CHAPTER 10
Clean
At some point, Maija had fallen asleep. She had no recollection of when reality faded and dreams filled her mind and when she awoke, she could remember none of them. She only saw darkness and the panic threatened to arise again.
She held her breath, then didn't. Instead, she forced herself to breathe. Just breathe. In and out and in again. Over and over again no matter how stagnant the air was, no matter how musty and damp it smelled. Over and over and over and over again, and then it passed.
Maija had survived. She didn't know how she had pulled it off but that alone was the little bit of comfort she had needed. She had survived and escaped Cliffside before they could recover her. Now, Maija really needed to find a way out or she may die in this hole.
Focus. She focused. The rushing water from before had slowed to a mere trickle, her harsh and sharp breaths louder. Maija lifted herself up from the ground, her arms and legs shaking but she brought her knee up under her chest and used it to stand. It felt as if her balance had been knocked off kilter and if anything were to get in her way, rather than blasting through them with whatever force she could as she had the custom to, she probably would just fall over.
Her clothes were soaked with water and her entire body was cold and sore. Maija straightened her back and flexed the muscles throughout her arms and legs, forcing them to wake up. Her head felt numb, and it felt as if every thought took ages to reach her mind.
She grappled the floor, pulling hard back with her arm until the spool of rope along the back of the grappling hook sparked with bright orange light, lighting the cave briefly. The light came within only a second and disappeared the next, barely illuminating the cave.
Maija did it again and again, squinting through the darkness and brief moments of orange light until she saw a dark mouth along the wall of the cave leading deeper into the island, the trickling stream of water following it. It slopped downwards. If there was flowing water then there had to be a way out.
Feeling with her hands and taking large, hesitant steps with her feet, Maija stumbled about in the darkness, struggling to find that tunnel. She did after a few more bursts of light from her grappling hook. It was small. Even despite her small frame, Maija barely fit. She needed to squeeze through in the darkness, ducking under overhangs and climbing over large rocks and boulders blocking her path.
The task almost came naturally to her. There had been many times in her past where the path to a ship part or engine was a very narrow one. This was just like that except with stone rather than metal. And in total darkness. Claustrophobia again, threatened to overcome her, but Maija distracted herself somehow, thinking of the brightness of day above her.
Until she saw it. Maija didn't notice immediately. The light coming up from ahead appeared subtly. It wasn't until Maija reached forwards to grab to the top of a stalagmite that she caught sight of the shadow of her arm. The more she focused, the more details she could take in. The dirt below her feet, her feet themselves. The blood that once stained Maija's hand and still stained her memory, had been washed clean.
She pushed farther, weaving now not around stone, but vines. Roots. Large bushes of green leaves that reflected light from a setting sun just up ahead. Finally, it felt almost as if years had passed since, Maija stepped out into sunlight. Setting sunlight that quickly faded, just before she caught sight of it, into darkness. Maija felt a little bit of hope fade away with it.
The water had trickled into a little pond at the opposite side of the island she had come in on. It was tucked behind the underside of the island, just barely level enough to contain the pond with a bit of foliage and shrubbery that had grown around it. Maija slouched her shoulders and sat down in the grass, watching just the shimmer of orange light fade behind a windwall.
The blood had been cleaned off her hand. That was good. It had also cleaned off her own blood from the injury Kaius had inflicted on her through her palm, leaving the wound open and completely exposed. It looked ugly, the flesh around and clean through her palm mauled and ripped. Maija was surprised she could still use the hand.
Maija fell, letting her weapons fall from her and her back fell softly against the grass. It was green even in the darkness and unbelievably soft like silk. It was tall and deep, it enveloped her body and wrapped around it, comforting her. Brushing up against her cheeks and fluffing up beneath her torso. She closed her eyes and took a deep, long breath of fresh air in as glowing bugs flew up from the grass and spiraled around in the sky.
Maija wanted to fall asleep. Her eyelids felt so heavy, and the grass was so refreshing. The trickling of the water pooling up in the pond threatened to pull her into sleep anyway. But she didn't. She had wasted too much time already. She needed to go. Find fuel here or anything that could get her to Kaius. It felt almost impossible.
The sound of engines had disappeared. Maija had no idea how long it had been since she'd woke back up in that cave. It could have been anywhere from a few hours to days.
