by Tracy Korn
"Azeris?"
CHAPTER 29
Fireproof
Jax and Arco look at me expectantly, and I realize I've just said Azeris's name out loud.
"I saw him…just now. It was like he was looking into a screen or something, and I think he saw me too," I say, every word helping to convince me it actually happened.
"You saw what?" Tieg asks from across the room, which cues everyone else's attention.
"Azeris. It was just for a second. He was going to say something, and then the image just fell apart. I need to find Liddick," I say, moving toward the door. Arco holds out an arm, blocking my path, and I turn to him impatiently.
"Jazz, did you forget about the port-carnate splice he put in your head without you knowing? About how Azeris probably helped him with that?"
"I didn't say I forgave him, but I have to find out if he got the rest of whatever that message was supposed to be. Wasn't this treatment supposed to enhance our neural channel, or…channels," I add tentatively. "Maybe I only got part of what he saw because I haven't had it yet."
"Jazz…"
"Arco, come with or stay here, but I need to go," I insist, then turn to Zoe. "Did Dell say something about training?"
"I'll show you," Zoe answers, suddenly seeming anxious as she blows a strand of copper flyaway hair that has escaped her little ponytail, then rubs her freckled nose with the back of her hand. "We'll pass the entry to Center Hall on the way to the training circle if anyone wants to leave off there instead," she adds over her shoulder to Arco, then hooks her arm in mine, guiding me through the fissure and into the corridor.
We walk for several minutes before I recognize the opening to the small cave that leads up into Center Hall, but no one opts to go through. The torchlit corridor slopes downward, past the opening to the Swim, past the Origin Wall room and the Pinch where those stupid, gooey blue bats live, and past the hot spring room with the strange, mossy walls. Then I recognize the dark gray, porous rock showing in places and the smooth, glassy black rock from this morning when we went to the grain field.
"Are we going back out there? To the Bale stalks?" I ask Zoe, and she shakes her head.
"No. Under it."
***
We pass through a large cave with more torchlit walls, but these look too straight to be naturally occurring in the rock face. When I look more closely, I can see grooves and scuffs cut near the corners. Ada, Ty, and the young Badlander boy with the little blue bat from earlier are feeding Bale berries into a flat, stone grinder on the other side of them. It looks like two old clock gears, but neither of them are moving. Calliope, the Badlander girl who fixed Dell's tooth when we first arrived, looks like she's trying to repair it as the same two Vishan girls who giggled when they gave Ty his soup pick some of the green berries out, then throw them in a separate bowl at the end of the little processing area.
"And who is on Bale rotation today that you don't know…you meet Ty's little brother, Ghost, yet?" Zoe asks, and the sandy-haired boy who is about 13 looks up from adjusting a stone plate and nods. "He's handy at fixing things like Calliope—things, not so much people. Don't think you've met Kora and Myka…" Zoe gestures to the two Vishan girls with long, straight blonde hair who are spreading more Bale berries on the stone countertop slab in front of them.
"No, but the tall one helped Jax through the doorway after his concussion, and the little one was trying to calm down Cal when we first came through Center Hall, right?" I ask quietly.
"Right. Myka is the tall one, and the bug with dimples is Kora, Cal's sister. She talks him down from his episodes a lot—just about the only one who can," Zoe says, raising her eyebrows and shaking her head. "I'm surprised Myka doesn't have a critter running loose after her…likely hard to keep it out of the Bale, though. You get bit or clawed down here, Myka is the one to see about it. And well, Ada too," she adds with a shrug.
Myka, the tall, thin, blonde girl with the wide brown eyes smiles at us, then whispers something to Kora, who pokes Calliope in the back. Calliope looks up from the flat stone she's trying to balance on some kind of spool and scowls, then talks around the three pins sticking out of her mouth.
"What? It ain't like this is particular and requiring my complete concentration or anything, wise? I said tell me about him later if you can stand it," she fires, and Myka clears her throat and angles her head at us.
"Happen to see Dell come through here with two of their lot in between all your concentrating?" Zoe asks, darting a glance at me, then gesturing to Arco and the others who walk up behind us. Kora and Myka see Dez and Tieg and start whispering again as Calliope gets to her feet and takes the pins from her mouth.
