by Tracy Korn
"Zephyrs," she answers as we move downward through a dim, branching part of the corridor where a warm wind suddenly blasts us from even farther down.
"Are those like the tunnel sharks?" I ask, hurrying to keep up with her when she doesn't elaborate.
"No, zephyrs are mostly made of wind, vapors—can't barely see them sometimes before they fly over like they're just passing through, then just suck you right out of your steps. It's harder for them to tell us apart from the ground or the rustle of the stalks if we're wearing these, though," she says, holding up her arm and rotating her wrist so her sleeve makes a shish-shish sound. I squint at her.
"You have predatory food and wind down here?" I ask, stumbling over the dark, uneven stones winding down under our feet until we finally cross onto a stretch of the same green moss that was on the walls by the hot spring pool.
"Everything is predatory down here except us—well, not if you ask the fish in the reservoir, but…" she laughs, then pulls herself through a final opening in the wall, where the wind starts howling. I follow her through to the other side, which opens to a wide expanse of rolling black rock with a field of bright, wispy grain that starts about 30 feet from us and runs even farther back. An enormous white sun burns through the dark sky—can it be a sky?—casting yellowish light over everything like an eclipse. The whole area is still and surreal like the calm before a storm until sections of the grain in the distance suddenly toss and whip, and I am stopped where I stand.
"Are those…the zephyrs?" I manage to ask before she gets too far ahead of me, then I take a few steps back to the rock wall, which is black and shiny in places just like the ground.
"A few of them. Can't pull anything until they all come, though," she replies, then suddenly looks past me. "There they are."
I turn in the direction she's looking and don't see anything but several tumbling dark clouds, and intermittently between them, small, flickering specks.
"Stars?" I say to myself, and Zoe meets my eyes.
"No. It's just more of this," she says, patting a reflective, glass-like section of the black rock we're leaning against.
"That's a cave wall out there? That high? But what about these clouds, and that sun?" I ask, incredulous as I look up at the muted glowing disk that pours saturated golden light over everything.
"Not clouds…like I said, those are the rest of the zephyrs, and that's not the sun," she insists. "Dell said they made it at the mountain just like the tunnel sharks—there's a stretch of the same glowing gas over the hot spring. Didn't you see? Anyway, the Council says it's the source," she adds, rolling her eyes, "but don't get either Dell or Cal started on that, please and thank you. All I know is it makes the Bale grow." She gestures to the grain in front of us, then picks up several shiny rock chips from the ground and sends them sailing one by one into the stalks.
"The source of what?" I ask, unable to look away from the golden field and the dark, rolling sky that looks like it could be breathing all around it. I try to process how big this cave must be if what I'm really seeing is just more walls, but my mind kicks out the concept every time I try to make it stick.
"The source of the original immunity for the first 12 Vishan. Can't see it from this angle, but the homeland mountain is just under that glow. I'll show you when we climb to the Lookout Pier."
"And in between here and there is…"
"The Rush," she says, looking over the grain stalks that stand perfectly still except for pockets of violent whips that swirl them like they're being shaken from below, then stop just as quickly as more of the clouds collect overhead. I cling to the wall behind me.
"Zephyrs are lagging," Zoe adds with a satisfied nod as she steps backward toward the fissure. "Won't stay that way now that they're roused, though." She turns into the fissure, but stops abruptly when Dell and Arco suddenly come through. Tieg, Avis, Joss, and finally, Liddick, Cal, and Jesse appear just after them, and she swallows whatever she was going to shout. "About time."
Everyone from our group stops in their steps just like I did when they look out at the eternity of rolling black and brightly lit grain before us. Cal, Dell, and Jesse walk out a few more feet to stand near Zoe, and then Cal shakes his head at us.
"They're stuck in place just like you two were," he says to Jesse and Zoe. "This never gets old," he chuckles then and backhands Jesse in the chest.
"Where are Myra, Dez, and Ellis?" I ask, looking back through the fissure, sure that Jax must still be resting, and Fraya is probably with him.
"They're talking with Veece and Jove," Dell answers.
"About what?" I ask, but he just shrugs.
