A Traveler's Fate (The Journals of Krymzyn Book 3) Page 20

  Chapter 26

  Early the next morrow, I finally get to spend a little time with Aven. While having our morning sap together, I help her with a simple puzzle consisting of putting the right shapes in the right holes. As the last remnants of sleep fade away, my mind feels sharper than it did the prior morrow. The long trek through the Barrens seems to have cleaned the last of the wild sap out of my system.

  Sash travels with me to take Aven to Home. After baby girl is safely inside the caverns, Sash and I walk together across the meadow.

  “I’m going to the Mount now,” I say. “Do you want to come with me?”

  We both stop and face each other.

  “I think this is something you need to do on your own,” she answers. “I’ll help find Tela in any way I can, but I think you need to ask the questions. You’re the one who’s connected to her being in the Barrens.”

  “I kind of feel that way, too.”

  “Don’t forget. Only the right questions will bring answers,” she reminds me.

  “I know,” I say. “I just hope she’s alive.”

  “We all do. I’ll let Larn know that you’ve gone to the Pool. Summon us as soon as you get back.”

  “I will.”

  As I turn away, she grabs my shoulder. After briefly hesitating, she reaches her arms around me and pulls me into an embrace.

  “I’m so happy you’re alive,” she says in my ear.

  “I’m really sorry about everything.”

  She takes a step back from me. “I still need time, Chase. But I am relieved that you’re back.” She studies my face for a moment. “Everything about you has returned to normal except for two things.”

  “What are they?” I ask.

  “You have a scar on your shoulder,” she answers.

  “A Murkovin stabbed me,” I tell her. “What’s the other?”

  “Your hair is darker. The blue is back in it, but the rest is black now instead of dark brown.”

  “It must be from with the wild sap,” I say, remembering that Tela said the same thing about my hair.

  “It’s a reminder not to drink it again,” she says evenly.

  “Believe me. I wasn’t planning on it.”

  Ten minutes later, I reach the entrance to the mountain compound. Not bothering to stop and get gloves and a helmet from the rack by the gate, I jog straight up the tree-lined road to the base of the Mount. Leaving the forest of purple and blue behind me, I stop at the path that snakes up the side of the mountain to the Pool. I immediately sink to one knee and press a hand to the ground.

  “Please give me the sign to visit the Reflecting Pool,” I whisper.

  As I stand upright again, aqua light shimmers from my palms. I climb the mile-long path up the side of the Mount. When I reach the ledge in front of the entrance to the Pool, a middle-aged, stocky male Watcher is standing guard in front of the closed door. I hold out my hand to show him the sign.

  “Do you know the procedure?” he asks.

  “I do,” I answer. “I’ve been here before.”

  He opens the granite slab for me. “No one will interrupt you while you’re inside.”

  “Thank you,” I reply with a quick bow.

  Before entering the tunnel, I hand him my spear. As I walk towards the blue light at the end of the corridor, the Watcher closes the door behind me. At the opening to the enormous cavern, I repeat the process I learned during my first visit to the Pool. I remove my boots, take off my clothes, and hang them on hooks embedded in the wall.

  Inside the cavern, I walk across the firm, spongy stone of the circular walkway that surrounds the Pool and stop at the edge. The small trickle of water that spills down the walls and flows over the walkway tingles my feet. Above my head, the tiny golden Flits effortlessly glide through the candescent cyan vines that dangle from the domed ceiling. Light reflects all around me, creating a ballet of aqua and gold on the surface of the Pool.

  After stepping over the edge of the walkway and into the Pool, I ease through the shallow water. I stop at the center and look down at the surface. The small waves from my motion gradually recede until the water is as smooth as a sheet of glass.

  “Is Tela alive?” I ask.

  While I stare down at the water, a blurred image ripples across the surface. As the scene slowly comes into focus, it reveals Tela alone in the Barrens. She’s sitting on top of a black dirt hill with a decrepit tree behind her. The strands of her hair that were once blue are pure white. Her arms are laced with black veins, and her eyes are fiery red. I let out a long, slow sigh, somewhat comforted by the fact that she’s alive.

