World Warden, page 57
“This was their home,” Elias said. “If they want to leave everything behind, then it’s their right.”
“I know,” Oscar responded. He stood up and walked to the boarded-up windows of the attic space. “There’s things I’d also like to forget.”
“How was it, being here?” Elias asked him.
Oscar glanced over his shoulder. “Scary. Dangerous. But also amazing. I learned so many things, Eli.”
“You can tell us all about them while we cross the ocean.”
“How are we going to do that?” Oscar asked. “How did you guys get here, even? You don’t have a ship.”
Elias and Tristan exchanged a glance.
Tristan grinned mischievously. “Do you tell him, or should I?”
OSCAR WASN’T the only one to gasp when the Behemoth rose out of the waves.
Elias smiled. He was waist-deep in the ocean, and the warm water filled him with a sensation of kinship and connection to the creatures of the sea that he had missed while on land. The Behemoth itself was a welcome familiar mind that was vast and vaguely friendly, although Elias sensed that the great creature did not truly perceive Elias and his companions as individuals. They were simply too small to be of any relevance to a creature so large. If anything, it was more aware of the three Spine wurl that flanked Elias, and it was also able to sense the dormant queen inside the egg he carried in his arms.
However, the Island Behemoth remembered Lyrana’s request, and it came willingly. There was even something like a question from the peaceful giant, inquiring about the fate of the queen of the deep.
“She’s gone,” Elias answered, expressing his sadness and admiration through the connection he shared with all the living things of Lyrana’s domain. “But she fought bravely to the end.”
They boarded the living island one at a time, and the wurl went last. Neither Laurie nor Nadja asked for any help when they did, although climbing on sections of the creature’s slippery shell was tricky.
Less than an hour later, the Behemoth pushed off from the continental shelf and began its trek due west. Elias noticed that none of the women looked back at the place they were leaving behind.
He did, though. The imposing mound of the volcano seemed to want to scratch the cloudless blue ceiling. Elias reached with his mind, but he had never linked to the third Flower, and he was unable to perceive the creatures in the continent or any of the Flyer wurl that would hatch one day. He hoped Dresde’s daughter was okay.
He wondered if he would ever meet her.
They spent that night in a makeshift shelter next to the lake at the center of the Behemoth’s back, and over the next few days they expanded it to make it more comfortable, particularly because Laurie needed to rest most of the time, and according to Nadja, her baby was due to be born any day. Thankfully, the weather was good and food was plentiful. It was easy to find ripe fruit all over the island, and they had also brought supplies from land before setting off. It was a comfortable trip, which Elias found odd. He was so used to waking each day under the faint but persistent needling of worry and urgency that he had to work to adapt to actually look forward to every morning with nothing to do but wait.
He often stayed up late with Tristan and Oscar, talking long into the night, and they reminisced about their respective adventures. Oscar was very curious about everything that had happened along the journey to Raasay, and he could barely believe it when Tristan described how they had built a boat from scratch. He was intermittently disgusted and fascinated by the description of the ocean maw, was starry-eyed when he heard about the Forest of Light, and he wanted to know everything about the male Singer wurl.
“So they’re bigger than Vanor?” Oscar asked one night. The three of them sat together with the wurl near the Behemoth’s head, a spectacular view of the peaceful ocean spreading out before them. The only disturbance in the water came from the rhythmic splashes of the gigantic creature.
Tristan considered. “Maybe the same size, but the tentacles make them look bigger. Also stronger. No offense, buddy,” he amended with an apologetic glance at Vanor.
Oscar laughed. “He’s not offended,” he said matter-of-factly. He was leaning against Siv, who appeared to have taken a liking to him. All three of the wurl liked spending time with Oscar, and he said he enjoyed their company too.
“You can tell?” Elias asked him.
“Sure. They don’t talk with words, right? But you can sort of know. Kind of like what Doran used to do.”
Oscar looked pensive and a bit sad for a couple of seconds. He even glanced in the direction where Samantha and the others were already sleeping, far away near the center of the island.
