Twell and the Rebellion (29 page)

I could say she had no
proof. I could deny it all. But I knew as I stood on shaky legs to
look her in the eye that I wouldn’t. I wasn’t a liar and, I
fervently hoped, not a coward either, as I sealed my fate in front
of the entire Army of Powers.

“I have.” Although my
mouth was as dry as the desert and I hadn’t spoken very loud, the
words travelled clearly and steadily throughout the hall. I was
shocked by how strong I sounded when I was almost to pieces on the
inside. The room was all stunned silence for a moment longer before
pandemonium broke loose.

“
Seize her!” Maza
screeched.

As s
everal soldiers rushed forward to grab me the room broke
into an uproar, people surging forward, shoving aside chairs and
scrambling onto tables to see what was unfolding. A hand locked on
my arm, and I looked into Shanna’s face as she stared at me with a
mix of excitement and shock.

“
Make it count, Twell,”
she hissed in my ear as the voices of the cadets rose in a growing
clamour of panic and excitement around us.

“
What have you done?”
Kaelin screamed at Dallein as she pushed through the crowd. “How
could you?”

Dallein looked pale and suddenly
unsure as chaos erupted around him.

“
Silence!” Maza bellowed
as the guards surrounded me. Whirling around to face the crowd her
eyes widened with sudden fear. As the frantic building of voices
continued to grow, it was clear she recognized the sound I already
understood as the soldiers dragged me roughly from the hall. It was
the sound of retaliation. The start of a rebellion. Her worst fears
coming true.

“Twell!
No!”
The
sound of his voice cut somehow through the din and I twisted back,
struggling against the soldiers’ grip. Jonaz ran at full speed,
thrusting himself through the mass of students. His face was naked
with fear and rage as his eyes locked wildly on mine. He’d almost
reached me when more soldiers stepped out and formed a barrier
between us. He hit their line at full speed and one of them pushed
him back so hard he went sprawling on the ground.

“Jonaz!” I struggled
furiously in the soldiers’ grasps, trying to reach him, but my
physical strength was nothing to theirs. So I went very still in
their grasp and used my words as a weapon instead.

“
This is the price to pay
for wanting free will,” I yelled, as the cadets and officers all
stared in horror. “This is what they’ll do if you dare to choose
who you love. Is this the kind of leadership you can respect and
follow? Or will you fight for freedom of your hearts as well as
your lives?”

The room fell eerily silent. It
was as though every cadet held a collective breath as they measured
the weight of my words. The silence stretched statically over us
all, making the hair on my arms stand to attention before it was
just as suddenly over. Then, the sound of resistance revived. A
murmur, a groan, a protest, a cry that rose up from the mouths of
everyone at once.

“We should have the right
to choose…they should let us choose
.”

A long, lone whistle rose into
the air, sailing high over the room, and touching hearts where
words could not. I didn’t know who started the whistle; it seemed
to come from further away than where any of my friends stood, but
my skin prickled, the hair rising on my arms as more and more lips
pursed, pushing out the sound of Comian support as the soldiers
looked around with unease. One by one the cadets joined in, until
the shrill sound of support lifted my spirits high and adrenaline
rushed through my veins.

I searched for Jonaz and
found him on his knees, staring at me in awe through the linked
arms of the soldiers. I stared back, grinning in defiance before
the soldiers reacted. The whistling pierced my ears and soul as I
was propelled backwards from the hall, away from the trouble I’d
caused. My legs turned boneless with shock as my feet dragged
through the sand, the grains squeaking and crunching beneath the
soldiers’ footsteps. On and on they trod, and I wondered vaguely if
they were taking me far enough into the desert so that no one could
hear me scream. The fact that I thought them capable of hurting me
was even more of a shock than the idea of torture itself. I knew
with sudden clarity that I could no longer trust the image the
Governing Body portrayed to us. We were supposed to be non-violent,
calm, and docile, yet the situation I was in clearly depicted a
different side to our natures. There was rage,
righteousness…revenge.

