Ashes in the Sky Page 11

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  I blinked. My eyes barely focused. “Did you really make that powder? Do those things?”

  “I was a different person then. All I cared about was proving myself.” David rubbed his eyes. “The ambassador was right about one thing. I’ve changed. Because of you.”

  Why didn’t that make me feel better? I guess maybe we all have our demons, but mine didn’t destroy entire planets. I shuddered and rubbed my still numb hands. None of this made sense. David. The powder. Me.

  “If the ambassador was plotting all this stuff, why did he invite me on his ship?”

  “He didn’t have a choice. The Caretakers ordered him to. General Baker suggested some photographer called Callup, but the ambassador must have considered him a threat.”

  “So they decided on me.” A laugh puffed from my lips. “I guess they never counted on me falling through a wall.”

  David kissed my forehead. “You did good.”

  The feeling returned in my hands and toes. “So are we safe then? We lost them?”

  “Hardly.” David drew me from the indentation in the wall. “This ship is his. It won’t take him long to find us.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  The wall beside me buckled. David grabbed my shoulder, dragging me to the floor as pieces of the wall shot over our heads. My cheek stung against the heated flooring. The hallway blurred.

  “We need to go. Now.”

  He hauled me to my feet, but my legs wobbled.

  “Jess, come on!”

  Something flew past my face. I stumbled behind David, closing my eyes against the dizzying blur. The sound of David’s breathing encompassed me until he skidded to a stop. I opened my eyes and gaped at the huge silver wall in front of us. “You ran us into a wall?”

  He spun us around. “It wasn’t there a second ago.”

  The ceiling opened up. Needle-sized spikes rained down on us.

  “Keep your eyes down!”

  David pulled me by the arm until we bashed against another partition.

  Trapped. The needle storm stopped.

  The walls pulsated. David grunted, pressing the solid barriers. Thousands of needles stuck out of his back. I brushed my hands against them, sweeping them to the floor.

  “What will these things do to you?”

  He continued to run his hands along the walls. “Nothing. They only pierced my human casing.” He spun toward me, his eyes wide. “Jess!”

  David started swatting at my back and shoulders. Hundreds of tiny needles fell to the floor and sunk into the liquid surface.

  Seizing my cheeks, he searched my eyes. “Are you okay? Do you feel anything?”

  Our prison faded to gray before blacking out completely. “Great, now what do we do?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What do you mean: what do I mean? They turned the lights out.”

  The sound of David’s elevated heartbeat filled the darkness. “You can’t see?”

  Oh. Crap.

  “Please tell me they turned the lights out.”

  He ran his fingers along my cheek. I shivered, waiting for his words, knowing he would never lie to me. His silence gave me my answer.

  “I’m blind?”

  “Don’t panic. The drugs are only meant to disable. The effects are usually temporary.”

  “Usually?”

  “Yes, at least for Erescopians.”

  Why didn’t that make me feel any better? The hum in the air surrounding us changed, filling the room. But my heartbeat outweighed all other sound. “David, what’s happening?”

  “Just stay close to me.” His fingers wove through mine.

  David’s hands dampened. He twitched, as if twisting and looking over his shoulders, and whispered an Erescopian word under his breath.

  “You’re scaring me.” I pulled from his grip and pawed at his chest, squinting, hoping for a blur, a speck of light, anything.

  The hum heightened, and something slapped my leg. David pulled me to him.

  “Please tell me what’s going on!”

  His arms tightened around me. “Jess, I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry about what?”

  He forced my face into his neck.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered again.

  Something cold bumped my hip. A hint of a whimper escaped David’s lips as another cold, hard surface struck my back.

  “What’s going on?”

  “The walls are pressing in on us!”

  David sucked in a deep breath, his arms tightening around me. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to cry out, to warn him he was crushing me, but only a dry hiss escaped my lips.

