[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 59] Where No Answer Came
Lucca heard Crono's footsteps and lifted her head.
Her glasses sat crookedly. She adjusted them, bringing his back into focus. He did not need to walk all the way up to Lavos. He could cast lightning from where he was. She tried to tell him to stop, but the bitter taste in her mouth made her cough first.
Marle was crawling, pushing against the floor with one hand and reaching forward with the other. Lucca looked past her shoulder at Crono. Only then did she understand where he meant to stand. She and Marle were behind him. A little to one side were Schala and the fallen Magus.
Lavos's light widened. Crono lifted both arms before it.
“Crono, get out of the way!”
This time her voice came. She could not tell if he heard. White light swallowed him, lifting his feet from the ground. Lucca lowered the hand she had raised to shield her face. If she closed her eyes, she might lose the place where he was. His outstretched arms, his red hair, the scabbard at his hip—all were there in the light.
His outline began to come apart.
Lucca gathered magic. She called for fire before she had decided what to do with it. A little warmth kindled at her fingertips and died. Nothing came that could reach the place where Crono stood.
Marle called his name.
When the light receded, Lucca waited for the sound of a body falling. If something struck the ground, if someone groaned, she could crawl to him. She could tear cloth into strips, have Marle lay her hands on him, watch for his breathing to return.
Nothing fell.
A few small lights scattered above the empty floor. Marle reached the spot and held out her hand. One passed over her palm and vanished. She turned her hand over, then opened it again. Lucca could find no words to make her stop.
Lavos cried out once more.
Cracks spread through the ground toward Schala. She released Magus's shoulder and stood. Her lips moved, and the jewel at her throat began to glow. The queen disappeared behind the intensifying light. Lucca dragged herself closer, trying to hear Schala and see whom she was addressing.
“I'll use what strength I have left to send you out.”
Marle turned.
“Not yet.”
She felt across the empty space again. Lucca looked too. There was no sword, no clothing. Even as she saw that there was nothing they could pick up and carry away, her hands kept pulling her forward along the floor.
Schala approached them, the jewel lighting her face from below. She did not try to get Marle to her feet. She bent one knee and settled beside her.
“If you stay, you'll both die here too.”
Marle shook her head. Her mouth opened, but no sound came. Schala took her hand and placed it over Lucca's. It was trembling. Not the way her hands had trembled from exhaustion at the Mammon Machine.
“What about you?” Lucca asked.
Schala did not answer at once. Her grip tightened around the jewel, and light spread beneath their feet. It reached Magus, lying a little way off. Lucca looked from its farthest edge to Schala's feet.
“Come with us.”
Schala looked up. Lucca held out a hand. Schala took it for a moment, then let go.
“I'm sorry.”
Lucca tried to catch her wrist. Her fingers closed on air. Schala seemed no farther away, yet she could no longer reach her. Marle twisted toward the place where Crono had been. Lucca held on to her hand. Through their joined fingers, she felt how hard Marle was pulling.
She reached down with her other hand to brace herself.
The floor was gone.
*
Salt water filled her mouth.
Lucca coughed and pushed herself up. Pebbles shifted beneath her forearms. Wet sand clung to her open palm. There was sky where darkness had been. Marle lay facedown beside her. They were still holding hands.
When Lucca shook her shoulder, a breath burst from her. Even as she coughed, Marle turned her head toward the sea. Lucca saw her expression and spoke at once.
“Here. I'm right here.”
Marle heard her, but kept looking elsewhere. Lucca looked around with her. Wet rocks, broken branches, people running in the distance. Neither Schala nor Magus was in sight. Crono's name rose in her throat and stopped there.
The ground shook.
A column of water shot from the sea. Lucca caught Marle and ducked. A roar engulfed the shore. When she recognized the spines rising above the surface, she felt her strength leaving her again. There was no time to work out what had happened down there. Lavos rose, towering above the beach.
Light reached for the sky.
The rim of the distant floating land flared. Trees had grown there. People had walked those paths carrying cups wrapped in bundles. Lucca had seen flowers there. One side of the continent tilted. Houses, tiny at this distance, began to fall from its edge.
Marle pulled at her arm.
“We have to get higher.”
Lucca nodded, but her feet would not move. The sight before her still made no sense. Land was supposed to lie beneath you. If something that large fell, where would the water under it go? Before she could finish the thought, the horizon swelled.
