Clockwork Twist : Missing (25 page)

“Jonas?” Skye’s voice called from far away.

Twist could feel a warm hand holding the side of his face, as he lay reclining in someone’s arms. He thought it odd that his Sight didn’t seem to react to the touch, until his eyes opened without his asking them too. The blurry image of a pale face cleared slowly until he saw that it was Skye. A huge crescent of the Earth—still half in night—was hanging in space, glowing around her like an enormous halo. Twist felt his breath catch and his heart begin to race as he looked into Skye’s face, but the feelings seemed somehow distant.

“Hey, can you hear me?” she asked, staring at him fearfully.

Looking into her clear blue eyes, Twist suddenly felt his own senses shift past them, into a world of color, sunlight, and thrilling excitement. Images flashed in his mind—a fire-eater hanging under a yellow-and-red-striped tent by a silver rope; running on a white beach with Kali and bounding through the waves; watching playing cards dance in gloved hands; battling pirates on a sailing ship and bandage-wrapped men in a sandy tomb—but Twist found that the images bent to his will. He could easily pick through them and only saw the ones he wanted to. He felt shock waft through the edges of his mind, but could find no source of it.

“Who are you?” Jonas’s voice asked on his own lips.

“Hi, gorgeous,” she responded with a bright smile. “My name’s Skye Blue, and I’m here to rescue you.”

Jonas stared back at her, obviously as startled as Twist by the unexpected compliment. Jonas got himself to his feet with her help, while Twist watched helplessly from behind his eyes. Jonas then seemed to pause as his eyes slipped down to the empty syringe, now left forgotten on the glass floor. Twist felt his friend’s awareness waft around his own, deep inside their now-joint mind. Just as it had been on Loki’s airship, when Twist had been the one to receive the drug, the high electric buzzing was everywhere.

“Look, sweetie,” Skye said as the silence began to stretch, “I’m as thrilled as can be about the whole ‘we’re in outer space’ thing, but we’d better get ourselves back to Earth, quick as we can.”

Jonas looked at her through narrowed eyes. “You’re American, aren’t you?”

“Gold star,” Skye said with a cajoling pat on his shoulder. “Now, do you feel like a demigod yet, or does it take a minute?”

Jonas opened his mouth to respond but then paused, staring into her eyes. Once again, the flashing images that he saw there only appeared if he wanted them to. He looked down to the discarded, empty syringe on the glass floor. As Twist watched, he felt Jonas’s attention grip tightly around the fallen item. The syringe began to lift into the air before him, wholly unaided by anything but Jonas’s thoughts. He watched it float at eye level for a moment, spinning slowly.

“I think it’s taken effect,” Jonas said, smiling lightly.

Skye was watching the trick, wide-eyed, when Jonas glanced to her. She met his eyes, looking slightly uneasy but highly impressed. “Well then, any chance you could pop that lock for us so we can get out of here?” she asked, hooking a thumb at the door behind her.

Jonas looked at the door just to his right, which led into the rest of the ship, and Twist heard the syringe fall to the glass floor again. Twist watched as Jonas’s awareness slipped past the metal door to the lock behind. The lock slipped open as if of its own accord, with a metallic click. Skye jumped at the sound. The door then swung open to reveal the long, empty hallway beyond. Skye looked to Jonas with a new, wider smile.

He smiled at her from the corner of his eyes. “Come along,
mortal
,” he said, offering her a hand. “Haven’t got all day, you know.”

Skye laughed as she took his hand and let him help her through the narrow opening of the hatch-like door. Twist’s own curiosity caught on the warmth of her fingers. He found his attention shifting into her past, into flashing moments of light, life, and brilliant emotions. Jonas jerked his hand away from hers, breaking Twist’s contact. Her life vanished from his mind like waking from a dream. Skye stopped, only a few steps down the long hallway now, to look at Jonas just behind her.

“Sorry,” Jonas said, rubbing at the hand she had held. “This drug is really weird.”

“Keep it together, handsome,” Skye said, looking him over carefully.

“Bossy American,” Jonas grumbled. Twist felt Jonas’s delight at the sight of a flash of fire in Skye’s eyes and noticed the effort it took to keep the smile off of his lips.

Skye turned away sharply and hurried her pace down the hallway. Jonas followed and they quickly came to the door at the end. Once again, the lock sprang open instantly under Jonas’s attention. He pulled the door open slightly and peered out through the crack. The room outside was in the shape of a huge, open sphere. Glass filled the spaces between many other doors, placed all over the surface of the sphere.

Huge, glimmering, scaly dragons crawled over the curved walls, floor, and ceiling, without any apparent regard for gravity. There were humans among them too, walking on the walls just as easily, but Twist could almost see the indistinct shimmer of a guise about them and guessed that they must actually be dragons as well. He counted nearly twenty creatures before Jonas ducked back into the shadowy hallway and shut the door gently before it was noticed.

