Sky Jumpers Book 2 (5 page)

She was pressing a ball of biscuit dough flat on the counter and directing a group of people putting together breakfast sandwiches. When she saw me, she wiped her hands on a towel and wrapped arms around me that weren’t as bony as they once were. In fact, she felt stronger every day. I would never have guessed that my mom would’ve changed so much from bandits invading months before.

She whispered, “Are you okay?”

Those words coming from her made me realize how
much I wasn’t okay, especially after the nightmare that awoke me. I nodded anyway. It was a minute before I trusted my voice to come out normal. “I’m fine. Need any help?”

She looked at the flurry of activity in the kitchen. “Of course! Your dad decided it would be better to feed everyone, so they can get straight back to work after the meeting instead of sticking around and worrying. With your help, we can get these finished in time to find a seat.”

I assembled sandwiches until people from the trains started filing into the gym. My mom took off her apron and walked with me through the crowd, to the spot on the front row of benches where she always sat.

Usually Aaren, Brock, Brenna, and I stood toward the back, so we could see everyone’s reactions. Today, though, I wanted to be by my mom. We sat there, knowing why an emergency meeting was called, while all the people around us were trying to guess.

Eventually, the five council members walked in and took their seats on the raised platform at the front. The noise from the crowd cut in half, but everyone shifted in their seats, looking toward the doors for my dad.

A few moments later, he came into the gym holding his clipboard, looking in charge and confident even while limping to the front to step up onto the platform.
He leaned against the table and looked out into the crowd.

The room was packed, with all the chairs and benches taken, yet there were still more people standing than there were sitting.

My dad cleared his throat. “Let’s get right to this. I trust everyone to remain calm and quiet while I explain.” He looked at us like he was trying to judge how we’d take the news. “You’ve all noticed the massive fissures in the mountainside on the west. We’ve found out there are gases being released from within them. The gases aren’t poisonous. They are, however, rising to mix with the air in the Bomb’s Breath.” My dad took a long pause. “And that’s making the Bomb’s Breath lower.”

The noise level in the room rose so much, I thought maybe my dad had been too quick to trust us to remain calm and quiet. But he stood there, patiently waiting for the noise to die down. He’d told me once that people would be quiet on their own quickly enough, when their need to hear information became stronger than their need to talk. This time, it happened really fast.

“The good news is, there’s a mineral that will stop the gases,” he said, and the entire room held their breath as they waited for the
but
. “But as far as we know, it is only found in the Rocky Mountains.”

Everyone gasped.

“We’ll need to send a team tomorrow morning to travel across the Forbidden Flats to get the mineral. Ken Williams,” my dad said, and he motioned behind him, “will lead the team, and those joining him will be notified soon.

“Yes, it’s a long trip. And yes, it will be dangerous. We don’t know much about the weather or where bandits and any towns are, so we are hoping to go with a guide. We have reports that there’s someone in Arris who has been to the Rockies. Two of our men left at first light to see if the man will guide us, and they should be back by tonight. If he can’t, we still leave in the morning. We have no time to waste.”

My dad looked out across the crowd for a moment before continuing. “I’m going to trust you with the whole truth, because I think you deserve it, but I’m also trusting you not to panic.” He paused for a minute. “We now have twenty-two days to get the mineral and be back, or the Bomb’s Breath will be low enough to affect homes. That’s not long to travel so far. But we’ve gotten through some pretty tough times before, and we’ll do it again.”

It was hard to go back and rebuild houses after the meeting. I understood the need to keep busy, but I wondered if it was all pointless. If they couldn’t find the mineral or make it back in time and the Bomb’s Breath kept coming down, would each family go find another town to live in? Would we all go somewhere together? I couldn’t imagine another twenty-one days of wondering if they’d make it back before the Bomb’s Breath engulfed my house.

We used chisels to remove mortar from the bricks that had fallen off the broken part of the Johnsons’ house. I picked up a hammer and chisel and added my
clang, clang, crack!
to the clamor of everyone else’s, wishing the noise would drown out my dad’s words. The only thing able
to do that, though, seemed to be my dream, which kept replaying in my head. The one where I sat and did nothing to help.

I stared up at the sky. Was the haze getting worse? It was hard to tell.

Aaren, Brenna, and I trudged home from the five p.m. train. As we neared my house, my exhaustion vanished when I heard horses. Four of them were picketed by the shed.

“They’re here!” We ran to the house, and the three of us burst through the front door.

My mom came into the room and took my jacket off me like I was two years old, hanging it on the coatrack. “The man who’s been to the Rockies hasn’t agreed to be our guide yet, but he’s staying for dinner so we can discuss it.”

“Me too?” I asked hopefully.

My mom smiled and said yes.

“And Aaren?” I asked, brushing mortar powder from my shirt.

“If it’s okay with his mom,” she said. “Aaren, you take Brenna home and get cleaned up, then if you can, come back and join us. Hope, you better get cleaned up, too.”

I headed to my room, sounds of talking drifting toward me from the kitchen. I probably should’ve taken a
bath, but instead, I just changed clothes and washed my face, arms, and hands, then took out my braid and tried to brush the little chunks of mortar from it.

Aaren must’ve done about the same, because I heard his soft knock on the kitchen door when I walked down the hallway.

