Then there was a light so bright she had to close her eyes. Is this the afterlife? But air so cold it froze the tears on her lashes sliced into her. No, I’m still alive. But how high up am I? Is there even air at this altitude? Icicles pricked her airways, like they had that time running around the lake near home. It felt like forever ago.
Something was wrong. At this altitude, she shouldn’t have been able to breathe. Something unyielding pressed against her face and against one side of her body. The cold was so acute, she could literally feel her blood freezing. Ha, one way to stop the bleeding. It was her last thought before the abyss claimed her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Iri had always seen the warmth glowing from the book. The leather held an unnatural gleam. The colors were also abnormal. Typically, she saw only one color on an object. With the book, colors of every shade and hue churned over its surface. An anomaly she couldn’t explain.
Jaden set it down between the three of them. Reverently, Jaden opened the book to the first page. Inch by inch, they inspected every tiny speck, splotch, and blot, page by page. But the only two words the ultramagnifier revealed were those they had already solved.
Jaden closed the book with a sigh. “Well, that was a waste of time.”
Iri blinked at the sudden flash of color coalescing into a cohesive form. Something recognizable, but gone too soon for her to make out what it was. “Jaden, can you do that again?”
“What? Sigh?”
“No, no, go back to the last page and then close the book again.”
Iri ignored Jaden’s dubious look as he did what she’d requested. When the colors repeated their interesting fluctuation, Iri could hardly contain herself. This time, because she had been looking for it, she saw the tiny peaks and valleys on the leather itself.
Jaden’s frown said it all. “Are you seeing something?”
She ignored his question, asking one of her own. “Do you feel anything when you close the cover?”
Jaden’s confusion only increased. “You mean like one of those feelings I get?”
“No, I mean do you feel anything with your fingers?”
When Jaden hesitated, Iri grabbed the book. Asking him questions was getting her nowhere. She ran her fingers over the cover, tracing the shapes carved into the leather. As her fingers followed their paths, an interesting thing happened. The twisting colors came together, forming a line along the inner edge of the back cover. As long as her finger remained on the carvings, the line pulsed and blinked along the edge. The moment her fingers lifted, the line disappeared, allowing the colors to roil around the book as they had before.
“What are you seeing?”
Atu’s quiet question demanded an answer. Iri glanced up. Both boys were staring at her as though she held the secrets to the universe in her hands. “I’m not sure. For the most part, this book doesn’t have any definitive colors. That’s unusual. Most things have one distinct color. But the book has multiple colors swirling around it. Unless we touch the carved images on the leather of the back cover. Then all the colors come together and form a line—here.” Iri ran her finger along the inner edge of the outer cover.
“May I?” Jaden asked.
Shrugging, Iri handed the book over. She watched as Jaden repeated the motion, then gasped as his fingers began playing a pattern along the line. “What are you doing?”
Jaden looked as surprised as Iri felt. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“It looks like you’re playing music with the lights.”
“Okay . . . I’m not sure I know what that means, but doing this felt like the right thing.”
“It’s beautiful. A symphony of color, pulsing with a beat, the colors intensifying from pastels to brights like the volume is changing. I wish you could see it.” Abruptly, there was a flash, and all the colors disappeared. “What did you do?”
The question was unnecessary. Jaden was peeling the inner part of the back cover away. Underneath, a rectangle of silver shimmered.
“I think we found the map,” Jaden breathed.
“Bro, you have the magic touch. First with the disc, then with the cube, and now with the book. We must patent those fingers of yours.”
Jaden laughed, but as the oranges faded and pinks and then whites replaced them, Iri could both see and smell his relief. Then Jaden’s colors changed yet again. Grey this time. “Something confusing you?”
“Yes, I have no clue what this is. I don’t even know if I can take it out of the book.” Gingerly, he dipped a finger into the silver. Like spaghetti running away from a fork, the silvery substance avoided his finger, forming a tiny hole. Jaden lifted his finger, and the hole disappeared. “I can’t touch it.”