“How bad is it?” Skye whispered to ask him.

“Did you bring any weapons?” Jonas asked in reply. “Maybe some infantry?”

“I’ve got these,” Skye said, touching the pistols on her hips, and the small magical bombs attached to the belt hung across one shoulder. “And my familiar. And your super powers.”

“A familiar?” Jonas asked with obvious scorn. “Like, a pet cat or something?”

Skye’s eyes flashed with annoyance. She then shook her shoulders as if in a chill, and Twist saw the same orange light glow to life over the cloth on her back. In an instant, Kali was standing beside her in the tight hallway. The tiger and Skye seemed to wear the same smug expression as they looked back at Jonas. His eyes found Skye’s.

“I
did
see a tiger in Japan!” Jonas said, amazed. “It’s your familiar?”

“You saw us in Japan?” Skye asked.

“Twist always meets the most interesting people,” Jonas said thoughtfully, gazing at her.

Skye smiled, looking at him appraisingly. “Apparently.”

“All right,” Jonas said, shifting his eyes back to the still-unlocked door. “We can get away if we’re fast enough. Run for an escape pod. Take whichever one. It doesn’t matter. I’ll clear your path. Once we’re inside, we’ll leave. Do you understand?”

“Sure,” Skye said. “Just one question. What’s an escape thingy look like?”

Jonas turned back to toss her an annoyed glance. “It’s a smaller ship that we can use to get back to Earth,” he said as if she should have known. “The door is a circle shape, with a big handle in the middle of it.”

“Like every other door out there?” she asked through forced brightness.

“Fine, I’ll point,” Jonas said with a sigh. “Look, are you ready, or not? There won’t be any time for mistakes.”

“With an attitude like that, you’re lucky you’re good-looking, sunshine,” Skye muttered bitterly. Kali gave him a bark that seemed admonishing.

“Sorry,” Jonas said with a heavy breath. He closed his eyes for a moment, his emotions cooling under his will. Twist remembered how his own mind had reacted to the added speed and clarity that the drug had given him, and tried to help Jonas to dismiss his annoyance.

“Whatever,” Skye muttered. “Anyway, you forgot something.”

“Pray tell,” Jonas asked, looking to her.

“If we just escape without killing the dragon that grabbed you, no one will remember you even when we get back to Earth. Vane said we’d have to kill it first.”

“Vane said?” Jonas scoffed. “You’re listening to Vane?”

“No one else knows anything about dragons!” Skye said, tossing her hands in the air. “Look, I don’t like him either, but he
is
magical. And I can’t see why he’d lie about this. Now do you want anyone to remember you or not?”

“Did Arabel forget me?” Jonas asked, his emotions chilling slightly around Twist’s mind.

Skye nodded, looking less cross. “She thought Twist was nuts. Tried to get him to see a shrink. Lovely sister you’ve got there.”

Jonas gave a mirthless laugh and shook his head. “Yeah, but she’s
my
short-tempered ferret.” He glanced at the small metal bombs that hung on the belt across Skye’s shoulder. “Are those the same things that Twist threw at that big blue dragon in Japan?”

“The very same,” Skye said with a smile. “You really saw all that from up here?”

“Give me those,” Jonas said, holding out a hand. “I’ll take care of Bob. You just stay behind me and make a break for the escape pod once I get the door open.”

“Who says you’re the best one to take out the dragon?” Skye asked back, her tone warning. Jonas stared back at her as Twist watched a new color waft over his mind.

“Hold on a second,” Jonas toned, his vision traveling past her eyes again. Everything he saw struck Twist as reckless and thrilling, but Jonas’s emotions shifted closer to approval. “Did you just come up here for the fun of it?”

“Now you’re getting it,” she said, a dangerous smile spreading over her face. Twist felt Jonas’s heart speed up again at the sight of it. “I didn’t come up here just to be rescued by some roguish airship pirate, like a dainty little woman.” She leaned in closer, her smile smoldering and wicked as she held her pistols ready. “I came up here so that
I
could save
your
sweet ass.”

Twist felt a smile spread slowly over Jonas’s face. All of Jonas’s instincts pulled him into a submissive posture, his gaze drifting down. “I see,” he toned gently. “My mistake.”

When he glanced back up at Skye, she looked quite pleased. Something in her triumphant smile delighted Jonas in ways Twist couldn’t possibly understand.

Jonas looked to the still-closed but unlocked door. He paused for a moment, his mind racing by Twist’s attention with his hastily formed plan, before he willed the door to slam open and outward. Skye dashed out through it, hurling a magical bomb with one hand and holding her pistol ready with the other. The bomb exploded in the air near the center of the glass sphere, sending a shock wave of light over everything within.

