by J D Morganne
“Huh? No.” Jaxon found himself trying not to stare at her, but ended up staring at Aria instead. She twiddled her finger around Nano’s ear, before hopping around him to kiss his other cheek. He snatched her to him and held her while they walked.
Beck made a retching sound. “Get a room,” she called, laughing. “Ama Eeart.”
Aria jumped on Nano’s back and he took off with her to where Mt. Garrida’s path ended and a new one begun.
“I hate them,” Beck said, but she was smiling.
“Why do you touch each other’s faces like that?”
Beck frowned and slouched her shoulders, his question changing her mood from humor to irritation. “This about Aria again? Because I already told you, she’s”—
“I was asking a question. Everything’s not about Ariana.” He had spent the last few hours forgetting that kiss. Now, it disgusted him all over again.
Beck stopped walking. “Do I detect annoyance?” she said, her eyebrows arched high.
Now that she mentioned it, yes. The thought of Aria annoyed him. “Can we keep moving?”
Beck wasn’t ready to drop it. “Something happen with you two?”
He scratched his chin. “No.”
Beck half-assed smiled, which told Jaxon she would burst out laughing any minute now. “You’re a shi-teee liar. You know that, right?”
He didn’t want to keep anything from her anyway. “She kissed me.”
Beck’s eyes shot open wide. She snatched his shirt and dragged him into the deep cover of trees. That would turn heads. They hid far enough to be outside of earshot, but that would turn heads, too.
“When? How? Why?”
Jaxon didn’t know which to answer first. He didn’t know if he had answers at all. “How would I know why?” He played with his fingers.
“Was it a Naomi kiss or a”—
“Kind—it was kind of a—yeah.” Jaxon thought he saw Beck stiffen and wondered what to say to redeem himself. “I didn’t enjoy it.” He didn’t know how kissing should feel. And Aria had laughed afterward.
“Typical Ria.”
“You don’t make people get permission for that?”
“This ain’t Obedience.” Beck took his hand and started walking again, though she didn’t take him back to the path.
“Consent?”
“Absolutely, Jax. Consent’s important. I’m sure she didn’t mean offense. She was… a’ight.” Beck stopped again and turned to stare up at him. “Hasn’t your dad ever shown affection?”
“Affection. I’m sure he has...”
“Like—well… no touching, right? So… no kissing?” She held her chin and rolled up her eyes while she thought. “Ummm, liiiike… so think of it as–like”— She snapped her finger several times, trying to draw the idea closer. “Chemical communication, right? Some animals will sniff out other animals to find out info. Think of Aria’s kiss that way.”
Jaxon thought he understood. “Why’d she laugh?”
“Because she’s Aria. And I doubt you’ll have to worry about her kissing you again.” Beck found the path and pulled Jaxon onto it. “She got the validation she needed.”
Nano, Eshauna and Aria were already saying their goodbyes at the rail. Beck was right. With Nano’s arms around Aria and hers around him, they never looked more in love.
“Remember”— Beck leaned into him and whispered, “Eshauna,” before they joined everyone else. “Oi.” She pushed Nano’s arm.
“What?” Nano pushed her back.
Beck stood on her toes to grab his head. “Take care of you. I mean it.”
“Always do.”
“Get the grids up.” She pointed a stern finger at him. “We’ll be waiting in the tunnels.”
“Yes, Dear.” Nano snatched her chin and was about to slide his tongue across her cheek, but Beck slapped his face away.
“Ugh.” While he howled in laughter, she snatched his rod from Aria and threw it at him. Then, faced Jaxon as everyone else shared their goodbyes. She bit her lip and hitched her shoulders up. “What’re you lookin’ at, Ro-bot?” She slugged his arm. “You be safe, too.”
Jaxon groaned and rubbed his arm where she’d hit. He leaned down to her. “You’d better start being nicer to me.”
“Or what?” Beck closed the gap between them.
Jaxon lost his mind and his nerve. “Or…” he stepped back, tucked his hands behind him where they couldn’t disclose his innocence. “Or I’ll have to stop coming to your room at night,” he tried.
Blush tinged Beck’s cheeks and nose. “Wouldn’t want that.” She wore an impassive façade like her favorite glitter eyeshadow.
