Above World - By Jenn Reese Page 0,65

prince placed his hand on his chest and squeaked. Aluna winced. The prince frowned, clearly frustrated. He thumped his chest again, then said, “Eekikee.”

“Eekikee,” she repeated. Then she pointed to herself and said, “Aluna.” The boys followed her lead. Dash started to say something after “Dashiyn,” but stopped himself. Another mystery to unravel, she thought, but for another time.

Prince Eekikee nodded, then hopped over to a pile of circular objects and grabbed one. He held it out for them to see. It looked like a thick collar made out of some kind of black metal. One side hinged open, but it looked like it could snap closed easily enough. It certainly wasn’t pretty enough to wear, not even for her.

Hoku took the collar and turned it over in his hand. He brought it up to his neck, as if he were going to try it on. Eekikee knocked it out of Hoku’s hand.

“Hey!” Hoku said. He looked at her for support, but she shook her head. The look in Prince Eekikee’s eyes was dark. She reached for her talons.

“It is a slave collar,” Dash said simply. “No one chooses to put one on.”

The prince pointed to the collar, now lying on the sand, and then pointed up. His eyes stayed dark.

“F-F-Fathom,” he said. Then he pointed to the wounded all around them. “Fiiight.”

“Fathom. Fathom is enslaving his people,” Aluna said. “That’s why they’re at war.”

A loud screech echoed through the cave.

The prince listened to the alarm, then squeaked a series of commands to their Deepfell escorts. When they nodded, he dropped to the ground and pulled himself toward the water faster than she’d ever seen a Deepfell move.

“Waaaait,” one of the remaining Deepfell said to her, and pointed to a patch of sand by the cave wall.

A young Deepfell male lugged Hoku’s satchel and an extremely irritated Zorro into the clearing. The raccoon had clamped on to the handle of the bag and refused to be removed. When he saw Hoku, the little thing went crazy. He scampered over to Hoku and covered his face in a frenzy of tiny licks.

“Glad to see you, too, boy,” Hoku said.

The Deepfell brought a small pile of fish that Aluna could have devoured in two flashes, had she not seen the half-starved look on Hoku’s face. Dash nibbled one fish but didn’t go back for a second. If he got hungry enough, he’d eat, she reasoned, and took a fifth for herself. She ate the last one slowly, savoring the delicate crunch of bones in her mouth.

“My books!” Hoku said.

She looked over. He had spread the contents of his bag in a circle around his spot on the sand.

“The water destroyed them,” he said. And then, more quietly, “I can’t even read the inscriptions anymore.”

Aluna knew this wasn’t about the books. “Why did you make Calli fly away?” she asked. “She would have been safer down here with us.”

Hoku opened up each of his books and placed them gently on the sand to dry. “Aviars have thin, light bones in order to fly,” he said. “If we brought her underwater, she’d be safe from the Upgraders, but the pressure from the ocean would snap all of her bones.”

“Oh,” Aluna said. “Good choice, then.”

“The books did not survive, but we did,” Dash said. “You made the correct decision, and you made it quickly in a dangerous situation. It was a victory.”

“They weren’t your books,” Hoku said bitterly. He pulled out the water safe and set Zorro to trying combinations. “At least whatever’s inside here is still dry.”

Aluna opened her fist and stared at the breathing necklace she thought she’d lost forever.

She sat cross-legged in the sand and pressed her breathing necklace to her throat. Hoku and Dash watched as she twisted the shell, trying to activate the hidden mechanism that would bring it to life. A moment later, she heard a whir and felt its twin tails burrowing into her neck.

She choked and sputtered. For several horrible seconds, she couldn’t breathe at all. Her eyes and mouth opened wide as she gasped. She needed air. Her hands clawed at the shell. She needed to get it off of her!

Hoku grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from her throat. “It’s okay,” Hoku said. “Let it work!”

He stared into her eyes and she tried to focus on his freckles, tried to make herself count them one by one. The pain! Spots swam across her eyes like a horde of ink-black eels.

And then the bubble of