Resonance

by Dianne J Wilson

  Before they could say anything, a single drop of mist landed on Kai’s bare arm. The droplet felt cool at first, but as it ran down his arm, it burnt his skin.

  “Ow! What is this stuff?”

  Both soldiers reached into their pouches for the dust that had dispersed the dark cloud left by the web when they’d escaped from the cuttings. The bald one sprinkled a fine layer over Ruaan, who sneezed, and then he moved on to Zap, who kept dodging.

  Kai faced the soldier with the jaw and the plait. “What is that for?”

  “The mist is toxic. This powder is a temporary antidote. If you tried to cross the mist without it, let’s just say that the pain would drive you insane. But suit yourself.” He moved to pour the dust in his hands back into the pouch.

  “I’ll have the dust.” Kai rubbed at the raw patch left by a single mist drop and shuddered at the thought of his whole body being drenched. “I was just curious, I meant no disrespect. Zap, have the dust, man. Trust me.”

  Zap frowned but stood still and allowed the bald one to dust him. “Why aren’t you guys getting dusted?”

  “There are other ways of getting immunity.” Baldy took the coil of rope off his belt. “Listen closely, you lot. I’m tying you up again, but it’s not because you’re our prisoners. If we get split up in there, we’ll never find you. Also, if you hear things, just don’t listen. All right?”

  “Wait! What kind of things?” Ruaan’s face went pale, and there were dark, sunken rings beneath his eyes.

  Baldy and the jaw exchanged a look halfway between amusement and genuine fear. Kai couldn’t read their expressions, and with his Affinity not operating, he had no means of telling if the mist was tainted, broken, or just plain evil.

  10

  Evazee slipped her hand over Peta’s forehead. “She’s burning up. I don’t think we have much time.”

  Elden carried her in his arms, careful not to touch the sores all down the front of her legs. Sweat ran down his temples. “You’re telling the wrong person.” He grunted and flashed a look to where Zulu stood a few steps away with his eyes shut, hands raised and mouth moving silently. “It seems our guide is consulting his inner-GPS and the connection is dodgy.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s arguing with himself.”

  “Schizophrenia. Not uncommon. I wish he would hurry up and agree with himself so we can move on.”

  Evazee whacked his arm. “Don’t be mean.” Zulu had been nothing but kind toward them. Even so, she still felt weird around him. Interrupting him was the last thing Evazee wanted to do, but Peta couldn’t wait. She strode across to him and poked him on the shoulder. His muscles were solid knots coiled beneath his ebony skin.

  “Hold on.” Zulu’s eyes stayed shut and one of his hands came down on her shoulder, clamping her where she stood next to him. Suddenly his eyes shot open, whites showing all around his dark irises.

  “I’m sorry to rush you. We need to get Peta to the Healing Stream. I don’t think she has much time.”

  Zulu pulled himself up tall, his ebony skin gleaming in the lamplight. The light caught his cheekbones, casting a sharp shadow that emphasized the strength in his jawline. Evazee stepped back. Her pulse raced. Taller than her by two heads, he looked every inch a warrior king. Terrifying.

  Yet he reached for her cheek but stopped just short of touching. His voice was gentle, “I’m afraid we cannot get to this stream you speak of. Not from here.”

  Desperation slammed through Evazee like a tidal wave. “How do you know? You can’t just give up like that. No! I won’t let you!”

  “Calmness, friend Evazee. There is another hope for her.” Zulu dropped his gaze, and Evazee heard him swallow.

  “Well what is it? This other plan of yours.”

  “Follow me.” Without any warning, he darted off into the trees like a spooked gazelle.

  Evazee and Elden pushed through the trees, trying to keep up with the furtive shadow that was Zulu. He was completely at home in the forest, dodging roots and hanging branches, flicking off leaves that stuck to his chest without breaking his stride.

  A deep boom rang out from up ahead. It shook the trees and made the ground quiver below their feet. “What was that?” Evazee grabbed hold of Zulu’s arm to stop herself from falling. Elden tripped and stumbled, throwing himself backwards to provide a softer landing for Peta. Her head rolled back and bounced as they landed. She seemed to be nothing more than a ragdoll.

