His eyes slowly roamed down my figure, then back up. A chill moved from my chest to the fingertips as he paused at my mouth, then leveled his gaze with mine. I swallowed, thinking back to when I towered over him as a kid. When exactly did he get taller than me? And most importantly, did I want to kiss him? There wasn’t much time left to think it over.
Like a wish granted, the manager rose from the ground like a bobcat between us. “WHAT IS THIS?” He bellowed. “THE GREAT FLOOD? JAX! CLEAN UP THIS LAKE BEFORE THE INSPECTORS SLAP US WITH A VIOLATION!” The manager snatched my arm and pushed me towards the door, huffing under his breath all the way. With one hand, I tried to wring my shirt out on him playfully.
“Lava,” Jax called after me. When I turned, he scratched his elbow and spoke to the floor. “I’ll go,” he mumbled. “If you come here at five.” With a stretch, Jax nonchalantly unsheathed a mop from its bucket. Part of me hoped he would wash it away: the evidence of what just happened.
Before I could head upstairs, Uncle Mason called to me from the couch. Uncle Hugo was leading an evening yoga class on the lawn. Beyond the window was a dozen reclined pigeon poses. Uncle Mason asked where I had been all afternoon. Why I had missed dinner. And why I didn’t answer my phone. I hadn’t told him I knew about my kidnapping. I still felt betrayed in a way. I mean, if he was hiding this for so long, he must be hiding other things too.
“Well, where did your digital tracker say I was?”
He closed his tablet and clasped his hands over his belly. “School, and then Silver Heights,” he said.
“Obvious hotspots for deviant activity.”
He patted the cushion beside him but I pretended not to notice. “What are you keeping from me?” He asked with a sigh.
“You tell me first.” Uncle Mason responded with a puzzled expression. So I went up to my room.
When Dad and Aza disappeared, my uncles took over as my constants. Even when I was a cataclysmic mess, they were right there. So why would they be acting this way? I unhooked a bra from my doorknob and held it above the laundry basket. Before I let go, I thought of Aza’s pushups that I tried to adopt as a kid. It brought me back to a time in my childhood:
“That was sweet of Jax for trying to protect you,” Uncle Hugo said, dabbing my cuts with lavender oil.
Pouting, with legs dangling from the toilet, I folded my arms. “It would have been sweeter if he actually saved us,” I muttered.“He just got beat up too.”
Uncle Mason shuffled into the bathroom with a box of band-aids. He set it atop the hamper and pierced me with a look of authority. “Are you Aza Dazzle?” He asked, stooping down to my level. “Because Lava wouldn’t put up her dragon dukes.”
“But they were making fun of my big girl bra,” I said. “Aza’s bra.”
“Remind me again— who are you?” Mason’s tone eased up. I bit my lip, reluctant to speak. He yanked playfully at my ponytail. “If I’m correct, you are a fiery liquid with the strength to freeze a civilization into magma-statues.” My tight features were placed on slack as I smirked.
“You are also the best salad-preparation goddess,” Hugo chimed in.
“And partner in pranking,” Uncle Mason elbowed me with a wink. My eyes switched between theirs, full of love and vulnerability. Mason picked me up from the armpits and held me like a koala joey.
“I am Lava,” I whispered into his shirt. “But I want to be Aza Dazzle.”
“Oh sweet peach—”
“And how’s that working for you?” Mason interrupted gruffly. “Being Aza?”
I balled up his cotton shirt with my fists, frustrated by my own realization. “I can’t do it,” I confessed, succumbing to tears. “Her bras don’t fit me.”
He roared with laughter, his belly shaking up and down and taking me along for the ride. “I’d hope not,” he said. “There’s eight years between you two.”
“And we switched you over to nut milk to prevent early pubescent development,” Uncle Hugo interjected, patting a frog bandage on my knee. “Anyway, sweet peach, let’s go to the store today. We’ll buy you bras that are comfortable. And that fit.”
