Secrets of the Tally

by Halie Fewkes

  He stopped and sat on a log next to me as I lay panting. I glanced over to see the other Escali tie Archie to a tree before coming over to sit next to mine. I closed my eyes to just listen to them talk.

  “I can’t do it anymore.”

  “Can’t do what?”

  “I can’t keep dragging her along like this. Something’s wrong with this one.”

  “Something’s wrong with all of them. But I can guarantee that if the roles were reversed, it would be dragging you right now.”

  “I would therefore be very thankful if it let me sit down for a few minutes to have a break.”

  The blond one flicked his eyes several times from me to the other Escali. “You’re growing soft,” he let the other Escali know. “As soon as your little break’s over, we can switch Humans. You won’t feel as bad about dragging the boy.”

  “No.”

  “No? What do you mean—”

  “I won’t.”

  “Tral. Give me the rope.”

  “No.”

  I looked to see the blond jump to his feet, an act of dominance, and the second Escali rose right after him in one rapid movement. They were having some sort of standoff right there, their lips pulled back into snarls and eyes locked aggressively.

  “Why are you defending it?” The cruel one demanded.

  “Because you see an it, and I see a girl. She’s still young, and probably hasn’t committed any—”

  “Even if we hadn’t been ordered to be rough with them, do you not care about avenging your brother?”

  “His death wasn’t her doing.”

  They were both quiet long enough for my focus to wane, and then I heard, “You are unbelievable.” I refocused just long enough to see the blond one untie Archie from the tree and head off again. “You can do whatever you want with yours, but I’m treating mine as we were told.”

  I closed my eyes, and didn’t open them until I felt a slight pulling on the rope. I expected to look up and see the Escali trying to drag me off again, but instead, he wrapped the extension loosely around my hands before he picked me up and carried me.

  I felt happy, awkward, grateful, tired, safe, and scared all at the same time, along with guilty that Archie was still stuck with the devil up ahead of me. I was usually too proud to let anyone see me cry, but sleep deprivation rendered my pride irrelevant, and I felt silly as tears began to spill. I hated to be doing it, so anger quickly joined the other overwhelming emotions.

  The Escali didn’t know what to do with me when the tears started. He held on tighter and tried talking to me, saying that everything was ok and I would be fine. I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep until I woke to the sound of them arguing again.

  “We can’t just walk across the field,” my Escali said as he continued to carry me. “They still think we don’t know where their city is, and we can’t let them know differently.”

  “We can’t release them here either. They’ll suspect something if we make their escape easy.”

  The dark haired Escali stopped where I could see the sparring field, and suggested, “If we get these two to fight us, they’ll attract the attention of those Humans across the field.”

  This intrigued the other, who stopped as well. “I guarantee if we throw the girl around, the boy will fight us.”

  Archie glanced over and made eye contact with me. He tilted his head to the side just a fraction, to ask if I was up for it. I gave him the slightest nod back.

  “Look at her, she’s not in any condition to be thrown around,” the one holding me said.

  “She’s awake now at least. Look, I won’t hurt her too badly. Just enough to get the other to respond and draw everyone’s attention.”

  My Escali thought about it for a few seconds, then set me down and traded ropes with the flat-faced one who immediately started walking along the border of the trees and the field, just out of sight of everybody sparring.

  We got fairly close when the blond one turned sharply out into the field. He jerked on my rope so hard that I flew out in front of him, landing on my shoulder in the grass. He yanked me back toward him and then pulled out a knife, only to be hit in the side by a flying tackle from Archie, who had somehow gotten his ropes off. They growled and snarled as they struggled in the grass, and the Escali came out on top in time for me to jump on him, strangling him from behind with the ropes on my hands.

  Dark-hair pulled me off him, pinning my arms to my sides as I snarled as well. I kicked, yelled, definitely got the attention of everyone in the area, and then somehow managed to wrench myself free. I bolted forward to knock the ugly blond off Archie, and then Archie joined me in trying to pummel him.

  Everyone from sparring dashed across the field to help us, and the Escalis realized their cue to leave. The nicer one grabbed us both by the hair and threw us off to either side of his friend before he helped him up and they bolted.

  “Allie? Archie? Are you ok?”

  I collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Did I look ok?

  “Somebody go get Anna, now!” I only closed my eyes for a few seconds before I heard a man next to me talking, warning me about something.

  “GAHHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed as he dug a knife into my forearm and ran it down.

  “Yeah, I know, I know, I’m sorry.” I opened my eyes to see Anna in front of my face. “Somebody bring Archie over here,” she said. Somebody pulled Archie over and set him next to me. The man who had stabbed my arm pulled out a clean knife and grabbed Archie’s wrist.

  “Oh, no no no no no no,” Archie said as he looked the other way. I didn’t watch either, but I heard him gasp.

  Without warning, Anna pushed two hands to my arm, and I stifled my next scream as she scorched it with searing heat. She did the same to Archie and then quickly began wrapping our arms in bandages.

  The man said, “She’s still got enough thistleweed fever to cause hallucinations. Neither of them are being tracked by the Escalis though. They’re clean.”

