Page 10 of The Cerulean Sister
He is trying so hard to help, and while leaving this room sounds more appealing now that things have settled, I have no desire to go to either of the places named. Maybe leaving the capital for a while will serve me like it did Calliape, even if it is just for the day.
"Could we go to the settlement?" I can't help but smile. "Calliape sent me a message before the greenhouse disaster and I haven't written back. Could we go see her?"
He furrows his brow in surprise and then smiles. "I will send word."
99 stands by a machine with handles in the front and a leather bench aligned the wrong way down the back. I have seen illustrations of people riding this contraption to travel across long distances but cannot recall the name. He tinkers with some of the buttons that look strangely like the controls on August’s ship. With the flip of a switch, the machine comes to roaring life, floating inches off the ground and expelling dust out from under it.
"99, what is this?" I scream over the growling engine and back away.
"It's a hover bike. The settlement is too close for a ship, too far to walk." His voice is so strong, he barely needs to raise it. He swings an armored leg over and straddles the thick bench. It dips down slightly but adjusts to his weight, then he extends a hand for me to join him.
Both Commander Yeva and Commander Wesley stand next to their own floating hover bikes, waiting for me to climb on before mounting.
"I'm not getting on that!" I eye the seat I am supposed to have between my legs.
"Come on, you can hold onto me the whole way," he comforts with a flick of his fingers, enticing me to come closer.
I reluctantly take his hand, feeling the heat coming from underneath the hover bike when I step closer to line myself up.
He turns as I climb on, helping me bunch up the long dress that I did not know would be a burden into a manageable ball.
"Hold tight." He wraps both of my arms around his trim waist until my cheek is pressed against his back.
Maybe it won't be so bad in this position.
I squeeze into him as we lift about a knee height more off the ground and start moving. My eyes are tightly shut and my whole body clenches in response to the sudden forward motion.
99 asks if I am alright over his shoulder, and I nod yes into his strong back.
The sound of the engine is crisper as we pick up speed, now going so fast that short hairs come loose from my braid and dance in annoying tendrils across my face.
By the time I am convinced I'm not going to fall to my death, I crack my eyes open to see the vast landscape. I was taught a dismal version of this world, but this is nothing like that or the description in books I was allowed to read, a barren wasteland with machines that ruin the soil and pollute the air. Viathan is an otherworldly beauty of its own kind.
I peel my face from 99's body to take in more of the scenery. Tall metal structures in the distance line the horizon in strange shapes. On either side of us, the grass mixes with blush-toned twigs sticking up like miniature trees. The flora swishes as we cut over it, peaceful and stretching out as far as I can see, such a contrast from the dusty ground of the Estate or the almost dewy lushness of Frith.
99 reaches back and taps my thigh to capture my attention. I follow the point of his finger to an enormous rock coming into our view ahead.
As we pass it, I realize it isn't a rock but a carved stone. A fallen statue of a haunting depiction of First Mother, one I have not seen before. The full scope of it is hard to see in the chunky pieces of the massive scatter. If it fell or was pulled down, it happened lifetimes ago, the details worn away on the side that is most exposed to the elements. I make a mental note to look up what this place could have been the next time I am in the library.
Commander Wesley pulls in front of us, his right hand resting meaningfully on the weapon secured to his hip.
Our hover bike slows as we fall in line behind him, entering an archway of a fenced-in village. The settlement is made up of modest wooden homes, with the same dovetail design around their metal doors. The textured roofs have flat plates attached to them, black and mirrorlike, all connected by thick-wires webbing into the doorframes.
The only structure without any trace of Viathan technology is an old temple, the doors wooden and ornate, a small statue of First Mother at its entrance visible even from this distance.
This is the temple Calliape lives in, the one 99 offered when she decided she could not stay in the capital. I have only heard her stories about it the few times she came back to visit me, how it was abandoned but livable and how the villagers felt superstitious toward it. I worried they would be unkind to her, but she always seemed to be acclimating well, and from the lush plants and forest in the distance, I can see why 99 thought this was a good place for her.
99 also said his father and August's family live nearby so she would not be alone. I scan the homes close to the temple, trying to see if any of them look familiar from the fragments I have seen in 99's memories.
My attention goes back to the temple when I see Calliape standing in the doorway, making me almost leap from the hover bike. She smiles brightly and waves as she hears us come down the main road of the settlement.
Her beauty is never something I will get used to. She glows golden from within, like sunlight is going to rush out of her pores the moment she smiles too brightly.
99 quickly reaches back to grab my thigh when I throw my hand up in an overly enthusiastic wave. He chastises me about the change in balance and not jumping off the bike, but I can hear the smile hidden behind his mask at my excitement.
He stops us right in front of the walkway, climbing off and immediately offering his hand to help me balance on my wobbly legs.
Calliape walks down the little, overgrown walkway to her temple, no bigger than the size of the homes around it, and shoots her arms out for a hug.
