“What would happen if we piled them together?” someone shouted.
“Nothing, they’d just be a pile of medallions,” someone else quipped.
There was general laughter. The person who’d spoken first said, “How do we know it won’t work?”
“Because nothing happened when they were all in that chest together,” came a reply.
“But they weren’t all in there, were they? The seekers’ medallions were missing,” someone else shouted.
It was the first time this had occurred to Jaden. More importantly, it meant something else. He raised his hand again to quell the conversations erupting all over the room. “That’s a valid point. Even if we wanted to try something now, we can’t. There’s still at least one medallion missing. And if we need to have them all for this to work, we have to find Kayla before we can try anything.”
Gloom cloaked the room.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want you thinking about potential solutions. When Kayla’s back, we’ll need options.” A few murmurs. “Until then, become proficient with your gliders, masters with your weapons, and innovative with your plays. There will be another battle. And this time, we’ll smoke them.”
Cheers. Grins. He’d done his work. Time to find Atu and Iri and figure out where the map was.
Grouped around a coffee table in the living room that evening, the three of them considered their options. Jaden debated mentioning what was on his mind.
“Tell us, Jaden.” Iri’s quiet command was as unnerving as her ability to read him.
He shifted in his chair. “I’ve been thinking about Kayla’s birthmark.”
Iri understood. “You mean its translation of ‘key?’”
“Yeah. Do you think it’s possible her birthmark is the map?”
Iri frowned. “Wouldn’t the translation have been ‘map’ if that was the case?”
“You know how convoluted all these clues have been. What if Zareh designed it that way so that Slurpy wouldn’t know she was a map?”
“Do you think that’s why he took her?” Atu’s voice was grim.
“I’ve tried not to think about that. But it’s time I did. At first, I thought he took her so he could get to me. I mean, he tried taking our parents, and that didn’t work. Perhaps he figured taking Kayla would be more effective.”
“If that’s true, then why hasn’t he summoned you or offered to trade Kayla for you?” Iri countered.
“Yeah, I wondered about that too,” Jaden said. “But what if that wasn’t why he took her? What if he somehow knows or figured out she’s the key?”
Iri’s eyes flicked to Atu’s, and Jaden noticed the silent exchange. “What?”
“Don’t get mad at us for saying her name—” Atu began.
“Tarise!” Jaden hissed. “You think she told Slurpy what Kayla’s birthmark meant?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Atu said.
Jaden’s face scrunched up.
Iri frowned. “What’s bothering you now?”
Jaden put his head in his hands. When he spoke, his words were barely audible. “If Kayla is the key, doesn’t that mean her chances of survival just dropped significantly?”
Their silence wasn’t reassuring.
“We can’t work with that theory. We have to believe she’s still alive. I mean, if she wasn’t, wouldn’t all of this already be over? Wouldn’t the Gaptors be in control?” Atu’s voice was harsh with conviction.
“His argument has merit,” Iri said, as if to further convince Jaden.
Jaden sighed. “I don’t have a choice, do I? I have to believe she’s still alive. I have to believe we’ll get her back.” Jaden scrubbed his face. “Setting that aside—if Kayla isn’t the map or the key to it, then where is the map?”
Atu frowned. “How would we know? No, why should we know?”
“Do you remember what Zareh said when we told him we didn’t have the map? When he came to warn us about the battle?”
Atu gave it some thought. “I only remember him telling us the battle was coming.” He glanced at Iri. “You?”
“No. I didn’t even see him. He appeared and vanished in the time it took me to use the bathroom.”
“In that case, let me help you. He said we didn’t get a map because it was already in our possession. He said something else, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what.”
Iri shrugged. “Let’s rule out the options, then. What have we gained since this started?”
Jaden began counting them off on his fingers. “Our medallions. The relic stones. My grandmother’s key. The toy chest—no way, you think it’s on the toy chest?”
“Unlikely. And you’ve forgotten the most important thing.” Atu was grinning.
