The Column Racer (31 page)

“What?” asked Areli, frustrated.

“We just passed the girl’s trailer.”

“Are you sure?” asked Areli, trying to look behind her, “how can you be sure? It looks . . .” Yats pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her.

“We can’t draw any unnecessary attention to us,” said Yats, “we need to appear as if we are just passing through, not concerned with anything. There, look over there.” He loosened his grip just a little so Areli could adjust her head to look out the window. It was Sofi’s trailer. In front of another house. Another open door. Another man.

“That is what all these places are for?” said Areli bitterly, “can’t they ever just be satisfied with one?” Yats gave a gentle laugh. She looked back at him and found it hard to keep from laughing as well. She looked Yats in the eyes. He was her one. He had to be. The first time she confronted Talon, he left her broken and alone. Yats was there to reassemble the pieces. And he did it while fully sweeping her off her feet. She could never love Talon. Not like before. Never more than she loved Yats.

When their carriage came to a halt, they moved in the shadows. When they peered around the corner, they saw the girl in Yats class standing again, outside the house that Sofi had entered.

Areli and Yats stayed for a while, but the night was only so long, and Areli’s time to stay out was limited. So, with the behest of Yats, they went back to his carriage. There, Areli tried to assimilate the fact that Sofi was a complete whore to her advantage.

“We could threaten to tell her father,” said Areli.

“What good would that do?” asked Yats.

“Yats, his daughter is sleeping around with half the city . . . isn’t that something you would want to keep from your parents.”

“Her father keeps many women as well,” said Yats, “he would probably only congratulate her.” Areli pushed him hard into the metal of the cab.

“It’s disgusting, Yats,” said Areli, “for anyone, and disgraceful.”

“I’m just saying,” said Yats, “I think we need more useful information than the fact that she is sleeping around. How about the men she’s sleeping with? If they have wives?”

“We can threaten the men!” exclaimed Areli.

“Exactly,” said Yats, eyes giddy with mischief.

The next day, Areli and Yats had Brynn and Finn move their prying eyes from Haskel and onto the men that occupied Sofi’s desires, as well as Aniya Black, the girl in Yats class. They wanted to know who she was reporting to and what kind of information she was after.

The next two nights Yats had to do something for school, so he wasn’t able to attend their nighttime jaunts until the first of next week. He told Areli not to go out without him. He made her promise, telling her that if she didn’t stay away from Sofi, he would have to take a bad grade in his Chemistry class for the rest of the year. Yats gave her no choice except to agree, as he went into a whole long story of how upset his parents would be if he failed a course and how they would monitor his time so something like this never happened again.

“Okay, okay,” said Areli, “I promise.” He brought her into his arms and reeled her into his chest, using his fingers as the hook.

“I just need to know you’re going to be safe,” said Yats.

“And now you do,” said Areli, trying to sound bitter, but she had a hard time with it, as Yats looked at her with his beautiful smile that always drew her in like the sun.

The first day Yats was detained by homework, Areli was occupied with a competition against Manyo Hall. She placed second again in the short-go. Tegan was a bitch as usual, and Areli started to fear the other riders on the team were siding with her. But Areli didn’t mind. She had never had a friend on a team before Fides. However, instead of letting all the bitterness circling around her drown her, Areli tried to focus on the more positive points of the race. Kaia was getting better through the pattern, but Fides runs were edging beyond flawless. They were magnificent, beautiful, and each run showed she was the best rider in the Empire, if not the best rider in the world.

Areli spent the night with Fides, grateful to have a night in which she could let all the worries slip away into the far reaches of her mind and just laugh and talk with Fides in front of a fire. They discussed all the little quirks of their boyfriends, about their hopes for the Spring Dance, and when they would ever hear from Aquilina Hawkins again, all in the presence of Areli’s marble statue she carved for Fides, in which her friend kept repeating how she loves her birthday present almost as much as Amer and Areli.

The second day, Areli asked Fides if she wanted to spend the day together, but it was Fides turn to be aloof, as she and Amer already had plans.

“I mean,” said Fides, “you can come along if you want to, but you know . . . I just assumed you were busy.” Fides and Amer were going walking in the forest, and Areli didn’t think it fair for her to intrude, even though she thought the forest a fascinating place.

“No, you go,” said Areli, “I’ll be fine.” Areli wished she could go. Her collection of leaves were far past dry and wilted.

“Are you sure?”

“Definitely.”

“Okay,” said Fides, unconvinced, “but this week – remember – dress shopping.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good . . . because you promised.” Areli had. And as the day continued on, and with the last day of the week being a rest day for both her and her dragon, Areli had limited options to occupy her time. She began to wish that Fides birthday was next week, so she could fill her day chiseling away at marble. And then it happened. Thoughts of Talon started to resurface. She had to leave. She needed something to occupy her time. But she knew if she went out, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from swinging by the residences of the men.

But I promised Yats
, she told herself, looking at the door. She repeated it several times, trying to feel its weight build in her like a stone to keep her from walking to the base of her steps and calling for her carriage. But the words didn’t turn into stones, and she felt more restless than ever. She stood up, asked Aria to ready her carriage, and got dressed. Areli reasoned that she was only going to go into town to do some shopping, and if her carriage happened to travel past one of Sofi’s men’s places, then it wasn’t her fault . . . it was merely coincidence.

Two jackets, a purse, and several casual trips – by the places recommended by Brynn to locate Sofi – later, Areli had yet to see the royal born. However, a smile rose to her face as she watched a woman and a child walk down the sidewalk bordering the many homes. But the smile faded as they walked up the steps to one of the houses. A beautiful young man standing at the door. The man lifted the woman into his arms and twirled her. He then tousled the hair of his child, who laughed as he lifted the child into his arms.

