I headed to my room, sounds of talking drifting toward me from the kitchen. I probably should’ve taken a bath, but instead, I just changed clothes and washed my face, arms, and hands, then took out my braid and tried to brush the little chunks of mortar from it.
Aaren must’ve done about the same, because I heard his soft knock on the kitchen door when I walked down the hallway.
I came around the corner into my kitchen, and saw my parents, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Williams, Aaren’s dad, and a man I didn’t know at the table. Aaren and I slipped into the two empty seats at the end of one of the sides.
“Hey, pumpkin,” my dad said.
I almost ducked when all eyes focused on me. “Hi, Dad.”
“Luke, this is my daughter, Hope, and her friend Aaren. Hope and Aaren, this is Luke Strickland. We’ve already offered him wealth and compliments. Right now, we are making friendly conversation in hopes that we will endear ourselves to him enough that he’ll agree to be our guide.” My dad winked, and everyone laughed at his candor.
Luke tipped his head at us. I gave him a polite smile as my dad got up and helped my mom place steaming platters of potatoes, roast beef, gravy, and green beans in the middle of the table.
I kept staring at the man while the adults talked. His hair was dark, thick, and cut short. I knew I’d never seen him before, but for some reason, he looked familiar. Not as though I knew him exactly; more like he reminded me of someone.
Once my parents sat down, Mr. Williams said, “Tell us about the trail between here and the Rockies.”
Luke snorted. “Well, for starters, there isn’t a ‘trail.’ More like open space, gullies, unpredictable weather, bandits, and infrequent towns. It’s a fairly straight shot from here, though, and White Rock River will be at your right for most of your journey. Your best chance to get past bandits without too much trouble is if you take as few people as possible. Bigger groups tend to attract them more. Then get the best horses around and make the trip on horseback. You could get there in seven or eight days.”
My dad shook his head. “We’ll take a small group, and we do have the best horses, but we’ll need to take a trailer.”
“Not as safe,” Luke said, “and it’ll take you probably twice as long that way.”
I did the math in my head. Twice that long there and twice that long back meant somewhere between twenty-four and twenty-eight days, plus however long it took to find and mine the seforium. I looked at my dad in alarm, and he looked at Luke.
“We only have twenty-one days.”
Luke cut a few pieces of his meat. “If luck goes with you, there’s a chance you can make it. Not a great chance, but a chance.” He narrowed his eyes at my dad. “Mind telling me what kind of cargo you’re planning on that requires a trailer?”
Mr. Hudson glanced at my dad and my dad gave him a small nod. “This,” he said as he pulled the orange stone from his jacket pocket. “I’m sure you saw the fissures on the side of the mountain on your way into White Rock?”
“Hard to miss,” Luke said.
“In powder form, this will counteract the gases being released from those fissures that are causing the Bomb’s Breath to lower. Within a few weeks, it will lower to the height of our homes. A few days after that, it will have dropped to the height of the fissures, making White Rock unlivable.”
Luke studied Mr. Hudson and the stone, as though he was calculating something. “There’s a town at the Rockies—Heaven’s Reach—that mines all kinds of minerals. They’re self-sufficient so they don’t need many supplies, and they aren’t trusting of strangers, but if you negotiate well, they might make a trade. If you can pay, that could save you some time.”
Everyone seemed to let out a breath of relief at the same time. They might not need to search for the seforium, or worry that they couldn’t find it or mine it quickly enough!
“We can pay,” my dad said.
Aaren leaned in close and whispered, “I bet he’s talking about the Ameiphus! My mom’s been working on getting the last few batches finished.”
“Good,” Luke said. “There’s also a trading town along the way—Glacier City—where you can buy feed for your horses on the way there and the way back, so you won’t have to carry so much extra weight. It’ll help you to travel more quickly.”
“Good to know,” my dad said.
Luke dug into his potatoes. He seemed to be deep in thought, and no one talked.
After a minute or two that seemed like an eternity, my dad said, “We have twenty-one days from tomorrow morning. Will you help us?”
