Dreamslinger, page 20
Just when Aria thought she couldn’t possibly cling on for a moment longer, Zahra took advantage of the momentum of her spinning tiger to hook her legs over its body. She quickly climbed back up to a sitting position, and against all odds, she was straddling Rahi’s back once more.
The cohort cheered loudly as Rahi sprinted down the rest of the runway, finally reaching the archway and disappearing through the threshold to Autumn with a glass-shattering sound.
Aria and her gajokmates held their collective breaths, waiting for Zahra to return. And just when Aria thought she’d go blue in the face, Zahra and Rahi sprinted back out of the gateway. Zahra threw her hands up in the air as if high-fiving the sky, and all the leaves from the sea came alive with the wind, creating a tornado of foliage.
Head Scholar Tak congratulated Zahra as she and Rahi returned to solid ground. “Well done, Trialeer Amini. You’ve kicked the Trials off to a rather dramatic start!”
Everyone congratulated her as the next trialeers from Autumn Palace took their turns attempting the Journey. Rihaan Munro, who was wearing an orange beret with his kilt, was next and returned successfully, despite squealing all the way. But the next handful of trialeers failed before Sarah-Jess Baek, a heritage trialeer, broke the streak by making it across. By the time the Autumn trialeers had all attempted the Journey, only five of them were left.
The mood was a heady, prickly thing, as the king led the cohort next to the sea in the north. The archway here wasn’t visible above the ice-capped body of water, as the trialeers would have to swim beneath the surface to reach it. Head Scholar Kim wheeled herself toward the edge, accompanied by her onesie-wearing frost turtle, and took the stopwatch and clipboard from Head Scholar Tak.
Unfortunately, the first three trialeers never returned from their dive into the icy sea. And by the time it was Mason Hewett’s turn to dive under, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“Make a shrine of my cheeky smile if I don’t make it baaack!” he sang nervously to lighten the mood. “And make sure to get my good side!” But no one laughed. The stakes were too real.
“You’ve got this,” Zahra assured him, as she took off one of her bracelets and wrapped it around Mason’s wrist. It had the word IMPOSSIBLE spelled out with beads, just like the one she’d gifted Tui. “It might seem impossible, but remember—if you break the word apart, and make space for you to exist in there, it can actually spell I’m Possible. You choose which one it is.”
Mason flashed one of his full-watt smiles before giving Zahra a grateful hug. Then he shook out every finger and toe before jumping on the back of his frost turtle, Rico. As Head Scholar Kim counted him down, his turtle leapt into the frosty depths. Only a few minutes had passed when suddenly, a deep grumbling started from inside the frigid sea. It grew louder and louder until the thin ice shattered, and Mason and Rico exploded out of the water, riding an ice shard like a surfboard.
“Surf’s up!” he yelled victoriously.
This time, everyone did laugh.
Niko Horvat went next, his pink-and-blue braces flashing in his mouth as his teeth chattered with nerves. Mason must’ve broken the string of bad luck, because Niko passed, as did Susan Grace-Oh, a heritage trialeer, and another two trialeers from Winter Palace.
Before Aria knew it, two out of the four gajok had already completed the Endearing, and next up was Spring Palace.
“No need to be nervous, trialeers,” Head Scholar Bobby-Uma counseled them as she took the clipboard and stopwatch from Head Scholar Kim. “Just do as you have done in the trainings. Focus on you and your seedling and forget about everything else.”
Aria groaned. That was easier said than done, especially when she and Rio hadn’t once been able to complete the training exercise. She stood next to Rio, clutching her coral scales like a life raft as her fellow gajokmates attempted the Journey, one by one.
Tui volunteered to go first, and she made it look like she’d been doing this her entire life. Tweak leapt into the air as if she had jets in her feet, and they did a few graceful loop-the-loops as Tui yelled happily into the sky. They broke through the archway with a shattering sound, and when they came back out, Tui’s face was flushed and her eyes shining. She released her hands, and a shower of acid ejected from her palms like a fountain.
“Go, Tui!” Aria and Lion yelled as Rio and Echo jumped up and down with joy. Zahra and her harvest tiger cheered even louder.
