by K A Riley
Her voice is halting and rimmed with a static buzz, so we can tell she’s probably still rebooting, but that doesn’t soften her enthusiasm for offering up a host of historical details about all the places we’ve been.
I notice she glosses over the part about the Lyfelyte experience, which is just as well. I can’t speak for her, but I don’t have the words yet to explain it, myself.
Tilting my head toward where Manthy and Cardyn are taking turns sipping from a single glass of slightly cloudy water, I lean over to whisper to Brohn. “Does Manthy seem…I don’t know…different to you?”
“Manthy’s always been different.”
“True,” I admit after a pause to try to unscramble the jumble of thoughts coiling their way through my brain. “But something’s not the same.”
“Better or worse?”
“I’m not sure. Just…different.”
“We brought her back through the Lyfelyte. Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised to find out there’s something a little off—”
“Off?”
“You know what I mean. Something…unusual about her.”
“Maybe she’s smiling more?”
We look over again to where Manthy is nodding along with something Cardyn is saying, her trademark scowl perfectly in place.
“Is she taller?”
“No. That’s not it.”
“Maybe because she’s got her hair pulled back?”
“No. We’ve seen her like that before.”
I can tell Brohn’s getting exasperated with me. “Well, what then?” he practically pleads.
“I’d say if I knew. It’s just…none of those explanations seems quite right. They’re too, I don’t know…shallow. Too superficial. What’s different about Manthy—the thing I can’t put my finger on—it’s deeper. It’s more subtle.”
“Could you be channeling Render’s abilities without knowing it? He sees auras, right?”
“You think that’s what I’m seeing right now? Manthy’s aura?”
“Maybe her soul?”
“Let’s not get carried away.”
Brohn leans deeper into our low-volume, side conversation. “Kress. We just used two Emergents, a living computer, a hybrid techno-bird, and the little bit we know of your father’s grand plan of quantum-unification-whatever to step across universes, plural, and bring Manthy back from the dead. At this point, I don’t think it’s possible to get any more carried away than we already are!”
At first, I think Brohn is teasing me, but then the corners of his lips pull up. He throws his arm around me and pulls me close.
Next to us, Kella is setting a thin silver disk in the center of the table. She calls us all to attention and scans a code into an input-bracelet on her wrist.
Leaning forward, our elbows on the table, we stare into the satellite image of the globe spinning slowly in front of us.
Returning with Cardyn from the water dispenser, Manthy points right into the glowing image. The holograph of our planet bubbles and ripples out in digitized green rings around the tip of her finger.
“We have to go there next. To Spain. To Valencia.”
“Actually,” Granden confirms, “that’s exactly right. We finally have confirmation of a Processor there. An active Processor.”
“Only…”
“Only what?”
Wisp taps the holo-image in three spots between England and Spain as the shimmering globe continues its slow spin above the table. “Only there are communication blackouts in between here and there. We have no idea what’s going on. You can’t fly in, which means…”
“Going through this dead zone,” Kella says.
Cardyn’s eyebrows go up. “Dead?”
Brohn and Rain exchange a look. Rain leans back and lets Brohn take the lead.
“We’re here to rescue Emergents,” he says. “We need to risk it.”
Cardyn’s anxious frown tenses into an angry scowl, which he directs at Granden, Kella, and Wisp before swinging back to face Brohn. “And I suppose if these three field generals of ours put the moon on our list, you’d suggest we go there, too?”
Brohn stands and looms over the glowing globe, his knuckles pressed to the table. “If it means saving people like us…if it means bringing any of you back like we somehow brought Manthy back, then, yes!”
“Gee,” Cardyn beams through a sarcastic grin. “I was hoping you’d say that.” He looks at his bare wrist as if he were wearing a watch. “And it’s been almost…ten minutes since we nearly got killed. I, for one, am fully, one-hundred-percent on board with this plan.”
The rest of us nod, give a thumbs up, and—with more sincerity and a lot less sarcasm than Cardyn—throw our support to Brohn.
