21

Kai tucked himself into the soft folds of the curtain for a moment, breathing slowly to stop the black spots dancing in his eyes. The light was dim backstage, but he could see enough by spilled stage light to make out a narrow staircase leading up and down close to where he stood. Indecision froze him.

On impulse, he reached for the bottle of Healing Stream water that hung around his neck, opened it, and drank a drop. He hesitated for a moment and then downed it all. He blinked twice, three times. No difference. That was a waste.

He had no idea what he was looking for, just an overwhelming conviction that this whole service was a sham. Don’t think too deeply, just move. Upwards. He took the stairs two at a time, hunkering down as he got closer to the top. He crouched with his back pressed up against the wall. The noise from the gathering below filtered through to backstage. Kai could hear everything as well as if he were in the audience. Risking a peep, he glimpsed an open door to a control room manned by five people. They stared at huge screens of what was going on below, conferring in quiet voices. Four of the screens were trained on the people with a central one showing what was happening on stage.

Kai blinked. When he opened his eyes, all five people at the controls wore glowing helmets of green. He blinked again, and the helmets were gone. Could this be his Affinity coming back?

He had to get closer. He waited until all those in the control booth were focussed on the furthest screen, pointing and rubbing their chins. Kai slipped off the stairs and tucked himself just outside the control room door where he could see and hear.

“We’re losing this section at the back. 7A. Can you see?”

“Another miracle? More glitter?”

“No, too soon.”

“Maybe a word of knowing? What about that girl? The brunette.” One of the operators poked the screen with a chubby finger. “I know her. She’s about to move up a tier but hasn’t told anybody yet.”

“And she’s right in the middle of the section we’re losing. Perfect. Do it!”

One of the operators reached for a microphone. “Stage, you’re losing section 7A. There’s a brunette third seat from the right, second row. She’s about to move up a tier. Now is a good time for a knowing.”

Kai watched the middle screen. The preacher pointed to the section they’d singled out. He squeezed his temples with his fingertips, eyes shut and lips moving wordlessly. A glimmer of green shot around his head, quickly branching off and spreading until his whole cranium was circled in pulsing light. For a moment, Kai’s vision flickered, and the preacher stood before the audience, hollow but filled with swirling darkness, shot through with slivers of glowing green. In a blink, he was back to normal.

The preacher’s head shot up, and he pointed again. “The girl with brown hair. You’ve got your hand to your chest. Yes, you! I sense great change coming your way. You are excited, but you are nervous as well. And ...” he paused, with his head tilted to one side, “you are heart sore. You don’t want to leave your friends behind.”

The camera had zoomed in on the girl they’d picked out. Tears streamed down her face, and she nodded with her hands clasped to her chest. The preacher’s voice dropped low, full of authority, “I say to you, do not fear. Embrace your new day. Embrace your promotion. You have earned it. By the sweat of your brow, you’ll be moving up. It’s a new day for you. Throw off anything holding you back.” The preacher’s voice was building in intensity. “Cut off the doubters and those who would see you held back by their own insecurities.” His voice roared through the air, “Today is your day!” The crowd erupted in cheering and clapping.

It turned Kai’s stomach. He clapped his hands to his ears and shut his eyes. He didn’t want to see such a sham, didn’t want to hear the lies. When he opened his eyes, a girl stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. He recognised her as the one that had miraculously been given her ability to walk back. Her entire chest was covered be a breastplate of dirty green, glowing light. Sweat beaded on her forehead from the laps she’d run around the gathering.

“Excuse me. What are you doing here? Do I need to report you?”

Kai said nothing.

Suspicion grew in her narrowed eyes.

She leaned toward the open doorway, not taking her eyes off Kai for a second. “Guys, we have a problem.”

~*~

Kai threw himself down the stairs, hesitated for a moment behind the stage curtains, heard footsteps, and ran out onto the stage. The preacher blinked at him, his face changing as the men upstairs yelled into his earphones. Kai leapt off the stage, shoving people out the way as he came down and hit the ground running.

He ducked through the crowd, out onto the street, not stopping or looking over his shoulder to see if he was being chased. The streets were busier now than when he’d first walked them, but he managed to find his way back to the dining hall, now deserted. Ruaan and Zap sat by a window and talked in low voices. They looked up as he ran to them.

