Aeralis (20 page)

The worn stones and rusted steel of the city began to give way to wide thoroughfares lined with gas streetlamps. Borde followed us without a word, but his eyes widened as we passed stone walls and coach houses. Finally, the pointed gables and arching windows of Korr’s estate appeared from the mist as we rounded the final corner, and I exhaled in relief. Almost there. We slipped inside the yard just as the sun began to rise amid the rainclouds.

“Hurry,” I urged, quickening my pace. “We don’t want to be seen.”

Once inside, we ascended the staircase and went straight to the library. As soon as the door clicked shut, I turned to face the scientist, my mouth full of questions and my heart full of hope.

“Tell me everything,” Borde begged. “How do you know about the device? What do you know?”

A startled gasp cut me off, and I turned to see Aaron standing in the shadows of the room, looking dazed.

“I was waiting for you to return,” he said to me, his voice trailing off as he stared at Borde. “I must have dozed off... Meridus?”

“Aaron,” Borde said, delight filling his voice. They embraced each other with a familiarity and ease that made my chest clench with abrupt and bewildering envy.

“I returned and you were gone—”

“They came for you. They took me instead. I gave my name as Falcon.”

I stopped listening to the explanations. I met Adam’s eyes over the tops of their heads. He nodded to me, and I dragged in a deep breath.

“Please,” I said. “We must talk.”

Borde turned to face me, and his expression faded to a somber one as he glimpsed the look on my face.

I explained tersely what Gordon had done to Ivy, and Borde’s brow darkened with anger. Absently, he rubbed the scars that crisscrossed his face as he listened without comment until I’d finished.

“I believe he’s telling the truth about knowing the cure,” Borde said. “Gordon escaped shortly after you left my time, and he began working for another facility. The reports from that place said they had found a breakthrough, but by then, it was too late for it to matter.”

“So you know the cure? You’ll help me?”

“I do not know the cure for the Sickness,” Borde said.

Breathe. I sucked in air, forcing myself to push through the disappointment threatening to swallow me whole. “And now soldiers have taken the device.” Despair swirled around me, threatening to drown me. Everything I’d done, I’d done for my family’s safety and welfare. Now I would lose them both, despite every effort I’d made, despite traveling to Aeralis, leaving the Thorns, dealing with Korr, breaking into a prison camp, searching and finding Borde...

“What if we fake the device? Create a replica. You know what it looks like. You can help us.”

“Gordon will want to see it work before he does anything for you,” the scientist said.

A sob stuck in my throat, choking me. I turned toward the window. Adam was beside me in the next moment, his hands finding my shoulders. My eyes burned and my body shook as I let him fold me to him.

A single idea pushed through the sorrow, a solitary nudge against the frozen crust of defeat that was already forming in my thoughts. I raised my head.

“Soldiers took the Alice device. So I assume the device has been taken to the Dictator’s palace?” I asked.

Borde and Aaron looked at me, uncomprehending. Adam’s hands stilled on my back.

“Borde?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “It would have been taken there. He has scientists who would study it.”

“You need the device so badly you’d travel through time to retrieve it. I need Gordon to think I’m giving it to him so he’ll heal my brother and sister. Surely we can come to an agreement of mutual assistance.”

Borde stared at me, his mouth slightly open. “Go on.”

“What if we could somehow get the device back from the palace? Korr is plotting a revolution, after all. That should count for something.”

Borde shook his head. “As soon as word of a coup reaches the ears of those who guard such a device, I fear they will destroy it.”

“Not if we can get it before they know what’s happening.”

~

I headed for the library, where I would meet Adam and Borde to discuss our plans for linking the gate and the PLD. The timing would be delicate, as both would need to be activated in order for a successful jump to take place.

The faint, harsh murmur of voices made me pause outside the conservatory. Gabe’s voice. He sounded troubled.

“I didn’t do it,” a female voice insisted.

Clara
.

Gabe’s reply was too low to hear.

I crept closer to the door and hesitated. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but I needed to be sure he was doing what he’d promised. She’d sold us out to the Dictator, and because of her, Jonn and Ivy’s lives still hung in the balance. If he wouldn’t deal with her, I would.

