In an instant she was free.
Selena looked down at the ground and saw herself: a young woman, her hair as black as night, kneeling on the ground with her face raised to the sky. As she floated above her own body, she became filled with awe. There was no longer any pain. Here, she could do anything.
She swept her gaze around her and saw that Vail, Rees—everyone was watching her body. They didn’t know she had escaped her physical form. She turned in all directions, taking in the golden sun Dex, the rust-colored wasteland, and the pale blue sky.
She instinctively knew she could travel in any direction. A simple thought directed her perception to rise upward. She floated higher and higher to climb the sky until she was well above the plain and the mass of skalen were tiny figures below. In the distance she could make out strewn gravel and misshapen stone formations, gullies, ridges, and a field of boulders.
Selena knew she was casting, but this was completely new. She was able to make out detail: color and depth, size and distance. Part of her wanted to test her limits and travel as far as she could.
But then her perception was diverted.
The sensation was horrific and violating. Someone was here with her. She wasn’t in control; this thing was forcing her to cast where it wanted. The other awareness made her turn. She fought it but the presence took charge with smooth, calm decisiveness.
Soon Selena was soaring, flying over and above the land. The blue-tinged field of gravel approached with speed and then it was underneath her. In moments it was gone, and she was passing above a stone tower formed of boulders piled one on top of the other. For a time she followed a deep seam in the ground, and then she reached a place where jagged boulders littered the landscape.
She saw a firestorm.
It was as if a piece of the firewall had broken off and traveled into the wasteland. It was initially hard to see, which was the danger, for it carried little visible signature to make itself known. She focused on a place where the air was a subtle shade of red. The wind was twisting, fast and hot, scouring the land as it moved.
The foreign presence knew what to look for. The firestorm left a track on the field of rocks and boulders, a swathe burned black, where smoke rose from the ground.
Selena was made to watch it for a time, and then she felt that the presence had seen enough. She heard a clicking voice break the silence.
Follow your lifeline to your body.
She was forcibly turned in her casting, until she faced the direction she had come from. The group of skalen was so far away it couldn’t be seen. But she saw a faint white line, cutting through the wasteland in a direct line past the tall rock formation. She sensed that the softly glowing cord connected her to her body. It took little effort to gently pull on it. Soon she was flying over the plain once more. The tower of boulders sped toward her, then the field of pale gravel, and finally she saw a multitude of lizard-like figures and a cluster standing around a mantorean and a young woman on her knees.
Selena dived back into her body and gasped.
Slowly her eyes refocused. After a few breaths, her vision returned to the way it had been before. With an effort she climbed to her feet. Rei-kika’s body slumped; she looked both tired and regretful. Group Leader Vail stood watching. The golden sun beat down on the plain.
“Well?” Vail demanded.
“If we go this way, the firestorm will be on our left.” Rei-kika pointed.
“Good,” said Vail. She turned to her son, Watch Leader Rees. “We will march in daylight, with a short rest at midday, until we are past the firestorm. Gather our people.” She scowled at Selena. “Do not fail me again.”
The march continued, but this time Selena traveled up front. As the golden sun climbed ever higher and cast fierce rays onto the barren landscape, she recognized features from her casting and directed the group, keeping the column clear of the firestorm’s path.
She was still shaken by what had happened. Every time she remembered what it had felt like to have another awareness in control of her casting, she felt sick. Rei-kika had seen her as no one else had. Her very identity had been violated. She was glad that the mantorean was traveling with Rees, rather than with her and Group Leader Vail. She would do anything to avoid her mind being penetrated again.
But at the same time, when she managed to bring herself back to that moment of joy, before the mantorean took charge, she knew she had been free. Her casting was no longer hazy. It had been as sharp as what she could see with her own eyes.
She began to see the scars of destruction that the firestorm had left behind as it moved across the terrain. Being caught in its heart would lead to a fiery death, and even the smoking rock would burn anyone foolish enough to walk on it.
It was only when they were drawing closer to the small range of mountains and were well clear of the firestorm’s path of travel that Group Leader Vail called a halt.
Two hours into the midday rest, with the skalen taking shelter below a low cliff, a pair of guards took Selena on another journey. They prodded her to keep her moving as she wondered where they were taking her in the blazing heat; the skalen usually conserved their energy. She looked everywhere for Taimin or Lars, scanning the mass of figures as she walked through the group, but couldn’t see them. Her anxiety grew, working its way through her body until her jaw was clenched.
“You should never displease Group Leader Vail,” said one of the guards. “But you are fortunate. Watch Leader Rees convinced her to give you another chance to fulfil the bargain you made.”
Sweat beaded on Selena’s forehead. A hill grew in her vision, dotted with sentinel cactuses twice the height of a man. She was brought to a halt.
“There, mystic,” one of the skalen said. “Look.”
Selena’s eyes shot wide open. The hill was exposed to direct sunlight but the man-like shapes of the cactuses had confused her. Horror was a heavy, sinking weight in her chest.
She saw Taimin, recognizable by his brown hair and stubbled cheeks, bound to a thorny cactus’s two broad arms. Lars, burly and bearded, was lashed to another cactus nearby. Their heads were slumped as they stared at the ground. Selena feared the worst, but then she saw Taimin make a weak movement of his head.
