Terra's Call (TetraSphere Book 1)

by P. T. L. Perrin

  I feel it too, Jewel says, her own wonder evident in her thought.

  It wants us to touch it, Pax chimes in. I don’t know how I know that, but it must be the way we can help it.

  There’s our answer, then, Storm says, matter-of-factly. I’ll stop the spin and we’ll lay hands on it, like good little Christians, and it’ll be healed. Then maybe we can get out of here and go back to our real lives.

  How did I miss feeling Storm’s anger? I push as much peace and love as I can toward him and feel him rebuff it. It’s nearly impossible for me to break through to someone who won’t let go of their rage. I try again, and again he stops it. My heart aches and I realize I won’t reach him with emotions alone. Will we be able to fix the artifact if he’s still so angry? We have no choice but to try.

  Once again we link hands as Storm concentrates on slowing the spin without dropping it to the ground. I don’t know how we know it, but once it stops, it will no longer be suspended.

  Soon we can make out the carvings on each of the faces. They match the symbols on Sequoia’s blanket; the four figures surrounded by the earth and the sign for love on one face; the moon, arrow and serpent on another; the coyote, star and butterfly on the third; and the sun of hope on the fourth.

  Storm finally gets it to stop moving and holds it in place. We quickly approach it. I’m drawn to the side with the love sign. I see Jewel reach for the coyote and butterfly. Pax gingerly touches the side with the moon and serpent, which leaves the side with hope for Storm.

  As we touch it, I feel it tremble and a low vibrating sound comes from its center. It feels warm to the touch, but I get the sense that something is missing. Storm stands next to me, and he isn’t touching the artifact.

  Storm? I ask.

  I can’t, he says. It won’t let me touch it.

  “Oh, Storm,” I whisper so that only he can hear me. “Don’t you know we love you? I love you. You can do this.”

  His head whips around to me and his eyes are glittering amber. I see them soften. “What did you say?” he whispers back.

  Just then the soft vibrations from the artifact increase sharply and it’s suddenly shaking under our hands. The floor jerks and pebbles on the stone pathway clatter and roll into each other. Light from the artifact bounces off crystals imbedded in the pillars and I feel a sound building in the ground under the soles of my boots before my ears hear it.

  “Hurry, Storm! Touch the thing before we’re all goners!” Pax shouts.

  I grab Storm’s hand and slam it against the carving on his side of the artifact, and I hold it there. Jewel, on his other side, grabs hold of his free hand and presses it with hers against her carving. With her other hand she covers Pax’s and he reaches around and covers mine on my carving. It’s a bit awkward because of the artifact’s shape, but we’re able to touch both the artifact and complete a circle of hands at the same time, all while managing to stay on our feet on the shaking ground.

  The shaking stops and our ears ring in the sudden silence. The artifact grows warmer under my hands, and the carving in front of me glows with a soft golden light.

  Joy fills me and I want to dance and sing and shout with it. I feel a gentle push away from the tetrahedron and we all step back at the same time, letting it go. It begins a slow spin and sends out a wave of love and gratitude, and then it pulls back into itself and begins to hum as its spin accelerates.

  Storm taps on his wristband and I know he’s tapping my number for a private conversation. Did you mean what you said before?

  FORTY-SEVEN

  STORM

  I wait for Sky’s answer, afraid I must have misunderstood her; and also afraid she meant what she said. I can’t stay cold around her. What will this do to me, if I give in to my feelings for her?

  Friends love each other, don’t they? Brothers and sisters love each other. She did say ‘we’ before she said ‘I.’ I’ve almost convinced myself she meant that kind of love when she reaches up and places a hand on each side of my face.

  Her eyes are oceans and I’m drowning in them. Fire burns low in my belly and heat travels up my chest and into my face. My heart pounds so loudly I’m sure she can hear it. She rises to her tiptoes, pulls my face down to hers and kisses me. Her soft lips move against mine and I pull her close and taste the sweetness of her mouth. Not friends, then. Thank God, not friends.

  I hear Pax clear his throat behind me. “That’s my sister you’re holding there, buddy.”

