Read The Star Plume for Free Online Page B

again.
    Ahhhha.
    Then she remembered Wrangler Zav’s ‘Ahhha’ as
he had disappeared into the Night Prism. This was it. This was the
change.
    She was sound. Which meant Wrangler Zav was
sound. Which meant she should be able to hear him. She stayed very
still and tried harder to listen to the Nothing.
    Then she caught it, a faint low tone from a
ways away. She waited. It seemed to be coming closer. She could
tell it was Wrangler Zav. She was not sure HOW she knew. She sensed
the pulsing undulation, so different from her own, and was certain.
She moved toward it.
    *******
    As he waited for Cressida, Wrangler Zav tried
to recall how it all worked. The up and down was disorienting,
especially at his age. When he’d been a young man, it was a kick,
all this out of body stuff, up and down. Back then, there had been
lots of jokes, young men still getting used to their strong bodies,
suddenly losing them to sound waves, sneaking around, all under the
threat of capture by the Dark Spectrum. It had been easy then, to
be so reckless. But Zav did not want to get captured.
    He moved, gauging the density of the
material. Forward, up and down. He stopped for a moment,
remembering. No backward. Never backward.
    He hoped they’d only need to hide out a short
time. He didn’t fancy getting stuck in the Nothing. No thank you.
When he’d been here so many years ago, the universe had not been on
the edge of war. A trip to the Nothing had been a prank, a dare. He
moved again, spooked by the stillness.
    Odd. He remembered it being slower going last
time.
    Truth was, he didn’t mind this freedom. Not
one bit. His old body, his knees and back, all the moveable parts
really, were worn out from years of riding the Plumes and chasing
runaway stars. There was no avoiding it in his profession. He’d
lost count of the number of times he’d busted himself up tying down
a young upstart star.
    This effortless oscillation was freeing.
    Now where in the blazes was that Princess? He
followed a high pitch he heard in the distance. Sounded like
complaining. Had to be her.
    *******
    As she rounded a corner, she heard Wrangler
ask her, “Do you still have the Night Prism?” She stopped, so
relieved at having found him. It was beyond disconcerting to move
in a place one could neither see nor feel.
    Wrangler asked the question again, this time
using her name at the beginning. She felt like he was surrounding
her, his sound was everywhere. She tried to reply but was unable to
speak without a mouth or a body to make sounds.
    “Unnnth…” she said. Or thought she said.
    Wrangler explained quickly, “Listen now. To
talk, don’t try to speak, in the regular way. Just keep on moving
along and then think about what it is you want to say to me.
It’ll come through via your wavelength.”
    Princess Cressida decided now was not the
time for questions, so she started to move. That, at least, she had
figured out how to do.
    “I don’t know. How would I even know if I’ve
got the Night Prism? I don’t even know what has happened to me!”
She moved as quickly as she could, her pitch rising.
    Wrangler slowed himself down to a crawl,
trying to come up beside the Princess.
    “For now, suffice it to say you don’t need to
worry about getting gussied up while we’re in here. Is there a part
of you that feels slower?”
    “Slower?”
    “Yes, kinda like it’s a dead weight, dragging
you down, slowin’ you up. Try bouncing off that wall over there,
see how it feels.”
    As she moved, she noticed a slight drag as
she climbed upward. She explained this to Wrangler. He made a high
pitch sound of relief.
    “Good. That’s the Prism. Best hang on to it
or we’ll lose our way back. Me, I don’t fancy hangin’ around here
longer than we need to. Alright, follow me.”
    “Wrangler, what are we?”
    “We’re sound. Pure unadulterated sound. The
Night Prism can only handle wavelengths. We can’t be light, so we
got converted to sound.
    “Where are our