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“So, I’ve seen Ysabelle here and...there.” I point at different parts of the map we’ve got stretched over the large granite rock. The map belongs to one of the Yarrow men. When Shweta and I asked if we could look at it, he gave us a look like he thought we were crazy wanting to study the land in the Night Celebration.
I breathe deeply and try to concentrate on the map, but my head’s hurting. The Beast is still active in me, still whispering. Whispering about how he wants to kill everyone.
But that won’t happen. It can’t be. Killing two people will be enough.
“So, Ysabelle and the Overlord could be anywhere in this area, then?” Shweta glances up at me, and I nod. “Or she’s still traveling here. We’ve not seen any sign of other Untamed round here. I’ll check with the others at Yarrow too. And look, New Zeralzi’s over there. Could Ysabelle have been traveling toward us, from this direction.” She waves at a large portion of the map. “We’re four months ago now though, so she could be even farther that way. If she’s not already here, then I don’t know how we’re going to find her.”
I grit my teeth. There has to be a way. “What about the Overlord Seer? Seer contact?”
“I can’t do that,” Shweta says. “But some Seers can. Usually if they’re related to the person they’re contacting.”
My head spins. “So, it won’t work?”
“We can ask the Seers here,” Shweta says. “But I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
#
YARROW HAS TWO SEERS. A middle-aged white man named Aaron who has a very narrow face and a pointy moustache, and an elderly mixed-race woman named Emma who has the most powerful, echoing voice I’ve ever heard when she introduces herself.
“So you want to find your friend,” Emma says. “But you don’t have anything to go on location-wise.”
“Well, that way.” I gesture vaguely.
“Or anything about what she wants?”
“Wants?”
“I can sense people who desire something—or someone—strongly,” Emma says. “Do you know what Ysabelle or this other Seer want?”
“Uh, me?” I look at Shweta and she gives an encouraging smile.
“You?” Emma raises her eyebrows. “Love, is it?”
About as opposite of that as you can get, I’m about to say, but Shweta says, “Yes.”
“What?” I look at her.
Her eyes flash, a shock that seems to go right through me. Go with it.
So I do. And I let Shweta do the talking. Listen to the incredible story she spins, how she says it all so earnestly, sincerely. Like Ysabelle is my long-lost love.
“She’d do anything to see her again,” Shweta finishes with and looks at me.
There’s a lump in my throat. “Oh, uh, yeah.”
“Then we’d better begin,” Aaron says. “Allow us to go and gather our materials.”
The two Seers leave, ambling along, out of the little hut.
“Materials?” I say to Shweta.
“Some Seers use crystals and the like,” she says.
“Right.” I shake my head a little. “And why have you made it sound like Ysabelle and I are together? They’re hardly going to believe that. They knew me before we left and they know there’s no one else in the New Zeralzi tunnels.”
“I had to say something that would make them want to help.”
“What about the truth? Like, finding Ysabelle is pretty important when the whole of the tunnels group is either dead, Enhanced, or stuck in a time loop.”
“They won’t want to try and find a Seer who wants to harm you all,” Shweta says in a low voice. “Yarrow aren’t going to want any trouble here. They’d want to keep a distance. Remember, they’re defenders, not attackers. There’s a reason they didn’t come to the tunnels with us.”
“Well, there won’t be any trouble for them.” I shrug. We’re here anyway, and as soon as Ysabelle and the Overlord Seer are in sights, we’re going to kill them. My fingers buzz a little as I think about that—the Beast stirring, pulling on the nerves in my fingertips, my palms.
“We have to play them,” Shweta says. “Trust me.”
I nod and the Yarrow Seers return. They’re each holding various implements—keys, chains, crystals, and what looks like some animal hair. My stomach roils at the thought that it’s bison hair, and I swallow quickly then nearly choke as a bit of saliva goes the wrong way. I take several deep breaths and by the time my eyes have stopped watering, the man and woman have arranged the objects by our feet. We’re standing in a circle, and the sun’s behind the elderly woman so she’s silhouetted in front of me.
“Gods and Goddesses of Searching,” Emma mumbles, and even her mumbles echo, have a strange throaty quality to them. “We call upon you today.”
“Join hands with us,” Aaron instructs, and then he’s moving me, his hands either side of my shoulders. He moves me to a worn out spot on the ground, a slight groove. He positions Shweta opposite me, and then the Yarrow Seers are either side of me.
We join hands. The woman’s hands are hot, the man’s cold. I keep my gaze firmly on Shweta—hers is on mine, too, her eyes wide, waiting.
The man begins to chant. A slow, monotonous chant. I can’t pick the words out.
“Ysabelle of the Clansmen,” Emma murmurs. “We are looking for you. Kacey, picture her now. Think about her desire for you and yours for her.”
If I wasn’t so nervous and desperate to find Ysabelle and the Overlord Seer, I’d laugh. or I’d squirm or something. But I don’t do anything. My body’s stock still, and I’m so aware of every movement. My rapid breaths. The way my chest rises and falls so quickly.
