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  “I could swear I was clothed before going in.”

  “You were,” Dr. Xiao said. “The Aether ate it right off.”

  From the way the Aether had burned me, it wasn’t hard to believe. It was an uncomfortable thought. “What now?”

  “One week of bed rest while we monitor you.”

  “I don’t have one week. “

  “I would be thankful that the healing process only took a couple of days, or that you didn’t go into shock,” Dr. Xiao responded. “Surely, you can find one week out of your busy schedule for the sake of your health.”

  Clearly, Dr. Xiao hadn’t been briefed on the value of my time or my purpose. Instead of focusing on that, though, I had to ask something else. “You said the healing process took a couple of days? It only felt like a few hours.”

  “You were unconscious for most of it. Now, I need you to sit still and do what I say.”

  Dr. Xiao then proceeded to examine me in silence for the next thirty minutes, shining a light in my eyes, placing a cold metal circle where my heart was, going over what seemed to be every part of my body, always entering things into her computer. Sitting there doing nothing, I felt my exhaustion and struggled to stay awake.

  “I’m about to leave and send for some food,” Dr. Xiao said once she finished. “Try to relax in the meantime.”

  “How is everything?” I asked.

  “Everything seems normal. Your heart rate is a little high, but after what’s happened and what you’ve been through, that’s to be expected. It’s obvious you’re under a great deal of stress. That’s why I recommend one week of bed rest, minimum. Pallos briefed me, revealing whatever he felt he could of your secret mission commissioned by Lord Shen.” She closed her eyes, bowing her head reverently. “Otherwise, I’d keep you here much longer.”

  “I can’t stay at all,” I said. “Just talk to Pallos about it. He’ll agree. I’m going to be taking it easy for the next week, no worries there.”

  Dr. Xiao seemed skeptical. “You keep pushing yourself and something will give out . . . either your body or your sanity.”

  Well, I had to keep going. I didn’t have a choice there. “Thanks for your advice. What about Pallos, though? If he’s here, I think I’m ready to be escorted back to the ship.”

  “I’ll speak to him if you wish. He’s the ranking person of the two of us, and it’ll ultimately be up to him. However, I will strongly advise that you remain here under observation. You look well. Everyone else who has taken the treatment needed at least a month to recoup, and they all came out looking half-dead.”

  “I’m different, though.”

  Dr. Xiao sighed. “Yes. You are, at that. All the same, I will be giving Pallos my medically informed opinion. You’re healthy—healthier even than many of the people living here. Probably healthier than myself. But stress kills even the best of us. It’s what I call a slow killer.”

  “Well, I only have to survive for the next two years. After that, I can relax.”

  Dr. Xiao seemed puzzled by this. “Meaning?”

  I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Tell Pallos that I’m feeling fine.” I remembered something. “Oh. And I need some clothes.”

  Dr. Xiao nodded. “Of course. I’d nearly forgotten.”

  Something told me she had forgotten completely and not nearly, but I decided not to bring up that point. She went to a set of drawers, pulled one open to reveal a set of clothes wrapped in some thin, clear material that crackled as it moved. It looked like the old plastic bottles I’d find as a kid if you dug deep enough, but this was a much thinner version, and much newer looking at that. She broke the seal with her hands, retrieving a set of gray clothes that were almost the same as what I’d been wearing earlier.

  “You look like a small,” Dr. Xiao said, considering. “These should fit well.”

  “Not much for fashion here, are you?”

  Dr. Xiao looked at me seriously. “In the Collective, no one person stands higher than another. Our clothing reflects that.”

  It was a strange concept, but I couldn’t find a fault with it. There were no shoes with the clothes, but if memory served, I had my old boots back on the Odin. While they had some wear, they were still in good condition.

  She returned and laid the clothing on the examination table. “Unless there’s anything else, I’ll be taking my leave. Pallos should enter in about five minutes, plenty of time for you to change.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She turned and left, the metal door sliding open, granting me a view of more white-coated doctors and nurses strolling through the hallway before the door slid shut, leaving me in silence.

  Now alone, I took the chance to examine myself to see if I really was healed. As good as the doctor said, there wasn’t even a scar left. I’d been healed totally and completely. Physically, I was drained and felt a little dizzy, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

  In short, I was very lucky.

  I hurriedly dressed. I wished for my own clothes, but this would do until I got to the ship. I was just grateful to have something to wear, to keep the cold air off me.

  Next, I closed my eyes, remembering the dreams that I’d had in the tank. Alex had been there. I hadn’t been myself, Shanti, but I had spoken to him as Anna. I remembered everything she said. Normally, I was in control, with Anna as a passive observer who sometimes intruded my mind. In my dream, I had been the observer, powerless to do anything other than listen.

  That was Alex, then. The light had been so strong that I couldn’t remember what he looked like, even if the other details were clear. He’d been tall and the face kind, but otherwise, the memory was foggy. The dream seemed to be slipping away, as dreams often do.

  I repeated in my mind everything they’d talked about, committing it to memory. For all I knew, the information would prove useful.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I WAS STILL COMMITTING THE words to memory when the door slid open once again, admitting Pallos into the room. Dr. Xiao came behind him with her computer.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, strolling forward in his customary gray robes, spectacles, and shoulder-length brown hair.