“I have?”
Atu drew out the agony for a second. “What about Awena’s book?”
Jaden couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. “Yes!” In that moment, the words came back to him. “I think you nailed it! I just remembered what Zareh said, and it fits perfectly.”
Atu raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to tell us?”
“Oh, sorry!” Jaden assumed a pose, trying to look like Zareh. “Your guide, it has been, since received it, you did.”
Atu burst out laughing. “You sound nothing like him. Although the pose was believable.”
Jaden grinned. “What do you think? Those words fit the book perfectly. The book has given us the names of the places we’ve had to travel to. It makes sense that it will provide the next location.”
“You could be right. Where is it? Let’s run through that baby with the ultramagnifier and see what we can find!”
Atu’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm had Jaden doing a double take. Why was he being so optimistic? It was almost as if he were being overly jovial. One glance at Iri’s face answered his question. “You needn’t coddle me. I’ll be okay. I believe we will get Kayla back. And when that happens, I need to be sure we have a map in hand so we can finish this without delay.”
Iri studied him in that way of hers. Satisfied, she nodded. “Okay. Let’s get the book and find that map.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Kayla stared at the woman, breathing hard and fighting back the nausea from the pain shooting up her leg. To think she and the others had originally told Sven hand-to-hand combat had no place in fighting this war! She’d have to remember to thank Sven for insisting they master it.
Glancing at the doorway, Kayla listened. No sounds of running feet—or skittering claws. No one’s coming to investigate. Excellent! I need to remove the implant and close that door. Kayla retrieved the scalpel from the bandages around her leg. Deftly, she sliced across the bandages, and they fell away.
Kayla groaned when she saw the two tiny stitches. No wonder the cut hurt so much. Why the woman had used stitches instead of skin glue, she didn’t know. But at least reopening the wound wouldn’t be as painful. Gritting her teeth, Kayla carefully picked at the stitches with the tip of the scalpel.
Minutes later, coated in sweat and puffing like she’d run a marathon, Kayla stared at the microscopic chip on the tip of her bloody finger. For something so small, they could’ve injected it. Why did they cut my leg open instead? Examining the cut, she thought she knew.
The woman who now lay unconscious on the floor had no medical training. She’d been using Kayla as a guinea pig. The cut was too deep and at the wrong angle. The skin glue she had tried to apply to Kayla’s arm hadn’t worked, so the woman opted for stitches on her leg instead. With thread that had no place in a human body. Kayla was lucky she hadn’t gotten an infection.
Sighing, Kayla buried the chip in her pocket, then limped to the door and quickly closed it. She rifled through cabinet. There was no time to remedy the woman’s pathetic attempt at closing the gash on her arm. At any moment someone might walk in, and the game would be up.
Kayla settled for spray rather than skin glue, sealing the section of her arm she had torn open. When she’d applied the requisite
two layers, she repeated the quick fix on her leg, wishing there was time to repair both areas properly with skin glue. But the spray and bandages would have to do. Expertly, she wrapped the bandages around her leg and arm, making sure they were tight. She prayed the spray would hold long enough for her to get away.
A quick assessment of the woman on the floor told her the head wound was minor. Not wanting to risk the woman waking and raising the alarm, Kayla found more bandages and used them to tie the woman to the bedpost. As an added precaution, she wrapped a few layers around the woman’s mouth. That should keep her quiet.
With a last backward glance at the woman to make sure her position allowed her to breathe, Kayla crept to the door. Putting her ear against it, she listened. No sounds. Cracking the door, she peeked outside. The passage was empty.
Gripping the tools she’d stolen, she slid down the corridor, gritting her teeth against the pain in her arm and leg. Kayla paused and inspected every intersection and doorway before she crossed it. Getting caught now would ruin everything. She just needed to keep going until she hit that comm room.
