Dreadknot, p.10
Dreadknot, page 10
“It’s cute,” said James, giving me a thumbs up. “You’re really pulling it off.”
“You’re not lying to make me feel better, are you?” I took a deep breath. Her saccharine grin was a little too wide for comfort. “I’m still mad at you. Just because you got attacked by a sea snake doesn’t mean this is over.”
“I’ll make it up to you?” She had the distinct look of a late-night TV host pretending his slipup wasn’t scripted. “I’m here to help.”
“Great.” I ran my hand through my too-short hair. “Then why don’t I go see what they’re up to? Alien cultures and all.”
“Can do!” With that, she dashed away toward the others.
“Do I... really look okay?” I asked, turning to Zander, who couldn’t have beamed brighter unless he was in active nucleosynthesis. He gently brushed my hair behind my ears, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.
“You look radiant, my star,” he said, and my heart fluttered as it always did at his touch.
Miro cleared his throat, and the flutters shut right the hell up.
“We’d best be going,” he said. “My selves are tired, and we have a long way back to the village.”
Selves? Miro didn’t explain further, and the other people weren’t clones or robots—at least at first glance—so maybe I had misheard.
Blayde turned around, her face reverting to some odd neutrality, which we only occasionally saw from her. “How long...?” she asked.
“It’s been seven cycles, almost to the day, since you walked into the sand and disappeared,” said Miro. Had I imagined it or did his voice just waver? “It is good to see you so well, Slash.”
Slash—the name from the memory. So, this was someone she’d known from before, someone who’d known her well enough to not only give her a nickname but survive giving her a nickname. I looked at Zander for answers, but he carried his frown like a boulder. Blayde, however, had a face red as a hot chili pepper. She turned away from all of us.
“Let’s talk.” She strode off into the sand, Miro close at her heels.
“Great.” Zander sighed heavily. “Another goodbye. I thought we’d be so good together after falling for you all over again in Da-Duhui.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
He gently lifted a corner of Sven’s lifeless head. “What? This jacket was wonderful. Enough pockets for everything. It’s absolutely–-no, was absolutely—fantastic. And now...”
He reached down to empty the pockets of the abandoned coat. It felt mildly ironic that Zander would have lost his iconic jacket to the same creature he was wearing now. Circle of life and all.
“Goodbyes are hard,” I said. “Uh, don’t you think it’s a little odd between Miro and Blayde?”
“Odd?”
“She’s so... I dunno, off?”
“Wait, you don’t know yet, do you?” He frowned, still avoiding eye contact, distracted by pulling items out of his coat pockets. So many crayons. “Miro is Blayde’s ex.”
“Her ex?” I asked. “Before or after Jurrah?”
“Before. So long before neither of us can remember them. Which is pretty awkward, considering Miro is Blayde’s ex-spouse.”
Chapter Eight
The Desert Is a Great Place to Unearth the Past
“What do you mean, ex-spouse? Blayde was married? When? How?”
That Blayde could ever remain still enough to get married was impossibly far-fetched. Finding anyone who could keep up with her? Even more so. Maybe matrimony didn’t mean the same thing in the Sands as on Earth.
Zander stood up and brushed his knees. While he had finished paying his respects to his fallen jacket, the sadness on his face still lingered. “I have no idea. Still can’t remember.”
“Then how do you know he’s her ex?” I asked.
“They. And she told me.”
“When?”
“Right now.”
“Oh, with her eyebrows?”
He nodded. “She was brief, just ‘Used to be married; be nice.’”
I stared at Blayde across the sand where she was caressing Miro’s hands. They stared into her eyes in a way I’d never seen anyone do before. Since when could she sit still enough for soulful staring?
“Do you have that feeling she’s not telling us everything?” I asked.
“Well, there’s only so much you can say in two seconds of eyebrow twitching. That, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t remember either.”
“It sure looks like she remembers them.”
