While watching the movie I thought, I want to be like him one day.
But then, taking another bite of my dessert and smiling up at the screen, I realized that I already was.
The Egg handled like a dream.
Despite its silly name, it was a sleek and sexy machine, especially from behind the steering wheel—not that different from the transports in the Earth movie I’d watched earlier that day. I had preprogrammed the journey so it would start at my command, but once I’d snuck into transport and slipped inside the vehicle, it occurred to me that would create a potentially incriminating log of my route, so once I’d started the engine, I deleted the preprogrammed route and began my trip to the capital manually. Whizzing out of the hangar and through the Alwon Kabarak, I felt grateful for that decision: driving the Egg was a lot more fun than sitting back and letting the car do all the work.
While the LDA campus was quiet and sleepy at that hour—just like at any other hour, really—the Kabarak was in full swing for the Quartermoon festivities as I passed over it. The Chimæra had been let out of their pens and were frolicking freely while the Kabarakians ringed around campfires in the dark, laughing and dancing and shooting off fireworks and waving sparklers. I knew that behind me, from Alwon to Tarakas, from deloon to the outer Territories, people would be celebrating until dawn.
But the sights and sounds of revelry diminished as I crossed the border into the city, where the Quartermoon holiday was observed with less enthusiasm.
One hand on the wheel, I removed my tunic and threw it on the passenger seat revealing the contraband Kalvaka T-shirt I was wearing underneath. I was still wearing what Devektra had called my pajama pants, but they really weren’t so bad without the tunic. Around my wrist, the bulk of Daxin’s ID band made a striking counterpoint to the rest of my ensemble.
All in all, I looked pretty good. Not that it even mattered that much how I looked. What mattered was that I’d gotten out.
My escape had gone so smoothly that I almost felt guilty. I’d made such quick fools of everyone at the LDA, none of whom had any reason to suspect that my changed attitude was due in large part to the planning and execution of this grand deception. But before I could succumb to guilt or regret, I was distracted by the Spires of Elkin on the horizon, which were lit up in pink by the mysterious column of light behind them. This time, I didn’t pay them any attention. I was almost there.
At the Chimæra, the ID band worked like a charm. No one even looked at me sideways as I glided in. I was almost offended. Had they forgotten me so quickly?
Maybe they just didn’t recognize me anymore. I felt more confident than ever, like a totally different person from the one who, at the first sign of trouble, had gone pushing through the crowd like a frightened little kid just a few weeks ago. It had hardly been any time at all, but I felt like I’d grown up so much since then.
The club was packed tonight, almost twice as busy as the last time I’d been here, which was saying something. Devektra’s appearance weeks ago had been a surprise, but this Quartermoon performance was well publicized, and it had attracted an even wider audience. I spotted homemade Devektra T-shirts on every fifth patron. The Chimæra was the largest club on Lorien by far, and she had filled it to capacity. I felt a surge of pride. I’d known that Devektra was a big deal and all, but I hadn’t known how big of a deal she was until now. And I knew her. You could almost even say we were friends.
“Well, well, well.” I turned to see Paxton and Teev, holding up half-finished ampules and staring at me with amused grins on their faces.
“Look who doesn’t give up,” Teev said, draping her arm around me in greeting. “After we saw you get busted last time, we figured we’d seen the last of you.”
I just shrugged and smiled my cagiest smile, and they looked at me, for the first time, as if they were actually sort of impressed.
I was just about to pat myself on the back for it when I heard a voice I recognized.
“Someone told me you might have found your way in here somehow.”
I turned around to see Mirkl, Devektra’s perpetually annoyed right-hand man, standing behind me with an ampule in each hand. He looked me up and down with predictably annoyed eyes.
“Hey, Mirkl,” I said, in the most casual tone I could muster. My heart was thumping in my chest, knowing that if Mirkl was talking to me I was one step closer to seeing Devektra again, but I played it cool for the benefit of Teev and Paxton. I wanted them to think it was no biggie for me to be on a first-name basis with a member of the headlining performer’s entourage. I snuck a glance in their direction, and saw that they were looking at me with stunned eyes. Mission accomplished.
“Devektra wants to see you,” he said.
As well as things had been going tonight, I still hadn’t expected it to be this easy. How had Devektra even known I was here?
Mirkl must have seen the surprise on my face. “Telepathy, remember? Neat little trick to have. I think you know where the dressing room is. Here—bring her these.” He pushed the ampules into my hands and began to walk away.
“You’re not coming in?” I asked after him, suddenly nervous about waltzing into Devektra’s dressing room unaccompanied. It seemed too good to be true. With Devektra you never knew what you were getting into.
He turned, looked over his shoulder and waved me off. “I’m on a break. Those ampules were my last errand for her until showtime.” He smiled wryly. “She’s all yours.” Then he disappeared into the crowd.