With that issue settled, we all push our chairs back and stand up.
Whoever’s at the center of our next adventure had better brace themselves, because our Conspiracy is complete again, we’re stronger than ever, and we’ve traveled too far to turn back now.
Epilogue
We’ve been living in the Arrival Station with Grizzy for three days while we rest, recuperate, and prepare ourselves for what’s next.
There’s been ample food, solid shelter, musty but comfortable palettes of blankets to sleep on, and no sign of Noxia or her Hawkers. We haven’t spent a second worrying about rebuilding our broken government back home, cleaning up the aftermath of war, trying to convert defiant Krug loyalists, or surviving random attacks by the Devoteds.
Overall, it’s been the most relaxing three days straight we’ve had in a long time.
We spend the time laughing and catching up.
Granden, Wisp, and Kella can’t get enough of our stories about all that’s happened since we saw them last. We tell them all about the Banters and the Royals, the palaces, the Hyde Park Settlement, Harah Tower, the Tower of London, our rescue mission and escape from St. Paul’s Cathedral, our surreal experience in the Museum of London, and our trek through the mysterious Lyfelyte.
Granden admits to having only faint memories of Llyr and Penarddunne, but he seems especially excited to hear about them and wonders aloud if we’ll ever see them again.
Branwynne’s dark eyes drop, and I tell her I’m sure we will.
Without any way to contact them, though, there’s no way to know for certain.
Brohn’s asked her a bunch of times if she thinks she might try to get back through the city to get home, but she’s always found a way to change the subject.
“She wants to stay with us,” I tell him at one point.
“I don’t want to be responsible for keeping her from her parents.”
“That’s her choice.”
“Then I guess we should make sure she stays safe until she chooses otherwise.”
I give Brohn a “Thank you” kiss. He asks me what it was for. I tell him, “For always looking out for us.”
He goes to brush me off, but I tell him it’s true. And it is.
Having him ignore, betray me, and—worst of all—kiss Harah right in front of me nearly killed me in a way Krug and his army of sadistic Patriots never could.
But I have to admit, even when he was under Noxia’s spell, he did try to give himself up to Harah in order to spare the rest of us.
Now, he and I have set our sights on making Manthy and her resurrection the center of attention, but she’s better than ever at slipping away into the shadows.
Sometimes, Cardyn joins her. She doesn’t let him hang around for more than a few minutes, but it’s still more time than most of us get with her.
So, all in all, it’s a brief but happy few days.
It’s Granden who breaks the bad news.
“It’s time for us to go back,” he announces over breakfast on our fourth day in the station.
“All of us?” Cardyn asks, his eyes pleading.
Granden tells him, “Sorry. No.” He tilts his head toward Branwynne, Lucid, and Reverie, who are standing in their own small group out of earshot at the far end
of the counter. “Branwynne needs to get back to her parents. Grizzy’s agreed to help.”
“What about the twins?” Brohn asks. “We could really use them on our side.”
Granden shakes his head. “We’ll take them back with us. We can help them, keep them safe. Besides, they’re not ready to travel like you’re about to do.”
“And you still have Emergents to find,” Kella reminds us.
“Without knowing who they are and what they’re capable of,” Wisp says with a snap of her fingers, “what we do back home could be undone like that.”
Kella stands up from the round table in the Canteen where we’ve been gathering every morning. “Wisp is right. But this isn’t the end. We’ll be together again.”
We spend the next hour saying our goodbyes and helping Granden, Kella, and Wisp pack up.
Out on the tarmac, the three of them, accompanied by the twins, prepare to board their plane and head home.
Wisp hurls herself at Brohn, her thin arms wrapped around his waist. “It’s getting to be a habit saying goodbye to you.”
He pulls his kid sister close before holding her by the shoulders at arm’s length and giving her what might be the sweetest, saddest smile I’ve ever seen. “It’s a really bad habit. You should stay with us. Help us track down the rest of the Emergents.”
