The Forgotten World Read online

  The Forgotten World

  Robin D. Mahle

  Copyright © 2019 by Robin D. Mahle

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  To Maw Maw,

  for allowing my imagination to run wild. I wish you could be here to see where it’s led me now.

  “Funny you’re the broken one when I’m the only one who needed saving.”

  — Stay, by Rihanna

  Contents

  Prologue

  The Analyst

  Chapter One

  The Analyst

  Chapter Two

  The Analyst

  Chapter Three

  The Analyst

  Chapter Four

  The Analyst

  Chapter Five

  The Analyst

  Chapter Six

  The Analyst

  Chapter Seven

  The Analyst

  Chapter Eight

  The Analyst

  Chapter Nine

  The Analyst

  Chapter Ten

  The Analyst

  Chapter Eleven

  The Analyst

  Chapter Twelve

  The Analyst

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Analyst

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Analyst

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Analyst

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Analyst

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Analyst

  Chapter Eighteen

  The Idealist

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The Idealist

  Twenty-Eight

  The Idealist

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-One

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The Idealist

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Robin D. Mahle

  Prologue

  Nell bit back a curse, her body slamming into the mast as another gargantuan wave crashed into the ship. Water cascaded onto the deck, off-footing even the most seasoned Levelians. Jagged streaks of lightning stabbed into the violent waters around them, and thunder rattled Nell’s eardrums. This storm appeared to have no end.

  PeNelope fought to stay in the present, rather than drift back to another storm that had seemed endless. One that had been endless, in a sense, for her family.

  But this was not that storm, and no one would die today.

  “Queen PeNelope.” SeRavi’s voice was barely audible over the torrential rain.

  Nell hesitated before turning at the unfamiliar title, the one she felt less and less as though she deserved with every day her people were subjected to this HiLa-forsaken sea.

  “Shouldn’t you be below decks with the others?” The crackling lightning may have drowned out a few of SeRavi’s syllables, but the insistent tone was nonetheless clear. After all, Nell had limited experience on a ship. Limited experience. Period.

  “I’m good where I am, thank you.” She forced the words through frozen lips, refusing to be the queen who cowered below when her people were in danger. No matter how terrified she was.

  SeRavi shook her head slightly before rushing off to the captain’s command.

  Nell wasn’t sure why she was being so insistent. However much the implication stung, she did lack experience. She probably could do more good below decks, lending her people some stability.

  With a reluctant sigh, the newly crowned Queen loosened her grip on the mast to pick her way to the small door that led to the hold.

  When she was halfway across the decks, the ship hurtled sideways, dipping down to the level of the sea. Nell slipped to the decks just as a massive wall of water plunged over the railing, dragging her into the icy, churning waters below.

  The Analyst

  BeLamere sat toward the back of the vast classroom. Each seat would eventually become occupied with the plethora of students from the palace, but she knew that the one next to her would remain empty until her cousin arrived.

  It wasn’t because it was Princess PeNelope’s assigned seat, or even her preferred one, but rather because no one else wanted to sit next to the small sickly girl who had no desire to be a warrior.

  BeLa tried not to let it hurt her feelings. She knew she was different from everyone else. Levelia prized strength above all, and warriors were respected as much as the nobility.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, BeLa’s mother was Captain of the Guard.

  That she would choose to reject following in those coveted and sacred footsteps in favor of a future in science was not only odd, but downright insulting to those who worked their entire lives for that rank.

  It just wasn’t in BeLa’s heart, or physical capacity, to strive for. As much as she wanted to honor her mother, to make her proud, it was never going to be a future she could aspire to.

  BeLa stared down at the equations in her notebook, letting her black locks obscure her nervous expression. If she couldn’t be accepted, maybe she could at least be ignored.

  When is Nell getting here?

  At least with the princess around, most of the children were smarter than to mock her openly.

  But PeNelope was late, as usual.

  Chapter One

  Adelaide

  Locke and I were enjoying a companionable silence in my cabin when a sopping wet Nell quite literally appeared in my midst. Half-dragging the novice queen was her aunt, Captain SuEllen. The captain’s long, elegant fingers still rested on the armband I knew contained her teleportation crystal.

