And then, I felt her mind. Bright and warm and strong, reaching into me. Brushing against my mind like sunlight, caressing me.
Speaking to me. Reach out, Gaia. Come with me.
Angry at the intrusion, I pushed her away. She flowed back in, beaming a vision into my mind's eye: a mountain exploding, blasting clouds of smoke and ash and blazing cinders into the sky. People dying under showers of red-hot embers and dust...thousands, millions of people. Whole towns disappearing under lakes of fiery lava, cities burning and collapsing.
This is what's coming, said Phaola. Please help us stop it. We don't have much time.
I recoiled from the hellish images, tried to drive them from my mind. Reared back to push Phaola out and be done with it. But I knew in my heart I couldn't. Knew I only had one choice that would be true to myself.
All right. I reached out to Phaola. Felt a shot of pleasure as I threaded my mind with hers. What now? What do we do?
Join with the others. Phaola pirouetted in my mind, spinning me around with her. Follow me. Suddenly, her bright, strong soul compressed...then expanded rapidly in all directions, surging free of our bodies like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud. I gathered my strength and did the same, compressing and then forcing myself to expand. Stretching the fabric of my mind in every direction, reaching out along with Phaola. Feeling the sea of focused Parapets minds all around us, rippling and rising like bread dough in a pan. Every one of them reaching, reaching.
Phaola touched the minds around us, then wove herself into them. Since Phaola and I were already connected, I could feel myself linking to the others through her—to Laurel and Mahoney and all those pressing directly against us. And through the others around us, to the rest of the enormous crowd on the terrace. I felt all of them, hundreds of them, linked by the heat and light of their minds. Joined in common faith and purpose and discipline.
For a moment, our network collected and swelled, gathering might. All the little minds lending heat, building toward a critical mass.
When we reached that critical mass, all the boundaries between us dissolved. The hundreds of minds underwent one final merger, melting into a single consciousness. One vast overmind, seething with power, churning with awareness...dominated by one massive continent of a thought: Stop the volcano.
Suddenly, the overmind plunged into the earth. Dropped into the blazing tangle of the ley line network and chose a path. I'd never traveled the network to California, but suddenly I knew; all of us knew at the same time, knew exactly how to get there. Knew exactly what we'd do when we arrived.
The overmind raced off along the glowing ley line conduits, picking up speed. Pouring all our energy into crossing the country as fast as possible.
We slashed through the network like an atom through a supercollider, blasting down the crackling lightways at supernatural speeds. Realizing, even as we did so, that we might still be too late.
But we weren't. Soon, impossibly soon, we sensed the impending volcano dead ahead, closing fast. Then we saw it—red as a wound pulsing in the flesh of the world. Still holding back underground but ready to let go any second, ready to blow the cap off Mammoth Mountain and inundate California with fiery death.
We cruised right into the heart of the inferno. Felt the blistering heat all around us but sloughed it off and kept going. With the power of the overmind united, we knew we could withstand it. We thought we could withstand anything.
Like a giant lens, the overmind focused our combined strength in a single beam of incredible force, directed at the wound under the mountain. With all our power behind it, the beam pounded the superheated material in the volcanic pocket, forcing it downward. Pushing it back down through the throat from which it had risen, driving it deep within the Earth.
It was an incredible feeling, having an impact on something so immense. Being part of a collective consciousness big and powerful enough to do it. Pouring myself out to make a difference, change the world, save lives. Watching as the magma, ash, and gases backed down the throat, receding into the bowels of the world.
But then, it started to climb again. The pressure behind it jumped, forcing it upward in spite of the power we were using to push it down.
The overmind redoubled its efforts, and the rising volcanic pocket stopped advancing...but the pressure had to send it somewhere. The mountain cracked around it, opening new conduits to siphon off the gases and magma. Conduits that would shoot them out of the mountain at multiple points.
The overmind worked harder than ever, struggling to hold back the main pocket and seal off the new conduits. We dug deep, reaching for every last bit of power we could muster.
But it wasn't enough. The mountain rumbled as the superheated materials crawled toward the surface, melting their way through solid rock. Mammoth Mountain was only moments away from erupting. Thousands of people were moments away from dying.
*****
Chapter 45
The overmind buckled under the strain of trying to hold back the volcano. Everyone had poured in everything they had, to no avail.
Almost everyone, I should say. Almost everything.
Remembering the power surge I'd experienced at Cousin Canyon, I reached deep, digging for another. Hoping for enough of a boost to break the deadlock and turn back the volcano for good.
But I found nothing. No hidden reservoirs of power. I reached and dug and struggled and came up empty.
And things were getting worse by the moment. Meshed with the hundreds of Parapeople, I felt our union about to give way. The bonds between us weakened and frayed, leaving some of us hanging by threads. I quickly realized that when the volcano erupted, it would blow us apart completely...and without the strength of united numbers, we would all be consumed by the conflagration.
So we were doomed, too. When the mountain exploded, we would be its first victims.
A shot of terror flashed through my mind at the thought of it. I might have killed myself in my last life, but I wasn't ready for the current one to end.
