Broken Crowns (30 page)

His lip quirks into a lopsided smile that might be charming if I didn't know how hated he is by Celeste and her brother. “Eager to please,” he says. “I like that.”

Eager to be rid of him is all.

“I was hoping you could tell me where my betrothed has run off to. She was gone the moment her brother finally stopped droning on.”

“If you'd paid any attention to his droning, you'd know that she's not your betrothed any longer.”

He sighs as though this is all a trivial inconvenience. “It will be amusing to watch this child king test the waters. But that's one decree that won't stick, I'm certain. In any case, have you seen her?”

“I haven't, no,” I say.

“I've been by several times since her return from the ground,” he says. “I was turned away at every instance and led to believe she was at death's door. Imagine my relief to see her alive and well. A miraculous recovery brought on by the excitement of her brother's new role, I suppose.”

“It seems that way,” I say. With his cool stare he has made me second-guess my decision to go into the woods alone. I look past him, into the milling crowd that seems to be moving, as endlessly as the ocean's waves, in King Azure's direction.

“Would you be so kind as to give her this?” He has extracted a folded note from his breast pocket. “When you see her again.”

“All right,” I say, and am relieved that this will be the end of it. Even as he turns back into the crowd, he is looking for her, though surely he knows that this will prove futile. She's long gone by now, and half a dozen patrolmen are guarding the only open entrance to the clock tower.

I look at the paper resting in my palm. It has been folded into a perfect square, tied with a length of string. If it's a profession of love, I'm sure that it's insincere.

“Who was that?” Basil has moved to my side.

“Celeste's betrothed.”

His eyes widen. “Really. So that's him.”

“I wondered why she ran off so quickly after the speech. Now I know.”

Basil points to a girl talking to King Azure. From this distance I can just see her light hair pinned atop her head. “That's his betrothed.”

“Really?” I stand up on tiptoes to try to have a better look. “How do you know?”

“He introduced her to me. They seem to have a cordial relationship, at least.”

I wonder if she knows the full truth about him and his desires. From where I stand, they seem to be laughing as they talk.

“I was just about to run off and hide,” I say. “Care to join me?”

He grins. “Always.”

We hold hands as we walk. Neither of us planned it; it just seems to happen. We fit together.

“I've made a decision,” I say, and though he says nothing, I can feel his body tensing. “Once the ceremony is over, I'll tell the king that he's presented me with a flattering offer, but I must decline.” I lean forward so I can see Basil's face. He looks at me. “I'm going to the ground,” I tell him. “It's not forever. Only until the next flight to Internment, and then I'll come back. I'll have to. It will always call to me.”

He forces a smile. “Good,” he says. “I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me you wanted to stay.”

“Basil . . .” I nearly lose my nerve. My heart is beating fast and there's pain tangled up in the fear and excitement. “When we first left Internment, you chose to come with me. You chose to leave your family, and I—I was happy that you did, but it's not a one-way venture anymore. It's not forever. You don't have to choose and neither do I.”

He nods. “I was thinking the same.” He stops our walking, and he turns to face me. “I need to be with my family now. They're scared, and Leland is so young—I want to be there for him as he grows up. They almost lost me once, I don't want to leave them again.”

“Five years isn't forever,” I remind him. “And I'll radio in when Pen reports back to the king.” I squeeze his hand. “I'll tell you everything.”

“I'll be there every broadcast,” he says.

“Remind me—remind me of what Internment is like, every time we talk,” I say. “While I was on the ground, I think I began to forget bits and pieces of it.”

He stares at me a long while, and we say nothing. But when he brushes his hand across my cheek, I fall against him and squeeze my eyes shut to ward off the tears.

“I've loved you all my life,” I say.

His arms circle around me. “I've loved you, too.”

Later, in the starry silence, Basil and I spend our last night together. We don't guess at what will become of us in five years. We don't imagine the things we'll see or the ways we'll change. We say nothing, absolutely nothing, and in the darkness our bodies find each other, his asking permission, mine drawing him in.

It's painful, and peaceful, and in its own way, freeing. We draw each other as close as we can. And then we let each other go.

There's a knock
at our bedroom door before the sun has fully risen in its sky. “Morgan?” Pen's voice. She doesn't open the door. “The king wants us downstairs in ten minutes. Are you awake?”

“Yes,” I say. “I'll be there.”

Basil and I get dressed. I wear another of Celeste's borrowed dresses—white with an eyelet skirt and a red ribbon laced up the bodice—and I realize that it's the only piece of clothing from Internment I'll bring with me to the ground, and it isn't even mine.