  I hadn’t noticed my eyes droop closed, but I heard somebody say, “We should get Allie up to the healers,” and I realized they had already helped me to my feet. Sleep walking felt good but not nearly as glorious as crashing onto a bed minutes later.

  Was there anything better in the world than sleep?

  I woke in a cave with two rows of beds — the medical branch of the Dragona, where I had once dropped Michael off. A lantern threw shadows off everything in sight, illuminating Liz in the bed next to mine. I couldn’t imagine what was wrong with her. She looked fine.

  Upon moving, I realized I was bandaged in several places. I was exceedingly sore with a lasting pain I had never experienced before.

  I turned back over, more carefully this time, and stared at the flickering shadows on the ceiling. How strange, to be lying in a bed and not wondering about the mystery of my life. I finally knew.

  Liz stirred and opened her eyes. She saw me and said, “Finally, Allie.” She got to her feet. “Did you know you’ve been sleeping for a whole day?”

  “An entire day? That’s got to be a record or something. What are you in here for?”

  “For you, of course.” She didn’t speak with her usual excitement. “It seems like you have to be guarded every minute of the day, doesn’t it?”

  “So that’s what you’re here for, guarding me?”

  “Somebody has to.”

  “You know Archie was with me just this last time, right?”

  “Yeah, he’s already told us the entire story. Archie can’t protect you like I can though. Have you heard the news?” She raised her eyebrows, but her eyes just looked dull to me.

  I shook my head, grimacing as the thoughtless movement provoked my injuries. “What’s the news?”

  “I’ll show you.” She picked up a glass of water from the table next to her and stared at it with her full concentration. Nothing happened at first, but then condensation began collecting on the outside of the glass, and a very thin layer of ice crystallized acr
oss the top.

  “Liz,” I exclaimed, trying to sound as happy as possible and wincing from the effort, “you found your magic.”

  “Yeah,” she answered, barely smiling at the glass in front of her. “It’s not a lot right now, but I’ve already met my main instructor. After sparring in the morning, he’ll start training me to be deadly. And there are two other ice mages here to help me too.” Liz didn’t have anything else to say on the matter, a disinterest which concerned me. Instead, she asked, “So… what happened?”

  I sighed and stared at the ceiling, making sure I had every detail of our story consistent before repeating it. I told her about how the Escalis chased us, and we eluded them all night, but their falcons found us in the morning, and they caught us. She kept an intense gaze on me as I spoke, and I grew uncomfortable as she peered, as though figuring something out.

  “Is… everything alright?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she replied, “because something here… isn’t right.”

  I gave her a cross between a smile and a frown to let her know that was a silly assumption. But… What would happen if I told her about Tallies? Nothing good, surely.

  She went on slowly, “Not many people believe you about the Escalis in your room, Allie, but I do. And that means that you miraculously escaped them, only to arrive back home, get taken again, and then escape again.”

  “Anna saved me from an Escali at the lake too. We can’t leave him out.” I smiled, trying to bring humor to the situation, but I didn’t even draw a hint of laughter. This new version of Liz set me on edge.

  “As your sister, Allie, I know you haven’t told me everything.” I stared at her long and hard. If she could read me half as well as I could read her, she would know I was hiding something.

  “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” Liz pressed, convinced further by my silence. “I won’t tell anyone.”

  “You promise? No matter what it is, you absolutely promise?”

  “Of course.”

  “Ok,” I said with my very best sigh of giving in. Liz stared intently, no longer watching for deception. “That dream, I know it was real. The details don’t make sense to me, but I remember somebody helping me to escape the Escalis. I don’t know who, and I don’t know how many, but somebody came to help me.”

  I told her this insignificant part because I knew she would see the truth in it, and hopefully it would end her doubts about my honesty.

  She did believe it, but then she concluded, “So somebody strong enough to fight the Escalis knows who you are and is helping you. You know it’s nobody from the Dragona, because they would have come forward to back your story. So who could it have been?”

  “It’s another mystery,” I said, instantly wishing I had kept my mouth closed. I wasn’t getting myself anywhere but deeper, and we were treading too close to the secret I was supposed to be keeping.

  “Are you even half as worried about this as I am?” she asked. I wasn’t acting worried enough.

  “Of course I’m worried, but what will worry fix? Brooding just makes everything worse.”

  “Maybe so, but you’re acting like you don’t care. You won’t be able to figure anything out if you never put a single thought towards the matter.”

  “But I don’t have any thoughts. You’re the creative one. Give me some of your ideas.”

  “I would,” she sighed, “but all of my ideas are impossible.”

  “I know the feeling.” My head felt like it was being squeezed, and I was glad to still have the bed beneath me as a sturdy support.

  “You should go back to sleep,” Liz said, noticing my distraction.

  “Believe me, I want to, but there’s too much to do. I’ll sleep later.” I tried to get up, but Liz wasn’t going to let me.

  “Whatever it is can wait.” She pushed me back down, and I was astounded by her sudden strength, or more likely, how weak I was with my half-Escali abilities suppressed.

