Halve Human

by Stephanie Fazio

  “Burn vulture.” Ry, whose trained archer eyes have already spotted the threat, has an arrow nocked in her bow. I reach for my sling before remembering I don’t have it anymore.

  “No, it isn’t,” Wokee tugs on Ry’s arm to lower her bow. “It’s Vlaz!”

  “It can’t be.” Vlaz, the orphaned hyenair cub, is with Dayne.

  “It’s too big to be Vlaz.” Ry raises her bow again. “It’s a Burn vulture.”

  “I think I know the difference.” Wokee stomps his foot.

  The animal, whatever it is, has spotted us. It dives, hitting the ground with a spray of dirt. The moment the creature regains its footing and begins to run, its one flopped ear bouncing crazily while the other is pricked forward, I know Wokee is right.

  The cub I remember is gone; in his place is a giant, winged hyenair I barely recognize. His wings, even folded on his back, are each the length of a full-grown man. He is as tall as three stags stacked one atop another, except his body isn’t sleek and delicate like a stag’s. His thick, shaggy black fur hangs off his body in matted clumps. Thick cords of muscle wind around his haunches and down to his paws, each of which is bigger than my head. Two dagger-sharp fangs hang down from his upper lip.

  There is something unfamiliar and vaguely terrifying about this massive creature. I block Wokee with my body as Vlaz approaches.

  Ekil’s black eyes are darting between Vlaz and me. When he raises his club, I put up a hand. Wait.

  “Unnatural creature,” Ekil shakes his head.

  I give him a wry smile. “That’s what the Dwellers say about you.” About me.

  Ekil only blinks at me.

  Darting around me, Wokee throws his arms around one of the giant forelegs that is as tall as he is. Vlaz utters little whimpers of excitement as he lowers his massive head to the boy. With a single nudge from the hyenair’s nose, Wokee is sprawled on the ground, laughing as Vlaz bathes his face with his enormous purple tongue.

  When his luminous yellow eyes find me, Vlaz bounds over Wokee in one swift leap. I recoil. His fangs and claws are each as long as my entire hand, and they look like they could snap a person in two. Even his tail could kill with a single flick.

  But as soon as Vlaz is beside me, my hesitation fades. It’s Vlaz.

  His huge purple tongue darts out to cover my entire face in sticky slobber. The force of it is enough to knock me over. Vlaz waits impatiently for me to right myself, and then he lowers his head to the ground so I can scratch his favorite spot underneath his flopped ear. I marvel at how his ears have grown the length of my forearm.

  “Told you it was him,” Wokee says.

  “You’re nuts.” Ry shakes her head as Wokee reaches up to scratch Vlaz’s foreleg.

  “Where is your brother?” Jadem asks me, echoing the question in my own head.

  “Something on the beast’s neck.” Ekil points up.

  The blue collar Wokee made for Vlaz is gone—he must have outgrown it months ago—but in its place is a piece of blue fabric wound around his thick neck.

  “Down,” Wokee commands, pointing his finger at the ground.

  Without hesitation, Vlaz folds his legs until his enormous body is resting on the ground.

  “Impressive,” Ry murmurs.

  Wokee gives us a superior grin. “I taught him that.”

  I reach up to the blue shred of cloth now just barely within my reach. On the edge is a hastily drawn black sun, the symbol of the Solguards. A bit of yellowing script tree bark wedged between the fabric and Vlaz’s fur falls to the ground.

  My pulse quickens as I recognize the spidery text. I can feel the heat of everyone’s gaze as I scan the note.

  “Well?” Ry makes an impatient gesture.

  “He did it.” I swallow. “Dayne found my father.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Is your father still alive?”

  “Did Dayne capture him? Where are they?”

  I pass the letter to Ry. She unrolls it and reads aloud.

  Mer, I hope this beastly hyenair is as good at finding you as Wokee promised. I found Zeidan. Meet me at Solis as soon as you are able.

  -D

  Ry lets out her breath in a low whistle. “How did the hyenair manage to find us?” She stares up at Vlaz, who is drooling as Wokee scratches his flopped ear.

  Wokee grins. “I taught him to find his way back here.”

