by Day Leitao
“Cause you can look at the planet and plan ways to kill us?”
Dess sighed and rolled his eyes. “Exactly. That’s what mostly occupies my thoughts. How I can best kill you Mainlanders.”
“More like kidnap us. What do you even do with us? Torture us for information?”
He shook his head and focused on walking. “I wouldn’t torture anyone.”
“Do you think we have some kind of important intel at the shore bases? That they send our best there? Have you noticed our ages?”
Dess stopped. “It’s not as if I’m twice your age, you know? It’s young people fighting on our side, too.”
Saytera shrugged and kept walking. “I’m just saying that kidnapping and killing us is a stupid waste of time and resources.”
That made no sense. If the Lunars could disable enough shore bases, they could penetrate the continent through land. As much as Citarella had an impressive anti-aerial defense, it wasn’t as well protected by land. She probably knew that. But then, she was likely upset she had been taken. It didn’t help, but Dess also regretted having kidnapped her, but then, she’d seen too much.
She looked at him. “Lost your words?”
“I’m just anxious to find my friend.” That was also true.
“And why do you think you can find him?”
Dess decided to be honest, and pointed to his heart. “When two people are close, it’s like if there was an invisible line between them.”
She frowned in confusion, then let out a breath. “Oh. So you two…”
“He’s my best friend. The only family I have.”
She paused. “We’ll find him,” she said as if encouraging him, as if it suddenly mattered for her as well.
As they were rounding the hill, Dess yelled, “Marcus, Marcus!”
No reply. Dess thought his friend should be around that area, maybe because of when he ejected, maybe because they were indeed connected. The girl also looked. After a while, behind a rock, he saw his friend’s boot and ran to it.
Marcus lay down, eyes staring at the sky, his skin pale. It couldn’t be.
The girl hurried and took Marcus’s hand. “There’s a pulse.”
He didn’t look alive, though. Thunder roared in the sky. A list of ailments and symptoms passed through Dess’s mind.
“It’s poison,” the girl said.
Right. That made sense. And she was obviously a lot more clear headed than Dess was. He nodded.
She got up and looked around. “Rain is going to pour down soon. We need to find shelter.”
Dess was trembling. Shelter. Shelter. What did that even mean? His best friend was dying in front of him.
She pointed somewhere. “Can you carry him there?”
There was a rock protrusion where she pointed. Shelter from rain. Of course. Dess hesitated. Depending on his friend’s injuries, it wouldn’t be a good idea to move him like that. But then, he didn’t seem physically hurt, just poisoned. Dess carried him to the small cave the girl had pointed.
As soon as they got there, thick drops of rain started to pour outside, and the wind howled. Mouth foaming, fingers turning blue… Perhaps spider venom. It meant that depending on when he’d been bitten, he’d have from a few hours to just a few more minutes alive. Dess should have planned this whole thing better, they should have had some antivenom. This had been so stupid. It wasn’t only that. Marcus should never have risked his life coming to the planet. All Dess’s fault. Now the only remaining person in his life was about to go leave him. Forever. Tears formed in his eyes, turning into black drops falling over Marcus’s jacket.
Everything was silent and strange. It was as if the wind outside or the roaring sea didn’t exist. Just emptiness at losing his only friend. The only person who had always treated him well, from the beginning of Dess’s days in the academy, the days when people gave sideways glances at him for being the kitchen boy, when Dess so many times almost considered telling everyone that he was a lot more than them, that if his parents were alive he could buy the whole moon.
Marcus saved Dess from exposing himself, from breaking a promise made to his mother. “One friend is all you need”, was also something his mother used to say. And with one friend, the pain of his dead family, the hurt of being shunned by his colleagues, was much easier to bear. He didn’t know what he would do now.
Slowly Dess started noticing his environment again. His friend was still breathing. Dess looked around. Where was the girl? Had she taken a chance to escape? In the storm? Suddenly the thought of losing the one other person with him on that island, the thought of being completely alone was too much to cope.
