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RAY LAUGHED. “That’s genius!” Then, he frowned. “I never would have thought—”
Ivory caught his wrist. “Do you know a place named Susana?”
He shrugged.
Plaka tilted his head to the side. “There are many worlds. Where to even start...”
“Earth, of course,” said Ivory with a sharp poke to Ray’s rib. “He’s an Earthborn.”
Nick stood up to help himself to more tea. “Well, in that case, then two ideas come to mind.” He looked at us coolly through a cloud of steam. “I know of a city named Santa Susana in California, the United States. The other is a municipality in Catalonia, Spain.”
“The one in Spain is spelled differently.” Ray blinked. “S-U-S-A-N-N-A. There are two n’s. My tattoo is spelled like the city in California.”
“That solves it, then,” said Nick. He brushed imaginary lint from his pants as he sat back down.
“Wait,” said Plaka. “Ray, do you have any connection with California?”
“I’ve never been there personally, but that’s where my mom grew up.”
“Do you still have family there?”
“No.”
“Friends?”
“Nope.”
“Where is your mother now?”
I fidgeted with my empty mug, accidentally dropping it to the floor. It clanged and flipped over. The handle cracked, nicked by the sharp edge of one of the loft’s wooden planks.
Ray started. “Oh, right—Calla. Sorry, Valcas.”
My mouth hung open as I stared at Plaka. This was his daughter we were talking about. His interest in Ray was bewildering, back at the Fire Falls and now.
“There’s a timepiece on the outside of this tower that can port us there, friend. Wouldn’t take long. Suppose we go on a side mission—”
I glared.
“Of,” he gulped, “sorts?”
***
NICK SERVED AS KEY Keeper on Ray’s sub-quest. Plaka accompanied them to see if he could help them find anything. Quickly. Right. I felt no animosity toward Ray, but I couldn’t help thinking they were wasting time.
Ivory and I stayed behind to clean Nick’s place. We caught up while we waited. She and I had become friends. Well, maybe not friends, exactly, but acquaintances gained through family connections when I’d visited Aboreal with my mother. She was too wild of a girl for my parents to consider her a match for me. That suited Ivory and me just fine. We had the physical attraction of two south poles of a magnet.
Nick, or rather Travertine, was her north end.
Goofy, scrawny Nick—
Something soft and fluffy boxed me in the ear. “What are you laughing about?”
I looked at the ground. Pillows travel faster than words. Clearing my throat, I said, “Nothing. I hadn’t realized I was laughing.”
“Well, you certainly seem to be having a much better time cleaning up this mess than I am.” She emptied the scraps from our plates in a trash bin that was surrounded by piles of dirty laundry. She wrinkled her nose. “Bachelors are so gross.”
“I agree that this place could use a woman’s touch,” I said, leading with my chin.
Ivory pressed her lips shut and narrowed her eyes, practically closing off her face.
“It’s obvious who you’re protecting from the TSTA,” I mutter. Looking up, I grin. “The other party to your contributory infraction—”
“You won’t tell Reese, will you?”
I smiled, waiting for an eye roll or some other indication that she was being sarcastic. When none came, I realized Ivory wasn’t joking. If I was interpreting her expression correctly, she was actually worried that I would disclose her secret and turn her in to the TSTA, even though our relationship was one of nothing more than mutual respect and trust. I took a step backward. “Did you just ask instead of tell me to do something?”
Her eyelids fluttered. “Well look at you being all snarkastic.”
“That’s not a real word. The contemporary Earthborns aren’t here; you can use proper words and language.”
Her cheeks flamed as she pretended to ignore me and began sorting Nick’s laundry into washable piles. “Too late.” She shrugged. “After prepping to meet Ray and Calla, it got addictive.”
“You love him. Enough to be involved with an Overwrite. No one gains your loyalty that easily.”
She sighed, flicking a pair of shorts spangled with Aborealian flags onto a pile. “And what about you? Why’s it taken so long for you to find Calla?”
“I took some time off—to look for clues.”
Ivory dropped a sock and crossed her arms. “You haven’t been searching for her all this time? What’s wrong with you?”
