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Fortitude
Below, you’ll find the blurb, reviews, and first chapter of Fortitude.
Book Two in the Eos Dawn Series
Eos and Zane agreed that, after finding the Skeleton Key, they would seek out the rumored city of free exiles: Fortitude. When the two venture through the New Territory and beyond its borders, they encounter more terrifying elements of the exile town system than they ever thought possible. Seeking out the city with the purple light, Eos and Zane recruit escaped exiles who join them as they encounter dangerous exiles, familiar faces, and careless partygoers. Armed with a couple of daggers and a device that can unlock anything, Eos and friends search for freedom only a place like Fortitude can offer. In the eyes of the exiles, Fortitude symbolizes freedom and hope; however, it turns out that Fortitude is hiding some dark secrets of its own. Join Eos on her journey for freedom in Fortitude, the second installment in the Eos Dawn Series, written by Jen Guberman.
Praise for Fortitude
Chapter One of Fortitude
I distinctly remember the smell of cinnamon.
I remember the sounds of gunshots and yelling.
And I remember the feeling of sweat on my neck.
When Zane and I escaped Fallmont with the Skeleton Key, we sprinted as fast as we could until we had reached the ruins of a blackened village. We managed to find the Skeleton Key box in Fallmont after finding keys to open it in each of the five exile towns: Avid—the dump town for thieves, Bellicose—the caverns for the aggressive, Clamorite—the waterfall grotto in the mountains for the unruly, Delaisse—the abandoned factories for the druggies and vandals, and Equivox—the lake town hidden in a crater for the liars.
It was growing dark by this point, and we hadn’t eaten since before we reached Fallmont. Thinking back to the sweet smell of cinnamon and other spices from the food carts of the city, my stomach began to growl angrily. Squatting down on a mound of rubble, I rummaged through my leather bag, pulling out a piece of crumbling, stale bread. Upon closer observation, the bread had tiny
specs of green mold. I picked out the moldy pieces and devoured the slice, holding out a second slice for Zane.
“Thanks, E,” he said, taking the bread and sitting next to me. He turned the bread over in his hand for a moment, looking at the green specs before biting.
Not wanting to think about anything, I sat there silently, resting my elbows on my knees and my chin in
my palms.
“So,” Zane prodded awkwardly.
“What?” I grumbled, exhausted.
“Fortitude?” he asked, a little garbled. His mouth was still blistered from the acid the officials tortured him with when Raine had interrogated me.
“Really, Zane?” I scoffed.
“What?”
“Does now really seem like the right time?”
“Is there ever a right time for anything we do?”
I sighed.
“No. But can’t we just rest for the night?”
“Of course, but we have to keep moving in the morning. We don’t know if officials from Fallmont are still looking for us.”
I nodded sleepily as I stood, making my way toward one of the ruined cottages. I peeked my head inside to inspect it, shrugged, grunted, and flopped onto the floor after pulling my blanket out of my bag. Within minutes, I was asleep.
“Wake up,” I heard Zane mutter the next morning, prodding my side with a finger.
I threw the blanket over my face as I moaned.
“We have to keep moving,” Zane reminded me. “Not only do we not want to get caught here, but we don’t have enough food and water to last us forever.”
“What’s the plan?”
Zane pulled out a map, stretching out on the floor next to me.
“Skylar said Fortitude was past Bellicose, toward the ocean, right?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Didn’t she also say something about a purple light?” I reminded him.
“I think so.”
“So, where are we, and where are we headed?”
“We are somewhere in this area,” he pointed to
a blank space on the map near Fallmont. “If we head straight west, we shouldn’t run into any cities or exile towns. But at some point, we have to work our way south.”
I stared at the map, contemplating. While I focused on the map, Zane nuzzled up against me, kissing my shoulder. I turned and looked at him with a straight face before turning back to the map.
“I mean, the map doesn’t show much of what’s beyond the cities and towns, so I don’t really see what other options we have,” I said, folding up the map.
After a quick breakfast, Zane and I started the trek
to the west. We were silent most of the day, stopping occasionally for breaks in various ruins. Despite the
warmth of the air, puffy clouds blocked the sun and spared us of intense heat.
“Let’s make sand angels,” Zane spoke up during a silent moment while walking.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“What? You mean like people used to make in the snow?” I asked.
Zane and I have never seen snow, at least not in person. The New Territory never gets snow. Before the war, when the country was populated all throughout, there were people who lived in colder areas, and they would get snow. I thought the concept of wanting to play in frozen water to be unappealing, to say the least.
