The Rise of Nine

20

Ella is floating above me. She is in a panic, eyes wide, bubbles shooting out of her mouth. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, how she got here, why there is so much water. I try to reach for her hand, but my arms won’t do as I ask them. What happened to me when we teleported? I can tell my face is numb, and there’s a pain behind my eyes that’s unbearable. My legs won’t kick no matter how hard I try. All I can do is watch Ella float higher and higher above me, away from me. Where did all this water come from? My left shoulder begins to rock violently, and it takes a second to realize someone is shaking my arm. Then I see Eight, his black curls hovering over his head like a halo. He hooks his arm under my armpit and I try not to let his look of concern scare me more than I already am. He tries to swim us towards the surface, but the Chest under my arm weighs us down.

I let the freezing water enter my lungs. It’s the only thing I can do. Eight kicks the Chest out of my paralyzed arms and yanks me upwards. We start to rise. I look around wildly for a glimpse of Six, but I don’t see her.

When my head breaks the surface of the water, the first thing I’m aware of is a glaring, hot sun. Everywhere I look is water. I see Ella treading water nearby. A few minutes in the fresh air gets my limbs to start working, so I tread water as well. Eight appears fully occupied with cursing our luck.

‘Where’s Six?’ I cry, coughing. I keep whipping my head around to see if I can spot her blonde head bobbing around on the surface.

‘I couldn’t find her down there!’ Eight yells. ‘I have no idea if she made it or not!’

‘Why wouldn’t she have made it?’ Ella asks, a new panic rising in her voice.

Eight slowly rises out of the water until he’s standing on the surface. It doesn’t look as easy for him this time. He kicks the tip of a slow passing wave, pissed. ‘Damn it! I knew I shouldn’t have tried to teleport with so many people!’

‘But where could she be? How do we find her?’ Ella cries.

‘I don’t know. For all I know, she’s still back at what’s left of the cave.’

My limbs are still coming around slowly, and I’m struggling to just keep my head above water. ‘What! She’ll be killed if she’s still there!’

Ella is also struggling to stay afloat. Eight pulls her over to him so she can get on his back, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. ‘Six could have ended up somewhere else, too,’ Eight says, trying to sound more hopeful. ‘I just don’t know where, exactly.’

‘Where are we?’ I ask.

‘That much I know.’ Eight sounds relieved to have a definitive answer to something. ‘We’re in the Gulf of Aden. And that …’ he points at the coastline in the distance that I didn’t see before. ‘That’s Somalia.’

‘How do you know?’ asks Ella.

‘I ended up here once before,’ he says flatly. He doesn’t elaborate, so there must be more to his story.

I don’t know much about Somalia, other than it’s in Africa and is in a perpetual state of brutal tribal and civil war, not to mention the poverty that keeps tempers high. I don’t know if I have the strength to use my telekinesis or even to swim underwater to get to that coastline; I’m even less sure if I want to. I need to think.

‘You know what? I’m going to go under for a bit. I can save some energy down there while we figure out what to do,’ I say. As I go down, I hear Ella call out.

‘Look for Six!’

Her words give me a surge of strength. Just the possibility of finding Six puts new energy in my dive. I go deep and open my eyes. The water is relatively blue, even this far away from land. There’s movement below me and I dive further to find a small school of tuna. I slowly twist around in circles, looking for even a glimpse of Six’s dyed blond hair, and more than twice I’m fooled by waving strands of seaweed. I look up and see the faint shadow of Eight’s body on the surface. Feeling confident my strength will stay with me, I descend until I touch the bottom. Navigating my way along the sea floor and scanning the water ahead of me, I accidentally brush up against a mass of coral and cut my knee. The sharp pain stuns me for a second and I reach down and touch it, to heal it, and it takes longer than I expect for my Legacy to work. Whatever happens during teleporting must have some effect on our Legacies and our strength. Grateful that my breathing seems to be okay, I can only hope this doesn’t last long – I don’t want us to be vulnerable.

I keep moving and eventually find my Chest next to Eight’s, and spot the large, blue Loralite stone a few feet away from them both. I try to pick up the Chests, but am too weak to budge them. I look up and see Eight’s shadow still in the same spot and decide to ask for his help.

As I ascend I cut through a school of beautiful orange fish. I break the surface. ‘No sign of Six, but the Loralite stone is down there, right next to our Chests,’ I report. ‘Let’s get them and go. We’ll teleport somewhere else, see if we can catch up to wherever Six has landed.’

‘Don’t we need to be at the Loralite to teleport? How will I get down there?’ Ella asks. ‘I can’t hold my breath for that long.’

‘You don’t have to,’ Eight says with a grin.

‘Do you have a Legacy that turns you into a torpedo people can catch a ride on, too?’ I ask.

‘Better,’ Eight says. He reaches into his pocket and grabs the green crystal he put there when his Chest was first returned to him. The crystal begins to glow, and then a crazy amount of wind starts to shoot out from it. Eight aims it at the ocean. A shallow crater forms in the water below him and he falls into it. ‘Come on! Quick!’

Ella and I swim into the crater. Eight holds out his free hand and I take it; Ella grabs my other hand.

‘Get ready. We’re about to drop. Fast!’ he says. ‘You have to stay with me because the water will collapse behind us. When we get to the bottom, Ella, be prepared to hold your breath long enough for me to grab the Chests.’

‘Everyone keep your eyes open for Six,’ I say.

Ella squeezes my hand. ‘If she’s down there, we’ll find her.’

Eight positions the crystal so it’s aimed at the ocean floor. ‘Here we go!’ he yells. We fall fast, the wind from the crystal blasting a small circle of water out of our way until it unites again a few feet behind Ella. We’re inside a bubble, shooting through the water. Eight howls in amusement; I can’t help but join in.

Ella grabs my arm. ‘Six is in trouble!’ She says. ‘She says she’s in the desert!’

‘What are you talking about?’ I reply, as fish and sharks and squid pass us in a blur. ‘How do you know that?’

Ella hesitates for a second before yelling, ‘I don’t really know! I just talked to her somehow in my head! She says she’s dying!’

‘If she’s in the desert, then she’s in New Mexico already!’ Eight shouts.

‘Eight, we’ve got to get there right away,’ I cry.

We arrive on the ocean floor and try to run on the muddy bottom, but it’s impossible to move quickly. Water rushes in behind our pocket of air and the crystal swiftly becomes useless, creating a small whirlpool in front of us. I look back to make sure Ella is okay and holding her breath. When I turn around, Eight has transformed into a black octopus. He swings two tentacles out and snatches up our Chests, and with two of his other tentacles he grabs our hands. Eight pulls us towards the glowing blue Loralite stone sticking out of the mud floor. Before I can look at Ella again, I’m engulfed in darkness.