The Quest (8 page)

“Well, there’s still a chance that the Knights took our buildings back or that they’re in the process of doing so now,” said Terry. “We won’t know until we regroup. Besides, even if the Angels did take the city, there are still plenty of Guardians and Guardian breakaways in other places. We’ve been divided and scattered before. We’ll survive.” Terry smiled, adding, “Maybe we’ll make a new city somewhere else. A
New
New Haven.”

“What would be the point?” I scoffed. “New Haven was hardly a safe haven for psionics. We were always in some kind of danger there.”

Once, a pair of Angels had tried to kidnap Alia and me a mere two blocks from NH-1 in broad daylight.

Terry shook her head. “It was only dangerous for us because of who we are and what we did. For ordinary Guardians, that town was a paradise compared to where we’re going now. I grew up in the splinter cells, Adrian, so believe me, I know.”

I shrugged. Wherever Terry was taking us, I sincerely doubted it would be the worst conditions I had lived in. We would survive.

Terry gazed up at the dark tree branches above us and said quietly, “New Haven isn’t my biggest concern right now.”

I asked apprehensively, “Then you’re sure that Randal is a master controller, the Angels’ new, uh… king?” I was still clinging to the hope that it was all some kind of mistake. “I mean, you didn’t believe in regenerative healers back when I lost my eyes.”

Terry gave me a wry smile. “I never said regenerative healers don’t exist. They’re just exceptionally rare, and kings are even rarer. But yes, Adrian, I do believe Mr. Simms. How else could someone like Randal Divine take control of the Angels?”

“Yeah…” I sighed, snapping the twig in my hands. “King Divine… But how could something like that be kept a secret? He was at the gathering of lesser gods, Terry! Why couldn’t a finder sense him?”

“He was probably given individual hiding protection, or maybe he’s a hider himself.”

“But even if your power is hidden, someone who gets really close can sense you,” I pointed out. “And yet it’s like even the Angels didn’t know he was a master until after Larissa died.”

“I’m sure the top Angels knew,” said Terry. “Guardian finders never got close enough, of course. But as for the common Angels, some of their finders might have sensed his power in passing. The only problem is that masters themselves are so rare that many finders have trouble identifying their signature, or so I’m told. And who’s to say exactly when Randal Divine came into his power? It could be fairly recently. Besides, no one would be on the lookout for a male master controller anyway.”

Fingering my pendant, I wondered if my first sister had known what her new father was. Cat had insisted that Larissa Divine never converted her, and that she was with the Angels by choice. But what if she had been lying? Perhaps not lying about Larissa, but about conversion? What if Randal had converted her himself? When Randal told me that he had somehow “convinced” Cat to become an Angel, had Cat simply supported his lie? If she had been psionically converted, what would Cat
not
have done for her master?

I asked Terry, “Is what you said earlier about kings also true, then? They’re really more powerful than queens?”

Terry nodded grimly. “This is the first time a king has appeared since the schism more than seven hundred years ago. Make no mistake, Adrian, once Randal takes control of the outer factions, he’ll come after the rest of the Guardians, and then the whole planet next, just like Simms said. It’s too bad you couldn’t kill Randal back at the blood trial.”

I bit my lip. Terry still believed my story about Randal Divine escaping me. She didn’t know that I had spared the Angel king.

Terry looked me in the eye. “Somehow, we’re just going to have to stop him.”

“We?” I repeated, shaking my head. “What’s this ‘we’ stuff, Terry? My only mission is to find Cindy and get Alia back to her.”

“And what then, Adrian?” Terry asked seriously. “The Angels are more powerful than ever now. It’ll only be a matter of time before they absorb anyone who doesn’t fight back.” Terry glanced over at Alia once and then continued gently, “Listen, I’m with you on finding Cindy, but once we do, I really think you should start rethinking your priorities. Honor? Duty? Loyalty? Any of that ring a bell?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t try to prey on my better nature, Terry. I killed a man in cold blood today, remember?”

Terry grinned. “My grandfather would have been proud.”

I scowled at her. “Oh, shut up.”