Jaxon started to wonder if she was entertaining a capricious adolescent, rather than reciprocating feelings.
“Emiir-Te. Come back with my robot or don’t come back at all,” she said to Eshauna, straight-faced.
Eshauna twisted her mouth into a strained smile. “I thought he wasn’t yours.”
Beck didn’t crack a smile or hint amusement.
“We’ll all come back in one piece,” Eshauna said, and couldn’t refrain from rolling her eyes.
Then, they were off, down another path through tortuous woodland. Jaxon watched Beck over his shoulder, until she was out of sight, and wondered why watching her drift away made him feel sick. He tried to devote his attention to the long hike ahead of him, but he couldn’t get her out of his head.
“How long’ll this take?” They all took turns climbing up and embankment to higher ground.
Catching his breath, Nano shrugged. “Already to go? You the one who wanted the grids on.”
No, he wanted his celrings to work. He wanted to see his mom’s face or even hear her voice.
“Beck must think you’re somethin’ special,” Eshauna said, bitterness in her tone. “If she’s try’na get the grids up.”
Nano scrutinized Jaxon, his eyes narrowed. When he burst out laughing, he tossed his head back and slapped his hand on his stomach. “Are you for-serious?” he said finally, rubbing his ear. “My sister don’t want him. You seen the baits she bring home?” He shook his head, trying to convince himself more than Eshauna.
“I’ve seen’em. We all seen’em.”
“Watch yo’ mouth,” Nano snapped. His glare was full of malice and his grin was big and cocky. “My mama is her mama.”
“I don’t want smoke.”
“Woman, you gonna get it with that slick mouth.”
But Eshauna ignored him, directing her questions at Jaxon again. “You like when she calls you a robot?”
“Excuse me?” Jaxon said.
“She never uses your name. It’s an act… to make her look… tough.”
Nano burst into hysterical laughter. “Tongues of the jealous speak loud.”
Jaxon didn’t think anything was funny. Dasher would’ve considered what Eshauna said as nothing short of treason. Jaxon would’ve personally delivered her to him. He caught his balance on a hard root curving out of the ground. He wondered how well Eshauna really knew Beck. From what he’d seen, Beck wasn’t pretending to be tough. She’d mastered it.
“She’s Emiir,” he said. “She can call me whatever the hell she wants.”
Nano laughed again, this time, slapping Eshauna on the back, urging her forward. Neither of them said anything else, instead allowing the hike to plunge them into their own thoughts. Naruchi plagued Jaxon’s. For hours. He was starting to forget its smell, the lights, the quiet. Sometimes, when he least expected, he smelled hot metal, heard the low whirring of sidewalk sensors.
Finally, the forest grew sparse, snatching him out of his head. A few elm trees occupied flat land, sheathed by immaculate snow. Jaxon felt closer to the village, to the grids and to Naruchi. To his mom. If everything worked out and he contacted her, what would he say? What would she think? Was she even safe? Had Farah punished them, too?
Nano thrust out his arm and Jaxon ran straight into it. They had come to a steep slope, a stone wall, dripping wi
th an opalescent material that had frozen between the cracks. Surely, too steep to rappel without harnesses, ropes.
Below, more puddles of the opaline stuff covered the ground. Thick sheets of it took forms of old rooftops and chimneys.
“What is that?” Jaxon said, both intrigued and cautious.
“Don’t touch it… unless you wanna find out.”
Budding from the ground were hundreds of penetrable, bulky roots, towering, sharp. Jaxon couldn’t help but picture his body sticking on one of those things. If he fell, he wouldn’t have to picture it.
“Mother Earth.” He ran his hands down his face. Nothing in this Door is easy, he thought.
“Yeah, Beck likes to take precautions.” Nano gave a hard shrug. “A’ight… well…” He attached his rod to his backpack before turning to climb down.
“Wait. Can’t you build some stairs or something a little easier than risking our lives?”
“I ain’t wastin’ my energy. Need to save it for the hike back up.”
“Yeah, but”—
“Little brother,” Nano grabbed Jaxon’s shoulders and shook him. “Live.” He started to rappel with a mixture of placing each foot thoroughly and sliding. “If I die, put ‘Had Bad Bitches’ on my tombstone.”
