by Kalyn Crowe
Kat stood by the fence; her mouth cracked as she looked over this disaster.
Tilly jumped onto Odion's rump and screeched.
He bumped and pushed at me, then gave me his side.
Leyla yanked her scroll out. "Go!"
"But."
"To Abyss with it, follow them!" She twirled.
I pulled off the gloves, apron, even the bag and hopped on Odion.
He squatted down, claws out, body tensed. With no further warning, we sprung back over the fence and landed at a full run. As I feared, we headed straight for the main gate.
Kepi sat in my lap and bumped me.
I threw my jacket over her.
She cooed with glee.
Odion kept up his lightning pace.
We passed through the gate into the street. Tilly leaped off and used the clawed tips of her stub wings to scramble up the nearby building.
Odion stopped and watched her.
She jumped across the rooftops practically in flight.
I'd have loved even a fraction of her ability.
I leaned forward. "Follow Tilly, take the back roads." I hoped he knew the city better than I did.
With that, he took off, and we left behind a group of startled onlookers down the street.
He rushed through the alleys behind the smooth white stone buildings of the city. They blurred into a cloud on either side as if we ran through walls of smoke.
Above, Tilly showed her ability to set our pace. Her legs extended much longer than they first looked. Each jump across roof gaps told of her hidden strength. Mother designed her to belie her talents.
Odion reared and pivoted in a sharp turn.
Tilly skirted within the shadows cast by taller buildings and first story ledges.
Both seemed as though they navigated through familiar territory.
Then I recognized it, too. Short sights of the shattered HQ showed between buildings. "We shouldn't be here."
The ally we ran through ended. Two streets angled away in either direction and formed an arrow-shaped intersection. We stopped at the tip.
We ended up blocks from the HQ rubble.
Kepi sniffed the air.
The other two animals did the same, so I tried as well.
Something strange.
There was a sewer grate, but it wasn't that.
Tilly jumped down to a head level window sill.
"What's here?" I said.
Kepi scrambled from the jacket onto my back and pulled at my collar with her beak.
"What is it?"
She yanked.
Tilly slipped into a small space between the buildings and croaked.
Odion turned, so our backs were to the tip of the intersection. "Tilly?" I reached over for her.
Then I saw it: a leveled plot loomed down the next street — my house.
19 - Consumed
Tilly drooped and closed her eyes.
When she saw me, she must have wanted to know what happened to Philomena. Somehow Tilly understood what the leveled house meant. The Order destroyed every heretic's home.
A couple of carriages stood with no horses or drivers near the abandoned lot. No one else was here.
At least until the rattle of plate armor came from all three of the intersection's exits.
"Out for a little joy ride, Lady Nardovino?" Duri came into view between the lot and me.
A woman and a man also on horseback blocked the right, and two more men blocked the left, all templars.
The woman leaned forward in her saddle and said, "So this is Nardovino's niece? She's not much to look at."
"That mount of hers sure is," the bigger of the two left men said. Built like a brick house, he also spoke like one.
Duri leaned back in his saddle with a sneer. "Did you steal that thing or what? No one has ridden the creature since the Weaver witch."
Kepi pulled again at my collar. The angle of the street and her position on my back hid her from their sight. "Guess I'm just good with animals."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's all it is." The sneer turned into a self-satisfied grin.
"She probably stole it," said the man next to the big one. "Should we arrest her, Lord?"
Odion's claws scraped the stone. Apexials wouldn't fight, but he would die in my defense, the same with Kepi. I couldn't let that happen. I patted his side. "It's all right."
"Is it?" Duri said with a plastered properness. "We should escort her back to the stables."
The woman sat up and shook her head in the most snobby way possible. "That's not like you."
He returned his smug face to its snide shape. "I want to see everyone's face when we arrest this girl and kill that thing she's riding. It can't be an Apexial. It would have left. Same with the little one who stayed with the witch's daughter."
The woman giggled, again exaggerated.
It set my nerves on fire. "You're all idiots."
She again shook her head. "How dare you?" She gripped the handle of her sheathed sword.
Tilly darted from her dark corner, jumped, and pecked the back of the woman's hand.
She gasped and held it. "Monster!"
Tilly took up position in front of me with a caustic hiss.
The man next to the woman slipped off his horse and pulled his sword. "Looks like Master Bora was right. These damned people are up to something sinister." He stood ready.
Duri laughed.
"What's so funny, Farago? The irony?" I said but still looked for an escape, blinded by anger.
He stopped and wiped his eye. "What? Do you even know what you're saying? It's your uncle who can't even solve these attacks. Doesn't that seem odd to you?"
"What has your grandmother done to solve them, or even prevent them? Templars are just the meatheads who go where they tell you."
"Our High Templar gave his life to save your sorry asses, and this is how you regard our Arm?" Duri dismounted.
"Ansgar is what you all could be, strong and caring at the same time. Speaking of which, you scurried off conveniently before the attack on Hunter HQ. Didn't want to mar your pretty gold and silver armor? Or was it something else?"
