by S. S. Segran
* * *
The digital clock by the bed flashed midnight. Aari stifled a yawn. I should sleep… but I wanna test something. If, through retrocognition I’m an omnilinguist, shouldn’t I understand other languages by listening or reading when I’m not using retrocognition?
Beside him, Marshall snored softly. Kody was on his phone, his eyes barely open. Aari picked up a letter from the canister and as he rolled it out, an unexpected flash in his mind hurled him into the past. What? But I’m not at the geo-marker! How can I be seeing—unless… unless another significant event happened here?
Carmel flounced ahead of Lucius, using sprawling fig tree roots to navigate a path through the montane forest. Aari noted how easily Lucius kept up with her and how much surer his footing was, and wondered how long they’d been on the run now. The vast canopy broke in places and the sun’s rays shone through like spotlights on the pair. Joy fought to burst free from the confines of Lucius’s chest as they ran. Aari recognized it as a new feeling; it was the Roman’s first taste of real freedom, far away from the grasp of the Empire.
Carmel halted by a rocky stream that gurgled past them, stretching some thirty feet across. She gracefully leapt onto a wet outcrop, working her way effortlessly across the water. As Lucius readied to take a bound, a prickling feeling made the hairs on his arms stand up. He tried to ignore it but the sensation crawled up the back of his neck like an army of fire ants. He slowly turned around—and threw himself sideways just as the open jaws of a leopard snapped shut in empty space.
The predator landed where Lucius had stood just a second ago. The Roman tried to yell out to Carmel but her name clung to his lips as terror took hold. The leopard bounded across the stream toward her as she balanced unsteadily on a log.
His voice eventually returned to him. “Carmel!”
The young woman looked over her shoulder and screamed. She attempted to face the leopard and displace it with her abilities but couldn’t turn fast enough. The animal hurled itself at her, claws outstretched. They toppled off the log, splashing into the stream. The back of Carmel’s head smacked against a jagged boulder and she slumped against it, her bag containing the seeds keeping her latched in place.
Lucius unsheathed a sword-like sickle from his scabbard. Aari remembered the weapon all too well; Lucius had killed a bandit with it in Khartoum. The Roman tore over the stepping stones to where the leopard paddled furiously against the current toward Carmel. He let loose a battle cry and leapt, sinking the blade deep between the predator’s shoulders. The stream turned red as he yanked the weapon out and kicked the lifeless body downstream.
As he sheathed the blade, a compact force threw him face-first into the water. Claws pierced his tunic and he cried out, an explosion of bubbles erupting from his mouth. Deadly incisors closed around his neck but the weight on his back suddenly went limp before sliding off.
A hand gripped Lucius like a cat grabbing a kitten by the scruff and pulled him up. He gasped, lungs grateful for air, and came eye-to-eye with a black man behind a half-face tribal mask. Behind him were others, similarly garbed in masks and loincloths. The man indicated downstream where the second leopard floated with the current, an arrow shot through the base of its skull.
There was a brief spell of darkness followed by a bright flash, throwing Aari forward in time. Though jarred, the teenager stayed connected to the memory as Lucius followed the tribesmen. They carried Carmel in a makeshift litter into their village that lay within a clearing in the forest. Curious faces popped out of huts while others peered inquisitively from around a large fire pit. Lucius eyed the unfamiliar people with cautious trust.
Then, another flash. This time, they were sitting around the very same fire pit with the tribe. Carmel, beside Lucius, seemed to have aged a few years. When Aari first saw her she’d appeared to be in her late teens, and now she’d come into the full blossom of womanhood.
I’d peg her at mid-twenties, Aari thought. I guess she survived the head trauma… And it looks like they’ve been living here all this while. Look at them, enjoying the company of the tribe. Is this where they settled? Did they live out the rest of their lives here?
A young boy with a big afro sat by Lucius’ feet, his mother looking on warmly from afar. He and Carmel played a game, each holding a certain number of twigs. Sometimes she passed him a twig, sometimes he passed her two or three. Lucius sat the boy on his knee, hugging him snugly. The boy wiggled in delight but remained focused on his game.
