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“How long is long?” I ask. This is something I’ve always wondered but couldn’t ask Mom, who disliked any topic having to do with our powers. “Is it centuries, like ubers, or—”
“That’s about right. And before you ask, so do illusionists.” He gives me a wink.
I try my best not to flush again. How much did he hear and see of my makeout session with Valerian? “How about you tell me about your life in exile?” I ask, both to change the topic and because I’m genuinely curious.
For all I know, I might have a stepmom—or half-siblings.
My father sighs. “There isn’t much to tell. For a while, I abandoned dreamwalking completely and became a musician.”
Huh. That’s random. “Which instruments did you play?”
“Whichever I could get my hands on. Eventually, I became a conductor. I’m still famous on the world I exiled myself to.”
I bite my lip. “Were you lonely?”
“I didn’t remarry, if that’s what you mean.” He looks down. “I didn’t remember you and Lidia, but on some level, I think I knew something. It’s hard to explain. The very thought of starting a family was abhorrent.”
Mom didn’t date either. Her life was pretty miserable, in fact. I hope I brought her some happiness, but he didn’t have even that much.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
He looks up. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I channeled all those pent-up emotions into my music. In a real way, a lot of people got joy from that pain, and I’m okay with that.”
The door opens again, and Valerian walks in. “All set.” He hands Maxwell the remote for Mom’s bed.
Maxwell presses a button, and the clamshell closes. “Do we need to change some nutrition bag or anything like that?”
“I have all the instructions,” Valerian says. “This is something we’ll be able to do easily on Soma.”
My father inclines his head. “Thank you so much, Valerian. Davu would be so very proud.”
Eyes gleaming, Valerian mumbles a thanks.
A shining plasma gate suddenly opens in the corner of the room. It looks like the one from Maxwell’s memory—similar to the ones at the hubs but smaller and not as bright.
The woman from the memory steps out of the gate. Her face is classically beautiful, and her highly intelligent eyes dart around the room worriedly until she catches sight of Maxwell.
Relaxing, she makes the gate she came from disappear, and two more gates show up, one on each side of her.
“This is your last favor,” she says to Maxwell, her voice more melodic now that it’s not sped up.
“Thanks, Karina,” Maxwell says. “You might’ve just saved the Cogniverse.”
“Sure,” Karina says with a heavy dose of skepticism. “Just remember, regardless of how the world saving goes, we’re through. If I see you in my dreams again, my next gate will open under your feet, and it will exit above an erupting volcano. On a world with no oxygen.”
Before anyone can comment on her threat, she steps into one of the gates, and the gate shimmers out of existence.
Well, okay then. That’s one way to have the last word.
“We must hurry,” Maxwell says and fiddles with the controls on Mom’s bed.
“Can we trust this Karina?” I ask. “What if she’s done the whole top-of-volcano gate preemptively?”
Maxwell smiles. “Karina is a woman of her word. This gate leads to Soma. And if I do visit her dreams again, a gate will indeed open under my feet and plunge me into a volcano, on a world without oxygen.” On that cheerful note, he rolls Mom’s bed into the gate and steps through himself.
“Your father has always been a good judge of character,” Valerian says, and before I can reply, he also enters the gate.
I take a breath and glance down at my wrist, where Pom’s fur is turning black.
Here goes nothing.
Volcano, here I come.
Chapter Fifteen
I step out into a padded glass room, where there’s definitely oxygen.
I recognize it immediately, and judging by Maxwell and Valerian’s faces, they must as well.
This is where my father was being held when he escaped with Karina’s help.
Maxwell curses. “I should’ve been more careful. One of Karina’s least endearing qualities is her sense of humor. I asked her to bring me back to Soma. I bet she thought it would be funny to bring me back exactly where she’d sprung me from.”
Valerian knocks on the glass. “Feels bulletproof.”
Maxwell yells out loud.
Since there’s no one around, no one answers.
I scan the corners where the walls meet the ceiling until I hit jackpot—a gizmo that could be a camera.
I wave at the hopefully-camera like a maniac.
Nothing happens.
Valerian examines the door lock and curses in frustration.
We wait.
Valerian starts to pace.
No one comes.
“If Lidia were awake, she might know how to beat that lock,” Maxwell says. “She was good with such things.”
“If Mom were awake, we might not even be here,” I mutter.
