Thunder (15 page)

He relaxed and tried to steer the conversation. “A hundred and thirty-two years here and he didn't find a way out?”

Selah pointed at a spot on the page. “He says any of the ships they made seaworthy were supposed to cross the horizon and then come back. None ever returned and after a couple years of trying they gave up. He also says something about sending out flights with airplanes too. I'm not sure what those are. Seems I remember from history that they were big air machines that carried hundreds of people at a time back before the Sorrows. But because of the ash in the air for so many years after the volcano, the use of those engines became obsolete.”

“They?” Bodhi perked up. “He found others?”

“Yes, at one time there were hundreds of them. They migrated north. Father stayed in Georgia because that's where Mother wanted to live.” Selah leaned back against the wall and sighed. “Such love. He said he waited a long time to find the right one.”

Bodhi was getting antsy. “Is that all?”

Selah sighed, placed the paper back into the box, and removed the last one. She read down the one-sided page and then refolded it. “He said something about novarium. The only problem—”

“Stop!” Bodhi shot up straight. Novarium? This couldn't be happening. He only knew the term from the ancient read
ings, but why would an awakening happen in a place like this? “What did you say about novarium?”

Selah shrugged. “I don't know. He must have spelled the word wrong or something. I've never heard it before.” She slid the paper into the box.

“Read it out loud. I need to hear the words.” Bodhi's voice rose an octave. His hands started to shake. His touch had caused an awakening? No. No. Why him? His actions were too careless for such a responsibility. This needed someone else. A lump formed in his throat.

Selah scowled and pulled away. She slowly retrieved the paper.

“Read it!” Bodhi demanded.

She flinched, tossing the page at him. “Read it yourself!”

Bodhi's hands began to sweat. He rubbed them together and then wiped them on his pants. He mumbled through most of the unimportant stuff but read aloud when he reached the mandate.

Rest assured, my darling. I love you more than life itself, and to that end I will spend every waking hour keeping you and our precious child safe from the evil overtaking this world. I will come for you if it is at all ever possible for you to be safe at my side.

Remember, my love, this girl child of ours is special. She is the awaited novarium. She brings forth life and hope for this world. I know it will be a hard thing for you because she will then belong to the ages, but you must be sure she has contact with a Lander on the day before she turns eighteen. The right one will come.

Bodhi released the page, watching it flutter to the ground. What form of punishment was this? He'd been a rebel his whole existence. He wasn't cut out to be someone's protector. The bond was closer than . . . No, not him. He needed to find the others. Pass this duty on to someone more responsible. If he left immediately and followed the impressions he felt, he could send someone back to guide her.

“What does novarium mean?” Selah asked. She looked frightened.

Bodhi squeezed his eyes shut then opened them. “It means . . .” He waited for a stabbing pain. None came. “It means you're special. Novarium happens only once every hundred years.”

Selah's eyes widened. “Once every hundred years! I don't understand why I would be part of this. I'm nothing special. I'm pretty much a mongrel. At the moment I don't even have a father. Why me?”

“Unfortunately I was never much into the humanities, so I know very little.
Novarium
means ‘new,' or a ‘new thing.' It could mean an ability never seen before, or it could mean waiting for the proper opportunity to do a new thing. And I don't even know how someone is picked, or who or what picks you.”

Selah looked down at her hands. “Mother must have known. She didn't want me on the beach that day so she wouldn't lose me. If I had listened, none of this would have happened.”

Bodhi nodded. “You're probably right, but it may have taken your father another generation to sire another daughter for novarium. As for my part . . .” Well, he didn't want a part.

“I have to find my father,” Selah said. “I'm scared of messing something else up.”

“Your father will know what to do. He'll come for you.” She looked so sad. Right now he was trying to make her feel better, but he didn't know if he believed it himself. He was even trying to reach out to other immortals, but there were only vague impressions, not actual contacts. How was he going to deal with this situation without more information?

“If my father comes looking for my mother, he'll never find us. We're not in the same place he left her.”

Bodhi pulled from his jumbled thoughts. “He can find you.” Why did he know that the man wouldn't be present for her awakening?

Selah jerked to face him. “What do you mean?”

Bodhi bent and rested his elbows on his knees. He felt too careless to be trusted with this. “Don't you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“The connection. The awakening would probably start with a rumble in your chest.”

Selah's hand slid to the collar of her shirt. “Like a thunder.”

He felt an impression, as if covering the mark was a way to restrain the feelings trying to burst from her.

Bodhi nodded. “Guess you could call it that. The right side of your brain is waking up and connecting to the left.”

“What in the name of the moon and stars are you talking about?”

He stared at the floor. “Have you heard voices yet?”

Selah looked down at her hands. She folded the paper and slid it carefully back in the box. “Yes, I have,” she said in a small voice. Quite a few times she'd thought she was hearing
her mother's thoughts, but the voices were audible, even if only in her head.

Bodhi touched her hand. She flinched but didn't pull away. “That's the awakening. Thousands of years ago it was normal for people to
talk
with their minds, but the ability was lost. Since then, in most people, the left side of their brain is dominant, and the right does hardly anything. In us, the Landers your people despise, both sides function. It makes us telepathic.”