  Sky waves him off, and pulls away from me. Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “We need to find a way out,” she says. In my head I hear her say, every word. I meant every word.

  Jewel is entranced watching the spinning object. I disconnect with Sky and tap in the connection with everyone. What do you see? I ask her.

  The colors are weaving a ball around it. It’s slowly rebuilding its energy field. I’ve never seen so many colors.

  We’d better go. Pax seems anxious to leave, and then I feel it too. He looks at me and I know we’re in trouble. The ground is vibrating again.

  A blast of sound comes from outside the wall of columns and the ground shakes with the force of an explosion. We rush to the opening and out into the cavern, dodging debris falling from the ceiling. When it stops, a group of Dracans emerges from a tunnel they blasted into the cavern. They stand there, seven of them with weapons pointed at us, and their leader steps forward.

  “Thank you for repairing our prize,” he says and grins, baring his crocodile teeth.

  Rage flares in me. I am going to kill him. I feel Sky trying to calm me. Not now, I say, glancing at her. I need this. She nods, but I feel a wave of sadness before she quickly snatches it back. I’ll make it up to her, I swear it.

  I find several loose boulders behind the reptilian creatures and lift them high above their heads. When I let them go, three hit their targets, knocking them flat to the ground. Three down, four to go. The leader fires in my direction and I pull Sky down as I hit the floor. The air above my head sizzles and I hear a boom on the other side of the cavern where the light beam hit. Pax and Jewel take cover behind a pile of rocks.

  Keep them occupied, he says. I’ll see if I can get behind them.

  What about their weapons? I ask.

  Remember our training, Pax reminds me. In a fight, his bare hands and feet can be lethal weapons.

  I pick up every loose rock I find and fling it at them. They blast at the barrage of stones flying at them from everywhere at once. I see two more drop to the floor and I hope they’re down for good. I don’t see the one crouched behind a stalagmite taking careful aim at me.

  I feel the heat of the blast that just misses my face and see Pax take the reptilian down. He makes short work of it, but now the leader, the last one standing, is alerted to his presence.

