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The next day, Ibrahim woke Lance. He bolted out of bed, lunged for Ibrahim, and then promptly collapsed, unconscious. I winced. That was what he got for not asking questions first. Dad helped him up, easing him back into consciousness, and explained the situation.
Lance groaned. “Could someone have told me this before I got up?”
“You didn’t give us a chance.” Lily nudged me in the ribs. “Impulsive, isn’t he?”
Unfortunately, yes.
“Jenna!” Lance’s eyes lit up and he hugged me. I grimaced, expecting another memory attack, but none came. “You’re okay. What happened? The last thing I remember is crashing in one of the sand dunes—”
I put my hand to his lips. “I’ll explain, later, all right? We’ve still got to wake Inese.”
He nodded and stepped away quickly, looking me over as if checking for signs of a memory attack or wounds. When I forced a smile, he merely nodded affirmation.
Inese had nasty sunburns across her face and hands, the only part to have been exposed from her armor. Now she wore a loose tunic and light pants, similar to mine and Lily’s. Amina already showed us where she was keeping the body armor—which was now useless for anything but general coverage.
“Whatever attacked you specifically targeted her and your car,” Ibrahim explained. “That’s why she took the most damage.”
Made sense—she was the one who was carrying the stone. It was still in our bags, right next to the guns, my flower charm, my wilted vines, and Lance’s broken sword. Apparently swords didn’t work well against living statues.
Ibrahim felt Inese’s forehead and wiped it with a damp rag. “She had the worst burns, and she didn’t give me any resistance when I suspended her life.”
Dad frowned. “She still feels weak. Is she going to be okay?”
“I think so. You have the healing gift, right?”
Dad nodded and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Good. Hold her spirit while I wake her, in case she drifts.”
Dad blinked, squeezing my shoulder too tight. “Do what?”
“I am still learning to use my gift. I have never worked with someone in such bad condition, and I haven’t tried to return her spirit yet.”
Lily paled. “She might die?”
“It is possible. Are you ready?”
Dad twisted his lips. “As much as I’ll ever be.”
I swallowed hard, nervous as Ibrahim laid his hand over Inese’s forehead and spoke in Arabic. Inese turned uneasily under the covers. Dad stepped toward her and placed his hand over Ibrahim’s. “Come on, Inese,” he whispered, glancing at her face. “We need you.”
She groaned, flinched, and then relaxed.
Ibrahim drew back, his eyes wide. Dad’s shoulders sagged. He steadied himself against the bed. “What happened? I felt her spirit start to fade. Then, when I pulled on it, she felt brighter.” He leaned against the bed, watching Inese as her breathing rose and fell.
Ibrahim smiled. “That is your gift. For now, I’ll leave you be.”
“I need to see what else he can teach me,” Dad said quietly, checking Inese’s temperature as Ibrahim left the room. “Inese?” She turned her head toward him, her dark hair matted against the pillow. “Can you hear me?” A slight nod. Dad soaked a rag in the bowl of water and dribbled the water to her lips. “Better?”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Thank you,” she croaked, and returned to sleep.
For the rest of the day, Amina tended to Inese with Dad and Ibrahim’s help. Yesenia called on Lily to help draw water from the sand, and Jamel took Lance up the sand dune with Ayar.
I stood at the bottom of the dune.
Ayar ran after the goats, nipping at their heels and yipping as she rounded them off. She was fast, and when one goat tried to butt its horns at her, she tackled it, driving it back into the herd before it could break loose. Lance’s job was to create a portal directly in front of the running goats to send them back into the pen.
Once the goats were in, Ayar sat on her haunches and overlooked the oasis. Her bright red hair gleamed in the morning sun, reminiscent of a fire beast with its flaming skull and arms. But she was more dignified, like the beasties I’d seen standing beside Commander Rick.
Strange, how their masters made a difference.
I lowered my eyes. I still remembered the anger I’d felt when I attacked Gwen the first time I met her, when Lady Winters made me behave as if I was a beast. I took a deep breath and let it out. I’d been lucky. Out here, there wasn’t much to trigger a memory attack. But once I got back, I needed to find some way to work around the brain seed. I couldn’t let Lady Winters keep me from doing what I needed to do.
Something tugged my arm. I jumped, then relaxed when I realized the culprit was Neda. She led me to the garden. Though it took a bit of gesturing and charades to figure out what the child wanted—the flower charm would have been really nice to have—I eventually found myself tending to the date trees along the edge of the river bed. There wasn’t much I could do without knowing more about the particular plants, but I urged the roots to soak up the nutrients more efficiently.