He flushed bright red. "When Grandmother hears about this, you're dead." He jabbed with his finger. "Hand over the reins. Now."
"There are none," I said and lifted my hands.
He narrowed his eyes. "Grandmother is right. She sent us to watch that Gunnar, these wild claims of ill folks. Since when is that worthy of templar attention? A distraction from the real villainy."
Kepi pulled again. Even more frantically.
Tilly and Odion looked down the street at the same time.
One of the carriages shook.
"Out with it," Duri came closer, "What is your little group up to?"
Odion backed up with frustration in little steps.
"Duri, we're in danger," I said.
"Don't try to distract me with more lies."
The carriages burst open, packed with people.
A thunder of feet came down the street. A withered crowd of nearly twenty bolted forward.
"Other side!" shouted the male Templar on the right as a clash of bodies rammed into the horses.
The woman struggled to stay in the saddle and unsheathed her sword.
Gray hands clasped the legs of the horses and pulled at barding and reins. The animals screamed on all three sides of me.
Duri ran back and swept his arm into the shield on his saddle before the ill ones drug his thrashing horse away. He struck and dazed an attacker, but couldn't grip his sword like the others in the struggle.
"To me, everyone, come to me," I shouted above the spiral of distress.
They didn't listen.
The templars' swords flashed to life in a chorus of shouts, each with a brilliant azure glow. They feared these were Abyssists.
They swung in level arcs. All struck true and sunk deep into their targets.
Smiles came to the templars' faces.
Then, to the si
ck ones.
All grinned in unison — even those with swords still rooted in their ribs.
"What in the world?" My voice barely sounded.
The templars struggled to pull their swords free.
The ill, their bodies held the swords firm. Then it hit me. "Turn off the imbuements," I called out, but the blue light only flared as panic sank its teeth deeper.
Apex must be in these people to hold the Abyss imbued swords. One law of Anima balance said, the more significant the amount, the more influential the pull.
I reached up and tried for Apex threads to repel the ill, but only wisps touch my fingers. With so much Apex already here, it would take too long to summon the same type of filaments.
Just as well, I wouldn't want to hinder their swords more.
I slipped from Odion and reached downward.
Near black filaments shot from between my boots to my hands. I Wove wide ribbons through gaps in the crowd. The crescent fence entrapped some ill, but they still surrounded us. They pushed and climbed closer.
The templars, now unarmed and already ragged, scanned the crowd, me, even the sky for answers.
None came.
Tilly's feathers peaked over her neck and spine. She crouched at my side and loosed a low growl.
Kepi watched from my shoulder.
She knew the sick were there. She always knew.
A massive amount of force wrenched my left arm. That side of my seal collapsed.
The large, muscled Templar to the left fell into the grips of the sick people. His shouts stung through the air and heralded the copper scent of blood.
With his fall, more charged the gap. One, in particular, came for me.
Tilly sprang, talons out. She sliced across his thigh, severing muscle to bone.
His leg gave, and he hit the ground face first.
She thrust her beak at the base of his skull. Her head swung back up. A trail of thick, dark blood arced in the air. A victory screech followed.
The man twitched as if some force fought with his crushed brain. Then it gave up.
Kepi cooed at Tilly.
A bracer stamped with the Rays slid across the street in a trail of sparks.
Another fallen templar yelled something indiscernible and then grew quiet.
The mob poured in.
I couldn't find the last unnamed Templar, or Duri, and made a terrible choice.
I pulled back the remainder of my filaments and Wove them around myself, Kepi, and Odion. The chaos compromised my concentration. I left gaps.
Tilly stayed outside. She cut any who neared.
A fire flickered through the muscles of my arms.
One of the ill people dove forward.
Odion leaped through a hole in my seal.
Our attackers dispersed as he landed. Again, too much Apex in one place.
An ill one barreled through another gap, and I hit the stone road hard. The seal receded as my concentration and gestures halted.
I crawled through hands and drug myself to Odion. He still muscled and maneuvered but had fallen. They couldn't hurt him. Or, at least not directly. The pressure of all the surrounding Apex battled with the steadfast stone beneath.
I lashed out with another ribbon of Abyss and peeled off a chunk of attackers. It afforded us a moment's breath.
Then an absence. "Kepi? Kepi, where are you?"
She shrieked.
I saw her in the clutches of a sick woman.
At that moment, I found something else.
I whipped my hand forward with no thought and watched as strands of Abyss shot out from my fingers and coiled into a blade. It skewered through the woman's head.
She fell to the ground with no outward sign of injury except a golden fog on my blade, Apex Anima.
The Apex dissipated without a host.
Kepi slipped from limp fingers and ran along the surface of my Woven weapon.
After she made it to my arm, I unfurled my blade and thrust much denser and smaller Abyss seal around Kepi, Odion, and me. Such a sudden burst of Anima filaments sent a howl through the air.
The glassy seal passed through our assailants and knocked them out. No blood, no severed limbs, they collapsed in a golden wake.
If only I'd known to shoot the seal into their bodies before, not just trap them.