“Yeah! Oh, come on. We could use a break, and
our normal breaks are boring! Let’s do it!” Zane smiled warmly.
I rolled my eyes and huffed at Zane as he flopped onto his back, sending up a puff of sand.
He began frantically sifting his arms and legs across the fine sand, stopped, and stretched out his arms.
“Help me up?”
I walked over and pulled him to his feet as he turned to admire his work.
“It doesn’t look like an angel,” I said, squinting at
the ground.
“It looks… like a potato…” Zane said, confused.
I grinned.
“It worked!” He beamed.
“No, it didn’t! You said it yourself!” I said, pointing to the potato hole, a smug grin spreading on my lips.
“No, I mean my plan worked! You smiled!”
“Okay, fair enough,” I said, my smile fading. “Let’s keep moving.”
After some time walking through emptiness, we came across some ruins, like the others we had crossed before, except in slightly better shape. Some of the buildings still retained the natural red color of their bricks. A couple of the buildings still stood fairly untouched, with fewer crumbling walls.
Curious, I approached one of the buildings with
the door still in place. I went to turn the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Zane,” I said. “This one is locked.”
“Don’t you have the Key?” he asked. “See if it’ll work on that door.”
I dug the Key out of my leather bag, turning it over in my hands as light glimmered off of the silver and through the three pieces of green, purple, and blue stained glass at the Key’s head. I inserted it into the lock, twisted the tiny dial on the Key, and turned until I heard a click.
The door opened, revealing a room with faded brown couches, a dusty wooden table, and a few dishes scattered around the room. The walls were a pale blue, and the carpet was a stained cream color with sand tracked throughout the house. Zane followed behind me. I turned into the kitchen while Zane brushed dirt off the couch. I looked at the sink, which had water puddled in it.
“Zane,” I hissed quietly toward the living room.
A moment later, Zane poked his head in the kitchen door.
“What?” he asked as I frantically signaled for him to lower his voice.
“I think there are people here,” I whispered, my eyes wide.
“What? Where?”
I shrugged, pointing to the water in the sink. “It hasn’t evaporated yet. It’s recent.”
Zane pulled out his dagger and I pulled out mine as we split up to search the house. Zane and I cautiously opened doors to closets and bedrooms until suddenly, I heard a shriek.
I turned, the hair on my neck standing on end as I held my dagger out defensively, creeping toward Zane, who stood in a doorway, blocking my view.
“Who are you?” I heard Zane demand of someone inside one of the rooms.
“W-we aren’t here to hurt anyone! P-p-please!” a female voice whimpered.
We?
“What are you doing here?” Zane asked, still holding out his weapon.
“Wait a minute… You aren’t officials, are you?” The girl’s voice grew confident. “You aren’t carrying a gun.”
“No, we aren’t officials,” Zane answered. “What are you doing here?”
“We escaped from some of the exile towns. We
found each other while looking for shelter in the ruins. We aren’t looking for trouble.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Zane asked.
“Why do you need to trust us?” a man grunted.
Keeping my distance behind Zane, I could only
see beyond the doorframe enough to make out the man who spoke. He was heavy-set, with peppered hair and a bushy beard.
“They don’t have to trust us, Trent, but there’s no harm in allies,” the girl chirped.
Trent snorted, crossing his arms.
“Search us! Our bags,” the girl continued, and there was a collective thump as bags were dropped. “We don’t have weapons. We don’t have much of anything. The houses here still had some canned food we’ve been living off of. That’s it—I swear.”
Zane entered the room, still wielding his golden dagger distrustfully. I could hear him undo zippers and clasps as he searched bags briefly before speaking again.
“Okay. You can’t be too sure. I’m sorry for scaring you. My girlfriend and I escaped as well.”
Girlfriend? When did we decide this? And why is he willing to trust them so quickly?
“I understand. My name is Cindee—”
“Wait,” Zane interrupted, turning to me and beckoning me over.
I stepped into the room, which was clearly an old bedroom, and saw eleven new people staring back at me.
“How…” I trailed off.
“It’s a long story,” a girl with freckles and two blonde braids replied. She must be Cindee.
I looked at Zane, my mouth open in shock.
“I’m Cindee,” the girl with braids repeated. She looked about Lamb’s age. “I’m from Clamorite.”
I looked at the rest of the group. There seemed to be a variety of people—younger and older, male and female.
