It was the second day since Skylor and Kissimi had fled the Polarian military base and General Tulimaq's soldiers. The morning after their daring escape, the two girls crept from their makeshift igloo. Although the icy tundra appeared serene and silent, Skylor did not looking out for any signs of the blue-and-gray-clad soldiers.
First order of business was breakfast. "If there's a lake around here," Kissimi suggested hopefully. "Then we could catch some fish."
"Fish." Skylor looked around at the frozen wasteland. "OK... so how do you fish around here?"
Kissimi looked confused. "You mean you don't know how to fish?"
"No, I don't know how to fish here." Skylor rested her hands on her hips. "This... Polaria is a very different place from where I live."
"Oh, that's right," Kissimi gasped. "You're from the spirit world. You must do things differently than us."
Skylor sighed and ran a hand through her ponytail. She tried to feel patient. "All right. Look, Kissimi. I'm not an ice sprit. Or a spirit of any kind. I'm just... different. Where I come from, people like me are called Elemental Masters." She met the girl's gaze, willing her to understand. "I'm the Master of Amber. That means I can absorb other Masters' powers and wield them myself. I'm still a normal person, like you, but I just have special abilities. Does that make sense?"
The young girl looked puzzled, but eventually nodded. "I suppose so... Though I do not completely understand, it is still amazing."
Skylor allowed herself to smile. "Yeah. I guess it is pretty amazing."
Kissimi's eyes lit up eagerly. "Where did you get your powers? Were you born with them, or did you earn them, and a spirit gave them to you as a reward?"
"I was born with my power. I inherited them from my mother."
"Was your mother a goddess? Are you a demigod? Is that why your hair's red? Where's your mother? Is she—?"
"She's gone." Skylor interrupted before her companion could list another half a dozen rapid questions. "She... passed away."
"Oh." Kissimi's excited smile faded. She looked up at Skylor and said quietly, "My mother passed away, too."
Skylor felt an unexpected twinge of sympathy. "I'm sorry."
There was a moment of silence before she cleared her throat self-consciously. "So—how about that fish?"
* * *
Kissimi and Skylor used the "borrowed" ice-jet to glide across the tundra in search of a lake. The sun glowed dimly behind a thin veil of clouds.
After a little while Kissimi asked, "Can I fly the ice-jet?"
One hand on the steering panel, Skylor cast her companion a skeptical look. "How old are you?"
"Twelve winter moons since I was born."
Twelve years old, probably. "Mm..." Skylor looked at the steering panel, then out at the bleak, flat landscape. Aside from hills lining the distant horizon to their right, there was no sign of any landmarks nor irregular spot of nature for the craft to crash into; Polaria, at the moment, was just a big, white, flat field of snow and ice.
She acceded. "I guess so."
Kissimi took over the controls eagerly and looked fascinated by all the buttons and steering mechanisms. Skylor warned her sternly not to touch them. Thankfully Kissimi was an obedient child and followed the rest of her instructor's brisk orders as the small flying craft skimmed over the snow.
When the sun was nearing the tip of the sky—and when Skylor's stomach was cramping painfully with hunger—Kissimi spotted their lake. She turned the craft gently to the right and flew over some hills and out to a wide stretch of ice and snow going on for several miles.
It was only when the ice-jet was parked and the passengers had hopped off onto the ground did Skylor realize that this indeed was a lake. It was just completely frozen over.
"What do we need to catch our fish?"
"Well..." The girl pursed her lips in thought. "We need a chisel, a spoon—"
"A spoon? What for?"
"For scooping the extra ice away when we make our hole. You know. A digging spoon."
"We need to make a hole?" Skylor looked out at the lake's surface.
"Yes, to catch our fish from."
Skylor smiled. "I don't think a chisel or digging spoon will be necessary."
For a fishing line, Skylor discovered some surgical thread from what looked to be the Polarian jet's first-aid kit. She used the clasp of her belt as the bait, as Kissimi claimed they needed something silver and shiny.
They walked out to the middle of the frozen lake. The young Polarian native was curious as to what means Skylor would use to make a hole in the thick, solid ice. Skylor couldn't help but smile to herself. She stood with her hands held out over the ice where she wanted the hole to be, imagining it four feet wide around or so. Steadying herself, she summoned Zane's element of Ice.