  “Dayne knows the Duskers are headed to the fortress next,” Ry says. “Why didn’t he just come back here?”

  My brother never does anything without a reason, which leaves only one possible explanation. “The fortress must be near to where my father is hiding.”

  My words are met with silence. We all remember the catacombs where my father killed dozens in his effort to replicate me. We all remember his Zeroes.

  What has my father been up to all this time?

  “I hate mysteries,” Ry grumbles.

  “We need to get back to the fortress.” Jadem paces back and forth. “Now.”

  I try not to think about how my father will have plenty of time to disappear again before we reach Solis. If I left the others behind, I could cover the distance in half the time. I know they would never agree to let me go after my father on my own, though.

  “How do we know the Duskers won’t have attacked the fortress before we get back?” Ry asks.

  Aunt Jadem’s face is grim. “We don’t.”

  “We don’t have—” Wokee begins, but Ry interrupts him.

  “What’s Ekil doing?”

  We all look to where she’s pointing. Ekil is squatting on the ground near the ruins of one of the buildings. He lifts up the wing of a dead Burn vulture and drags something from beneath it.

  Not something, I realize. Someone.

  “Oh suns, it can’t be,” Aunt Jadem breathes.

  “Jarosh!” Ry takes off.

  Jarosh, the first person to pledge his support to me as the leader of Tanguro, lies limp in Ekil’s arms. His face is spattered with blood.

  “He’s alive!” Ry calls as she helps Ekil set him on the ground.

  The rest of us run to them.

  “Bastard tried to eat me.” Jarosh rasps, gesturing at the Burn vulture’s remains.

  “Its wing kept him alive.” Ekil nods his head up and down.

  “You’re bleeding!” Ry is already tearing off the shirt she’s wearing beneath her cloak to use as a makeshift bandage.

  Ekil holds the dead Burn vulture’s wing over them, giving them shade while Ry kneels beside Jarosh.

  “I have that effect on women.” Jarosh whispers, as he eyes the torn pieces of Ry’s shirt.

  “In your dreams,” Ry mutters as she winds the fabric around Jarosh’s stomach.

  “You could do worse.” Jarosh’s attempt at a grin becomes more of a grimace as Ry knots the cloth.

  Sweat pours down his temples as a tremor wracks his body.

  “We need to find bandages, medical supplies, anything.…” I look around, like they might just appear out of the ruins.

  “He needs a healer,” Wokee states the obvious.

  “My fortress is too far,” Aunt Jadem shakes her head. “And there are no settlements on this side of the mountain.” She doesn’t mention that even if we could get him to Solis, there would be no healer to treat him. The Solguard healer, Gwendil, died from touching my blood when she was trying to help me.

  A brokenness erases the hope we had all felt moments before.

  “The Halves can save your friend.”

  I give Ekil a sharp look. “You can?”

  Ekil nods. “There is one among our kind who can help him. If,” Ekil’s black eyes narrow, “you help the Halves.”

  Ekil and I stare at each other for a long moment. I have no idea what I could do get the Banished to stop attacking them, and even less of an idea about how to get their river back. But Jarosh is alive. I can’t do anything for the hundreds of others who fought here. I won’t lose Jarosh, too.

  “Okay,” I say with a
helpless shrug. “I’ll try.”

  Ekil nods in agreement.

  I translate our bargain for the others. “We have to make a harness so I can carry Jarosh. And we’ll need to stop by the traveling cave to get whatever supplies the Duskers didn’t take.”

  For the first time since the Duskers told me my army was dead, I have a purpose. I’m going to save Jarosh.

  “Mer,” Aunt Jadem rests a gentle hand on my arm. “It’s a seven-day walk to the Banished Lands.” She looks pointedly at Jarosh, whose head is lolling.

  “Hey guys,” Wokee says.

  “I can get there faster,” I persist. “I’ll run the whole way.”

  “Guys….”

  “You’ll still have to stop at high day,” Aunt Jadem says. “I know you want to help him, but it’s too far.”

  “Hello!” Wokee waves his hands in front of us.

  I shut my mouth and look at Wokee, whose face is red with exertion.

  “We can get Jarosh to the Halves’ lands before high day…today.” Wokee gives us a sly look.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Ry huffs. She looks at our shadows, which are growing shorter. The sun is already climbing back to an angle too deadly for any but me to withstand.