“You answered your own question then,” Atu said.
“I guess I did. New question: how is this supposed to help us figure out where we are going?”
When Jaden gazed her way, Iri knew he expected an answer. “My gift doesn’t mean I have all the answers. What’s your gut saying you should do?”
Jaden didn’t even think. He placed his hand above the shimmering mass of silver. Closing his eyes, his fingers began moving. The silver lifted and began shaping itself into a small hill. When the top of the hill dropped away into a crater and tiny splashes of silver spouted into the air, it became obvious.
“Bro, open your eyes,” Atu whispered.
As though coming out of a trance, Jaden did, blinking several times. Then focus returned, and he gazed at the mini diorama. “A volcano?”
“Isn’t it amazing?” Iri’s awe filtered through into her voice.
“Yeah, cool and all, but how does that tell us where we supposed to go?”
Iri didn’t have to see the red tints flashing around him to know he was angry. Her own temper ignited. “Haven’t you figured out yet that this is how it always goes? First, we get the clue. Then we have to find out what it means. Both the words and this image provided by the book are clues to a place. Now we just have to do some digging to find out exactly where it is.”
Jaden opened and closed his mouth. The colors around him flipped from red to white to red to white as he struggled for control. When the colors settled on white, Jaden said, “You’re right. You’re no doubt all just as frustrated as I am. I’m sorry I allowed it to get to me.”
Atu grinned. “You’re getting better at handling your anger. You’re going to impress the heck out of Kayla when she gets back.”
Although Jaden smiled, the deep purple enveloping him telegraphed his sorrow. Iri put a hand on his shoulder. “She will return. Remember, ‘live with hope.’”
“That’s what I tell myself every day when I wake up and every moment when I think of her.” Jaden sighed. “Enough of this melancholy. It won’t help get her back any sooner. Let’s enlist some help in figuring out which volcano we’re supposed to be going to.”
They found Jaden’s childhood friends gathered in the control room. Markov noticed their arrival and waved them over.
“Jaden, you’ve got to see and hear this.” His excitement was tangible.
Iri peeked over Jaden’s shoulder as they studied the monitors in front of Markov. Markov took one look at them clustering around him before shaking his head and tossing the images onto the wall. The holoscreen magnified the images.
It was a social media site. Comments and posts were coming in so fast that the text was scrolling too fast for Iri to keep up. “Can you pause it so we can read what people are saying?”
Markov placed a finger on his console, and the scrolling stopped. When Iri heard the sharp intake of breath next to her, she knew she wasn’t the only one stunned. “They want to form a resistance?”
Jaden, as if confirming that what he was seeing was real, began verbalizing snippets from the conversations. “Fight off this unnatural enemy . . . Where do we get more of those flying bats? . . . Does anyone know how we reach the people who fly on those bats? . . . We need to fight back . . . This is our world, not theirs.” Jaden rea
d countless more, all expressing the same sentiment. “It seems we have the rise of an army. We have the volunteers to people a resistance, but I doubt we have the gliders to match their numbers.”
“That, a problem will not be.”
They whirled to find Zareh standing in the doorway.
“Gliders, provide I will. More from our world, coming they are. Find their riders they will, when arrive they do. Your concern, that is not. Need you, your gliders do. Now.”
With that, he vanished.
Iri was beginning to understand Jaden’s frustration. Why did Zareh always come and go without giving them a chance to ask questions? Then she registered what Zareh had said. “Our gliders need us?”
The others were already moving. Iri chased them. The teens crashed out the front doors to find the gliders circling overhead. Shrill squeals and squeaks crackled through the air. Glancing up, Iri noticed their agitation. Its smell was powerful enough to make her take a step back.
Jaden scowled, his hands shielding his ears. “What’s wrong with them? Don’t they normally twitter when they talk?”
Iri wasn’t sure why Jaden had asked her what was going on with their gliders. Perhaps he hadn’t been addressing anyone in particular. Suddenly, Han loomed right above them, separating himself from the other anxious gliders.
