Page 24 of The Red Woman on Mars

“Stop it!” Vivian snapped. “Don’t do this right now. Evie’sdead. Let yourself feel that. Let yourself mourn.” She knew this mood of her sister’s. She’d seen it many times at the camp. When things got hard, Delilah disassociated.

Delilah’s face changed to a blank mask. “I can’t think about that right now. I’m going out, with or without you.”

Vivian knelt to put on her shoes. “I’ll come.”

Her sister gave her a dazzling smile. “We’re going to have so much fun.” She grabbed Vivian’s arm and pulled her out the side door without any of the women spotting them.

Delilah hummed as she walked, swishing her skirts. Vivian had to hurry to keep pace with her sister’s energetic strides, even as her thoughts whirled.

How old was Evie’s boy now? He couldn’t have even turned three. Too young to remember his mother. Vivian had left them behind, knowing how dangerous Max and his brothers could be. If she’d stayed, she could have bought protection for Evie with her body. She could have moved into Max’s tent. Let him do all the vulgar things he’d described in graphic detail during her last weeks in the camp. And Evie would still be alive.

And where would Delilah be? In the next tent over with one of Max’s men?

Vivian stopped and bent over, fighting a wave of nausea. She’d had no good choices. And, in the end, she’d picked Delilah over Evie.

“Come on, Viv.” Delilah pulled her upright. “We’re almost at the front.”

In a few more steps, they were at the tall, gated entrance. It had no door handle. Vivian shoved the gate with her shoulder, but it remained solid and unyielding. She drew a shaky breath. “When I left the gates in Caspian’s company, we had no trouble.”

Delilah shrugged. “Come on. I know another way.” She grabbed Vivian’s hand and led her along the high wall. “Time for Plan B.” She gestured triumphantly to a tall tree near the wall. “There!”

“Delilah, I don’t know …” The spindly tree stretched above the wall. What if Delilah tumbled down from a high branch and broke her leg? She’d never convince Xavier they hadn’t been manipulating Caspian if they ended back at the hospital before the day was done. “Wim must have a good reason for confining us to the compound. Let’s walk around the grounds instead.”

“An adventure,” Delilah insisted. She knotted her skirt around her waist and pulled herself onto a low branch.

Vivian watched her clamber up the tree with ease and blew out her breath. She couldn’t let her reckless baby sister wander the streets of Mars alone. Reluctantly, she secured her skirt and lifted herself onto the tree. The climb was easy—much easier than it would’ve been on Earth. Her strong Earther limbs scaled the tree in moments, and soon she’d joined Delilah at the top of the wall with a triumphant grin.

The ground was ten feet below with nothing to break a fall.

“This is a bad idea, Delilah.” Vivian squinted down at the paved ground.

“Don’t be such a wimp,” Delilah said and launched herself off the wall.

Vivian let out an involuntary gasp as her sister fell ten feet to the ground. Delilah scrambled up and gestured to her. “One-third the gravity of Earth. Come on.”

Scrunching up her eyelids, Vivian jumped.

She sailed through the air at an oddly low speed before landing with a jarring bump, crouched on her feet.Superheroes.Vivian let the unfamiliar feeling of power wash over her as she rose from her crouch.

Delilah laughed, a bit wildly, and shoved Vivian’s hat back onto her head. “Let’s go.”

As they walked on the wide, open streets of Mars, Vivian’s heart grew unexpectedly lighter. They’d escaped—for at least a little while. Delilah was right. There was nothing she could do for her parents right now. Today, she could enjoy a taste of freedom.

The only ground vehicle in sight inched forward slowly, yielding to pedestrians. Trains rumbled overhead. Almost everyone, it seemed, was walking to their destination at a leisurely pace, pausing to greet one another or stopping altogether for a spontaneous conversation.

A mix of willowy Marsborn children and their solid Earthborn peers played with a ball against one wall. The Earther children must have just arrived, to look so stocky, Vivian mused, thinking of Ivey’s description of her mother’s childhood. As they grew in the Martian gravity, their bones would lengthen and weaken.

Vivian was conscious of her new lens for looking at the society. Now, she could see the quality of Delilah and her clothing set them apart—their dresses more colorful, their hats wider, and their ribbons shinier. Yet most Martian women wore a humbler version of their ensembles. And the men sported drabber versions of Caspian’s and Xavier’s wardrobes. Everyone on the Arcadian street, regardless of gender, age, occupation, or rank, wore a hat.

A game, Vivian thought. Had Ivey told her the truth about the purpose of fashion in Martian society?

A Martian soldier in a bright red uniform swept his tricorn hat off his head and bowed to them. Delilah giggled after he departed. “Come on,” she said, guiding them in the soldier’s direction.

After a short walk down the sparkling clean Arcadian streets, they arrived at a soldiers’ barracks. Martian men, women, and people of indeterminate gender milled around, some wearing full scarlet uniforms and others in shirtsleeves. The lack of any real weather under the domes made Vivian question the purpose of the heavy embroidered red coats. Every fashion choice on Mars, it seemed, came with its own hierarchy.

Don’t they have somewhere to be?Vivian remembered the soldier who’d escorted Luz and her home. She didn’t understand the point of a standing militia on a Martian dome.What are they defending against?

“Who’s this, then?” a Martian soldier asked the sisters, tipping his tricorn hat in their direction. Curly auburn hair framed a startlingly handsome face with pale skin and vivid blue eyes. Delilah batted her eyelashes at him as she introduced herself. Thesoldier greeted her politely before turning his attention to Vivian. “I must have your name, you exquisite creature.”