  “Zulu, what’s going on? What are we supposed to do?”

  His eyes stayed fixed on the horizon where nothing moved.

  “You are freaking me out. Please don’t go crazy. We need you.”

  He ignored her comment, still staring into the distance. “That was a boundary warning. We are close now.” He turned to them. “These people have what the small one needs, but coming here is very dangerous.” Zulu waved to where Elden sat with Peta tucked on his lap. They were close enough to the base of a tree to use it as a back rest. “Sit here with small one. We bring medicine.”

  “No. I should go with you. You need all the muscles we have. Evazee can stay with the girl. The forest’s been quiet.”

  Zulu scratched his chin as if he were considering options. “No. This doesn’t need muscles. Protecting the girl does. Do you think I cannot see she’s marked? That you all are?” Zulu’s gaze slid sideways. “This is not a village to be entered into lightly.”

  Evazee pulled herself up to her tallest, barely reaching Zulu’s shoulder. “So I don’t get a say in this. You just make all the decisions.”

  Zulu nodded once, meeting her eyes coolly and not rising to meet her bubbling anger. “Yebo.”

  If he’d shouted at her, got angry in the slightest, she could have really let her hot-head fly. But he spoke with such calm, such authority, Evazee felt like a silly child for disagreeing. “Fine. Only for Peta’s sake. Let’s go.” She marched off, determined to have some say.

  It was Elden who called after her. “Er, Evazee? You’re going the wrong way.”

  She spun back, feeling her cheeks flame, taking them both in with a sweeping gaze that dared them to comment. Zulu turned his back on her and shrugged, leading off in the other direction. Evazee wanted to talk to Elden before going with Zulu. She didn’t feel right about splitting up. Brown means he’s hiding something. It didn’t feel right leaving Peta behind either. But the grin on Elden’s face stopped her, and she straightened up and followed Zulu without another word.

  ~*~

  Mist swirled thick around them as they walked. Kai shivered and rubbed his arms. The mist clung to his skin and soaked his hair until it dripped down his spine. Thoughts of what he’d be feeling if he hadn’t been dusted kept popping into his head. The mist felt wrong, and it frustrated him that he didn’t know why. They walked in single file, nearly toe to heel. They’d been walking blind like this for many steps. Without means to tell time or even the sun to hint at the time of day, Kai started counting steps. He’d tripped on a rock at around three-hundred-and-something, and in the mental scramble to work out how to count the shuffling mini-steps, he’d lost the actual number and gave up altogether.

  Zap spoke out of the fog to his right. “Three-hundred-and-twenty-two before you tripped.”

  “I didn’t ask you that. I didn’t even say it out loud, did I?”

  “Hey man, don’t yell at me. I’m just helping a brother out.”

  “No, for real. Was I talking to myself?”

  “You lost count. I didn’t. It’s not a big deal.”

  Kai shut his mouth. One more weird thing to deal with. Apparently, his friend had become a mind-reader.

  “It’s not really like that, you know. It’s not mind-reading. It feels more like absorbing thoughts. Kinda like osmosis or whatever it’s called.”

  “Well can you stop? It’s pretty rude.”

  “I don’t know about that. What do you think Ruaan? Oh wait, give me a mo’, and I’ll tell you.”

  “Get out of
my head, creepy boy.” Ruaan was at the growling stage of hunger.

  “Zap, stop it. I’m serious. Wait, can you?”

  “Honestly? It fades in and out. I don’t really have much control.”

  “Just don’t do it. It’s not cool.”

  “Fine. I’ll think about sheep.”

  “Why sheep?” He shook his head and held up his hand. “You know what, I don’t even want to know.”

  They trudged on blindly. Kai’s feet cramped, yet they still marched on, the mist deadening all noise but Zap’s deep sighs. Kai’s thoughts drifted like bubbles. Some popped easily, like those involving pizza. Others kept bouncing on the edges of his consciousness.

  Bree was one thought. Evazee and Peta, too. Gallagher had said they were fine, but Kai’s stomach churned at the thought of the two of them standing against some of the things the boys had faced.