A blurring of vision and a third flash.
As the haze lifted, Aari observed the village in shambles. Several tribespeople lay on the ground, motionless on grass mats, while others carried bodies into the forest to be buried. Lucius, his arm around Carmel as they watched, softly said, “Let’s go back inside.”
She pulled away from him, arms crossed, shoulders hunched. “These people cared for me—for us—when I was on the brink of death. They didn’t have to but they did. There must be something we can do, Lucius. I cannot watch more of them die. It’s been days already.”
Lucius touched a finger to her cheek. “We don’t know what this sickness is. None of the medicine man’s cures have worked. I know you want to help. So do I, believe me, but there’s nothing we can do.”
“Exhaustion, vomiting, colds, sweats, coughs, pain… What is this illness?”
Malaria, maybe? Aari wondered. But it could also be a bunch of other diseases.
“I don’t know, Carmel. And I fear the longer we remain exposed, the higher the chance we will contract whatever it is. Let’s go back inside, love.”
She reluctantly allowed him to guide her back into their hut, whereupon they curled together on their mats. Lucius stroked her hair until her breathing evened and her body had softened in his arms. Then pitch-darkness overtook Aari’s vision.
What is this? What’s hap—
Gently, the darkness gave way and his vision returned as Lucius awoke. The Roman felt around in the dimness of the hut but found the space next to him empty and cold. He twisted out of his sleeping pad and scrambled toward the entrance only to collide into a figure walking in.
“Carmel!” he groaned. “Where did you go?”
She looked dazed. Lucius noticed her hands were covered in dirt and—
Is that blood?
“What happened, love?” Lucius asked, sitting her down on the mats. She was still dazed so he cleaned her hands for her. Most of the blood came from a long cut on her palm that he wrapped in a strip of old cloth. Lucius’s bafflement melded with Aari’s.
Carmel gradually returned to herself. She looked down at her hands, befuddled. “Thank you, Lucius. I… I must have been sleepwalking. I suppose the stress of the village has taken over even my time of rest.”
They lay together again, and this time Carmel slumbered almost immediately.
A fourth flash. Judging by his growing fatigue, Aari was sure this was the longest he’d been in the hold of retrocognition.
Carmel fell on top of Lucius and dragged him toward the exit of their abode. “Lucius!” she hissed. “Lucius, you need to see this!”
“Mmm, what are you—agh! Please don’t yank off my arm!”
“Then get up!”
Lucius, barely awake, trudged outside after her. When they rounded the back of their hut, he stopped short. A sapling unlike anything he’d ever seen before hailed them. The Roman pulled on his eyelids to clear his blurred sight, but the infant tree was still there, thin and waist-high with ivory stems and luminescent violet leaves.
Carmel had a hand on her hip and the other over her mouth. “This was not here the last time I came to clean.”
“And that was…?”
“Six days ago.”
“That cannot be. Trees don’t grow that fast. And no tree I have ever seen looks like this.”
“Lucius.” Carmel locked her turquoise gaze on him. “Do you remember when you found me sleepwalking that one night?”
He lowered his head once i
n cautious affirmation. “Yes. That was six days ago.”
She licked her lips. “Before I woke you just now, I checked my bag. There have always been five seeds in my box. But now, I only have four.”
Before Aari could fight it, the memory booted him back into the present. He jolted, hearing his back crackle and pop as his joints released their stiffness. The clock indicated that he’d been sealed away in the memories for almost two hours. He extended a finger to the parchment again but withdrew at the last moment. I don’t have the energy to keep going. But. What. A. Revelation! So much happened right here! This must have even been Carmel’s and Lucius’s final stop. And that has to be the Tree of Life. Could it still be around?
Marshall was fast asleep and Aari didn’t have the heart to pounce on him and divulge his discovery. Kody, though, was nowhere to be found, but his phone was on the bed. Aari checked the entire cottage before spying him through a window, sitting on the steps of the porch. He joined Kody, instantly wishing he’d brought a sweater to combat the cold. “Hey.”
