Secrets of the Tally

by Halie Fewkes

  “Hey,” she replied, glancing around for something. “You don’t happen to have that sand you used to talk about, do you?” she asked, grabbing my bag to rifle through it. She found Mizelga’s box before I could answer her. “Never mind.” She dumped the entire container out in front of the door at eye level, and then pulled on the handle to make sure the sand held it securely shut.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, bewildered as she took off her own bag and began searching through it.

  “We have to leave, right now. Where’s Archie?”

  “He’s back at the Dragona—”

  “Good, hopefully Robbiel and Jonnath have already found him.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Izfazara is about to finalize the battle plans, and if we wanted any say in them, we were supposed to say it hours ago.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “They don’t want to talk to us. They wanted you, Archie, and Corliss, but the three of you are impossible to find.”

  “If we’re so late, why did you just shut us in here?” I asked, pointing in bafflement at the sand in front of the door.

  “We’re not leaving that way,” Karissa said impatiently, finding what she’d been looking for. It looked like nothing more than a stick to me, but she held it as though it was important. “We’re going to set the flare off so Prince Avalask knows where we are, then he’ll get us out of here. We have to keep the door blocked so we have a safe place to come back to.”

  “What if somebody tries to come in while I’m gone?”

  “Emery’s outside watching. He’ll keep everything under control,” Karissa answered. I didn’t know what she did next, but the stick in her hand ignited suddenly into a blinding light that seared my eyes.

  The next thing to happen was the sensation of everything around me leaving and being replaced by a new scene. I was underground once again, but definitely not in the Dragona. Karissa wasn’t with me anymore, and of the four Escalis who were, I recognized three.

  I had just missed the tail end of an argument between Prince Avalask and Sav, while Gat leaned against a wall in boredom. A fourth Escali looked up from a massive table of strategy, where a map of our continent had been painted across the surface. Older than the three brothers, but with the same unnatural shade of black to his hair, I knew he had to either be their father or the king.

  “You’re late,” the eldest Escali said to me, a statement, rather than the snarling accusation I would have expected.

  I refused to avert my gaze, for fear I might look ashamed. “I didn’t know I was supposed to be here until just now.” I couldn’t help but notice the deeply etched lines around this leader’s eyes, as though years of this war had taken their toll on him.

  “An empty apology,” Sav, the twin with the spiked hair, said from across the room. “The plans have already been made. If she wanted her say, she should have been on time.”

  “I might have been on time if somebody had taken the initiative to tell me there was a meeting!” I snapped back. My uncouth reply seemed acceptable among Escalis, and the eldest motioned for me to come closer and join them.

  “Why are you here by yourself?” he asked as I strolled over, giving the impression of confidence.

  “Was your other Tally friend caught?” Sav mocked.

  “No, we were separated.” I disliked Sav more every second, but Gat was the one who set me on edge, leaning wordlessly against the wall. His crossed arms were thicker than my legs, and he watched me with calculating eyes, giving me the feeling that I was still being hunted.

  The Escali who was clearly in charge handed me a large rolled scroll. “Look this over, and see if it looks right to you.”

  Sav maneuvered himself around the table to whisper furiously to his elder, while I undid the scroll.

  My jaw dropped.

  It contained aerial views of Dincara, floor-plan layouts, and multiple side views, so detailed, I was sure somebody had sat for days at each angle, painting what they saw. Everything was recreated flawlessly, from the harbor to the top of the central tower.

  “How does it feel?” Sav asked me, leaning across the table between us. “Knowing that you’re about to lose everyone in a day’s time? Knowing that I’m personally going to—”

  “Nobody says you’re going to win,” I replied, keeping my head high.

  Sav sneered and said, “You’re still under the impression that your information is accurate. You’re expecting a force of four thousand to attack?” He dropped his voice to a barely audible whisper. “We’re sending sixteen.”

  “That’s enough, Savaul,” said the Escali at the head of the table. Sav immediately straightened and fell silent.

  I looked at the scroll in my hands and felt numb. Sixteen? Sixteen… Thousand? Even with all the ingenious defenses Dincara had, it could never hold off sixteen thousand Escalis.

  “Is that true?” I asked the leader of the four.

  “Yes. Sixteen thousand are preparing to leave, and you’re here because I expect you may know something about the Humans’ defenses that we don’t.”

  “Their intent is to destroy Dincara and everyone in it, right?”

  “Yes. No less than the Humans attempted in Treldinsae.”

  “Then I won’t help. You can find someone else.” I rolled up the plans, dropped them on the ground in front of me, and every eyebrow in the room jumped to higher ground.

  I thought I caught a grin on Prince Avalask’s face as Sav hissed, “This is just like you Tallies. You expect the world from us and give nothing back. Every one of you is filthy and ungrateful—”

  “They found another of the Tallies,” Prince Avalask interrupted Sav’s rant and waved his hand, making Archie appear. Archie took in the situation for only a second, and I heard a deep growl emanate from Gat at his arrival.

  “What’s happening?” Archie asked me, sensing the tension.

  “I was just letting them know that I refuse to help destroy Dincara,” I answered, glaring deliberately at Sav and then stepping on the plans I had dropped. Sav snarled and turned to Archie.

