“We did not know that she had passed,” Soth said. She held a palm up to the air. “Hopefully, her spirit has found serenity.”
The council did the same. “Spirit find serenity,” they said in unison.
“You must leave at once to warn Arius and help the Halcyonus,” Antiquus said. He gestured to Galell. “Please find Hækel and have him ready the shuttle for Rovender and Eva Nine, and her sister.”
Galell left, and the assembly began to break up. Eva and Rovender helped Antiquus onto his hoverdisc, and they followed him out of the hut and into the center of Faunas. The nighttime village was aglow under hundreds of hanging lanterns.
“Eva Nine,” Antiquus said, and took her hand. “I am truly sorry for many things that we learned today, but mostly I am sorry in how you were received by our clan. Will you forgive us?”
“Of course.” Eva smiled. “I am just glad to see Rovee return home.”
“You did good, Eva.” Rovender knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulders. “There was much healing done to my spirit tonight. I am glad you were here to see it.”
Eva hugged Rovender tightly. From the entrance of the elders’ hut, she could see the silhouette of Eva Eight watching them. Eva smiled at her but could not tell if her sister was smiling back.
A low vibration came from above. Over the treetops a squarish ship with a bulbous windshield hovered. Its dual engines were incredibly quiet compared to the noisy Bijou. The gathering of villagers cleared the way, and the shuttle set down in the center of the village. A scruffy, smiling Cærulean pilot stepped out.
“Hækel, whom you have known since nymph-hood, will take you all to Lacus,” Antiquus said to Rovender.
“The shuttle is fueled and ready. We shall leave at your word, Rovender,” Hækel said.
“I don’t know what you did in there, Nine, but it worked. I thought we were done for,” Eight said as she stepped up alongside Eva. They watched Rovender and Hækel talking excitedly in front of the shuttle. “Looks like your friend Rovender got the good fortune of returning home. He is a lucky one.”
“So are we,” Eva added. She reached out and grabbed Eight’s hand.
Eva Eight looked down at Eva’s hand in hers. “You two are pretty close,” she said.
“Yeah,” Eva replied. “We’ve been through a lot. After Muthr died, he promised he’d always be there for me. “
Eva Eight was quiet as she watched Rovender bid farewell to his fellow villagers.
There was a tap on Eva’s shoulder. She and her sister turned to see Galell holding his boomrod and charger. “For you, Eva Nine,” Galell handed the weapon to her. “May it protect you all.”
“Thank you, Galell.” Eva handed the heavy weapon to her sister. “I hope we never have to use it.”
“I am sorry for my actions. Please have it in your heart to forgive me.”
“Of course,” Eva said.
Soth walked up to Eva and took her hand. “Many gratitudes to you both for returning our departed Nadeau. My life is richer for crossing paths with you, Eva Nine. I hope your journey ends well.” She placed a braided necklace around Eva’s neck. From it hung a glass vial half-filled with dirt. “This is the soil from our home world. To remind you on your travels that you are always home.”
“Thank you, Soth,” said Eva, tucking the necklace into her coveralls. “I’ll keep it close.”
Eva and her sister boarded the shuttle. Rovender stopped at the bottom of the ramp.
“My son,” Antiquus said as he reached out to Rovender, “you have taught this old creature much today.”
Rovender embraced his father.
“I am so sorry,” Antiquus whispered. “Despite the darkness that looms over our world, I am lightened to hold you once again.”
“Me too, Father. Me too,” Rovender said.
“I know your mother’s spirit is happy now as she watches over us.”
“I feel it too,” Rovender said, and smiled.
“Perhaps some of the Halcyonus would want to come here?” Antiquus said. “We are inland, but we are also out of the fray . . . for now.”
“I will offer,” Rovender replied and walked to the top of the ramp. “And we shall be back. I promise.”
“Safe journeys.” Antiquus held up his palm.
The ramp closed and the shuttle lifted off and soared into the night.
From the closed cockpit Eva watched the treetops rush by as the shuttle sped over the forest.
“How long do you think it will take?” Rovender asked.