Areli could feel the stitches of her soul begin to unravel. She
hated
herself. She hated Sofi, Edsel, the situation, and most of all, she hated the Emperor. She started to question if she had it in her. To threaten to ruin a family, a marriage, a love. She tried to reason with herself that the man didn’t actually love his wife, because he was cheating on her. But then Areli didn’t know the context. What if Sofi had information on him and he was sleeping with her to protect the lives of his family. The lines of right and wrong were blurring, until nothing seemed right and nothing seemed wrong.
Is this how the Emperor sees the world?
asked Areli to herself. She closed her eyes and felt a tear slip down her cheek.

Areli stayed in the city all afternoon, trying to forget about Talon. Trying to forget about Degendhard. Trying to forget about Sofi. She enjoyed the view of the sky turning from blue to streaks of red, yellow, and orange, as if the entire thing was on fire. She continued to watch as the sky delved into black, bringing with it the brilliance and magic of the stars. She walked down the fashion street, peering haphazardly into windows of boutiques and didn’t really think about going back to the Riding Community until her driver mentioned how late it had gotten.

When she neared her carriage, Areli told him the path she wanted to take back. It conveniently passed one of the houses Sofi frequented. It was late, a school night, and the streets were empty. She found the sound of the horse’s hooves soothing, as their plodding bounced off and around the elegant houses that lined the streets.

Areli looked out the window as they passed the house. Something was wrong. Areli almost smacked her face against the glass of the cab as she turned to look. The door was left open. One of Sofi’s suitors was standing in front of it, shirtless, holding the back of his head and trying to stop the bleeding coming from his nose that gushed out all over his being.

Areli looked where the man was looking. It was the end of the street. When they were past the house, Areli opened the door of her cab and told her driver to speed up to the end of the street and then await further instruction. She closed the door. The noise of hooves grew loud as the horses were at a gallop.

At the end of the street, Areli saw a gold carriage take a right at the far end of the street they had just come to. Areli told her driver to rush to that end. She made commands without thinking. Her heart pounding all over her body, wondering what happened to Sofi, instead of wondering what Yats would say or how furious he would be. Areli didn’t care. If Sofi was about to disappear, she wanted it to be confirmed, and she wanted to know by whom.

When they got to where the carriage had turned. Areli climbed out of her cab and told her driver to wait there.

“Miss Roberts, I don’t think that is a good idea,” said her driver.

“Just wait!” said Areli, “Okay. Can you do that for me?” He looked at her with furrowed brows, but then nodded his head, obviously upset. She ran ahead, taking off her heels so the pounding of her shoes wouldn’t give her away. She was breathless as she caught sight of the trailer again, off in the distance. Areli chased after it. Her arms became wary and her legs started to burn. She hadn’t run this fast, for this long, in quite some time.

When she got to the street she saw the carriage disappear down, she wanted to cry from pure exhaustion. The carriage was nowhere in sight. She had lost it. The pain of never knowing what had happened at the house shook her, pained her, tortured her.
Don’t you dare give up, Areli,
she told herself,
don’t you dare
. She had to press on. Areli continued to run down the street, a shoe in each hand. She looked down each side street she passed. And each street told her nothing about the whereabouts of the carriage. She wanted to collapse, but she told herself to keep going. She had to keep going. Areli told herself she would find the carriage.

She was nearing the end of the street when she saw it. The carriage was tucked down one of the side streets. She looked around her, wondering if someone was watching her, and then she ran towards it. When she came closer, she slowed her pace. The carriage had no driver. No occupants. The carriage belonged to one of the royal family. It had to be. Areli could tell by the carefully placed details and the paintings on the side. She looked around her. She didn’t know where she was. There were no houses in this part of the city, only high limestone walls and the randomly placed lanterns that were connected to the walls or hanging above her.

She told herself she wasn’t going to give up. No matter what happened she was going to keep going.
Why here?
thought Areli,
why would the carriage stop at this spot?
The walls seemed solid. There was nowhere to go.
So where could they have gone?
Areli walked to the wall the carriage was placed in front of. It looked like a wall. A simple, elegant, stone and gold wall.
It can’t be just a wall
, thought Areli. She placed her hand on it. It didn’t move. She pushed harder.
Nothing.
This time she threw down her shoes and pushed with as much strength as she had in her body, and then she heard a creak.

She stood back, startled. It moved. It actually moved. She felt along the wall, her fingers tracing along the indents of a secret door. She picked up her heels, placed the straps in her mouth and continued to push the stone door inward. When Areli had enough space to slide past it, she walked into the opening.

There was a chair and table for guards, but none of them were there. The passageway led to stone stairs, and the stairs led her down into underground tunnels that were brightly lit with lanterns covering most of the space around her, except for the lower half of the walls.

Her heart moved with the ferociousness of mountain beasts. She could feel it’s pounding in her feet, her hands, and in every inch of her body. Areli could hear yelling. But she didn’t know where it was coming from. She was grateful but apprehensive that the tunnel didn’t veer off into more tunnels. As she continued further down, the shouts became louder and clearer. Even though Areli wanted to continue, she forced herself to hold her position, as she was in a good location to allow the walls to funnel the voices back to her.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW STUPID YOU ARE!”

“WHAT . . . I CAN’T JUST STAY COOPED UP IN MY HOUSE LIKE THAT!”

“NO . . . YOU HAD TO SATIATE YOURSELF . . . WE ARE SO CLOSE SOFI . . . AND YOU WANT TO THROW IT ALL AWAY! ALL OF IT!”

“HEY . . . HEY,” Sofi screamed, “YOU SAID YOU COULD TAKE CARE OF IT.” The voice seemed so familiar to Areli, but the tunnel had a way of distorting it. Areli needed a name. All she needed was a name, and she begged Sofi to scream it, to fill the walls and the lanterns with it.