Footsteps rang out, and Clara slipped through the door. She almost collided with me as she rushed past without a word. Gabe appeared a moment after. His shoulders slumped as he caught sight of me. “You heard?”

I didn’t reply. I looked at him, the question apparent on my face.

“I did as you asked,” he growled, and started past me.

“Don’t,” I snapped, grabbing his sleeve. “Don’t play the martyr with me. My siblings might die because of what she did. Be glad she’s walking away from this.”

He pulled his arm away and stalked down the hall.

Anger simmered in my veins. I headed for the library. Inside, Adam, Borde, Ann, and Aaron waited for me.

“The gate and the portable locomotion device must both be open simultaneously for a jump to be successful,” Borde explained after we’d all gathered. “However, the PLD is not able to remain active indefinitely, at least not by its own power. But there might be a way for me to temporarily work around this problem. According to Gabe, Korr is already in possession of a device I invented that will let us connect the PLD to another power source. He received it from a spy who found it in the Echlos ruins.”

“Who stole it from a Thorns operative,” Adam corrected with a frown.

I shot a glance at him. Why hadn’t I heard about this?

“Nevertheless, we have it now,” Borde said. “I must examine it further, but I think it can be done. After that, I’ll journey to Echlos and activate the gate there. As it’s still connected to its power source, it should be able to run almost indefinitely...” He broke off, muttering to himself and scribbling in the air with his fingers, as if etching plans on a giant, invisible chalkboard.

“I’ll return with Borde to Iceliss once you’ve got it sorted out,” I said.

“I want to come with you, too,” Ann said.

Adam nodded at me to show that he too would accompany us.

We looked at Aaron. He looked at Borde as if for help.

“I need him to remain here,” Borde said. “To manage the PLD. Besides, Korr still thinks he’s Falcon.”

“Yes,” Aaron agreed hastily. “That might be best.”

He didn’t want to face Jonn and Ivy. A dull resentment burned briefly in my chest, but I shoved it away. There was no time for those feelings now.

“Let me know when you’re ready to leave,” I said.

~

The wind whipped tendrils from my braid and made them dance around my face. The horse beneath me snorted and strained at the bit, wanting to run with the scent of the earth and grass that teased his nostrils. Adam rose beside me, and as Astralux disappeared into the mist behind us, he pulled a pale blue cloak from his pack and wrapped it about his shoulders before handing another to me.

The faintest scent of ice rode on the wind, and I tasted the promise of bone-shattering cold. Excitement hummed in my veins.

We were returning to the Frost.

TWENTY-ONE

SNOW FELL FROM the sky, swirling around my cheeks and sticking to the edges of my cloak. The path before us glimmered with melting ice and the storm-blown petals of the snow blossoms that lined the edges of the forest. The colors swirled and melted together as the wind made the flowers and branches of the trees dance amid the fall of fresh snow. Everything was gray and white and green and blue.

“A spring snow,” I explained to Borde, who craned his neck to see everything above and around him. “We’re in the Thaw, so it won’t stick for long.” The words left my lips in a plume of white. Cold bit my ears and fingers, and the feeling was painful pleasure.

I was home.

But something had changed. The wilderness around me retained its wild, stark beauty, but the edge of gritty doom had been removed, bathed instead with the comfort of safety. The light bathing the woods glowed. The once-desperate hiss of the wind over the icy rocks now sounded like soft chimes. Instead of claws of fear digging into my stomach, I felt peace.

Everything had changed since we’d driven out the Aeralian soldiers, since we’d unlocked the secrets of the Watchers, since we’d made it safe for our people to travel the Frost. I just hadn’t felt it until I’d left and returned.

“I recognize this place!” Borde shouted as we reached the hill that looked over Iceliss. He turned to me with an expression of utter astonishment, and I tried to see the village below from his eyes. The weathered stone, cracked and stained from centuries of exposure to the harsh elements, stood amid the steel remnants of the Farther occupation. Snow blossoms bloomed in a protective ring around the town and adorned the Cages leading to the gate. In the streets, men and women clad in cloaks of blue, gray, and white scurried between the houses. Snow trickled from the sky and painted everything a soft, pale color as curls of smoke reached up from the houses, gray mingling with gray.