Kali leaped out the instant the wave had passed, while Jonas followed close behind with Skye’s other pistol held ready in his own hand. His feet instantly found purchase on the wall just below the door, and his gravity shifted with his steps as he, Kali, and Skye began to run along the glass. Twist saw every other figure inside—huge, colorful dragons and those in the shape of men—lying in disorder over the whole surface of the sphere, but some were already starting to stir.

“Which one?” Skye asked quickly, pausing to look over the seemingly countless round metal doors set into the glass.

Jonas pointed to the nearest escape pod and the door burst open under his attention, more violently in his haste, than the previous doors had. Skye rushed forward, leading Jonas and Kali on, while she snatched another bomb from the belt across her chest. An earthshaking bellow rang out, and Jonas’s now-heightened instincts turned him just in time to raise his hands and erect a crude wall of will against the huge fireball that had been aimed at his back.

The heat and raw power slammed into his will, forcing him back and down on one knee, but the shield held. When the fire cleared, Jonas saw the huge red dragon fly at him on its massive wings, while three others followed close behind. Twist watched as all of the beasts suddenly tumbled back when they were struck by a wave of light and sound from another bomb.

“Come on!” Skye yelled, a few steps closer to the escape pod than Jonas.

Jonas jumped to his feet, following after her, but Twist heard growling voices pick up all around them. The dragons in other parts of the ship were coming to aid their dazed fellows. The bombs would only knock them back and disorient them for moments, unless one was detonated on the inside of a dragon, as Twist had discovered. Jonas glanced around as he ran with Skye, seeing more scale-covered faces appear at nearly every now-open door. One giant, silver, gold-eyed face caught his attention.

“You little—” Bob began, bearing down on them from above.

“Skye, bomb!” Jonas yelled, already holding his hand out to catch it as he watched the huge silver dragon fly down through the center of the glass sphere.

Skye stopped, but she didn’t toss anything to Jonas. Instead, she turned and ran for him, a bomb held ready in her hand, as Kali dashed away a few steps. Before Jonas could voice his confusion, frustration, or the urgency of the situation as Bob came closer every instant, Skye threw the bomb at Kali as the tiger turned and rushed back toward her at full speed. Skye threw herself at Jonas, knocking him well clear in a graceless tumble along the slick glass, as Kali caught the bomb in her mouth and then jumped with all of her considerable might, straight up at Bob’s gaping maw.

The dragon gobbled the tiger up in midair, fell to the glass, rose to its feet, and then turned to look for Jonas. Then it exploded into a brilliant shower of silver, gold, and flame. Twist braced inside of Jonas’s mind, anticipating the shock wave that had hit him after Kazan had exploded, but Skye had knocked Jonas and herself far enough away that Twist didn’t feel it this time. The other dragons let out bellows of horror and shock as the tiny fragments of their fellow wafted gently to the floor.

“Come on!” Skye ordered, hauling Jonas to his feet and turning to run back for the pod.

Stunned as he was, Jonas’s mind responded instantly. He looked around to see that the dragons were recovering from their own shock quickly, and noted with horror that the belt that hung over Skye’s shoulder was now empty of bombs. She threw the last one into the air and didn’t miss a step as it exploded above them. Twist heard the enraged cries for vengeance as more of the dragons from other parts of the ship began to stream into the central sphere.

As he ran, Jonas glanced over the masses of dazed dragons who were regaining their wits, and at the new handful who were wholly unaffected yet, and then gauged the distance to the pod door. With his heightened mental skills, Jonas’s mind told him that even at their best run, he and Skye were still too far from their escape. They were out of bombs. The pistols would be useless. They weren’t going to make it.

Twist felt Jonas’s Sight snap into life like the crack of a whip, and felt his own meld with it to fill Jonas’s mind with a handful of the moments in time that were only just ahead of him. Twist watched the images in terror, unable to believe them at all. Jonas’s heart burned with certainty and relief as the vision filled his mind, and Twist watched as his friend turned his soul onto the task without question.

Jonas leaped at Skye’s back, grabbing hold of her as he dragged them both down to the glass floor. Jonas shut his eyes as Skye struggled to free herself. Twist felt every part of Jonas’s mind turn on the task at hand, and felt his own awareness sucked in as extra fuel. It only took an instant before Jonas released his focus, desperately willing everything away. There was a concussive pulse, a deafening crack, and the glass sphere around them shattered into sparkling fragments. The dragons flew out with the air, tumbling helplessly far away along with the other pieces of the ship.

