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I REFLEXIVELY reached for my travel glasses. I hoped I wouldn’t have to use them, but I remembered Valcas’ prior warning—that I should wear them just in case something went wrong and I needed a quick escape.
“No,” Valcas said, reaching for me. “Keep them somewhere safe.” He circled an arm around my waist and backed me up against him.
“But what if we need to run?”
“The Uproar won’t risk getting inside here,” he said.
“That doesn’t make sense. If we can communicate and travel inside this layer, why couldn’t the Uproar just show up here?”
“You have a point, but...”
“But what?”
He kissed me lightly on my jaw, just beneath my ear. “I’ve never been more hopeful than I am now.”
Sighing, I tucked the travel glasses inside my backpack.
“Are you two coming with us?” Ivory yelled. “We could always come back for you... after you’ve had more time to yourselves.”
“Of course we’re going,” I yelled back. “We’re just waiting for something to happen. Have we decided on a destination?”
“Yes,” my father said, his eyes glistening. “We shall visit Enta sometime soon; but right now, we are headed to Chascadia!”
“Well, at least I might have some family there,” I muttered under my breath.
Valcas chuckled, squeezing me more tightly. “I’m sure you do. Now watch Plaka’s method of time travel. It’s, as he would say... fascinating.”
With his legs looped through the vine, my father detached the baglamas from his belt. I gaped, wondering how he was going to play the instrument while holding onto the vine.
He certainly didn’t look worried about it. His grin was huge. A glint of gold, from his gold tooth, reflected the flames of the fire layer. He counted aloud, as if he were setting the beat to his favorite tune.
“One. Two. Three. And four!”
Instead of freeing his other hand to strum the strings of the baglamas, my father swiped the instrument through the air. He did this again and again, scooping the air like he was serving up soup and the baglamas was his ladle.
I counted four swipes before I started to hear a low buzz, as if the air was bouncing off the strings, creating sound. The buzzing sound grew until it echoed off the ceiling of the air space, bouncing back down, and then up again. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
Then, I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. As the waves of sound bounced back and forth, growing louder, I kid you not, I felt the air bend.
I gasped. “What’s happening?”
“The sound waves Plaka set in motion are creating a vortex,” Valcas explained. “In just a few moments, the pull will be strong enough for us to travel. We’ll be able to jump without falling to the ground.”
“How do we jump toward the vortex without missing it?” I asked. “I can feel something, but I can’t see it.”
“Don’t worry. The vortex will suction us inside.” He laughed. “We wouldn’t be able to avoid it if we tried.”
“Yeah, okay.” I caught a glimpse of Ray who was intensely watching the whole thing, probably recording the scene with his brain. I wondered what the vortex felt like to someone like him, who I knew could sense and feel the presence of the Uproar. I hoped it wasn’t too uncomfortable.
The buzzing sound increased to a thrashing rush of wind.
“It’s time!” Plaka shouted over the wind. “Let go of the vines!”
I slipped my legs out from where they’d been looped and clung to Valcas. He didn’t remove his arm around me, but sooner than I was ready, he let go of our vines.
We fell.
I felt the drop deep in my gut.
I held my breath, trying to appear strong. I didn’t want to be the only one to scream.
Rather than plummeting downward, we hovered diagonally in the air, as if some other force had a hold on us, funneling us in.
More slowly than I expected, all of us—my father, Ray, Ivory, Valcas and I—were pulled together, tightly packed inside the vortex. The room—the air layer—spun around us. It felt like one of those amusement park rides that twirls around until you’re stuck so tightly to the wall that you stay in place even after the floor drops.
Only, instead of staying in place, we fell. Hard. I suddenly had the sensation of being tossed from a cliff. It felt that way until I was blinded by bright white light.
I closed my eyes.
***
THE LIGHT FADED JUST in time for me to open my eyes again and see what I was about to smack into: the ground. I, along with the rest of my team members, tumbled over, like a stack of raised dominoes that had been violently tipped by the flick of a giant’s finger.
I looked up at the sky, taking in the glow of the teardrop moons... Of Chascadia! We’d made it! We’d found my father and escaped the Fire Falls. Our mission was complete.
My father fell to the ground and kissed it. The darkness prevented me from seeing what color scheme this new world had. Was it like the White Tower? Was it anything like Aboreal?
Unfortunately, we didn’t stay long enough to find out.
Because that’s when the watch that the TSTA had given me finally revealed what it was.