Flock

Chapter 13

After my revelation, I had anticipated that Kiliyan would look at me differently. But he didn't, not really. I would catch him staring at me from time to time over the last few days but it wasn't a look of concern. It was something different, like he finally saw me.

I hadn't seen or heard from Clark in three days. Kiliyan hadn't either, and from what he gathered from the school she never showed up for her daily visit. Kiliyan didn't seem concerned but there was something about her absence that bothered me. I sat up on my elbow.

"I want to find Clark today." Kiliyan barely glanced up from the map in front of him. I sat up, watching as his pencil fluttered across the page.

"I don't," he shrugged. I sighed and rubbed at my shoulder. A knot had formed there over the last few days, whether from stress in general or from sleeping on the hard cot Kiliyan had dragged back to his flat for me, I wasn't entirely sure.

I was pretty sure it was mostly the cot. I didn't want to return to the room that Clark had set up for me—it was too close to her. Kiliyan fought me for a few minutes before he gave in to my tantrum. I told him it would only be for the night, but here I was, three days later.

"Why? We need some answers."

"Answers? Ollie, she isn't going to tell us anything. We've seen how forthcoming she can be." I didn't have to look at him to know he had rolled his eyes. I swung my legs off the cot and rested my arms on my knees.

"We can convince her—"

"I have a better idea." Kiliyan sat up and pushed the map toward me. I got up and wandered over to the table. The map was roughly done, but it looked like the tunnels we had taken to get here.

"What is this?" I asked. Kiliyan had traveled to Javink and back countless times. There would be no need for him to map it out. He had the map in his head. My guts twisted.

"It's a map."

"I know what it is." It was astonishing how quickly he could exasperate me. "Why are you drawing the tunnels?"

"There are a few reasons," he said slowly. I watched him lean back in his chair so only the back legs were touching the ground. He steepled his fingers and brought the tips of his pointer fingers to his lips, gently pressing against the soft skin. His eyes never left mine. My skin heated, a pink hue spreading across my cheeks. I felt the fear twisting its way around my insides.

He dropped his hands from his mouth. "First, you should know the tunnels. It's primarily for you—I may not be around when you need to make a getaway." I opened my mouth to respond, but he shook his head at me.

"Second, these tunnels don't just connect us to Javink, there have to be other cities linked together. This map shows only where I have gone. It leaves room for others to explore. Some of the students are getting restless. It may be time to encourage Clark to let them explore the tunnels. If she thinks it's preparation for war she may be more agreeable to let them leave the city."

"They are her salvation, Kil," I shook my head and tapped the center of our city. "This is their boundary. She wouldn't risk her small numbers on a mapping quest."

"Maybe not her top students, but someone has to be at the bottom."

"So you want to kill students? What happens if they encounter something in the tunnels? What if they have to fight whatever it was you fought in the dark, alone?" Kiliyan's face darkened slightly before he responded.

"What I killed in those tunnels didn't want anything to do with me. That thing was after you—"

"How do you know that?" I threw my hands up and paced the small space. If we needed to expand our knowledge on the tunnels I had a feeling Clark would be the person to do that. Growing up with her around, she had always had a plan. She knew her surroundings in detail, even in the dark. She didn't seem like the kind of person to not know where the tunnels led to. This place was her plan.

I said as much to Kiliyan. He nodded once. "You're probably right. Then it's probably best that Clark doesn't know about our plans to map the tunnels. We'll keep an eye on her things, see if she has any maps of her own, but it still doesn't hurt to have the students do some remapping—in secret of course. We don't know what has changed in the time our city has been here."

"Why do we need to know the tunnels?"

Kiliyan stood from his chair, the wooden legs scratching against the stone floor. He selected a hard piece of bread from a small basket on the countertop and gnawed on it thoughtfully. "Because I don't think the students want to fight for her."

That wasn't news to me. Alijiah didn't seem to be a fan of Clark's, so I assumed there were more like her with similar ideas. I had wondered what kept them from rebelling against her. I had done my best to rebel against Bogan—even up until Kiliyan saved me—but these kids were just taking everything in stride. At least to the naked eye. And I had liked Bogan, sort of.

"They'll fight for you though," I said. Kiliyan stared hard at me for a lot longer than I was comfortable with. I don't think he had thought about that before. But I saw the way Alijiah looked at him. They way she listened. And I didn't need to walk into the school to know that the rest of the students would follow him if he asked. Hell, I had only been here for less than two weeks and I was ready to follow him.

"I don't want them to, Ollie."

"I know," I agreed. I did know. His startled face said it all. The thought seemed to horrify him. "But it's something to keep in mind, just in case."

"Don't mention that to anyone but me, Ollie."

"I wouldn't. Do you think I'm that stupid? If Clark or anyone loyal to her knew that those kids are more inclined to follow you she'd probably organize a happy accident for you," I scoffed. And me, I thought wryly.

Kiliyan must have seen my train of thought because he smiled at me, a soft chuckle escaping from his mouth. He shook his head and looked down.

"All the more reason you should know these tunnels. We may need an escape route at some point, and if there are tunnels that Clark doesn't know about then those are the routes I want to be most familiar with."

"Agreed. So how do you want to do this?" I asked. Kiliyan smirked at me.

"I'm going to recruit some students to work on this, we don't want to run into any new cities or Kryjia base camps—" he tapped his map again.

"So our biggest worry is running into new cities with unknowns and pissed off Kryjia? No big deal, right?" I scoffed. 

"Exactly," he grinned at me.

"Okay, so how do we sneak the students out?" 

"I want to inspect the tunnels first. Check the routes I'm familiar with, maybe see if we can find some accessible surface exit points. I'd love to get above ground again." 

That threw me. Bogan had talked about going to the surface years ago. It was forbidden. We were to live under the Kryjia in all ways. He had discussed it as a way to build relations but the moment a Kriyjia diplomat heard about it, she had squashed every hope he had.

"Have you been there before?" Kiliyan shook his head, yes. 

"That's where my mother's city was. I haven't seen blue sky in months." 

"Months?" I had never seen it. Never even thought about what color it might be there.

"Almost a year now." Kiliyan stared off across the room, and I couldn't help but stare at him, almost as if I had been hoping to catch a glimpse of what he was seeing. He shook himself and turned to stare at me, shaking me from my own thoughts. 

"And what should I be doing?" I asked him. 

 "You are going to make nice with Clark and start searching her office for any maps she might have."

I groaned. "Why can't you go make nice with Clark?" I flopped back on the cot with a flourish.