She could see nothing except the corridor leading away and no chance to investigate further as Dr. Yang was already striding in the opposite direction. Destiny hurried to catch up, following her up the stairs and through the doorway into the wide-open hallway with its windows and sunlight. She stood for a moment, looking around. Today there were more people, all moving with purpose. This was life. Things happening.
“You look like you’ve never seen people before,” Silas said, coming up beside her.
“I haven’t. Not really. Well, only yesterday when we came from the ship. It’s wonderful.”
He was looking at her in an odd way. Pretty much as Milo had looked at her last night.
Ahead of them, Dr. Yang came to a halt. She’d likely realized she was leaving them behind. She turned around and frowned. “Come along. We don’t have time to waste.”
Beside her, Silas grinned. “Hey, cut us some slack, Elvira. This is supposed to be fun.”
The frown deepened, which came as no surprise. Dr. Yang believed fun was frivolous. Destiny waited for her to make a comment, but she just turned and walked away. She looked at Silas. He shrugged and they followed.
Out into the bright sunshine.
And she stopped again, just for a brief moment, and raised her face to the sunlight.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was blue shading to violet. She’d seen pictures of the skies on Earth and this was different. So beautiful her chest ached.
This time, instead of the hybrid vehicle they had come in yesterday, they walked to a small dock where a boat was tied up. Silas jumped on board, then helped Dr. Yang, who stepped carefully onto the boat. Then he held out his hand to Destiny. She took it, he tugged, and she jumped, landing on the swaying deck. She fell against him and pressed her hand to his chest to steady herself.
“Destiny!”
She pulled back at Dr. Yang’s stern tone but could feel the smile on her face. This was fun.
Silas let her go then moved to the front of the boat and the engine purred to life. And they were moving, first backward, then they turned and moved gently forward. He looked at her and smiled.
“You want to go for a ride?” he asked.
Oh yes!
As she nodded, he pushed a lever forward, and they were flying across the water.
Chapter Nine
“God is always the last resource.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Milo sat at the top of the ramp of the shuttle. Not far away, just off to the left, a group of men and women were working on the road that led to the island. They were supervised by more men in the dark green jumpsuits he’d come to recognize designated them as Kinross’s soldiers.
The guards were all armed. The workers wore beige jumpsuits, and most of them didn’t look happy. One, a small, wiry guy with Asian features, dropped the sack he was carrying and turned to the nearest guard.
“I demand to see who is in charge. I should not be doing this work. I paid good money for my place. I didn’t sign up for this.”
“You want to eat,” the guard said, “then you work. No work. No food. We all have to pull our weight in the new world.”
Destiny had said something similar the night before. About duty and pulling together. Milo didn’t agree with it any more now than he had then.
“Sanctimonious bastard,” Dylan muttered, dropping down to sit beside him. He took a swallow from the flask in his hand—Rico had sent them with a good supply of whiskey—and handed it to Milo.
He took a swig, then picked up his knife and the piece of wood he was whittling. Earlier that morning, he’d taken a trip to the forest on the other side of the lake. The trees here were different than on Earth—unsurprisingly—so he didn’t recognize any of the species. But they were trees, and it felt like wood. He’d selected a strong, straight sapling, felling it with his knife.
Much of his power back on Earth had been tied to the Earth elements. Air, earth, water, fire, and he used his wand to magnify and channel those powers, to focus them. He had no idea how the powers would transition to this new world. But he could sense an innate magic in the place. While Rico had failed to return his wand, Milo was hoping that if he made a new one out of local wood, it