Nil Unlocked (9 page)
Authors: Lynne Matson
“Skye!” My dad’s voice rang with excitement. “I think I just found the break we need!”
RIVES
DAY 243, LATE MORNING
I’d broken my own rules.
Look around. Watch your back. Pay attention.
I hadn’t paid attention at all.
I’d exited the cavern in an adrenaline rush, focused on catching the kid and not dying. In the dim underwater light, the black rock at the cliff base blended without break. No cracks, no gaps. No sign of a lava tube or exit.
If I wanted a return trip to the secret cavern, it would have to be the way I came in the first place.
Who are you?
I thought, keeping an eye out for the kid as I strode through the trees, heading south.
What do you know?
I tripped on a root, feeling woozy.
Stupid
, I thought. Leaving before breakfast was a rookie move. Hunger had left me weak.
Pay attention
, whispered the breeze.
So I did.
I turned, seeing the ground, dusted with dead leaves and ashes of volcanoes past; the tropical woods, harboring squirrels, rabbits, and other small doomed creatures; the tree canopy, an organic web full of holes, letting light peek through, showing off spots.
Black spots, layered on gold. Thirty meters off the path, a leopard lounged high in a tree, eyes closed, paws dangling.
Merde.
I’d never seen a big cat so far from the meadow, but Nil’s rules were subject to change without warning.
I’m learning, Nil.
I drew my blade and walked with care, avoiding anything that might make noise as I put distance between me and the cat. Every muscle stayed taut, ready for flight. The path cut toward the sea and I’d just spotted the Cove when something rustled on my left.
I spun, braced to face a hungry cat and found myself facing a boy instead. Thin and rangy, with blond hair and skin as pale as the moon, he wore nothing but an expression of pure fear. He half hid behind a tree.
Slowly, I sheathed my knife and raised my hands. “Do you speak English?”
Ahmad’s voice echoed behind me. “Rives?”
The boy startled like a spooked deer. He ran, away from me, toward Nil’s interior, where human shelf life shrank dramatically.
“Wait!” I called.
The boy spun back, covering himself, his expression terrified.
My hands stayed raised, my shoulders relaxed. “
Hablas español?
” I asked.
He shook his head.
“
Parle tu français? Sprichst du Deutsch
?” I asked.
Words burst from the boy’s mouth, rapid-fire syllables. Russian. Possibly Ukranian.
“Russian?” I asked.
His eyes lit up.
“Da!”
Then he launched into a run of Russian that was lost on me.
Pointing to my chest, I said, “Rives.” Then I pointed to Ahmad. “Ahmad.”
Miraculously, the boy got it. He pointed to his chest. “Nikolai.” Then he rattled off another string of words, waving one arm around the air.
I bent and touched the ground. “Nil.” I patted the ground. “Nil.”
“Nil,” the boy repeated. Then he frowned. “Nil?”
I nodded. “Nil.”
Ahmad stared at me, wearing a total
who are you?
expression.
“How many languages do you speak?” he asked.
“Five, and a bit of Thai. Mostly curses,” I said. “But no Russian, which I think Nikolai is. The new rookie. Alexei. Does he speak English?”
“Enough to get by.” He ripped a giant taro leaf off a nearby bush and handed it to Nikolai, gesturing for him to use the leaf to cover himself. A second leaf followed the first. It’s amazing what a little coverage will do for a person’s sanity. But Nikolai needed more than clothes. He needed a Nil tutorial.
“We need Alexei,” I said.
“He’s in the fields. I’ve got this. And I’ll get Nikolai decked out at the Shack.”
“Thanks.” I nodded.
I gestured for Nikolai to follow us. He did, louder than I’d like, but I felt better knowing he wasn’t running around solo without skivvies.
At the Cove, Ahmad and Nikolai kept walking; I stopped.
Macy, Sy, Dex, Jillian, and Johan all stood in a loose semicircle by the water. When Jillian saw me, she came running, her eyes flashing, her hair wet.
“Oh my God, Rives. I thought something happened to you. Where have you been?”
“Spelunking.” I grinned.
Her eyes narrowed. “When I woke up, I went looking for you. I saw you dive under the falls. I followed and called your name into the cave, but you didn’t answer.” Her blue eyes were wide and accusing. “So I went back and grabbed Johan. We went in together, and that’s when we found—” She shivered, her voice dropping to a whisper. “What was left of him. Or her. Sitting against the wall at the dead end.”
