Chapter 27
I knew I was dreaming: slumped in one of the dusty chairs, legs outstretched, breath moving easily in and out in the stuffy darkness of the grotto.
But I was also drifting, suspended in a haze of icy darkness that spread in every direction.
Long-stick in hand, I surveyed the rise and fall of sound and pressure pushing out the edge of the universe to make time.
Like a superhero, I hung within it as I drew the peak of one wave to another, joining them together to collect the energy released when they met and became as one.
Once joined, the waves continued their motion to the edges of the universe as if there had only ever been one wave.
For all the energy I took, nothing changed.
Petra, wake up.
The three-dimensional cloth of the universe spread before and around me, my thoughts a needle stitching it together to fill my chunk of moldavite with stored time.
Time was an expression of energy, and that was what my lodestone held.
Creating light made time, and time was what pushed the edges of the universe wider, a drop of nothing in an even larger, incomprehensible nothing.
Look close enough, though, and nothing was everything.
Petra, Marty snuck out to get the stick. Wake up.
Pleased to see him with me, I spun to Pluck. The shadow was here and not, more of a concept than an actual presence. That was okay. It was a dream, and I stretched in the icy comfort.
If she’s going to run, we can’t stop her. Stick extended, I stitched the top of a swell to another, running the seam for light-years until by chance it hit a star and broke it into a sudden supernova. We were lucky to find her the first time.
She’s back. She got it, Pluck fizzed. Petra, wake up!
I snorted awake, blinking at Pluck coiled up like a snake atop my chest. “Dude.” My fingers went numb in cold as I touched him. “I was just dreaming about you.”
Pluck bobbed his hooded head, green eyes glinting. It wasn’t a dream for my part in it.
He evaporated, hazy as he flowed to the floor to coalesce into a dog.
His annoyed emotion sifted through my muddled confusion as he shook his head, ears slapping as tiny drops of dark matter popped against the floor of the auditorium.
The sun had moved away from the stage to make a weak, oval glow on the distant wall. I’d slept for hours.
Voices came from the steps to the stage, and I sat up to see Marty, Herm, and Benedict. As Pluck had said, there was a stick in the woman’s hand. Still fuzzy, I looked at the podium to where I’d left the other four, all of them propped together.
Damn. She’d gotten the stick from Dana?
“I…I have to go,” Marty was saying, and I slowly stood, wobbling until I found my balance. “You can stop Thoth now. You don’t need me.”
Herm caught my eye, then turned to Marty. “I didn’t even hear you leave.”
“Me either.” Benedict shifted to make room for me, and I stumbled over, trying to figure out why I was so freaking sleepy. It was warm, sure, but to have fallen asleep?
Sorry, Pluck fizzed as if it had been his fault, and my side went cold when he flicked his tail right through me.
“Hey, Marty,” I said as I joined them, collapsing on the stairs as if it were four in the morning, not four in the afternoon. “You got past Lev and Cameron? I’m impressed.” Grinning, I raised my hand for a fist bump, which she nervously exchanged. “Yeah, I don’t listen to Herm, either.”
Benedict squinted at the dimming circle of light at the ceiling. “You weren’t followed, were you? I wouldn’t put it past Dana to let you take the stick just to lead her back to us.”
“Dana didn’t let me do anything, and I wasn’t followed.”
Herm chuckled. “If she slipped past Lev and Cameron, she probably got past anything Dana could muster. I think we’re in the clear.”
The pinch to Marty’s brow eased as she extended the stick to me—but she still looked worried. “I…I have to go,” she said, clearly distracted as Pluck hazed to nothing on the step beside me. “I’m not a fighter, and you have what you need to catch him.”
“Marty, I told you. You are a golden child.” I took it, immediately knowing it was a match to the others.
A haze of dross dust tingled at the end, and I propped it up next to the stairs where it might draw the drift lurking under the rows of seats.
“The board will make an exception for Victor to keep you.”
“She’s right.” Benedict’s dusty shoes scuffed on the stage. “Nothing you could do is worse than what we’re standing in now, and they gave Petra a promotion. Besides, it’s not safe for you to leave until he’s caught.”
“It’s not about Victor. I have to go!” she said loudly, and Herm winced, the older man looking at the ceiling as if someone might hear.
“Marty…” Benedict coaxed.
She’s not afraid of me anymore, Pluck fizzed suddenly, and my lips parted as I realized it was true. Marty was agitated, nervous, and clearly upset. But she wasn’t afraid of Pluck. At all.
