Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) (3 page)

Chapter 4

Hang On

(Mason)

At first, everyone is too stunned to
react. The crowd stares mutely at the space Tāwhiri once occupied with
frightened expressions. It’s only when Cedrick steps forward and puts his hand
on my shoulder that time seems to restart. “Mason, we must prepare you to
return. There is even less time than I imagined.” His grip tightens as fear
threatens to overtake him. “First, we must retrieve the Caretaker traitor.”

“Robin?” I ask. “Why? I thought you guys
were going to keep her here and punish her.”

Cedrick’s jaw tightens, veins bulging in
his neck. “She will be punished, but it will not happen here. She must return
to the human world.”

“What?” Olivia asks. “She could contact
the Sentinels again! You have to keep her here.”

The look on Cedrick’s face shows clearly
how much he hates this, but his defeated posture says he has no choice.
“Repairing the bridge will require sacrifice. She is the one who instigated its
unraveling, so she must be the one to pay the price.”

The dread emanating from Cedrick begins
seeping into me. “What is the price?”

“Her life,” Cedrick says.

Shocked, I don’t know what to say. Olivia
doesn’t have the same problem. She crosses her arms over her chest angrily.
“The irony would almost be laughable if she hadn’t already done so much harm.
I’m guessing she didn’t know that part of the deal.”

“Even if the Sentinels had known,” Cedrick
says, “I doubt they would have told her. She thinks she is the one molding her
own destiny, but she is no more than a pathetic pawn in a plan much bigger than
she realizes.” He sighs deeply. “I will send the guards to retrieve her, and we
will bind her against speech or escape during the journey to Earth, but you
must both be very wary of her once you arrive.”

“Trust me, we will be,” I say. Shame
blankets me for ever having trusted her. I let myself be pulled in by the excitement
of being seen. I wanted a friend so badly that I let it blind me. No more. She
will never have my trust or friendship again. The idea of dragging her around
with us as we search for the Mother sickens me, but there is little I can do
about it.

“Now,” Cedrick begins, “as soon as you
return to the human world, you must begin your search for the Mother. You
cannot waste even a second. None of us know how long the bridge will last, and
if it falls, so will we. Tāwhiri was right that we are weak here. We will
fight as long as we can, but…”

“We’re not going after the Mother first,”
Olivia interrupts. Cedrick and I both turn to look at her, startled by the
vehemence in her voice, as well as by her words.

“You must!” Cedrick argues.

Olivia plants both feet, as though she
expects an attack, and glares at Cedrick. “No.” Her eyes flit to mine, for
reassurance maybe? I’m not sure what her argument is about, so I can only raise
my eyebrows in question. She looks back to Cedrick and says, “First, we’re
going after Hayden and rescuing him from the Sentinels.”

As I nod in understanding, Cedrick is
puzzled. “Who?”

“Our friend, Hayden,” I tell him. “He
warned us about Robin and the Sentinels. He helped make it possible for us to
get away, but he was captured by them.”

Cedrick stares at the both of us. He
clearly thinks we’re insane. “You cannot go after him. Not only can you not put
off finding the Mother, you can’t expose yourselves to the Sentinels like that!
I am sorry about your friend, but you must leave him to his fate.”

Olivia bristles, her entire body coming
alive with anger. I have to step forward to intercept her when she starts
toward Cedrick. She tries to brush past me, but I hold her back. While I keep
her from strangling anyone, I turn to face Cedrick. “We know how important
finding the Mother is, but we won’t abandon our friend. Olivia can find him.
Tāwhiri said she could. Besides, he’s an Escort as well, and I know you
all wouldn’t want his life wasted.”

“He’s an Escort?” my mother says, stepping
out of the crowd for the first time since before Tāwhiri arrived. “Who is
his Aerling? Why was he helping you and putting himself at risk when he had his
own charge?”

