For I Could Lift My Finger and Black Out the Sun (34 page)

Sol lurched forward, then quickly caught himself. Turning around, he had a look of pure hatred on his face. More than any other affront, it seemed, Sol couldn’t stand being embarrassed. And although he had only staggered a few feet, even that was more than he could tolerate. “It appears that I have your answers,” he said with a sneer. “So be it.”

With one quick gesture, he pushed Bobby away. Bobby flew like a dart into the far wall of the canyon, then crumpled to the sand below, broken.

Torn between launching my own attack or helping my friend, I hesitated.

And Sol ran away, laughing as he disappeared down the left branch of the canyon.

11

With Sol at least momentarily gone, I went to Bobby. His body was twisted in an unnatural way, legs bending where they shouldn’t, even his back arched horrifically over the stones he landed on.

But he was alive.

Not for the first time, I saw the effects of the power we held and wondered if they were more curse than blessing. Still, Bobby’s body moved. Seeking to put itself right, it jerked and spasmed back into more normal positions, then sluiced and rippled until everything was smooth. His face was disturbingly blank the whole time, and I wondered if he was there in body only.

At last, he took on a natural form, almost like he’d simply been sitting on the rocks, like he’d taken a short rest.

He blinked once or twice, then looked up at me with a smirk. “Thanks for the help.”

I stiffened. “What? I —”

“You what? Wanted me to take care of him by myself? Listen, doofus. Next time I jump at him, next time I’ve got him distracted,
that’s your cue, okay
?” Bobby slapped at his pants, trying to get the rusty dirt off, but it didn’t help much. He stood up and cracked his neck, like a boxer getting ready for round two. Red dirt stained his clothes and was plastered to his sweaty face. He looked like some kind of ancient warrior, face paint and all, hair shaggy and splayed in all directions. And, in his own way, he was thinking more clearly about how to handle Sol than I was. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. In my mind it was easy to categorize Bobby, to still think of him as the old class bully, the guy who’d use his fists before his brain.

But, although it was a simple one, at least Bobby had finally come up with a plan: He’d attack first, then I’d follow through. If only I had a clue what my part would actually be.

“Where’d he go?” Bobby asked, looking around.

Standing on the hot, packed sand of the canyon floor, I pointed to the left branch. “That way,” I said.

“Okay, then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get the bastard.” Bobby launched into action, following after Sol.

But something was wrong. “No,” I said.

Bobby turned around, confused. “What? We drive, like, seven million miles to get here, and now we’re
not
going to go after him?”

“No. Something’s wrong here. Why’d he have us come all this way to the desert, and then as soon as we meet up, he runs away down that canyon?”
That canyon?

“How the hell should I know?” Bobby said. “But I have an idea. I hurt him. And now he’s afraid, because there’s two of us and only one of him.”

“Wait! Is that right? Did
everyone
desert him? I wasn’t there, I only had a dream about it. But in the dream, there was Sol, and you. Margrethe and Petrus. And —”

“Phillipa!” Bobby said, slapping his forehead. “I forgot about her. She was always really quiet around me.”

I suspect I had a stupid-looking grin on my face just asking. Thankfully, Bobby ignored it. “She’s real?” I asked.

“Of course she’s real, idiot. And she’s good, too. Not just a fighter. Not just a thinker. Her name is Phillipa, but she goes by —”

“Pip,” I interrupted, knowing it was true.

Bobby pulled up. “Whoa, dude. You’re freaking me out with the whole mind-reading-dreams business.”

I shrugged. “Anyway, we don’t know where she is, so we have to assume that she’s still working with Sol. She could be anywhere around here,” I said, gesturing to the high walls all around us. Still…”
Why did Sol confront us, then just run away down the canyon?
Down this
box
canyon
. “Of course.
That’s
why we’re here.” It was so obvious that either Sol was much less intelligent than I’d given him credit for, or there was more to his scheme than I knew.

Bobby waited for me to go on, but for a moment I was lost in thought. “Um. Hello? Not all of us read minds. Care to give your dumb old friend a clue?”

“Very funny,” I said, walking over to the place where the canyon split. I raised one hand and pointed down the left branch. “Listen, Bobby. Sol
wants
us to go after him. When I saw him in the capital, the time I tricked him, he told me the story of General Avery Tulloch — you know, the whole reason we’re in this desert in the first place? He was a real guy and fought a real battle, right here where we are. He used these box canyons to set up a trap, and then wiped out his enemy from behind.”

Bobby’s eyes grew. “So you’re saying if we’d run down that way, Sol or Pip would’ve snuck up behind us?”

“I think so.”

“What a little cheat!” Bobby said, genuinely irritated. “Geez. It’s one thing if he kills me when we’re face to face, sure. But if Sol kills me by sneaking up behind me, I am
not
going to be happy.”

He said it with such conviction, I really didn’t want to laugh. Still, my body betrayed me, first shaking, then finally bursting with giggles. “You’re going to be one upset dead person.” I kept giggling, couldn’t stop. Finally, Bobby’s mock-angry face vanished, and he laughed, too.

“So, smart aleck,” he said. “What do we do now? We can’t go after him because it’s a trap, and we can’t just sit around here giggling like babies. Should we ask your mom to drive us to the movies or something?”

