New Sight (24 page)

“Have you ever fought the New before?” Lys asked.

Ayden shrugged. “Sure, but it’s been a while. They’ve never found us before. The only other time I fought the New was when we jumped them.”

“I’ve taken them on a few times,” the driver said.

“Neil has been around for a while,” Genni said with a smile.

“Age before beauty,” he said with dignity.

Lys cleared her throat. “Uh, have you ever beat them?”

“The New don’t go down easy,” the man from the back said. “We’ve won some battles, but never the war.”

“Do they really kill magic users?” Lys asked. “I mean, if they find them?”

Ayden nodded gravely. “They do.”

The tone of his words indicated to Lys that she’d hit a nerve.

“Would they have killed me?”

Ayden regarded her. “Your parents let Mason take you from the hospital just in time. Doyle arrived the next morning. The week before, Mason missed a girl in Oregon by mere hours. The New made it look like a drug overdose.”

Lys swallowed, suddenly not feeling well. “What will they do to the others?” Brady’s easy grin filled her mind, along with the way he looked at Inez like she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She wondered if Mark’s leg would be okay.

Kamau’s dark eyes tried to invade her thoughts, but Lys refused to let them. He’d thrown himself in with people who would kill her if they caught her. She didn’t understand exactly why he did it, but Kamau was on the other side. The wrong side.

Even the questions that Mr. Doyle had asked her made sense. Had he been trying to turn her so she would rat out Mr. Mason? Sow discord to make it possible for them to get Mr. Mason’s plan from her? And she’d given it to them without even knowing! Because of her, the plan got handed to the New on a silver platter. How many more people would die because of the New, because of her?

The SUV finally found a paved road, and the driver hit the gas, accelerating fast. She could practically smell the burning rubber from the tires.

“How can we beat them?” she asked.

Chapter 29

N
ei
l,
the
driver, snorted. “Only one way.”

“More magic,” the man in the back said.

“More magic?” Lys asked.

Ayden spoke. “Mason is convinced that if the magic portals are unplugged, magic users would be more powerful. And not only that, but there would be more of us.”

“Would everyone know about magic?” Lys asked. She’d never considered the possibility that her parents would know about her magic, and that the neighbor down the street could be a taste user or a guy at school could be a sound user. Would the government have to make special laws against magic? Would they use touch users for war? Lys had just seen how effective they could be.

“So you’re a neutral sight user?” Genni asked.

“Yes,” Lys said, nodding.

“You’re the first one we’ve ever found,” the man in the back said.

“So Mr. Mason told me,” Lys said, her mouth going dry.

“How’s that for timing?” Genni said with a smile.

“Yeah,” Lys managed. Great timing. And she might ruin the whole thing because she feared magic almost as much as she feared the Need.

Lys glanced over and caught Genni giving Ayden a smile. Love glittered in her eyes. Ayden grinned back. Lys tried not to think about Kamau, but she couldn’t help it. She still felt the warmth of his arms around her, and she could smell the slightly wild scent that always accompanied him. What would he do in her place? Would he sacrifice everything to help these people? To help her?

For that matter, what would Brady do? Lys almost laughed out loud. Duh, he’d be the first to volunteer for the job. Brady wanted to save the world; this would be right up his alley. What about Inez? The other girl didn’t trust anyone, and considering even the little bit Lys knew about Inez, she didn’t blame her. Would Inez help Mr. Mason save other magic users? For Peter? Even if she might lose herself in the process?

Kamau fought for his sister. What would Lys fight for?

The question derailed her train of thought. Fight? Her? Lys wasn’t a warrior. After seeing the battle with the New, Lys never wanted to be a warrior. Did that make her a coward? What if the only thing she could ever contribute was helping Mr. Mason release the magic? How would she feel knowing that she didn’t take the chance when she had it? How many more magic users would die because of her selfishness?

Was it selfish to cherish your sanity? Did it make her a bad person to want to keep from despair so deep and so dark that it scared her to even think about it? Did it make her crazy to want to be with Kamau even though he brought the New down on them?

“Lys?” Ayden asked.

