Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen) Read online

  “Will Jules be there?” he asked.

  “She should be,” I told him.

  “Is she… okay?” Hugo’s big eyes stared at me, and I didn’t want to lie to my son.

  “Not quite. Soon.”

  He nodded solemnly and exited the room.

  “Is it that bad?” Karo asked when none of the kids were around.

  “She hardly eats. She’s so consumed by all of this.” I slumped in my seat and poked at a pancake with my fork. “I think if she can just find Dean…”

  “It won’t be over, even then. She needs a teacher,” Karo said.

  “A teacher?”

  “Her powers are growing, Dean. Becoming more focused. You know what she’s capable…” Karo stopped as the kids entered, each with a backpack over their shoulders. We said our goodbyes, and I witnessed how excited Hugo was as he darted off to his classes. The Theos children were almost in their final year, but they treated my son like one of their own brood. It was nice to see.

  When they were gone, we started to clean up. “I know what she can do.”

  “Do you?”

  “Well, I’ve seen some of it. That other girl, the one with the orange eyes… she could project herself.” I stacked the dirty plates near the sink and leaned against the cabinets.

  “You need to find her,” Ableen said.

  “Jules is trying, but how?”

  “The Crystal Map formed two new locations around the same time as everything transpired last year. Sarlun refuses to let anyone investigate yet, but there has to be a reason. This hasn’t happened since Jules fixed the portals more than a decade ago,” Karo said.

  I hadn’t paid much attention to the Crystal Map over the years, not as much as I should have, but Jules kept a close eye on it. “I’ve heard about the new locations, but with everything happening, we haven’t even talked with Sarlun to discuss them. What do you think their presence means?”

  Karo loaded the dishwasher, placing the glasses in the top section while he spoke. “If Jules was the only one able to mend and expand the portals’ reach, then I have to assume that another of the Zan’ra is responsible for these two.”

  “You’re right. But what if it was Lan’i, or this O’ri within Patty?” I asked.

  “They showed up before all that. I have to presume it was the other, the one…”

  “Dal’i. And you think she could be Jules’ teacher?” I asked, assuming what their answer would be. The married Theos couple nodded as one. “Okay, I’ll talk with Jules about it when she’s back.”

  “Where is she?” Karo asked, and I told him about Elion.

  “I know you trust her, but it must be scary traveling around the universe on a solo mission like this. Trying to find Magnus and Natalia’s son out there is like finding the thinnest needle in the largest haystack ever created.” Karo paused and met my gaze. I saw pity in his eyes.

  “She’s up for the challenge,” I assured him. “Anyway, Ableen, I’m about to visit with Regnig and Fontem. Do you mind if I borrow your husband for a few hours?”

  She rested her cool palm on my forearm and smiled. “Any time.” She wore a long dress, bright yellow star patterns over a navy-blue fabric. It was something Jules would like. Thinking about her made me wonder how she was doing, and I hoped she’d acquired transportation to the old Elion Station by now.

  Three

  “What the hell are those?” Jules ran, her hands resting over her hair, knowing it would be futile against the swooping creatures.

  “Those are the Frynu.” Artimi was in front of her, sprinting along the side of the empty street. She could hear her own heavy breaths and the shrieking from the cloud of Frynu high in the sky.

  Jules had so many questions, but she’d hold the inquiries until she wasn’t running for her life. A few more arrived, landing on top of two-story brick buildings. They cawed at the pair of humanoids darting past them, but didn’t move to attack.

  She wondered where everyone was, and why the entire city appeared vacant. Jules infused more of her energy into her core, feeling the burning in her lungs subside, the ache in her legs ease. Artimi slowed his quick pace as they came upon the end of the street, and he turned left, waving for her to follow. The ship was landed in a parking lot, a few rusted wheeled vehicles sat near it.

  It looked like a hunk of junk. They stopped as they neared the vessel, and Jules shook her head. “There’s no way I’m getting in that thing. We’ll die!”