We dismounted at the gate. People murmured and whispered as they caught sight of us. No one said anything, but a few eyes narrowed at the sight of the former Mayor’s daughter.

Borde returned the villagers’ stares with frank curiosity. “Incredible,” he murmured. “Just look at them.”

Adam caught my arm. “Time is limited,” he whispered into my ear. “I can accompany Borde to Echlos. You should find Ivy, see Jonn.”

Make sure he was still alive
, is what he didn’t say. I nodded. My blood was chilly as river water.

“Do you need me to go with you?” Ann asked, laying a hand on my wrist.

“I want to go alone, I think,” I told her. “Go with Adam and Borde.” I looked at Adam. “We can discuss what needs to be done after he’s seen the gate.”

Adam nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and touched my cheek. The brush of his fingers gave me strength.

I watched them ride away, and then I turned in the direction of the house at the highest point in the village, the Mayor’s house.

I needed to see to my brother and sister.

~

The Healer at Jonn’s door lifted his head in surprise at the sight of me. “Bluewing,” he said. “You’ve returned.”

“Have you seen my sister?”

“She’s in the Frost with the Watchers,” he said. “She’ll return before night.”

Irritation flared in me, mingled with fear. How could she continue to wander the Frost alone after what had happened? I took a deep breath. The worst had already happened. I might as well be calm about it.

The Healer studied me, taking in the Frost cloak thrown over my Aeralian garments. His eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t comment. When his eyes returned to mine, I saw the trust in them, despite my new Farther appearance.

I looked at the door, my mouth dry. “Jonn?”

The Healer hesitated, and my stomach fell like a stone.

“Lingering,” he said.

I exhaled. Still alive. Still here. Tears threatened to blur my vision, and I blinked hard. My fingers were clumsy as I fumbled with my cloak, removing it. The hall was too stifling, too hot.

“May I see him?”

The Healer nodded and stepped aside, and I went in.

Stillness wrapped the room in a suffocating blanket. Jonn lay on the bed, his skin the color of ash, his hands like claws on the quilt. Dark hollows made his face look like a skull. His eyes were closed, and his lids trembled as I approached, but he didn’t open them. His mouth twitched as if he were dreaming.

I sank down beside him. It seemed impossible to speak above a whisper. The air felt sacred.

“Jonn?”

His eyelids twitched again as if he’d heard me. Veins bulged across the delicate skin and snaked across his cheeks. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

The anxiety that had long lived in my chest just below my heart began to turn to sheer pain. “Stay,” I panted. “Please stay. Don’t die. Don’t leave me. I’ve done so much, Jonn. Please.”

Silence.

I couldn’t say anything else, so I just sat there, one hand on the quilt inches from his, strangling in my grief.

But Jonn never woke.

Minutes or hours passed. I couldn’t be sure in the gloom of the sickroom silence. I measured time by the number of breaths my brother dragged through his inflamed nostrils, by the number of times his fingers shivered against the blankets. Finally, I rose and went to the door. I had to find my sister. I had to speak to the others. I had to rest.

The Healer stood as I exited.

“He didn’t wake,” I reported dully.

“He never does anymore. It is expected.” The Healer paused. “If there is no intervention found for him, he will not last more than another week or two.”

My chest squeezed. I nodded and left.

The period of contagiousness was long past, so I did not have to burn my clothes. Still, I washed and rewashed my hands in the basin in the room I’d shared with Ivy. Exhaustion made my eyes feel rusty. My bones ached with every movement I made. Going to the bed, I sank onto it and looked at the plaster ceiling.

The door opened, and Ivy rushed in.

“Lia!”

She collided with me in a smack of wind-chapped flesh and a swirl of snow-soaked cloak. I held her back by her shoulders to look at her, and although she seemed thinner and paler than before, she was unchanged in her energy levels.

“How do you feel?”

“I feel just like my old self,” Ivy said, waving a hand dismissively. “They told me you’d returned with Adam and Ann. And a stranger.” Hope blazed on her face. “Who—?”