Aeralis (6 page)

We went first to his family’s farm, where a wagon waited for us. His brother, Abel, chopped wood in the yard. He stopped when he saw us and came forward. He gave me no greeting, but his eyes were friendly.

“They’re harnessed and ready,” he said of the horses, nodding at the wagon and the two shaggy ponies hitched to it.

“I’ll make sure they’re returned to you,” Adam promised. Abel grunted, a sign that perhaps he put no stock in such promises, but he didn’t argue.

Adam climbed into the driver’s seat of the wagon. I pulled myself up next to him. One more nod passed between him and Abel, and we were off, lurching over the path toward the Weaver farm.

The wagon crested the hill of my family’s farm, and my heart caught in my throat. Every time I saw it, an ache throbbed in the place below my breastbone. I missed it—fire on the hearth, a tangle of wool in my hands, a scolding for Ivy on my lips, a look exchanged between my twin and me, my parents.

Ann and her father waited in front of the farmhouse. They looked forlorn from a distance, like two dolls that had been left out in the snow by a careless child. They stood close together, but without touching. Ann held a sack of her things.

Adam stopped the wagon in the yard and climbed down from the seat to assist her. He took her sack and tossed it into the back, where Abel had spread hay to soften the wooden floor of the wagon.

I jumped into the snow and took Ann’s hands. She was so pale, so fragile. She squeezed my fingers and gave me a smile that did little to reassure me.

“Are you all right?”

“As well as I’ve been in a long time,” she promised.

Adam returned to the driver’s seat, and Ann and I climbed into the back and made ourselves comfortable on the straw. I tugged my cloak over my legs and leaned my head back against the edge of the wagon. Ann’s curls bounced with every lurch of the wheels, and the sight made me wish for a simpler time again, when we were merely two friends taking walks together and giggling about siblings and boys. Well, Ann had giggled about boys. I’d never been much for the subject.

“We’ll be together, you know,” Ann said, breaking the silence.

“What?”

“In Aeralis. Adam and I are both staying at Korr’s house in the city. I’m glad of it. It’ll be good to have a familiar face around this time.”

“That’s good,” I said. The thought comforted me.

The wagon rattled as we reached the road toward Aeralis. I breathed in the smell of the Frost and saw the mountains visible through a break in the tree line. My heart ached. I did not want Adam and Ann to return to that city of fog.

I went with them as far as the river, and then Ann hugged me before I slid from the wagon bed to the snow.

Adam climbed down after me. He stood beside the horses, watching me. His cloak swirled in the wind.

I took a step forward. “Be careful,” I said.

A smile tugged his lips. “I’m always careful.”

I gave him a reproachful look. “You managed to get caught last time.”

“Yes, but it resulted in a most spectacular rescue and a most spectacular kiss.”

“Don’t count on it happening again,” I said, taking another step.

He tipped his head to one said, his expression turning mischievous. “The rescue or the kiss?”

“Hmm,” I said.

He caught me in his arms, and I slipped my hands into his hair. “Just be careful,” I murmured, and kissed him.

After a moment, he released me and stepped back. “We’ll see each other soon.”

I didn’t answer.

He climbed up into the driver’s seat. I moved away and watched as the carriage descended the bank and began to cross the black water of the river that flowed between Aeralis and the Frost. My throat squeezed. Adam didn’t look back. I didn’t look away.

When mist had obscured them from my view, I turned and went back to the village. I shut myself up in my room and read the bit of letter from my mother, tracing the words with my fingers and mulling their meaning in my mind. Hours passed, and I napped fitfully. When I woke, bathed in sweat and churning with the remnants of nightmares, an unsettled sensation filled my chest.

I ached for Adam and Ann, but they were gone to Aeralis. A clawing feeling filled me. I shoved myself up and went to the door.

I needed to find Ivy.

She wasn’t in the village. I headed through the gate and into the Frost. She’d be with the Watchers, of course. She was always with them now.

Snow crunched beneath my boots as I ran. The wind swirled around me, tugging at my clothes. I reached the clearing above the Watcher nest and slowed. Footsteps led toward the door that led below to where the beasts slumbered during the day. Ivy, surely. I headed toward them.