“This is Bexa from Bellicose, Trent and Persephone from Equivox, Eve, Braylin, and Gwenn from Clamorite, Yulie and Brenur from Delaisse, and Cameron and Astraea from Avid,” Cindee introduced.
“I’m Zane, and this is Eos,” Zane gestured to me. “We’re both from Avid.”
“Why’d you leave?” I asked.
“We could ask you the same question,” Trent retorted.
“Yeah, but I asked first.”
“We didn’t like our situations. I’m assuming it was the same for you. Just because we’ve committed crimes doesn’t mean we define ourselves by our crimes, and it doesn’t mean we get along with other people just because they committed the same crimes,” replied Eve, a short, thin girl with spiked black hair and notable dark circles under her emerald eyes.
Brenur, a dark-skinned man with wide-set eyes, thick arms, and broad shoulders spoke up.
“Yulie and I left because she—” he started before Yulie, a woman with tan skin, a furrowed brow, and silky brown hair, glared coolly at him. The height difference between the two was so huge that I couldn’t help but to stare. I was about average height, whereas the top of Yulie’s head hardly reached my nose, and Brenur easily towered over me.
“Did you all expect there to be something greater out here?” I spat bitterly.
“Yes,” Cindee replied quickly. “Even if there are challenges, sometimes change is necessary. Eve, Braylin, Gwenn, and I all left together. We knew we weren’t going to be facing it alone. We came across the rest of the
group over time. Some of these people were together, some by themselves. But they all couldn’t bear being
exiled anymore.”
“Being out here,” I held my arms out, my eyes wild. “Being out here is worse. You’re safer in the exile towns.”
“Safer isn’t always better,” Astraea cooed softly. She had long, wavy maroon hair and bright eyes. Her gaze seemed to analyze me as she spoke.
“We answered your question, so answer one of ours. What are your plans, now that you’re free?” Trent asked.
Zane looked at me, as if for approval, but without waiting for it, he began.
“We’re looking for something,” he started.
“Zane,” I hissed, elbowing his side aggressively.
He cupped his hands over my ear, his voice low.
“I searched their bags—they don’t have weapons. I didn’t see anything on them, either. They don’t even have much food. If they really are who they say they are, isn’t this essentially what we wanted to do anyways? Guide exiles to Fortitude?”
“Did he just say Fortitude?” asked a tall woman named Persephone. Before she spoke, her posture straightened with an air of superiority, her ginger bob tickling the pale skin of her jaw. Her wide nose was held upwards, but upon the mention of Fortitude, her snooty appearance transformed into one of curiosity.
There was collective conversation from the group
of exiles.
“Zane!” I shouted.
“What?” he cried, holding his hands up as if
in surrender.
I groaned in disgust.
“I’ve heard of it!” Bexa spoke up. She had a frizzy brunette bun and colorful tattoos across her arms
and chest.
I had to remind myself not to stare at Bexa’s numerous piercings covering her ears, her petite pointed nose, and her thin lips.
Those piercings look painful.
“It’s a town of escaped exiles. I’ve heard about it,
but I didn’t think it was real. Have you seen it before?”
she asked.
“No,” I replied.
“Do you know where it is?” she asked.
“Not exactly…”
There were shared grumbles from the exiles.
“I mean we have a general idea. We hadn’t heard of it until after we escaped, and at that point, we figured it would be worth a shot.”
I decided not to mention the Skeleton Key right now, especially with two other thieves joining us. I also figured it wasn’t the best time to mention that we planned on eventually going back to break a bunch of other criminals out of the exile towns.
“So, what’s the plan?” asked Eve.
“What do you mean?” I asked in return.
“Well, you obviously aren’t going in search of Fortitude without a plan. You said you have a general idea of where it is, and I’m assuming you have plans for getting rations?” she replied.
“Umm…” I struggled, looking at Zane for help.
“We don’t exactly have much of a plan. We’re heading west until we clear the cities, then we will head south a bit until we near the ocean, which is where Fortitude is supposed to be.”
“So, you don’t have a plan, is what you’re trying to say?” Persephone said with an amused smirk.
“We do,” I groaned.
“Where do you plan on getting rations?” she pried.
“None of your business,” I hissed, thinking about the Skeleton Key.
“E,” Zane breathed, looking at me in disbelief. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into her. I was thinking we would stop in cities and towns along the way, snag what we can.”
“Excuse me?” I growled. “You ‘don’t know what’s gotten into me?’”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“She’s upset that you’re sharing all of this with strangers,” Astraea observed almost inaudibly.