“Are you okay?” Elias wanted to know.
“Yeah, I guess. No—I am.”
Tristan slapped Oscar’s shoulder playfully. “You’re more than okay. You’re a seasoned adventurer! Just wait till we get home. Everyone’s going to want to know your story.”
“You think?”
“Of course!” Tristan assured him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Commander Rodriguez asked you to join the force as a certified tough guy. And think about how popular you’ll be! All the girls are going to be falling over themselves to date you.”
“Girls? Oh, right,” Oscar said, as though he hadn’t even considered it.
“Or guys?” Tristan amended.
Oscar didn’t reply, but he did keep looking in the direction where Samantha probably was.
Elias elbowed Tristan in the ribs. “Anyway,” he said to change the subject, “maybe we should go….”
Elias stood up, his unfinished sentence forgotten. Vanor, Narev, and Siv followed suit and flanked him. Elias gave Sizzra’s egg to Tristan.
“Eli?” Tristan asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Not wrong,” Elias replied. He closed his eyes and asked the Behemoth to halt for a moment. His request was accepted, and the island stopped moving very slowly. “He’s coming.”
“Who’s coming?” Oscar asked.
Elias pointed at the dark waters ahead of them. “Look.”
A few seconds later, yellow-green luminescence twinkled in the dark.
Something rose above the water with barely a ripple. For a moment the shape was invisible, but Alinor then decloaked and approached the Island Behemoth with confidence.
None of the Spine wurl growled. They allowed him to approach until Alinor was treading water immediately underneath them.
“Hi,” Elias said, both with his voice and with his mind. “How are you?”
Alinor sent him a query. He knew Lyrana was dead, but he wanted to know how. Elias did his best to communicate what had happened, keeping the ideas simple but making sure to communicate Lyrana’s bravery.
“We wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t for her,” he concluded. “She protected the entire world with her life.”
Alinor accepted the information and was quiet for several seconds. He then shared something in return.
Elias gasped in welcome surprise at an image in Alinor’s mind, a memory: a sizable clutch of moss-green eggs rested in a deep crevice at the bottom of the ocean, lit only by the luminescence coming from their watchful father’s body.
At the top of the pile was another egg. Larger. It was a breathtaking shade of shimmering gold.
“Thank you,” Elias told Alinor in a whisper. “I’m so glad. Watch over them. If you ever need me, call. Lyrana saved the lives of the people I love with her sacrifice. I owe her a debt I can never repay.”
Alinor projected agreement, along with something akin to gratitude, and then sank beneath the waves.
Silence reigned for a while. Then Elias asked the Island Behemoth to move again, and from its mind, he also sensed satisfaction. Even a creature as large as it understood that the future of the ocean was not lost. That egg was a promise for the future.
“Um, what was all that about?” Oscar asked. “You stand up, get all mysterious and quiet, mutter some things, and a grown Singer wurl comes to say hi?”
“Get used to it,” Tristan commented. “He does it all the time. Communing here, esoteric telepathic something there. One minute you’re talking to him, and the next he’s all floaty. I just kind of tune it out until the trance is over.”
Elias smiled. “Lyrana’s daughter lives.”
“Yes!” Tristan said. He reached for the golden scale he still carried with him. “That’s amazing.”
Elias nodded. He placed his hand on the white egg for a moment. “Your ocean sister lives.”
After that night the sea itself seemed more peaceful to Elias. He could perceive its vastness, but also its incredible potential. Now that She Who Hungers no longer tainted the world with her presence, the distinct certainty that balance had returned filled him with satisfaction and hope. It was also amazing to be able to experience day after day of wondrous discovery without fear. He no longer had to watch the sky with apprehension in case winged assailants came. The water held no threat anymore, only enticing mystery. And the weather was no longer something to dread but something to marvel at.
