by Everly Frost
I shook off the memory and fixed one thought in my head—the only thought that had worked before: I am not a threat.
The moss covered the edge of the cliff but didn’t grow more than an inch or so across the top. I kept my footsteps light, purposeful, and my breathing even. As I knelt down, I could see the outline of jagged rock and what might have once been a staircase leading down the side of the cliff, but not anymore. I leaned out, pressing my hand against the remains of what might have been a top step. Despite the light weight I placed on it, it shifted and within seconds, it crumbled. I jerked back as the rest of it gave way, crashing down and down.
Taking a deep breath, I shuffled toward the edge again, leaning as far out as I dared, trying to see down the sheer drop to locate the boys. Ten feet down, there was a bulge of thorns and vines. Farther down was another and a third was a little to the left. The boys must be inside them. The moss had lashed them against the cliff face, covering them in thorns like butterflies in deadly cocoons.
Something tickled my hand. I sucked in a breath as I realized I was already touching the moss.
I’m not a threat.
It was soft against my skin, delicate and warm like sunlight.
Now I needed a way down. I needed something to hold on to—or something that would hold on to me. I twined my fingers into the moss, testing whether it was long enough to wrap my hands in it, one fistful at a time, to descend safely. Frustration burned through me as the tufts remained short, impossible to hold.
Frustration turned to desperation.
I glanced back the way I’d come, knowing I couldn’t endanger Pip and Quake, but not knowing what else to do. Then I remembered the marsh pond and the thick marsh plants growing all the way to the edge of the cliff. I could hang on to one of them, make it over the edge at least. But it was so far away from where the boys were located. I’d still have to make my way across the cliff back in this direction.
That was when I saw the steps near the marsh. They were jagged, no doubt fragile, but they descended from the edge next to the pond all the way across the cliff face, and traveled in this direction. I could at least reach one of the boys that way. Between the boys, the rock was also more jagged; peaks of rock protruded from the moss, which meant there was a chance there’d be handholds to cling to. At least I had a place to start…
I raced back along the path to where Quake and Pip paced.
“I’m going through the marsh.”
“What?” Quake was aghast.
“There’s a set of stairs. It starts behind the marsh pond and descends in that direction.”
“Ava, wait, this is madness.” Quake lurched forward to grab me, but I darted out of reach, racing to the marsh and scaling the fence around it.
“How are you going to free them?” He chased after me, stopping on the other side of the rock wall. “The strongest blade can’t cut the moss. How will you bring them back?”
Pip followed me to the stone fence too, but his words were the opposite, his expression trusting. “Please bring them back.”
I backed away from them both in the direction of the writhing water. There was a strip of grass around the pond, a few feet wide. I stopped with the back of my feet at its edge. “I will, Pip.”
Tears burned at the back of my eyes as Quake looked ready to launch himself over the fence and wrestle me to a stop.
I said, “I’ve seen what the moss does, Quake. Their nectar will wear off and then…” It was too terrible to contemplate.
“Don’t fall, Ava.” That was Pip.
I couldn’t tell him that I wouldn’t because falling was my backup plan. If I couldn’t get the boys back up the cliff if—when—I freed them, then I’d have to drop them into the ocean. What then, I didn’t know, but I’d figure it out.
Holding my breath against the terrible stench and the memories it evoked, I raced around the edge of the pond to the cliff. The water lapped at the edge and trickled down the worn stone. I tried to ignore the swarming mass of bugs bubbling in the center of the pond.
There were multiple sturdy-looking marsh plants right at the cliff’s edge. I could use them to get over the edge to the top of the steps. I remembered Snowboy’s warning about blood-sucking bugs, but there was no way to avoid walking through at least part of the water to get to the large plants.
Bugs continued to stir in the pond, but I ignored them as I stepped in, keeping to the shallow water as much as I could, plotting the shortest path.
With each step, the bugs moved toward me. So many bugs and bigger than I could have imagined. A mass of them rose in the middle of the pond, the same mass I’d seen swarming before.
I had to get to the plant and out of the water fast.
Splashing the last few steps to the cliff, I grabbed at the nearest branch, my arms brushing against its leaves, and balanced myself right on the edge. The water lapped at my feet, spilling into the air beyond, splattering the stone steps below me.
The top step was quite far down and I was going to have to slide my body down to it.
I turned my back to the drop, refusing to look at the ocean far below as I leaned back, angling for the top step and hoping it would hold my weight. The branch bent and I glanced down only long enough to assess the distance, focusing on the rock and not the waves crashing hundreds of feet below.
A bug tickled my elbow, but I had to ignore it. If a blood-sucker was making a meal out of me, I’d deal with that later.
Testing the strength of the plant, I lowered one foot, pressing it into the nearest rocky outcrop, bending my other leg at the knee, ready in case the branch wasn’t strong enough to hold me and snapped.
It held and I realized I was holding my breath.
Telling myself to breathe, I lowered my other leg, scraping my clothes down the front of the rock as I didn’t dare exert any outward pressure, keeping my body close to the rock. The pressure on my arms was almost unbearable, but as I edged down farther, my foot met rock. It was the top of the staircase. Finally. Now I needed to test whether it was still solid.
