by J B Cantwell
Far above our heads, well over the tops of the trees, those buzzing shadows persisted. But they did not come to us, did not attack. I shuddered as I wondered how big a bee must be to cast a shadow so large.
We rested at the stream for an hour, splitting a small meal of dried fruit. Compared to what the villagers ate in the Hidden Mountains, this was a feast, and I realized how difficult it must have been to make the decision to take even these few pieces away from the starving people. Cait wandered around the outskirts of the group and came back to us, her arms filled with flowers that smelled like heaven. She rested the bunch of them on the ground and then picked one up and held it to her lips, tilting it back. Syrupy liquid trickled down the petal and into her mouth. She smacked her lips, a huge smile on her face.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“She’s sure,” Larissa said.
The two were growing more inseparable with every hour that passed. It seemed that since Cait had lost her voice their bond had grown even tighter. If anything, their communication seemed easier now than it had been before.
Larissa picked up one of the bowl-sized flowers and drank deeply. Kiron grabbed for the next.
“This is honey nectar,” he said. “I’ve had it before. Here.”
He picked up two of the huge flowers and handed one to Father and one to me. Then he tipped his own back and joined Larissa, who was licking her lips appreciatively.
I gave a furtive glance up to the treetops again. The word “honey” had reminded me of the bees far above. As I tipped back my own flower, I hoped that honey was just a word used to describe the sweet liquid, and that we wouldn’t later be punished for taking some prize of the bees’ creation.
My worries were soon forgotten as the nectar touched my tongue. Sickly sweet, like liquid candy, it filled my mouth and rolled down my throat. When I had swallowed the contents of the flower, I saw that Larissa and Cait had now pulled the petals off of their flowers and were licking the remains of the nectar greedily. I tore off a piece and meant to do the same, but the nectar had made me hungry for more, and instead of licking mine I took a huge bite out of the petal.
Instantly, every tastebud in my mouth was assaulted by a bitterness so disgusting that I nearly wretched. Kiron laughed.
“Probably should’ve told you…don’t eat the flowers,” he said.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said, irritated, spitting out the petal. I tried licking one of the other petals instead, and was relieved to find that the sweetness was so intense that it easily did away with the lingering bitterness.
Father came to sit by me, still drinking from his flower cup, smiling widely.
“I never would have thought such things existed anywhere,” he said, his face full of wonder. “And yet, I know I must have tasted this before.”
“How could you have?” I asked. “You’ve never been here before.”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he said. He raised his eyes and looked around, taking in the trees, the stream, the flowers. “That’s the strange thing,” he went on. “I feel like I have been here before.”
I stared at him, unsure of what to make of this comment. Then, when no answer came, I went back to licking my petal.
I didn’t understand Father. His odd demeanor struck a chord with me that seemed off key somehow. And yet I couldn’t deny his friendliness, his eagerness to help. The whole thing was unsettling.
I licked the last of my petals and tossed them into the grass.
Since arriving in the Maylin Fold, I had witnessed so many things that were beyond unusual that I had lost count of the number of times I, myself, had worn that same look of wonder that was on Father’s face now.
“It’s a wondrous place,” he said, sitting back, relaxing into the grass.
We were beside a large grove of trees. And though we were mostly shaded from the sun, the grass grew thick and green beneath us. The light made the edges of the trees, the tips of the water, the petals of the flowers, nearly twinkle in its glow.
“So you’ve seen places like this before?” I asked, uneasy.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But something about this place is so familiar. The day I came to this body was the day I came into existence, as far as I know” He paused, thoughtful. “Sometimes I remember things, though. Things that feel like they happened long, long ago. The thoughts seem out of place, like someone else’s memories.”
“But whose memories could they be?” I asked.
Father shrugged.
“Is he in there with you?” I asked, my face reddening. “My dad?”
I was leading a quest to level the Fold, marching us from planet to planet in search of the hidden places where the gold had been pilfered by Jared. I felt like a fool for asking about my dad, wondering if he was somehow conscious now that his eyes shared Father’s.
“Just a piece of him,” Father said. “But I wonder … I think that more might be coming.”
“When?” I asked.
I was eager for a chance to talk to the man behind the madness. And nervous that if he did come, there would be no change. My hand moved reflexively up to my throat.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But something is changing.”
He licked the last of his petals and then held it out before him, studying it. It was as large as his head. Then, dropping it, he stared out across the stream.
“He seems less violent now,” he went on. “But only just.”
I gulped, trying to swallow down the hope that I had allowed to balloon in my chest.
Kiron wandered over to us.
“I think we should rest here for a bit,” he said. “The last nights have been hard on everyone.”
I was starting to feel a little sleepy. I wondered if it was a result of the nectar. My mind was growing hazier by the minute. I didn’t argue.
Soon, all of us reclined in the grass. Even Cait rested her head against Larissa’s chest, comforted by the warmth and peace of this place.
