I shot up from the table. “Ivory, you and Ray go and do what you need to do to obtain a leave of absence. Nick and I will return to—” I eyed the room, certain there were microphones and security cameras dotting each corner of the cafeteria. I’d already mentioned the Clock Tower, but I didn’t want to remind listening ears. “We’ll go back to where we came from. Use whatever means you can to travel to Plaka. I want him in on this.”
“Of course he should join us,” said Ivory. “He needs to be there for Calla. I’ll flip out on him if he doesn’t.”
Nick chuckled. “I look forward to meeting your next victim, love, and from what Valcas tells me, a Healer at that.”
The Ivory-Nick drama was going to make this a long mission, but I needed both of them, just as much as I needed Ray and Plaka. “The last I heard, he was laying low at the border-worlds near Chascadia,” I said. “I’ll contact him before I meet you there. Let’s go.”
Ivory hesitated. “So, you have a plan?”
“I have the beginnings of a plan, which is a lot more than I had before meeting Nick.”
OUR STOMACHS stayed empty. Once again, lunch was an elusive dream. Nick followed me out of the cafeteria, leaving Ivory and Ray to do their thing.
“How do we port back from here?”
“All in good time, friend. All in good time.”
We exited TSTA Headquarters through the back door I’d escorted Calla through when we arrived for her hearing. That felt like eons ago.
Once we were outside in the open air, I felt more comfortable mentioning the Clock Tower without being heard by TSTA personnel. “Is there a portal in every world and time that looks like a miniature version of the Clock Tower?”
“Yes, but you won’t see it, not the way I do. Ready for the really taboo aspect of my travel talent?”
“Well?”
“The Clock Tower portals are invisible. It takes a Time Keeper to feel the portal entrances and exits. The way inside a world is not always the way out.” His eyes darted to the space behind us. He lowered his voice. “I learned of my talent by stumbling upon such a portal in Aboreal that no one else could see—or pretended not to see—given that travel talents are inherited.”
I frowned. His parents must have been ashamed of Nick’s talent, even though his father or mother had passed it on to him. “Do you know where the portal is for us to escape this world?”
“No.”
“No?” Panic set in. In our haste to find Nick and Ivory, I hadn’t given much thought to how we’d return to the Clock Tower. I suppose I relied on the travel glasses for everything. I did, after all, use them to get to the Clock Tower from the Workshop in the Woods.
“Well, not exactly, but I can tell it’s nearby.”
I glanced down at Nick, who was now palpating the ground like a metal detector looking for coins. He stood up and waved his arms around. How could Ivory have fallen in love with such a nut? I grimaced. I suppose anyone could say the same about me and Calla.
Just as inklings of pain began to prickle the backs of my eyes, Nick shouted, “Aha!”
“Have you found the exit portal?”
He sniggered. “I’m sorry. Have you been worrying over there while waiting for me, friend? Or have you been watching reruns of the Life of Valcas on those television glasses of yours?”
I clenched my teeth. “Travel glasses.”
“Whatever you say, friend. Now step into my hand.”
Yes, he and Ivory couldn’t be more perfect for one another.
“We’re about to travel back to the Clock Tower…through a similar portal,” Nick continued. “You saw what happened last time you got your face smacked upon arrival. Are you willing to trust me this time?”
I had no choice but to trust him. The outlines of figures appeared in the shadows behind us. We’d been followed outside. A handful of TSTA security guards must have been slowly making their way toward us. Two of them pointed, while one yelled for us to stop and raise our hands above our heads. When we didn’t comply, the guards broke into a run.
“Fine,” I said, raising my foot to his outstretched hand.
My voice echoed along with the buzzing and popping sounds of electrical charge. I held my breath while the purple-blue tunnel sucked us back through to the Clock Tower, leaving the TSTA guards behind.
THIS TIME, instead of falling forward, I fell backward.
Pain shot through my tailbone. From my seat on the ground, I looked up at Nick, who was firmly planted on his heels and grinning. “Sorry, friend. Given all the excitement back there with the TSTA guards, it seems I forgot to let go of your foot.”