Kissimi gasped when a thin crack seemingly acted on its own and shaped a circle in the ground, snapping quietly. Then, the layers of ice and snow fell away, only to abruptly rise up and hover in midair, then away from the hole. Skylor made a pile by their fishing hole without even touching the ice, waving her hands to and fro to guide her loads from the hole to the surface. Meanwhile the water suddenly gushed and bubbled up, nearly spilling over the brim of the hole. Kissimi gaped in amazement, then clapped enthusiastically.
Skylor made a mock bow toward her companion. "Well, now, Miss Kissimi of Polaria, teach me how to fish."
At Kissimi's gentle instruction, Skylor crouched down a few feet away from the hole, so that the girl could have it to herself. Kissimi got on her hands and knees and bent over the hole, using her shadow to block sunlight from hitting the water—most likely to keep the fish from realizing there was a opening there, Skylor realized.
Kissimi dipped the line with the silver buckle tied onto it down into the dark water, and then proceeded to wiggle the line back and forth. Skylor watched. She could imagine the little buckle waving to and fro in the dark lake, its silver reflection looking like a nice, tasty small fish for the bigger fish to munch on.
She was impressed by how smoothly the young girl seemed to handle her lure. She must have been doing this for years. There was something quite expert in the way Kissimi had brief pauses in her wiggling patterns and subtle twitches of the lure. Frequently, she blew at the water quietly.
Skylor saw her blowing at the water several times and was perplexed about it. She spent a long time crouching there and studying her young angler friend before she realized that Kissimi was blowing the extra ice chips in the water out of the way, so that she could see down into the lake.
Skylor wasn't quite sure how long she sat there, watching Kissimi blowing and wiggling the lure. Silence became their only companion out on the empty lake, and Skylor found herself bored. She wanted to move, to stretch her now-cramping muscles (both her feet were asleep), but she was afraid she'd scare away any fish. Gradually she fell into a sleepy stupor.
That's why she jumped and yelped when Kissimi suddenly yanked a fish out of the water. Kissimi made a funny little clucking noise, cooing at the fish as it wriggled and thrashed. Skylor saw its brownish-gray gills gasping desperately.
"Quick!" Kissimi cried. "Help me find something to hit its head with!"
Skylor yanked her boot off and tossed it. The girl took it gratefully and proceeded to deliver a good pounding to the fish's head with the heel. Soon the fish stopped wriggling.
"Woo," Kissimi breathed a sigh. "Thanks. I like to finish them quickly, instead of letting them wriggle like that." She tossed back the boot.
"No problem." Skylor inspected the boot suspiciously, but there were no signs of gore. She put it back on.
The fish was a dark mix of gray and brown, stretching out to a little over a foot, and plump. Skylor gaped at the size. She was not used to seeing such large fish. The most fish she'd seen in her life were the dainty little goldfish, half-sized, bright colored koi, and the slimy, stinky meat slices they sold in fish markets.
"That's pretty big."
"It'll feed us." Kissimi smiled mischievously. "But you should probably catch one, too."
Thus Skylor learned to catch fish the traditional native Polarian way. With Kissimi's help, she brought in a large fish herself, and she was quite pleased with her catch.
The girls ate their late breakfast by the parked ice-jet. Skylor found some spare rope and a wooden box to smash and use for the fire she made. Kissimi did most of the work of cutting and cleaning the fish—not that Skylor didn't want to do it, but that the younger girl was more experienced in preparing the fish. With some thin splints borrowed from the craft's first-aid kit, they roasted their slices of fish over the crackling flames until the flesh reached a rich, crisp brown color. Both of them ate with their bare hands.
It could've used some rice and soy sauce, Skylor thought wryly. But, not bad. "Not bad at all," she said out loud. Kissimi smiled proudly at that.
Now that both of them felt full and content, she turned her attention to the next most important matter. "Kissimi, do you know how to get to your village from here?"
The girl licked her fingers thoughtfully. "I think so."
"You 'think' so? You know we can't go wandering around in this frozen wasteland forever—"
"I know the general direction we should head for," Kissimi interjected. "All I have to do is read the sky."
"Read the... sky?"
Kissimi gave her an odd look. "You know. To find your way around. Follow the signs of the sun, moon, and stars."
Skylor sat up, interested. "Tell me how that works."
"You do not know how?" she sounded surprised.