“Hey. Did you finish your trip down literal memory lane? I noticed you’d spaced out a couple of hours ago.”
“Yeah. I’m exhausted. But you’re not gonna believe this. Right here, where this lodge is? It’s ground zero. And dude, this is where Carmel planted the Tree of Life!”
Kody, who’d been staring off into the distance with perturbed focus, faced Aari with a budding glow about him. “Don’t pull my leg, man.”
“I wouldn’t. Not about this.” Aari bumped Kody’s arm. “We’re so close to getting the cure for you.”
“And for the world.”
“But first for you. Don’t ever doubt that you’re our priority.”
“That means a lot, Brainiac. Thanks.”
“I thought you’d be a little more thrilled about this news.”
“I am, really.” The perturbed focus returned as Kody looked to their left where he’d mentioned the fancier lodge was located nearly five-hundred yards away. “Could you give me a quick rundown of who exactly knows we’re here?”
“It’s just Gareth, Deverell, Victor, Magèo and the Elders.”
Kody rubbed his mouth. “Hmph.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Some people pulled into the resort a half hour ago. The cars were in the way so I didn’t get a good look, and for some reason my senses are inconsistent, but I got a quick glimpse of one guy…”
“No. No, please. Don’t say it. Don’t.”
“Reyor’s people have found us. Someone sold us out.”
51
Ashack stormed into Dema-Ki’s old community hall-turned-youth center; the fire of his fury could have lit a blazing trail in his wake. Hutar looked up from where he was cleaning a countertop in the partially restored building and turned to the Elder, wiping sweat from his tanned brow. “Elder Ash—”
His words strangled as the muscular Elder grabbed the youth around the throat with one hand and slammed him against a wall, raising him high so his feet dangled off the ground.
“What have you done, filth?” Ashack snarled.
Hutar struggled against the older man’s grip, barely able to get a breath out. Ashack tightened his hold. “Traitor! We took you back into our care and you repay us by funneling information to Reyor?”
“I… I never did,” Hutar gasped, face turning a dark purple.
“Liar!”
“Stop!” Tayoka bellowed behind Ashack.
“We knew of his abilities!” Ashack roared. “We knew he could eavesdrop and yet we allowed him to recuperate in the convalescence shelter, close enough to listen in on our meetings!”
“It was only for the first few days after his arrival! That is why we moved him to the other end of the valley!”
“He could have slipped away!”
“Not with Nageau’s grandson there. You know how Akol watches Hutar like a hawk.” Tayoka moved toward the other Elder placatingly. “You’re choking him, Ashack! Let him go!”
Ashack gnashed his teeth. He searched Hutar for a sign of remorse or guilt or even pride, but the youth only stared coldly even as stark red veins appeared in the whites of his eyes. The Elder further constricted his grip, his fingers contorting flesh.
“Enough!” Tayoka hooked an arm around Ashack’s waist and pushed him away. Hutar tried to slink past the men but Tayoka struck at his chest with an open hand, pushing the youth back against the wall. “Not so fast.”
Hurried footfalls sounded behind Ashack. Saiyu and Nageau appeared on either side of him, giving the black-haired Elder beseeching looks paired with imperceptible shakes of their heads. Tikina hurried in behind them, taking in the situation gravely.
Ashack stalked back to Hutar, but Tayoka kept him at arm’s length. Hutar, pinned in place, bristled. “Elder Ashack, I have been working hard to earn back my standing amongst my people. I do not appreciate false accusations—”
“You will never regain your standing,” Ashack snapped. “Mark my words. Our people have no faith in you. You demolished their trust when you nearly murdered—”
“Ashack, stop.” Nageau, a mask of pain welded on his face, thrust the other Elder back.
“We gave him a chance, Nageau. No one except a handful of Sentries, Magèo and us knew exactly where the younglings were. And now the harbinger knows, too? There is no such thing as coincidence in this matter. Even you of all people cannot argue this.”
“I swear on my father’s soul,” Hutar said, his words stinging with acid, “I did not feed Reyor this information.”
