The Falcon's Feather

by Trudi Trueit

  Cruz laughed. “I’m pretty sure it’s a dessert.”

  His phone was vibrating. It was probably Dad or Lani. Sliding the rectangle from his pocket, he opened the text message.

  I knew your mother. I have what you seek.

  Meet me tomorrow at 9 a.m. at the geyser Strokkur.

  Come alone.

  WAS CRUZ CRAZY, going to the geyser by himself? Probably. Still, it wasn’t like he had much choice.

  Come alone, the text said.

  Cruz barely slept. He got up before the alarm went off, shut off Emmett’s security system, and quietly dressed. Tiptoeing out of the cabin in his socks so he didn’t wake Emmett, Cruz put his shoes on in the hall. He mumbled something about going for breakfast to Officer Dover, who was drowsing in a chair by the elevator. However, instead of turning right at the end of the passage and going up the grand staircase, Cruz darted to his left and trotted down the gangway. He zipped down the pier and, when he was out of sight of the ship, used his GPS system to find the nearest self-driving car rental office. Yes! Autonomous Auto was just four blocks from the harbor. Fifteen minutes later, Cruz was on the road to the geyser.

  “It is ninety-nine kilometers, or sixty-two miles, to the Strokkur geyser,” said the male voice of the onboard computer system. “It will take approximately one hour and twenty minutes to reach your destination. Thank you for choosing Auto Auto and enjoy your ride.”

  It wasn’t long before the car left the city behind for the farms, pastures, and rolling lowlands of the valley. Cruz laid his head back against his seat cushion and drifted off to sleep. When he awoke, he was on a narrow road with a name he couldn’t pronounce, moving toward the mountains. And it was starting to snow.

  It had been a long time since Cruz had seen a snowfall. In Washington, D.C., their town house had a long driveway his dad used to shovel in winter. Cruz would follow behind with his own little plastic shovel and fling chunks of the hard white powder aside. He’d loved everything about winter—soggy mittens, marshmallows oozing into hot chocolate, his mom pulling him down the sidewalk on a sled. If only he hadn’t been five when she’d died. If only he’d been six. Think of it! Twelve more months. Four more seasons. One more sled ride.

  Cruz leaned forward to watch the white wisps tap the windshield.

  “Emmett Lu to Cruz Coronado.”

  Cruz jumped. The map on the computer indicated he was 94 kilometers from Reykjavík. His communications pin should have been well out of range of Orion by now. Fanchon! She had said the range could be boosted if necessary. Emmett must have gone to her for help. Cruz shook his head. Why hadn’t he left his pin behind?

  “Emmett to Cruz. Come in, please!”

  The tone was desperate. Cruz groaned. He couldn’t ignore it. “Cruz here,” he said as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

  “Cruz? Is that you? Where are you?”

  “Uh…well…” Should he lie?

  “Is Bryndis with you?”

  Bryndis? Why would she be with him? “No.”

  “Did you guys forget? We were going to eat breakfast together and then go ashore to start our photojournalism assignment for Professor Benedict.”

  “Yeah, about that…you guys go on. I’m going to be a little late.”

  “Late? Why?”

  “Cruz, what’s going on?” That was Sailor. “Where are you?”

  There was no point in keeping it a secret. “I’m on my way to the Strokkur geyser.”

  “What?” Emmett again.

  “I got a text. The message instructed me to go to the Strokkur geyser this morning. Nóri must have found whoever’s got the second piece of my mom’s cipher. I’m to meet him…or her…there.”

  “Stay there. We’re on our way. Emmett out.”

  “No!” shouted Cruz. “I’m supposed to go alone. Emmett?” He collapsed against the seat. Oh well. With any luck, Cruz would have the cipher piece long before they arrived.

  Passing a row of bare trees, Cruz saw plumes of steam rising from the mudflats. He was here! His car pulled into a parking lot next to a long wooden building with a red roof: the visitor center. The vehicle came to a stop near a pair of red flags, each displaying a spewing white geyser on a background of orange.

  “You have arrived at your destination,” said the onboard computer. “Would you like this vehicle to wait for your return trip?”