  The Dracan aims at the ceiling above our heads and fires, turns and quickly aims above where Jewel is hiding, fires again, and then spins to confront Pax. That’s all I see before the ceiling collapses around me and something hits my head with enough force to knock me out.

  ~~~~~

  “Storm! Storm, wake up,” I hear Sky’s voice choking on tears and open my eyes. The light from her headlamp slowly comes into focus, and so does a throbbing pain in my head. I press my hand to the source of the pain and feel something sticky. I wonder where my headlamp is.

  “How bad is it?” I croak. Dust and gravel clog my throat. She hands me a water bottle and I drink a little too quickly. She helps me sit up and bend forward to cough it up.

  “You’re alive.” Pax’s voice sounds like he’s full of cotton. He’s on a boulder next to me with his knees drawn up, elbows on his knees, holding a flashlight in one hand and covering his face with the other. He’s the picture of dejection.

  Even more than the pain from my damaged head, I feel a heavy darkness. Wait. Why is it so dark in here? “Where’s Jewel?” I ask. Sky breaks down sobbing and Pax picks up a rock and throws it with force against a stalagmite.

  �
��Where is she?” I struggle to get to my feet and nearly fall back down. My legs are weak and my head swims with dizziness. How long have I been out? Leaning against the boulder Pax is on, I hit him on the back. “Answer me!”

  He whips around, fists clenched and the rage and grief on his face make my blood run cold. Icy fear grips my heart.

  “Gone, Storm!” he shouts. “She’s gone!”

  I can barely get the word out past the lump in my throat, “Dead?”

  “No! I don’t know. Maybe,” he sounds hollow. “Sky doesn’t feel her and she isn’t in the link. We can’t reach her.”

  “The artifact is missing, too,” Sky says. Except for the small circles of light from the flashlight and headlamp, we’re in total darkness. The light from the artifact is gone.

  Did we come here for nothing? Is the planet going to die after all?

  “Have you searched the cavern to see if she’s hurt somewhere?”

  Sky answers for both of them. “We came to a while ago, Storm, and searched everywhere we could as soon as I realized I can’t feel her. We’ll need help and more light to do a more thorough exploration, but we covered the artifact chamber as well as the area where we hid. We knew the tetrahedron was gone when we woke up in darkness. Pax says there’s no scent of death in here. They took her, Storm. They took both of them.”

  I hear a faint sound coming from the Dracan tunnel. “Let’s go get her.” I use rocks and Pax’s boulder to pull myself up, determined to follow them up that tunnel.

  “Wait, Storm,” Pax says. “They’re long gone. That sound is something or someone else. Let’s find cover closer to the tunnel and wait.”

  We hunker down behind the three boulders I dropped on the Dracans. Their bodies are not there, so either they survived or their reptilian buddies carried them out. I hope it was the latter. I wish them all dead.

  The noises grow louder and we see a faint light bobbing around a bend in the tunnel. The sounds give way to men’s voices, and I recognize Sheriff Green’s. He calls our names and Sky answers, “In here, Sheriff.”

  Wolf is the first one out, and as soon as he spots me, he runs to me and catches me in a strong hug. “Storm, are you alright?” I can’t answer and for the first time since my parents died, I break down and sob. He lowers us to the floor where we sit until the wave of grief, pain and rage subsides and I can talk again.

  When I finally look up, I see Dylan with one arm around Pax and the other around Sky, talking quietly. Charles and Sheriff Green are on the ground, hunched over, as if in pain. Pax and his dad straighten and start walking back up the tunnel.

  “We should all get going,” the sheriff says. “There’s nothing more we can do here. I’ll send my men down with equipment to do a more thorough search, but if Pax is right, they won’t find anyone here.”

  FORTY-EIGHT

  SKY

  I sit on the porch swing at Jewel’s house, warm in my down jacket, and wait for the O’Connells to arrive. The headmaster, pastor, and other tribal elders are inside with my parents and Charles and Analiese, drinking coffee and eating some of the piles of food brought over by friends and neighbors. My folks have been inundated with food, as well, and so have the O’Connells.

  Our community brought us our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. It’s their way of showing gratitude for the help we extended during and after the flood, and their kindness in turn has sustained us in our grief. We did our best to celebrate with them, but a pall of sadness still hangs over us.

  The ache in my heart, amplified by everyone else’s pain, is nearly as acute as the moment when I realized Jewel was taken. I want to send comfort, but I’m exhausted with it. Pax is still inconsolable. His despair is a black hole, sucking all joy from everyone around him.

  Wolf and Sequoia drive up, with Storm in the back seat. I wonder if I’ll ever see him smile again. I long to comfort him, but he’s distanced himself. I long for him to put his arms around me to comfort me, but it’s obvious he doesn’t feel the same for me as I do for him. His wall is thick and cold, pushing me away. I worry about Storm. Will he survive this? Does he love Jewel the way my brother does?

  The sheriff arrives last in his SUV with the rack of lights on top. I almost wish they were turned on, if only to see light and color again. Grief turns everything gray. Sheriff Green is grieving, too.

