by S. S. Segran
She saw Kody peering out of the window, the side of his head resting on his shoulder. “Kody?”
The other teenager didn’t turn to her. “I thought I wasn’t able to hear the men at the other resort last night because they were too far away.” His throat worked. “But I just tried again, and . . . my range has decreased since then. Significantly.”
“What are you saying?”
“I think the virus has started to take effect.”
* * *
“Are you alright, Aari?”
Aari strode between the numerous bandas, one of Lucius’s letters in both hands, feeling the historical weight of the inn’s grounds with every footfall. Dominique kept pace with him, having to shorten the steps of her longer legs to match his gait.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Just peachy. One of my best friends is dying, our families are most likely in danger, we’re being tailed by nutjobs who get orders from a bigger nutjob bent on destroying humanity . . . Yeah, life’s fan-freakin’-tastic.”
The laughter that escaped Dominique surprised him. “I’ve never understood these snide answers that young people today seem so fond of,” she said. “A straight ‘no’ would suffice, I think.”
“It might be our defense mechanism when things aren’t going well.”
A silence hung between them. Aari felt guilt poking at him like a cattle prod. “I’m sorry, Domi. I know you’re just trying to be here for us.”
“It’s alright. I get it.”
As they traversed over the pale green grass, he said, “So... you know Marshall well?”
The Sentry relaxed. “Well enough. He and my cousin used to work closely in the States. She introduced us when I was visiting her about ten years ago. I look up to him as a brother, but I think she might have seen him in a different light. He was completely oblivious, though. He usually is.” A soft smile graced her face. “He was a good friend to Gwen when I couldn’t be around, which was often, as my home base is Africa. For that, I am forever thankful.”
The name sounded an alarm in Aari’s head. “Gwen?” he repeated. “She—”
Dominique met his eyes, delicate understanding in her own. “Yes.”
Aari didn’t know what to say. Gwen gave her life trying to save Tegan and Mariah when they were kidnapped. And now I’m talking to her cousin and no one thought to mention a word about this? I get that relationships aren’t a priority given what the world’s going through right now, but . . . Gwen died. For us. And we never even got to meet her.
Before Aari could push out a flimsy condolence, a flash erupted behind his eyes.
His last memory of the tribe who’d taken Lucius and Carmel in was of diseased villagers lying on the ground, dying or in pain. Now they danced around a fire pit bigger than anything he’d ever seen. They hollered into the night, sang at the top of their lungs and feasted like there was no tomorrow.
Lucius’s sight fell upon the radiant woman swaying around the glowing flames with the others, her blonde hair in a braid that encircled her head like a crown. Her laughter echoed above the other voices, and Aari couldn’t stop a wave of strong emotion that tugged at every fiber of his being nor the bliss that fueled the beating of his heart.
Is this what love feels like? Aari thought, bewildered. Jeez, how can people stand being this happy all the time? I feel like I’m gonna explode!
Carmel caught Lucius’s gaze and skipped over. Despite his weak protests, she pulled him closer to the fire and they danced in the flickering light, the heat pressing against their bodies.
Lucius leaned in to catch her lips between his but a sudden prodding made him look down. A little boy with a big afro—Aari recognized him as the one Carmel had been playing a game of twigs with from an earlier memory—beamed up at the two of them.
Lucius scooped the boy up and nuzzled him. The boy proudly turned his head and pushed the top of his ear forward, displaying a fresh tattoo of three small triangles behind it, then pointed at an old, hunched-over woman with a toothless smile on the opposite side of the fire giving similar tattoos to others. Lucius nodded, approving. “Looks good!”
The boy held the Roman’s face between his hands, squirming happily. Lucius spun around several times, eliciting dizzied giggles from the child when he put him down. As the boy worked on regaining his bearings, Lucius drew Carmel to him.
“That tree,” she breathed, “saved so many lives. I know you still have questions about my possession of it, and I am sorry that I don’t have the answers, but that tree was a blessing and because of it, our tribe has flourished. Look at what we’ve been able to do, Lucius. People near and far know of us and trust us enough to heal them.”