  “Yes,” answered Cruz. Getting out of the car, Cruz stretched, then joined the stream of people heading down a wide redbrick pathway. He paused to read a sign:

  Whoosh!

  Several hundred yards to his left, a spray of water shot 60 feet into the air. The ring of people surrounding the vent clapped. His hands in his pockets, Cruz strolled toward the geyser. He wasn’t sure where to go but figured it was wise to stay in plain sight. He’d let his contact find him.

  “Hjálp, hjálp!” A woman in a pink jacket and black leggings was running toward him. Cruz activated his com pin translator. “Er einhver hér Iæknir?” A second later, it translated her frantic words: “Is anyone here a doctor?”

  “What happened?” someone asked.

  “A man fell into one of the hot pools.”

  A chill went through Cruz. How horrible!

  “We’ve called one-one-two,” said the woman. “An ambulance is coming, but we could use a doctor now…and police.”

  “Try the hotel. There’s probably a doctor there,” said a man as the woman rushed past. “Why the police?” asked another man.

  “Someone said he was pushed…I don’t know…I didn’t see.”

  Pushed? Cruz didn’t like the sound of that. He hurried down the trail the way the woman in pink had come. Rounding a bend, he saw a cluster of people on the wrong side of the markers. Cruz elbowed his way through the crowd. Someone was lying on the ground. Cruz spotted a khaki jacket…a tattered pocket…blue and white stripes…No!

  “Nóri!” Cruz fell to his knees.

  “Don’t touch him.” Opposite him, a man was bending to drape his coat over the wildlife rescuer. “He’s badly burned.”

  From the chest down, Nóri was wet and violently shivering. A trembling red hand reached out for him. “Cruz?”

  “I’m here, Nóri. Help is coming. Hold on.”

  “I wanted to talk to you yesterday…couldn’t…too many people.”

  “I understand.” His heart racing, Cruz clasped his hands around Nóri’s. “Don’t worry. It’s all right. We’ll talk later.”

  “No. Now. The piece…Someone was asking…questions. I took it…and left…I left…”

  “You left the falcon’s feather.” Cruz filled in the blanks. “That’s what you were trying to hint to me yesterday. You knew about Mom’s clue. You knew I would try to find you.”

  “Yes…Langjökull…caves…laughing dragon…” Nóri cried out in pain.

  Cruz looked around frantically. Where was the ambulance? What was taking so long? The man on the other side of Nóri was slowly shaking his head.

  “She was a good friend…your mom.” Nóri gasped. “I could always count on her…She’d be proud of you. She said you would come. And you did. Don’t forget. Langjökull…laughing dragon…”

  Cruz felt the bony fingers in his suddenly relax. “Nóri? Nóri?”

  Vivid topaz blue eyes stared up into the falling snow.

  After that, things began to swirl around Cruz. There were busy paramedics and questioning police officers and gawking tourists. So many people, so much activity, yet nobody could do anything. Long after the paramedics had taken Nóri’s body away, long after the last onlooker had walked away, Cruz stayed. He stared hypnotically into the boiling mud pit, as if somehow he could turn back time. If only he had gotten up earlier, had gotten here sooner…

  Cruz had never seen anyone die before. He had never seen a last breath or heard a final word. Don’t
forget, Nóri had said.

  “Ling-something,” Cruz said out loud so he could hear it again. “No, it was more like Long. Lowng-joe…”

  “Langjökull?”

  Cruz’s neck snapped. “Bryndis? What are you doing here?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “You’re not the only one who gets up early.”

  “You followed me?”

  “Are you mad?”

  He shook his head. Cruz was actually a little relieved. He was glad not to be alone.

  “I told the girl at the car rental office that we were teammates and my car was supposed to follow yours. I guess since we were wearing the same camouflage jacket and were about the same age, she figured I was telling the truth.” Bryndis gave a shy grin. “I…uh…would have been here sooner but my Auto Auto had problems problems.”

  “You could get in trouble, you know. You’re not supposed to leave the ship without permission.”

  “Neither are you.” She came toward him. “Cruz, what’s going on? Why are you here? Does it have anything to do with that man who fell into the hot spring?”

