Maxim & Ivy's Story Read online

  Pyra was standing in the kitchen when Maxim stepped inside. The massive Denynso warrior leader took a long drink of the thick fruit nectar they had found in one of the cooler chests inset into the kitchen wall. After downing nearly the entire glass bottle, he sat it on the counter and looked at Maxim.

  “We should get everybody else up and get ready to leave. I’d rather get back to the compound as early as we can.”

  Maxim knew that the journey that they had ahead of them was going to be more difficult than the one that brought them to the ship. They weren’t just crossing the desert any longer. Now they were going to have the injured and the pregnant women with them and be concerned not just with making sure that they were able to get through the walk, but also with staying vigilant to ensure that everyone was kept safe as they made their way back to the protection of the compound. It was reassuring to know that the Meldor was with them. Just as he had carried some of the wounded from the battlefield to the compound, Maxim knew that this creature could be instrumental in bringing those who were not strong enough to handle the entire journey on their own to the compound where they would have care, comfort, and protection throughout the rest of the time that they needed to be on Penthos.

  They separated and went in opposite directions in the ship so that they could rouse everyone and get them started on their preparations. Though the people left on the ship had no personal belongings with them, there were supplies, tools, and equipment on the ship that they wanted to bring with them so that they would be available in the compound, and they needed to be packed in the most efficient way possible so that they could get them across the hot, oppressive expanse of the planet without slowing them down too much.

  Nearly an hour later they reconvened in the main room of the ship, bags, satchels, and crates gathered around the people who stood there in preparation of leaving. Some looked unsure of what they were about to do, their eyes occasionally flicking over to the door as if trying to convince themselves that they were able to step beyond it. Maxim scanned the group, taking count of everyone that they would be bringing with them and devising in his mind the most effective strategy for transporting all of them and the supplies efficiently. When he felt confident that they would be able to handle it, he turned to Pyra.

  “We’re ready,” he said. “All we need to do is get Frederick.”

  Pyra nodded.

  “I still don’t know what we should do with him.”

  “We’ll keep him controlled on the way to the compound and then secure him. We’ll figure out from there what we are going to do. Maybe in different circumstances he will be more cooperative.”

  Together they walked to the elevator and went up to the floor that held the containment unit. Pyra opened the door and Maxim heard him take a sharp breath in. Assuming that Frederick had been lying in wait and attacked the warrior as soon as the door opened, Maxim took hold of the weapon at his hip and stepped into the room, ready to fight the pilot back into submission. When he got beyond the doorway, however, he found something far more disturbing than a clash between the aging human man and the Denynso warrior.

  “He’s gone,” Pyra said, stepping into the center of the room.

  Maxim spun around, scanning every corner of the room.

  “What do you mean he’s gone? How could he be gone?”

  “He’s gone,” Pyra repeated. “He’s not in the unit anymore.”

  Maxim felt like his head was spinning. He scoured the unit, looking for anywhere where Frederick might be hiding, but the space was small and nearly barren, containing only a bed that was attached to the floor and a cabinet that was not large enough for a man to climb inside. There was nowhere that he could be hiding. Somehow Frederick had escaped from the containment unit.

  “This unit is supposed to be completely secure,” Pyra said, the anger is his voice evident. “The door can’t even open from the inside. How did he possibly get out?”

  “I don’t know,” Maxim said. “There are only three of us who even knew what unit he was being kept in it and who could have opened the door.”

  “None of us would have let him out,” Pyra said defensively.

  “I didn’t say that we did,” Maxim said. “There would be no reason for us to release him.”

  “Then how?”

  “I don’t know,” Maxim repeated. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “We need to talk to the others.”

  They rushed out of the room and back into the main section of the ship. Pyra gestured at Samira, who climbed through the luggage and crossed the room toward them.

  “Samira, have you seen Frederick?” Pyra asked in a hushed tone.

  Samira looked between the men with an expression of confusion.

  “What do you mean? I thought that you put him somewhere.”

  “Have you seen him?” Pyra asked again, more insistently this time.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I haven’t seen him since last night.”

  Maxim nodded.

  “Alright. Thank you.”

  He gestured at Gyyx, who left Leia’s side and came toward them. Samira walked over to the place where he had stood and leaned down to whisper into Leia’s ear. Maxim could only assume that she was telling the tiny human woman that they had misplaced Frederick, the man who had struck such fear and disgust into their hearts. Leia’s eyes snapped to Maxim and Pyra, but he made no move to confirm anything that Samira might have said. Instead, he looked to Gyyx.

  “Frederick is missing,” he said simply.

  “He’s missing?” the warrior asked, sounding as horrified as Maxim had felt when looking around the empty containment unit. “How could he have gotten out?”

  “We don’t know, but we have to decide what we’re going to do.”

  “We have to go,” Pyra said.

