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DURING OUR walk back to the jet, I wondered more about whether or not Valcas knew Sable would be in Aboreal, waiting for us, and what Ivory meant about us overstaying our welcome. Aboreal was weird, way weird, but I didn’t see why we had to leave so soon.
Valcas and I followed behind Ray and Ivory, leaving a short distance between us and them, as we passed through the Aborealian streets and their black- and white-haired inhabitants. As we walked, Valcas kept glancing over at me and quickly looking away again. I raised an eyebrow at him, and then, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I gave up and took his bait.
“What, Valcas? What do you want to know?”
He grinned. “I was about to ask you the same question.”
“I was just wondering whether you knew your mother would be here in this world when we arrived.”
To my surprise, he told me he’d previously reunited with both of his parents and explained to them that he’d been charged with Plaka’s last request, to protect Mom and me in his absence.
Valcas kept his voice low as he explained further. “My father hadn’t seemed to mind so much, presumably unaware of the dangers involved. My mother, however, was skeptical and indignant enough for both of them; but, since I’d already been on my own for a long time, there wasn’t much she could do. I apologize for her treatment of you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I shrugged.
I wondered just how recently Valcas had this discussion with his parents—whether it was when I was still a child, around the time I met Valcas at the dock, or at some point in between.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity because Ivory chose that moment to stop walking and single us out.
With her fists resting on her hips, she said, “Didn’t you two have enough alone time today? I don’t know how much more private our little jet could be, and there will be absolutely no kissing onboard. I have no tolerance for that sort of thing.”
Valcas, seemingly stunned, kept his mouth pressed shut. I wondered whether Ivory intimidated him. He had a habit of not resisting her plans, and even though he accepted her teasing and laughed at her smart remarks, he tended not to tease her back the same way he sometimes did with me. Lucky me.
Instead of blushing I grinned. Then I responded in Ivory’s own language, irony and sarcasm, in which I was quite fluent.
“Who needs a jet?” I said, pulling my travel glasses out of my backpack and propping them on top of my head. “Valcas and I can unofficially travel wherever and whenever we want without it. We can find all the privacy we need.”
Valcas coughed once and Ray stopped scanning everything around him long enough for his eyes to bug out of his head. Ivory stood there, tight-lipped, looking me up and down. But there was a gleam in her eye.
“You—” she said to me, “You keep talking like that and I’ll have to promote you to vice-captain.”
Turning to Valcas, she winked. “Keep your eye on this one. You might learn something.”
***
ONCE SETTLED IN THE jet with Ray at my side and Valcas sitting in our direct line of sight, Ivory announced that she was prepared for flight.
I sat back in my seat and placed a hand above my head, on top of my glasses, ready for Valcas to tell me when to slip them over my eyes, the way he had during our last takeoff.
While waiting, I closed my eyes and inhaled. The interior of the jet smelled stale, like old plastic. Funny how I hadn’t noticed that when we’d left TSTA Headquarters. Maybe it had something to do with how the materials inside the jet mixed with Aborealian air. Maybe I was just loopy from spending too much time in a world without a sun. Either way, my stomach fluttered with the anticipation of arriving at a new destination, in a new world. I could hardly wait to see where Ivory would take us next.
We smoothly ascended in the air, but Valcas’ instruction to put on the travel glasses never came. I gripped the glasses tightly as the world around us turned white. My mouth went dry, but my eyes stayed open.
At first, the white light wasn’t bright enough to force me to close my eyes. Seconds ticked by. The cabin of the jet began shaking. Even I—the only member of our team who seemed unable to feel the presence of the Uproar or the upcoming impact of travel (without getting smacked down to the ground first)—could sense that something had gone terribly wrong.
I gripped the travel glasses more tightly, pulling them to my chest. A small, dense object dropped nearby and landed with a thud. My backpack, I thought, guessing it had fallen out of the overhead compartment.
After two more thuds I heard the metallic snap of seat belts unbuckling and the shuffling of feet. Two pairs of arms closed in around me. I tensed, then realized that the arms were protecting me—Valcas’ arms. And Ray’s.
“Ivory?” I called out. “What’s happening?”
“It’s the Uproar,” Ray yelled, his lips so close to my ear that the sound of his voice stung my eardrums. “I can feel it—see it—attacking the jet. It’s trying to prevent us from traveling through space and time.”
The jet’s loudspeaker buzzed and crackled. “Hold on. I’m redirecting our route.”
Whew, I thought. At least we still had our captain. I breathed in and out, trying to calm down. Even if I had known what to do in that situation, being pinned down by two sets of arms kept me from being able to move. The air smelled of Valcas and Ray and another heady, sweaty scent that I didn’t recognize. I wondered whether that was what fear smelled like.
Unable to see anything other than bright white light through the shadows of arms around me, I imagined Ivory pressing, pulling and tapping at a series of controls.
My head pounded as the jet lurched forward, shoving me, Ray and Valcas to the left. My seat belt bit at my side as it strained against my weight, along with that of the boys who were trying desperately to protect me.
“Ouch!” I screamed.
The arms fell away, allowing me to straighten myself in my seat. I tried to rub out the pain in my side, pain that would likely result in a large purple bruise. As I did this, the jet steadied and the white light intensified.
I closed my eyes.
I opened them again after the jet stopped moving, then quickly unbuckled my seat belt and turned to look out the window.
The jet sat on top of a bridge over a river that was as still and lifeless as a pond. A river of silver water.
Ivory had brought us to a Nowhere.