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“You can get up now,” and Isa offered him her hand, but Rat didn’t take it.
“What kind of room did you say this was, again?” Rat was afraid that if he stood the room would start moving again. He liked to think he was still spread-eagled on the floor as a precaution, not because he was a coward—or so he told himself for his own pride’s sake.
“It’s an elevator.” She hadn’t stopped grinning since he’d been pinned to the floor shortly after floating up from it.
“Why do your rooms fall like rocks, and why didn’t we die when we hit the bottom?” Since the room hadn’t moved in the last few seconds, Rat pushed himself to his knees and pulled himself up by the wall, ignoring Isa’s still outstretched hand. He needed a moment to gather his scattered senses before facing her again.
Once on his feet, Rat hooked his satchel of food back onto his shoulder and stood as straight as his quivering knees would let him.
“It’s what elevators do. It’s taken us down eight hundred feet so we didn’t have to use the stairs.”
When the doors slid open, Isa slipped a hand through Rat’s arm and tugged him out of the elevator, not that he needed any encouragement.
“Next time, I’ll be more than happy to walk,” but then Rat stopped, mid-stride, gasped and looked up as he turned in a full circle. It was like he had always imagined the Forbidden Lands to have been before the Great War. Around him rose tall buildings, but here their rows and rows of windows were brightly lit, what must have been thousands of people busy behind them. It was enough to take his breath away, and for once in his life he was left speechless.
Isa cleared her throat. “You fly an airship and an elevator scared you?”
He straightened even more and jutted his chin out. “That wasn’t ‘Scared’. That was...surprise. I’m just saying that it wouldn’t hurt to warn a man if he’s about to fall eight hundred feet.”
Isa giggled. “It was hardly a fall, just a controlled ride down sixty floors.”
That made Rat look up again, this time higher. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew his mouth hung open, but the beauty of what he was seeing made him beyond caring that Isa might find his stunned expression unattractive.
He again turned in a full circle, his neck craned as far back as possible. He couldn’t believe that all the windows of these tall buildings weren’t broken, black and empty, that they were all illuminated and filled with so much life. As Rat once more tried to take it all in, Isa asked, “Why did you come back?”
Rat met her eyes and tried to remember why he was here, suddenly aware that it wasn’t to gawk. “As we were leaving the valley, we saw those men heading back this way. I couldn’t leave without warning you, you know, just in case they were coming back for you.”
“You put your trip to Freedom off to help us again?”
Rat tried to understand the disbelief in her voice. “Of course, but...” then he had to look up again. “But I never expected this.” He turned in another circle. “Not any of this. How do you power your moving room and all these lights?”
Only then did it occur to Rat that he was still wearing his goggles, their lights switched on. He turned them off and slid the goggles onto the top of his head.
Isa giggled yet again. “You mean the elevator; how do we power the elevator?”
Rat found himself staring at her, his heart sinking with the realization that whatever tiny hope he had secretly harbored for this beautiful woman was now clearly ridiculous. How could anyone raised amongst all this high-tech splendor ever conceivably understand a man like him, one from humble beginnings as a rat catcher?
“What is this place? And who are you? I came back because I thought you needed my help, but... Well, now I can see you don’t. Maybe I should just...” and he motioned toward the still open doors of the elevator.
Isa must have caught the change of tone in his voice because her expression shuttered and her smile slipped. She looked down at her feet before turning and motioning him to follow her.
“Come on. It will be easier to show you than to tell you.”
Their footsteps echoed off the glazed walls, Isa’s long skirts adding a soft swishing sound that masked what could otherwise have been a strained silence. Rat tried to ignore the growing number of people who were now staring down from their windows and wondered why it happened to have been Isa who’d gone up to meet him at the entrance. Had it just been a coincidence?
They eventually stopped a long way from the elevator and Isa waved the card that hung around her neck in front of what looked like another blank metal wall. Some more doors slid open. She headed in but Rat took a step back, wary that it was yet another moving room. He wasn’t certain he was up to another such uncomfortable trip.
Isa smiled and held out her hand. “Come on. You can hold my hand until we’re there if it helps.”