by Linda Palmer
Chapter Thirteen
Jerilaps and Unicorns
I untangled myself from the jumble of bodies now sprawled every which way on a grassy knoll in Balmythra. While surfing the Xephyr Stream wasn't particularly difficult or dangerous, Matt was a prime example of how disconcerting it could be to anyone who'd never done it before.
With an endorphin rush and wobbly knees, this many people could easily get caught in a pileup. Jor, who'd helped me manage Rocc's landing, had somehow gotten caught in the fray, himself. He scowled as he scrambled to his feet, no surprise. I decided the ungainly arrival must have been a blow to his ego.
"I could use a little help here." Matt's grumble drew my gaze toward his struggle to roll out from under Kyle.
"Sorry." I gave Kyle and then Matt a hand up and immediately got to work setting everyone else on their feet, too, counting heads as I did so. Eventually five giggly girls and four boisterous boys stood beside me and Matt on the hillside. A glance at Rocc revealed no change in his condition. I knew that it couldn't be much past eight p.m. Balmythran time, but the sky was as dark as midnight. A steady drizzle and a slight breeze chilled me—and probably everyone else—to the bone.
Jor immediately picked up a fallen bagowan limb and rubbed a spot on it, producing fire. The flames sputtered against the moist wood, but soon burned brightly enough to attract the refugees. As they crowded around the heat, eyes wide with wonder, Jor stepped up to a nearby tree and casually placed a hand on it. Closing his eyes, he stood perfectly still. Within seconds the lowest branches of the tree bent even lower and intertwined to form a leafy shelter.
Naturally, the kids began to buzz, nudge each other, and point. One word could be heard clearly over the giggles: magic. All at once, I felt very old and tired. How could I ever explain all this so that it made any kind of sense, especially with most of them half tipsy on endorphins? My questioning gaze found Matt. As if reading my thoughts, he shook his head. Clearly he didn't know how I'd do it, either. Or maybe he still struggled with questions and endorphins of his own.
I motioned for the boys to help move Rocc into the makeshift shelter and cover him with what part of the bedspread he wasn't lying on. Jor shifted the fire closer, then turned his attention to a larger bagowan tree. He made another covering a few feet away that would easily accommodate all of the Pringle's refugees. Everyone but Matt quickly ducked under it when Jor motioned for them to, some sitting, others standing on the damp earth floor. All eyes stayed glued to the solemn Sairon while he started another fire, this one for them.
I knelt beside my brother and anxiously touched my cold hands to his flushed face. His skin felt unnaturally hot, and he never stirred, even when I brushed a stray lock of hair from his eyes, a gesture of affection that would've embarrassed him if he'd been awake.
"Is he dead?"
I turned at the sound of Brady's voice and found the child at my elbow, watching with interest. "No, Scoobs, but he is hurt really bad."
"What's his name?" Brady squatted beside me.
"Rocc. He's my big brother." My words came out little more than a whisper.
"You want me to take Patáh for awhile?" Ginzy had followed Brady.
I'd forgotten all about the dainty creature that still clung tightly to me, weighing no more than my old hobo. I coaxed her off my shoulder and handed her to Ginzy. She instantly transformed back into the bag. Brady's eyes flew open wide, but Ginzy just slung the strap over her shoulder and ran back to the others in their shelter.
I touched my fingers to Rocc’s face again, recalling an afternoon we spent climbing Mount Memnoptar. Rocc, gifted with more physical than mental talent, had been so good at it, while I struggled behind. Finally, I’d simply psiflown to the top and waited for him, a strategy he’d called cheating, even as he laughed at me.
Brady tugged on my sleeve to get my attention again. She pointed at Jor, who stood a few feet away. "Can't he fix him?"
I smiled. "No, but he knows someone who can." Looking past Brady, I noted the stares of the other displaced poPs. Most of their eyes appeared clear and bright now, sure indication they'd begun to shake off the remnants of Jor's calming spell, if not the endorphin rush that could last from minutes to hours. I braced myself for their questions and wasn't disappointed.
"Where are we, anyway?" asked Kenny.
"Balmythra." I stood. "My real home." I took Brady's hand and led her back to the others, where I settled on the ground inside the shelter, cross-legged. Brady immediately plopped down on my lap. I hugged her. The drizzle had turned into a light mist now, for which I was thankful. The poPs crowded in and those who'd been standing found a seat.
"So you're an alien?" Kenny didn’t sound that surprised considering the nature of the question, but then he was a sci-fi geek from way back who earnestly believed in Area 51.
"No. Balmythra is part of earth—here we call it Nodyra—not another planet." I repeated Jor's explanation about the bubble. The blank looks I received for my trouble told me that no one really got it.
"It's kind of like an egg, okay?" Matt ducked under the branches and squatted beside me. "The whole egg is earth. The yellow inside is Balmythra."
"You mean Balmythra's inside the earth?" Kenny asked.
Matt frowned. "Not strictly speaking."
"What's the white?" asked Jeremy.
"It doesn't matter," said Matt. "We're not talking about the white."
