The Boy Who Knew Everything (31 page)

Max bent down and placed his hands on the mountain. “Mother Mountain, I have given you my people.” He spoke quickly and quietly like he was praying. “I command you now to give me a thunderstorm.”

Beneath Max's hand Mother Mountain rumbled in response, the distant sound of lightning making the air shake.

“Strike her,” Max growled. “Strike her down for me!”

Clouds pushed together closely and like a switch had been pulled, the rain fell in thick angry pellets. Piper was instantly soaked.

BOOM! The thunder was so loud it made the air around her reverberate with electricity and danger.

“Fly home,” Piper coached herself. Repeating Conrad's words gave her comfort.

Gaining altitude, Piper began her journey across the valley. The cloud cover blocked the moon and visibility was a struggle with the rain hitting at her face. The force of the wind pushed her off course, but she corrected by dipping her left arm down.

Suddenly Piper felt the air around her change; her hair rose up and her skin tingled, and a moment later a brilliant blinding flash of lightning sliced, striking her arm.

“Owww,” Piper yelped. Losing her balance, she spun out of control.

“Strike one,” Max shouted from his vantage at the edge of the plateau. He was gripping the railing, watching Piper's progress. She had just started across the valley on what Max predicted would be her last flight.

Throwing her weight up, Piper managed to stop the spin and regain control. Back on course, she started across the valley. Her arm was black at the impact site and throbbing wildly. The cool balm of the rain was welcome relief. “It's okay,” she told herself. “I'm fine. I can make it.”

Once again Piper felt her hair rise and skin tingle but this time she rolled in the air and changed direction wildly, just avoiding another direct hit by a thick bolt of lightning.

“Ugh.” Max grimaced, pounding his fist against Mother Mountain. “Strike again. Strike again.”

In the valley below Piper, a surge of hot lava from a volcanic minefield burst upward, striking her full force.

“Ahhh!” she screamed.

The boom of thunder rocked her next and she prepared for the telltale signs of lightning. Below her volcanic lava bursts erupted and she had to make split-second dodges to avoid them.

Max leaned forward in anticipation, rubbing his hands. “Come on, come on,” he cheered. “Gimme a direct hit.”

CRACK!

Piper rolled to her left and a moment later a dagger of lightning was behind her, hitting her left foot.

CRACK!

No time to react this time. Piper was momentarily jolted but was able to shake it off.

BOOM! went the thunder.

Piper was tired. She rolled away from a bolt of lightning sluggishly.

BOOM!

Even after her skin started to prickle, Piper didn't swerve. The rain was punishing her and the darkness suffocated her. Piper was now halfway across the valley, but the entrance to the tunnel might as well have been solar systems away.

Lightning sliced through her thigh.

“A direct hit.” Max jumped to his feet, his two hands rising into the air in triumph.

“Give her another whack,” Max shouted to the sky. “One more'll do it.”

Piper started counting numbers in her head.
Ten times two is twenty. Twenty divided by two …

BOOM!

Lightning sliced to her right, and then right in front of her. Her shoulder was hit and the now familiar jolt of electricity bounced through her fragile system.

Twenty divided by two … I don't know that one, Conrad. How do I do that?

CRACK!

The sound was so loud and so close that Piper lost her hearing altogether.

A lightning strike directly in her path made Piper pull up and stop. Suddenly she was disoriented. Looking this way and that, she completely forgot what she was doing. She shook her head several times.

It's raining, Conrad. I want to go home.

Piper waited for Conrad to answer her but he didn't.

Conrad, I don't know what to do. Where do I go …

Piper didn't hear the boom, didn't see the light. She was hit directly through her back.

Max yelped with joy and watched as Piper remained still in the air for a moment and then fell down toward a pool of lava below.