"What is all this?" Arco asks, his eyes narrowed, then going wide when he sees the grain whipping around before us.
"How is there…weather?" Avis starts walking away from the wall until Jesse stops him with a hand in his chest.
"That weather will pull you straight up and strip you clean, layer by layer till you're gone," he says, stepping slightly to the side so Avis can see the short, explosive bursts of swirling stalks.
"What's doing that?" Joss asks, looking around urgently. "What's running loose out here?"
"It's wind…predatory wind," I say, and everyone's eyes snap to mine except Liddick's. He cocks an eyebrow and takes in a breath.
"Zephyrs…they only come around the Bale field because over the years, they've learned that's where they can find us," Dell says.
"Works out fine now that we know how to use them, though—nothing gets the berries off stalks except the zephyrs shaking and pulling. We tried everything from rigging shaker tethers to cutting them free, but even with bugs, the stalks will attack you if they think you're a threat," Zoe nods.
"So, now we just set out pull-tarps, run around until all the zephyrs gather above and start trying to skin us like rabbits," Jesse explains in an overly upbeat tone, then angles his head at the dark clouds gathering just 10 feet or so above the field. "And if we manage to keep our faces on, we zig-zag back and pull in the tarps with the berries that drop." He lets an obnoxious, exaggerated smile interrupt his surly expression for a few seconds, then nods to Cal. "Ready to go?"
Everyone blanches as Zoe holds out her hands.
"It's all regular, don't worry…" she says, shaking her head at Jesse. "See the dark haze forming? That's them collecting. We just take turns distracting them while the others set up."
"Just stay here until we get back—won't take a minute," Cal says to Arco and the others, then nods back at Jesse before they both run toward opposite edges of the grain field.
"You playing fox?" Zoe asks Dell with a wink.
"Unless you're feeling faster today?" He quirks an eyebrow and chuckles as Zoe grabs my wrist.
"What's happening?" I ask, looking back and forth between them.
"Are you split? She's not going out there with you," Arco protests, taking a step forward as he looks over our heads at Cal and Jesse, who are almost to the first row of stalks.
"Stay back—you don't have any bugs!" Zoe raises her voice over the growing wind and throws up a hand.
"What?"Arco's face contorts in confusion as Jesse counts to three, and then we start running in opposite directions."Jazz!" Arco calls after us.
"It's OK—stay on the wall!" I call back to him, then see Liddick jumping forward with him. Stay there! Keep everyone there! I think, but have to turn away before I can see if he's heard me.
Small funnel clouds about the size of a person take shape over the edges of the field where Cal and Jesse have just entered, then dissipate as they drift to the center. Zoe and I stop running once we get to the far corner of the field, and I can't get a deep enough breath.
"The rest are gathering," she exhales, then pulls me down to kneel next to her as she scans over our heads, then gestures to a red rope at our feet. "They're trying to pack hunt Cal and Jesse. Dell is running the front of the field, and I'll run to the far corner and back to draw attention away, then they can set the tarps. They'll yell pull when that's done
, and you, me, and Dell will grab that red rope handle on our way back, and pull it all the way back with us to the wall, wise? All the way to the wall, and don't look back," she says, her eyes flickering with excitement. "All right, I'll be right back. Get ready!"
My heart pounds, and the low howl the zephyrs start to generate makes it nearly impossible to put words together in response, so I just nod stupidly even though I am absolutely not ready to outrun a pack of predatory winds.
Over the whirring, I hear cracks and violent rustling, and it takes everything in me to keep my legs under me. I jerk my gaze to Zoe, who just shakes her head at me and mouths the words get ready, but then she takes off running.
Jazz! Are you all right!? I hear Liddick in my mind, and my pulse crashes into my throat, choking off anything I could manage to say even if I could find intelligible words. They're right next to you—get out of there!
I can't! Zoe's running; we have to wait for them to set the tarps!
The dark cloud above us spreads until it overlaps the edge of the field, and several funnel clouds begin branching off, three…six…then too many to count, and they all start diving into the rows, shaking the stalks so loudly I can feel the vibration shoot up through the ground straight through to my teeth.
