Secrets of the Tally

by Halie Fewkes

  Returning to reality was like being doused in icy water. Realizing my feet were still on the ground was a sharp and unpleasant shock as the weight of thoughts and senses returned. It didn’t take long to readjust, but the real world seemed harsh. Sir Avery stared at me, deep in thought, and Archie glanced eagerly between both of us.

  “Well?” Archie asked, clearly hoping for me to have made revolutionary progress. I couldn’t remember anything from my past life right away. I thought hard, looking for a childhood memory or something, but still had nothing to recall.

  “I still couldn’t find anything,” Sir Avery answered before I could ask the question. The lack of success visibly disheartened him. “I’m not sure if the memories are gone, or if they’re just blocked. It’s so strange. I don’t know why I can’t tell.”

  “Can I ever get them back?” I asked.

  “You just might. You’ve got an instinct to survive that’s as strong as any magic I have, so I think you’ve reached the right conclusions about putting yourself in danger. This mission could be one of your best opportunities.”

  Realization hit Archie’s eyes. “You’re risking death to get your memories back?”

  “I’m… Well, yes,” I said. It hadn’t occurred to me that he didn’t know that. Not wanting to discuss my reasoning, I said rather unkindly to Sir Avery, “I still don’t understand why we’re the ones going. Shouldn’t you have the real adult mages looking into this, or maybe even you?”

  “I would be able to scout Treldinsae easily if I was the only Epic in the world, but I’m not. Prince Avalask is keeping me from seeing anything in the area, and we often allow older members of the Dragona to take on missions if they choose to. They usually go in search of their powers, the same way you’re searching for your memories.”

  “What time will we leave?” I asked, setting my hand on the door to let him know I had no intention of talking with him any longer.

  “You will need to leave shortly before dark.”

  I glanced at Archie to see if he was coming with me, and he said, “I’ll just be a minute. I think Sir Avery and I need to talk.”

  “Great. See you soon,” I said to the empty hallway as I left. I would have been lost, except I heard the echoes of the Wreck and followed them.

  I had hoped to find Sir Avery a noble and respectable man, but the famous defender of Humanity was nearly the opposite, and I had no desire to ever talk to him again.

  The second I set foot in the Wreck, Liz abandoned an oven she was tending so we could sit at an empty table.

  “Are you alright?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Just not very fond of this Epic we’ve got.”

  “We can talk about him later. Allie, I’ve been thinking…” She laced her fingers together and set them hesitantly on the table. “I’ve heard enough bad news for one day. Please tell me you’re not going on this mission.”

  I sat back and studied her face, surprised to hear opposition. “We’re leaving before dark,” I told her, wrapping an arm over the back of my chair. “But this is a good thing, Liz. I’m going so I can get my old self back.”

  Liz stared at the table and swallowed nothingness before saying, “It won’t do you any good if you’re dead.”

  A part of me wanted to scream at her, to ask why she acted like I was worthless, yet discouraged me now. The sisterly part, however, realized that she didn’t think I was worthless at all, which was why she didn’t want me to go. This ordeal of my life was hard on her too.

  “It’ll be dangerous, Allie. Treldinsae is on the coast of the Breathing Sea, where the monsters can be worse than the Escalis.”

  I sighed. “I might as well go though, since somebody has to. I might also find my power while I’m out there, you never know.”

  “I guess. Plus you couldn’t be with anybody better than Archie, Michael, and West. Just make sure you get home safely, alright?”

  “You know we will,” I said, feeling strangely sentimental. We’d be alright, surely. “And what were you saying about bad news, Liz?” I asked, trying to shake off the strange sting behind my eyes before I let a tear into the world.

  She crouched over the table and whispered, “Allie… I heard today that Sir Avery never actually had a son.”

  I wrapped my feet around the legs of the chair beneath me and immediately refused to believe that Liz knew what she was talking about. Sir Avery knew how important it was to pass his genes on. I didn’t like the guy, but he wouldn’t have doomed our whole race by neglecting to have a kid, leaving the next Escali Epic unopposed. I felt justified in pushing the terrifying thought from my mind since I had so much to focus on already.

  “I have to go back to cooking,” Liz said. “Stay safe tonight. And let Archie know if he doesn’t have you safely home by midnight, I’ll kill him.”

  Her timing was perfect, because Archie had just stepped into the Wreck.

  “I’ll let him know,” I told Liz as she returned to her oven and I headed straight toward him.

  “Shall we get ready?” he asked, stepping to the side of the tunnel entrance to let me through first.

  “Archie,” I said as we headed to our rooms, “what is going on between you and Sir Avery?”

  “I already told you—”

  “You didn’t tell me enough! Family issues? What does that mean? What happened? How long ago did this feud start?”

  “I don’t even know,” he said. “It had nothing to do with me, much less anything to do with you, so can we drop it?”

  “Of course we can’t. Why would he be so angry if you’d never done anything?”

  “That’s the whole issue. He has no reason—” Archie stopped mid-sentence as a few of the Dragona’s adult mages walked past us. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “When is later?” I asked him as he stopped at his room. “Because I’m worried about this mission tonight. There’s a real chance we could be caught.”

