“I’ll be alright,” Kayla reassured him, lifting a hand to his face and cupping his cheek. He smiled then. That gorgeous smile. And she melted.
Bending his head, he kissed her lightly.
“No, that won’t do. Kiss me properly.”
Jaden smiled and did as she asked. She lost herself in their kiss. Too soon, it was over.
“Did you have to stop?”
Jaden grinned. “Unfortunately, yes. If we don’t get back downstairs, my mom and dad are likely to send out a search party considering their mental state.”
Kayla sighed. “Don’t you wish we could just wipe their worry away?”
“That would be nice.” Then after a moment, he added, “Do you regret telling them?”
Kayla cocked her head as she considered his question. “No. It’s better that they know, even if it does worry them. I think it would’ve been way more disconcerting if we kept lying to them. We wouldn’t have fooled them for long. Then they would’ve been conjuring up all sorts of horrid ideas to give themselves some explanation why their usually truthful children were now consistently deceitful.”
“Too true.” Wrapping his fingers around hers, Jaden led her downstairs. They found Atu alone in the kitchen.
“Where did my folks go?” Jaden asked.
“I sent them to bed.” Atu put another plate in the dishwasher. “It gives them rest and allows us to be alone to open that map.”
“Good man.” Jaden beamed. “Alrighty then, let’s clear this mess so we can get to that map.”
It didn’t take long, so they were soon up in Jaden’s room. Atu took the chair, and Kayla flopped onto Jaden’s bed as he retrieved the cube from his backpack.
“Shall we see where we’re going?” Jaden teased.
“Open it already,” Kayla chided as she giggled, rubbing absently at her birthmark.
Jaden grinned, then closed his eyes and curled his fingers around the cube. He waited a second before working the miniature panels on the sides. Somehow, he just knew what he had to do. How did that work? One side of the cube popped off. Huh, that was new. She waited for the lines of light. They didn’t materialize. Glancing at Atu, Kayla saw the question on his face.
Jaden, it seemed, was just as confused. He looked down at the cube, frowning as he peered inside. Then Kayla and Atu gaped as he carefully removed a circular disc tucked inside.
Bouncing off the bed, Kayla leaned in next to Jaden and examined it. It was some sort of frosted glass sprinkled with tiny pinprick holes that were irregularly spaced. Jaden flipped the disc over, but it remained a circular disc.
“What’s happening? Where’s the map?” Kayla demanded.
“I think that disc is the map,” Atu breathed.
“It can’t be. Where are our magic lines of light and the moving ‘x’?” Jaden refuted.
Speculatively, Kayla took the disc from Jaden and turned it over in her hands. She hissed as her finger caught on a rough edge. The bright drop of blood had her clamping a tissue over the cut. Deciding to clean it later, she studied the disc, finding a tiny chip near the edge. As she handed the disc to Atu, she warned him about it. Then Kayla examined the cube, giving it a thorough inspection. “I think Atu’s right. The disc is the only thing with markings on it. It must be the map.”
Jaden took the disc back from Atu and stared at it dismally. “How can this be the map? It’s a piece of glass with holes in it.”
“I wasn’t with you the last time you guys opened the map,” Atu ventured. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Jaden huffed. “How’s that relevant?”
“Humor me.”
“Well, I was on my own,” Jaden began. “I found the disc accidentally, if that’s even possible with all the other things that are so ‘coincidental’ with this quest.”
Jaden paused, his expression sour, but neither Kayla nor Atu said anything. They waited for him to continue.
Sighing, Jaden did. “The disc was attached to the side of a toy chest that’s been in our family for generations. And get this, the chest had the same markings as the key my grandmother gave me.”
“Okay, so the same markings were on the key and the chest,” Atu repeated. “Then what?”
“I used the key on the chest, and the disc fell off.” From his curt answer, Kayla could tell Jaden was already tired of this. Honestly, she was just as mystified as Jaden.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Atu grinned.
