Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 18

Two hours later Leo and Fitz carefully landed the Spindle in a field right outside a historic middle American Republic town. Cynthia gazed out at the scenery through the window of the cockpit. Waves of tall grass blew over the flat terrain. She recalled her lessons about America's "Great Plains" and how they were wonderful farmland and the reason the old United States prospered for so long. Her tutor had seemed to think they were boring to look at, but Cynthia thought the rolling terrain was lovely.
"It's only about a five minute hover from here to the edge of Kansas City," Leo told the crew. "Then we can contact Mr. Dianem and meet him somewhere within the city."
"What happens if the Lunar soldiers find us here?" Asked Fitz, eyes hard.
"We get out of here as fast as we can and regroup. This is our meeting spot. Whatever you do find a way back here. We're not leaving anyone behind."
Cynthia nodded in agreement. The city attacked by the soldiers was a couple hundred miles east of here, but she had no idea how fast they could travel or where they would show up next. They were walking in blind.
As they stepped off the ship Leo flicked a few switches near the ramp and a hover emerged from the ship's belly. They all climbed aboard and sat in silence as it ripped through the tall grass of the fields. Cynthia could read each of the determined expressions on her friends' faces. None of them even wanted to imagine what would happen if they failed and they never got her mom back.
As they drove into the city Cynthia got a ping on her tablet, but she ignored it. There was too much anticipation on her mind. She had never been to a mid America city, in fact it had been years since she had even been to America's Capitol in D.C. Finally towers began to emerge over the horizon, but by then the group was only a minute away. Their towers were not tall at all, only twenty stories at most. The whole city seemed to be quieter, more laid back than the bustle of New Beijing. The buildings were much more spread out than the cramped, overpopulated city Cynthia called home. Small family hovers zipped around carefully laid grid-like streets.
Leo pulled their hover to a stop at a bot coffee shop and the crew settled in to a comfy booth in the corner while waited for Leo's contact to give them a place to meet. It was a sleepy little place with tall windows and a warm interior. Cynthia watched the setting sun glint against the tower across the street giving it a reddish tint. The crew sat in the shop talking mindlessly until the sun dipped below the horizon and the lights of the city began to flicker on and shine through the night.
Just as the first hovers with headlights began to zip through the streets Leo's portscreen received a ping.
"I got it. Let's go."
The crew took their hover through the streets of the much smaller city until they pulled up to a parking garage. Many family hovers were parked on the bottom floors though garages like this were rarely used in New Beijing. Leo guided the hover up to the top of the garage and the crew all piled out. Solstice sucked in a breath, and Cynthia turned to see what she was looking at.
From the roof they could feel a little breeze sliding through the city around the towers and over their garage. It was alight with city lights that weren't so bright as New Beijing's, so if she focused Cynthia could see the stars. The streets were quiet at a time that her home's would be pulsing with activity. From the top of the slab of concrete the princess felt serene.
At the corner of the garage was a small building with a sliding door. The crew entered and found an elevator.
"We have to go all the way down," said Leo after he hit the down arrow for the elevator. When they stepped on it Cynthia found that "all the way down" meant several floors below ground. She felt the weight of all that concrete closing over her and she shivered. It was colder this far underground too.
When the doors to the elevator slid open Cynthia had to blink several times. The lights were very low, and when her eyes started to adjust she found it was the light of candles flickering in the room.
It seemed like the room should be large, but the ceiling was low. She couldn't tell exactly how big the room was because a maze of bookshelves crammed full of books filled the room and reached all the way to the ceiling. The floor was made of a creaky old wood, and the candles glinted off its waxed shiny surface. The space smelled of old book pages, bringing candles, and even of ink. It felt ancient.
Dianem was nowhere to be seen, but to be fair, all Cynthia could see was a table tucked into the perpendicular convergence of two shelves of books while what seemed to be a hall began just behind it. Cynthia shared looks with the other members of the crew but they didn't speak. They just stood in the light of the flickering candles and waited.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity the floor began to creak. Leo's hand flew to his holster, just in case the creaking was not coming from the Lunar-Earthen historian.
A lanky elderly man emerged around the corner of shelves with a giant book held out in one palm and a candle in another. Glasses sat on the tip of his nose, and he seemed to be engrossed in its pages. Cynthia felt a twitch in the back of her mind. There was something strangely familiar about this man. Leo relaxed and removed his hand from his holster grinning.
"Mr. Dianem. I should have known you spent your time off in an ancient library. It's definitely more your speed than the Florida beaches."
"Or the New Beijing palace I might add," the man said. He finally looked up form his book at the crew standing there. He smirked back at Leo. "You, however seem to be making yourself right at home."
The man looked right into Cynthia's eyes and she let out a gasp. That expression, the way his eyes were sparkling with pride and the way his brow furrowed, it looked just like her mom. Stars, she missed her.
The man raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Thorne would you please introduce your friends. You know my eyesight is going, and these candles are much too low for me to recognize them."
Leo nodded. "This is Fitz Kesley, Ze'ev Kesley's youngest son, Solstice Clay, daughter of former princess Winter and renowned model, and Princess Cynthia Peony of the Eastern Commonwealth. Guys this is my old history professor at the academy."
The man nodded in greeting, but he kept staring at Cynthia as if contemplating something. She tried to hold his gaze.
"It's very nice to meet you sir. I'm hoping you'll be able to help me save my mom, the empress."
It was if he had made up his mind when he said. "Your highness I will do everything I can to save the empress, my daughter."