Page 81 of The Infinite Glade
Ximena squinted at the shelf from which the woman had grabbed the book and counted how many more there were. Over twenty. WICKED was truly wicked.
“Well?” Isaac looked at Frypan.
“Open it!” Jackie squeezed the Glader’s arm lovingly and Jackie, Miyoko, and Isaac crowded over his shoulders as he opened the book of Group A’s true history. Ximena couldn’t help but peek over at the sacred artifact, too. The first page contained photos of teenage boys with numbers written under each of them. Old Man Frypan ran his hand along the grid of pictures while the faces of each Subject A stared back at him. His aged fingers then lingered atop the photographed face of his younger self.
Remnant soldiers continued to chant for freedom as they rushed to the surface of Alaska’s City of Gods. They wanted to find the Grief Bearers who’d held them down, kept them enslaved since their births. Minho trusted they would get the last of the war-itch out of their systems before he introduced them to the peace that awaited. Well, relative peace. They deserved the future of freedom they fought for, all of them.
He’d used every last bit of energy he could conjure up to lead the soldiers to their destiny, and he needed a minute. He wasn’t yet ready to trade the safety of the Glade for the war-torn world above them. He was exhausted, utterly, and every breath became more difficult than the one right before it.
Orange knelt beside him in the grass. “Hang tight. Kit’s getting a med pack, and he’ll even bring the medic down if he can.” He nodded, trying to say thank you with his eyes.
Dominic plopped down on his other side. “Hold on, buddy. We’ve still got a lot of stuff to do—you’re gonna get better.”
“Lots of stuff,” Roxy agreed; she scooted closer to Minho.
Sadina sighed. “How are we supposed to do anything when theMaze Cutteris in flames and we’re stuck here?”
Dom suddenly shouted, “Oh! That Berg in the woods!”
The kid finally remembered, Minho thought with a hidden smile.
“Berg in the woods?” Roxy asked, rubbing her wrists.
“Minho found it when he followed Alexandra.” Dominic didn’t seem bothered by the Pilgrims right behind him, worshipping every inch of the Maze with their own odd rituals.
Sadina looked hopefully at Minho. “So, you can take us to find my mom, my friends?”
He nodded. He knew Isaac would be waiting for him at the spot along the coast where they’d said their goodbyes and split up into groups. Isaac had made Minho promise that if things went south they’d meet back there, and in that moment and every moment since, Minho knew it would come to be. Not quite everything had gone south, but they’d meet there, anyway.
“A promise is a promise.” Minho coughed up a bit of blood and closed his eyes. “Sadina?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you read me something from your book . . .”
“Absolutely. I know just the thing.”
She cleared her throat and flipped to a certain page in theBook of Newt. She read aloud her favorite passage:
Even as the darkness whispers across my mind, beckoning with smoky tendrils of blackness and rot, even as I breathe in the stench of a dying world, even as the blood within my veins turns purple and hot, I feel the peace of a certain knowledge. I have had friends, and they have had me.
And that is the thing.
That is the only thing.
EPILOGUE
From the Sea to the Sky
Isaac walked to the tree line of the beach; he surveyed the damage from a recent storm until he found the fallen tree where he’d once carved a symbol for Sadina. He sat down and cleaned out the carved grooves with the knife that Minho had given him.
Ximena was nearby and walked over. “What’s this mean?” She rubbed her finger over the roughly carved wood and sat down beside him.
“From the sea to the sky. Sadina and I used to say it when we were little, whenever we promised each other something.” Isaac looked out at the ocean. Both the blue of the sea and the blue of the sky went on forever. Separately, but together. Considering Sadina left on theMaze Cutterand Isaac flew back to this spot in a Berg, he considered it a promise well kept. He knew she’d be returning to this beach soon. Very soon. He knew it.
Ximena looked out at the ocean as well. “I always wished growing up that we had lived near the coast.”
“Yeah?” Isaac waited for her to say something profound, preferably in a different language. But she just stared at the ocean with a peaceful look in her eyes. “No second-sight?”
