Paradox Hunt by Dee Garretson

Author:Dee Garretson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen, young adult, childrens, science fiction, action, adventure, space exploration
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Published: 2019-08-06T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Decker came over to help Javen stack the stones. “I didn’t know,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t know how many Fosaanians in total had been in the village in the south. Three hundred? Four hundred? Maybe more, because I was sure the Earth estimates were off. I didn’t know how many had been sent north, but seeing Javen’s reaction made me think something terrible had happened here.

“I’ll see you back at the ship,” Wren said abruptly.

“Why don’t you want to come with us?” Javen stood back up. I could hear the suspicion in his voice. “What are we going to find?”

“I don’t know.” She ran down toward the path back to the tunnel.

Javen pulled out his knife again. “I don’t like this.”

“Wren isn’t hiding anything. If you haven’t figured it out by now, she is not that kind of person,” Nic said to him.

Javen stared at her. “Everyone has hidden motives.”

“Maybe every Fosaanian. Don’t judge everyone else by your culture,” Nic said.

I didn’t point out the hypocrisy in her statement. She’d grown up on Reyet, and everyone we met there certainly had a motive. Basically it was every person for him or herself.

“The real question is, do we go ahead?” Decker asked.

“Yes,” Javen said, his voice tight. “I need to see.”

He led the way, striding fast. Down below us, the beach’s black sand glittered in the sun. In the heat of the day, the water looked very tempting, though I suspected a number of lethal creatures lurked below the surface.

We rounded a corner to find the palace complex spread out in front of us. I had seen images of the royal palace before the eruption of the supervolcano. It had been a series of buildings constructed at the base of a mountain. None of it had looked incredibly impressive from the outside, and there had been no images of the interior.

One larger building stood in the center of the group, though it was no more than two stories tall. It was very long and curved around to match the curve of the mountain.

Javen walked up to it and opened the two large doors. I knew before we went in that we wouldn’t find anyone. Complete silence waited for us. No distant sounds of voices, no closing doors, nothing.

“I don’t think we are going to find anyone,” Lainie said. “We would have seen someone by now.”

“I agree. Let’s go back,” Nic said. “We’re wasting our time.”

I felt a weight settling on me. I had known I couldn’t count on finding Mira here, but there had been a spark of hope. “We should at least look. We might find some sort of clue where they’ve gone.”

“I’m not going back yet,” Javen said. “The rest of you do what you want.”

“We should stay together,” Decker said. “We might run into trouble on the way back.”

“Then you’ll have to stick with Quinn and me,” Javen said.

Reluctantly, the rest agreed. We all walked inside, our footsteps clicking on the tiled floor. As we passed

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