Page 4 of Shadows of Perl

“Ten, eleven, twelve.”

They flash faster, lighting up my vision like an empty night sky hand-dotted with stars.

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine.”

I count silently, numbers rolling through my mind, faster than my words can keep up. When I manage words again, I blurt, “Fifty-seven, fifty-eight.”

“It’s coming,” he says, breathless, his grip on me trembling. “Don’t look away. Not even for a second.”

The dots stop appearing. The blackness bleeds to soft blue. Then a swatch of morning colors. And I realize I’m staring at the actual sky again. Panic takes flight in my chest. Suspend. Count. Flare. Cloak. Where’s the flare? But before I can get the question out, the morning sky shifts, brightening.

“Something’s happening.”

“A flare,” he says.

The sky ripples orange, then purple. A bright light flashes and streaks across the sky.

“Cloak, now!” He locks both arms around me.

I steady my feet and twist into the coldest depths of myself, willing my toushana to transfigure us into fragments of matter. Cold magic seeps from my pores, swallowing us in shadows, disintegrating every part of me until I’m nothing but a floating feeling, a dark cloud of air. Weightless, I can still feel Octos attached to me. The flare sticks in my mind’s eye. Follow the light. The world darkens and my stomach drops as if the floor has gone from beneath me. Take me to the Sphere!

Pressure builds, and my magic thrums. For several moments that’s all I feel. Then thick, salty air fills my nostrils. My feet thud onto the earth, and I barrel into Octos but catch myself before face-planting. I gape at the back of my hands, then my palms. No purple, no pain.

“No bruising!” I stumble up.

But Octos’s head swivels in every direction. “The Sphere. It should be here.”

There’s only night sky and rocky grasslands. The glowing orb that holds the magic of the Order together is nowhere in sight.

“Suspend. Count. Flare. Cloak. I did what you said.”

“You did,” he says, still searching. I hold up my hands for him to see. But Octos looks right past them before storming off toward the coastline. “We should at least be closer.”

“Octos!” I hustle to keep up with him. The ground ends abruptly at a stretch of ocean. Below, waves batter the rocky mountainside, bathed in moonlight. “I don’t know why the Sphere isn’t here, but that can’t be my fault.”

He faces me with a slouch of disappointment. “No, it’s not. Sun tracking is an imprecise science. The steps, though, you performed beautifully.”

I stand straighter and show him my hands again, which finally he studies. He flips them to either side.

“Any pain?”

“None.”

“Very good work, but we’re going to have to try again.”

My heart stops. “What do you mean, try again?”

“We’re going to sun track again, another night or so. Maybe a month.”

Something hot turns in my chest. “I don’t have a month.”

“We gain nothing by rushing your training.” He pats my shoulder. “Come on, at sunrise we can try again.”

“No, Octos.” I ball my fists.

“What do you mean, no?”

“I’m done training. I have to find my mom.”

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