The Energy Crusades (28 page)

Altitude

Cold. It was so cold, I couldn
'
t think straight anymore. It hit me in the face, and made its way into every part of my body, no matter how much clothing I put on. I
'
d stick my orb down my jacket to try and warm myself as I walked, but the heat only radiated so far. The chill, the wind, the relentless cold — it was all-encompassing and it never, ever let up.

"Let
'
s keep moving, Tory," I tried to encourage her, though I barely wanted to keep moving myself. Our fifth day on the mountain was by far the worst. The foul weather persisted and the altitude was becoming more of an issue. We inched up the mountain as the day wore on, hoping to make camp before nightfall. I was worried. It would have been a difficult situation even if the entire team was in pristine condition, but it most certainly was not. Tory
'
s leg was injured from a fall she took into a hidden crevice. It might have been another trap set by the Resistance, which infuriated me. Or it would have, if I had any feelings left.

I wanted to fall to my knees and stay where I was. I did not want to take one more step in front of me; I just wanted to be warm. But if I despaired, what would happen to the others?

Move,
Kaia! Ajax would shout into my head if he sensed I was slowing. It was the only time he spoke to me at all. Since the night I met with Jason Paris, we
'
d hardly said two words to each other. I missed his friendship terribly, but I gave up trying to fix things. It was better if I kept my distance, even if it meant I no longer slept through the night.

Caden led us up the mountainside, pushing onward with more energy than he could have possibly possessed. He was a natural at finding our path and maneuvering us in the right direction. His orb shot ahead of us like a small comet, hovering in front and helping to guide our steps.

Malik and I were next on the path. We huddled on either side of Tory, walking in a little pod-like cluster as she dragged her injured leg slightly behind her. Pain radiated off of her in waves, but she pushed on without complaining or asking to rest. We stuck close to her side, encouraging her often. I feared Malik might be forced to try and heal her right out in the open, on the side of the mountain with no protection from the weather. It was a dangerous option we hoped to avoid. We needed to find a place to camp before the sun set, but we also needed to cover a certain number of kilometers so our day wouldn
'
t be a total waste.

Even if we wanted to call it a day and make camp, there was nowhere to do so. The path had become increasingly narrow, and now was hardly wide enough for the three of us to cluster together like we were. To our left, the mountain rose up sharply, and to our right, it fell away, making it seem as if we walked on the edge of the world.

Ajax and Balor lagged behind the rest of us. Although we were all having a hard time, Balor seemed most affected by the altitude. His thoughts were incoherent and his physical state was declining. I stole a quick glance over my shoulder and was immediately concerned about their situation. Balor was hardly standing upright. Instead, he draped his large muscular frame over Ajax
'
s slighter build for support. Ajax was strong, and fitter than anyone I knew, but he couldn
'
t carry his own weight and Balor
'
s up the mountain. I felt a slight panic course through me.

I decided Ajax needed my help with Balor more than Malik did with Tory at the moment. But when I opened my mouth to speak, the wind whipped up savagely, stealing my breath away. I tucked my head to my chest as the oxygen was sucked away from my lungs. When I regained my composure and looked up, it was noticeably darker. The sun was fading and the snow was coming down harder, swirling violently around us. Tory let out a small groan, gritting her teeth and pressing her eyelids tightly together in order to swallow the pain. Whatever I had been thinking about Ajax and Balor flew out of my head. That
'
s the way it went as we climbed higher. The altitude messed with my thoughts and I had trouble keeping them in order. "I got you, I got you," Malik whispered to Tory. He slid his arms around her torso, bracing her frame with his. She opened her eyes to meet his. A small smile crossed her pained expression and she pushed herself upright. She limped forward as Malik kept his hold on her. When she sensed Malik needed a rest, she leaned her weight into me, and in our slow way, we crept along.

Suddenly, my mind returned to Ajax. I spun around to look for him but could see no one behind us. My heart raced in my chest and I froze where I stood as my eyes scanned wildly over the frozen mountain. I could see nothing but the falling snow thrashing about in a wild, zigzag pattern.

"Ajax!" I screamed into the nothingness. "Ajax! Where are you?" Before I could think, I was running blindly in the storm, away from the rest of the group. I was jolted to a complete stop by the iron grip of Malik. He grasped both my arms, lifting me off my feet. He stared into my face.

"Kaia! Stop. You can
'
t just bolt away from us like that!" I heard what he said but my thoughts were a jumbled mess.

"The storm is getting worse! I
'
m going to get them!" I screamed back at him.

His deep, resonant voice answered me. "I know, but you won
'
t be able to find them out there. They
'
re too far behind and there
'
s no visibility. You need to trust that Ajax will find his way back."

"But—" My voice rose in panic.

"But nothing, girl. Think! Calm yourself and think! We
'
re already nearly cut into three groups as it is. If you run off and get yourself lost, we might as well sit down and invite the Resistance to step in. You want that?" Thankfully, not even the resisters wanted to be out in this weather and we
'
d had a day without their troublesome presence. It was the only welcome reprieve we
'
d had.

My insides were freezing. A chill started from my head, and reached down into my toes. My teeth began to chatter and I started to shiver. If Ajax was lost, then I was lost too. Everything fell away then, all of my resolve to stay away from him, all of the pretense that I could make it on my own. No. I could do none of those things. In front of me, Malik was speaking, his mouth was moving, but I couldn
'
t hear him. He was trying to talk some sense into me, but I didn
'
t care. No Ajax, no Kaia. That
'
s how I felt and knew was true in my heart. What had I done? How had I agreed to be separated from him? I didn
'
t care what Malik was saying, I needed to get to Ajax and so I willed myself to be still and calm in his grip.

"You okay now?" he asked, looking into my eyes as the hysteria faded. I nodded and he set me down gently in the snow.