Jazz! They're everywhere! Don't move! Liddick calls again, his voice ragged and stretched. I don't think I've ever heard him so afraid.
"Pull! Pull!" Jesse and Cal call out, and suddenly, Zoe is rushing past me, gripping my arm and shouting.
"Run!"
CHAPTER 22
The Pier
Zoe lets go of my wrist when the outside row of stalks next to us shakes so hard it blurs, and I am sure I have never in my life run this fast. Cal and Jesse run with one of the ropes from the middle of the field as Dell takes another on their far side. At least a dozen tubular, cloth bags follow behind us as the funnel clouds take turns swooping and rattling whole sections of the field at a time.
"Jazz!" I faintly hear Arco calling my name and turn around just in time to see that we're much closer to the dark rock wall than I thought.
"Go inside!" Cal shouts to the rest of our group, and they all head back through the fissure. We follow, then pull the long bags in and drag them over to a section of the cave far to our left that I hadn't noticed on our way out. Jesse lifts a hatch in the ground, then opens the end of his bag of grain into the hole. Each of the others do the same, and then Jesse closes the hatch. Arco's eyes narrow as he shakes his head and holds up his hands.
"What just happened? What are those things, and how is there a sun?" he continues, then shoots a glance to Avis, who just shakes his head and blows out a breath.
Dell and Cal both start to answer, but Zoe cuts them off. "Save it all for the Lookout—they'll have a whole bucket of questions up there. Come on."
She walks in Jesse's direction toward the back of the cavern, then slips through another fissure I hadn't noticed in the shadows. Everyone follows her through the winding corridor that slants upward at a steep angle, and by the time we get to the top, my legs are burning. When the ground levels, it opens onto a dark rock ledge that extends out to a point beyond the overhanging ceiling. The walls at each side of us angle into facets like cut crystals, and I can't resist running my hand over one of the smooth, black surfaces. It's cold at first, but then warms after a few seconds, and I hear it start to hum. I jerk my hand away and gasp when it starts vibrating under my finger tips, then jump again when I feel Arco's hand between my shoulder blades.
"Hey…" he says as I jerk around, his hazel eyes scanning my face, then moving past me to the wall. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, it just felt…electric or something."
"Must be sound waves…" he trails off, pressing his palm against one of the facets. "I don't feel anything."
"Coming?" Zoe calls to us from the ledge beyond the overhang. We walk to the edge, and I immediately feel my equilibrium shift as I look out on the stretches of dark clouds that spread out below us, pieced by dozens of brown and white rock pillars that are spattered in tufts of green. Far in the distance, a single mountain peak also emerges from the cloud cover, and as I move closer to the edge, I see more of the black, glass-like rock giving way to a section of tan directly below us—the Bale field. I crane my neck to the right, but there's just more of the same smooth, black wall wrapping around and bulging until I can't see past it, then look toward the mountain again.
"That's the Rush—the seven biomes—and back there…" Cal says, putting his hands on his hips and staring in front of us. "That mountain is where Vox went," he says quietly like he's still trying to convince himself that it's true. A weight slowly settles in my chest as he looks down at the ground, and I know I have to change his focus.
"Why do the walls back there hum? And why did the vibration heat them?" I ask. Cal looks up at me puzzled, but at least it's a little easier to breathe. Good, it worked, I think as Avis raises a feathery eyebrow and crosses back to feel the wall for himself, but then just shakes his head.
"Here? In the obsidian?" Avis asks, his palm pressed to the wall. I nod to him, and he shrugs.
"This used to be magma—you know, lava—could be seismic activity. You said it got warm?"
"Yeah, but how could that have been lava unless we're…" I start, then look at Zoe in disbelief. "Are we inside a volcano?"
"Well, technically…no. The volcano is over there," she says, extending her arm out to our left. I look past her, but don't see anything except more of the same dark, shiny surfaces interspersed between rough, porous rock that looks like muddy pumice stone. I follow it upward with my eyes, but I can't see the top.
"You live next to a volcano?" Tieg's voice is clipped as he lowers his chin and looks down his long, narrow nose at Zoe, who bristles.
