Horizon (12 page)

Tail or not, he was a real Kampii, too.

He stayed close to the surface in case his breathing shell decided to fail, and tried to pace himself. In the old days, long-distance swimming would have meant hacking and wheezing and stopping repeatedly for breaks. But his body seemed to have no trouble with the distance now. After months of hiking through the desert and the forest and the treetops, maybe the weakling he used to be was gone for good.

After a few kilometers, Hoku started to dodge debris. Plastic, tree branches, metal casings held aloft by their foam interiors. He surfaced and saw the HydroTek dome in the distance, just as Calli described it: broken. Smoking. He couldn’t see any Upgraders from this far away, but he trusted Calli that they were there.

Hoku swam on until he found Aluna and Calli searching the beach and the threshold of the forest for signs of survivors. They’d both gotten there long before him. He stood in the surf, shook the water from his ears, and spit the ocean from his mouth. “Anything?”

“If there were footprints, they’ve long since washed away in the tide,” Calli said. “Or they were carefully erased.”

Hoku walked out of the water and scanned the beach. “It looks like the Upgraders came through the forest over there,” he said, pointing. “See the snapped branches and the opening in the underbrush? They probably had rhinebras pulling their boats, or whatever it was that they used to get to the dome.”

A twig snapped. Hoku turned just in time to see a small gray creature emerge from the tree line and race across the sand, directly at him.

“Zorro!”

The raccoon squealed and leaped into Hoku’s arms. Hoku tried to brace for the impact, but it was no good. Zorro barreled into him with all the power of Big Blue. Hoku tumbled backward onto the sand. Zorro, obviously unconcerned, stood on Hoku’s chest and licked his nose.

“Zorro, did you miss me?” Hoku asked. The raccoon’s eyes glowed green. Hoku scruffled his ears and laughed. Zorro was a mess — dirt and dried blood matted his fur, his normally puffy tail was missing large tufts, and the tip of his left ear had been sliced off. Hoku examined the little guy’s wounds and was relieved to find them all healing. Well, everything except his ear.

Hoku thought Zorro’s front leg had been damaged, but the missing patch of fur turned out to be a small scrap of paper wrapped around the raccoon’s leg and tied with cord.

“What’s this, boy?” He unknotted the cord and smoothed out the wrinkled, muddy paper. Only one word was written on it, in hasty black letters:
PLAY
.

“What does it say?” Aluna asked. “Who is it from?”

“Come over here,” Hoku said. “I think Zorro’s about to tell us something.” He sat up and waited for Aluna and Calli to join him. Zorro circled three times and then settled into his lap.

“Here we go,” Hoku said. “Zorro, play.”

The raccoon’s eyes glowed green again, but only for a flash. They quickly changed into small projectors, emitting a cone of pale-green light. A familiar face took shape: Liu the crab-girl, the Dome Mek who helped him and Dash win the battle of HydroTek.

“This message is for Aluna and Hoku,” Liu said. “If you’ve found this raccoon and managed to play this message, find my friends and give it to them, or else.”

Liu looked behind her, then back at the camera. Her pale head was still bald, but the bundle of wires sticking out the back bobbed like hair as she talked. “Don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick. HydroTek has been overrun. Karl Strand’s forces came to get Fathom, and they destroyed everything else in their path . . . including the Kampii generators. We tried to save them, but we couldn’t. I’m really sorry, Hoku.

“A few of the Meks escaped into the dome’s tendrils and flooded the passageways to stop Strand’s armies,” Liu said. “I’m joining them as soon as we’re done here. We’ll start rebuilding as soon as we can, but the repairs will take a long time. Several generations for your people, at least, and that’s assuming the Upgraders leave and we can fabricate all the parts we need from the salvaged metal and —”

Liu stopped herself. “Never mind that now. What’s important is that the Upgraders took Fathom. We set off some sort of security alarm when we tried to extract information from his brain. That’s probably what brought Strand’s army. Either that, or he managed to send a message before we shut off his communications. But we do know where most of the Upgraders are headed next. . . .” She paused. “They’re headed for the Aviars.”