“What took you so long?”
Jaden stared at Han. “You’d better start explaining. Zareh just made an appearance and disappeared before he gave any answers—as usual. And you’re acting all crazy. What is going on?”
Iri could have laughed. Is it just me, or have we asked that question about a hundred times today?
Han bared his teeth, enough to sober Iri up. “Taz sensed Kayla. Will that get you on my back, or do you want to waste more time discussing this?”
Iri gaped. The wide eyes all around showed she wasn’t the only one who was agog. Then everyone was moving. Jaden was yelling for people to get airborne. Gliders were swooping down. Jaden’s friends swarmed around her. Iri felt lost in a whirlwind.
What should I do? She hadn’t wanted to replace Tinks. But now, with all the gliders spinning around, would anyone even notice she didn’t have a ride? Taz was too preoccupied with thoughts of Kayla to remember her. Iri clenched her fists. Why, oh why, didn’t I find a new glider? Tears welled behind her eyes. On the verge of turning to go back inside the house, she heard someone hollering her name.
“Get ready for a pickup. We’ll collect you on the next flyby,” Atu called as he and Aren zipped past.
Iri grinned. She was giddy with delight. Someone had remembered her—and not just anyone. She bounced from foot to foot as Atu and Aren dropped for the connection.
It took a little jostling, but they eventually rearranged themselves so she sat in front of Atu. It made sense—he was taller, so he could still see over her head. Iri sucked in a surprised breath when his arms slid around her waist, and the desperate feeling that she was all alone washed over her again.
If they’d been on the ground, she would’ve pushed him away and stalked off. But they were soaring far from the ground, Aren cruising the breezes and chasing the others. For a second, Iri considered her old trick of pretending to fall off. No, that’ll only distance us from the others. I don’t want to cause further delays.
As if reading her mind, Atu leaned close and whispered in her ear. “There’s no need to run. I understand what it feels like when you’re left behind. There’s no shame in feeling gratitude that someone remembered.”
How does he know? Tears leaked out.
Atu’s arms tightened around her. “I felt the same way after the usurper took my parents. I was alone in the desert with no one to help me. Then Jaden, Kayla, and their gliders appeared as if providence had heard my cry. I will be forever grateful to them for finding me that day.”
Something in his tone was unsettling. Had he been considering a more desperate solution to his situation? Iri couldn’t help herself. She glanced down and noticed his colors weren’t their usual purple hues.
In fact, now that she thought about it, they hadn’t been purple for quite some time. Ever since his parents had returned. Now, his colors were faint, but leaning towards blue. Iri shuttered her mind, refusing to think what that might mean.
There wasn’t time, anyway. They had caught up to the others. She surveyed their surroundings, trying to work out where they were. Still near to Sven, but not in his valley. They must have been at a higher elevation because there was no snow, only pure ice encasing the massive mountains like a second skin. The reflected sunlight was blinding.
Taz’s piercing cry drew her attention, and she peered ahead. Far enough in the distance to require the magnification lenses on her goggles, a crumpled figure lay on the ice. Iri’s eyes remained glued on it as they sped closer. Female. A little nearer. Long, blonde hair spinning gold in the sunlight. Iri tried to suppress her worry at the lack of colors around the form. A moment later, there was no doubt. It was Kayla.
Iri marveled as every glider except Han, Taz, and Aren began circling the still form. Their gliders didn’t follow the rest. Instead, they swooped down for the dismount. Except for Taz. She landed, her claws skidding where they hit the ice and skating her a little way past Kayla. She hopped back to where Kayla lay, repeatedly calling Kayla’s name.
Iri and Atu executed the double dismount, then sprinted for Kayla. Jaden was already kneeling by her side. Blood frosted the surrounding ice.
“Jaden, don’t move her,” Atu shouted, running faster when Jaden bent over Kayla.
