Wakers: Sayonara Sleep
Page 6
“Please explain what happened,” Ceph implored. “So we may help others survive.” After a long breath, I rehashed it all for them. Starting with perky Queen Piria and ending with my pathetic call for help.
I thought you were a dying whale, Nez said when I finished. Wait, the golden water. He must have found me.
“And I thought valiant rescuers had better timing,” I said. Ceph quickly stood between us like a referee before a boxing match.
“So you did not take the antidote,” Ceph pressed. “You gave it to your friend… who died.”
But the Squit couldn’t kill her.
“Without her power awakened, this is impossible,” Ceph said, pacing in front of us.
That means…
They both turned to me in awe and bewilderment, a form of enlightenment sweeping over their countenances. The light from the high candles amplified their skin colors: Ceph was light pink, juxtaposing Nez, who was blue-green like the sea. For a moment, I forgot they were still talking about me. She has to go to the Czar, Nez said.
Ceph shot him with a protective look. “No,” he whispered. “Besides, she needs the remaining trinkets.”
Nez appeared unmoved while adjusting his eyepatch. As Chief of the Royal Guard, I’m telling you to step aside. Yeah, well this man-ologue wasn’t stupefying me. I refused to be a damsel in distress two times in one day. I pulled myself up using the bedpost.
“Ceph, what is my power and how do I awaken it?” I demanded, feeling more confident in a higher position. Nez’s golden eye bore into me and laughed.
You’re too weak to awaken anything now.
“Light!” Ceph blurted, pushing past Nez and leaving ooze on his tunic. “You generate it— Radiate with the joy inside you.” With an air of uncertainty, Nez advanced towards me.
I closed my eyes and tried to find my own light. Friends. Family. Memories of the past. My insides started heating up, like pressing my stomach to an oven roasting brussel sprouts. My eyes began to water and I opened them in a garish, angelic radiance that permeated the temple. From my body, a brilliance surfaced that contradicted every space in Nightworld. Filled with an espresso shot of thrill and halting exhaustion, I felt my chest reel forward. Nez caught me before I fell.
“Not weak,” I muttered.
Chapter 9
Thinking I Woke up on the Other Side, I pumped my fist into the air. Only then did I notice the shackles and prison cell. Water words streamed in front of my face during my one-woman performance. The Czar is waiting. Let’s go. I challenged myself to emanate that light again, but it’s like I wasn’t plugged into an outlet. You’re out of juice, Nez explained, standing in front of my cell. You haven’t eaten and you were sleeping for days. Great. The unpredictable time thing. I bet my uncles hired the SWAT team for a massive search in Reality. He unlocked the iron door, and with a forceful hand, escorted me to Czar Renezen.
Nez left me alone in the throne hall. Delicate sea life floated within the aquarium-esque walls. Pearl beads formed an entryway, to, I suppose a bedroom, right beside the throne. His Royleness’ butt abode was made out of black coral. Was that really a thing? The Czar appeared some time later, parting the pearls with a glittery sound. The colorful marine creatures seemed to move towards him, kissing the glass, as he came closer to me.
“I don’t want to stay here,” I said. “Please let me leave.”
“That’s not an option,” he said.
I let out a deep breath. “But you let me go before. Why keep me here now?”
He pressed his back against the glassy wall and adjusted his gloves. “I want your light abilities,” he said. “And somehow, you’ve awakened them before being Sealed.”
“Does this mean I can find my sister now?”
The Czar looked me up and down thoughtfully, then leisurely made his way to the black throne. “I have a proposition for you,” he said, reclining in the coral. “You train here with me. Before I free you, I’ll give you the trinket and intell about your sister.”
I propped both elbows up on his armrest. “And how long would I stay with you?”
“Until you complete a task for me,” he said, folding his arms behind his head.
I hesitated. “Does it involve hurting people?” In the nearby wall, an anglerfish devoured its tiny prey.
“I thought you’d do anything for your sister.”
With a huff, I turned and walked away from him. “Forget it. I’m doing things my way.” I pulled on the exit doors, but they wouldn’t budge. After exerting a great deal of force, I rounded on him. Two amazons had appeared at his side, holding spears.
The Czar yawned loudly and spoke to his guards. “I tried to be nice.” With a snap of his fingers, the amazons seized me. Their strength superseded my protests and wriggling. The Czar waved goodbye as they pushed me into the hallway.
I was left after being tossed in the dungeon cell again. I angrily kicked the base of my metal prison and it clattered so noisily I thought it was speaking to me. I recoiled from the bars in alarm.
“Yo Guardian Princess,” it repeated; two hooded figures appeared at my cell. One fumbled with keys while another decimated the door with a crescent kick. A cloud of dust rose into the air.
“Great gizzards,” Jeba poked Quanita with her stick. “Stop slowing me down.” I rushed forward to greet them and Jeba quickly pushed me away, ripping something off of my arm. I yelped and she clamped my mouth shut with her palm. Jeba held up a long, snaky bandage with some of my arm hair still attached. “A Rooter,” she explained. “Keeps you in this place versus Rising by the Aril River.” Without warning, she sniffed my hair. “And they fed you Munkbean.”