  “We can,” Wokee insists. “We can ride Vlaz.”

  Jarosh manages a weak snort from where he is propped against a pile of stones. “You trained the hyenair to carry people?”

  “I did! While you were all doing boring grown-up stuff in the fortress, which you know, I’m not allowed to do,” he pouts, “I taught him all kinds of stuff. Jadem showed me how to train the kynthia birds, and I figured if they could learn tricks, so could Vlaz.”

  I give my aunt an accusing glare, but she is too busy complimenting Wokee to notice. Wokee beams.

  “So just to make sure I have this right,” Ry says, “while we were talking about tunnels and walls, you were flying around on Vlaz?”

  “Well, not riding on him, exactly,” Wokee admits. “He was too small back then to carry anyone, but I taught him the basics. I even made a man out of straw and put it on his back so he could get used to the feeling of—”

  Ry puts up a hand to stop him. “You’re telling me that you taught Vlaz how to fly with people on his back, but you’ve never actually put a person on his back?”

  “He left with Dayne to go find Hemera’s dad before I could try,” Wokee says.

  “And now, you want us to try him out?”

  “I don’t see why it won’t work.” Wokee shrugs. “He seemed to like the straw man.”

  Jarosh makes an indistinct noise that might be a guffaw.

  “Wokee, even if he could carry someone, and that’s a serious if,” I say, trying to keep my tone reasonable, “there are six of us.”

  “Have you seen how big he is?” Wokee opens his arms wide and bulges his eyes for emphasis.

  “Well,” Aunt Jadem gives Vlaz a considering look. “Technically, it should be possible for him to carry our weight.”

  Ry’s jaw drops. “Tell me you aren’t considering this.”

  Wokee smiles at my aunt, and then turns to me. “See? Jadem says it’s okay.”

  “Yeah, if okay means the same as a death wish, then I’d say this is the perfect plan.” Ry rolls her eyes.

  I agree with Ry.

  “Does anyone have any better ideas for saving Jarosh?” Wokee challenges.

  “When did you get so smart?” Ry counters, crossing her arms and frowning at Wokee.

  He gives her a smug look before all eyes turn on me.

  The thought of seeing the people I care about most climb on top of Vlaz and expect him to fly them where they need to go is absurd. It’s suicide. But if there’s a chance it could mean Jarosh lives….

  “I guess if you both think it’s safe,” I begin, turning my attention on my aunt. “We can try it.”

  “You’ve all gone out of your minds,” Ry mutters.

  I just give her an apologetic shrug. We can’t lose Jarosh.

  Wokee is grinning and bouncing on his toes. “Down,” he tells Vlaz.

  The hyenair lowers his forepaws until his belly is in the dirt. Wokee grabs fistfuls of the hyenair’s fur and scampers up Vlaz’s side, like he’s scaling a hairy boulder he’s climbed a thousand times. He settles himself behind Vlaz’s feathered wings.

  Wokee looks ridiculously tiny on the hyenair’s back.

  “Changed my mind,” I say. “There has to be some other way to get Jarosh there.”

  “There is no other way,” Wokee insists.

  “How’s his steering coming?” Jadem asks Wokee.

  “You knew about this?” I ask, incredulous.

  Of all of us, Jadem alone shares Wokee’s love of animals and things that grow. But I never thought she would let Wokee do something so reckless.

  “No one has had a tame hyenair before. I’ll admit I was curious,” Aunt Jadem says. “Besides, the boy has a gift.”

  Wokee’s chest is thrust out with pride.

  “It’s the only way we can make it back to the fortress in time,” Aunt Jadem continues.

  She doesn’t say in time for what, but she doesn’t have to. We all know it’s just a matter of time before the Duskers do to Solis what they did to Tanguro.

  “Won’t be any help if we’re dead,” Jarosh says.

  Every word seems to cost him, and he flops back against the rocks.

  “If Ekil can show us the way,” Jadem says, ignoring Jarosh, “Wokee can direct Vlaz.”

  “Can you show us how to find your lands?” I ask Ekil after I’ve explained the plan.