“
Adios
, Piper McCloud.” Max toasted her with an invisible glass. “You flew well but not well enough. You tried hard but not hard enough. I win. Again. 'Cause I'm a winner. And all that you and Conrad learned will die with you.” He bowed to her as the adrenaline that had been pounding through his body began to fizzle and die. Without him realizing it his foot began tapping of its own accord, restless for new adventure. Max found himself considering how the waves off the coast of Morocco would be something to see at this time of year.…

Piper felt nothing as she fell. Her body was in so much pain, a switch was flicked inside her brain that allowed her to feel peaceful nothingness. The rolling clouds, the lightning and thunder were all around her and a part of her now. The heat rising up to meet her as she fell was comforting and she wasn't aware that it was burning her skin. It was a quiet and painless drifting away.

 

CHAPTER

45

“Piper is falling!” Kimber screamed frantically.

They could all see quite plainly that Piper was falling from where they stood on the cliff, but still Kimber yelled it, such was the state of her panic.

The whole group of them had returned to their perch overlooking the valley the day before and had sat listlessly, gazing toward the mountain. All hope that Letitia Hellion would fly them across the valley was entirely abandoned; indeed the only thing Letitia had done since leaving Area 63 was rock back and forth and mutter nonsense to herself.

“I'm coming, Sarah. Hold out your hand,” she'd gibber feverishly as though seeing her little sister in front of her. “I won't let you fall.”

Sitting on the hard rocks of the cliff hour after long hour with nothing to do and no hope of reaching Piper and Conrad, the kids were driven to distraction listening to Letitia moan and beg. As another day came mercifully to an end Smitty unexpectedly jumped to his feet and rushed forward, pointing to the mountain with great excitement. “Piper! I see Piper.”

Immediately they all snapped upward, rushed to Smitty's side, and squinted to see where he pointed. It didn't take long before they were able to see Piper too.

“I see her now. Look, she's over there!”

“Can Piper see us? Does she know we're here?”

“Is Conrad with her?”

And their first glimpse of Piper had caused such an eruption of gladness that a cheer spontaneously burst from their throats. But no sooner had they started to celebrate than there was rain and thunder and their excitement turned to concern.

“Why is Piper flying in this storm?”

“Did you hear that thunder? She needs to get out of the sky.”

And then when the lightning struck Piper again and again all became horror. Althea covered her eyes with shaking hands, and Nalen and Ahmed tried to draw the storm away, only to find that its power was beyond their reach, while Smitty, who could see in agonizing detail what the others could not, wept bitter tears.

“STOP!” Kimber yelled at the storm.

Myrtle grasped Jasper's arm, crying, “We have to save her!” Which, of course, Jasper agreed with but had no immediate solution to achieve.

Wet, helpless, and defeated, the entire group watched as Piper McCloud was struck by one last bolt of lightning and hung in the air without moving. For a heartbeat some of them felt hope, but that hope was fleeting—Piper fell from the sky.

 

CHAPTER

46

Letitia kept her hand outstretched and ready, waiting in a state of hyperalertness for Sarah to take it. Sarah was falling and she knew that if she closed the gap and found her, grasped hold of her tiny fingers and held them tight, she would finally stop her from hitting the ground.…

Sometimes when she was looking for Sarah a strange face would suddenly flash before her eyes, a child or someone who looked like her brother Jeston. It was fleeting and confusing but thankfully passed quickly. Once she imagined that she was sitting with a group of children on a cliff overlooking a valley, but the dream evaporated as fast as it came.

But then there was lightning and thunder and it was terribly, terribly loud: louder even than Sarah's screams for help. The noise caused the dream of the cliff to grow more sharply in focus and it was then that she realized a whole group of children were right there with her. They were begging her and pointing to the sky. It was very confusing.

“Save her,” one of the children screamed.

She reached out her hand farther.
Can they see Sarah? Can they help her?

“She's struck by lightning!” one of the children yelled, and her voice had agony in it. It was the agony that made her listen because it was a feeling she knew well and made sense to her; made her want to hear more.

“We have to do something!” shouted another.

“Look! Piper's falling!”

She looked and saw what the boy saw—a girl was falling … and it was Sarah!
My Sarah.

