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 first flurry left in a mass of high-pitched vocalizations.
They made many more sounds Eleri knew were imperceptible to her. One of the things Ashaya and Saoirse had both discovered independently was that the Mirage bats talked to each other during the day, in a tone range none of the non-bats could hear—though Dorian had confirmed it hurt his ears to be in the cave too long.
“Imagine what they’re saying about us,” Saffron said as they sat inside attempting to play cards and failing. “I feel bad for invading their home, then driving them out. They’re so cute with their hand-wings, and they just hang about being adorable.”
“You sound like you want one as a pet,” Bram drawled.
“No, they’re wild. Let them be wild. I’ll admire from afar.”
“We’re giving them another cave in return,” Yúzé said, and put down a card. “I hear it’s just as unique.”
“I wouldn’t be sold if I was a bat who grew up in a psychedelic glowing cave,” Saffron muttered as more high-pitched sounds broke into the quiet left by the first flurry.
Malia was in the air.
Eleri didn’t know if it was ten or twenty seconds later that it happened.
Her eyes went wide, her gaze snapping to Bram’s. “Do you feel that?”
“What?” A frown.
Eleri was already outside the tent, screaming, “STOP!” at the top of her lungs while waving her arms. “Malia, STOP!”
Bram was beside her the next second, adding his own voice to the cry.
It still took Malia too long to notice them in the cacophony created by the bats who wanted to escape the irritating falcon in their midst. By the time the fledgling came in to land, most of the bats were gone, only the odd few hanging about here and there.
Saoirse and Ashaya, who’d been standing by in a back corner out of the way, ran over. “What’s wrong?” Saoirse demanded, looking from Eleri to Bram.
Saffron uttered a pained cry inside the tent, and Yúzé erupted out. “The voices,” he said, clutching at his head. “They’re just beyond the rock.”
Eleri nodded, her breath harsh in her chest after the shouting while jumping up and down to attract Malia’s attention. “The quiet isn’t gone, but it’s…thinner.” She grabbed Saoirse’s hand. “It’s the bats!”
Adam’s sister’s eyes went huge. She turned to Ashaya, and the two women said, “Ultrasound!” in unison before ordering poor Malia to go outside and get the adults in the air to help her chase back any bats that were nearby.
“We’ll be okay,” Eleri promised when Saoirse looked at her in question. “We’re together, will help stabilize each other.” She met Yúzé’s eyes. “It has to be all of us.” A request.
He took a careful breath, then held out a shaky hand. “Quatro Cartel in action.”
Chapter 49
Saffron: I feel good about this.
Yúzé: Me, too.
Bram: We can’t get too carried away. It’s early days yet.
Eleri: I’m with them, Bram. Team Hope.
Bram: They’re bad influences. But fine. Team Hope.
—Conversation between the Quatro Cartel (undertaken on a notepad left in a tent and added to by each of them, one by one, in lieu of any phones or organizers with a signal) (today)
Ashaya and Saoirse, working together from that point on, came up with a prototype three days after the aborted bat transfer.
The El-Shield team had already done less intensive tests using mockups, and it had quickly become clear that it wasn’t simply the bats’ ultrasonic communication that was the key, but the sound in concert with the overall mineral composition of Mirage.
This was to be the first serious test, and though Eleri knew it had a high likelihood of failure, none of them could stop themselves from hoping.
“It’s not pretty,” Saoirse said from the other side of the entrance into Mirage, “but we can make it prettier if it works.” A glance at Bram. “At least it’s not a tinfoil hat, right?”
Bram’s face cracked into a slight smile. “Progress.”
Saoirse laughed and turned to Eleri, who’d volunteered to be the test subject as she appeared the most sensitive to psychic noise.
Inside Mirage, Eleri leaned into Adam for a second. “Wouldn’t it be incredible if we were saved by bats?” She couldn’t keep from grinning, her face having learned the shape of happiness with such rapidity it was as if she’d been born for it. “I might found a bat religion, become the first convert.”
“I can’t believe you’re joking at a time like this,” he said in a stern tone, but spoiled the effect by leaning down to kiss her. “Let’s do this, bat lady.”
Laughing, she took a step beyond the entrance…and almost crumpled under the noise of the world. It took everything she had not to step back, and she could feel Adam fighting his urge to shield her even the fraction he could.
They’d decided to do it this way rather than putting the prototype on her in the cave because it’d be more difficult to calibrate it inside a space that echoed with the bats’ ultrasonic chatter. It was noticeably less apparent in the passageway outside, and Eleri’s brain had healed enough to handle the seconds-long exposure.