“Ysabelle, we are searching for you.”
Aaron’s chanting gets louder, and then Emma joins in too. Their words get both louder and quieter at the same time. It’s like I’m being submerged underwater, and I grip their hands harder and harder. The woman’s touch is burning now and the man’s freezing.
I glance at their faces, but they’re expressionless, giving nothing away. Shweta’s eyes are still wide, still full of worry.
I wait for something to happen. Wait and wait. I hear the sounds outside. The other Yarrow residents. Minutes pass. And the Seers are still chanting. And still nothing.
I catch Shweta’s eye again.
“Is anything happening?” I keep my voice low, but the other two Seers don’t even act like they hear me. They continue chanting. Oh Gods. This is useless. We’re just wasting time, I’m sure of it. I’m—
Shweta’s eyes widen.
“What is it?” I ask.
But before she can answer, she falls forward—straight for me. Her body sags against mine, and I stumble back under her weight. The two Yarrow Seers call out something, and then Shweta’s on the ground, and—
And they’re on the ground too, Emma and Aaron. Aaron’s fallen on all the implements and they make clanging sounds. And all three Seers are unconscious.
“Um...?” I stare at them, feel a laugh building up inside me. This is... this can’t be happening... This...
I tap Shweta on the shoulder, but she doesn’t react. She’s still breathing though. They all are. I pull at her arm, tell her to wake up. My words get louder and louder, and I feel it—panic, inside me, rising up.
The Beast laughs, but it’s not his normal laugh. This is different too, nervous.
“What the hell is happening?” I mutter. I turn and look toward the entrance of the hut, where light is streaking in between the ill-fitting door and the partially rotten frame. Do I go and get help? Do I—
“They’re in the Dream Land!” Shweta screams suddenly.
I jolt, turning back to her—but she’s still unconscious. Quiet now, just lying there. Breaths shuddering. And they’re in the Dream Land—is that what she’s telling me?
The Dream Land: the place Seers get warnings of Enhanced Ones’ attacks upon us.
I jump up, stumble to the hut’s entrance, and throw the door open. Pain snakes through me as I move, forcing myself to go faster and faster. I ignore the dizziness that pulls through me, how my legs suddenly feel like they’re made of stone.
People are milling about a little way away.
“Maggot!” I yell, seeing her. Relief pounds through me.
Her face is still flushed from the drinking and the dancing, but she sees me, and hurries forward. Only swaying a little.
“The Enhanced!” I scream. “Shweta, Emma, and Aaron have just been summoned...to the Dream Land and...and they’re all there and...”
I can’t finish my words, bending over, hands on my knees to brace myself as the world twists in a kaleidoscope of colors. Then a cool hand is on my shoulder.
“Kace, breathe.” Kazem’s scent washes over me, and I realize everyone’s moving now. Moving around me. “Do you need to sit? Come on, let’s sit you down.”
I shake my head, fast. “No. Not time...” And I force myself to move back toward the Yarrow Seers’ hut. Kazem supports me and I’m sure without his strong arms, I’d be on the floor. I’m so weak—I shouldn’t be weak!
Bodies press inside the hut, but I fight my way to the middle of the room. I drop down beside Shweta. Is she still breathing? I touch her wrist, her wrist that suddenly seems fragile. So thin. Her brown skin looks almost translucent in places, the color drained so I can see the pulsing blue veins.
“What’s goin’ on?” Maggot pushes me away from Shweta as she bends over her. The smell of alcohol wafts over me. “Why ain’t they wakin’ up?”
“I don’t know!” My hands brush Shweta’s neck. Yes. She’s got her pendant. It’s right there, falling toward her left shoulder on the old piece of discolored string.
Someone shouts for Evor and other healers, and then they’re here too.
“Kace, we should wait outside,” Kazem says, but just as he says the words Shweta’s eyelids flicker.
I gasp, pointing to her, trying to get words out but everything inside me feels stuck, stuck with all the nausea in me. Everything combining and swirling in a viscous mess.
But Shweta’s eyelids flicker again and then she opens them. She looks directly at me, and I jolt, feel the power in her gaze. Feel the importance of it. The Beast recoils in response.
“It’s gone.” Shweta’s words are hollow. Next to her, Emma and Aaron are stirring. “The Enhanced. They got in there.”
“Where?” Maggot asks, her tone sharp. “How close to us are they?”
“No,” Shweta says. “Not... not here. There. The Dream Land.”
“The Dream Land?” I whisper, and then several people are asking questions at once, and Aaron and Emma are talking, too.
There’s just so many words, so many voices competing, wrapping around each other. Yet when Shweta speaks again, somehow, it’s her words I focus on. Her words that I hear loud and clear.
“The Enhanced got in the Dream Land. They tore it apart. And it’s gone. The Dream Land’s gone.”