Gathering of Blackbirds

by M.M. Gavillet

  Chapter Ten

  Storm clouds brewed in the distant horizon. Gabe and I walked back along the beach as the sun’s warmth left the pink colored sand. Thunder rumbled as a plane flew overhead and landed on the runway on the other side of the mansion.

  “Gabe,” I said with his hand still in mine. “About Bimini…” My words deflated like a balloon expelling helium. “I hope…” I started again, only to deflate again.

  Gabe stopped and stood in front of me with the approaching storm. “If you’re wondering if I got in trouble, I did, but don’t worry about that.”

  “Sorry I brought it up, it was just bothering me.” I shrugged my shoulders, smiled and as much as I wanted to tell him that it was my fault, I let it go.

  “Come on let’s go see what Claire and Zach found out.”

  They were already in the house when we just missed the rain that began to pour down. Abe was talking to them in the living room along with Karinna sitting beside him. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary as well.

  “I’m telling you, it’s too quiet; something is going on right under our nose.” Jimmy pointed to his nose. “Do you think whoever is stealing the implements is going to wave at us and make it obvious? It’s an inside job.” Jimmy crossed his arms and looked at Abe who only rubbed his forehead.

  “Time is of the essence and to secure the remaining implements, they are being moved here for the time being. Meropsis security is strained with the constant threat of pirates and now with the thefts, we are going to house them,” Abe said.

  “Whose decision was that?” Jimmy asked sitting down. “Why here, why not with the Phoenix, don’t they have secure vaults?”

  Abe straightened his stature. “It is being done in secret and we are the least likely place to house them. The Alliance decided it was for the best.”

  “Are you kidding? The Alliance isn’t always right. What if something happens? How are we to defend ourselves with such a small army?” Jimmy stood up and looked down at his ailing brother.

  I looked at Gabe and thought of what Claire had told me- we are just misfits, underdogs, basically the bottom of the barrel. To me Gabe didn’t look like an underdog or a misfit; he was perfect and kind like I had never known before.

  “It is what the Alliance has decided and it is the course of action that will be taken,” Abe said. “They are on their way here anyhow, so it is too late to make changes.”

  Abe stood up. “I am excusing myself, I have a headache.”

  Jimmy grumbled to himself as Abe left and then looked over at Karinna.

  “What do you think of all of this? When did the Alliance decide this?” He leaned forward resting his elbows to his knees.

  Karinna glanced between Gabe, Claire, Zach and then me, resting her eyes on me before answering Jimmy.

  “I don’t agree with the Alliance, but at the same time I do. It is a risk and we are not as many as the rest of the clans, but why can’t we ask the Mers for assistance? They can patrol the waters.”

  Jimmy rubbed his chin. “You know it goes against the rules of the Alliance.”

  Karinna looked at Jimmy with her jeweled eyes. “So does leaving us as curators of the prize of the Alliance.”

  Darkness fell quickly, swallowing everything whole and leaving me with a strange feeling of dread. Kangee so far had been peaceful, almost like a tropical vacation. But, I knew it was far from that. So many things hung in the balance including my fate. I couldn’t help to think of what David was accusing me of. How was the Alliance that barely knew me, would believe me over one of their own. Especially since things are stolen upon my arrival?

  Maybe Pandora would have answers. I thought about her and the way I felt when I saw her business burning to the ground. That seemed like years ago rather than just a few days ago. I was truly worried about her, and she turned around and blamed me for stealing. I never thought in the couple of years I’ve known her, that she would do something like that. She was protecting herself and that was all there was to it, even though it was at my expense.

  The next morning everything dripped with water, it had rained making everything brighter, if that was possible. I got dressed and went downstairs to a commotion of raised voices.

  Everyone, including Pandora was in the living room. Abe and Jimmy stood in front of her while Zach and Gabe stood behind her, like a pack of wolves interrogating her. She sat with folded arms that kept whatever secrets she had locked up under them. Her mouth was nothing more than a tight slit that I wished would tell the truth, whatever that was.

  Claire and Alicia sat on the sofa by the window with Karinna behind them. Ian, as always, lingered in the background, like a spectator, as he sat in the chair behind Jimmy and Abe.

