Chasing Xaris (16 page)

“What’s that?” Jordan asked, nodding ahead.

Voices rang in the distance.

I felt a rush of adrenaline and hurried toward the sound, along a stream and into a dense patch of cypresses. Their giant trunks fanned out at the bases, and moss dripped down from their branches. Blue light shone through the moss ahead, rippling and swaying like water in the wind.

With each step, the blue grew brighter, dazzling my eyes and sending shivers down my back. There, in a clearing amid the cypresses, was the huge Triada. Its wheel and spokes were raised at least ten feet in the air, glowing with that strange mix of blue and green. A huge globe sat on the ground in the center of the spokes, translucent like the rest of the sculpture. Somehow, it supported the weight of the suspended wheel around it. The Triada looked like a blue version of the planet Saturn, resting on the grass.

For several seconds, I just stared at the Triada. But then I slowly registered what else I was seeing: Mr. Whit and Gene. They were standing on top of the giant globe at the center of the wheel. A rope hung down from one of the spokes, leading all the way to the ground.

A crowd of Aletheians had gathered near the rope’s end. Some were shirtless, and some wore dress shirts like Ari. All of them were shouting up at the brothers. Gene was yelling back and aiming his gun at the crowd.

My stomach dropped. He would shoot them. I knew he would.

Jordan’s hand on my shoulder pulled me to a stop. He guided me and Winnie to a cypress trunk, keeping us in a tight clump.

“What is that thing?” he asked me.

“It’s called a Triada—a giant wheel of xaris,” I replied. “Xaris is a solid form of light.”             

“Right.” Jordan shook his head. “This is the weirdest night of my life.”

“Where’s Ari?” Winnie asked.

I searched the crowd and spotted Ari, Nikandros, and Delphina standing super close to the Triada. Prytanis and Delphina’s mother stood right beside them.

Prytanis held up his spear, and the crowd grew silent.

“You’ve had your chance, foreigners,” he shouted. “Surrender or face death.”

“Why would we surrender?” Gene hissed. “I could kill you right now if I wanted to.”

Gene pointed his gun right at Prytanis, and I gasped. Prytanis was standing way too close to Gene. He needed to back up. Everyone seriously needed to back up.

“And I could kill you,” Prytanis said. “Admit defeat and let my people try you in our court.”

Gene laughed flatly. “Absolutely not. I’ve already told you what’s next—toss up the misos stone and go. My brother and I will leave
Aletheia Island without harming any of you.”

“You have no right to our stone,” Prytanis said.

“It isn’t yours anymore,” Gene said.

“That’s right,” Mr. Whit said. His voice was shaking, and I noticed how the gun in his hand shook, too.

“Toss it up. Now,” Gene said.

Ari, Delphina, and their families huddled together, whispering among themselves.

“
Parabatis
,” someone in the crowd shouted. A spear sailed toward Gene.

He ducked, raised his gun and shot back.

Just behind Ari, a woman went down.

M

Y
scream was drowned by the screams of the crowd.

“The next bullet’s yours,” Gene yelled. He pointed his gun directly at Prytanis.

“No!” Ari shouted, but his father had already hurled something up at Gene. A spear? No, it was too small—the size of a baseball. The stone.

It sailed over Gene and Mr. Whit’s heads, leaving behind a trail of black smoke. Actually, the smoke was somehow darker than black.

My gaze darted back to Gene and Mr. Whit. They were both staring straight up… at a cyclone forming high above them.

I stared, too, feeling the blood drain from my face. The cyclone was expanding and stretching rapidly towards the ground. I’d never seen anything like it on Gran’s weather shows. It wasn’t gray or brown or any other normal color. It was just like that trail of smoke. Darker than black.

Jordan tugged on my arm.

“Time to go,” he said. The cyclone sounded like the roar of a far-off train, even though the air in the clearing was completely calm.

“Chandler, we’ve got to go,” Jordan said.

I knew he was right. We couldn’t do anything against that thing in the air. I nodded at Jordan and glanced back at Ari, hoping he’d be smart enough to run. But then I saw the cyclone descending.