Lucius pushed her hair away from her face. “I will not deny that. But we both have seen the envy and greed in the eyes of some of the other tribe leaders when they look at the tree.”
“Sometimes those who are driven to make things better are required to take the risk of trusting others. I have faith, Lucius. You should, too.”
“As you wish,” Lucius said, and added teasingly, “I suppose it would be unwise of me to disobey the command of someone viewed as a legendary healer by the people.”
“Oh, stop it.”
Lucius grinned and pulled her close. As they swayed together, a flicker of something gray emerged from the forest around the village. A herd of elephants had convened at the fringes, watching the humans serenely.
The grin Lucius wore grew wider. “The newest additions to our family are here.”
Carmel looked behind her and lit up when she saw the herd. “They grow more trusting every day. But this connection they have with the tribe is just in its infancy. Over time, the bond will grow stronger.”
“Again, this is because of you. You seem to have a magical effect not just on people, but all of nature. The same way you have an effect on me.”
She blushed fiercely as he moved closer. He held a hand to her cheek. “Carmel, I—”
Manic shrieks erupted from the trees. Dark shapes burst through the trees, wielding spears and arrows and knives. Screams ravaged Lucius’s ears as one by one the tribespeople fell, weapons protruding from their bodies. The elephants trumpeted hysterically, galloping into the forest, but one, the matriarch, remained to help fight off the intruders. Men and women ran for safety while others stayed to fend off the attackers.
Carmel dove into action, hurling the invaders back. Lucius frantically scanned the horde and almost yelled when he saw the little boy—his little boy—being trampled in the commotion. Like an ox on a rampage he fought his way through the masses and flung himself onto the child, using his body as a shield. A foot stomped on his back and another on his calf. He cried out but refused to move. The boy under him trembled, clutching the Roman tightly.
Aari gasped and stumbled back a step. He could feel Lucius’s phantom pains on his lower back and his leg. Before Dominique could ask what he’d seen, he marched off in search of another geo-marker, weaving between cottages and bandas, working toward the reception building. The woman who’d checked them into their rooms watched him keenly from where she swept the entrance, her face unreadable.
As Aari made a turn to the back of the building, another flash yanked him away from the present. If it could, a bellow would have ripped from his throat at the sight that met him.
Lucius cradled Carmel in his arms. An arrow punctured her chest and the wound stained her clothes. Her eyes glistened as she looked up at him, her uneven breaths coming out in quiet whimpers.
“Two weeks,” Lucius said, over and over. “Two weeks. We survived two weeks of warring over that damned tree. You will not stop now.”
“I am sorry,” she rasped. “I should have seen the archer.”
“Shh, shh. The tree. Its sap. It can help you. It can—”
“The tree only cures the sick, Lucius. It does not heal a mortal wound.”
“There has to be something. I’ll—”
“Lucius. Listen to me. Listen!” She coughed an
d blood dripped from her mouth. “I can . . . I can remember now. The tree . . .”
“Shh, don’t talk.” He wiped the tears that slid down her cheeks. “Just hold on. I’ll get the medicine man.”
“My memory is returning, Lucius.” She coughed again. “I need you to listen.”
He tried to sound gentle, strong, but his chest was clogged with suppressed emotion. “Carmel—”
“No. Lucius . . . the tree. It is not a blessing. It is a curse. The people are not ready for it. You must destroy it. Burn that tree down. Plant no more. The seeds must be safeguarded.” She stopped, wheezing for air; the sound grated in Lucius’s ears and made Aari want to curl into himself.
“When humankind is ready,” she managed to whisper, “the right people will come for it.”
“Don’t. Don’t speak like that. If you want me to burn the tree, I will do it. But you have to be with me.”
Carmel weakly rested her hand on his jaw. “I haven’t much energy left, my love.”