"I
'
m going back for Ajax," I informed him. Nothing would stop me.

"What
'
s going on?" Caden asked. He held Tory up as he joined our discussion. The wind lifted the snow, swirling it around our bodies. We had to stand close together just to see each other. How was I going to find Ajax in this?

"Ajax and Balor are gone. I need to go back." I knew my voice was shaking. It felt like I was dying inside. I reached my mind toward Ajax, but couldn
'
t find him. My stomach knotted in fear, twisting and turning with every dark thought. Caden listened to my words and gave a heavy sigh. His face sagged with exhaustion and worry. Every minute we stood there, the sun sank lower in the sky. He looked around at our surroundings and considered our options.

"We
'
ll cut our losses today and make up for it tomorrow," he conceded. "The weather may cooperate for once." The swirls of our heavy breathing billowed around us as we considered his words. None of us felt hopeful that the weather would be any better tomorrow. Nothing was ever better on the mountain. My head pounded in the thin air and I found it difficult to stand up straight. It was a struggle to put one foot in front of the other.

"No!" Tory protested, "I can do it, I can keep going!" Her voice was as panicky as mine. She didn
'
t want to be the one to hold us up. Malik moved toward her and took her weight from Caden
'
s shoulders.

"It
'
s not you Tory," Caden answered. "Kaia won
'
t go any farther without Ajax and Balor and we
'
re all worn out. Believe me, none of us wants to keep going."

"There
'
s nowhere to camp," Malik pointed out, "we
'
re on the side of a mountain at the moment and unless you want to camp in the middle of the path and hope we don
'
t tumble off in the night, we have to keep going."

"Actually, there
'
s a small overhang just ahead where the rocks curve inward. I wouldn
'
t go so far as to call it a cave," Caden admitted, "but we
'
ll be sheltered from the weather. It
'
s not ideal, but it will get us through the night." It sounded depressing, as everything else on the mission had been so far, but if Caden thought it could be done, then it could be done.

"Let
'
s do it then. I need to find Ajax and Balor." I urged them into action and followed behind as they assisted Tory between them. We made our way to the area Caden had found. Describing it as small was a stretch, it was more of a depression in the rocks rather than a true opening. There were only a few meters of space underneath a shelf of rock. We would have to sleep sitting up with our backs against the rocks, legs straight out in order to fit the six of us and all of our gear. My heart would have sunk even lower, except nothing mattered to me but getting to Ajax and Balor. If there weren
'
t six of us sleeping here tonight…I squelched the thought before it could manifest itself.

Caden paced back and forth in the space, judging the dimensions. He began clearing the snow in an effort to create more room. Tory found a spot to rest so Malik could help Caden. All I could do was stand there, feeling the minutes tick by while my world crumbled without Ajax. I needed to get to them and make it back here before the sun went down. The thought of the two of them lost somewhere out in the storm frightened me to the point of uselessness.

"I need to go, Caden. Right now." My voice was calm, but inside I was anything but. He stopped what he was doing and gave me a long look.

"I
'
ll go," he started to say, but I shook my head.

"You know how to make an airtight shelter better than any of us. We need a place to come back to. Malik has to heal Tory
'
s leg." I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently, "I
'
ll be okay. You know I can do this. I can bring them back." He looked down into my eyes with affectionate concern. Caden watched out for me like my brother would, protecting me when he thought I needed it, whether I wanted him to or not.

He put both of his hands on my shoulders, looking away from me momentarily, the way a person does when he wants to say one thing, but ultimately says another.

"No
,
Kaia!" he shook me. "I don
'
t want to send you out there alone!"

"You have no choice!" I pleaded. "I
'
m going. I
'
ll bring them back!"

"You have to hurry, you hear me? Take my orb, it will help lead the way in case it gets dark before you get back."

"No," Malik sidled up to us. "She should take mine." He placed his orb in my hands. "My orb will take you right to them, no messing around."

I knew I could count on Malik
'
s orb; it had already found me once in the ruined city. He lifted my hands and gazed into the dull blue glow of his orb. Suddenly, the inside of it exploded with bright blue light, pulsated twice and receded into a deep blue glow.

"When I want to find someone, I just picture the person and project their image into the orb. But this is my orb," he explained, looking into its core. "When you use it, it might not be so generous, and it will only come back to me, understand? Only me. When it
'
s time, look into its center and picture my face. It will lead you back." I nodded at him, processing
his instructions
.

"Okay, Malik, I understand, I can handle it." I tried to be as reassuring as I could. I was anxious to leave. I pulled up my hood, keeping a hold on his orb, then stepped out of the shelter and back into the harsh weather.

I held my orb in my left hand and Malik
'
s in my right. I needed my orb for strength and I hoped there was still some left in it. My sphere radiated with warmth. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind, allowing the energy to spread through my body, calling on my orb to give me strength and courage, and the ability to find what I had ventured out here for. I thought of Balor and the familiar, warm sensation in my orb intensified, spreading up the length of my arm and into my shoulder. Next, I pictured Ajax, his raven hair and handsome, serious face. I imagined him smiling, his hair tousled in his eyes, and his full lips parting to let out a great big laugh. He didn
'
t laugh nearly enough, but hid his emotions behind those eyes, rarely letting me in. The image of him happy made me feel lighter somehow. In a rush, my orb began to flood me with an energy I could not explain. Within mere seconds, the orb was vibrating, and the sensation of heat intensified, morphing into a lightning like current. It surged into my chest and back, speeding down my tired limbs and muscles, spreading energy to every part of my body. I stood perfectly still, realizing I was completely rejuvenated. There were no aches or pains and the weariness had receded. I felt strong, where a moment before I felt weak with fatigue.