  Maxim looked at him.

  “Go?” he asked.

  “Yes. We need to go. We still have these people to think about. We need to get the women, the pregnant women, and the injured back to the compound so that they will be safe.”

  “But we need to find Frederick,” Maxim said. “He’s somewhere. He couldn’t have just disappeared, and that means that he’s probably still somewhere here in the ship.”

  “Even more reason that we need to get them out,” Pyra said. “Frederick escaped for a reason. No one here is safe. Until we find him and understand what he was talking about, our priority is protecting these people.”

  Maxim thought through what he had said and nodded, realizing that Pyra was right. As much as he wanted to find the pilot, he knew that the most important thing that they could do right then was ensure that everyone who had been on the ship was safe. It had been the entire reason that they had crossed the planet and come to the ship and they needed to fulfill that. From there, they could decide what they were going to do about Frederick.

  There was a heavy sense of nervousness pressing down around them as the men guided the group out of the ship and gathered them at the base of the stairs. Maxim walked around to the back of the ship to access the hatch of the bay where the Meldor had spent the night. As he released the hatch and opened it, he had a strange feeling settle over him. It occurred to him that that morning when he was roaming the ship, visiting the animal and exploring the corridors on the way back to the kitchen, that Frederick may have been close by, making his way through the ship to either make his escape or plan for his next move. It was an eerie feeling and one that only confirmed further that they needed to complete the rescue that they had intended.

  Maxim led the Meldor around the ship to the waiting group. He heard a shocked gasp ripple through them and saw several of them scuttle backwards, trying to get further away from the animal as it approached. Pyra held out his hands as he, too, saw their reaction.

  “You’re safe,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. This is the Meldor. I know that some of you may have encountered or heard of him before, but I can assure you, what you think about him is wrong. He is
safe and loyal. He’ll help us get back across the desert safely.”

  The tension in the air persisted for a few more moments and then started to release. Gyyx stepped forward and swung a thick leather strap over the Meldor’s back, settling it into place so that they could use it to suspend some of the bags on the creature’s sides. The Meldor didn’t react to the weight of the bags, unaffected by the burden even after they piled on three more straps. It was a tremendous show of strength and one that was reassuring to Maxim. He looked at the people who would be crossing with them and selected the ones who looked the most vulnerable.

  “They should ride the Meldor,” he said to Pyra. “They aren’t strong enough to handle the walk. Their condition will only worsen, and they’ll slow us down, making all of us more vulnerable if they try.”

  Pyra looked at the small group that Maxim indicated and nodded his agreement. He and Gyyx helped the two men and three women onto the Meldor’s back and used further straps to help secure them into place, offering the man in front the reins. Though Maxim would still be able to use the heavy ring on the front of his harness to guide the Meldor if needed, giving the man the reins freed his hands. When they were finally packed and ready, they turned in the direction of the compound. The sun was crawling up the horizon, promising another brutally hot day, and Maxim focused on the splash of rich orange light that it sent across the sand at their feet. Without saying anything else, they started on their way, taking the first steps to put the ship behind them and move toward the compound. In a way it felt like a far more powerful and impactful step than it might have appeared. Taking the group from the ship was almost symbolic, a show that they were not sitting waiting, ready to run at any given second. They were raising up arms and settling in for the fight that they had been promised.

  Chapter Three

  Ivy stood, ready to head back to the war room to examine it further, but she noticed that Ellora didn’t make a move to follow her.

  “What is it?” she asked. “I thought that we were going to go see if there was anything else hidden behind the weapons.”

  “Yes,” Ellora said. “We are. But---" she hesitated, “I’m very concerned about Athan.”

  The mention of Athan brought the memory of everything that Ellora had told her crashing back down on Ivy. She had been able to push what she had learned about Malcolm, Icelyn, and Athan into the back of her mind as she let the patient file and what it might mean take precedence in her thoughts, but now that Ellora had brought up Athan, she felt the gnawing worry return to her stomach. Athan had been the first person who Ivy had encountered within the kingdom, a person with extreme importance to Maxim, and he had been intricately entwined in everything that had unfolded in front of them. The thought that he was now missing, especially in light of the dangerous role that he was playing in Malcolm’s defection from the Order, was terrifying. She didn’t want to think that he had fallen into the hands of those who had offered up Aegeus, the same people who he had fought against and laid down his life to hold back from the destruction of the kingdom and the people he loved.

  “We should go check on him,” she said. “You probably just missed him when you were looking for him. There are so many places around the kingdom where he could have been that you don’t know about. You mentioned someone else who was with them. He might have been with them.”

  “Mhavrych,” she said.

  The name struck something in the back of Ivy’s mind. She couldn’t quite identify it, but she knew that she had heard that single word before.

  “Who is that?” Ivy asked.