Lys sniffed. A tear slid down one cheek. When did she start crying?

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, wiping the tear away. Just a few days before, Lys had been tied down to a bed, unable to wipe her tears from her cheeks. Her life had turned upside down since then. Friends at school were just faces and names. Lys missed them, but she honestly hadn’t thought about them much since arriving at Mr. Mason’s hospital. There hadn’t been time.

Her parents were another matter. She thought about them constantly. How was her dad? He had a big trial for work the week after she left—had he won? Did her mom’s second eye surgery go well? Would she be able to see again?

The memory of Jodi healing her leg surfaced. The icy-hot sensation that Lys felt as Jodi moved her hand up the wound would never fully fade. It didn’t hurt—hadn’t pained her at all actually—and she would always be grateful.

What if someone could heal her mother’s eye? Suddenly the possibilities of what magic could bring into the world burst through the mental clouds of confusion and pain. Could touch users heal cancer? What about sound users? Could they vibrate tumors apart? Or soothe people who were trying to jump off buildings? Taste users, could they help soldiers be brave? Would the world even need psychologists if smell users could help them access their memories and deal with them? And what about sight users? Lys could see in the dark. What could others do?

She knew so little about magic, but a thousand wonderful possibilities filled her mind. So much good could be done with magic. Her mother could be whole again.

“You sure?” Ayden asked, still looking at her.

Lys sniffed. “I’m okay. Just shock I guess.” Tears came from both eyes—two eyes, not one anymore. Magic hurt her, but magic also helped her. Other people’s magic had done more than help her. It had saved her.

What if she could help people?

She’d never been terribly outgoing. Not like her dad. Of course, he was a lawyer; he loved to talk and he liked people. But mostly he loved to help others. He always told her that the reason he’d become a lawyer was so that he could help people with problems that they couldn’t solve themselves. And to make sure that the little guys didn’t get trounced by the big guys. His words, not hers.

Little guys and big guys. Lys didn’t know if either party here was big, but it was pretty obvious that the New were out to get magic users. And she didn’t feel good about that.

One of the most important lessons Lys had ever learned from her dad was to listen to her gut. When she was little, he’d fill his stomach with air and stick it out so he looked like a pregnant woman. Then he’d wander around the house, looking for some trinket Lys had hid for him. Later she realized her mom probably gave the hiding place away, but her dad always put on a big show about following his instincts.

And when he felt strongly about a case, he could get lost in it for months at a time. She remembered one year when he’d missed her art show for school along with her first, and only, dance recital. But Lys didn’t remember feeling upset because she knew that if her dad put that much time into anything, then it must be important. He taught her sacrifice.

It had always been a powerful lesson to Lys. Now she faced her own hard decision. Her sacrifice.

Lys closed her eyes and tried to listen to her gut. What would accepting the responsibility to help Mr. Mason do to her? It would hurt her, she couldn’t deny that. But would it be worth it? Was it worth it to help everyone else? Not to mention saving innocent magic users, people who wouldn’t understand their situation until far too late?

She glanced over at Ayden and then around at everyone else in the vehicle. Would she do it for them, for Brady and Inez and Kamau? The image of her mother’s smiling face came to her mind again. Would she do it for the people she loved? To keep help them and keep them safe?

Yes.

She didn’t have to ask herself again. She would do it. Not for Mr. Mason, but for everyone else it would affect.

Chapter 30

“I thought
deserts were made of sand,” Genni said.

Ayden, who hiked right in front of Genni, turned around and laughed. “Not all deserts are the Sahara.”

Lys followed Genni, but she hardly noticed the people in front of her. Instead Lys took in the scenery and wished she had a camera.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?” the man behind her—originally from Italy—asked no one in particular.

“It is beautiful,” Genni said. “And I’m not complaining about the lack of sand.”

In the distance, huge monoliths towered, making Lys feel like a tiny bug in tall grass. No two spires looked the same—some had bulbous tops, but most thinned as they rose. Rings of red, orange and white stone piled on top of one another. The map called this place the Needles, and Lys could see why. They were stalagmites without a cave, rock teeth growing from the center of the earth. From farther away, the towers looked like the back of a giant porcupine with its needles sticking out everywhere. Some resembled decaying castles or fortresses while others looked like deformed sticks with marshmallows melted on top.

