[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 60] The Way Forward
One side of the shelter lifted in the wind.
Marle caught the rope beside her. Wet canvas slapped her arm. A woman coming out with bowls stopped short, and Marle lowered the rope and looped it around the stake again. The stake leaned in the loosened earth. Lucca brought a stone and pressed it against the base.
The woman offered them bowls.
“It's still warm.”
Marle nearly refused, then accepted. Lucca took hers and sat beside the shelter. Marle did not have the energy to ask what had gone into the pot, but the broth eased some of the cold as she swallowed. After a few spoonfuls, she rested the bowl on her knees.
Across from them, a child asked an adult, “When are we going home?”
Instead of answering, the adult rolled up the child's wet sleeve. Marle kept watching. When the spoon was lifted to the child's mouth again, she lifted her own bowl too.
Lucca finished first. She set her bag on her lap and began taking out its contents. The soaked papers had stuck together. One tore when she tried to unfold it. She stopped and slipped the rest between dry cloths as they were. She wiped the tools and laid them beside her, then took the Gate Key in both hands and cleaned the salt from its surface.
“Will it work?” Marle asked.
“I'll have to check. Looking all right doesn't tell me what's happened inside.”
Lucca wrapped the device again without shaking it. In the dull light, she could not see into its small openings. Marle took it and turned it toward the brighter sky.
The old man approached—the one who had brought them water when they woke. Something small was hidden in his hand.
“See if this belongs to you.”
He opened his palm. A red jewel caught the weak sunlight.
Marle set down her bowl and stood. The pendant's chain was wound around his fingers. When she took it, the familiar weight settled in the center of her palm.
“Where did you find it?”
“Near where they brought you from. It looked precious, so I kept it safe.”
Marle turned the gem over. Even the small scratch on the back was hers. After a long moment, she fastened the chain around her neck. The cold metal touched her skin, and she remembered the hand that had picked it up for her at the fair. She tucked it inside her clothes and bowed her head to the old man.
“Thank you.”
Lucca put the damp tools into her bag.
“What about the people in Algetty? We're looking for an older man called Melchior, and a boy named Janus.”
The old man's expression changed. For the first time, Marle saw him hesitate before answering. The woman beside them quietly took their bowls away.
“You were there.”
“They were together when we left.”
“They stayed together. Even when the ground began to shake.”
He led Marle and Lucca somewhere less exposed to the wind. People passed through gaps in the timber barriers. Even while he was talking, someone asked him where to put a water barrel. He pointed out a place, then continued.
“A black hole opened. Not like the ground giving way. Melchior tried to reach the boy, but they both disappeared into it. It happened too fast for anyone to help.”
Marle remembered what Schala had told Janus before she left. Wait here. Marle had thought they would find him beside Melchior.
Lucca spoke first.
“So they weren't swept away by the water?”
“No. Not by the water.”
Lucca did not press him. Marle thought she knew what was going through her friend's mind. They had crossed time through openings like that. But they had no reason to assume this one had done the same. Lucca pressed her lips together, then asked carefully, “Did it ever open again?”
The old man shook his head.
“No one has seen it.”
He asked about Schala too. Marle closed her hand around the necklace once before answering.
“She sent us out. She stayed behind.”
He looked toward the sea. He did not ask what had become of the queen or the palace. In his silence, Marle understood for the first time what the news she carried meant to someone else. She could not tell him whether Schala was alive. All she could give him was the last time she had seen her.
“We're making a list of people who haven't come back.”
A man nearby showed them a wooden board. Names had been roughly scratched into it. Marle looked at them, then lowered her eyes. She did not know whether to ask him to add Crono's name. It should be somewhere people could find it. But she did not want to speak as though he might have washed ashore somewhere.
Instead, Lucca asked, “Have you searched what's left inland too? There's a long, rounded metal craft. We left it beside a snowy ridge.”
The man glanced at the elder, who nodded at once.
“People have seen that vessel. They found it washed up on the coast.”
Marle caught Lucca's sleeve. Lucca's hand went still on her bag strap.
“Where?”
The elder pointed along a coastal path, toward a group of people moving supplies. Lucca looked that way and bent to retie her boots. Before she shouldered the bag, Marle tucked the end of the damp cloth inside it.
If the Epoch was still there, they could go back. Frog, Ayla, and Robo were at the End of Time. They would have to tell them what had happened. And now there was no way to put off going to Crono's house.
Marle stopped at the end of that thought. Being able to go back did not make her glad the way it once had. Lucca stayed beside her instead of walking ahead.
“Let's look at the ship first,” Lucca said.
Marle nodded. That was something small enough to do now.
As they started down toward the path, an enormous shadow crossed the ground.
Marle looked up. For a moment she thought the continent had returned. Then she made out metal wings and a dark hull. A low vibration shook the shelters. Bowls toppled in the gust, and someone called the children inside.
Lucca narrowed her eyes.
“The Blackbird.”
The kingdom had fallen, but its great airship remained in the sky. Marle stepped closer to Lucca as its wings blotted out the sunlight. Searching for a place to descend, the shadow moved slowly, as though it had come to rescue the survivors.
The first soldiers carried neither water nor blankets.
