Fighting for Infinity (28 page)

POINT OF RETURN

Maryah

The entire kindrily stood around us, awaiting directions.

“What now?” Nathan asked me
as he finished tightening my bulletproof vest.

“I’m not sure. Evelyn said we had to find a beyul, some hidden valley. She said I had been there before.” I clutched my Howlite, hoping it would spark a memory.

Nathan’s head lifted, and he stared at something behind me. “It’s there, through that narrow pass.”

“What?”
The temperature was much warmer now that we were in the foothills of the mountain, but I still put on my coat. “How do you know that?”

“I saw it wh
en we landed.” Nathan slid another vest over Rina’s head. “I’ve been BASE jumping from these mountains for a decade. I know every lake, mountain, peak, and valley. The beyul is an area of flat land, circled by mountains. From above, it looks like a lotus flower. I’ve tried landing there many times, but whenever I’d get close, the wind would pick up and push me away.” He helped Rina shrug her coat back on. “I tried traversing there so I could explore it, but I’d only end up somewhere nearby, then I’d hike toward it but lose all sense of direction and end up lost.”

Rina
held my hand. The Howlite warmed against my other palm. I stepped back as a memory struck me like lightning.

I was in a breathtaking temple. A light figure sat across from me. Her soul spoke to mine.

Existing in the center of eight mountains is a temple with four doorways, and at the top, a gateway to the stars, to our world, to any point in time, to any point in infinity. The bridge between us is narrow, vulnerable, yet almost impenetrable, unless the stones are used together as a key. Meru must be protected. We must thrive forever. If it were to be overtaken, tainted by darkness, the universe would weep in such a cosmic way that the stars would never shine again. Countless souls would be lost forever.”

Nathan’s hand touching mine snapped me out of the memory. “This entire lifetime, I’ve been drawn to these mountains, and I never understood why, but now it’s clear.” He smoothed down Rina’s hair. “My soul knew she was here even though my mind didn’t know she existed.”

Rina flashed him a warming smile that only a daughter could give a father.

Nathan’s finger rubbed against my naked thumb. “Where’s your ring?”

“I used it to distract Dedrick so we could jump from the mountain.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “Used it how? Where is it?”

“I threw it into the snow.”

His
jaw dropped. Carson lurched forward. “You threw away the starstone?”

“It was a decoy. The stars
tone wasn’t in my ring.”

“It wasn’t?” Carson, Mister Wise Scion, looked stunned that he had finally—and much to my satisfaction—been wrong about something. “So where is it?”

“Helicopter,” Nathan said, alerting us. “They’re coming.”

I couldn’t hear it yet, but he always heard everything before anyone else.

“Come on,” Rina said. “Let’s get to the beyul before they do.”

“Wait.” I sat down and unlaced my boots.

“What are you doing?” Nathan asked.

“Switching shoes with Rina.”

“Why?”

“Just trust me.”
I squeezed my feet into the hiking shoes Evelyn had given Rina. Rina pulled on Harmony’s shin-high boots. I stood and waved my fingers at Carson. “Give us some guns.”

His brows
rose. “Do you even know how to shoot a gun?”

“Yes, just give me two of the lightest ones.”

He pulled two black handguns from his backpack and gave them to me. They felt cold and heavy. I shivered as I thought about having to shoot them, but then I reminded myself some bullets do more good than harm.

I stuck the lighter of the two
guns in the back of Rina’s pants. I grabbed a dagger from Harmony’s shoulder holster and slid that into Rina’s boot. “Ready?”

She shook her head. “We need Mikey.”

Amber pivoted, turning Mikey away from us. “Why?”

“I promise, he won’t be hurt.” I held out my hands, reaching for him. “We need his ability.”

Amber pulled Mikey’s hat further down his head, making sure his ears were protected from the cold, then she kissed his cheek and handed him to me.

Rina held his tiny hand. I focused on the new skill Rina had taught me.

Together, with the rest of the kindrily, we hiked to the battleground. All of us were cloaked with Mikey’s gift of invisibility.

∞

No wind blew. No sun shined. The path between the mountains was eerily void of sound and color. Even our footsteps were quiet. So many shoes plodding through the snow should have made a lot of crunching noise, but it was as if we walked soundlessly on clouds.

“Do they know?” I whispered to Nathan. “About Rina?”

Judging from the way everyone had been staring at Rina, and glancing at me with pity and curiosity, I suspected they did. 

“Yes. I told everyone on the flight here.”

“What did they say?”

He grinned and lowered his voice. “Mixed reactions. Harmony is suspicious. She says Gregory would have remembered an event that significant.”

I peered down at Rina between us. She undoubtedly heard him, but she kept focused straight ahead, marching toward the enemy. We had lost our sunglasses during the fall. I worried Rina’s eyes might be overly sensitive to daylight. “Rina, can you see okay? Do you need to borrow sunglasses from someone?”

“Nope. I can see just fine.”

Rounding a blind corner of sky-high rock, we reached our destination.

Mountains towered above us on all sides, but the beyul was a flat stretch of land with no snow. People stood around, their eyes focused on the mountains. Not peop
le—Nefariouns, with their snakelike gazes awaiting their commander’s arrival.

Nathan motioned for everyone behind us to stop.

“They’re already here,” Rina whispered.

“I see them.”

Rina pulled me closer. “Not his soldiers. The stones.”

My eyes darted to Dedrick’s army scattering the land. “Where?”

She pointed to the mountain to the left of us. “South.” Then at the mountain adjacent to it. “North.” Across from us, about halfway up the mountain’s base, a subtle glint of red winked at me as if the mountain itself were watching us. “West.” Her thumb jerked over her shoulder. “And East. They’ve already placed them in their keyholes.”

