Loka (The Alloy Era) by S.B. Divya

Author:S.B. Divya [Divya, S.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2024-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

DAY 42

The next morning, I tried reducing the pain relief dispensed by the sleeve. I had woken with a dull ache throughout my body rather than the fire of a million needles. I had a brief hope that I had improved, but a couple of hours later, the hope fled in the face of reality. The burning sensation returned with full force, and I had to adjust the sleeve back to the previous night’s setting.

Somya kept themself busy, refilling the bag of water that fed the sleeve, making breakfast, and washing our clothes. They did their best to hide it, but I could sense their disappointment that we would miss sailing with the regatta. The night before, I had thought that asking them to continue the AC without me was unfair, but perhaps not giving them the choice was worse.

When my pain levels subsided again, I detached the sleeve and crawled out of the tent. Tepid sunlight warmed my skin. Seagulls circled beneath a pale-gray sky and cried out their joy. The ocean lapped at the sand below our campsite, murmuring promises of adventure. I inhaled the scent of the sea and worked up my courage.

“Som, come sit by me for a minute.”

They dumped out a basin of dirty water in the nearby grass and then obliged, their shoulder touching mine. “Feeling better?”

“A little, thanks to the sleeve. I had to increase the pain treatment back to the original level, but it’s helping. Som . . . I don’t know if this will be enough for me to get well. My mother always had hydration, the high-oxygen room, and a blood exchange. I remember going to sleep with her and her waking up feeling a lot better, but it took her weeks to get back to full health, and I’m—”

“So you need more time. Is that so surprising if you’re using a third of what she did?”

“We don’t have more time. We burned through most of our buffer when we crossed Europe. Any more delays, and we’ll miss the final shuttle back to Chedi. We’ll fail that part of the deal with my parents.”

“So what are you saying?”

I took a deep breath and met their puzzled-and-wondering face. “I think maybe I should quit, and you should keep going.” As understanding dawned on their face and their jaw started to set, I rushed on. “The rest of the way is mostly on Rune’s boat, and by the time you get to Asia, you’ll be close enough to reach your family within a day or two of riding. You could finish this on your own.”

“Aks, no—”

“And like everyone keeps saying, I have five more years until I’m a legal human adult. At that point, no one can make me stay on Meru. I can get the gene therapy for SCD and come back here, and we can do the Anthro Challenge together, without a time constraint.”

Somya looked away, out across the sea. They said nothing for several minutes. I waited, my heart working double time, half from the sickle-cell crisis and the other half pure anxiety.

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