Marty took a step away, a hint of panic in her. “Dana caught her. She’s going to drop her in a vault.” Her eyes widened as she locked with my gaze. “I didn’t even know she was there!” she said. “She let Dana catch her so I could get away with that stupid stick. I have to go back for her!”
Her? I thought. And then Pluck’s sudden elation swirled through me, stunning.
Aasta is gone, Pluck thought, his chaotic emotion making me ill. My breath caught as my gaze shot to Marty. She was afraid, but not for herself. She wanted to go back. Not home. Back. To Dana’s? Shadow spit. Had Marty and Aasta…
“Caught who?” Herm said, but I stared at Marty, already knowing the answer. An undeniable thread of determination and self-sacrifice twined through her panic. I had felt that before. I remembered.
Pluck…I thought. Pluck had gone completely hazy, little sparks of dark matter fizzing from him. I thought shadows could only bond with weavers who had similar thought patterns…
Aasta swore…Pluck thought, still not believing. She swore she’d never risk the pain again. She was so afraid…
And with that, understanding lit through us both, drawing Herm’s eyebrows high as he stared at me in question.
Aasta had been afraid to trust anyone since losing her last weaver.
Marty had been afraid to trust at all. The emotions engraved within their thought patterns were the same.
There was common ground with which to grow.
“Marty,” I whispered, elated as I stood.
I wanted to take her hands and spin her around.
Instead, I stayed where I was on the hard steps, almost afraid to move.
I could see her misery. Her heart ached for having lost Aasta—just as she found her.
Guilt and regret pinched her features—the same feelings that Pluck knew moved Aasta.
They were both broken, but together they were whole.
Except that Dana had captured Aasta. Shadow spit. This wasn’t going to end well.
Herm’s brow furrowed as he looked at me, the old Spinner clearly trying to figure out the emotions parading over my face. “Mmmm. Either Dana wasn’t expecting us to make another go for the stick or she thinks it won’t do us any good,” he said, fishing.
“Um, Marty,” I said, but the woman was focused on Herm.
“She has six mages posted outside her apartment,” Marty said. “I got past them once. I can do it again.”
“You got past six mages?” Benedict moved to get between her and the stairs, and Marty’s brow furrowed in anger.
“Not all at once. Excuse me. I have to help Aasta.” Her eyes went wide, and she turned to me as if looking for understanding. “I didn’t know she was there. I ran right into her. I thought she was Pluck until…”
Marty’s lips parted and she flinched in a remembered pain.
“Aasta?” Herm made his mustache bunch. “What was she doing there?”
“She was in my head!” the woman wailed, and I came closer. “How can you stand the cold? I could hardly move!”
“She’ll get better at it,” I promised as I took her hand. “She’s several thousand years out of practice. Pluck says working through rezes is like working through stone, but she’ll get the knack.”
“No…” Herm’s gaze darted from Marty to me. “Marty…” he said, a huge smile finding him before it vanished in the same worry that had taken me. “Dana has Aasta?”
Marty nodded, head down. “I ran into her outside. She was waiting for me, I think. Or maybe she was there spying on Dana, because she went in to hear what Dana was saying about storing the university’s dross in the vaults at ‘their failed, great test.’ ”
I had no idea what that was, but I think Herm might have, as his frown deepened.
“She told me to run,” Marty was saying. “But I couldn’t.
My head hurt so bad. Dana saw Aasta. Put her in a bottle,” she practically whispered.
“Aasta made me promise to take the stick to you. She said if Thoth fell, so would Dana and she would be free. She said that you could do it. I never should have left her. Aasta is worth more than a stupid stick. I have to go.”
“Wait!” I made a grab for her hand, missing when she jerked away. “Marty, you’re right. Aasta comes first.” I glanced at Pluck, and the shadow dog nodded. “But you’re not doing it alone.”
“You can’t stop me.” Marty took a step back.
A small part of me cheered for her new courage even knowing the possible heartache it stemmed from. Benedict still didn’t get it, and I caught his eye. “Could you get Lev and Cameron? We need to make a plan to get Aasta free.”
I’ll get them. The shadow dog leapt from the stage, hazing before he reached the floor.
Benedict rocked to a halt as Pluck flowed up the fire stairs. “Why? We’ve got the stick. Once we take care of Thoth, we free Aasta.”
I took a breath. Let it out. Gave Marty a reassuring smile. “Aasta comes first. I think she followed Marty there. She sure as hell protected her.”