  He sent out a test thought toward Zap. Your breath smells worse than the ancient bulldog that lived at the St Greg’s hostel. No response. Maybe he’d figured out how to control it after all.

  Runt. Runt filled a bubble that stayed front and centre. She even spoke to him, though he could just see her mouth moving. She really did ramble on, that one. It was fitting that he’d remember her chattering away. Maybe if he focussed on her lips, he could remember her voice. He should, after all the hours he’d listened to her yakking. Kai chuckled to himself. He was going to tease her when they all got back.

  Kai concentrated on her bubble, allowing the others to drift to the background. Runt’s lips were moving slow and deliberately as if communicating with a deaf person. A fierce frown buckled her eyebrows. The memory must have been a deep one because for a moment he swore he heard her voice.

  “Your cats have fleas. They are scratching themselves to pieces. What must I do?” She harrumphed with an exaggerated eye-roll. “Are you deaf or stupid? Or am I going nuts here all by myself?”

  Kai slowed down. He had never discussed fleas with Runt. Maybe this was a sleepwalking daydream—it sure wasn’t a memory. Then Runt held up his kitten. Her neck was a raw mess of scratches and the little thing looked twitchy and tormented.

  “Runt? Are you there?”

  Something hit him on the head. Zap’s voice sounded hollow in the mist. “They said we’d hear things. You can’t talk to her, you nit. Focus or you’ll trip and send us all crashing.” He felt a tug on the rope looped around his waist as a reminder.

  Kai rubbed the smacked spot and did what Zap said. He focussed on the Runt bubble. She had a pasted-on smile, the kind that kids wear when their mom makes them say cheese for the camera and they’d really rather not.

  Kai sent a tentative thought out into the bubble. Can you hear me?

  “About time. Of course, I can hear you. How do I kill fleas?”

  Kai’s heart pounded, he formed another thought and imagined sending it into the bubble. What’s happening there? He kept it short, not knowing how much would get through. Runt held up his cat with a look on her face that implied he had no brain at all. I mean apart from fleas. What is happening?

  Runt sighed and pushed the cat off her lap, brushing at her skirt. She was dressed in a purple dress covered in enormous flowers. Kai could have sworn her lower lip quivered the tiniest bit.

  “Everybody is out. They’re all just lying around. On the floor, on tables. You’re at least on a couch. The air is full of the green stuff they used to inject into me before you fetched me.” Her features danced through a full range of expressions as she spoke. Then her face grew deadened. “This is boring. When are you coming back?”

  Runt, listen to me. This is important. You need to find where they’re pumping the green stuff out of, and stop it somehow. We’re trapped here, and our imprints are useless. Can you do that?

  Tears pooled along her lower lashes. “I want you to come back and help your kittens.”

  I’m trying, but I need your help. I think they might be using the air freshener machines like in Torn’s office.

  Baldy’s voice boomed from up ahead and popped his bubble, taking his connection to Runt along with it. “We’re nearly through, brace yourselves.”

  11

  Kai stepped out of the mist into brightness that seared his eyeballs. It was clear that the mist was not natural. There was no gentle dissipation, just a solid cloud that was and then wasn’t. From this side, it was a dirty brown wall that reached up higher than they could see. A fresh breeze blew over him, turning his skin to gooseflesh as the wind hit the droplets from the mist. A high melody floated on the breeze, dipping and swaying with each change in the air. It both pulled at his heart and sliced straight through his eardrums.

  Baldy untied them and handed the rope back to Jaw with the same wariness as if it were a loaded weapon. “Use this appropriately.”

  Kai could hear the unspoken or else and coughed to cover the laugh that sneaked out. Yeah, Jaw, it seems that arresting us for no reason counted against you. Ha!

  Zap yanked at his arm, pointing. “I swear that’s the city we saw in the distance. Look at how much light it gives off! I haven’t seen anything that bright since the Grave Keepers nearly burnt us to a shrivel.”His whisper was the equivalent of a normal person’s across-a-crowded-room volume.

  Baldy spun around, his eyeballs appearing to pop out of his head. “You’ve been with the Grave Keepers.” It was a statement, not a question and he seemed to take in the dust on their clothes.

