Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 7 (Friday morning)

Ana bit her lip to prevent herself from crying out. It was just a thorn. Just one. So why did her whole hand pulse with stinging pain?

"Hold on a sec," Mrs. Aterak studied Ana's hand, prodding it with her finger. Ana didn't point out that the prodding made it hurt worse.

"I don't think it's barbed," Sorano finally said. Her tongue poked from the corner of her mouth, and she wrapped a piece of cloth around her own hand.

"Just hurry u--" Ana gasped, Sorano yanking the spine from her palm.

"Oww," she breathed, waving her hand in front of her.

Sorano just smiled, holding up the thin cactus thorn. "It wasn't barbed! I wasn't totally sure, to be honest. Human skin is hard to peer through. Especially at night."

Ana gaped, rubbing the spot between her first and second fingers. "You weren't sure?! And you yanked it out anyway?!"

Sorano's smile faded. "It was either that, or treat it like a barbed one and push it deeper into your skin to get it out. Treating one like the other would have just worsened it, so I went with what I could see," she shrugged. "We hardly have the luxury to do otherwise."

Ana opened her mouth to reply but shut it again, holding back a grumble. Her palm still hurt, but Dryda had it worse.

Besides, Mrs. Aterak was right. They didn't have much choice otherwise.

"Let's go check on Dryda," Sorano pushed herself to her feet, wrapping the spine in the dirty piece of cloth. It had once been part of a clean white lab coat.

Ana nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat and following.

They clambered over a few boulders, into a small clearing of flat rocks. Dryda was lying on the ground, a few of their classmates gathered nearby. Ana rubbed her palm again. Dryda had just keeled over as they were walking, and only Ana grabbing her arm had saved her from tumbling down a particularly steep rock. Instead, Ana's other hand landed in a small, prickly cactus growing in a crevice. But at least they hadn't fallen off the rock.

"How is she?" Sorano asked. Ryn looked up from dabbing a slightly damp rag along Dryda's face.

"I mean, she's not awake," Razón sat nearby, leaning against one of the boulders. He had both his shoes off, massaging his feet.

Mrs. Aterak crouched and unslung her interdimensional sling bag, rummaging through it. Ana sat too, eyeing the rest of her classmates. Teremki and Kessa were building a little tower out of rocks, and Tara was tapping on the water jug while Ella clapped two rocks together. They had a...sort of drum-like rhythm going, however off-beat they were with each other.

"Wait," Ana asked, "where's Verspri? And..." she peered around the clearing again, only counting twelve people. "Where'd they all go?"

"Hmm?" Mrs. Aterak stared into the bag, eyebrows furrowed.

"Not everyone's here," Ana repeated. "Did they get lost?"

Mrs. Aterak glanced up, mouthing words faintly. "Tara?"

Tara and Ella looked up at her, their drum-beating coming to a halt. The clearing fell silent.

"Yes, Sorano?" Tara asked.

"Where's your sister? And Isaac and Manuel? Didn't they go tell the others we were stopping?"

Tara slowly nodded. "But that was before we helped Dryda down here."

"Perhaps they stopped somewhere ahead of us..." Sorano muttered, then exclaimed, "Ah ha!" her arm reappearing from the bag. "Found it!"

"What is that?" Tara asked.

Sorano didn't reply, kneeling next to Ryn. A small green bottle popped into view before disappearing back into the interdimensional bag.

"What was in that?" Tara asked again.

"Will it wake her up?" Ana asked hopefully.

Sorano shook her head. "It's just a vitamin. The same ones I've been putting in some of our food. But Dryda probably hasn't been getting enough."

Ana's stomach growled, reminding her that she probably wasn't getting enough. None of them were.

"You've been hiding vitamins in our food?" Zillie asked, massaging his feet like Razón.

"Only since the protein bars ran out. Come on, we need to get moving and meet up with the others. The sun's going to start rising soon, and we don't want to get caught in the heat."

Ana sighed, pushing herself from the ground. She stretched, leaning sideways and grimacing at the soreness in her legs.

"The protein bars ran out two days ago," Razón muttered. "So how many vitamins have we gone through too?"

Ana tried not to think about that.