Maija pushed herself to her feet and gathered her things. Except she didn't leave this area. She was hungry and still needed to wash herself off despite still being drenched in water.
She looked around. This part of the island was secluded and after determining, for once in her life, she wouldn't be disturbed, Maija built a small fire and stripped to her undergarments and let her clothes out to dry, sitting in the tall grass which reached up to well past her shoulders. She hugged her knees and stared into the fire.
Maija quickly washed in the pond and then dressed in warm clothes, the black dye she had crudely applied to the cloth still managing to hold on. She sat back down in the grass, dressed in mostly clean and perfectly dry clothes. While she had prayed for daylight, moonlight was better. If Cliffside- or anyone for that matter- was hanging around this island, it would be easier to hide from them in the darkness.
She left her fire burning and climbed to the top of the island. If anyone spotted the orange glow, she would be long gone before they got to the fire. Maija pulled herself up to the top of the island, disconnecting her grappling hook from the island's side. The structure stood just in front of her although it looked more like what remained of a courtyard, the rest of the building ripped away when the world broke. In the center was a statue of a diamond made from concrete, a pool of water bordering around its base. Plants grew around it and vines climbed up and curled through the sculpture's cracked and cavernous surface.
Several walls around the pool still stood. Maija worked through the ruined structure, overturning chunks of stone concrete, wood, and metal, looking for anything that might have been left behind from the old ones of Foundation. A whole civilization wiped, leaving nothing but ruins of their way of life behind. Maija had always wondered about them, what world they had lived in. But right now, knowledge of the past wouldn't help her. She needed resources.
And she had lucked out. She had really lucked out. Maija had found a compartment blocked off behind a locked wooden door. She had slammed her shoulder against the door only three times before the wood splintered and broke. Behind it had been two canisters of fuel, one dry as a bone, the other with enough fuel to get Maija's ship to the next island. She had clipped the canister to her belt and stepped out from the ruin, looking up to the sky.
Cliffside's ship was gone, and the skies were empty, except for a beautiful span of stars that glittered into a strip of galaxy covering the entire sky. But there was a little black dot far up in the air. It was Maija's ship, it had to be. There was nothing else around.
She squinted, looking closer. It was her ship but something else moved away from it, circling around her ship, orange and black fumes bursting from burning engines. Another ship and it looked like Cliffside's. Maija almost rolled her eyes.
Her first instinct was to run but she held herself back, standing still but breathing hard. The ship grew closer, the engines shut down as soon as it was above her and slowly sunk towards the island. Maija stepped back as the ship neared, four people jumping down to the island, using their grappling hooks to slow their fall. Nadia, Luke, Kyra, and Lidia all landed in front of her, Luke leading them. His face was calm but stern. Nadia's face was furious. It was clear she was biting her tongue as not to lash out at Maija for running. Although Maija had no intention of listening to these people, she still found herself a little glad Luke had been leading the group.
But Lidia spoke first. She laughed, a deep and presumptuous sound. "Ha! I like you girl, you never stop fighting."
"I'm not going to fight you guys," Maija shouted, raising her hands up to the weapons on her back. She grabbed both the spear and bow from her back, one with each hand and moved to set them on the ground. "I'm sorry, I don't know what I was-"
In one swoop, Maija sheathed her spear and nocked an arrow, pulling it back and firing. Everyone in front of her staggered, flinching as the arrow struck the stone ground, snapped, and clattered. Maija lunged forwards, gripping her bow with her left hand and reached out with her right arm. She fired her grappling hook, it contacted the underside of Cliffside's ship. Maija pulled her whole arm back, the grappling hook snapping, sending orange sparks through the air. The hook boosted Maija up and out towards the side of their ship. She grabbed to the ship's hull and immediately threw herself up with all her strength, shouting from the effort as she reached up and fired her grappling hook again.
The hook soared up to the bottom of Maija's ship, trailing the rope along with it in a spiral. With a loud clank, the hook cut through the metal deck and Maija's weight pulled the line taut. Maija exclaimed when it did- to be honest, she had been doubtful she could pull this move off. She laughed, this time a laugh full of ecstasy as she reeled herself up, looking down at the group that stared back up at her.
