Between The Crystals

Ch 47 No More Naps

A distant horn jolted me awake—our sentries were blowing the "airship spotted" signal. Still in my linen lounging robe, I raced to the crystal. I ducked into Grant's office and peered up at the star-spangled sky. Dozens of villagers were streaming down the paths and hiding in rooms near whichever crystal they were closest to, just in case the sentries blew an evac alarm.

Flurries of activity were everywhere as people hid human objects and ensured the door hides were closed to conceal the openings. Hushed whispers echoed off the cliffs as people made sure nothing was left in the open that might betray our presence.

Grant jogged over. "Can you take me to the sentries? I want to know how close that airship is in case we have to start an evacuation."

I nodded, and we darted across the open ground. His hand rested on my shoulder as we reached the crystal. My mind reached for Sentry Point without uttering the location code.

The air hazed around us, and my eyes strained against the blur as it faded. Three people crouched by the base of the rock, deep in the shadows. Two were looking one way while the other ensured that nothing came from the other direction. We jogged over as one pointed. I squinted and finally spotted a distant blob a bit lighter than the dark sky.

"Is it just hovering there?" Grant asked.

"We thought it was flying past like they sometimes do, but it circled back, dropped lower to the ground, and stopped. It hasn't moved since, so we blew the 'airship spotted' sequence."

Grant knelt beside the sentry with his eyes locked onto the distant airship we could barely see. "All the attacks lately have had at least two or three ships. Is there just one so far?"

"Yeah. Only one we've seen this month."

I noticed something else. "Grant, that's right about where our village's primary backup crystal is."

He stared at me with wide eyes, then quickly scanned the landscape. "Shoot—you're right. They're directly under the Sirius Star, and that's about the right distance for an eight-day walk."

A chill crept down my spine. "That crystal is only half grown. They'll know the shard was planted within the last eight years. What if they check the area to find the group that planted it?"

"If they come closer, we'll have to evacuate." His voice was troubled. "How many bounces are you capable of? I need an honest answer."

"I'm rested, so if I keep the group size under eight, at least a handful of round trips? I'm actually not sure. And, no, I'm not taking that log with us."

He snorted, not in the right mindframe for my quips. "I'm not concerned about objects. Just people."

"It's moving," I murmured, staring as it began floating away and gaining altitude.

We were silent as it slowly disappeared into the distance.

"That's the direction it was originally heading," a sentry said. "We see airships fly that path a couple times a year."

Grant gave him an incredulous look. "And no one told me? I wouldn't have let someone plant a shard in that direction if I'd have known it was a common flightpath!"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "That crystal was under an overhang though. You can't see the sky if you port to it. How could they have possibly spotted it from the air?"

Silence reigned. The only explanation was that they had somehow detected it, kind of like how they located the tracking beads. In the same instant, history refuted the idea of them tracking the crystals across huge distances since they would have wiped us out during past culls instead of relying on tracking beads.