  I moved to sit up, my body responding with ease. I was glad to be moving like a healthy person, which was the impression I wanted to give.

  “Better,” I said. “Not one hundred percent, but better. When are we leaving?”

  “Soon,” he said. “I would keep you here if the time allowed for it, but you’ll need to spend the rest of your healing period aboard the Odin.”

  Dr. Xiao nodded, almost meekly. Apparently, at least here in the Collective, they believed Pallos oversaw the Odin, and I was just following orders. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It was most curious, though.

  “That’s good,” I said. “Are we going back soon?”

  Dr. Xiao punched in a few things on her computer, then looked up. “You should be good to go.”

  I noticed just now that Pallos held something in his hand . . . my old, deep green cloak, the same that had belonged to my mother.

  “You have it,” I said, feeling my heart soar. I grabbed it, pulling it close.

  “I had it cleaned,” he said. “Should be good as new.”

  I felt tears come to my eyes. It’d been stitched in the places where crawlers had gotten to it, as well. “Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

  I hastily put it on. It felt as if my own mother was protecting me in this strange place.

  “Your boots are still on board the Odin.”

  “I figured,” I said. I noticed, in the corner, that a window was overlooking the city. I went there, hoping to catch my reflection in the glass, but once I arrived, I couldn’t get a good sense of what I looked like. Instead, I looked out at the city. It was daytime now—morning from the looks of it. Though we were high above the streets, black buildings still rose above us, even higher. I could see several airships floating between the buildings, transporting people and mechs from one pl
ace to another. I didn’t see how their billowing balloon tops didn’t crash into the buildings. One of those ships even flew under a bridge connecting the building I was in to one across the street.

  Though I couldn’t see it from here, I knew that the Crystal Temple that housed Shen couldn’t be far.

  Enough sightseeing.

  “I’m ready to leave when you are, Pallos.”

  He nodded. “Thank you for your assistance, Dr. Xiao. I would have been more worried had it been anyone else.”

  She smiled. “She is strong. Though you still haven’t told me who she is, I suspect she might be one of the Elekai, which makes me even more curious. But, it is not my place to ask.”

  “I would if I could, Maren,” Pallos said, using what must have been her first name.

  “I would never ask. May Shen guide you, Pallos Sarin.”

  Until then, I hadn’t known Pallos’ surname. “We’ll be okay. Things outside the dome are . . . intense. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “I won’t keep you. Farewell, Shanti. Try to rest.”

  We took our leave and left the room. I glanced one last time at the glass vat, suppressing a shudder. Even if the healing had been a bit unnatural, I was still glad that it had worked.

  * * *

  I fell in by Pallos’ side as we walked down the whitewashed corridor.

  “Everyone is waiting back on the Odin,” he said.

  “I remember you saying they weren’t allowed in.”

  “I’m sorry for that . . . but it is the law. We contacted Shenshi, and the fact that they even allowed them to land within the dome is far more than they’ve ever done for anyone else.”

  It was more reason for me to leave quickly. I didn’t want to keep them waiting another week. Then again, it hadn’t been my decision to come here, and I knew the others had taken a huge risk in even allowing me to come here. I still didn’t know whether Shen was ally or foe. Shen had his own motives for wanting to win against the Radaskim. For him, protecting humanity was his mandate, and that included everyone outside his empire. Even if they wouldn’t want his protection, that didn’t seem to matter.

  Shen was a whole other problem that I wasn’t ready to face.

  “Where’s the ship?”

  “On a landing pad near the boundary,” Pallos said. “We’ll need to take an airship to get there.”

  Pallos stopped at a wall, pressing a button which opened a pair of metal doors. This revealed a small, empty room filled with buttons. He stepped inside it.

  “Why are you going in there?”

  Pallos looked at me in confusion and then chuckled. “You’ve never seen an elevator before, have you?”

  “Elevator?”

  “Step in,” he said. “Before the doors close.”

  The doors did start to close, but as soon as I stepped inside, they opened again, somehow detecting my movement.

  “What is this going to do to us?”

  “Just lift us up,” Pallos said. “I promise there will be no teleportation or anything of the like.”

  After the doors closed, I felt the floor lift below me. We were moving.

  Pallos couldn’t help but laugh.

  “You think it’s funny, huh? All of us must be barbarians to you.”

  “Sorry, I can’t help myself. It’s ironic that you can pilot a spaceship but you don’t know what an elevator is.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” I said, laughing.

  We waited as the elevator kept moving.

  “We must be going high,” I said to break the silence.

  “The airship platform is on top of the building,” Pallos said. “We should be there soon.”

  As soon as he’d said this, the elevator started to slow. Once it had completely stopped, the doors slid open, revealing a rooftop and blue sky which was visible through the dome stretching over the city.

  “This way,” Pallos said.

  I followed him across the top of the building, across which stood a platform with a set of stairs leading up. Tethered to the platform was a large airship, kept aloft by the giant, ovoid balloon that must have been ten times the ship’s actual size.