“I don’t understand a thing anyone is saying,” said James. She marched up from the group, arms wrapped around her spandex body suit. “But their song is incredibly catchy and stuck in my head. ‘Please, can you step off my foot? Please, can you step off my foot?’”
Dang, we still needed to get James fitted with a translator.
Oblivious, she fixed her eyes on Blayde with the same look of confusion I assumed I had on my own face. “So, who’s this Miro guy, eh? And why is Blayde seducing him?”
“They’re her ex-spouse,” I said. “Apparently.”
James’s face snapped back on us, mouth wide.
“Spouse?” she squeaked.
“Ex-spouse,” said Zander. “It’s complicated, and that’s all I know.”
“This is weird. Do you think it was an amicable split? Wow, hand on the chest. Does she have a thing for chest hair?”
“Oh, come on,” he said. “They believed she was...I dunno, ascended for seven years. Let them reconnect.”
“She’s not going to waste time, is she?” said James. “We’ve got places to be, some strange, entire-universe-encapsulating-doom to stop. This isn’t the time for reconnecting with old beaus.”
“I hate to say this, but I agree,” I said. “As much as I’m thrilled Blayde has a lead on her past, we need to get back to tracking down the Dread.”
“Do you feel the Dread here?” asked Zander. “No? Exactly. This place is odd. Investigating with a guide is a hundred times better than nothing, even if they were once married to my sister.”
“Or maybe it’s just because we’re in the distant past pre-Dread?” I suggested. “We should go right away.”
Blayde appeared at James’s side, making her jump. “Miro’s invited us for dinner.”
Lovely how the universe listens to me. I heaved a heavy sigh. “We don’t have the time, Blayde. We need to get back to investigating the Dread.”
“Oh, Miro has all the answers. We’ll be going tomorrow.”
I practically choked on my own saliva. “Hold on, going where? Not the source of the—”
“No, of course not. Just the place with answers. Miro’s ancestors’ temple of some kind. I apparently went there during my initiation, though I can’t remember any of it.”
Of course. Because we couldn’t just ask Miro to explain, no.
Blayde spun on her heels, sending sand flying, and marched back to Miro. She was a natural here, her stride confident on the shifting sand, like she had been born and raised on this planet. She joined the others as they traded shriveled fish-like creatures and lengths of rope.
“I’m not sure I like this Miro.” James shuddered. “There’s something eerie about them.”
“Oh, right,” said Zander. “First hive mind, I take it? Just be polite. You’ll get used to it fast.”
“Hive mind? Like bees?” asked James since I was too busy gasping and choking on confusion to ask for myself.
“No, not like bees,” he scoffed. “And how do you know about the bees?”
“What do you mean? Earth has bees!”
“Earth has...” Zander shook his head. “Well, it had to happen eventually. You might need to start looking into investing in high-quality goggles. Anyway, no, not like bees. Bees are individuals with the same goal in mind. Miro is a hundred or so individuals with the same mind. They can act individually, but all parts are of the same whole. They’re just the same person, all at once.”
“And Blayde was married to them all?” I asked. “How does that even work?”
“Very carefully, I suppose.”
“Are they single now?”
“No, I think they’re many.”
He grinned a cheeky grin. Thanks, Zander. It was easier to process the strangeness of a hive mind when he was around making stupid jokes about them. I loved that about him. No matter how weird the universe got, he was always willing and eager to be my anchor.
“So, what happens when they’re away from their village?” James asked Zander. “Do the other... selves just fall asleep until Miro gets back?”
He cringed. “They’re people, Felling. They don’t have a range.”
“I get that,” said James. Her face reddened. “I just thought...”
“It’s an innocent question.” The body that Blayde had introduced to us, Miro Prime I suppose, joined us. “I am not a ‘we.’ My mind is simply balanced over multiple bodies.”
“No matter where I am in the universe,” said another, “my selves still think as one. I am just really good at multitasking.”