“Kai! Where have you been, man?” Zap punched his arm as he got close. “We’ve just been arguing whether to go look for you or what.”

“I wouldn’t call it arguing exactly.” Ruaan scratched his head. “What’s going on? You look stressed out.”

“You missed such great food. Whoa.” Zap rubbed his belly. Ruaan’s eyelids drooped.

Kai leaned out the window to see if anyone followed him. The people walking below all ambled along harmlessly. “Do we have somewhere to stay yet?”

“Oh yeah, that nice girl showed us our rooms. We’ve all got our own, but they’re right next to each other. Come on. We’ll show you.” Zap led the way out of the dining room, down a broad, carved staircase. Ruaan fell in behind the other two, yawning and stretching. A short way down the street, Zap took them through a carved arch with no doors, up a stone staircase that twisted upwards in regular bends. The rooms they’d been given were on the top floor of a stone building that seemed to be carved out of a single rock five stories high. By the time they’d climbed five flights of stairs, Kai’s legs were shaking. He pulled the other two into his room and shut the door. There was barely space for anything but the bed.

“Um, I don’t know if you remember, but I did say we each got our own room?” Zap backed into the corner of the tiny space looking twitchy.

“I want to hear where he’s been. He can’t exactly tell us through the walls, you know.” Ruaan sat on the bed gingerly, his knees poking up nearly as high as his shoulders. “Wow, this is a bit extreme.”

Kai turned towards them, “Guys, I found Bree.”

“That’s brilliant! How is she? Why didn’t you bring her?” Zap looked ready to tap him on the head to see if his brain was still working.

“She’s... different. It’s like a huge part of her has been shut down. Stolen, even. She doesn’t want to be rescued, but being here isn’t helping her. She needs a different environment, but she won’t believe me if I say that to her. It’s so horrible. I don’t even know what to make of it. She wants nothing to do with me.”

Ruaan stretched himself out on the bed, tucking both hands behind his head. His feet poked off the end of the bed like flagpoles. “What did you do to make this girl so angry at you?”

“The last time he left this place to go home, he left Bree in the desert outside the Darklands surrounded by darKounds.” Zap spoke before Kai could.

“You make it sound like I did it on purpose. I was trying to take her home, away from here. I was so sure it would work, but it didn’t. Now she’s injured, all bent out of shape, and won’t listen to me.” He sank onto the bed next to Ruaan’s long legs and buried his face in his hands. “The thing is her dad was taken by darKounds years ago. She’s had trouble trusting anybody since then.”

Ruaan stared at the ceiling, crossing his feet, “Bree’s not the only one with dad issues. She can’t hide behind that her whole life. My grandma raised me because my parents supposedly died on a missionary trip to Africa. What actually happened is that they were druggies. Both of them. They took to the streets to support their habit.” He spoke matter-of-factly without a hint of emotion. “Grandma did what she could, but no one is immortal. When she died, St Greg’s got me.” He sniffed and rubbed his nose. He pointed at it, “Allergies. I’m not crying.”

Zap was still propped up in the corner. He slid down until he sat with his knees drawn up. That’s one crazy story, man.”

Ruaan shrugged. “Believe me or not. I don’t really care.” He shut his eyes. “This bed is so comfy.”

Kai watched his breathing change. In less than ten seconds, Ruaan was deeply asleep. “How does he do that?”

Zap chuckled. “And on your bed, too. No sleep for you tonight. Not that night ever seems to fall in this place.” His chuckle dried up in his throat. “Apparently, tomorrow we’re being tested.”

“Tested. For what?”

“Aptitude or something. Beats me. Apparently, all newcomers to the city have to be. I don’t know, Kai. I’m not feeling it.”

“I don’t like the sound of it either. We don’t have time for all this nonsense. Your death date is being carved right now if that gravestone is right.”

Zap paled. “I’d forgotten all about that. Ah, that stinks.”

Kai tapped his fingers on the bed, thoughts snagging and unable to move through his mind. “According to the gravestones, Bree’s dad isn’t dead yet. What if we could track him down?”

“And then what? How is that going to stop me from dying?”

