacious. They will not
easily be dissuaded of their goal. And I think their goal may have
been to capture Clara.”

Sarah leaned back, taking herself
away from Charles’ angry grip. “To what end?”

Charles shook his head. “I will
find out. It cannot be good.”

“And the Record Keeper told
stories which made people of the spheres fear the Outside. Look now,”
Sarah swung her arm around her, “clearly we need not have worried,
the sphere wall repaired itself and no one who was exposed to the
Outside air died a miserable death.”

Clarence clarified, “It may have
been very true at one time years ago. If the sphere had been
breached, the toxicity of the Outside would have sickened and killed
many. It is possible there has been enough years since the Days of
Ash that we may be able to exist Outside.”

Sarah shrugged. “I trust none of
them: the Healer, the Record Keeper, and most especially the Queen.
To say nothing of that miserable excuse of a Prince.”

Charles thought they could all
safely agree on that.

“Let us make haste and go this
night,” Charles said, with Clarence nodding at his comments. Sarah
rolled her eyes, there was no stopping them. She may as well offer
help.

“Wait,” they turned. “Let me
collect a few items for Clara.”

Charles sighed, exasperated. “We
have not time for this.”

“Take the time,” she said, her
eyes steady on his face. He stared back, realizing that she loved
Clara too, not the way that he did but no matter. He and Clarence
would go in her stead and this was her only way to communicate with
Clara.

He waited while she put some items
in a small sack.

“Where is your knapsack?” she
asked.

Charles shrugged. “It has not been
recovered by the Queen’s guard.”

Clarence
gave him a sharp look. “The
savages.”

Charles nodded.

Sarah
studied them. Finally she succumbed, giving them fierce hugs. The
last tie to Clara was leaving her and she wished with all her heart
it could have been
she
who was going to her friend. One day she would see her again. Sarah
held back tears as Charles and Clarence left her standing alone.

Alone.

CHAPTER 27

Queen Ada tapped her foot, waiting
for that dim-witted woman, Elvira, to finally be about getting her
wardrobe assembled for the day. Or what was left of it.

She gazed about her room and
wondered when she could begin to sample the wonderful new wine that
Otto had brought with him.

Not
soon enough, as certain things claimed her attention: primarily where
that foolish girl had run off to. Charles, that inept friend of hers,
claimed that the
savages
absconded to the Outside with her.

Ada was not convinced.

Just
because a few
savages
had
been seen did not mean they had the presence of intellectual
fortitude necessary to breach the spheres’ defenses. However, there
was no other plausible explanation and her own guards assured her
that indeed, there was a scar, a tear in the tunnel wall.

That
would mean the unthinkable.
That
the
savages
had planned the capture of Clara; which secretly pleased Ada. She
could be done with the wretched girl, gain sympathy and force King
Otto’s hand as this was certainly not her fault that Clara had been
taken. She would still have her wine, and no more Clara. She would
task the running of the kingdom to… she deliberated,
whoever
she
thought with dismissive musing.

Ada
would need to talk to that fool Charles
.
And the incompetent guard that allowed himself to be drugged with the
twilight sleep. How had that happened
for
Guardian’s sake?

Imbeciles.

Something was not agreeing here and
she planned to get to the core of it.

Elvira came into the room with a
gown of deep lavender and the Queen smiled. Perfect.

Everyone knows that royalty wears
only purple.

****

Charles took the time to tell his
younger brother what he was about, but only enough to satisfy him. He
knew that if Queen Ada felt justification, she could bring misery
down upon his family. There lay guilt, Charles realized. He
remembered his father’s words of encouragement, “Bring her back,
son, there is no kingdom without her.” He couldn’t have agreed
more. But shirking his duties in the fields felt like an unfair
burden to place on his father and brother.

He and Clarence made their way
through the tunnel. Clarence was familiar with every part, having
been the day guard there for one year past. “I know when David
takes his break and he always uses the necessary. We have but a small
time when he will not be in attendance and we can run for the alcove
in the tunnel.”

