Julius's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Julius sat with his back to a rock and the small dish balanced on his knee. Its blue lights had gone dark hours ago. He was a bald, middle-aged man with tattoos crawling down both arms, and the device on his lap was the only thing that had kept the Vael from reading his heat since the camps burned. He was headed for the mountains because a stranger had told him a man lived up there the Vael could not see at all. Julius meant to find him. The fire pit sat low between the sleeping bags, throwing more smoke than light. Emmy poked a stick into the coals and did not look up. Bethany had already turned in. Harlen crouched at the edge of the ring, the red glow of the rig on his mouth dimmed to a pinpoint. Elina folded her wings behind her and sat across from Julius. Riley cleaned her makeshift gun in her lap. "The dish," Elina said. "Tell us." Julius turned it in his hands. "I didn't build it. I met a man who had one. Traveled with him four days." "And?" Elina said. "It quit. Middle of open ground. Lights just went out." He tapped the rim. "Surprised him more than me. He thought it would last. It didn't." "What happened to him," Riley said. Not a question. "They found him. Not me." Julius kept his eyes on the fire. "Mine still had a charge. His didn't." Riley set the gun down. "The man in the mountains. That's where you heard it." "From him. Yeah." "Say it plain," Elina said. Julius drew a breath. "He told me where he got the dish. A man up in the mountains gave it to him. Said the man didn't need one. Said the Vael don't see him at all. Not his heat, not him. Nothing." Emmy looked up for the first time. "How." "He didn't know. The man he met just said he was safe up there. That was the word he used. Safe." Harlen's rig flared once as he exhaled. "You believe it." "I believe the dish worked until it didn't," Julius said. "I believe someone made it. And I believe he's still up there." Elina studied the dark device on his knee. "How many charges did yours have left before the fortress?" "Two. Maybe." "And now?" "None." The fire popped. No one spoke for a moment. "Then we don't stop," Elina said. "Mountains at first light." Riley picked her gun back up. "If he's real, he can build more." "If he's real," Harlen said, "he can teach us why." Julius set the dead dish down beside his boot. He had told them what he knew. The group had heard it and chosen to keep going. That was the answer he had wanted, and it meant the next miles belonged to him to lead.