“We should arrive before sunrise,” Hækel replied. “I am going to travel east, to Lake Concors, and follow the shoreline south to Lacus. Once we are at the lake, I will attempt contact with Solas.”
“Keep us over the forest in case we should need to land in a hurry,” Rovender replied. “We do not want to face off with any of Cadmus’s warships.”
“You can say that again,” Eva Eight said with a snort.
“This is good to know,” said Hækel. He turned from the flight controls momentarily and unlatched the cockpit door that led into the cabin. “You all must be quite weary from your travels. Why not retire for the remainder of our journey? I shall wake you when we are near Lacus, or if anything else should arise.”
“We could use the rest,” Rovender said, exiting the cockpit.
“Thank you, Hækel.” Eva patted his shoulder.
“Many gratitudes to you, Eva Nine. It is good to see our brother Rovender in our village again.”
Eva closed the door to the cockpit and joined her sister and Rovender in the small cabin of the shuttle. Eight was examining Galell’s boomrod.
Eva shuddered. “You don’t want to be on the other end of the barrel when that thing goes off. Trust me.”
“I hope we do not have to use it, but it is comforting to know we have some sort of weapon,” Rovender said. He opened a storage compartment and pulled out three Cærulean-made flight jackets. He threw one over to Eva, then one to her sister. “Let us rest if we can. There will be much to do once we arrive at Lacus.”
“Do you think Cadmus is there already?” Eva asked as she curled up in her seat and pulled the heavy jacket on.
“Hard to say.” Rovender fastened his coat. “Like us, the Halcyonus prefer a quiet existence. There is no way to communicate with them directly.”
“I hope we’re not too late,” Eva said. “I’d hate to see anything bad happen to Hostia or her family.”
“As would I, Eva Nine.” Rovender reclined in his seat and closed his eyes. “Let us all hope for the best.”
Eva awoke to the sound of arguing. She looked over at Rovender, who was snoring softly in his seat. Through the closed cockpit door she could hear Eva Eight’s voice.
What’s going on? Eva approached the cockpit.
“I don’t care what he said. Just make this stop first, and then we’ll continue, okay?” Eva Eight said. There was the sharp edge of anger in her voice.
“Stop where?” Eva asked as she opened the door. “What are you talking about?”
Hækel said, “Eva Nine, your sister wants me to set down in the Wandering Forest. She—”
“I was thinking, Nine. We can stop all of this by getting to the generator first,” said Eight.
“What?” said Eva, noticing Galell’s boomrod in Eight’s hands. “No. We don’t have time for that.”
“But if we have the generator, then we can bargain—”
“The device lies in the Heart of the forest, Eva Eight.” Rovender joined Eva in the doorway. “We can’t go in there.”
“It’s just trees.” Eva Eight gestured with the muzzle of the weapon to the landscape beyond the cockpit window. “Listen. We have to take the generator before Cadmus finds it.”
“Cadmus isn’t going to find the generator!” Eva yelled, losing her patience. “He’s going to invade Lacus, if he hasn’t already!”
“We must help our friends.” Rovender spoke in a calm tone. Slowly he reached for the
boomrod in Eva Eight’s grasp. “Please just hand me the—”
“NO!” Eva Eight pulled the weapon away from Rovender and backed up. “We are taking that generator!” She charged the boomrod.
“What are you doing!” said Eva.
“It would be best to put that down, Eva Eight,” Rovender continued in his calm manner. “You do not want this weapon going off in here. It would be bad for all of us.”
Tears welled in Eva Eight’s eyes. “Cadmus has taken everything from me! He has taken my family, my home, and my freedom. He is not taking this, Nine. I am taking it from him. For once there will be something he can’t have!” Eight aimed the boomrod at Hækel. “Now you land this thing in the Heart of the forest, or I’ll force us to land!”
Through the cockpit window Eva could see poking up through the canopy the tall spires that circled the Heart. Without a word she looked over at Rovender. Eva Eight spied the exchange.
“What?” she said. “What is it?”
“The Heart—we just passed over it,” Hækel said.
“We can come back and look for the generator after we help the Halcyonus,” Eva said.