  Artimi had the decency to hide his emotions at the hurled insult. “It’s a fine craft. But if you’d rather take your chances with the Frynu, be my guest.”

  She glanced at the sky, the red sun blazing fiercely. It blacked for a moment, the cloud of these creatures slowing and blocking the star in an eclipse. She shivered despite the heat and begrudgingly nodded. “Fine. But I’m not paying you if this thing implodes.”

  He activated a ramp, and they climbed the few steps, Jules hearing significantly more monsters gathering behind them. One was close, flapping its leathery wings, and she stuck her hand out, ready to obliterate it if necessary. The door slid shut, the monster striking the hull with a resounding thud.

  The ship had a discolored exterior, with miscellaneous craft panels placed together in a mismatch of metallic shades. It was shaped like a shuttle, but five times the size, and she was impressed by how pristine it was inside.

  “Will this suit your remarkable needs?” Artimi asked, grinning at his own comment.

  “Fine. Take us out of here.” The cargo hold was lined with neat rows of crates, and Jules noticed there was a locked energy container with various guns behind it. Jules followed him through the ship, toward the cockpit, which was roomier than she’d expected.

  Now that the rush of arriving on this planet had subsided, she couldn’t stop thinking about Dean. The news of his arrival in the system had reached them a day ago, but that was enough delay for him to be long gone.

  “Any particular reason you’re heading to Elion Station?” he asked curiously.

  She watched as the strange man initiated his ship’s start-up process, and jumped when something moved behind her. A robot stepped from a charging station and moved past her without comment as it took the seat next to Artimi.

  Her pilot glanced back, frowning. “Not going to tell me? Fine, but you’ll have to return somehow. There’s nothing at that station, I’m telling you. You won’t want to be stuck out there.”

  Jules didn’t tell him that she could fly or move through space without the need of a ship. She was only doing this because of her parents. They might not be wrong, though. The last thing she needed was to lose her powers out here somehow and end up a frozen popsicle while Dean gallivanted through the universe alone, searching for Patty.

  “I’m looking for someone,” she whispered.

  “Someone?”

  “Yes. His name’s Dean, and he’s been spotted in Elion,” she told him.

  “I see. Lost love.” The ship rumbled, lights flashing on the strange dash. She’d never seen something like it, with tiny flames glowing behind buttons and dark metal frames.

  The cockpit had a bench behind the pilot’s seat, and Jules sat there, observing through the viewscreen. More of the Frynu had arrived, and there had to be a hundred of the freakish beasts outside, their small beaks opening and closing, pulling their red flesh tight over their faces. It was unsettling.

  “Can you tell me about this place now? What happened to Ravios?” she asked as their ship rose from the ground, heading up into the dark and angry sky.

  “One of my people, the Zecrua, traveled to a distant world. You see, we have a general rule not to venture too far from home. We’ve seen the feeds a million times. As soon as you start joining coalitions, or making trade deals with other races, you’re opening the door for war. We didn’t want that,” he said, focused on his task.

  “There are a lot of good things that come with expanding your borders,” she advised him.

  He peered o
ver at her, a smile on his face. “Aren’t you a little young to have philosophical ideologies?”

  She stifled an eyeroll and urged him to continue. “I have a feeling there’s more to your tale.”

  “As it happens, one woman, along with her fool of a husband, decided to disobey our rules, and they traveled distantly, landing on some unknown world. It was devoid of intelligent life, or so they thought. They stumbled upon two creatures living in the wastelands. They were fragile, freshly out of eggs, their shells still within a mile of their location. This duo took it upon themselves to bring these two creatures home with them, to care for the babies.”

  Jules knew where this was going and didn’t interrupt his narrative.

  “They came here and kept the strange animals to themselves, nurturing them, until they grew larger than their caregivers. They noticed the eggs behind their house too late,” Artimi said as the ship broke from the atmosphere, the star no longer red and imposing like it was below the ozone layer.