“What do you mean?” Kayla asked.
“We’re finally at the same point back then as we are now. You had the wooden disc then, and you have a glass disc now. We can figure out what we do next.”
“I don’t think so,” Jaden pouted. “All I had to do then was open the disc, and the map floated out. This time, the cube needed opening. But instead of contour lines, we got this glass disc.”
“You’re still not getting it,” Atu insisted.
“You’re saying that the glass disc ‘falling’ out of the cube confirms it’s the map, the same way that the lines ‘fell’ out of the wooden disc?” Kayla responded.
“Exactly.” Atu beamed. “Last time you had to open something to get the map. This time you did the same. The difference is that last time the lines were the map. This time, it’s the disc.”
“Yes, I get all that,” Jaden snapped. “What you’re not getting is how does that help us?”
Atu looked pained. “Well, I’m not done yet. Give me a chance.”
“Could we speed it up then?” When Kayla sent him a reproachful look, Jaden added, “Please?”
“Sure. What happened after you opened the disc and the lighted map came out?”
Jaden looked like he was about to blow a fuse. Kayla jumped in. “Jaden called me and invited me over to show me the map.”
“Then what?” Atu pressed, his tone sharp. “Did you know they were contour lines right away?”
“Well, no,” Kayla confessed. “We had to look it up. I remembered that the lines were a special kind of map, but I couldn’t recall the details. An internet search revealed they were contour lines and explained what they were. With that knowledge, we then tried to fit those lines to an existing part of earth using a terrain overlay search.”
“And?”
“It did the same thing that any of the other artifacts on this quest does,” Jaden growled. “Gave us no result!”
“But that’s not the end of it,” Atu prompted, “or we wouldn’t be here. Tell me what you did next.”
“Nothing.” Jaden scratched his chin. “We were stumped at that point. Or we were, until Kayla remembered that the lines floating around us . . .”
“Were also on a page in the book!” Kayla finished with Jaden.
They grinned at one another and then glanced at Atu. He was leaning back, a smug smile on his face.
“Alright,” Jaden said, “you can say it. You told us so.”
Atu raised his hands, palms up and facing them. “I’m not saying anything.”
“You don’t have to,” Kayla chuckled. She turned to Jaden. “Where’s the book?”
Jaden scrambled back to his closet, opened his backpack, and reverently withdrew the book Awena gave them. Hurrying back, he set the book on his bed between them.
The three of them surrounded the book as they slowly turned the pages, scrupulously examining the background of each page for any sign of a pattern that matched the holes on the disc. They reached the page where their last clue had been, with the splotch that read Soquazba when magnified, and explained it to Atu. He nodded thoughtfully but said nothing, and they continued thumbing their way forward.
“There it is,” Atu whispered, vindicated.
The three of them stared at the page. The unmistakable splotch toward the bottom right corner marked it as the correct page even if the pattern on the background didn’t.
Without waiting, Jaden leaped up and ran downstairs. He reappeared two minutes later, the ultra-magnifier in his hand.
�
��Maybe we should just keep that with us from now on,” Kayla suggested.
“We will,” Jaden agreed, setting the tool over the splotch.
The splotch became letters. Happy Days.
“Well, that’s super helpful,” Jaden muttered.
“Does that mean anything to you?” Kayla asked Atu.
“No. You?”
“Nope,” Kayla replied, shaking her head. Turning to Jaden, she found he was no longer on the bed next to them. He was already in front of his holoscreen, entering the phrase into his proprietary search engines with that antiquated keyboard of his. Reams of information began scrolling along the multiple screens Jaden had set up on one wall.
“Would you look at that?” Jaden brooded. “Last time we only had one result. This time, the end of the world could come before we figure out which one of these entries is the right one.”
Atu glanced at Kayla. “Do you have any ideas?”
Kayla shook her head. “No again. And unless we can find some way to narrow that list, Jaden’s right. We don’t know where we’re going.”