A tropical storm came at midday on the third week of their trip. Elias sat with Narev near the Behemoth’s head and watched the wall of dark clouds churn and flash as it came ever closer. When it started to rain, he did not seek shelter. He felt he did not need it. He enjoyed the sensation of warm raindrops on his skin, and even when the wind became a gale, he did not leave his perch or return to camp. He held Sizzra’s egg in his arms, and together with the unborn queen he witnessed the magnificent display of primal violence that was both a show and a challenge. Lightning in particular was breathtaking when it sliced through the air to strike another cloud, the water, or the Behemoth itself. The deafening thunder that followed was like the voice of the planet, booming and bone-rattling but also joyful. Elias remembered how vulnerable he had felt the first time he had seen a storm at sea, how terrifying it had been when their boat had capsized, and he compared it to the way he felt now.
More confident. Less afraid. He respected the elemental power of nature and at the same time felt a spark of unquenchable curiosity that urged him to see, to learn, to experience.
A particularly violent thunderclap in the wake of a searing bolt of lightning seemed to rattle the entire world. Narev nuzzled Elias’s hand. He really didn’t like storms.
Elias smiled and projected reassurance. Something about seeing such a large and powerful animal essentially cowering next to him from the weather was both endearing and comical.
They eventually left the storm behind, and bright daylight in a beautiful blue sky replaced the shifting grays and blacks of the roiling clouds.
“Eli!” Tristan yelled.
Elias stood up and looked back in time to see Tristan appear. He looked a bit frantic.
“Hey,” Elias said calmly.
“You’re drenched!” Tristan observed. Then he shook his head. “Never mind. We have kind of a situation.”
“What do you mean?”
“Laurie.”
Elias’s eyes widened. “The baby.”
“Yep. I think she’s about to give birth. Not sure if we can help, but I think we should be there.”
“Um… are you sure? We don’t know anything about babies.”
The sound of large creatures moving through thick undergrowth heralded the arrival of Vanor and Siv. Oscar was with them.
“Hey, guys,” Oscar said.
“How’s Laurie doing?” Elias asked.
“I’m not sure,” Oscar replied. “Nadja kicked me out. She said she didn’t want to be sexist or anything, but it’s kind of a women-only thing.”
Tristan sighed loudly. “Thank goodness.”
Elias looked over at him. “Huh?”
“I’m… not great with blood and stuff.”
“Tristan,” Elias pointed out, “you got your arm nearly bitten off by a wurl once and you barely flinched.”
“Well, yeah,” Tristan protested, absently touching his scar, “but that was my blood. This is different.”
“I wonder what they’re going to call the baby,” Oscar wondered.
“Me too. Are you sure we can’t we help?” Elias asked. “Don’t you need for things to be, like, super clean and everything?”
Oscar shrugged. “Samantha says they know what to do.”
“All right,” Elias conceded. “So we wait?”
“We wait.”
Samantha came a few hours later, in late afternoon. She looked frazzled but happy. “My nephew has been born.”
“Congratulations!” Oscar beamed. He made as if to hug Samantha but appeared to reconsider in the middle of the motion and ended up giving her an awkward pat on the shoulder instead.
“Do you want to meet him?” she asked them.
Elias nodded. “Of course!”
They made their way back to camp, where the others were waiting. Ute and Nadja sat on either side of Laurie, who held a beautiful baby in her arms. She smiled at them when they arrived.
“This is Luca,” she said. “My son.”
The baby was swaddled in a soft-looking white blanket. He had a dusting of raven-black hair and smooth chestnut skin.
“Hi, Luca,” Oscar said, waving enthusiastically.
“He looks like Jörgen,” Ute said.
“He is perfect,” Nadja announced. “Oh!”
“Oma?” Samantha asked.
“I have realized I am now a great-grandmother!”
They all shared a laugh. Laurie spoke then, looking at Samantha, Oscar, Elias, and Tristan. “I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Because of your actions, this is a day of celebration rather than a day of fear. I was so scared of what would become of my child if he were to be male. I was scared for months.”
Ute reached for Laurie’s hand and squeezed it. They shared a knowing look.