“Honestly, I think our chances are better if you all join us. Safety in numbers, and all that. More people to help with supplies, too, if you want to come with us to Fortitude,” he invited, avoiding my glare.
“May I speak with my group for a moment? Privately?” Cindee asked politely.
“Of course,” Zane responded, ushering me back into the kitchen with him as Cindee closed the bedroom door behind her.
“What are you doing?” I snarled at Zane.
“They’re right! We don’t have a plan, Eos! I mean, what are we supposed to do about food and water?”
“We have the Key!” I exclaimed in a hushed voice. “We can get in any town or city we want, and we can get all the supplies we need!”
“We can’t carry enough to last us more than a few days. Face it.”
“And you think inviting more people, who also need food is going to fix that problem?”
“Some of their group members look stronger than us and can probably carry more. Plus, with a bigger group, we can have people carry extra supplies and we can switch off in shifts, if we get desperate,” Zane argued, as if he had calculated all of this carefully. “Or what if someone has a supply that we need, and we have something they need? A bigger group means more supplies available.”
“Fine. But how do you know we can trust them? Especially after what happened in Fallmont!”
“They aren’t officials, E.”
“But what if they report you?”
“That’s a stupid question. Do you really think a group of runaway exiles are going to report other runaway exiles? They don’t want to get caught. We don’t want to get caught. That means everyone protects each other to some degree by default, as a matter of self-preservation.”
“I still don’t trust them.”
“I’m not sure I do either. It’s called a leap of faith. Do you trust me?”
“They might steal the Key, Zane.”
“I didn’t ask if you trust them, I asked if you trust me.”
“Yes.”
He smiled at me softly, placing a hand behind my head and planting a quick kiss on my forehead.
The bedroom door opened, and the group flooded out into the main room of the small house.
The corner of Cindee’s lips turned upward in a half smile as she nodded.
“You’re in?” Zane asked.
“Yup. We’ve got at least one person from each
exile town, too. We’ve got everyone we could need
to get anything we could need. But first, we have a different plan.”
“What is it?” I asked, skeptically.
“We agreed that moving south first, then west, is the best option. South of us is Delaisse, Nortown, and Equivox. If we go south first, we can stock up on supplies,
which we might not come across if we head straight toward the west,” Cindee offered.
Zane thought for a moment before speaking.
“That’s a good point. E?” he asked, turning to me.
“What?”
“I want to know what you think,” he said genuinely.
I narrowed my eyes and stared back at him for
a moment.
“I—I think that’s a good idea,” I said, softening
my gaze.
“It’s settled then. We head south,” Zane nodded
to Cindee.
“We believe it would be best to visit Delaisse first for a supply run. It’s closest. Yulie and Brenur said the rations are easy to access once you’re in the town. We just have to find out how to break in, and we can stock up there. If we don’t think we have enough to make it to Fortitude with those supplies, we can visit Equivox next. It would probably be safer than trying to sneak into a city, even if that city is just tiny Nortown,” Cindee continued to plot.
“Makes sense,” I said. “Should we wait until morning to leave? It’s getting late, and this is as good a place as any to stay.”
“Yeah, that’d probably be best,” Cindee answered. “We found some cans of food in the cabinets in the kitchen, if you guys want something for dinner.”
“Thank you,” I said, staring unblinkingly at Cindee.
What’s her motive? She’s either planning something, or she’s trusting that we can get her somewhere we don’t even know exists. Either way, I’m not sure I like it.
The group began to find places to sleep, making themselves comfortable throughout the house as Zane and I dug through the cabinets, picking out a couple cans of beans and vegetables.
“Here,” Astraea said, seeming to appear out of nowhere behind me, holding out a metal can opener.
“Thanks,” I said, narrowing my gaze at her as her eyes scanned over me.
“You’re afraid of us,” she perceived, looking into my eyes, her head cocked slightly to the side. “Why?”
“I’m not afraid. I just don’t know why you all want to join us.”
“We just want freedom. Same as you. We have a better chance of making it to Fortitude if we stick together and help each other. Why do you think we all ended up as such a large group?”
“Look… Astrid,” I started.
“Astraea,” she corrected under her breath.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s a tough one for some people. Ah. Stray. Uh,” she sounded out. “You can call me Trae if that’s easier.”
“Okay. Anyways,” I sighed. “We don’t even know for sure if Fortitude exists. We’ve never seen it before.”
“So, you’re afraid of letting us all down, is that it?” she cooed. “What do 13 criminals really have to lose?”
Their lives.