Across Carina (24 page)

Then, chaos erupted. Whistles and squeaks rolled into a ball of noise that bounced everywhere I turned. Dolphins raced across each other, hovering before the chosen until they understood and climbed aboard. Their speedy departures pushed me in waves far from my starting place.

Sal was among the first to be chosen. I caught a glimpse of him through the crowd as he and his dolphin were taking off. The force pushed Sal onto his back—parallel to the dolphin—and he started to slide off. He stretched his arm, then his fingers, reaching for the dolphin’s fin to grab onto.

“I’ll find you later!” he called over his shoulder, having seen me too. His voice was an octave higher than usual.

He pulled himself up in the nick of time, and the dolphin drove him out of sight.

Aswin was chosen next. I waved at him, but he didn’t see me. He was busy trying to mount his dolphin. As he rode away, his white hair swirled into a pompadour, like divine fire.

I watched a little girl who didn’t look older than five get eased onto a dolphin by her teacher. The dolphin performed a somersault, and the girl gasped and giggled but showed no fear. I was shocked to see her on the dolphin by herself. Her teacher had already left her to assist another child.

What trust the people of Lendon had in these dolphins. Or maybe it was naïveté. I wondered if the first humans on Earth had just walked up to wooly mammoths expecting to ride them.

Another dolphin swam by, and I was pushed into a stark part of the ocean where the village could not be seen. Every second, someone else paired up with a dolphin, and within minutes the pandemonium had ceased.

I felt pathetic floating among the unwanted in the boring blue. I knew that I had to get away. If I didn’t, I would be asking the ocean to take me—to squeeze me between its teeth, down into its lonely stomach, where I would disintegrate into the walls.

I began to turn away. I would wait at Aswin’s house.

As I turned, I felt something graze me. I spun back around and was met by an open-mouthed beast. It was the largest of the dolphins I had seen.

My eyes widened at its teeth. They were the kind of teeth that could have chewed up my heart and left me—mangled—to rot with the fish.

The dolphin was staring at me. Its eyes were scanning my face as if I had nutritional facts etched in my skin. And I just kept blinking. I blinked until my eyes felt dry, even under water.

I tried to remember that these were friendly dolphins. At least, that’s what the villagers had said. That’s what
Aswin
had said.

Do I believe him now?

I reached out—slowly—and ran my hand over the dolphin’s back. Its skin was smooth. Too smooth to be sinister. I knew that my logic was garbled, but it helped ease me onto the dolphin.

The dolphin was too big for me to wrap my arms around, so I clung to its fin, keeping my head low. With my tail in the way, it was the only position that allowed me to hold on. It would have been a convenient time to have my legs.

The dolphin wasted no time in jetting us through the water. The coral and fish blurred together, smearing deep blue as the village fell behind. My hair flew straight back, and my lips curled against the current. The entire ocean seemed to compress into a portal. I smiled as I realized that I, Jade Callaghan, had been chosen.

As we swam toward the surface, I imagined us jumping high out of the water. I would breathe fresh air in the background of a pristine beach, where we would twirl and perform tricks. Beachgoers would clap for us. After dusk they would beg me to tell them stories beneath the stars.

But, alas, none of that would be. Really we would find ourselves in space and suffocate. That is, if we could even break Lendon’s surface. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try.

Neither was my dolphin. Just below the surface, it abruptly turned and spun us back toward the bottom.

We slowed on our descent. My dolphin bowed its head, and we drifted as one to the ocean floor.

Halfway down, a jellyfish joined us. It was electric orange, with a hood six inches wide and long, stringy tentacles that looked like ocean spaghetti. I was mesmerized by its glow.

Without thinking, I stroked its hood once before it bobbed away. Luckily, I didn’t get stung.

My leisure dissipated at the sight of the villagers, who were coming back into view. There were dolphins rushing everywhere, jamming ocean paths that I didn’t know existed. Some were wrestling each other, whistling loudly, and the sound rang in my ears. All the while the villagers were riding on their backs, laughing and screaming. And as the villagers’ tails glistened in the eternal sunlight, they looked just like fish riding fish.