Laurie swept a blond lock of hair away from her face. “I was angry at the world, at fate, for being so cruel. I missed my husband… but today I feel more hope than ever in my life. I have a reason to smile. Luca is born free. I am free. Thank you.”
Oscar teared up, and he wasn’t the only one.
They saw land two days afterward. The Behemoth got as close to the shore as it could and then stopped, waiting patiently.
“Thank you so much,” Elias said to it, touching the creature’s tough shell with both of his hands. “You have brought us home.”
The Behemoth acknowledged Elias with vague fondness. It had slowly come to recognize Elias specifically, despite him being so small when compared to a creature so large and so ancient, and it sent him the essence of a wordless idea Elias was able to translate as an invitation.
Until we meet again.
They disembarked carefully and then stood in the shallows for a while, waving the Behemoth goodbye.
“Bye, big boy,” Oscar said. “Thanks for everything!”
“I think the wurl are going to miss it,” Tristan pointed out. Narev, Vanor, and Siv were looking at the departing living island with a hint of sadness.
A few minutes later the Behemoth had disappeared over the horizon. It was another sunny day, and the temperature was nice and balmy.
“So this is the other continent,” Samantha commented, looking all around. “Reena.”
“You’ll love it,” Oscar said.
Elias turned away from the ocean and walked onto dry land.
He gasped.
All three wurl bounded over to him. Elias looked first at the egg he carried and then at each of them. “We’re home,” he said.
As soon as he had stepped fully out of the ocean, he had been welcomed by an almost overwhelming sensation of connection and unity. He sensed the Flower of the Earth with incredible clarity, and he felt as though firmly rooted into the fathomless energy of the entire continent through the soles of his feet.
The wurl felt the same way. And there was a brighter brush of awareness from the egg.
“Almost there,” Elias told each of them. He sent them a clear image of Crescent Valley and the cave where, he hoped, most of Sizzra’s eggs still waited.
“Is everything okay?” Nadja asked, sounding concerned.
“Yep,” Elias replied. “Everything’s great.”
“Let’s get going!” Oscar said. “We’ve been getting messages nonstop from the colony. Too bad we can’t answer. I can’t wait to see Mom and Dad!”
“And my dad,” Tristan added. “And everyone.”
They set out after some initial negotiations of who was riding the wurl. Elias was able to convince Laurie that Narev would be gentle with her and Luca, and Tristan reassured Nadja that Vanor was nowhere near as scary as he appeared. The rest of them would be walking. Siv carried their supplies, including a sizable amount of food they had gathered from the Behemoth over the weeks, and they set off.
It was much slower going than when Elias and Tristan had been alone, but Elias enjoyed every day. Now that he wasn’t in a desperate hurry get to his destination as fast as he could, Elias used his connection with the world to guide the party along the best route to Portree. He skirted the more dangerous sections of the rain forest, plotted a course that would follow as many rivers as possible so freshwater would be plentiful, and made sure to find the safest places for them to make camp so Luca’s frequent crying wouldn’t draw the attention of curious predators.
At night Elias relaxed while he held Tristan in his arms. Oscar would often be nearby, dictating letters into his link. He said he wanted to give everyone back home a detailed account of what had happened and spent many hours writing about his and Samantha’s adventures, and he would often badger Elias and Tristan for details of what they had gone through so he could record it. Elias answered willingly, since it was fun to remember everything he and Tristan had done. However, he did ask Oscar not to write about some of the more sensitive topics, such as the locations of the eggs or the Flowers. Those were not their secrets to divulge.
The weather changed slowly in its inexorable shift to autumn with each passing day. The sun rose lower in the sky, and the midday heat was no longer sweltering. The nights were chilly at times, and the wind had a crispness that reminded Elias of something like nostalgia, as though the world were preparing itself for a long sleep. The leaves of some trees along the way began to turn yellow and orange, but none of them had fallen yet. They added their vibrant tones to the already spectacular landscapes they traversed and made Elias wish he could stay at certain places for months at a time, admiring nature.