"Where I come from, we don't need to look at the sky to find our way around. We have maps and satellites."
"Maps and what?"
"Never mind. How do you use the sky to find your way around here?"
Kissimi hesitated. "Well, I am only just learning and trying to memorize the patterns of the constellations. Gram says I learn too slowly. But at least I know a simple way to follow the moon at night—at least every few weeks—when the moon is in its claw shape."
"Claw shape?"
"Yes." Kissimi removed her one of her mittens and traced her finger in the snow before her. Skylor recognized the shape of a crescent moon.
"See the ends of the claw? Gram calls those ends the horns. If you draw a line like this—" She traced a line in the snow that connected the ends of the "horns" together and that extended down. She drew another line below it, this one horizontal. "That is the horizon. This line from the ends of the claw moon points down south."
Skylor felt impressed. "That's pretty smart. Though it might help more if we actually knew where we were."
"I have an idea," Kissimi said. "When the soldiers took me away, I made sure to peek out of the ice-jet they carried me in to see where the sun pointed, so that I could keep track of where they were taking me. It was still early morning, so it was in the east. The big stone place they kept us in—"
"The fortress."
"The fortress," Kissimi repeated the unfamiliar word slowly. "It is north-east of my village, probably a three or four-day journey on foot. It is far away, in a safe place from the soldiers."
Skylor looked over at the ice-jet hovering in midair several yards away. "And how long would the journey be if we used the ice-jet, do you think?"
A broad grin broke across Kissimi's face. "We'd probably be home by tomorrow's noon!"
"In that case," Skylor stood up briskly. "I'd say we'd better get going. Personally, I'd like to get to your village before the Polarians can find us."
* * *
The girls traveled in the ice-jet for the rest of the day. Despite her companion's confidence, Skylor couldn't help but feel worried—for both her sake and Kissimi's. She wasn't sure how following the moon and stars like a map worked, but she was pretty sure that even in Polaria, they moved and changed over the months. Did Kissimi keep track of the phases? In truth the girl seemed bright enough to remember a detail like that, but still...
Skylor wanted them to reach the native village safely, without being discovered by the Polarian soldiers. She knew she could outfight dozens of those men with her elemental powers, but she also knew that the army was large... and of course there was Kissimi to think about.
Fortunately, the ride was smooth and uneventful. She hoped the ice-jet would not run out of whatever fuel it ran on anytime soon.
The girls traveled south-west, in the direction Kissimi claimed her home to be. Eventually small hills and icy streams began to dot the landscape. Several times they caught sight of dark, oval-like shapes sunning by the banks of the rivers, often barking at the loud ice-jet whizzing by.
"Those are seals," Kissimi explained as they swept past the first group of animals. "They're really tasty."
There was still daylight when they finally stopped and found another place to build a makeshift igloo for the night. The sun disappeared quickly in Polaria. The girls hadn't had lunch, thus both their bellies were grumbling loudly by the time they took out their lure and ventured to find a small pond. They took turns crouching at the hole and caught several large, dark-colored fish. They ate most of their catches for dinner, but Kissimi suggested burying a few in the snow outside the igloo so that they'd have something to eat in the morning.
When the crescent moon was high in the sky, the campfire they'd created was out, and their bellies were full, Skylor and Kissimi laid themselves on the ground to stare up at the night sky. Millions of stars sprawled across the dark abyss that was space beyond, twinkling coldly upon the frozen land. These stars seemed different from the stars Skylor had grown up with in Ninjago.
A reminder of how far I really am from where I belong, she thought despondently.
Kissimi pointed out a few of the constellations and told Skylor some of the stories behind them. "See those two? The ones that look like a man and a woman reaching out one hand each to one another?"
"Yeah."
"They are Silla and Meriwa. Long ago, before the Great Spirits put the moon and sun in the sky and gave us fire, Silla and Meriwa were two lovers: he a great hunter, she a kind healer. They were very much in love," Kissimi murmured sleepily.
Skylor wasn't sure if she wanted to listen to a love story about dead people and lifeless stars. Personally, she would rather had crawled into the igloo already to sleep and rest up for the journey for tomorrow.
However, she realized it made Kissimi happy to look at the stars and to talk about the stories she grew up with. She knew the child must be homesick, and figured that reliving her culture's folktales would help dull the ache. She decided to let Kissimi talk for a while.
