Page 10 of Kingdom of Today
Only my day off and a few room assignments had changed. The best part? I hadn’t been assigned a new roommate. Mykal, my previous roomie, had quit the program after a mutual friend broke with Madness and attacked us. I couldn’t blame her. The break had come courtesy of CURED, the government we’d trusted to protect us. Not that she knew the truth. Still. I wish she’d stayed.
Learning to fight and defend myself had helped me in ways I hadn’t known I’d needed. Maybe Mykal would return. Of course, I would lose the desk that had replaced her bed, but better to have a friend than a workstation.
Hold up. My new desk chair wascushioned?
Thank you, Cyrus.I eased into an upright position, reviving, and noticed a second reader on the desk, next to a pot of pure, untainted soil with a single mystery seed germinating beneath the surface. Also a gift from Cyrus, which I’d left at his apartment in Bala City.
Ignoring my aches and pains, I climbed to my feet and crossed over. The reader lit up thanks to a motion sensor, the desired note from Cyrus dominating the screen, inspiring a wide smile.
Turn Me On
With a snort, I plopped onto the ultra-luxurious cushion and did as commanded: pressed my chip against the ID panel. The screen lit up again, brighter, revealing another message.
Lady Pink,
Remember my command, and your agreement. Also 1) this reader isn’t for class. I promised I’d find a way for us to communicate, and this is it. Be aware—a dozen analysts will read every word. And 2) The upper right drawer of your new desk serves as a safe for any treasures I give you. The lock code is a number you recognize. I won’t get to see you tonight, but I’ll be thinking of you ...
Yours,
Cyrus
PS. When you’re alone, don’t be afraid to get dirty and find out what I gifted to you.
Both confused and excited, I clutched the reader to my chest. While I fully understood the reference to the code, Cyrus could’ve meant several different things by “get dirty,” considering he’d gifted me many things. I thought, maybe, probably, he referenced the pot of soil with that mystery seed planted within its depths. Per his instructions, I’d watered it every day, yet nothing had sprouted.
Considering I was a wannabe horticulturist who’d spent her life studying to unravel the Great Soil and Seed Anomaly caused by the fusion of two vastly different worlds, I practically frothed at the mouth for a chance to discover what I was growing. But disturbing the soil and digging up a seed to “get dirty” was foolish. I could interrupt and damage the germinating process. Unless ...
Chewing on my bottom lip, I set the reader aside and examined the dark soil. Thoughts tumbled over each other. Perhaps the seed had already grown and now thrived beneath the surface. Therewassuch a thing as a hydrothermal vent ecosystem, where plants grew without the need of light. Although it was a unique process usually found at volcanic fissures along the ocean floor, and this wasn’t that. But. I couldn’t not do it.
My guards remained at their posts, their focus straight ahead. As alone as I’d ever be ...
Even as I trembled, I put my back to them and plunged a hand in the soft, sweetly fragrant dirt, digging until my fingertips brushed—I blinked. The seed had tripled in size and developed a smooth velvet casing. But. Um. I felt no protrusions. No roots or sprouts.
Frowning, I slowly, gently worked the precious seed from its bed of soil and ...
That moment. That very second. I registered what I held, and my jaw went slack. Heart thudding, I hurried to close my fingers around the orb. Surely Cyrus hadn’t ... this wasn’t ... it couldn’t be ...
But he had, it was, and it could.
“Is everything all right, Lady Roosa?” a guard asked.
Oops. I’d been making little strangling noises. Schooling my features into a semblance of calm, I glanced over my shoulder to meet his gaze. “Yep. All good. Thanks for checking. Just doing a bit of gardening.” With a chin wag to the pot, I added, “My preferred method of stress relief.” Was I babbling? Elaborating, as Cyrus told me not to do?
The pounding of my heart worsened as I returned my attention to the pot and smoothed the soil, being sure to keep my treasure hidden. If I got caught with this, I’d be jailed. Perhaps executed. Or worse! And yet, elation poured through me at record levels, drowning any fear.
I held a fragment of the Rock, the sole entrance into the Kingdom of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Also the home of an invisible library filled with coded books that detailed our past, present, and future. There were other names for the structure too. Door to Shaddai, the utopiabeyond the Library of Soal, was one, and oh, sweet goodness, this might be the greatest gift anyone anywhere had received ever. And I wasn’t being dramatic. The beautiful, priceless fragment had a translucent, mirror-esque exterior that revealed an intricate network of internal veins flowing with scarlet liquid. The cure to Madness.
My cells sang with joy. Cyrus had given me a prize beyond imagining. Maybe, just maybe, I could share this with a friend.
I would never forget the moment I had ingested a crumble just like it. A seed teeming with the essence of life. That was the moment the invisible scales had fallen off my eyes, and I’d finally seen the world unfiltered. Light versus night. Good against evil.
A loud commotion erupted beyond my cell, jolting me to my feet. Some kind of fight had just broken out. My guards abandoned their posts as my barred door slammed shut, sealing me inside the cell.
“You summoned?” The strong, authoritative voice hit my ears, and I spun.
My gaze landed on a striking, bearded man I recognized, and my jaw slackened. Domino Crane. A powerful member of the Tome Society, Soal’s elite force. Domino wore the same crimson robe he’d sported the other two times I’d encountered him. Like Cyrus, he was tall, muscular, and intense, but that was where their similarities ended. The high prince might be icy with anyone other than me, but this guy embodied the arctic. So much so, I felt a chill of his presence deep in my bones. Didn’t help that his arresting, rugged features appeared molded from steel, and his fathomless eyes examined me with unrelenting, unabashed curiosity.
“I know you,” I rasped at low volume, doing my best to hide my unease.
