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When Ziel stretched out her arms, the spirits answered her wordless call and bore her aloft. They carried her high above Elshoniere Lake, gentle as a mother lifts a newborn babe. From just beneath the clouds, she could see the distant landmarks marking the borders of her divided realm. All were rejoicing. In the foothills of the Red Mountains, earth spirits danced at the feet of Bjarn, Prince of the Stone Giants. Glowing Djinn of the Ever-Burning Lands capered in the updraft from the fiery plains of their home. She could hear carried on the wind the joyful songs of the sirens from the sea and saw Undines break the surface of the water in a ring around a waterspout. All of her lands were at peace. Even dour Glenn the Savage turned his eyes skyward from the lake shore and hailed her victory over the terrible Blue-Eyed Dragon, Kordozaar.
“Hail Queen Ziel!”
“Hail!”
“Hey.”
“Hey!”
“It’s what you wanted. Take it!”
Breanna smelled steak and sour cream. She blinked into a lump of thin waxed paper hovering an inch in front of her nose. Behind it, Eliot scowled.
“Parker, she fell asleep up there!”
In the doorway, Parker’s face lit up with a manic grin.
“I told you it’s comfortable!” She said. “When you’re properly prepared and you know what you’re doing, it’s way more comfortable than a hammock or even a hotel bed.”
Breanna shifted her weight in Parker’s—no, HER—climbing harness (adjusted expertly to her size and weight) and tilted back until she was almost standing, albeit a couple feet off the ground. She reached for the offered chalupa, but Eliot snatched it away.
“Y’all aren’t gonna sleep hanging from the ceiling now, like bats?” He growled.
She tried to grab her lunch again, but he kept it just out of reach. Her motion sent her into a slow clock-wise spin in the air.
“No.” Breanna agreed and the chalupa was hers. Eliot stopped the spin with a hand on her shoulder. “More like a koala in a tree. Bats hang upside-down.”
“Don’t give Parker any ideas.”
It was slight, but now that she knew how to spot it, Eliot’s smile was there for her to see it.
“You want to come down now?” he asked.
“Not just yet. I have an idea.”
****
A world away, Alec Hardison awoke to the beep of his phone receiving a text. The screen was the only light illuminating the cramped little room. The picture that filled it was of his family, and floating in the center, one fist curled over her head and one leg bent with her foot almost touching her opposite knee in an obvious imitation of Superman in flight, was his sister. He wiped at his eyes.
“Girl, Parker gonna push you off a roof.”
Is it homesickness when it’s not home that you’re missing?