Their path wound in and out of a maze of canyons and up and along the tops of a set of plateaus.

“Here’s your sand,” Ayden said as they started to descend.

Lys turned her attention from the towering rocks back to the trail. The people in front disappeared through a gap between the steadily narrowing cliff walls. She could see them as their heads bobbed away, like they were going down a staircase.

Ayden passed through the gap. Genni and Lys followed. They descended and found themselves on the gravelly floor of a canyon. Before they had been hiking on hard, unyielding rock, and the change to the shifting, chunky dry river bottom was jarring. The few trees she saw—stunted things, more bushes than trees—grew right out from between the rocks. She had no idea how they survived or where they sucked their water from. Still, they were there, looking as if they would be sticking around for a long, long time.

Even in the late fall, the temperature had Lys sweating. Not scalding, and certainly not humid, just a dry heat that pulled the water right out of her. She wouldn’t be surprised if she heard the sucking sound as the skin on her hands cracked.

“Let’s stop for a break,” Mr. Mason said. He hiked at the front of the line, leading them all to a place called Druid Arch.

Lys stopped in the shade of the canyon wall and took a pull from her canteen. Thank goodness for Mr. Mason’s hidden supplies. Sometime the night before, they had pulled off in a little town that Lys didn’t even catch the name of. Mr. Mason had taken them into the middle of nowhere where a friend of his had an entire barn full of food, water, clothes, sleeping bags, and other survival gear. Lys wondered if Mr. Mason believed society would collapse.

While they had been loading supplies from the barn, Mr. Mason had come to talk to Lys. She told him she would help before he got a word out. He’d tried to hide his elation, but the giddy look in his eyes gave him away.

Less than an hour later, they’d been back on the road, driving fast for the Utah border. Lys hadn’t bothered to try to stay awake. She’d slept until a sliver of light from the rising sun crested the horizon. By that time, they were close. The view of the red rocks that made up this part of Utah kept her occupied while they made their way into Canyonlands and to the trailhead where they started hiking from.

“How you holding up?” Ayden asked.

“I’m good.” Lys looked around. “I just wish I had a camera.”

“No kidding,” Genni said, standing close to Ayden. Lys noticed that they didn’t touch when Mr. Mason was around. She wondered why.

The small girl with the hijab on hiked right behind Mr. Mason. She didn’t speak to him or anyone else. Lys had tried to go over and talk to her, but Ayden had warned her against it, telling her that he’d never heard her speak to anyone even though she seemed to understand Mr. Mason’s orders. Lys still hadn’t seen more of the girl’s face than her dark, brown eyes.

The girl wasn’t the only one not from America. They had one man from Italy and one woman from somewhere near Russia that Lys couldn’t pronounce. Neil, the SUV driver, said he lived in Norway before Mr. Mason found him, and it turned out that Genni grew up in Canada. Two other people didn’t speak English very well, but everyone understood. There were ten of them in all counting Lys. She’d tried to casually ascertain what kind of magic they all used, but no one had mentioned it, and she didn’t want to be too obvious that she basically knew nothing about what they were here to do.

They started again, and Lys fell in line behind Genni. If Lys didn’t know better, she would think they’d landed on a different planet. The rock formations reminded Lys of a futuristic world. All they needed were shiny exteriors and little cars flying around them.

In California the trees thrived. She’d been to the Redwood forest, and that made her feel small. This place made her feel alien. The only hints of humanity were the few wooden signs that labeled the trails and carrions—little pyramidal rock piles that kept you going in the right direction when the trail wasn’t evident. A space ship could land in front of her and Lys wouldn’t be surprised.

“It feels like we’re the only people on the planet,” Genni said, as if reading Lys’s thoughts.

Lys nodded, glad that someone else felt like an intruder as well.

“I can feel the magic getting stronger as we get closer,” Genni said. “Can you?”

Lys shrugged.

“I feel it,” the man behind her said in his Italian accent. “Pulsing, practically beneath our feet.”

