Page 55 of Elanie & the Empath
20.SEM
The heat radiatingfrom her body was terrifying, but it kept me warm, her arms wrapped loosely around my neck like a thermal scarf.
“Put me down.” Her voice was a frail rasp. “I can walk.”
“I know you can. But you need to conserve your energy.” In truth, I didn’t think she could walk. She could barely keep her eyes open. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
I’d walked for what felt like hours already, thankful for the relatively low gravity on this rock. Even so, my back and knees screamed with each step. I’d have to stop soon, find somewhere to sleep for the night, make a fire, melt some snow to drink. We needed shelter, but all I could see for miles was the same snowy plane I’d been trudging across all afternoon.
“Is the voice still there?” I asked. “Any chance it’s telling you that we’re getting close?”
She didn’t respond. She’d finally fallen asleep.
“That’s good.” I kissed her temple, her skin burning my lips. “Sleep. I’ll get you to him. I promise.”
The sun arched over our heads, diving south as the windrushed after it, growing colder and harsher with each step. My cheeks were scoured raw, my lips chapped and cracked, fingers cramping. Still, I walked. One foot in front of the other. Telling Elanie stories I knew she couldn’t hear.
“The first time you came to my office, I thought for a split second that I could read you.” I smiled at the memory of her calculating stare, her tightly crossed arms. “I was wrong, of course. You just have very clear body language. You wear your emotions on your sleeve. It’s one of the things I love—” I stumbled a step, narrowly catching my balance, nearly falling to my knees and taking her with me. Regaining my footing, I said, “I know most of your expressions by now. Like the way your nose crinkles when you’re frustrated, or how your lips purse and your nostrils flare when you’re trying not to laugh.” The sun dipped below the horizon, a shroud of night rising at our backs. “I know you play with your hair when you’re bored. I know that even though it’s not easy to make you laugh, when you do, there is no better sound in all the worlds.”
There was still no shelter in sight, nowhere to hide from the freezing wind. I didn’t know what to do other than to keep walking as darkness closed in like a fist around us.
“There’s something else,” I said, relieved that the hammering in my toes had finally faded, even though I knew it meant I’d have frostbite if we didn’t find warmth soon. “It’s never quiet in my mind unless I’m alone. There’s always something radiating off other beings: sadness, joy, pain, envy. It’s never just quiet. Except when I’m with you. I’ll be honest, it scared me at first. But now, it’s such a comfort, Elanie. It’s peaceful. I didn’t realize how good it would feel. I didn’t know what I’d been missing.” I laughed at myself, grateful she couldn’t hear me babbling. Then myteeth clacked together, my jaw shuddering so violently I couldn’t get another word out.
Step after grueling step, thoughts came to me. I thought of my mother, my father, my brothers and sister. Family I hadn’t seen in years and would likely never see again. I thought of Freddie and Sunny and the little secret they’d been keeping, of Captain and Co-Captain Jones, the rest of the crew, all probably worried sick about us. I thought of the woman in my arms, of wasted opportunities, of missed moments. Regret lodged itself firmly in my chest.
I should have kissed her. Just once.
Lights never appeared out of the darkness, no fire, no shelter. No one came for us. I was fading, freezing, my blood slowing in my veins. I couldn’t go on much longer.
Knowing it was our last chance, I pulled our pulse-flare out from where I’d tucked it into my waistband, pointed it up at the stars and pulled the trigger. The flare streaked across the night sky, and I traced its path back down to the snow where it lodged itself, useless and sizzling.
“Where are you?” I shouted into the frozen, empty night, feeling my sanity slipping. “She needs you! You said you’d make her better!” My voice cracked, pain searing my throat.
Only the wind responded, howling and indifferent.
I had to keep going. Five more steps, I promised myself. Then five more after that. Five steps, five breaths. Just five. Five seconds to rest my eyes, a long blink. Five minutes to sit down, to catch my breath. Five minutes…
Only darkness remained. Only cold. Only the heavy thud of my heart, slowing, fading, letting me know that I’d failed her.
Then there was a distant crunch of snow. Growing closer. A boot stopping by my head. A deep voice, rumbling like thunder.
“You almost made it, Portisan. Just a few more kilometers, and you would have found us.”
“Where’s—” I cleared my throat, the pain so intense I saw stars. “Where’s Elanie?”
A deep chuckle, almost a growl. “Where she belongs.”
Forcing my eyes open, I looked up and up and up. Fur and leather, shoulders so broad they spanned the horizon, green skin, shrewd eyes, an amused, pitying expression. “You’re Aquilinian?”
The giant’s laughter shook the ground. “In a past life.”
“Who are you?” I asked. But then I noticed it. Silence. Not a single thought or whisp of emotion. “Bionic?”
A massive hand landed on my chest, a fist clenching my shirt. He lifted me out of the snow, hoisting me over one of those impossibly broad shoulders like I was a doll. Or a puppet.
“You may call me Golgunda.” He started walking, his steps swallowing the distance to his snowglider. “Back to sleep now, Portisan. Your journey, I’m afraid, has only just begun.”
When I waseight years old, I fell out of a velipalm tree and hit my head on a rock. While I bobbed in and out of consciousness, I was convinced that I was underwater, sinking, drifting, still able to breathe like one of the Saints.