A branch snapped to my left.

“There you are,” a voice said.

I turned as a figure emerged from the trees. My stomach plummeted and my eyes widened as I recognized him. A man from another world, a man I thought I’d never see again.

Gordon.

SIX

GORDON SMILED WHEN he saw me, and his teeth gleamed. He was changed—his dark hair was longer, his eyes sunken. Threads hung from his clothing, which consisted of nondescript gray robes and dirty gloves. I held still as he stepped forward into the clearing. The snow whispered beneath his boots as he walked, and the sound made my skin itch with unease.

“I’ve been wondering how to get you alone so we could chat,” he said. “And here you are. As if you came when called.” He laughed, but the skin around his eyes tightened.

I didn’t speak. I waited for him to reveal what he wanted, why he was here...anything.

Gordon looked past me at the landscape. “This place has become a hellhole. I rather like it. It’s poetic in a tragic way. Such a bastion of learning reduced to such darkness and squalor.”

“Why are you here?” I demanded. My patience was gone. I didn’t fear this man. If anything, he should be afraid. It would be dark soon, and the Watchers would be out.

“There’s something I need.” Gordon shifted his gaze to meet mine once more. He tipped his head. “You remember our mutual friend, Meridus Borde?”

A shiver slid down my spine. I didn’t reply.

“He recently crossed into your time by use of that same device you took from me once. Perhaps you’ve seen him.”

“I haven’t,” I said. My heart pounded. Borde was here? Why?

“Well, that’s unfortunate for us both, because I need you to get something from him for me.”

“I don’t see what I have to do with it.” My words were calm, but my stomach was twisting. “And how did you get here?”

“I managed to follow in his wake as he passed through the gate. When we’d both arrived here, he and his companion and I had a bit of a disagreement.” Borde touched a newly knit scar on his jaw and grimaced. “He attacked me and fled. I understand he headed out of the Compound area, to the south.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said icily. My heart beat a rhythm against my ribs. “But why are you telling me this?”

“You’re going to find him for me.”

I crossed my arms so he wouldn’t see how they trembled. I checked his hands and belt for signs of a gun. He seemed confident, too confident that I would do what he wished. “And why would I do that?”

Gordon stepped backward until his legs brushed the bushes. He bent down and yanked something from the shadows. A figure, bound and gagged. A girl.

Ivy
.

My breath evaporated from my lungs. My hands shook.

“Because if you don’t,” Gordon said pleasantly, “she will die.”

I began to shake with rage. “Perhaps you’re unaware of the way our world works now. The monsters you call Mechs roam freely at night. They’ll be out soon. My blood protects me, but you...” I let my sentence trail off as I raised my eyebrows.

He didn’t look frightened, just amused. “Ah,” he said, “but I came prepared.” He withdrew a piece of metal from his robes, and I recognized the device that stopped the Watchers when I’d been in the past, in Compound time.

I pulled a knife from my belt. “What’s to stop me from taking it from you right now?”

“Before you get feisty,” Gordon said, “there’s something else you should know.” He seized Ivy by the shoulders and turned her sideways. The sleeve of her dress dangled from her arm, torn and bloodied. Ivy’s eyes were wide as they met mine. She made a strangled sound through her gag.

“I’ve injected this girl with a marvelous invention from my time,” he said. “A capsule that can crawl through the veins of the human body on its own, almost like a living thing. I won’t waste your time trying to explain the particulars. I doubt you would understand. The point is, it contains the Sickness.” He let go of Ivy, and she sank into the snow at his feet. He withdrew a second device from his robes and held it up. “If I activate the capsule, it will release the Sickness into her veins.”

My voice came out in a breathless whisper. “You’re lying.”

“Ah,” he said. “I thought you might be skeptical. So I got you this.” He reached again into the shadows and withdrew a cage, rusted and bent. It looked as though he’d found it in a ruin. Inside the cage was a raccoon.

“I also implanted this animal,” he said. “See for yourself.”

He pressed a button on the device in his hand, and the raccoon twitched and shivered.

“I gave it a rather large dose, so it should begin to succumb within the day,” he said. “This girl has perhaps two weeks before the capsule inside her dissolves. You don’t have much time to decide you believe me.”

