“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out the same thing. ”
Perry stopped. “Aria . . . ” He was going to tell her he’d rendered to her. That nothing was the same anymore because of her. But what difference would it make? They only had three more days together. And he knew she had to go home. He knew exactly how much she needed her mother.
She took his other hand. “Yes, Peregrine?” After a moment, she smiled.
He found himself smiling too. “Aria, I don’t understand how you can be so chirky right now. ”
“I was just thinking. Soon you’ll be Peregrine, Blood Lord of the Tides. ” She swirled a hand in the air as she said it. “I just love how it sounds. ”
Perry laughed. “Spoken like a true Aud. ”
Chapter 39
ARIA
Aria heard song everywhere.
Shifting in the trees. Rumbling in the earth. Drifting on the wind. It was the same terrain, but she saw it differently. When she looked into the distance, where she’d seen nothing before, she now imagined the father who might be there. A man who would hear the world as she did, in endless tones. He was an Audile. That was the only thing she knew about him. Strangely, it felt like a lot.
A day after she’d discovered her ability, she noticed her own footfall growing quieter. Somehow, without consciously thinking of it, she’d begun to choose her steps with greater care. When she mentioned it to Perry, he grinned.
“I noticed that too. Easier to hunt,” he said, patting a hare strung over his shoulder. “Most Auds are quiet as shadows. The best end up as spies or scouts for the larger tribes. ”
“Seriously? Spies?”
“Seriously. ”
She practiced sneaking up on Perry, determined to succeed where she’d failed before. The morning before they were to reach Bliss, she pounced on him, throwing her arms around his neck as she planted a kiss on the blond scruff over his jaw. Finally she had accomplished the Spontaneous Kiss. She expected him to laugh and kiss her back. He didn’t do either. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on top of hers.
“Should we rest?” she asked, feeling his weight settle onto her shoulders. She could see the hills where Bliss was supposedly nestled on the horizon.
Perry straightened. “No,” he said. His green eyes were tight, like the day was too bright for him. “We have to keep going, Aria. I don’t know what else to do. ”
Neither did she, so they walked.
They reached the hills late in the afternoon. They climbed one and another, and then almost suddenly, there stood Bliss, a man-made mountain amid earthen hills. Aria had never seen a Pod from the outside but knew the largest dome at the center would be the Panop. The off-shooting structures were the service domes, like Ag 6. She’d spent seventeen years in Reverie’s Panop. Contained in one place. It seemed unbelievable to her now. With daylight fading, the Pod’s deep charcoal shape was fast blending into the night.
Perry shifted his weight at her side, silent as he took in the scene. “Looks like a rescue. There are Hovers . . . thirty or so, and a bigger craft. At least fifty people out in the open. ”
To her, what he described was just a smattering of dots next to Bliss, lit within a circle of light. The soft drone of engines carried to her ears.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“Let’s get closer. ” They moved quietly across the dry grass, stopping when they reached a rocky perch. Now Aria saw a large square opening in Bliss, a wide-open cavity on the smooth walls of the Pod. The Guardians who came and went wore sterile suits. She knew what that meant. The closed environment was compromised. She’d expected this, but numbness seeped through her limbs.
Perry cursed softly beside her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“There’s a black cart down there,” he said, his expression pained. “Some sort of truck, close to the Pod. ” She saw it. It was in miniature, but she saw it. “There are people—bodies on board. ”
Her eyes blurred. “Can you see any of their faces?”
“No. ” Perry wrapped his arms around her. “Come here,” he whispered. “She could be anywhere. Don’t give up now. ”
They sat on the rocks side by side as she forced herself to think. She couldn’t walk out of the darkness and announce herself a Dweller. She needed to come up with a plan. She took her Smarteye from her satchel. It hadn’t helped her reach Lumina at Marron’s, but it would be useful now.
Aria stared at the small black point in the distance. She’d waited enough. She knew what she needed to do. “I have to get down there. ”