  Jaw smirked, self-righteous justification oozing from every pore. “I told you they’re bad news. Did you notice that they are marked, too? Hmm?”

  Baldy hissed. “They are still our guests. They just need to be decontaminated first. Come, you three. There’s not a moment to lose.” Out of the baggy folds of his pants, he produced a pair of folded objects for each of them, including himself. With the deft movements of many years of practice he unfolded his pair of what looked like sandals on stilts. “We made it through the mist, but now there is the small matter of crossing the field of glass grass.” He stood tall and waved a hand across where they were heading.

  The vast expanse shimmered in the light from the city, twinkling as if a million stars had fallen and had come to rest on earth. Each blade of glass grass was tinged green, shaped like normal grass, but much fatter and completely see-through.

  The music came from the glass grass as it swayed in the breeze and sang with each movement. The song was haunting and reminded Kai of the siren songs that supposedly lured unwary sailors into the water and drowned them.

  Baldy strapped the strange shoes to his feet and stood up. Balanced on such high stilts, he towered over the rest of them. He motioned for them to do the same. “Do you know about glass grass?” He glanced at them and must have seen enough blankness in their faces to persuade him that they didn’t. “First, it’s deadly. It may look pretty, but if you tried to walk through this field barefoot, you’d have bled out before you could reach the other side.”

  Zap’s nose scrunched up the way it did when he hit a hard problem in a math test. “So it’s sharp?”

  “Sharp is an understatement. Deadly is more accurate. And if you stumble? Not even the shoes can help you then.”

  “Perfect. My kind of backyard.” Zap glanced back as if weighing up his odds against the mist, spirit cuttings and Grave Keepers.

  Ruaan’s stomach growled.

  Zap jumped in fright and turned on him, arms waving like a pinwheel. “Dude! That’s not even funny! What were you thinking?”

  Kai swatted Zap on the back of his head. “Leave him alone, and get your shoes on.” Kai towered over Zap whose head only made it to mid-chest height.

  Ruaan had taken off his one shoe and strapped the stilts onto his bare feet. He was struggling to get up. Baldy and Jaw reached down and grabbed each of his hands to plant him on his feet. He wobbled a bit and grabbed Kai, bumping him off balance. They crashed down onto Zap who was still trying to figure out how the straps worked across his feet.

  The s
oldiers watched them, their legs wide and their hands crossed behind their backs. As they disentangled themselves from each other, Jaw muttered under his breath and glared at them. Baldy shook his head and shut his eyes as if watching were painful.

  It took some doing to get the three of them to their feet. By the time they were ready, Kai was sweating as though he’d run a marathon. He squared his shoulders and rubbed his palms together. “Right. Let’s do this.”

  Jaw looked him up and down with a buckled eyebrow. He turned to Baldy. “I’m not taking rear. I don’t want to watch these fools bleed.”

  Baldy shut his eyes, and his lips moved. Judging by the movement of his fingers, he seemed to be counting to ten. “Fine. Lead on. Try not to get lost.”

  Jaw turned and stomped into the field of sparkling grass. Each time his foot came down, glass blades shattered. The song on the wind twisted, becoming an eardrum wrecking cacophony of shrill glass-agony. Kai wanted to shove his fingers in his ears to block the sound, but he was too scared of falling over if he lifted his arms. The sooner we’re through this, the better.

  ~*~

  Evazee blinked and crept along blindly behind Zulu. They had left the lamp with the others, but Evazee’s night vision hadn’t kicked in yet, and she followed more by listening than anything else. Zulu’s dark skin blended into the deep shadow they moved through. Evazee breathed deep to calm the panic that bubbled in her belly.

  “Zulu, what is this place we’re going to? Why is it dangerous?” Evazee whispered as loud as she dared.

  “No talking. Not safe.”

  “I know. But I need to know what to expect. Are we talking quicksand or cannibals?”

  “Probably both.”

  “What?”

  “Follow me. Don’t do anything I say you shouldn’t, and hopefully, we can get what the small one needs. Now shush.”