| |
SHIRLYN WAS all smiles as we each took our places in the pair of yellow and black Estrel-Flyers. “Look, Calla!” she called out over the engines as they warmed up. “Valcas let me borrow a portable camera so that we can take colored photographs. Father would just love this!”
I looked over to see the camera that Shirlyn held out. It was a dinosaur of a thing that looked a lot like a bulky old Polaroid camera from the 1980s. Shirlyn was really excited about it, though, so I nodded and smiled. She sat there wedged into a seat behind a driver and in front of Romaso, whose arms were wrapped protectively around her. The driver who sat in front of Shirlyn was the security guard who’d interrogated me. He waved my way and smiled. I awkwardly waved back to him from behind my driver, Valcas.
“Now both of you look toward me,” Shirlyn demanded. “I want to take your photograph first. Calla, you are supposed to be smiling. Much better. There!”
I sighed through my usual fixed camera-face smile. I didn’t like anyone to have pictures of me, especially digital photos that could be distorted. At least Shirlyn’s camera wasn’t built into a Smartphone. It looked big enough to be holding a giant roll of film, which made me feel a little less worried about the photo getting into the wrong hands.
I sat there patiently as Shirlyn brought the camera over to Valcas so that he could take a picture of her, Romaso and their driver. I thought about how easily green-eyed Valcas had forgiven me. His reaction was a lot different than creepy-eyed Valcas’ would have been. I remembered his words of warning, that I would not be safe. Those words had traveled with me from Edgar’s workshop to Enta’s homestead, Romaso’s Venice, Shirlyn’s Folkestone and to Sable and Jim’s made-up world. I would be leaving again soon, during this very flight if I could manage it.
“Put your arms around me, Calla.”
“Huh?”
“We’re about to take off. Please hold on to me.”
“Oh.” I tentatively reached around Valcas and lightly placed my hands somewhere between his sides and the middle of his stomach.
Valcas chuckled lightly. “I suppose that would be fine if we stayed here on the ground instead of flying.” He took both of my hands in his and pulled them together until my arms were tightly fastened around him. “I don’t want you falling out.”
Instead of blushing I winced. Falling out of the Estrel-Flyer was exactly what I intended to do. Once we were high enough I would be able to slip on the travel glasses and kick myself off of the flyer into a freefall. But now I didn’t know whether I would be able to let go. I already wanted to stay and spend more time with Valcas, and he had to go and make everything worse by pulling me up close to him where I couldn’t ignore how good he smelled in his leather riding jacket.
I stretched out my neck to look over his shoulder and watched as he handled the accelerator to lift off of the ground. He smoothly cut the acceleration with the hand brake to steadily cruise around the bottom half of the tower. Then we began our ascent along the wall, flying upward into the black sky. The rush of wind and fresh air instantly refreshed me.
“How can you tell it’s nighttime when your sky is always black?”
“The moons are out.”
“Got it. How many moons should I be seeing?”
“We have four, always crescent-shaped during the warm season.”
I searched the sky, locating four distinct wedges of moonlight, each facing a different direction.
“Calla, may I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you have any idea how much I missed your presence at dinner? Your conversation? Your questions?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s more than one question,” I pointed out.
“It was more of a list, actually—one that I could certainly add to if it would help you to answer the question.”
I felt my cheeks redden. “That’s okay. I don’t know the answer to any of them. I’m not sure why you would miss me at all, you know, after my intrusion into something so personal.”
“Please, let’s just forget it. I’d prefer to move on, to leave all of that unpleasantness in the past, if that’s all right with you.”
“Sounds good.”
“Good, now hold on.”
Free from the awkward conversation, from the walls of the tower and from the clutches of my own embarrassment, I watched the onyx sky as it sailed past us. Valcas and I soared upward until we reached a point high above the tower. Then we plunged downward toward the other side of the wall. The wind swept across my face and my stomach flip-flopped as if we were rushing down a steep drop on a roller coaster. I heard a yelp and a whoop off in the distance, which Valcas returned with a whoop of his own. He was competing with the guard driving Shirlyn and Romaso’s Estrel-Flyer to see who could reach the ground first without stopping. Just as I thought we would be absorbed by the sea of purple and red terrain, Valcas decelerated and shifted the Estrel-Flyer to the side, creating a wave of glinting particles of what looked like tinted playground sand, only softer and more feather-like.
“That was amazing! Better than amazing. How did you learn to fly like that?”
“I took a class.” He shrugged. Then he turned and gave me a sideways glance. His eyes were narrowed and he was grinning at me. “You must not be afraid of heights.”
“Not so much.” The flight was nothing compared to some of the freefalls I’d experienced since Valcas had entered my life. “Why do you ask?”
Valcas laughed. “During the dive, I heard Shirlyn’s squeal over the motor from fifty yards away. You didn’t make a sound.” He steadied the Estrel-Flyer and accelerated back up to a cruising speed. “So, tell me, Calla. How long do I get to keep you?”
I considered this. After all that had happened, the idea of staying for a while longer was still very tempting. But I’d made a promise to help Edgar. “Valcas, I need to be very honest with you.”
“I haven’t expected otherwise. Go on.”
“I just found out that a friend of mine is very sick.” I felt my voice crack on the word sick. “He needs me right now. I have to leave tonight.”
Valcas placed a hand over mine. “I’m very sorry. Had I known—Is there anything I could do? I could come with you.”
“No. Thanks, though. All I really need is transportation. Could you take me to the Estrel-Flyer—the white and tan one—that we used to get here?”
“Absolutely, but you will need to time travel in order to leave here.”
“That’s not a problem. I was going to do that anyway.”
Valcas slowed the Estrel-Flyer and parked near the entrance of the tower. After we both dismounted, he looked at me intently. “Your Estrel-Flyer is not a licensed TSTA vehicle. My guards inspected it thoroughly. How did you get here with two silhouettes and without a TSTA vehicle?”
“Let’s just say that your theory about the glasses is not so far off.” The words came out of my mouth before I realized what I was revealing. I shrugged it off, figuring that none of this would matter anyway. He would forget all about me the next day.
Valcas’ eyes widened, a spectacle that I’d never seen before. I’d surprised him. “You are a traveler, and a very advanced one, so it seems. Do you plan to return—to come back here to see me again?”
“Yes, I will be back as soon as everything with my friend gets figured out.”
Valcas walked with me to the white and tan Estrel-Flyer that used to be the Pipette. “Are you certain that you don’t want me to go with you?”
“I don’t think that would be such a good idea. I’m sorry, Valcas, but this is something I need to do alone. Please say good-bye to Shirlyn and Romaso for me.”
Valcas’ lips quivered as he began to say something. He stopped himself and furrowed his brow as if he’d changed his mind. He glanced down at my hands before clasping them with his and then leaned in toward me, locking his jeweled eyes onto mine.
“Be safe, Calla,” he whispered. “I’ll look forward to your return.”