The word
dead
hung in the air between us.
“My first thought was that somehow, it was you,” she continued in a shaky voice. “That the island had swallowed you, leaving dried bones. I know it’s crazy, but I swear, that’s what I thought.” She took a breath. “We waited for you to come out of the cave. You never came out.” Her tone hardened. “So where did you go?”
I explained about the arrows, the cavern, the carvings, and the kid, conveniently leaving out the kid’s warning to not go back.
“I never saw the skeleton,” I finished. “I’d gone left. Which I guess turned out to be right.” I winked.
Jillian glared at me. “Don’t think you can sweet-talk your way out of this, Rives. That was a big risk you took going off by yourself and not telling anyone where you were going. The City needs you. Don’t pull stupid crap like that again, okay?”
Johan, Sy, and Dex strode up, and I rehashed my morning again. When I was done, Johan looked thoughtful.
“That cave tunnel is ancient,” he murmured. “It
feels
old, and that person has been dead a long time. I think that person chose their own dead end.”
Dex’s eyes widened. “You think that bloke offed himself in the dark?”
“No,” Johan said. “I don’t think he took his life; I think his life was taken. I think the skeleton belongs to a person who chose to meet his Maker in that place.” Johan crossed himself and looked toward the Cove. “May he rest in peace.”
“Stop it, Johan.” Jillian rubbed her arms. “You’re creeping me out.”
“I’ll pass on the cave tour, thank you very much.” Dex gave an exaggerated shiver. “It’s a bloody tomb in there.”
“It’s not a tomb. Well,” I clarified as Dex shot me an
are-you-for-real
look, “not totally. It’s something else. Something important.” I looked at the Cove, thinking of the skeleton and the dozens of carvings.
What else did I miss?
“Rives.” Dex’s soft voice made me turn back. He cocked his head at me. “Your own Second gave me a bit of advice on my Day One. Charley told me that all that matters here is survival and escape. And she was right. The cave art is a dodgy distraction, mate. Nothing more. Don’t let the island creep in. It might drive you mad.”
“C’mon, Dex. Not you, too.” I smiled. Now was not the time to mention Talla’s whispers in my head.
“Here’s the thing. When I woke up in the rainforest, I swear I saw a leopard. Furry, long tail, spots, cat ears”—Dex gestured as he spoke—“the whole bit. It was up in a tree, chewing on something that looked like a corpse. I recognized a foot.” He blinked. “I know I was jacked when I landed, so perhaps it was all in my head. But I constantly dream of leopards. Man-eating ones. Sometimes I think I’m actually mental. So when I say don’t let the island in your head, I mean it. If you go mad, we’re all buggered.”
“I won’t let the island mess with my head,” I told Dex.
No more than it already has.
“And I’ve got bad and good news.” I grinned. “There
is
a leopard on Nil. Near White Beach. It was sleeping in a tree.”
Dex paled. “What’s the good news?”
“You’re not mental.”
“Right. I’ll take your word for it.” Dex exhaled heavily. “I’m not too keen on the leopard though. Bugger me. We’ve got a bloody leopard as our neighbor now?”
“At least it wasn’t eating anything.”
“Let’s hope he’s not hungry, then,” Jillian said softly.
We all looked at her.
“What?” She raised her eyebrows. “Well, it’s true.”
“I do not want to have this discussion now. Or ever. I’m off to fill Jason in on all the fun.” Dex saluted grandly, then strode off, muttering about leopards.
“We need to be careful now,” Johan said, his eyes on the Cove. “We have disturbed a person’s resting place.”
“Johan, you didn’t disturb anything,” I said, exasperated. “The rockslide opened up the entrance, and we checked it out. End of story. You didn’t mess with the skeleton, right?”
Jillian looked guilty. “I sort of tripped over it. And”—she gulped—“it rattled.”
Johan looked appalled. Sy took a step backward, distancing himself from Jillian. I needed to rein them in, ASAP.
“Listen, that person is long gone.” I relaxed my tone. “Don’t make this into something it’s not, okay?”
“The equilibrium is gone,” Johan said quietly. “There’s an urgency now. A desperation. An island shift, and it’s not in our favor.” He looked directly at me. “You feel it, too, yes?”
