Reina squared her shoulders and stepped forward, but Ari didn’t come with her. He stood still and stared into the black water. “Do you remember this place, Ari?”
Leroni answered for him. “He remembers it. He made sure Mala never brought him back here on their walks.”
Reina took him by the hand. “Then there must be something about the place that reminds him of his past. Maybe he’ll remember now.”
She nudged him toward the pool. “Do you remember what happened here?”
He stared down into the water, but in the end, he turned away with a shake of his head.
“Is that it?” Aeifa asked. “Is that the end of your grand experiment?”
Reina peered down into the depths. “It can’t be. There must be some clue to what happened.”
She let her hand fall toward the water, but at the last second before her fingers grazed the surface, Ari seized her by the arm and jerked her back. She almost staggered off her feet. “What’s the matter? It’s only water.”
He fixed her with a ferocious glare and gave her a curt, commanding shake of his head. “Don’t, Reina.”
“Why not?” she insisted. “What’s so dangerous about the water?”
He wouldn’t say anything else.
All of a sudden, Anna stepped forward. She held up both hands. “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.”
“What’s wrong?” Taig asked.
“Hang on. Let me think a minute. Just let me think.” Anna waved her hands and paced back and forth in front of the pool. “It can’t be....but it has to be. It’s too crazy to be true....but what other explanation is there? It has to be.”
The friends looked at each other. Anna stopped in front of Leroni. “Tell me exactly what happened when you found him. Don’t leave a single detail out, no matter how small.”
Leroni gulped. “I was walking through the trees....over there...with my cousin. We were gathering sticks, when I heard this sound. I’d never heard it before. I told you all that before. I followed the sound here, and I found him.”
“Tell me exactly what you saw when you walked into the grove,” Anna told her. “And I mean, exactly.”
Leroni pointed toward the pool. “He was squatting right over there.”
Anna took hold of her arms and shook her. “This is important, Leroni. What did he look like? Tell me exactly what he looked like.”
“He had this black slime all over him,” Leroni replied. “You couldn’t even tell it was a person at first. Only these two bright blue eyes stared straight out of the slime, but they didn’t look at anything.”
“Then what happened?” Anna asked.
“Then the slime sort of fell off of him, all in one sheet,” Leroni replied. “It just....disintegrated. I never saw anything like it before, and there was this young man, shaking with cold in the height of summer.”
Anna spun away and resumed pacing. “I knew it!”
“What’s going on, Anna?” Reina asked.
Anna didn’t answer her. She rushed over to Aimee. “Don’t you see, Aimee? The black slime, the water, the shivering cold. It all makes sense.”
“What are you talking about?” Taig asked.
Aimee stared at her cousin. Then she nodded. “Of course! It has to be. It’s the only explanation for how he could get across all that territory without being seen by anyone.”
Roshin looked around. “Will someone kindly explain to me what is going on?’
Anna broke into a glorious grin. “That black slime is a symbiotic algae from the deep ocean. The Aqinas use it to extract oxygen from the water. That’s what allows them to live underwater.”
“What do the Aqinas have to do with any of this?” Tara asked.
Anna laughed. “Don’t you see? Ari was with the Aqinas. He fell off that cliff, and he landed in the water. He traveled through the water to the ocean, to the Aqinas world.”
“But that river wasn’t big enough to carry him,” Aeifa pointed out. “It wouldn’t have been deep enough to wet your ankles.”
Anna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. From what Frieda said....”
Ari jumped. “Frieda!”
Anna and Aimee spun around to face him. “Did you see Frieda? Did you see her in the Aqinas world?”
Ari looked back and forth between them. “She said she came there the same way I did....” He trailed off.
Anna waved her hand. “That proves it. If he saw Frieda and talked to her, he must have been with the Aqinas.”
“Who’s Frieda?” Sarai asked.
“She’s my aunt,” Taman replied.
Aimee laid her hand on his shoulder. “She’s my cousin.”
“She’s my sister,” Anna added, “and she lives with the Aqinas. She fell off a balcony in Avitras territory and landed in a puddle—or maybe it was a rivulet or something. It doesn’t matter how much water is in it. The water somehow dissolves their bodies and washes them down to the sea, where they live with the Aqinas in their world under the ocean. That’s what Frieda said. The same thing must have happened to Ari.”
“How do you explain the shivering?” Leroni asked.
Anna nodded. “I’ve seen that before. Frieda told us the Aqinas world is warm and comfortable and filled with love. The water surrounds them and gives them everything they need, including an irresistible connection with everyone else in that world. They never feel loneliness or isolation—at least not until they try to come back onto land. When the air touches their wet skin, they chill, and the isolation and loneliness of our world crushes the life out of them. They can’t stand it. That’s why no one ever comes back from there.”
“Then why did Ari come back?” Aeifa asked.
“Sooss!” Ari shouted.
He surprised everyone so much they all crowded around him. “Sooss? Who is Sooss?”
“I told you,” Reina repeated. “She’s someone he met in that other world. He....I would even guess he loved her, or started to love her. He cared a lot about her, anyway.”
“Then why would he leave her?” Aimee asked.
