Page 102 of The Garnet Daughter
I press us in but we bounce, and when I shove forward again, forcing us to fold to the other side of the door, a menacing wave overtakes us. It constricts around my throat and throws us off course. I claw to gain purchase as we occupy the strange dreamlike space between one location and another.
August’s ship presents itself to me, the safe, cozy place I can always fold to, but I push it down and fight against my gift to take us to the locked entrance of the First Son ship.
We end up somewhere else entirely, a mix of both thoughts.
“Is this?” Ferren holds my arm so tightly it stings.
We both stand perfectly still, taking in the terrifying surroundings of the cockpit of the enemies’ ship. It’s empty and freezing cold, our breath coming out in frantic clouds as we realize we aren’t anywhere near where I intended.
“Should I fold us out?” I whisper.
Ferren concentrates, staring off to the side like she does when she is using her link to speak to 99. “They are bringing up a map for us.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” She slowly lets go of her hold on me. “You didn’t mean to fold us here?”
“No,” I confess and realize if we try to fold out, we could end up somewhere worse than we are now. Either my gift is acting strange again, sending me places I don’t intend to be, or there is something very wrong with this ship.
Purple and yellow lights fade in and out on a wall of controls, so many stations and screens it makes the other ships seem tiny.
“It’s empty.” Ferren’s whisper is shaky.
The ship is utterly silent, except for the gentle hum of climate control turned too far in one direction. The haunted aura of the dark room we stand in only gets more eerie as Ferren turns and points down one of three pitch-black halls connected to the cockpit. It glows a soft gold for a quick flash, then the opening is black again.
“99 is saying we have to go . . . that way,” she whispers.
“Did he say how far?” I ask.
She looks off to the side, pausing and listening. “I guess they will tell us as we move.”
“Do you know how to use that?” I gesture to the small gun in her hand.
She chuckles. “No. I should just leave it. My light would probably be more help to us.”
I’m assuming 99 gave it to her for his own peace of mind, not because he doesn’t believe her capable but because he couldn’t physically come with her, so he gave her his weapon instead.
Her expression sobers when she sees my smile. “We should start walking.”
We slowly make our way through the ghostly ship in silence, except when Ferren translates their instructions by calmly whispering directions. But the way she pauses and waits at each intersection, I can tell they are frantic on the other side, possibly arguing the best way to the cargo hull. The passages of the ship are so dark, it is hard to move through them, the gently strobing lights our only illumination.
“Keep going.” She is just ahead of me, glancing back and forth as we pass rooms left open and empty, her hand held in a tense, branchy fist, ready to use her light.
The tension between us becomes unbearable. She’s so far away, it’s as if I never even folded back from Frith, still stuck there worrying about my friend on another world.
“Are you alright?” I ask weakly, already knowing the answer.
“If I wasn’t so distracted by how mad I am at you, this ship would be much more terrifying,” she jokes and then points down a particularly eerie passageway. “This way.”
“I am sorry for leaving without telling you.”
She stops walking, her back facing me with stiff shoulders.
“Ferren?” She pauses for so long, I worry she sees something in the darkness ahead, but then she sighs, her breath coming out defeated.
“The first time you left . . .” She turns, somehow looking smaller, the hard shell she has held against me falling away. “The first time was an accident, but the second time you did it on purpose. You disappeared, Calliape.”
I have to tell her the truth about the ritual, about everything. She deserves to know I left without telling her not just because I knew she would object to me making sure the monster would not harm her, but also that I selfishly did so to smooth over the edges of the mistake I made. How can I explain that without her hating me?