“We go up,” I said, pointing to the steep walls of the canyon. “The only way out of the dead-end part of the box canyon is up if you’re blocked in, but those people Tulloch killed didn’t have time to climb because it’s almost straight up. We do. As long as we don’t walk right into Sol’s trap, we can take our time. Go to the top, circle around. Find him before he finds us.” I put on a big grin. “In a way, it’s like what I did to him back in the city. He’s going to think we’re down here on the ground, but really we’ll be above him, looking down.”

“Oh, that’ll really tick him off,” Bobby said.

“Good.”

We started climbing.

* * *

Near the top, we pulled water bottles out of my pack and drank, our bodies eager to replace the moisture that was oozing out of every pore, soaking our clothes briefly before evaporating away. We were covered in a rust-colored dirt, our clothes ripped and worn from the sharp rocks.

The ascent was difficult, especially since neither of us had much skill or experience at rock climbing. But in time, we made the top ledge.

Far in the distance was a strange darkness. A storm of some kind. I vaguely hoped to be done with Sol, one way or the other, long before that storm hit. But a new fear filled me, and somehow I knew I’d be fighting Sol and the elements all at once.

Once we’d had some time to catch our breath and drink our fill, we packed away what little water we had left and began to trace the upper edge of the box canyon, looking for a place where we could peer down on the dead end.

The top edge itself wasn’t flat. Rocks more than twice our height seemed to jut up everywhere, forcing us to take a winding path toward our goal. Most of the time, our visibility was limited. The only direction in which we could easily see was outward, toward the yawning openness of the full canyon, and down, toward its sandy bottom.

Rounding another set of tall rocks, we finally saw the end of the canyon, the box.

It was empty.

“Where the hell is he?” Bobby whispered with surprise.

I just turned up my palms to say
I have no idea
. “Let’s keep going around. Maybe he’s tucked in a crevice or something down there.”

Bobby pushed past me, making his way farther along the rocky edge. In only a moment he disappeared from my view, and I scrambled to catch up.

As I rounded the last tall monolith of orange rock, I saw them both: Bobby, standing frozen only feet from Sol. Not frozen with fear. Held still, in the invisible vice of Sol’s grip. Bobby screamed in pain, but it sounded muted, like he didn’t have enough air.

“I am flattered, John,” Sol said.

“What? That I didn’t fall into your trap down there? Yeah, I remembered your story about the General. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.” My words dripped with spite. Was I trying to upset Sol, throw him off his game? Maybe. But in general, I think I was just pissed.

“And what of Master Graden, here?” Sol asked, pointing one tanned, well-manicured finger toward Bobby’s forehead.

“Please stop! It hurts and I can’t breathe!” Bobby pleaded. I remembered our day in the hospital, Bobby pleading with his parents. He sounded like that again, but worse. Bobby was being crushed to death by the power of Sol’s mind. I heard cracking sounds that I assumed were Bobby’s ribs, and a
whoosh
of air blew from his mouth like dying wind.

“Let him go, Sol!” I shouted. “I’m the one you want, right?”

“In many respects, you are correct, John, yes. Ever since we met, that seemingly chance encounter at the beach, I have been most intrigued by you.”

“But why? Why do you care about
me
so much?”

Sol chuckled. I could live a thousand years and never wish to hear that sound again. “You really do not know, do you?”

“No,” I said, feeling the dry heat deep inside me. Like the very air I was breathing could burn my lungs. I was exhausted and outgunned. Confused and tense. Each breath, every heartbeat, even just blinking my eyes, these things seemed
forced
, like I had to work for each millisecond.

“John Black. You and I did
not
randomly meet. I was looking for you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because of what is inside you, of course. I would call you a diamond in the rough, but that is inaccurate. You are more like the entirety of the Crown Jewels, but as if they were tarnished, dirty, and forgotten. You only need someone with the right eye to find you, clean you up, bring out your shine, and…” Sol made a wide sweeping gesture.
And what? I could have the world?

The day was rapidly growing darker as he spoke. The wind was dry, but increasing.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’m just a kid. I didn’t ask for these powers, and I don’t really know how to use them.” I realized as soon as I said it that it was a bad thing to reveal. Ah, well.

“John, you have felt me calling out to you, yes?” Sol asked.

The beacon, once loud, now gone. Even standing feet from him. “Yes.”

“Well, I cannot hear it, or feel it, coming from me. But from
you
. It is like this profound
note
. This tone, one of great clarity and strength. In fact, it is so strong that when you are near, as you are now, it feels like it is coming from everywhere at once.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s why you didn’t guess my trick in the capital? You didn’t know I was on the rooftop, not right in front of you?”

“Correct,” he said.

“But your beacon — uh, that’s what I’ve been calling it — it’s been gone for a while now.”

“Yes, it has. Once I felt yours, and those of Bobby and the others to various degrees, I knew I must have one myself and that it must be strong.” Always humble, that Sol. “I learned to control it. But I can turn it back on.” Suddenly a deep bass chord filled me. I knew it wasn’t a
real
sound, an audible sound, but still I took a step back, almost to the ragged drop of the ledge, and the sound abruptly cut off. “Now, John, careful. As you can see, I have even learned to amplify the call.”

I lowered both hands, though I hadn’t even realized I was covering my ears.

“Okay, so you’ve been looking for me, and now I’ve been looking for you.” In front of me, Bobby squirmed, just a little, and Sol clamped down with his invisible hold, stilling the motion. “Can’t you just let Bobby go, then?”