“Munk-what?”
Quanita sliced an arm through our conversation like a karate chop. “Okay less talking— more escaping.” We heard distant footsteps troop down the corridor. Jeba nodded towards Quanita who raised her arms to shoulder level, biceps bulging and shiny with sweat.
“Me first!” She burst, as the Seawall guards rounded the corner. A root network erupted from the tile floor and shot up through the ceiling, reminding me instantly of Jack and the Beanstalk.
I leaned into Jeba. “Please tell me we’re not climbing that thing.” Branches sprouted forth and lassoued the guards, rendering them immobile and toppling them over like tin soldiers. We all leapt over them and bolted towards the exit. My rescuers peeled off their robes in transit. As the caboose of the bunch, each garment managed to either trip or momentarily blind me. Nez stood at the mouth of our freedom gate, gold eye glowing.
With a wry grin, Jeba raised her stick overhead. The floor rocked below us and a band of roots broke through without shilly-shally. Quanita hoisted me from the waist into a crux of branches. She grabbed onto a sturdy bough beside me and we ripped through the ceiling with Jeba’s sapling on steroids. At the top of the waterfall, Garth and Queen Piria buzzed over to us. We latched onto Garth’s furry body, Jeba right behind us. Nez watched us from the base of the giant tree. The waterfall flowing over the castle had stopped midair, gold-veined and silent. Meanwhile, the sea around it was full of violence; waves were crashing into each other, wild, and also streaked with gold.
“Heez getting worz,” Queen Piria said, perching on Jeba’s shoulder. The old biddy nodded soberly, then thwacked me on the head.
“Tuppa,” she said, pulling my forearm and squeezing. My injuries still looked and felt awful. I yelled and tried to yank free of her. “Never jump into a fight you can’t win.” She tossed my arm back at me. “Those scars will be good reminders of that in Reality.”
My mouth fell open. “But this is a dream. There’s no way I can—”
“This isn’t your average dream,” Quanita said gravely. “Wounds, broken bones, everything that happens here carries over into Reality.”
“But Bast…” my words broke off before I finished my thoughts. Quanita clenched her fists.
“Death we are unzertain of,” Queen Piria said gently, landing on Quanita’s knee. “The
dead zere never return. But zey may or may not keep living on the Other Zide.”
“Whatever the case,” Quanita seethed, “I’m killing all of those Squits. And their master will be watching.” My head started to swim. I could feel the tattoo pull drawing me back to the Other Side, as if I were tethered by an invisible cord. From then on, I experienced the pull in both directions.
***
Chapter 10
Clover inspected my face so closely, I could smell garlic seeping from her pores. It was Friday morning. We were walking off campus, as she wanted to grab a coffee before our next class. “Since when do you wear neck scarves?” She asked.
The answer was never. Mom did occasionally. Maybe the reason Aza and I never touched one was because we actively went out of our way to not be like her. However, my scars from Nightworld were everywhere. I looked like I had sprung into a gang fight. So I covered myself like a modern nun, praying no one would care enough to say anything. Without warning, Clover swiftly unraveled the neck scarf. “Hickies!” She squealed, and it felt like everyone near the sidewalk turned to look at us.
I snatched the scarf from her and rewrapped it. “Thanks Cools,” I snapped. “I should’ve handed you a megaphone.” Clover threaded her fingers behind her back and started humming a corny love song. I raised an eyebrow at her.
She huffed at me with an eye roll. “Come on Lava, I know it was Jax.”
My cheeks flamed. “Actually it was a giant two-headed—”
I stopped in my tracks when I read the next street sign: Falconbridge Lane. My dad’s facility was in plain view. A decrepit, graffitied mess compared to what it once was. When Dad first accepted the job, he spent countless hours cleaning up the property with the help of the residents. It truly did look beautiful then, unlike the rest of Heirloom. At times we begged Dad to move over the town lines. But he never yielded. As strange as it sounds, my father was almost charmed by our community. “Mansions may give you a higher, cleaner perspective, but living away from them gives you a clearer perspective,” he would say to me.
Clover crossed the street quickly, and waved for me to follow. A few cars passed between us. My legs felt frozen to the pavement. “This is a shortcut,” she called. “Hurry up.” Yeah right. I knew what this was: graded exposure.
I turned back to the school. “Nice try,” I yelled over my shoulder. “I’ll meet you in class.”
Once out of her sight, I took out my phone and skimmed the latest Falconbridge article. They finally released the full list of investigated missing persons. Several were patients I recognized, and right beside my father’s picture was hers. My mouth turned dry. So Aza was also being searched for now. A train passed under the bridge I stood on. The ground below trembled.
Eighteen years ago, when my mother and I visited Aza, she was lying in a hospital bed with blankets up to her neck. Mom didn’t lose her usual chilliness. She mechanically stroked my hair while the IV in the room continued to pump.