  “You’re lucky I saw you go over.” The words were scolding, but her eyes held remnants of terror. She gave her niece a last, scrutinizing glance, assuring herself of Nell’s safety. Then, she nodded at Locke and me before touching her hand back to her armband and disappearing in a cloud of blue particles.

  “So,” I began awkwardly, but found I didn’t know how to finish. We both knew I had pushed her into attempting to navigate these impossible waters, and now her people were suffering for it. It was a miracle no one had died yet.

  Nell stared at me with an inscrutable look in her emerald eyes. The white streak in her obsidian hair was nearly hidden beneath the tangles, but a lock near the top stood out in stark contrast to her bronze skin.

  “So,” she echoed me, looking around my cabin at last. “Where’s Clark?” She looked like she wanted to take back the question as soon as she voiced it.

  It was a feeling I knew well.

  A retching sound spared us all the discomfort of my having to answer. I went to console my fluffy white cat Shensi, who admittedly looked markedly less attractive with her seasick scowl.

>   Where is Clark?

  SuEllen had ordered the men off the deck when the storm became deafening. Her crew didn’t need words to communicate, not after a decade aboard this ship together. And I’m sure that wasn’t the only reason. He hadn’t come below decks, though.

  Not that I was surprised. Certainly not hurt.

  Truthfully, I had scarcely seen him since he left the sick bay. When he wasn’t throwing himself into training or other completely unnecessary tasks, he was usually holed away in Xavier’s cabin. Little by little, his belongings had disappeared from my drawers, returning to their original home after only a brief stay in my cabin. Not unlike their owner.

  Likely, he and Xavier were in SuEllen’s cabin now, scouring over a map that had been useless to us since entering the Tempest Sea, or poring over books we had already read more than once. I wondered if he even knew it was rocking more violently than usual from the storm or if it felt like any other day, with the state he had been in.

  Not that I blamed him. Mostly, I wished the spirits he so heavily indulged in were bringing me half as much comfort these days.

  “I’ll take care of it.” Locke held out a hand, conveying I should stay where I was at Shensi’s side while he toweled up the mess she had left behind. I might have argued with him another day, but not this time.

  I rubbed at my already exhausted eyes, steeling myself to brave his empty, guarded expression and check on him as soon as the seas quieted down. Behind me, Nell shuffled around in my drawers, retrieving a towel and dry clothes, giving me the privacy I needed to compose my expression.

  Which was fortunate, because at that very moment, the ship abruptly ceased its raucous movement. My face should have reflected the stark relief I was certain was gracing most faces on the ship.

  Instead, I looked skyward, cursing this storm and this ridiculous, unpredictable sea and the stupid promise I had made myself only seconds before.

  Nothing for it. It was time to go see my husband.

  As I had predicted, Clark and Xav were both in the Captain’s Quarters, one poring over a map and the other, an enormous, useless tome. No sooner had I eased the door open than a bottle sailed across the room, shattering against the wall and raining shards of glass down on the planked floor. No liquid, though. I suspected it was only one of several they had emptied this evening.

  “Not finding anything?” I asked Clark tenuously.

  He was sitting with an alarming stillness, no sign of the damage he had done only moments ago.

  “We never do. We never do anything useful at all.” Bitterness choked his voice, and he finally looked at me, cobalt eyes like granite underneath his unruly black hair. “What are you doing up here?”

  I tried not to take his words personally. Tried to tell myself he was only asking out of concern for the recent storm, though there was no trace of emotion in his voice. After all, there were few who knew better about lashing out during grief than I did.

  “I came to see how the two of you fared in our most recent misfortune.” If anything, my voice held even less warmth than his had. I was ill-equipped for comfort.

  Clark’s head snapped up.

  “Is that what you consider the loss of my little brother?”

  I reviewed what I had said in my head, realizing he mistook my comment about the storm. I opened my mouth to argue, but Xavier’s voice cut me off.

  “She meant the storm, Clark. And he was my brother, too.” His turquoise eyes were bloodshot against his deep brown skin, and his words were slightly slurred.

  Clark shook his head, his eyes skyward.

  “Right.” But he didn’t apologize.

  Not that the last two weeks had taught me to expect one. I shot Xav what I hoped was a grateful smile, but it probably came out more like a grimace paired with the burning behind my eyes.