Dess got up and went to the edge of the cave and yelled her name. “Saytera! Saytera!”
The wind sounded as if it were calling her name. Saytera looked at the edge of rocks and underneath trees for herbs or mushrooms, careful to avoid places with spiderwebs. The storm raged outside her, as if it were all the tears she’d held back for so long. Tears for Cayo, for Nowla, for Yansin, for her islands, for Kerely, for Vivian, even for herself. So much sadness stuffed deep inside, like those storm clouds Vivian once pointed to her. And only now she saw it, in an enemy, letting his sadness flow without restraint, and with such power and beauty, wearing his heart out for everyone to see, something Saytera never had done.
Her own tears mingled with the raindrops. This was more water than even the showers in the academy, cold like in her first night, freezing her skin, her muscles, her bones. Cold like she’d let her heart be once, thinking that strength was in restraint, was in keeping it all down, contained. And now, once sadness was laid bare to her, she realized what it could be.
But sadness sometimes had answers. Having seen herself and her own tears falling from those black eyes, she had to fix it, she had to find a solution. Years and years with Kerely, hunting for rare herbs, would not go to waste. She would find something. Nature was death—but also life. Death and life. And then she found it. Grayish leaves growing on a tree trunk. She picked some leaves and ran back to the cave.
Before she reached it, Dess was running to her, eyes wide as if desperate. “Where were you?”
Saytera raised her hand with the plant, for a moment fearing the worst had already happened and her search had been in vain. “Antidote.”
He had a half smile and looked at her as if incredulous. “Thank you.”
She almost told him not to thank her yet, but then decided it was better not to squash his hope. They entered the cave and reached Dess’s friend.
Saytera knelt beside him and turned to Dess. “Ideally we should make some tea, but… I’ll try my best.”
She crushed some leaves between her fingers and put it in the young man’s mouth.
Dess knelt beside her. “What is it?”
“Alpanea.”
“The one Terens use to see the invisible?”
That was weird. “No. It’s just medicine.”
He gave her an odd look. “How long do you think until it takes effect?”
Saytera wasn’t sure, but she tried a guess. “He’ll sleep. Then it will be a few hours, maybe a day.”
He nodded.
The wind was still strong and as night was falling it was getting cool. Saytera sat in a corner shivering, suddenly afraid for herself. She’d been cold before, but it didn’t last that long. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to stand the whole night like that. Dess had taken off his coat, now drenched, but his clothes underneath it were dry. He had a long black tight-fit shirt over black pants. Drenched, Saytera would probably be the one who died from hypothermia first.
Dess sat in front of her and showed his hands. “Can I?”
Saytera frowned. “What?”
“You’re shivering. I can warm your arms.”
She wasn’t sure she was following. Dess rubbed his hands together than rubbed on her arms. Saytera tensed and looked away.
He stopped and sat back. “It bothers you.”
“No.”
Make fire. Make fire. The one thing she should know and she didn’t. And now her life depended on it, and yet… All he could do was quench fire, which wouldn’t help her now. She shook her head.
Dess got up and started looking around. Faces appeared in front of Saytera; Yansin, Kerely, Nowla, Kilmara, Cayo, Vivian, Kiki, Larissa, Kay, Dess… They faded from view and then came back. Her life could fade as well, just like the lamps she quenched, the lights she faded.
