Across Carina (20 page)

He threw his head back and roared to the sky.

“You cursed us for nothing! You are good for nothing!”

I winced at his contempt, but fortunately Poseidon did not retaliate. We were cruising toward The Edge on autopilot. That was retaliation enough.

My breathing began to quicken, and I realized that I was only breathing in. I tried to exhale, but I couldn’t. I was having a panic attack. If I had been at home, I would have just asked for water. Now I was surrounded by water that I couldn’t drink.

I buried my hot face in my hands and turned away from Sal. He tried rubbing my shoulders, to calm me, but I barely felt him. I could hear him speaking, but I didn’t know what he was saying. My thoughts strayed.

I remembered how Garrett and I had spent so many summers together at the pool. He had always wanted to play Marco Polo, but I had rarely wanted to. I had hated being “It.” But one particular afternoon, I had obliged him—even taken my turn first.

After wandering the pool for fifteen minutes, unable to find him, I had opened my eyes and caught him standing at the edge of the pool. He had climbed out without telling me. I had not been amused, and I had spent the rest of the day ignoring him.

Now, as I sailed toward my death, it seemed a petty argument. I wondered if I would ever see Garrett again.

I had learned that other worlds had creators, but I still lacked proof that Earth had one. People spoke of this El, but I hadn’t seen him, and I found it absurd that he couldn’t be reached from other worlds.

It was possible, I reasoned, that Sal and I would fall over The Edge and fade into oblivion, never to exist again.

“Jade,” he whispered.

I opened my eyes. We were mere yards away.

“We hereby summon a driver of the Carina galaxy,” I said softly.

I almost didn’t believe in my own words, but I had to try them. I’d summoned a driver once before. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

“Don’t let go of the boat,” Sal said.

He positioned himself at the front of it, and I sat behind him, with my legs around his waist. I gripped the sides of the boat so tightly that my knuckles bled white. My eyes were open, but there was nothing left to see except the end of the ocean and a great wall of white mist ahead.

Our boat sailed over the edge. We screamed and shot straight down the waterfall. The momentum lifted us out of the boat, but we held on with our weakening hands. My feet dangled above Sal’s head, and I accidentally kicked him several times.

The waterfall was long, seemingly endless. I couldn’t see the bottom. Our world was painted white, with the waterfall behind us and the wall of mist before us. I wondered what the mist concealed. Perhaps space.

“Jade?” Sal screamed from below.

“I’m still here!” I shouted back, but I didn’t know for how long.

In my mind I saw every person I’d ever cared for. I wondered if when I died they would miss me the same way that I would miss them. Before that moment, I had never realized that I would miss anyone.

“I think we’re almost there!” Sal yelled.

We had been falling for a full minute.

I looked down as best as I could. Sal and the boat were blocking most of my view. I did see something that resembled a body of water, but I wasn’t certain. Everything had fused into the white.

I closed my eyes. I wouldn’t see; I would only feel.

When we plunged into the water, we lost contact with the boat. I opened my eyes, but I still couldn’t see. The boat had flipped over us, forming a dark ceiling that warped my sense of direction.

I swam in frantic circles, searching for sunlight. The water fizzled around me. It stung my eyes, and I clamped them shut again, hoping that maybe I would just float to the surface before I ran out of air. I had never been able to hold my breath for long.

Finally, I did begin to rise, but not before dizziness settled within me. I had thought that I would die from falling off The Edge of Getheos into space, but instead I was going to drown—a fate I could have suffered just as easily on Earth.

The irony of it all whirled inside of me. Any justification that I had had for leaving home was now gone. I was becoming an embarrassment even to myself.

Maybe it’s just time to let go
.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure if I was moving up or down. I supposed it didn’t matter. But then a light appeared, and it was shining so brightly that it opened my eyes. I had reached the surface.

Air poured into my lungs. I took a few deep breaths, but that was all I could manage before I choked. There was a woman gliding across the water toward me.