Inwardly, Skylor was amused at herself. Fate had driven her—feisty, self-confident, independent, fighting-machine Skylor—to become the quiet and patient companion of a twelve-year-old girl as both of them fled from an enemy in a strange land. Skylor would probably had gone faster alone, but with the child in tow, she realized she couldn't take any risks—not if she wanted to keep Kissimi safe.
So I'm basically babysitting. Skylor suppressed a dry chuckle at herself. If anyone in Ninjago saw me now, they wouldn't recognize me. Briefly, she wondered what Kai would say if he could see her taking a child under her wing—something Skylor of Ninjago certainly would not have done.
Kissimi continued to speak dreamily, and Skylor forced herself to pay attention. "This was in the time when the spirits and the mortals could walk together, and it was in this time that many wars took place between the dark spirits and the people. For years, Silla and Meriwa fought together as fellow warriors: he with his great curved sword and she with her magic of healing.
"In one battle the human army went into the heart of the spirits' realm and sought to destroy their queen. Silla led the army into the heart of the enemy land and battled many evil spirits with his great sword, and Meriwa used her magic to hurt the spirits and heal their fellow warriors.
"Then Silla battled the queen of the dark spirits, Arnapkapfaaluk..."
Well, that's a mouthful of a name. Skylor tried to suppress a snort.
"And they fought for a long time. Arnapkapfaaluk saw Silla's heart and his love for Meriwa, so when she saw Meriwa coming up behind Silla to help him, she shot an evil spell at her, and Meriwa fell dead.
"Silla grieved for her, but because she was a magic healer, her spirit rose from her body. She told Silla, 'Do not grieve for long, but allow the ache in your heart to ease and heal, for I will never leave you—not in life, nor in death, for love lasts forever'.
"Then Meriwa left to join the good spirits in the sky, but part of her stayed with Silla, for years and years until he too died. Because he was only an ordinary hunter, he had to live with his ancestors instead of the holy spirits like Meriwa did, and they could not see each other in those places.
"But," At this Kissimi raised one hand up to the sky, gesturing to the constellations. "Sometimes during the year, when you can see the dancing fire in the sky, you can see Silla and Meriwa moving closer together, reaching out their arms to one another in an embrace. That's when they're together and happy, which is why the hunting is always good during this time of year." Kissimi yawned. "My sister would tell me that story often after our mother died. She told it to remind me that even when people pass away, they are still with us... always. And we'll see them again."
Skylor did not respond. She found herself staring at the stars intently, trying to make out the doomed lovers.
* * *
The next morning was like the previous one: The girls got up, ate slightly-burnt fish for breakfast, erased evidence of their igloo, then hopped onto the ice-jet and shot away across the ice.
Skylor's optimism began to ebb away as the day wore on and there continued to be no sign of any village. Just hills, snow, and seals.
"Just keep going," Kissimi pleaded. "We're going in the right direction, I know it!"
Skylor obliged. She couldn't think of anything else to do.
The hills began to grow as the sun rose higher and higher in the bright blue sky. The reflection of the sunlight upon the snow was so blindingly painful that Skylor rummaged desperately through the little ship's boxes of supplies in search of something that could act as sunglasses. She discovered a few pairs of round, thick, plastic goggles with dark, green-colored shades and put them on. Shielding the eyes from the reflection of the snow was obviously the purpose of these devices, and Skylor passed a pair to Kissimi.
"Wow!" The girl blinked through the shades in amazement. "I wish we had a whole box of these, so that everyone in my village could have a pair! These are amazing!"
Skylor grunted. "At least we can see now."
At midday they stopped the ice-jet to stretch their legs. They had found a clump of hills to park the ice-jet in the midst of, and Skylor decided to clamber up one of them.
"Where are you going?" Kissimi asked when Skylor started trudging uphill.
"To take a look around."
Kissimi, being the tagalong, joined her. Skylor decided to let her. It wasn't as if there was anything useful for the kid to do down at the foot of the hill.
The two of them trudged up. Despite the snow, it didn't Skylor long to reach the summit. Panting, she placed her hands on her hips and swung her gaze down the hillside and beyond.
Even with the occasional low hills, the land was flat. Stainless snow stretched out as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of any living thing in this frozen wasteland, not even a seal. At the west and northern horizons, Skylor thought she could see the dark shapes of mountains.