“It almost feels like this place is alive,” Genni continued.

“I don’t feel it at all,” someone else said.

Conversation erupted around her as everyone tried to express how the magic felt to them. Genni, who knew French, dropped back to try to translate for someone. Left with Ayden, Lys moved closer to him.

“How come some people can feel the magic and some can’t?” she asked.

Ayden thought about it. “I’m not sure. Magic is such a personal thing.”

“Can you feel it?”

“Oh, I can feel it. I’m surprised you can’t see it.”

“See it?”

“Well, I’m a smell user, and I can smell that this place is different. It’s on the wind and in the rocks and even in the water sitting in those pools down there.” He studied her for a moment. “You don’t see anything?”

“I haven’t tried.” She gave him a weak shake of her head.

“Oh, right. You didn’t get much of a chance to practice, did you?” He shrugged. “Probably a good idea, but be ready. I have a feeling you’ll need it before long.”

Ayden stopped as Mr. Mason approached.

“We’re almost there,” Mr. Mason said. “I wanted to warn Lys.”

“About what?”

“I sent a small group out ahead of us yesterday. Ayden told me that Kamau is aware of our plans. It is likely that our people have neutralized the New that were sent here to protect the outlet.” Lys had no doubt what the word “neutralized” meant.

“Okay,” she said.

“I didn’t want it to come as a surprise.” Mr. Mason raised his voice. “We’re almost there, people. Hopefully we won’t run into any problems, but just in case, I want our neutral users in the middle of our formation, surrounded by those of you who are here for protection.”

He turned to Lys. “Stay with Ayden.”

Lys watched Mr. Mason walk away. As he did so, two other people came over to stand by them—the man from Italy and Neil. Mr. Mason walked to where the small girl stood alone. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear. The girl nodded and slowly came to join Lys and the others. Two more came over as well. That made seven.

So these were the other neutrals. “I thought we only needed five,” Lys said.

“We’ve got two taste users and two touch users,” Ayden explained quietly as they started to walk.

Mr. Mason kept them going at a fast pace. A few people looked completely worn out—stumbling down the canyon floor, just barely keeping up. All the walking she and her friends had done through the summer had paid off after all. The air here felt thin, like skim milk compared to whole milk, and Lys felt herself breathing hard, but she could keep up.

When the arch first came into view, she thought it had fallen. The drawing from the book showed the arch resembling a tripod, but when Lys saw it from the side it looked flat. Well, thick as a house, but still flat.

The trail wound around until Lys could kind of see the arch from the front. It looked like the rocks from Stonehenge in England, only rougher, less finished. The arch resembled an “M”, with one leg squished, thinning the space between two legs into a ribbon. There was nothing delicate about Druid Arch. It rose hundreds of feet into the air, looking as if its plateau pinnacle could hold up the sky. The stones, only slightly worn away by gritty sand carried on the wind, stood solid and imposing. Nothing less than a bomb could force this mighty monolith to fall.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Lys heard a woman say behind her.

Lys nodded, still following the line of people in front of her. They had to slow when Mr. Mason took them off the path and up a narrow crevasse in the opposite side of the canyon.

“Aren’t we going the wrong way?” someone asked.

Mr. Mason shook his head. “The only way to access the magic portal is from here. We’ll need our sight user for that. Come on.”

She swallowed. He needed her? It took a moment for Lys to get her feet to move. Only reflex kept her going forward.

The group followed Mr. Mason up through a spot where the canyon walls met and made a “V”. They clamored up the steep, rocky path and over a landslide of huge boulders before a gap two feet wide greeted them. Lys let Ayden help her across and she followed the others to the far side of the jutting plateau.

“Over here, please,” Mr. Mason said, waving the neutrals closer to him. Lys followed the others, wondering what was coming next.

“Lys, I think we’re going to need you to find our path,” he said.

Her heart skipped a beat. Find the path? She slowly inched forward, passing through the group. No one spoke. Everyone watched her.

When Lys made it to the end of the rock, she stopped. Looking out over the gap, Lys saw nothing but air and a quick fall to her death.