Maia and the Secrets of Zagran (The Lightbound Saga Book 2)

by S. G. Basu

  When Maia sat up in her bed, still reeling from the numbing heaviness of her dream, she had no idea of how badly things were broken in the real world. She found both Dani and Nafi missing from the dorm. Anja, who was the first to wake up any given day, informed her that Dani had left while she was still sleeping, and Nafi left a little later. Then, as Maia waited at the atrium for the boys to show up for their usual walk together to the RC, Jiri stopped by.

  “They both left pretty early, Maia,” he informed. “Would you like to walk with us instead?”

  And so it was. No notes, no messages from anyone. They were just gone. Maia wanted to be angry, but she felt only sadness at the situation. Her team was like her family away from home, and the last thing she wanted was for it to fall apart.

  “I have to talk to Dani,” she whispered to herself as she walked to the RC with Jiri, Anja, and the rest of Core 13.

  Breakfast that morning turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. Maia realized that since her own team had such strong bonds of friendship, she had not had the time or the need to talk to people outside the group. Even after spending almost a year with Jiri, Anja, and many more, they were all strangers. Had she met them outside the classrooms, she wouldn’t know their names and probably would barely recognize their faces. And she felt ashamed at herself at the thought.

  “We should’ve spoken before,” she confessed to Nair, a boy who sat next to her, who was as pleasant and friendly as could be. “I mean, it’s crazy that I didn’t spend much time with any of you before today.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Maia.” Luem, a Jjord boy on Jiri’s team, shook his dreadlocked head vehemently. “We’ve all been so busy with whatever they throw at us—we’ve hardly had a chance of having fun together.”

  “I just can’t wait to see Ren race that snooty girl,” Corinilus said as he passed around bowls of steaming hot morning grub. He was another friendly Jjord on Jiri’s team. Maia noted how his green eyes always twinkled. “I sure hope he wins.”

  “Keep hoping, Corin,” Anja said from across the table. “And keep praying. It’ll take a lot of good thoughts to get Loriine beaten. You have to admit, she’s good in the Convolhydrae.”

  “Ren is not bad either,” Jiri countered. “All he needs is a little practice. I bet he’s working on a good plan, which is why he’s missing.”

  Maia nodded. She had no doubts that Ren would at least give Loriine a spirited fight to the end. She also hoped that Loriine would remain smug and overconfident, and not take the possibility of losing the race very seriously. That could swing things a lot in Ren’s favor, and he needed every little help to win.

  Maia walked into Palak’s classroom with these thoughts swimming in her head. Kusha sat alone at his desk working intently with parts and pieces of his micro-converter. He looked up and smiled when he saw Maia approaching. If what the sage had said about her dreams being real was true, Kusha was going to get hurt in some way, and Maia decided to warn him.

  “Be careful, Kusha,” Maia said after quickly narrating what she had seen.

  Kusha laughed when he had heard the details of her nightmare.

  “Maia, it’s something your mind conjured up after hearing my story. I mean, think about it, you heard about my lineage and you saw me as king. Then you were upset and worried because I fell and hurt myself while climbing down those ladders to meet Bikele, so that must’ve triggered the part about my injury.”

  “I hope it’s just a stupid dream and nothing more,” Maia said ruefully. She was a little upset at being laughed at, but Kusha’s logic sounded reasonable. It must have been just her mind playing tricks.

  “You left early this morning,” she said, and Kusha apologized immediately.

  “Sorry, Maia. I should’ve left a note or something. I just wanted to get away quickly.”

  “Kusha . . .” Maia decided to make good use of this opportunity to bring up Dani. “I know you’re upset, but I think you need to speak to Dani. You really need to tell her what you told us. She will understand, I’m sure.”

  Kusha shrugged. “I’m not upset,” he declared emphatically. “If she doesn’t like me, that’s her problem, not mine.”

  “But, Kusha—”

  “Just look at this, Maia,” he said, changing the subject. “Look at the circuits I modeled. You know, these ideas came to me right after I woke up this morning, and I had to run out and start working on them as soon as I could.”