It was a desolate yet strangely beautiful realm.
Kissimi joined her, gasping quietly. Her breath fogged up in front of her. "What does the land you come from look like?"
Skylor grunted. "Nothing like this, that's for sure."
"Is your snow like this snow?"
"Of course. But sometimes we don't have it, and some places don't get it at all."
Kissimi's dark eyes widened with amazement. "Some places don't have snow?"
"Oh, yeah. My childhood home never got snow. I've never seen a place like this before." She remembered the jungle island her father Master Chen had raised her in.
"No snow," Kissimi breathed. "Then what do you have instead?"
"Trees. Grass. Bushes. Everything's green."
"What's 'green'?"
Skylor blinked in surprise. "You've never seen green before?"
"I don't know. What does it look like?"
"Uhh..." Skylor felt a little amazed that Kissimi had never seen green before—but then how could she, in a place like this? "It's a color. Like... like if you mixed yellow and blue together."
Kissimi looked confused.
"Or, like, a..." Trying to think, Skylor looked back at the landscape again. She stiffened. "An ice-jet!"
"Green is like an ice-jet?"
"No, there!" Skylor gestured sharply out in the direction they'd come, just north of where they were. "Look! Coming out from those hills!"
Kissimi inhaled sharply as a small, silver shape skimmed out from the cover of some hills and flew toward the girls. The vehicle was so far away, it looked smaller than an ant, but Skylor recognized the square sails and silver shape that flew across the snow.
"Polarian soldiers." She crouched down behind the summit, keeping her eyes on the ship. "It looks like just one ship. Weird..."
Kissimi crouched down alongside Skylor. "How did they find us?" She sounded scared.
"You tell me, ice expert." Skylor shrugged. "Maybe we accidentally left tracks. Or maybe there's a way for the soldiers to track all their ice-jets." At this idea, she inwardly chastened herself for not checking for any bugs on the ship.
"What are we going to do?"
Skylor gazed at the little ice-jet, noting how it was heading for the hills. Those ships couldn't hold very many people, half a dozen at most. If this ship was by itself, with no backup nearby...
She felt herself smirk. "Why, we'll greet them, of course."
* * *
"No, no, no... Don't do this to me now!"
Akiak yanked and joggled the steering stick on the control panel. The ice-jet was slowing as it neared the base of the hills, then choking and sputtering. Desperately, he managed to urge the ship into cover beneath the shadow snowy outcrops, just before the engines coughed and at last died.
Akiak stumbled and fell as the ice-jet hit the ground and skid across the snow with loud shrieks. The little ship slid several yards forward before bumping into a steep hillside. Something at the bow crunched when it hit the wall of ice. The ice-jet dipped downward before shifting back up, metal moaning. The bottom half of the stern was buried in snow while the bow pointed upwards, leaving the vehicle sitting at a sharp, uncomfortable angle.
Crossly Akiak muttered, "I should've recharged before I left the team." He hopped off and took a look at the buried stern. He kicked feebly at the snow, then turned to the side of the ship and opened a hidden panel. He peered at the interior of the engine, then stepped back, slamming the panel shut.
"That settles it. I'm stranded. Toklo's gonna kill me." Groaning, he ran both his hands up into his mop of messy red hair. "Well, at least it can't get much worse."
That's when Skylor leapt out of nowhere and slammed him to the ground.
"You!" she exclaimed, recognizing him. She had his face buried in the snow with one knee planted in his back and both hands forcing him down. She didn't yield when he flailed and kicked his legs beneath her.
"How many soldiers are in that ice-jet?" she demanded.
His voice was muffled by the snow. "Ihm-awaffm! Ihm-awaffm!"
She let him raise his head. By this time, he'd stopped struggling. Coldly she asked again, "How many soldiers?"
"I— I'm alone." He spat ice and blinked snow out of his eyes. His face was bright pink from being forced into the cold substance.
"Sure you are." She shook him. "How many?!"
"It's just me, I swear! I swear to my gods and yours, or whoever you worship!" he pleaded. "I'm alone!"
She glanced at the fallen ice-jet. If there were any Polarian soldiers in there, they would have come out by now. "Who knows we're here?"
"Nobody. I made sure they wouldn't be able to find either you or me."
"How'd you find us?"
