Chaos Calling, page 29
When I was fifteen, Kalos informed me that I must move from Ottawa to Montreal. With difficulty, I convinced my parents to let me live with Uncle Felix, who was finishing his degree at McGill University. I was a restless, uneasy child. My training prompted me to disobey my parents’ rules without explanation. They were at a loss as to what else to do.
Felix, five years my senior, did not welcome my presence for obvious reasons, and our long-standing estrangement took root during those months. I do not have the space nor heart to detail it here. It is enough for you to know that I struggled greatly with loneliness in Montreal, which was more open to me in some ways and so very closed in others. You will find my diaries from those years with my papers.
Kalos’s purpose in bringing me there was to meet Leona and Rose LaRoque at Expo ’67. On sight, I knew them to be the triad sisters I had longed for all my life. As Jason and David have shown you, a triad bond is powerful and sacred. My years training with them while your father completed his residency program were among the happiest of my life.
After Rose died in 1980, my visions demanded that David be raised in Toronto. Contact with you and Jason was essential to your triad’s formation. Leona could not leave Miinikaa First Nation and insisted that we should move north, but your father’s research career made that an unfeasible choice for our family. My greatest fear was that David would be sent into foster care as so many Indigenous children were, then and now. And so, I privately arranged for the Montcalms to adopt him and persuaded Leona to accept.
Leona understood my reasons, but our friendship was never the same. She blames me for taking David from her, and rightly so. That break, along with Rose’s death, are the deepest regrets of my life. Leona and I have spoken periodically through the years and more often during my illness, but not with the openness of our youth. I ask you, Anna, to make amends in my name to the LaRoques and their kin. Be steadfast and clear-eyed in this pursuit.
As for your father, he could not accept all that I am. I did not dare to tell him what you and Jason are, nor what you will become. I do not fault him for this failure. Nor should you. As you and your brother have learned, xhen recedes between skyworm invasion cycles, maintaining enough tangibility on this plane only for the next cycle of Xenthians to be trained. Its presence otherwise remains too scant for it to be widely perceived.
My hope is that you and Jason will help your father to understand us. His love and dedication have, in every other way, made my life joyful. And by gifting you with my name so long ago, he has helped me to honour our ancestors. They, like me, would be proud to know that Lins will meet our enemy.
The skyworm onslaught will be relentless. Your triad will face them many times. I have not foreseen the war’s end. Its paths are too clouded. I saw the creatures in the flesh only once under circumstances that will reveal themselves to you in time. They are fearsome, wickedly clever enemies. Guard yourself and those we love.
Many will join you in this struggle, Malcolm among them. Some who choose to follow your triad will surprise and even shock you. You must check your suspicions and uncertainties, Anna, and accept help where it is offered. I know that has never been easy for you. You are in every way my daughter.
Of all your allies, Jason remains the most essential. The rift between you has caused me great pain, then and now. I trust in you to do what must be done to mend this breach, and to be victorious.
All my love to you, Malcolm, Tim, and Erin.
Mom
It’s dated April 11, 2014. Days before she died, Anna thinks, putting down the paper as the letters swim together. Her head is spinning. She carried that her whole life, and she never breathed a word. Why didn’t she tell us? Didn’t she trust me?
“Dave?” Jason suddenly stands, the sound and motion jarring in the silent room.
Anna spins to face the door. No one’s there. “What is it?” she asks.
“We need to go!” Wild-eyed, Jason forms a portal. Through its hazy surface, Anna can just make out Dave and Jenna on the other side. “Get dressed and gather your people,” Jason tells her as they step into the study. “The skyworms attacked Sudbury this morning.”
Chapter 31
Dave — Auntie
Sudbury, ON: Thursday, August 21
The smell of smoke assaults Dave’s nostrils as he leaps through the portal Jason opens to Sudbury. Auntie Lee! He strains his ears and mind, frantically listening for any indication of a human or skyworm presence. His gut churns as he runs along the narrow shoulder of the two-lane road that encircles Ramsey Lake.
