Page 41 of The Infinite Glade
“Wait . . . you’re sure that’s the same carving?” Orange asked as the others walked toward the Villa, but Alexandra and her Remnant wrist were already well ahead of them.
“The same.” Minho wished he had a wall to punch right then.
Sadina had hung back. “But why would the Remnant Nation have anything to do with the Godhead?” she asked. Alexandra didn’t hear or didn’t have an answer. She just continued to walk away from them toward the trees like a coward.
Minho caught up to her. The others followed.
Then he shared his thoughts on the matter, clear as day, making sure the woman could hear him. “She’s not a God or Goddess or anything close to a Godhead. She’s just some lowly Orphan, probably escaped the Nation at a cliff ceremony before coming to Alaska.”
Alexandra laughed again, kept walking.
No one else said a word.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Nations of Remnants
The Berg launched toward the sky, roaring and creaking and shaking. It soon flew smoothly enough, and the inside compartments were a lot cozier than the one in which they’d been handcuffed—that metal beast ultimately crashed. Isaac and Jackie roamed around the cabin as Cian and Erros piloted. “Sort of reminds me of my yurt back home . . .”
“Yeah, they don’t clean up after themselves either.” Jackie pointed to a scatter of animal hides and piles of weapons in the back corner.
“It’s lived in,” Isaac suggested, deflecting her subtle jab at his home.
“You trust them?” Jackie whispered. “I still think they’re bad news.”
Isaac didn’t know who or what he trusted anymore. “I trust Ximena,” he finally said, looking over his shoulder at the Spanish-speaking spitfire and Old Man Frypan by a window.
“But . . . these guys.” Jackie lowered her voice even more. “We know nothing about them other than what they told us. They could be from some other Godhead for all we know. Or Mars. Or criminals.” Jackie said the word Godhead as if chewing a piece of fish with too many bones.
Isaac shook his head. He’d seen his family die, had been kidnapped, killed Cranks, stood inches away from a Griever, and he just wanted to reunite with his friends and go back home. He went through his mind and listed the facts he knew to be true. “They fed us. They saved us from the Hollower. And they’re going to get us to Alaska to find the others a lot quicker than we could have without them . . . and that’s all I care about right now.”
Maybe they were terrible people, and maybe they were lying about all the bonkers frequency and sequence stuff. But Isaac just wanted to get back home. Means to an end and all that.
“What about her?” Jackie motioned to Ximena. “I didn’t care if she wandered off on her own, but from what we’ve learned, are you really going to let these guys just . . . take her? After they drop us off?”
Ximena was smarter than Isaac, maybe even stronger than him, too. “I think she’ll be okay.” And he meant it. He imagined there wasn’t much out there that Ximena couldn’t survive.
“Well, I think she’s hiding a whole bunch of things.”
Isaac had found himself believing or wanting to believe every single thing Ximena had said since they met her. She was so sure of herself and pushed for the truth so hard, that he didn’t thinkshecould possibly lie. But of course that was some serious naivety. He looked over at her and noticed her shoulders were slumped and her head hung down. She no longer appeared confident in the least. “Oh . . .”
“Yeah . . .” Jackie whispered. “And what do you think will happen when Cian and Erros drop us off and find out she lied to them?” Jackie gestured to the pile of weapons. “Those look like weapons they’ve collected from other people. . . .”People who are now dead,her eyes concluded.
“Why can’t one thing—just one—be simple? Ever?” He sighed at Jackie then calmly walked over to Ximena. “You really know where the Sequencers are?” he whispered.
She didn’t answer.
Whichwasan answer.
Frypan might throw out aDouble shuckjust about then.Jackie had anI told you solook plastered on her face.
Isaac’s head spun with all he’d learned in the last twenty-four hours. Kletter doing trials on Ximena’s Village. Ximena being the last born of her entire town. Sequencers and families hidden underground. There were just too many questions that Isaac needed answers to. And unlike Kletter—who never said more than she needed to—Cian and Erros were willing to tell them things. Maybe Isaac shouldn’t leave Ximena alone with them, after all. But that would mean sacrificing himself, and possibly never seeing his friends again.Any of them.
“You don’t know . . . do you?” Isaac asked to belabor the point.
“I’ll figure it out.” Ximena lifted her head before lowering it again.
“We’ve got a stew cooking here, don’t we?” Old Man Frypan said. “Let her cook.”
