The Invisible Planet

Part 48: Clouds

Angeline could almost hear Charlotte's voice in her head.

Breathe, she would've said.

But every breath felt impossible. There was blood in her lungs, in her throat, in her mouth. She was drowning faster than she was bleeding out.

"Kita!" Takka cried again, his voice echoing through the hall.

Her body felt numb. She could no longer move her legs or her arms. Even her fingers refused to cooperate.

"Angel!" Shay's voice brought immediate comfort, despite his panicked tone. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"It was a TreeHugger," Takka answered. "She didn't see it."

"I told you to watch her!" Shay yelled.

"I was watching her!" Takka defended. "I watched put her hand directly on a bloody TreeHugger. What was I to do?"

"What happened?" Dekita asked urgently as she approached.

"A bloody TreeHugger!" Takka answered. "Weren't you listening?"

A pair of soft, warm hands grabbed onto Angeline's shoulder and heat spread down her arm and through her chest. "The venom nearly reached her brain. She's lucky," said Dekita.

Angeline could feel her strength returning rapidly. She turned to the side and retched a mouthful of blood onto the floor, gasping for breath as her lungs burned.

"That's disgusting," Takka muttered, backing away from her.

Shay and Dekita were still worriedly hunched over her, watching her carefully. They were in a pristine hallway made of white marble with dozens of decorative columns. To the left was a banister that overlooked the clouds. They were floating freely several lengths above the open ocean.

On closer inspection, she realized it wasn't marble at all — it was some sort of white crystal.

"Where am I?" she asked weakly.

"What is going on?" a woman asked from down the hall. Her voice was husky, and she spoke with a similar but more prim sounding accent than the others.

The color drained from Shay's face and he looked at Takka with wide eyes.

"Is that a human?" the woman asked. "Why is there a human here?"

Dekita and Takka exchanged worried looks.

"Is anyone going to answer me, or am I simply speaking to myself?"

Angeline leaned her head up to see a tall thin woman with skin the color of chocolate and long, stark white hair approaching them. She wore a sheer milky gown that flowed from each long sleeve as she moved, dragging across the ground behind her. Her irises glowed with white light and sparkled like diamonds.

"One of the villagers was gravely injured," said Takka. "I— I brought her here because there wasn't time to bring Kita back."

"When Marius told you to leave the humans to their own devices, which part, specifically, did you not comprehend?" the woman asked.

"I couldn't just let her die," he defended.

"Next time, you will," she said. "Do not intervene with their events again. Did you reveal to her the way here?"

Angeline shook her head. "I-I'm not even sure where 'here' is."

"Be sure you keep it that way." Her eyes drifted down over Angeline with disgust before she looked again at Takka. "Return her. Quietly. Know that if it happens again, I will tell Marius immediately, and he will see that all of your pets are put down."

She turned down another hallway and disappeared from sight.

"Who was that?" Angeline whispered.

"That was Krin," Takka answered in a low voice. "The wife of Marius."

"Where did you bring me?"

"Nowhere. Forget you ever saw this place." He took Shay's cloak from his shoulders and wrapped her in it, covering her face. "Take her," he whispered.

"I won't," Shay whispered back.

She felt her heart sink.

"See what you've done?" Takka asked. "You hurt her feelings. Now, take her."

"She told me—"

"Take her, or so help me, I will throw her off the starless balcony."

"I can hear you," she grumbled.

They went quiet again for a minute and Takka shoved her roughly toward the railing. She gasped as she tried to slow her momentum, stumbling two steps before colliding with a strong body.

"I hate you," Shay whispered to Takka.

"You can thank me later," Takka whispered back. "Shut up, and go."

Angeline gasped as she was lifted into Shay's arms, and then they were moving.