Above World (13 page)

Electra toppled backward and they tangled in an awkward pile. Both of them scrambled to their feet, but the high senator was faster. The sharp, cold point of Electra’s spear dug painfully into the soft skin of Aluna’s throat, exactly where her breathing shell used to be.

The senator took three deep breaths in through her nose, and three quick breaths out through her mouth.

“Not bad, girl,” she said. “You’ve obviously had some training, and you think well under pressure. You’ll never be a decent warrior without wings, but you have the potential to be better than horrible.”

Aluna pushed Electra’s spear point away from her throat, took a step back, and returned to her ready stance. Her head throbbed, her ribs ached, and she was ready to push as much as she needed to to learn everything the senator could teach her.

She looked Electra full in the eyes. “Again.”

H
OKU HUNCHED
over his desk, his legs wrapped around the bottom rung of his stool, and slowly unscrewed another piece of the artifact. Somewhere in the distance, he heard knocking. No time for that, he thought. It wouldn’t be long before Aluna found some way for them to escape, and he intended to learn as much as possible about Aviar tech before they left.

Louder knocking. Definitely his door. One more screw . . .

“Hoku?”

He pulled himself away from his project and saw Calli standing in the doorway. She wore the same kind of loose leggings and billowy shirt as she had when they’d been in their prison cells, only this time her clothes were bright green instead of blue. The soft fabrics suited her far more than the silvery armor she’d been trapped in during their audience with the president.

“Calli — er, I mean, Vice President,” he said. Reluctantly, he unwound his legs from the stool and stood up.

“Just Calli,” she said. “May I . . . can I come in?”

“You can probably do whatever you want, you know?” He hoped he didn’t sound bitter. He actually didn’t mind being a prisoner. Captivity was a lot more fun than cowering in a Human village or hiking along the beach.

Calli stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. She nodded toward the tray of fruit and bread and meat sitting by the bed. “You didn’t eat? I thought you were hungry.”

He looked at the food. His stomach whined. He’d forgotten all about it.

“I guess I got a little distracted,” he said. He felt heat on his cheeks and turned quickly back to his desk.

“You took apart the lamp!” Calli said.

“It started to get dark, and this torch started to glow all by itself,” Hoku said. “I want to see how it works. Don’t worry, I can put it back together.”

Calli joined him at the desk. “Electricity,” she said, and touched one of the pieces. “This is the power receptor. It takes energy from the air and uses it to run the lamp.”

He touched the receptor, an inch away from where she was touching it. “But where does the energy come from? I couldn’t find a power source.”

“From our generators,” she said. “They’re like really big batteries that store and transmit energy.”

“But where —?”

“From the sun,” she said, talking fast. “Did you see all the sun traps on the cliffs when you flew in? All those black panels? Those are like nets we use to gather energy from the sun.”

“You store the sun’s light so you can use it to make other light later?” Hoku said. He touched the round glass bubble jar that had been emitting the glow.

Calli nodded. “To make light, and to do other things, too. Like run our necklaces. Filtering oxygen from the air takes power, and they’re far too small and light to contain generators themselves. I’m sure your breathing shells work the same way.”

He ran his finger over the seahorse imprint on his necklace. He’d always assumed the power for their shells came from somewhere inside the City of Shifting Tides. But President Iolanthe had said that LegendaryTek wanted to control them. They must have kept the power source at HydroTek, far away from the Kampii, who actually needed it. He swallowed.

“Our shells are failing,” he said quietly. “The generator must have been damaged or destroyed. That means all our shells are going to stop functioning when they run out of power.” He fell back onto his stool. “There’s so much we don’t know. I’ll never be able to learn it all in time.”

“Then we’d better get started,” Calli said, pressing her lips into a thin, determined line. She handed him a stack of items from her other hand. “Here. I brought you some books.”

He held out his hands and she put three books in them. Actual, real books. Grandma Nani had taught him to read, but the City of Shifting Tides didn’t have a big collection. Before he turned twelve, he’d read all the books that weren’t hidden by the Elders.

“Before the Battle of the Dome, we got all of our energy from SkyTek,” Calli said. “But now we use the sun traps and wind traps, and sometimes waterfalls, for our energy.”

“And when something breaks, you fix it yourselves,” Hoku said.

“Exactly! We make our own babies now, and grow our own wings. Of course, my mother made a lot of enemies when she defeated Tempest and his Upgrader army. Word travels. A lot of people want our tech. We have to keep it hidden, and we’re not allowed to talk about it.”

He smiled. “Except you told me.”

“I guess I did,” Calli said, smiling back.

Hoku walked over and placed the books in a neat row on the bed. He ran his fingertips over the cover of the first one.

“That one explains the basics of electricity,” she said. “We aren’t supposed to read it until next season, but I couldn’t wait.” She picked up the book and flipped through the pages until she found the one she wanted. “Look,” she said. “This whole chapter is on using energy from the sun.”

She held it open for him. On the first page was a picture of the sun, with lines indicating its light hitting an artifact like the Aviars’ sun traps. He had to know how it worked! The Kampii lived underwater but had ample access to sunlight. Maybe he could float a web of sun traps on the surface of the ocean. They’d have plenty of their own power then!

He opened the book, admiring the clear print and silky pages. Skimming the list of contents at the beginning made his heart trip over itself.

