Chapter 148

All the Nekura stood straight up, silently responding to something. Thom and Henry stood at the ready, their postures still guarded, their weapons still drawn.

All at once the Nekura turned to the coastline. Their attention was demanded elsewhere. Without a sound they flew toward the water’s edge.

“Look, Dad, they’re just . . . leaving.”

“Hm,” Thom said and rubbed his chin. “That’s strange.” He shook his head. “I don’t like this.”

“They just turned and ran,” Henry said. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“I agree.”

“What do you think?”

“I think we need to find your mom and Charley and leave.”

“We should start by looking through this scrap pile. The Nekura were frantic about it until they left.”

Thom and Henry ran to the disarrayed pile of containers lying on the ground. They started to search through the wreckage. Henry used his bo staff as a lever to pry the containers up.

“Do you see anything?” Henry asked.

“No.”

“Keep looking. We have to find what they were after.”

They looked through the pyramid of containers, opening and closing doors. Charley and Dawn were still missing.

“I’m sure we’ve searched through this entire pile,” Thom said. “I think I’ve personally looked through every container twice.”

“I know. I’ve looked under every piece of metal. The girls aren’t here, and neither is the furnace.”

“But why were the Nekura so insistent on tearing this pyramid apart?”

Henry hopped down from the container he stood on. He opened its latch and swung the door open, using the light from his staff to illuminate the inside of the container.

It was barren.

With a sigh, Henry closed the door. He glanced around the wreckage, wondering where to go next, but took a step back when he heard something inside the empty container in front of him. It was the same one he had just looked in.

The door burst open and Charley ran out.

Seeing her was like seeing an apparition. Henry was dumfounded.

Charley flung herself into Henry and hugged him.

“Henry! Thom!” she said, “I found the furnace! I was in a large stone room with pillars and torches and it was in there!”

Henry processed the information, scrolling through hidden databases he didn’t know he had. “That’s the Narthex of Light,” Henry said. He surprised himself. “I know it. I think it’s one of those implanted memories. You got the furnace?”

Charley grinned and nodded.

She took her backpack off and set it on the ground. She opened the zipper and reached in to pull out the delicate blue tulip.

“Whoa,” Henry said. His eyes drunk up the image. He watched the fire lap inside the petals, and it felt like the flames leapt through his eyes and scorched his mind. Something felt different inside him, like something had unlocked, or maybe burned away. “It looks like the flower is burning on the inside. Dad, what do you think? Dad?”

Thom was gazing at the shoreline where the Nekura retreated. They had all vanished. He looked stoic, staring off at the water.

“Do you know where Dawn is?” Charley asked Thom.

“I think so.” Thom’s voice was ominous.

“Is she in trouble?” Henry asked. Panic rose in his chest.

Thom didn’t answer. He just hung his head.

Henry looked at the soft blue tulip in his hand. A shred of ice nestled again in the base of his skull.

He couldn’t afford that price—not if the price for the furnace was his mother.

Thom set his face and began walking to the edge of the water.

“Come on,” he said. “This isn’t over yet.”