When she heard clicking, she slowed. Stopping short of the doorway, she dared a quick glance inside before ducking her head back behind the wall. Two men, both of them facing their consoles, their backs to her. Really, doesn’t anyone here think they should be placed facing attack instead of away from it so people can’t sneak up on them? Then she answered her own question.
They thought they were invulnerable. No one would attack Slurpy’s fortress, or whatever this place was. Come to think of it, Kayla remembered Taz saying that no one knew where Slurpy had disappeared to. No wonder they didn’t bother with security.
But how are humans here? Isn’t this Zareh’s world? Or did Zareh or their gliders just not think to tell them humans also inhabited their world? Worse, how can humans stomach working with the usurper? Don’t they know what his plans are?
Deciding the humans weren’t working for Slurpy by choice was the only way to explain something so irrational. Although, considering what she had to do now, imagining they were willing participants would have been easier.
Kayla glided into the room, stealth in every step. Staying behind the men, she touched the tip of the tool to the first man’s neck. She pressed the button. Kayla almost dropped the taser when it zapped him. She hadn’t expected it to be so loud. The first man collapsed before the second man started moving. Kayla swung the taser in his direction, and the man froze. Not giving him a chance to reconsider, Kayla lunged, zapping him too.
With both men down, her eyes ran over the instrument panel. More than ever, she wished Jaden was here. He would know what all these buttons and dials were for. Since she didn’t, she couldn’t afford to skimp. Liberally spraying the console and monitors with the acetone she had snatched from the “surgery,” she made sure anything that looked important was well coated.
Then she hurried to the edge of the room, leaving a trail of bandages as she did. She paused inside the doorway, peeking out to check the coast was clear. When there was no sign of movement, she lit the matches and tossed them onto the bandages. She only gave herself a split second to verify the bandages were leading the flames to the comm unit before she ran for all she was worth.
Thanks to the surge of adrenaline burning through her veins, blocking the pain in her leg was easier now. Kayla turned the corner and sprinted down the corridor, counting the doorways and cross passages. This time, she didn’t bother confirming she wouldn’t be seen. Soon enough, anyone who saw her would have better things to worry about.
Just before she reached the last corridor to that arch, that magical gate between worlds, the explosion ripped through the complex. Kayla ducked down, partly to shield herself from the force of the blast, should it have made it this far down the tunnel, and partly to hide. If she stayed small and in the darkest part of the corridor, those who came racing past to investigate might miss her.
She needn’t have worried. The bearer of that voice she heard in the gateway room earlier burst out. She didn’t even check the corridor, running in the opposite direction from Kayla.
Kayla waited a few seconds. When Tarise didn’t emerge, she wondered whether the serpent had slithered out. Or is she still inside?
Erring on the side of caution, Kayla crept forward, sneaking a glance into the room. Empty. Crashing footsteps pounded her way, coming from the direction of the comm room. Time to move. Kayla sidled into the gateway room.
The most obvious thing was the arch, still pulsing with light. Does that mean it’s still on? Still able to send things back to my world? Or does it always do that? Slashing the questions away, Kayla scanned the room. Several pieces of equipment were scattered along the walls lining the long, thin sides. The closest item was a console, most likely what the woman had been using to control the gate.
It was the only place Kayla could reach before those footsteps caught up to her. Scurrying behind the console, Kayla waited. She strained to hear over the whirr of the console’s fans. Then the feet clattered past. The agitated voices told her they weren’t looking for her, but a way to escape the flames spreading to other parts of the complex.
Kayla didn’t care if the whole place burned to the ground. Good riddance! Before it did, though, she needed to figure out how to use that gate. She had to get back to Jaden. Risking a quick glance over the console, she saw no one. But she did spot something that might be of use.
Snatching the clipboard off the console, Kayla dashed toward the gate. A few feet from the pulsing arch, she hurled the clipboard at the opening. She didn’t stop running but moved slightly off center. If the arch tossed the clipboard back at her, she wouldn’t be a target. And if that happened, or the clipboard passed through the opening to the other side, she would know the gate wasn’t functional.
