Page 35 of The Infinite Glade
Sadina glowed with awe and grabbed Alexandra’s hand.
Minho couldn’t believe what was happening. “Horseshit. You don’t give a damn about the city—if you did you wouldn’t be here, running away.”
“Minho, that’s enough!” Roxy scolded him. He shrugged. He wasn’t afraid of Alexandra, and he wasn’t afraid of the others being mad at him for the truth he knew that they didn’t yet understand.
The ship’s hull groaned. “I need help!” Orange yelled from the captain’s wheel. TheMaze Cuttershuddered a bit.
Dominic and Miyoko ran to the starboard side. “We’re scraping bad here!”
Minho hurried to the captain’s wheel. “See? She sent us on a death trip! There’s only ice ahead. We shouldn’t have come this way. We need to go back to the coast!”
“There’s no room to even turn around!” Roxy yelled.
“You fool, you simple-minded, feral, fool!” Alexandra pushed her way to the captain’s wheel and shoved Minho out of the way.
Stunned, he stepped back. Orange did the same. Sadina, Trish, and Miyoko all looked at him with disappointment, maybe disgust. Dominic and Roxy avoided his gaze.
It was all enough to make him almost miss the old fortress, even the far-bottom level, even the one they called Hell.
“I warned you about the inlets!” The Orphan soldiers were about as useless as Flint, in his life and in his death. Alexandra counted on the digits to guide her. 55, 89, 144 . . .
“Everyone, get down to the cabin!” Roxy shouted. “Stay in the center, away from the sides where there might be impact.”
“Stupid, stupid fools,” Alexandra said under her breath, firmly holding onto the wheel as she recited the principles in her mind. With each digit she felt the boat hit another ice patch. 55, 89, 144 . . . She could smell the pine trees that surrounded the Villa. It was just up ahead, like an X in her mind. 233, 377, 610 . . . The Goddess felt the boat slowing down as if it agreed, as if it knew they had arrived at the Villa’s home.
“What’s happening?” Orange asked. “We’re stopping?”
The boat slowed to a complete halt.
“Minho?” The orange-haired girl grabbed her weapon. These feral, wild, un-Flared children . . . none of them even knew what reverence was. The boat rocked back and forth gently as if to shake its own head at their disrespect.
“It’s done.” Minho threw his arms up in the air. “We’re stuck here. Are you happy now?”
He looked at Alexandra with a point to prove, and she wished she could scream at him. Without the Evolution, nothing mattered. Nothing at all. Heat flushed her body. Her every inch stung with impatience.
“Yes, of course I am.” She moved from the wheel and pointed. “It’s right up there.”
Dominic stepped in. “The ice must have taken off the rudder. We’re stalled.”
“A sitting target for the Remnant Nation,” Orange said, her calm voice somehow more ominous than if she’d yelled it.
“Wait, we’re still moving.” Dominic looked over the edge.
“It’s just the current.” Minho leaned over the rail. The natural flow of the inlet moved the ship ever so slightly.
Alexandra paid no mind to the blabber. “The Villa is right there.” She walked along the side of the boat. “The water is only a few feet deep here. We can wade though the waters and walk over.” She knew this because Mannus had taken every opportunity to complain about it, and they’d been on a boat no bigger than a canoe.
The three others stared at her as if she hadn’t spoken a single word. “It’s shallow enough to walk through to the shore of the Villa,” she repeated herself.
The orange-haired Orphan just looked at her. “But . . . but the water . . . it’s . . . Cold.”
“Cold? It’s freezing. Are you kidding me?” Dominic scoffed. Moments like this really did make Alexandra miss Flint. He was an idiot, but an obedient one.
“Oh, come, now. Are you afraid of a little water?” the Goddess teased. “It’s no more than a foot deep a few meters ahead.” Their minds would have to evolve through actions. “You said it yourself, we’re sitting targets here.” She looked for the trees lining the back side of the island. The Villa was well hidden, but as sure as the digits were sacred, it was there. She actually welcomed the idea of the cold water to cool the heat that pulsed inside her. Fires of war had infected her mind and maybe all she needed were these icy waters to reset her nervous system.
Dominic looked to Minho as if he were the one in charge. As if they weren’t in the company of the one and only Godhead. Maybe she had lost her momentum.
She didn’t care. Things had come to a head.
