The Song of the Keepers

Chapter 23 The Journey Home

The closer we got to Bel Rea the harder it was for me to get out of my head. I wasn't doing this to see my family, I wasn't doing this to save my family, but yet they were all I could think about. My old friends too came to mind, though none of them were in the Servinius Province any more. None of us had any idea on the day of our Culling just how much our lives were going to change.

Aylee perhaps was the most normal out of all of us, having gotten her job transfer to Los Eres. She was probably living the quiet life now, unaware of the drama that followed after her former friends. Then there was Cassian, a guard, apart of the Coalition, and an attempted assassin. Of course, there was me with my crazy life story, and then there was poor Idris who had been taken out in a body bag.

I froze, suddenly making a connection.

We had been told Leah's blood had not been compatible with the serum and she had passed away. Then all this time later I had discovered her amongst the Sentinels. Was it possible, that the identical thing had happened to Idris? Had I been living under the same roof as my old friend, completely unaware? A mixture of excitement and dread filled me and I knew I would have to look into the subject further upon returning to the Citadel.

"No comments from the peanut gallery as I land this thing."
Daaow warned, circling the Plaza once to find the longest stretch of open road to set the jet down on.

"Yes, sir."
I have a half-hearted salute and a weak smile that Daaow did not return.

I was not looking forward to this landing.

"You strapped in?"
He called to Kyle.

"Yes. Did you want me to land us by chance?"
Kyle replied, shifting in his seat.

Daaow scoffed and rolled his eyes and I hoped his pride wasn't going to get us killed.

"I want you to give me the strongest headwind you can when we touch down, Hadassah."
Daaow told me, ignoring Kyle's suggestion.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.

"But that could blow us straight off the road."
I pointed out.

"Yes, it's also the only thing that may be able to stop us in time. Let me worry about steering, you just do your wind wielding thing. This ought to be easy in comparison to calming a gale."

I figured this wasn't a great time to mention that I hadn't actually been the one to do that. I fingered my necklace nervously and hoped that whatever or whoever the voice was, was still looking out for me.

"Here we go."
Daaow announced in a grim tone.

I gripped the sides of my seat and forced myself to breathe evenly. A miscalculation on Daaow's part could end in our sudden deaths. So could my failure to produce a proper headwind.

We were coming in at a steep angle, the nose of the plane angled upwards, the landing gear down. The stretch of road he had picked was less than a mile long and had once been part of the freeway than ran from Bel Rea to the Tournament Facility. It was riddled with potholes and it appeared a building had recently collapsed across the tail end of it. If we weren't able to stop in time, we would be crashing into the rubble.

The ground rose up closer and it took physical effort for me not to close my eyes. We slammed down onto the runway and I'm fairly certain I experienced whiplash but I had no time to contemplate it. I stretched out my hands and begged the wind to obey. I could feel it answering my call, slamming against the front of the jet with an angry fury. The rubble grew closer and my heart pounded in my chest so loudly I could hardly hear anything else. I had nearly resigned myself to a fiery death when we finally came to a screeching halt, several yards from the enormous mound of cement and steel.