Silent Symmetry (The Embodied trilogy) (17 page)

I turned around to see Cilic and Aranara advancing on me from two sides. Squinting through the dusty gloom, I spotted what looked like a door near the other corner of the arena, back the way I’d come from. Cilic and Aranara were getting closer, climbing over the benches. My only option was to go up to the level walkway at the back of the bleachers then run for the exit at the far corner.

Cilic was rapidly gaining on me, leaping over the
bleachers with amazing agility for a man of his age. While all this was going on, the sound from the inner building kept getting steadily louder and then suddenly quieter, like a long, drawn-out pulse of energy.

I climbed over the last row of bleachers and made a dash along the back wall. But Cilic had reached the walkway too and was now just a few yards away. I tried to hurdle his outstretched arm as he cleared the benches, but he caught my trailing leg. I tripped and stumbled, my momentum carrying me forward. Not daring to look back, I focused on the door, maybe a hundred feet away, and started running again.

Within seconds Cilic had caught me. His arms locked around my chest, and although I squirmed and stamped hard on his feet, he seemed oblivious to the pain. His head was next to mine. His stale breath made me feel like puking. I jerked my head back, smashing my skull into his face. I cried out in agony. He barely flinched. Cilic spun around and backed us along the walkway toward the door. The floor was so smooth that I couldn’t dig my heels in.

Suddenly I heard
Noon’s voice.

“Stop struggling, Kari.”

I looked around. It sounded like he was right next to me. Except that he wasn’t. The arena seemed empty – even Aranara had vanished. The sound was getting louder once again.

“Listen to me. Focus.”

That was when I realized that Noon’s voice wasn’t next to me at all – it was
inside my head
.

I did what he said and stopped struggling. Cilic was dragging me closer and closer to the door. But once I heard
Noon’s voice, a blanket of calmness fell over me.

“Thank you, Kari,” he said.

Could he see me? Why did he want me to stop struggling? Cilic had almost dragged me the door.

“Here’s what you need to do,” he went on. “When he reaches for the door, elbow him as hard as you can in the solar plexus.”

“The what?” I thought to myself.

It was as though he heard my question. “Just below his ribs, right in the middle of his torso.”

I twisted my head around. The door was only a couple of feet away. I could smell blood on Cilic’s face.

“Stay calm, stay calm,” came the soothing voice in my mind.

Right then, the sound from the inner building pulsated for the last time and went quiet. Cilic seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second, then everything happened in a blur. He stopped dragging me and relaxed his grip, just like Noon had predicted. As he reached for the door, I managed to free one arm, then jerked it back as hard as I could. My elbow thumped into Cilic’s chest. He made a choking noise and crumpled to the floor.

I heard
Noon shout, “Run!” but his voice wasn’t in my head any more. He was sprinting toward me from the inner building. The disappearing wall had now vanished again. I could see other figures emerging from the smaller room where I’d eaten with Aranara. Cilic was motionless on the floor next to me.

“Run, Kari!”

I snapped out of it and ran. Noon and I reached each other at the bottom of the bleachers. He opened his arms and I collapsed into his chest, sobbing.

Through my tears I saw seven people running past us to where Cilic had fallen.

“Are you okay?” asked Noon.

I nodded and turned to watch as the seven reached Cilic. He was still on the floor, just beginning to stir. They picked him up and frog-marched him down one of the aisles back to the inner building.

“What are they doing with him?”

“You don’t want to know,” answered
Noon, shaking his head.

They carried Cilic into the smaller room.

Noon held me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes. “I need to go in there too, Kari. They need my help. I’ll be back in a minute or two.” He could sense my fear at being left alone and added, “You’ll be safe, don’t worry.”

I certainly didn’t feel safe.

“But what about Aranara?”

“She’s gone. Please, just wait here.”

He stepped away from me and followed the others back into the inner building. I  stood there, bewildered. As the seconds ticked by, I felt so lonely, so scared. The calm that had enveloped me when Noon’s voice filled my head had completely disappeared. Now there was only fear and an endless stream of questions. And I just couldn’t take it any longer. I ran back through the disappearing wall into the smaller room.

The door to the pyramid room was open. Something was happening in there. I had to see what was going on.

I edged past the super-heavy table and peeked through the metal doorway. Noon was part of a circle of eight, all holding hands, eyes closed, just as I’d seen in the Temple of Truth apartment dining room the first time I’d looked through the grille. Inside this strange circle stood Cilic, his head bowed and face bloodied from my head-butt. He seemed trapped, although nobody was touching him.

I watched, transfixed, as Cilic suddenly threw his head back and put his arms across his chest. His face tightened and his mouth opened in a silent scream. At the same time I became aware of a low drone emanating from the circle of eight. I could even feel it through my skin, like the buzzing energy of a beehive.

Cilic was fighting some unseen force, unable to escape. Then... well, I don’t really know how to describe it, but he kind of imploded and dissolved. It was like he melted into himself in the blink of an eye and vanished.

The drone stopped, the circle broke and a man picked something up from the floor where Cilic had been standing. It was the man I’d assumed was
Noon’s father on the first day of school. The same man I’d chased through the lobby of the Temple of Truth office building when I was waiting for Mom. What was he holding? It seemed to be yet another pyramid-shaped diamond.

The others now gathered with their backs to me, partly blocking my view of the man. He positioned himself over the diamond embedded in the floor, directly underneath the one in the ceiling.

