Lies & Harmony Trilogy

Chapter Ten: Trust

He grasps my hand when he pulls me from up to the elevated land. I stumble, almost losing my footing on the uneven rocks that litter the base. Gordon keeps a tight grip on my hand and prevents my fall.

     “You okay there, Harmony?” Gordon asks me, the new name tentative on his lips. I’ve told everyone else my new name when I came up from below.

     I nod in response to Gordon’s question. “Yes.”

     Rounded mountains stretch beyond us and further, silhouetted by the dying sunlight. The ground beneath me is rocky with grass patches, and my feet are sore from climbing on uneven land. I’ve lost count of all the seconds spent on this terrain.

     In a hundred or so more seconds, I will see my father. The bottle of pills presses uncomfortably. I have an urge to toss the bottle far away from me.

     I don’t know where these pills came from. Perhaps they were always lying on the bed in the ferry. Perhaps this ferry carried away one of the patients from the hospital, and they had absconded with the pills.

     Rush looked at me curiously after I had told him my name when I came above deck. “Harmony is a mouthful to say,” he had declared. “I’ll just call you Harm. Are you okay with that?”

     I had merely shrugged and smiled at him. I assume he thought this as approval and now he has taken a liking to my new name. He has been less irritating now and kinder. I like this side of him.

     Rush brings up the rear and walks beside me. I can hear the cry of an animal far off in the mountains.

     “Nice, isn’t it?” he says, tilting his head and watching my reaction when we pause for a moment to wait for Kasie and Mallory to catch up. “Do you see this often?”

     “No.” I open my mouth to speak again, having a sudden urge to talk about the hospital, but then I stop. He doesn’t know where I come from. I don’t need him to associate me with Seven, the girl who was needy for her pills and saw everyone as black or white.

     “Look,” Rush says, pointing to the mountain far ahead of us, a blue silhouette against the darkening sky. “In Vainglory, we don’t see much of this.”

     I’m about to ask him what he means by that, but Mallory and Kasie have already caught up. I can hear them bickering already.

     “Shut up, you two,” Tabitha says with a flicker of annoyance. “We need to stay under their radar. I disabled the coast sensors, but I don’t know if there are any underground ones or sound wave detectors.”

     “Sound wave detectors? Seriously?” Mallory laughs and then turns around and yells. “Hey! We’re up here! Come and get us!” I can’t help the smile that reaches my lips.

     Tabitha lets out a huff of frustration. She is all seriousness at the moment. “Stop being immature. We could be caught. Keep quiet, and we’ll be off the radar. They won’t know we’re here at all.”

     “What’s the point? I’m sure that their whatever-level security system is very high. Do you think we can just stroll in there and get Sev—Harmony’s father?” Mallory says, quickly covering up her mistake of using my old name. “What are we going to do after that anyway? Storm Vainglory and burn things with fire like the first RC?”

     Tabitha gives her a stony glare, but Mallory isn’t affected. “Don’t mention that around me.”

     “What I’m trying to say is that this is a horrible idea. What do you think Harmony’s dad is going to do anyway? Do you even think he’s lucid? He’s probably spent about a decade rotting in that cell.”