Beside Ekil, Brogut is making hideous sounds as he brandishes his tree trunk spear.
“Ekil,” I demand, “get that Halve under control.”
For a moment, I think we might have averted a disaster. Brogut is still snarling, but at least he’s lowered his weapon. And then the screams start.
“Hyenair!” one of the Banished shrieks.
Vlaz, still standing beside Wokee where we left them, is oblivious to his effect on the already-panicking Banished.
“It’s okay, he’s a friend!”
“Calm down!” Ry bellows.
No one listens.
As the sight of Vlaz, his fangs glinting in the sunlight, the Banished scatter.
“You’re going the wrong way.” Ry stops one of the women stumbling off to the east. “The Banished Lands are that way.” She gestures in the opposite direction.
“Malarusk,” the woman shouts in her hoarse voice. “We’re going to Malarusk.”
“You can’t be serious,” Ry smacks her gloved hand to her forehead.
“We can give you protection.” Aunt Jadem is pleading to the ragged bunch of children who can’t be much older than Wokee. “You don’t have to go to the Duskers.”
None of them give her so much as a glance as they follow the others south, in the direction of the Dusker territory.
The leader lets out an animal cry and runs at Ekil. Brogut has the pointed end of his tree trunk pointed at the man, and Ekil raises his club.
“I’ll stop them!” Wokee, appearing out of nowhere, leaps into the fray.
“Wokee,” I gasp, but he’s already darting under Brogut’s raised arm.
The Banished man is charging. All of his momentum is propelling him forward, a murderous glint in his eye, as Wokee steps straight into the man’s path. Too late, I see the glint of a dagger in the man’s hand.
CHAPTER 8
I throw myself in front of Wokee, my only thought to protect him. The knife cuts through the place where his chest had been only a moment before. The blade slices into my stomach.
“Hemera!” Wokee screams.
Pain explodes through my body as I double over. Instinctively, I wrap my hands around the foreign object lodged inside me and pull it out. There is a horrible squelching sound as my flesh gives up the blade. Blood spatters my clothes as I fight to stay conscious.
Screams of agony pierce the air. At first, I think they’re mine, but even when I put a hand over my mouth to stop the ear-splitting sound, the screams continue.
Through darkening vision, I see the Banished man, shrieking and ripping his cloak off to claw at his skin. I want to tell him he’s going to get the Burn, that no one can be on the Outside without their cloaks except for me, but I can’t summon the words.
“Demon blood!” the man screams.
I can see him racing toward me, his knife held out, the blade still covered in my brown blood. Even from this distance, I can see the blisters racing up the man’s bare arms. Whether they’re from my blood or the sun, I’m not sure. But my body is too heavy to do anything except stand there.
A familiar twang cuts through the air, and then the Banished man crumples to the ground. A single arrow sticks out of his neck.
I collapse, the weight of my own body too much to support any longer. My hands cover the gaping wound left in the blade’s absence.
“Hemera,” Wokee whimpers.
“Move aside,” my aunt commands. And then to me, “Hemera, let me see.”
The dark stain of wet blood covers the entire front of my cloak. But the wound itself is already beginning to heal. The searing pain is beginning to eb.
“I’m sorry,” Wokee sobs as he wraps his arms around himself.
I pull aside the fabric of my cloak and lift the bottom of my blood-soaked shirt. The gash is already partially sealed. A trickle of brown blood oozes out, but the pain is fading. “No permanent harm done.” I give Wokee a weak smile.
“Greater than the sum of your parts, like I’ve always said.” Aunt Jadem shakes her head. You really are a wonder, Mer.”
Wokee lets out a sound that is part hiccup-part sob, before running to me.
“Careful!” Three voices yell at the same time before he can come within reach of my poisonous blood.
Wokee’s lip trembles.
“Don’t worry,” I reassure him. “See?” I point to my stomach. “As good as new.”
I look at the Banished man’s corpse. A shudder runs down my spine at the sight of him. The blisters have spread over every visible part of him, making him look like some grotesque version of a person.
