Blackened holes also scar buildings from some kind of fight. Volcanic glass cobblestones are broken and torn from their moorings; most of what remains lay in chunks and powder. The crowd wavers on its feet: sick, thin, dirty, clothed in rags. Many have volcanic shard knives and spears strapped to their backs, along with branch-like devices that also feel like weapons.
The stone skeleton of the city is all that remains.
“This man,” the bearded man shouts. He points at Kardek. “...He, who has called himself the Bridge! He stands before you, a traitor to our people! A heretic, and a liar!”
I feel Revik’s shock ripple through my light.
His whole attention is on me now. I cannot look at him, though. I cannot even care about his reaction. I am being slowly crushed under the weight of this city’s pain. Like the rest of them, I focus on Haldren to keep from collapsing, the bearded man with the intense eyes and the angry voice. Haldren. He will redeem the old man, cleanse him through fire.
It feels just. Right, even.
Haldren is a friend. The way he speaks is familiar, the way the crowd hangs on his every word, as if in a trance. Moans rise with his voice, emotion-laden screams. People throw things at the old man, hitting him with pieces of ripped up cobblestones. I wince as the lines cross, but feel nothing, in my body or my mind.
The man with the dark beard finally holds up a hand. He speaks quietly, for the old man alone. “You should have listened to me, Liego.” His voice breaks. “How could you do it? You will die the greatest mass murderer the world will ever know...”
With these words, it hits me.
More than that. It annihilates me.
I scream into that blue sky. NO NO NO! Get me out of here! NOW! NOW!
Allie! It’s okay! Revik is beside me, alarmed. No, afraid. It’s all right...
No. I shake my head, my terror crushed by grief once more. No, it’s not all right. Please, get me out of here. Now. Please, Revik...please...
He surrounds me, and then—
I am back in that quiet place.
It is the place he took me when my mom died. We float over a valley of sunset red. Towers of light billow like gold silk before an ocean of liquid diamonds and light. Normally, I think of it as his place...or maybe ours...but this time, it feels like mine. Friends surround me, try to comfort me. So much relief exists in being with them, in knowing it is finally finished, that it is finally over. That I don’t have to go back.
I don’t have to go back until...
Revik is there, too.
He is a different Revik, though, just as I observe a different me standing in waist-high water, in that golden ocean with my friends, relieved to be done. That other Revik talks to me in a low voice, and we are alone together now, and he holds me. He has perhaps been talking for some time, as if parts of us never stopped whispering in the dark.
I feel myself grow calm.
His light coils deeper into mine and the pain worsens.
There is familiarity there, beyond what I’ve felt from anyone...beyond what I’ve felt from him. We know each other here. We are more than friends. It is his comfort I seek, above all the rest. I know he understands. He understands in a way that none of the others can, in a way they never will, no matter how hard they try.
He succumbs to the pull, without reservation, and wishes—
STOP! STOP IT!
Panic fills my light. This time, it’s not mine.
STOP THIS, ALLIE! Please, stop...!
I have not come to this paradise alone. The other Revik’s light flashes out.
The arc blows us apart like dead leaves, until—
I took a breath. I took another.
Air shocked my lungs. I choked on it, fighting to work the rhythms of my physical body, fighting to align myself, to exist inside myself.
Eventually, I found I was lying on the floor.
Virtual stars met my eyes, flooding the ship’s stateroom and the ceiling above where I lay. Flat-seeming now, those stars shone palely as they ran down pastel walls.
I felt him move next to me.
When I glanced over, he raised a hand, covering his face, but I saw his jaw harden before he did it. I realized only then that I clutched his shirt in my own hand, right before he pushed my fingers off roughly, forcing me to let go.
Some emotional kickback made it hard for me to look at him, but also hard to look away. I watched him sit up, trying to wrap my head around him again, around his familiarity, even through the shield he wore around himself like a wall.
I couldn’t reconcile the impression of complete impenetrability I got off him with the sense that I knew him behind it, somehow.#p#分页标题#e#
I tried to push both feelings away, if only so he wouldn’t notice me thinking about him. I tried to pull my mind back into one piece, but could only breathe, watching him as he fought to do the same. I don’t remember moving, but somehow, I was sitting up, too, watching him breathe. I couldn’t seem to unclench my hand.