Chapter 4: Far from Paradise

I looked up at the dim, early-morning light filtering through the tree branches as I slowly stretched my aching muscles. It was hard to locate a single part of my body that wasn’t sore. Hiking through a forest might have seemed like a vacation after the nightmare we had gone through to escape New Haven, but now that the former was behind us, I fully appreciated how entirely unaccommodating Mother Nature could be.

It had been a long and restless night. Once the sun had set behind the mountain, it became nearly pitch-black under the trees. Steven had wanted to make a fire, but Terry forbade him, saying that the last thing we needed was a beacon for airborne search teams to see. Steven had seemed like he was about to argue, but then thought better of it when he saw the look in Terry’s eyes.

Before we slept, Terry had divided the older kids into shifts to watch out for wild animals and possible pursuit by two-legged predators. Neither came, but in the meantime we were eaten alive by the insects. It had rained a little past midnight, and we managed to catch a sip of water in our hands, but that was our only relief. The little ones took turns waking up and crying all night. Lying between me and Patrick, my sister huddled with baby Laila. I slept very little, and Terry woke everyone at first light.

Once we were all as alert and alive as we could be under the circumstances, Terry called us to attention and we continued our trek through the forest. Again Terry led, and I brought up the rear with Alia on my shoulders.

Patrick had been walking beside me and chatting with Alia for much of the morning, but now he was up near the front of the procession with Heather and Candace. He had finally reached the limits of his endurance and had accepted Heather’s offer to carry Laila for a while.

“Looks like you finally made a friend your own age, Alia,” I said. “That Patrick is a pretty good boy.”

“He’s really nice, Addy,”
Alia said into my head.
“He even tried to give me his shoes yesterday, but they’re way too big for me.”

“You two make a cute couple. When this is over, why don’t you ask him out on a date?”

Horrified at the notion, Alia grabbed my hair.
“Addy!”

“Why not?” I chuckled. “You and Patrick can play house together. You even have a real live baby.”

Alia pulled my hair until I stopped teasing her.

Well before the sun had reached its zenith for the day, even the oldest kids were showing signs of exhaustion, often stumbling on the uneven path Terry was slowly carving out for us. Terry herself was as steady as ever. Despite carrying Alia, I wasn’t too bad off either, since I could fall back on my telekinetic power when my physical strength started to give way. But our group wouldn’t manage the pace we had kept yesterday.

Terry had chosen not to take a direct line over the mountaintop, but to weave between two peaks in order to avoid the treacherous climb and descent. She occasionally had me levitate above the treetops to make sure our heading was correct, and I could tell that we were still far from relief.

“The sooner we clear this forest, the sooner we can eat and rest,” said Terry, refusing to give more than the absolute minimum in rest stops. “We just have to keep moving.”

It made sense too, since without provisions, the longer we stayed out here, the weaker we would become. However, I suspected that Terry’s impatience was caused by more than a pragmatic outlook on calorific consumption. She wanted to get these kids off of our hands as quickly as possible so that we could regroup with the Knights and, in the improbable chance that the Guardians didn’t yet know the truth about Randal Divine, report it to the Council. I didn’t share her loyalty to the faction, but I too was eager to get this leg of the journey over with and find Cindy.

“Laila needs milk,” Patrick said worriedly during our afternoon stop. “I think she’s getting weak.”

Baby Laila hadn’t cried in a while now. She seemed to be in a daze, her eyes unfocused. Terry suggested that in the absence of milk, which the teen girls couldn’t provide, we at least had to somehow keep Laila hydrated. But even Terry, who could fly a plane and straighten broken bones, knew next to nothing about surviving in a forest, and I didn’t have the heart to ask Alia for advice. In the end, at Heather’s suggestion, Patrick dampened a piece of cloth with dew drops from the tree leaves and let Laila suckle on it. It worked, and soon everyone was pulling water from their dampened shirts.

At sunset, Terry said, “Maybe another half-day.”

My stomach, well past the growling point, was whimpering feebly, so I knew how the others felt about Terry’s news.

Steven said angrily, “You said last night that we had come halfway.”

“I was exaggerating,” said Terry. “But we’ll be out tomorrow.”

“We damned well better!”