  “Where’s Archie?”

  “Anna’s talking to him. I’m not really sure where he is.”

  “Why isn’t he in here too?” I wondered, realizing something was amiss.

  Liz hesitated before she said, “I think Anna wanted to talk to him as soon as he woke up.”

  “She could have done that in here. What’s going on?”

  I didn’t expect a straight answer from her, so I was surprised when I received one. “Anna thinks the same thing I do — there’s more here than we’re seeing. She wanted to talk to you both separately to find the missing pieces, things like the guardians in the woods who were left out of the story. Why did you leave them out anyway?”

  “It didn’t seem important. And nobody believes me anyway,” I said vaguely.

  “Anna might. And she’ll have an easier time investigating this when she knows everything. You need to tell her what you think happened in the woods.”

  “No, I do not.”

  “Then I will.”

  “You can’t. You promised you wouldn’t.”

  “I promised I wouldn’t tell her what you said. I didn’t say anything about writing it down on a piece of paper and giving it to her.”

  “Liz, you can’t do that.” I wasn’t sure I liked new-Liz at all. Maybe if I was still old-Allie, I would have been better at weaving lies she would believe. Was that what I wanted though?

  “Why shouldn’t I tell her? I’m just trying to help.”

  “Because… Well…” Why wasn’t I able to tell Anna the truth? Because if Anna knew somebody had helped me, somebody strong enough to fight Escalis, it would bring up too many questions. Who aside from mages could stand against an Escali? If she used the resources of the Dragona to find out, they would uncover the truth. That wasn’t any reason to give Liz though, and I couldn’t think a new one up. “Ugh, my head hurts,” I said in complete honesty, due to the mixture of a crazy trip and my irritation with Liz.

  “Yeah, you need to get more sleep.”

  “Goodnight,” I said as I put my head on the pillow and clenched my teeth together. I wasn’t sure what would happen when Liz told Anna about the Tallies in the woods, but it wasn’t going to be ideal.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  I woke up determined to not let anything get me down. Not being tired, not the scratches and bruises all over, not the wound running along my arm, not the idea that life was changed forever, and definitely not the fact that I could now be charged for treason. Ten thousand years of Time were not on my mind. I was going to be optimistic.

  On one good note, I was already feeling some of my normal strength return. Some.

  The medical wing was still empty, and I felt well enough to walk, so I simply left. I was on my way to the Wreck before I could even stop to think of how much I didn’t really want to be there. People were already starting to leave from breakfast — off to do whatever the day had in store for them — and I didn’t feel like talking to any of them.

  I sat alone to eat something quick, feeling like a danger to everyone around me.

  “Where are the rest of your friends, Allie?” The hollow and whiney words came from behind me, and I knew from the sheer confidence in Jesse’s voice that he had brought friends. “Did you get them all killed too?”

  Without turning around, I said, “Go away. I don’t want to deal with you right now.”

  “Of course you don’t,” he said, sitting next to me, setting his cup of tea down to make himself at home. Two of his friends seated themselves as well, or possibly his brothers, judging by what seemed to be a family nose.

  “Fine,” I said, not wanting the fight after I had, admittedly, threatened his life. “I’ll move.”

  “Oh no, don’t do that,” he said, reaching out as though to stop me, accidentally knocking his tea over and spilling it all over me. I shrieked and jumped up, shaking my arms to try to get it out of my scratches and cuts. My skin screamed at me to make the burning go away, and my eyes filled with water.

  “My deepest apolo
gies,” Jesse said as he stood and watched me clamp my arms tightly against myself. I could read in his eyes and on his smirk that this was just the beginning of what could be a long line of accidents.

  “Jesse!” I snarled. “Get away from me before I kill you.”

  “Oh come on, Allie, what are you going to do? I didn’t mean

  to—”

  A growl rumbled from my own throat as I shoved him away from me with as much force as I could. Being a normal person, it probably would have been the beginning move to a fight, but being me… he of course flew back into his friends and crashed into both table and chairs, drawing the attention of everyone in the Wreck. They saw me with my flushed cheeks and fiery arms while Jesse tried to stand, dazed from hitting the table and sending chairs clattering to the floor.

  I left the site in a rush, instantly on my way back to my own room. As I walked through the tunnels, trying futilely to convince myself back into optimism, I ran into none other than Anna, who was exactly who I wanted to talk to. I was going to be in trouble as soon as she found out — maybe I could get somewhere productive before she heard.

  “Allie, shouldn’t you be in bed?” she asked. Did I still look so bad?

  “No, I’m fine. I want to get back to work today. Where am I supposed to be?” I hoped my eyes weren’t watering too much. She took a second to observe my appearance.

  “You signed yourself up for combat dragons for this entire week.”

  “Excellent!” I said, turning to leave. Optimism!

  “Allie.”

  “What?” I turned back around to face her. Had Liz already gotten to her?

  “I haven’t had the chance yet to talk to you about recent events.”

  Maybe…

  “I—” my answer was cut short when one of Jesse’s friends ran through the connecting tunnel without even seeing us. That was the way to my room!