12. Ash
Chapter 12
Ash
The City of Hope. The capital of Novum. The place I had longed to see since Nan read about it in her book. Home of running water and automatic lights. I rode into an unknown future, but my curiosity was as piqued as the dread building in the center of my stomach.
In the late afternoon, we came over a rise, and Hope sprawled out in front of us, nestled in the middle of a great bowl with mountains surrounding the city. The entire city was visible from our vantage point and probably any vantage point along the ring of hills surrounding it. Diesel and Peters had taken the lead again, leaving me riding between Jerek and Davis. I hadn’t figured out if Davis was his last name or first. The two seemed different from the other soldiers. I had thought so the very first night in the cabin on the Aspen River, but spending days on end with them had only made that notion grow stronger. Davis and Jerek looked at me like I was a human rather than an object to be used at their leisure like the other soldiers that constantly perused my body with their prying eyes, making my skin crawl.
Gray clouds gathered over the tops of the hills, shadowing the city in gray gloom. Tall, white beams clustered along the tops of the ridges surrounding the city, stark against the gray sky. Turbines at the top spun in the gentle, chilled breeze. My eyebrows knit in confusion at the sight. They seemed out of place—too clean, too…functioning for the state of disrepair of the rest of the country.
“Windmills,” Jerek mumbled, noticing my confused face under the hood of my coat. He spoke quietly, with his mouth barely moving, to not catch Diesel’s attention. “The wind brings power to the city.”
My eyes lit in surprise. So, it was true. Was the city so different from the sinking sadness of the rest of the land?
Hope seemed to gleam in the overcast light like a beacon in a world of ruin. I dug my fingers into the leather of my saddle and rode down the hill after the others. Dozens of soldiers marched in front and behind us as we went downward. The gray sky backlit the buildings sprawling out below. It was entirely different from any of the places we had ridden through before. Gleaming glass and steel threw back the sun, setting fire across the lower portion of the skyline. In my wildest dreams I hadn’t imagined the sheer size of the city and how many people really lived here. Everywhere I looked there were more and more houses and buildings sprawling out as far as the eye could see in the great valley .
The snow gently falling in a shimmering blanket against the ridge of the mountain behind the city gave it a nicer air than it perhaps deserved.
Wait—snow?
It had only been a few weeks since we left Cedar Hill. How had the snow come within such a short time? But sure enough, white flakes twinkled down from the gray clouds, beckoning us to the warmth of the city below. The cold had been in the air, but I hadn’t expected snow so soon. I shivered as a chill passed over my body, and anxiety rose within my chest and sank down into my stomach.
I dared a glance at Jerek, who gazed up at the sky, the gray clouds reflecting in his blue eyes. A snowflake settled onto his face and quickly melted from the heat of his body. He wiped it off with the back of his hand and caught me staring.
“Early snow,” he mused. “Sign of the winter to come, perhaps? Though I doubt the winter here will be half as bad as where you came from. Where was that again?”
It seemed that no one had filled him in on the details of where Diesel had been for the last five years. I didn’t like the look on Jerek’s face or the prying eyes.
“North.”
He smirked at my nonanswer. “And how much snow do you usually get in the North ?”
“In the bad years, the snow reaches over pines that are twice my size.”
His eyes widened like it was unbelievable, but he had not spent the winters enduring the snow in the cabin like I had—trying to shovel snow off the roof to avoid its sure collapse from the weight of the white beast. The days and hours of boredom from being trapped inside that small cabin until we were ready to dig ourselves out to see the sunlight. No, the weather here seemed milder. Even the sprinkle of snow that fell melted as soon as it hit the earth.
“And you were able to survive those winters.” Not a question, but a statement. His face shone with a mixture of pity and admiration. He was lucky that he returned from the Far North before the snow came—winters there had to be imaginably harder.
Diesel glanced back at us, and Jerek looked away, pretending he hadn’t been speaking to me, and after Diesel’s last overreactions, I didn’t blame him. Diesel narrowed his eyes at us before turning back around as we approached the outskirts of the city. Now that we were below the mountain tops, the wind had settled. The windmills atop the ridges still moved in the wind, the mountains blocking the breeze from hitting the city.
I tried to take in the details as we rode further and further into the city. There were too many things happening to take it all in. People pushed into the streets—real paved streets, I realized in wonder. Our horses’ hooves clip-clopped off the hard surface as we swam through the sea of people gathered to watch us. They were covered in coats and hats, ready for the snow that still slowly fell around us.
They cheered.
They were joyous and chanting for Prince Gabriel as we passed. Full of smiles and waves for their next King. Word must have spread quickly. I pulled my hood impossibly closer around my face and ducked my head, only letting my eyes wander up to memorize the route through the city, just in case. The world tilted on its axis. Did these people know what their King did, who he really was? Did I know who he really was?