  “Where in the Barrens is she?” I ask.

  As though a camera is zooming out, the view slowly widens. Miles and miles of stark hills with no recognizable landmarks around them come into view. But Jeni was right about one thing. Far in the distance behind Tela, the multi-colored cascade of the barrier to the Infinite Expanse tints the horizon. I carefully examine the image to look for any other clues about the location, but I can’t find any. She could be in any part of the wasteland that lines the Infinite Expanse.

  “How can I find Tela?”

  Several of the Flits dive down from the ceiling and fly past my face. Inches over the water, they weave around each other with glittering trails behind their paths. The reflections of the trails in the surface of the Pool erase the image from the water. As the Flits float back up to the vines overhead, the water remains blank. I carefully think about how I worded my last question. Maybe I’m not the one who can find her.

  “Is there a way to find Tela?” I ask.

  Tiny swells spread outward in the water, leaving a new scene of the Barrens in their wake. I’m not sure what I’m seeing at first or why the image is being shown to me. With her back to me, a girl no older than twelve is resting on her knees on top of a desolate hill. A braid of thick, black hair hangs down her back. It’s so long that the end touches the dirt behind her. She reaches a hand to her side, rests it on the ground, and turns her head enough that I can see the profile of her face.

  “Maya,” I whisper.

  It takes me a few moments to figure out why Maya would be the answer to my question. I eventually remember what Sash once told me about her extraordinary sense of awareness. It makes perfect sense.

  “She can press her palm to the ground and tell you what any person in the Delta is feeling,” Sash once said.

  Maya felt my physical pain when I wiped out at the blockade that killed Beck. She sensed the Watcher’s death when Balt killed him during the attack near the bridge. What she felt from a man being murdered was so strong that she started screaming from the horrifying experience. I don’t know the distance that her powers of perception reach, but maybe she can sense Tela somewhere in the Barrens.

  “Thank you,” I say to the water.

  I turn away and take a few steps towards the side of the Pool. When there’s a splash in the water behind me, I stop. My first thought is that someone else came inside, so I glance around the cavern. The tunnel and circular walkway are empty, and the cave is vacant of any sound other than dripping water. As I look at the center of the Pool again, another image waves into view.

  I’m confused by what I see since it seems to have nothing to do with the reason I’m here. Sash and I are standing in front of each other, but we’re twelve years old. It must be the first time I came to Krymzyn—except one detail is different. We’re at the bottom of the Empty Hill, not the top where we actually met.

  The light around us darkens and the clouds churn into motion. As raindrops begin to fall, the glaring branches of Ovin’s tree whip through the dark behind us. In my first visit to this world, Tork came to us before Darkness fell, and I returned to Earth soon after. What I see in the water never happened.

  With raindrops pelting our heads, Sash and I clench each other in a hug. Her face looks so sad that it knots my insides. It’s like watching two kids who’ve been best friends for years and years saying goodbye to each oth
er because one is moving away.

  In the distant sky, two of the gray billows spread apart. Through a tiny crack that opens between the clouds, a single ray of blazing white shoots straight at Sash’s head. As a snow-white halo radiates around her hair, the image of me leans back to look at her face. In a blinding flash, the scene disappears. I stare at the blank surface of water, wondering what I just saw.

  “Why did you show that to me?” I ask.

  The Pool remains perfectly still, nothing but a mirror of silvery-blue. I step out of the water, put my clothes on, and leave the cavern.

  As I descend the winding path on the side of the Mount, I replay the last scene that I saw over and over in my mind. Why would the Pool show that to me? As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with finding Tela.

  When I reach the narrow road at the bottom of the path, I decide I’ll ask Sash about it later. I return my thoughts to planning how to search for Tela.