  I shoved down my own grief, reminding myself for the thousandth time this week how unreasonably I had behaved and thought and spoken in the days following the explosion that had taken both my mother and sister from me.

  I felt Gunther’s loss keenly, but I had no right to those emotions here. I would not usurp the grief of someone who had lost a sibling they had loved for over a decade when I had known him only a few short weeks.

  After a tense moment of silence, I turned to leave the cabin. There was nothing more I could do here, no way I could see to ease the pain of the man who had so adeptly eased mine.

  “Just let me know if you need anything,” I called over my shoulder.

  “We will. Thank you, Addie.” It was Xav who spoke.

  Another piece of the heart I had only recently begun to discover I possessed broke off, but I held my head high as I left. It was all I could do.

  The Analyst

  PeNelope gasped for the fourteenth time from her side of the couch.

  “Surely, they can’t all be bad,” she mused aloud, looking over a tome about the worlds below.

  “Statistically speaking, it does seem unlikely,” BeLamere answered, setting her own book aside.

  Anytime the cousins found themselves together in the library, BeLamere knew she wouldn’t be able to finish reading whatever book she’d picked up. Her cousin always wanted to talk instead. BeLamere smiled. It would bother her more if it was anyone else. But as it was, Nell was the only family member outside of her mother that she was close to, so she humored her.

  “They have had a lot of wars, though. And they destroyed their own ecosystem,” the princess responded, pointing at one of the gruesome depictions on the page. It was of murky ocean waters and dying sea life, next to soldiers on ships fleeing a bloody coastline.

  BeLa shivered. The silent thoughts that had begun to form in the recesses of her mind were too close to treason to voice aloud.

  “What is it?” Nell nudged BeLa, noticing her reticence.

  BeLa trusted her cousin more than anyone in the world, but she couldn’t say anything, not until she knew for sure.

  For one thing, if anyone overheard, even the only daughter of the Captain of the Guard would not be immune to punishment.

  For another, it would crush Nell, knowing what her ancestors had potentially set in motion. BeLa wished she could just drop it, but the scientist in her revolted at that notion.

  Besides, she couldn’t be the only one who had noticed how impossible it was that the world below had deteriorated so quickly. It had to have been caused by something bigger than the actions of a few kingdoms. Something like the movement of the earth itself.

  Nell was still watching her, waiting for her response.

  “I am only grateful we have been fortunate enough to not live a life of conflict.” BeLamere had said the words without thinking, but they were true. And she had no way of knowing how short-lived that relief would be.

  Chapter Two

  Clark

  Addie’s dark waves were damp as she walked away, reminding me of one of the few times we had been together before. Before a man had run his hands over her with a clear threat of violating her while I could do nothing. Before I stood by while my youngest brother was slaughtered like a common farm animal.

  It was easier to keep the thoughts at bay while I was sober, but they nearly undid me when they did creep in. This way, at least the pain felt like someone else’s. Sometimes.

  I searched the captain’s map for answers I knew it didn’t hold, because there was nothing else I could do. There never seemed to be anything I could do these days. A memory hit me, visceral and agonizing, of Gunther’s deft, gloved hands pointing to his home island on this map.

  How was he standing here only days ago, brilliant and kind and so alive, and gone now?

  I struggled to catch my breath, to remain upright.

  Memories assaulted me then. Holding Gunther’s scarred hand in mine, grieving the loss of our father together. The way he looked when he woke up from passing out on his desk after two days at a project, red curls sticking out at all ends and grease smudging the freckles on his pale face.
/>   The determined look in his sky-blue eyes when he told me he would go where I went. Even if it got him killed.

  Even if I got him killed.

  The creaking of the wooden door pulled me back to reality. SuEllen wasn’t as bulky as Xavier, but she was nearly as tall, filling up the entire doorway. The captain’s expression was pure murder under her sopping wet hair as she took in the broken glass strewn about her cabin, but her voice was tired when she finally spoke.

  “I trust you know where the broom is?”

  I nodded, ducking out to make my way down to the storage room. The sun shone brightly, like the storm had never happened at all. The Levelians worked furiously to mop the sodden deck, Nell included.

  It was still crazy to think of her as a queen, but then I guessed the title fit her lofty personality. It would have fit Addie’s too, for that matter.