I kicked his hand away before standing and brushing myself off. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve endured much worse.”
“That was close. We made it through, though, just in the…nick of time.”
“That’s how you came up with your nickname, isn’t it?” I shook my head. “That’s terrible.”
“I needed a name that would represent what I’ve become, a beacon of hope with a knack for getting out of scrapes—” He squeezed his thumb and forefinger together, stopping just before they met. “At just the right moment.”
“I prefer to confront attackers,” I said. “But, seeing as we were on our way back here anyway…”
Nick frowned. “Mm, hmm. Well, as you can see,” he said, pointing to his skeletal arms and legs. “I’m a Keeper, not a fighter. I don’t stick around where I’m not wanted.”
“No one’s going to force you to fight.” I chuckled. “That’s why we have Ivory on board.”
Nick’s lips formed a lopsided smile as he turned toward the Clock Tower. “Never was there a finer woman.”
I had my doubts, and personal preferences, but I nodded all the same. “She’s strong, also talented.”
Nick responded with a smirk of sorts before changing the subject. “How long do we wait until we follow them to Plaka?”
“Let’s give it the better part of a day. Ivory and Ray will likely travel there by jet.”
“A licensed TSTA vehicle?”
“If not, Ivory has her own collection of aircraft. Since we don’t know where they’ll be exactly, I can travel to them with the travel glasses, and then travel with them to Plaka. We’ll meet one way or another.”
“This is starting to sound like less of a plan, friend.”
“It’s more than the wandering around I did for months—Earth time.”
“Hmm, yes, not a significant amount of time according to your timeline.”
“But a good part of Calla’s lifetime, wasted.”
Nick squeezed his stomach and frowned. “We still haven’t had lunch. What do you say we have a bite to eat and go from there?”
I didn’t need to eat or sleep as often as individuals born of Earth or Aboreal, but Nick looked like he could use something to pad the skin on his bones. My stomach grumbled anyway, as if it decided the matter for us. “Fine with me.”
The ground rumbled in response to…my stomach? No.
I spun around to see shapes swirling through the sky, followed by a flash of lightning. Human forms—three of them—flew toward us. Nick and I both knelt on one knee, grounding ourselves.
I let go of the breath I’d been holding. The visitors looked familiar.
They weren’t The Chars.
All three persons landed on their feet, like cats, poised to fight. But they were smiling in a nonthreatening way. One of the visitors tucked a small stringed instrument inside his cloak before all three fell to one knee to let the impact of their arrival subside. Ivory, Ray and Plaka.
The ground twitched and trembled. Timepieces on the tower swayed in the wind, some chiming as they clanged against each other.
I pressed myself up from the ground before the rumblings faded.
Plaka looked at me as I opened my arms to greet my friend and healer. Light eyes exuded self-entitlement. His expression was more than smug.
His unruly hair—curls dark like Calla’s—
appeared to have been recently groomed, half tied back across his shoulders. He no longer wore the threadbare attire from the Fire Falls. His clothing was fresh and new—a cloak with a metal button, trousers with leather strips across the knees and a belt for his various knickknacks and traveling instrument, the baglamas. Time had been good to him since we’d last met.
Plaka squeezed my shoulders. “Good to see you, Valcas. I’m relieved you’ve stopped wandering the Everywhere and Everywhen alone. Together, we must find Calla. I fear she is lost and that it will take a great deal of healing to bring her back.”
“I should be happy to help, friend,” said Nick, looking at Plaka over my shoulder.
I stepped aside and introduced my best friend to the Time Keeper.
NICK GAVE a tour of the Clock Tower, explaining to Plaka, Ivory and Ray all that he’d told me about the portals, and with a note of pride, that he was the Key.
Plaka and Ray listened with interest. Both gazed at the tower, examining its timepieces and murmuring when Nick made the representations of the different worlds glow with his touch.
Ivory wore an expression on her face so complex that I didn’t know where to begin unraveling the mystery there. “So, this is where you’ve been all this time?” she said. “Alone?”