Warm light glittered out from the buildings as we walked, not the flickering of candles, but of light streaming from fixtures on the ceilings. The light remained steady and bright. I stared in amazement. Delicious smells seeped out of a building as we passed. All sorts of confections were displayed in a wide glass window, and my mouth watered looking at them.
A group of young women that had never known a day of hard work giggled as Jerek rode by, and he shot them a wink with a dazzling smile. I scoffed, and he steered his horse closer to me until our knees pushed together in our saddles.
“Jealous, Princess?” he mumbled with a quirked eyebrow under his warm hat that matched my own.
I almost barked back a response before I had an idea. Giving him a demure smile, I said, “Yes, actually. Can I marry you instead of the asshole up there?”
Something dark flashed across his eyes before his shoulders shook with a laugh, the only sign that I had amused him once more. He leaned closer as he gazed in front of us, his face losing any signs of his playful humor.
“We’re almost there. Are you prepared to meet your grandfather?” I gripped my reins tighter. My horse tensed with my agitation. I would never be prepared to meet the monster, but the time was coming for me, no matter what. How did Jerek live with himself, working for him? I spied his black outfit and blue band around his arm, like all the soldiers surrounding us. Enemies. They were all my enemies.
I squared my shoulders and pulled my horse away from Jerek. We would never be friends. I felt his eyes boring into the side of my head, but I kept my gaze forward.
We passed through the heart of the city and ascended the slope on the opposite side of the valley. A large, white building stood halfway up the ascent, overlooking the metropolis below. Buildings clustered around the white one, forming its own small city. A wall of cement and stone surrounded the grounds, with soldiers posted every so often around the outskirts, holding larger guns than any of the people in our caravan held. The glint of the metal in the dying light looked dangerous.
The murmur of soldiers and the clomp of our horses on the road that led to Maximus’s estate were drowned out by the pounding of blood in my ears. We reached the wall and filed through with a nod from the soldiers at the gates. As we wove through a maze of buildings, most of the soldiers peeled off and disappeared. More and more soldiers crawled through the estate, teeming out of every building. How many men did my grandfather control? My pulse grew more and more erratic with every step. Few soldiers remained in our caravan when we reached the front of the white building that towered over us and halted our march—our final destination.
Initium Novum.
The words etched into the white granite over the main entrance doors stared back at me. Diesel dismounted his horse and stepped up next to my side.
“New beginning,” he stated, catching sight of where my eyes landed. “It means a new beginning.” His green eyes filled with longing, and I felt he spoke about a new beginning for us. He offered me his hand, and I took it, sliding off the horse with his help.
I grimaced, landing too hard on my leg. A sharp burning pain sliced through my calf. I breathed through the pain, trying to school my features. Stupid cougar, stupid Luke, stupid blonde hair …I cursed for the millionth time. Diesel was too close, and he saw the pain in my face, and growled low in my ear. His arms wrapped around me, picking me up before I could object, and he strode into the mouth of the building.
“Diesel, put me down. I can’t meet him like this,” I whispered furiously.
He all but ignored my request as he kept walking forward with the other four men at our back.
Heat instantly cloaked us as we entered the building, warming my chilled skin. Diesel set my squirming body down in the foyer of the grandest building I had ever set foot in. Gleaming white marble floors stretched in every direction, colliding with the dark walls that matched the soldiers’ uniforms. This place felt like a beautiful, dark dungeon. Staggering warmth cascaded over my chilled skin, but there wasn’t a fireplace in sight. Two sets of grand stairs stretched upward to the second floor, winding their way until they met the landing that was also encased in white marble. The foyer we stood in was so large, our footsteps echoed off the walls—the only sound in the room. Shiny wooden doors that weren’t worn with age covered the walls in all directions, opening into more hallways than I thought was possible. Soldiers stationed at doors along the corridors looked straight ahead and not at the party that had fallen onto their doorstep. This place must be enormous. Just thinking about walking back into the maze of hallways and doors made my stomach turn. It was like being stuck in the dank cell of the hunters’ house again with no access to the sky or the wind rushing through the pines. The door at our back thudded to a close, trapping us into the beautiful monstrosity of a house…castle…dungeon?
Diesel didn’t move from my side, but rather pulled my arm over his shoulders to support my weight in order to keep it off my throbbing leg. I let him—his skin moving against mine as he breathed made me want to grab the guns at his chest again, but…I let him. He must have read my thoughts, because he quickly moved away, pulling off his holsters with wary eyes and handing them to Jerek before clutching on to my side once again.
His face softened as he gazed into my eyes. “It’ll be okay.” His voice was soft—the words only meant for my ears.