We were only as good as we
were convinced we were, until our perfect world was shattered by
death or violence. Now our innocence was destroyed and we were
changing. I wasn’t the same girl I’d been only ten moons ago. I’d
acted with violence and killed to save myself. I’d rebelled against
the laws of Como and helped others to break the law alongside me.
I’d betrayed my partner by allowing myself to feel for a boy who
wasn’t my so-called genetic match. Why would I expect any mercy
when I’d disobeyed the laws of Como? I was a traitor to our people
and traitors were to be punished. It was as though I’d known all
along the consequences for such disobedience would not be gentle or
kind.

The guards stopped when we
were about one hundred Comian lengths from camp. There was no sound
but the slightly laboured breath of the guards and my own short
shallow breathing. There was nothing around but the wide-open space
above
, and the sand below my feet,
forming endless patterns across the desert as far as the eye could
see. One of the soldiers crouched before me and brushed his hand
over the ground. A metal latch glinted in the sun as he wrapped his
fingers over it. Pulling it up, a round metal hatch appeared,
barely wider than a cubicle door.

“
No,” I heard myself say
weakly. The soldier stood to pull up the lid and a dark hole in the
earth yawned open.

“Sorry, kid, but you’re in
the real world now,” he said, sounding almost apologetic. I stared
down into the mouth of the opening and saw nothing but blackness.
It was as dark as the cave where Raze had once tried to find me and
as dark as my nightmares. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up
and I started to hyperventilate.

“
Not down there,” I gasped
as terror set in. “You don’t understand.”

“
Hold still,” the officer
barked as my arms were drawn behind my back. I felt them bound with
something cold and pinching. Something hard and inescapable. Then I
was lifted off my feet as the same type of shackles bound my legs.
My composure evaporated as I was pushed firmly to the mouth of the
hole. Fear prickled over me as I saw there were no stairs, only the
yawning black to greet me and no way of knowing how deep it
was.

“
This is Abwarzian!” I
screamed, attempting to struggle. It was futile. Without any
balance to help me, all it took was one firm push to tip me. I
flailed for a second before I tumbled through the opening, landing
so hard on my side the air whooshed from my lungs, leaving me
winded. Gasping for breath, I looked up to where their faces peered
down and estimated the height to be about three times my own. The
dim light of the entrance showed me smooth dirt walls, pressing in
on my sides like a grave. There was nothing to climb up, or grab
onto to. No easy way to escape. I was really in the moga poo. I
looked pleadingly up at them, but their expressions were
unyielding.

“
No, if this was
Abwarzian, there would be no air down there...and we would not come
back to deal with you later.” The meaner officer smirked. Suddenly
they stepped away from the opening and I stared at the pale, white
sky for a moment until a shadow fell over my face and jolted my
heart. Maza smiled down at me. A smile colder and more chilling
than the depths of my prison, her eyes harder than the walls around
me.

“I suppose now is as good
a time as any to inform you I have information regarding your
guardian.” Maza’s lips pulled back over her teeth in a hideous
grin. “But I’m afraid it’s now irrelevant. You will never see her
again, alive or dead.”

“
Please!” I shrieked. “I
need to know!”

“Rewards are not for
traitors.” Maza sneered. “One diseased mind can infect many more.
It’s my duty to stamp out such a plague on our society’s
values.”

“
It’s not an infection,” I
shouted. “It’s a natural part of us all that can’t be repressed
forever, no matter what you do to me.”

“
I can assure you I’ll do
my best to contain and cure this outbreak,” Maza snarled. “And I
can promise you I’ll personally see to it that you rot in
confinement for the rest of your life.” Her teeth still bared in
vicious victory, she slammed down the lid on my coffin, plunging me
into darkness.

