Zodiac (Zodiac, #1)(13)
Now I’m the one crushing Kai’s hand.
We sing the song so many times that Nishi memorizes the words. After so much crying and shouting, her voice is nothing more than a soft purr, but it’s still beautiful. Gradually, the rest of us drop out so we can listen to her mournful tune.
The ship’s trajectory starts to smooth out. When the engines cut off, Nishi’s voice fades away, and we wait in tense silence.
“All clear,” the automated voice announces.
I take a deep breath, free my fingers from Kai’s grip, and undo my belt. When I’m in the air, Nishi’s already by my side. “Let’s find the Stargazer and tell him what you saw.” Stargazer is the Sagittarian word for Zodai.
“He told us to stay here,” interrupts Deke.
“Nishi’s right,” I say, taking her hand and digging into my pocket for my Wave. “Besides, I want to know what’s happening.”
Nishi and I zip up to the hatch in time to barge right into Lodestar Mathias Thais. With a frown, he motions us back into the bunkroom. Inside, dim light falls across his face, shadowing his cheekbones. “We’re making a course change.”
“The other moons?” I ask, my breath catching. “Did something happen to them?”
He stares at me, and I get the sense he’s observing me for the first time. He looks for so long, I begin to feel uncomfortable, but I don’t turn away. The same instinct that helps me read the stars seems to be whispering to me now. If I want him to treat me like an equal, I need to act like one.
He swipes the Wave from my hands and opens it. I don’t protest. He scans the holograms surrounding him and pulls up the Ephemeris. When the spectral Space map blossoms out, he asks, “You can read the stars with this?”
He sounds so doubtful that I blush. “Not very well. It’s just a tutorial version.”
He tips his head to one side, searching my face, continuing to float in the same steady position. “Your reading’s correct,” he says, his voice stony. “Our four moons have collided, and the rubble is streaking through our atmosphere. In the next few hours, it will strike our ocean and cause planet-wide tsunami waves. We can’t land on Cancer.”
The edges of my vision darken. I feel like he’s sucked the light from my world with his words.
Everything that happened tonight was almost endurable at the thought of setting foot in the Cancer Sea, of sleeping in my old room, of hugging Dad and saying all the things I never said. I take a ragged breath, and Nishi steadies me with her arm. Dad—Stanton—the Academy—home—everything I know is sinking away.
I’m Centerless.
Mathias clears his throat, and I realize he isn’t finished. Lowering his eyes, he whispers, “Our Guardian Origene is dead.”
5
THE SHOCK ROBS ME OF speech and thought, almost of breath itself.
My mind is blank.
My classmates and teachers, maybe my brother and Dad, now Guardian Origene—so many of our people lost in one night. I feel as if their screams are still echoing through the universe, filling my head with their voices.
Nishiko and Deke are as frozen as I am, and the three of us listen to Kai’s quiet sobbing like it’s an alien language we’ve only just begun to learn.
Mathias continues in a low baritone. “We’ll dock at a satellite called Oceon 6. Admiral Crius is there, organizing our House’s disaster response. He’s Guardian Origene’s Military Advisor, and he’s ordered all surviving Cancrian Zodai to report, and that includes you Acolytes.”
“Who’ll be our Guardian now?” asks Kai.
“We’ll find a new one. It’s our first priority.” Mathias turns to Nishi. “You’re Sagittarian?” She nods. “See me after we dock. We’ll try to arrange your transport home.”
He gives the rest of us another steady inspection, and I guess we must look like lost souls, because his eyes soften. “Wherever we are, whatever happens, Cancer sustains us. She is our Center. Find her now in your hearts.”
“What about the people living on Cancer?” I ask, my voice cracking.
When he answers, I get the sense Mathias is trying not to panic us. “The Lodestars foresaw the tsunamis, and the evacuation has already begun. Even now, dive-ships are transporting islanders down to our underwater stations, which are deep enough to remain stable.”
His dark indigo eyes swirl like whirlpools of the Cancer Sea. “Of our House’s three thousand Zodai, fewer than four hundred have survived. Everyone who’s left is on their way to Oceon 6, same as us.”
Kai sniffles, and Deke looks ill. “How do you know all this?” asks Nishi. “We couldn’t connect to anyone on my Tracker or their Waves.”
The Sagittarian version of a Wave is a Tracker. Since they’re such nomadic souls, the Tracker is a wristband that projects holographic data and also functions as a locator. It’s so Sagittarian families can track their loved ones across the Zodiac.
Mathias speaks softly. “I don’t use a Wave. I have my own communication system.”
“The Ring?” asks Nishi, her innate curiosity irrepressible. We’ve all seen the Lodestars on campus whispering into invisible microphones, but none of us know how it works. It’s technology that’s exclusive to the Zodai.