“So you mean Bel’s child will be as much yours as it is Bel’s.”
“I wish, but I still help as she progresses through pregnancy. No other women around here. Hard for the men to understand.” She sighed. “We all need to pitch in where we can.”
They took the main entry stair out of Haven. Maryn explained that Abyl should pay close attention to how she opened doors and to which pathways they were about to take. With a twist of handholds Haven was closed and secure. For a moment, there were in near darkness as the door cut out the light from Haven’s entryway.
“You’re pretty calm,” said Maryn.
“I’m with you,” said Abyl.
“That’s nice of you to say,” said Maryn. She raised a necklace of small stones to her mouth and blew turma across them. They lit up.
“When do I get one of those?” asked Abyl.
“I thought you weren’t sticking around,” laughed Maryn.
“I’m not, but that seems useful,” he grinned.
“Ha ha. I see you’re catching onto our games. You’re right, they are.”
Maryn pointed along the corridor to their right. “If you follow that route and cut up to the left you’ll find the western main chasm walkway.”
“That’s the way I came with Kaydin and Gara.”
“Exactly, there’s also a few other routes that way. One goes down several levels then hangs a left to the western chasm ledge—that’s Kaydin’s route to collect earthlights from the growing rooms.”
“You mean it connects to the eastern walk?”
“No, he climbs across the chasm on the underside of the bridge.”
“Oh.” Under the bridge?
Maryn pulled on Abyl’s arm, turning him to the left. As they walked the corridor, Abyl felt the unevenness of the limestone against his feet and nearly fell. Maryn caught him when he stumbled and asked him to please keep his feet under him. They came to a passage that forked. “That way goes down to another western chasm ledge. It’s the closest way to a view of the Rahz Spire from the chasm, although the upper western lookout is closest—it looks out on the Rahz balcony.”
The Rahz balcony. Abyl remembered the red glow from his first night out past the first toll. That is where the Rahz watch.
They came to a short wall, which despite its inversion Maryn easily scaled.
“You’re stronger than you look,” said Abyl.
“There’s more to me than meets the eye, Abyl,” grinned Maryn. “Come on then,” she said as he struggled up. “For your first time, you’re not a bad climber. Kaydin and Gara will want to teach you a few things, though. Actually, I could teach you a few things myself.”
“That would be fun,” said Abyl. “I’d like to learn more from you.”
“I haven’t been, but you’ll need excellent strength and technique to navigate the chasm walls.”
“Why haven’t you?”
“Ry doesn’t let me out there.”
“Why not?” asked Abyl. “The shadows? Er, sentinels?”
“I’m not scared of them.” She didn’t say more. They came to a place where the tunnel forced them to crouch and eventually crawl. Maryn explained that they were on other side of the city's walls, how they still shared the system that Ry claimed Haven was no longer a part of. But if that was true, how could someone be re-inserted?
Abyl listened intently. Maryn spoke as quickly as she made fun of Mav for doing. The possibility of returning to the system grew in his mind. He could see himself going back. She went on to talk about the equilibrium the Rahz had created, and its necessity as they searched for the Source.
They reached a faint light poking up through the floor. Lying on their stomachs, Abyl and Maryn peered through into the directors quarters.
Chapter 17
Through the slit, Abyl watched the meeting, breathing faster and faster. They are looking for me! I’m right here! He opened his mouth to say something. Abyl felt a finger on his lips. Maryn’s. She shook her head. Fierce hazel eyes. Abyl held his tongue as they took in the remainder of the meeting.
When they reached the short wall again, Maryn sighed. “Okay, ask away.”
“They are looking for me!”
Maryn grinned, frowned, nodded. “It is…interesting, considering the directors presumed you dead. But they only go by what the Rahz tell them—there’s no lookout from the directors quarters onto the chasm, so the Rahz control eye-witness accounts.”
“When they said this has happened before, they were referring to you and Bel.”
“Correct, we were the most recent escapees. Notably, Bel used to work under Director Hwed.”
“Which is why the shorter director asked him about it?”
Maryn nodded. “You’re observant. That’s Director Keen. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect he wanted the Head Director position—the Rahz Circle gave it to Director Hwed instead.”
“Who had it before?” said Abyl.
“Director Leber—he refused to kill a girl he impregnated and was sent into the Abyss himself. An odd choice since, as the Head Director, he was next in line to join the Rahz Circle. He would have become a Rahz.”
“Wait, he did what?”
“It’s a reward for the Directors if they do well,” said Maryn.
Abyl was dumbfounded.
“There are other men whose role it is to seed the birthmothers. It’s not the directors' responsibility. And, for starters, the growing room women aren’t there to be birthmothers. If the director discovers one of his rewards got pregnant, he informs the Rahz. Before long, she takes the step in the Abyss.”
“And Director Dimah, does he also do this?”
“He just started, but I think he bedded his first worker two nights ago as reward for turning the failing turma crop around.”
Director Dimah, would you send someone to descend…one of your own workers? He had swung at Abyl, but that was different. He was surely only trying to protect him. And make an example for the others. Surely. But Abyl couldn't be sure anymore.
“Where did Director Dimah come from?” asked Abyl. “I mean, where do the directors come from?”
“We’re all the same,” said Maryn. “Dimah and Mav worked together. Same knack for noticing how different things affect another thing.”
Dimah…was a worker?
“And the Rahz?”
“Some of the directors don’t think the Rahz are like us, but I’m not so sure. For instance, how do you explain the Head Director promotions to the Rahz Circle?”
“You’re saying the Rahz are people like you and me?”
“Well, I don’t think they take females, and there’s no female directors. As for the Rahz, no one but the Rahz know. The accounts Kaydin has of them make them sound very strange indeed. But we know directors are promoted to their Circle. If you ask me, entry into their society of four gives you access to the secrets that make this city work, that define equilibrium, that allow the search for the Source to continue.”
“But the Rahz are powerful. How could they once have been one of us?”