Folding the Sky

-42-

She turned her head slowly, first left, then right. On one side of the pallet, Chike sat asleep on the floor, back leaned against a support beam and his head tilted back as he snored. On the other was Aldric, propped up on his own makeshift bed, a tense knit of skin between his bluish-black brows as he slept. A white bandage crept up over the torn collar of his dress shirt, but Zuri let the relief flood in that he was otherwise unharmed.

"Zuri?"

She turned her head again. Chike sat up straight now, blinking, eyes wide and alert. "Chike," she gasped. "Are you—"

He shook his head, an unbelieving smile on his face. "I'm perfectly fine. You do remember what my ability is, don't you?"

If she didn't feel so weak, she would have laughed at herself. "Of course I do. However, you're my friend so by default I'm allowed to worry."

"Right back at you," he said, but his smile dipped just enough for Zuri to notice. He scooted closer, his words warm with sympathy. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you thirsty? Hungry?"

"Frankly, Chike, my head is spinning and you asking a bunch of questions isn't helping," said Zuri, though she was grinning—or at least as much as she could grin when every movement felt as though she were dragging herself through honey. "Just...tell me everyone else is okay, too, right? That's all I need."

"Jem got some debris in her eyes, but she's doing fine," Chike answered after a moment. He paused, gesturing at Aldric. "Aldric over there probably fractured a rib or two judging from the bruising, but as we know, he's tough, so that's nothing to him. The rest of us got out unscathed."

Zuri nodded, letting the words sink into her being. Everyone is okay. And even if they are not one hundred percent okay, they are alive, and that is enough. "I just don't understand," she said, when she was ready, when her soul had stilled enough that she was now prepared to face what stood before her, before all of them. "Who would do this? Who would kill so many people, and—and why?"

Even before he spoke, Zuri knew the answer wouldn't be a pleasing one. She saw it on Chike's face, the way he leaned forward, nervously interlacing his fingers.

"You're not going to like this," Chike told her, slowly, "but it was the Queen's doing."

He was right; she definitely didn't like this. It was a gelid, unsettling shock, like stepping unprepared into a blizzard. The Queen? If the Queen had turned against them, where did that leave them, then?

Chike filled her in on everything Enzi had explained before the bombs went off, and Zuri listened intently while he did, her unease growing and growing like black mold with every word. The Queen hadn't called them for this honorable task because no one else could do it; she'd done so because there was no one better to exploit.

"Kalindi," she said when Chike was done. "How is Kalindi dealing with this?"

Chike frowned, giving a bewildered shake of his head. "As best you can deal with finding out your own mother wants you dead, I suppose. Jem's been with her all night."

"Good," Zuri said, and she meant it. It wasn't the sort of event someone should be left alone to process. "In the mean time we need to figure out a plan. Did they find anything at Mulaim before it...before it was destroyed? Did we—"

"Zuri, Zuri. Please," Chike said, regarding her gravely, and only as he reached to settle her back against the blankets did she note the dark, plum-colored skin beneath his eyes. "We need a second. Just a second, to breathe. Then we can pick up the pieces, okay?"

Zuri wanted to. She wanted to take a break, she wanted to close her eyes, she wanted to pretend. But they were running out of time, weren't they? How much longer could they wait before it was too late to fix anything?