“Yes,” Rovender added. “I will personally take you to the Heart myself, Eva Eight. Just put down the—”
“Too late.” Eva Eight fired the boomrod at the shuttle’s control panel.
CHAPTER 31: HEART
Eva Nine gripped the back of a cabin chair and pulled herself up. Smoke, heavy with ozone, curled into her lungs. She coughed, sending jolts of pain stabbing through her chest. Holding her sides, Eva found her only relief was to inhale in short, shallow breaths.
Somewhere a hatch on the ship opened, and the smoke began to clear. Eva realized the shuttle was on its side. In the cockpit Hækel was still strapped to his pilot’s seat, though unmoving. Behind Eva, lying crumpled near the open ramp at the back of the shuttle, was Rovender. “Rovee? Rovee?” She crawled over to him. “Are you okay?”
He did not respond, but Eva could see his chest rise and fall. Rovender was alive but unconscious. She grabbed his heavy jacket and dragged him toward the open ramp. Both of them tumbled off the ramp onto the mossy ground below.
The cool night air was silent around the smoldering wreck. Eva stood slowly, holding her throbbing ribs. Dizzy, she nearly fell back down, but an icy hand seized hers.
“Come on, Nine,” Eight said, her voice shrill. She was holding the boomrod in her other hand. “I need you to show me where the Heart of the forest is.”
Pain blurred Eva’s vision. “No! We . . . we can’t leave them,” she said, pointing to the shuttle. “And something’s wrong with me. It hurts when I breathe.” She went to activate the life monitor patch on her utilitunic, then remembered she had thrown the eukaberry-drenched garment at the warbot.
“I still have my tunic and it can heal you, Nine.” Eight opened her flight jacket to reveal her dark blue utilitunic beneath.
Eva reached out for the tunic. “Take it off. I need it!”
“I will,” Eight replied, closing her jacket, “but first you have to take me to the Heart. I am getting that generator.”
Eva slumped back down, defeated. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll—I’ll take you.”
“Good! Get up and let’s go! We are doing this together!” Eight yanked Eva by the hand, and they disappeared into the depths of the Wandering Forest.
“I’m not going past here,” Eva said. They were standing in an open field feathered with twisted bracken. A gentle breeze rippled over the ferns, causing them to whisper in the moonlight. Eva knew they were whispering to the noduled spires that stood here and watched the forest. She remembered Rovender explaining that these spires were signposts warning those who would trespass into this forbidden area.
“You are coming, Nine.” Eight looked up at the pointed spire. “I don’t know how big this generator is, so we may need your talents to call up one of your tree friends to carry it out for us.”
“Call one yourself!” Eva eased down to the ground, sitting next to a spire. The hike through the forest had been exhausting. With every breath she took, Eva’s sides felt as if they’d been seared by shards of hot glass. “I—I need to go back and check on Rovee and Hækel.”
“You don’t get it!” Eight’s voice pierced the night, sending up a covey of startled turnfins. “Your alien friends will all become enslaved if we don’t find this thing. We have a chance to get to it first. We have a chance to have the upper hand. For once Cadmus will have to listen to us. He’ll have to give us what we want.”
“I thought all you wanted was for us to be together. To be a family,” Eva said. “What more do you want?”
Eight’s sea-green eyes were turbulent and stormy. “I want to see the look on Cadmus’s face when I tell him I know where the generator is hidden and he can’t have it. I want him to beg me for it, and I want to deny him—the way he denied me the life that I wanted.”
Eva gripped the spire to support herself as she rose. Her sides throbbed. “You wouldn’t even be here—I wouldn’t be here—if it weren’t for Cadmus and what he created.”
“I don’t want to be here!” Eva Eight yelled. “I didn’t want this. I wanted Earth, the Earth we learned about in our programs. The Earth with cities, people, and culture, not this . . . this alien wilderness.”
“Well, you don’t get that old Earth. I don’t get it either. And none of the aliens here, who left their home planets to start their lives all over again, get that. We all have to live here, on Orbona.” Eva coughed hard. The agony was so intense that her vision went white from pain. Scarlet drops of blood spotted her hand.