In unison, the selves gave an overly dramatic wink, which would have been funny if it didn’t clench my gut. Zander translated for James as she watched, hugging her middle tighter.
“Blayde tells me we need to take a detour before returning to the village,” said Miro Prime. “Have any of you flown on a madrags before?” We shook our heads. “Well, you’ll have to learn fast. There’s no other way to the temple.”
One of the selves handed Blayde a large, plump fish-like creature, as well as a sturdy rope that she wrapped around both hands, pulling it taut. In front of her, Miro Prime took a step into an empty patch of sand, leaning down to place the palm of their hand on the ground. Then, with swift, precise movements, they tossed their fish high into the air and jumped—just as a freaking pterodactyl burst from beneath their feet.
I’m proud I didn’t scream at the sight of it.
Just as it caught the fish in mid-air, Miro Prime deftly leapt onto its back, jamming the rope into its open mouth, and they were off, soaring into the air as one.
I would have been awed if I hadn’t realized what that meant for me.
“What is that?” James gasped, but before she could get an answer, Blayde grabbed her arm and dashed into the sand. She tossed the fish high, leaping in the air and grabbing her creature around the neck as it shot upward, forcing James to clamber up after her. James’s wide, wild eyes were the last thing I saw before they flew up after Miro, leaving me gaping on the ground.
Miro’s other selves tossed their fish-things in the air, swiftly roping their transport and riding their beasties into the sky. Individual parts of the same being working as one, like an octopus with its many legs—except if those legs weren’t connected to their body and each had a different face.
“I guess we’re flying,” said Zander, staring sadly at the coat he was leaving behind.
He wrapped the rope in his hands, and we stepped forward. Suddenly, my head was full of sounds—waves, voices, calls—and I could feel the soft thrum of life through my feet. The sand was conducting sound right through my bones. I could hear everything that moved beneath me, a beast passing in the depths, drilling through the sand like a bullet through its target.
The instant Zander threw the fish, our beast flew up and through the sand, right into Zander’s rope. I looped my arms around his waist and together we shot into the air, pressed against its rough, leathery hide. It rushed to catch up with the rest of the flock that was already so far ahead. The head, the beak, the neck, everything was long, as if stretched, leaving us like fleas hitching a ride on a dog. I ducked behind Zander’s back to avoid the wind.
I watched through narrowed eyes as the desert flashed beneath us, taking deep breaths to keep the ol’ vertigo at bay. Endless sand flew past us, unblemished by cities or roads. It was only broken by a hard border of blue. We had returned to the seaside.
We kept flying, the flock pulling us across the ocean, miles and miles and miles of emerald green. My nose burned with the musky scent of the water, salty and sweet at the same time. Until finally—land. A single freckle of it in an otherwise endless sea, just as flat as the rest.
In unison, the riders slipped the muzzles off their mounts. The creatures nosedived toward the island. Shit, they couldn’t be serious. Anxiety pulsed through my veins, and my stomach twisted into knots that even a Boy Scout couldn’t untangle. Zander shifted back, giving me more of his torso to cling to. But maybe it wasn’t fear that I felt. Maybe it was something else. Something more like elation was pulsing through me, like the beat of a living heart. Something powerful and old, as if it were there in hiding all along.
This was what it meant to feel alive.
I pulled my head away from the safety of Zander’s back, feeling the rush of wind in my face, and forced myself to embrace it. Blayde shot downward past us, hooting as she dove, her hair billowing like a multicolored flame flaring behind her and whipping at James’s face. Now we were falling after her with nothing but the wind to cradle us. It ripped my screams from my lips before they could burst into the world. We were gravity’s bitches, pulled toward the island like soap dropped in the shower.
Flash. I was back in Da-Duhui, falling down, down, down past the highway of cars, lost and getting farther from my anchor with every foot. Only this time I wasn’t falling through traffic but a flock. Flash. This time I was back in NYC, tumbling toward Central Park after yelling at Killian ambassadors who were trying to recover their lost ship. But I had a handle on that fear and clutched it, remembering how far I’ve come from the darkness there.