I came around the corner into my kitchen, and saw my parents, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Williams, Aaren’s dad, and a man I didn’t know at the table. Aaren and I slipped into the two empty seats at the end of one of the sides.

“Hey, pumpkin,” my dad said.

I almost ducked when all eyes focused on me. “Hi, Dad.”

“Luke, this is my daughter, Hope, and her friend Aaren. Hope and Aaren, this is Luke Strickland. We’ve already offered him wealth and compliments. Right now, we are making friendly conversation in hopes that we will endear ourselves to him enough that he’ll agree to be our guide.” My dad winked, and everyone laughed at his candor.

Luke tipped his head at us. I gave him a polite smile as my dad got up and helped my mom place steaming platters of potatoes, roast beef, gravy, and green beans in the middle of the table.

I kept staring at the man while the adults talked. His hair was dark, thick, and cut short. I knew I’d never seen
him before, but for some reason, he looked familiar. Not as though I knew him exactly; more like he reminded me of someone.

Once my parents sat down, Mr. Williams said, “Tell us about the trail between here and the Rockies.”

Luke snorted. “Well, for starters, there isn’t a ‘trail.’ More like open space, gullies, unpredictable weather, bandits, and infrequent towns. It’s a fairly straight shot from here, though, and White Rock River will be at your right for most of your journey. Your best chance to get past bandits without too much trouble is if you take as few people as possible. Bigger groups tend to attract them more. Then get the best horses around and make the trip on horseback. You could get there in seven or eight days.”

My dad shook his head. “We’ll take a small group, and we do have the best horses, but we’ll need to take a trailer.”

“Not as safe,” Luke said, “and it’ll take you probably twice as long that way.”

I did the math in my head. Twice that long there and twice that long back meant somewhere between twenty-four and twenty-eight days, plus however long it took to find and mine the seforium. I looked at my dad in alarm, and he looked at Luke.

“We only have twenty-one days.”

Luke cut a few pieces of his meat. “If luck goes with
you, there’s a chance you can make it. Not a great chance, but a chance.” He narrowed his eyes at my dad. “Mind telling me what kind of cargo you’re planning on that requires a trailer?”

Mr. Hudson glanced at my dad and my dad gave him a small nod. “This,” he said as he pulled the orange stone from his jacket pocket. “I’m sure you saw the fissures on the side of the mountain on your way into White Rock?”

“Hard to miss,” Luke said.

“In powder form, this will counteract the gases being released from those fissures that are causing the Bomb’s Breath to lower. Within a few weeks, it will lower to the height of our homes. A few days after that, it will have dropped to the height of the fissures, making White Rock unlivable.”

Luke studied Mr. Hudson and the stone, as though he was calculating something. “There’s a town at the Rockies—Heaven’s Reach—that mines all kinds of minerals. They’re self-sufficient so they don’t need many supplies, and they aren’t trusting of strangers, but if you negotiate well, they might make a trade. If you can pay, that could save you some time.”

Everyone seemed to let out a breath of relief at the same time. They might not need to search for the seforium, or worry that they couldn’t find it or mine it quickly enough!

“We can pay,” my dad said.

Aaren leaned in close and whispered, “I bet he’s talking about the Ameiphus! My mom’s been working on getting the last few batches finished.”

“Good,” Luke said. “There’s also a trading town along the way—Glacier City—where you can buy feed for your horses on the way there and the way back, so you won’t have to carry so much extra weight. It’ll help you to travel more quickly.”

“Good to know,” my dad said.

Luke dug into his potatoes. He seemed to be deep in thought, and no one talked.

After a minute or two that seemed like an eternity, my dad said, “We have twenty-one days from tomorrow morning. Will you help us?”

“It’s dangerous.”

My dad didn’t take his eyes off Luke. “We’ll pay you well.”

Everyone around the table leaned in, concerned and hopeful looks on their faces.

“There’s something you should know about the place with the minerals,” Luke said. “The entire town of Heaven’s Reach resides
above
the air of the Bomb’s Breath.”

“What?” my dad said. “You can’t be serious!”

Luke shrugged.

I focused on Mr. Williams, who had turned pale. He was the only one going from the council, so he would be handling negotiations with whoever was in charge at Heaven’s Reach. My dad would never make anyone go anywhere near the Bomb’s Breath, though, and after Mr. Williams’s dog, Sandy, died in the Bomb’s Breath a few months ago, he would especially never make Mr. Williams go.

My dad’s forehead crinkled. “But how do they—”

“They have some kind of device that they wear that allows them to pass through the Bomb’s Breath without dying, but I’ve never seen one for sale.”

“Will they come down to trade?” my dad asked.

Luke shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve seen the mayor and others from their town, and even traded with them. There’s just no way to let them know to come down to talk with you. It definitely could be faster to get the seforium from them than to find it yourself. But as likely as not, you’ll have to wait weeks for them to happen to come down. Going there to get the seforium might be a much faster option, or it could make you lose a lot of time. Hard to say.”

I opened my mouth, and my words came out as a croak: “I could go.”

I cleared my throat, then repeated, “I could go.” I swear I hadn’t even considered going before I opened my mouth, especially after listening to last night’s council meeting and hearing about how dangerous the trip would be. But then I thought of my dream where I did nothing, and added, “Then you’ll have someone to go through the Bomb’s Breath to get the mayor.”