“They’ll allow us to ride them, but they can’t carry more than two such a far distance.”
“And since you are chained together, they’ll need to take me separately.” Evanessa shook out her dark hair, braiding it quickly behind her.
“I could just weave a door to the Ring of the Heavens,” I suggested.
“No,” Rusk said looking off toward the horizon. Why did he always refuse to look at me when he knew I’d be unhappy with what he was saying? “You need to stop doing that. I think they all grow terrified when you do for a very good reason.”
“Because they’ve never seen it before. Catane and I can do things they’ve never dreamed were possible.”
“I think it’s because every time you do that you unravel the world just a little bit more. I think you’re making things worse and you need to stop.” His cheeks flushed as he spoke.
“So, no more doors through reality?”
“No.” He met my eyes again, his expression kind, but firm.
“I’ll have to travel like everyone else.”
“Don’t look so forlorn,” he said with a grin. “Everyone else doesn’t get to ride on Rocs. Come on. You won’t even miss punching holes through reality.”
If he thought that was true he didn’t really know me. I’d travel everywhere that way if I could. We climbed onto the Rocs’ backs and gripped the bases of their feathers. It was so much like riding an Eaglekin that I felt a pang of regret that they weren’t here with us.
Rusk and Evanessa exchanged grins and signals that all was well, and then our Rocs stretched their legs to maximum height, unfurled their great wings and leapt with a ‘whump’ sound as their wings grabbed the air. My stomach jumped into my mouth, all physical sense of where I was spiraling away as we lifted into the air. The ground beneath us raced away, and if I tried to focus on any one point it made me dizzy as they soared over the edge of the cliff.
“Haven’t you told him yet that you reversed time?” Kjexx appeared out of nowhere, hovering beside the Roc as we flew.
“If you hadn’t noticed, I’m trying to hold on to a massive bird while it flies. If this looks easy, it’s only because you’re already dead.”
“Is that a dig at how I died? Flying through a window?”
“No, of course not!”
He laughed. Even dead, he had a strange sense of humor.
“But I think you need to tell him that you reversed time to save his life.”
“I don’t want him to know that I saw him dead.”
“You think he’ll find it creepy?”
“Of course!” Thank goodness Rusk couldn’t see or hear Kjexx. That would be a real nightmare.
“Well, if he thinks cutting holes through reality is bad, he should see you cut one through our shared timeline. I heard it was bad.”
“Heard? From who?”
“That’s my secret. Let’s just say that the ancestors are a chatty bunch and someone told me. Just think about it, alright?”
“I will.”
“Where are you flying on a huge bird?”
The Roc banked in the air, and behind me, Rusk shifted his weight and held me closer with one hand.
“We’re going to try to fix the cataclysm.”
He groaned.
“What?”
“You’re off to do a great magic feat. And you’ll use the Common. You know that comes from my remaining life-force, right? You’re going to drain me dry before I’ve been here even a week. I’m rather enjoying the spirit world.”
“You would. All the fun with none of the consequences.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Stop worrying about yourself. We’re going to save the world.”
He laughed again. “Just remember, An’alepp didn’t mind being drained while you did wild things. I might want you to think through how you use up my spirit.”
“I’m a very thoughtful person.”
“Oh, and don’t trouble yourself too much, but you might want to do your ‘great feat’ quickly.”
“And why is that?”
“People’s souls are disappearing from Ra’shara. I think they’re getting sucked into the cataclysm, and if I get sucked up into there then you really will be in trouble. I doubt anyone else would adopt you…”
He chortled and vanished. He was getting more like himself all the time. Perhaps it was the combination of death, loss, and his new residence in the spirit world that had brought him to that point. What would it have been like to pass through death? You couldn’t go unscathed. He seemed more himself – but was he really less himself? Only the truest fragment of what had been before? It was difficult to tell. What would it be like for me when the end came? I hoped I wasn’t too much of a coward. I hoped it didn’t hurt too excruciatingly much. I hoped that what mattered about me survived to the other side.