They spread out on either side of the clearing. Dalton walked between them. His clothes had not changed, and he wore the same gloves. He was scowling as he had when he fled the Ocean Palace, but he lifted his chin as soon as he stood before the people.
“Is this everyone who survived?”
The elder stepped forward.
“We're still searching. If you could send the ship—”
“I have other uses for my ship.”
Dalton cut him off and surveyed the clearing. Marle watched his gaze pass over the shelters, firewood, and stores of food before reaching her. He checked for a moment, then smiled.
“So you survived too.”
Marle took hold of her bow. Three arrows remained after the one she had loosed at Lavos. Before her fingers could settle on the string, Lucca spoke quietly beside her.
“There are people behind him.”
Not only soldiers stood beyond Dalton. The woman who had brought them food and two children were trapped on the path. Marle adjusted her aim without lowering the bow. Dalton saw her and motioned to a soldier, who went to the woman and seized her arm.
Algetty was about to happen again.
Marle did not draw an arrow. Instead, she raised her voice.
“What do you want?”
Everyone in the clearing looked at her. Dalton stopped walking too. She needed him talking to her, rather than holding everyone here under threat.
“I'm restoring order to my kingdom.”
The elder turned toward him. Dalton spread his arms as though he had been waiting for that look.
“The queen is gone. The survivors need someone to lead them.”
No one answered. A loose length of canvas flapped in the wind. Dalton's smile tightened. Lucca moved one step to the side.
“Did you take the metal ship too?”
He turned toward her, apparently pleased to be asked.
“A remarkable vessel. It simply needed the right owner.”
Lucca's hand left her bag strap. Marle saw the small movement and shifted her feet. Working together, they might stop him at this distance. But the soldier twisted the woman's arm. A child clung to her.
Marle kept her eyes on Dalton.
“If it's us you want, take us. Leave them.”
Lucca looked at her. Marle indicated the people behind Dalton with her eyes. Lucca's jaw tightened, but she did not raise a hand.
Dalton smiled.
“That was always the idea.”
Light gathered in his hand. Lucca pushed Marle sideways. Marle lifted her bow, but soldiers were moving all around them. A dull blow struck from behind, pitching her vision toward the ground. Hands caught her arms before she could brace herself. She heard Lucca call her name.
As they dragged her away, Marle looked at the woman. The soldier had released her. Both children pressed against their mother.
Then everything went dark.
*
When she opened her eyes, the floor was vibrating.
Marle tried to rise at once. This was not stone beneath her. Round rivet heads studded cold metal plates at regular intervals. The same vibration ran through the walls. A short ladder led upward, and footsteps passed beyond a door.
“Don't stand yet. Sit for a moment.”
Lucca was beside her. Marle caught her arm and steadied her breathing. Her head felt heavy, but the spinning gradually eased. Lucca let go and leaned against the wall.
“Your bag?”
“Gone. Your bow too.”
Marle touched her throat. The chain was missing. They had even taken the jewel she had only just recovered. This time, she did not leave her hand there long.
“They must have taken everything after they brought us aboard.”
“It'll be here somewhere. They have the ship too. I doubt they threw any of it away.”
A deep rumble sounded overhead as Lucca finished. Marle looked at the ladder. They had not been taken to some prison on land. They were inside Dalton's airship. With her hand flat on the floor, she could feel the vibration extending far beyond their cell.
Lucca stood and examined the walls. When Marle rose with her, she did not object this time. They tried pulling the door and checked its hinges. It would not open easily.
Marle gathered cold at her fingertips. A faint frost formed around the lock. Something shifted inside, but the door stayed shut. She stopped before using more force. They did not know how many soldiers waited on the other side, or whether anyone else had been taken prisoner.
“Break it open and they'll know at once,” Lucca said.
Marle lowered her hand and looked beneath the ladder. A low, long opening ran along the wall there, covered by what looked like a ventilation grille. Unlike the other seams in the room, this one breathed cold air.
“Here.”
Lucca knelt. Her hand went to her waist for a tool, then fell empty. Marle took a pin from her hair and passed it over. Lucca worked its tip into the gap around the cover.
“It might break.”
“That's all right.”
The tip slipped. On her second try, it caught the inner edge. Lucca pulled while Marle supported the cover with both hands. The metal creaked, and they froze together. Footsteps came closer outside, then moved away.
Keeping her hands where they were, Marle looked at Lucca. Her friend's eyes moved between the cover and the door. In the palace, she had always checked where all three of them were. Now there were only two to account for.
At the thought of the missing third, Marle's grip slackened. The cover sagged a little. Lucca caught it, and Marle pushed her hands back underneath.
“I've got it.”
Lucca nodded and twisted the pin. One side came free. They lowered the cover without letting it clang against the floor. Beyond it ran a passage wide enough for one person to crawl through. Voices from another room drifted faintly through the dark.
Marle ducked down first. Lucca caught her sleeve.
“Our weapons first. Then the ship.”
“All right.”
Marle crawled inside and waited. Behind her, Lucca's knees touched the metal. Their breathing filled the narrow space. Marle felt ahead with one hand, finding the turn in the passage.
There was no one ahead to choose their direction. She reached toward the draft and moved forward, listening to Lucca following behind her.
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