  The floor disappeared beneath us, and we dropped into a frigid pool. David cried out and released his hold. I sunk beneath the thick, soupy water.

  My body spiraled, moving up, then down. I tried to suck in a breath, but choked and sputtered on the new liquid jail we’d fallen into. Thrashing, I swam through the darkness, but couldn’t tell which way was up. My heartbeat banged within my ears. My lungs screamed for air. Giving up, I floated, hoping my body would rise to the surface like in a swimming pool. But I seemed to simply hang within the frigid darkness.

  Mom pulled back my blankets. “Are you ever getting out of bed today?”

  I rolled over and checked the clock. Eight forty-five a.m. I pulled the covers over my head. “It’s Saturday.”

  She ripped the blankets off me. “Yep, come on. Let’s hit some garage sales.”

  My body thudded onto a hot surface.

  “Jess, breathe!” David screamed.

  I choked, rolling on my side. Sudden, unbearable heat singed my cheeks.

  “Jess, please say something.”

  I rubbed the back of my head, blinking in the utter darkness. “Ow.”

  David’s giggle reverberated as if bouncing off the inside of a tin can. He pulled me up into a sitting position and eased me into the warm, familiar sensation of his embrace. “Don’t do that to me again. I thought I lost you.”

  I thought I lost me, too. I tried to make sense out of everything, but all I understood was David, his arms, and utter darkness.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. Someone saved us.”

  “Who?”

  I could feel him shift his weight. “I have no idea. The ship is alerted to us, and we were trapped. We shouldn’t have been able to escape.”

  His pulse slowed, but I could tell from the tenseness in his chest and shoulders that he was still on high alert. He shifted slightly as if he were looking around. I figured that meant we were not in the dark, which meant I was still blind.

  “You know I can’t see, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you sure it’s not permanent?”

  His cheek slid across my forehead. “I have no idea what impedance barbs will do to a human system. They shouldn’t cause blindness. They should only have made us groggy.”

  Blind, as in may never see again.

  An image of Dad’s face appeared before me. I memorized each line, the square cut of his jaw. What if I never saw him again? Would I forget what he looked like?

  I tightened my grip on David. “I’m scared.”

  “I know. I’m scared, too.”

  No more sunrises. No more driving. No more photography.

  No more life.

  I clenched my jaw. If we didn’t get away from the psychotic Percy Jackson reject, none of that would matter anyway. “What do we do?”

  “We need to get off this ship.”

  But how? “Can Nematali help us?”

  “Nematali Carash is my friend. I’m sure they’re watching her already.”

  “Who then? Who do you think helped us before?”

  Silence lingered. I lifted my head, wishing I could see the expression on his face.

  “I have no idea. It would have to be someo
ne intimately involved in the ship’s systems. They maneuvered us through liquidic conduits that shouldn’t be accessible.”

  I sat back and stared in his direction. “Is that good or bad?”

  “Neither. I can’t imagine who would be able to get us through that kind of heightened security, to here.”

  I shifted my weight. “Where exactly is here?”

  He released me and stood. Footsteps tapped across the floor. “I think we’re in the elocusa, but that makes no sense. We were on a lower deck.”

  “What’s an elocusa?”

  “It’s dead space right above the ship’s spine. It’s one of five sectors not tied into the ship’s liquescent systems. It’s a blind spot. One of the few places on the ship that can’t be seen outside of this room.”

  I knocked on the floor. “Does that mean this is regular metal?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Because I hate when the floor opens up under me.” Especially now that I couldn’t see.

  A sound seeped into the room, pulsing and swirling as if we were listening to a pulmonary system from within a body. I remembered standing at the bottom of the spiral staircase with Nematali and looking up far higher than I could see. Could we be at the top of that corkscrew-thingy? I blinked three times, willing my sight to return. Even if David found a way to escape, how could he get out with a blind girl in tow?

  “Don’t even say it.” The anger in David’s voice startled me.

