My jaw hardened. “I already said I don’t know who he is in outside.”
“Well, you should, if you found him in the Barrier.”
“Who the hell are you, to tell me what I should know?” I said. “From what I can tell, none of you jackasses could find him at all. And I’m untrained, worm-raised Bridge girl...so what does that make you?”
Maygar stared at me, his dark eyes holding disbelief.
Vash’s voice rose in my mind, clear as a loudspeaker.
We are ready, he said. You are on point, Maygar.
Maygar leaned closer to me. His voice grew soft.
“A little touchy about the husband, aren’t you, Bridge?” he whispered.
Alyson? Vash said. Are you ready?
Maygar straightened back to his full height, a grin tugging at his full lips. His eyes met mine, a dark eyebrow quirking in a silent question.
“Yeah,” I said, swallowing my anger. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
Slowly, there are stars.
Earth appears, a pale blue dot.
It zooms closer, until it dominates my view. But I barely look at the Earth on its own; instead, my mind finds the Pyramid, and the larger beings I feel behind it. Even now, above all else, it is their presence I feel...for they are why I have come. Metallic threads cross and intersect over land masses in thick, silver piles. The Pyramid moves like a mechanical toy, deceptively peaceful despite the pain and deprivation I feel within. I watch the dance as the pieces change hands, change places, until I hear a faint whisper of—
Well?
The voice startles me. I had forgotten I am not alone.
Maygar floats beside me. We are waiting, Bridge.
It happened differently before, I explain.
His tone turns acidic. Is this your first jump?
No, I say, unthinking.
Then you should know nothing happens the same way twice in the Barrier, Maygar says, his thoughts cold. For that to be, all other creatures would need to be static. You must do as we do. Follow the thread, Bridge. Hunt.
By the end, he is indulgent, condescending. It sparks a faint anger in me, in my light, until I realize it is because he is reminding me of Revik.
But I have done this without Revik.
I’ve done it without Chandre or Vash...or this asshole, Maygar, who wants sex with me and to beat on me only because he has some kind of monster grudge against Revik.
Maygar hears me, and his amusement returns.
Not only for that, Bridge, he says.
Pushing his mind aside, I remember Haldren, why I am here.
I concentrate on his face, on the clear, confident voice that rises above the crowd, the darkly burning eyes, his laugh. I remember other things, too. The things that no one else sees. Shuddering sobs in the middle of the night in the orphanage when no one comes, his crush on Kardek’s lab assistant, Massani, his fear of the other children, his need to control them, to make himself feel safe. I remember the details, the way he snorts when he laughs, cracks his knuckles when he’s nervous, recites equations under his breath to not be afraid...
Slowly, the Earth begins to rotate beneath my feet.
I do not notice at first, but it is rotating backwards, in the wrong direction.
The sun and planets revolve backwards as well, moving with oiled precision, west to east, instead of the reverse. I half-expect to hear beautiful music, like when my father and I viewed a miniature version of Earth’s constellations sliding in rich ovals on smooth brass rails. In my mind’s eye, my father laughs there still, delighted by the beauty of the kinetic sculpture.
“Music of the spheres, Allie!” he says, patting my back with his large hand. “Music of the spheres! Isn’t it wonderful!”
I hear his voice, and as time unwinds again, I smile.
A lightness coincides with the wires of the Pyramid growing less around that little blue and white world. The dark threads unwind even faster, like a ball of yarn teased by a cat, and I can breathe again, in a way I never can in that other place...
Abruptly, the motion stops.
Earth begins revolving forward once more, with effort at first, like gears grinding back into their natural motion. It is slow, like I say...yet fast, too. Regular time, which passes changing everything, so that we lose ourselves, so that we don’t recognize one another.
So that we must find one another, again and again.
Instead of the Pyramid, a gray cloud masses over Europe.
There, I say to Maygar, pointing with my mind.
I feel him acknowledge me.
...Then he and I stand in that other version of our world. This time, I do not know the exact place; I have never been here before, either in the Barrier or the flesh. We perch on a grassy, leaf-strewn hill dotted with aspens shedding white bark.
Below us, a circle of black mud runs before a row of whitewashed buildings. The mud is thick, grooved with wheel ruts. In the distance I see more of those same buildings, what look like barracks, and below that, men in gray-green uniforms and cloth caps march in formation through the same dark mud and horse manure, carrying guns.