  “I know… I’m worried too. I ran into Michael on my way to talk to you, and he wants us to split into two groups to scout the area, so the chances that both groups will come away unseen… Our odds aren’t great. And I hate the Breathing Sea. I don’t know why the Escalis had to build their stupid city next to it.”

  I found a mocking grin tugging at the corner of my lips, making the situation seem a little less daunting. “I didn’t expect you to be afraid of the Sea,” I said.

  “You can make fun of me all you want, but everything about it scares me. That’s where the second Everarc was found, and everything beneath the surface wants to kill you.”

  “Great,” I said, not sure if I wanted to think about the Sea or the Escalis. “And all I have are swords, which won’t do anything against the Escalis if we’re caught. Are we bringing some other kind of weapons along?”

  Archie bit his lip for just a second before saying, “Everybody’s doing something different. Michael and Jesse are carrying maces. West really wants to find his power, so he’s not bringing a weapon at all. I’ll try to convince him to change his mind, but I don’t think he’s going to. I’m bringing a sword, since I think I’m good enough to hold my own against them. You’re probably good enough too, but it’s up to you.”

  “Alright, I’ll bring mine,” I said, since swords were the only weapons I had laid hands on since waking up. I turned to head for my room, then flipped back around to walk backwards as I remembered, “Liz wants you to know that if the Escalis get me, you’ll have her to answer to.”

  Archie smiled and said, “We’re going to be fine. I’ll see you at the dragon stables.”

  I rounded the corner as he softly said, “And the Escalis would have me to answer to first.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at the black tunnel rock that resonated so clearly, glad to have a moment to myself to think. What had that meant?

  Chapter Eleven

  I shouldn’t have let my imagination run wild, wondering what would happen if we were caught, assuming we weren’t immediately killed. Th
e gruesome outcomes I pictured left me even more nervous, and my stomach twisted into a horrible knot, knowing what we were about to attempt. My fingers shook with anticipation as I tried to decipher the complicated mess of a draconic saddle in front of me, and the horse-sized beast eyed me skeptically. We had to fly because nobody could jump in or out of the Escali city, but I already foresaw problems getting back to the dragons during our escape.

  I had braided all my hair together so it didn’t snag anything, pulled on my darkest deerskin clothes, and filled my pockets with soot from my fireplace. Now I could only get my mind off our dangerous undertaking by asking myself the unanswerable questions. How had I known Sir Avery? And what could I have known in the past that even he didn’t? And why in the world was he so at odds with Archie’s family? If that was even the truth of the matter.

  The new member in our group, Jesse with the dark hair and prominent nose, asked, “Is there any way to tell if one of the Escalis happens to be an Epic?” He spoke with the same volume we did, but his voice sounded whiney and hollow, as though he needed to clear his throat.

  “Yes,” West said, “you’ll know Prince Avalask if you see him. He’s the one with the fangs and the long hair, so black it can make a dent in the daytime sunlight.”

  “Thanks, but I wasn’t looking to hear a horror story,” Jesse said. “I’m worried that we could run across Prince Avalask’s son and not even know it. Is there any way to tell the Epic Escali apart from the rest?”

  “If you see one using magic,” Archie replied, tightening the straps on his own saddle, “then that’s the new Epic.”

  “Something I’ve actually wondered,” West said, “is how you tell Humans and Escalis apart? Obviously you look for the arm spikes. But what if they broke them off? Would you even be able to tell they were Escalis?”

  “You would still be able to,” I said. “They don’t move the same way we do. Their actions are quick, and they jerk their attention around.”

  “But that’s all learned,” West said. “They could probably teach themselves to move smoothly like we do.”

  “They’d still have the cloudy eyes,” Archie said. “Once you’ve seen them, you can’t mistake them for anything else. Now let’s quit wasting time and go.”

  My scrawny dragon with sickly green scales worried me from the second he leapt into the air. He struggled to stay aloft, beating his wings three times faster than any of the other four in the troupe. He slowed the entire group down, but he did at least get me there faster than I could have on a horse. Barely any light remained by the time we landed, and I welcomed the ground beneath my feet.

  “How long of a walk is this going to be?” I asked, with the dragons secure in the dense brush.

  “We’ll probably get there around complete darkness,” Michael replied. “And as soon as we leave here, there’s no more talking, period. Is there anything else we need to get out of the way before we go?”

  “Yeah, are we looking for anything in particular?” West asked. He had truly come with no weapons, only a leather bag slung over his back.

  “Just general recon of the area. See if there are many Escalis left, how the battle went, who won…”

  “I think we already know who won,” Jesse said. I couldn’t pin down what about Jesse bothered me, but my deep instincts told me I needed to watch out for him.

  “Nothing’s for sure,” Archie answered, “and that’s why we’re here. Now let’s go.” He left the dragons, and the rest of us followed without further discussion.

  Within about twenty minutes we began to slow our pace, and I was the first to spot the walls of Treldinsae just beyond the tall pines. The solid barrier stood at least three times taller than I did, built from jagged stone to warn intruders away. We hardly had any light left to see by; still we hunkered down in the bushes to wait until the sun was completely gone with only moonlight left. I pulled the soot from my pocket and put some on my face as Michael gave us silent instructions, his voice less than a whisper.