At last she had found her and could save her.

Without hesitation she leaped off the cliff and flew like an arrow. Her body was stiff and sore, her muscles weak and unprepared, but her spirit full to bursting.

The storm was raging around her, thunder and lightning to her left and right and in front of her.

The girl was falling fast, tumbling through the air. Letitia reached out her tired arms and they tingled with hopeful longing to hold her.

“Sarah!” she called. “I'm coming.”

Fiery liquid shot up from below, splattering her limbs and burning her flesh. To avoid further injury she would have to pull up and carefully navigate her way through it, but there was no time for such maneuvers.

With a last burst of energy she plunged through a lava spray, came out the other side, and at long last grabbed the girl, plucking her from the air and encircling her with her arms.

“Sarah, my Sarah.”

Tears clouded her vision and a burst of wind carried them upward to safety.

“You're safe. I've got you.” She breathed in the girl's scent, touched her hair, feeling her sweetness and reveling in her wholeness. At long last, she had saved her and they were released from the endless cycle of reaching and falling.

For the first time in her life she felt forgiven and free. Letitia Hellion had found peace.

 

CHAPTER

47

Jasper blew into his hands and they shone white-hot, brighter than the moon. He was ready when Letitia Hellion placed Piper in front of him, pale and burned. He positioned his hands on either side of Piper's chest, and the light jumped into her, and for a terrible moment she remained motionless until at last she sucked a shallow, painful breath into her lungs.

Relief rippled through the kids, who were gathered thickly around Piper, closely monitoring the way Jasper healed her battered body again and again until she opened her eyes, looking up at them in confusion.

Violet threw herself on Piper, hugging her tight. “Oh, Piper, we thought you were dead.”

J., who hung in the shadows next to his sister, squeezed her hand. “You did it, sis. You saved her!”

Piper was startled to find herself among her friends and it took long moments to orient herself. She opened her mouth to speak but her throat was hoarse, causing her to heave and cough.

“Give her room,” Violet ordered, propping Piper up. Myrtle handed Piper a water canteen and after she pulled a long drag she found that she could talk again.

“How did you get here?” Piper croaked.

“Long story,” Smitty said, and smiled.

“We've been trying to get across the valley but it's impossible,” Lily explained. “So we've been waiting and waiting.”

“Oh.” Piper was glad to see them, but her thoughts remained on Conrad and she dreaded sharing that news, particularly with little Aletha, who was curled next to her, staring up at her with large brown eyes. Piper would not allow herself to think of Conrad as being dead—no, that thought was too terrible. Instead, she only considered the possibility that he was gone and gone in such a way that there was a chance that he would come back. It was for this reason she was able to collect herself and think what she must do next, and it was then that Piper suddenly caught sight of Letitia Hellion.

“What's Dr. Hellion doing here?” she croaked. The sight of Letitia sent shivers down Piper's spine and her first instinct was to fly as far away from her as possible.

“Piper,” Jasper said quietly, “if it wasn't for Dr. Hellion you would have died. We couldn't get to you, and she flew out to save you when you were struck by lightning.”

“Really?” Piper looked from Jasper to Dr. Hellion.

“Really. You were unconscious, so you don't remember.” Jasper nodded slowly and seriously. “She saved your life.”

As this news settled into Piper she felt a tingling in her stomach. “Dr. Hellion saved my life? And she was flying?” Of all the people she had ever met none had held such deep-seated hatred for exceptional abilities as Letitia Hellion.

Breaking away from the others, Piper walked on unsteady legs to her old foe. Two paces in front of her, Piper inhaled sharply at the sight of the nasty burns that covered much of Letitia's body. With effort she refocused her eyes and met Letitia's gaze.

“Tell me, why … why did you fly, Dr. Hellion?”

Letitia Hellion searched within herself. “I flew because…” All her delusions had fallen away and reality was laid before her in stark, beautiful lines. She could clearly see that Piper was not Sarah, and yet her happiness was not diminished by that knowledge. “I flew because I can.”