Blinding light flashed as the clipboard entered the arch. Kayla slammed on the brakes, her hands lifting to protect her eyes. As quickly as the light flared, it disappeared. Kayla blinked at the bright spot blocking her vision, trying to clear the tears blurring them. The bright spot faded to dull red.
Then she could see. The clipboard was gone! Only the pulsing arch remained. She took a step forward. Tarise appeared in front of her.
“I wouldn’t go in there.”
Kayla’s anger blazed. “Why not? Because it’ll spoil whatever plan you have for me?”
“No, because you’ll end up in the sky, hundreds of feet off the ground. With no glider, you’ll crash down and die.”
Kayla reminded herself she couldn’t trust Tarise. “How do I know you’re not just saying that?”
Tarise rolled her eyes. “When you saw the Gaptors coming through that gate, where were they appearing? On the ground or in the sky?”
The question made Kayla hesitate. She hadn’t thought about that, but it was true. The Gaptors had popped through in the sky, way above Daxsos. Far too high for her to survive a fall. She wanted to hold on to her suspicions, but another memory slapped her: the way the Gaptors had always appeared out of nowhere while she and Taz and the others were flying. They really did pop up in the air in Kayla’s world.
But the way Tarise was looking at her . . . like she was meat for a shark. Tarise had to have had a plan. “If that’s true, how were you planning on getting us out of here? How were we going to escape?”
Tarise smirked. “Who said we were both getting out of here?”
The question confirmed everything Kayla believed, but it didn’t make her feel any better. Kayla’s voice was hollow. “You were just going to use me to get yourself out?”
“I needed someone to test the settings when I changed them. To make sure I didn’t end up mangled or dead on the other side. What better use is there for a backstabbing girl who steals someone else’s man?”
Kayla’s anger flamed anew. “Jaden was never yours. In fact, he’s no one’s property, Not a piece of flesh you can own.”
She would’ve said more—except Tarise barreled into her,
teeth bared, eyes glittering with hatred. The impact knocked Kayla down. She panted for breath, the agony in her leg making it hard to think. As Kayla gasped to regain the air that had been forced out, Tarise jumped on top of her. She locked her hands around Kayla’s throat and clamped down as she screamed.
“Why did you have to ruin everything? Why are you here? I haven’t had time to coerce the correct setting from the tech yet. Now we’re just going to have to figure it out on our own. And if you’re dead before you go through, it doesn’t matter.”
Kayla’s instincts kicked in. Using her legs to boost herself upward, she bucked Tarise enough to loosen the hold. As Tarise’s arms flailed trying to find something to latch onto, Kayla rolled sideways, using the movement and her uninjured arm to shove Tarise off. Tarise hit the ground with an audible “oof,” and Kayla scrambled on top of her.
Kayla’s hands were going for her head when Tarise’s knee punched her in the kidney. Pain shrieked along her nerves. Using Kayla’s distraction, Tarise twisted away, lifting a leg and wrapping it around Kayla’s neck. Then she rolled and pinned Kayla to the ground.
No way Tarise is winning this fight! Using her arm, Kayla shoved up on Tarise’s leg, forcing the knee backward. Yelping, Tarise angled herself to relieve the pressure. Kayla was free. She scurried backward, a little disoriented. She stood, vaguely aware her leg had started bleeding through the bandage and of a buzzing near her. Turning her head a fraction, she confirmed the arch was directly behind her. Not good.
Even as she twisted back to face Tarise, she was a split second too late. Tarise hurtled forward, arms outstretched. Before Kayla could take evasive action, Tarise crashed into her, using her momentum and arms to shove Kayla backward. Backward into that buzzing.
Kayla’s arms pinwheeled as she tried to regain her balance, tried to move away from the arch, tried to avoid that opening. But Tarise had pushed so forcefully, her attempts were futile. As she faced death, Kayla’s mind went to Jaden. She would never see him again. He would never know what had happened to her.
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