  He wasn’t sure how much he should tell her. “His name is Nóri. He was a friend of my mom’s.”

  “Oh dear!” She put a hand to her lips. “I’m so sorry.”

  Cruz dipped his head and swallowed past the knot in his throat.

  “What you were saying before about Langjökull—does that have something to do with him, too?”

  “Just before he died, Nóri said Langjökull. Is it a town?”

  “It’s a glacier.”

  “Nóri said something else, too, about caves and a dragon.”

  Bryndis’s eyebrows went up. “The laughing dragon?”

  “Yes!”

  “Hlæjandi Dreki. It’s a rock formation at the ice caves at Langjökull.”

  “I have to get there, Bryndis, and I can’t tell you why.”

  She licked her lips. “I’ll take you and I won’t ask. It’s only about fifty kilometers from here, but…”

  “What?”

  “It could be too dangerous to go inside the caves. It’s awfully early in the season, and the ice isn’t stable. If you could wait a month, when it’s colder—”

  “I can’t,” broke in Cruz. “It has to be now. I might never get this chance again.”

  “Okay, then…let’s go.” She started to back away.

  “Well, I do have to wait a little longer.” He put up a hand. “For Sailor and Emmett, I mean. They’re on their way. They should be here in about a half hour.”

  “Oh.” She bit her lip. “I see.”

  Bryndis had that look you get when you realize everyone has been invited to a party except you. He had hurt her feelings.

  “I wish I could tell you more,” said Cruz. “I want to tell you, but…”

  “It’s okay,” she said, but she kept looking at her boots.

  They took their time walking back toward the visitor center, then sat on a bench near Cruz’s car. The flurries were turning to snowflakes.

  “You warm enough?” Cruz asked. “ ’Cause we could go inside if you’re cold.”

  “I’m not cold.” Bryndis shook her head, setting her firefly earrings in motion. The tiny snowflakes that had attached themselves to her hair floated around her like fairy dust.

  Any other time, watching fountains of water shoot up into a snowy sky alongside his crush would have been fun. But this wasn’t any other time. Cruz had seen too much. All he could think about was getting away from here. The sooner the better.

  * * *

  “WHAT DOES SHE KNOW?” Emmett whispered to Cruz. He nodded toward Bryndis, who was in the front seat of Cruz’s self-driving car next to Sailor. Emmett and Cruz were in the back.

  “Nothing,” answered Cruz in a hushed voice. “I told her I needed her help getting to the glacier, but I couldn’t tell her why. I asked her to trust me.”

  Emmett squished in his lips. “I knew it.”

  “What?”

  “She likes you.”

  Cruz grunted like that was the craziest idea in the world. Still, he couldn’t keep from grinning.

  Bryndis directed the car to stop at a large cabin near the base of the glacier with a sign that read OLVIRSSON OUTFITTERS. “We’ll need climbing supplies,” she said, opening her door. “Come on.”

  Inside the shop, Bryndis spoke to an elderly couple in Icelandic. The husband and wife began stacking items on the counter—ice axes, helmets, crampons, snow probes, ropes, headlamps, flashlights. Bryndis turned to the other explorers. “I explained we were with Explorer Academy and doing our school project on the melting glaciers. They offered to let us use some of their rental equipment free of charge.”

  “That’s so nice,” said Cruz.

  “How do we say thank you?” asked Sailor.

  “Takk fyrir,” she answered.

  “Takk fyrir!” said the explorers, gathering up the supplies and heading for the car.

  After bouncing along an uneven gravel road for several kilometers, the autonomous car pulled into a small lot, parking between two other vehicles. “You have arrived at your destination,” said the onboard computer as everyone piled out. “Would you like this vehicle to wait for your return trip?”

  “Yes, wait, please,” instructed Cruz. The last one out of the car, he took a moment to look up at the glacier. It was huge! Two outcrops jutted upward from the snow like thrashing bear claws, their brown tips rounded by time and weather. A massive river of snow cascaded between the two peaks, as if someone had tipped over a giant carton of vanilla ice cream to watch it melt. They were going up that?

