Horizon by Jenn Reese Page A

slowly, as if they were fighting the tide. Aluna watched him secure his bags and smooth down his hair, pleased that he seemed as flustered as she felt. When he was finally ready, she nodded just once and he was gone.

H OKU SHOVED A PILE of acorn mash into his mouth and almost spit it back out again. Not even mustard could have saved him from the bitterness. He forced himself to swallow and took another, much smaller bite. Over their heads, Silvae moved from branch to branch, partly jumping and partly gliding on the membranes attached to their limbs. Morning sun snuck through the dense leaves and covered their platforms in dancing pinpricks of light.
    “Dash will be okay,” Hoku said. “Odd likes him. Mags likes him. Tides’ teeth, even the rhinebra likes him.”
    “Vachir will be happy to see him,” Aluna said. “I’m grateful she won’t be alone. That neither of them will be.”
    “He didn’t even say good-bye,” Calli said. “I would have liked to wish him blue skies.”
    Hoku watched Aluna blink in the sunlight, her shoulders slumped, her face emotionless. He could tell she was only half listening to them, that part of her was still with Dash. Hoku stole a glance at Calli. She stretched her left wing and plucked twigs and leaves from her feathers, and he felt like the luckiest Kampii in the world.
    “We could wait for Dash to come back,” Calli said. “Or maybe follow the kludge from the treetops.”
    “We’d have to watch out for Squirrel,” Hoku said. “That girl sees everything.”
    “No,” Aluna said. “Odd’s kludge may not even go to Strand now that they’ve lost their prizes. We could lose valuable time by following them. If Dash and Vachir somehow manage to locate Strand, they’ll have to find a way to let us know.” She poked at the nut mash on her leaf but didn’t eat any. “My plan failed. We can’t keep trying to save it. It’s time for a new plan.”
    Hoku frowned.
Failed
was not a word he heard often from Aluna, and he didn’t like it. “Let’s go to HydroTek,” he said. “Fathom must know where Karl Strand is. He’s only a brain in a box since we disassembled him, but maybe the Dome Meks and Zorro have found a way to read his thoughts by now.”
    “Even if the Dome Meks get access, they probably won’t find anything,” Calli said. “Fathom was smart enough to wipe the important memories once he knew he’d been defeated. I’m guessing he uploaded them to Strand before he did it, too.”
    Aluna continued staring. “HydroTek . . .”
    “HydroTek has a comm room,” Hoku said. “I didn’t recognize it last time, but now I know what to look for. Maybe we can warn the Aviars and help coordinate things with the Equians and Serpenti. HydroTek would be a great base of operations for all our . . . strategies and stuff.”
    “A command center,” Calli said. “Maybe Aluna could run the whole war from there!”
    Hoku saw Aluna’s face twitch, but she smoothed it over quickly. Losing Vachir, losing Dash, losing the last few weeks of work on their plan . . . Of course she needed time to recover from all of that. But he knew her. The sooner they could get her mind out of the past and focused on moving forward again, the sooner Aluna the Dawn-bringer would be back and ready to lead them.
    “What do you think, Aluna?” Calli asked. “Should we go to HydroTek?”
    “That’s where we said we’d meet if something went wrong,” Hoku added. “If Dash and Vachir need to find us, that’s where they’ll look.”
    Aluna nodded.
    Hoku wiped his hands on his pants and stood up. “I’ll tell the Silvae to take us to the ocean, to the west. I’m sure they’re eager to get rid of us.”
    “Are you ever going to take off that metal plate?” Aluna asked. “You’re not an Upgrader anymore.”
    Hoku froze, as surprised that Aluna had decided to speak as by her words. His hand went to his face. He could have taken off the faceplate last night, when they’d agreed not to