The diamonds on the floor and ceiling glowed in unison. The unearthly sound that Aranara had been so afraid of started, then got louder, as a beam of light appeared between the two pyramids, surrounding the man. I craned my neck, trying to see exactly what was happening.

Then
Noon turned around as though he knew I was there. I heard his voice in my head: “You shouldn’t be watching, Kari.”

But I couldn’t turn away. The light grew brighter, then blinding.
Noon walked toward me. The sound got louder. I squinted, and finally had to close my eyes.

I felt
Noon place his hands gently on either side of my head. Then both the light and the sound abruptly stopped.

Noon
’s voice filled my head once again: “We have to leave.”

I opened my eyes. The man who had been enveloped by the light from the diamond pyramids was no longer there.
The others were standing silently, some of them looking at me.

“Who are they?” I asked
Noon.

He sighed, then appeared to be in silent communication for a second. The others in the room all turned to face me.
Noon took my hand and led me through the doorway.

“These are the members of the
Temple of Truth.”

I looked from one face to another. They were incredibly beautiful. Just perfect. Like
Noon. Like Aranara.

I began to recognize some of them. The two women I had seen joining hands outside The Warrington were there.

“This is Hannah, and this is Miriam.”

They bowed their heads slightly. Hannah was a red-head. Miriam looked exotic. Maybe Arabic? Indian?

Next to them stood the other woman who had joined them outside the building that day and had then walked past me like a runway model, with her short, dark hair and shining eyes.

“This is Elle,” continued
Noon. She smiled at me. Her beauty was too much to bear, and I lowered my eyes for a moment.

Then there were three men.

“David, Lemuel and Okihiko,” said Noon, making a gesture with his hand.

I didn’t recognize any of them. David was an athletic twenty-something Afro-American with a shaved head, Lemuel was shorter, older, but just as striking, with a friendly twinkle in his eye. Okihiko
, as his name suggested, was Japanese. Middle aged? It was hard to tell. All wore the clothes that Cruz and I had seen in the Temple of Truth apartment bedrooms.

“Nice to meet you,” was the only
thing I could think of to say.

They all nodded in silent response.

“We have to go,” said Noon.

“Wait – Aranara said you weren’t human. That you were
... Embodied, whatever that means.”

Noon
  just stared blankly at me.

“Are you?” I insisted. “Are you from a different universe?”

I looked at their inscrutable faces, one after the other. They were more than motionless, they were like statues. They didn’t even seem to be breathing.

“
And what about the other man?” I asked. “Your friend, just now. The one who, like, disappeared? Is he dead too, like Cilic?”

Noon
tilted his head, as if trying to understand the question.

“That was Silas. And no, he isn’t dead.”

“So? What
are
you?”

“
She was right. We are the Embodied.”

I thought about what Aranara had told me. Were they the bad guys or the good guys? But then I remembered Bob and Mom and that weird-ass Skype conversation, and all those questions became irrelevant. I grabbed
Noon’s arm.

“My mom is in trouble.”

“What do you mean?”

“
She was with a guy called Bob.”

The Embodied looked at each other knowingly.

“And?” asked Noon.

“I Skyped her when I was with Aranara but she seemed weird
... not herself. I don’t think she’s even in Paris!”

Noon
was as calm as ever. “We’re going back to The Warrington together. We’ll be there in an hour or so and we’ll try to find whatever clues we can.”

For once though, his
calmness wasn’t working on me.

“But is she okay!?” I yelled.

“I’m sure she is. But I’m also sure that the person you thought was your mom wasn’t really her.”

I was frantic. “So where is she?”

“Kari, we’ll find her. But we have to go now.”

I nodded. I was helpless anyway without
Noon’s help.

“David, Lemuel, Miriam and Hannah are staying here to guard the portal.”

The portal? Another question. But I really had to get out of there and back to Manhattan.

“Okihiko and Elle will come with us.”

I was beginning to lose it.

“Okay, whatever – I don’t care who comes, let’s just get the hell back!”

Noon took my hands and stared intently at me with those dark eyes – eyes that had seen far more than mine. Yet again, they sent a wave of reassurance washing over me.

Chillax
, Kari, chillax... Noon was doing everything he could.

“Fine. So let’s go.”

Chapter 8

Dream #42 : I’m at a circus show. It’s like all the performers are in the ring at once – a lion tamer cracking his whip, acrobats making a human pyramid, sequined riders jumping from one galloping bareback horse to another, trapeze artists flying and spinning overhead, clowns running after a crazy little car... and above all of them a tightrope. And the person holding the balance pole, wobbling in the middle of it, is Mom. She slips but regains her balance and I turn in fear to the person next to me. It’s my dad. I point up at Mom as she inches across the rope with no net to catch her underneath. When I turn back to Dad, he’s gone.

A stretch limo drove us back from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel to the slushy streets of Chelsea. It was super plush, pimped out with computers, a mini bar, and even wi-fi. I guess when you’re an alien, money is no object.

I sat beside
Noon, biting my nails the whole way. I’d called the apartment and there was no answer, so I didn’t really have my hopes up that Mom would be there.

Okihiko and Elle said nothing the entire time. Both were
imposing and beautiful in their different ways. And yet there was something similar about them that I couldn’t quite figure out. Noon too. And the rest of the Temple of Truth members. If I thought about it, even Cilic had it, no matter how sullen and threatening he seemed. I asked Noon what had happened to Cilic, how come an elbow in the chest from a teenage girl had knocked him cold? But he was evasive.