Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds by Geoffrey Arnold Read Free Book Online Page B

below, then a jarring smash as he thudded into Tullia. Arms and legs all tangled, they righted themselves into each other’s arms, holding fiercely, searching each other’s energy fields.
    ‘You saved me!’ she cried. ‘Gave me the strength to hang on!’
    ‘I wanted a soft landing,’ he replied.
    ‘Beast!’
    ‘Kaigii.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    It was time to let out oohs and arghs of pain, run their hands over their bodies and search inside. They agreed.
Nothing broken. Lots of bruises and burns.
    ‘Oh Kaigii, your hands,’ Tullia exclaimed, as she gently took them and let them lie on the palms of her own hands. She bent her head and softly hummed healing energy into them, flickers of green light running from the crown of her head all the way along her hair. His hands were badly burnt and she let her soft tears well up and fall, watching the burns start to heal.
    ‘You love me!’ Qwelby exclaimed.
    ‘Don’t kid yourself,’ she replied.
    Mentally hugging, they shared their healing energies. As new skin spread over his palms, Tullia helped Qwelby up. With an arm around each other they stepped through the open doorway just as the sun dipped below the horizon and Night threw her cloak of darkness over the land. They looked around. Where were they? Far away there was a faint glow from behind the hills, which they hoped was from Lungunu. They stepped forward and shivered as if they had passed through a waterfall.

    Aided by the half moon, millions of stars spread their twinkling light across the snow.
    
    They looked behind them. The bell tower had disappeared.
    
    They looked at their wristers. After XOÑOX had been formed, Pelnak had made a special wrister for each of them. Discovering that the Azurii believed they could capture and measure Time in all manner of differently shaped boxes, and wore them strapped to their wrists, a wrister had become a Tazian fashion fad.
    Pelnak had made all theirs in the pattern of an eye, appropriately coloured for each of them. Around the edge of the central orb a tiny facsimile of Vertazia rotated, matching its daily passage around the sun. There were a number of thought-controlled functions and a multi-coloured communicator that only worked between the six of them.
    A large green arrow on each wrister pointed in the same direction. They swung their arms around and, like compass needles finding North, the arrows continued to point in the same direction. Knowing in which direction to send their thoughts, wearily they leant on each another. Tullia concentrated on sending
‘Home please,’
to their father, whilst Qwelby imaged a fire inside each of them. A few moments later they sagged with relief as they received his thought:
‘Wait.’
    They soon heard a swishing sound as he arrived on the family PowerSled. Confident that he could master the necessary energies for a short while, he had not delayed to put on a sled-suit which he could have plugged in to keep him warm, instead, he had draped a bright red cape over his shoulders. He helped his children climb aboard and wrapped them in reassurance as they collapsed onto the rear seat and the energy field comfortably snuggled them in.
    They could feel his concern. It was nice. Like his great uncle, he was a quantum scientist. A quiet man who went through life with a slightly bemused expression on his face as though he watched everything from a distance. The twins were pleased that he had come for them. Their mother would be so worried she would have asked lots of questions and drained their energy.

CHAPTER 6
UNSETTLINGNEWS
    As the twins walked in through the door, their mother surprised them by not asking any questions. Although looking more than usually harassed she gave each of them an energy feed with a big hug. ‘Go on through to the gather room. Uncle Mandara is waiting for you. I’ll bring hot drinks,’ she said.
    As they entered the room Shandur sat to one side in an armchair, leaving the twins to sit down