Tiare was next up, and she even did a fancy cartwheel on the back of her dragon while suspended in the air, her white flower staying put behind her ear the entire time. Lion followed up with a valiant effort, and despite not looking nearly as graceful or stable as Tui or Tiare, he managed to showcase his strength by returning from the archway armed with enough power to control the entire sea of plants. He made the sharp-toothed plants tilt their heads from side to side like a marionette master, and the cohort cheered.
Jaxon Campbell was next, and he managed to overcome his fear of heights (and the structural integrity of his mullet mohawk) to succeed, albeit with a slower time. But then both Hiroto Günther and Kristina Ivanova fell into the sea, losing their one chance to become Novices. By the time it was Aria’s turn to attempt the Journey, she was starting to feel delirious and woozy, and frankly, sick to her stomach.
“Please step forward to the edge with your seedling, Trialeer Love,” Head Scholar Bobby-Uma encouraged her, hooking a streak of blue hair behind her ear.
Aria pulled on Rio’s neck. “We can do this,” she whispered into her seedling’s ear. “We don’t have to do it alone, and with our friends, we are capable of more than we think…Right?”
We’re here. We’re here. We’re here.
She felt the force of the sea luring her into its void. Although, for the first time, she realized that the pull wasn’t so much coming from the sea itself, but rather from beyond. Much farther beyond.
We’re here! We’re here! We’re here!
Rio’s ears perked and she huddled in closer to Aria, as if the seedling could hear the voice, too. And when Rio’s body keeled into her, Aria somehow knew, deep in her gut, that the call was coming from beyond the Ash Frontier—from the Beyondash, the place from which no Fellow had ever returned with their life intact.
WE’RE HERE. WE’RE HERE. WE’RE HERE.
Aria shuddered and pushed the voice away. She didn’t know how she knew this, but she knew right now was not the time to heed its call. Right now, she had a Trial to pass.
As Bobby-Uma pulled out the stopwatch, Aria took a deep breath and turned back to face her friends. She nodded to let them know she was ready. Tui and Lion immediately stepped forward, accompanied by their seedlings.
As the rest of the cohort watched in confusion, Tui and Lion helped get Rio into the harness that Junghee had expertly woven for her. Then, activating the shrinktipede function on her hanbok, Aria climbed onto Rio’s back without her dress getting in the way.
Her friends flanked her, each mounted on their own seedling, and they reached out to take hold of the handles on Rio’s harness. Unlike Aria, Rio trembled with giddiness, as if she couldn’t think of anything more fun than going for a ride in the sky, being carried by her friends.
As the three friends and three bloom dragons approached the edge of the sea, murmurs spread among the cohort. The king raised a brow.
“This is against the rules!” Jina argued, clambering forward to approach the king. “You can’t fly someone to their Season, that’s preposterous! You have to fly yourself! You must stop this!”
Before anyone could respond, Tui spoke up. “Well, Jina, if you’d actually read the rules you so devoutly follow, you’ll know that there’s nothing in there that prohibits a trialeer being flown with assistance.”
“But it doesn’t say you can, either!” Jina put her hands on her hips. “Just because it’s not written explicitly doesn’t mean it’s allowed. It’s never been done before. There’s no precedent for this!”
Lion nodded. “You’re right, it hasn’t ever been done before, because no one has ever thought of helping a fellow trialeer. That probably hasn’t crossed your mind coming from the Season of the Rule, but for us in Spring Palace, where kindness blooms at the dawn of all breath, we like helping each other out.”
Head Scholar Byun huffed in support of his niece and turned toward the king. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, please tell me you aren’t going to allow these trialeers to question your authority. I know you’re in Central Palace, but you have a solar phoenix, so you’re an honorary member of our Season of the Rule. You must not allow these trialeers to make a jest of the very foundation our League is built on!”
The king clasped his hands behind his back and frowned. But he didn’t respond. So Aria took the opportunity to speak.
“Your Majesty, you said before that the true objective of the Endearing is not whether we can make it to the archway, but whether we can harness the seasonbility our Season grants us. As long as I can return from Spring armed with my seasonbility, and be able to demonstrate it, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t be allowed to have a helping hand.”