Eight gazed up at the moon. It was hiding behind Orbona’s rings. The light shining down made the tears on her cheeks glisten. “If I don’t get it, then neither does he.” She aimed the boomrod at Eva. “You’re coming with me or we are both dying right here.”
Eva reluctantly followed Eight as she waded through the bracken, past the spires and into a dense curtain of foliage. Tree limbs creaked and snapped, unseen birds squawked, and insects chirruped in a nocturnal choir. Even the noisy movement of the Evas’ traipsing through the undergrowth did little to deter the calling of the forest’s denizens. The forest must know we are here, Eva thought. What did Rovender say about the Heart? There is something you have to have . . . or be, in order to enter. Eva hugged her sides, dizzy from the nausea caused by her pain.
At once the sounds stopped and Eva found herself at the edge of the forest, looking down from a ridge into a wide glade.
“What on earth!” Eight said as she joined Eva at the tree line.
Strange plants, similar to the microscopic fungi Eva had seen in holograms, reached out toward the moonlight. Brilliant bioluminescence pulsed inside each plant, bathing the entire glade in a whitish glow. Though the plants wavered in concert as if they were underwater, Eva could feel no breeze. In the center of the glade was what appeared to be an impact crater.
“This is it!” Eight said, grabbing Eva by the hand. “The generator is in there. I know it!”
“I—I can’t go on.” Eva coughed, and almost passed out from the surge of pain that racked her body.
“We are so close, Nine!” Eight’s voice rose to near hysteria. Her eyes were wild with madness. “I’ll give you the tunic once we are at the generator, and you’ll be fine. Come with me! Come on!”
They stepped down into the glade, and the waist-high plants leaned toward them, like tentacles reaching for a meal. Eight swatted at the plants with the boomrod, causing them to recoil and flash their lights. All manner of small creatures danced through the foliage. “I bet it’s right in the center of this impact crater.”
“We shouldn’t be here,” Eva whispered. Fear caused her breathing to quicken, which in turn caused more pain. It felt as if her lungs could not hold any air. Once more she coughed. Once more blood stained her palm.
They climbed up the earthy outer wall of the crater. “We are almost there, Nine!” Eight cackled
as she clawed up toward the summit of the crater wall. “We’ve got this! Cadmus will—” Eva Eight looked down into the crater, frozen in her steps.
“What is it?” Eva asked in a whispery voice. With shaky hands she pulled herself up to the edge of the crater’s rim. Eva peered into the depression and realized it was not a crater after all.
It was the exposed ruins of an underground HRP Sanctuary.
“This can’t be.” Eva Eight jumped down onto the roof of the Sanctuary. “Where is the generator?”
Eva slid over the rim, joining her sister. She could see that the Sanctuary’s roof was partially collapsed, revealing several rooms within. This is the Heart of the forest? Eva scooted toward the opening in the roof. Perhaps there is still a utilitunic or MediKit in the supply room.
“The generator came from the aliens, not humans, right?” Eight said, standing at the edge of the collapsed roof. “Could it be somewhere else in the forest?”
As if in response to the question, a chorus of animal calls erupted from deep within the ruins. Both girls backed away as bizarre creatures, the likes of which Eva had never encountered before, burst forth from the Sanctuary. The creatures crawled, slithered, galloped, and flew out into the forest night.
“Do not run. Do not be afraid, my children,” a melodious voice intoned. “We have guests, pilgrims from our old Earth who have come to be purified, to find their true selves. Their essence. Their composition, makeup, and matter.”
Eva watched as a large diaphanous entity rose from the remains of the Sanctuary. Its form stretched, coiled, and twisted with multiple pseudopods, as if it were a gigantic amoeba. An electric glow rippled through its flowing membrane. The light within the entity seemed to pump through a fine network of veins, bringing to mind the wiring diagram of the Bijou that Eva had seen.
“What? Who are you?” Eight shielded her eyes from the light emanating from the entity. Its vibrant presence clearly dumbfounded Eight, dousing her mania.
“The Heart, the spirit, of the forest,” Eva whispered, hugging the pain in her chest. She scooted away from the opening in the roof.
A Hero for WondLa Page 21