By the time they arrived on the beach it was high noon and the marines had cordoned off the area. Smitty located a rock perch where they could watch the activity below without being seen. Myrtle scavenged food, water, and some blankets and they set up camp, waiting and watching.
“There will be another clue,” Jasper said, and the kids believed him.
“Whoever did this used Nalen and Ahmed as decoys to split us up,” Kimber reasoned. “Divide and conquer.”
“Y-yes,” agreed Jasper. As they looked back on the series of events, it seemed plain to all of them now that it was a trap. But Jasper didn’t have the intellectual capacity to think his way through this situation. Not like Conrad. Conrad had said he was a leader, not a genius.
That night the kids huddled together under the blankets and let exhaustion take them. In the small hours of the morning Jasper woke with a start—someone was approaching their position. Noiselessly, he woke Daisy and motioned to the sound. She immediately understood and the two of them crept from under the blankets to investigate.
The night was bitterly dark and cold but a cloud blew away from the moon and they could see a bush thrashing about for unknown reasons.
“Maybe an animal?” Daisy whispered in Jasper’s ear.
Jasper didn’t think it was an animal. The bush was being hacked at and pushed aside from the top.
“Umph.”
They both distinctly heard the sound. It was the sort of sound that you make when you bump into something and hurt yourself.
Then, almost as though the moonlight was playing tricks with their eyes, the air around the bush shimmered.
The shimmer became J. He was clutching his elbow.
“J.!”
J. immediately took a defensive posture until he recognized Jasper and Daisy, at which point he sagged with relief.
“W-what are you doing here?” Jasper was elated to see him.
J. was strangely disoriented and frightened. “Where are we?”
“It’s a beach,” Jasper explained. “We followed Piper and Conrad here.”
“Piper! Conrad!” J. looked past Jasper urgently. “Where are they now?”
“We don’t know. We can’t find them. Do you know where they are?”
J. threw his knapsack down in frustration, clenched his fists, and screamed. Jasper took a step away from him and toward Daisy. Daisy prepared herself for anything because by all appearances J. had clearly lost his mind.
It took J. more than several minutes before he calmed down enough to speak. “I was right there. Right there and they … Ugh. They didn’t want me. They turned me away.” He kicked the ground. “I have to get back. I have to…”
“Do you know where Piper and Conrad are?” Jasper repeated timidly, trying to focus him.
“I—I…” J. clutched his head. “They took the memory. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll find my way back.”
“We have to find Piper and Conrad.”
J. looked at Jasper and Daisy as though seeing them for the first time clearly and not as merely part of a throng of kids who didn’t require his attention. He noticed that they looked small and helpless.
“Where are the rest of you?” J. asked.
“Sleeping, just over there.” Jasper pointed.
J. nodded as a plan formed quickly in his mind. “Good. Yes. I’ll take you with me. We’ll go together. It’ll be better that way. What about the kid with the X-ray eyes? Is he here?”
“Smitty? Yes.”
“We’ll need him. And the strong girl?” J. had never bothered to learn their names.
Daisy glared at J.’s rudeness. “That’s me.”
“Right. At daybreak the marines will move out and that’s when we’ll move in.” J.’s mind was going a mile a minute and he started plucking things out of his bag. “We’ll need—”
Jasper planted his feet. “N-n-no.”
J. was astonished by the little boy’s nerve. “No?”
“Conrad said I was the leader until he got back. I make the plan. C-Conrad said.”
J. took a deep breath. “What’s your name again?”
“Jasper.”
“Jasper.” J. practiced his patience. “Okay, Jasper. If that’s the way it’s gotta be, then what’s the plan?”
Jasper paused, lifting his chin decisively. “At daybreak when the beach is empty we’ll start looking for them.”
J. nodded seriously. “Good plan.”
“And we don’t stop until we find them!”
“That works for me.”
Part II
CHAPTER
26
Conrad woke gagging, gasping, and flailing his arms. He was vaguely aware that Piper was standing over him and trying to restrain him.
“Get down!” he yelled, pulling Piper wildly. “He has a gun!”
“Conrad, you’re safe.”
Her words struck him as nonsensical. He clutched at where the bullet had ripped through his shoulder, but his hand came down upon a bandage, causing him further confusion.
“Where’s my father?”
“He needs to remain calm,” a strange voice said.
Conrad jerked his head around to discover an old man looming over him. He had snow-white hair and was dressed in a red cloth that was fashioned like a toga but wrapped intricately in a way that Conrad had never seen before.
“Get away!” Conrad scrambled off the bed, knocking Piper in his mad efforts to escape.
Piper spoke in a low voice, asking the strange man to leave, which he did quickly and without another word. After he was gone Piper turned to find Conrad cowering against the wall like a hurt wild animal.
“Shhhhh. Conrad, it’s okay. I’m here. It’s me, Piper.”
Her soothing voice calmed his breathing until he could relax his body.
“No one’s gonna hurt you. Your shoulder’s still healing and you gotta take it easy. Honest. You’re safe. Be calm now.”