The only other thing I carry is my ring, which gleams dully in the early light. Basil and I made no promises to wear them. I don't know if he'll still be wearing his when I return in five years, and I don't know if I'll still be wearing mine. But for now, it comforts me.

We descend the stairs, and King Azure is waiting for us in the lobby, Celeste at his side, holding her infant in the crook of her arm and rubbing her reddened eyes as though she's been crying all night. After the ceremony, she went into her mother's bedroom and closed the door. She wanted to spend her last hours in this city by her mother's side. After everything, it was the only time they would have left.

Nimble, Pen, and Thomas are talking to one another in low voices nearby. So Thomas has decided to follow Pen. That doesn't surprise me. He wouldn't know how to breathe without her, and I suppose that's a good thing, because she needs him every bit as much, only she's too proud to tell him so. Telling him she was going to the ground was as close as she'd get to asking him to follow.

“Did I tell you?” Celeste says to me when I approach. “I've thought of a name for my daughter. At first I thought ‘Riles,' for Nim's brother, but ‘Riley' is much more fitting for a girl, don't you think?” She runs her finger against the infant's cheek fondly. “It's a strong name. The name of a girl who won't take an injustice quietly. One who will incite a riot if she needs to.”

“I've the feeling she would be willing to do that no matter what her name is,” I say. “She's your daughter after all.”

Celeste laughs, and it's the first time I've seen her smile in days. “Yes,” she says.

There are a dozen patrolmen surrounding us when we make our way to the jet. It will be a crowded flight, as many of the men from the ground will also be returning with us.

“I apologize that it won't be much of a grand send-off,” King Azure says. “I didn't want there to be a crowd. It's unsafe for you.”

“A crowd is the last thing any of us wants,” Celeste says. Nim is holding their daughter now, and he looks considerably more rested. He was sent to his chambers early, with a pill to help him sleep. It's his job to fly us home, and King Azure insisted that he not be disturbed until morning.

The jet is waiting for us on the other side of the tracks, and Basil remains by my side until we've reached the metal staircase that leads inside.

This is it. This is where I leave him.

When we first left Internment, and the metal bird began sinking toward the sky, Pen broke into a sudden panic; she would have done anything to remain on Internment, even knowing that to leave the bird was to die.

I understand that panic now. For the first time, I truly understand it. I'm terrified to leave, overtaken by the finality of my decision. In five years, this city will have changed without me. Basil will be older. I'll be older. We'll both have learned who we are without each other.

If I stayed here, I could marry him tomorrow. In five years, without the queue we could even have a child.

I could stay. I could.

But I would never forgive myself. The things I love about Internment would turn into the things I'd resent for holding me back. And so I say, “Good-bye.” Not only to Basil, but to all I'm leaving behind.

He kisses me once, briefly. “Good-bye.”

The warmth of his lips, I'm certain, will stay with me the entire way down, just like the dull pain deep within my hips that reminds me of the night before.

Everyone else has said their good-byes and boarded the jet. I'm the last to go.

“Stop!” a voice cries out, just as Pen and Celeste are guiding me into the jet's entrance. For one bereft, dazed instant I think that it's Basil saying that he'll come with me. But no, the voice does not belong to him.

Celeste's eyes narrow and she pushes past me. “What do you want, Virgil?”

Her ex-betrothed is scrambling over the train tracks and running toward us. He doesn't make it far. The patrolmen step into action, but it's King Azure who grabs him and pins his arms behind his back. Virgil struggles. “I knew you would try to sneak off without me. I demand to go with you!”

Celeste rubs her palms over her eyes, exasperated. “If you want to see the ground, you'll have your opportunity in five years. On your own.”

“You can't go without me,” he calls out. “We're meant to be together. I was born to be your other.”

“What's done is done. We're nothing to each other now. I suggest you go on and have your own future. I'm off to start mine.”

“There's someone else, isn't there?” he snaps. “I knew that must be it. You've been maddened by lust!”

Celeste stands tall. She is no longer a child who needs to run to the poppies to be free of him. “There's always been someone else,” she says. “Me.”

She pulls the door shut with a slam, and the latches fall into place.

The engines burst to life, and I rush to the tiny oval window to catch one last glimpse of Internment before it's gone. In seconds we're moving, and Basil is too far away for me to see his face. He stands still to watch me go, even with the dirt and the wind in his hair.

And then we've broken through the wind barrier, and when the clouds have cleared, I can no longer see him.

Pen and Celeste put their arms around me, and together we watch our city become a shadow in the sky, and then nothing at all.

“Once we land, where will you go?” Pen asks me.

“Everywhere,” I say.