Maija swung herself back aboard and quickly jumped down below deck, unclipping the gas canister from her belt. She was in amazement that she had just pulled off what she had but at the same time, the job was only half done. She twisted the top off and poured what remained from the canister into the fuel tank. After the last drop fell, she tossed it to the ground and bolted back up the helm. Cliffside's ship was already moving towards her fast.
Maija grabbed onto the helm and pushed the throttle forwards. The engines stalled, sputtered before coming alive again. Each engine spun their propellors and the ship slowly eased into motion. Even before the ship was at full speed, Maija was already pushing the helm's controls forwards, the ship's bow dipping down towards the island below.
"Maija stop this!" someone called out to her from Cliffside's ship which now hovered above her, shadowing out the rising sun. "We're all on the same side here!"
Maija ignored them, attempting to push the helm farther forward. The ship picked up speed and skyrocketed downwards toward the island. She was afraid to pull off the same trick since last time Makhai had performed it, Maija had experienced pain greater than any she had felt before, and now there was even more risk involved. If she was unable to pull up in timeā¦
The timing needed to be perfect and if Maija pulled it off well enough, she could possibly even loose Cliffside long enough to dip into the void, hidden once more in its foggy protection.
As the ship dipped farther and farther forwards, Maija's heels slipped on the slope created by the ship's deck. She pushed up against the side of the helm until her entire body was pressed up against it. Engines and wind roared in Maija's ears, but she kept going, the island's top coming closer and closer into view.
Then she pulled up at the helm and the ship tilted back up. At the same time, Maija deactivated the ship's skycore, dropping the ship lower as the engines pushed it away from the island.
The edge of the island came into view only moments after the ship straightened out. Maija pushed the controls forwards again, the ship turning down and then she pulled it up and around, the ship flattening out and spinning around. The atlas skycore still slowly dropped the ship lower. Just as the bow of Cliffside's ship appeared above the island's silhouette, Maija's view faded away as she entered the void again.
Maija fell and landed hard against the deck of her ship, resting her back against the cabin's front wall. She blew out a deep and long breath through pursed lips, her racing heart calming. An eerie, cold wind blew through the void, tugging at the loose strands of Maija's hair.
She couldn't believe she had made that. Maija couldn't even believe she had the guts to attempt such a thing. But at the same time, she knew she shouldn't have been surprised. She had done many things in her life, some requiring even more strength and skill then that had. Somehow, she was still surprised.
There was very little fuel left in her ship's tank, so she needed to act strategically. Maija knew nothing about this sector of sky and the island within it, but she not only needed to get to the closest island but the closest inhabited one to purchase fuel. She picked the bottle of pigment from her pocket and turned it around in her fingers.
Marauder red, one of the most valuable pigments found. Maija didn't really know why. She had begun her existence far after the world of Foundation fell apart at its seams. Pigments must have just become a currency during those desperate times. Maija had learned through old parchments that the people of Foundation had used what they called "stamps" to make purchases. She had never seen a stamp and couldn't guess what one might look like. Maybe those survivors had seen pigments as a viable replacement. Either way, Maija had in her possession one of the most valuable pigments she had ever laid eyes on.
Trey had given it to her. He had always struck her as being a selfish man. Like all businessmen working in the ruins of Foundation, Trey grasped at every chance he could to make a cheap pigment. He had operated in the lonely parts of Harbourage, so Maija had never really had the opportunity to watch how he had dealt with other customers, but in hindsight, Trey had always been kind to her. After all, when all things seemed lost, he had given her this bottle of pigment. Some part of her hoped he was okay.
Maija pocketed the pigment again and climbed to the top of her ship's masts, peeking out from the cloudy void. She looked up and around, for anything that could be watching her. Cliffside's ship was still orbiting the island she had come from, analyzing the void for her.
She ducked back down and dropped to her ship's deck. Maija would have to wait even longer. If she used her engines, she would not only be wasting fuel but also disturbing the void fog, pointing an arrow right at her position. She could risk dropping the ship even lower but if she crossed below a certain elevation, her ship and her with it would be crushed before she could stop it. It was safe to say Maija didn't want that. So, she sat back down, this time in the nice and secluded lower deck behind the fuel tank and fell asleep.