  Pandora’s eyes met mine as I walked like a cautious fawn through a dangerous forest. Her lips curled into a rouge smile.

  “There, there is your thief.” She pointed her finger at me, though no one looked at me.

  Abe bent down slightly into Pandora’s face. “She is not the thief, the Alliance had decided, they are looking elsewhere and I believe you know more that you let on.”

  She curled her arms over her chest like two large boa constrictors. “I have said what I know and I don’t have to be here.”

  “Under Alliance rule we can question you for as long as we like since of your heritage,” Ian suddenly said in a calm voice like he was reading from a book.

  Pandora gave a huff. “I am not responsible for my past relatives. The original Pandora was tricked into opening the box that let all of the demons out. Not me!” She sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.

  “And that is why the law is different for you, it’s something in your blood,” Ian said in a calm voice.

  I looked at him and for a moment his striking blue eyes met mine.

  Pandora uncurled her arms and rubbed her forehead hard with her hand like she was trying to rub her family’s past off of her.

  “O.K., alright,” she sighed. “I will tell you what you want to know.” She looked up at Abe and Jimmy. Only if I can have protection and be immune to Pandora’s Law.”

  Jimmy and Abe looked at each other, stepped aside and whispered to one another before turning back to Pandora.

  “You have a deal sister, start spilling and what you say must be true or I will feed you to the Alliance myself,” Jimmy said and then smiled villainously at her.

  Pandora sat with a slightly gaping mouth that trembled as she peered up at the two giant looking men.

  “It’s the Alfheim, they are responsible for taking the implements. A group of rouge Alfheim came to me last year wanting me to take sand and make an amulet for them. They paid me good and as I worked with the sand, something didn’t feel familiar to it, it was foreign to me. I prolonged the project as long as I could, until one day they showed up.” Pandora looked over at me. “You were there and the perfect way to hide it. I knew I did something I shouldn’t and then contacted David of the Dragon clan. He said he had told the Alliance what had happened and not to worry. To hide my tracks, I burned my shop and that is when I was taken in by the Alliance and questioned. David said he would make sure I was let go and not charged with anything. He was going to blame it on you, Emily.” Tears began to swell in her eyes and for a moment I felt sorry for her.

  “Why didn’t you come to us earlier and tell us this?” Alicia jumped up. “Why now witch?” She said through clenched teeth.

  Alicia stood with her hands on her slim hips and her pale face surrounded by her dark hair. Her eyes pierced Pandora steadily and waited for an answer.

  “I was planning on coming, when Abel contacted me. I think, I think David is going against his word and trying to kill me.” Her face curled with pain as she covered it with her hands. “I never meant for any of this to happen, I just thought I was making some trinket that didn’t mean anything. I did it all the time and nothing ever happened.”
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br />   “I don’t trust her. One moment she is telling us that Emily is the thief and now she is blaming it on the Alfheim,” Alicia said as she looked between Abe and Jimmy.

  “She has a point, Pandora,” Abe said looking over his shoulder at Alicia.

  “I think she is a part of it and she will never tell the truth.” Alicia stepped towards her as Pandora shifted uncomfortably on the couch.

  “You asked for the truth and I gave what I know. What else do you want?” Her voice pleaded.

  “Simple, the truth Pandora,” Alicia now stood in front of her.

  “I have given it to you!” Pandora trembled slightly as Alicia leaned forward. “Leave me alone!”

  Alicia reached for Pandora’s wrist and held it tightly in her grip. Pandora pulled back as Alicia only smiled as the air filled with the smell of something burning.

  “Tell the truth you liar!” Alicia yelled as smoke rolled from under her fingers that held Pandora’s wrist.

  I waited only a moment for someone to pull Alicia away from Pandora. They only looked on with stunned faces frozen in the moment. I then jumped towards Alicia.

  “Alicia, stop!” I yelled.

  Quickly I grabbed her arm and pulled her fingers from Pandora’s burning wrist. Suddenly, an invisible hand pushed me backwards with amazing force. I found myself a few feet away from them. Gabe quickly came over and lifted me up without a word. I could see Alicia bent to her knees with her shoulders hunched over and Pandora rubbing her red wrist, laughing at Alicia and then pointing towards me.

  “You can’t control your powers very well my little Phoenix,” Pandora said.