With trembling lips, Lucius placed a long kiss on her forehead, shaking as he fought back the looming swell of grief.
“Burn the tree, Lucius,” Carmel murmured, her words losing coherence. “Not just because . . . greed. It must not be planted . . . by . . . by anyone else.”
Aari felt it.
He felt the moment her life left her body.
Lucius didn’t need to look down to know she was gone. He held her limp form tightly against him, rocking back and forth, sobs racking him.
Having driven away the invaders, the surviving tribespeople surrounded him and knelt. They touched their brows to the ground, then threw their heads back and wailed to the heavens.
Aari snapped back to the present. He was on his hands and knees in the dirt, weeping. The letter, Asa’s precious artifact, had fallen from his grasp and was speckled with soil but he didn’t care. His heart ached in a way he’d never felt before, a twisting, guttural sensation that hurt as it beat in the confines of his ribs, making him nauseous. He angrily wiped the tears away.
A warm hand cupped his chin. Dominique, crouched beside him, turned his head toward her. The concern she wore made him feel foolish but his emotions were out of his control.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” he stuttered. “I . . . I’m feeling everything he’s feeling.”
“Are there any more memories here?” she asked gently.
He shook his head, unable to bring himself to speak again.
“Then let’s go back.”
53
The cottage door banged open and Aari staggered in, disappearing into the guys’ bedroom. Dominique followed, closing the door quietly. Kody, sitting with the others around a table, asked, “Um, is he okay?”
“He’s shaken,” Dominique said, joining the group. “He saw Carmel die, and everything Lucius felt, he felt. I’ve never witnessed anything like it. This new ability of his . . . it is a gift, but a gift that I fear may take a toll if an emotional incident is too harrowing.”
As she gave them a rundown of what had happened, Kody pulled the brim of his baseball cap low over his face and mulled. So Aari’s felt what it’s like to kill a man and what it’s like to watch a loved one die in his arms . . . That’s cruel.
Aari emerged from the room, seemingly more in control of himself. Kody passed him a cup of water and an apple; the other boy took them half-heartedly.
“So much happened here,” Mariah said once Dominique had finished. “Did you manage to get a flash forward to the next marker, Aari?”
“It came as we were walking back.” Aari sounded hollow, tired. “Lucius was laying a slab of stone on Carmel’s grave, and he spoke with the village’s medicine man afterward. The tribe had wanted to build a monument in honor of Carmel for the lives she saved, but Lucius didn’t think it would be appropriate. He wanted her to have a quiet, unmarked resting place. He found a spot by a stream near the foot of Mount Meru, the same place where the tribe first found her and Lucius when the leopards attacked them.”
“That’s still a pretty wide search grid,” Marshall said.
“And who’s to say the stone is still there?” Kody added.
Aari bit the rim of his cup. “It’s all we have to go on. Oh, and there was this massive hunk of granite behind her grave; its shape matched the mountain’s outline, like someone had carved it that way. That’s a good landmark.”
“It’s something,” Tegan agreed. “What did the stone slab look like?”
“It was the size of a pillow and had tribal markings on it. Carmel’s name was etched in Hebrew at the center.”
Dominique retrieved two bags from their rooms and pulled Aari’s laptop from one and her portable satellite modem from the other. Together she and Aari set up the devices.
“Okay.” Aari turned the laptop so it faced the group. “Here’s a satellite image of Meru. All we need to do is find streams or dry riverbeds and follow them to where the grave should be.”
Kody swept the screen. “I see lines winding through the greenery, so those are probably streams, but there are quite a few of them.”
“We’re just looking for the ones on the western side of Meru,” Aari said, “where the ash cone is. That’s what I saw in Lucius’s memory.”
“In that case, I’ve found three—here, here, and here.”
“We’ll split up, then,” Tegan said. She looked at each member of the group and Kody noticed her eyes lingered on him a little longer than the others. He could see her deciding who best to pair him with. I may be weakening, he thought, feeling a touch of frustration, but I don’t need to be coddled, Teegs. You better not put me with a Sentry.