  He gives Vlaz a dubious look, although he isn’t as scared as the last time he saw Vlaz.

  “Humans very stupid,” Ekil says. “But I will try.”

  ✽✽✽

  While the others fashion a harness to keep Jarosh strapped onto Vlaz, I follow the magnetic pull to the place where Brice is buried. I pick my way through the rubble until I find the charred branches that are all that’s left of the golden tree. I kneel next to the smooth stone, now the only marker of the remains buried here.

  Brice. The man I loved. The man who lied and used me for his own gains. The man who died to save me.

  I just wish—

  “Ready, Mer?” Aunt Jadem sees where I’m kneeling, and she comes to stand beside me.

  “I never told you about the reason why your mother married Zeidan.”

  I look at Aunt Jadem, distracted from my grief over Brice at her words. My hand moves unconsciously to the two necklaces I wear. Sal’s Solguard pendant, the one Wade gave me when he left Tanguro, rests at the hollow of my throat. Underneath, on a delicate chain that reaches down to my heart, is the silver key my mother gave me. My hand finds the key and closes around it. The key to her heart.

  My aunt, with her almost masculine height and girth, looks nothing like my beautiful, slender mother. When I first met her months ago in Solis, I was sure Jadem was an enemy. But her fierce protectiveness of the Solguards and unwavering support of me reminds me my mother isn’t truly gone, that a part of her still lives.

  Aunt Jadem has told me many stories about my mother over the last few months, but there is so much I still want to know.

  “Your mother was pregnant with Dayne,” Aunt Jadem continues, “and a Solguard sympathizer.”

  “She helped the Solguards?” I ask. It shouldn’t surprise me given what Jadem has already told me about my mother, but still, I had no idea.

  “Mhm.” Aunt Jadem has that faraway look I know means she’s reliving an old memory. “She gave it all up when she married Zeidan, of course. She thought by marrying him she could make life better for the Dwellers, and that she could influence him to be a better leader.”

  “That worked out well.” I don’t try to hide my sarcasm.

  “It did, though. She made him kinder, tamed his hunger for power and dominance.” Aunt Jadem shakes her head as if she can’t believe it herself. “And over time, they really did come to love each other,
in their own way.”

  “And now she’s dead, and my father’s a murderer.”

  “Hemera.” Aunt Jadem’s stern tone makes me look at her. “Your mother made a difficult choice because she wanted to make life better for her people. Even if the outcome was not what she wanted, it doesn’t make her intentions any less wholesome.” She stares out at the ruin of Tanguro. “There is nothing more powerful than a willing sacrifice. Nothing at all.”

  “I never meant for any of these people to be sacrifices,” I mumble.

  “And your mother never meant for Zeidan to do any of the things he did,” Aunt Jadem replies.

  “Yes, but she wasn’t the reason why all of her people were killed,” I persist.

  “And neither are you.” Aunt Jadem touches my chin. “You are more than the sum of your parts, Mer. I have no doubt we have only begun to see what you are capable of.”

  “Jadem, Mer!” Ry is waving to us from where she’s perched on Vlaz. “Get back here before I come to my senses.”

  Aunt Jadem smiles at me; the lopsided grin that stretches her scars no longer seems repulsive or even strange to me. With an unsteady breath, I let Aunt Jadem lead me away from Brice’s grave.

  CHAPTER 5

  When we get back to Vlaz, Ry is trying to haul Ekil onto the hyenair while Wokee yells encouragement.

  “A little bit more,” Wokee is saying. “Just use his fur as a handhold.” He mimes the climbing action.

  With me pushing him from behind, and loud grunting coming from Ekil, we finally manage to get the Halve onto Vlaz. Vlaz makes a rumbling oof sound as Ekil settles his weight behind Wokee.

  I wince at the thought of Vlaz trying to take off with all of our weight bearing down on his back. Even with Aunt Jadem’s confidence, I can’t imagine how Vlaz is going to carry all of us. But it’s not like we have any better options.

  Wokee gathers makeshift rope reins in one hand, while turning back to tell Ekil to hold on tight.

  “You next,” I say, crouching next to Jarosh.

  When I reach down to pull him up, I see how ashen his face is. He’s too weak even to grasp my outstretched hand.