“Tylira?” Rusk’s voice pulled me out of Ra’shara. How long had I been there for? “Are you talking to Kjexx?”
He was leaning over my shoulder so I could hear him since we were perched on the back of the roc, cheek to cheek. I closed my eyes to enjoy the sensation of feeling so safe while doing something so daring as riding a great bird. Every bunched-muscle flap of the roc’s wings pushed us against each other, and then when his wings rose again, the pit of my stomach did a little flip.
“What’s he saying?” he asked.
What should I tell him? It wouldn’t be a good idea to tell the truth, but he’d be jealous of Kjexx if I said nothing.
“How much farther do you think the Ring of the Heavens is?” I asked.
“Don’t change the subject.” His warm voice resonated in his chest where it pressed against my back. “What are you hiding from me?”
“He wants me to fix the cataclysm quickly. He says that souls are disappearing from Ra’shara just like they did in Axum.”
“Then we’d better hurry.” He laid a quick kiss on my cheek as I breathed a sigh of relief. At least I wouldn’t have to explain yet that I’d seen him die and then reversed it. “Look. The Ring of the Heavens is just ahead of us. Do you see the islands? There’s the one with the door, and look, the rip in the sea is worse.”
The gash across the sea bubbled and swirled as far out as I could see in either direction. I gripped the roc’s feathers a little tighter. Now that I was here, I had no idea what to do.
“Let’s land on the island,” I pointed to the one with the door – the very same one that we’d leapt from only a few weeks ago.
The rocs spiraled down towards the island, but my eyes were glued to the rift across the sea. Where did we even start? Why did I think this was where we should start?
Spider-webbed cracks seemed to spread from the sea and up across the islands where they were splintered cracks in the earth and rock. The gashes in the sky almost seemed to be connected to the shattered land as if they were one and the same. Looking at them made my head ache, but I couldn’t stop, even as the roc landed with a jolt and Rusk began to help me down off his back.
A flushed, triumphant Evanessa joined us.
“So, let’s get started,” she said.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I TOOK THE SCINTELLEX OUT of my pocket and sat down on one of the mossy fallen logs on the thick forest floor. The steep, cliff-surrounded island was the perfect vantage point to look out over the devastation, it was just frustrating that being able to see it wasn’t helping me come up with any ideas.
Evanessa sat down right in front of me so that our knees almost touched again. I held the scintellex out where she could see it, too.
“I didn’t have to do anything to activate it last time, it just kind of opened itself up to me and then it did it’s own thing.”
“What did it do?” she whispered.
“It rewrote my mind.”
She pulled back, her arms wrapping protectively around herself. “How?”
“I don’t know. It uses the Common somehow.”
“No,” she said, h
er luminous eyes catching what little light filtered to the forest floor. “I mean, how do you know it rewrote you?”
“I can see things I couldn’t see before. How things work. What matters most.” Had I ever opened up to anyone but Rusk or An’alepp before? It felt weird.
She leaned back in. “Okay, well, that doesn’t seem so bad.”
I spun the rings on the scintellex. If only I could read them. If only they made sense to me. The scintellex pulsed warm in my hands, glowing purple.
“Look. That glow!” Evanessa reached out and touched it with her fingertips. As if by her touch, it flared white. She pulled back, removing her fingers. “Oh!”
“Here,” I passed it to her, and in the moment that we both gripped it, it flared white again. My hand felt like it couldn’t let go. I looked at Evanessa and her eyes widened. Was her hand stuck, too?
“I think it needs both of you,” Rusk said, crouching down to where we could both see his expression of awe. “I think it needs a weaver and an unweaver – balance.”
It flared pink at his words and a spark of power shot down my arm and into my chest, and then Kjexx was standing beside me, and a hawkish looking woman - who was certainly a relative of Rusk’s- stood beside Evanessa.
Kjexx’s eyes were bright. “I can see what it’s doing. It needs more than the Common. It’s tapping into something else, too. Look!”
