Lightning (35 page)

T
he water made her buoyant. She started to drift backward. She was slammed against the tree and held there. Warmth on her back, around her sides.

Bodhi popped up out of the water, gasping and spitting. Selah almost fell off the tree again to hug him.

“Hold the tree, firefly. Hug later. All I can do is hold us here. My arms don't have much more strength.”

“Bodhi!” Mojica called and pumped her fist. “Woo-hoo! Mari, Bodhi made it.” A greeting came down, but Selah couldn't make it out with the rushing water and her heart thudding in her ears. If she was going to die, she would do it in Bodhi's arms. They clung to the tree, his body providing the warmth to keep her returning shivers at bay.

The rain stopped. It didn't stop slowly or in little degrees. It just stopped completely. They looked up at the sky. The churning mass of black clouds that had supported the storm
dissipated to mist and then was gone. The sky was clear beyond the clouds, as though the rest of their world was having sunshine while they were under a cloud.

Mari yelled from the other tree when the rain stopped. Selah clung to her tree with her head resting against the unbelievably rough bark and smiled. “Where does she still get the energy to yell after all this?” She was doing her best just to hang on to the tree.

“Some people just have it all.” Bodhi leaned his head on Selah's shoulder. “Is it my imagination or is the water going down already?”

Selah lifted her head and tried to discern if the water had receded any. “I believe you're right. We may live to fight another day. Do we go down as the water does?”

“Yell over and ask Mari,” Bodhi said.

“I'm too tired.”

“Can you climb down?”

“We could just stay up here forever.”

“I don't think that's very practical.”

Selah started to laugh. She clung to the tree and laughed until tears came. She didn't think she had any tears left, but she was probably just waterlogged from the flood. “I have to take you to WoodHaven.”

“What's that?”

Selah laughed again. “A bunch of impractical people.”

Selah was happy to finally get down from the tree before evening fell. Five hours clinging to a tree gave her a whole
new respect for those of her people who had survived the Sorrows in WoodHaven.

“Good news!” Mojica said as she slipped and slid her way back down the mountainside. “All of our group made it safely out of the designated area. Your family is fine and looking forward to seeing you.”

Selah leaned back against Bodhi's shoulder. She had finally begun to dry and the warmth felt cozy. “I can never thank you enough for helping us and my family. You were the answer to many calls. Where are you going from here? I'm sure you'd all be welcome in TicCity.”

“Some of our folks are going to settle there, but my team and I belong to you.”

Selah frowned. “I don't understand. How can you belong to me?”

“You are the novarium. When you start reading the Stone Braide Chronicles, you'll see what our role is to be in your future. It's our sole mandate to unite you with the Third Protocol.”

“We don't know how to find it. And what about the fracture thing?” Selah waved a finger in the air.

“What fracture thing?” Mari sat on a high boulder out of reach of the slippery muck that remained.

Bodhi looked down. “I guess I can tell everything now that Glade is gone.”

Selah sat up.

“You—we—need to find the Third Protocol within nine months or you will fracture. Your mental and physical
functions will degrade until you're no longer functional,” Bodhi said.

Selah rubbed her forehead. “So when were you going to tell me more about this?”

“I figured I'd wait until we found out if the passages to the West had actually opened,” Bodhi said.

“My crew has already flown over the pass. It is open and free of ash,” Mojica said. “We can start exploring as soon as you've recovered some. They should be here in an hour or so. They're tracking our coordinates and have sent out AirWagons.”

Selah slumped back against Bodhi, more tired than she ever knew possible.

Bodhi looked over at her and tweaked her nose. “What's the matter?”

“My father is gone. I fought all that time to find him, and my cause is what killed him.”

“It's not your fault that old guy had a heart attack,” Mari said.

“I know, but still. Father kept telling me I was the future.”

Bodhi shrugged. “He told me the same thing.”

“I don't know what that means.”

“It means that you have an army of your own traveling with you day and night, and we're going to the West.”

“I've also taken the liberty of contacting Taraji and TicCity. She and a host of her security will be traveling with us,” Mojica said.

“So do you know why I'm here?”

Mojica looked at her as though she had a lot to say, but
the mask fell again and her face became serene. “You will find out all in good time.”

“Father said I was the answer to good and evil.”

Mojica looked away, then directly at Selah. “A lot of people have died to give you this chance to unite with the Third Protocol.”

Selah sat up straight, her body aching at every move. “Then I have to succeed.”

1

S
elah launched herself out the back of the AirWagon, landing crouched behind the large barrier. Her breathing played catch-up with her runaway heartbeat. She didn't fear for herself but was scared stupid for Mother and Dane hiding inside this lead vehicle. She slowed her breathing and concentrated on the sounds. The serenity of the sun-drenched morning fled with the songbirds.

A barrage of weapons fire sliced the side of a nearby boulder, lighting the area with trailing starbursts and scarring the surface with white furrowed streaks that propelled a barrage of chiseled stone bits in her direction.

“They're using bullets! These aren't TicCity security. They're splinters,” she yelled to Mari in the AirWagon. Selah remembered the familiar smell of sulfur from gunfire back in Dominion.

They'd been worried about an ambush on the way back
to TicCity, and they had just begun to relax as they reached the last mile to town.