Devektra faced her reflection in the vanity mirror, her back to the door. She was wearing slim-fitting red metallic pants and a shimmering top made out of a liquid-like material that I’d never seen before. Her shirt flowed around the curves of her body in undulating cascades as she stood tall, stared straight ahead and gently massaged her temples with her fingers. She didn’t acknowledge me.
But she knew I was here—last time I’d been in this room, I’d had to bust through the entrance with all the strength I could muster. This time I hadn’t even had to knock. The door had just swung open for me as I’d approached it, clutching the ampules Mirkl had given me to deliver. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe Devektra had used her telekinesis to “help” me get through the locked door last time too.
It was ironic that I’d been more comfortable making my entrance breaking down a door and crashing through an entire rack of clothes than I was just walking right in. I just stood there, feeling a few steps beyond awkward as Devektra gazed at herself in the mirror and rubbed her forehead.
“Did you bring them?” she asked without turning.
“Yeah,” I said. I walked over and handed her an ampule. She took it, downed it in one gulp, then reached out for the second and downed that too. She still hadn’t bothered to look at me.
When she tossed the second spent vial aside and onto the floor, I understood what her deal was. I had to hold back a laugh. For once, I was the one who knew what she was thinking instead of the other way around. Or, at least, I knew what she was feeling. You didn’t need to be a telepath to figure it out.
“Wow. You’re actually nervous,” I said.
“So?” She finally turned her attention from the mirror and locked her gaze on mine. Her eyes were hard, but underneath the steel, I saw a hint of fear. Of vulnerability. “Who wouldn’t be?”
“You weren’t nervous last time,” I pointed out. “I didn’t know you got nervous. I kind of thought that was, like, your whole thing.”
“Last time was different.”
“Why?”
“It just was,” she said. “It was a smaller crowd. It wasn’t Quartermoon. It was just different. Plus, there’s just something about tonight. I don’t know. I sort of have a bad feeling I guess.”
“It’s just nerves,” I said.
“I know. I’ll be fine.”
Then it was like I wasn’t there anymore. Devektra’s attention was back on herself as she ran her fingers through her hair and gingerly began to pile it, one tendril at a time, on top of her head. Each carefully arranged lock somehow managed to stay perfectly in place. She looked more frightened than ever.
I didn’t know what to say, so I decided to try something else. I decided not to talk. Out loud, at least.
How does it work? I thought. Can you hear everything I think? What about the people outside? Can you hear them? What about the whole world? Can you hear them all?
Devektra’s lips didn’t move, but she answered me anyway, in a voice I heard inside my head that was both hers and not hers.
“It’s like standing waist-deep in a rushing river and trying to catch a million tiny floating leaves as they race past you. Some of them you catch. Most of them you don’t.”
You invited me here tonight, and summoned me back here. But why me? I wanted to know. Who am I to you? You’re Devektra. I’m a nobody in a green tunic.
“No. You’re like me. You’re different. Neither of us fit in on this world. I knew it as soon as I met you. Before I met you, I knew.
“I sensed you out there in the crowd that first night. All those people and their thoughts all zooming past me. Except yours. Yours just bubbled up, and I could reach down and pull up each one, like every fear and hope you had was meant for me. It sounded like you were singing.”
But what about tonight? I had to know. Why am I here now?
“I knew you would make me feel less alone. Especially tonight. I can feel that something terrible is about to happen.”
I looked over. Devektra was staring at my reflection in the mirror. She had the strangest look on her face, both peaceful and surprised. Something told me that she’d never done this before, had never used her Legacy to speak to someone wordlessly like this.
I knew then, without understanding why, that this might be the only chance I ever got. So I leaned over, closed my eyes and kissed her. Her lips were soft and she smelled like something I recognized but couldn’t describe, even to myself. Her lips tasted like something I’d tasted in a dream, one of those dreams you forget as soon as you wake up. When I opened my eyes she was gone.
CHAPTER 9
“Deloon this time of year is miserable,” said the guy. “You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world.”
“No argument there, bro,” I said, even though I’d never been to Deloon. I truly didn’t want to argue.
I was on the balcony above the stage waiting with Mirkl and the rest of the entourage for Devektra’s performance to start. She was behind schedule, but most of the people on the balcony were pretty buzzed and no one seemed impatient, least of all me.
Instead, I just felt strange. I was lightheaded and euphoric. I didn’t know where Devektra had gone after she’d left me, but, even after her warning—something terrible is about to happen—I wasn’t worried about her. My brain was still buzzing, turning loops and cartwheels on itself.
Our kiss had been incredible. But it was the telepathic rapport that we’d shared that I was still reeling from. Speaking only with our minds, we’d managed to communicate on a level more pure—more real—than anything I’d ever experienced. No kiss could ever compare to that.