“They will be given water when the rest period is over.”
“Why?” Selena rounded on the two guards. “Why are you doing this?”
“To them? We are not doing anything to them. Group Leader Vail is angry that you did not see the firestorm earlier. It is you who does this.”
“Free them. Let them go. I’ll do whatever you want.”
The skalen both laughed as they dragged her away.
13
The golden sun slowly passed the midpoint of the sky before Taimin heard a distant cry: the call to march. A few moments later he felt his arms being moved as a skalen untied him from the sentinel cactus. He collapsed to the ground, sprawling onto his stomach, and then heard another thump as Lars crashed to the blood-red dirt nearby.
A skalen laughed and Taimin felt the point of a javelin pressed against the back of his neck. “Get up, human.”
Too weak to move, Taimin struggled to follow the command but then the pressure on the back of his neck eased. Someone lifted his head. The touch was surprisingly tender and he looked up with bleary eyes to see Selena holding a flask. She turned his head to dribble water onto his lips. The liquid moistened his bone-dry mouth and then slid down the back of his throat. He gulped, trying not to cough.
He pushed himself up until he was leaning back on his hands. “Lars,” he began, and then tried again. “Lars.”
Selena gave the big man water until he was sitting up like Taimin. As he saw Lars’s red, dirt-covered face, Taimin knew he must look the same.
“Hurry up, humans,” one of the skalen called. “Mystic, the Group Leader said you must be quick.”
Selena scowled at the guard, who was watching them from a distance. “Just remember what a mystic can do,” she said in an omin
ous tone.
The guard’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. Taimin heard Lars speak.
The skinner was looking away, and Taimin could only see the back of his bald head, but he spoke in a voice that was audible if Taimin strained. “I have a plan.”
“Tell me,” Selena murmured.
“Skalen burn more easily than we do. They won’t follow us where the firestorm has been.”
Taimin met Selena’s eyes and felt a kindling of hope.
“I can probably guide us closer,” she said. She returned to sit close beside Taimin, and made a show of passing him the water flask. “Also . . . Taimin, I saw something. It might have been Griff following us.”
Taimin knew that unless he was reunited with Griff, he wouldn’t be able to travel quickly. “Running won’t be easy,” he said, worried about slowing everyone down.
“What choice do we have?” Lars’s voice was hoarse.
Taimin knew that Lars was right. They needed to escape. These skalen, and the bax they were traveling to meet, planned to attack the white city. The Protector had to be warned.
“I’ll get us close enough to get away,” Selena said. “Once we’re at the right place, I’ll tell them I want to check on you. Be ready.” She glanced at Taimin. “Are you up to it?”
“With Lars’s help,” Taimin said. He turned to face her. She was pressed against him, close enough for him to stare into her eyes. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get to us?”
“I’ll do my best. But if something goes wrong, you’ll have to leave me behind.”
“That’s not how this is going to go,” he said firmly. As he gazed at her, for a moment he forgot everything: his exhaustion, Lars, the skalen . . . everything but her.
“Stay alive,” Selena said.
Taimin felt a stab of fear, as if he might not see her again. “No matter what happens, this isn’t goodbye—”
“Enough!” The guard came forward and grabbed Selena under her arm.
Both suns fell toward the horizon. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue. Boulders lay scattered across the plain, interspersed with thorn-covered cactuses, while the mountain range the skalen were heading for grew until the looming peaks cast monstrous shadows over the terrain.
Once more Taimin and Lars marched with their hands tied behind their backs. Every step for Taimin was agony, but he pushed through the pain, even as his crippled foot grew swollen and tight in his leather boot. A coat of dust covered his skin and clothing, and the fine grains even clung to his face, embedded in the stubble on his chin and in his dark hair. He had lost his pack as well as his sword and bow when they were captured. Even if they managed to escape, they wouldn’t be past danger.
Nearby, Lars moved closer and Taimin heard the skinner whisper. “Look. To your right.”
A hundred paces away there were no cactuses. Trails of smoke rose from the blackened ground and waves of heat shimmered as if the air was wet with moisture. Taimin was reminded of the time he had watched his parents’ bodies burn beyond the firewall. The column of heat that caused this destruction had passed, but the land still showed the firestorm’s effects. Swathes of dirt had become dark, forming crusts on top.
“It’s the best place I’ve seen by far,” Lars said. “A chance like this won’t come again.”
“We wait for Selena,” Taimin insisted.
“She was supposed to get close to us. Where is she?”
“We wait,” Taimin insisted.
“What if she can’t get to us?”
“We won’t leave her.”
Each step forward brought them closer to the scar of destruction the firestorm had left behind. Lars’s posture was tense as he walked, and Taimin could feel the older man’s eyes on him. Taimin peered through the clustered figures of the marching skalen and wondered where Selena was.
Taimin and Lars had drifted to the edge of the column without being challenged. But soon they would be leaving the blackened ground behind.
