Page 32 of The Infinite Glade (The Maze Cutter #3)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Flare’s Devil

T all, pointed trees blanketed the island so heavily they had no choice but to land the Berg a mile south and walk north to the building Cian had seen from the air. They trudged along white snow that melted a little with every step.

“You sure it’s this way?” Jackie asked. The air was cold, and Ximena walked with her hands wrapped around the bare skin where she’d ripped her shirt for Isaac’s wound. He looked down at the material wrapped around his calf, all covered in blood.

“It should be just up here.” Cian checked some sort of device in his pocket and pointed ahead.

Darkness limited their sight but the moon and aurora lit their view enough to see one footstep in front of the other.

Erros cleared tree limbs until his arm got stuck in some sort of fishing wire. “What is . . .”

The sound of cracking branches caused everyone to freeze and look up—everyone except Old Man Frypan, who took two steps back.

The cracking sound reminded Isaac of the Griever coming down the steps of the Villa.

With a thud into the snow, three axes came falling from above.

“Watch out!” someone shouted too late. But no one was hit.

“Flare’s Devil!” Cian tightened the red scarf around his forehead.

“Nearly took my left hand!” Erros shouted. “That’s my favorite hand!” He looked left, right, and then above before taking a large step forward over the axes sticking out of the ground. “Come on, then? Can’t stop at every threat we receive now, can we?”

Isaac turned around to check with Frypan. “He’s right, they’ll see we’re innocent when we get closer. Maybe they’ll have some answers about how long that war’s been going on in Alaska.”

He stepped over the axes but then turned around.

He may have given up on a lot of things, but he was still a blacksmith at heart and could see that the axes were well crafted.

Small but sharp. He handed one to Old Man Frypan, just in case.

One to Jackie. And kept the other for himself.

He positioned it on his belt loop with the blade away from himself so that there was no risk of falling and slicing himself open again.

“You know. In case we see any Grievers here.” He tried to make it a joke, but in truth, he already trusted this Villa less than the last one. He wanted to be prepared for anything. Everything. Even Grievers.

The painted black door of the Villa hung wide open, and broken glass littered the entryway. There was no use walking around the front of the house and knocking politely.

“Something didn’t end well, here,” Isaac whispered to Jackie.

Despite this being the only house on the island, the whole scene reminded him of the row of homes he and Jackie had stepped into before getting kidnapped—right before Kletter got her throat sliced open.

If fear had a scent, Isaac could smell it in the doorway on top of the broken glass.

“More axes you think?” She peered up and around the house.

“No . . . something’s off.” He looked behind the group at Frypan as the old man caught up. “Does it smell weird to you?”

“Smells like . . .” Frypan took a big whiff. “Pine trees and smoke? Almost reminds me of back home.”

Isaac knew they shouldn’t go inside but then Ximena entered fearlessly right behind Cian and Erros. Jackie entered after her. And so Isaac carefully stepped on top of the broken glass.

Black curtains hung in every room. Some of them covered windows, and others covered equipment. Cian and Erros looked behind every single one.

“Who would put a Villa all the way out here?” Isaac stepped farther into the first room, not touching anything.

An exact replica Villa from the one they’d just escaped from.

“Crap.” He turned around to stop Frypan from walking in through the open door and seeing all the vials and science equipment, but it was too late.

“Oh . . .” Frypan’s face showed the exact amount of disappointment Isaac felt.

This place couldn’t have been more like the last. The only thing missing was a glass pod in the corner and a Griever dispensing medicine.

At least the Griever was missing. But Isaac’s ears stretched for any sounds of metal creaking and clanking in the distance.

His whole body tensed, waiting to hear or see one of those crazy mechanical beasts.

“It’s really a Villa.” Jackie peeked under a cloth covering. “All this equipment just like at the last one. Up here in the middle of nowhere?”

Ximena kicked the broken shards of glass at her feet. “I guess someone already destroyed this one for us.”

“Wonder how long it’s been empty?” Cian traced the cabinets with his finger. “Not long enough to collect any ash from the fires.”

“Surprised they didn’t spark this up, too.” Erros opened and shut cabinets.

“Anything?” Cian asked, doing the same. Erros shook his head.

Isaac didn’t know if he should be happy or disappointed that they’d found the Villa empty.

The dread in his gut about the fires and the others grew.

He couldn’t help but think that if Sadina were alive, she could be in yet another Villa, somewhere in Alaska, kept hostage and forced to eat terrible flour cakes and get stung by Grievers. He didn’t know which was worse.

“So what do we do now?” he asked Frypan.

“Shhh . . .” Ximena held her finger over her lips. Even on his island it meant the same thing– shut up, Isaac .

He paused and listened for what she may have heard. The fear in his gut grew, and his imagination went wild. “It’s probably just?—”

“Isaac! Shhh!”

A scrape and a clank came from behind. Isaac pivoted to face what he hoped wouldn’t be a Griever.

Nothing there. “It’s too dark in here to see anything .

