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I BENT down to get a better look at the man’s face.
I looked just like him, only his skin was darker, like Ivory’s. And his eye color was different. Yet his skin was smooth and free of wrinkles. He easily could have been twenty years younger than Mom.
“Dad?”
I don’t know who was more surprised—me for finally getting to call someone Dad out loud, or the man in front of me who’d just been punched in the stomach.
Unnerved by the man’s lack of response, I stood up and took a step backward. Biting the inside of my cheek, I glared at Valcas out of the corner of my eye.
“Did you really have to hit him?”
“Plaka.” Valcas grinned. “I can’t say I’m sorry. The gut-punch was from Doreen. I promised her I’d pass it on after Calla was charged with a TSTA infraction and was sentenced to help me find you.”
The man—my father—coughed and straightened up. His dark hair fell across his shoulders, reaching down to his waist. His eyelids fluttered.
“Valcas? You are alive... and you brought Calla to me?”
I frowned. This wasn’t at all how I’d imagined meeting my father. Sure, I didn’t expect him to reach out and hug me or apologize for his lifetime of absence, but he didn’t seem the slightest bit happy or excited to meet me. If anything, he seemed anxious and wary. And I had no idea why.
“Of course I did,” said Valcas. “I promised to protect your family. And then you disappeared! If I hadn’t gone in search of Calla and discovered her travel talent, the Uproar would have killed her by now.”
I nodded and looked at my father, stunned by how strongly Valcas defended me. “Mom and I—we thought you’d abandoned us, or worse yet, that you were dead.”
My father growled at Valcas. His voice was hoarse from who knows how many years of disuse. “Why did you bring her here?”
“Because that was our mission. We finally figured out where you could be, in the only place the Uproar can’t pass. We found you, and this is the thanks we get?”
My father squeezed his forehead with his hand. His knuckles and fingertips were knobbed with callouses. He must have played that stringed instrument a lot.
“Don’t you realize that you’ve led my daughter to the same misery that I hoped to endure alone until I died?”
Valcas’ mouth dropped open. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve escorted Calidora to her death. I am not, and have never been lost, Valcas. There physically is no way out of here—no known way to escape the Fire Falls.” My father paced back and forth, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Don’t you think that if there was a way out I would have found it by now? I never asked you to find me. I asked you to protect her.” His nostrils flared. “You have failed me.”
I cringed, knowing how deeply his words stung Valcas. The blood drained from Valcas’ face. That was the last straw. My chin quivered uncontrollably.
I burst into tears.
“Stop it! Stop talking to him like that!” Angrily, I wiped tears from my eyes. “Can’t you see that everything he’s done has been for you? He made a promise to you. When you went away, he continued to track your silhouettes and the Uproar for you. When he noticed it had started coming after me, he searched for me and found me, for you. Now we’re here because I wanted to come find you. So just... just stop it.”
I took a deep breath. If anything, my justifiable tantrum made my father stop ignoring me.
He crossed his arms and looked me up and down, at the same time changing the direction of his back and forth pacing pattern to a circle around me.
“You have the softness of your mother’s eyes and fair skin, but there is much of me in you. You are small, but your tongue is as sharp and daring as your features. Even your hair exudes tightness. Have you received any of my good qualities, however few?”
Wait. What? Did my father just dis my curls? I gave him a level stare, forcing my eyes to follow his and not break away even though he was in constant motion.
“I’ve inherited your travel talent,” I said.
My father clasped his hands. “Another Remnant Transporter in the family.” He shrugged, his lower lip pouting outward. “Forgive me for not celebrating, but as I have come to find, such an extraordinary ability is completely useless here behind the Fire Falls!”
He threw his arms up in the air. And bam! There we were again, back at the beginning of a different type of mission, one that I didn’t think could ever be accomplished, at least not in one night.
My eyes darted back to Valcas. “Well,” I said. “Thanks for letting me finally do something I’d always hoped I’d accomplish someday—meet my father. And now that I’ve done that, I guess we can go back to the pool by the Falls and wait for death.”
Part of me felt bad for snapping like that, but I didn’t think I had any other choice. Everything Valcas had told me about my father being a healer shattered. Where was the man Valcas raved about? What happened to his mentor and friend? The huge buildup left me feeling hurt and disappointed.
Valcas nodded and took my hand.
I looked over my shoulder as we walked away. “If you want to stop by and visit us sometime, you know where we are. There’s plenty of fish, seaweed and water.”
About a third of the way back down the tunnel, we heard the short, cranky notes of a stringed instrument being re-tuned. I blinked back tears, trying not to think about what had happened.
The walk back to the front of the Falls felt a lot longer than our journey up to my father’s hideout. My curiosity about time travel and my annoyance with the injustices of the TSTA temporarily faded. Unable to bend my mind around the possibility that we could be trapped behind the Fire Falls forever, I couldn’t bring myself to engage in pointless small talk.
Valcas walked along with me, silently, no doubt brooding over emotions similar to mine. I squeezed his hand. I looked forward to calming down and trying to relax when we got back to the Falls. Our wait for death would likely be a long one, but I would count our blessings in the meantime. We hadn’t found anything dangerous, and as bitter as my father was, he was physically unharmed.
I shook my head, wondering what else could be behind the Fire Falls, waiting for us. I soon found out that something, more accurately someone, was waiting for us when we got back to the pool—not death or anything else that would hurt us, though.
“Hey there, Cave Boy and Cave Girl!” called out a familiar voice. “You’re just in time for dinner. I hope you like sashimi.”
Ivory sat on the ground with a knife in hand, slicing up generous portions of fish and tossing them onto a few of the leaves Valcas had washed and left to dry.
In the far corner of the opening, as far away from the pool as possible sat Ray, wild-eyed and shaking.