Read Online The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike - Free Book Online

controls got locked in place because they were the first ones we used."
    "I suppose," I said, although I thought that sounded silly.
    Amesh turned to face me. "Now that we've stopped, we might be able to turn the carpet around without leaving the ley line. Grab that tassel on the right and bend it to the right. See what happens."
    "We might tip over."
    "We have to try. We can't float here all night."
    I reached for the tassel. "We should have experimented more with the controls while we were still on the shore."
    "We should have done a lot of things. Turn us around."
    He knew I was stalling. The sense that the carpet didn't want to go back plagued me. I could not explain why. Still, I did what he said, and slowly the carpet rotated. In seconds we were facing the shore. Far off, the lights of Istanbul beaconed. There lay safety, I thought, security. But out here on the carpet was magic, and I didn't want to give that up so soon.
    "Take us back at a slower speed," Amesh said.
    "Aye, Captain." I reached for the central left tassel to restart our silent engine. But the second I did so the carpet rotated back out to sea. I wondered if it was responding to what I wanted, instead of obeying what my hands were doing.
    "Why did you do that?" Amesh demanded.
    "It did it on its own. Maybe it wants to keep going."
    "You talk about it like it's alive."
    "What if it is."
    "Don't be silly."
    "Amesh, I feel something coming from it. Like you can sense another person's feelings. It's like it's telling me it wants to go farther."
    "Where? All we have in front of us are miles of ocean."
    "Aren't there islands off this coast?"
    "Well, technically, we're in a really huge bay. But everyone calls it the Sea of Marmara. If we keep going, we'll either run into the Gallipoli Peninsula or fly through the Dardenelles Strait. That's a narrow strip of water that connects this bay with the Aegean Sea. But no way are we going that far."
    "Why don't we go just a little farther, then make up our minds. I don't think it's going to dump us in the water and run off."
    Amesh was not happy with the plan. "You can't be sure of that."
    "I have faith in the carpet."
    The words just popped out of my mouth, but they were true. Not only did I feel the carpet was alive, I felt it was a friend. An ally, at least.
    I bent the left tassel forward until we reached a speed of about fifteen miles an hour, which proved to be easier on our nerves. The night air continued to brush my face but it was a gentle breeze.
    To my surprise, the farther we went, the calmer the ocean grew. Soon the sea was as still as a mountain lake and utterly quiet. The lights of Istanbul faded to a faint glow. We were able to see the band of the Milky Way, along with a million more stars. Glancing over my shoulder, I could see the center of our flying machine was thick with stars.
    And my friend's breathing had grown long and deep. He was out cold! At first I was stunned. Who could sleep at a time like this? I pulled him away from the carpet's edges so he wouldn't fall off, and he still didn't wake up.
    My thoughts turned to what Amesh had told me in the hotel, the story of how he had lost his hand. It had happened only a year ago, the previous summer. He was still healing from the blow, he admitted, emotionally as well as physically. But losing a hand—maybe that was something he would never get over.
    He had described the accident to me briefly, almost as if he were reading from a prepared card. He was working a circular saw that was used to cut long steel cables that provided a framework for the tons of concrete the company poured daily. The machine was a powerful band saw—it had the power to reshape diamonds. He wore goggles while he worked to protect his eyes, and a mask to block out the fine particles of metal the saw threw into the air.
    One day a smoldering shard of metal flew off a cable he was cutting and struck his goggles. Ordinarily that would not have been a problem, but the shard was