He pointed and then it was as if the scintellex was spinning while still riveted in our double grip. It emitted a low, sweet tone, and then a complex pink and purple pattern spun out of the ends of the scintellex and began to spread out across the landscape, slowly, but unstoppably. I gasped, my eyes widening. I could feel it drawing on my link to the Common. Kjexx put his hand on my shoulder. His eyes were far away.
“Kjexx?”
He didn’t answer me, but his mouth hung open. I glanced across at Evanessa’s ancestor. Her expression was the same. We must have been pulling too much power from them. Exactly what was that cylinder doing? I could see strands of my link to the common in the pattern the scintellex was weaving. It was unweaving ahead of the woven pattern as if it were undoing all that had come before just seconds before Evanessa’s pink pattern of power rewrote it.
I couldn’t stop staring at the pattern. It was so beautiful and entrancing as if somehow it contained all the secrets of life and death. I could feel my breath speeding up and a smile filling my face as I drank it in. Had I ever seen anything more beautiful? Had I ever felt more exhilarated?
“Tylira!”
Was someone trying to speak to me? It was hard to focus on anything but the pattern.
“Wild Girl!” Rusk’s hands were on my shoulders and then his eyes were inches from mine, and I couldn‘t see the pattern anymore. “You have to stop. You’re killing her!”
I blinked and it felt like I had entered a darkened room after being in the noonday sun. As my focus returned, Rusk pulled back so I could see Evanessa. Her face was pulled in a tight rictus, and her ancestor’s shadowy form was flickering in and out, her mouth open in a howl. Could they hold on just a few more seconds?
I glanced quickly at the edges of the pattern licking out towards the horizon, I could see the pattern fixing the rift in the sea and the edges of the cracks in the sky, but it just wasn’t moving fast enough. We were more than a few moments from being finished the job. What was it doing to her? And why wasn’t it doing it to me?
“What do I do, Kjexx?” I asked. “I need to stop this!”
Kjexx’s eyes flicked to mine, but his body was frozen.
“Hurry,” Rusk said, rushing to Evanessa’s side. He caught her as she collapsed, her eyeballs rolling back into her head.
Her hand fell from the scintellex, but it didn’t stop. The pattern kept rolling out and the power was still pouring from Evanessa into the cylinder.
“Please, Wild Girl! I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s hurting her.”
I tried to drop it, but I couldn’t let go. My grip was stuck. With my other hand, I twisted at the rings, but they wouldn’t budge. I throttled back my link to the Common, squeezing it off, and then suddenly the pattern vanished and the cylinder dropped from my tired hands.
“What happened to her?” Rusk asked.
“I think it was sucking the life force out of her,” Kjexx said from Ra’shara.
“Is she breathing?” I asked.
“Yes, but faintly,” Rusk said. “Why didn’t it do this to you?”
I felt my face heat. “What do you mean?”
I glanced around for support, but Evanessa’s ancestor and Kjexx were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, they knew how to get away when things were heating up.
“I just mean that you look fine.” His eyes were wide with fear, and his hands hovered over her like he wasn’t sure what to do. “I think she’s breathing more easily.”
I sat in the moss beside her, putting my fingers on her wrist. Her pulse felt strong.
“We should make a fire to warm her and stay here until she recovers.” I couldn’t stop staring at the horizon. The cracks had lessened, but only for a few moments. Already, they were spreading again to reclaim what we’d fixed. It had been working. It should have worked. What did we do wrong?
“Okay. Let’s get her comfortable and make a fire,” Rusk agreed. “Thank you for stopping it.”
“Of course,” I said, but inside my heart was sinking. We couldn’t do it. We weren’t enough. I was so certain that with the scintellex we would be unstoppable, but now all I could see off in the horizon of our future were the cracks and fissures. There was no way to save the world. We’d lost and everything we loved would collapse with our home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“ASK HER ANCESTOR WHAT WE can do for her,” I said to Kjexx. I kept panic-jumping into Ra’shara, but there was nothing more that I could accomplish there than in the real world. Rusk was gently dabbing Evanessa’s forehead with a handkerchief and the fire was lit. We were hoping she would wake up before we had to move her.