I hesitated one second too long.
Johan snapped a sharp nod. “We must be more vigilant than ever.” He strolled away, crossed himself, and pointed at the sky.
Jillian watched Johan walk away. “Sometimes he’s just so intense. I bet he doesn’t step on sidewalk cracks at home or stay in a hotel with a thirteenth floor. God forbid he ever drops a mirror.”
“Well, there are no sidewalks, hotels, or mirrors here, so I think he’s good.” But privately I agreed with Johan; I’d sensed the shift in the hour after Charley and Thad left. It was as if the island had woken from a deep slumber and was more alive than ever.
Or maybe that was me.
Come,
the falls whispered.
Maybe the inked boy was there, behind the falls. Maybe he had a name.
Maybe he had answers to questions I didn’t even know to ask.
“Rives.” Jillian touched my arm, her eyes worried. “I know you want to go back in there. I see it in your eyes. Promise me that if you go, you’ll take backup.”
“Jillian, there’s nothing to be afraid of in that cavern. I promise you it’s safe.”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I asked. Promise me you won’t go in without backup.”
“I can’t make that promise, Jills. But I will promise you I won’t do anything stupid.”
She sighed. “Too late.” She turned away. “I’ve got to show Zane how to stretch the pulp to dry. We’re trying to get ahead on clothes.”
“Jillian. One more thing. Will you be my new Second?”
Jillian walked back and hugged me tight. “No. I’m not Natalie or Talla or Charley. I’m not a Leader, and if you think about it, you’ll know I’m right. You’ve got Dex and Sy, although why you picked Sy I’ll never know. That boy can’t figure out how to roast a pineapple or tie a decent knot. People trust Macy; same for Ahmad. I’m not sure you need another Second, but if you do, I’m not your girl.” She kissed my cheek. “You know I love you. I’m behind you one hundred percent, just not as a Second.”
“You know, you’d be a better Leader than you think.”
“Still saying no here, Rives.” She smiled.
I laughed.
“Ready to walk back? Or are you going in?” She pointed to the Cove.
“Lead on, Jills. I’m going back with you.”
“It’s still a no,” she said as we walked. “No, no, no.”
“We’ll see.” I winked.
We walked back together in comfortable silence. She’d questioned why I’d picked Sy, whose enthusiasm far outweighed his skills as a Second. At the time, I’d picked him thinking of the adage
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
And even though he no longer undermined the City, he still didn’t exercise the best judgment. Usually it was no judgment, like he’d forgotten to engage his brain, and it was in the crucial moments when the island forced him to make a call on the spot that Sy waffled or bailed. I trusted Dex like I’d trusted Thad—like Thad had trusted me and Heesham. I’d trusted Talla, too; same for Charley.
Sy, I didn’t trust at all, not the way I should.
So now I had one Second I trusted; one I didn’t. And the other person I trusted most, Jillian, was unwilling. Jason was too young; same for Miya. Macy was too kind; the tough choices and cruel moments would gut her. Ahmad was my best bet, but I balked at an all-male council; the balance felt off. And Nil was all about the balance.
Maybe Nil was in my head after all.
“Hey, Jillian. Got a favor to ask.”
“Still no, Rives,” she said, smiling.
I laughed. “I want you to give me a haircut. It’s time to ditch the dreads.”
She stopped. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” They felt like a weight I didn’t want to carry, a link to a boy more carefree than I had a right to be.
Jillian’s eyes flicked over my face, unsure.
“Just a hassle,” I said casually. “Too much maintenance.” My answer satisfied her. Twenty minutes later, she’d hacked them off with Thad’s knife and cropped my hair short.
Running my hands over my scalp, I felt lighter. Faster.
Fiercer.
I threw my dreads into the sea. The foaming water curled around the offering like liquid claws.
Take that, Nil. It’s the last thing I’ll give you. I may be stuck here, but you don’t own me. You don’t control me—not my mind, not my body, not my spirit. Not my fate. Because I’m finding out your secrets, and when I do, this place will never be the same.
I
will never be the same.
The last part was already true.
SKYE
NOVEMBER 18, LATE MORNING
“This is our big break, Skye. I feel it.”
I peered over Dad’s shoulder at his Mac. An article from a French news site filled the screen.
The headline read:
MISSING AMERICAN GIRL FOUND ON MONT BLANC
.