“Lava-Guava bras?” I asked timidly.
“Because you are Lava-Guava,” Uncle Hugo swayed my foot with his hand. “And we love you, just as you are.”
Now who could stay angry after remembering that? I tossed the bra in the laundry basket, then added a few socks. My uncles may be hiding things from me, but they most likely had good reasons for it. For as long as I can remember, they were my allies, my protectors. Even in adulthood, that hadn’t changed. To be fair, right now I was hiding things from them too. And that wasn’t about to change. But I should probably be less snarky while doing it.
Though I had a few hours to kill before going to sleep, my wrist tattoo started throbbing, even shimmering. It felt like I was pressing it against a hot iron. For some reason, I was then overwhelmed by drowsiness. My body tipped over as soon as I sat on the bed.
Chapter 15
***
As weird as this sounded, my tattoos were telling me to go to the ziggurat temple. Immediately. Using the banyan tree by my balcony, I climbed down to the courtyard. The place was teeming with cicadas. If his temple was behind the castle, it must be beyond the lavender bushes. I ran towards them, and then halted, ducking behind the purple flowers.
The Czar was standing in the clearing, head lowered. At his feet were three stones. He knelt down to replace the glowing flowers on them. The newer ones had jewels for petals. He lowered them gently, and paused for a moment beside the stones. Then he got up and returned to the castle.
As I passed the stones, I noticed there were no engravings. Nothing appeared to be special aside from the jeweled flowers. Though I was curious, more voices stirred in the courtyard, so I continued on towards the temple. And finally there it was, a massive stone cutout at the base of the falls. It was covered with moss and vines. Ceph greeted me at the entrance and ushered me inside.
“Guardian Char,” he belauded. “It is an honor to see you again.” I avoided his slime trail as he led me to the sanctuary. “There is a Binding ambush off the premises,” he said. “The Czar is leading it and you must intercede.” He fumbled in the belly of a low cabinet, then took out a small vial. “A gift from our first protector: Guardian Blackout,” he said, handing it to me. I rolled it over in my fingers, the liquid within thick and black. “Here, you were given the power of illumination,” Ceph explained as he tapped the glass. “She was given the power of invisibility.”
According to Ceph, Blackout’s powers manifested just as mine did: a whole-body radiance that cast itself to all surroundings. The fuel for these powers was positive memories. With the help of Ceph, Blackout managed to create a serum that would transfer this power to someone else, for a specific time.
He gave me a black cloak and I threw it over my head. “Please tell me I have reinforcements,” I said. But he shook his head, gesturing for me to drink the serum. “Hold on. I’m no match for the Czar as I am.”
He placed another bottle in the pocket of my cloak. “Unbinding salve,” he said. “It should break the binds.” Should? “And, if I may, Guardian Char,” Ceph knelt before me. “It is not just your strength that you carry.”
I swallowed, thinking of Aza, Dad, Hakim, Jeba, and Queen Piria. Maybe I wasn’t just fighting for them, but rather with them. And Hakim had said something else I remembered:
There are some things only you can do.
Without a second thought, I downed the blackout liquid. It had a woodsmokey aftertaste, and made me a little dizzy. Ceph guided me to a full length mirror and I almost didn’t believe it. My skin and hair were five shades darker than they normally were, legs were longer, torso curvier. My skin was still covered in yellow flowers, but the eyes staring back were different, and definitely not my own. How was this possible— I had turned into Aza. No way. Their Blackout Guardian was…
“Go quickly,” Ceph said, pushing me towards the door. “The
effects are temporary, and I cannot say how long they will last. But find safety when the powers wane.”
Just beyond the marketplace, Renezen had a band of Wakers rounded up in three glass bottom canoes. Many were crying as the oarsmen headed towards the palace gates. Renezen was seated at the stern. In stealth, I was gliding in a boat behind them. The plan was to send a solid blackout across this place and to save the Wakers. Yeah, that was really as far as I had gotten.