Come on, Dave, he tells his leaden muscles. Find another gear. She needs you. Ahead, the road intersects with the main thoroughfare that would take him to Laurentian University. Beyond that T-junction, a tall tree canopy rises, marking the edge of the conservation area that borders the campus. Auntie Lee! Where are you?
Silence. The muscles in his shoulder blades lock in a familiar pattern as his back prickles with fear, not xhen. Breathe, he tells himself. Panic won’t serve you.
On the lake’s opposite side, Dave hears the cacophony of many panicked human minds. But in their immediate vicinity, the quiet is eerie. No cars. No birds. Wind shakes the brush between him and the edge of the lake, rustling the leaves. Water laps against the rocky shore. We saw a dead skyworm in the lake. She’s got to be here, he tells himself. And she’s too stubborn to die.
The others have joined him on the Sudbury side of the portal. Dave inhales as they gather around him, tasting smoke and sulphur. It lacks the pure tang of cooking fires in the bush. This smoke is thicker, its smell more industrial and layered with gasoline—the stink of skyworms, and a sicklier undercurrent of burnt flesh. The combination burns the back of Dave’s throat.
“What’s that smell?” Jenna asks, coughing as she joins him.
“Don’t know,” Dave lies.
“Human flesh,” Jason says matter-of-factly, closing the portal behind Anna and her tarkan. A kaleidoscope of cauterized surgical wounds leaks from his thoughts as he looks around, his body tense as if expecting ambush at any moment. “Not a smell you forget.”
His aunt’s face, burned and blistered, darts like a minnow through Dave’s mind. He pushes away his fear and concentrates on breathing through his mouth. “Dad didn’t know whether the attack was still in progress,” he tells the group as they walk toward a couple of empty cars parked on the roadside, although none of them are Leona’s F-150. Could she have borrowed Ryan’s car? “I don’t hear anything, but be on your guard.”
“I count twelve smoke plumes across the lake,” Jenna says quietly, more to Malcolm on her other side than to Dave. Following their gazes, Dave spots the telltale flash of metal farther out on the lake. Pieces of metallic debris dance in the August sun, forming a macabre flotilla.
“Downed plane?” Dave guesses.
Malcolm climbs on top of a large boulder for a better look, shading his eyes. “Jet fighter,” he confirms. He points farther up University Road toward the campus. “There’s a piece of cockpit over there. I don’t see any people.”
Anna turns her head, sniffing the air. “Skyworms died nearby,” she mutters. “Nothing else stinks like that. Someone must have fought back.”
“But where?” Jason asks. He still looks jumpy as he surveys the empty sky. “I don’t see fire trucks or ambulances.”
“They’ll be triaging the response.” Malcolm points across the water at the smoke. “If that’s a civilian-dense area, they’ll focus there.”
My dad’s information was several hours old, but here’s what he had, Dave says, broadcasting the satellite photos to the group. It looks like the resistance was focused in this area. The sulphur smell would seem to confirm that. We’ll spread out and search the shore of the lake. If we’re right, that means other Xenthians are in play. He takes a deep breath. Jenna steps a little closer to him, her mind bright with concern. Grateful for her silent support, Dave lets his aunt’s strong face form in his thoughts. My best guess is that my aunt Leona came in from the Miinikaa First Nation to fight the skyworms. If I’m right, we need to find her fast.
The twins exchange a solemn glance, their thoughts filled with notepaper covered in Chun-Mei’s handwriting. With Dave’s gift, they’d needed mere seconds to share the stunning missives from their mother and hear his confirming details. Their collective shock is starting to wear off, but Dave still braces himself against fresh grief.
Instead, without anything being said, Nina drops into step beside Anna. Carl does the same on her other side. By the time Malcolm’s climbed down from the rock to join them, his background awareness of her emotions has stopped.
Only Jason remains solitary, his sense of loss as palpable to Dave as a pulsing wound. Margo is also prominent in his mind, accompanied by regret so profound it makes Dave want to grind his teeth.
But Jason’s face is outwardly impassive, and he seems unaware of Dave’s scrutiny. “I’ll check the hospitals.” He gestures at the borrowed scrubs that he, Malcolm, and Anna’s other tarkan are wearing. “I’ll blend in there.”