I felt fear surging all around me in great, cold waves, rushing from the others in the overmind. Coursing from Laurel and Mahoney and Phaola as the reality of the situation became clear to them.
The mountain shuddered, and the fear intensified. Magma and gases surged toward the surface like living things yearning to break free. Yearning to rampage and kill and destroy. Any second now.
Any second now.
Minds started to fall away from the overmind. I felt them plunging into the blazing abyss, screaming as they raced toward the fire. One after another, dissolving in the blistering heat.
Their terrified cries echoed in my mind, filling me with despair. And then something else filled me.
Moments ago, I'd dug deep for more power and found none. But now, suddenly, a fresh burst flared within me as if it had been there all along.
Like Popeye after eating a can of spinach, I swelled up with strength. Brimmed over with more power than I'd ever known, cascading through me like a mighty river. Like a river of nuclear flame on the face of the sun. Like a hundred thousand suns at the heart of a galaxy.
I didn't hesitate to use it. Not for an instant. First, I grabbed for the poor souls who'd fallen from the overmind, snatching them from the fire, plugging them back into the collective mesh. Locking them and all the others in place, then turning elsewhere.
Lashing out with a focused blast of force, I reversed the flow inside Mammoth Mountain, driving the rising stream of volcanic material into the earth. Punching it down through the throat of the mountain and into the molten lake far below, then closing the throat and all the conduits, sealing them off. Plugging the routes to the surface with packed, hardened rock that wouldn't budge for a thousand years.
When I was through, I looked around in amazement, feeling dazed. I couldn't believe what I'd just done. It didn't seem possible.
But the proof was plain to see. The mountain hadn't erupted. The pulsing red wound in the flesh of the Earth was he
aled. The blistering heat had cooled.
And the new strength that had come to me had not gone away. It loomed within me, ready and waiting for another release, another chance to run free. And the funny thing was, though it had arrived such a short time ago, it did not feel strange. It felt perfectly normal, in fact, as if it had always been there. As if I had simply forgotten how to find it until today.
Gaia? Phaola's thoughts tickled my mind. You did it. You were incredible.
I turned in her direction. Sensed the overmind watching me. All the hundreds of Parapeople watching, all giving off the same mixed emotions: joy that the crisis was over thanks to me; admiration of what I'd accomplished. And one more emotion besides, pushed into the background but still unmistakable.
Fear. They were afraid of me.
*****
Chapter 46
There was a party when we got home. It happened after the overmind raced back through the ley line network from California.
As soon as the overmind reached Parapets, it split apart. The hundreds of component minds dove back into their bodies, which jerked to life.
Folks cried out as they jabbed and bumped each other during the big wakeup. The bodies had been so densely packed on the terrace, they'd stayed on their feet the whole time they'd been vacant; in other words, they were perfectly spaced for elbow and knee collisions.
I took a hit myself—a shoulder check from Mahoney that nearly knocked me flat. I almost knocked over Laurel in the bargain, but the two of us braced each other and stayed on our feet.
Laurel held on to me for a moment, smiling proudly. "You did it." She shook her head slowly. "You were amazing."
I shrugged. "It was nothing." Even as I said it, I felt the new power throbbing within me like a second heart.
"What you did out there," said Laurel. "It makes me think you're who I thought you were at the start. My long-lost friend, returned to me."
I remembered Duke's story of my past self, the one who committed suicide. For the first time, I thought I knew who Laurel's friend must have been. "I think you're right," I told her. "I think I finally understand."
Just then, Mahoney lurched between us, looking hung-over. Holding his head in his hands. "Could somebody please tell me what the fuck just happened?"
"It was all a crazy dream." Phaola put her arm around him and giggled. "It will all make perfect sense in the morning."
Suddenly, Solomon's amplified voice spilled over the terrace. "California is saved!"
The crowd roared, except for Mahoney, who was still in a stupor. Laurel joined in, shaking her fists in the air, howling with joy...inspiring me. Grinning, I let myself go—throwing my head back, raising my voice to the heavens. Letting everything out, all the anger and sadness and tension and fear. Transforming it into purest delight. The kind that sends chills shooting up and down your spine. The kind that turns you on, though sex is the furthest thing from your mind.
"Millions of lives have been spared!" Solomon was on the balcony of the Great Hall, one arm in the air, the other arm around Cassandra. "Untold destruction and ruination have been prevented!"
Again, everyone on the terrace roared and applauded. I let loose another cry of delight, ringing to the highest heavens. I couldn't remember how long it had been since I'd felt this good or let myself go so completely.
"I believe we have saved America itself!" said Solomon. "I have no doubt that such a catastrophe, with such far-reaching after-effects, would have thrown the nation itself into chaos!"
The crowd roared its outrage at the thought of it. Phaola was so caught up in the tide of emotion, she leaped into the air and flew in circles.
"But thanks to us, all of us, this apocalypse did not come to pass!" Solomon fired off a victory cry of his own, and everyone followed. "And this is only one small example of what we can do! Of what the trinity of powers can accomplish!"
"Technology! Magic! Landkind! United!" chanted the crowd.
