The Blue Tower (The Five Towers Book 1), page 18
Then, as soon as everyone has gone through, I take the power from Emma. The smoke has parted slightly, just enough for me to slam the gate shut. It is too heavy for my group to lift from inside, and the only opening is a slit to look through—as wide as the door, but far too narrow to pass through.
Emma’s eyes appear in the slit. Then Hank’s and Kiyo’s beside hers.
“Open it!” Hank shouts from the other side. “Now!”
We do not have long before the Scouring will end. I lean close to them. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
“No!” Hank looks furious. “What are you talking about? You have to come now.”
I shake my head. “Take care of Emma and Kiyo, okay?”
Hank is scowling, but he nods.
“You’re going to Red,” Emma says. “Without us.”
She’s right. This is my burden. Not theirs. “My Mom is there. She might need help. I’ll find her and bring her back.”
Hank shouts that it’s ridiculous, that I can’t go, that Blue needs me.
But Kiyo and Emma are quiet, their questioning eyes disarming me. I think of their pasts, of Kiyo marching through the snow and losing her son, of Emma living in squalor, losing her husband. Emma manages to slide her slender arm through the narrow slit in the gate. She touches my cheek, and I feel her healing my shoulder and arm. She feels so close.
“I might lose my memories, everything,” I say. “I can’t let any of you risk that. And somebody has to remind me who I am, right?”
“Respect the mind,” Hank says softly.
Emma smiles, tears in her eyes, as she strokes my cheek softly. “I won’t forget, Cipher. Neither will you.”
I say goodbye and turn back down the tunnel. I can’t look back. It hurts more than I could have imagined to leave behind those three sets of eyes. But I’m ready to suffer, to do whatever it takes to reach my mother.
59
AS I WALK BACK THROUGH the tunnel, its smooth metallic walls lining the way, my mind turns from the Blue Tower and the friends behind me toward the Red Tower ahead. This is not going to be easy, especially alone.
I stop at the tunnel’s opening. Most of the fighting is around the outer edge of the Scouring. There are others from the Black Tower going against Green and Yellow. One of them is probably the girl who Kiyo mentioned, Monica. If she can stop my powers, I doubt I’ll make it. Better not to draw any power, to avoid attention. Time to find another way.
The path through the center, over the white circle, is wide open, with the Red Tower looming on the other side. A few people from Red wait near their gate. If I can just get to them... But I remember the last time I set foot on the white circle. I was transported to a memory in a hospital—full of pain and sickness and regret—then the Scouring had ended with booming words and a flash of burning flame. I don’t want to repeat that, but I know so much more now. If a memory comes, I’ll be ready, no surprises. It’s my best option.
I make a run for it, dashing straight toward the middle and the Red gate beyond. I’m at a full sprint when I cross the line of gray stone into the white circle. Two steps later it happens again. Everything shifts.
A hospital hallway lies ahead, with rooms lining both sides. It is the same as before, with fluorescent lights above and sterile floors below. This time, though, I see that there’s an open doorway at the end of the hall, still showing the Red Tower in the distance. Must keep going. Ignore what’s around. Run.
But near the end of the hallway a familiar voice makes me freeze. It comes from a doorway to my left, so close, so important. I can’t help but glance inside the room, where I see what I saw before—five people huddling over a hospital bed. One of them is me, Dr. Fitzroy. Standing across from me is a woman, and this time I know her: my wife. On the bed there’s a young boy with a shaved head, my son, looking small and frail and connected to a dozen tubes. The look on my older face shows despair, or worse. I hear myself saying, “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I could have saved him. I...”
Suddenly something slams into me, hard as a freight train, knocking me completely out of the hospital and onto the gray stone of the Scouring, the white circle behind me. A boy from Black is pinning me down. He pulls back a fist and lands a punch square on my jaw.
The pain is shattering. I grab desperately for the air, managing to weave just enough to throw the boy back a few feet. I stagger to my feet, head ringing.
Then I’m hit from behind, making me lose grip of the air. It’s an older boy from Red with a thick brown beard. He glares at me from a metal helmet with huge horns rising out of its sides. His head is coming at me. Before I even know what he’s doing, he headbutts me.
Forehead onto nose. Bones smash. Stars erupt.
Lights blink on and off, dancing around his horns. But the helmeted boy is already off me, spinning to face the one from Black who is coming again. The two of them clash like titans.
Through the stars I remember—must get to Red. I scramble to my knees and grab at the air, my focus fumbling but holding just enough. I flick the boy from Black away. The helmeted boy turns to me, shocked.
This is my chance. I’ll tell him I want to join his tower.
“Hey—” I begin, but the smoke from Black is suddenly around me, blocking my power and knocking me back. My foot steps onto the white circle again.
The hospital room looks alive with beeping sounds and monitor lights, but it smells like sterile death. Shame hits me all over. I try to shake it away, to get out of my white coat and out of the room with the sick boy, my son, but the smoke is here, too. I can’t see or feel anything else. I failed. I failed. I...
Another blow hits me, right in the gut. Then I’m dragged out of the hospital room. Relief floods over me, but doesn’t last long.
It’s the Scouring.
The boy from Red rears his head back again. I can’t even react before his helmeted forehead crashes into me.
More stars. Bones hurt. I collapse in pain.
“Now you’ll stay down,” the boy mutters, as he grabs my body and hauls it onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
It’s not hard to play dead. I let myself sag against him, motionless. I taste iron in my mouth and see blood drop to the ground, trailing behind me. Hanging there, upside down, I see that the boy is heading to the Red Tower on the craggy mountain above. My bloody lips can’t help but curl into a painful smile.
I’ve done it. I’ve finished treading water. I’m going to my Mom. I’m going to the Red Tower.
End of Book One
Don’t miss The Red Tower, the sequel to The Blue Tower and the second book in The Five Towers Series. Get your copy here.
J.B. Simmons, The Blue Tower (The Five Towers Book 1)