"They went with Kesh over to The Circle—and, hello," she says, fitting the pins into place around the stone disk, then tucking a wild, dark curl behind her ear and winking at Arco. I raise an eyebrow at her, but she doesn't look at me.
"Hi," Arco says, trying to swallow a chuckle when I glance up at him. Calliope smiles, and I clear my throat. She waves absently like she's telling me to wait a second as she looks him up and down, then nods to me with approval before turning her attention back to Zoe. I roll my eyes.
"Anyway, do me a solid if you're going back there and tell Kesh to hurry up, wise? Grinder is fixed now, and I'm not trying to finish her rotation," Calliope nods decisively before returning to her work, then looks back at us quickly, her wide, green eyes lighting with a smirk at Zoe. "And besides, I need to check Dell's mouth again," she adds with another wink.
"I'll lay it out to her," Zoe smiles, widening her eyes at me with a laugh once we're out of earshot, then move through another fissure. "In case you felt your skin creeping, you're the first from Skyboard down here," she says over her shoulder to Dez and Tieg. "So it was just your eyes and other particulars that set Kora and Myka whispering—they didn't mean anything by it," she adds.
"Veece said he was going to get a biome map from one of them, right?" I ask, and Zoe nods.
"They catalog everything, gather the vein rock for the green flames, keep records of the artifacts, and maintain the Origin Wall," she adds.
"Vein rock?" Avis calls from somewhere behind us, but it's too narrow now for me to see him behind the others. "Can I see some of it?"
"Sure, it's all about in the training circle walls. Just don't carry any off because this is the only place to find it. Can't make the treatments or Gathering fires without it."
We emerge from the corridor on the heels of Zoe's last word. Green torches line the length of another small corridor, but this one not as narrow. The white, jagged ceiling is lined in green torches that seem to be pulled upward like there is a vent opening somewhere we can't see. The walls are also jagged and white, but with striations of silver running the length of them. Avis moves quickly over to a wall and picks up one of the silver pieces of rock from the ground.
"Is this the vein rock?" he asks. "It's just boron," he says. "Your secret fire dust is boron?"
"We call it vein rock," Zoe says, holding out the inside of her forearm against the white wall, where the dark gray lines of boron deposit do look like veins in an arm. Avis nods and shrugs.
"Well, it's boron," he whispers to Jax and Arco as we follow her through another opening, this one unfolding to a large, round cave with the same green torches running the perimeter of the ceiling, the flames being pulled upward again to some unseen vent. Kesh stands with her hands on her hips as Dell and Ellis kneel in front of Liddick. For some reason, he has dropped to one knee and is leaning over it to support his forehead with his hand.
"What happened!?" I shout, running into the training circle to kneel next to Liddick. Kesh looks down at me and pushes a hand through her short, erratic black hair.
"I was going to show him how to control his flames, but then he said he heard a buzz and glassed over—just dropped right there," she answers.
"He said Azeris's name a minute ago," Ellis adds. I nod to him.
"I think I saw the beginning of a me
ssage before it cut out. He must still be in it."
"Can he hear us?" Avis asks, taking a step forward as the rest of our group files in behind me.
"I don't think so. We tried talking to him, but he's—" Dell starts just as Liddick takes a deep breath and rubs his eyes, then sits down and racks his forearms over his knees.
"Liddick?" I say, trying to align my eyes with his, which are still glassy. "Did you see Azeris?"
He blinks several times, then swallows hard and nods.
"It was like he was right in front of me," he swallows again and shakes his head.
"What did he say? I saw him for a second just now too, but the connection cut out right before he was going to talk."
Liddick scrubs his hands over his face, then gets to his feet.
"He said he'd been working on tracing Liam's message ever since he got back from helping us in the Boundaries room, but he could never get the link to stay connected," Liddick meets my eyes for a second, then scans the ground before moving his hands to his hips and looking out at everyone again. "But he just locked onto Liam and your dad, Rip. They're alive, and they're in the bottom of that volcano on the other side of the Rush. Dell is right. There are labs down there."