"Groundswell rocks!" shouted Cassandra, and the crowd went wild again.
So did I, and I didn't care who knew about it. After all the sadness and strife of my recent life, I couldn't help myself. I felt like I'd earned the right to celebrate. The right to be part of this.
And I wasn't the only one who felt that way. "None of this would have been possible without the help of one of us in particular!" Solomon gazed into the crowd and clapped his hands. "We must all thank Gaia Charmer for her spectacular intervention!"
The crowd applauded and looked around for me. Somebody started chanting "Gai-a! Gai-a! Gai-a!"
Soon, the whole crowd was chanting my name. Laurel hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, joyful tears running from her eyes. Mahoney slapped me on the back.
And then, suddenly, someone grabbed me under the arms and scooped me up off the ground. Hauled me into the air like a mouse in a hawk's talons.
Looking up, I saw Phaola and another nymph were carrying me, each supporting one arm. Phaola winked at me as she chanted along with the crowd: "Gai-a! Gai-a! Gai-a!"
Looking down, I saw the crowd spread out below me. Hundreds of people, all gazing up at me, all smiling, all chanting my name. All of them happy to have me as part of their group, part of their world.
More chills raced up and down my spine. My heart pounded and felt like it would burst. Tears flowed down my face. I had never, ever felt like this before, never felt so overcome.
It was like something out of a dream. A moment from another reality that couldn't possibly be true. The kind of moment you never know you need so much until you finally get a taste of it. And then, all you want is to make it last for the rest of your life. You feel like you'll die if it doesn't last.
I realized then that I'd never known what true happiness was until that night. Until that moment.
"Thank you, Gaia!" said Solomon. "Thank you for your help!"
The crowd continued to chant. The nymphs glided over their heads, carrying me in a great circle over the terrace.
"I believe we cannot do without you, Gaia," said Solomon. "Tonight, you showed us all how much we need you. Will you join us, Gaia? Will you become a part of Parapets and Groundswell?"
At that instant, I wanted nothing more than to say "yes." As the nymphs carried me over the adoring crowd chanting my name, I wanted only to be a part of them, even if it meant giving up everything else. Turning my back on my old life for good and all. It wasn't much of a life, anyway.
But I couldn't get the words out. Something held me back. Phaola gave me a little shake, but it didn't help.
And then Solomon was speaking again from the balcony. "Everyone! We have a new mission! We're going to have to try our best to convince her to join! Can we do it?"
The terrace roared with a unanimous, thundering "Yes!" People waved and jumped and reached for me, though I was too far above for them to make contact.
"Gaia Charmer, we want you!" As soon as Solomon said it, the crowd picked it up as a chant. "We want you! We want you!"
And for a while, I just sailed through the summer night atop the mountain, reveling in the adoration, drinking it in. Convincing myself that this could work out somehow, that I might find a new and better life at Parapets.
Fooling myself, in other words.
*****
Chapter 47
The next morning, I felt spectacular. Out-of-this-universe un-be-fucking-lievably awesome. So terrifically over-the-top holy shit, I couldn't believe I wasn't still a little drunk.
I'd been up most of the night, I'd gotten maybe two hours of sleep, and I was loving life. The events of the night before were like the sweetest dream ever, brightening my every thought and move. I felt like I'd turned a corner to a happier place, and I would never turn back.
I showered in my room and got dressed. Put on the Parapets-style white dress shirt, dark slacks, and tie that had been left in my closet. Danced out the door, leaving the clothes I'd brought with me in a pile on the floor.
And I soon realized I wasn't the
only one in a good mood. When I walked out into the hall, the next door down creaked open—the door to Laurel's room. Someone stepped out, but it wasn't Laurel.
"Good morning, Gaia!" It was Solomon, and he was all smiles and smooth Southern drawl. "How wonderful to see you this fine day!"
Laurel followed him out and closed the door. Her smile was even bigger than his...and not so much benevolent as satisfied. "Hi, Gaia." She even moved with a languorous grace, far more slinky and sensuous than usual. "What's up?"
I couldn't help laughing a little because I knew what they must have been doing. "Nothing much." I smiled and shrugged. "Just wondering where they keep the caffeine around here."
"Please join us for breakfast, Gaia," said Solomon. "You'll find plenty of caffeine there, all of it quite delicious."
"All righty then." I walked with them down the hall. Gave Mahoney's door a knock on the way past, but no one answered. "Maybe he's still sleeping it off."
"No doubt." Solomon chuckled. "That was quite a night all around." With that, he looped an arm around Laurel's shoulders and gave her a squeeze.
I was happy for them...and confused at the same time. I'd thought Solomon and Cassandra were a couple. Now here he was, strolling in the open with another lover. Maybe Cassandra was really open-minded? Maybe social mores were different for Landkind? Whatever the case, I wasn't about to stick my nose in or mess things up for my dying friend. Laurel deserved whatever happiness she could get. We all did.
The sun was shining when we walked outside. The morning sky was bright blue and cloudless. The cool air smelled fresh and woodsy and damp with dew. It was a perfect morning to follow a perfect night.
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