“The afternoon,” explained Maryn, “is the time between middle meal and third meal, which we have after the evening tolls.”
“Sure, that should be good,” said Abyl. “If I do well, will you help me get back to the workers quarters?”
Ry paused, heavily; but when Abyl offered a tentative smile, the group burst into laughter.
Chapter 14
Maryn poked her head out of the gap in the wall, waving for Abyl to come. He went round into the alcove of Mav’s lab they called the kitchen. Maryn showed him where they stored their water, carefully brought up from drip caverns they’d found. There’d be time to show him those later. Water, she emphasized, was at least as precious as the turma.
They brought some clay pots down the second hallway and into a new, long cavern. Tall pillars of stone, ringed with vines of turma, rose upward toward earthlights high on the ceiling.
“We can’t build out, but we can build up,” said Maryn, as she knelt to water the base of the stone. As she poured, creepers stretched their vines to reach the water and she had to dodge a pitcher plant’s tongue. “Come on,” she said, “we have a lot of watering to do.”
Abyl had to learn to climb while strapping the pot to his shoulder. Up the pillars they went. On the way, Maryn whispered to small embedded stones, which came to life with yellow, green, and blue light. Earthlights. Just like the growing room had. But with different personalities, Maryn added. After a while, Bel joined them too.
“Glad you could join us,” said Maryn.
“Me too,” said Bel, without looking at her.
For a moment, Abyl watched the two older girls ignore each other for the balance of their work, which was another twenty pillars of stone. He had enough to worry about. Each time he neared the top of the great stones, he had to fight off dizziness. It was sure a long way down.
“Psst,” said a voice.
Abyl had been focused on not falling. “What’s up, Maryn?”
“Maryn’s gone for more water. It’s Bel.”
“Oh, hey Bel.”
“Why aren’t you lighting the earthlights?” Bel’s stone pillar had come to life as she’d climbed.
“I don’t know how.”
“If you don't know something, just ask,” said Bel. “Maryn was probably instructed by Ry to see if you’d figure it out, but I don't think it's a big deal. Here, put a little turma on your breath and blow some air over them. She reached from her stone pillar across the gap and slapped some powder into his palm. He mimicked Bel, shaping his lips to blow powder onto the small shard jutting from the main stone. Blue light emerged from within the stone.
“You figured it out!” It was Maryn, returned with more water, a long way down, shouting up with pride.
Bel slid around the opposite side of her stone pillar so Maryn couldn’t see her.
“I sure did!” said Abyl.
When he managed to climb back down, Maryn slapped him on the hand. Abyl took a moment to understand she was excited about his accomplishment. Proud even. “Thanks,” he said slowly. “You’ve been helpful.”
“Don’t mention it. If you asked Mav, he would probably tell you about the symbiotic relationship the stones have with the plants, and how they use the turma to create the light.” She stopped and looked at him seriously. “But if you start such a conversation, make sure you have a comfortable place to sit.”
“Because?”
“Mav can talk fast and he can talk for a long time. Makes you miss the system sometimes, where everyone just works in peace.” Abyl watched her eyes roam to another place. Then she was back. “Here,” she said, passing him a turma bulb, “now that you know what to do with it.”
He took it, feeling a trace of guilt for hiding how he had learned. But Bel and Maryn’s silence toward the other meant something, and he didn’t want to interfere with that.
“You spend a lot of time in this room,” said Abyl.
Maryn nodded and put her head close to his. “I used to give most of my turma to Kaydin. Now I just keep them, although Mav occasionally coaxes one out of me. Then there’s the Rocks game, where I usually win them back.”
“I don’t understand why you’re giving me this,” said Abyl. “But thank you.”
Maryn smiled. “If what the others are whispering about you is true, you’re going to be happy to have it.”
What are the others saying about me? Abyl held the bulb closer to his one and a half eyes. How is it that something so small is so valuable? He pocketed the bulb.
“And,” said Maryn, “the other thing it’s useful for is my trips to the directors quarters.”
“What?”
“It’s part of my routine. We’ll go there tonight.”
“We?”
“Yes, Ry asked me to take you with me. We’ll go after the first toll.”
Chapter 15
Kaydin’s foot felt the bottom of a two-pitch wall. The beginning of this descent was not too far from the back loop of the Haven entrance corridor, but he hadn’t been down this way in over a year. Rescuing Maryn, then Bel, and subsequently teaching them the ways of Haven had taken up most of his spare time in the last year and a half.
In the beginning, he had spent a lot of time with Maryn. He had even slept with her. Kaydin shook his head at the thought. If Ry had ever wanted to throw someone out of Haven, it was when Kaydin saved Maryn without permission. Ry’s words were still clear in his memory: She didn’t show the curiosity, Kaydin!
But who had? Ry claimed Gara had. And Mav, too. But Haven also needed the skills Gara and Mav brought. So was it curiosity or necessity? Ry constantly dodged this point. Gara could carve, shape, and make stone into almost anything his imagination inspired. Mav’s skill in combining all manner of elements and materials to form new things was to this day mesmerizing to Kaydin. Their team had grown from two to four members. Overnight they could shift from pure survival mode to exploration. Ry said it felt like the old days, when he and Dag mapped much of the underground city. Adding two members meant Ry and Mav could manage the base while Kaydin and Gara sought additional secrets. They explored many of Dag's passages, scaled the highest walls of the chasm cavern, created new lookouts and listening slits. It had been an exciting few years. But the caverns were dark, cold, and mostly barren.
Then Kaydin had saved the young women. First Maryn, then Bel. Things had grown tricky when he rescued Bel about a half year after Maryn. Not only did the two compete over him, mostly ignoring Mav and Gara, but Kaydin used up most of his turma to keep the secret about Bel’s escape. From Bel herself. She wasn’t curious, at least not to the extent that would draw her out past the first toll. Kaydin had lured her out past the tolls, like he had for Maryn, and claimed to have shown up at the right moment to save her.
Why had he done it? He had thought about this a lot. The best he could do was to admit that he was bored. The day-to-day slog of scouting, planting, exploring, and surviving had its novelty, but it took a strong mind to keep oneself sane. Ry had this, it seemed, and despite everything Kaydin disliked about the old man, he admired that much: Ry had survived this long.
As for Maryn, she knew full well she’d been taken without Ry’s consent.
Bel didn’t. In the first few days of Bel joining Haven, Kaydin had used almost all of his turma Subduing and Amplifying Bel’s various memories. Eventually he resorted to Inspiring her. Fortunately