“I can’t.” Kjexx’s lips were pursed, and he kept glancing worriedly towards the sky.
“Could you tell what was happening to her?” Rusk asked. If he didn’t stop asking me questions as if I was some sort of expert here I was going to snap. How was I supposed to know more than he did?
“Kjexx said it was sucking her life force out of her.”
“Then why didn’t it do that to you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I don’t have a life force.” Seriously? How did he expect me to know?
He shook his head like I was the one being irrational. “Just go in there and ask him to help.”
He must have been really upset to want me to go looking for Kjexx. I jumped back into Ra’shara.
“Kjexx, no excuses. This is serious. Please ask her ancestor what we can do.”
“Tylira,” he said through gritted teeth. “Look at her heartstone.”
I popped back out, glanced at Evanessa’s heartstone and then popped back into Ra’shara.
“The glow is gone,” I said, breathlessly.
“And that means…” His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes scanned the horizon.
“That she’s cut off from the Common. Oh. Her ancestor?”
“Was sucked up into one of the fissures and then Evanessa collapsed.”
“So, we can’t try again, even if she recovers. We’ve failed.” I paused, biting my lip, before adding, “And you wouldn’t know anything that could help Evanessa.”
“She probably just needs sleep, but she’s the least of our problems. I can’t find any other ancestors here. Where have they all gone? Have they all been sucked away by the cataclysm? You have to stop this!”
“I can’t! Didn’t you just see me try?!”
“No, I mean, you need to go back in time and make it never happen, just like you did with Rusk.”
“No! I won’t. It could destroy everything.”
“It’s the only way!”
> “I’ll just have to find another way.” I twisted my shirt nervously in my hands. We needed someone stronger than Evanessa. Someone who had proven that they could stand up under extreme pressure.
Who was qualified? Me and Catane, of course - but we needed a weaver. The High Tazmin would have been perfect, were he not dead. Perhaps someone survived among the Tazmins. We’d need to go back to the Silken Gardens and see what we could find. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me I already knew who I was going to have to ask. Not her. Anyone else.
“There is no other way. Why are you being so stubborn about this? You could stop the cataclysm, keep me from death and prevent all of this!”
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s why.”
“Ty-”
I jumped out of Ra’shara. It was too hard to think with all his demands. Of course, I couldn’t just go back in time and change it all. That was ridiculous … wasn’t it?
“What did he say, Wild Girl?” Rusk looked worried.
“He thinks she just needs rest. Maybe I should make a door for her to the Silken Gardens.”
Rusk looked worriedly back and forth from Evanessa to me and then to the darkening sky. Our trip here and our efforts to fix the cataclysm had taken all day. What a waste. I looked off towards the horizon. Perhaps it didn’t have to be a wasted day. Perhaps we didn’t need to live this day at all…
“No,” he said at last. “I still don’t think it’s worth the risk. Perhaps the roc can take us over one island to where the last Teeth are stashed and we can put Evanessa into one and fly back to the Silken Gardens.”
“All we do is fly here and there like mayflies trying to make the most of their short lifespan.” I couldn’t take one more worthless journey. It was as if we’d wasted all our time since arriving back in Everturn.
He rubbed his face with tired hands. “What else did Kjexx say?”
“Nothing.” If I told him, I’d have to tell him everything. I should just turn back time right now, and he’d never be the wiser, but if I went back to a time before Catane and I existed and I stopped the cataclysm from ever starting, then I’d have to erase everything else along with it. I’d have to erase the love I’d found with Rusk, and I could never try to find it again because I couldn’t live without my very presence causing another cataclysm.
Thunder Rattles High (Unweaving Chronicles Book 3) Page 9