I paused in the middle of my work, touching the place where the flower charm usually rested against my collarbone. Lady Winters would have wanted to destroy this place, would have wanted to make this place hers. Sure, these people weren’t Community, but they didn’t seem like they needed to be changed. Like Cass from the game shop in South Africa, these people were innocent.
I gritted my teeth. Lance and I planned to visit Bahariya as soon as possible to get the components we needed so we could radio one of the nearby rebel teams. Maybe I could convince Amina to let me have the charm back before we left. That way, even without my plant armbands, I’d have some way to protect myself, and to protect them.
Lance held up Inese’s checklist. “I think we’ve got everything.”
I tugged on the light fabric covering my nose and mouth. While I appreciated the headscarf concealing my appearance—and it would have been nice to have during the sandstorm—I’d never been fond of anything covering my nose, especially when the feel of my warm breath against my cheeks felt so similar to having a breath mask strapped on my head... my only means of breathing while floating in a beastie tank—
I took a deep breath and wrapped my fingers around my flower charm. The scarf was just a piece of cloth, not a breath mask. Thankfully, Amina had agreed that having the charm with me might help to alert us if we were about to enter a dangerous situation. Now it was coming in handy. I couldn’t go around checking everyone’s emotions to see who might be a threat without strengthening the brain seed, but it was nice to know I had a backup plan if we got caught in a tight spot.
“New radio casing, check. Encoder, check. Fresh yogurt for Amina, check.” Lance held up the gallon bucket of yogurt and frowned. “We might want to get this back to her before it spoils.”
“All right, let’s head to the jump point,” I agreed. The sooner we got back, the better.
Inese awakened earlier this morning, and even Lily learned a few new curses when Inese saw the car. Inese promptly tore apart the radio, figured out what we needed, and then sent me and Lance to El-Bawiti, in Bahariya. At Jamel’s advice, Lance had made multiple portals to get us here. On our way, we passed fields of irrigation circles with tall green wheat that stood out against the sand dunes and the blue sky, and then several mud huts that spread out in the expanse before the actual city, each home more elegant than the one we were staying at. Finally, we had come to a large but surprisingly empty city, despite the number of camels on the outskirts with a particular interest in sniffing my shoulders.
I guessed they wanted the scarf, because I most definitely didn’t have my vines on me. I wasn’t going to have my vines back until we returned to the airship and I could get new clippings.
Lance leaned in close. “From the way Jamel talked, I thought this place would be busier.”
A few men passed us, but they kept their heads down and avoided eye contact. Even the bazaar was empty, and we’d had a hard time finding a place that sold the parts we needed for the radio.
I nodded and slowed my pace. There was the slightest movement of someone stepping away from the edge of the roof. Most of the rooftops were empty, but on one, a shadow knelt with a rifle, gazing over the city. “Uh, Lance?” I tugged his sleeve. “There’s someone up there.”
I considered my flower charm, and their emotions flooded through me. Controlled... watchful...
They were searching for someone.
Lance pulled me around the side of a three-story building, checking that no one was listening. “We should get out of here.”
“We can’t make a portal; they might see us. Or you, anyway.” The headscarf concealed me, but Lance’s identity was clear, even if he didn’t carry his swords with him. Lance started to say something, and then we both froze as a shadow passed overhead.
“Keep moving,” he whispered.
We hurried to the next street. It was empty, and now that I’d noticed the first gunman, I saw others. The charm pressed against my collarbone, insistent that they were all searching. I considered trying to prod them for an answer, but sunlight glinted off the armor of one, revealing the Lady of the Cog on his shoulder.
Trying to use outright telepathy on them would be a bad idea. These guys were probably trained to know when someone was trying to manipulate them. Right now, I was only going for surface feelings, and even that was probably a good way to get caught.
“They’re Special Forces,” I said.
“Got it.” We slowed to stilted walk. “Any idea of what to do if we’re seen?”
“Double portal—”
Across the street, a whole cluster of Special Forces agents gathered under a little terrace with fluttering red and black flags and elegant wrought-iron tables. A few stood with their rifles at ready, while most sat at the tables, horribly out of place in their shiny body armor. More unusual?
They all held delicate teacups.
In the center, with only two people at the table, sat Commander Rick. Though he wore his regal attire, he also wore a safari hat and he proudly sipped his tea. His sapphire pendant glinted in the afternoon light. On the other side, a young man with sandy hair uncomfortably swirled the contents of his cup.
My jaw dropped. Tim was here? What in the Community was he doing? He’d given us the general location of the time stones and then gone back to—
My heart sank, and I could almost hear Lady Winters laughing at me, chiding me for my foolishness. Tim had given us the location of the time stones. We had retrieved one, and now they were here.
Those gunmen were looking for us.