Lars moved to speak into Taimin’s ear, his voice filled with urgency. “You heard her. What if she can’t get away? We’re bound. There’s no way we can fight our way to her. Think about it. She’s gone to all this effort to get us here, risking her life. The group leader might be angry that Selena’s taken us so near to the firestorm’s path. Vail’s not going to let Selena come and see her friends in that case, is she?”
“Blast it,” Taimin swore. “Where is she?”
“It’s now or never,” Lars said.
In another dozen strides the chance would be gone.
“You go,” Taimin said. “Leave me behind.”
“We go together,” Lars said flatly. “When we leave, we’ll have no weapons, no food, no water. I need your wherry to help us find water. You need me to help you run.”
“What about Selena?”
“We’ll help her once we’re free. If we lose this chance, then what? How does that help her?”
Taimin’s heart was racing. His jaw was tightly clenched. He didn’t know what to do.
“Taimin, we’ll come back for her,” Lars said. “She has to do whatever they say or they’ll hurt us. She’ll feel better if we’re free. Here we’re no good to anyone. Once we’ve escaped, we can go about helping her.”
Taimin knew that Lars made sense. “We’ll come back for her as soon as we’re free,” he said firmly.
“Of course we will.”
He made a difficult decision. “Are you ready?”
“The glare will hurt their aim, but try to weave as you run.”
Taimin took a deep breath and then hissed. “Go.”
Immediately he broke away and ran as fast as he could, moving a shuffling gait. The nearest guards called out a challenge and hurried after him. It was then that Lars sped forward and crashed into the chasing skalen from behind, knocking them aside with his bigger frame.
Taimin’s back itched as he hobbled toward the blackened ground. With his hands bound behind his back, his run was awkward, making the scorched area seem impossibly far away. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Lars catching up to him. Their actions had taken everyone by surprise. Some skalen up front were turning back, wondering what the commotion was. A few of their designated guards were still on the ground.
He was forced to slow when he reached the place where rocks still smoldered and heat punched into him like a fist; the risk was too great that he would stumble. Lars caught up with him, and then the javelins began to fall.
Where the aurelium-tipped weapons struck the ground, flame followed and sparks flew in all directions. Taimin leaned into Lars as he ran into the area that every sense told him to flee from. His skin was on fire. If he hadn’t seen his aunt pass the firewall with his parents’ bodies he would never have thought he could survive.
But where the land beyond the firewall was permanently scorched, this region had seen the firestorm pass some time ago. It was hot, nearly unbearable, but they could push through.
Taimin heard the sibilant shouts of the skalen behind him but didn’t risk turning around again. He focused on his footing and avoided the bigger boulders. Both men were struggling with their hands bound. Taimin fell against Lars and the bigger man grunted to support him. They stumbled past smooth rock that had been turned to a glassy surface. Piles of ash showed where cactuses had once stood.
In the distance ahead, Taimin spied a tall hermit cactus that was green.
“This way,” Lars panted as he saw it too.
The angry calls had faded away, and Taimin felt a surge of hope when they reached the hermit cactus and he thought they had reached safety. But it was just a clear area, and on all sides the terrain still cast off wisps of rising smoke. Without a word Lars turned his back to a hot rock and crouched down, resting the cord binding his hands against its surface. He winced but the leather parted, and Taimin immediately followed suit. The two men then pressed on, running more easily now, until finally they burst free into the usual colors of the wasteland.
Ta
imin now slowed to a walk, grimacing as his fear ebbed and the pain in his foot returned with force. Sucking in the fresh air, he continued until he had separated himself from the blackened ground by a few hundred paces, and then he stopped and put his hands on his hips while he gasped.
Nearby, Lars’s chest was also heaving, but he was shading his eyes, his gaze moving as he watched something.
“Foolish creature,” Lars muttered. “Like his master. No sense of danger.”
A large four-legged animal crested a hill and Taimin heard a loud whine as Griff rushed straight at him. The wherry bounded forward and growled with pleasure, while he butted Taimin with his head and circled around him again and again. Some of the skin on his flanks looked a little singed, but other than that he had been swift enough to avoid injury.
Lars looked back past Taimin’s shoulder. “We have to keep going.”
Taimin turned to face the region of smoke and searing heat. “How are we going to go back for her?”
“We can’t go the way we’ve just left. We both know it. And we can’t circle round either. We’d be traveling where we’ve already been—where there’s no shelter, no hunting, no water. We wouldn’t catch up with the skalen. We’d be dead.” Lars faced the mountains. “The only way is forward.”
Taimin’s mouth tightened. “Then what?”
“We’re not out of danger yet. I need your help, just as you need mine. We need rest, food, and most of all water.”
Taimin still didn’t move as he stared in the direction of the shifting smoke. While he knew that now he was free he could do more to help Selena, he was worried about how much time it might take to find her again.
“We know where those skalen are going,” Lars said. “You heard her. On the other side of the mountains there’s a great canyon, the Rift Valley. Past the canyon there’s a plain. On the other side of the plain, we’ll find the white city. Selena’s going that way.”
Taimin made a decision. “You’re going to have to go to the white city and warn the Protector. Lives are at stake.”
A Girl From Nowhere Page 12