  Max is missing, and the official story is that he disappeared in the flood. His father knows the truth, though. Max and Marla were with the Dracans when they stole the artifact and Jewel, and now they’re gone. We will never see any of them again, and the world will end.

  In fact, the news hasn’t been that bad these last three months. Construction on the new road over the gap made by the sliding mountain is nearly complete. The weather over the continental United States and Canada has been mostly average for the season, and there haven’t been any earthquakes to report. Wherever the artifact is, it seems to be working.

  I greet Storm, who nods and follows his folks into the house. I follow, too, hang up my jacket and find a spot to sit against the wall in the living room. The adults sit around our dining room table talking quietly. I rest my head on my folded arms on top of my bent knees.

  Pax slides down next to me. He taps his wristband for the first time since the cavern. I’m sorry I’ve been so distant, Sky. I glance at him and he’s a mirror image of me; knees up, head down on his arms.

  I understand, Pax. I miss her, too. I wish you’d let me send you some peace.

  It’s like half of me has been ripped away.

  I look at Storm sprawled on the couch, arm flung over his face. He’s hurting, too.

  Pax glances at him and then looks at me. I hate the desolation I see in his eyes. I hate the waves of grief that batter me from all sides and reduce me to a pool of anguish. I can’t help either of them.

  I see Storm tap on his wrist and he joins the link. I knew Marla was up to something when she and Max left. She must have told them where we were.

  I’m not so sure, I say. I’ve replayed it endlessly in my mind. When we rescued her and her mom from their cabin, she told us she owed us one. I think she repaid us in the cave when she led us to the artifact chamber. Why would she turn around and betray us? It doesn’t make sense.

  Pax chimes in. Does any of it make sense? The Watchers told us the Dracans want to trade the artifacts for a way to get them home to their planet. They’re the enemy. Some Dracans don’t want to leave and know that the artifacts are Earth’s hope for survival. They’ve allied themselves with the Allarans. The bad ones got what they came for, so why take Jewel?

  And why involve Max, for that matter, Storm says. I can’t imagine them having any use for him, unless it’s for food.

  Oh, stop, Storm! I’ll never get that image out of my head now. Oh, God, what are they doing to Jewel? My body is ice cold with dread. Is she dead or alive? If she’s alive, does she wish she’s dead? Lord, if only we knew anything at all.

  “Kids, come on over here and get something to eat,” Mom calls. We obediently get up and grab plates, but none of us really has an appetite and we barely make a dent in the amount of food on the counters. I sit between Pastor John and Dad.

  “I know the kids have completed the required credits to graduate,” Pastor John is saying, “but school would be good for them. They should be around other kids; get involved in sports or some other activities. There’s nothing more for them to do with the artifact, and it’s been three months since the incident in the cave.”

  Dad speaks up, “They train with me, John. They’re involved in karate, and they work well together. Coral and I are willing to have them continue their education at our house. They’re all taking college-level courses as it is, and we are professors.”

  The boys and I remain silent while the adults decide the course of our immediate future for us. We don’t care. Life will never be the same without Jewel.

  After we eat, the boys and I get our jackets and go back to the porch. I take Jewel’s f
avorite spot on the swing, Pax sinks into an Adirondack chair, and Storm sits on the top step. The cold air feels good.

  I want to turn my feelings off for a while, but how do I do that when the people I love most are hurting so much?

  I can almost hear Jewel’s voice in my head. Antiss. Wait. What was that? What does antiss mean? Why would I imagine her saying something so weird?

  Storm jumps to his feet. Pax pushes out of the chair. Antiss. There it is again, now clearly her voice.

  Jewel! Where are you? Pax’s mental shout is louder in my head than his voice would have been. Storm echoes him. Where are you, Jewel?

  Antiss. Her voice fades away on the last syllable and I feel her leave the link.

  “She’s alive,” I say, and my heart lifts. “Pax, go tell her parents! She’s alive!”

  My brother grabs my hands and pulls me out of the swing into a tight hug. “Thank God,” he whispers into my hair, and I feel our normal connection for the first time since Jewel was taken. Peace washes over me, and he turns to the door and disappears into the house.

  Storm sinks back to his seat on the top step. He stares over the meadow and narrows his eyes. I see his jaw clench and his shoulders tense. His pain and rage rip into me.

  “We’ll find her, by God, and when we do, I’m going to tear those monsters apart one by one.”

  I feel my heart shatter in a million splinters. Our Storm is raging, and he’s in love with Jewel.

  FORTY-NINE

  Jewel is alive, but where? I wonder if the Allarans know where she is. Is there a way to contact them? I get up and go inside. Maybe Charles can signal them with his lab equipment. We need some answers, and soon.

  It looks like everyone has gone to Charles’s office for a meeting. I head downstairs and hear Pax’s raised voice. “We heard her! She’s alive, and we are going after her.”

  “How will you find her?” Charles shakes his head and rubs his hand through his hair. I imagine he and Analiese haven’t slept much, worrying about their daughter.