I was eye level with the edge of cliff now, clinging to a branch that was bending even more under my weight, both my feet planted but trying not to drop all my weight too fast.
A little more weight and it seemed to hold. There was only so far I could shimmy down before I’d have to let go of my makeshift plant-rope and that meant hoping the steps would hold. I was going to have to trust that they would.
Just as I placed my full weight on the step, it crumbled. The plant jerked down and I clung for dear life, swallowing a scream as I swung midair. I reminded myself I wouldn’t die, but the fear of the drop overwhelmed me. Frustration rose too because if I ended up in the ocean, I didn’t know how I’d help the trapped boys.
The branch dropped even farther. My foot slipped and I scrabbled for a foothold, one of my feet kicking out into air. I kicked back into the moss as the ocean swirled beneath me. I was no longer eye level with the precipice, but dangling in space.
The branch began to shake, my hands were clammy, sweat dripped into my eyes, and the bug on my elbow tickled again.
I risked a glance. There was a round, green mound on the back of my upper arm. But it wasn’t the only one. There were more of them, dotting my upper arms, my elbow, my sides … all of them spaced apart in rows.
Oh, help!
I swallowed the panic, but it was no use. The sound of waves crashed in my ears. It was getting louder, except that wasn’t right because I wasn’t falling. Not yet, anyway. Then I realized that the sound wasn’t coming from below me, but from above. The whooshing, rustling sounds increased. The crashing turned into the sound of oncoming thunder.
The plants in the pond above me shook, their tops rustling violently.
My eyes widened as a river of green bugs poured toward me, splashing between the marsh plants and over the edge of the cliff. I couldn’t let go, had nowhere to escape as I fought panic and hysteria.
They were going to push m
e off the cliff.
In the last remaining second before the wash of bugs hit me, I wrapped my fingers through the plant, pressed against the rock, and shut my eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
BUGS POURED down my hair and back, down the backs of my legs, a swarming, seething mass. Clicking and clacking, they swirled across every inch of my skin and clothing.
But instead of racing down me, instead of pushing me down, the creatures spread out across my back, my arms, my legs and pushed me … in. As the swirling and rushing slowed, rows and rows of bugs lined up where my arms pressed against the rock face, attaching themselves between me and the rock, covering me in a thick green suit—a living suit of creatures. Somehow, they were suctioning themselves to the rock, keeping me steady.
Only my face and hands remained uncovered.
I forced myself to breathe, letting out the air trapped inside my lungs, trying to ignore the fact that I was covered in bugs, that they were everywhere, all over me like a second skin. They didn’t hurt me. There was no tickle anymore, just a quiet hum and a soothing sense of being encased in safety.
My fingers slipped on the branch. If I let go, would the bugs keep me aloft?
If I tried to climb back up, would they help me?
If I tried to reach the boys…
I had to reach the boys.
The moss hadn’t reacted to the bugs, despite the fact that they were all over it. An idea formed in my mind, slowly at first and then coming together in a rush—if I could get the bugs to cover Rift, maybe they could carry him to the surface. But I didn’t know how to control them or what I’d done to make them cover me in the first place.
All I knew was that I needed to get down to Rift and it seemed that I had a much better chance of doing that now. “Okay, bug-creature … things … how do you work?”
It wasn’t as though I expected them to reply, but something pressed against my temple faintly, drawing closer to me, and I wondered if they were triggered in the same way that the moss was—by my thoughts and intentions.
I tried to quiet my mind.
Then…
I need to get to my friends. Over there.
The pressure on my temple increased slightly. With a robotic whir, my arm moved, followed by my leg. The bugs suctioned me across the cliff face, one limb after the next, shuffling and climbing me down.
After another minute, relief filled me as I reached the nearest mound of vines. Rift’s face was upturned, his eyes closed. The vines around him had thickened into branches with enough gaps for me to make out his face and body.
Taking a chance, I urged the bugs to lower me onto the cocoon of vines, balancing against the rock, finding the branches beneath me solid. I crouched, reaching through a gap, brushing my hand against Rift’s cheek.
He was cold and my heart stopped. Was I too late? I pressed my hand against his chest, waiting for the rise and fall, the movement to tell me he was alive. His eyelashes flickered. He was alive!
“Rift! Wake up!”
He woke with a scream and that’s when I saw the vine wrapped around his stomach, thorns pressing deep.
He jerked away from me, his eyes filled with blood.
I said, “Take my hand. I can help you.”
“You can’t!” His eyes closed.
“Rift! Stay with me!”
“Ephron,” he mumbled. “My mother named me Ephron … for the fields of the dead. So many dead.”
I grasped at the fading opportunity to save him, determined not to give up. “Listen to me. You have to believe in your heart that you aren’t a threat. You have to really believe it, with all your might. If you do that, the moss will let you go. It’s the only way it doesn’t attack me.”
“No.” The word turned into a scream.
I reached for him, but he pulled away, focusing on me for the first time. “What is that? On your body?”
“Bugs.” I waved my hand and they kept me solid against the cliff, firmly attached. “I need to get you out of there, Rift. Then I need to help the others.”
