she replies quietly. “He will live a lonely existence without you. I only hope he’s gracious in defeat.”
“What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t strike me as someone who ever allows himself to lose.”
“Believe me, Trey will figure out soon that he dodged a bullet.”
“He’s a soldier. He lives for bullets.”
“Please drop it, Phlix,” I beg. My voice is raw. It feels like I swallowed chunks of glass.
She reaches out and strokes my hair. “He’ll wait for the day he can say that you’re his again. You don’t have to fret about it now. It’s the reason neither of you said good-bye to each other back there. It’s not over.”
We travel through the last part of the Forest of O on foot, carrying our flipcarts on our backs. From the cover of the trees, we see the water. It’s amazing in the darkness. The surface is black in every area except where the portal resides. In that place, it’s as if sunshine rises to the surface.
We make our final preparations. Finding the tankoids that will allow us to breathe for a time underwater, we set them aside to carry them to the water’s edge. I find the small box that I’d asked Phlix to pack for me, the one gift-wrapped with a pink bow. I set that aside too. Phlix raises her eyebrows. She must not have peeked inside. I knew she wouldn’t. Everything else that we no longer need gets abandoned in a pile there. Taking turns, we use strong tape to fasten our flipcarts and backpacks more securely to us. Then we fasten rope around that to make sure our gear stays with us, no matter what.
Howls call out in the moonlight. My flesh erupts in goose bumps and my back bows in fear. It’s unbearably real; this feeling that we still might not make it. I step out of the trees, my knees shaking, exposed on the smooth rocks to the cool breeze coming off the mountain peak. I’m as desolate as a prayer in the wind.
Phlix takes my hand and squeezes it. It makes me feel a little less unholy and unwanted. “I’ve shadowed us,” she says, “but know that once we reach the water, the ripples will reveal us to whoever watches.”
We both walk hunched over to the illuminated path at the water’s edge. Letting go of her hand, I find a large rock there and leave my pink-bowed box on it. Phlix doesn’t comment. She puts the tankoid in her mouth and sets her nose clamp, preparing to enter the water. I do the same.
Nodding to her, I try to wade into the water in a way that causes the fewest ripples. It’s colder than I remember. I’m not sure if I begin to quake from fear or from the frigid temperature. Either way, it numbs me to the terror we face as huge spotlights shine down on us from above. Hovering airships, the kind that New Amster soldiers use, descend from far above us. I prepare to dive beneath the water when a ship sets down on the bank near us and the maw of it opens up. Matchstick men emerge like roaches.
From the far bank, I hear an agonizingly beautiful voice yell, “Baw-da-baw!” Blue laser fire comes from the far bank, near the sandy dunes and tall reeds, scattering New Amster soldiers along the shore as they scurry away for cover. Treading water for a moment, I watch the Cavars pin down the men sent to kill me.
Phlix touches my arm and nods. I nod back. We both stop treading water and submerge into the glowing abyss. The unendurable need for oxygen is not present this time around; the tankoid takes care of it. I’m able to swim without my lungs being turned to fire. The current becomes stronger the deeper I dive, pulling me into the bright light. My skin ripples as the pressure increases. It tears at my golden-blond hair, which streams behind me. I can’t see Phlix. I pray that she’s still with me. I need her probably more than she needs me.
The riptide of the portal slows and the glow begins to dim. My skin is snowy white as I make for the watery hilltop speckled with underwater stars. The current becomes almost nonexistent. It lets go of me. I struggle and tumble in the cold pool as the heavy pack on my back weighs me down. Fighting to reach the bank I can see ahead, my breathing becomes shallower,