I’m not sure if we can start a fire with damp wood. I really wish we had the survival bag. I scowl out at the frozen water where our transport has found a watery grave.Well, no use dwelling on it.Instead, I focus on what we do have, unzipping each of our sodden bags and dumping their dry contents onto the sand.
I count five bottles of water, a change of cold-weather clothing, a second headset of mine, a pack of dried fruit, and a notebook, which might come in handy. I also gather six weapons: two Hallo guns, mine and Trysten’s, and four daggers. It’s not much, but we’ll have to make do. I’m sure our trackers will bring help soon, especially when we don’t check in on the next three planets.
“Raea?” Ciara groans, her voice low and raspy. I race over to her, dropping to my knees, and help her off Trysten.
“Thank you,” I whisper, my voice barely above a breath as I hug her tightly.
Trysten is alive because of her and Tate. Though she’s taller than I, she leans against me, her body still unsteady as she attempts to regain her balance. Once she steadies herself, she stands tall, her dark hair a wild mess around her shoulders and her rich, caramel skin flecked with grains of sand from the beach.
“Where are we?” she mumbles, her voice thick with confusion and exhaustion.
It must be the shock of everything finally breaking through, but I can’t help it; I burst into laughter. The sound spills out of me uncontrollably until my stomach cramps. Her lips curl into a smile, and gradually, she joins in my laughter, her eyes sparkling with relief. In this moment, despite the chaos surrounding us, we find a reason to laugh.
Maybe it’s because we’re both stripped of our clothes, standing in our lacy underthings, lost somewhere in space with two passed-out men behind us, or maybe it’s because we’re trying to hold the hysteria and panic at bay. Either way, I let the light moment flood my system like a balm over my wrecked nerves. I’m sure if anyone saw us right now, they would laugh, too.
I take in her wild hair, the strands are as dark as night around us,each splattered with grains of sand like those clinging stubbornly to our skin in various places. The dark bruises beginning to form on her arms and legs make me wince, but I continue laughing as we scan each other, looking for more injuries. It’s then that I finally notice the nasty purple and black splotch taking up my left side and part of my abdomen.
Pain courses through me, awakening at the sight of where I hit the console. I lay my palm flat over it, laughing through it because if I don’t, I’m not sure I’ll regain the control I currently have over the lingering horror of what happened.
“Gods,” Tate groans, “what are you guys laughing about?” I glance over, only to realize that he, too, looks to be covered in various bruises. “Dammit,” he hisses, finally sitting up and gripping his throbbing head with both hands.
The sight of him, disheveled and struggling, only makes us laugh harder, even as I feel the edge of panic tightening in my chest. The line between laughing and crying is beginning to thin.
Ciara must sense it because she says, “It’ll be alright,” as she dusts me off.
I nod, taking a much-needed deep breath, and shove everything back into a box, only feeling a slight burn behind my eyes.
Tate manages to prop himself up further, his fingers still clutching at his face as if that could somehow stave off the headache. When we drop down in front of him, he lifts his gaze to meet ours, his eyes widening in shock and mock horror. “Put some clothes on,” he hisses, turning his head away in a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief at our state of undress.
“We literally have nothing,” I say, letting a chuckle bubble up. “All we had were our suits, and they’re still soaked. It’ll be a while before they dry out fully.” I let my mind wander momentarily, my lessons returning to me, and I can’t remember the last time a transport crashed. It’s literally been centuries. “Just pretend it’s just our swimsuits.” I shrug, offering him an amused smile. Beside me, Ciara tucks her lips in, attempting to hide her laughter, but it comes out anyway.
Tate turns to face us. “Fine, but don’t blame me for how my bodyresponds. Besides, swimsuits cover a lot more than—” he gestures toward our lace-clad bodies, “that. Gods, does anyone know where we are?”
“No. Are your trackers still working?” I look down at my hand where the gold band sits.
I’m not sure whether it’s functioning or not. Ciara holds up her necklace shaped like a crescent moon, but there’s still no way to tell. Tate displays the gold band wrapped around his wrist. “So, we don’t know. Okay, what do we know?” I pull out the notebook from the pile of things I’ve gathered.
“We were jumping, and our transport apparently got lost. Was it the nav system?” Ciara asks Tate more than me.
“It was fine. I was watching us slow down when it started to shake. When I looked back, we were all over the system.”
I nod in confirmation. “Okay, let’s try this: planet trivia.” There’s a bit of excitement in my voice as I plop down beside Tate. “Maybe we can figure it out this way. We know the atmosphere is breathable, and we aren’t in a desert. That rules out all planets in Mori and most of Kadora. This doesn’t look like a volcanic planet, and I think all the beaches are cold with black sand, so I’m ruling out Kadora. Ateria’s planets all have huge mountains and are in perpetual winter. I didn’t see mountains or snow, and it’s way too warm.” I glance around in the dark; all I can see is the horizon of water in front of me and trees at my back.
“You know more about planets than anyone,” Tate says as he digs his hands into the moist sand, watching as he lifts them, letting the sand fall in clumps back to the beach. “Which planets have humid air?”
I inhale, using my sense of smell to help narrow down the options. “Okay, so we aren’t anywhere in Thirik. All of their planets smell like Hawkthorne weed. Oris is a possibility, but all of their planets are in perpetual fall, and the winds never stop. That leaves us with Treon and the Okenen Kingdom.” I turn to a blank page in my notebook and start writing down every planet in both kingdoms.
When I’m done, I have forty planets to narrow down.
I look up at the night sky, and when I spot three moons, I start crossing off half of Treon’s planets and a third of Okenen’s. My mind feels tired, but I flip through the pages of my planet tome at home. I envision the wooden table in my study, where the light dances around the room throughout the day, and the scent of old pages from the ancient books on the high shelves before me. My tutors claim real books are better than digital, even though it’s slower; I have to agree.
I recount what I know. Humidity fills the air, and three moons hang overhead. It’s warm, but there’s ice-cold water nearby. Glowing moon jellies thrive here, surviving only in freshwater. I cross out another six planets from my list that I know lack such large bodies of water with moon jellies.
“Okay, so here’s the good news.” I look at them. “We are on one of the nineteen planets I’ve narrowed it down to.”
twenty-seven
. . .