Chapter
Thirteen

I’d been through quite a lot in
my final year of schooling. Training my power for Como had been the
hardest thing I’d ever put my mind to, challenging my mind and
body, as well as my character. Losing my best friend had broken my
heart, but somehow it had kept on beating. Killing my trainer had
scarred me permanently, yet my survival had made me stronger.
But now, trapped underground, with the dark closing in on me, I
thought I was about to come undone.

The narrow sides of my
confinement seemed to compress inwards, pressing me into myself as
I fought the urge to kick and scream uncontrollably. My eyes
blinked repeatedly, trying to beat away the dark, as well as the
tears threatening to spill onto my cheeks. I wouldn’t cry. I
wouldn’t give them the satisfaction and I couldn’t see what help it
would do me anyway. My gasps for air grew more ragged and frantic
as I fought off my panic, trying to find a strong place within
myself to hold onto. Soon I realized if I didn’t calm down I was
going to pass out. The air was thin and I was using way too much of
it hyperventilating.

Curling awkwardly into a ball
despite my bindings, I forced myself to breathe slower through my
nostrils, slowing down my racing heart as the chill of damp earth
seeped through my uniform, deep into my bones. Huddled and
shivering, my muddy hair clinging to my face, I felt more
distrusting and afraid of my own people than the Abwarzians.

I tried not to count the time
that seemed uncountable, unable to tell if I’d been in solitary
confinement for moments, or all day long. Desperate to cling onto
my sanity, I conjured images of the people I loved. However, my
thoughts became warped and strange, at one point I felt sure I was
hallucinating, certain I could see red eyes glowing at me from the
corner of my confinement. Blood red eyes. My skin prickled in fear
and I knew I had to do something before I completely lost it. With
my pinioned hands I patted over my pockets, hoping for any item
that might come in handy for escaping, and my hopes spiked as my
fingers closed over something dry and crinkled. Gently retrieving
it I realised it was the flower Avin had given me, several times
laundered but incredibly still in one piece. It was not broken.

“It has both
beauty and strength…and I guess it kinda reminds me of you.”

I didn’t know how Avin
could see or believe in my strength so soon after meeting me, but I
wanted to believe he was right. Like the flower, I would not fall
apart, or allow the elements beating me down break my
spirit.

Rolling onto my back, I
squinted up at the trap door entombing me and cast my mind out to
feel over it. It was solid; I could feel that much. I’d lifted
heavier though. Heck, I’d lifted a whole pod once and brought down
a cavern ceiling on Raze. I could darn well move a door if I had to
as well. I knew I could move the whole thing easily if I wanted,
but they might see it go flying off and I was confident that
maneuver
would not improve my situation. The
stale diminishing air in my confinement was making my chest tighter
by the minute, and I knew it would weaken my powers if I couldn’t
breathe properly.

Closing my eyes to
concentrate, I focused all my energy into my
mind and pushed for the first time through an object. I’d
had no idea I could even cast through matter without moving it, but
as I panted with the effort, the cool air hit my senses and
exhilaration washed over me.

Feeling over the door I
discovered a bolt had been slid into place, however it wasn’t even
locked. The fools! No doubt they never contemplated someone trying
to help me, let alone me managing to help myself. Sliding the bolt
open with my mind was easy and lifting the door open even easier.
The fresh air rushed in to kiss my skin and I gulped it greedily
into my lungs. I’d never take air for granted again.

I was weakened, the effort
of my newfound ability as draining as if I’d just spent a whole day
in training without rest. Beads of sweat rolled down my face and my
head spun dangerously with fatigue as I tried to focus on the next
task. How the heck was I going to get out? My arms and legs were
pinioned so tightly, I knew I couldn’t get to my feet, and my
energy felt so low, I didn’t think I’d manage to both unshackle
myself and get out of the hole. I had to choose.

After deliberating, I decided I
wanted out first. Like, a lot. If I’d been bordering on
claustrophobia before, I could positively diagnose myself now. My
desperation to get out of the dark was more important than anything
else in the world at that moment. I’d get out and then rest until I
regained the energy to get free of the shackles. Then I’d work out
my next move.