My ride had been too short, too minimal. It wasn’t fair that I had been chosen last. My dreams that had played in the cavern as happy, silent films had been switched off by the ignorance of Lendon.

As my dolphin slowed, I frowned, but I rubbed its head to offer thanks.

Aswin then passed by on his dolphin, headed in the direction of the village. Sal was right behind them. When Sal saw me, he patted his dolphin and slid off. I steered mine to where he was floating.

“I’m glad you were picked up,” he said, breathing hard.

“Oh I was chosen right after you,” I lied.

With a sigh, I dismounted my dolphin. It swam away and joined a departing pod.

“Goodbye, simple world,” I said, watching them go.

Sal took my hand. “Simple is right. Lendon is underdeveloped, and its people lack depth. I’ve realized that all of their emotions and behaviors are contradictory. Children are abandoned by their parents but left in the care of schools. People conceive but can’t comprehend love. They worship a god but don’t
feel
anything. They’re selfish and confused. Do you want to live with confused people, Jade?”

I watched the last of the dolphins swim down from the surface. The people riding them were crying out as if it were the happiest day of their lives.

Perhaps it was.

“You don’t have to convince me,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Sal nodded. “Good. Let’s find Aswin and say goodbye. We can ask if he’s heard anything from Cruz. Have you seen him?”

“Just a minute ago,” I said. “He was headed toward the village.”

Sal led the way to Aswin’s house. With everyone gone to join the festivities, the village was empty. I could have swum into anyone’s house and taken something if I had wanted. There were no locks or even doors to hinder me. I wondered if the people on Lendon understood the concept of theft.

Just as we rounded the last big plant before Aswin’s, we saw him get pulled into a building. Then a man and woman emerged from inside and stood in the open doorway. Sal and I huddled behind the plant, peering through its leaves.

The man and woman were wearing long, tattered tops and mesh bottoms. They had darker hair than the people of Aswin’s village and wide-set eyes. Their features were prominent and angular, almost jagged. Aside from their bare feet, nothing indicated that they belonged on Lendon.

I nudged Sal. “These are the people Aswin was talking about.”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Where did they find the material for those clothes?”

A few bubbles slipped out of my mouth, and I quieted, looking at Sal. Even our breaths threatened to give us away.

The man and woman began to converse softly. They were still in the doorway, scouring the waters, their arms folded across their chests.

“This will teach him to talk to Cruz,” the man said.

“If we eliminate him,” the woman said, “we’ll eliminate any progress that this pathetic village could hope to see. The rest of these mutts will drive themselves insane with all of their conflicting ideas.”

They laughed in unison.

I was shocked by both the subject matter and the complexity of their words. They were different from the villagers. They seemed to know about Lendon and beyond.

I knew that inside that building Aswin was in trouble. If Sal and I did nothing to help him, we would be cowards for friends. But if we did try to help, we would likely die alongside him, and then none of us would be able to stop the faction.

I was trying to discern my thoughts when Sal sneezed. The woman heard him and started to move toward our plant. Sal and I tried to hunch down, but we were revealed by the swaying leaves. The woman looked right at us.

I thought we were dead, but some of the villagers started to arrive and the woman changed course. She swam to the front and center of the village and planted herself there.

As the people noticed her, they began to whisper amongst themselves, but none of them seemed to recognize who she was.

Two men tried to swim past her.

“Stop!” she commanded, pointing at them.

Electricity shot from her fingertips, and one of the men fell, shocked, to the ground. He convulsed as the current seared through him, lighting his features one by one. He sucked his last breath in with neon lips and then faded with the light.

His friend, and everyone else, had come to a halt.

“We need to make a run for it,” Sal muttered.

“What about Aswin?” I asked.

Sal swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to leave him, but I can’t see a way into that house that doesn’t involve us getting killed.”