Marcus was asleep and his breathing was regular. He still had blue extremities. Hopefully he’d make it. But there was something more urgent Dess had to take care of. If they didn’t make a fire, they wouldn’t survive the cooling night. Saytera was shivering and still wet. It would be unfair if her walk in the storm to save Marcus’s life took hers instead. There would be no dry wood outside. In the cave, there were just a few twigs, all still humid. The worst was that even if he got the wood and something flammable, there was nothing to ignite it. So much for being a spark…
Still, he put all the twigs he could together, and shot them with his zapper, hoping that its heat would dry them. Yes, his ammunition would be gone, but that was a problem for tomorrow. All he had to do now was make sure that there would be a tomorrow for them. Dess was feeling cold himself, and he didn’t think it would help Marcus, even if he still kept his coat. The twigs got dry. Dess then ripped part of his jacket and added it to the pile. How much fire could he make out of it? He had to find a way, knowing he had two lives to save. Maybe even three. If only the stories about people conjuring fire were real. Maybe they were. Still, he had no idea how to do it. He had a pile of dry wood. All he needed was to ignite it. Ignite. He ran to Marcus’s and looked at the supplies in his belt. An impact bomb. Except he didn’t want it to explode.
Slowly he opened its outer part and dropped the fuel around his improvised fire. This was the only bomb left, and it had to work. Stars in the universe, stars within. He focused all the fire, all the energy in that little bomb. It had to work. Dess threw it on the pile of twigs and held his breath. After a while, some of the twigs started getting red, and he fanned them, hoping it would make them catch more fire. It did. Small, weak, but it was catching.
Saytera rested her back on the stone and had her eyes closed. Her arms were so cold. “Come here,” he whispered.
“Where?”
He helped her up and made her sit by the fire. He then pulled Marcus closer to it. The coldest person there was Saytera. He sat behind her and rubbed his hands on her arms. Perhaps she’d call him a pervert tomorrow, but he’d prefer that than not ever seeing her again. If his friend woke up, he’d owe his life to her. It was only the three of them now, and he wouldn’t let her die.
Eventually she fell asleep, her back rested against him. Slowly he put her on the ground and got up. The rain stopped outside. Dess got more wood, which he put near the fire to dry, then tossed it in it. He used a bit of his energy pistol, too, until its ammo was gone.
Marcus still had a pulse and was breathing normally. Dess fed the fire, knowing that it would also keep creatures away from them. He let his jacket dry in the smoke, then put it over Saytera. He’d lay down beside her to warm her, but he still remembered her terrified look and didn’t want to scare her or confirm her poor opinion of him. The warm light of the fire illuminated her face and reflected in her shiny brown hair. She was beautiful, the girl who hadn’t hesitated to brave a storm to save his friend—her enemy. The girl who knew about Terens and more magic than she was letting him know. Dess sighed. The girl who thought he was repulsive. If only he really had girl-magnet snapping fingers. Nonsense. It probably wouldn’t work on her. He’d better lie down, too. His thoughts were going into scary, uncharted territory.
“Dess, Dess, Dess,” someone moaned.
Saytera was wondering what that meant when she opened her eyes and found herself lying in the arms of the person being called. She sat up quickly. Awkward. She didn’t remember how she’d fallen asleep, but didn’t doubt that she’d moved in the night to get closer to the dude to get warm. She turned to the direction of the voice. Dess’s friend. Of course. Marcus. He was shivering. Had she made a mistake? Saytera tried to think back and remembered that it should cause sleep and maybe fever. She touched his forehead and indeed it was warm. He still called his friend.
Dess was beside her in a minute. “What’s wrong?”
“Just fever. He should get delirious now.”
Marcus extended his hand and took Dess’s. “You’re here.”
Dess squeezed his friend’s hand. “I am. Of course.”
“Dess, Dess. Sylvia. You love her, she loves you. Take care of her.”
Dess stared at Saytera with an apologetic look, then whispered to his friend, “You’re confusing me with you. You’re the one she loves.”
“Take care of her. Promise,” Marcus insisted.
“You will take care of her. You’re not dying.”
“Just promise.”
Dess sighed. “Yes.”
“You own the moon, you own the moon. Why didn’t you tell me you own the moon?”
Dess had wide eyes as if terrified.
“He’s delirious,” Saytera whispered.
Marcus shook his head. “I’m not. I’m not. Who are you, magic girl?”
She decided to answer. “Saytera. You and your friend kidnapped me.”