Calli gasped.

“Aluna’s sister, Daphine, escaped yesterday. At least, I helped her through the tunnels and saw her dive into the water myself, only I don’t know how far she made it. I guess she could be dead.” Liu’s eyes widened. “I shouldn’t have said that, should I?”

A clang sounded and Liu’s picture shuddered.

“Upgraders! I’ve got to go,” Liu said. She looked to her right and hefted a heavy wrench. “Hoku, I’ve made some changes to Zorro. Most important, I sealed him up so he can travel wherever you do — underwater, through the desert, up the mountains . . . He’ll probably outlive us all now.”

“Thank you,” Hoku whispered, and stroked Zorro’s back.

“I don’t know what you can do about all of this,” Liu said. “But then, I never thought you’d manage to defeat Fathom, either. I like being awake. If you’ve got another miracle in your pocket, now’s the time to use it.”

The projected picture disappeared suddenly. The air in front of Zorro’s eyes — so full of sound and motion a moment ago — now felt painfully empty.

“I’m sure they’re safe,” Hoku said. “Liu is really good with that wrench, and Daphine is smart. She has more common sense than the rest of us Kampii combined.”

Aluna nodded, but said nothing. Her brow hung heavily over her eyes, her jaw clenched.

“Skyfeather’s Landing is next,” Calli said. “Strand’s army may already be there.” She started to pace along the water’s edge. “We need to go there right now. We need to help with the fight.”

“No, we go to the Kampii,” Hoku said. He placed Zorro on his shoulder and stood. “Our people are probably dying already. I have to help them recharge their breathing shells.”

“But Skyfeather’s Landing is where the fight is,” Calli said. “If we want to stop Karl Strand once and for all, we need to be at the heart of the battle!”

Hoku kicked the sand. “Our families are down there! So saving the lives of Kampii isn’t important?”

Calli walked up to him and put her face just centimeters from his. Her nostrils flared. “Of course it’s important. It’s just not
more
important than saving the lives of Aviars. Or
my
family.”

“I didn’t mean —”

“No, of course not,” Calli said. She waved her hands in the air. “Don’t you see? Maybe Dash was right to leave. We all want to stop Karl Strand, but maybe we need to do it in different ways. You and Aluna need to save your people, and Dash wants to save his. Is it so wrong that I want to save mine, too?”

Hoku had never seen her like this before. Her cheeks burned with anger, her wings twitched. He felt his own rage rising just as fast, like a wave carrying him higher and higher. “Your people are fighters. They can defend themselves. The Kampii are practically helpless!”

“The Kampii have
chosen
ignorance, and that’s not a good enough reason to let my people die,” Calli said coldly. “I’m going to Skyfeather’s Landing — with or without you.”

C
ALLI’S RIGHT,”
Aluna said quietly. She wasn’t sure if they’d hear her over their own yelling, but both Hoku and Calli stopped to look at her. “Calli, you should go help your mother at Skyfeather’s Landing, and Hoku, you and I should return to the City of Shifting Tides.”

Hoku crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you two. I thought we were friends. I thought we were a team!”

“We
are
a team,” Calli said, her anger dissipating. “But sometimes a team has to split up to accomplish its mission. The Aviars have scouts and strategists and medics and warriors — everyone plays their role in battle. Our roles are just taking us in different directions right now. Dash understood that, and now I do, too.”

“Besides, it’s not like Calli can join us underwater anyway,” Aluna said. “Hoku, you were the one who said the water pressure would snap her delicate Aviar bones.”

Hoku dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “It would. Of course it would. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

Calli put a hand on his shoulder. “Because you want us to stay together, even when it doesn’t make sense. That’s . . . not a bad thing.”

Hoku dropped his hands from his face and nodded.

“When you get home, Calli, turn on Skyfeather’s Landing’s commbox and have someone monitoring it at all times,” Aluna said.

“I will,” Calli said. “I’ll make sure it’s never turned off again.”