  “This is your chance to bail her out, Tally. You can tell us what you know, or she’s dead.”

  “I don’t side with you,” Archie responded, instantly furious. “If she’s not going to tell you something, then I’ll be shanked if she doesn’t have a good reason.”

  I told him, “They’re planning to slaughter everyone in—”

  “Sounds like a good reason to me,” Archie agreed, further angering Sav.

  “You don’t understand who you’re—”

  Prince Avalask shouted over top of us, “Fight each other on your own time. I have greater tasks to tend to.”

  “Feel free to tend to them,” Sav said, breaking his glare away from us. “We’re done here.”

  A guttural snarl resonated across the table, and the brothers fell silent again as the respected figure said, “Savaul! This meeting will be over when I say it is. Understood?”

  “Yes, Uncle,” Sav bowed to him then sent another threatening look our way. I could no longer question who this was. We were in the presence of King Izfazara.

  “Surely we can find an agreement between us,” the king said to me. “We really do need whatever insight you can offer.”

  King or not, I still replied, “As long as you’re planning to kill everyone, I won’t be helping.”

  “Is that so? Perhaps we can change your mind.”

  “You can try,” I stated boldly, but I felt fear run through me. I might have just pushed him too far.

  “Pick up the plans again,” he said.

  “I already saw all I need to know.”

  “So you think. Take one more look.”

  I picked them up and unrolled them again to glance briefly, but the pictures had changed drastically. The views from every angle of Dincara were the same, but they looked like they had been painted this time in the middle of the battle.

  Realistically painted flam
es licked up from the bridge, but nobody stood on it. Instead, Escalis hung over the side to avoid the fiery danger, and those who were close to the fortress appeared to be breaking off the pipes that fueled the fire.

  The water underneath simmered green from the alchemist powder, and it looked as though a few people from both sides had met their demise in the moat. Escali archers were taking out the Human archers on the battlements; boulders were falling through the air into the entrance pit, but the Escalis were stacking them so they could be climbed; armed Human ships in the harbor were being overrun as the harbor gate burned; dragons were being slain on the pavilion; fighters were being taken down outside the main turret; and almost every detail of Dincara’s defenses was perfect.

  “Did we leave anything out?” Izfazara asked.

  “Yes,” I responded hastily, trying to give the impression that they had missed a lot.

  “We need to talk for a second,” Archie said, pulling me off to the side and then dropping his voice low enough that only I could hear. “How much are they missing?” he asked, looking at the plans in my hand.

  “Barely anything,” I whispered, peering closely to find anything omitted. The details were intricate enough that I could see the arrowheads used by the archers on the battlements, and they weren’t wrapped in thistleweed or marked with Kelian’s seal from Tekada like they should have been. The drawing accounted for the two dragons next to the pit, but was missing the one on the bridge as well as those that would be flying over once the Dragona joined. I also spotted that they had missed the water mages who would be around the pit. Everything else, however, seemed perfect.

  “Is there any chance at all that we can win?”

  “None. Not with sixteen thousand Escalis and plans like these. They know everything.”

  “Then in the interest of everybody living, we have to make some kind of deal. Follow my lead?”

  “Ok,” I agreed, hoping Archie could come up with a miracle.

  “How much value is there in what Allie knows about the defenses?” Archie asked Izfazara.

  “There is none,” Sav quietly advised. “We know the majority of it. We can do without the rest.”

  “I place high value in her information,” Izfazara said with his eyes only on us, as though Savaul’s input wasn’t worthy of his attention. “If it means the difference between one hundred of our own casualties and two hundred, I’ll never be able to live with myself if one of my family is among that difference. Yet, I do get the sense that you Tallies want something in return?”

  “Yes,” Archie answered. “We don’t want you to kill everyone in Dincara when you take it.”

  “Really? And what would you rather?” Izfazara asked. “What am I supposed to do with… How many Humans will there be?” he asked me.

  “A lot,” I responded defiantly.

  “And what am I supposed to do with a lot of captives? Let them go so they can rebuild a new fortress elsewhere? Put them to work as slaves?”

  “What if you used them as a message?” Archie suggested. “You could send them back to Tekada as a warning to King Kelian that you don’t want to be messed with. It gets them out of your way without killing them, and it conveys how much power you hold. Maybe Tekada will think twice about sending more people after receiving a warning.”

  “We could do it,” Prince Avalask said, giving me the feeling he was on our side. “Our new flagship, Shadow’s Doubt, is being completed as we speak. She’s built to travel against the trade winds, and is strong enough to pull several loaded ships with her.”

  Savaul said, “We owe these Humans nothing, least of all mercy.”

  Izfazara replied. “We don’t have to owe it to give it. We never have.”

  “It sounds as though your decision already stands,” Prince Avalask said.

  Sav intervened, “It will cost more of our own lives to capture that city than to destroy it, even if we do have the advanced information. These Tallies have their own agenda, and it is ignorant to strike deals with them!”

  “I disagree,” Izfazara answered. “If the cost of saving our own lives is simply sparing the lives of others, then I see nothing ignorant aside from you.” Izfazara then turned to Archie and I and asked, “Is it a deal then? If we capture the fortress instead of destroying it, will you share your knowledge?”