“Well,” Ry clears her throat. “If this hasn’t been the most bizarre day I’ve ever had….” She stops speaking, and we all follow the direction of her gaze.
The Banished have all disappeared…all except for the one who was being dragged by the leader. The rope lies in a heap on the ground, no longer attached to anything or anyone. The woman regards us. Even though her face is shadowed by her hood, I can feel the intensity of her gaze. She’s filthy and nothing but bones, and yet there’s an air about her that’s almost regal. Her spine is straight, and she doesn’t look away or seem cowed when we all focus on her.
“What about you?” Ry asks, eyeing the lone Banished girl.
“What about me?” she counters.
Ry raises an eyebrow. “You’re not going to go chasing after the rest of the crazies?”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, I wasn’t exactly going with them of my own free will.”
Ry grins and jabs me in the side. “I think I like this one.”
The girl is tall, like Ry. When she looks down at me, it’s through gray eyes. I would guess she’s around Ry’s age, maybe a few years older than me, but she’s too covered in grime and sweat to tell much more about her.
“Can you tell us what’s really going on?” Aunt Jadem asks.
“It’s as they say,” the girl replies. “The Duskers promised safety in return for their labor in Malarusk.”
A flash of understanding passes over my aunt’s face before it’s replaced by worry.
“Aunt Jadem?” I ask.
She clears her throat. “The Dusker Supreme is not prone to acts of generosity. Their offer does not bode well.”
“That’s what I said,” the girl agrees. “But the leader of my settlement made me come. He thought if I stayed in the settlement it would anger the Duskers, and then they would refuse the rest of our group.”
“Well, I guess you better come with us,” Ry tells the girl. She looks to Aunt Jadem and me.
“Only if you want to,” I say, thinking of the shrieking Banished racing toward Malarusk.
The girl takes a step closer to me. “You have Halve eyes,” she says.
A year ago, that comment would have made me want to bury my head in the sand. Now, all I say is, “and you have gray eyes.”
Ry snorts.
“Alright,” the girl says. She turns her attention on Jadem. “And you? A Dusker traveling with Solguards?”
I open my mouth, but Ry’s faster.
“How do you know about the Solguards? Who are you? What’s your business around here?”
The girl raises her chin. “Just because I live in a settlement, it doesn’t mean I’m ignorant.”
Ry starts to retort, but Aunt Jadem puts a hand on her shoulder.
“I may bear the mark of the Duskers,” Aunt Jadem says, “but I assure you I am not one of them.” She runs a hand across the place where her left eye should be. “This was a parting gift from the Dusker Supreme.”
I start. My aunt never talks about her scars or her time in Malarusk. I didn’t know the Dusker Supreme himself had taken away her eye. I want to ask her more about it, but I know now isn’t the time.
“Jadem looks scary,” Wokee pipes up, “because a long time ago, she pretended to be a Dusker to get information, and so they did the initiation ritual on her.” Wokee looks at my aunt. “Jadem is the leader of the Solguards, you know.�
� There is fierce pride in his voice, and I can’t help but smile.
“What’s your name?” Wokee asks.
“Dellin.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Dellin.” My aunt holds out a hand to the girl.
The girl’s gloved hand disappears as it’s swallowed up in my aunt’s handshake.
The girl turns a cold, piercing look on me. “I think it only fair to warn you…I’m the best archer you will ever meet—”
“I doubt that,” Ry scoffs, running a hand lovingly over the curve of her bow.
Before Ry can protest, Dellin snatches Ry’s bow out of her hands. She bends down and picks up a twisted stick from the ground. She breaks off the end so it bears the slight resemblance of an arrow. She threads the stick through the bow with quick fingers and takes aim.
“That tree,” she says, already aiming her stick at the narrow target in the distance.
Ry rolls her eyes. “You couldn’t hit that with a real arrow.”
The girl’s reply comes in the twang of the bowstring.
A laugh escapes me at the look on Ry’s face as the stick lands its mark.