"All the army's ice-jets are linked by tracking signals. It wasn't hard."
"So the rest of your buddies could be here any minute."
"No." He squirmed, trying to face her. "I hacked the controls so that it messed up everyone else's signals. After a bunch of search teams went out on wild penguin chases, they're back at the castle and trying to figure out what the problem is. They've probably fixed it by now, but at least I gave you some extra time."
Skylor stared at him. "Extra time? What, like— you're helping us?"
He grimaced. "Yeah. And, uh... would you let me up now? My neck is cramping."
"Not quite yet." Her hold on him remained. "Why should I believe you?"
"I just got General Tulimaq off your trail and now I'm risking my life to save yours—isn't that enough for you?"
"Don't try to lie to me," she snapped. "I can read your mind, and I mean that literally."
The interrogation was interrupted by Kissimi's voice. "Can I come down, Skylor?"
Skylor looked up to see the girl standing on the outcrop behind her, watching at the scene with wide eyes. "It's OK, Kissimi. He's the only one here. You can come."
Kissimi slid down the sharp slope and joined them. Skylor quickly informed her on what Akiak had just told her. She finally let him up, though made sure to take his blaster from his holster and to check him for any other weapons. She found a skinning knife and what looked like some kind of batteries that acted as ammunition for the blaster. She confiscated it all and made him stand with hands on his head. She kept the blaster in hand.
Kissimi stared at him skeptically. "Can we believe him?"
"I'll check." Skylor took a breath and concentrated, summoning the Element of the Mind. Akiak gave her a funny look.
"What... are you doing?"
"I told you I can read your mind, didn't I?"
He looked uneasy. "Are you saying you can see what I'm thinking? Like, right now?"
"Yup." She could already feel the warm hum of his consciousness. She reached out, expecting to feel the wriggling sensation of guilt or deception. To her surprise, though, the only emotions she could clearly feel were alarm, wariness, and growing disbelief.
"I'm not buying it. I mean, I know you basically beat up the whole army back there," He stammered. "But I think you're just bluffing."
Skylor arched one eyebrow coolly. "Try me."
"How?"
"Think of random stuff. Stuff I wouldn't be able to guess."
He licked his lips nervously. "All right..." He hesitated. "So. What am I thinking of right now?"
Skylor mentally reached for his consciousness. She caught sight of dim, flickering images in his mind, and she struggled to hold onto them and get a good look—it was one thing to absorb a Master's element, but it was another entirely for one to master it herself. That kind of thing took much practice and patience.
Eventually she responded. "You're thinking of those gross bean-things they serve for lunch at the fortress."
Akiak's eyes widened.
"Now you're wondering for again whether or not I'm a ice-spirit. You still want to test me. Now you're thinking of the pillow fight you and two other privates had last week that almost got you in trouble.
"Sticking chewed-up gum on your bunkmate's pillow. Pickled fish. Dandruff. Deodorant. The cloud you saw earlier that looks like a dog. When you first saw me. My face. My red hair. My— oh." She blinked and gave him a murderous stare. "Oh, Kai wouldn't like that."
Akiak's eyes bugged out. "Holy gods, you are a spirit!" He fell to his knees. "Forgive me! From whatever holy realm you come from, I—"
"She's not a spirit," Kissimi piped up cheerfully. "She's an Elemental Master."
He stared at the girl. "What?"
Skylor responded sharply, feeling irritated. "An Elemental Master. Not a spirit. I'm a normal person, but with special powers."
He sputtered. "What does that even mean?"
"It means, don't get any big ideas about tricking me," she retorted dryly. "Because I guarantee if you make one wrong move, it'll be your last." She waved the blaster in her hand for emphasis.
His hands were already out where she could see them, but now he held them up further, protesting. "This isn't a trick, I swear! If— I mean, not if, you just proved you can, but— since you can read my mind, you can tell I'm saying the truth, right?"
"I'll see." She took Akiak's blaster and tossed it to Kissimi, who caught the weapon neatly. "If he moves while I'm looking at his mind, you know what to do."
The girl gulped, but nodded grimly in obedience. Skylor took a breath, summoning the power once more. She reached out for Akiak's consciousness and again met the emotions of fear, the adrenaline that came with it, and mild confusion.
No deception. No lies. Not as far as she could tell.