  Zach jumped over the side of the couch and lifted Alicia to her feet as she gently pushed him away. Alicia with her dark eyes motioned with her hand that she was alright to Zach who stood close by.

  “Enough!” Abe yelled. “Take Pandora to the tower room.” He motioned for Gabe and Ian to take Pandora.

  I sat down on the couch and rubbed the back of my head which hurt as Pandora pleaded for her release. Her voice echoed down the hallway until it was cut off by a door closing.

  “You’re bleeding,” Claire said as I looked at my bloodied fingers. “You hit your head on the edge of the table.” She pointed to the small table beside the couch they had sat on.

  “I’m fine, it’s just a small cut.” I protested as my head began to throb.

  “Alicia,” Karinna went over to her as Zach made her sit on the couch in front of Abe, her father and Jimmy.

  “What was that Alicia?” Abe’s voice was calm, but trembled slightly.

  “I-I don’t know. Something came over me. Pandora was lying; I could see it and it made me mad.” Her voice was soft and calm as she sat with a stunned look on her face.

  Karinna looked at Abe and him at her.

  “You can see auras, can’t you?” Karinna asked.

  “The colors, they come and go, but Pandora’s was black and evil. She is surrounded by evil.” For the first time, Alicia looked like a scared little girl to me. Her dark eyes round with fear and her tall body hunched over as if trying to protect herself from something that wasn’t there.

  “Zach,” Abe said and motioned with his eyes to take Alicia upstairs.

  “No!” Alicia glared at him. “How am I supposed to get stronger when I have to go lie down every time I practically sneeze?”

  Everyone looked at her.

  “Well then, if Pandora is lying then you will be her guard as well as interrogator. There is something going on and I do believe now it is internal.” Abe looked up at Jimmy who only raised his eyebrows at him as if to say ‘I told you so’.

  Claire insisted that I go to her room so she could look at my cut.

  “It won’t stop bleeding.” She sounded frantic.

  “Here just hold the towel on it and it will stop soon. I have had plenty of cuts before.” I tried to reassure her thinking of all the times I scraped my knees on the gravel road that went by our trailer.

  I let out a deep breath as the thought suddenly broke into my head. Even though my life in St. F wasn’t the greatest, I still missed it. I liked working at Jimmy’s bar and waiting on customers. But then again, what future did I have, I was simply hanging on to something that was familiar. Atlantis was still hard to fathom, but with Gabe here, it made it a lot easier.

  “I think you need stiches.” Claire stood in front of me as I pulled my thoughts from my old life.

  “What?” I asked.

  “See, you might even have a concussion.” She seemed worried.

  “I’m fine,” I said trying to reassure her. “Claire.” I yelled at her as she went out the door.

  “I’m going to get Zach,” she replied back.

  I held the towel to the back of my head and carefully lay on her bed. It felt kind of nice to have someone like Claire to worry about me. She was really a nice person and I wished she didn’t feel like she was a misfit.

  “She passed out.” I could hear Claire’s frantic voice enter the room as my eyes popped open.

  “Claire, I was just lying down, that’s all. I’m fine.” I tried again to reassure her as I smiled at her. “It’s just a scratch.”

  She looked at me with worry and me at her with confusion to her overreaction.

  “Let me have a look,” Zach said with his strawberry blond hair that had a flat spot in it where his cowboy hat sat all the time.

  I turned around and removed the blood spotted towel. Zach gently lifted my hair and then opened a small metal case that I tried to look in, but couldn’t.

  “So are you a doctor too?” I asked through the awkward silence.

  “Yeah, sort of, well that is what I wanted to be. Yep, it looks like a couple of stiches will do the trick,” Zach said finally.

  Claire held my hair and as instructed by Zach, I held still.

  “This will burn a little.” Zach put on something that felt cool at first, then as promised, burned until it went numb.

  I then could feel his gentle touch as the stiches pulled at my skin.

  “So, why don’t you go to school to become a doctor? Is that something you can’t do in Atlantis?” I asked.

  “Well, yes there are wonderful institutes, but they only let in certain people.” His voice was low and held no emotion to it. “I’m not one of them certain people.”

  “Certain people, that doesn’t seem right. I think you are pretty good.” I knew my opinion held no weight and I could hear him chuckle a little at my comment.