“Are you going to read that right now?” Calli said with an odd tone in her voice.

“Huh?” He looked up, suddenly remembering where he was. And who he was with.

Calli laughed. “It’s okay, I’ve seen that look before. I’d be the same way if I got to read books about Kampii tech.”

“Not that you could find any,” Hoku said bitterly. “The Elders don’t really encourage this sort of education. They think we’re better off forgetting the past. Every generation, we lose a little more knowledge. We’re getting dumber instead of smarter.”

He sat on the edge of his bed, leaving plenty of room for Calli to sit next to him, or to sit far away. She chose somewhere in the middle.

“Wait,” he said. “Where’s Aluna? I thought she was with you.”

Calli rolled her eyes. “She’s probably still up there practicing. I left after the first hour, and they didn’t even notice.”

Hoku tried to keep his smile small, but failed. “I know exactly how you feel,” he said. “One day she was four hours late for our exploring trip because her brother decided to show her how to throw a harpoon. And then all she did was talk about it for the rest of the day.”

“Is she a great warrior in your culture?”

Hoku shook his head. “Girls can’t be hunters. The Elders say we don’t have as many people as we should, so the girls are supposed to do safer things. So they can have babies.”

“Your females actually carry the babies inside them? Like in ancient times?”

“Of course,” he said. “How do you do it?”

“Little food beds,” Calli said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “After we choose which eggs to use, a special machine combines them. We take the final seed and plant it in a tank filled with all the nutrients the baby needs to grow.”

Hoku shook his head. “So you really don’t need men in the colony.”

“There are other Aviar colonies that grow boys,” she said. “Far to the north is Talon’s Peak, and I’ve heard that the president there even has a male consort. Niobe and Hypatia gossip about it all the time.”

Hoku laughed, and he told her about his parents.

Calli sat there, stunned. “I can’t even imagine what your world is like.”

“You should visit sometime,” Hoku blurted. “If you want, I mean. I’m sure I could modify your breathing device, assuming I haven’t made us a bunch of new breathing shells by then. But how could we protect your wings? I wonder if your bones are too thin and light because of the flying. Maybe if we . . .”

She looked at him and smiled, and his insides turned to jellyfish. He would build her anything she wanted. Anything at all.

A
LUNA SAT WITH CALLI
on the rim above Skyfeather’s Landing and studied the landscape. She’d been here more than three weeks, and she still hadn’t figured out how to get herself and Hoku off the mountain and away from the Aviars.

She looked down the mountainside, toward the sea. Far below, jagged rocks gave way to scrubby green trees, then bigger trees, then suddenly the vast shimmering blanket of blue ocean. There was no beach, no gentle transition between the Above World and her home.

If she could only find a way to the cliffs. She pictured herself scrambling down the rocks, dodging between trees, and diving a hundred meters into the water. Too bad the Aviars would probably catch her before she made it ten meters down the mountain. Wings were so unfair.

Aluna picked a stone from the pile in her left hand and threw it as far as she could. It bounced three times on the rocks and disappeared.

“You’re amazing with the spear,” Calli said. She tossed one of her own stones, and it fell not far from where they were sitting. “I can’t believe how fast you’re learning. If you had wings, they’d beg you to be a warrior.”

“But I don’t have wings, do I? This isn’t my home, and it never will be,” Aluna snapped, with more anger than she’d intended. She took a slow breath, then continued more calmly. “Calli, you know I have to leave.”

She’d been trying to bring up the subject most of the day. It shouldn’t have been that hard, but she genuinely liked Calli and the girl so desperately wanted a friend. Aluna threw another rock and watched it ricochet out of sight. “I have to save my people. You understand that, right?” She said it to remind Calli, but also to remind herself. She had a place here with the Aviar, a useful place. In many ways, she fit in with the bird women far better than she did with her own people. But she’d never truly belong.

Besides, the Coral Kampii needed her. She couldn’t bear the thought that more Kampii might have died while she’d been stuck in this place.

Calli didn’t say anything. She didn’t throw another rock, either.

“Oh, fins and flippers!” Aluna said.

“It’s just . . . I know you’re being forced to stay here and all, but the last few weeks have been . . .
nice,
” Calli said. “I like spending time with you and Hoku.”

She gave Calli credit for not stumbling over Hoku’s name this time, though the girl still turned red as a shrimp. Young love looked so incredibly messy, with all the mumbling and smiling and saying ridiculous things. Good thing Aluna had never fallen into that trap. None of the boys back in the City of Shifting Tides had ever inspired her to embarrass herself like that. Life was easier without the complication. Taking care of Hoku was enough work without throwing another boy into the mix.

Calli stammered on. “I was hoping that you might want to stay. You seem to like the fighting, and I know Hoku has a lot more books to read. And, well, I’ve always dreamed of having a sister. . . .”

As Calli’s words trailed off, Aluna thought about Daphine and how her older sister had practically raised her from birth. Fed her, dressed her, held her when she cried . . . mocked her gently, before their brothers could jump in with harsher words. Without Daphine, what would have happened to her? As frustrating as her sister’s perfection was, she couldn’t imagine life without her. By comparison, Calli’s life seemed so lonely — full of women and politics and important things, but no real friends.