“He said something happened to her,” Reina replied. “He said she wasn’t there anymore.”
“How could she not be there anymore?” Allen asked. “She couldn’t have left, too.”
Reina brought her face close to Ari’s. “What happened to Sooss? Where did she go?”
Ari bit his lip. He scanned the sump grove. “She’s.....she’s dead.”
Reina opened her mouth, but what could you say to something like that? The whole tragedy played out on Ari’s face for everyone to see. He cared for this Sooss, whoever she was. The shock of her death must have driven him out of the Aqinas world, against the devastating cold and trauma, back to a world where Sooss never existed.
She took his hand and bent down to the pool again. He tried once more to stop her, but she wouldn’t hold back. She let the fingertips of her free hand trail through the water.
“What are you doing,” Tara asked.
Reina drew herself up. “They’re down there, somewhere.”
“Who?” Aeifa asked.
“Our parents,” Reina replied. “Ari has seen them, and if he was in the Aqinas world, that’s the only place he could have seen them. They’re down there, in the water.”
“How is that possible?” Allen asked. “They didn’t fall off a cliff?”
“No, but it did rain that night, remember?” Taig replied. “Remember how their tracks led down to the stream?”
Tara turned on him. “Are you telling me a couple hundred people dropped what they were doing and walked off into the water? Are you telling me they just...dissolved and floated away to the sea?”
“Can you think of any other way to explain what happened?” Taig asked.
“So what made them walk away?” Tara asked.
“Maybe there was something in the water that sent them a signal from the Aqinas,” Aimee replied. “Frieda s
ays no one ever goes to the Aqinas world unless they really want to.”
“That makes no sense at all,” Tara countered. “All those people had no reason to go to the Aqinas world.”
“What about Caleb and Turk?” Taman asked. “What about Renier and Faruk? They met in your village to negotiate for peace. Maybe something happened, and they decided to consult the Aqinas.”
Tara threw up her hands. “This is nuts!”
“Chris knew about Frieda and the Aqinas,” Aimee pointed out. “She and Carmen were both with us when Frieda came out of the water with Fritz and the others.”
“They were all with us,” Anna added. “All those men were with us. They saw us call the Aqinas out of the water, and they helped us protect the Aqinas from Aquilla. They would all know how to contact the Aqinas if they needed to negotiate with them.”
At that moment, a roiling tumult disturbed the stagnant pool. The water boiled and splashed over the bank. All of a sudden, the whole liquid mass shot straight up out of the pool. It rained down on the banks in a torrential shower, and a black wall of rose out of the crater the water left behind.
The startled group jumped back, and the black column emerged from the pool between the trickles of water seeking to return to its bed. One by one, the shapes shed their slimy coating as their feet touched dry land. Renier strode through the crowd holding Carmen by the hand, followed by Caleb and Marissa. Faruk and Emily, Chris and Turk, and all the rest of the Lycaon villagers filed out of the pool, between the staring friends, back toward Melnili with the water still dripping from their hair.
End of Book 9
Book 10: Lilith
Chapter 1
The young travelers sat alone on the floor in the apartment Leflin assigned for their quarters. Not even Aimee stayed with them after their long-lost parents returned. Besides Roshin and Talya, it was the same group that met in the cave so many long, long months ago.
“What do you think they’re talking about up there?” Aeifa asked.
“Us, of course,” Allen replied. “Leflin is telling them how we’re going to take over our factions.”
“Do you really think your parents will back down so easily?” Roshin asked. “They won’t give up power without a struggle.”
“Nothing can ever go back to the way it was before,” Tara pointed out. “These Alphas who’ve been with the Aqinas won’t just step back into power. You saw yourself how reserved they were.”
“They must have made a conscious choice to come back,” Taman added. “The transition to dry land didn’t rattle them the way it rattled Ari.”
Reina patted Ari’s hand. “He wasn’t there long enough to learn how it worked. Sooss’s death gave him such a shock he probably didn’t realize he made the decision to come back.”
“I’ve never seen my father this way,” Taman murmured. “Leaving dry land for the deep ocean changed him. I can’t explain how, but he’s not the same person who left.”
“It changed all of them,” Tara replied.
“Maybe that’s why they did it,” Taig suggested. “Maybe that’s why they went to the Aqinas world in the first place.”
“Why would they do that?” Allen asked. “You heard Anna’s story about Frieda and the Aqinas coming out of the water to talk to them. If our parents wanted to negotiate with the Fritz, all they had to do was call him and his people out of the water. They could have negotiated on the bank of the stream within sight of their village.”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Taig replied. “Maybe they decided to do something they couldn’t do on the bank of the stream. Maybe the only way they could negotiate with the Aqinas—and I mean really negotiate with them—was to travel to their world and experience it for themselves.”
“The whole village?” Aeifa asked. “Why all of them, and not just the ambassadors?”
Taig shrugged. “Aimee said no one could understand the Aqinas who hadn’t seen their world firsthand. Mother always said the peace agreement wouldn’t stand the light of day until we lost all the old suspicions and prejudices against the Aqinas. The only way they could make that happen was for a large number of people to go there and come back. Only then could the Angondran people start to comprehend that the Aqinas really are peaceful and not malicious the way everyone thought they were.”