Ry whistles. “Oh, I definitely like this one.” Ry gives the girl a once-over, and then nods in approval.
Dellin glares at Ekil and Brogut as she passes the bow back to Ry.
“They’re with us,” I say. “If that’s a problem for you—”
“It’s not a problem,” Ry says, looping an arm through Dellin’s as if they’re already the best of friends.
Dellin looks at Aunt Jadem and me once more, and then she stares up at Vlaz. “Am I going to have to ride that?”
“Unless you’d rather walk.” Ry shrugs.
Dellin takes one look in the direction where the other Banished disappeared, and steps over the rope coiled at her feet.
“Riding the hyenair it is.”
✽✽✽
Ekil, Brogut, and I wind through trees and leap over boulders in our path as we try to make up the distance between us and the others. Wokee keeps Vlaz’s pace as slow as he can manage from the air, but the Halves are starving and dehydrated, and they’re slower than I am.
It’s just before high day when we reach the edge of the forest that shrouds Solis. Vlaz is already on the ground and the others are in the process of sliding off his back.
Everyone except for Wokee looks stiff and exhausted. Wokee, on the other hand, leaps from Vlaz’s back and does a little dance in place.
“We’re almost there,” Wokee says, waving his skinny arm ahead. “Do you think Dayne will be impressed when I tell him how we got here?”
“Very impressed,” I tell him.
Wokee, his blonde curls spilling out of his hood as he hops around, can barely contain his euphoria.
Vlaz walks beside us, his great sides heaving, as we make our way into the dense trees.
At the first gurgling stream we pass, both Ekil and Brogut fall to their knees and plunge their entire heads into the shallow water. At the sight of the Halves with their heads fully submerged, and the gurgling sounds of pleasure they’re making, I can’t help but cringe. I can only imagine what the Solguards are going to think when an army of Halves comes tramping into the fortress.
When Brogut emerges from the stream, shaking the water off him like an animal and drenching everything and everyone nearby, Wokee dissolves into giggles. Dellin is walking bow-legged when Ry helps her to the ground, but she doesn’t complain.
Aunt Jadem inhales and stares up at the green canopy. “It’s good to be back.”
She doesn’t say home, but it’s obvious that’s what she means.
A flash of guilt passes through me. It’s my fault Jadem has been gone for so long. She stayed in Tanguro to help me create a new fortress for the rebels. And it was all for nothing.
“Here,” Wokee offers Dellin what’s left in his waterskin.
Ekil makes a space large enough for one person to get access to the stream. Ry stoops to the water, soaks a rag, and mops her face and neck. “Ah,” she sighs. She dips the cloth again, wrings it out, and hands it to Dellin.
Dellin stands there with the rag in her hand. It drips onto the ground, but Dellin makes no motion to use it.
“Might want to wash up,” Ry prompts her.
“I’m fine,” Dellin says, handing her back the rag.
Ry doesn’t take it. “You do realize you look like a true barbarian, right? I bet you’re gorgeous under all that dirt.”
“I’m fine,” the girl insists.
“But don’t you just want—”
“No!”
Dellin’s shout makes the Halves near her flinch and back away. We all stare at her uncomprehending.
“I’m just not washing my face, alright?” Dellin’s posture is too stiff, her chin raised.
“It’s okay,” Wokee says, breaking the tension. “I hate it when they make me wash, too.”
There is another awkward pause, and then Ry makes a motion to unload her pack.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Aunt Jadem asks her.
“Aren’t we near the travel cave?” Ry asks.
“We’re not stopping,” my aunt says.
“But,” Ry looks at her shadow. “Can we make it to the fortress before high day?”
“If we hurry.” My aunt’s face is set with determination. “Hemera, get the Halves moving. The rest of you, get back on Vlaz. There’s no time for resting.”
My companions are clearly feeling the effects of the rising sun. The skin on their faces is red and angry even though their hoods cast a protective shadow. Wokee and Ry scratch at their arms as though Burn blisters are forming under the thick material. Still, no one argues. There’s a desperate, unfamiliar look in my aunt’s eye.
