Chapter 49 #2
I nod quickly. “I know.” I clear my throat and try to get us back on track. “Why don’t we try the cabin?”
Storm stayed back in camp today, standing in the same spot he was when I first arrived in Dawnlin, watching over the portal entrance to the clearing. We pass by without as much as an acknowledgement, a scowl painted on his face as he stares across camp.
“Storm doesn’t seem very friendly this morning,” I say, once we are safely in the cabin with no risk of him overhearing.
Turning slowly, I survey the room, taking in the empty space where all the beds from the storm were the last time I was here.
Only one remains tucked away in the corner, I assume where Mara slept last night.
“He wasn’t supposed to stay back at camp today, but with you coming back last night, we needed to make sure someone was on duty that could handle Weston if he came for you.”
“Oh.”
“He’ll be fine,” Dane says, waving it off. “He agrees we need the strength here.”
I nod and step toward the center of the room. The walls are smooth, with no doors or storage cupboards of any kind. Everything within it is part of the magic and comes and goes as needed. There’s nothing to even search, because with no need for it, the room remains empty.
Shit. Another dead end.
“This room is pointless,” I say, frustration leaking into my voice. “There’s got to be something we are missing.”
I close my eyes, and cycle through everything I’ve learned about Dawnlin. I think back to Edmond’s story, the books I found in the library, the fountain. Both sides of stories I was told from Dane and Sig. The mountain. The healing waters, and the poems the mountain spoke to me.
“I don’t think there’s anything from the past Guardians anywhere,” Dane says.
“What if we’re looking for the wrong thing?” I say, throwing my eyes open and spinning around to look at him again.
His brow furrows. “What are you thinking?”
“What if we keep looking for something from the other Guardians, but what if it’s not them that would tell us? What if it’s Dawnlin itself?”
“How would the island tell us?”
“Just like,” I start, but slam my mouth shut, stopping ‘the healing waters’ from tumbling through my lips. I almost told him, and now I need to cover up for my abrupt change of pace.
Dane cannot know I found the healing waters or that the island helped me make a map that led me to the discovery.
He can’t know that when I asked for help or needed something, the island helped me along, showing me things and pulling me in certain directions, even revealing the location as I gazed upon the replica of the fountain as I approached the mountain.
The fountain.
Maybe it all comes back to that, to the fountain. The biggest depiction of the island of Dawnlin there is. The fountain brought us all here, and held a clue for how to find the location of the waters, but what if we’ve all missed it before, because we didn’t know we needed to look?
“Just like when I found the fountain,” I say, covering my stumble. “Dane, how much do you know about the fountain? Can you draw it? Maybe it holds the key. It’s what brings each of us here, just like the dust does.”
A light sparks in his eyes. “I never thought to look at the fountain before.”
Excitement bubbles inside me. This could be it, the answer the Castaways have been searching for.
“What do you remember about it?” I start rattling off any details that I remember, but there was so much going on in that moment that I can’t recall too much, only the details that helped me find the waters and know that it was connected to Dawnlin.
“Honestly, I don’t really look at the fountain. That’s not my purpose when I’m called back, so I don’t really know what is carved into it.”
I feel myself deflate. This is going to be harder than I thought.
If Dane, the person who has the most interaction with the fountain out of all of us, doesn’t know any of the details, then it’s possible we will miss something.
They’ve all been on the island much longer than me, but maybe one of the other Voyagers will remember.
Collectively, we could try to piece things together.
Or the Castaways, but I can’t ask them.
“We should ask everyone when they get back to camp tonight, see what they remember. Maybe with everyone’s memory, we can get a good picture and figure it out,” I say.
“Why don’t we just go look at it ourselves?” he says.
I stare at him, confused. “What do you mean? Is there one on the island? I haven’t seen it in all the time I’ve been here.”
“No, Lennox. I mean back in the real world.”
I suck in a harsh breath, shaking my head rapidly. “Dane, no, we can’t. We can’t use the dust. There’s not enough left.”
No. This cannot happen. If we use any of the dust now, the amount to get us there and back would be equivalent to four fewer Castaways that can get home. We can’t.
“We have enough to get back. I haven’t been called away, so I haven’t used any. You wouldn’t be trapped there. We could come home so you can keep searching.”
He pulls the pouch off his belt and opens it up in front of me, the golden glow illuminating the inside.
My heart pounds in my ears and my breaths become shallow as I try to talk my way out of this without seeming suspicious.
“But what if it’s a dead end? We’ll only have wasted what little we have left—”
“But what if it’s not? What if the fountain holds the answer?”
I can’t keep the panic from rising in my voice. I’m desperate to find answers, but not at the cost of ruining the life of one more Castaway.
“We can’t take that risk, Dane! Every time you use it, we’re closer to being trapped here for eternity. No one would even need to find the cure anymore because we could never leave!” I yell.
He knows getting back to Blackwood is important to me; it’s the entire reason I am here.
My time on Dawnlin has been short, so I still have a chance compared to so many of the Voyagers, and even the Castaways.
We had this conversation on the cliffs, and again on the beach.
I need the ability to leave, even if that means leaving him.
“If the answer is there, on the fountain, it’s worth the risk,” he says.
“We’re taking an even bigger risk if we don’t follow through with the lead.
If we do nothing, we’re at the mercy of me getting called and using dust, and I can’t control that.
Either way, use it or don’t. It’s still almost gone. ”
He’s right, it is, but I can’t allow myself to use any more of it.
“We can talk to everyone. I’m sure between all of us, we can figure it out.”
“No. No one else can know.”
“Why? Why wouldn’t you want them to know that even if they find the cure, they can’t do anything with it?”
“Because it will not get to that. I’m not trying to keep anyone here.”
A small seed of doubt burrows in me at his statement.
Is he telling the truth? Would he have let any of the Castaways leave if they had asked?
Is he truly not trying to keep anyone here?
Or would he have demanded they tell him the location of the healing waters like Weston and Sig suspected because of how he arrived on the island?
It may not have been worth the risk of finding out, but if Dane is telling the truth, maybe they have all been stuck on the island for so long for no reason.
“Then there must be another way,” I say, and swallow down the fear.
This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come back. I’m making it worse.
“We can’t risk not checking. It is worth the use of the dust,” he says. He reaches into the bag and pulls his hand out, as a glow seeps between the fingers of his clenched fist.
“Dane, no!”
The scream barely leaves my lips before he is stepping toward me, pulling my chest to his and tossing the dust over our heads.