I rolled my eyes. I had survived much worse for much longer, and I knew that this would soon be behind us. While it pained me to see the younger children hungry and tired, I had little pity for the older ones, especially Steven. The Council member’s son was by far the loudest complainer, even worse than the littlest kids.

I braced myself for another long night.

It rained off and on all night. The trees gave some shelter, but not enough to keep us dry. Though it was warm rain, I still worried about Laila becoming sick. But I had to trust Patrick to take good care of her. This was his battle, not mine. My primary concern was for Alia. Though my sister did her best to keep her fears to herself, I could tell that she was still terrified of the forest, especially after dark. I could hardly blame her. Alia slept with both hands tightly gripping my right arm, and I didn’t complain.

Again, we started walking as soon as it was light enough to see. By now, even Terry was visibly worn down, and the rest of us had been reduced to a procession of zombies, clumsily moving forward at a snail’s pace. Still at the end of the line, I kept little Teddy right in front of me where I could see him.

Partly to take my mind off of my aching legs, I thought a lot about what Terry had said to me two nights ago, about loyalty. No, I didn’t owe the Guardians anything. But I owed Cindy. Knowing nothing about me except that I was a lost psionic child, Cindy Gifford found me, took me in and gave me a home. After all the trouble I had caused her, after all the terrible things I had said and done, she still treated me as her son. It would never be even between us. Alia was the same, and I couldn’t turn my back on either of them now. My one true mission was finding Cindy and reuniting Alia with her. But as Terry had asked, what then? Would I sit back and watch King Randal Divine slowly take over the world we lived in? Would I really let Terry stand alone?

I almost crashed into Teddy as he suddenly stopped walking and looked up at the sky.

I was about to nudge him on when Alia said worriedly into my head,
“Something’s coming.”

At the front of the line, Terry stopped and turned. “Everyone freeze!”

It took a few more seconds, but then I heard it too. A low thump-thump-thump of rotor blades in the distance.

“Hide!” commanded Terry. “Quickly! Adrian, Alia and Steven with Rachael. Get your powers hidden now!”

As everyone pressed their backs up against the tree trunks, I joined Steven at Rachael’s side.

“Stay close,” said Rachael, closing her eyes in concentration.

The rotor sound was closer now and getting louder by the second.

Everyone remained silent except for Steven, who said, “You know, that could be one of ours.”

“It could,” agreed Terry. “Now shut up.”

Steven snapped back at her, “What’s the big deal?! It can’t land here anyway.”

Terry raised her hook menacingly. “Don’t make me tell you twice, boy.”

Steven muttered into my ear, “Your friend’s a real bitch, you know that? Don’t you have a muzzle or something for her?”

I shrugged and whispered back, “She’s not my problem, she’s yours.”

I held my breath as the helicopter passed overhead. It circled around once and then we heard the rotor sound gradually fade away.

“Alright, let’s go,” Terry said wearily. “We should be out in an hour or so.”

It took two hours, but we finally cleared the forest, stumbling out onto a lonely asphalt road that ran along the edge of the trees. Beyond the road was farmland as far as the eye could see.

“Hey,” I said cheerfully to Alia as I set her down, “we made it.”

“Never again, Addy,” said Alia, taking several deep breaths. “No more forests for me.”

I asked Terry, “How far to the settlement?”

“A few hours’ drive,” she replied. “We’ll catch our rides here.”

It wasn’t difficult. After all, who wasn’t going to stop for a pair of ragged-looking children alone on the road? Hiding everyone else just inside the trees, Terry picked the two smallest and used them as bait to take the first three cars that came our way. Within half an hour, we owned a shiny silver sports sedan and two rugged SUVs. Their former drivers and passengers were quickly relieved of their money and portable communication devices and were left on the road to hitchhike home. No doubt they’d soon report their cars stolen, but we only needed to get to the nearest town.

Terry drove the sedan, followed by Candace in one SUV and Steven at the wheel of the other. Terry had ordered me to drive the second SUV with Rachael inside to hide Alia, Steven and myself, but when Steven haughtily insisted on driving, I obliged him in order to avoid another argument.

Rachel sat in the front with Steven, while Alia, Patrick, Laila and two others joined me in the back.