Page 69 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)

DHRUV

He tromped through the jungle, pushing past tall weeds irritably. Even in the worst of times, after Irshar had crash-landed, he had disdained the jungle, instead keeping to the Garden’s solar lab. To have to come to it now, when there was no need to, irked him so much that he kicked a passing shrub, only to have it entangle his foot.

Dhruv let out a part grunt, part groan, hobbling away from the foliage, brushing past a thick swarm of mite-flies. What was he doing, responding to a summons here of all places? Kiana would be wondering where he was. He was supposed to meet her to discuss the future of sungineering and the city. Life had begun again with the constant rains. Some people had ventured far beyond the city and found the ocean. Fruit trees had been discovered, and a rudimentary form of agriculture was beginning, but with the loss of trajection they relied on fire and candles to light their evenings. It was a personal insult, after everything sungineering had once achieved. He should be back in the city with Kiana and the others, trying to cobble together a technology for the future of humanity. Instead, here he was, brushing spiderwebs from his face.

He had been so surprised to receive the message, he’d sat staring at it for long minutes before beginning his trek to the jungle. He hadn’t even bothered to bring a coat, and that was unlike him.

Well? Could he be blamed? No one had heard from Iravan in months. Yet somehow the man had known which house was Dhruv’s, and left a message unseen. Typical, Dhruv thought sourly. Reality had changed, but Iravan had remained the same. He could not tell if he was annoyed or relieved.

Dhruv was out of breath when he finally found Iravan kneeling in a clearing, his hands filthy, sleeves covered in mud though they were rolled back. The man was smiling as he studied his handiwork. The sapling he’d planted was small, barely a foot high, but wild and leafy, white buds nearly ready to bloom. Dhruv inhaled, and smelled jasmine. This again? He felt his annoyance grow. What was Iravan’s plan now—to somehow seduce Ahilya again? She was happy now. Dhruv had been to her wedding, this one with a person he actually liked.

He loomed over Iravan, and crossed his arms.

“And where have you been all along?”

he asked, scowling by way of greeting.

Iravan laughed, then rose, dusting his hands. He reached over and embraced Dhruv, and it was so surprising, so awkward, that Dhruv froze. When Iravan stepped back, Dhruv took a few hurried steps back, lest Iravan do it again.

“Sorry,”

Iravan said, mirth in his eyes.

“I should have asked, but by rages, it is good to see your face. Though I suppose, I can’t really say ‘by rages’ anymore, can I?”

He burst into laughter, and Dhruv’s eyebrows rose.

What the fuck, he thought. Had Iravan finally cracked? Dhruv had never seen him this way, childlike, exuberant, mischievous. The man was practically bouncing on his toes. He was almost effervescent. A startling thought came to Dhruv that Iravan had never looked as charming. No wonder Ahilya had fallen for him once.

“Are you all right?”

he asked cautiously.

“Yes, yes,”

Iravan said, waving a hand. Then he leaned in as if they were surrounded by a thousand people instead of alone in the wretched jungle.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“What do you know about me?”

Dhruv replied dryly.

That made Iravan chuckle again, but to Dhruv’s great relief it was short-lived.

“I found something,”

Iravan said. Dhruv’s eyebrows climbed higher and higher, as the man related a tale of more ashrams he’d found.

“—not ashrams, they don’t call themselves that anymore—”

and cities orbiting the earth.

“—airships, perhaps—”

from one of the other bands of society.

“Nakshar and the sister cities were just one band,”

Iravan ended, his eyes gleaming.

“We fell from the skies, as did many others perhaps, but the highest bands—ones we never heard from are alive. They ascended the planet long ago, centuries ago, high into the edges of the atmosphere beyond the gravity of our planet. They ascended trajection.”

Dhruv’s eyes widened.

“Then we are not the last of our species.”

“No,”

Iravan said, grinning.

“No, we are not.”

Questions blinded Dhruv, too many to track. What had those cities experienced during the turmoil? Had they felt anything? Had they seen the planetrage from so high up? Why hadn’t they helped? Why had they abandoned all the others? Iravan seemed to know more than he was telling, but didn’t offer it. Typical, Dhruv thought again, but he didn’t ask either. What would be the point?

“How do you know this?”

he demanded instead.

Iravan looked at him. Then, with a wink, he rose into the air, hovering a few feet off the ground, before coming back down next to Dhruv.

Dhruv gasped.

“You retained the everpower?”

“No—not that,”

Iravan said.

“But something else. When the falcon and the others used the blade of everdust, they wished for each of their desires to be fulfilled. But all those desires were all demands of power, and they made their way into me, my body, fulfilling in their own way with the everdust my past lives used. And now, I have this—this new thing. This new life.”

He shuddered, his mirth temporarily forgotten.

“I don’t like to think of that time too much,”

he admitted.

“Their presence was a violation. I am simply grateful for the gift.”

Dhruv did not probe. Long ago, he had learned not to interfere where he shouldn’t, and he had no desire to learn of Iravan’s experience.

“Is this what you wanted to tell me?” he asked.

“No,”

Iravan said.

“I wanted to give you something. When I was up there, in the higher atmosphere learning of these cities, I… I made something. I had one last sliver of everdust remaining. And I asked it to become this—a gift for you, and for the rest of them.”

From his pocket, Iravan withdrew a small hard stone, the size of his fingernail. Dhruv accepted it, bringing it close to his eyes. The stone gleamed, not a stone at all but something else, latticed with a crisscross pattern. It blinked golden, and felt warm in his hands despite the coolness of the jungle. It almost looked like—

“The sun’s energy,”

Iravan said, clearly unable to contain himself.

“It works on the sun’s energy.”

Dhruv looked up slowly, from the stone to Iravan.

Iravan’s eyes glittered, reflecting the strange stone.

“You can really be a sungineer,” he said.

A slow smile crept on Dhruv’s face.

“You insane, wonderful man,”

he breathed.

Birds burst out of the foliage, squawking, and the jungle reverberated with the sound of both men’s laughter.