Empire of Sky

by Gabrielle S Awe

  “We want to break the bargain and make a new one.”

  “Ok,” the Joker agrees.

  “That’s it?” I ask.

  “Sure,” he says. “The Five Families are here. It’s time to close the loophole. But are you sure that’s what you want? What if it’s worse? What if breaking the bargain breaks the world?” He’s looking at me now.

  “The world is already broken.” I know this with all my heart. This world is hollow.

  “Then let’s begin. Each of you gets one request; and then you get one decision as a group.”

  I remember the dream about the gift.

  Zair goes first. “Take away the power from me, from my family. No one should be able to control anyone.” I’ve never been so proud to be someone’s friend as I am in that moment.

  Alexsi is next. “Change all the machines that they brought from Earth; make them run on magic.” Of course Alexsi would think of that. Brilliant.

  Kell looks around. “Everyone should have magic,” he says hesitantly. “The wizards are basically slaves.”

  “Kell?” I ask him. “Are you sure?”

  “There is magic here. As long as it is controlled only by a few, someone will eventually use it to seize power.” We all look at Kell with a new respect, even the Joker. He’s right.

  Kjiersten goes next. “We wake up all the colonists. All of them. And anyone you tinkered with - anyone you changed - you give them a choice if they want to be changed back. The Forest People; the Priestess; the Flaming Man; my father. All of them.” The Joker doesn’t point out that’s two things. Even the Joker knows better than to argue with Kjiersten.

  The Joker looks at me and it’s my turn. “Everyone is is equal, everyone. No one is a slave - ever. There are no more queens or kings. When the colonists wake up, we start over, with elected councils, and everyone gets to choose where they live and how they live. Everyone is free. And that floating island comes down.” Hinshalla is a symbol of everything that went wrong when our people got here. I want it undone. My people have farmed magic for millenia to keep it in the sky.

  “I can make it not run on magic,” the Joker tells me. “I can make it permanent.”

  “The island needs to go back where it came from.” I look to Kell for support. He shrugs.

  “We held that grudge for far too long,” he tells me. “We don’t really care about the island anymore. There are other islands.”

  Zair looks sad and I remember it’s his home, and the home of hundreds of other people. We promised not to choose for others and here I am, almost making that same mistake.

  “I’m sorry,” I say to Zair. “I’m wrong, we can’t just take down a city.” I let it go.

  The Joker nods at me. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t run on magic, and anyone can go up or down whenever they like.”

  We all look expectantly at Freyja, the only one left. She looks at me and her eyes are shining. “Is there anything we haven’t covered?” One by one we shake our heads. “Is there anything else you need, Alinya?” I don’t know what she’s getting at. This has been so easy. I shake my head again, slowly. Has it been too easy?

  She faces the Joker. “Take me with you when you go.”

  I gasp. “Freyja, no!”

  “Yes, Alinya. I am done here, and you know it. I can’t go back to my palace, and I am too old to start over here. Too much has happened. You deserve a fresh start, and so do I.”

  She looks at the Joker again. “You know you owe me. Take me with you.”

  “You are still human, Freyja,” he starts to say.

  “No!” she interrupts him. “I am barely human anymore. If I am in any danger out there you won’t let anything happen to me. Take me with you; if I stay here I will go mad. I’m halfway there already.”

  “You don’t even know where we’re going.”

  “I don’t care where you’re going. Anywhere is better than here.”

  I’m crying now. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. We are supposed to make the Gods do what we want and leave here and build a new world together. How can there be a new world without Freyja? My tears are hot and salty and they burn my face. She comes over and holds me as I cry. “Shh, Alinya,” she says. “This is what I need. Let me go, Alinya. Let me go.”

  I can’t. How can I let Freyja go? But I see the pain inside her; the pain that cannot ever heal. I remember her wasting away, lost in the flight of the dragon; I remember how hard it was to bring her back, and so I do. I kiss her and tell her I love her because I do; it’s true; I love her in my own way, and when it’s time I will let her leave with the Joker. Freyja, with her beautiful blue and silver markings. Freyja, who dances with the ice dragon when we leave her alone. Freyja, who has found a way to leave us behind after all.

  But there is one last thing.

  The Joker stands and faces us all. I wonder why he has feet, since he just floats anyway. I’m giddy from finally having this be done; I’m heartbroken that Freyja is leaving us. I can’t think straight anymore. All of that fades when he tells us the last thing.

  “Give me half the colonists,” he says. “We want half the colonists and half the embryos on the ship, and the genetic material from the Earth animals you brought.”

  “Absolutely not,” I say. All signs of the Joker who visited me in my dreams is gone. He isn’t any different but he somehow looks more alien than he ever has. “Haven’t you done enough? What would you do with them?”

  “Trust me, Alinya,” he says and I’m shouting at him.

  “No! You can’t take them!”

  “There are four million colonists on that ship. We are going somewhere else to start over. Give me half the colonists and you can have everything else that you’ve asked for. Every single thing. If you don’t, you get nothing.”

  I’m reeling now. I look around the room and everyone looks shocked. No one knows what to say. Only Freyja is prepared to deal with this.

  “Wake them up,” she says. “Wake them up and ask them if they want to stay or go. If you don’t, you get nothing too. But tell them the truth and let each of them decide what they want. We aren’t deciding for other people ever again.”

  The Joker thinks. He thinks for a moment that stretches into a lifetime. His fingers dance and he looks up into the stars again and then, finally, he speaks.

  “You have a bargain,” he says. “This one has no loopholes. This one has no outs.” He holds out his long, alien hand and I shake it. It feels final; I know we are done.

  “Where are you going, anyway?” I ask. “If you want the colonists, it sounds like you have somewhere in mind.”

  “We are going to a dead world, Alinya. A world where we can start anew.” He reaches up to the universe above our heads and it zooms in until we can see the milky galaxy again, and then closer, to a blue-green world that circles a single yellow sun.

  “We are going to your Earth.”

  The End

  Acknowledgement

  This book started in the most unusual way. I was in the bath, skimming Pinterest (as one does), and a series of pictures caught my eye. The first was a picture of a floating city with a waterfall pouring out into the sky. The second was a picture of an extremely attractive middle-eastern looking man - a man who became the inspiration for Alexsi, Prince of the Forest.

  And then I saw them; a blond, Viking looking woman with a bow, and a small cloaked figure crouching on a shadowed rooftop. They, of course, were the Archer and the Assassin. I immediately texted my niece and asked her (with literally no context or information, because I am terrible and she is a wonderfully patient niece) if she’d rather be an Archer or an Assassin and she chose the Assassin.

  And that’s how Alinya was born, and so was this story. It poured out of me in a week, the fastest I’ve ever written a book; and then I spent the next two years alternating between letting it rest and working on revisions.

  And so I dedicate this book to my niece May, the inspiration for so much of my writing, and to my
darling and stubborn husband, who reads everything I write and pretends it’s all wonderful. He puts up with me going away in my head to my inner worlds and checking out on multiple vacations and weekends to make my worlds real for other people.

  And for you, whoever you are, reading this book; I hope this book touches you the way others’ words have touched me through the years.

  Thank you.

  About The Author

  Gabrielle S. Awe

  Gabrielle is the writer and narrator of the popular podcast Stories in the Dark. She has previously published a collection of stories from the podcast titled "Stores in the Dark: The Horror."

  She lives in Texas with her husband, two cats, and a house full of books and Funko Pops, where she alternates between writing dark fiction and YA Fantasy - because it is a writer's job to both show the world its own darkness and also to give it hope