“Not you, twit. If we find Bree’s dad, maybe it would free Bree from this bizarre journey she’s on.”

“I hate to be the one to remind you, but finding people isn’t exactly your strong point. Losing them, now, there’s a skill you’ve perfected. Heck, you don’t even have to be tested tomorrow. We can just tell them what your gift is.”

~*~

Ruaan had snored throughout Kai’s slow count to one hundred and thirty-two. Kai was two doors down and still heard Ruaan as if the walls were made of paper. Sleeping was a waste of time.

The archway where he’d found Bree intrigued him. He’d rather go investigate that than lie here thinking of ways to shut up Ruaan. Few people moved on the streets of the city, though the light stayed at the same level of brightness. All in all, it was a strange setup. Kai and his friends didn’t have anyone watching them or tracking their movements. They seemed free to come and go as they pleased. Seemed.

Finding his was back was trickier than he thought it would be. A few wrong turns and some dead-ends later, he found his way to the room where he’d spoken to Bree, the small room with the testing arch. In this bright city, finding a room full of shadows and dimness seemed odd. Especially when the purpose of the room was to make you more suited to the light. The archway itself brooded over the room with a heavy malevolence. The untamed music of running water usually soothed Kai, but this water tumbled off the stone to hit the ground, just as doomed lemmings would fall off a cliff.

Kai faced the arch now, and his belly pinched. His imprint flashed silvery in the gloom. He touched it and a swell of music rose within him, a living torrent building and growing. His hands itched for his guitar.

A flash of heat washed over him, and he glimpsed the instrument he longed for deep inside the archway facing the entrance door. It pulled at him, drawing him closer. And yet he wanted to see into the other three arches as well. The two desires tugged at him.

Curiosity won.

Five small steps and he was around the corner. Soft emerald light flooded from the opening, played across the tiles of the floor, and spread longing through Kai’s heart, stealing his breath. He barely dared to look into the glowing opening, yet he couldn’t resist a peep. No sun-drenched forest or carved emerald, it was simply an uprooted plant.

The spell broke. Hands on his hips, Kai frowned at the arch. It was the same green one that compelled him to replant the last time he was trapped here. That had caused so much trouble. His hands itched just looking at it.

Kai scrambled to get away. The next archway seemed closed up at first. Kai reached out to feel and almost fell in as he leaned and rested on nothing. A narrow gap between two solid rock faces led away from the opening, the space between the two walls utterly dark further in. It also seemed to narrow towards the back. Kai shuddered and moved on.

The next opening blazed in fiery shades of red and orange. Blood rushed through Kai’s ears, and he knew what he was going to see without having to look. He looked anyway and regretted it instantly. The desert outside the Darklands. The desert where he’d lost Bree, left her at the mercy of darKounds.

What if this was his chance to go back and change what had happened? He paced, rubbing the back of his neck. But it was just a thought. He might step into the archway and get stuck in the desert and die there.

Or he might be able to save Bree.

He stepped toward the opening. The heat intensified, flickering out of the archway—an invisible, tangible thing, close enough to scorch his skin. Another step, and he’d be consumed. Someone screamed from inside the arch. Bree! This had to be it. He could go back and make it right.

Footsteps outside the door. Someone was coming. He slipped into the shadow to the right of the doorway. He crouched down, hardly breathing.

Bree walked past him, shut the door behind her, and glanced around the room quickly—missing him completely. She threw off her heavy cloak and strode determinedly toward the arches. Kai’s Affinity kicked in, and Bree’s arm lit up. Kai instantly regretted drinking the last bit of Healing Stream water. It might have been enough to restore Bree’s shredded hand. The only other option was to get her to the Healing Stream.

Bree circled the four arches. She stopped in front of the one where Kai had seen the desert. No light reflected on her face. Her hands trembled, but she squeezed them together and stepped through.

~*~

Peta climbed the short hill and glanced back, her eyes sparkling. “We’re here. We’re at the pools.”

Evazee forced herself to climb the last rise. Everything seemed to take so much more effort. She made it to the top and gasped. A rolling field of undulating hills spread away from her feet, punctuated by pools of water. None of the pools reflected what was above, but each seemed lit by their own internal play of lights that cycled through a range of colours, throwing up a living tower of dancing light that stretched high toward the sky.