Charles
looked at Clarence, his feet shod in rough leather boots, buckskins,
rough cotton blouse and a knapsack slung over both shoulders. His
wavy hair moved about his face from the wind that was forced by steam
cleansers which ran the length of the tunnel, the seams allowing the
escape of humanity’s pollution. Charles was dressed much the same,
having borrowed his father’s knapsack because the
savages
had
taken his.

They reached the first sentry point
and hesitated, pressing their forms into the permeable surface,
sinking against the softness of it like a goose-down bed.

Clarence whispered, “One minute
more…”

Charles looked at him thinking he
had never felt the burden of time more acutely than now.

“Go!” Clarence urged and they
sprinted from that spot. Their feet tapped their backsides as they
put on a final burst of speed at the end, rounding the corner to the
rest spot with the tear.

Charles was untangling his limbs
from the knapsack, all but flinging it off in his haste to get the
salt-mixture. It would be best used in the weakest part of the
sphere.

Clarence glanced about him
anxiously. “Hurry, it is because we try so soon after the
Princess’s capture that we have this chance.”

“I have found it,” Charles said,
hauling out the flask with the salt mixture. It had been very
difficult to get the raw salt needed for their escape, as none could
be purchased at Trading Days. A certain royal cook had worked it so
he had enough salt to break through two sphere walls if he chose.

Charles gave the briefest of glances
at the wall, the area where it had been breached translucent, dimmed.
He stood upright, flask in hand. Opening it, he spun the top away
hurling the contents at the scar, reopening it like a raw wound.

The salt-mixture dissolved the wall
almost instantly and the air of the Outside rushed in, mingling with
the steamed environment of the tunnel. The cooler air was painful on
Charles’ lungs, he’d never felt anything like it before, having been
unconscious for most of the event when the wall was open and Clara
was taken.

Clarence gasped at the new air and
squeezed out, “It feels thin,” he exhaled and coughed, “cold.”

Charles nodded, saving his speech
for when he needed it. Regardless, it mattered not, they had done the
deed and needed to press forward.

So they did.

They
slipped through the hole they had caused and into a night filled with
real
stars.
Wind and air which felt fresh and fragrant, their starved lungs took
in all that they could. The men raced to the Great Forest, lungs
burning while guided by a moon which rode high and bright.

Lighting their path into the Great
Forest Outside.

CHAPTER 28

Clara walked back to Lillian’s
chamber, passing through the kitchen, the glasses lining the wood
shelf like drops of rain caught in the sunlight. A sharp stab of
homesickness for the sphere pierced her heart. That she would feel
thus filled Clara with confusion. What was wrong with her that she
would miss it? It may be as simple as it being the only home she had
ever known. It was a wonderful home before Father had died and she
would think on that as she opened the chamber door to attend to
Lillian, her eyes burning with tiredness. She must rest soon or she
would drop where she stood.

Lillian lay upon the beautiful bed,
the gauzy covering making her face appear luminescent, obscure.

“Ah, I see Jack has told the
entirety of the clan that I ail,” she said with mirth.

“Not all,” Clara smiled back,
matching the humor without effort. Lillian did look a tad green.
Clara could not imagine tending to a babe at this juncture in her
life. She sighed sadly, holding a fierce hope that someday she would
have a family.

Lillian turned on her side, looking
at Clara critically. “You look tired, Princess.”

“Clara,” she reminded absently.

Lillian nodded. Rising, she steadied
herself on the bed post, walking past Clara and opening the door.
“Follow me, we have a small room where you may rest. After supper,
we will go and bathe at the hot springs.” Lillian looked away
dreamily for a moment. “It is a sublime place.”

Clara was indeed looking forward to
becoming clean. She followed Lillian into a tiny chamber with an open
casement window, the hinges held by brass that had been nailed into
the wood and gleamed with a red hue in the filtered light from the
forest.

Clara spied a narrow bed directly
underneath the open window. She walked slowly over to where it lay,
resplendent with ivory bed linen and a light comforter.

She turned to Lillian. “Thank
you.”

“
You
are most welcome. You will see, Clara, that we are not savages here.
We are a different people; we are human beings, just as the
sphere-dwellers
are.”