“Yes, love. This was the safest place to go, a refuge of sorts. It’s also where I’m most needed.”
Ivory quirked her brow, but didn’t argue. Instead, she suggested we share a meal while we regrouped.
Nick led us to his loft in the tower. Ivory sliced bread and hard cheeses while Plaka prepared a paste of dried meat and garlic. And, using one of his signature Chascadian techniques, he brewed a tea using his light sticks.
I passed steaming mugs to Nick and Ray, who’d planted themselves on cushions scattered along the floor. Then I sat, enjoying Plaka’s tea, wishing he and Edgar would have met while Edgar was still alive. I’m sure they would have enjoyed discussing time travel. And maybe Plaka could have taught him to make a proper cup of tea.
When we were settled together on the floor, I turned to Plaka. “You must have traveled here by baglamas.”
Ivory crossed her arms. “Only because Plaka wouldn’t let me bring the jet. He said it was too conspicuous.”
“And it is,” bellowed Plaka. “But I didn’t expect Ivory to give in to my suggestion so easily.”
“Suggestion? More like a command.” She gave him an Aborealian military salute.
“Although, I admit your efforts toward creating a sense of order in the midst of chaos are endearing.”
“Ah, so you’ve noticed that too, friend?”
Ivory snorted. “If I can’t find my jet after this mission is over, you’re a dead man, Healer.” She sipped at her tea and shoved a slice of bread topped with meat paste and cheese in her mouth. After a larger gulp of tea, she added, “Well, maybe I’ll keep you around for the decent grub.”
Ray remained silent during the banter. He stared at Nick more than the rest of us, the way he did when he recorded. But also with respect, the way he looked at Calla. At first Nick didn’t seem to mind the attention, but if there’s one thing Aborealians (expatriates or not) can’t stand, it’s being stared down.
Mid-bite, Nick threw up his hands and turned to Ray. “Can I help you with something, Technician?”
Ray bobbed his head, unfazed and without blinking. “I hope so. It’s why I’m here—in addition to wanting to help Calla.”
The air in the room stilled. Even Ivory stopped chewing.
“I’ve been researching my tattoo. Ever since we left the Fire Falls, I can’t stop thinking about it.” He lifted his shirt, revealing an inscription beneath his left rib: Never forget Susana. “I still don’t know how I got this, but I’ve been trying to find a lead.”
Ivory swallowed and wiped her mouth. “What have you found out so far?”
“The TSTA has no records of a person named Susana who has any connection to me. I’ve searched everything I’ve been given access to, including every person relating to my family and past.”
Ivory wrinkled her nose. “The tattoo is a written reminder, which makes you a Daily Reminder, Ray. Is Susana someone who may have gotten lost?”
Ray shook his head. “I don’t know. Seeing as I don’t remember anything by looking at it, the reminder must not have been meant for me. But there are records on the lost. They’re labeled as still existing, unless confirmed dead.” He stared at the space in front of him. “Every single person. I scanned through as many as I had access to, and,” he said, tapping his head. “I recorded some of them.”
He gloomed before continuing, in Ray’s way which was similar to staring off into space. “But there was this one file labeled The Found. From the metadata, I could tell it was pretty small.” He shrugged. “Depressing, if you think about it. All those TSTA missions geared toward seeking the lost, and that tiny file. I suppose not too many people have come back from being lost—alive.”
I heard an intake of breath from my right. “Come back from where, though, friend?”
Ray shrugged. “That’s part of the puzzle I’ve been trying to understand.”
In response to Ivory’s narrowed eyes, Nick’s mouth pulled into a self-satisfied grin. “Maybe Susana is not a person at all. Perhaps it’s a place.”
RAY LAUGHED. “That’s genius!” Then, he frowned. “I never would have thought—”
Ivory caught his wrist. “Do you know a place named Susana?”
He shrugged.
Plaka tilted his head to the side. “There are many worlds. Where to even start…”
“Earth, of course,” said Ivory with a sharp poke to Ray’s rib. “He’s an Earthborn.”