Head Scholar Bobby-Uma, who had been listening with interest, now nodded, allowing the edges of her lips to curl upward. “Your Majesty, you’ve always instilled in us the spirit of service and community. We are a people who care and look out for our own. And while our bonds with our dreampanions are what make us Fellows, it is the bond we share with one another that makes us family.”
She looked to the king with her piercing two-colored gaze. “As long as this camaraderie is expressed within acceptable rule boundaries, I don’t see why Trialeer Love should be penalized for embodying the League’s very values.”
Aria held her breath as they waited for the king to make his call. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he considered the question. He looked reluctant and severe, and Aria could almost see the conflict in his eyes.
He’d loved Aria’s mother so much that he’d organized an entire world tour for her, only for her to betray him. He’d been forced to execute her. And now here was Aria, the spitting image of her, serving as a chilling reminder of his actions, of his past, and of his long-lost childhood love. Aria didn’t envy the storm of emotions he must be feeling right now.
Eventually, he blinked as if awakening from his memories. And finally, he nodded.
“I will allow it,” he said simply.
Head Scholar Byun and Jina raised their arms in protest, but Aria squealed with triumph. “Thank you, thank you, Your Majesty!”
“You ready for this, Aria Love?” Tui asked, letting go of Aria’s hand to grab back on to the harness handle. “And you, Rio?”
Rio snorted excitedly, and Aria gripped the saddle tightly. “As ready as we’ll ever be.”
“We’ll take it easy for takeoff, then gain speed once we’ve found our balance,” Lion said as he and Tui clipped their seedlings onto Rio’s harness. They’d need both slingers and both dreampanions to carry the weight between them.
Aria looked up at the archway suspended in the sky. “It’s now or never.”
“Good luck, Trialeer Love,” Head Scholar Bobby-Uma declared. “Please begin your Journey in three. Two. One!”
Tweak and Echo leapt off the ground, lifting Aria and Rio between them. They grunted with the weight, and as her stomach dropped with the ascent, Aria clamped her eyes shut. Without her sight, her center of gravity shifted, and she slipped a little off Rio’s back. She yelped, but Rio shifted her body to center Aria again, while Tweak and Echo adjusted their flight to recalibrate their balance.
“Okay, we’re stable,” Lion said between grunts. “Now let’s fly!”
And suddenly, just like that, they were moving. Aria opened her eyes and gasped. She was soaring!
As the archway to Spring approached in the distance, Aria didn’t dare let go of her grip, but she did sit taller on Rio’s back, feeling the breeze whoosh through her hair. Aaaah! The violet of the Asleep sky came down to meet her, and she felt euphoric. So this was how Tui and Lion felt when they glided across the sky! She felt wild and free and more alive than she’d ever felt before.
“Get ready, Aria!” Tui shouted as they neared the archway. The threshold glistened in the light, inviting Aria in. “We’re going to first unhook you, then swing you back and forth a few times to create momentum. And then it’ll be up to you, okay?”
“Okay!” Aria shouted back as she activated her thighs, ready to leap with the momentum. “Rio, you ready, girl?”
The seedling belly-growled in agreement.
“One, two, three, swing!” Lion yelled.
“Whoa!” Aria held on tighter to Rio as they swung like a pendulum back and forth, then back and forth again.
We’re here. We’re here. We’re here.
“NOW!” Tui cried.
With the final forward push, they let go, and Aria and Rio went careening into the glistening threshold.
THERE WAS A GLASS-SHATTERING sound as they broke through the archway. And as soon as Rio’s feet slammed down on the open meadow of Spring, Aria’s senses were utterly overwhelmed.
She’d been in Spring before, during the pretrial. But this was different. Everything was heightened. She could almost taste the nectar wafting on the breeze. She could see every dewdrop on the green grasses beneath. She could hear the sounds of the strange and wondrous animals murmuring inside their burrows and scuttling up the trees. It was almost as if she was no longer visiting Spring, but rather was now a part of Spring.
