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I TWISTED three thick vines into a long, green braid. Ivory had cut the bottoms of the vines free with her knife. At first I’d been happy to hear that we weren’t going to be cutting a ladder into the side of the rock wall, but now that I saw how high the vines were, I wished we would have used Ivory’s knife to etch footholds into the wall. My upper body wasn’t trained for this type of climbing—or any type of climbing, really.
As we roped the vines, Valcas recounted his conversation with Enta.
“How’s she doing?” I asked.
“Physically well,” Valcas said. “But deeply depressed. Edgar’s death greatly affected her.”
“I didn’t understand it either, at first. Valcas, did you know that Enta was in love with Edgar?”
“Hmm,” Valcas said. He didn’t seem as interested in the story as I was. He seemed much more intent on his vines. After a few moments of concentrated silence, he said, “Whether that is true or not, Enta seems to be on a mission of her own.”
My mouth dropped open. “You mean she was charged with an infraction?”
“No, nothing like that,” he said. “She’s been using her travel glasses to travel through time and space, which is why it was so easy to contact her. She must be wearing them all the time now.” He frowned.
“Valcas, what’s wrong? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I think Enta’s trying to forget about her worries; I think she’s trying to become lost.”
“Oh, no! Are you sure?”
His frown deepened.
“Why would she do that?” I asked, the pitch of my voice rising. If Enta was traveling through time and space it would make it difficult for us to travel to her, so that potentially ruined some of our plans. After what had happened to Edgar, how could she be out there trying to get lost on purpose?
Valcas didn’t respond. I glanced over at him. His jaw was firmly set and he refused to meet my eyes.
“I know you were close to Enta. She was your nurse and governess. I’m so sorry.”
His hands grasped onto the vines until his knuckles turned white. My father immediately ran over to him.
“Calm down, Valcas,” he said, resting his hands on Valcas’ chest and back. “Breathe. Enta’s emotions must run their course. You of all people should understand that.”
I threw my father a questioning look. His eyes were sad. He shook his head, as if to tell me not to press the issue. It was as if he were able to sense my next question, words I later realized I should have kept to myself.
“Valcas, why would you understand what it’s like to intentionally get lost?” I asked.
Valcas looked over at me with pain burning his eyes, bright green eyes that had looked hopeful—eyes that had comforted me—just moments ago when I’d come through the balm layer choking and gasping for air.
“Sometimes—” he said, in a voice that was barely a whisper, a voice that didn’t sound quite like his own, but rather, like a stranger... the way I remembered him sounding when I first met him at the dock. “Sometimes it’s the only way to forget.”
I swallowed and broke my eyes free from Valcas’. Looking up at my father, I said, “You’re right. I’m sorry I didn’t take the hint.” I shook my head. Now I wasn’t sure whether I ever wanted to find out what happened to Valcas.
Ivory and Ray silently stared at Valcas and my father, wide-eyed and with sympathy. How I wished Ivory would say something to break the ice. But she didn’t. She let Valcas have his moment.
Maybe that was better.
***
VALCAS CALMED DOWN again by the time all the vines we needed had been roped, which was good given that I lamely and literally needed his support. No way was I strong enough.
I looked at Ivory’s long, lean muscles with envy, knowing that her arms and legs were every bit as strong as Valcas’. Then, as if she and Valcas had read my thoughts and wanted to tease me, they raced to the top of the vines, as if this was something they practiced every single day.
Ray and I exchanged a glance. How were we going to climb up the vines? Worse yet, how was my father going to do this? He stood by, watching Valcas and Ivory, with his hands clasped behind his back.
I tugged at my vine and placed one foot on the rock wall. I made it two steps up before I slid on the rock and fell flat on my behind, my hands scraping along the vine on the way down.
“Ouch,” I said, rubbing my hands. Embarrassed, I stood with my back to the balm layer and slid my hands inside. The blobby fluid instantly cooled and eased the painful sting.
“You don’t think we’re going to let you climb up here by yourself, do you?” Ivory yelled down at me.
“That’s a relief,” I said. “How are you going to get the rest of us up there?”
“We’re tying the vines into swings.”
I looked up and, sure enough, the vine Ivory had climbed was now knotted into a loop. She deftly held onto the vine, grabbed the one next to her and lowered the looped end.
“Put your legs through this and hold on,” she said. “We’ll pull you up.”
“You’re kidding, right?” If only Kevin Staunch could see me now—Cow-la getting pulled up the side of a wall with a rope. I wondered what kind of cow game that would be called. Cow raising, maybe?
My father urged me on. “The faster we all get up there, the faster we can leave here.”
He was right. The air layer felt hotter by the minute, with the nearby fire heating the air and drying the blue-green goo to our clothing and skin.
I looked up at Ivory as she pulled my rope, marveling at her strength instead of looking at the dizzying depths below. “How are you doing this?” I asked.
Ivory snickered. “You may have special Chascadian talents, but the blood of Aboreal runs through my veins. Valcas’ too. We’re pretty resilient. Right, Tarzan?—saw that movie on an Earth mission. Good stuff.”
Valcas sniffed. “If you need more outlets for your strength, Ivory, my mother is available for arm wrestling matches.”
“You two are crazy,” I said, shaking my head. Both of them had their feet twisted through loops in the vines so they could free their hands for pulling.
While Ivory pulled me up, Valcas lowered his looped vine down to Ray and repeated the process on his side. Then she and Valcas swapped places, so Ray was with her and Valcas was with me. This left my father to climb by himself, which, to my surprise, he managed quite well. I wondered how the Chascadian timeline compared to the Aborealian one. How young was his strength? That, however, was a matter for later.
With all of us raised up in the vines, we were high enough to get in motion. We were ready to travel.