Nick stood up to help himself to more tea. “Well, in that case, then two ideas come to mind.” He looked at us coolly through a cloud of steam. “I know of a city named Santa Susana in California, the United States. The other is a municipality in Catalonia, Spain.”
“The one in Spain is spelled differently.” Ray blinked. “S-U-S-A-N-N-A. There are two n’s. My tattoo is spelled like the city in California.”
“That solves it, then,” said Nick. He brushed imaginary lint from his pants as he sat back down.
“Wait,” said Plaka. “Ray, do you have any connection with California?”
“I’ve never been there personally, but that’s where my mom grew up.”
“Do you still have family there?”
“No.”
“Friends?”
“Nope.”
“Where is your mother now?”
I fidgeted with my empty mug, accidentally dropping it to the floor. It clanged and flipped over. The handle cracked, nicked by the sharp edge of one of the loft’s wooden planks.
Ray started. “Oh, right—Calla. Sorry, Valcas.”
My mouth hung open as I stared at Plaka. This was his daughter we were talking about. His interest in Ray was bewildering, back at the Fire Falls and now.
“There’s a timepiece on the outside of this tower that can port us there, friend. Wouldn’t take long. Suppose we go on a side mission—”
I glared.
“Of,” he gulped, “sorts?”
NICK SERVED as key Keeper on Ray’s sub-quest. Plaka accompanied them to see if he could help them find anything. Quickly. Right. I felt no animosity toward Ray, but I couldn’t help thinking they were wasting time.
Ivory and I stayed behind to clean Nick’s place. We caught up while we waited. She and I had become friends. Well, maybe not friends, exactly, but acquaintances gained through family connections when I’d visited Aboreal with my mother. She was too wild of a girl for my parents to consider her a match for me. That suited Ivory and me just fine. We had the physical attraction of two south poles of a magnet.
Nick, or rather Travertine, was her north end.
Goofy, scrawny Nick—
Something soft and fluffy boxed me in the ear. “What are you laughing about?”
I looked at the ground.
Pillows travel faster than words. Clearing my throat, I said, “Nothing. I hadn’t realized I was laughing.”
“Well, you certainly seem to be having a much better time cleaning up this mess than I am.” She emptied the scraps from our plates in a trash bin that was surrounded by piles of dirty laundry. She wrinkled her nose. “Bachelors are so gross.”
“I agree that this place could use a woman’s touch,” I said, leading with my chin.
Ivory pressed her lips shut and narrowed her eyes, practically closing off her face.
“It’s obvious who you’re protecting from the TSTA,” I mutter. Looking up, I grin. “The other party to your contributory infraction—”
“You won’t tell Reese, will you?”
I smiled, waiting for an eye roll or some other indication that she was being sarcastic. When none came, I realized Ivory wasn’t joking. If I was interpreting her expression correctly, she was actually worried that I would disclose her secret and turn her in to the TSTA, even though our relationship was one of nothing more than mutual respect and trust. I took a step backward. “Did you just ask instead of tell me to do something?”
Her eyelids fluttered. “Well look at you being all snarkastic.”
“That’s not a real word. The contemporary Earthborns aren’t here; you can use proper words and language.”
Her cheeks flamed as she pretended to ignore me and began sorting Nick’s laundry into washable piles. “Too late.” She shrugged. “After prepping to meet Ray and Calla, it got addictive.”
“You love him. Enough to be involved with an Overwrite. No one gains your loyalty that easily.”
She sighed, flicking a pair of shorts spangled with Aborealian flags onto a pile. “And what about you? Why’s it taken so long for you to find Calla?”
“I took some time off—to look for clues.”
Ivory dropped a sock and crossed her arms. “You haven’t been searching for her all this time? What’s wrong with you?”
“I feared for her safety.”
“What?”
If there was anyone I could trust, it was Ivory. Especially given what I knew about Nick being her co-contributor. She also knew love. She would understand. Maybe even help. I could tell her, maybe even without being judged. “Every time the Uproar attacked Calla, I was present.”
Time for the Lost Page 5