  We climbed the steps of the platform, where a mustachioed man stood by the cabin door. He gestured toward the opening.

  Pallos and I stepped aboard to find all the seats lining the aisle empty.

  The attendant shut the door against the cool air while Pallos and I took our seats. Pallos looked at the window.

  “We’re the only passengers,” I said.

  Pallos nodded but didn’t turn his head. “Not many have the need to go to the boundary. Another ship will be along shortly to take them to other places in the city.”

  Promptly, the airship shifted as two men on the platform let loose the lines. The ship’s engines whirred as it floated upward. The building seeming to fall away as the vessel turned and flew away, at a speed much slower than the Odin.

  We flew like that for fifteen minutes or so before the craft descended, far more slowly than the speed at which it had taken off. The way the craft was angled, I couldn’t get a view of where we were going. A sudden thump told me we had landed.

  We stood and headed for the door, which Pallos opened before even the attendant could. The crewman looked at him disapprovingly, but Pallos seemed to not notice or care.

  “After you, Shanti.”

  I walked through the door and was treated to the sight of my friends waiting.

  “Shanti!” Isa and Shara shouted in unison as they ran forward.

  I felt my eyes fill with tears and I ran to meet them, hugging them both at the same time.

  Fiona was next, who hugged me gently. “You have to be more careful next time, Shanti.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re feeling all right?”

  I nodded. “I’m completely fine.” Even the burning pain on my skin had receded during the ride.

  I gave hugs to the rest, all of whom were waiting for their turn. I tried to make it quick because we had a lot to do. Once it was over, I stood back to where I could see everyone.

  “I was skeptical of this, but I’m just glad I’m better. I want to apologize for pushing myself too hard. If it weren’t for Pallos and the doctors at Shenshi, I would surely be crippled for life,” I paused. “At the same time, we cannot rely on Shen’s hospitality. We need to stand on our own two feet, and we need to be very careful going forward. That doesn’t mean we won’t fight . . . we’ll always fight to defend our world. I just won’t throw us into impossible odds.”

  “Well said,” Elder Tellor stated.

  “With that part out of the way, it’s time for the next part of our plan. It’s time to meet the dragons at Dragonspire. If Shal’s swarm is to be defeated, we will need every bit of their help.”

  “The Elder dragons should be close to arriving there by now,” Isandru said. “And Isaru might be anywhere in the Wild at this point.”

  “I suggest we get moving immediately, then.”

  Everyone headed for Odin while I waited out on the top of the building. I looked back at the countless buildings of Shenshi, seeking out the largest of them all, which dwarfed the others. The Crystal Temple, the home of Shen.

  I didn’t know why, but it felt as if he was watching me as much as I was trying to watch him.

  “Let’s go,” Pallos said. “The barrier will remain open another hour or so. Best to get out while we can.”

  I nodded. “Let’s fire her up, then.”

  I followed Pallos onto Odin.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I WENT INSIDE TO FIND everyone seated and ready for liftoff. I walked through the wardroom toward the flight deck and took my seat in the pilot’s chair.

  It felt good to be back.

  I didn’t waste time in turning on the engines. The fusion generator responded instantly, its power thrumming through Odin’s hull. I even felt it in my hand on the control stick.

  I turned on the intercom. “Prepare
for liftoff.”

  I powered on the thrusters and felt the ship rise from the building below. I veered to port, heading for the thin boundary encasing the city.

  “Just fly through it, right?”

  Pallos nodded. “It’s offline for the next hour. Fly on through.”

  The thing looked as if it were made from solid material, but it literally encompassed the entire city. I had gone through it once while approaching the city by sea, and of course, on our way here with Odin, though I wasn’t on the flight deck for that.

  I kept my gaze firm as the barrier quickly approached. Its slight pink translucence filled the windshield, and was passed through and gone almost as soon as it had arrived. I changed the display on the LCD to show the aft cameras, which revealed the barrier already fading into the distance.

  “We’re out of Shenshi, setting course for Dragonspire,” I said into the comm. “Stay seated in the meantime. We’re low on fuel, so we have no choice but to stock up. I’d like to do so somewhere outside of Shen lands.”

  Pallos signaled that he wanted to talk to me privately. I clicked the intercom off.

  “Where do you plan to fuel?” he asked.

  “If memory serves, the coast extends a good way down into a long isthmus called Baja. Or at least, that’s what they called it in Anna’s time. It’s probably remote enough to spend a few hours safely.”

  “Pirates are thick in that area,” Pallos said. “Even the Shen don’t have the manpower to keep those waters safe.”

  “Well, there’s the Gulf.”

  “Just as bad,” Pallos said. “Firstly, it’s too far and I wouldn’t risk it, and secondly, the Shen currently have one trading post there, at Les Cayes. Too far to help, and they’re traders, not fighters. What the pirates don’t control, Nova and Brasilia do, and they are ever at war. Even if the fuel could carry us there, I judge we’d be too exposed. This ship is only good if it’s in the air, after all.”

  “Since the Californian coast is a no go, our options are pirates or this Brasilia I’ve only heard about a handful of times. Should we flip a coin?”