Earth/Sky (Earth/Sky Trilogy) (29 page)

“You can think whatever you want,” Collan said, and I could tell from the crease of his brow that he didn’t like me one bit.
“But the fact is that a hunter goes after prey that he or she has a chance of bringing down. We could spend our lives stopping a great amount of other evils this world has, or make no impact at all by chasing those Rippers. Precious few kreolos hunters chase Rippers, and we’re not those few. Yes, they are most likely to just move on from here. Rippers tend to go for who is easy, and you weren’t today. I still wouldn’t stake my life on that, and neither should you.”

“It is her decision
though,” Silea said in the ensuing silence. “We can’t hold her against her will in the compound.”

Collan slapped the
table so hard that it rattled, the container of cream jumping onto its side and rolling off. No one went after it. “By all means, let a seventeen-year-old girl decide how best to manage her life, and endanger innocent people because she has school on Monday. If you’ll excuse me, I want to check some equipment.” He stalked out of the room and went up the creaking flight of stairs to the second floor. A door slammed.

Drina said, “
They know my first name and Adriel’s; asking around this area will eventually lead them to us on the off chance they decide to pursue it. I don’t know if offering our home as a safe place for Jessa is wise. Nor is it safe for her to stay in this home. Would the Coopers-”

“No!” Adriel burst.

She held up a finger sternly and he fell into a sulky quiet. “Would the Coopers agree to let her stay in one of their homes for the next week or so? My family can spread out around Spooner and keep watch for the Rippers’ return.”

“With full understanding of what they are, you suggest this?” Radeo asked.

“I understand they have been stable for a very long time,” Drina said. “I also understand that there are only four of them with this problem among dozens of family members. Those dozens have accepted the immortal among them and live here without fear of their company. For kreolos hunters to tolerate this situation speaks well to what solution these four are using to cope with their . . . issue.”

Radeo and Silea exchanged a look, which I understood as meaning that they did not like to tolerate this situation.
He cracked his last knuckle and I swallowed on a scold that he was giving himself arthritis. Putting the icepack on another spot of his back, he said, “This was an agreement made almost one hundred years ago between the Coopers and the Kreeling hunters. We do as we are bidden by our elders.”

“But you do hold to it,
” Drina said, “despite your personal feelings, and there have been no lapses, I assume, since I don’t sense any fear in you of them.”

“A lapse and they would be destroyed
at once,” Silea said strongly.

“So
I don’t believe that this would be an unsafe place for her to hide out for a little time, if they permit it. Also, should the Rippers come back, this is your backyard.”

I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t going back to Grandpa Jack’s home tonight,
and to have my life proceed like normal. Listening to them speak of arrangements, I felt like I was spinning out of control. Adriel stood after a glance at me over his shoulder. “Let’s go to the other room.”

Having turned himself into a tiny ball of boy, Cadmon was asleep on the pillow without a single limb touching the floor.
Sunlight shined through the window upon his dark hair and sweet features. Classical music continued to play from the earphones, which were clutched in his hand.

The
chair creaked under Adriel. He touched his cheek and flinched. I dampened a washcloth in the bathroom and brought it back to press against his face. It wasn’t often that I was without words, but this was one of those rare times. Everything in Seataw had been so magical until I stepped off that last bridge.

“I don’t want you
to stay here,” Adriel said with resentment. “We could put you in a hotel for a week.”

Hearing the others speak, I said,
“I think the Kreelings almost like the thought of getting another crack at the Rippers should they come here in search of me. Cadmon said you hit one of them?”

“It was Japheem
. I couldn’t tell how hard I struck him with my fire, but he suddenly spun away from me with a cry of pain. He must not have believed that I would keep coming after he hit my wing.”

“Your wing,” I said.
“It’s wounded?”

“Grazed.
It’s throbbing.”

“You can feel it?
Even if it’s not showing?”

“Yes.”

“Let me see. Don’t argue.” Then his large white wings were before me. The left one was whole and beautiful as it always was, glittering with gold in the light from the window. The right had been struck along the topmost tip, a black scorch mark extending down over the feathers almost to his shoulder. I walked behind the chair to see that both wings were fine on the other side. “How do I help with this?”

“Brush your hand along the damaged feathers.
Just keep brushing and they’ll come free,” Adriel said. I ran my fingers gently over one of the black feathers and he winced. Doing it a second time, I sensed a tiny loosening as my hand moved along. The feather fell to the floor, the undamaged part still glinting at the base and the rest black and curdled.

“Do they grow back?” I asked in concern.

“Yes, they grow back.” For a long time I worked on his wing, the pile growing at our feet. The feathers were so thickly laid along his wing that it was hard to tell where there were some missing. No matter how lightly I brushed and how stoic his expression, it hurt him terribly and I was crying by the end to be the one causing pain. Whatever Drina and the Kreelings were discussing about my life, I had long ago stopped listening.

Once the last feather was on the floor, the wing curled around my body and held me close.
The softness on my skin was unbearable; I wanted to sink into it mind and soul for the rest of my existence. “Doesn’t it hurt you to do this?”

“You took the pain away,” Adriel whispered into my hair.
“Thank you.”

The
door to the kitchen swung open and his wing unfurled from me. Everyone came in and bustled around. Grandpa Jack had been called and alerted that I had a major project for science due on Friday. The imaginary project needed botanical samples and Lotus was going to lead some of my classmates and me on long hikes to acquire them. I didn’t find this a believable story, but Grandpa Jack had signed off on it. It had been a long time since he had cared for a person in high school.

“What about my clothes?” I asked Drina
, who sat in a squeaking chair.