Selah tipped her head. “So that's why I smell and hear better.” Her head jerked in the direction of the door.

Bodhi also heard it. The scream belonged to Amaryllis.

B
odhi scrambled from the shed behind Selah. Had the child found another snake, or had marauders found the child?

They burst through the ramshackle door of the house. Amaryllis lay curled in a ball on the bed, screaming. Bodhi halted. No visible threats. Screaming children were not part of his understanding. He backed up, the sound hurting his ears.

Selah rushed at her. “Amaryllis, wake up!”

The girl jerked awake, her arms and legs flailing. “Snake! Snake!” She scrambled back against the wall, wide-eyed, with legs pumping to beat an invisible foe. Her eyes slowly registered recognition, and she pulled the threadbare tattered blanket up to her chest.

“It's okay. I'm here. You're not alone.” Selah softened her voice and slowed her forward motion. The fear left the girl's face as she woke fully and recognized Selah.

Bodhi's patience was on the down side of agreeable. He
needed food, not all this girly emotional stuff. “Since the child is awake, can we eat?”

Selah swung her head around and gave him such an evil stare he felt glad she didn't have a weapon in her hand.

Bodhi raised both hands, palms out. “I just figured it's getting late, and maybe you girls needed something to keep up your strength.” Plus his stomach was growling in protest.

Selah continued to glare at him. “Why don't you take that smelly shirt down to the water and wash it while I get some dinner together. You don't want to sit at the table with no shirt.”

“Why not?” Bodhi glanced at the dirty and decrepit condition of the table. Not having a shirt on might improve the view.

Selah narrowed her eyes. “I don't know about where you come from, but here in civilized society, we don't come to the dinner table with bare chests.”

“Where I come from, dinner tables don't look like that.” Bodhi knew the look on her face and wanted to smile. He knew he wasn't going to win. “Where did you say the water was?”

“Follow your ears. Can't you hear running water when you're outside?” She turned back to Amaryllis.

Bodhi marched back to the shed, snatched up the dust-encrusted shirt from the floor, and loped off in search of the water. It gave him time to think without Selah in his head. She was worming her way into his thoughts, getting to him. Bad situation. He was never cut out to be someone's protector. Accountability was not among his strong points.

North. He knew the direction.

He homed in on the sound of water. It was larger than a stream. He pushed through the underbrush of the forest behind the house. About two hundred feet farther into the trees, the brush opened onto a gently sloped bank leading down to a wide, slow-running river.

He worked his way down to the water's edge and dipped the shirt in, rubbing the material together several times. Dirty water drained from the shirt, taking the dust and crustiness with it. The material began to soften in his hands.
This might not be
so bad when it's clean.
As Bodhi scrubbed, he looked upstream. Four hundred feet away a bridge crossed the river.

He looked back at the woods in the direction of the house. What if he just crossed the bridge and kept going? As far as he could tell by the position of the late afternoon sun, the bridge headed north. How long would it take him to decipher the impressions he felt, find an immortal, and send them back to watch over Selah? There must be someone who understood her purpose. Novarium came for many reasons. He wanted to kick himself for not paying more attention.

Bodhi wrung the water from the shirt and shook it out. It looked more inviting now, and he slipped into it. The wetness gave cool and welcome relief from the afternoon sun. Leaving the shirt open to dry faster, he picked his way along the bank. The bridge opening came into view.

He continued looking behind him, expecting Selah to pop out of the woods any moment. He felt drawn to her, but independence pulled even stronger.

He moved closer to the bridge. A young boy sat on the railing close to the center of the structure. Bodhi climbed up the brush-covered hill as the boy watched him.

He reached the bridge. One last chance to turn back. He clamped his lips tight and shook his head. She'd be better off with someone more responsible. He'd find someone.
Goodbye, sweet
. . . goodbye, Selah.
He began to jog across. It felt good to run.

His legs took on a rhythmic pumping and the breeze parted his hair and pulled the sides of the shirt away from his body. The boy sitting on the railing stared at Bodhi. As he ran closer the boy's eyes opened wide and he pointed in fright. “Lander!”

Bodhi tensed.
Not again
. He was not going to be captured again. He ran flat out, passing the boy. The boy's scream faded. Bodhi looked back. Gone. Another scream and loud splashing.

Bodhi slowed, moving to the railing to look over. The boy slapped at the water below as the slow-moving current carried him downstream. He yelled for help. Bodhi thought this would be a great time for Selah to show up. She could save another child and he could get away.

The child slipped under the water. Bodhi pounded his fist on the railing. Wasn't there anyone to hear the boy?

The child came back up, flailing. “Help!”

If Bodhi waited any longer, the boy would be too far away to catch. His heart pounded. He wanted to get away. He turned to leave, took two steps. A stabbing in his chest. He turned back to the railing then ran for the center of the bridge.

Bodhi hauled himself over the railing. He perched on the edge, trying to calculate the depth and speed of the water.
Go now or he'll be too
far away to reach.