The White House and his father and the stranger with the gun began to dissipate in Conrad’s mind like a fog being blown away by the wind.
How strange, he thought as he looked around. The walls and floor were all made of stone that had waves of detailing through it as though some master craftsman had sculptured it into delightful motion. Crystals hung across the ceiling, creating an iridescent glow. On the far side of the room was an arched opening leading out to a balcony, where Conrad caught a glimpse of a waterfall and a valley dense with rich vegetation.
Piper was also wound in a robe made of a material no more substantial than a summer breeze. Gathered around the waist, it hung in soft folds to her knees. She watched him with concern knitting her forehead.
“This isn’t…” Conrad made quick mental leaps. His voice was hoarse from lack of use and he swallowed hard. “I’m not in a hospital. That man was…” Conrad’s eyes suddenly went wide with surprise. “J. was right. This is the place he was talking about.”
“It’s called Xanthia. Oh, Conrad, it’s so beautiful here.”
“But my father?”
“We followed him here.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Have you seen him?”
Piper shook her head. “As soon as I knew you were safe I asked for him, but no one knows who I’m talking about. They say that we are the only Outsiders.”
“Outsiders?”
“That’s what they call us and anyone else who isn’t from Xanthia. We’re the only Outsiders who’ve ever been here.”
“Where’s J.?”
Piper sighed deeply, shame dusting her cheeks. “They wouldn’t let him come with us. I had to leave him behind.”
“Why?” Conrad was startled to discover that he was disappointed that J. wasn’t there with them.
“J. wasn’t invited. Only us.”
Conrad thought about this, looking closely at the room.
“C’mon,” Piper urged, noticing his interest and anxious to change the subject. “Wait until you see!”
Piper led
Conrad across the room to the balcony, where he caught his first glimpse of a whole city that had been carved into the side of the mountain in a horseshoe shape. There were four tiers that reached above a large plateau, and falling through the center of it all was a waterfall that pooled before pushing forward as a river into the valley.
The air was soaked with perfume and there wasn’t a place that Conrad could set his eyes that wasn’t its own prayer of beauty. A vine of purple flowers danced through graceful stone archways and the waterfall had lights within that made it shimmer.
“Isn’t it something?” Piper gushed. “And not one person has asked me to solve a math problem!”
“How long have I been here?”
“Two days. By the time we got here you were more dead than alive, but Irgo, he’s the healer, has been doing all he can. ’Course he had no idea how to heal a gunshot wound and he’s not as good as Jasper, but he did his best. Isn’t that waterfall something? I think it’s even more grand than J. said it would be.” Piper pulled her gaze from the beauty to see Conrad’s reaction and was disappointed to see he was distant and unengaged. “What?”
“When I was with my father he was different. He changed.” Conrad was engrossed by the memory of him. “And he talked about a Dark One.”
Piper wasn’t interested in hearing about Harrington. “You’ve gotta rest.”
“I really need to find my father and talk to him.”
“Conrad.” Piper swallowed hard, bracing herself. “Maybe your dad didn’t make it.”
“Why would you say that?”
“He was shot through the heart.” Piper had seen Harrington hit when she was flying back to the roof. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Then you saw,” Conrad retorted passionately, “that my father saved me. You saw that if it wasn’t for him … I would be dead right now.”
“He never moved after he was shot. I never once saw him move when we were chasing him.” Piper could feel herself getting heated. “There’s no way he’s alive.”
Anger hung heavily in the pause that followed her words.
“All I’m saying,” Piper continued gently, reining herself in and preventing this from turning into a fight, “is that he was never much of a father to you. Sure, maybe he was nice for a few minutes, but it might not be such a bad thing if he wasn’t part of your life anymore. It might be … easier. Better. For you.”
“I don’t believe that, either,” Conrad replied bitterly. “My father is alive and I will find him. And if you don’t want to help or join me then you can just fly away and I’ll do it myself.”
Shocked by the anger and hurt in his voice, Piper became aware of the painful dark circles that lined Conrad’s eyes and the sadness that was etched into his forehead and tugging at his mouth.
“We’re a team, Conrad. You know that. We stay together, we work together, I have your back.”
A bottomless sigh escaped Conrad’s lips in a measured exhalation, releasing his anger. “Good. I want to start searching for him right away.”
By this point Conrad’s shoulder was throbbing wildly and he was dizzy. He slumped over without warning and Piper eased him to the bed.
“You’re as weak as a newborn foal.”
Conrad didn’t resist Piper’s help. When she had him settled he curled himself into a ball and closed his eyes. For the next twenty-four hours straight he slept without moving as Piper watched over him.
CHAPTER
27
At dawn the sound of singing drew Conrad from his bed. He found Piper sitting on the balcony with her knees curled up to her chest looking down to the plateau. Conrad followed her gaze to where an old man was standing at the very edge of the precipice. He had a shock of white hair and his arms were raised upward as he sang.
Sitting himself down next to Piper, Conrad arranged his shoulder into a comfortable position and listened.
“His name is Aldo,” Piper said, breaking the quiet between them. “He is called the singer of Xanthia. Every morning at dawn he sings to Mother Mountain.”