“Kishi is over there now packing up a few things,” Drina said.
“Hooplan Cooper is offering up a room in his house for you.”

“He’s not-” Adriel started.

“He’s fully human, the only one here with room to spare, and there is a lock on the bedroom door should Jessa feel alarmed,” Drina said. The Kreelings went back and forth through the room, doors opening and stairs creaking, the phone ringing in the kitchen and Silea running by to answer it.

In agitation, I said,
“What about my grandfather? Is he safe there at the house should they figure out who I am?”

“One of us will be stationed on your block to watch
over it,” Drina said.

Cadmon awoke and said,
“Drina?”

She
turned stiffly to the corner. “Hey, sweetie. Taurin will be here any minute to drive you and me home . . . actually, that’s his car pulling up now.” Brakes were squealing outside.

“Can’t you just fly with muted wings?” Adriel asked.

“I’m too injured,” Drina said. Her wings burst into view and I wanted to cry once more at the damage. Far worse than Adriel’s, great swathes of that stunning green had been made black and crisp by fire. All this time she had sat in the kitchen like this! Now I knew why she hadn’t been able to tolerate leaning back on the chair.

Lifting from the pillow, Cadmon
touched the damaged feathers. “You were hit. I did not see you get hit.”

“It wa
s right at the end,” Drina said. Two of the blackened feathers came free in Cadmon’s hand and fell to the floor. “Adriel and I were chasing the Rippers away and one shot back a fireball. As I was dodging it, I swung directly into the path of another. I pulled my wings over my face in the nick of time.”

Someone knocked.
Adriel let Taurin inside. His eyes widening at Drina’s wings, he cried, “Honey!”

Another man came in just as Adriel was starting to close the door.
It was a Cooper I didn’t know, a man with a trim figure and dark hair. A little gray was at his temples. “Hi, I’m Hooplan, but everyone calls me Hoopie. Hear I’ve got a guest.”

“This is Jessa
Bright,” Adriel said. I watched his face carefully while he checked over the man’s soul. What he found in its amount of shielding did not displease him. Feathers pattered to the floor, both Taurin and Cadmon brushing at the wings to clear away the damaged portions. Drina closed her eyes and breathed meditatively.

Hoopie shook my hand and said, “Since you know what we’ve got going on, let me just say that I’ve lived with Zakia and Lotus on and off since I was a little boy.
They haven’t ever been anything less than delightful company. Only Lotus will be in the house with us and there’s no need to worry. She doesn’t bite.”

“She’d better not,” Adriel mumbled.

“You won’t even see her that much. She keeps to a strict schedule and most of her duties are out of the house. We’ve always got someone running into town or coming back from there, so getting you to school won’t be a problem if you’re still keen to go.”

“We
debated if that was wise,” Drina said. “However, Adriel will be right there on campus with her, and if he escorts her from class to class, I don’t know that there’s much to fear.”

“I can do that,” Adriel said.
I clung to the thought of school like I’d never done so in my life. Even Spooner High and Mr. Rogers’ swine flu-covered hands were better than being shut up underground, or in a home with nothing to do and people I barely knew.

Another car pulled up. It
was Kishi arriving with a suitcase of my belongings. She dropped it in shock when she saw the state of Drina’s wings, and rushed over to help remove feathers. The kitchen door opened and Radeo came out with heavy armaments at his belt.

“Let’s get her moved,”
he grunted about me. He walked us over to the last house on the lane, Adriel holding my hand and never taking his eyes from the sky. Somehow it had become early evening. The lane was empty of the children who had been playing upon it earlier, although I heard happy voices from one backyard.

Hoopie’s house reminded me of Grandpa Jack’s: a lot of belongings crammed into small rooms.
One living room wall was covered in antlers and wooden duck carvings, and another wall had shelves packed with books and DVDs. The house was big for only two people. Lotus’ presence was evident in the collections of leaves and flowers put into display cases. I got a glimpse into her room while going down the hallway. How she got to the bed I had no clue. Stacks of books up to my waist were everywhere, ranging from novels to big botanical tomes. There was enough to fill a library. The large desk was stacked with more, and those piles went over my head. If an earthquake hit, little Lotus was going to get crushed.

At the
end of the hall, Hoopie opened a door to a guest room. “It has its own attached bathroom, no tub but there’s a shower. The water comes on at a scorch, so keep that in mind. I’m afraid we run real easy on meals here, just grab whatever you want from the kitchen. I work down at the mechanic’s and will be gone from eight to five. Just make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” I said.
He and Radeo walked back down the hallway to chat. Adriel and I stood there. Then he set down my suitcase on the bed and closed the door to inspect the lock. It was a push-button, and he glowered at its simplicity.

When
Adriel looked back to me, he said, “You’re shielding something.”

“Because I
wasn’t going to say it,” I said.

“Please say it.”

“I’m just so sorry this happened!” I said in a rush. “I was having the best day and now . . . I’ve hurt both you and Drina-” Those burned wings weighed heavily on my mind.

“Jessa, that wasn’t your fault.
It was an accident.” Adriel inspected the room in dissatisfaction, like he was gauging it for all of the ways that maddened zombies or Rippers could break in. Going to the window, he drew the curtains. “I don’t think this is a good idea at all. And you shouldn’t ride with any of them to school. I can come over and pick you up in . . . I guess I don’t have a car any longer. I can borrow.”

“Adriel,
your family cars really stand out,” I said. “I don’t think I’m in as much danger from the Coopers as you think I am.”

“Tell me what
else you’re thinking. Anything.”

“I wish that we could go back to the bridge before any of this.”