“Then who did?” Nageau asked.
Ashack was more aghast than angry now. “You cannot possibly believe anything he says!”
“I swear on my father’s soul!” Hutar shouted. “And you know what else? I swear on my uncle’s soul as well!”
It went so quiet, Ashack could hear the tap behind the counter trickle drops of water into the sink. Hutar glowered defiantly at the Elders. “Is that good enough for you?” His voice cracked. “I swear, on the two most important people in my life whom I have lost… I did not eavesdrop on your conversation, nor was I the one who fed Reyor the location of the chosen ones.”
Tikina stood toe-to-toe with the young man and pierced his sapphire eyes with her jade-green stare. “I think he is telling the truth,” she said after a pause.
Ashack turned his back on them. Saiyu held his face in her hands but he moved away and jabbed a finger in Hutar’s direction. “You better be honest with us, boy, or so help me I will make you wish you had never returned home.”
The Elder swept out of the youth center and crossed the river to the stable. He mounted the first horse he saw, not bothering to saddle it, and raced out of the valley to clear his head.
If something happens to the younglings… He grasped the stallion’s mane tightly as they carved a trail through the snow, leaving Dema-Ki behind them. … I will make him pay.
52
The erratic flight of a yellow-and-black dragonfly distracted a group of gruff men seated at the polished bar. One with auburn hair and a square face swatted the insect away, grumbling something in Russian. To his left, a tattooed hulk with a satellite phone pressed to his ear imperiously blew a ring of smoke at the tiny creature. He chuckled as it thrashed away from the smog.
Jerk, Tegan complained as she completed her mindlink with the dragonfly. She guided the insect onto the wooden rafters over the bar. Steady does it… There! Perfect landing. Now let’s see what these brutes are up to.
The last time Tegan had utilized a dragonfly, the insect’s three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panoramic vision had produced instant nausea. This time, her grasp on her environment proved stellar, although working each of the four independently-operating wings was still a challenge.
Below her, Hajjar continued his conversation over the phone, his voice like the rumble of an approaching storm. “Whatever the case, you and your men need to be ready. We paid good money for your service so you move in the second I
call. Understand?”
As he hung up, Ajajdif asked, “Are we good?”
“These guys are the best there is around here. We better be good.”
“Are our birds in place?”
“Three choppers, set to go. The Osprey’s been refueled and we can definitely get past the country’s no-fly restrictions.”
Ajajdif took a sip from his glass. “Money talks.”
“Of course it does. Especially in times like these.” Hajjar eyed the other man’s drink. “A little early for that, wouldn’t you say, sir? Sun’s barely up.”
“It’s never too early when this is my only shot to right our last failure. Relax, Elias. It’s just one drink.”
The giant seemed unimpressed but didn’t push further. He pinched the ember from his cigarette into an ashtray and returned it to his pack. “There’s something to be admired about the quality of intel from the Boss. Always impeccable. And now we know for sure that it’s definitely those kids at Momella Lodge.”
“And we know that they know we’re here.”
Hajjar stretched, bulging biceps straining against his tight Underarmour t-shirt. “That young buck with the Boss is shaping up to be a perfect addition to our humble little family.”
“Mmh.” Ajajdif took another sip of his drink. “Yes. Perfect.”
“Aw, sir, is that envy I hear?”
Ajajdif threw a disdainful look at the giant. “I have never seen anyone become so attached to the Boss’s hip within a matter of months. It’s unnatural.”
“It’s alright, I understand. It’s hard when the head of a family has a new favorite son.”
New favorite son? Tegan walked the dragonfly closer to the edge of the wooden beam, wings twitching. I thought Tony Two-Timing Cross was Reyor’s lapdog. Who’s the new player?
Hajjar waved away the three other mercenaries with them. Once they were gone, he said, “I still don’t see why we can’t just move in right now. Shoot the adults, grab the rest, and put a noose on the redhead until he leads us to the seeds.”
“You’re too trigger-happy,” Ajajdif said. “There’s a reason most ambushes are done at night. You know that.”