On impulse, Jaxon reached for him. Why did they have to die to live?
“What I said earlier.” Eshauna grabbed Jaxon’s arm before he started down.
He shrugged it away. “You don’t like Beck. I get it.”
“No, fool, you don’t get anything. I love Beck. She’s my sister.”
He squinted and wondered if his face looked as silly as it felt. Sister? Beck hadn’t said that. Even still, Beck was cautious of Eshauna and Jaxon was too.
“You wanna be Emiir?” Jaxon said.
“Not for the reasons you think.” She tried to defend herself.
But she had already told Jaxon enough for him to decide for himself. He trusted Beck.
“Wouldn’t I have let her die if it was like that? You don’t know the scars Beck’s left. There are plenty of people who’d love to stick her head on a pike. I’m not the one you need to worry about.”
“I’m not worried,” Jaxon said, flatly. He gave a final salute before starting his descent. As he got closer to the ground, much closer to Nano now, he found that the puddles were in abundance and within inches of each other. What were these things? They were mesmerizing to look at, like the Koloberry, and exuded a fruity scent.
Jaxon stepped over them, tiptoed around them, held his hands out for balance, following Nano to a nearby home. They climbed to the roof, which was void of the substance. Eshauna was still climbing down, her grip as sturdy as her focus.
Cold air numbed Jaxon’s lips and turned his fingers into frozen blocks. He couldn’t speak properly with his teeth chattering.
Soon, they were pulling Eshauna up with them. “So damn cold,” she said.
“We can go home,” Nano said, inspecting Eshauna briefly. “I ain’t sign up for this explorer stuff no way.”
“Didn’t Aria make pie?” Jaxon said.
“Apple.” Nano dropped his head and trailed off into a passionate daydream.
“I love apple pie.” Jaxon followed suit, licking his numb lips. “Let’s go home.”
“Bet.”
“Watch your step, boys.” Eshauna brought them both back to reality. She nodded ahead of them. “The lab’s this way.”
Jaxon huffed all his frustration into his hands, also numb, but his breath wasn’t warm enough. He’d wanted the grids on more than anyone, but now he wanted to be in his bed, in the warmth. The faster they got them on, the sooner they got home. “Where’re the grids?”
Nano wrapped his arm around Jaxon’s shoulder and spread his hand like he was about to announce a play.
“The whole village?”
“Yep.” Nano stepped cautiously.
It was hard to tell which parts of the roof were safe. They crossed the dilapidated shingles. Jaxon kept his balance, but the roof was in poor repair. If either of them slipped… He hated to imagine. He could see his own reflection in those puddles and couldn’t begin to imagine what they would do to him. Unless, they were a scare tactic placed there to scare off curious strangers or unbison that had strayed too far from home. There was nothing to allude to them being dangerous. No skeletons. No cadavers. Just silver, reflective puddles.
“There’s a draining system, but that’s in the lab.”
Nano used his rod to point to a sword-shaped tower. Something more powerful than any of them had snapped it in two. Its handle dipped, held together by exposed wires and spiky, red ivy. “We need to patch that up first.”
“Beck do that, too?” Jaxon said, a smile playing at his lips. Of course, she had. She would get her way no matter what, even in matters as complicated as this. It was then Jaxon realized Nano hadn’t been pointing at the tower, but what was left of a stone wall beyond it. A dam.
Eshauna puffed out her lips, looking back and forth from Jaxon to Nano. “Who’s climbin’ it?”
Jaxon turned to look at her in unison with Nano.
Nano chuckled. “Do ya thing, ma.”
Eshauna huffed and did an irritated jiggle. “We can activate the drainage from the lab.”
“Lab’s locked?” Nano chuckled and knelt to examine the next rooftop.
“Where is it?” Jaxon said.
Nano pointed with his rod. The lab was close. He caught a shimmer of metallic green and a left behind yellowed outline of the name Lily Valley. While other homes had decayed, celtech had kept the lab pristine. Jaxon couldn’t spot a single window or door from his angle.