“It’s dangerous.”
My dad didn’t take his eyes off Luke. “We’ll pay you well.”
Everyone around the table leaned in, concerned and hopeful looks on their faces.
“There’s something you should know about the place with the minerals,” Luke said. “The entire town of Heaven’s Reach resides above the air of the Bomb’s Breath.”
“What?” my dad said. “You can’t be serious!”
Luke shrugged.
I focused on Mr. Williams, who had turned pale. He was the only one going from the council, so he would be handling negotiations with whoever was in charge at Heaven’s Reach. My dad would never make anyone go anywhere near the Bomb’s Breath, though, and after Mr. Williams’s dog, Sandy, died in the Bomb’s Breath a few months ago, he would especially never make Mr. Williams go.
My dad’s forehead crinkled. “But how do they—”
“They have some kind of device that they wear that allows them to pass through the Bomb’s Breath without dying, but I’ve never seen one for sale.”
“Will they come down to trade?” my dad asked.
Luke shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve seen the mayor and others from their town, and even traded with them. There’s just no way to let them know to come down to talk with you. It definitely could be faster to get the seforium from them than to find it yourself. But as likely as not, you’ll have to wait weeks for them to happen to come down. Going there to get the seforium might be a much faster option, or it could make you lose a lot of time. Hard to say.”
I opened my mouth, and my words came out as a croak: “I could go.”
I cleared my throat, then repeated, “I could go.” I swear I hadn’t even considered going before I opened my mouth, especially after listening to last night’s council meeting and hearing about how dangerous the trip would be. But then I thought of my dream where I did nothing, and added, “Then you’ll have someone to go through the Bomb’s Breath to get the mayor.”
Luke gave me a strange look—somewhere between curiosity and awe. Something I wasn’t used to seeing when I talked about going through the Bomb’s Breath. “If you’ve got someone who’ll go through the Bomb’s Breath, then your group has a chance and I’ll be your guide. If she really can, that’d keep everyone from having to wait until the people of Heaven’s Reach needed to come down on their own.”
I nodded my head, feeling more and more like I had to go with every second that passed.
My dad crossed his arms. “No.”
“She could go up as soon as you got there,” Luke said. “Let the mayor know that you need him to come down and negotiate a trade. Cut out all the waiting.”
“No,” my dad repeated. “I’m not sending my child into danger.”
“There’s danger here, Dad! And no one in the group will go through the Bomb’s Breath, but I will. I want to, and you need me to go. Everyone will keep me safe.” I was sure there were other things I should say to talk him into it, but I couldn’t think what they might be. All I knew was that I had to go. I couldn’t stay here and not help when they needed me.
“We will,” Mr. Williams said.
“I’ll protect her with my life,” Aaren’s dad said. “We all will.”
Mr. Hudson cleared his throat. “I’m not thrilled about sending a child, either. But if there’s a better chance the team can get the seforium if Hope will go through the Bomb’s Breath and up to Heav
en’s Reach, I think we need to entertain that idea. If we don’t succeed, we lose everything.”
Goose bumps started on my head and rushed down my back and arms. “Please? I need to do this.”
“And I could go, too,” Aaren said. “Then she wouldn’t have to be the only kid going.”
There was a long silence.
The moment my dad opened his mouth to speak, I could tell that his answer was going to be no. But before he got a chance, in a quiet voice, my mom spoke. “David, I think we should let her go.”
My dad stared at my mom for a long moment, then walked out the back door, letting it slam behind him. I stood up when I heard my dad’s heavy boots clomp down the wooden stairs to the yard.
My mom glanced at the door. “I think he needs a minute alone.”
I looked around the table at all the eyes that were on me. Giving me looks full of questions and worry and pity and expectations. I took that as my cue to leave. “Excuse me,” I mumbled. I gave Aaren’s sleeve a little tug, then headed for the front porch.