Twenty feet above the Triada. Fifteen feet. Ten. And then Mr. Whit and his brother were sucked right into the storm.

My face went cold. That thing had swallowed them. The two men who’d murdered my parents had been swallowed up by the blackness.

“Come on,” Jordan yelled, pulling me after him.

I stumbled along but kept my eyes on the growing cyclone. Below it, Ari was mounting the rope that led up to the Triada.

What was he doing? Was he crazy? He’d climb right into the twister.

“Wait,” I said, breaking free of Jordan.

“Chandler!” he called.

But I sprinted through the crowd of
Aletheians, dodging arms and spears. Some people were standing against the growing winds, while others were fleeing. Everyone was screaming.

Within seconds, I had reached Ari. His father was pulling him off the rope.

“What were you doing?” I asked, gasping for breath. “Are you crazy?”

“I must remove the misos from the cyclone,” Ari said. “People will die if we don’t stop the storm.”

“I will go,” Prytanis said.

“No,” Nikandros and Ari said together.

“Perhaps the storm will die in time,” Delphina’s mother said. But her dark eyes were filled with fear.

“The storm’s only growing, Helena,” Prytanis said.

“I’ll go,” Delphina said.

“
No
,” her mother ordered.

“Well one of us has to go,” Delphina said.

I pictured Delphina climbing into the twister and shuddered. She couldn’t die. Nobody else could die.

“I’m going.” I looked only at Prytanis. “It’s my mess to clean up. If I don’t go, then one of you will have to.”

“Absolutely not,” Ari said.

“We both know I’m right,” I said to Prytanis.

His face was hard but he was listening.

“The stone is the color of blood and no larger than your hand,” he said.

I nodded towards Ari, then towards Jordan and Winnie, who had almost caught up to us. “Don’t let anyone follow me.”

With that, I turned and mounted the rope.

“Wait!” Ari yelled. “Chandler, stop!”

I heard shuffling behind me, more shouting, and I knew Prytanis was restraining Ari. Nikandros and Delphina wouldn’t interfere. They’d let me do this.

I pulled myself up the rope, tug by tug.

“Chandler!” Jordan shouted, from somewhere beneath me. But I kept climbing. I couldn’t think about Jordan. Or Winnie. Or Gran and Grandpa. I had just enough energy to focus my thoughts.

Seconds whirled by. My arms and shoulders stung, but my mind was steady. I finally reached the top of the rope, attached to a giant spoke of the Triada.

For a moment, I just stared up at the roaring, furious mess of darkness. It wasn’t like water or wind or even smoke. It was a hole in space—a black hole in twister form.

I heaved myself onto the xaris beam and found it warm to the touch. I slowly climbed to my feet. The spoke was about as wide as my shoulders and led straight to the wheel’s globe. I just had to walk forward.

I spread out my arms and walked. A blue shine coated my skin and reminded me of t
he feel of sunlight, of all the hours I’d spent in the lineup with my board underneath me and the sun warming my back. Safely tucked between water and sky.

What it would it feel like to have xaris above me and below me?
             

I shook the thought and hurried to the globe. Then I dropped to my knees and began crawling up its gradual slope, hoping I wouldn’t slip. But the xaris held me against it with some weird kind of magnetism as I climbed. Above me, the storm kept expanding, hovering over the Triada but never touching it. I stood at the top of the globe, closed my eyes, and jumped.

Air rushed from my lungs. My legs kicked only empty space. The sound of roaring exploded in my ears.

I was flying
around and around some dark core like a rag in a washing machine. I gasped and clawed at the darkness. It was all around me, spinning me outward and upward. It felt like water, but a thousand times thicker.

My chest felt ready to burst from the pain. And from the lack of air.

I frantically searched for the stone, but the darkness consumed everything. Everything except for a fleck of red high above me, in the very center of the cyclone.

My heart leapt.

A few more spins around, and I would be high enough to grab the misos. But I’d still be too far out. The storm’s current kept me confined to the outer rim.

There had to be a way…

I kicked my legs and felt my body move toward the center. It actually moved. With a surge of hope, I poured all my strength into kicking. My body kept circling, but I inched toward the core.