  I looked uncertainly at Archie and then at King Izfazara. I thought of all my friends and how life would be if they were gone within a few days. Nothing was worth that. Nothing.

  I could be loyal, or I could spare the lives of everyone I knew.

  “It’s a deal.”

  Guilt overwhelmed me after I pointed out the spots they had missed on the maps, answered a few questions about numbers, then described the inner layout of the central turret. Half of me insisted that I had done what was right, that saving my friends was worth the guilt. The other half was twisting and pulling and nagging inside me, telling me I had betrayed everything I stood for.

  I had no idea how I was going to update my list of tally marks after this battle. I would have no idea how many lives were lost and saved because of me. Most would be on the saved side though, and that was what mattered.

  I expected to be up all night, pacing and contemplating, but when Prince Avalask sent Archie and me back to my “room” in Dincara, I was startled by violent pounding on the door.

  “Come on, Allie. You can’t block me out of your room!”

  “That’s Liz,” I whispered. “Help me get this sand off the door.”

  Archie wasn’t much help since the sand refused to move for anyone aside from me, so I had to get every single grain back into the box myself.

  Liz thundered against my door with both fists, and then kicked it furiously, reminding me she was my sister.

  “Just a second Liz,” I told her through the door.

  I tried to pull it open, but I must have missed a grain or two somewhere. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Let me do it. We’ll find them later,” Archie whispered as Liz shouted back, “Are you deaf?”

  I stepped aside and he forced the door open, creating three tiny holes in the wood where I had missed a few grains. Liz stood fuming in the doorway with her arms folded and her feet planted in a wide stance to keep anyone from getting past her.

  “You could have at least said something so I knew you were in there! What were you… Never mind, I don’t want to know,” she stopped when she saw Archie behind me, and I felt my cheeks turn red. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of any better explanation.

  Blotchy red spots crept into Liz’s cheeks too, and she stepped back from the doorway, fixing her eyes on the ground to keep angry tears from escaping. Oh no. This was jealousy. I was with someone else when she needed me. “I was just coming to check on you...” she said, tucking her chin close to her body as her lower lip quivered furiously. “I can go.”

  This was the dirtiest guilt-tactic in the book, but I took the bait without hesitation. She drug her feet as she turned to leave, and I only exchanged a quick glance with Archie to see his eyes saying go go go, before I left him behind.

  “I’m sorry, Liz, I didn’t know you were here yet.”

  “I guess I should have figured that when you didn’t come out to greet me. You sure found Archie quick though.”

  I sighed, having no explanation that would sound both believable and non-incriminating. “Come on, it’s just you and me now,” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her into a left turn. “Dincara has something like the Wreck where we can get some food, and I want to hear all about what’s been happening at the Dragona.”

  I got the feeling she wanted to stay mad at me, but the need to talk was greater. She took her time, but her rigid shoulders relaxed as she started telling me about the Dragona’s speeches and preparations for the coming battle. I was also glad she didn’t mention West as we grabbed and ate dinner. Liz was far from alright, but being able to talk without her sobbing on me was a relief I needed.

&nbs
p; As I filled my plate with food for a second time, I glanced back to our table to see Archie in my spot. Liz was clearly giving him sour answers as he tried to talk to her, which tore at me more than it should have. I couldn’t have them fighting right now with everything else going on.

  And so I took an immense amount of time to fill my plate.

  By the time I looked back to the table, Archie was messing up Liz’s straight black hair like she was his little sister too. To my relief, she threw her arms defensively over her head with a smile as she spoke to him. Dang, Archie was good.

  I stepped into a side corridor to give them a few extra minutes and sat against the wall to eat, alone with my thoughts. Just me, my thoughts, and two low voices speaking down the dark corridor, sounding so distant that I wondered if my half-Escali ears were the reason I could hear them.

  I couldn’t help my curiosity, and I found myself setting my plate down so I could sneak closer.

  “I can’t let you dump antiwater all over the spire.” It was the muffled echo of a voice I recognized. Tarace. “What if someone accidentally triggers an explosion? We can’t have our leader going up in flames halfway through the battle.”

  “I will only be consumed in flames if someone opens the door,” Sir Laud’s calm voice answered him. “That’s the only thing rigged to set it off. And I will only unlock the door if we lose the fortress. So stop fretting.”

  “But I can’t let you kill yourself,” Tarace said, and even from a distance I could hear the struggle a voice has to overcome with heartbreaking words.

  Sir Laud replied, “A death by fire would be a kinder fate than falling into the Escalis’ hands, especially if the explosion kills the commander who’s come to rip my throat out.”

  Their voices faded and I turned back around, gritting my teeth together. If Sir Laud had the spire rigged to explode in the event we lost the fortress, then he truly was living his last handful of hours right now.

  Should I tell him? Was it on my shoulders to let Dincara know their information was wrong?

  I needed to talk to Archie, because this did feel like my responsibility.

  Liz and Archie ran into me right as I emerged from the dark corridor, and Liz said, “We wondered where you had gone. I think I’m ready for bed.”