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“You were back there?” Hue brightened, turning a pleased pink. “What were you doing back there?”
His surface turned reflective, as it had when he’d shown Acacia behind me in my room. Now I saw only my own image, freckles and goofy hair and all, standing dumbly on the mountain with one arm in a sling and a flag in my hand.
“I don’t understand.” I tried to keep from sounding frustrated, and Hue gave a brief flicker. He pulsed, alternating between the bright, cheerful blue and the reflection, so I was seeing myself every other second. It wasn’t particularly helpful.
Perhaps seeing the look of utter perplexity on my face, Hue began to bob back and forth again, floating next to me, then in front of me, alternately reflective and blue depending on where he was. I took a shot in the dark.
“You were interacting with something?” He brightened so much I almost had to look away, but it made me laugh. I hadn’t expected to be right.
“You were talking to someone?” He brightened again. “Do you want me to go there?” He flickered an affirmation, giving a pleased up-and-down bob.
Excited, I rolled up the flag and stuffed it into a pocket, calling to mind the coordinates for the place where I’d first met Hue. Grinning like a fool, I took a step toward the edge, and Walked off the mountain.
There was a lesson here in jumping to conclusions, I was sure, but I didn’t really want to think about it.
The planet—or place, or whatever—remained unchanged from the last time I’d seen it, up to and including that swirling sky and the footprints that belonged to Jay and me. There was no wind on this world, apparently, and there were no other footprints—and no other human in sight.
Acacia wasn’t here.
I stood for a moment at that point, looking at the larger footsteps that had belonged to Jay. I could still trace where we’d landed, walked a ways, sat and talked, and walked a ways more…and where I’d suddenly run off to rescue a creature that I had no reason to believe was friendly. I’d gotten Jay killed by doing that—but I’d gained Hue, who had once rescued m
e from the clutches of HEX. I still wasn’t sure it was a fair trade-off.
“Is it safe here?” I asked Hue, who’d been the captive of a giant monster-dragon-dinosaur-snake-thing—a gyradon, I’d learned later—the last time he’d been here.
“Safe as anywhere, which is relative,” my own voice answered.
I looked at Hue, who was bobbing and sporting his pleased color. “What?”
The answer was a laugh, one that sounded a lot like mine. “Oh, come on. Figure it out—you’re smart enough.”
The voice seemed to be coming from Hue. I took a few steps, looked around, peered at the little mudluff—nothing. Then, when I took a step sideways, I saw my own face reflected in my balloon-like friend.
No. Not my face.
Jay’s.
“Jay!” I spun around, saw nothing, darted behind Hue. Still nothing. That laughter sounded again.
“You’ve almost got it. Hue, help him out, would you?”
The mudluff circled around me, orienting himself with his “front” to me and his “back” to where the footprints led off—and I could see Jay again, like Hue was some kind of living magnifying glass that didn’t actually magnify but let you see things that weren’t there.
“I’m looking through him,” I said out loud, and Jay grinned and nodded.
“Yes.”
“But you’re…really here.”
“No, I’m sort of half here. Or I’m here, but I’m sort of half me—it’s complicated. Basically, I’m a psychic imprint. I died here, so some of my essence stayed.”
“Like a ghost?”
“If you want to call it that. It’s close enough, anyway. Not sure if it’s more magic or science.” He shook his head. “Enough about me. What brings you here?”
“Didn’t you? I thought Hue came to get me…”
“If he did, it was his idea.” Hue gave a pleased flicker, momentarily blocking out Jay’s face. “He and I were chatting a little while ago. He apologized for what happened and said he’s been doing his best to keep you safe.”
