Chapter 28 - Luna #2
It rises in one long unbroken line, a wall of packed earth about two feet wide, lifting smoothly out of the grass, flowing almost like water. There is no strain in him at all that I can see he just walks, and the land does what he tells it. The wall follows him around the corner and keeps going.
This is the first time I've seen him use it and it fits him so perfectly that I want to laugh. It makes so much sense that it would be the earth for Gage. He’s solid, patient and the rock for everyone he loves.
Kara bumps my shoulder with hers.
"He's completely not my type," she says. "But I will admit that's a little bit hot."
I don't take my eyes off him. "Mmhmm."
She laughs at me, loud enough that a few people look our way.
Gage takes the last corner and brings the wall back toward us, stopping with a ten-foot gap between the end of it and where it started. He turns to face the group and swipes his forearm across his forehead.
"We'll need a gate of some kind in there, something two people can open and close fast. That'll hold them for now while we sort out the roof."
I cross the road to him while everybody else starts talking at once and put my hand on his arm.
"Gage, that was amazing. You did all of it in one go." I look up at his face, hunting for the same greyness that settled into Torrin’s face when he was using his power a lot. "How are you feeling? Is it draining you the way Torrin's does to him?"
He goes quiet for a second, and I can tell he's looking at something inside himself.
"It was easy at first but got a little harder toward the end there," he says. "Right now, I feel like I could keep going for a while yet."
"Wow. Just wow." I squeeze his forearm. "If you start to feel it draining on you at all, please stop. Promise me that."
His mouth tips up at one corner. "I'm good, sweetheart.
Thank you for worrying about me." He looks back over the wall at the empty field.
"I'm going to get in there and start raising the pillars," A long breath goes out of him.
"There's still so much to do, and we've got to unload and get into town before dark. This day is never going to end."
"Then let me take something off you." I give his arm one more squeeze. "I'll round up everyone I can and start emptying the vehicles while you're out here. That way they're sitting empty and ready the second you're done."
He opens his mouth but whatever he was about to say, he changes his mind and
nods at me instead, then ducks through the gap in his wall and gets back to work.
Anders, Stu and Gord walk through the gap in the wall with amazed looks on their faces to see where their cattle are going to be homed and talking to themselves.
Anders lets out a chuckle, "Never thought I’d live to see something like this.
We’ll have to figure out something to let in light though, maybe we don’t seal up this end with stone? "
"Yup," Stu agrees, his voice fading a bit as he walks into the new pen, "gonna need something for ventilation too."
I turn to cross the road and nearly walk into a group of the new people coming out of the equipment bay doors.
Their faces are the reason I stop.
The first thing that moves across them is plain surprise, and that I understand completely.
What comes after it is shock, and then something that isn't either of those.
Clayton Sorensen's expression never changes at all, which somehow tells me more than if it had.
His sister has both hands pressed flat against her middle and she is staring at that wall of earth without blinking once.
Tanner and the three men who came with him in his trucks stand shoulder to shoulder and watch the first line of stone pillars push up above the wall. None of them say a single word. They don't look away, either.
"Hi. Sorry. Hi."
The kid in the ball cap has come up on my left with his hand already half out. He pulls it back, wipes it on his jeans, then offers it again.
"I'm Cody."
"Luna." I shake his hand back. He can't be more than eighteen, and there's something unmoored about the way he stands, half turned toward a group he hasn't joined.
He tips his head toward the field. "Can more of you guys do that? The, uh. The tricks."
"A few of us have picked up new things." I keep it there and don't add to it, and he doesn't push.
"That's so cool." A small smile pulls at his mouth. "I always wished I'd get my letter to Hogwarts when I was a kid. Checked the mailbox for about two years straight."
Then the smile falls off his face, and he looks down at his shoes.
"Hey." I duck my head to catch his eye. "Are you okay?"
He lifts one shoulder, and I see his eyes shine before he blinks hard and clears it away.
"Yeah. I'm just still trying to get a handle on all this new stuff." He says sadly. "My family, my home…my, my twin sister was at home when it happened, so she disappeared with the town. It feels like a piece of me is gone and I keep reaching for it anyway."
It hits me low and hard, because I know that exact feeling.
"I lost my parents and my brother," I tell him. "Car accident. Atlas was my big brother." His head comes up. "I'm not going to tell you it gets better, because everybody said that to me and I wanted to scream at all of them. It changes, though. It gets different."
Cody looks at me for a long moment and then nods once, and some of the tightness goes out of his shoulders. "Thanks. You’re really nice. I’m glad we tagged along with you guys. I’m going to head inside and see if there’s something I can help with. I’ll see you later, ok?"
"You bet, Cody. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again, you know, in the mine." I laugh.
Cody starts walking away and I hear a low shout of frustration behind me. Mars and Jules are there. They’re both staring at a large boulder that was put down by some picnic tables for decoration and look like they’re confused about something.
"It’s a rock guys, a large rock. Sometimes they are called b-o-u-l-d-e-r-s."
"Thanks, Cin. We’re aware of what the object is called.
" Jules snaps back. "The part we can’t figure out is why our powers quit working. We were just going to see who could move the rock first – me with air pressure or Mars with his shadows. Purely for knowledge, you understand, absolutely no dick-measuring involved. But’s like a switch got flipped on both of us, our powers just stopped working"
"My power didn’t fade, I didn’t feel like I was tiring. Nothing," Mars says flatly. "It went out. Like a switch."
"It's probably just something that takes practice," I tell them. "And we’re all tired and stressed so I’m sure that doesn’t help. Everything you've both done today, the loading, the drive, all of it has been a lot on top of what you went through to get home."
"Maybe," Jules mumbles "but it happening to both of us at the same time is a little strange."
They grumble, but I watch them both decide I'm right, because it's the only explanation that makes any sense.
"Ok, if you’re done not dick-measuring maybe you can find something useful to do?