She’s clearly angered by the idea, and I
rush to set things straight. “It wasn’t like that. His Aerling, Levi, he… he
was killed by the Sentinels when they were young. He had no one left to protect
but me. He gave everything he had to help save mine and Olivia’s lives. We
can’t abandon him.”

Olivia’s hand wraps around mine in
solidarity. The grateful expression on her face is echoed in mine. I had been
so wrapped up in what Cedrick was saying, I lost sight of our friend. I start
to say something again, but a young woman bursts out of the crowd with an
expression that stops me.

“Did you say Levi?” she demands.

Olivia and I look at each other, unsure of
who this girl is or what she wants from us. “Yes,” I say slowly. “Why?”

The girl’s eyes close momentarily. When
she opens them again, they are filled with tears. “Levi was my brother.”

Olivia reaches out automatically and
touches the girl’s shoulder in comfort. “I’m so sorry.”

“This guy you mentioned, Hayden? He was
his Escort?”

“Yes,” I say, “he had only found Levi by
accident a few days before he was killed. They were only ten years old. His
death affected Hayden deeply. I know he would have saved him if he could.”

The girl’s chin begins to quiver. “I want
to come with you.”

Again, Olivia and I share a look. Neither
of us knows what to say. Olivia is the first to attempt an answer. “I…I don’t
know if that’s even possible, and I don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”

“You brought that traitor here,” the girl says,
making Olivia flinch. “You must be able to take me back with you. Please, you
have to.”

“Why?” I ask.

The girl whips her eyes over to me. “How
can I not? This person, he tried to protect my brother. He is part of him. The
only piece remaining. I want to help you rescue him. Please.”

Olivia shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know if
I can. I’m really not even completely sure how I got us here in the first
place.”

Desperate, the girl turns to Cedrick. “She
can do it, right? She must be able to. She can take the babies down to Earth,
why not me?”

“I can do what?” Olivia demands.

“Please, Cedrick, tell her she can take me
with them. I have to go.” The girl is nearly in tears. I feel for her, grasping
for one last chance to connect with her lost brother, but I don’t know what to
say any more than Olivia.

Finally, Cedrick places a calming hand on
her shoulder. “Sloane, do not rush into something like this. I know your
father’s death has caused you a great deal of pain, but running after this boy
will not change that.”

“But, I can help save him,” she pleads.
“You know I can.”

Sighing, Cedrick looks back to us. “It is
your decision whether or not to allow Sloane to travel with you.”

“Can I actually do that?” Olivia asks.
“What did she mean about the babies?”

Despite the anxiety apparent on Cedrick’s
face to see us off and on our way, he takes a deep breath and does his best to
explain. “Olivia, the reason we value Escorts so much more than the Caretakers do
is because we understand their full purpose. Most choose to remain here to
carry on their work as Escorts by transporting Aerling infants to the human
world to be raised in safety.”

“That’s how Aerlings get to Earth? I’ve
been wondering about that for ages,” she says.

So have I. Now that Cedrick has explained
it, I feel rather stupid for not figuring it out on my own. Even so, I still
question the reason behind the practice. “Why do you send Aerlings to Earth?
Wouldn’t they be safer here rather than in the middle of Sentinel territory?”

My mother steps up next to me and places
her arm around my shoulder. “We have no choice, Mason. Aerlings were created to
protect the human world. We must be in contact with the winds we were born from
to develop our powers, to survive.”

“What?”

“Mason,” my father says, “an Aerling
infant will die if it remains here because it cannot contact the source of his
or her life force on Earth. Before Tū grew powerful enough to create the
Sentinels, it was not dangerous for the children to go to Earth. It was still
difficult to give them up, but they were able to grow and develop their powers
enough to create a wind spirit.”

“Why the wind spirit?” Olivia asks. “Why
is that so important?”

Cedrick tackles that question, seeming
eager to get this done with and see us heading back to Earth. “Because we are
cut off here without the wind spirit. The spirit remains on Earth, linking us
to your world and keeping us alive. Without it, we would die just like the
untrained infant.”