  We were splitting into two groups and circling around the city to get any information we could. Nothing new.

  “See the tallest tree on the other side of the city?” Michael breathed, “We’ll meet there and then make another sweep around. Allie and Archie, I’m assuming the two of you want to go together, so take Jesse with you and circle around the west side. I want to head around the east side with West. You should change your name so it’s not one of my directions,” he added.

  “Look at the sky,” Archie whispered. We lifted our eyes to see three falcons circling over the top of the city, lit by a flickering glow from beneath and silhouetted against two moons.

  “Stay out of sight,” West said to all of us. “And good luck.” We all stood up silently. Archie, Jesse, and I made to go left along the wall while Michael and West turned right.

  “Let’s stick to the trees,” I whispered as I saw an Escali sentry prowling along the top of the wall with a light in hand. He had the same appearance as the ones I had seen in the woods — gleaming sharp teeth and lethal spurs growing from his elbows. Archie nodded when he saw the Escali and we silently pushed ourselves closer to the underbrush. Jesse followed our every move without comment as we stayed crouched and crept around the outer wall. We heard occasional shouts and yells from inside the city, but we couldn’t see a single thing.

  “We’re not getting any information like this!” I whispered as another sentry came patrolling along the wall.

  “We definitely know who won the battle…” Jesse said for the second time in low spirits. As soon as no sentries could be seen in either direction, I crept quickly to the wall and felt it. It had been weathered away and the protruding stones looked almost—

  “What are you doing?!” Archie whispered frantically as I jumped up and found that it was, indeed, climbable.

  “Getting information,” I whispered back as I approached the top. I made sure the falcons weren’t straight overhead, pulled myself up, and then gazed upon the wreckage of the city.

  I could imagine what everything would have looked like before the attack. The stone buildings would have been all different shapes, large and majestic towers would have stood tall, and the trees growing throughout the city wouldn’t have been burning. Now however, fires blazed through everything not made of stone, the far walls had crumbled, many of the buildings had been demolished, and I could see Escalis darting like ants whose hill had been disturbed. Some were clearly searching for survivors, others were clearing debris from paths, and a few were piling their dead to be buried — or whatever Escalis did with their dead. Who knew, maybe they ate them.

  I looked off to my right and saw the light of another sentry along the wall, so I leapt back down and returned to the trees.

  Archie glared at me for my reckless actions. “Well?” he said.

  “The whole northern and eastern sides of the wall are knocked down. We definitely got in and did some damage. A whole lot of people and Escalis are dead, but I guess the Escalis still managed to hold the city…”

  “Ok, well let’s keep going. We have to meet up on the other side.”

  We crept through the trees until I heard crashing water ahead, clearly in waves rather than currents. The wall came to an abrupt end, opening to what looked like a harbor with two Escali sentries speaking to each other at the end.

  “That’s the Breathing Sea,” Archie whispered.

  “So what, this is the harbor or something?”

  “It can’t be. Nobody can touch the water. The Escalis wouldn’t be able to build boats. But the legend of Treldinsae says it has a bridge to the middle of the Breathing Sea, built before the Sea was filled with monsters. If you look closely, you can see it out on the waterfront.”

  We were too far to make it out clearly, but I could see the tide crashing into some sort of a structure every ten seconds, exploding in white spray.

  Jesse asked, “How will we get to the other side of the city to meet up? We’ll never pass by that giant
gap in the wall.”

  “What if we swim out a ways, cross beneath the bridge, and come back to shore on the other side?” I said quietly.

  Archie gasped a laugh. “Have you been listening? We can’t just get in the Breathing Sea. We’d be better off cutting straight through the city.”

  “Is that your brilliant idea? I’m open to hearing a better one.”

  I didn’t get to hear his idea, because just then an Escali shouted from inside the city and both sentries left their posts in response. I looked at Archie and Jesse, thanking our luck, and we crept quietly to their abandoned positions to see the commotion.

  Someone shouted out in agony as we peered around the corner of the wall. The Escalis had found a man — a Human man — half buried in a pile of debris. The sentries had left the other edge of the wall to assist also, and I saw it as our best chance of crossing unseen.

  Jesse was hesitant, so I pulled him down to the wet sand — as far from the light as possible — and we ran to the other side. We lingered at the other corner in hopes of seeing where they would take him once they got him free, but they still had a ways to go in pulling him out.

  Even though his legs were still half buried, they grabbed him and heaved him up as he yelled and struggled against them. He was already injured, and now the skin on his legs had been severely mangled as well. Two of the Escalis tried to tie something to one of his wrists while the others watched, but he fought against them, swearing loudly.

  The two snarled and threw him onto the ground. One jumped on him and viciously bit into the back of his neck while the other one backed off.

  I could feel my blood begin to boil as we were forced to retreat from our vantage point, hearing screams and what was unmistakable laughter from the Escalis.

  Archie’s face was frozen in horror. I couldn’t find my own breath to say anything, and Jesse simply bolted ahead toward the meeting point. We ran until we saw West and Michael, where Jesse frantically started in on the story.