Blayde flung herself off her beast mere seconds before it dove into the sand. Zander did the same, pulling me off with him. We rolled in a tangled mess as we hit the ground. It felt like I had tried to squeeze into the tightest Spanx I owned. The shortest and wildest ride of my life, and I’d once ridden a tiger. I stared up at the brilliant blue sky, the weight of a million suns bearing down on my chest.
I’d done it. I’d landed. I was safe.
Well, safe on an island in the middle of the ocean with nothing—and certainly no temples—for miles around. I sat up and gazed out at the flat expanse of sea. Nope, still nothing. The island couldn’t have been more than a hundred meters in diameter. Miro had potentially taken us out here for some quiet murder. There certainly were enough of their selves to even the odds.
Zander hopped up on his feet, planting his arms on his hips, and scanned the horizon. James joined him, taking a similar pose.
“So, where do you think this temple is?” She reached an arm toward me, but I pushed it away, clambering up on my own.
“Still mad at you.” I brushed the sand from my new clothes. “But maybe it’s a metaphor?”
She groaned. “What, the temple is our own unfulfilled goals? Will that help us stop the Dread?”
“Pipe down, agent,” said Blayde. “You’ll scare it away.”
“Scare what? The temple?” I asked.
“It doesn’t like it when people talk behind its back,” she explained. “Now be polite. It won’t show unless we promise it some lovely company.”
I glanced over at Zander, but he didn’t elaborate on her vague mysticisms. Judging by how high his brows were raised, he was as confused as I was. “Is the temple... a person?”
“No,” she scoffed. “Why would it be? It just likes to party, that’s all.”
And speaking of party, that’s exactly what Miro was setting up for us. The temperature dropped dramatically as the sun began to set, but the otherworldly sunset made up for it. Two moons took its place in the sky, bright and white and friendly enough. Miro’s many selves had started a roaring campfire in the dead center of the island, surrounding it with mats for sitting. Some of the selves pulled out pieces of chopped-up Sven and started cooking him, while others were breaking out drinks and instruments. They worked fast, moving as one.
“Slash,” said one of them, leading Blayde toward Miro Prime. All their selves were grinning wildly as they watched her with soft eyes. “Tonight, we celebrate your return from the wilds.”
Blayde blushed, sitting down beside Miro Prime on the mat of honor. We followed close behind, the moderately welcomed relatives.
“We’ll have music! And drink! And a feast!” Miro Prime continued. “We’ll invite the temple to join in the celebration!”
Live music was provided by a band of Miros singing in perfect harmony. Selves carried leaves from mat to mat, topped high with what I’m pretty sure was roasted Sven. With nothing else to eat, I was forced to taste. He turned out to be tangy in a sweet-and-sour kind of way, fibrous like a carrot.
“Has anyone explained about the temple yet?” asked James. “As much as I’d love to party, we are on a mission here.”
I should have been the one saying that. I frowned into my Sven. And here I had been worried James would get side-tracked by alien life.
“I told you the temple only shows itself if the mood is right. So, loosen up and party a little!” Blayde handed her a waterskin, swishing it around provocatively. Miro Prime said nothing, watching her with soft eyes. “Have a drink or something. The success of this mission depends on it.”
Zander and I exchanged quick glances. The gist of it seemed to be that Blayde had indigestion, but that couldn’t be it, could it? Something was up with her, and it was more than meeting with Miro.
“You realize I’m not like you, right?” said James, raising an eyebrow. “I do get drunk.”
“All part of the temple summoning,” said Blayde. “But fine, you do you.”
“The temple doesn’t like it when you over imbibe,” said Miro Prime, but Blayde wasn’t listening. She guzzled down at least half of that waterskin without taking a breath. Her face flushed, but she went back for the second half, not breaking eye contact with James.
Zander ripped it from her hands. “That’s quite enough of that.”