“This is what happens when you take drugs,” she warned crisply, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. She lowered her lips to my ear. “You are my smart one. Stay that way.” Breaking away from her embrace, I knelt beside my sister’s ashen face. While pushing back her oily hair, I whispered her name over and over again. But she didn’t wake up.
I told Uncle Hugo that I refused to go there with mom again. So Uncle Mason drove us both to the hospital the next day. When we reached her room, the bed was made and a housekeeper was mopping the floor; she was gone. The desk receptionist said that my sister had signed papers claiming a “xxx” admission status. In other words, my sister, or her POA, took legal measures to ensure we could not see her. Uncle Hugo cordially thanked the man and led me to the elevators.
I extended my arms as the doors slid open, blocking the entrance. “I have to find her,” I pressed. “Just to tell her one thing.” When Uncle Hugo’s attempts at empathetic intervention were failing, Uncle Mason pried my arms off the walls and ushered me into a couch in the lobby. He clasped his hands atop his belly and kept his gaze forward. He knew I was close to tears.
“Lava,” he began, “do you love your sister?” I threw him a menacing and quizzical look.
“You don’t scare me when you erupt,” he chuckled. After I nodded rigidly to his question, he proceeded. “If you do, you will leave her right now.” I almost pounced on him with protests before he interrupted me. “Do you remember stepping on that fire ant hill a few years ago?”
“Yes… Uncle Hugo picked me up and started dancing on top of it.” My mouth cracked into a small smile recalling it: a jolting ride, full of painful screaming, hot stinging, and Uncle Mason chortling from the screen door with an iced tea.
“What was the moral of the story?”
“Don’t ask you for help in a life or death situation.”
“Close Lava. Did Hugo want to become ant enemy?”
I shook my head, drawing my knees to my chest and resting my chin there. “He did it to protect me.”
“Right,” Uncle Mason pressed. “Does Aza do similar things for you?” I peered in his direction with moist eyes. He was side-peering back at me with a jaunty smirk.
Uncle Hugo came closer to us and stroked my hair. “Let’s trust her, sweet peach,” he said, kissing my head. That plan had never failed me before. So with a heavy heart, I nodded.
But we never heard from Aza again.
***
Jeba arranged for me to stay in Lathermia, the only territory I hadn’t been to thus far. She was afraid the Czar would come after me in Skyplume. But according to her, the Lathermian ruler and prophet, Hakim, was very strong. He would protect and train me.
While we waited for Queen Piria and her Carri-Sect fleet to take me there, Jeba let me stay at her place. She handed me a cup of water and I spilled half of it on the floor. She eyed my trembling hand.
“I guess I’m a little spooked being back… after everything,” I sighed and sat down in a chair. “Jeba, what exactly is this place?”
She toasted her cup with mine. “Prison,” she said, tossing her head back and chugging. After a throat clear, Jeba sat across from me. “This is a second reality, Tuppa.” Well, who’s grand idea was it to make more than one?
“Living in one reality is tough enough,” I said, taking a sip of water. “For most of us anyway. But maybe not for the Czar. Something tells me his Real life must be pretty cushiony.” Jeba set her cup down and crossed her legs. The fire snapped beside us.
“Did he have anything interesting to say to you?”
I shrugged and lowered my gaze. “He said if I let him train me, he’d help me find my sister.”
She raised an eyebrow and flipped the hourglass by her foot. “Aye, an easy solution to your problem.” The sound of falling sand filled the silence. I rose to standing. Jeba’s eyes followed me as I paced by the fireplace.
“But he wants to use me to hurt people.”
“No one gets hurt in dreams, Tuppa.” She smiled at me. “You just wake up, right? That’s what you believed when he told you this.”
I stopped in place and rounded on her. “Do you want me to go with him?”
“I want you to tell me what you’re fighting for.” A commotion arose outside. Gold-streaked water ribboned past Jeba’s window. The Skyplume Wakers were busy collecting it with buckets and troughs. How was everyone coping after the loss of their comrades? How was Quanita? Jeba tapped my shoulder and my attention shifted back to her.
“Maybe now… I want to protect a few more things. My sister Aza. And also all of you.”
Queen Piria arrived with three clearwing dragonflies. I rode on one’s back while the other two flanked us. In flight, their bodies were camouflaged by the sky. It wasn’t long before I noticed a stark shift in the terrain. Lathermia was a snowscape spread out over mountains and stretches of tundra. It felt like we were inside of a snow-globe. Unfortunately, my leafy dress was not insulated. My teeth started chattering. Queen Piria flew near my ear.
We were suddenly wretched downward, and my dragonfly smacked the water. The cold was… not sweet when we submerged. After the initial shock, every part of me went numb. I gasped, somehow able to breathe underwater. Like my Carri-Sect comrades, I fought against a seaweed netting that was pulling us upwards. The glowing sea life below didn’t stir in the commotion.
When we surfaced, our net was drawn toward a Seawall Waker. He had his spear pointed at us, and the seaweed was retracting from its tip. A few other Seawall Wakers stood beside him, armed and soaked with water. The Czar stepped in front of me with a grin.