Zulu knelt in reverential silence. Peta found Evazee’s hand and pulled her toward a free-standing rock. “Come see. Here are rules.”

“Rules? That’s weird.” Evazee allowed herself to be dragged along, curious to see what rules one would apply to a place this beautiful. Somehow do not bomb-drop and no diving would seem completely irrelevant.

The rules were carved into the rock, words chiselled carefully into the hard surface. As she read them, Evazee realized they were more instructions than rules.

Welcome Seeker,

to the Pools of Resonance.

What you see may be, or may not.

One alone can set you free.

Look, don’t touch,

Evazee read it through once and then again. “There’s a section all chiselled off after ‘touch.’ Somebody must have made a mess. I guess it’s hard to rub out a mistake when you’re carving in stone.” She grinned at Peta, who giggled at her joke. “I don’t know what to make of this. I’m not sure I understand the point of it all.”

Zulu padded over on silent feet. “Where’s Elden?”

Evazee swung around, but realized she hadn’t seen Elden since their argument. “Well, that’s just perfect. You know what? He’s a big boy. Maybe he needs some space. I’m sure he’ll join us when he’s ready. Let’s have a look at these pools.”

Peta stared into the distance, her brow creased in concentration. She shrugged and skipped toward the pools. Zulu followed her. He seemed to have taken it on himself to be the girl’s protector. Evazee couldn’t believe anything bad could be lurking in such a beautiful place, but by now, she knew that looks could be deceiving. Still, leaving Peta with Zulu for a few minutes should be OK.

Evazee drifted in between the pools, letting her feet take her. After all the darkness, this much light and beauty spread a feast for her soul. Her imprint pulsed gently in time with the dancing light beams as they washed over her in waves of light-colour.

She recited the instructions in her head and her heart pinched at the very last line. If this was water from the Healing Stream, it could reverse the effects of the dark Affinity enhancer they were all affected by. Evazee couldn’t imagine how great that would feel, but now she had to argue with herself about trying the water or not.

The pools varied in size, some as big as the soccer field at school, others no bigger than a Koi pond. One of the smaller ones shone a constant blue light that caught Evazee’s attention. She knelt down next to the edge of the water, leaned on her hands so that she didn’t do anything silly like fall in, and closed her eyes. Why was this so hard? She braced herself, took a deep breath and stared into the water.

The colour reflected on her face and made her skin tingle. She breathed it in. The water seemed impossibly deep. It was crystal clear and still, but she couldn’t see the bottom. She waited.

A small spider skittered across the surface, causing tiny ripples. Evazee shooed him off and started again. Waiting. The water looked pure and alive. Surely it came from the Healing Stream. She checked to make sure no one watched, dipped her hand in, and brought it up to her mouth. She hesitated a moment before swallowing. It ran down her throat easily and she could have drunk more.

She checked her imprint, nothing. She looked around her, but the light and colours still came from the pools. None of it was from her. So that settled it, then. This was some other water, not what she needed at all.

Her head grew heavy. She shook it and locked her elbows to stay upright. Patterns formed in the water. Swirls of colour that shifted from random patterns to shapes, forms that seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite place.

Jesus, this place reminds me of You.

Evazee thought she saw the water ripple. Maybe the little spider was back. She checked around the edges of the water but couldn’t see anything that would have caused ripples. Zulu and Peta chased each other around one of the other pools. Listening to her tiny friend laugh made Evazee’s heart sing.

Please keep Kai safe.

The water shifted as if a breeze blew over it. The centre section stilled to a glass-like, smooth surface that spiralled out toward the edges. Soon the whole surface lay flat and still. Blue light darkened to charcoal and a glow burned in the distance.

The longer she stared into the water, the clearer the picture became. A vast desert stretched across the full width of the pool. Fire blazed in the distance, casting a red glow over desert sand dunes. A tiny speck moved along the base of a dune, followed closely by another. A wide circle formed around them. Evazee squinted. Were they camels? She leaned in closer. Not camels. People. She leaned closer still, and a cold flash of recognition passed through her. Kai and Bree. What looked like dark dots surrounded them. Cold chills shot down her spine.

DarKounds.