I knew this city. Aurael had been my home from the day I was born and I had been navigating it alone for the better part of decade. I spent my entire life memorizing the streets and buildings of this city. Humans likely knew the city better than the Morri who ruled it.
Matais knew the streets every bit as well as I did. Better, even. He moved quick and impossibly light-footed for a man his size carrying as heavy a load as he was. He knew everything about the route we were taking. I followed, close on his tail, adrenaline masking any muscle fatigue. Matais twice sidestepped us both into a doorway or alley to avoid being spotted by patrol crafts. He didn't just know where and when to stop, he knew exactly how long to stay put.
He didn't speak most of the walk, either because he didn't want to or it was unsafe to do so and I followed his lead despite wanting to know how long ago this happened and how they managed to survive after Juleen so quickly turned on his city. These were the streets I knew, but they weren't the same at all. It was only days ago that the road we walked along was home to affluent Morri. This was the kind of street I would have avoided when possible. Many of the buildings were damaged,some were nothing more than rubble, the streets were riddled with potholes, and the air still smelled of fire, even miles from where I'd seen the flames.
"You good?" he asked, breaking a long silence as we came to a stop just before an intersection.
Wordlessly, I nodded. "We're a block away from the safe-zone." He paused and then clarified, "Safe for Juleen's people, not you and me. The extraction team was working out of the library."
"The library?" It was so close to the paestra. No more than a couple of blocks from the servants entrance to the paestra. I had walked by the massive, imposing building more times than I could count, but never entered. When Ro said he was concerned about being found, he failed to tell me just how close to their enemies they were. Juleen ordered door to door searches and Ro was a five minute walk from the paestra.
"It's outside the safe-zone perimeter."
Juleen must have a small perimeter then, not more than a few blocks from the paestra in any direction. He is afraid, I thought. I could think of no other reason that he would sacrifice so much of the city he built. I refused to let myself think of the lives lost. The humans that were targeted on sight and the Morri who were not important enough to be saved. There was no doubt in my mind that Juleen killed as many of his own kind as he did humans. Knowing what I knew of him, I did not believe he gave warning before turning his own city into a warzone. I doubted the poorest of the Morri were evacuated to the city center prior to the destruction.
"There will be increased activity," Matias said. "We will approach with caution, if they were found, the area will be monitored closely."
"Why do you think they've missed the meetings?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"Could be a change in patrols, unsafe to leave." His tone suggested that he didn't believe the reason he gave but I didn't have time to dwell on it because Matias gestured forward with a tilt of his head. "We need to move. Stay close and quiet."
Ahead the streets were flooded with lights. Barriers, walls of the same sort of material that kept the dome on top of the paestra covered appeared to line any street that entered into what Matias called the safe-zone. Sounds of the city were faint, but could be heard through the barrier. A reminder of just how close the danger was. How easily someone could spot us. Even shrouded in darkness, I felt exposed. As we moved I felt eyes on me, though every time I turned, nothing was there.
I felt Juleen's cruel gaze on me, like he was watching and enjoying this game. Quickly, I pushed the thoughts of what he had done to me and of what they would do if I was caught, to the side and focused on each step forward.
Counting, breathing, moving.
I knew the way. Though humans weren't permitted in the library, the building was a landmark that everyone knew. More than that, it was where our history was kept. Taken from us and guarded. Whispered rumor told of hundreds of texts brought by humans from whatever planet they inhabited filled the shelves. I only ever heard humans speaking of the library in whispers, everyone worried they would be punished if their curiosity was known. Humans who were determined to find a way in often found death instead.
It was fitting that after it was abandoned by the Morri who killed to keep humans out, the library would be a stronghold of the resistance.
There was no need to guard it anymore. With an order that sentenced all humans to death, there was no need to protect the knowledge that might be inside.
I always believed it to be a building of books and artifacts that the Morri deemed too valuable to share with humans. I thought now about what books and artifacts might be in the library. The rumors had to be true. Certainly books that showed all that humans were and all they came from lines some of the shelves, but what more? Tau once spoke of the version of history a woman called Tavia shared with him. The truth of the human history and the truth of the Morri lies. Incapable of interstellar travel, he told me. The Morri advanced their own technology through studying that of the human that first arrived looking for a safe haven. Without humans, they didn't need to carefully guard our own history. The evidence of all that we are capable.
Matias turned to me and raised a finger to his lips before pointing at me and then at the ground. The instructions were clear enough, I should stay here. Matias turned the corner slowly, his weapon raised and ready for anything.
Or so I thought.
Matias came to a sudden halt and his steady arms went slack, his hands falling to his side. There was no voice or noise from anything, except for his breathing and mine. I didn't—couldn't wait any longer. I moved from where I'd been ordered to remain and into the street.
My heart fell and continued down, down...down.
The library no longer stood. There were no patrols I could see, no one guarding the entrance because there was nothing left to guard.
I rushed further down the street closer to where the building had been.
A pile of rubble and stones and twisted metal formed a pile where the library once stood.
Parts of the walls or frame still stood, enough to confirm it was, in fact the library even as my mind rebelled against the idea, screaming that we must have made a wrong turn. I let the backpack slip off my shoulders to the ground and moved closer to the wreckage. It was too dark to see clearly and I couldn't risk using a light, but I couldn't leave either.
"We aren't safe out in the open like this." Matias placed his hand on my shoulder and I turned to face him. "We need to move."
"You just want to leave?"
"If we stay, we die too."
Too. He didn't believe they were alive.
He was wrong.
"Then go."
I would not leave without trying. Ro was at the forefront of my mind, but he was not the only one I thought of. Tau was with him and I sent Mekhai and Ahren and Keon and Xander back here. They were all warriors among their own, men who knew what they were getting into. The humans in there, the ones they extracted from the city, they deserved more than to be left alone to die under a crumbled building.
"Lena, you are not being rational," Matias said carefully. "I know you cared for them. I did too. Tau spent much of his time training me and many others, but we cannot stay here and they would not want us to."
The idea of being here alone, searching through the darkness and mess for a way to get in was terrifying. A single sound could draw attention of Morri patrols, a wrong step could result in being trapped or crushed, the building could loose whatever remaining stability it had and crumble atop of us. And we were unable to see well enough to move safely.
But it wasn't like we could return and try in the morning.
Ro and Tau would not have left me behind and I could not do that to them.
"I am going to stay," I insisted. "You don't have to, but could you do something else for me?"
It struck me that I didn't have to be alone. I had not been alone in any of this. Eda was waiting to hear from me. I quickly explained to Matias where the I'd left the craft and what needed to be done to contact Eda. I did not know her well, but I knew she would not shy away from this.
"Let her know where to find me."
Matias agreed to try to contact Eda. He shifted from foot to foot and looked up at the sky. "You have maybe an hour of darkness before the sun rises. You need to be out of sight before then. And make sure you are listening. The hover crafts make an electric sound you can hear well before you see them and the foot soldiers do not move quietly, you will have time to shelter before you are spotted."
He promised to move as quickly as he could. He left the bag he carried that was filled with water and food with me and turned to leave. I watched him sprint away, impossibly quiet on his feet as he ran. I knew it would be a while before any help could come. If he could run the entire way, it would still be at least half an hour before he reached the craft. It was unlikely that Eda would get here before daylight left us exposed, but she would come.