But, as I fell into a dreamless sleep, the buzzing overhead did not abate.
Chapter 12
I woke several hours later to find Kiron sitting across from me, looking like he’d been watching me sleep for hours.
“I’m glad you’re up,” he said. “I think we should take this opportunity to shave down the rest of the gold. I don’t want to be caught again somewhere dangerous and then not be able to do it at the last minute.”
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. As the day had passed, the air had grown cooler, though not cold. Everything about this place brought a sense of ease and comfort. Twenty feet away, Larissa and Cait walked hand in hand, exploring the carpeted forest floor.
I got to work. By the Book of Leveling’s count, I still had nineteen spheres to make. As I molded the gold over the pages of the book, Kiron sat beside me, his disk clearing up the shavings as a magnet would draw lead. When he had a sizable pile of gold, he took out the vial of dust and added it to the mix. Then he raised the disk close to his eyes and stared hard into its center. The filings of gold began to melt and bubble around the edges of the disk, gradually falling toward the center and rolling around until they had joined the other discarded pieces. Soon, he had a thick piece of molten gold settling on the disk. He carefully put it down into the dirt.
“It has to cool,” he said, not taking his eyes off it. His face was satisfied as he stared down at his work. Then, when he looked up, his eyes widened in surprise.
“Be careful!” he said.
I hadn’t noticed it, but as I had been watching him melt the gold, I had completely forgotten about what I was doing. Before me, the ball of gold spun off center, a big chunk being taken out of one side while the other remained round. I tried to regain control of the sphere, but it was too late. I let the gold drop to the book below.
Kiron snorted, handing out the solid chunk he had just made.
“Start again,” he said, and he got to work on fixing the mess I had just made.
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nbsp; We worked like that, side by side, for a couple of hours. Finally, as the sun began to set, just visible through the trees, our work was done. We had created all sixteen of the spheres we would need to complete the leveling. At least, according to the book. I was relieved to see we still had several small pieces leftover. They would be enough to create our links along the way. And who knew what other situations we might need more gold for.
As I dropped the stash of gold into my pack, the symbol etched into the leather caught my eye. Outlined in gold, it was the symbol I had believed was Almara’s, the same one that was carved onto the cover of the Book of Leveling, and into the earth on Yunta, I sat for a time, wondering how this marking had come to be. I had always thought it represented Almara and his quest, the first quest, to level the Fold. But now I realized that this marking came from somewhere else. I didn’t know for certain whether Almara had ever been to Yunta. He had traveled extensively, but he had never mentioned the planet. And it seemed very out of character for him to leave guide posts along the way to each pedestal’s location. But if not Almara, who?
Everyone was up now, and nobody seemed tired. As I stood up, I was amazed that I felt no stiffness from having been hunched in the same position for so long. In fact, I felt eager to get moving.
“I think we should head out,” I said.
“What if there are more?” Donnally asked. “I don’t want to get stuck out there.” His eyes glanced nervously around the darkening glade.
Donnally was starting to get on my nerves. Why had he come along on this journey if he was so terrified to set foot anywhere but on Aeso?
“We can’t control what creatures roam these lands,” Kiron said. “But I think we can bet that they won’t be the same ones we have already come across.”
“What about the bees?” he countered. “They could attack.”
“Bees don’t attack at night, you fool,” Larissa said. “Besides, Cait and I have been to the edge of the forest today and seen them at their work. They are well on their way home by now.”
“We have to go sometime,” Kiron said, putting the Book into his pack. “We can’t just stay here and wait for danger to pass. We don’t even know what dangers there are. It is time. Now.”
Donnally sighed heavily, but he hoisted his own pack over his shoulders, defeated.
We walked the entire night through. Though I wasn’t tired, the walk seemed long to me, and I remembered, like Yunta, this planet probably spun at a different rate than what we were used to. Yunta had had daylight for just a few hours, perhaps Grallero was different.
Despite our relative safety under the cover of darkness, I hoped that the sun would rise soon. It made me nervous to be traveling in the black of night, unable to see around the thick trees that surrounded us.
Cait never faltered. Whenever we stopped to rest, she was always the first one back to her feet, mutely pointing the way forward. After our third break I caught up with her.
“How far do you think it is?” I asked as we trudged through the undergrowth.
She shrugged, then held up her hands about a foot apart.
“Is that long?” I asked.
She shrugged again.
“How long was it on Yunta?” I asked, trying to get a gauge of how much an arm’s length meant in her silent language.
She pushed her hands very close together until her palms faced each other, just an inch apart.
I sighed.
I wasn’t under the delusion that our leveling the Fold should be a quick affair. I understood that it was going to take us time to make it from place to place. But what if every planet had long journeys like Grallero seemed to? Could our quest take not weeks or months, but even years?