The crowd grew as the rest of the villagers swam in from their rides. Their smiles faded at the sight of the dead man.
My
smile was long gone. It was my hope that was fading now. I had hoped that the dolphins would rescue us, but I could hear them swimming away.

“Bring him out!” the woman shouted.

She turned to her partner, who was still watching the building. He motioned to someone inside and then stepped out of the way.

Two cloaked guards burst through the doorway dragging Aswin between them. His head was hanging low, but I could still see the bruises splotched across his forehead. His blonde hair was streaked with grime and blood, and his ears were burning red. He was barely holding on to the guards.

As he finally lost his grip, his knees crumbled, thus protracting his tail. This only made it easier for the guards to carry him forward. And behind them, the man from the doorway was following. Aswin was finished.

They walked until they reached the woman. She was still facing the crowd. Then the guards dropped Aswin at her feet, giving him several blows to the stomach. He flinched, but said nothing.

“When you defy Zyklon, you are punished!” the woman screamed. “See before you, friends, Aswin the Liar! Little do you know of his plan to disrupt the peace of your village with the worship of Cruz! He claims the existence of a great and almighty, but none of you have
seen
this alleged god! The truth is that you are being controlled! What do any of you really know of Aswin? Anyone? Speak up!”

The crowd was silent, detached. There were no creased foreheads or comforting arms. Even the smallest children were floating alone.

One woman tentatively raised her hand.

“Aswin is very quiet,” she said.

“Quiet, indeed!” roared the Zyklon leader as a wide smile flickered across her lips. “Would you not also be quiet if you were always trying to arrange the many lies swimming in your head?”

The people began to murmur, some nodding in agreement. I was repulsed by how easily they were being swayed. It was no wonder they were always so confused.

The leader went on. “To those of you who have danced for Cruz, do not fear! Do not shame yourselves! We are here to guide you, and it is not too late to remedy your ways! We urge you not to choose the same fate as Aswin the Liar! An example will be made of him!”

One of the guards retrieved an axe from within his cloak. He held it above Aswin’s head, and the crowd gasped.

“Stop! Stop it! Don’t you dare touch him!”

The words escaped my mouth before I realized that they were mine.

“Oh my gosh. Jade.”

Sal was staring at me like he’d just seen a ghost.

I said nothing. Every pore on my body had started to sweat. My face was on fire.

What have I done?

I forced myself to look back to the crowd. At first, my view was blocked, by the swaying leaves in front of us. They swayed to the left . . . they swayed to the right. . . . But finally, between them, I could see—every single person was staring at us.

“Seize them!” the leader shouted.

Sal and I pushed off the ground, letting our tails propel us. The other guard was already moving in.

Aswin’s head shot up. “They’re from Earth! They are of no use to you!”

“Shut up!” the leader roared. “Why aren’t you dead?”

I stopped swimming and turned to look at Aswin. He was on his knees, surrounded. The axe was still hanging over his head, but the guard holding it had become distracted.

Suddenly, I remembered my choices. I could have simplicity without emotion or complexity with the richness of life. And there, caught between my escape and Aswin, I realized that I had already chosen.

Aswin was willing to speak up—to defend me and Sal and to risk his own life for what he believed in. I hadn’t been sure about him at first, but now I was starting to see—
he
was part of the richness of life. He was rich in kindness, in innocence, and in faith. I couldn’t turn on him now.

“Sal, we can’t leave him,” I said.

I meant it, but I was scared. Scared of failing Aswin. Scared of failing Sal. Scared of something going wrong.

Aswin could see. He could see right through me.

“Leave me!” he cried. “You must leave me, Jade, and don’t look back! I spoke with Cruz! You can go to Perunda! It’s another of El’s worlds! You can contact him there!”

“Shut him up!” the leader screamed.

The other guard was almost to us.

Sal pulled on me. “Jade, he’s right. We have to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” the leader said.

She shot another wave of electricity from her fingers, and Sal and I were shocked—paralyzed from our necks down. We started to sink, and the other guard caught us.

Then, from the crowd: “What is Earth?”

“Enough!” the leader shouted.