“Help! I can't swim!” the boy screamed. The current pulled him under again.

Bodhi executed a perfect dive, slicing through the water with the ease of a fish. The instant cold created a marked difference to the heat he'd felt moments before. He broke through the surface of the water ten feet from the boy. Swiping the water from his eyes, he expertly stroked to the child's side.

As he approached, the boy went under again. Bodhi dove. He opened his eyes in the murky water, and the sunlight at the surface created enough contrast for him to spot the boy and pull him to the surface.

The child inhaled water and fell unconscious. Bodhi flipped him on his back, grabbed him under the chin, and side-stroked toward shore. Adrenaline pumped. He expelled several large breaths and spit out some water fighting the current, but he made it.

Bodhi heaved the boy's limp body to the shore. Slamming him to the slope expelled some of the water in his lungs. The boy sputtered.

A hand reached down.

Bodhi looked up.

Selah planted her feet for leverage and helped haul the boy up the bank and onto the forest floor. She knew he'd be okay when his sputter turned to a cough. A stream of water poured from the side of his mouth as he gagged.

“Lander!” the boy yelled between gasps.

She reached back down and yanked Bodhi up the bank. They collided, and he wrapped his arms around her to steady them.

Selah looked at his chest and then up into his eyes. “This
could be trouble. We need to get you out of here before he brings the whole Borough down on us.”

Bodhi watched the boy scramble away in the opposite direction. He turned back to her. “You're right.”

Selah felt his breath on her face. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist. The water on him seeped through her clothing, drawing in the warmth of his body as his chest heaved great gulps of air.

She looked up. He gazed into her eyes. He gently lowered his head, inching his full lips toward hers.

At the last second Selah turned her head away and pushed off from his chest.

Bodhi grinned.

Selah punched him in the arm. “I pour out my heart out to you and what's the first thing you do? Leave!” She pulled loose and scrambled the rest of the way up the bank with him following.

She stomped through the trees toward the house. A moment of weakness and where did it get her? She almost kissed him! Why didn't she? He was right there.

She held her breath. She'd never let on, but she secretly hoped for another time. Would she rebuff him again or actually kiss him?
Breathe.

“I saved the boy. What seems to be your problem now?” Bodhi rushed behind her.

“I watched the whole thing. If you hadn't run across the bridge, the kid wouldn't have been scared into the water in the first place.”

Bodhi grabbed her by the arm and spun her around. “You watched the whole thing?”

Selah jerked her arm from his grasp and kept moving. After she spent all this time saving him, he'd just deserted her. Didn't he understand she was scared without him?

Typical male behavior. Men in the Borough called the shots for their women, like her father did about her hunting and giving her away in marriage, while the women were supposed to stand by and be happy for the scraps they were given. Well, no more. She deserved respect and a thank-you, not a kick in the teeth.

“Wait! Why didn't you jump in and save him?” Bodhi dodged a tree limb. The next one slapped him in the forehead. A mist of water droplets shot from his wet head.

Selah bit down on her lip. She wanted to laugh but was too angry to let him off the hook.

“I wouldn't have let him drown. I'd have jumped in when he floated down to my spot,” she said. She thought about saying that if she'd jumped in Bodhi would have kept going and left her and Amaryllis in the dust.

She stormed across the yard to the house.

“So you saw him fall in the water and you did nothing,” Bodhi said as he hurried to keep up. His clothes were plastered to his wet body, showing off his physique. Selah tried to focus on his nearly deserting them.

She turned to him. “Blah, blah, blah. I watched you scare the poor kid into the water and I also watched you almost keep going. Don't give me any of your high-handed talk.”

“Well, excuse me for—”

Selah looked down at his one bare foot. “Where is your shoe?” She let out an exasperated sigh. “How can you not notice you're walking without a shoe?”

His wet blond hair still plastered to his head, Bodhi looked down sheepishly and wiggled the exposed toes. “I guess I lost it in the river. My feet are sort of numb from the cold water, so—”

“Go to the shed and get a pair of work boots. You can't walk around in bare feet. There's too many nettles.” She shook her head as she watched him gingerly pick his way among the stones and prickly plants to the shed. She seemed to be losing the ability to get mad at him and was finding it necessary to pretend she was. But why? She didn't need an addled boy-brain like the silly girls at school had. They seemed to lose all sense when they trained eyes on a boy. Besides, if she acted nice he might try to take advantage.

She shoved the door open. “Amaryllis, get ready. We have to get out of here now!”

“But I'm hungry. Are we going to eat?” the girl asked.

“Later, when we're safe for the night.” Selah grabbed her backpack and an old bag Amaryllis found. She looked the bag over. A solid canvas material, it looked ragged around the edges but still sturdy. Bodhi entered, carrying a pair of well-worn leather work boots.

She jammed the bag into his chest. “We'll load this with food. We'll each carry one.”

Bodhi dropped a boot as he grabbed the bag. “You know, this is the second time you've done that. You're quite bossy about shoving bags into my chest.”

Selah spun around to face him. “Well, it always seems to be that we're in a hurry because of you. So excuse me for trying to keep us from getting caught.”