To Learn To Fall (Sequel to the Other Side)

Chapter Twenty Three

I never thought I'd feel so relieved when the carriage finally came to a grinding stop. Eliza and I had ridden the rest of the three hour journey alone in absolute silence, but I doubted that either of us really regretted that. Anger, or at the very least annoyance, radiated off of her like heat from the sun.

I rose to my feet and stretched out every limb of my body before exiting the carriage. The scenery had been quite nice to look at inside the carriage, but it was nothing compared to the scents and the sights and the feelings that rushed over me the instant my feet made contact with the ground. I took in a deep breath of the air, grateful for the freshness of it.

It smelled like Thomas.

"So this is the Capital?" I asked Angelica, who stepped out of her carriage and up next to me.

She shrugged. "Never been here before. But I don't think so. There's nothing here."

She was right. It was nothing compared to the cities and villages we passed through, which though old, had a feeling about them that I couldn't place. Safety, comfort? Something like that. But now, we were standing in the middle of an empty clearing surrounded by trees. I looked up, but I couldn't see the tops of them. They were a lot taller than the ones back at home.

"We're almost there," James said. He pushed past me without saying a word. "We just have a little more to go."

"What are we looking for?" Lafayette asked, stretching himself out. He seemed as pleased as I did to have been traveling in those awful carriages.

"And ruin the surprise? Please. You'll know it when you see it."

Lafayette looked displeased with that answer, but he shrugged. "Thomas asked you to say something like that, didn't he?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

"So he did then."

"Speaking of which, where is Thomas?" asked Aaron, looking around for him. "Wasn't he with you, Alexander?"

"Yeah. He was. Then he decided he wanted to get some exercise and I went with him," said James simply. His explanation left a lot of room for theorizing, for wondering why he decided to leave so abruptly. And it wouldn't be long before the blame was pegged on me.

It was partially my fault, okay? I'll admit it. I'm not stupid. And the instant I said it, I regretted it. The rest of the carriage ride I spent sitting in the silence stewing over how stupid I am. But that didn't change what I said, and I couldn't take it back.

I turned my attention upwards, and saw more green than blue due to the towering trees and their heavy cover. "Where do we go now?" I asked, tired emotionally just as much as physically. I could already tell that this would be a very long trip, and the only thing I wanted to do now was go home.

"We walk."

The voice from behind me made me spin. My heart leapt to my throat when I saw him. I held onto my arm and forced my mouth to stay shut, knowing that if I didn't, I would say something even more stupid.

Thomas fell from the branch he was sitting on high above the ground and landed without a noise. His wings flared and, an air of dignity and royalty, surrounding him, he pushed past us. "We don't have far left."

Lafayette let out a groan of disagreement and raised a giant stone from the ground, which he sat atop of and let it carry him as he followed Thomas. "Your stupid Capital better be worth it."

"It was designed for secrecy. So only those who knew where it is can find it," Thomas returned. He didn't seem bothered by earlier, and every time I tried to search for a falter or breach in his walls, I saw nothing. Because there was never anything with him.