“It’s an interesting theory,” Reina replied. “I’ll ask my father about it. He’ll tell us why they went there.”
Taig shook his head. “I’ve listened to all these stories about Frieda and Ari and....who was that other woman who went to live with the Aqinas?”
“Sasha,” Aeifa told him.
“Right, Sasha,” Taig went on. “None of them made a conscious decision to go to the Aqinas world. I don’t think our parents did, either.”
“Then how did they get there in the first place?” Aeifa asked. “How could they go there without making the decision?”
“They made the decision unconsciously,” Taig replied. “They were talking away, back in Honor’s Mansion, about how they had to get in touch with the Aqinas, when lo and behold, it starts raining torrents. Everyone who’s caught outside gets wet, and the signal travels to the Aqinas that these ambassadors want to see them and their world. The instinct takes over, and everyone in the village feels a compulsive urge to walk down to the stream. They walk into the water and disappear.”
“You’re making this up,” Tara exclaimed.
Taig shrugged. “Maybe, but at least it gives me a way to explain what happened.”
“The problem with that theory,” Taman pointed out, “is that no one will ever be able to tell us whether it’s true or not.”
Taig cocked his head to one side. “Do you really believe, after seeing them, that your father or your mother will be able to tell you exactly what happened to them?”
Taman dropped his eyes to the floor. “No.”
“I’m sure Ari will never be able to tell us exactly what happened to him,” Reina chimed in. “The Aqinas world is too different from this one. It’s enough that they came back, and we have enough pieces of the puzzle to understand what happened to them. I don’t need the details.”
“So what’s going to happen next?” Allen asked. “I guess we won’t stay here forever.”
Roshin spoke up. “I’ll tell you what’s going to happen next. We’ll all go home to our own factions. Talya and I will go back to the Avitras, Allen and Taman will go back to the Harbeiz to become Donen’s new right hand men, and you four will go back to the Lycaon.”
Taman kept his voice low. “I’m not going back to the Harbeiz.”
Tara spun around. “You’re not? You said you planned to enter the medical center to become a doctor. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going back to your village,” he replied. “Aeifa and I will help rebuild what the Lycaon lost.”
“You can’t be serious,” Roshin exclaimed. “An Ursidrean can’t live with the Lycaon. We all know that.”
“I’ve been doing it for months,” Taman replied, “and I can keep doing it. The Lycaon will need every hand to help put the faction back together again, and if Donen needs me to be his right hand man, I can do that job from Lycaon territory as well as from Harbeiz.”
Allen spoke up. “I’m going back, too. I’m staying with Tara. I don’t care if Donen needs me. Tara needs me more, and I need her. We won’t be separated.”
“Besides,” Taman went on, “it’s Mirin who will need allies now, not Donen. He’ll need people he can trust embedded in the other factions, and he’ll need runners to communicate with the new Alphas.”
Roshin shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
“Tell the truth, Roshin,” Taig told him. “You’ll trust the other factions much more with a friend at the right hand of each Alpha.”
Roshin shrugged. “You’re right. It makes a difference. I wouldn’t have believed it if this situation hadn’t proved it to me. I can be cer
tain the other factions mean peace when I hear it from you.”
“What about the Aqinas?” Tara asked. “You won’t have a friend at the right hand there.”
“Maybe something will change to make it so,” Roshin replied. “Besides, knowing all these people traveled there and came back safely, that they told the same story about the Aqinas world and their peaceful intentions, I can trust that.”
Tara gazed around at her friends. “So that’s it, then. We’re all settled and everybody goes home to live happily ever after.”
Taig cast his eye across the room. Lilith sat in the far corner with her back to them all. “Not everybody.”
“What are we going to do about her?” Reina asked.
Aeifa turned around and held out her hand. “Come join us, Lilith. Help yourself to this food. You must be hungry.”
Lilith turned her face to the wall and didn’t answer.
Taig shook his head. “Leave her alone.”
Aeifa let her hand fall and turned away. “She’s been like this ever since we got back. She barely eats, and she won’t talk to anybody, not even her own mother and brother.”
“I wish we could figure out what was wrong with her,” Reina remarked. “Of all of us, she deserves to be happy.”
Taig kept his gaze fixed on Lilith. “Maybe that’s the problem. We’re all too happy.”
“So why wouldn’t she want that, too?” Reina asked. “After all that time with the Outliers, you would think she would be happy to be reunited with her family.”
Taig shook his head, but didn’t answer.
Allen leaned forward and picked up a bowl of food. “We’ve all bent over backwards to include her in our circle, day after day since we brought her back with us, and she’s shunned us at every turn. If she wants to be miserable and alone, let her. You can’t force someone to be happy.”
“We owe her that and a lot more besides,” Taman told him.
“We don’t owe her happiness,” his brother returned. “You can’t take responsibility for someone else’s life. She’s worked overtime to be miserable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she went back to the Outliers in the end.”
The New Angondra Complete Series Page 32