  The component of the hydrosol converter Kusha had built looked beautiful indeed. It was intricately sewn together like something Palak would have done himself. All of the contestants had been struggling to put together the tiny components with as much care and dedication as they could, but working on the miniature units with magnifying glasses and scopes and microscopic instruments was nowhere near easy. First, the parts had to be built to the right size, and then they had to be fit inside the shell of the hydrosol converter. Every day Maia and her teammates ended up producing clunky replicas of the ones that Palak had shown them. This went on for days, an endless and frustrating endeavor of building, disassembling, and rebuilding. But now, finally, Kusha seemed to have mastered a good technique. He eagerly described his new methods to Maia as she studied his little piece of art closely. She hardly noticed when Ren had walked in.

  “Wow, that is so cool,” he exclaimed when Kusha had finished. “Hope it works for me too.”

  “What were you up to all morning, Ren?” Maia asked.

  “I was reading about milk squids and their behavioral keys.” Ren flung his satchel on his desk and sat down noisily next to it. “I thought I should know as much as I could about Chylomyhrra if I wanted to get the best out of her.”

  Ren eagerly related all he had found about milk squids—their high intelligence, their ability to bond with humankind, and their astounding group behavior. He was about done when Dani rushed in. She looked excited and very happy as she sat down next to Ren.

  “I found a practice ground,” she whispered. “We can use it every night this week. Now all we need is to transport Chylomyhrra and your gear to this place and we can start.”

  “Wish we could’ve just asked Dill to send her there,” Ren said with a chuckle. “We could also have borrowed the gear from him.”

  “Would’ve been nice if we could ask Dill,” Dani laughed, “but he won’t give us permission for unregulated and unsupervised underwater exercises. Although, he might let us borrow the gear if we tell him we want to study it closely.”

  “I’ll try to make Chylomyhrra meet me at this place you’ve found. I better read up some more on visual transmissions,” Ren said thoughtfully, pulling out a couple of books from his satchel. “One book said milk squids use telepathic signals for communicating among themselves—maybe we could use that somehow.”

  “You figure that out while I get some more things arranged for this evening.” Dani turned toward Maia next. “I need your help after we’ve finished with Dill’s class.”

  “All right,” Maia said before heading back to her desk as Palak marched in for the session.

  Soon the screens lit up with charts, diagrams, and models. It was a long session and a tedious one to sit through, especially since Maia’s mind was mostly buzzing with thoughts about the upcoming race. She could hardly focus through the day, and by the looks of it, none of her friends seemed to fare any better. Nafi did not show up for either session; her desk remained conspicuously empty, drawing curious stares from everyone. Curiously enough, neither instructor showed the slightest interest in the case of the missing Nafi.

  ***

  Maia found Nafi sitting on her bed surrounded by a pile of thick books when they returned to the dorm that evening. She looked up as Dani and Maia entered, and a content smile lit up her face. Maia stole a glance at the book the girl held in her arms. It was titled, A Psycho-Historical Study of the Solianese Social Structure.

  “What’s all this you’re reading?” Maia asked, looking curiously at the other books s
trewn around Nafi. All of them had equally impressive and intimidating names.

  “Stuff,” Nafi replied vaguely.

  “And where were you all day?”

  “Had to collect these books, so I took a leave of absence from Palak and Dill.”

  “That explains why they didn’t ask us about you.” Dani flipped the pages of the thickest book, A Brief History of Post-Modern Times. Given its ample girth, Maia doubted if there was anything remotely brief in it. Dani went on to explain their plans for the night. “Maia, Ren, and I are going to the practice grounds tonight. Ren will try to get Chylomyhrra there, and we’ll likely be practicing late into the night.”

  “Okay, good.” Nafi almost sounded relieved. She did not ask another question like Maia expected her to. “I need to get some reading completed. Good luck with the training.”

  They did not stay in the dorm much longer. Leaving Nafi buried up to her neck in books, the girls took off even before Anja, Loriine, and Baecca had returned from the RC.