“That cannot be good,” Nathan said.

We all watched as the helicopter landed in the beyul. Dedrick jumped out of the passenger seat before the engine shut down. He shouted directions to some of the Nefariouns as he proceeded to the center of the beyul. He kneeled, held my ring up to the sky, and then placed it on the ground. He joined his hands together in a prayer position and waited.

Rina lifted her face skyward. Her blue eyes gleamed like
waves of the ocean at sunrise. “That’s my cue.”

A beam of pink light radiated down from the sky and lit up the ground in front of Dedrick. The ring levitated.
Rina’s powers continued to astound me.

I bent close to her ear. “Rina, are you sure about this?”

She nodded and pressed her finger to her lips.

The ring lifted, higher and higher until it rose above the mountains and clouds, and could no longer be seen. 

Everyone except Dedrick stood, their chins lifted, eyes to the sky, waiting for something epic and magical to happen.

An explosion, like a firework that splayed rays of every possible color, parted the clouds and shook the ground. I spread my feet wider, trying to keep my balance.

A swirling flame shot out of the Firestone, the flame stretched long and wide across the valley until it melded with the pink beam shooting down from the sky. Blue light poured from the Waterstone like a wave of water. What looked like brown dust spiraled from the Earthstone. From the mountain behind us, one long white stream of fog billowed from the Airstone and met at the intersection of the center of the beyul.

When they all joined together, the elemental tunnels of light burned so brightly, I had to shield my eyes.

Each unique form of energy spread high and wide, forming towering walls of light that enclosed the beyul. Shimmering, pulsing, moving walls of red, blue, brown, and white surrounded us.

In the blue wall of the Waters
tone’s light, ghostly images of sea life swam as if it were a real ocean. In the Firestone’s wall of red, a massive white sun wrapped its rays around orbiting planets. Silhouettes of plants, trees, people, and animals scrolled across the Earthstone’s ethereal screen. Birds, butterflies, leaves, and a dozen other flying objects flew through the Airstone’s skyscraping tower of clouds.

I could even smell different scents as I focused on each element. Saltwater, the musty smell of dirt and fresh grass, the burning of wood, winter air chilling my sinuses.

Rina had given me the Cliffs Notes version of what would happen, but just like in school, the summary had left me unprepared. Seeing the real thing left me slack-jawed and spellbound.

The elemental walls around us flexed and quivered.

Dedrick bowed forward, kissing the ground. A glowing orb fell from the sky, hurdling toward him, but then dipped just before it landed and flew directly at us.

I held out my hand like Rina had told me to do. The ring gently slid onto my finger, still shimmering and changing colors.

“They’re here!” Dedrick shouted. “They’re invisible!”

Rina released my hand, and our kindrily’s veil of invisibility lifted.

“Thomas!” Dedrick jumped to his feet. “The shield!”

A bubble of translucent light formed around Dedrick’s entire army.

Rina’s explanation from our earlier training echoed in my mind.
No one can get through Thomas’s shields. Unless he allows it.

We expected a fight. Even though Dedrick and the Nefariouns were shielded, we still planned that someone, with some terrible ability, would try to harm at least one, if not all of us. But instead, Dedrick shouted one word, one name, and we instantly froze. 

Dedrick’s paralyzer immobilized us.

Dedrick rushed forward, but he was burned by an unseen force. He leapt back, touching his face and arms as if making sure they were still there. He slowly reached forward, and his finger was burned again.

Star power will trump his magic
, Rina had said.

Directly down the center of the valley, stretching tall and wide, separating us and the Nefariouns, stood a multicolored wall of starlight he couldn’t cross.

Dedrick called to his flame-throwing servant and directed her to penetrate it. Fire burst from her fingers as she blowtorched the air, but it did nothing except make the barrier swirl with shades of yellow and orange. She tried crossing through, but she was also burned.

If I hadn’t been paralyzed, I would have smiled.

Dedrick turned to his paralyzer. “Allow the one with the ring to speak, but nothing more.”

My lips parted as I blinked my eyes.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Dedrick asked me. “How long do you suppose this parlor trick will last? And once this force field dissipates, then what? How will you protect your beloved cattle herd from being slaughtered right before your eyes?”

“Look at all the power I have at my disposal.”
He motioned to his Nefariouns. “Shall I burn your kindrily to death? Crush their skulls? Strip them of their skin with ancient tools? Which method of torture will you choose for them, dear, foolish Maryah?”

“That barrier is nothing I have created,” I said. “No one can enter or cross that sacred s
pace unless they have the starstone.”

Dedrick cackled. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that.”

“Believe what you want. It’s the truth.” I didn’t feel bad lying to Dedrick. In fact, it felt good. Rina’s wall of star energy was even more impressive than how she described it to me.

“Is that so?” Dedrick snapped his fingers. “Bring me Evelyn and River.”

Two of the Nefariouns removed Evelyn and River from the back of the helicopter. They were both gagged with their arms tied behind their backs. Evelyn’s knees gave out and her head fell forward—she was obviously drugged—but the Neanderthal continued to drag her.

“If I shove your friend River into the divider, he’ll burn, correct?”

“Please don’t!” I tried to sound worried, but Rina had assured me she could control who or what the wall hurt.

“This should be fun to witness.” Dedrick grabbed River by the back of his neck. “Enjoy the blazing pain.”

He shoved River forward so hard that River tripped and tumbled to the ground. River rolled into the starlight, passing through to our side. He groaned while tugging and pulling at his wrist restraints, but he couldn’t break free. None of us could move to help him.