  “How long ago was this?” she asked.

  “Fifty years. After their first attacks, an entire town was nearly eaten. They grew from there, reproducing faster than should have been possible. They were a bane, a horrible plague on our people, and now we’ve abandoned Ravios.” Artimi went silent, and Jules heard the robot beside him whirring and beeping gently. Its clumsy fingers moved over the keys, flipping switches every few minutes.

  “Then why were you really there?” she asked.

  “Where?”

  “In the portal room.”

  “The what?”

  Jules realized the word portal didn’t translate, and she tried the other name. “Shandra?”

  “I told you. I was hoping to sell…”

  “Enough lying, Artimi.” She felt the ability to be straight with this man. Her first instinct, at seeing him with a gun pointed at her, had been to not trust him. But as they interacted, she was starting to like him.

  “Fine. I’m waiting for someone.”

  “Is that why you had food and a bed at the Shandra?”

  He nodded, not answering.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “My brother.”

  “And… ”

  “He departed with everyone years ago, and we were separated on our ships. We made a deal to return here, to the Shandra.”

  “When was he supposed to show up?” she asked.

  “Too long ago. I don’t think he’s coming,” he told her. “We sent off ten ships, and our envoy was attacked halfway to Neeriox Twelve. We were separated, and these guys… they used a wormhole weapon against us.”

  Wormhole weapon? That was new. “You got lost?”

  He shook his head. “Not me, but my brother’s ship did. Two thousand people. He was with his kids, his wife.”

  The ship shook, the floor vibrating as they neared what appeared to be rows of debris. “How long until we reach Elion?”

  Artimi peered at his robot, who spoke with an oddly-tuned voice. “We are fourteen hours from our destination,” it said, sounding like a woman. Jules grinned in response to the feminine tone.

  “What, she can’t be a she?” he asked with a laugh. “Say hello to Betheal.”

  Jules smirked. “Hi, Betheal. I’m Jules.”

  “It’s my pleasure to meet you,” the robot said. Jules still found speaking another language so peculiar, but the more she used the ability, the easier it came.

  “Artimi, can you tell me about these enemies, the ones that attacked your people?” she asked, settling into the seat as their clunky vessel darted through the specks of debris, each piece glowing as it burned into their shield.

  “What do you want to know?” he asked.

  “Where they came from, and how the wormhole weapons worked.” Jules’ intuition told her something about this was important: that she hadn’t met Artimi by chance, but by fate, or the universe, or whatever it was that oversaw them.

  “It’s a heavy topic, but sure, it’ll help pass the time.” He started talking, and she listened closely.

  ____________

  “Regnig, I think it’s best if you join us,” I told him again, trying to keep the urgency from my voice.

  He shook his little head, his beak shifting open. Dean, I think it’s a younger man’s endeavor.

  “I have an idea,” Fontem said, and we all listened. “We can use the portable doorways and activate the other side when we arrive.”

  “Why didn’t I think of that?” I asked, muttering to myself. I’d suggested it a half hour ago.

  Regnig’s tongue flicked out, and he grabbed one of his canes, hobbling over to the kitchen behind us. I will think on it. I do long for some adventure, but I fear my knees have been acting up again. Some days are better than others.

  “Have you had anyone examine you lately?” Karo asked him.

  Regnig paused, glaring at the Theos with his one large eye. Such as a physician?

  “Sure, a doctor,” Karo replied.

  Never trusted them.

  From what we could gather, Regnig was hundreds of years old, so he was probably doing fine without them, but I didn’t say so. “You’ll join us, then?”

  He poured another tea, and I went to help him, refilling the rest of our cups.

  I’ll join you. It has been getting a little stuffy down here.

  It was a rare occurrence to hear the small birdman complain about being in his libraries, and I smiled, knowing he was growing more used to spending time with people. He and Fontem had been working closely over the last few months, not to mention his consistent visits with Jules.