  “Where’s Ren now?” Maia asked, rushing to keep up with Dani, who strode quickly across the atrium toward the elevator doors.

  “He’ll meet us at the fiftieth. We’re going to the tenth floor again. We’ll take the service elevators down from the fiftieth this time though,” Dani disclosed her plans as they zoomed downward in the elevator. “As you know, the entryways below Zagran are highly protected. Not only by security personnel who monitor the rim of these channels, but also by the layout of these channels themselves. They’re arranged like a maze, and only the most-gifted navigator with the most-detailed map will be able to get through these narrow, dark water alleys. These are mostly abandoned now, but there was a time when they were watched around the clock. With the help of a friend, I’ve located an old monitoring post. A few monitors there still work, and we’ll use them to observe Ren and clock his timings as he swims the channels with Chylomyhrra.”

  “What about the security?” Maia asked. “Won’t they stop us?”

  “They won’t see us. Remember, they only actively monitor the rim now,” Dani explained.

  “And how would Chylomyhrra get there?” Maia asked as they got off at the fiftieth floor. This whole plan sounded quite complicated and seemed like a recipe for certain disaster.

  “There are paths from their pens upstairs to the water locks down at the tenth. She’ll know how to find us, if only Ren can make her understand where she needs to be. There he is now.” Dani waved as Ren ran up to join them.

  “I think she got it,” Ren said breathlessly “At least I hope she did.”

  “We’ll find out soon,” Dani remarked.

  The trio took off toward the service elevators at the back of the fiftieth. As they walked briskly past people who went busily about their work, Maia could not help but remember the last time she had been in these parts. She had met Bikele and had learned so much about Sophie. The thought of her mother being tortured in a Gnelexian prison was so painful that she had not dared to open the journal Bikele had given her. It was tucked away safely within the folds of her coat, waiting to be read. Maia hoped to muster enough courage someday to leaf through its pages, to be strong enough to see how the mind probes had wrecked Sophie’s brilliant mind into senseless mush. She wanted to see Bikele again, desperately hoping her wish could come true. But the chances of it seemed remote, yet another dream that could never be realized.

  The service elevator had come to stop at the tenth floor. It was as quiet and lonely as it had been the other night when they had bumped into Miir and Amanii, and as Maia climbed the metal stairs up to the long corridor that led to the water locks, a sense of guilt and shame filled her. The way she had screamed at Miir was wrong. It was no fault of his that Sophie had been betrayed. Yet she had said the vilest things, used the foulest words.

  “If only I could see him again,” Maia muttered under her breath as she followed Dani and Ren along the dimly lit path. At every turn of the corridor, Maia wished they would bump into the Xifarian apprentices again so she could apologize to Miir. It would not matter if he shouted back in anger; she would endure. But none of her wishes came true in the time they reached their destination at a door marked “10.” Dani hesitated a moment, then opened the door and stepped inside.

  47: The Monitoring Post

  “You sure took your time to stroll down here, didn’t you?” a raspy voice greeted them as soon as they set foot in the dark room. The owner of the voice was a woman as shabby as the room itself and every bit as inhospitable. Her matted gray hair was tied in a loose bun that hung at the nape of her neck. She wore a long, dark tunic that fell well below her knees; it was badly in need of some washing.

  “What are you staring at?” she said as Maia and Ren gawked at her. “Have you no manners?”

  The duo started to mumble a quick apology, but the woman turned away.

  “This is Siobah,” Dani chimed in quickly. “She used to be a nanny at the Collective where I grew up after my parents passed away. I knew her family worked in the lower levels, so I asked her for help. And, as you can see—”

  “All right, no need to waste time on meaningless chitchat,” Siobah interrupted. “I have the gear for you, boy. Go change in there.”

  She pointed at a door in one corner of the room and shoved a water gear at Ren. As he shuffled away, the woman flicked a few switches at a broken-down panel on the side of the room. A large screen flickered fitfully to life on the wall above the panel. It slowly came into focus; grainy pictures of an intricate maze of waterways became visible.