. .” His blood pumped faster, making it hard to hear anything but his own heartbeat; he spun around again to pinpoint the noise.

He pulled up the small axe, gripped it in both hands.

Even if a Griever appeared, he would fight metal with metal.

He positioned himself in front of Frypan because the poor man didn’t deserve any more Grievers.

The lower cabinet to the left of Cian slowly opened and an arm reached out.

“Whoa!” Cian and Erros backed up, but Jackie ran to the cabinet.

“Oh my gosh!” Jackie practically screamed for all of Alaska to hear. “Miyoko!”

Isaac couldn’t believe his eyes. “Miyoko?” He set his axe down and joined Jackie in hugging his east-side friend. The hopes he’d barricaded somewhere deep inside of him broke through, filling him up. “Where’s everyone else hiding?”

“No . . . just me,” Miyoko said before crying.

Isaac’s heart sank as the others poured out questions.

“How did you get here?”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“What happened?”

Miyoko slowly answered between sobs. “The others are still alive, just not here. We came here with the Godhead and then the Nation—what do they call it—where Minho and Orange are from?”

“The Remnant Nation,” Frypan replied.

“Yeah, those people.” Miyoko’s nose dripped with snot from all the crying.

“Minho and Orange shot some of them, but there were so many of those stupid Remnants.” She cried so much while talking, it became harder and harder for Isaac to understand her.

“Sadina and Trish screamed, and I panicked and hid . . . and then listened as they took everyone away.” Her whole body shook.

Jackie squeezed her tightly and wiped her nose clean.

“It’s okay, you’re okay now,” Jackie whispered to her; Isaac imagined Cowan or Roxy doing the same if they’d been there.

Ximena kicked at a big metal cylindrical piece of equipment in the center of the floor; it started sputtering out pressured air.

“Careful.” Frypan coughed. “There could be something tranquilizing in there.”

Ximena had a real necessity to destroy things that were already doomed.

Cian coughed and Erros covered his mouth as he bent over and tried to read the lettering on the tank.

“It’s just air. Must be for some of the machines that need pressure to transfer energy.

” He rolled the leaking cylinder to the furthest corner of the room. “But be careful, dammit!”

“Oh wow . . .” Miyoko dropped to the floor. “Kletter’s . . .”

“Don’t, there’s glass everywhere!” Jackie warned.

She pulled Miyoko back but not before she’d picked up a small booklet. “It must have dropped from Minho’s pocket when he fought them.” She brushed debris off the notebook and handed it to Isaac.

“What is it?” He flipped through the pages quickly, but the lettering in the notebook looked like some kind of code. He recognized the letters but not the grouping of them. He gave it back to Miyoko.

“It’s Kletter’s. We found it on the Maze Cutter on our way up here.”

“Let me see.” Cian practically ripped the book out of Miyoko’s hand.

She took a step back. “Dominic found it in between the boards of the lower deck, but none of us could read it. Only a few words here and there.”

“A lot of good that does us.” Isaac waited for Cian’s face to reveal something about the journal, but his face remained blank.

“It’s in Spanish,” Cian said to Erros. “Kletter and her damn linguistics.”

Erros motioned to Ximena. “You can read it.” He stepped closer to her.

“You can. I’ve heard you say a few things in that language, mostly under your breath.

” Ximena looked like she wanted nothing to do with any thing that had belonged to Kletter, but the look in Erros’ eyes was almost threatening. “Read it,” he said again, forcefully.

She took the small notebook and flipped through the pages as Isaac had done.

He hoped Kletter wasn’t dumb enough to log details for the day she’d killed Ximena’s mom and the other crew members.

Even though Ximena deserved to know what happened.

But if Kletter did write about poisoning and shooting her mom, after everything Isaac had learned about Annie Kletter, he doubted her version of events could be trusted as accurate.

Erros and Cian both crowded behind Ximena’s shoulders as she tried to read the log book. Her lips moved without sound and her eyes darted as she flipped pages.

Miyoko paced in a tight space. “We need to find where the Remnant Nation took Sadina, Trish, Dom . . . everyone.”

“How would we even begin to find them?” Isaac asked. He had such mixed feelings—thrilled to know they were alive, but no closer to seeing them safe and sound. Further, perhaps.

Cian shook his head. “It doesn’t matter where they took them. The Remnant Nation doesn’t keep prisoners of war for very long.”

“So, they’ll let them go then?” Miyoko asked with such innocent hope that it was heartbreaking to hear.

Ximena exhaled in a way that prepared Isaac to hear yet again about How the islanders were all naive. But for the first time since meeting her, Isaac had to agree. She looked up at Isaac from the notebook with knowing eyes, and a simple glance confirmed it. Ximena knew what Cian meant.

“They’ll just let them go?” Miyoko asked again.

Isaac turned to see the same look in Frypan’s eyes. He knew what Cian meant, too. But Isaac couldn’t betray his heart to say it out loud. Sadina and the others were as good as dead. He had lived through losing his entire family. But not Sadina. Please, not Sadina.

He couldn’t lose her, too.