  “How’d you know what I was thinking?” The memory of the mind-bending pain that shot through me any time David listened to my thoughts caused a shiver. “If you were reading my mind, I’d know it.”

  “The expression on your face speaks for you. We’re getting out of this. Together.” He grabbed my cheeks. “Understand?”

  Tears filled my eyes as I nodded. His grip tightened, and his lips covered mine. I tensed, and then relaxed as his warmth coated me.

  I allowed him to pull me into a standing position. Eyes closed, I imagined we were in the woods, safe, where nothing could hurt us. His kiss deepened, but his trembling hands told the stories I knew his eyes would betray if I could see them.

  He needed me as much as I needed him. A constant. A gentle, loving familiarity to help us forget, for a moment, how lost and alone we were.

  David grazed his forehead against mine. I could still taste his kiss, sense his lips hovering close. The air between us tingled. We were truly alone. Poseidon was as blind to us here as I was to everything around me. We could stay here forever. Only us. Together. Just as I’d dreamed of every night since David left.

  “Hiding’s not the answer,” he whispered.

  I smiled. I must have been completely transparent. “I know we can’t stay here. I’m just afraid … ” I’ll lose you again. How stupid was that, being more afraid of losing David than of the guy who probably wanted to kill us.

  David took a deep breath. “I’ll figure this out.”

  He kissed my forehead and moved about the room. Here I was again, counting on him. I was barely a help even on my own world, and now that I was blind, I was more a hindrance than ever. Unless …

  I stood taller and tried to blank out the freight train of David’s resonance swirling about me. There had to be a way out of here—a safe way where Poseidon wouldn’t find us.

  Something scraped against the metal beneath me, like a dog scratching at a door to come inside. Whatever it was seemed to move toward my left. I followed the sound until it stopped. “There’s something moving underneath us,” I said.

  “Of course there is. We’re right on top of the ship’s nervous system.”

  I knelt and ran my palm across the floor until I discovered a deep groove forming an oval-shaped pattern in the decking that shifted when I adjusted my weight. “I think I found a hatch.” I continued to feel around and found a small lip.

  “Don’t pull on that,” David said.

  Too late. I already had.

  16

  The hatch vibrated beneath my knees.

  “Jess, get away from there!”

  I stood, but stumbled as the shaking increased. The air seemed to suck out of the room, leaving an odor of rotten fish behind. David grabbed my arm, but I slipped through his hand as the plate below my feet gave way.

  Stifling humidity filled my lungs. I fell in slow motion until a warm grip wrapped around my wrist. I jerked to a halt, and searing pain exploded through my shoulder. My scream vibrated between my ears.

  David’s grunt echoed through what sounded like a vast chamber. My heartbeat pulsated in my ears as the height of the swirling black staircase Nematali had shown me flashed through my mind.

  “Hold on, Jess!”

  His grip slipped. I reached for him, but my other damp palm slid over his trembling fist. David’s voice continued to repeat in the depths surrounding us.

  “David!” My cry mixed with David’s fading echo.

  How high were we?

  His grip tightened, but my hand continued to slip.

  “Take my other hand!” David shouted.

  Tears streamed down my cheeks. I reached, waving my fingers but only hit my own arm.

  “Come on! Try harder!”

  The fire in my shoulder deepened. I let my other arm fall. “I can’t.”

  “Oh no,” David whispered.

  “What? What is it?” I squirmed, trying to reach for him again.

  Something chirped and chittered beside my ear.

  “Ereb catalle est.” David’s tone scared me more than the unfamiliar words.

  Taking a deep breath, I forced my free hand upward until David’s fingers vised around mine. I rose slightly as the chirping grew louder.

  “Ereb catalle!”

  David released one of my hands as strange, hairy fingers crawled up my arm. I screamed and flailed, dislodging whatever had been there. The darkness took on a silver-gray tone at the bottom of my field of vision. A shadow only, not enough to see what accosted me.

