duty if you two share the cooking.”
Hoku looked at Calli just as she looked at him. They both grinned.
“Let’s go,” Aluna said. “We have a lot of distance to cross.”
Amid groans and curses, they put out the fire, wrapped up their leftover food, and managed to get back on the rhinebra. Dash started them at a walk, but even the slow pace felt like torture. Hoku distracted himself by discussing the angle of light refraction with Calli and by teaching Zorro to balance on his hind legs.
The next few days blurred together. Physically, Hoku suffered almost every minute from the rhinebra’s unforgiving back and the soreness it created. Even so, he’d never been happier. His conversations with Calli ranged from pulleys and aerodynamics to electronics and cooking. When they set Zorro to work on water safe combinations, he and Calli had fun modifying one of his Extra Ears to work on the radio she’d brought. The radio was already stronger than the Kampii internal ear artifacts. With the added reception boost, there was no telling how far away the radio could receive a signal. They vowed to test it out as soon as they got a chance.
Hoku still hadn’t found the courage to ask about the note Calli had written in his book. Were they friends, and nothing more? Is that what she wanted? He understood his own feelings, at least. He wanted more kissing, true, but he wanted more of everything else as well. Talking, laughing, fiddling with tech . . . If he ruined all that just because he wanted something that Calli didn’t, he’d never forgive himself.
At night, they cooked and ate around their campfire. He loved the flames. Not just the flickering light, but the way it drew them together around its circumference. Fire had a gravity all its own.
He sat next to Calli, grateful that she never seemed to mind. Her hand rested on the ground just a few millimeters from his. And yet . . . those millimeters meant everything. Would he ever be brave enough to cross that distance?
They sang at night. He was surprised to find that in the Above World, Aluna’s voice was strong and true. Not refined or really beautiful, but full of passion. She sang her heart in every note. Calli’s songs were sweeter and softer, usually ballads about Aviars fighting and dying in heroic ways. He liked the love songs, too, although they almost always ended unhappily.
Dash refused to sing at first, but Aluna and Calli worked away at him until finally, after several nights, he relented. He began not with melody, but with ritual. A series of hand motions and stomping around the fire, clearly intended to be performed by someone with horse hooves. And the song, when he finally started to sing it, came low out of his throat. It had rhythm and power, but no words.
When he had finished, no one spoke. Hoku stole a glance at Aluna and saw that her eyes were wet. He looked away quickly. Then, without even thinking about it, he reached out and took Calli’s hand. Her fingers wrapped around his hand immediately, as if they’d been waiting all night for the chance. His heart thundered in his chest, but he didn’t dare look at her. He stared at the fire, pretending to be mesmerized, when all he could think about was how warm and light her hand felt in his.
He fell asleep each night listening to Aluna and Dash on watch. The truth was, they mostly sat together in silence. Sometimes they’d talk about hunting rabbits and squirrels, but since neither of them could walk easily, those plans never amounted to much. Aluna filled Dash in on the Upgrader attack at Skyfeather’s Landing, and they debated strategies for handling their enemies with greater efficiency. Hoku found the conversations boring, the perfect way to lull himself to sleep at night despite all the excitement.
On the seventh day of travel, the trees thinned. More sunlight speared through the branches as they rode, and the rhinebra was able to galumph in straighter lines.
“We made good distance,” Dash said. “I would have bet both sand and sky that the Upgraders would have caught us by now.”
“Will we reach the shoreline soon?” Aluna asked.
Dash shrugged. He seemed more comfortable with her questions now, although she could still catch him off guard with her enthusiasm. Hoku knew the feeling.
Not long after, the trees thinned even more, and they spied gold and blue through the