Page 14 of The Surviving Sky
“Not quite,” Dhruv answered. “There are devices for both of you in here.” He nudged the bag by his feet, and Ahilya strode toward it, Oam trailing her, an abashed look on his face.
The long days of loneliness following Iravan’s silence had returned to her the minute Oam had asked his question. Her husband flickered in her mind, his face darkening in outrage as she questioned his integrity, precipitated his anger, but Ahilya pushed the image away,violently, and focused on the devices that glittered in the bag. Her hand encountered a diamond-shaped half-locket dangling from a glassy chain. Like most sungineering equipment, the locket was made of resilient bark and thin optical fibers connecting the circuitry inside. A low chiming sound emerged from it, muffled by Ahilya’s fingers as she withdrew it.
She looked up, her eyebrows raised. The last time she’d used this tracker locket, it had been silent.
“I’ve made a few adjustments,” Dhruv said, understanding her unspoken question. “The ringing will become faster the closer you get to the yaksha. It should help navigate your path.”
“Thank you,” she said, wearing the necklace.
The locket was heavy at her throat, its steady beat at odds with her racing pulse. Somewhere out in the jungle, the transmitter that formed the other half of the tracker waited for her.
Dhruv nodded, his eyes solemn behind his glasses. Some of Ahilya’s tension receded with his steadying presence.
In all of the city, the sungineer alone remained her true companion. They had grown up together, discussing Nakshar’s politics, angry and passionate, wanting todosomething. Their choices had taken them in different directions, Dhruv toward the solar lab and her to archeology, but their separate careers had only drawn them closer. She and Dhruv had prepared for the nomination together, trying out their theories for survival, learning and quizzing each other about Nakshar’s administration, analyzing and dissecting their competitors’ theses. It was Dhruv who had come to her mere days earlier, babbling about how one of the trackers had transmitted a signal to his lab. Ahilya’s mind had been on Iravan, but Dhruv had almost dragged her to the library’s leafy walls.
“You don’t have much time,” he’d said. “You need to get your crew together.”
“How can there be a signal at all?” she’d asked, unable to get her hopes up. “I thought all sungineering equipment ran on trajection.”
Dhruv had nodded, an excited smile splitting his face. “Yes, yes, the tracker can only recharge if it’s around a trajecting architect. But don’t you see? Nakshar happens to be in its range for the first time during landing. All the trajection from the city must have kickstarted the transmitter. You can study the same yaksha you did before.”
“But—”
“Go!I can explain all this later.”
Ahilya hadn’t asked any more questions. Dhruv had pushed her toward the walls, and she’d created paths first to the Academy to request an architect and then to Oam, to prepare for an expedition.
She watched him now as he bent next to her to withdraw more pieces of equipment identical to the ones she had in her satchel.
“You need to bring back every piece,” he said severely as he handed those to Oam one by one. “Every piece. They’re very expensive and I will hold you personally accountable for their care.”
“Why don’t you just come with us?” Oam muttered, turning the devices in his hands.
“Out in the jungle? No, thank you. I’m not designed to go outside a city, and neither is this equipment. All of this runs on trajection, so don’t stray too far from Naila; she’s your only source of energy out there.”
“Don’t stray too far from Naila, regardless,” Naila urged, standing next to them. “The jungle is unpredictable, andtrajection…It’s abit—There’ssomething aboutit—Juststay close.”
Oam frowned. In a world destroyed constantly and unpredictably by earthrages, where the only certainty was trajection, the architect’s words didn’t inspire any confidence.
Ahilya spoke before he could raise any objections. “We’ll be fine. Won’t we, Oam?”
A startled glance passed over Oam, perhaps at the unexpected warmth in her voice. He returned her smile, flicked a loose braided curl behind him, and stood up straighter.
“Right,” Dhruv said briskly. “Inspect your equipment, both ofyou—andthen double-check each other’s gear. Ahilya, with me, please, while I do the same for you. These should be your final verifications.”
Oam and Naila murmured, each of them asking the other to turn first. Ahilya followed Dhruv to the other side of the copse reluctantly. She knew why he had pulled her out of earshot, but time was running out.
She’d tagged the elephant-yaksha nearly five years before, yet for the first time in her life, she’d see the same creature more than once. The expedition could vindicate all her previous forays into the jungle; it could convince the council to take her seriously; it could even provide hard evidence for survival onland—somethingthat could directly contribute to being nominated to the council. Based on what she found, today’s expedition would either clear her path forever or dash all her expectations to the ground. She followed the sungineer, her mind on the comparisons she could make to her baseline readings.
Dhruv stopped and his voice dropped. “All right,” he said, his businesslike manner vanishing now that they were alone. “Let’s see the deathbox.”
From her satchel, Ahilya pulled out an opaque glass cube larger than her fist, a dozen dials embedded into it. She twiddled the dials, and the cube opened. She flipped the dials again, and the deathbox closed.
“Good, good,” Dhruv muttered. “I’ll need a complete specimen this time, something with root and stem, preferably. The box should accommodate it.”
“I know. I’ll try.”
“They’re really pushing hard for the battery now,” he said, and she knew he meant the council. “Kiana asked about my designs again, and I’m running out of options. She told the entire lab that the council is looking to transfer a sungineer in exchange for an architect next time we trade with the other cities.” Dhruv’s spectacles shook in his hand as he removed them.