Wisp fixes her eyes on Brohn’s and plants her hand on his forearm. “We can’t keep fighting this war on a single front. We need to finish rebuilding back home. We’re counting on you to quit goofing off and tie up loose ends over here.”
“As long as there’s a single Processor still running,” Kella warns, “there’s the very real potential for Emergents and Hypnagogics to be exploited to work against us.”
“What about the Devoteds?” I ask.
The memory of nearly getting killed by them comes boiling to the surface and is now nearly as strong and scary as it was in the hallway of the Capitol Building less than a week ago.
“Nothing we can’t handle,” Granden assures us. “Just find those Emergents. Seriously. They’re more important than you realize. Some are in danger. Others are just…dangerous. And you’re the only ones who can find them and figure out which is which. You’ve got a good team here.”
“And a growing one,” Cardyn chimes in with a grin.
It’s true. What started out in D.C. as me, Brohn, Cardyn, Rain, Manthy, and, of course Render, has evolved to include a reunion with Terk, the addition of the Auditor, Manthy’s resurrection, the discovery of Branwynne, and the rescue of Lucid and Reverie. And none of this would have happened without Grizzy’s help.
It’s funny. There was a time when, except for Cardyn, I thought of myself as alone in the world. I had no parents, no future, and no hope. And now, here I am—surrounded by people who found a way to be the best kind of family.
Which might be why it hurts this much to go our separate ways so soon.
After our final round of goodbyes, Granden, Wisp, and Kella guide Lucid and Reverie up the steps to the jet. The hatch closes, and we back away to watch as the sleek aircraft pivots on the tarmac and begins rumbling along the uneven stretch of ground toward the runway.
Next to us, Branwynne looks small and delicate, especially for someone who lives like she does and who’s survived what she has. Grizzy looms protectively over her, and I smile knowing our young friend will be in good hands until she can reunite with her parents at the Tower.
As nice as it would have been to take Branwynne and the twins with us, I know Granden’s right. Joining our Conspiracy now would put our three new friends at too much risk.
Overhead, Render plummets down and spreads his wings wide, parachuting to a croaking, fluttery stop on my shoulder.
~ This won’t be the last time we see them.
It won’t?
~ They belong with us. Just not yet.
Then when?
~ When Time tells us it’s ready.
I give a little gasp as Render’s consciousness slips back out of mine.
To the side of our gathering, Manthy has her head down. “These places we’re going next…there’s death there.”
I swing around and give her hand a light squeeze. “We’ve seen death before.”
She tucks her hair behind her ear and looks up, her eyes—vulnerable but intense—locked onto mine. “Not like this, Kress,” she says quietly so only I can hear. “Where we’re going, death isn’t an ending. It’s only the beginning. And it won’t be the worst thing we’ll face.”
— End of Travelers, Book 1 of the Transcendent Trilogy
Coming Soon: Transfigured
Embarking on a fresh set of adventures through Europe, Kress and her Conspiracy continue their search for fellow Emergents, unsure if they’re about to find new friends or the deadliest collection of enemies.
With Noxia and her team of Hawkers hot on their heels, the Conspiracy will come face to face with mind-blowing discoveries, the shocking truth about their dreams, and solutions to mysteries they may wish they’d never tried to solve.
Transfigured is coming in September 2020.
Also by K. A. Riley
Resistance Trilogy
Recruitment
Render
Rebellion
Emergents Trilogy
Survival
Sacrifice
Synthesis
Transcendent Trilogy
Travelers
Transfigured
Terminus
Seeker’s World Series
Seeker’s World
Seeker’s Quest
Seeker’s Fate
Athena’s Law Series
Book One: Rise of the Inciters
Book Two: Into an Unholy Land
Book Three: No Man’s Land
If you’re enjoying K. A. Riley’s books, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads to let your fellow book-lovers know about it. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter at www.karileywrites.org for news, quizzes, contests, behind-the-scenes peeks into the writing process, and advance info. about upcoming projects!
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