  Two prickly somethings crawled up my back. “David!”

  “I see them. Don’t let go.”

  “You see who? What is it?” My body swayed as I looked over each shoulder. My mind envisioned fanged horrors inching up my shirt, ready to bite. I whimpered as my sweaty hand began to slip from David’s grip. “I’m falling.”

  “Jess, no!”

  My hand slid free.

  A coppery odor mixed with the humid air whipping around me. I heaved and lurched to the side, falling forever. The creatures on my back released me, and the wind swirled, raising me like a vortex. My hip slurped into a gelatinous surface before I skidded downward as if on a slide.

  Then the slide ended.

  “No!” I scrabbled and clawed as my legs and hips breached the edge. I kicked my feet, imagining I hung on the brink of nothingness.

  Wind whisked past my ears, blowing my hair into my face. I grappled with the gelatinous mush covering the flat surface I clung to, but my fingers found nothing to hold. Down I slid, until bony fingers heaved from below, pushing my ribs and propelling me upward. I flipped over and slammed into the muck.

  What just happened?

  I lay on my back, grayness coating my vision. My panting filled my ears. I was alive. Actually alive!

  “Jess!” David’s voice came from above, but distant. “Stay still. I’m coming!”

  I imagined myself on a narrow ledge. A wall on one side and near death looming just inches away. Stay still? No problem.

  The darkness beside me chittered. Something tangled in my hair. Every goose bump on my body goosed at the same time. “David,” I whispered. “Where are you?”

  His voice echoed down to me. “It’s grassen. A lot of them. Don’t move. I’m coming!”

  Grassen? As in watermelon-sized spiders? I squeezed my eyes shut as a hairy finger grazed my cheek. Don’t bite me. Please, please, please don’t bite me.

  How far had I fallen? Was David a m
ile away? Three miles away?

  I blinked, and a murky form tilted from side to side over my face. Three spectral, glowing spheres cut through the shroud glazing my sight. Something chirped.

  My shriek echoed through the chamber. Swiping the beast from my face, I sat up. Black blurs scattered in the soft gray hues still coating my vision.

  “Jess, stay still.” David’s voice was close.

  “Where are you?”

  “Just above you. I don’t want to hop down and startle them. Are you hurt?”

  “Startle them? How many them?”

  The gloppy goo shifted beside me, and a big, dark, wonderful, blurry figure of David filled my vision. I reached where I thought his face would be.

  “Can you see?” He took my hands.

  “Only shadows.”

  His form shifted. “You’re probably better off.”

  “Where are the spiders?”

  “The grassen? They’re gone.”

  I gulped. “Are we on the staircase thingy?”

  “Yes.”

  My stomach sank. We could be miles above the floor. “Can the ambassador find us here?”

  “There are two people sitting on the ship’s spine. Yes, I’m sure he’ll find out soon if he doesn’t know already.”

  I rubbed my eyes, smearing greasy goo across my lids. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. If I—” Bright spots of light blasted past my face. “Wait!” Blinking hard, I turned to David. Color shot into my sight, startling me.

  David’s blurry form moved closer. “You can see me?”

  I blinked again, and his beautiful turquoise eyes came into focus.

  “Yes!” I wiped away the goo. “I can see! I can actually see!”

  David pulled me to him. “You don’t know how relieved I am to hear you say that. I’ve never heard of impedance barbs causing blindness. I wasn’t sure how long it would last.”

  “I’m just glad it’s over.”

  Then again, maybe the blindness was a blessing. We sat submersed nearly to our hips in what looked like strawberry-lemon JELL-O. Peachy-pink blobs dripped from my fingers.

  I flared my nose at the coppery stench and rubbed my hands on my shirt. Yuck.

  Darkness surrounded us: a vast space with miniature pinpoint lights hovering and moving in the distance. The only illumination came from the JELL-O staircase that reached several stories above and so far below I couldn’t see the bottom.