She was ghastly pale and glowing, like a ghost. Her hair was red and tangled, and her eyes were on fire. She was wearing a torn dress; it was barely holding on. Her breasts were full and had a dagger between them. She looked just as likely to be a demon as she did an angel.

Either I’m dead or on the verge of death.

I outstretched my hand. The woman took it and began to lift me out of the water. She pulled me up until my toes were barely touching the surface. Then she left me hovering and dove back in.

I was standing on water. Dumbfounded. I was scared and shocked and still hungry for air. But I kept my breaths quiet, and I didn’t speak or move. Whatever spell had just been cast on me, I didn’t want to break. The last thing I needed was to fall back in the water.

So I waited. There was still a great deal of nothing to be seen. Just the same white water and mist. And it bothered me. Part of me wanted to see where Getheos dipped into Carina, just to prove that it existed. I felt like I wouldn’t have that chance again.

The woman emerged with Sal under her arm. She drove him out of the water and stood him beside me. He coughed several times, spewing water about, before he realized that we were floating.

“Who are you?” he asked the woman.

“I am Eris,” she said. “The goddess of chaos, strife, and discord.”

The flames in her eyes swelled.

“You came for us,” I breathed.

“Yes. I did hear your pleas, but I was a far way off. Forgive me for taking so long. Finding one near The Edge is not a simple task.”

“We’re so grateful,” Sal said, and I nodded.

“It was a mere token of my appreciation,” Eris replied.

“For what?” I asked.

“For standing up to Poseidon and the rest of the gods who attempt to rule Getheos. A poor job
they
do.”

She looked to the top of the waterfall.

“I see he had another one of his outbursts,” she said.

Then she turned back to us.

“Where are you two trying to go?”

“Home,” I said. “To Earth. It’s a long story, but we both arrived here by accident. As lovely as your planet is, we miss Earth. Artemis said that you might know its creator—El.”

Eris rolled her eyes at her sister’s name.

“Indeed,” she said. “I do know El, but I’ve not conversed with him in months. Although . . . I heard that he was recently with Cruz of Lendon.”

She hummed to herself in thought.

“Lendon?” I asked.

“Cruz’s new underwater planet,” she said. “It was only recently formed. Cruz resides somewhere outside of it, just as your El resides outside of Earth. But certainly one of his people can tell you how to reach him. It’s your best option.”

Sal bit his lip. “Underwater?”

He had stolen my question.

“We can’t breathe under water,” I said. “We don’t have fins or gills or . . .”

Eris interjected. “Anyone who is taken to a planet by chariot adapts to that planet’s environment. It will be as if you were born in Lendon.”

“So we’ll be able to survive?” I asked. “Under water?”

“Yes,” she said. “I wish that I could tell you more, but frankly that’s all I know—about Lendon
or
El’s whereabouts. El and I are not close. He’s kind, but he does not possess my . . . passion.

“Now is there anything else I can assist you with? I have a party of several hundred guests to eradicate. The host thought not to invite me. Clearly, history means nothing to these fools.”

I didn’t know what to say. The thought of having another stop on our journey was exhausting. I couldn’t believe that I had left on that first chariot.

“Eris,” I said before she turned away. “Where is The Edge? We thought that this would be it.”

She laughed. “This
is
The Edge. You simply cannot see it. Carina is beyond The Great Wall of Mist, which you would have drifted through had I not saved you.”

I nodded. “Thank you again.”

She nodded back, once, and then departed, flying up the waterfall. As a parting gift, she had left the remnants of her spell behind. Sal and I were still floating.

“I can’t believe she found us,” Sal said. “What were the odds?”

“It wasn’t luck,” I said. “Eris came because I called her.”

“Either way. So what now? You summoned a driver, right?”

“Right.”

We waited, ever still on the rapids. I watched the continuous flow of the waterfall, wondering where all the water went. Certainly not into space—the ocean never emptied. It didn’t add up. Of course, with the gods there was no telling how science and magic connected. Or maybe neither science nor magic were what I had thought.

In the silence, Sal retrieved Dion’s bracelet from his pocket. He breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn’t fallen out.