Dave nods with the others, relieved to have a good reason for Jason to take his jittery presence off a potential battlefield. “If I find anything,” he continues, “I’ll call Malcolm’s cell. Holler again if you need me, Dave.” His portal flashes open and shut, faster than before. Dave sighs as his awareness of Jason’s emotions recedes.
That man needs a Kalxhan, Jenna observes as they spread out, moving east away from the intersection toward a lakeside residential area. Dave glances at her, amused by the certainty in her mental voice. And soon.
He needs to talk to his wife, Dave says. She deserves to hear what’s happened from him.
Jenna’s eyes widen. She doesn’t know?!
Not yet.
Jenna’s eyebrows form disapproving red lines. Will she join him like Malcolm’s joined Anna?
Never in a million years. A less pragmatic person would perhaps give Margo the benefit of the doubt, but Dave can’t picture Jason’s sophisticated wife combing through a smashed cityscape to hunt skyworms in spike heels and one of her quirky vintage blazers. What he can picture, all too easily, is his aunt quietly locking her house and driving to a fight to the death without asking anyone for help. Especially me. Dad, why didn’t you tell me sooner?
“Hey,” Jenna says. “We’re going to find her.”
Dave swallows, touching a hand to his missing scar. “She’s the bedrock of my life,” he explains. “When I was sick a few years ago, she was there in a way that not even my folks could be. Without her, I wouldn’t know anything about my people.” He pictures himself standing in the Miinikaa Community Centre, trying to explain how he let her die. His chest tightens.
Breathe, David, his aunt says in his memory as she sits at his hospital bedside. Connect your body and your mind. Holding on to her face like a talisman, Dave draws a shaky breath.
“Over here!” Carl shouts. This close to the lake, his voice easily carries through the quiet.
Dave and Jenna turn toward the sound. Did you find her? Dave demands.
Carl doesn’t answer.
Adrenaline courses through him as they run back along the road. Please let her be okay, Dave prays as his feet pound the gravel, making his head throb. Ahead, Anna, Malcolm, and Nina are also running toward an office building near the lake. The four tarkan easily outpace Dave and Anna. They’re so fast. It’s only been a day for everyone but Malcolm, he thinks, part of him marveling a little despite his anxiety for Leona. How fast will they get?
He passes a roadside sign as he catches up to Anna. It reads: vale living with lakes centre. Turning into the driveway, they pelt through the parking lot. The back of his throat is dry, and the benefits of his shawarma have long since worn off. His stomach growls, but the intense smell of sulphur suppresses all thought of food as they run down a well-worn path leading toward the water.
The scene awaiting them where the path meets an open, rocky headland spotted with wind-stunted pines confirms Dave’s worst fears. He takes hold of xhen, craving the assurance of its prickling burn. Two orange skyworm carcasses lie broken on the rock, their massive bodies blackened by fire. More torn pieces lie half submerged in the shallow water, their scales winking in the morning sun. The air is thick with the stink of their ichor and an underlying layer of rot. Around the carcasses, rupture attacks have scored deep furrows through the rock and trees. The damage converges on the highest outcropping, which is covered in dried blood.
No. You can’t be dead. Wildly, Dave scans the area, searching for his aunt. Orange-red sunlight reflects in a dazzling pattern from the skyworms’ scales, and from the threads of quartz in the black rocks. But there’s no sign of Leona as Dave blinks against the brilliance. Auntie Lee! he shouts. Call out if you can hear me!
Jenna touches his arm, radiating sympathy, as Dave joins Malcolm in kneeling by the largest rock. Jenna, Anna, and Nina stand around them, warily watching the sky, while Carl slips into the trees, searching the ground.
“That’s a lot of blood,” Dave says, trying to keep his anxiety from his voice. “She’s going to need help if it’s hers.” He glances at the skyworms, checking for a flicker of their strange xhen, but the creatures have been dead too long. Their carcasses are lifeless.
Malcolm nods. “Head wounds bleed a lot.”
