Broken (Disappeared #2)

Chapter Seventeen

"Theo, Theo, Ahuil's gone."

Theodosia rubbed her eyes. "What?" she said, confused. "Stop shaking me!"

She sat up and foggily took in the sight of Xochitl crouched in front of her, her eyes wide. Turning around, she looked for Ahuil but he wasn't there. Nothing. Just the rumpled blankets where he had lain.

"How can he be gone?" she said, still trying to grasp the situation.

"First of all, he took the sphere. I already checked. And he left this note." She handed her a shred of white birch bark. On it was scribbled a message in what looked like pencil. It was also in coded in a set of symbols Theodosia had never seen before.

"You will have to read it," she said, handing it back. "The translation only works verbally."

Her friend shook her head. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget you don't speak our language." She began to read the letter:

I'm going to the portal. I have to see if I can do something, anything, to save our people. I know you both are going to kill me for just disappearing, and believe me, I'm so sorry. The thing is, I'm desperate. I keep thinking I'm letting down my brothers. That I should be doing something, whether the Nextic want me or not. I hope I'll see you both soon.

Lots of love,

Ahuil

The two women stared at each other as if challenging the other to explain the piece of madness they had just heard.

"Don't look at me!" Xochitl exclaimed, throwing down the letter. "I didn't concoct this piece of rubbish. Men! Sometimes I wish they would just all jump into a big flaming pit and be done with it."

Theodosia stifled an inappropriate laugh. Her friend looked at her fiercely.

"Seriously, what could he possibly expect to do? He's going to get himself killed, that's what. And leave you and I to weep over his remains. A lot of fun that'll be."

Theodosia buried her face in her hands, caught between wanting to laugh and cry. "What in heaven's name are we going to do?"

"What I always do when someone I love screws up: try to save them from their own foolishness," Xochitl said, standing up and slinging her bow and arrows over her shoulder. "And when it's Ahuil, I'm doubly there. There's nothing I wouldn't do for that foolish, stubborn boy."

Theodosia hauled herself up. "I will come as well, of course. I said to you that I did not want to die for him." She shook her head. "And yet leaving him alone is equally impossible."

Xochitl nodded. "Thanks, Theo. I've got your back. Don't worry. We'll get him in time."

Theodosia got dressed and they sneaked out into the early dawn. At the very least there weren't many half-beings or their fast-moving contraptions about at that hour. They slipped into a patch of forest that skirted a road. Almost immediately, Xochitl started slowing down, coughing and looking gray.

"Are you alright?" Theodosia asked.

"The air is so bad here," her friend said, choking. "I feel like I'm barely here, like this place is trying to rip me apart from the inside. No, it's okay, I'll make it. We'll just have to go a bit slow."

They had a bad journey of it. Xochitl had to lean on her for support, and there were so few landmarks left, she frequently got confused about where they were. Even worse, as the sun rose, the other people started to come out and the streets around the patches of forest grew busier. It was difficult to hide themselves and they had to move with extra caution.