The misos stone floated just above me.

I swallowed. I’d only have one chance to grab it before the flow pulled me too high.

My fingers reached out and clutched something cold and wet. I shuddered. The stone reminded me of a human heart.

I hugged it against my chest as the storm kept spinning me outward and upward, toward its top. That was the only way out. But it was still so far away, and I was nearly out of air.

Tears pricked my eyes. I was going to die, wasn’t I? But I would still beat the storm. When the cyclone spit my body out, the stone would come with me.

I tucked the stone into my pocket and waited.

People began to drift across my mind.
Gran and Grandpa. Jordan. Winnie. Ari. Delphina and Nikandros. And all the other Aletheians who wouldn’t die.

Then I saw two more people. Mom and Dad. They were both laughing on the couch as we all watched old Christmas movies. I sat sandwiched between them, under my favorite blue blanket.

My thoughts suddenly turned to xaris. Why had I climbed onto the Triada’s surface? I should have kept xaris between me and that twister.

I wanted to tell the xaris that I’d changed my mind. Which was crazy. People weren’t supposed to talk to light. But I was dying. I could be crazy if I wanted to.

Help me
, I said to the light.

I’m here
, the light replied.

Yeah, I’d definitely lost it. My mind
had to be shutting down.

I’m dying
, I said.

You can live.

How?

Follow my voice.

My head felt dizzy. So dizzy. Still, I kicked to push toward the voice beneath me. I could barely move my legs, but I kicked down, deeper and deeper.

The Triada shone beneath me, and I remembered the warm feel of its shine. I wanted that blue surrounding me instead of the darkness.

Keep coming.

So I did. I kicked until I was falling toward the blue.

Keep coming.

The xaris surface raced toward me. But I didn’t stop kicking. I dove right into the translucent globe.

My lungs instantly filled. The roaring ceased. And all around me, all I could see and breathe was warm, shimmering blue.

It was like air—
only lighter, and brighter, and so colorful. Wisps of green glowed among the brilliant blue. It smelled like spring—like honeysuckle and orange blossom and something else. Something sweet and wholly foreign to me.

Maybe I had died. That would explain so much.

Am I dead?

Yes, but not in the way you mean.

Well, I felt dead. Really, I had felt that way since the day my parents were killed. Like a body checking off days without living them. Like a fish stuck to the surface while a whole sea waited beneath her.

You can live deeply. Freely. Lightly.

How?

Let me
lead you. Let me parent you.

I shook my head. No way. I didn’t want another parent. Gran and Grandpa had tried, and that had hurt almost as much as losing Mom and Dad in the first place. Their efforts had only made
it more obvious what I had lost. The idea of someone else mothering me or fathering me…

No.

The xaris had no idea what I’d lost. What I walked around with every single day. I wanted out. Out of the xaris or the dream or whatever.             

I hurried forward and realized I was walking along a floor of blue. I must have sunk to the globe’s base. A rounded wall stood right before me, separating me from the cypress clearing beyond. I tentatively reached through it and felt a gentle wind against my hand.

A shiver raced down my back. I might actually be alive.

I steadied myself and then stepped right through the wall. The blue disappeared, and instead, I saw giant trees and swaying moss. Sounds replaced the eerie quiet of the globe—croaking frogs, wind through the palmettos, calling birds.
Normal sounds. Not the sounds I had left when I entered the cyclone.

I looked around and expected to see people gawking at me, the girl who’d just been inside the Triada. But no one was looking my way. A crowd had gathered on the opposite side of the clearing. They were holding each other and murmuring softly. Someone began to weep and others rapidly joined in.

I raced toward them.

When I reached the crowd, I slipped past elbows and spears, trying to see something. Anything. So many people had gathered. Were Jordan and Winnie in the throng? Was Ari?

Up ahead, Delphina knelt beside two spears stuck into the ground. She was rocking back and forth, wailing and trembling. Nikandros stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders as silent tears rolled down his face.

Delphina glanced up. Her dark eyes instantly found mine.

“It’s your fault,” she said hoarsely. “Ari followed you into the storm, and then Prytanis after him. They’re both dead.”