Chapter Four
For Kayla, training the next day was as expected: endless routines with little respite. It wouldn’t have been any easier if her finger hadn’t been aching all day. For a surprisingly minuscule cut, an infection was brewing. But they trained so intensively, she forgot to ask Atu for one of his magical potions.
Courtesy of Jaden’s insight, they added more plays to incorporate Aren and Atu as a new unit and adjusted existing plays to make them more effective with three pairs of fighters instead of two. They even worked on transferring voyagers between gliders should one of their gliders become incapacitated. Then they practiced what they had learned. And practiced. And practiced, until Kayla’s head was spinning. By the time Taz grudgingly called it a day, Kayla was beyond exhausted.
Everyone was quiet as they headed home, weariness weighing on them. When Taz quivered unexpectedly, Kayla went on alert. Studying the immediate area, she found no threats. Could Taz simply be tired too?
Apparently so, because their gliders dropped them at Jaden’s home, agreed on a time to meet the following day, and departed without further ado. Kayla watched as they vanished in an instant, then flinched as the sun burst out in blinding, golden glory, the morning rays hot and bright.
“This time thing is killing me,” Kayla moaned. “I can’t believe we still have to endure a whole day before we can sleep!”
“Belay that,” Atu scoffed. “I’m sleeping now. I couldn’t keep my eyes open for another minute even if I tried.”
“Belay that?” Jaden chuckled. “What are you? A pirate?”
“Don’t laugh. My brain stopped functioning two hours ago.”
Kayla nodded. “I’m with you. I plan on getting some sleep before my folks get home.”
Jaden glanced at her. “How are you getting home? Want me to take you?”
Giggling, Kayla said, “Yes, please. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think Taz is as tired as I am. At least, she felt a little weak on the way home. And did you notice how she didn’t complain when we said a mid-morning start? I was expecting her to veto that for sure. And if that wasn’t enough to convince me, her leaving me stranded here is.”
Jaden and Atu laughed, and soon the three of them had tears streaming down their faces.
“Well,” Jaden eventually choked, “we’d better not say anything to her about it tomorrow. Maybe if we let things slide, she’ll go easy on us.”
That absurd idea had them all rolling again. Finally, rubbing the tears from their cheeks, they sighed and looked at one another.
“Ever notice how much funnier things are when you’re tired?” Kayla commented. The boys nodded, looking as drained as Kayla felt.
Resolutely, Atu said, “Alright, I’m off to sleep! See you two later.”
Kayla hugged him before he turned and entered the house, then smiled when Jaden took her hand. “What?”
“It’s time to get you home.”
Leaning into him, Kayla savored his support as Jaden guided her into the ‘pod and then climbed in after her. After setting her coordinates as the destination, he wrapped his hand around hers again. The familiar comfort that action brought left Kayla wanting more. She scooted closer and snuggled up to him, dropping her head onto Jaden’s shoulder as the ‘pod lifted. It was so comfortable there. And he was so warm. She closed her eyes, letting the silence, the measure of their exhaustion, wash over her.
Jaden must’ve dozed off because a strident beeping had his eyes flying open. When he realized it only signaled their arrival, he relaxed. That had been careless. Even tired as he was, he should’ve been more vigilant. A Gaptor could’ve attacked. He glanced down at Kayla. She hadn’t stirred.
Smiling, Jaden carefully moved around her and maneuvered himself out of his seat. Then he lifted her into his arms. Groggily, she peered at him through bleary eyes. “Go back to sleep,” Jaden whispered.
Her lips softened in a smile, and she burrowed into his shoulder again. Jaden marveled at how someone so small could pack such a punch when she was awake. It was just as well she had an “off” switch. What would the world do if she only had an “on” button?