Aaren and I sat and watched as the sun set behind the crater, throwing brilliant colors across the sky. I stared at the way the trees became silhouettes, their new leaves sprouting into the sunset.
“Are you sure you want to go?” Aaren’s voice was soft, but still made me jump. “It sounds pretty scary.”
Images from my dream flashed into my mind, reminding me how terrible it felt to not do anything while the Bomb’s Breath came down. Now that there was a chance I might help, there was no way I could stay here. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Because you want to get out of rebuilding houses?”
I surprised myself and laughed.
“Oh, wait. No—you’re afraid that school will start again, and you’re trying to miss out on inventions class.”
I laughed again and punched him in the arm.
“You know, they could make you ride in a cramped trailer the whole way. Or walk the whole way. Or they might give you a horse, but it’ll be Chance.”
“You volunteered to go, too. Are you sure you want to go?”
“Of course!” He bit his lip. “If I can talk my parents into it.”
I bumped my shoulder into his. “They said this trip could be dangerous. So we probably need someone who knows about being a doctor.”
He grinned.
“You go work on your parents. I’ll work on my dad.”
* * *
When I found my dad, he was leaning against the wooden fence that separated the backyard from the fields, staring out over sprouting carrot tops colored a weird shade of orange from the remnants of the sunset.
“I’m not afraid,” I said.
“I can’t go.” His voice was almost pleading. “This town needs a leader now more than ever, but still, I’d leave everything that needs to be done to someone else. I’d go with you in a heartbeat if it meant keeping you safe. But this leg—” He gestured with both hands to the spot where Mickelson shot him four months ago. “I couldn’t make it five miles on a horse, let alone five hundred. I can’t keep you safe unless you stay here.”
“Nowhere is perfectly safe, Dad. Not even here. Especially not here. If I don’t go, then here might be the most dangerous place there is. Sometimes you have to take a risk.”
“Sometimes I think you’re too much like me.” My dad sighed. “And sometimes I think we’re nothing alike. I’ve never been as daring as you are. Your willingness, your bravery … It still doesn’t make it easy to let you leave, you know.”
“But we have to get the mineral in time.”
My dad dropped his head and stared at the wooden plank that formed the top of the fence for a long time.
I looked across the fields as the last bits of dusk faded away.
“Let’s go in,” my dad said. “The expedition leaves in the morning whether we’re ready for it or not.”
“Sorry about the bumps,” Aaren’s dad said from my favorite horse Arabelle’s back. “This road took more damage than we thought.”
In the predawn light, the open cart rocked back and forth as Arabelle pulled it along the third ring road, headed to the clearing by the tunnel opening. She wasn’t moving very fast, so Aaren and I left my parents sitting in it with our luggage and jumped out. After the stress of trying to talk my parents into letting me go, our rush to get everything packed, and people continuing to come over to our house long after I had finally gotten to bed, I was edgy.
Aaren’s dad pulled Arabelle to a stop at the tunnel opening, near a trailer and a dozen people making preparations for the group to leave. I grabbed my bags and trotted ahead.
The trailer we were taking was one we almost never used in White Rock, but they always used it on scavenging runs or to trade with another town. It was a big, sturdy rectangular box on wheels, with doors at the back that opened as wide as the trailer.
Mr. Williams marked things off a checklist as he directed everyone in rearranging the gear in the trailer. Aaren and I handed his older brother Cole and Mr. Williams’s daughter Cass our bags, and they put them in with all the rest.
Luke walked up to me and my parents. “Morning. I assume you have the Ameiphus you plan to use as payment well hidden?”
“We do,” my dad said. “Seven hundred doses, with fifty of them in a smaller bag, in case a trade along the way is needed.” Then he turned to me. “You can still say no. You don’t have to go.”
“Dad,” I said, “I’ll be fine.”
Then his eyes shifted to something away from me, and he said, “Brock?”
I whirled around and saw Brock at the back of the trailer with his arms full of supplies.