Dave glances at him and then at the ground. “How can you tell?”
Malcolm shrugs. “I’m guessing.” He points to faint impressions in the dirt, tracing them with his finger. “Someone fell sideways here. See? Skull, shoulder, and hip. The blood’s concentrated in this spot. I think there’s a good chance it was a woman. The footprints around the rock are on the small side for a man. Shape of the sole’s right. See how it’s narrow across the ball and in the heel?” He looks up at Dave. “How tall is she?”
“Five foot six or so,” Dave says. “I probably get my height from my birth father.”
Malcolm nods, looking back at the dirt. Before he can say more, Carl emerges from the trees, carrying the remnants of something wooden. “Found this,” he says, setting it down on the ground beside Dave. “There’s four more just like it, all burned. I think they were catapults.”
“That’s one way to expand your firepower,” Jenna murmurs. “Impressive.”
“They took her!” calls a raspy voice.
Instantly, Dave’s on his feet. Before he can take a step, the tarkan form a protective half circle around him and Anna as a figure emerges from the trees.
Don’t think at him, Jenna cautions. You’ll scare him away.
Dave touches her elbow in gratitude as he releases xhen. “Who?” he calls. “What happened?”
“Native lady,” says the man. He’s Black and at least twenty years older than Dave. He shuffles down the path toward them, favouring his left leg. Bald with a wide, paunchy dark face and a salt-and-pepper beard, he’s wearing khakis and a fleece jacket with the research centre’s logo stitched on the breast pocket. His clothes are stained with blood that doesn’t seem to be his, but the palms of his dark-skinned hands are scrubbed clean as he spreads them to encompass the rocky, wooded area.
“She had fire like yours,” he continues, nodding at Dave. “We saw them coming in low across the water. Big screaming devils.” He shudders. Dave glimpses swift, lethal shapes in his mind interspersed with his aunt’s face. “They blew out the windows. I had the others hide in the basement, but my knees are crap. We’d lost the elevators with the power, and taking the stairs hurt too much. I watched her fight those things.” He holds Dave’s gaze, his mind brimming with images of Leona on the rock, encircled by skyworms. “She saved our lives.”
Auntie Lee. Numbness spreads through Dave’s arms and legs as he looks back at the bloodstains. Before Jenna can steady him, he sits down hard on the packed earth. I should have been here to help.
Anna shoots Dave a concerned glance. “How many people are with you?” she asks.
The man glances back up the path, but no one else has emerged from the building. “Eight. All members of my research team.” He nods at Dave. “Was that lady a relative of yours?”
“My aunt,” he says weakly.
A smile cracks the old man’s face. “Hell of a woman, your aunt. Most of the creatures were focused on the downtown area across the lake, but four came here, wreaking havoc. She collapsed as she killed the last of them.”
The man spits at the nearest skyworm head. “When I was sure it was over, I called an ambulance. Came down here, tried to help her. She’d hit her head pretty hard. One of her legs was sliced up from the rock shrapnel. She wasn’t conscious. We waited over an hour for help. Did what I could for the bleeding. Paramedics sent me back inside, told me to sit tight. Said it might not be safe. That was three hours ago.”
Malcolm’s cell phone rings. He picks it up and hits the speaker, already turning to Dave. “Whatcha got, Doc?”
“She’s here at Health Sciences North,” Jason tells them. “You better come.”
The corridors of Health Sciences North’s Emergency Department are so crammed with people and medical equipment that Dave’s progress is frustratingly slow. Badly lit and painted the drabbest possible shade of industrial yellow, the hospital is clotted with pain and despair. He tries to ignore the background miasma as he beelines toward Jason’s increasingly distinctive thoughts, his fear spurring him on as he barrels past nurses, orderlies, patients, and family members. Jason had insisted on opening the portal for Dave and Jenna at the very back of the emptiest parking lot. Avoiding panic made sense, but Dave begrudges every wasted second.
He spots the doctor’s dark hair in the same moment that Jenna points. Despite his worries, Dave musters a smile. We’ve been a team for what? Eighteen hours? Feels like ten years.