When he reached her room, he peeked inside. Everything was perfectly in place, like she never used it. He shook his head. It must be a girl thing. Pulling her comforter out of the way with one hand, he settled her on her bed and then tucked the cover around her. Reconsidering, he lifted the cover again and removed her shoes. She wouldn’t be too happy to wake up and find she still had them on. After placing her shoes next to her bed (he’d never have done that in his own room), he leaned down and kissed her silky head. “Sleep tight.” A small smile that curved her lips was his only answer.
Jaden crept out of the room and hurried back to the ‘pod. He was wasted. Flipping the switches that would take him home, he slumped in his chair, making an effort to stay awake this time. An effort it was, but he did it, thankful he didn’t encounter any Gaptors along the way. Sliding out of the ‘pod, he stumbled down to his room and crashed onto his bed, face down. His last thought as sleep claimed him was that he still had his shoes on.
“Jaden Jameson!’
Jaden snapped awake, feeling like he’d been run over by a truck. His mother stood in his doorway, her hands on her hips. “What?”
“How many times have I told you to take your shoes off before getting onto your bed?”
Jaden grimaced. He had thought about that, truly. It had just been beyond him to reach down and take them off before he crashed. What’s the time? Twisting his head, he ogled his PAL. Suddenly, he was wide awake. “It’s five o’ clock!”
His mother frowned. “What time did you think it was? Have you been asleep all day?”
“Um . . .” It was too early for her to be asking questions like that. No, it was too late. Ugh, why can’t I get a coherent thought in my head?
“Jaden, are you alright?”
The sudden concern in her voice roused him more than the time had. “Of course. I must’ve just dozed off. Sorry about not taking my shoes off.” Jaden offered his mother a sheepish grin.
That did it. She smiled. “I suppose you can’t be expected to take them off if you didn’t plan on going to sleep. What did you boys do today? Atu’s asleep too.”
Uh-oh. They would have to set an alarm in the future. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out all their sleeping must be due to something besides being teenage boys. “He’s still sleeping? I’d better go wake him. Kayla will be here soon.”
His mother squealed. “I forgot! She’s coming over this evening, and I don’t have dinner going yet.”
To Jaden’s relief, she bustled out of the room, muttering something about food. He raked a hand through his hair. He hadn’t had nearly enough rest. On the bright side, he only had to be awake for a few hours before he could crash again.
Groaning, he dragged himself from his bed and made for the guest room. Atu w
as more than asleep. He could’ve been mistaken for dead. Jaden shook Atu’s shoulder. Atu rolled and came up with fists flying. Jaden took a hasty step backward. “Easy, bro. It’s just me.”
Atu flopped back down. “You scared me.”
“You don’t say.”
Atu yawned. “What time is it?”
“Nearly five.” Jaden was amused when Atu’s eyes widened with shock. Yeah, that must be exactly what I looked like a few minutes ago.
“Are your folks home yet?’ Atu blurted with sudden consternation.
“My mom is. She just woke me up.”
“Oh no, she found us asleep?”
From that comment, Jaden knew Atu understood. “She did. She’ll be asking you what we did today that we’re both so tired.”
“What are we going to tell her?”
“That we spent the day up in the mountains, getting some exercise.”
“You don’t want to tell her about the training?”
“No, she’ll only worry.” Jaden sighed. “Look, I know it’s not the best option, but I would prefer to keep her concern on the lower end of the scale.”
“I get it.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I don’t normally ask people to lie.”
Atu put a hand on Jaden’s shoulder. “Bro, you don’t have to explain. Come on, let’s go help your mom with dinner. Isn’t Kayla coming over?”
Jaden grinned. He couldn’t help himself. “She is. Unless she oversleeps like we did.”
That made Atu laugh. When they entered the kitchen, they found Clara bouncing between the pantry and the main room as she gathered ingredients.
“What can we help with?” Jaden asked.
His mother stared at them for a moment as if they were from Mars. Then blinking, she said, “Sorry, my mind was a million miles away. What did you say?”
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