The Czar’s boat suddenly stopped and so I did too. With a memory, I covered myself with a blanket of darkness. He peeked out across the ocean, waving a hand for the others to be still. This was my chance. With all my meditative powers, I slowly unfolded a black quilt over this place. Not a shimmer of light survived, not even for the underwater creatures. The people in the boats started screaming.
Like a cat, I was still able to see. I parked my boat inches from the Czar’s, with conscious intent to distract instead of harm. That should keep my intent monitor happy, right? With a baseball windup, I knocked the Czar into the water with my oar. I leapt to the other boats, scrappily overtaking the blinded oarsmen with Kibo. Once the guards were overboard, I instructed the Wakers to paddle their boats back towards the marketplace.
Only then did my adrenaline surge catch up with me. Nausea and dizziness hit hard, and I sank to my knees. The blackout started peeling back. Bright creatures were splayed out beneath us and the oarsmen were pulling themselves onboard the canoe we left. The Czar was righted at the stern.
For a petrified moment, our eyes met. Game over. When Renezen pointed a finger at our boat, the lights went out again. Instead of a slow span, the blackness returned via switch. Followed by an expansive, guttural growl. The sound was eerily familiar to the blizzard monster in Lathermia. Hakim had said it was God, right?
Whatever the case, here was a second chance. My night vision returned to me and the Wakers kept paddling with my instruction. We took a few detours and finally made it the Aril River embankment. I applied the salve to their Binds and the clasps broke apart. They were beyond overjoyed: some danced and some lifted others up on their shoulders.
“A million thanks, Madam,” one said to me. “We all know what a boat ride to the castle means.”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
With a sad smile, she shrugged. “That you’ll never come back.”
I managed to find my way back to Ceph in one piece. Queen Piria was with him, and she noisily pushed me out the door again for combat training. Before leaving, I stole a glance in Ceph’s mirror. My body was mine again. Shape, height, everything. I thought back to the boat, when my darkness rolled away; when the Czar looked at me, did he see me or Aza?
Nez found me in the courtyard. I was leaning forward with hands on my knees, breathing heavily. Give me a break— I literally bolted here from the temple. He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Hey Nez,” I managed. “Got here a little early, so I went for a run around the gardens.” Even I was unconvinced.
He dipped a hand into the fountain. Follow me.
Nez brought me out to the steaming ocean behind the castle. The air was warm and salt-scented. He stepped out of our glass bottom boat and walked on the water. With his presence, a network of gold veins spiderwebbed across the surface. After pulling his hair back, Nez gestured for me to fight.
Use your powers with Kibo, he instructed, tapping his shoulder. The Czar deactivated your chip. Oh, score! I gingerly followed Nez out of the boat, toppling into the water with my first step. Clearly I was off to a great start. The charm of the ocean wrapped around me like a bathrobe, enchanting my thoughts and emotions. I could stay down here for a bit longer, listening to the pulse of this smooth heartbeat… Nez would wait…
A memory of a floating corpse snapped me back to the present. My rational thoughts unloaded themselves all at once: if I didn’t get out of here, I’d be death’s dessert. With clarity of mind, I radiated brightly as I lowered into the sea depths. Creatures swam around me, some attracted, others repelled. A tuna fish emerged from below and headed skyward. I latched onto it,[ like] an impromptu passenger. Overhead, thousands of bait fish were spiraling in the light I had produced. The tuna was pleasantly engorging on them all the way to the surface. As I grabbed onto the boat, I took a gratifying breath.
Nez eyed me with boredom. Give up? That was always an option, wasn’t it?
Some time after Dad disappeared, I made maps to figure out where he had gone to. Their layouts were based off of his favorite places. Every day after school I would follow the path until I hit X. At one point, I had the maps memorized by heart. However, wherever I went, my father wasn’t there. One day I came home to find all of my maps deposited in the shredder. Mom assured me I wasn’t capable of finding my father. According to her, brilliant and sinister people had taken dad. And I was no match for them.
