Published: December 29th, 2015
IAMOS, S.C.D. 8378
Nadin’s planet is dying. As its atmosphere drains away, her people are forced to live huddled in domed cities for protection. With only enough resources to support the population for one more year, time is running out. Nadin thinks she’s found a way to save Iamos, but it will mean defying the planet’s rulers, the geroi—and betraying the geroi could cost her everything.When a strange boy from another world appears out of nowhere outside the citidome’s glass walls, Nadin knows for sure that her plan will work. But to build the device that can save her people, Nadin must first find the legendary city of Elytherios. And to do that, she’ll need the help of the mysterious alien boy named Isaak.MARS, 2073 C.E.
All Isaak wanted was to get through his senior year at the Academy in one piece. Everything would have been fine if he hadn’t found that ancient coin among his missing father’s possessions. The coin seems to have a strange connection not only to Isaak’s family, but to Mars’ ancient past. But how is that possible, on a planet that was supposed to be dead until just forty years ago? Now Isaak’s got agents of the Earth’s government on his tail and a deranged factory worker stalking his every move. Everyone is desperate to get their hands on something called the Key. And the only way to escape is to unlock an even bigger secret, one that could change his life—and the fate of Mars—forever.
EXCERPT
The sky looked red.
That was all I could think as I
gazed out over the desiccated plain. The once-gray rocks and boulders, strewn
about the old dry coastline, were now almost completely covered with rust.
Orange-tinged clouds swirled above my head, the air thick with choking dust
kicked up by the harsh wind that raked over the parched ground.
Even though we'd been forbidden to
leave the safety of the citidome, I’d decided to
take the risk that night. I had wanted to see the sunset—really see the sunset—for what could be
the last time. It had been so long since I’d seen the
sky, I couldn’t remember what it looked like.
But I certainly hadn’t
expected it to be so red.
The oxygen was too thin. It made
breathing difficult, painful. I couldn't believe how quickly it was depleting
now, at the end. Last year on my annual we’d still been
able go outside. But now we had to huddle in our enclosed cities, looking out
at the world through the tinted filter of smooth blue glass. And even that
option wouldn't last much longer. The world really was ending.
It was much too soon. This was the
first day of my eighth year, my enilikin.
I still had my whole life ahead of me. I hadn’t even
completed my schooling yet, thanks to Gitrin. It would be at least another
year, now, before I was ready to take my place in the ranks of the geroi.
But in their last report, the
scientists said that our planet couldn't sustain us another year. My heart
stuck in my throat at the thought. Standing here, looking at this, I knew it to
be true. Sometime in the next six-hundred days the last of our atmosphere would
be gone. The energy sources used to power the citidome would be entirely
depleted. And if the colony on Hamos wasn’t
stabilized—if we didn’t complete evacuation by that time—we'd all be dead.
I’d be dead. Before I even got a chance to live.
We needed more geroi. And still she told me I wasn’t ready. Everything was so hideously unfair.
I shivered as the biting wind
dragged over me, pulling wisps of colorless hair loose from the tight braid
encircling my scalp. There was briefest hint of the fragrance of flowers on the
wind’s breath, but it was overpowered by the
dry, metallic scent of the ever-reddening earth. What if this was the last time
I’d ever smell Iamos? The last time I’d ever see the sun, or the sky, without
something in between me and it?
No.
I took a final shuddering breath,
and, tucking a flyaway hair behind my ear, I made my decision. I was not giving
up. It was not over. No matter what it took, this would not be my last annual.
It was only as I turned to head
inside that I saw him.
I might have missed him otherwise,
but the light from the setting sun threw his form into relief. A boy was
sprawled across the ground. He wore no breathing apparatus. He was completely
unprotected. And he wasn’t moving.
Panicked, I raced to his side. I
was out of breath by the time I reached him, even though he lay only a short
distance away. “Are you all right?” I asked, wheezing.
When he didn’t respond, I rolled him over onto his back.
He was young—probably close to my
own age. I realized instantly he couldn’t be from my
city; his traits were all wrong. He must have come from another citidome. But
how? He couldn’t have walked. All that way, unprotected? He would never have
made it…
I reached for my earpiece, then
hesitated. I was invisible right now—the System couldn’t
track me—but if I called for help, I’d be back online and the geroi would know I’d
broken the edict. Not to mention that it could draw their attention to the fact
that my earpiece had been altered. Ceilos would never forgive me.
But there was no way I could shift
this boy’s dead weight on my own, not when I was
already feeling the effects of the thin air.
Before I could give myself a chance
to change my mind, I pressed the button. “Gerouin Melusin,”
I called.
“Nadin?”
Melusin’s voice was soft in my ears, like the drip of water in the caverns.
There was no time for explanations.
“I
need help outside the dome,” I said as calmly as possible.
“‘Outside’?”
she repeated, her gentle voice faltering almost imperceptibly. “What are you
doing—”
“Just
hurry,” I interrupted her, breathless. “I found someone out here. He’s
injured.”
The gerouin said nothing more, simply disconnecting. I turned back to
the boy. He was still unconscious, but he was breathing—barely. I crouched to
get a better look at him. His hair was coated in the red dust that the wind
kicked up in swirling eddies, but I could see it was curly and dark. His skin,
on the other hand, appeared bleached like an old man’s,
even though he was clearly young. Could unprotected exposure to solar rays have
done this? The atmosphere was so thin now…
I
inhaled shakily, my lungs burning. It was already painful for me to be outside,
and I couldn’t have been out for more than five
minutes. This boy… how did he get here?
About the author:
Lyssa Chiavari is an author of speculative fiction for young adults, including Fourth World, the first book in the Iamos trilogy. She’s also the editor of Perchance to Dream, a YA collection of Shakespeare retellings, and the upcoming Circuits & Slippers anthology. When she’s not writing—which isn’t often—you can usually find her exploring the woods near her home in the Pacific Northwest or losing an unreasonable number of life balloons on Donkey Kong. Visit Lyssa on the
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1 comment:
Well, I like to think there's another world out there, but where's the second and third world? lol I'll put this on my TBR list in any case :)
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