“Mother Mountain?”
“Mother Mountain is the spirit inside the mountain. AnnA told me all about it. Thousands of years ago the Chosen Ones had to wander below with the Outsiders. At long last the Guardian of the Chosen Ones led them to this hidden valley and the singer woke the spirit inside the mountain with her song. She asked the spirit if the Chosen Ones could live here and Mother Mountain wrapped her rock arms around them and never let them go.”
“They don’t seriously believe that?”
“AnnA told me that Mother Mountain let her rocks tumble away to create all of these rooms and meeting places.” Piper shrugged. “She gives the Chosen Ones everything they need. She even made the waterfall on the plateau for them.”
“Who’s AnnA?”
“She’s our guide. She’s gonna show us around and teach us about Xanthia.”
“Asanti,” Aldo sang. “A-SAN-TI.” Aldo stretched the sounds of the word out, his voice rising and reverberating with the assistance of the perfect acoustics.
“Asanti,” Piper repeated. The word melted on her tongue. “They use that word a lot. AnnA told me it means great blessing. Gratitude. Joy. They use the word to honor the day and the life in all things. Asanti.”
“A-strange.”
Piper fixed Conrad with a look.
“I’m just pointing out that the word ‘Asanti’ is strange. But it doesn’t matter because all I want to do is find my father and get out of here. We’ve got to get back to the others.”
“Then I’ll call AnnA,” Piper said, getting to her feet.
By the time Conrad was dressed in a robe that he deemed equally strange, they were joined by AnnA.
“Asanti,” AnnA greeted Conrad nervously, looking more at his feet than his face. She looked to be about eleven years old, and had trusting eyes and skin so clear it was like a blank sheet of paper waiting for someone to write on it. Her long auburn hair curled about her shoulders and she fiddled with it so that she would have something to do with her hands. Conrad had the distinct impression that AnnA would melt into the shadows if she could.
“We are glad that you are well,” AnnA said quietly. “Equilla wishes to welcome you in person. She is the leader of our council of elders.”
“I’d like to find my father first,” Conrad said bluntly. “President Harrington.”
AnnA looked to Piper, folding her chin down. “I have told Piper that we do not know this man. There is not one among us by that name.”
Conrad exchanged a loaded glance with Piper, quietly deciding to bide his time and not press the issue with AnnA, who seemed genuinely confused by the matter. “We’d be happy to meet Equilla.”
“Please follow me.” AnnA bowed, guiding them from their chamber.
With AnnA in the lead, Piper and Conrad walked to the outdoor passage that was carved along the entire second level. Outside, the activity of a normal day was under way and Conrad noticed that the Xanthian people were calmly attending to their daily tasks in unhurried grace; no one was rushing, no one was angry. Dotted about the side of the mountain, wrapped in their colorful robes, they looked like strange, beautiful flowers.
A woman was spinning a web into a sculpture with delicate spidery movements, using a silk-type substance that she was shooting out of her fingertips. Not far from her two men worked together on a cloud that they had tussled to a rock with a silver rope. The cloud was pulling against the rope but the men were carefully shaping it before releasing it back up to the sky. An old woman was talking to a gathering of purple ducks that were respectfully quacking at her and wagging their tail feathers.
Curious eyes followed Piper and Conrad wherever they went, but no one approached them or addressed them directly, and all kept a careful distance. Except, of course, AnnA, who was technically with them but at the same time maintained a calculated buffer space, as though she might catch something from them, or they might suddenly strike her.
; AnnA led them down the main staircase and past the waterfall. “Over there is the garden,” AnnA said, pointing to a small plateau tucked off to the side.
Conrad saw a woman walking through the garden. As she moved, the plants leaned toward her as though yearning for her attention. He was surprised to notice that he could not identify any of the trees or plants. One of the trees was a bright orange color with black fruit the size of basketballs hanging from its branches. Next to the tree was a rippling blue bush with leaves that subtly changed color.
As they passed the waterfall’s pool, Conrad’s attention was caught by small shiny things moving at the bottom of it. Their movement was so peculiar that Conrad leaned over the edge to get a closer look. Tiny fish-shaped coins, which had both fins and legs, darted about in the water, often twirling and doing something that appeared like a jig.
“Those are called Jangles,” AnnA explained helpfully, noting Conrad’s interest. “They are lucky, if you can catch them. They are very fast, though.”
“They look more coin than fish.”
“Yes. They say that the Jangles were once coins that were thrown into fountains and wished upon. But the fish in the fountains swallowed the wishing coins, and when those fish had babies they came out looking more coin than fish.”
“I’ve never seen them before.” Nor had Conrad ever read anything about them.
AnnA was not surprised. “The Guardian brought them here because he said they would die off if we didn’t protect them; the Outsiders trapped and killed them. Almost everything here has not survived in the world below because the Guardian says the Outsiders are killers.”
Conrad sharply turned to AnnA, who seemed wholly innocent of the inflammatory nature of her last statement. Determined to carry out her task, she resumed leading them across the plateau.
“And when will I meet this Guardian?” Conrad pressed.