"They're immune to fire, Spaulding. Haven't you been paying attention?" Arco replies. His voice is low and measured, and I can hear his frustration sharpen the edge of each word. I wrap my fingers around his forearm, his muscles pulled taut because of the fist he's making. Is he still on edge from the zephyrs? Tieg's eyes shoot to Arco, but I speak up before he can say anything in reply and make everything worse.
"We're not staying here anyway. We need to find Vox and finish what we came to do," I say, then turn to look at Cal. "How do we get there…to the mountain?" I ask, but he just pulls in a long, slow breath.
"You don't understand. Things are different here. I tried to tell her," he answers, furrowing his wide brow, which makes him look years older than he actually is. "It's not just a long walk."
"Then show us. We can't go back to Gaia, Cal," I answer, then nearly choke as Joss speaks up in protest.
"We could go back," he says like the idea has just come to him. "Three months of matriculation means that Gaia would look the other way…chalk it up to us testing our potential or something, right?" he adds, and I can't believe what I'm hearing. This is Joss talking now? The same boy who volunteered to help us when he found out that we lost Fraya and Vox?
"You insisted on coming with us. What happened to all that talk about injustice and how we couldn't leave them out there?" I press as Arco's hand moves to my shoulder.
"That was in answer to all of you leaving Fraya and Vox with that cave creature just so you could save yourselves," he answers, his eyes narrowing in the golden light. Arco takes a step toward him, and I just miss grabbing his forearm again.
"You know we didn't have a choice," he says through his teeth.
"You always have a choice. You just chose to be a coward." Joss bites down on the last word. The hard lines of his face deepening as his hands close into fists at his side, and though he's several inches shorter than Arco, he's twice as broad, and seems to know it. They both lunge at each other, but Dell steps in front of Arco just in time while throwing a hand out to stop Joss from advancing from the other direction. He nods to Jesse, who rolls his cat-like eyes and pushes off the wall to move toward Joss.
"You do realize we're on a pier up
in the clouds, wise?" Dell says in a loud voice. "You want to scrap, wait till we have walls again." Dell pushes Arco back toward me, and I thread my arm around his waist to keep him from advancing again. His chest is heaving, and the muscles in his jaw jump under the sharp line of his cheekbone.
"You weren't there—it wasn't so black and white," I say to Joss, but his self-righteous expression doesn't change.
"I wouldn't have left," he answers, his voice leveling as he stares right through Arco. At this, Jesse, who is much leaner but nearly a foot taller than Joss, steps into his line of sight and looks down at him. A heat rises in the center of my chest as Arco tries to restrain himself, but then my stomach also sinks with a suffocating fear…could Joss be right?
"Then don't leave now," I say quickly. "We came back for them, and Vox is still out there," I say, and the second I do, I know it's not me who thinks Joss might be right; it's Arco. I look up and confirm it when I see his expression pressed into a wince as his brows dart in. He does feel like it's his fault that Vox is still gone, and I probably didn't help with that by actually telling him it was at the time. My chest tightens, but now with my own guilt…he was just trying to protect me, after all.
"Vox made her own choice this time. We can take Fraya back with us," Joss answers, his voice calmer now that Avis has made his way over to his side. Liddick's far away chuckle floats in from somewhere to the side of us all, startling everyone.
"Back to what, exactly?" he asks, pressing his lips together into a thin line and wrinkling his brow at Joss. "You think you can just walk back in there and pretend you don't know that Gaia has been experimenting on people? Or better yet, that they'll even let you pretend?" he says with a tired, exasperated laugh.
"What proof do you actually have of that besides the deformed manta ray, which could have just been some random fluke of nature? That, and the voices in your head," Joss fires back as a vein starts to show down the center of his forehead.
"They already tried to kill us, you chutz…were you on that Leviathan or not?" Liddick's voice is cool and steady in response. He folds his fingers around the back of his neck while he shakes his head dismissively, exhaustion on his face like he's been listening to a lecture that has gone on too long. He closes his eyes in a long blink, then opens them slowly as he lets his dark brows drift together, looking at Joss like he's just wasting everyone's time. This is the Liddick I've seen for the past five years—bored, superior, indifferent, and he's so convincing, I almost believe it's really him all over again.