“I feared for her safety.”
“What?”
If there was anyone I could trust, it was Ivory. Especially given what I knew about Nick being her co-contributor. She also knew love. She would understand. Maybe even help. I could tell her, maybe even without being judged. “Every time the Uproar attacked Calla, I was present.”
“Okay, and you helped to protect her. That’s a good thing, right?”
Stars and the sensation of sharpened needles flashed behind my eyes. Pressing my fingertips to my eyelids, I said, “The Uproar never attacked her when she was alone. It appeared only when I was present.”
Ivory’s face fell. She scowled. All right, maybe there would be some judgment.
“I think it’s because of a bond between us. Something that attracts the Uproar to her when I am near. A similar situation happened with my father—it led to his death.”
She wiped her hands on her pants and reached out to me. “That’s why you told her you couldn’t be together? Why she ran off?” Her face held an odd expression. Compassion?
“I didn’t want to put her in further danger.”
“Valcas—” Ivory reached out further.
Then she smacked me on the back of the head, causing the stars burning my eyes to scatter in countless directions. “You idiot! That was the most ridiculous reason for a breakup in the worlds. Do you think anyone on our team is afraid to attract the Uproar? Really?”
“That’s not what I’m saying—” I choked on my words, finding it difficult to explain myself through the pain.
“Get over it, Casanova. She’s one of the last two living Remnant Transporters! And, more importantly, she’s our friend.”
I rubbed the back of my head. So much for sympathy, understanding and my desire for proper words. She was right, though; my separation from Calla was my own fault. Instead of drawing love closer, I’d pushed it away.
Fortunately for Ivory, she didn’t have to wait long for her love to return. Nick came from the stairs into the loft first, followed by Ray and Plaka. But I could hear additional footsteps behind them. And then an eerily recognizable voice.
“Why, that was one of the most unusual methods of travel, Mr. Plaka. Absolutely breathtaking. You must tell me how it works—that is, if you get the chance.”
Ivory cringed. “You brought a silhouette with you, Healer?”
I stood up, horrified. The version of Edgar that Plaka had brought with him was the one I’d betrayed by stealing the travel glasses. His white hair and wrinkled skin looked the same as when I’d tried to recover Calla at Enta’s homestead. Had Plaka transported a version of Edgar—a silhouette of him—that had already been lost?
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to prevent the pain I knew was about to jab the backs of my eyes.
“Not to worry, Valcas,” said Edgar. “Mr. Plaka has filled me in on details about the search for Calla. I’m able to put your faults aside, in the interest of greater good.”
I opened my eyes, as if seeing would help me to believe or understand what was happening.
“We didn’t find any answers on Earth,” said Ray. “So we took a side-side trip to the Workshop in the Woods to talk to Edgar. If anything, we know Calla trusts him enough that—well, assuming she is lost, maybe he’ll help bring her out of it once she sees him.”
Plaka smiled proudly, his hands resting on his hips. “Edgar will assist us with her healing.”
I responded through clenched teeth. “There will be no healing if we can’t find Calla and bring her back from the lost.”
Of course he would think to use his Remnant Transport talent to try to cheer up Calla, to make her misery go away. That was part of his healing plan for others who’d become lost. But what good would it do for Calla if we couldn’t find her? Why hadn’t he waited until we located her, knew where she was for sure before dragging a silhouette along? What if Edgar’s silhouette faded before we got there?
“Perhaps,” said Nick, “Susana is not a place within a world, but a world of its own. Let’s not forget that, as the Time Keeper, I have the ability to read the portals.”
“So, you’d be looking for the timepiece that represents a place—a world—called Susana? A world of lost persons?” That, I hadn’t considered.
“Exactly? Why? Does that sound strange, friend?”
“It’s Absolutely. Freaking. Crazy. Madness—awesome amazing madness!” Ivory pulled him into a headlock, and squeezed him with her entire being. It looked scary. Nick grinned. Good for him.
“Fine,” I said, nearly grinning myself. “Let’s find Calla and bring her back.”