"But the white’s the biggest part."
I thought I hid my smile pretty well, but Matt’s glare told me he knew I found this conversation very funny. "The white’s the, uh, sky. Yeah, the sky."
Ginzy stared at the sky. "The sky is black, not white, silly."
"That was just an example." Matt sighed. "What I'm trying to explain is that Balmythra is part of earth, just...different."
Julie Knowles, the six-year-old Raine usually supervised, opened her mouth to ask what I was sure would be another trying question, but John beat her to the punch. "How'd we get here, anyway?"
I explained the Xephyr Stream as best I could.
"And who is he?" John nodded coldly towards Jor, who had his back to them and stood scanning the night sky. I guessed he now summoned the Sunsanean to heal Rocc. Since I couldn’t summon one, myself, I really couldn’t be sure.
"That's Jor. He came to Nodyra to get me when my dad vanished."
"You have a daddy?" Ashley's blue eyes widened in surprise.
I nodded. "And a mom." At least I hoped so. That, more than anything, raised poP eyebrows. I saw a lot of exchanged glances and felt like more of an outsider than I was.
"Why are we here?" John’s unblinking gaze disconcerted me just a little.
"You were all in danger at Pringle’s. I couldn’t very well leave y—"
John cut me off. "Danger? From who?" He adjusted his glasses, a nervous habit I'd noticed before.
"Mad Matilda, for starters."
John frowned. "But we can handle her any old time."
"Oh yeah." Sarcasm laced Kenny's words. "And I guess that’s what you were doing when you hauled butt to the house the second she clobbered that dude." He pointed to Rocc.
I abruptly realized he hadn’t heard my exchange with Brady moments before. "That `dude’ is my brother. His name is Rocc. And Mad Matilda wasn’t the only problem. I think Skye and Raine were a danger, too, and—"
"Those two? No stinkin' way." Kenny sounded excited about the prospect.
"Yes stinkin' way. There are some bad beings, I guess you’d say, here in Balmythra that came from earth. They’re called Dagonel, and I think a bunch of them were holed up at Pringle’s."
Kenny's dark eyes narrowed. "Are you talking about those shadow things?"
"No. They look just like everybody else, actually."
Feeling a sharp elbow in my ribs, I turned to Matt, who frowned and shook his head ever so slightly. He shifted his gaze, and when mine naturally followed, I found five girls and a couple of boys hanging on my every word. They looked scared, b
ig surprise.
I quickly shifted gears. "B-but that stuff doesn’t even matter since we’re all safe now. You’re just going to love Balmythra. We’ve got hiking trails, swimming holes, fishing. We’ve got—"
"Movies?"
"Video games?"
"Internet?"
"Er, no," I told them all. "But we do have unicorns…"
"No way."
"Dragons... "
"Whoa!"
"Mordachs, algorans, and jerilaps."
"Say what?"
I had their undivided attention now. I motioned for Ginzy and retrieved the bag. It instantly changed back into Patáh. Gently I stroked her pink fur. "This is a jerilap—well, not a real one. Real ones are very wild. I made this one out of that leather bag to be my pet. Making things with our minds is what we do here." Before anyone could ask, I continued. "When I was with you guys, I’d forgotten all about Balmythra." I gave Jor a sidelong glare. "So the bag was just a bag. When I got my memory back, though, it became a jerilap again." I let Brady pet Patáh. Naturally everyone else wanted to.
"So there aren't any batteries?" Ashley clearly struggled to get her mind around this latest revelation.
"Leah's the battery," John told her.
That earned him my surprised smile. "That's exactly right."
"I’d sure like to see one of those dragons." Kenny slipped out from under the shelter and peered at the stormy black sky as if he expected one to drop by at any moment.
"Well, I wouldn't!" John scooted a little farther under the bagowan limbs.
"Dragons live in the mountains and aren’t very friendly," I said. "But there’s a unicorn right over there. See? By that firgren bush?"
Though the cloudy skies had brought early night, the unicorn in question glowed silvery white in the dark. I heard exclamations of wonder. I set Brady aside and handed Patáh back to Ginzy. Getting to my feet, I walked to the edge of the firelight. In seconds my thoughts connected with those of the unicorn. Glad I hadn’t lost the knack of animal communication after so long in Nodyra, I eventually summoned the graceful creature. Only then did I notice that there were others, which made four in all.
I met them halfway and wound my fingers in the pearly white mane of the largest. He whinnied softly and let me rub his nose. From behind, I heard the collective gasps and exclamations of the orphans.
"Unicorns must always be approached by females first." I motioned for the girls to join me. Everyone except Katie Riddle, Skye’s five-year-old charge, quickly did just that. "Come on, honey."
But Katie, standing at the rim of the campfire light, wouldn’t take another step. Belatedly I remembered she didn’t like the dark very much. Leaving Ashley, Julie, Brady and Ginzy to ooh and ah over the three smaller unicorns, I coaxed the largest beast nearer to the fire. Then I picked up Katie and let her pet him.
Since she adored horses, she sighed her delight. "What’s his name?"