  Wanting to get back to the Delta as quickly as I can, I run down the road towards the gate. As I pass by the clearing where the Constructs work, someone calls out my name. I halt and turn to the meadow to see Wren jogging in my direction. After he stops at the edge of the road, he nervously fidgets with his belt and looks around us.

  “Hi, Wren,” I say.

  He finally locks his eyes on mine. “I finished the soccer goals. I just wanted to let you know.”

  “I’ll get them some other time,” I say. “I have a lot on my mind right now.”

  “I also . . .” He pauses for a second. “Nuar told me what happened. I asked why I hadn’t seen Tela . . . you and Tela on the Mount.”

  I almost can’t look him in the eyes because of the guilt flooding through me. I’ve seen how enamored Wren is with Tela, and he’s obviously concerned about her. I try to console myself with the thought that any physical desires that developed between Tela and me in the cave were spawned by the wild sap and nothing else. But Wren is a friend. I feel like I betrayed him. The least I can do now is provide him with some hope.

  “Tela’s alive,” I say. “The Pool just showed me that.”

  “Do you know where she is?” he asks.

  “No, but we’ll find her,” I answer with a lot more confidence in my voice than I actually have in my statement.

  “I hope so. If there’s anything I can do to help or anything you need, please let me know.”

  “Thanks, Wren. I will.”

  He bows to me and then returns to the clearing. A renewed sense of urgency to find Tela rattles my nerves. Her mind is clouded by a narcissistic, self-destructive delirium that she has no way of dealing with. I was able to pull myself out of the stupor, but I had years of growing up in a world where we learn self-restraint over negative emotions. I should have been able to suppress them. I should have been able to think clearly for both of us. When she needed me the most, I let Tela down.

  Chapter 27

  I race back to the Delta and go straight to Home. Soon after I summon Sash and Larn, they soar to the meadow from different directions.

  “Tela’s alive,” I say as soon as they stop in front of me. “I saw her in the Pool.”

  Larn blows out a long sigh of relief. “Did it show you anything else?” he asks.

  “I could see the barrier to the Infinite Expanse behind her,” I answer. “I couldn’t see the sky to see the direction of the light from the clouds. It didn’t show me that. If it had, we’d at least know which side of the Expanse she’s near. Maybe that means the Pool doesn’t know exactly where she is, or maybe she’s on the move. Then I asked if there’s a way to find her. That’s why I summoned you both to meet me here at Home. The Pool showed me Maya.”

  “Maya?” Larn asks, sounding mildly confused.

  “It makes sense,” Sash says. “She might be able to feel Tela in the Barrens.”

  “Do you have any idea from how far away she can feel things?” I ask.

  “We’ll have to ask her,” she answers. “I don’t know that she’s ever felt someone farther away than the Mount.”

  “That’s less than eighty miles from here. Even if we know that Tela’s near the Expanse, it will take forever to stop every eighty miles.”

  “Every one hundred and sixty miles,” Sash says flatly.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Eighty miles in each direction. That means we stop every one hundred and sixty miles.”

  “Whatever,” I say. “It will still take forever.”

  “We should talk to her first,” Sash says. “Then we can make a plan. The Pool showed her to you for a reason.”

  Sash disappears inside the caverns of Home for a few minutes and then returns with Maya and Marc. Once Maya is in front of us, she folds her hands in front of her and sheepishly lowers her eyes to the ground.

  “Did I do something wrong?” she asks.

  “Quite the opposite,” Sash tells her. “We hope you can help us. Did you hear what happened to Chase and Tela?”

  “I know they were missing,” Maya answers, raising her eyes to Sash. “Aven was very upset.”

  “Tela is still alive in the Barrens,” I say. “When I asked the Reflecting Pool how to find her, it showed me you.”

  “I don’t know I can help.”

  “Maybe you can sense where she is,” I explain. “Do you know from how far away you can feel someone?”

  “I’ve only ever felt someone as far as the Mount.”

  “Do you know the direction it comes from when it happens?” I ask.

