Horizon by Jenn Reese Page B

return to the kludge. Or this morning, when Aluna had told them about Dash. Or . . . he could take it off now.
    “Let me find Melody first,” he mumbled, and headed off before Aluna or Calli could say anything.
    Barnacles.
Why was he clinging to a piece of metal that didn’t even do anything? Maybe he should have taken Mags up on her offer and gotten the real thing. Some tech embedded in his flesh that would let him analyze heat patterns or see great distances like Calli, or monitor his blood so he could tell if he’d been poisoned.
    The Silvae collected water in thick leaves and carved wooden bowls they hung from the branches. Hoku found one, drank, then stared at the water as the ripples faded. He felt under the edge of his shirt and unhooked the collar’s binding. He rubbed his throat and wiped away the grime that had collected on his breathing shell.
    “Look at that,” he muttered. “Still a Kampii.”
    He pried off the faceplate next, grimacing at the extraordinarily pale skin underneath, visible even in the tiny patch of bowl water. One side of his face was rough and gritty from weeks of traveling with the Upgraders, while the other side felt smooth and soft. It seemed impossible that both sides belonged to the same person, and inconceivable that the person was him.
    Hoku cleaned his Upgrader parts in the basin and stored them in his pack, then went to find Melody. But the old Silvae would not speak to him; he merely pointed one long, twiggy finger at a young Silvae female and said, “Flicker, go.”
    Flicker looked like a sapling, tall and thin with smooth, unwrinkled skin the color of dry sand. She wore leafy twigs at her shoulders and atop her head, almost like armor. Hoku liked her immediately, though he didn’t know why.
    “Come,” Flicker said, and joined Hoku in one graceful stride. “I will show you how to pack your things for tree jumping.”
    Hoku followed her as best he could, and Flicker did her best to slow down and match his pace, although it clearly annoyed her.
    “You speak our language very well,” Hoku said. “Do you practice it?”
    She smiled and said, “Later.”
    Flicker was brisk but efficient. She helped Aluna stand and fasten her pack without a single word about Aluna’s tail and how difficult it was going to make their trip. She modified Calli’s pack to fasten around her waist instead of her back, to accommodate her wings. She even managed to smile and tell Hoku he’d done a good job with his things.
    Neither Aluna nor Calli commented on Hoku’s face now that he’d removed the faceplate, and he was grateful.
    Finally, Flicker pronounced them ready to depart. She whistled four different phrases and four Silvae dropped from the trees to join them. Flicker pointed and said, “Thistle, Blade, Petal, Brook. Now, we go.”
    Hoku had expected a farewell ceremony, or at least a good-bye from Melody, but there was nothing. They may have been rescued in triumph, but they certainly weren’t leaving that way.
    He’d wanted to talk to Flicker as soon as they left the Silvae tree city, but the travel itself required his full concentration. His hands slid over rough bark. Tiny branches whipped his cheeks and tried to blind him. A Silvae had been assigned to help each of them navigate the larger jumps between trees, but it was still terrifying. One misstep and he’d be plunging to his hideously painful death.
    They traveled for hours until Flicker called for a break. Hoku was grateful for it, but anxious, too. They couldn’t have covered more than a few kilometers at most, which meant they had some long, terrible days ahead of them.
    “Ow,” Calli said, wrapping another cloth bandage around her hand. “I thought the skin on my palms would last longer.”
    “At least you didn’t almost poke yourself in the eye three times,” Hoku grumbled. “I should have left my faceplate on. I would be less of a danger to myself.”
    He looked over at Aluna. She’d managed to keep up with