Everything is silent for a second except for the subtle whipping of torch flames all around us and the sound of air pushing through small spaces.
"He talked to them?" I ask quietly, afraid that I will shatter the possibility if I'm too loud. Liddick nods, fixing his eyes on mine for a long time before I hear him in my head.
Your dad has been there all this time, Rip—there was no hydrogen plant explosion…he really is alive.
I feel my throat constricting with the threat of tears, so I bite the inside of my lip to push them back, then look up at Jax, whose jaw is locked as Fraya interlaces her arm with his and Arco's breathing quickens at my back.
"Arwyn and Lyden…are they…?" I ask, but can't bring myself to finish the sentence, and I grip Arco's hand.
"They're alive too, but they're moving them into something called Phase Three. Your dad told Azeris it's a facility like the one they're in now, but it's somewhere in this classified layer of atmosphere…" he trails off, then takes a deep breath. "The only way in is port-carnate transfer. That's why the tech exists at all. Somehow it leaked underground, I don't know, but this is the State, not just Gaia…this is…" he says through clenched teeth as he presses the heels of his hands into his eyes and then lets a scream of frustration rip from his throat. He turns his back on us just before crossing the arena to lean against the wall. Tieg laughs and shakes his head.
"Isn't that convenient?" he chuckles. "Port-carnage tech is the only way to get there just after you were outed for splicing Jazz…you must be the luckiest man alive, Wright."
Liddick's eyes blaze when he looks up at Tieg from the wall, the sharp cut of his jaw and cheekbones shadowed in the downcast green light from the torches above us.
"You think I'm spinning this to clear myself?" Liddick asks through his teeth, his voice even and low.
"Of course not…" Tieg laughs again, taking several purposeful steps toward Liddick. Jax follows him and puts a hand on his shoulder to bring him back, but he just keeps pressing forward. "I know you're spinning."
Before the words have time to fall through the air, Liddick springs off the wall and rushes Tieg. His shoulders light in peals of fire that engulf his neck, face, and his hair, but he's not burning. Jax jumps out of the way, crawling and kicking backward as Liddick shoves Tieg so hard he hits the wall several feet behind him, then lies gasping for breath and coughing before rolling to his hands and knees. Liddick stands in the center of the training circle, then turns toward Jax, who is still struggling to get to his feet.
"He's got potential!" Kesh says, clapping her hands as Liddick reenters the little arena. Dell throws an arm around him, and his flames slowly disperse. His breath is ragged when he shrugs off Dell's arm and marches toward me, then takes my hand and flattens it over his chest
Read me. I'm not spinning this…he thinks, but before I can say anything, Arco shoves him back, breaking our contact.
"Back up!" he yells, then takes a step toward Liddick.
"Stop!" I say, trying to get between them. "He just wanted me to read that he wasn't lying. He's not, Arco. He's not spinning any of this."
Fraya is at Jax's side when he gets to his feet as Tieg finally straightens, but continues to cough.
"I don't think anything is broken," Dez says to him. "Just breathe slowly."
"It came on like that for Vox, too," Fraya says to everyone. "It was like she didn't even see me when she was trying to get to Kesh. Provocation made her so strong. Liddick, you have to relax before the fire starts again."
Liddick's chest heaves, and he shakes his head, seeming disoriented as he looks around at everyone's horrified expressions.
"I'm sorry…" he says with more confusion than regret.
"Well, if you can already knock down the cloudy, you're pressure stable," Dell says, pulling his shirt over his head, the silver and white scars scattered over his torso catching the light from all the torches. "Take off that dive suit before you burn it off, and let's see about firing you up again."
CHAPTER 30
The Itch
"Vox was here in this training circle with Kesh, not Fraya? She was on fire?" I ask Zoe as Dell kicks off his boots. She nods, but doesn't look away from Dell and Liddick in the little arena.
"Once they figured she was Vishan, they tried sparking her in Center Hall, but it didn't work until they brought her down here with all the vein rock," she explains, and I meet Liddick's eyes as Dell fights with his other boot. "Kesh did about what Dell's doing now, poked at her until she lit. Fraya tried to stop it all, but just wound up on her backside," Zoe laughs.
