Page 46 of Avelina

Spirit, are you there? I called. I wanted to ask her opinion of my predicament and doing so while high as hell on jarring weed felt like the perfect opportunity.

I’m here, Lina.

I need you to help me figure out what to do. I feel lost. Aaron probably hadn’t meant to hurt me, but it doesn’t change the fact that he did just that. Maybe he doesn’t understand friendship between people of the opposite sex. Maybe, in this world, that isn’t a thing. I shouldn’t just stomp off like a thirteen-year-old. I should give him a chance to apologize, shouldn’t I?

Spirit sighed. He didn’t anticipate what happened to you, but he knew you were hurt. He could have apologized right after it happened, but he didn’t. He just stood there while you bled.

I sighed heavily. That’s true, but he was caught off guard. Even to me, that argument sounded like making excuses for an abusive partner. One that didn’t act like he cared if I made excuses for him or not. I need him to help me get home, I reasoned. I should at least be civil, right?

“Look,” Ward said, pulling me out of my thoughts. He pointed directly above us.

I followed his gaze, and what I saw made my jaw drop. There were two moons. One was similar in size and color to Earth’s moon on a clear night, bright white with specks of gray, but it had a paper-thin ring around it. The other moon appeared smaller, or perhaps farther away, and was a deep cinnamon red. The stars beyond were so bright that it was like the moons resided in their own personal constellation. I stopped dead in my tracks, paralyzed with wonder.

“They call them the Ancestors,” Ward said. “Heshia, the shining mother, with her fine white circlet of purest quartz, bonded to Ishkar, the brooding lord of thunder. Right now, he watches her from afar as she blesses her children with light, but once every twelve years, he grows jealous and comes for her. Before he takes her, black clouds fill the sky to block our view, and Lord Ishkar’s thunder deafens our ears so that we may not hear. But her children know what befalls her, and the sky weeps so many tears that the sea swallows the land.”

I tore my eyes from the miraculous sight to regard Ward. His eyes were turned skyward, a sad smile playing on the unscarred half of his face while the other half was paralyzed. “Did you miss your home while you were away, Ward?” I asked.

Ward inhaled and exhaled, squinting his eyes a little in contemplation. He rested one arm across my shoulders but didn’t take his eyes from the Ancestors. “You were my home, Lina.”

I smiled, a warmth spreading through my chest, then looked back up at the moons as I stretched an arm around Ward’s hips, squeezing him a little in a side hug. I stared up at the sky, shaking my head and wondering if I was the only person from Earth who’d ever seen the two moons of Monash. This one experience alone would have made the whole trip worthwhile. It was like the very cosmos reminded me to be patient because this was a whole different world.

I’ll try, I thought. No promises.

“What’s wrong?” Ward asked.

I thought he spoke to me, but when I looked at him, I realized the question had been directed at Aaron. I had been so absorbed in my own thoughts that I hadn’t noticed Aaron looking warily into the dark. I needed to pay better attention and keep my head together. I couldn’t depend on the men to keep me safe, especially now. That thought sent a shiver through me, and I let the sweet-smelling flowers drop to the ground.

Aaron dropped the dragon and stretched his back. “There are always at least a few birds that come out into the field to nest, but I haven’t seen a single one. It’s too quiet. Lina, can you send Spirit to go look ahead?”

“Okay,” I said. “What is she looking for?”

“My uncle’s house is just ahead. See those trees?”

A group of deciduous trees about two hundred yards ahead looked like they surrounded a building. The moons reflected off waxy leaves.

“Have her go to the house and see if anyone is there.”

“Okay,” I said.

Spirit.

I’m on it, she said.

The moons left an afterimage on my eyes, and a faint light emanated from the same direction as her voice. The image wasn’t fading, though. It was there, but it also wasn’t there.

The image winked out for a split second, then reappeared.

Yes, it’s safe, she said. No one is there.

I blinked. What am I seeing?

It’s me, Spirit thought. You’re starting to see me.

“Well?” Aaron asked, his voice subdued.

A feeling overwhelmed me that was at once excitement and also trepidation. “She says there’s no one there,” I said absently, looking at the splotch of white light a few feet away. It was starting to look misty, as if materializing into something more substantial.

Aaron shook his head. “Goddess help us,” he said.

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