“For the driver, when he comes,” he said, twisting the bracelet in his hands.

I didn’t want to think about Dion.

“Do you have a last name, Sal?”

We had brushed death together. We were about to journey to a strange planet together. And yet I barely knew him.

“It’s Yurek,” he said.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Polish.”

“You don’t look Polish.”

“Well my father is Polish, but my mother is Venezuelan, and I have her complexion.”

“That’s pretty interesting. Where did they meet?”

“Pennsylvania,” he laughed. “That’s actually where I’m from.”

I smiled. “Well I’m from Georgia. I doubt that’s any more exciting than Pennsylvania. And I’m just your basic European mix. My last name is Callaghan—which, of course, is Irish—but that’s about as interesting as I get.”

“Do you miss home?” Sal asked.

“At times,” I said. “But honestly, with everything going on, I’ve almost forgotten about it. I do miss waking up in my own bed and having three meals a day and clean clothes.”

“But do you miss your family?” Sal asked.

“At times,” I repeated.

“Do you not get along?”

“I think they love me, but they don’t understand me.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because they weren’t there when Garrett died, and I don’t think they miss him like I do. They just went on with their lives, saying that we’d see him again and that God would take care of him.”

I sighed, but pressed on.

“They put me in therapy and tried to make me socialize all summer, but all I wanted was space. I couldn’t see how they
didn’t
need space.”

“Were you happy being alone all summer?” Sal asked.

He touched my cheek, and I blushed.

“No,” I said. “I wasn’t happy, and I didn’t deserve to be.”

“Well you can’t blame your family for not being self-destructive.”

“Don’t call me self-destructive.”

I had meant to sound commanding, but my words trickled out quietly. I stared past Sal’s hand and face, into the mist.

It was then that two horses came galloping through the mist, breaking the calm. They had a chariot in tow. I had never thought I’d be so happy to see another greedy driver.

The driver whipped his horses to a halt, and they waited in the air beside Sal and me. But before we could climb aboard, the driver demanded our offering.

“Car six-seven-four-one at your service. What do you have for me?” he spewed from somewhere between his hairy noise and chin.

He was anything but at our service.

Sal reluctantly handed over Dion’s bracelet. The driver snatched it and examined it high in the air.

“Where did you come by this?” he asked, tapping the bracelet.

“Does it matter?” Sal asked. “We need to get to Lendon.”

The driver stroked his beard. “Come on board, then.”

Lendon was not close to Getheos. Even at the chariot’s unthinkable speed, Sal and I rode for hours. We held on with white fingers as our driver zoomed through Carina, slinging around invisible corners and plummeting downward for no reason. I wondered if these drivers had to pass any tests or if they were each just handed two horses and a whip.

Garrett and I had learned to drive on our fifteenth birthday. We had constantly fought over our parents’ old Honda. Garrett had always wanted to practice in the neighborhood, whereas I had been eager to rule the interstate.

I missed driving. I didn’t like being a passenger, especially in space. The drivers never listened to me, and they always stopped at all the wrong places, skipping past the interesting sights.

Like on our way to Lendon. We saw the most remarkable thing—a rainbow fading in from the blackness. It must have stretched a mile long.

I leaned over the side of the chariot to get a better look. We were passing by the rainbow’s yellow streak, and it was boiling, like a slice of sun. I would have imagined a vapor, or even steel, but not the stew of colors that I saw.

Of course, too quickly our driver steered us away. In the sudden movement, I almost lost my balance, but Sal’s hand appeared on the small of my back, keeping me in place.

Amid our near-death distractions, I hadn’t had time to consider Sal romantically since our kiss. But when I felt his hand, I remembered, and I hoped that he would kiss me again.

I didn’t know enough about him to want anything more. Besides, the likelihood that Dion was still consuming his thoughts was high. The likelihood that we wouldn’t survive the next planet was even higher.

“We’re close,” the driver said, and I looked away from Sal to see.

Before us was a solid blue planet a sixth the size of Earth. Four beams of light shone on it from opposite directions. As I remembered that Lendon was underwater, I grew nervous.