"Gariel," I told her.
To my surprise, Gariel actually walked over to Rocc and nudged him with his nose as though sensing all was not well.
Panicked by this unusual behavior, I set Katie down and dropped to my knees near my brother. "Is he worse, Jor? And where is the Sunsanean? What's taking so long?" When Jor didn’t answer, I tore my gaze away long enough to lock gazes with him. The next instant, he vanished.
"Tell me he didn’t just disappear." Kenny was looking all around.
"We call it psiflying," I said, adding, "That’s how we travel here if there’s any distance involved." I hoped Jor's mental request for help had properly conveyed our emergency. "Um, you guys can check out the unicorns now. They told me it’s okay. But remember this: boys never get to ride them. So don’t try anything stupid, okay?"
"Right." Kenny and the other guys—even timid John—joined the girls.
Matt scooted closer to me and lowered his voice. "What’s going to keep the Dagonel from finding us here? Have Cadrow and his friends put out another thought net?"
"Probably." That answer came automatically since most of my thoughts centered on Jor. Hadn’t he summoned the Sunsanean the moment we arrived in Balmythra? I'd have done it myself if I could, but I couldn’t, and Jor knew it.
"But will it be enough for all of us?"
"Hm?"
"Leah!" Matt shook me. "Are you even listening? I think we might be in danger."
That got my attention. "The aftereffects of the Stream provide protection for a while, remember? With the thought net, we should be safe enough."
"Good." Matt glanced at his watch. "Why don’t we try to get the little ones to lie down? It’s past their bedtime. Then I think we should fill in Kenny, John and Ashley. They really need to know what’s going on."
"Okay. Sure." In my head, I invited the rest of the unicorns to the fire. They came, and the orphans naturally followed. "Hey, you guys. Maybe we should all get some rest so we’ll have plenty of energy to explore tomorrow."
"Aren’t we going to eat supper?" asked Ginzy.
They hadn't had supper yet? With sinking spirits, I stared at Matt.
"Can you whip up a dozen or so burgers?" he asked. "I mean Jor grabbed us some tea out of thin air this afternoon..."
That rankled. "Yeah, well I’m not Jor, am I?"
"Keep your shirt on, oh mighty Guardian." Matt's dry retort obviously resulted from my sudden bad mood. "It was worth an ask." He scanned the ground all around. "If I’m not mistaken, that crunch underfoot is wani nuts, right?"
"Yes."
"They’ll do for now." He bent down and picked up one of the nuts. "See these?" He showed them to everyone. "They’re good, and they’re supper. Pick up all you can find." Matt dug his knife out of his pocket. "John, please tell me you've got your knife."
John nodded that he had it.
"I've got one, too." Kenny dug deep into his jeans pocket.
As though relieved to have a chore to do—they were a way of life at Pringle’s, after all—the girls and boys set to work gathering the wani nuts. Soon they had a good-sized pile of them. Matt used the knife to get to the meat inside, and in no time the sounds of crunching and an occasional surprised "Yum!" filled the air.
"Is there a stream around here?" Matt peered into the dark. "I could use a drink of water."
"Let me see." I tried to tune into my environment, but fatigue or distraction made that next to impossible. Just then, Gariel nuzzled the neck of Matt, who nearly jumped out of his skin and backed away a step.
"What’s he want?" Matt actually seemed a little creeped out.
I silently asked the unicorn that question before turning to Matt to translate the unspoken response. "He wants you to follow him."
"Do they ever gore anything with those?" Matt’s gaze seemed glued to Gariel’s single horn, pearly white and magnificent in size.
"No. They’re very gentle creatures as long as you don't try to ride them. You can trust him."
With a not-so-sure-about-this nod, Matt followed the unicorn past the rim of campfire light and into the dark. The kids, intent on eating the bagowan nuts, didn’t even seem to notice, and in less than ten minutes, Matt came back without his shirt. At least he wasn’t wearing it.
Instead, he’d fashioned it into a sling of sorts and filled it with talapanis fruit. Slightly larger than a papaya and light green in color, talapanis was the consistency of watermelon with a single large seed in the center. I hoped the kids would like the flavor as well as Matt had that afternoon.
They did, and all happily ate the nuts and the fruit, which quenched their thirst. Since endorphin levels had apparently fallen to normal, it wasn’t hard to convince the exhausted youngsters to scoot far under the bagowan limbs and lie down for the night. Their fires burned as warm and bright as ever, which helped counteract the chill in the air.
Once we had silence, John, Kenny, Matt, Ashley and I moved to Rocc’s fire and huddled around it.
Ashley, looking very disgruntled, hugged herself as if to keep warm. "Look at my h
air. It's drenched. And I don't even have a blow dryer."
Matt cut her off before she got started. "Okay, everyone. Here’s the scoop." He quickly explained everything that had happened, beginning at the carnival and ending with our return to Pringle’s from Balmythra to get Rocc. Stunned silence followed Matt's narrative.
Then Kenny grinned, which brought to life the dimples in his cheeks. "Is he for real?"