“Domi and Aari, you guys scout the stream to the south,” she said. “Kody and Mariah, you’ll take the center stream while Marshall and I will check out the one to the north. This way, we have at least one telepath on each team. And take a photo of the satellite image with your phones so we can refer to it later.”
Kody, who’d been rigid with anticipation, relaxed. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Did you figure out how to distract Reyor’s men so we can get past them?” Aari asked.
Kody grinned, sharing eager looks with Tegan. “Oh yeah. We’re gonna throw a major monkey wrench into the works.”
* * *
The group made their way over the inn’s grounds toward Mount Meru, as casually as if they were taking a walk in a park. Kody, strolling arm-in-arm with Tegan, whispered, “We’re coming up about two hundred yards to the left of the other resort. Is everything in place?”
“Almost,” she whispered back. “It’s a lot of pieces to coordinate, and they’re all spread out so I have to bring them closer. Ahh, it feels so good to not have to sit still for stuff like this anymore.” She squeezed his arm. “Now, be honest. How are you feeling?”
He considered lying but decided against it. “My powers are definitely weakening,” he admitted. “At this range I should be able to clearly listen in on anything in that resort, but my hearing keeps fading in and out and my sight is returning to how it used to be before I got my abilities. All my senses are fading. And . . .”
“And?”
“I’m starting to feel a headache coming on.”
Tegan gazed up at him, then at the gauze on his neck. He could see her fighting not to show fear. Turning his baseball cap backward, he gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. She broke into a laugh, pulling back. “Hey!”
“See? I’m still in charge of my faculties. So let’s just work on finding the seeds and not be concerned about the idiot brother of the group.”
“You’re a butt.”
“Yes. Yes I am.”
When Tegan looked away, Kody dropped his breezy grin. It’s the strangest thing, he thought, to live with the knowledge that you’re walking toward death while it walks toward you. When it’s this close, and you know it’s coming . . . It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m ready for it. I’m ready. I . . . I . . .
I’m not ready
.
A chorus of guttural roars exploded from the acacia trees surrounding the resort. A gang of colobus monkeys with shaggy black-and-white pelts burst onto the scene. They swung onto the wooden frame of the building and threw themselves at the windows until they shattered. As the simian troop clambered through, Kody, even with his fading hearing, picked up the yelps and expletives from the mercenaries inside.
Then his ears registered the faint pounding of hooves. He looked to his right and watched in heavy-lidded amazement as a herd of two dozen buffalo thundered over the savannah. Their dark coats shone under the sunlight as they pulled their massive bodies, each easily weighing fifteen-hundred pounds, toward the resort.
“Look at the horns on them!” Kody shouted over the fray. “And—holy cow!”
The buffalo leading the charge slammed into one of the vehicles parked in front of the resort. Another larger bull lowered its massive head and gored a truck with its horns. The first buffalo joined in the effort and together they lifted and flipped the crumpled truck onto its side, the grinding of metal a foreign din to the livid rumbles of the wild beasts.
“I feel like I’m in a live-action version of The Lion King!” Mariah shrieked gleefully as one of the buffalos turned to the resort’s entrance and rammed the doors down. “This is insane!”
“I’m not done yet!” Tegan yelled.
From the shrubs around the inn, a war cry of furious squealing announced the stampede of reddish-brown animals with two pairs of tusks. They sprinted at unbelievable speed, filing through the building’s decimated entrance.
“Warthogs!” Marshall doubled over in laughter. “Are you kidding me?”
“It’s for good measure!” Tegan ran toward the main road. “Come on, while Reyor’s men are distracted!”
She’d only taken a few bounds when she suddenly sagged forward. Kody caught her just before she fell. “Whoa,” she mumbled, holding her head. “Guess I have my limits, too.”
Kody lifted her up. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”
“Sorta. Just . . . wow. Sudden drain. I didn’t realize jumping from one animal to another quickly would hit me this hard.”