Marle got up first and hauled her along. Lucca straightened her knees and ran. Water in her boots weighed her feet down. Her bag struck her back, but she had no hand free to throw it off. If she let go of Marle, she might never find her again.
Someone shouted from the slope above. A man clung to a rock with one hand and reached down with the other. Marle caught it. Lucca pushed her upward, then found a foothold in a crevice. Another hand caught her shoulder.
“Keep climbing!”
Water struck the rocks behind them. Lucca scrambled up without looking back. Others crowded into the narrow way, bodies pressing close. Someone scooped up a fallen child. Someone else dropped a box and pushed the person ahead of him upward by the waist.
They reached a high ledge as the land from the sky struck the sea.
Lucca did not hear the whole sound. The air hit her back first, leaving only a thin ringing in her ears. People's mouths moved. Marle said something right beside her. Lucca took it to mean Get down and dropped with her behind a rock.
Spray poured over them. Running feet and discarded bundles flashed across her vision. Lucca closed her eyes and drew Marle's hand toward her. With both arms tucked beneath her body, she felt along their joined fingers to make sure she still had her.
*
She woke to a fire crackling.
At first she thought they were back in Algetty. There was a low roof, the smell of smoke, people lying close together. But the walls were cloth and timber, not stone. Whenever the wind blew, gaps opened onto a gray sky.
Lucca lifted her hands first. Sand clung to her palms. Someone had made an attempt to wash it off, but grains remained in the creases. To her right, Marle sat up. They were no longer holding hands. Instead, a single blanket covered them both.
“You're awake.”
An old man approached with a bowl of water. Lucca put on the glasses lying beside her. His face and the fire behind him became clear.
“How long...?”
A cough cut off her question. The old man handed her the bowl before answering.
“You've been sleeping. Your breathing is easier now than when they brought you in.”
Marle looked toward the entrance without taking any water.
“What about the person who came with us?”
The old man looked from one to the other. Lucca did not clarify the question. She was afraid that if she spoke the name herself, someone would give her an answer.
“People helped you up from the shore. Are you looking for someone?”
Marle's mouth closed. Lucca nodded for her.
“Red hair. About our age.”
He thought for a moment, then shook his head. He had not seen him. That was not the same as saying he was nowhere to be found. Lucca held on to the distinction and drank.
Marle pushed the blanket aside. Trying to put on a boot, she missed its opening. Lucca set it straight for her. Marle pulled the laces tight without thanking her, and Lucca waited for no thanks. They rose almost together.
Sea wind struck their faces as they stepped outside.
The sky was empty.
Nothing was merely hidden behind the clouds. Lucca turned her head, trying to find the direction of the path she had walked yesterday. No pillars of light remained, no shadows of land. From one end of her vision to the other, there was only sea beneath low clouds.
People were putting up shelters below it. A woman dressed in the clothes of the sky kingdom wrung out a wet cloth. Beside her, a man who looked like one of Algetty's people whittled a piece of wood. Neither made the other stand aside. A child between them held a bowl of nails.
Marle walked a few steps along the shore and stopped. Salvaged objects had been laid out in rows: broken dishes, an unfamiliar coat, a little cart with no wheels. She examined each one. Lucca did the same beside her. Whenever a scrap of red cloth appeared, they both stopped.
They reached the end without finding what they wanted.
“Shall we go back inside?” Lucca asked.
Marle shook her head, still facing the sea.
“Just a little longer.”
Lucca did not ask again. She noticed her friend's bare throat. The pendant was gone. She began to say something, then lowered her hand. Marle was touching her own neck too.
They stood facing the water. Waves came in and drew back. Cold wind touched the hands that had so recently searched the palace floor.
Lucca looked over the scattered things on the beach again. At last, a thought took the shape of words: Crono was not somewhere she had failed to look. He had vanished in front of her. She searched urgently for something else to think about, but the same scene returned.
“Marle.”
Her friend turned. Lucca meant to say that Crono was gone. When she opened her mouth, something else came out.
“When we get home...”
She did not know what she could say. His mother would open the door and look for her son. If Lucca came in alone, she would look behind her, expecting Crono to follow a little later, as he always did.
Marle took her hand. This time she did not pull her anywhere or tighten her grip to keep from losing her. Lucca stood beside her with her head bowed. Tears fell onto the back of her hand. Neither of them said where they would go next.
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