  “There it is—Zagran’s forgotten entrance. A work of art, a treasure,” the woman said as if in a trance. She leaned closer to the screen and pointed at a moving blob of darkness. “And that must be the squid. Hmmm . . . smart animal.”

  “Chylomyhrra made it.” Ren’s sudden squeal made them jump. “She understood my directions.”

  “Now, boy, you’ll not screech like that again, do you understand?” The old woman stood with both hands on her chest, her eyes wide. “Siobah is rather old and not used to screaming and shouting ten-year-olds. Not anymore.”

  “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,” Ren gushed. “I‘m not ten though, I’m almost . . . practically thirteen.”

  “Ah ten . . . thirteen . . . it’s all the same to me. You’ll understand when you get to be as old as I am.” Siobah waved in dismissal, grabbed Ren by his shoulders, and led him to the round opening of the water lock. “Now off you go.”

  It started pretty badly. As Dani shouted directions through the communicator, Ren and Chylomyhrra bumped against the wall, the floor, against each other. They fell, they yelled, and they hurt. But after an endless series of hopeless maneuvers, Ren seemed to have found a rhythm, and Chylomyhrra found comprehension. They were still slow, but the awkward lumbering manner had vanished. Siobah had placed herself on a rickety chair, far away from the screens. She observed the goings-on with an annoyed expression on her face. When Ren emerged from the water hole after an exhausting trial, Siobah got off her perch and walked to where Dani was in the middle of briefing the tired boy.

  “You were doing well near the end,” Dani said as Ren listened eagerly. “I guess we need to make an estimate of how fast Loriine goes and compare your times with hers.”

  “How will we do that? We won’t even have a session in the Convolhydrae until it’s time for the race,” Maia said.

  “You kids have so much to learn.” Siobah grabbed Ren’s arm and pushed him into her chair. “Take some rest, boy. You’ll need your breath when you get back in there.”

  As Ren gulped in surprise, Siobah turned toward the two girls.

  “You do not race against your opponent—that gets you nowhere.” The old lady wagged a wise finger at them. “You race against yourself. Once you’re the best that you can be, you have the best chance of being better than anyone else.”

  Siobah turned to Ren. “Let’s get that boy in the water again. I’ll give directions this time, and you’l
l relay it for me through whatever thing you’ve been using.” Siobah nodded at Dani’s firestone wristband.

  Soon Ren was sent down the water lock again, and Siobah barked orders to Dani, who then relayed it to Ren. Siobah’s regimen was three times as punishing as Dani’s had been, and she continued relentlessly for what seemed like eternity. When Ren was finally allowed to come up again, his face had a bluish tinge.

  “You’ll be fine,” Siobah declared after looking closely at a rather large purple welt on Ren’s cheek. “When you come back tomorrow, I’ll have a map ready to mirror that Convolhydrae you have. And then we’ll see how good a rider we can make out of you.”

  “Thank you Siobah-dima,” Dani hugged the old woman. “I’m so grateful—”

  “Nonsense,” Siobah cut her off. “Don’t go all fancy words on me. You think you’ve grown up, but to me you’ll always be that wee little thing.”

  Siobah paused. For a brief moment Maia thought she saw Siobah’s wizened eyes well up with tears.

  “What a catastrophe it was. All those orphans,” Siobah muttered almost inaudibly. Maia realized the woman was speaking about when the Damoclian Connector had blown up. “There were so many of you—all helpless little things. Your brother was one of the older ones, and he was holding up strongly. But we could tell that the little tot was as scared as a mouse in a snare. And how he clung to you . . . as if you were his only hope.”

  “We made it so far,” Dani whispered.

  “Of course you did. You’ll go farther. Both of you. Just like your ma and pa.” Siobah paused a moment. “What a waste. Two of our best scientists . . .”

  A gloom descended as Siobah’s words trailed off. The room was quiet until Ren lumbered out of the changing room, barely managing to stand up straight. The trio left right after. It was way past midnight when Dani and Maia half dragged, half carried Ren to his dormitory.