Though this was probably true, I was still devastated. Sitting on the kitchen floor with strips of paper in my lap, I couldn’t stop crying. It seemed like my sister appeared within moments of my phone call. She swaddled me in a cigarette-scented jacket and rubbed my shoulders.
“You’re giving up?” She asked tenderly.
“I’m not smart enough,” I sobbed.
“It’s not about smarts,” she clarified, my head in her hands. I had nowhere else to look but into her thunderous eyes. She smiled. “Do you love enough?”
With a boost of confidence, I lit up again. Fish began swimming around me. Two of them actually molded to my feet like small water skis. When Nez approached, they careened diabolically in his direction. We knocked him over by pure shock. Wow could these guys jump from zero to one hundred.
When Nez righted himself, he launched a brick of water at me; golden ribbons were fluttering through it, and around Nez’s body. His eye was blazing. Something told me he wouldn’t be easy on me.
Using the speed of light, I dodged his water. The fish countered with an underwater marine attack. Though I wasn’t sure why the seafolk were helping me, I was grateful. Colorful fish leapt at him from the water, increasing in number as he got closer to me. Visibly irritated, Nez froze the sea. The creatures fell to the golden ice sheet and shivered, dimming to a mottled grey as they lay dying. My feet were locked in place, still gripped by the now frozen fish beneath me.
Nez approached confidently, white hair carried in the warm wind. Even now, I could still do something, right? But what? Okay, let’s see if this works.
I unleashed an atomic bomb of light energy, thawing the waters instantly, and saving those dying fish. The light mushroomed up and outward, consuming the darkness of Nightworld. For a minute, those living here knew day. As I tucked away the memory, my body cooled and the light diminished to a faint skin-glow. I instinctively searched for Nez’s stunned expression. But he wasn’t there. When the feet fish released me, I dropped into the ocean again.
This time, the water’s seductive voice was like white noise. I projected a garish brilliance throughout the sea, and finally found him, pierced and pinned by a coral reef. He would’ve had to displace this whole ocean to save himself. When I reached Nez, he was unconscious. I extricated him from the coral, and we rode a predatory fish to the surface.
On the beach, I pressed an ear to Nez’s chest; it rose and fell, but there was a rattling sound. Curiously, I pulled back his tunic. Blue-green wave art rolled up his muscled stomach. The stone fixed to his chest was fluttering and weakly blinking. Touching the scar tissue around it, I realized this was a surgical feat. So technically this man had two hearts. One, or both, made of stone.
To add to the excitement, the dragon-like creature from my Lathermian escapade emerged from the water and approached us. While I was frozen in place, it lowered its white neck and nuzzled Nez. Then it turned to me, purring. Okay then. I pulled Nez up on the creature’s back. It took us across the water to Ceph’s temple.
“His stone is called Fluta,” Ceph explained. “It’s a gem with water charming properties. Very rare. A gif
t from the Earth Earl.” Ceph crushed up jewels and herbs using a mortar and pestle. “However it doesn’t take kindly to a host. Almost has a mind of its own.” He looked over at Nez’s body, lying motionless on the bed. I had just redressed his flank bandages. My palms were pressing on them to control the bleeding.
“Who did this to him?” I asked.
“I did,” he said, crawling over to us. Using many tentacles, Ceph started applying salve to his abdomen. “A three day procedure. Enough pain for a man’s lifetime. And he was just a boy.” After a thoughtful pause, he continued. “But look at how this has benefited him. He healed nicely under my care. He learned to charm water and use it to help the people here live. And in doing so, he has earned a noble rank.” I took a sponge and wiped away the sweat from his hairline. His breathing was still shallow. According to Ceph, the coral punctured a kidney. The properties of Fluta ultimately saved him from bleeding out internally.
Wakers: Sayonara Sleep Page 10