It's true…Vox was standing right there on fire, Liddick, just like in her message from the corridor. She's trying to show us where she's been, I think, but Liddick doesn't have time to respond before Dell calls to him.
"I'm sure I have yet to hear the end of Cal's complaining that Vox didn't have enough training before she left, and I'm not trying to have you on my conscience too. Let's get on with it already," Dell says, tossing his shirt to the outside of the training circle.
The long scar running vertically down the side of his chest is silver in the torchlight, and I can't help but wonder what could have made it. The light isn't bright, but there's enough of it to see that the smaller scars over his sternum are actually parallel, like they could have been made by a claw. I swallow my gasp and look quickly over at Liddick as he takes off his boots and socks. He straightens, then reaches behind his shoulder to pull his dive suit cord, which makes the back panel fall away. He pulls his arms from the sleeves and steps out of the legs, then kicks his dive suit up to his hands and folds it in half before setting it on the stone ground several feet away.
"So we just need to learn how to control this fire, and then we can start out for the mountain?" Liddick asks, crossing back to the center of the little arena.
"At the rate you're getting all your burnables off, that's looking like a far off someday. On my life, princess, you are shy," Dell says, shaking his head and bringing a finger to his lips, which makes the faded brown S-shaped treatment scar on his bicep jump. Liddick jerks down the invisible zipper of his blue jumpsuit top and yanks his arms free, then steps out of it, too, and tosses it in a wad over by his dive suit.
He stands in the training circle in his dark base layer shorts and tank top, the latter clinging to the swells and ridges of muscle I didn't know he had as he takes in a deep breath. After a second, he peels the base layer top over his head and throws it onto the pile of his other clothes, and my heart starts to pound in my ears. Unlike Arco, I haven't seen Liddick with his shirt off while playing gravity ball with Jax, so heat flushes my cheeks when I catch myself staring at the sections of his stomach and the indentations over his hips. I clear my throat and refocus my attention to his S-
shaped treatment scar, which is red and about three inches tall, starting just above his collarbone and winding over the…rise of his chest—crite, stop! I tell myself, then clear my throat again and find Arco, who is talking with Jax against the far wall.
"Leaving your britches on, Dell? That's hardly fair," Zoe says in a thick voice as she drapes her arm around me. I look back at Dell, and he winks at us.
"Just so it's crystal, I'll oblige on account of you just don't deny a woman who's requesting you out of your britches…" Dell nods to Liddick with some kind of man club camaraderie, then turns his grin back on us. "And not because I'm worried I'll burn through." His smirk widens to a toothy grin as Zoe laughs and fans herself with her hand. Fraya chuckles at her, then quickly covers her mouth when Dell unties his makeshift cord belt, and my eyes flash to Zoe.
"Go on, then!" Her laugh is infectious as she throws her other arm around Myra and shoots me a grin. Dell kicks his pants upward and catches them, and I notice his base layer bottoms are dark and cut just like Liddick's.
"Standard issue State skivvies," Avis says. "Well, there…I'm convinced he's officially from secret volcano Gaia."
Jax and Arco laugh, but Liddick either doesn't notice, or doesn't care.
"Just stay in control your breath," Kesh coaches him from outside of the training circle, but he doesn't seem to hear her either.
"So we're supposed to fight or what?" he asks Dell, taking clockwise, measured steps as he shakes out his arms.
Dell is bigger than Liddick—thicker in the chest and torso like Jax and Joss—but so is Tieg, and Liddick knocked him to the ground just a few minutes ago.
"I supposed that's one way to do it," Dell says with a shrug to Kesh, then quickly closes the distance between him and Liddick in a few steps with a hard punch to his stomach. Liddick drops to a knee and coughs, clearly not ready, but when he looks up again, his eyes light on Dell the same way they did on Tieg. Tufts of red flames rip from his shoulders before immediately dissipating as he gets to his feet. Dell takes another swing at Liddick, but he ducks, then elbows Dell in the back of the ribs as he passes him. Dell loses his footing for a second, but then regains it as he rubs his kidney and tries to laugh.