A bullet ricocheted off a tree stump. Selah flinched. It bit the dirt in front of her feet and sent up a burst of dust. She pulled back. “Somebody tell me where they are and give me a weapon!”

Multiple bullets zipped by from at least two directions in front of them. Shots echoed behind her where Bodhi and Mojica brought up the rear, with Taraji and Treva in the middle. They were surrounded.

Mari slid a crossbow over the back edge of the AirWagon. “Here. I've got your mother and Dane secured.”

Selah slid the quiver over her shoulder and nocked an arrow. Mari dropped down beside her and retrieved her own crossbow from the AirWagon bed. A shot sliced the side of their vehicle. They pulled back.

Selah lay flat on the ground and edged around the side, away from the shooting. The bullets hit the vehicles behind her, where Bodhi and Mojica returned fire with laser darts. Elongated bursts of heat and fire belched from two rapidly shooting guns hidden in the tree line across the road. She listened for the echoes of the shots and took aim at the deep foliage beside a wide oak. Taking a deep breath to steady her shot, Selah let it fly.

The arrow sliced silently though the greenery, and she heard a solid thunk. Mari sank a second shot into the bushes on the other side of the tree. They were rewarded with silence. Selah released her breath.

She turned to the other side of their vehicle, listening for more gunshot echoes to home in on their direction.

Bodhi crawled along the back side of the convoy to reach Selah. Even though her abilities outpaced his at the moment, she was overjoyed to have him at her side.

“I knew I should have made you keep Mojica up here with you. You could have been killed with just crossbows to protect you,” Bodhi said, his laser dart at the ready and still keyed to Mojica's frequency for her special squad.

Selah, trying to distinguish between two different gun sounds, patted his arm. “Mari and I have taken out two of the guns on our left, and before you interrupted my train of thought I was about to get another one. Excuse me a second.” She rolled away from Bodhi and peered out between the airlift mechanisms. She could see the flash from the other shooter, but these weapons confused her. They fired much faster than the guns she was used to. Her hands started to shake, but she gripped her weapon to steady them. She watched a half minute longer than normal when spotting.

Selah nocked the arrow. Just then a huge weight slammed her to the ground and her crossbow skittered several feet away. She adjusted her center of gravity, flipped the direction of the arrow she was holding, and swung back hard, stabbing her assailant in the leg with the arrow. He roared in pain as she propelled him off her back. He flipped over and slammed his middle into a tree, knocking the wind from him.

Bodhi was locked in hand-to-hand combat with a dark-clad figure. Bullets peppered the dirt on the far side of the vehicle. Selah clawed at the ground and reached Bodhi's laser dart. She flipped over and pulled the trigger before registering that she wasn't an authorized user. Nothing.
She scrambled to her feet and grabbed the barrel like a club, raising the laser dart over her head to hit the figure fighting Bodhi.

Suddenly the weapon jerked out of her hands from behind. She gasped. She pivoted to face the assailant and threw up her arms in a defensive posture as he swung at her with the weapon. Bodhi was too close for her to use an energy thrust on the man. She would have to fight.

Mari fired an arrow that clipped the assailant's hand, jerking the weapon from his fingers and over Selah's head. She tackled the man's legs, propelling them both against the boulder. He came up swinging and his gloved fist clipped her in the chin, slamming her to the ground just as the assailant she had stabbed grabbed Mari from behind.

Tiny stones ripped at Selah's palms. Her hands clutched at the dirt and she saw sparkles in her vision. She threw up her arms to ward off another blow, but just in time Bodhi grabbed the guy, pulling him around into his waiting fist. Selah scrambled to help Mari.

An ear-piercing sound split the air. Selah pulled her chin to her chest and shielded her ears. The pain weakened her knees. She and everyone else dropped to the ground. When the brain-rattling sound ended, they were surrounded by TicCity security forces. The assailants rose to their knees and raised their hands to their heads in surrender.

Taraji and Mojica marched forward with the three assailants they had caught. They met up with Selah just as the head of TicCity Council security reached Bodhi and Mari.

“Hmm, this does not look good,” Taraji said. “The head
of Council security never comes out on an operation. Her job is a ceremonial assignment.”

“We were warned at the last stop that we might find some resistance. So I guess it's better for them to meet us on the road when we need to be saved,” Selah said. They walked over to meet the Council woman and deliver the last of the assailants.

The tall woman removed her head gear as she turned toward them. Blonde hair spilled from her helmet. “Well, finding you together saves me a trip,” she said to Selah and Taraji.

“Thank you for coming to our aid. My father, Glade Rishon, would have been pleased at your assistance,” Selah said. She didn't like this woman. Glade had faced opposition from her at every Council meeting. But she had saved the day, so respect was in order.

The woman pursed her lips and looked down her nose at Selah. “Yes, well, it was purely circumstantial. This will be the last assistance you get from Council security. With Glade's death, the regime has finally and permanently changed in TicCity.”

“Congratulations on your new job, but the fact remains I'm still the novarium, and the legends have been proved true. We're going west to search for the Third Protocol,” Selah said.

“Good, then you won't be upset at my announcement,” she said.

“What announcement is that?” Selah watched the security forces gathering up the assailants in the TicCity transport.

A wry smile spread across the woman's face. “Out of respect for Glade Rishon, I'm giving you forty-eight hours to clear out of TicCity or be sold to the highest bidder.”