“Tell High Senator Electra to stay out of trouble,” Aluna added. “Tell her . . . that I’ll be irritated if I have to come rescue her.”

“And let Senator Niobe know that I’m out of mustard,” Hoku added.

Calli laughed and bent down so Aluna could hug her without jumping up and balancing on her tail.

“Wishing you blue skies, sister,” Calli said.

Aluna dove into the water and swam out to sea, wanting to give Hoku and Calli a moment of privacy to say good-bye. She was still in range when Hoku said, “I’ll miss you,” but after that, she heard nothing.

When she returned to the beach, Calli was a distant speck of white in the vast expanse of sky. Hoku sat cross-legged on the sand holding Zorro, his face mashed into the animal’s fur.

She dragged herself over and sat behind him, back to back, like they used to do when they were younglings.

“Remember when all you used to want was an apprenticeship with Elder Peleke?” Aluna said. “Every time we found a three-clawed crab, that’s what you wished for.”

Hoku grunted. “What a waste of wishes.”

“Well, we both know what to use them on now.” Aluna leaned her head back, so it was touching his. “Calli will be okay.”

“So will Dash and Vachir,” he said. “Now all we need is a beach filled with mutant crabs.”

She laughed. “Are you ready for this? Are you ready to go home?”

“No,” he said with a sigh. “But they need us.” He started to stand up when Zorro jumped out of his lap, squealed, and raced toward the tree line. “Zorro, come back here!” Hoku called. It was a direct order, but the animal didn’t so much as slow down.

Aluna dragged herself up the beach. Sand clung to her wet tail and arms, but she didn’t mind. She’d be back in the ocean soon enough, and such Above World irritations would be forgotten.

Hoku jogged past her. “There he is! He’s digging.”

By the time Aluna reached them, Hoku had dropped to his knees beside Zorro and the two of them were pulling sandy earth out of a hole.

“There’s something buried here,” Hoku said. “A box, maybe? Zorro, dig around the edges, boy.”

The hole wasn’t big enough for all three of them, so Aluna dropped down to her elbows and watched. Within a few minutes, Hoku lifted a very muddy but familiar object from its hiding place. Even though it was dirty, Aluna could make out hints of silver and pearl.

“The water safe!” she said.

“This is Liu’s doing.” Hoku blew sand away from the locking mechanism, entered the combination, and popped open the box. “Karl Strand’s letter, the carved dolphin . . .” He pressed the hidden latch. “Even Sarah Jennings’s secret tech. It’s all here.”

“Good raccoon,” Aluna said. Was it her imagination, or did the raccoon lift its chin a little higher?

Hoku closed the water safe and stowed it in his satchel. “Grandma Nani is never going to believe what we found inside.”

“I don’t know about that,” Aluna said. “Sometimes I think your grandmother knows everything.”

“Only one way to find out,” Hoku said. “Race you to the water!”

He ran, his feet kicking sand in every direction, Zorro bouncing on his shoulder. Aluna pulled herself after him with much more speed than he clearly expected. They got to the water at the same time and dove.

Aluna swam ahead, unable to resist using her tail for as much speed as possible, and circled back every few minutes to make sure that she and Hoku stayed in range. Hoku still had terrible technique, especially with the raccoon creating so much extra drag, but he was taller and stronger now. Faster in the water.

She counted sharks as they swam, an old childhood game. Most were small, under two meters, and far too smart to attack prey as large as her and Hoku. Even the large ones stayed away from Kampii, especially in this area of the ocean. But soon she lost track of the number.

“Too many sharks,” Hoku mumbled.

Normally she’d laugh at him; even one shark was too many for Hoku. But this time, she agreed with him. “They’re heading northwest. Maybe something died and they’re following the blood scent. It must be something huge.”

“The City of Shifting Tides isn’t that far north,” Hoku said. “But that doesn’t matter, does it? You want to know where the sharks are going.”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Only to everyone,” Hoku said. “Go. Follow the sharks. I’ll meet you in the city when you’re done. I need to start work immediately.”