“You’re gonna raise the tower and I’m gonna repair the dam. We’ll jump a few homes over to get you closer. Then, we drain.”
Jaxon was eager, too, but this didn’t make sense. Drain what? They were acting like the village was underwater. He bit his lip harder for every second they left him out of their plan. “If I could… interrupt. These don’t exactly sound like one-person jobs. Rebuilding a dam? Why would we do that?”
“It might take some time.”
“What’re we draining?”
Eshauna turned slightly, casting a sideways look at Jaxon before shaking her head.
Jaxon tucked his hands beneath his armpits. Out of nowhere, he was overcome by an aggressive heatwave. “I’ll help drain then.”
“Wouldn’t want Beck’s ‘robot losing a strand of hair.”
Jaxon huffed. Her suspecting disposition irritated him to no end.
Nano, who didn’t care either way, jumped to the next roof like he spent his weekend performing intense parkour. Eshauna trailed close behind him. The next roof across was lower than the one Nano was on now and he hadn’t had the most gracious of landings. He’d slipped and his leg went straight through a weak point, creating a small hole. He was saved by his rod catching on a frozen chimney and Eshauna’s foot. She howled as he used her thighs and then butt to pull himself up.
“Anga!” She punched his shoulder in the middle of him climbing and he slipped again. “That’s what you get.”
Jaxon examined the lengthy roots between the two buildings. You have to do this, he told himself. There was no other way. Though he fluttered with dread, the vein in his temple pumping hot, he stepped back, took a deep breath and leapt into the air. His right foot found purchase, but his left caught air, and he went free-falling back.
Eshauna called out for him, the last thing he heard before something ripped through his coat, through his skin. He hit the ground. No, he hit what he thought was the ground, but it yanked him within a fierce grasp, thick as mud, grainy as sand.
“Jax!”
He was hot to the touch, even with the gel snaking into his ears. His blood poured from his wound, seemed to be freezing as soon as it made contact with… whatever this was. It wasn’t wet, but it wasn’t dry. Severely hot, painfully cold. He felt like he was balancing his own weight in an empty void. Falling was becoming a
habit. If Beck hadn’t taught him to swim, this might have freaked him out, but he pulled his weight to the surface. He went to reach his hand through the puddle, but found solidity.
Solid? But this wasn’t ice.
It wasn’t even cold, not like it had been frozen over. Instead, it was like glass. He could see his own panicked expression and Nano and Eshauna, both screaming something he couldn’t hear. He spotted Eshauna reaching for him.
What was this? What the hell was this place?
“Jaxon!” Eshauna’s mouth seemed to say, her brow lathered with concern. “He’s bleeding.”
Thankfully, this liquid had numbed the wound that root had given. But he needed air. His lungs labored, expanding outward, unable to take anything in. He needed air! Now.
He swam, desperately wanting to find a way out. There were hundreds of these puddles, these gateways to this chilling hell he found himself in. One of them had to lead him out.
As he swam, he caught Nano through the iridescent tint that was bleeding through, holding his hands, motioning for him to stop. Jaxon stopped at another puddle, smaller than his hands.
“Little Bro!” He’d had to bring his mouth close, nearly touching for Jaxon to hear. “Swim down! Swim down slowly.”
No, Jaxon thought. Too late. He wasn’t getting out of there. The pressure in his lungs, overtaxing every limb now, told him that much. His brain was on fire.
“Swim down!” Eshauna screamed.
Whatever energy he possessed, he used it to force his limbs to work. Down, they said? Swim down? To what? There was only more of this gel stuff as far as he could see. He didn’t see how swimming in any direction would save him, but he did. He swam and his muscles grew more rigid with every stroke. Not frozen, but resistant, making it physically impossible to move an inch more.
He told himself he was almost there, though he didn’t in fact know if that was true. Then, his arms were free. His head. His lungs filled with cold air. The rest of him was submerged, but he kicked himself free, dropping into a nest of some kind.
The gel lingered, hardening at every slight movement, but Jaxon managed to turn his head. He was in some kind of underground chamber, wrapped in the fibrous roots that curled and shot up through what he assumed was Lily Valley. It smelled of isopropyl and death, but the darkness prevented Jaxon from seeing much.