“The others?” His eyes shot wide open for the first time.
“The moss snatched Snowboy and Blaze too.”
“No… Help them first. It’s my fault I tried to check the moss without them. Help them first!”
Now it was my turn to say no. “You’ve been here longer. I have to get you out first and, quite frankly, you’re wasting my time.”
“No, it’s all my fault. Everything.” His voice trailed off, his expression barely present, and I realized he was delirious. I wasn’t going to get any sense out of him like this. My hand on his forehead told me he was burning up. He didn’t know what he was saying.
“I killed my sister,” he said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “It’s my fault she died. I wanted to leave and she didn’t. If I’d listened to her, if I hadn’t made her come with us, she’d be alive. That was my punishment for leaving. I killed her.”
My eyes widened. “You had a sister.”
Rift had a sister.
There was another girl!
For a moment the shock of the revelation caused me to hang there, frozen. There was another girl to make a weapon. If her DNA fit, then Rift’s sister had to be the reason Seversand had threatened Evereach. This information floored me. Ruth had told Michael that Seversand succeeded in creating the weapon a few years before, which was long after Rift came to Starsgard … which had to mean that his sister was alive.
I refocused on Rift, pushing away my wild thoughts, knowing that without hope, Rift was going to give up and choose death.
“Did you actually see her die?” I demanded.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Rift! Did you see her die?”
“She fell. She was screaming and they dragged her away. There was a gunshot. That’s when her screaming stopped.”
“But you didn’t actually see her die, right? You can’t know for sure.”
“She’s dead!”
“No, Rift. She’s alive. She has to be. They made a weapon and it has to be her.” I reached down with both my hands and covered his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. “I really don’t want to die here, Rift. But the only way I can help you is if you believe you aren’t a threat.”
“I can’t. Because I am a threat.” His voice became quiet and small. “I need to believe that I’m a threat to those people—to everyone except my brothers. It’s the only way I survive.”
“Then … imagine the moss is your brother. Imagine it’s Snowboy, or Pip, or Quake, or Blaze. You aren’t a threat to them. You protect them. Don’t you?”
He nodded. “To my last breath.”
“Then you’ll protect the moss too. The moss protects you from Seversand and you protect the moss. You aren’t a threat.”
“I’m not a threat.”
“You’re not a threat.”
His voice grew stronger. “I’m not a threat!”
I pulled at the nearest vine and this time, it gave way. The vine around his stomach unwrapped itself, the cage on which he lay softened, forming a bench beneath him so he didn’t fall. I touched his shoulder, aware of his wounds, and thought to the bugs: attach to him and take him to the surface.
A number of them swarmed toward him, connecting first with his elbows and knees, then his temple, lining themselves up in between. To my astonishment, more bugs materialized out of the moss, scuttling through it toward us until they covered Rift from head to foot. Finally, they began to move, holding Rift safely. His eyes met mine before they transported him up the cliff face and for the first time, I saw trust there.
But now I needed to get to the others—and fast.
Responding to my thoughts, the bugs moved me across the cliff face, reaching the nearest bundle.
“Blaze!” He was awake, but his eyes were bloodshot, and he was gritting his teeth against the pain.
“Hey, Stargirl. Got some magic to get me out of here?”
It was the first time one of them had
called me that and I scrubbed at the tears that ran down my cheeks, knowing I needed to focus. “Actually, yes. See my friends?” I held up my arm. “There are enough for all of us.”
“Gotta convince the moss to let me go first.”
But even as he spoke, the moss was changing around him.
“I think maybe I already did,” I said. As I pushed at the vines, the cage around him softened like it had for Rift, releasing Blaze and forming a ledge to keep him from falling. Slightly above us, it did the same for Snowboy. Bugs scuttled through the moss and attached to their arms and legs, moving their bodies for them.
Snowboy was farther along and too high up for me to see him, and I wasn’t sure if he was awake until I heard him shout. “What are these things?”
“Don’t fight them,” I called. “They’ll take you to safety.”
I willed the bugs around me to carry me to the surface, following Snowboy and Blaze, and finally, I heaved myself over the edge of the cliff and onto solid ground.
Quake wrapped Rift in a blanket as he sat shivering on the grass. Pip ran up with blankets for Snowboy and Blaze, waiting only long enough for the bugs to drop off them onto the ground before wrapping the blankets around them.
I paused on the pathway, still covered in my suit of insects, examining my arms and legs. The creatures connected together in a neat pattern, one for each of my joints and others filling the spaces in between. The other bugs from Rift, Blaze, and Snowboy began to pool next to me on the path, forming a growing mound. Even more insects scuttled from the moss and raced from the marsh pond, a near-constant stream that continued to build into something very large, that rose up beside me, casting me into shadow.
I gaped as the bugs that had adorned my body flew off me, zipping to parts of the humanoid creature that loomed over me. As the last bug flew away from me, the humanoid remained, the part of its body that resembled a head tilted slightly toward me as if waiting for instructions.
“What is that?” Snowboy was still shaking from his ordeal, but he managed to speak through chattering teeth.