Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 14: The City of Salt

ANDA

All she could smell was blood. Anda knew that wasn't true, that there was only snow and ice and wind around her, but a part of her thought she could smell the blood of the Unseen dead on the Seers and Guides and guards around her. On herself. After the guards put that black hood over her head, they stripped her of her pack and searched her jacket and pockets. They took everything, even the flower pendant around her neck.

"No, no, no that, give me that book!" Eli yelled. "It's important to me, but not to you—please!"

"What is this?" Hannah said.

"That's nothing. It's just my... please, it's for my children, but it's not ready."

Silence.

"Thank you, thank you," Eli said, his voice trembling with gratefulness.

Then they were led away into the City of Salt. All she could sense was the cold on her fingers and the guard's hands on her arm, and she thought she could feel the blood on his hands, the warmth seeping through her coat and into her skin and soul. But why would they have blood on their hands? None of what happened was their fault: it was hers.

With hands firmly on her shoulders, the Unseen guards guided her through the snow slick streets. Despite the shame that followed her, Anda felt some sense of relief. They had made it to the City of Salt. Here they would be safe, and here the Fox would cure her. Maybe her journey was finally at an end.

Anda felt them cross icy concrete and climb slippery stairs and pad across frozen grass. The cold mountain air stuck in her throat as gritty and frozen as a snowball. All the while, Seth, the indignant prophet, sniffed. Stephen sighed, and Eli whimpered and mumbled and laughed. A door opened in front of her, and she felt the air change as they entered a building. While the wide and windy outside air turned to close and old inside air, it remained cold. Eventually, the many footsteps around her lessened. Eli's scared sounds disappeared behind the slam of a door. Anda realized: they were being separated. Panic flared in her like a torch.

"Wait... wait, where are you taking him?" she asked, but she was met only with silence. "Where... where are you taking me? Please... please don't separate us," she begged. If they were separated, she couldn't help the Fox. And he couldn't help her. She didn't trust him, but she trusted the people of this city even less.

"Please... please!" she struggled, trying to go back for the Fox, but the guard's strong hands clamped down on her shoulders and shoved her forward. She reached out to the future and—

"Anda, it's all right," Stephen said from somewhere behind her, breaking her concentration. "You can trust them. The Unseen, the City of Salt, is safe. We're safe here," he said just as a door slammed shut, and she was alone. All she could hear were her own throttled and wheezing breaths and her own footsteps echoing down a smooth stone hallway. And she was alone. She couldn't remember when Seth had disappeared, but she didn't care.

The guard stopped, opened a door, and shoved Anda through it. She reached to the future to get herself out of this mess, but as soon as she passed through the door, she felt something like fine moss spreading over her mind, and the green and colors of the future disappeared. All her sharp thoughts, her precise and fine-edged ideas and memories, turned soft. What were they doing to her? Her breath came quick and shallow as her eyelids fluttered under the black hood. She tried to see the future, escape, and the end of the world, and—

A Fountain—

Flames and—

But it was wrong. Her visions, with their usual violence of color and spark, were... gauzy. As the thought flashed through her, she could feel terror's knobby hands on her wrists and his rancid breath on her neck: something was interfering with her visions.