The sun finally rose, and we rested toward the edge of the trees to take in its light. The night hadn’t been cold, but it had felt lonely despite my many traveling companions walking beside me. Something about the light of day lifted my spirits, and I found that the length of our journey felt less impossible than it had just moments before.
With the rising of the sun came the buzzing high above our heads. I shuddered, telling myself that if I just ignored it, maybe they would leave me alone. It wasn’t until I saw Larissa step out from beneath the trees that I realized how close the bees were.
I shrank back against the trunk of the tree I was sitting beside as I saw them, circling, descending. They weren’t just big, as the snapping insects of Yunta had been. These were enormous. Bees the size of elephants flitted through the air, gusts of wind coming off their wings as they swooped down into the valley. As they made their way, unmistakably, toward Larissa. I opened my mouth, wanting to shout a warning, but my throat was dry with fear.
“Lissa, you idiot!” Kiron barked. “Get out of there!”
“Shut up, dear brother!” she called back, her voice practically a song.
A wide smile was spread across her face and she waved her arms dreamily through the air. The bees, as if called by her dance, descended. One in particular made it very close to her, and her swaying arms stopped as she lifted her palms up into the air. The bee hovered above her head, slowly, gently, lowering its body toward her until it placed two of its legs in her hands.
Larissa giggled at the touch, and I thought she might be trying to hold back a squeal of delight.
Let it end. Let it end. Let it go away now.
I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking such thoughts. Every face was transfixed on Larissa, every mouth hanging open in horror and amazement. Even Cait stood with her eyes open wide, unwilling to move an inch in any direction.
The impossibly huge, dangerous flying beast seemed to be almost caressing Larissa. And the moment it began to flutter its wings faster, the two of them took to the air together.
“Wait!” I yelled, trying to shake myself out of a paralyzing fear.
It would take her. It would eat her, probably. And then it would come back for the rest of us. They had been wrong about the bees. Simply leaving them alone would not be enough to save us from them. My skin prickled all over my body, and I had to fight the urge to flee back into the woods, to find a hiding spot and stay there until we could make a link to get us out of here.
But soon she was high above our heads, flying not within the bee’s grasp, but alongside its giant form.
“There’s the girl,” Kiron said, watching her now with a smile on his face.
Larissa was a sailer. I had known this since the first time I had met her, had even flown with her myself, but watching her fly alongside enormous monsters was a shock to my system.
“How is she doing that?” Father asked.
“She can fly,” Kiron said. “Always could. Always had a way with animals, too. Though this surprises even me.”
He gestured to the sky where Larissa now swooped and spun with four of the giant creatures. She seemed to be in no danger, and she spent several minutes up above, enjoying the morning light and her new friends.
A way with animals?
Finally, her face gleaming, she slowly descended back down toward the grass, touching down with a grace that betrayed her advanced age. In the sky, her dance mates floated away on the breeze, off to find their morning’s work.
“They say they’ll take us,” she said, tromping through the grass back to us.
Cait was the first to reach her, taking her hand, staring at her with awe.
“Take us?” I asked. “Where?”
“To the next pedestal,” she said.
We all stared.
“It would save us time,” she said defensively. Cait nodded beside her.
I looked from face to face, aghast.
“No way,” I said. “No way am I hopping onto the back of one of those monsters!”
Heads were shaking all around me, and I could see that nobody else seemed keen on the idea either. Even Kiron didn’t look enthused by the proposition. He walked up to her and put one hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t quite think this is the right
group to be introducing some of your more interesting…ah…talents to, Lissa.”
“Oh, you’re such a curmudgeon,” she snorted, staring around at each of us. “What, you all want to walk there, do ya?” she boomed.
Six sets of eyes stared at her as if she had finally crossed the line into utter madness.
“Fine,” she said. “We can walk for days and days and days. And I think it won’t be long before you’re asking me to call my friends back down here to save your poor, tired feet from blister after blister. But suit yourselves. Maybe we’ll just leave the flying to the girls, eh?”
She elbowed Cait playfully, who silently giggled. Then she scooped her up into her arms and took to the air again.
“Wait!” I called. “Where are you going?” I had an image in my mind of little Cait being fed to a nest of angry bees that made my breath stop.
Kiron sighed.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You know she can fly with others. You’ve done it yourself. They’ll be back.”
He picked up his belongings and started off.
Cait and Larissa did eventually join us again. Several hours later they floated down beside us, and Cait took up her place at the head of the group as if nothing had happened. I did note, however, that the smile she wore lit up her entire face. I was relieved that she was finding something to be happy about, even though her absence had made me nervous.
I was worried. More worried than I had been at the beginning of the journey. The hours tromping through the grass that bordered the forest had given me time to think. Too much time. When I thought about the creatures we had met on Yunta and Grallero, my skin crawled with fear and disgust. What might await us on the later planets we would visit? Jade had arranged our route based on the difficulty we would face in each location. While it was true that Grallero’s beasts had yet to attack us, our work here was far from over.