Cody smiled as he pushed open a heavy door, leading me outside into the warm night air. There were more lights outside, a hundred moons shining from windows and tall poles, some moving and some standing still. My eyes bounced around, trying to take everything in, awe and confusion overwhelming my mind. It smelled funny outside, the way the wind was scented when the plane flew away.
Cody opened the door to the car and I got inside, my fingers moving over the strange material of the seat, my gaze moving from one thing to another, items I had no name for and did not understand.
Driving in a car felt like the helicopter, only less exhilarating. It stayed attached to the ground and moved more slowly, other cars with their bright lights in front and in back, and on both sides of us, moving in either direction. I leaned toward the window, gazing at the buildings flying by, a few people walking, my head turning to watch them. They didn’t look dangerous. They didn’t look like soldiers or criminals or enemies. Everything here was fast and bright, and too confusing to comprehend. “Are we almost there?” I choked.
“Yes, Karys,” Cody answered. He gave me an encouraging nod. I released a breath, my shoulders falling slightly. “You’re doing great. I know this is a lot.” He pulled the car into another parking lot, and then we were walking again, into a building that was less bright, people in white telling Cody Rutland where to go when he asked.
We entered a dim room, filled with strange sounds and more furniture I’d never seen before. A quiet cry moved up my throat and burst forth when I saw Zakai lying in the tall bed. Suddenly shaking, I rushed to him, gripping his hand in mine, and laying my head on his chest, the tears I’d been holding inside finally falling free.
“Karys,” he croaked, and when I raised my head, his eyes were open. “Karys, Karys.” He lifted his hand and he was shaking as well as he ran his thickly bandaged palm over my hair, my cheek, catching my tear on his exposed fingertip. “My little star,” he said, his voice a mere whisper. “Have they harmed you?”
I shook my head, turning my face to kiss his white bandages, my heart rejoicing.
“No, Zakai,” I said so quietly only he could hear. “They say they came to save us.”
CHAPTER TEN
It took Zakai eight days before they let him leave the hospital, his body still moving slowly and carefully as he managed his cracked ribs and broken wrists. His face looked better than it had, although the bruises remained yellow and mottled, his features still swollen, black rows of stitches mending his cuts.
Everything felt far too big and blindingly bright. I wanted to question it all, to understand it and find a way to stop fearing every step I took, but it was too much, and too overwhelming all at once. For the most part, I lay snuggled up to Zakai in his hospital bed, the steady beat of his heartbeat, serving as my own lifeline too.
As long as I was beside him, safe in his grasp, he slept. But otherwise, he was on edge, his eyes darting from one thing to the next, a million emotions racing across his brutalized face more quickly than even I could begin to categorize.
“What is this place?” I asked.
He stroked my hair, laying his lips on my forehead for a moment. “It’s home because you’re here.”
That was enough. For right then, that was enough. But as I drifted to sleep I heard Zakai murmur, “I can’t protect you here, little star. I’m so sorry.” But he was protecting me. I was safe in his arms.
Cody Rutland came to see us, asking more questions about Sundara, telling us our other family members were safe too, and requesting that we describe the ones who watched. “I wrote some of their names in my notebook,” I remembered.
Cody Rutland looked up. “Your notebook?”
“It was under my sleeping pad. It has a yellow cover. All my stories are in it too.” I met Cody Rutland’s eyes. “I’d like to have my stories,” I said. Those written accounts were my tangible reminder of the life that suddenly felt so far away, the one I both longed for and reviled.
“We’ve confiscated—collected—most of what was on Sundara,” he said. “I’ll try to get your stories back for you, Karys.”
I nodded, offering him the only smile I could muster.
He left quickly after that, and Zakai and I gripped each other once again, the love and devotion I felt for him the only thing holding me to this new and different world. Without his love I would drift away, sucked up into the clouds where I could never return, not even if I chose.