The two Halves move ahead of us, following the stream. They seem only too happy to put distance between themselves and Vlaz. Brogut, his animal hide skirt still dripping, swings his tree trunk spear back and forth. A fat, silver fish is spiked on the tip, its glassy eyes winking in the sunlight.
When the familiar break in the trees comes into sight, I hear the others heave a sigh of relief. A thrill goes through me as every step brings us nearer to my brother and the rest of the Solguards. But the feeling vanishes as soon as I hear the first scream.
CHAPTER 9
Two things happen at the same moment.
A volley of arrows flies through the trees. And Brogut hurls his tree trunk.
My aunt and I exchange a panicked look, and then we’re all running.
“Get out of the way!” I yell to the Halves. Leaping straight into the air, I catch the tree trunk and pull it out of its deadly path.
Aunt Jadem is echoing my frantic yells for them—all of them—to stand down. I dart forward, trying to let the Solguards see me before they kill one of us.
A line of blue comes into focus.
I’m waving my hands, trying to make them see me, to keep them from releasing the next volley. There are at least ten archers, all with their arrows pointed straight at the Halves. There have never been archers outside the fortress before….
“Stop,” I yell.
“Fire at will!” one of the archers calls, ignoring me.
In a perfectly synchronized movement, they draw back their bowstrings.
“Hold your fire.” My aunt’s voice, tight with the effort of running, is still full of authority. The archers exchange looks with each other, and then slowly, they lower their weapons.
I want to weep with relief.
“What in the sun is going on up here?” Aunt Jadem demands. “Archers, report.”
As my aunt and Ry talk with the archers, I go to the Halves, still motionless on the ground.
“It’s safe now.” I hand Brogut back his tree trunk spear, which he snatches from me.
“Filthy humans.” He spits.
“You startled them.” My heart is still thumping. “But everything is alright now.”
Ekil shakes his head. “Coming here was bad.”
<
br /> “No,” I shake my head. “You have to talk to the Banished leaders. Our only chance against the Duskers is if we fight them together.”
The Halves still look unconvinced.
“I’ll take them in.” Wokee says, seeing the Halves’ hesitation. “Come with me.” He grabs Ekil’s dangling hand with both of his and inclines his head at Brogut. “Jadem stocks her ponds with fish, you know,” I hear him saying as he steers the Halves into the fortress. “As many as you can eat.”
To my surprise and amusement, the Halves make an orderly line and follow Wokee through the stone archway.
“Hemera.”
Even though a dozen people and Halves separate us, I somehow hear my brother’s quiet voice through every other sound. I run to him.
Just before we collide, I see the bandages peeking up from the collar of his cloak. Is that why he sent Vlaz to deliver his message rather than coming to Tanguro himself? I stop short.
“What happened? Did he do this to you?”
Dayne’s eyes flick up and down, scanning me for injuries. Trust my brother to be worried about me when he’s the one covered in bandages.
“Zeidan,” Dayne nods. “Well, technically, it was his Zeroes.”
My blood starts to boil as all of the old hatred rushes back. For everything my father did to the Halves, to our mother…what he tried to do to Dayne and me.
“Where is he?” I growl.
Dayne adjusts the cord that holds his lute around his neck. From the slowness of his movements, I can tell he is staving off bad news.
“Just tell me.”
“He built a new place on the outskirts of the Dusker territory.” Dayne looks at me, his eyes full of anger and regret. “He made more of his Zero hybrids with the blood he took from you and the Halves. He has ten now.”
“Ten?” I almost died trying to fight a few of the Zeroes.
“They never leave his side,” Dayne continues. “This happened,” he motions to the bandages on his neck and the sling holding up his arm, “when I got too close.”
“We’ll go now.”
Dayne looks at me, his eyes softening. My brother’s blue eyes, the ones that are mirror images of our mother’s, have deep shadows beneath them. His hair is pulled back in the same sleek plait as always, but there are more strands of gray than brown.
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