A pair of fists slammed into my seal.
I had to protect Kepi. Attacking more would have been careless.
The owner of the blow then yanked and peeled his hands off for another hit.
I couldn't pull an Apex counterbalance and let go of the seal now.
Breaths came in rasps.
The toll of safety grew increasingly oppressive.
Tilly fought outside.
"No, run, go get help," I called.
She felled a woman who attacked the seal with a talon slice through the back of the knees.
The woman's body plastered to the seal's surface. Her face became lost and sad, like the man at my school.
Tilly finished her as she had the other before. She howled, ready for the next one. She would fight until they died, or she did. But why? Was it for me?
That screech from when we met rang through my mind.
That was what Tilly needed to hear. "Go! I'll live."
She tilted her head.
"I promise."
She squawked and swept low through the tangle of legs. One more attacker fell as she passed.
Duri collapsed near the seal's edge. "Let me in, Apex above, please." He shielded blows but held no sword, like me.
"Just come in. The seal won't hurt you."
He hesitated until they tore his shield away. He rolled in and gripped his shoulder as tears ran down his face. His breaths came in shallow gasps like mine.
"Is there anyone else?" I said.
He shouted names, but no one responded.
His shield arm hung twisted the wrong way.
He looked at me in turn. "You're too pale."
I felt each shock as another person threw themselves onto my seal. "I promised I'd live, damn it." I gripped the filaments in my fists.
He gulped and nodded.
Through the dark glow of my seal, I noticed a shift in the attackers. Like a swarm of ants, the sick people moved away from the female Templar's body. The horses laid dead — each corpse with displaced joints and missing armor or barding.
With no other targets, the ill people took unspoken but organized turns at my seal.
The light grew dim.
Duri held me up with his uninjured arm. "Nancy, whoever, hold on."
Kepi cooed low, worried, but determined.
I grew vacant, but somehow acutely aware of something under my existence. Like the silent fight between staying awake and a nightmare. I heard myself say, "Again, I deny you, you bastard."
The ill people all stopped, motionless, eyes locked.
A bright shock of light came from the main street. Horse hooves pounded the ground. The sun sparkled off a steel blade as it flew through two of the sick people's necks.
"Gunnar Armistead?" said Duri.
All but one of the sick threw themselves in unison at my seal. The stray one charged Gunnar.
As their bodies hit the seal, the darkness consumed me.
20 - Skin and Skeletons
I awoke to fingers on my neck. With a gasp, what strength still hid within lashed out.
"Easy, girl, it's Kat."
I blinked or thought I did. One bright blur exchanged for a duller one. "I can't see."
"Not yet. Stay calm and rest. I've healed you with everything I could spare. You need time and food."
I reached toward her voice.
She took my hand. "Before you ask, Kepi, Tilly, and Odion are safe. Gunnar is, I'll say, tending to Duri."
A sick crack came from the right.
Duri cried out. "Apex sake, man, warn me."
"That shoulder needed to go back in." Gunnar sounded his gruff, short self. His steps moved around
and clinked on the stones. "What in Abyss, Farago? Was your plan to let her hide you away until she died, too?"
Kat adjusted a blanket up to my chin. She shifted beside me on the ground.
"I'd be dead if I did anything different," said Duri. He groaned as his footfalls haphazardly moved around. "Dead like everyone else, even my horse." He sucked in a labored breath. "What are these people?"
No answer came. Instead, the stillness brought the last things I saw and felt forward in my mind. I couldn't even open my eyes to escape it.
Tears held in through all this surfaced. Guilt made them flow without a sound. Shame accompanied the realization of at least it wasn't me who died.
Kepi nestled close.
Odion sniffed by my ear.
I saved them and myself, but not all the others. Only that much because Gunnar came.
It didn't feel good enough.
I almost lost Kepi.
Tilly warbled near my feet. Something about her sobered me.
"Kat?" I said, barely above a breath. "We have to get back before more help comes."
"You're right, but I didn't want to risk moving you right away."
"How did Gunnar know? To come here, I mean."
I heard him kneel across from Kat. "Tilly found me. She went slow enough I could follow, so I knew something was very wrong." He huffed.
He didn't mention the seal, Kepi, or how I wasn't Nancy.
Tension permeated the air.
Gunnar broke the silence. "I knew they were up to something, those sick."
I cleared my throat. "I think someone controlled those people." The words caught in my throat, and I coughed.
Kat said, "Here, drink." She made sure I held the water. "Let's get these four back to the stable before any discussion."
"Right." He stood. "They can stay at my house." I heard him walk away. "Even you too, Kat."
"Gunnar." She took the water and dabbed my face with a cool cloth.
His steps sounded further off. "And you, what saved you, Farago?"
He stammered. "You did, sir. I didn't see a Weaver or the Tempest. No animals at all, sir."
"Even if your grandmother asks?"
He gulped.
"Answer me, boy, or I'll snip this loose end, so help me, Zirore."
"Yes, sir, if anyone, even Ansgar himself asks. I swear."