I couldn’t breathe. “Why are you doing this?”

“You know this world,” he said. “I do not. I have no hope of finding Borde on my own. He has a guide, otherwise he’d be as ill equipped as I. But I have faith in you. You’ll find him. You’re tenacious, if nothing else.”

“And if I find this device you want?”

“I’ll heal her,” he said. “I know the cure.”

I know the cure
.

The words barely registered amid the blind horror and fury swirling in my mind, but I felt the weight of them anyway.

My eyes were burning. “And if she dies before I can find this device you want?”

“I’ll infect someone else.” He pocketed the device and stepped back. “Find Borde and get the device he came to find.” He tossed me a box. “Return to this place and light one of these when you have it, and I’ll find you. Don’t try to find me before you have the device; I’ll detonate the capsule.”

With that, he vanished into the trees.

I ran to Ivy and fell to my knees beside her. My fingers scraped at the knots binding her wrists. I yanked the gag from her mouth. She struggled up as her bonds fell off, and I caught her before she could slump forward. She shook beneath my hands. I cradled her against my chest, and she hid her face against my neck.

“He came out of nowhere,” she said, her voice muffled. “He hit me over the head and injected that thing. When I awoke, he’d already bound and gagged me.”

I squeezed her close. She was warm from crying. She squeaked as I bumped her injured arm, and I relaxed my hold, but only slightly.

“Did he know you were my sister?” I asked.

She shook her head. “He said something about watching me make trips into the forest often. None of the other villagers venture into the Frost much, except Trappers and Fishers, and they must have been too large for him to want to attack.”

I helped her to her feet. “Let’s get you back to the village. The Healers will examine you. He might be insane, or bluffing.” Hope was just a prickle at the edge of my panic.

“Wait, the raccoon,” she said, stopping to look for the cage. “We should bring it.” Her face softened at the sight of the shivering animal huddled in the corner of his cage, and my chest twisted with pain. Ivy, the ever-compassionate one. Protector of injured raccoons and risker of her own self.

“Let’s go,” I said.

~

The Healers tended to Ivy and examined the raccoon while I paced a path in the floor outside. Clocks ticked. The sunlight coming through the windows slowly slid across the hall. My heart slammed against my ribs hard and fast like a fist beating on a door, demanding answers.

Finally, one of the Healers emerged from the room where they’d taken my sister. Her mouth was pressed in a flat line, and her eyes slid past mine to the floor as she spoke.

“We believe she is indeed in danger of being infected. The raccoon is already showing signs of the disease.”

My blood burned and white spots danced across my vision. I went to my room and shut the door.

I had to find Borde and retrieve this thing Gordon wanted. There was no other alternative. But where would I even start? I was all alone in this, and there wasn’t much time.

Dropping my head into my hands, I inhaled deeply and let my thoughts clear. I could do this. I just needed to
think
.

The tickle of a memory filled my mind. Stone, telling me a story.

“And yet you’ve heard of Weavers?”

“There was a man,” he said. “He told us about you.”

“A man?”

“Yes. He came to us heavily wounded, accompanied by a companion. He was sick. He rambled in his sleep, talking of Weavers and the monsters and blood. Some of my people thought he was a prophet.”

“And you?” My heart beat fast. Who was this man who spoke of my family?

“He was just a man,” Stone said. “A man with knowledge.”

“And his name?”

“He didn’t give one. He didn’t stay with us long. We called him Scar, for he had many after he’d healed.”

A man, heavily wounded, accompanied by a companion, talking of Weavers and monsters and blood.

I needed to speak to Stone.

~

I slowed as I reached the center of the village on my way to the Frost, spotting a crowd gathered in front of the Assembly Hall. I heard mutters on the wind and sensed a brewing ugliness on the air, but my mission tugged at me heavily, and I didn’t stop.

I would tend to their arguments later.

The snow crunched beneath my boots as I left the village. Snow blossoms spilled across the paths in waving stalks of blue, and the trees hung over the path, heavy with new verdure. Above the screams of the bluewings, I heard the rushing of new streams that threaded between tree trunks and around icy stones. The world was shrieking and seeping and dripping. The Frost was restless. It matched the pace of my heartbeat.