“Queen of darkness. You saved me. I’m thankful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“It’s you. It’s you. It’s not Sylvia, it’s you.”
Saytera turned to Dess. “Who’s Sylvia?”
“His girlfriend.”
Well, that was awkward.
Marcus mumbled, “She’s not, she’s not. She’s not. It was never me. Never me. Never me.”
He kept saying more and more incoherent stuff, a lot to do with this Sylvia. Saytera then remembered something Dess had said the previous night. “Do you still think it helps with seeing the invisible?”
He was silent for a couple seconds, then said, “I don’t know. It’s just something I read. Wrong, I guess.” He stared at her. “You obviously know a ton lot more about Terens than I do.”
“I’ve never read the Tome of Darkness, for example.”
His eyes sparked with interest. “I can tell you about it. And you can tell me things I don’t know.”
Being under his gaze was… She wasn’t sure what she felt and got up. “I’ll go get something for us to eat.”
Dess held her arm. “It’s dangerous out there.”
“Better than certain death by starvation.”
“I’m coming with you.”
She gestured towards Marcus. “And leave your friend unattended?”
Dess was silent.
Saytera continued, “I’ll find something around here. And I’ll watch for spiders. Don’t worry.”
She walked outside in search of the edible mushrooms and plants she’d ignored the previous night. Dess’s tears had moved her so much that she’d forgotten about her hunger—and theirs, especially. The two guys hadn’t eaten anything. Perhaps she shouldn’t worry, since it had been their fault, but after those stupid tears that could have been hers she couldn’t see them as enemies anymore. The same heart, same soul, same ability to love and hurt and fear. Weren’t they all made from the same starfire?
18
In Search of a Way Out
Hopefully Marcus would get quiet before Saytera returned. He was now going on and on about how Dess wanted to kiss the “magic girl”. At least she thought he was just delirious. Dess wasn’t so sure. As much as he denied it, he once had been in love with Sylvia, and it was weird to see the truth spat out by his friend, except that Marcus thought it was still true—and it wasn’t. As for Saytera, who in his right mind would not want to kiss her?
It didn’t mean she had to know about it. At least his friend was keeping it clean talking about kiss
es only. And hoped he would keep it this way. Some private thoughts should be sacred.
Dess went to the edge of the cave and saw Saytera coming with something in her hands.
She shrugged. “Mushrooms.”
Dess took one. “Can I eat it raw?”
She grimaced. “It’s not great, but it won’t kill you. Shouldn’t we go inside?”
“I think we’ll disturb his sleep. He keeps trying to talk to us.” Dess took a bite of a mushroom. It didn’t have any taste. Not the worst thing he’d ever eaten, for sure.
“Maybe. We need to fish, but that’s on the beach, and we can’t leave him alone.”
“And there’s no shelter by the beach.”
She shook her head. “We need to go there and back. Can you make more fire tonight?”
Dess wasn’t sure and he’d need to find a solution soon. “Maybe, but eventually bombs and ammo will be gone.”
There was a hint of fear in her eyes. “If we don’t find a way out we’re in trouble, then.”
For sure. Dess tried to think. “Do you know how to make a raft?”
“No.” She had a grimace.
Right. As if knowing how to make a raft were in any way weirder than disabling a spaceship.
She then asked, “Any chance your people will come and rescue you?”
Dess remembered Sophie and Tara. Well, he would have tried to rescue them. Perhaps it wasn’t impossible. He also remembered the chip on his neck. “Maybe. But we can’t count on it.”
Saytera sighed. “I’m sorry. Truly. I don’t think I caused the failure on your ship, but if it was, please know it was an accident.”
Dess shook his head. “It was my fault and you know it. Don’t apologize for fighting for your freedom.”
She looked away, paused for a moment, then asked, “So you grew up in Sapphirlune?”
“Born and raised there.”
She tilted her head. “How come you know so much about Terens?”
He could ask her the same thing, but he’d better start by answering. “I have many rare books.”
