The Hope's End by Stephen Chambers

Author:Stephen Chambers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

Vel’s footsteps wavered, and Ponce squinted at him, following his companion’s gaze to the ground. Vel had seen the plaque several times, but he had never directly walked over it before. It felt too smooth—slippery—under his boots.

“You ever wonder about this?” Vel said.

“I don’t usually walk this way.”

“Everybody’s seen the plaque. You ever wonder about it?”

Ponce shook his head. “What’s there to wonder about? It’s illegal to mess with it, and the thing’s too old to read. It’s like the ruins.”

Life, not lies, Vel thought. I shouldn’t even be able to understand it. Vel couldn’t remember how he had actually learned to read, but he could read, without a memory of having been taught. More than once, Vel had wondered if his parents had taught him—but then why wouldn’t I remember the lessons? he thought.

“Wish we could get out there,” Ponce said.

Vel followed Ponce’s stare to the horizon—and there, above the wooden buildings of the immediate city, skeletal points of darkness rose in the distance. Miles of distance made their outlines vague, and Vel crossed his arms across his chest.

“Yes, so do I. So what?”

Ponce shrugged. It was illegal to break the city boundaries, illegal to go beyond the stone wall that encircled Hope and the plots of farmland. That wall was always manned, Vel knew, one soldier every twenty or thirty feet. The wall was about five feet high and without a pass issued by the Executive Council, the guards wouldn’t let anyone go over.

Of course, there were reasons for common passes: when the government commissioned wood collections for buildings, fur collections for clothing, or the collection of metal deposits for weapons, they gave temporary passes for the teams who ventured out to the leafless southern forests. Wood from the trees, fur from the thick tree moss, and metal buried just beneath the forest floor that could be melted into weapons.

But often, only part of a team returned. The survivors supposedly told stories that reminded Vel of the made-up legends of the Nara and the demons of the wild. Vel paid them little attention, and Darden had once said that they were a handy way to keep people from trying to break the city boundaries. Still, despite the precaution of the barrier wall, people left. It didn’t happen often, and Vel wasn’t sure that it had ever happened in his lifetime—but people had fought past the soldiers, into the fields of high grass. And the ruins.

“I need to get home,” Vel said.

“Nah,” Ponce said. “We need to meet Darden, remember?”

Vel shook his head. “What are you talking about?” He smiled mockingly. “Darden can create his own illegal cash flow. He needs to start helping us with these jobs.”

Somehow, Darden had avoided working in the fields, despite the fact that he was a full year older than Vel and registered. Darden’s parents were farmers, just like Vel’s and Ponce’s—but Darden had shrugged off a life of tending grassfruit. Exactly how he had done it, Vel wasn’t sure. And when Vel’s

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