* * * * *
I’ve got to stay focused. Easier said than done.
The ride up to the cliffs was far too short. It had been a long time since anyone had come up here, and the ashes of their last fire still lay under the hearth. He visited the other rooms briefly and remembered the weeks after his accident, almost two years before.
The plant he had taken care of that first time sat where he left it by the water-pool, swaying vigorously when he walked into the room, as if thrilled to see the one that had once taken care of it. He walked towards it and adjusted it a little closer to the water, nestling its woven pot further into the soil. Strangely, he felt like the plant appreciated it. Next to it, an old imprint he had drawn into the sand had only partially faded.
The climb out proved harder than the climb in had been, but he managed to make it within a few minutes. With effort, he pulled away the sand-colored metallic plate that he and Kesney had created in Selesta’s metal recycling center to camouflage the comet fighter, breaking into a sweat as he worked. Once he had cleared the fighter plane, he stopped for a moment to rest and took one look out at the sea. Then, he crawled into the comet fighter’s cockpit and fired up the engines, glad that he had remembered to refuel the plane when they had come back to cover it up.
Just outside the Classified Zone, he received a communication from Headquarters, telling him to head for the Command Center as soon as possible. In his hand, Eiron clutched a tiny star-shaped button. If the council had tricked him back, Alessia would know soon—provided he discovered their plan within the next few days, before the power supply of his emergency signalling device ran out.
The Last Immortal : Book One of Seeds of a Fallen Empire Page 68
