Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
The complicated answer was that it was, the kind of real that was a thing of resplendent hope—but also the kind of dark and enclosed real that couldn’t sustain lives, especially mentally unstable lives. All four of them were beyond grateful for the peace offered by Mirage, but they were also conscious that it wasn’t a long-term solution.
Bram and Eleri could bear the confinement a lot longer and better than Saffron or Yúzé, but even they might crack at some point.
“What if they don’t find a solution?” Bram said to her a number of days later, while the two of them were alone in a corner, Saffron and Yúzé having been attracted to where Bayani was working with a vein of minerals on the other side. “Living here forever isn’t tenable.”
“No.” Even with the clan making an effort to make it more comfortable, they’d effectively be confined to a small area for months, maybe much longer.
Both Ashaya and Saoirse had attempted multiple tests with jerry-rigged shield options, but none had blocked even a sliver of the mental noise that existed beyond this cave.
Regardless of all that…“I want to live, Bram.” She’d made that call, wouldn’t back away from it. “I want to breathe in life as I once breathed in death. Enough to grit my teeth and push through it no matter how long it takes.”
She looked at him. “You?”
“Yeah, I’m no longer looking for an exit.” Folding his arms, he exhaled as he looked over at Saffron and Yúzé. “They won’t make it more than a few weeks at most.” Anguish in his tone. “I can’t bear to watch them go, Eleri.”
“We won’t have to. I have faith.” It was as if Adam’s belief had seeped into her, taken root when they mated, until now she could see only hope on the horizon.
Bram put his arm around her as she slipped her arm around his waist. He’d become comfortable with such touch once she began to initiate it. They’d been family for so long that it seemed foolish they’d ever stopped these small but important markers of affection.
Turning around, Saffron beamed at seeing them, then bounced over—and for that moment, she was the little girl with red hair who’d bounced over to Eleri in the schoolyard. “Am I welcome in this hug?”
Bram and Eleri both opened their arms.
Laughing, she dove in, while Yúzé walked over with a faint smile curving his lips. “It’s tent time,” he said when he arrived. “The falcons are transferring the bats soon.”
Eleri shivered, remembering how Adam had cuddled her last night as he explained how they’d do it. She felt bad for the bats despite her tendency to run squealing when they swarmed—which amused absolutely everyone—but he’d assured her they’d found an equivalent cave.
“No luminescent mineral veins, but we’ve rigged up a system that offers the same type of a greenish glow—these bats seem to enjoy the light. And there’s even water nearby.”
The process would be as humane as they could make it, with the clan waiting until the bats’ usual time of flight out from the cave that would get rid of a good percentage.
It was never all of them—they seemed to go in groups, then return. At which point, another group would go off. This time, however, once the first cohort had departed, one of the smaller falcons was going to chase out the others. A simple annoying interruption would get them going without causing too much fear—they were used to the runners flying about now and then when they got restless.
Malia had joined that number as of yesterday, which was when Eleri had learned that winged changeling bones tended to knit faster than those of other changelings—especially when supported by the Gen-seal compound that Naia and her team had put around the break from day one. A compound which, unbeknownst to Eleri and Bram, had been developed by a clan of eagles.
Eleri loved learning new facts about falcons, about changelings, about WindHaven.
Once the assigned bat-relocation team had cleared the cave, they’d block it off with an already-prepared door and be on standby to reroute confused returnees to the new cave—which was very close.
These particular bats also had excellent olfactory senses, so the clan was planning to lay scent traces for them to their new home, while simultaneously erasing all scent traces from this cave.
Eleri would’ve preferred to be outside for all of it, but there was no point in subjecting her already bruised brain to more damage just because she was skittish where bats were concerned. “Come on,” she said, inviting the others to join her in her tent. “We can distract each other.”
Adam, Dahlia, and Maraea would maintain a security watch outside.
With so many of the clan distracted by the goings-on here tonight, the clan would otherwise be dangerously vulnerable.
• • •