I’d like to say the rainbow didn’t hurt as much this time, butow.
Blinking up at the roof of the cave, I wallowed for a moment in the familiar someone-hit-me-with-a-sledgehammer sensation. As the headache began to fade slightly, I realized I heard voices.
Loud, shouty voices, muffled by distance and a lot of rock.
At least two of them were familiar: Mom’s and Ryan’s.
“It’s safe now!” Ryan was shouting.
Mom chimed in, “Listen to the boy! You can trust him!”
“Um, not to be overly critical…” Maximus. “But he doesn’t know what happened back on Earth! His charming father could have the Door back in his possession. It could be guarded by another fire beast. You’re asking these people to walk into what could be a death trap!”
“I’m asking them to take a leap of faith!” Mom said. “Like your wife did! Like you did! Like I did! Our freedom lies on the other side of this jewel!”
Other voices jumped in, and the cave echoed with shouted arguments.
Some wanted to charge in here and try the Door.
Others wanted to stay safe.
I could end this, if I could just stand up.
Wincing, I forced myself to sit. “Ow, ow, ow.”
“Sky!”
Novi’s shout brought the headache pounding back.
She dropped to her knees next to me. “Are you all right? Are you exiled again? Where’s my brother? Is he dead? I knew he’d end up dead. Knew it was too good to be true. Knew—”
I stopped her. “Novi. He’s fine. And I’m…Ow!”
“Oh! Sorry!” Fumbling in her pockets, she drew out the medicine that had fixed my headache on my first visit. I drank it greedily, and the throbbing receded.
The shouting, however, had gotten worse.
With Novi behind me, I hurried to the Hall of the Returned. Everyone was there. Or at least, you know, a lot of wyverns, mostly exiles and their families. It was packed. A few robots wheeled between them, holding bowls of soup that no one was interested in eating.
Ryan was standing on a table next to Mom.
I paused for a moment, admiring him.
“Don’t trust me,” he was saying. “Trust Sky! She can do it! She—”
Maximus cut him off. “—is standing right there.”
Everyone turned to look at me.
There was total silence.
You could have heard a flame flicker. That silent.
And I knew I should make some kind of grand speech, but really, that’s not my style. “Anyone want to go home?” I asked. “Real home?”
Not everyone wanted to go.
Maximus, for example, wanted to stay with his wife, and Angela said that even though she hadn’t arrived here quite the way she wanted, she’d worked too hard to find Home to leave just yet. He did, though, leave her side long enough to say, “Congratulations.”