Jonas clung to Skye tightly as they lost gravity and sound, and the world went impossibly, excruciatingly cold. Twist felt an immense force on Jonas’s lungs to exhale, and felt his skin already starting to freeze as Jonas held his eyes closed. He thrust out one hand and thought only of the escape pod that they had been running for. In an instant, metal met his open hand. Twist’s awareness followed Jonas’s request and filled his mind with a clear and detailed image of what he was holding.

Jonas flung Skye’s now-still body inside the open hatch and then pulled himself in as he slammed the door. His shaking, numb fingers found the switches that would engage the engines and fill the pod with atmosphere and heat, just as his hold on his thoughts began to slip. Jonas hardly seemed to notice as the floor of the pod gained sudden gravity and he fell to it heavily. As frightened as he was himself, Twist focused what he could of the mind around him on trying to remain calm and lucid.

Jonas gasped in the thickening air and blinked his eyes open. There were three human-sized seats inside the small, round, metal craft, all facing a bank of windows at the cone-like front. Levers, switches, valves, and buttons lined the walls and collected thickly in a space just below the windows, in front of the two frontmost seats. Skye was lying on the metal floor beside the rear seat, unmoving.

Jonas rushed for her, turning her limp form over to lie on her back on the metal floor. Twist’s attention dove into her, searching for the reason for her stillness. Jonas caught the problem the instant that Twist did and leaned down, forcing his own breath past her cold lips. Twist felt the breath seep into her still lungs and prayed for her to body to respond. Almost instantly, Skye gasped in a shuddering breath of her own. Her eyes flew open and she gripped at Jonas’s clothing as if in terror.

“Shit…what…how…?” she muttered, her cold form shaking.

Jonas wrapped her in his arms, rubbing at her back. “It’s all right. We made it.”

Twist shared in Jonas’s relief to hear her speak. The vision had promised that she would, but Twist could still scarcely believe it. Skye remained as she was for a moment, clinging to Jonas as her body grew warmer again. Then she suddenly pulled back to look at him.

“What happened?” she asked, far more stable now. Jonas looked into her eyes. In an instant, Twist could see her heart beating strongly and her lungs working fine. She seemed to be all but totally recovered from the few moments in the vacuum. Jonas put on a smile, still holding her gently.

“I’m sorry,” he said, forcing his voice to sound deeply apologetic. “I saved
your
ass. I promise I’ll let you save mine next time,” he added brightly.

Skye’s eyes flared with brilliant admiration for only an instant before she glared at him and shoved him sharply away from her with both hands.

“Bastard!” she snapped. “I didn’t ask for your damn, dashing heroics!”

Twist felt heady delight rush through Jonas, and he turned his smile away as they both got to their feet. Standing again, Twist noticed that Jonas also felt fairly all right. He supposed that while it had seemed like a long time in the vicious cold of space, it had really only been a few seconds at most.

“Oh wait,” Jonas said suddenly, looking to Skye as she dusted herself off in mock-frustration. “Your familiar got eaten. And exploded.”

“Nah, Kali’s fine,” Skye said easily. “Her solidity is only an illusion.” She turned her shoulder to him and tugged at the back of her collar to show Jonas the top of the tattoo. Jonas’s eyes shifted farther than Skye likely intended them too, showing him the whole of the artwork as it covered the soft, pale skin of her back. To Twist’s considerable shock, Jonas didn’t blush.

“Very nice…” Jonas toned, a sly smile on his face. Skye narrowed her eyes at him and she turned to face him fully, arms crossed.

“Pervert,” she snapped, somehow not sounding enraged.

“That’s pronounced ‘sky pirate,’ love,” Jonas said smugly. “Or, ‘brigand,’ if you prefer.”

As Skye shook her head with a very judging eye, Jonas took one of the seats at the front of the craft. The now half-crescent of the Earth loomed enormous, and glowed softly before the front windows. Skye slipped into the seat beside him. Jonas craned his neck to look back through the windows toward what was left of the glass ship.

His powerful eyes picked up a vast cloud of tiny, sparkling shards of glass floating all around the tangled mass of glass spheres and long connecting hallways that had made up the larger ship. The escape pod was moving away from it at a quick pace, hurtling directly toward the Earth. Clearly untroubled by the cold or lack of air, at least twenty colorful dragons had recovered and were flying after them through space at only slightly greater speed—their huge, leathery wings outstretched in the cold vacuum.

“Holy crap…” Skye gasped as she leaned around him to see out the window behind them. “They’re going to catch us,” she said after a moment.

“They’re going to catch up, yes,” Jonas said. “But they might not actually catch us.”

He looked back to the Earth, which now filled the whole of space before them. Twist felt his own joy burn brightly as he recognized the shapes of Japan and Australia creeping into the light of day, at the inner edge of the glowing crescent.