  “Kind of,” she answers. “I end up turning my face to where it is without really thinking about it. And the stronger something is in the person, like real bad pain, the more I feel it.”

  “Why don’t we try something,” Sash says. “If Marc approves, let’s all go to the other side of the river. We’ll conduct an experiment.”

  “By all means,” Marc replies.

  After we’re across the bridge, Sash suggests a simple test using herself as a guinea pig. She has Maya and me sit beside each other on the gravelly dirt by the side of the road. Keeping watch on the Barrens, Marc and Larn stand close behind us. Not wanting Maya to see what direction she’s planning to go in, Sash asks her to shut her eyes. She also tells us not to worry about anything Maya might feel. Sash then speeds away down the side of the river to the south.

  Once Sash is well out of sight, I tell Maya that she can open her eyes. Staring at the rapids leaping from the river, she sits perfectly still with both of her palms resting on the dirt. As I study her face, I realize she’s no longer the frail little girl she was the first time we met. Her features may still be delicate—a thin, straight nose, almond-shaped eyes, and high cheekbones in a narrow face—but at roughly the age of twelve, she’s starting to mature into a teenager.

  After a few minutes pass, Maya winces and clenches her teeth. Her eyes drift away from the rapids and down the side of the river.

  “Ouch!” she exclaims. “Sash feels a lot of pain. Straight ahead.”

  “You know for sure it was Sash?” I ask.

  “I sure do,” she answers. “I know what she feels like from visiting the clouds with her. That’s how I knew you were hurt at the blockade in the road. I could tell it was you because I’d felt you when we visited the clouds.”

  “Do you know what Tela feels like?”

  “Of course,” she nods. “She was already at Home when I was a baby. She didn’t leave until her Apprenticeship ended. I was around her a lot.”

  “That makes sense,” I say, remembering the bond that seems to link all the children who were at Home together around that time.

  “But when the Watcher was killed, he was much older than I am, so I didn’t know him well. I felt his pain but wasn’t sure who it was.” She suddenly jerks her face to the southeast and squints in that direction. “Sash feels pain again, but she’s also angry. She’s very mad.”

  “I can’t imagine why,” I say. “I’ll ask her about it later. You’re sure it was Sash that you felt?” />
  “Absolutely,” she confidently replies.

  “That’s great, Maya. Keep it up.”

  Obeying Sash’s instructions, we wait for something else to appear on Maya’s telepathic radar. After a few more minutes tick away, Maya’s face aims due south again. Shivering slightly, she shakes her head.

  “More pain,” she murmurs. “But it’s not as strong as before.”

  “What could she possibly be doing?” I rhetorically ask out loud.

  “I don’t know,” Maya says, “but whatever it is, it hurts her.”

  We sit quietly for another few minutes until Maya closes her eyes. “I think I feel . . . I’m not sure. Something, but I don’t know exactly what it is or where.”

  “Try to concentrate,” I say.

  She presses her hands more firmly against the ground. A few moments later, she relaxes and opens her eyes.

  “I don’t know. There was something, but I’m not sure what. I’m not even sure it was Sash.”

  “That’s alright,” I say. “What you’ve done so far is incredible. When she gets back, we’ll know how far away she was.”

  “What is this all about?” Maya asks.

  “I asked the Pool if there’s a way to find Tela,” I answer. “The Pool showed me you. Maybe if we take you to the Barrens, you might be able to feel where she is.”

  She nervously scrapes her fingernails across the dirt. “To the Barrens?”

  “Does that bother you?”

  “I don’t like the Barrens,” she answers. “It’s scary out there.”

  “I know it is. But you might be Tela’s only hope.”

  With a sullen expression on her face, she doesn’t say anything else. As long as I’ve known her, she’s been timid and shy. But as I learned when she once insisted that I be the one to transport her to the Mount, she can be confident and headstrong when something is important to her. I decide not to push her now, knowing that Sash has an almost sisterly relationship with her. If anyone can convince her to go to the Barrens, it will be Sash.