“Brock!” I called out. “Are you going with us?” After how hard it was for Aaren and me to talk our parents into letting us go, I didn’t think there was a chance in the world that Brock would also be able to go.
My dad raised his eyebrows at Mr. Williams. “Please tell me he’s only here to help load things.”
“Well, not exactly,” Mr. Williams said. “The kid’s determined to go. Mark my words—if we leave him behind, he’ll find a way to sneak out and join us. I figured if we take him, we can keep him safer than if he’s by himself, trying to catch up with us.”
“Brock,” my dad called out, then motioned for him to come over. “Why do you want to go so badly?”
Brock shrugged. “White Rock helped me and my family.” Then he glanced at Aaren and me. “And friends look out for each other.”
My dad studied him for a moment. I hoped he was thinking that it would be cruel to tell Brock no when both Aaren and I were going. And that it wouldn’t be right if it wasn’t all three of us. “Is your mom okay with this?”
“She’s okay enough.”
My dad rubbed his hand across his forehead.
“We’ll keep the kids out of harm’s way,” Mr. Williams said.
My dad shook his head as though he wasn’t comfortable with any of the three of us going, but he turned to Mr. Williams anyway. “Everything ready?”
Mr. Williams said he thought so, and they walked to the trailer to make a last-minute check. Brock took that as permission to go, and the three of us picked up the remaining bags from the cart and loaded them into the trailer before we walked back to my mom.
When it was time to say goodbye, my dad limped over to us. “Be safe.”
“Three weeks is a long time,” my mom said.
I had only slept outside of White Rock once in my entire life—the night we’d spent in Browning when the bandits came four months ago. Three weeks sounded impossibly long.
She cocked her head. “You’ll be fine, though?”
“I will.”
Yes, I was sad. And a little scared. But as people started untying the horses’ reins and leading them into the tunnel, an excitement crept in. I was going to see places and people and things I had never seen before. When the trailer started moving toward the tunnel, the excitement overtook the sadness. The trailer, pulled by two horses and
led by Mr. Williams, made the turn into the tunnel, and Aaren’s dad, Luke, Cole, and Cass walked behind it, leading the seven horses we were taking. I gave my parents one last goodbye, and then ran with Brock and Aaren to catch up as they strode past the sentry guards and into the tunnel.
When we walked through the tunnel this time, I made sure to keep my eyes off the miles of rock above us. It helped that the mountain no longer groaned. I bent toward Aaren and spoke barely loud enough to be heard over the rushing of the river. “What happened after you left last night?”
Aaren shrugged. “Big family meeting. My mom already hated that my dad and my brother Cole were going. And Cole’s seven years older than me! My mom said it was too dangerous and if something bad happened, then she’d lose two kids. Then I said I should go because it was dangerous—the group would need a doctor. She said she really had to train someone who wasn’t one of her offspring to be the backup doctor. But, eventually, they decided I could go.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “Cole and your dad, too. What did your mom say, Brock, when you told her you wanted to come?”
Brock stared up at the tunnel ceiling for a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t know—I wasn’t there. I left her a note.”
I gasped. “You didn’t ask her?”
“What happens when she finds out?” Aaren asked.
“It won’t be as bad for me as it was for you two. When my family lived in Browning and I moved to White Rock to take care of my grandpa, I lived without them for almost a year. My family can handle it.”
“Yes,” I said, trying to keep my voice a whispered yell instead of an actual yell. “But you were safe in White Rock.”
“Yeah, sure I was,” Brock said. “Until bandits attacked.”
“Good point,” I admitted.
He shrugged. “We’ll be safe.”
I had been so focused on our conversation, I hadn’t noticed that we’d reached the end of the tunnel until I saw the sunshine on Brock’s face. We were officially out of White Rock, and beginning our expedition.
The sun hadn’t risen high enough to peek over the mountain in White Rock, but as I walked into the open, I had to squint against its brightness. And there was no haze! I hadn’t realized how bad it had gotten in our valley until I saw the blue sky above us.
Sky Jumpers Book 2 Page 4