  “Good. I’m glad you’re coming,” Fontem said.

  “When’s the last time you were there?” I asked the artifact collector.

  “Probably four or five years before I was abducted,” he answered.

  “And you’re sure no one will have found it after all this time?” I pressed.

  “I doubt it.”

  “You realize that Polvertan located your other cache, right?” I couldn’t help but mention it.

  Fontem smiled and nodded. “I know. I should never have placed the Delineator in there, either. I’d stored it there because I didn’t have a chance to head to my final destination with it.”

  “If we hadn’t found it, I’d be dead.” I thought of the device opening, shoving Lom of Pleva through it, and grimaced. I wished I’d managed to kill him instead. “Now that Regnig is coming, where are you with your research?”

  We’ve determined there are references to merging timelines, only in smaller cases. There was a scientist tens of thousands of years ago, on a world called Ephor, who managed to test a theory on this, sealing himself in a time-proof isolation chamber. His name was Hanrion. He used a device similar to the Delineator, though much more basic. It allowed him to pause himself by seconds. He did this ten times, so the story goes, and then used another device to blend them together. This resulted in the scientist having ten different memories of that experiment, each slightly longer than the other. Regnig paused and took a sip of his tea.

  This was bad. “What happened to him?” Karo asked.

  He exited the chamber, transcribed his notes over the next few hours, told his assistants he felt fine, and went home.

  Fontem swallowed hard, preparing for what came next. He glanced at me over his teacup and finished the tale for Regnig. “They found him the next day, dead in his bedroom.”

  “By his own hand?”

  “That’s how they recorded it.” Fontem set the tea down and passed me a tablet. “If Lom found a way to build a device like this, we think he must have created something similar to Hanrion’s gadget.”

  “Meaning we might want to check out that planet. Where is it?” I asked, looking at the tablet. I almost laughed but couldn’t bring myself to. “The Arnap obliterated them thousands of years ago. This is our luck.”

  “They appear to have vacated the system far later, leaving it empty. We could check it out. There’s a portal on E
phor, one Sarlun said was on the original no-fly list,” Fontem said.

  When we’d first started using the portals, half of the symbols were hidden. This was because they were deemed too dangerous for travel, or they were unexplored. With Jules patching the entire Shandra network, it had opened up a floodgate of locations, many never before seen. Most of the inhabitants on the planets with one of the crystal-powered portal rooms were unaware they held such treasure.

  It was part of the reason we’d created the Gatekeepers’ Academy. We needed to catalog and record information on thousands of planets. We were about twenty percent through even now.

  “We haven’t been there before. Who knows what we’ll find?” I asked.

  You do have nearly a month before Techeron. And Jules is always telling me how bored you are on these long journeys. Regnig blinked and passed what I figured to be a smile over his beak.

  “Fontem, what do you think? Bring a team? See if we can find Hanrion’s lab intact?” I doubted that was possible, after countless years and an invasion by the deadly Arnap, but it was worth a shot. If we could identify information on how he’d merged these timelines, we might be able to prevent Lom from doing the same.

  “I think it’s a good idea, and I’ve been cooped up in libraries for too many months. I’m starting to long for some adventure myself.” He stood, stretching his back.

  I rose too, shaking his hand. “Good to have you on board. We’ll bring the team. Slate for muscle, Suma for brains.” I almost felt bad for thinking of my good friends in such narrow lanes, but they’d be insulted if I didn’t.

  Be careful. Anywhere the Arnap once were could be dangerous.

  We started for the door, but I stopped, remembering something Jules had said before she left. “Regnig, Jules spoke to the Deity.”

  She did? How is this so?

  “You’ve heard she keeps going to that damned world she calls Desolate, right?”

  He nodded.

  “He was activated and told her to free them all, implying there are more. I need you to research any other planets with that symbol, the four circles with the X over them, and anything else that might help our search,” I suggested.