Jaden heeded the warning, but his eyes never left Kayla’s face. He carefully laid a hand over one of hers, his eyes wide and pleading. “Help her! She’s so cold!”
Blood and cold flesh didn’t bode well. Trepidation squeezed Iri’s heart in its iron fist before she saw the faint signs of life: colors clinging to Kayla’s still form. But the colors were dull—and fading.
Kayla looked like she had been through the wringer. Her face was pale, as white as the ice on which she lay, except for the purpling bruises around her eye and along her jawline. Red welts rose around Kayla’s neck. Then there was her arm flung to the side, covered in a bloody bandage. But where had the rest of the blood originated?
Atu dropped next to Kayla. His fingers touched her neck, checking for a pulse. Using care, he unwrapped the bandage from her arm. A nasty cut, crudely repaired. Atu moved on, his hands flitting over Kayla. His face grim, he closed his eyes.
Was it her gift creating the golden light flowing from him, or was what she saw actually happening? No, I’ve never seen colors like that before. Or light that moves in that way. It must be Atu.
Awed, she watched as the colors around Kayla stopped fading. Then grew brighter. Actual color—not her sense color—seeped back into Kayla’s ashen face. The exposed cut on Kayla’s arm disappeared under that golden glow. When Kayla’s eyes popped open, the bruises on her face also gone, Iri was beyond speech.
Atu had water at Kayla’s lips before she could speak. “Hush now, you need your strength. We can hear all about your adventures once you’ve rested. You’ve lost blood, and you’re dehydrated, so drink up.”
Without a word, Kayla drank, but her eyes gleamed with gratitude as she touched Atu’s hand. Then she had eyes only for Jaden.
Iri turned away. The blues between Jaden and Kayla were so bright and connected, she felt like an intruder.. Atu must’ve felt the same way because he joined her a second later. They gazed at the ice surrounding them, casting its mirrored light back to them so the world was unbearably bright.
“That’s quite a gift you have,” Iri commented.
Atu was quiet for a moment. “Thanks. We all do what we must on this mission.”
“Was Kayla’s condition what forced you to show that to everyone today?”
His scent was sharp, reinforcing the orange glazing his features. Iri took his hand. “You don’t have to worry. None of us will tell anyone what we saw today. You can trust Jaden
’s friends. And I doubt the gliders haven’t seen stranger things.”
Atu glanced down at their joined hands. When he looked back up at her, his eyes glowed like black coals in his handsome face. “You don’t find it disturbing?”
Iri snorted. “Yeah, because your gift is so much more disturbing than mine!”
Atu grinned. “I suppose that’s true.”
After so many years of oblique comments about her gift, Iri would’ve reverted to being insecure, except Atu’s hand tightened around hers. She glanced at him a second time, surprised by the vehemence on his face.
“Never, ever apologize for who you are.”
Just like that, she lost her tongue and every coherent thought. Without thinking, she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. Appalled by her impulsive and irrational behavior, she began to pull back, but faster than a striking snake, Atu’s hand shot up and eased her head back down.
She left her head there, feeling awkward, her posture stiff. When his arm slid around her waist and he drew her into his side, she gave in to the warmth and security Atu offered. There was nothing wrong with accepting help from a friend, and she had needed something to keep her on her feet as her mind reeled. What’s happening to me? I’ve never depended on anyone.
Again, Atu spoke as if reading her thoughts. “There’s a first time for everything.”
Her breath hitched a little. “That’s enough of that. It’s like you’ve stolen my abilities.”
Atu chuckled. “Not by a long shot. But if it helps, I think living on your own for so long never taught you to be conscious of your body language.”
“Aha,” was all she could muster as she relaxed into him further. That was a mistake. Abruptly, she keenly felt of every part of her body that touched his. A body, lean, strong, and warm, against her own. Her hands itched to run along those sinewy arms and up to his sculpted shoulders. Atu’s sudden sigh crashed her wayward thoughts. “What?”
“We need to get Kayla back to civilization where she can get the warmth and rest she needs.”
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