  “I don’t know who he is really,” Ellora said. “I don’t know where he came from or what he has to do with the kingdom, but he helped Athan rescue me from the Order tunnels and he said that he knew Aegeus.”

  “Could Athan be with him? Maybe they brought Malcolm and Icelyn into hiding?”

  “He would have told me,” Ellora insisted. “He’s been keeping me informed of everything that happens.”

  “Maybe he couldn’t this time. Let’s go to his house and see if he’s there. We’ll bring the page of the file with us. If we show it to him he might be able to tell us more about it. He might even know why your husband was guarding it all this time.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think that we should take it out of here. It’s too risky. We might break it and then there would be no way that we could show it to Athan or eventually bring it back to Aegeus. Even if we didn’t, we still don’t know why it was hidden. Whoever my husband didn’t want to find it might still be in the kingdom. Bringing it out of the house could reveal to someone that we have it and that might get it into the wrong hands. We need to leave it hidden here, somewhere other than where it was, and we’ll tell Athan about it so that he can come back here and look at it.”

  Ivy nodded. She understood what Ellora was saying. Though she was eager to find out more about it as soon as they could, she knew that Ellora was right about the danger that it could pose bringing the page out of the house and possibly having someone see it. Until they knew what it was and why it was hidden, it was better that they kept it hidden.

  They made their way across the village as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. Ivy was rapidly learning that every move that they made, every word that she said or step that she took, had meaning and could be being scrutinized. They didn’t know where the Order had eyes and ears, and what might happen if something that they did seemed even slightly suspicious. It was a measured existence, controlled in a way to which she wasn’t accustomed, but she was willing to do it. She didn’t want to do anything that might compromise Maxim’s safety or the safety of any of the others who were standing beside him.

  When they arrived in front of Athan’s house, Ivy immediately noticed that there were no lights burning inside. She felt the hope that she had held that he would be there dissipating, but she forced herself to maintain as much positivity as she could, not wanting to further upset or discourage Ellora. They climbed the few steps to the front door and Ellora rapped on it. She waited for a few moments and then turned the knob. The door opened easily beneath her hand and she leaned inside.

  “Athan?” she called into the dark expanse beyond the door. “Athan, it’s me, Ellora. I’m with Ivy. Are you here?”

  Only silence greeted them, and Ivy felt the rest of her hope disappear. He wasn’t there. Athan was still missing and she knew now without any hint of doubt that there was something very seriously wrong. The swimming, foggy feeling within her mind was still there and now that they were standing on the threshold of Athan’s empty home it seemed to be getting worse. The sensation had spread to her chest and belly, making her feel as though some unexplained energy was swirling through her, surrounding her organs and making it harder for her to draw in and expel her breaths. She reached out and gripped the doorway, hoping that a moment of stability and concentration would ease the feeling and bring her back into full focus, but it did little. She couldn’t understand what was happening to her and though she was concerned, she looked at Ellora and decided not to say anything yet.

  The older woman already looked so incredibly worried, so strained and tired from everything that was happening around her and the exertion of her efforts trying to prepare the group for their journey to Penthos. Ivy didn’t want to add any more to that. She forced her face to stay calm and not register any of the worry that she was starting to feel about herself as Ellora stepped past her again and they went down the stairs. They started back toward Ellora’s house, nothing left for them to do but go forward with their exploration of the war room.

  When they arrived back at Ellora’s house, both slowed. They said nothing, but it was as though they felt the same slight hesitation, the wariness that had come from discovering that Athan was still missing. Neither knew what they should do. Ivy wanted to tell someone, to reach out to anyone who might have more information or be able to do something. The only people she could think o
f, however, were Creia, Theia, and Rey, and though she trusted in their strength and leadership, she felt that there was little, if anything, that they would be able to do. Had any of them known what was happening and that Athan and the others were in danger, they would have already taken action.

  Ivy and Ellora finally climbed the steps and entered the house again. They had left the lights burning inside, easing some of the discomfort that Ivy felt. There was an eerie feeling in the air, making her feel as though something were creeping along her skin. Without a word, the women made their way through the house and down into the hidden area that had belonged to Aegeus and his father before him. As they descended the stairs and passed by the symbols that represented the men, Ivy wished that she could be witness to even a few moments of what it had once been like in this area of the house. She knew that the war room wasn’t something that had always been there. It wasn’t the original intention for this lounge to contain so many weapons or be the central location of preparations for war. There had been another reason. This space had once meant something else, and she wished that she could experience it. If she knew that, if she could feel what this space had once held, it might ease some of the pain that she felt when she stood in it and some of the dread that she went through any time that she thought of it.

  As they approached the door to the war room, something struck Ivy. She was nearly certain that she hadn’t closed the door when she left with the glass page. She had been so consumed with questions about it that she had simply left the room. Now, though, the door was firmly closed.