Her fingers tingled, and when she looked down at her hands, they were shimmering like gold glitter. The tingle spread through the rest of her body, to the tips of her hairs and the ends of her toes. Aria dismounted, and when Rio turned to face her, Aria could see her own reflection captured in her dreampanion’s eyes. Her entire body was glistening incandescently, as if she was bathed in liquid sunlight. And she felt like her entire being had been jolted awake, as if every moment until now, she’d merely been asleep.
Rio took a step toward her, as if to ask, Are you ready?
Aria nodded. She didn’t know what for, but she felt ready for anything right now!
Rio took another step forward, then another, and another, until she crossed into Aria’s space completely. Aria didn’t know how it was possible, but their two bodies were superimposed over each other—as if the two parts of their one soul had finally met again.
Aria felt an explosion surrounding their bodies, and then a tugging of herself toward Rio, as Rio pulled toward her. A sticky warmth devoured her every pore, and it felt as if Spring were the glue that was melding them together. To merge them and make them whole again.
When Rio finally pulled herself away and stepped out of Aria’s orbit, Aria felt a sense of euphoria wash over her. They were no longer physically attached, but she could feel their bond. They were no longer two separate entities. They were fused. They were endeared.
As if feeling it too, Rio’s eyes went wide and watery. “We did it!”
Aria gasped. “Rio, I heard you! Like, I actually heard your voice. In my head! You talked to me!”
“I did, oh yes, I did!” Rio purred and rubbed her head against Aria’s shoulder. “I think we have a lot to learn about each other, and even more for us to learn together. But I trust you. And I want to be your dreampanion. Will you be my dreamslinger?”
Aria gripped her seedling tightly and felt the love surge in her chest. “Yes, I will, Rio. I will.”
“Okay, but promise me you will listen when I have something to say? You won’t try to control me, force me, or worse—ignore me?” The seedling gave Aria a dubious side-eye.
Aria lowered her eyes, remembering how she’d neglected her seedling for so long. And how she’d resorted to anger when Rio hadn’t done things her way, instead of really trying to understand why.
“I hope you know how sorry I am. I promise I will listen. I’m still learning, but I’m going to do everything in my power never to disappoint you again.”
“Oh, goody!” The seedling sniffed her hair, then licked it, plastering it against her scalp like wet glue. “It also wouldn’t go amiss if you wanted to give me lots of snacks. I do covet snacks, oh, I do! Echo and Tweak are good at sharing—they are great friends and I love them, too—but their slobber is not very delicious. Especially Echo’s.” The dragon shuddered.
Aria laughed, and it came from a deep, unbridled place in her belly. “I think snacks could be arranged.”
As if satisfied, Rio wriggled her tail stump. “Well, jump on, then, Ari-Ari. Let’s go back and show them what we can do.”
“Hey, did you just give me a nickname?”
“Do you like it? Ari-Ari. I just came up with it! I’m rather proud of it.”
Aria beamed. “I love it.”
With Aria on her back, Rio ran for the archway, which no longer had a sparkly glass-like film closing it off. It was open now, and went two ways, and Aria knew that meant they were now allowed to travel to Spring at their whim. Excitedly, Rio ran through the open gate… only to hiss loudly and skid to a stop.
“Oh, right,” Aria muttered as they looked down from the lip of the floating archway in the sky. The East Sea of Poisonous Plants loomed below. “We still can’t fly.”
Rio paused before huffing excitedly. “We might not be able to fly, but we can slide down!”
Rio surged with energy, and Aria felt like her body was charging with electricity. She was a live wire, and the power came in wave after wave, filling each molecule of her being with a sherbet-like fizziness. Just when she thought her skin would surely burst, Rio called to her.
“You all charged up, Ari-Ari? Now, let’s build a slide! I love slides!”
Aria had no idea how Rio was expecting them to build a slide—let alone one that would deliver them all the way back to the ground. But she recalled what they’d learned in the briefing about seasonbilities. She needed to form a sphere with her hands to hone the energy surging between her and her dreampanion. Then she was supposed to just… let it go. Apparently, the result would take care of itself.
