Planet X - Michael Jan Friedman [30]
He turned back to Denara. “He seems all right. But if we take him with us, he’s likely to hurt someone. Himself, maybe.”
She nodded. “We’ll have to get him some food, though. He may be here for a while before the government finds him.”
Erid agreed.
As he and Denara went to find sustenance for the only transformed who would be left behind, he vowed never to curse his fate again. Ugly and afflicted as he was, he was still a lot better off than some people.
Chapter Ten
IT HAD BEEN a long day.
Weary and begrimed like all the other transformed alongside him, Erid stood silently, almost reverently, amid the rubble of the fortress’s eastern wall and considered the not-so-distant city of Verdeen.
It sprawled in the foothills, a scattering of bright lights that housed more than a hundred thousand people. The place looked calm, peaceful … unaware of the momentous event that had occurred in the ancient structure above it.
Erid had a hard time grasping it himself. Minutes earlier, he had been a prisoner of the worldwide government. Now he and all the other transformed—with the exception of Mollic, of course—were prisoners no longer.
They were free.
“We did it!” Leyden thundered all of a sudden.
As if a dam had broken, a cheer went up from the throats of the transformed—all thirty-seven of them. Fists were pumped into the air. There was a sense of triumph, of invincibility, as if they had proven conclusively that there was nothing that could stand against them.
Nor could it have happened without Rahatan. Erid knew that and he was sure the others did, too.
Without Rahatan’s spirit, none of the transformed would have found the courage to defy Osan. Without Rahatan’s leadership, they would have been ensconced in their respective quarters at that very moment, staring into the darkness without hope or the prospect of any.
“Rahatan!” cried Denara.
“Rahatan!” sang the youth with the luminous eyes, which seemed even more radiant in the dying, orange light of dusk.
“Rahatan!” Leyden roared.
The earthmover didn’t say anything. He just basked in the glow of their admiration, looking almost humble.
“What now?” asked Corba.
“Where should we go?” another of the transformed asked Rahatan.
He pointed to Verdeen, in all its splendor. “That’s where we’ll go,” he told them.
“Into the city?” asked Denara.
He nodded. “We’ll take the place over. It’ll become our city.”
Seevyn cursed. “Are you insane?”
Rahatan’s eyes slid slowly in her direction. “You have a problem with that plan?” he asked.
“I certainly do,” said the illusion-maker. “If we stay in one place, it’ll be too easy for the government to find us. They’ll have us dug out of Verdeen before the sun comes up.”
What she said made sense to Erid.
Corba seemed interested as well. “Whatwouldyoudo?” she asked Seevyn.
“We need to split up,” the illusion-maker told her. “Put as much distance between ourselves and this fortress as we can. Then we’ll have a chance to blend into society again.”
“We can’t all blend in,” Leyden objected. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Seevyn insisted. “At first, you can stay with me if you want. My illusions will keep people from seeing you as you are. Then, in time, you can find a way to disguise yourself.”
“And live like a hermit,” Rahatan noted, “alone and apart.” He turned to the other transformed. “I’m offering you a chance to live with your own kind. A chance to stay together and remain strong.”
“A chance to be imprisoned again,” Seevyn argued.
Rahatan rounded on her, eyes blazing. “Hold your tongue,” he rasped.
Erid had never heard the earthmover take that tone of voice—not even with Osan and his guards. To hear him use it with one of his fellow transformed …
Seevyn laughed derisively. “Who are you to order me around?”
He pointed to the broken wall of the fortress. “I’m the one who freed you from your prison,” he reminded her.
The illusion-maker’s eyes narrowed. “Why? So I could exchange Osan’s tyranny for yours?” She scanned the faces