A great sense of heaviness presses down on
me at his words. If I hadn’t managed to create my wind spirit, it wouldn’t have
mattered whether Olivia figured out how to get me home. I would have died as
soon as we got here. Conner, Shane, and Molly are facing the same hurdle.
Suddenly, the idea of returning to the Aerling world, not helping them or being
there to know how they are doing is an unbearable notion.

“Then,” Olivia begins, “can I really take Sloane
with us? If I can, why wouldn’t I be able to take more? Certainly it would be
useful to have a few people more capable than we probably are to help us out.”

Cedrick looks uncomfortable at her words.
“Normally, no. An Escort can bring their Aerling home, but not take them back
to Earth. They can take Aerling infants because they are not yet connected to a
particular Escort.”

“Then, what makes you think I can take
her?” Olivia asks.

“I don’t know for sure,” Cedrick admits,
“but you were able to bring Robin here and the barrier was breached. You are also
Tāwhiri’s heir. It may be possible.”

Sloane stares at Olivia hopefully. Her
fingernails are digging into her hands as she clasps them together tightly,
pleading. Olivia looks over at me, and I can only shrug. The help would be
appreciated, though I’m a little concerned about Sloane’s intensity. Still,
this is going to be far from easy and I hesitate to turn her down.

“Well, I guess I can try,” Olivia says. As
soon as the words leave her mouth, Sloane dives at her, wrapping her arms
around her and telling her thank you over and over again. It’s something of a
struggle to push the girl back enough to talk to her. “I don’t know if it will
work for sure.”

“I know,” Sloane says eagerly. “It’s
enough that you’ll try.”

Olivia doesn’t seem terribly confident in her
skills, but she tries to put on a positive expression for Sloane. It falters a
moment later when a commotion at the back of the crowd spins us all around to
find Robin being dragged into the circle. Still bound with cords of air, she
flails awkwardly against her captors. I can’t tell if she’s more furious or
frightened. Either way, she’s clearly not going to come with us willingly.
Cedrick picks up on that as well.

“You’re going to need a few tricks to keep
her in line,” he says as he steps forward. In a quick demonstration, he shows
me how to make the cords of air that are binding Robin. I repeat the process
easily and look to him for more instruction.

“If you can’t keep her bound all the time,
such as when you need her to walk on her own, you can use a tether instead.” He
then shows me how to take the cord of air and wrap one end around Robin’s neck while
keeping hold of the other end. “It’s just like a dog collar. If she struggles,
it will only cause her pain.”

I nod in understanding.

“The last thing…” Cedrick says as he
stalks right up to Robin. Her battle between fury and fear wins out in the face
of his menacing glare and she stops struggling. “…is for when you’re having
trouble controlling her and need something to quickly incapacitate her.”

Olivia and I watch in fascination as he
places one hand in front of Robin’s mouth. She is trembling, clearly terrified,
but Cedrick doesn’t stop. I watch in amazement as he gathers his control of the
air, and in a flash, sucks every last bit of air from Robin’s body. She
collapses into a dead faint a moment later. No one moves to help her. Cedrick
releases the air soon after, but Robin doesn’t recover right away.

“It’s a handy trick,” Cedrick says, “but
be careful with it.”

Nodding again, I suddenly wish he was the
one who offered to come with us. I know he can’t, though. If Olivia and I fail,
or don’t reach the Mother in time, the Aerlings will need him here to defend
their world.

As Robin regains consciousness, one of the
guards yanks her up from the ground and practically throws her at us. I catch
her, but with air, not my hands. I have no desire to touch her. She slumps
against the wall of air, barely able to move in her bonds. I’m half tempted to
bring down the wall and let her fall, but instead, I cinch a leash of air
around her neck, tightening it enough that she knows it’s there. Her hateful
glare has no effect on me.