  Cruz helped Bryndis get the equipment out of the trunk and pass it out. He snapped a pair of crampons on his feet and his mind-control camera and a helmet on his head. An icy gust of wind chilling him, Cruz popped his big hood up and over the helmet. He zipped his jacket, then grabbed a rope and an ice ax.

  “On the other side of the glacier, there are man-made caves.” Bryndis led the way across the rocky moonscape. “They drill into the ice to make tunnels for the tourists. They’re popular but not nearly as beautiful as natural ice caves. Be careful where you step as we go up. It’s still pretty warm. You don’t want to fall through a snow bridge or into a crevasse.”

  “Where is the cave?” wondered Cruz.

  Bryndis had put on her GPS sunglasses. She pointed. “Below the outcrop on the right.”

  Cruz figured it was about a 15-minute hike. An hour later, they were still climbing.

  “It sure looked a lot closer from the car,” sighed Sailor, reading his mind.

  Approaching the bear claws, Cruz saw a curved opening. A row of glistening icicles lined the four-foot archway like the teeth of a monster.

  “Stay here,” ordered Bryndis. “I’m going in first to make sure it’s safe for us to go in. Back in five.” Hunching, she went under the icicles.

  “I don’t know about this, Cruz,” said Emmett when she was gone. “Would Nóri really have come all this way to hide the cipher?”

  “I hope so. It’s the last thing he said to me and my only clue.”

  Emmett frowned. “What if it’s not here?”

  “What if it’s a trap?” Sailor gulped.

  Cruz didn’t want to think about either possibility.

  Bryndis was back and waving them in. “Watch it,” she said as, one by one, they crouched to go under the line of icicle daggers. The explorers had to crawl in single file over shards of black ash and rock for about 20 feet before the tunnel widened enough for them to stand. Gazing up, Cruz’s jaw fell. It was as if they’d entered an alien dream world. The walls and ceiling of the cave were covered with thick swells of translucent, peacock blue ice. Animated by sunlight from the surface, the ripples above their heads glowed blue. It reminded Cruz of surfing, of being inside the barrel of
a wave with the sea curling over him. Except this wave was frozen, as if time had stopped.

  Sailor was gaping, too. “I feel like I’m inside a giant blue crystal bowl.”

  “They are called the Crystal Caves,” said Bryndis.

  “Nature’s artwork.” Cruz reached to touch a warped, glassy wall.

  Stepping around a pool of water, Bryndis gazed up. “Let’s keep moving, guys.”

  Cruz snapped as many photos as he could on their trek through the blue cavern. He had never seen anything like this before and doubted he ever would again. Rounding a bend, they found themselves in a wide, oval chamber. Ahead, Cruz spotted a towering black pillar with stony ridges, open wings, and a curved tail. The huge, dark head was tipped back, its long snout partially open. It could be only one thing—the laughing dragon!

  “Hlæjandi Dreki,” confirmed Bryndis.

  Cruz circled the base of the rock, looking for an opening. He didn’t see one. “I’m going to climb up,” he said to Emmett, taking off his gloves and handing them to his friend.

  Finding a toehold in a crack, Cruz hoisted himself up onto the wide base.

  “Be careful,” warned Emmett. “You don’t know what’s up there.”

  “Or on there,” added Bryndis, a half second before Cruz’s toe caught ice and slid off.

  Pedaling rapidly, he regained his footing. Cruz surveyed his route, spotted his next hold, and continued up. Even with the ice, this was easier than the rock wall in the Augmented Reality Challenge back at the Academy—no rockslide! He pulled himself level with the creature’s body and did a quick inspection. The only opening he could find was the dragon’s mouth. The split was just big enough to fit a hand inside. Naturally.

  Clinging to the rock, Cruz hesitated. Stone or not, he really did not want to stick his hand inside those massive jaws.

  Cruz heard something snap. It sounded like a tree branch. He looked up. A chunk of ice was falling straight for him! Grabbing the dragon, Cruz swung out to his left, and the shard whizzed past his right shoulder. He heard it hit the ground and splinter apart. That was close. So much for no falling objects!