Falling Skyward

Chapter Forty-Eight: No Answers

Lana opened her eyes. She, Drayer, and Taren, still holding Gailen, stood in the crystal hall of Soren's hideout.

The only people present, a man and woman, quickly fled the room. Everyone stood silent for a few moments, as though this were a dream that would dissipate with the slightest movement. Then Taren moved, setting Gailen's unconscious body gently on a nearby bench.

"What in the. . ." Drayer began.

"How did you do that?" Taren asked, looking at Lana with his eyebrows lowering deep over his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"How did you transport us here, without the belts? The star ether had all but drained."

"I don't know. These words just popped into my head, and next thing I know, we are here. How did Gailen and I get torn from our house? How did the nightstalkers find us? Our escape seems to be the least troubling of today's mysteries."

Taren pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath. Then, he grabbed Lana, pulling her tight against him. "I was afraid I would never see you again. Afraid of what they might do to you, and it would have been all my fault," his voice was barely a whisper. Lana suddenly remembered the feel of the nightstalker's tongue against her throat and shuddered. "I should have checked the room, should have known that if a trap had been laid, it would be centered around Gailen," Taren continued, desperate. "But when we reached your house, it seemed so . . . normal. I never dreamed they would or could have set a collapse . . ."

"Taren, there's no way you could have anticipated that. No one could have. It's not your fault," Drayer said quietly.

Lana pulled away to look into Taren's eyes. "What is a collapse? What are you not telling me?"

"It's a transport that is disembodied and attached to something else, like a place or, in this case, a human—Gailen."

"What do you mean 'disembodied'?"

"It's like the street performer we saw near the pass, only more sophisticated, or like the belts we use to travel. A nightstalker's power of transportation, what we call a jump, is what allows them to bend the world, so instead of taking a step forward and emerging one step away they can take one step and emerge hundreds of miles away, even worlds away. The further the distance, the more intense the concentration and power required. Humans, even those who have studied Ce'al, can't jump or collapse on their own—or at least not very successfully. While I was living here, we experimented with it, but even the most powerful of us could only jump to places within sight, and even then it left Dawson almost incapacitated. Our brains just don't seem adapted to the energy required to make that kind of leap."

"So then how did we return to Brevishaven?"

"Instead of using our own power, we harness that power and store it using star ether."

"Harness? How?"

Taren fell silent, unwilling to meet Lana's eyes.

"We have ways," Drayer said cryptically.

"It just doesn't make sense," Taren said, ruminating to himself. "Far from their source or connection, star ether's power fades. There's no possible explanation for how we made it back here alive unless. . . unless someone else transported us."

"But what nightstalker has that kind of power? And why would they do it?" Drayer asked.

Lana shook her head, trying to silence the growing headache that threatened to split her skull.

"So this collapse, or whatever you call it, is that what they did with me and Gailen?"

"Yes. They must have created a collapse of some sort, something triggered when you entered Gailen's room."