So why do you want to help us? Skylor thought to herself. Concentrating, breathing slowly and softly, she ventured a little further into his mind, losing awareness of the world around her—hopefully Kissimi would do as she said and keep an eye on the Polarian soldier. Skylor warily began to filter some of his thoughts and emotions concerning the young native and herself. She didn't want to take too long, but she had to be patient. It was not easy to grab onto abstract thoughts and bring them up for her to see.
Desperate. He felt desperate for Skylor and the little girl. He had spent countless months in that wretched fortress and on the battlefields and watched as his people drove out, killed, captured, and tortured the natives of these frozen wastelands. His young, almost childlike conscience had tugged constantly in the beginning of his years in the military, but as time and the cruelty dragged on and had become routine, he forced himself to harden his heart against the natives.
However, a few good influences in his life—such as Commander Toklo, who had discreetly taken the boy under his wing ever since Akiak's father had passed away—stayed with him.
Akiak had hardly taken note of the girl Kissimi when she was brought in, as natives were often dragged into the depths of the castle dungeons, never to return. Skylor, however, had been different. Looking through his memories, she saw how Akiak himself had spotted her lifeless body lying on the frozen lake and how he had risked his life to retrieve her.
Then she saw him bringing her back to the castle and watching the guardsmen carry her away to the cells. He had been with the soldiers who checked on her and attempted to wake her once or twice, though he had not been there when the Polarians had used the whip on her.
Akiak respected her, having witnessed her taking out half the army and escaping the heavily fortified castle beneath his nose, despite the humiliation he received from that episode. He had finally realized that he didn't want to see those two girls captured and dragged back to the fortress and executed. It wasn't right. Thus he had made the decision to throw his fellow soldiers and search parties off the trail, find the mysterious ice-spirit girl himself, and help her and the young savage get to safety, wherever that might be.
Now he felt terrified and was starting to regret the insane choices he made. He kept wondering what would happen if he got caught being a traitor, which would be very likely by this point. Still, hope was flickering now as the pretty redhead ice-spirit seemed to be considering his words and letting him live.
At last Skylor yanked herself out of his consciousness. She felt dizzy and took a step back, putting one hand to her head.
Whoa. She made a mental note to herself. OK: don't go so deep into someone's head next time. That's probably going to give me a headache.
"Are you all right?" Kissimi was watching her guardian anxiously.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Skylor regained her composure and faced Akiak. He looked as anxious as Kissimi did.
"Did you feel anything?" she asked, partly out of true curiosity. How did it feel for the Element of Mind to be used on someone?
"It kind of tickled," he admitted slowly. "But not much. What— what are you going to do now?"
Skylor regarded him, then slipped the blaster back into the holster on her belt. "Well, since you're telling the truth, and you're kind of risking everything in your life just by being out here with us... I'd say you might as well tag along."
Kissimi looked incredulous. "You mean he's not going to take us back? Or kill us?"
"That's exactly what I mean. Trust me, Kissimi," she added. "He's on our side now."
Akiak's hands fell to his sides, shoulders slumping with relief. "Thank you."
"We're trying to get to Kissimi's village," Skylor explained. "It'd be best if we could get there as soon as possible, before your buddies catch up with us."
The young man gestured helplessly to the ice-jet. "I'm sorry, but this thing isn't going anywhere. She's run out of power. I spent a lot of time just flying on the fields looking for you two."
"Not a problem." She responded with a smirk. "You might recall that Kissimi and I took the liberty of claiming an ice-jet ourselves. It doesn't seem to be running low on power."
Akiak's eyes lit up. "How soon 'till we get to the village, do you think?"
Skylor looked at Kissimi, who replied. "If we leave now, maybe..." She screwed up her face thoughtfully and glanced up at the sky. "By nightfall, or earlier."
"Well, that's the most hopeful thing I've heard in days," he said. "We should really go now. If I know General Tulimaq, he won't let anyone rest until you two are back in the castle chained head to toe."
"In that case, let's get going," Skylor announced briskly. "This way."
Kissimi took the lead toward the ice-jet that was hidden behind the hill and bounded ahead of the young adults. Skylor followed, and Akiak caught up with her.
"Hey... I, uh—" He coughed. "I never really got your name."
"Really?" She arched an eyebrow. "Well, then, Private Akiak... my name is Skylor."