  “Maybe she does have a concussion, just like you thought Claire,” Zach said as I could feel him put gauze over my insignificant wound.

  “I’m serious.” I turned to see his usual cheerful eyes fill with sadness.

  “Well, a boy from the Shilands isn’t from the right stock that the schools of Atlantis are looking for. They want only their kind in them.” Zach shut his case.

  “Zach…I’m sorry,” I said not knowing what else to say.

  “Nah, don’t be. I still study what I can and practice on the animals that I save. They don’t have anyone to care for them.” I could slowly see the sparkle return as he smiled. “Keep it clean and I will look at it in a couple of days, time to check on my next patient.”

  “Don’t let Alicia hear you call her that,” Claire said as he put on his hat, tipped it slightly to us and left whistling.

  Claire picked up the towel and put it with a pile of dirty clothes.

  “Oh, I will just do them all tomorrow,” she said with a flick of her hand at the small mountain of clothes.

  “So, Zach can’t get into medical school because he is from the wrong place.” I looked at Claire who pulled down her booze-hiding teddy bear and offered me some. I shook my head and waited for an answer.

  “Well, he is from the Shilands. It is a large continent that produces crops and doesn’t have many large cities or industrial places. Like I said before the Alfheim ha
ve a lot of wealth and industry, they control a lot and one of those things is the learning institutions. The Shilands are rural and a lot of things get exported from there, but the people are limited. Most of them are from human descent mixed with Atlantian descent and farm a lot, as you can see Zach has a soft spot for livestock and most things with four legs.” Claire shook her head and looked up at the ceiling.

  “That seems so wrong. I never really thought of other worlds before, but when I did, I thought they would be perfect places and everyone lived in peace and got along.”

  Claire gave a quick smile and then took a swig of Ambrosia. “That’s what most Atlantians think about Earth.”

  Bright sunlight flickered in my room as I sat up to a slight aching in my head. I got dressed and looked in the mirror at a girl I hardly recognized. I still wished I had make-up, but something about me was different that I couldn’t put my finger on. So much has changed and I have a feeling that so much more is going to change.

  I went downstairs to an empty kitchen and living room. Even the hallway was deserted. I was just about to go outside when I heard the sound of glass breaking followed by cursing. I stopped and looked down the hallway that Alicia’s studio was down. Then, I heard the sound of mumbled cursing and more falling glass.

  I stepped quietly down the hallway and knowing that I was warned not to go in Alicia’s studio not only by her, but her mother as well, I thought a peek wouldn’t hurt, especially if someone was injured and that would make Zach happy.

  I leaned against the wall and peeked around the corner to see Ian scooping up glass.

  “Need some help?’ I stepped in as he nearly dropped the dustpan filled with glass shards.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” I apologized.

  “No, that’s alright, I thought for a moment you were Alicia,” Ian said as he looked at me.

  We stood there for a moment just looking at one another. I wasn’t sure what to say as the awkwardness seemed to go on for what felt like several minutes.

  “So do you do make stained glass stuff as well?’ I asked the only thing I could think of.

  Ian looked around like he wasn’t sure what I was asking him.

  “Oh, that, no, I just share the space with her,” Ian said.

  He then turned and went to a small nook beside a window that I didn’t notice before when I was in here.

  “So, what do you do?’ I asked following him to his seat.

  Ian turned slightly and gave me a bothered look.

  “Sorry, I’m bothering you and that question was kind of rude.” I felt my cheeks redden.

  His icy blue eyes looked at me as he shook his head and then smiled. “No, you’re not bothering me. It’s just I am trying to figure the amulet out.” He turned to look at it lying harmlessly on the table. It was a beautiful thing that sparkled in the sunlight. “Maybe you can figure it out, because I’m not having any luck.”

  “Didn’t Abe say it was foreign, not even of this world or of mine?” I asked.

  “Yes, so where did it come from and what can it do? Maybe nothing, it could be a decoy, I have even considered that.”

  I stepped away looking at all of the windows that turned the golden sunlight to an array of colors. The narrow room was filled with every color possible.

  “But if Pandora had it then maybe she knows what it can do and where it came from. Surly someone has asked her that.” I stopped in front of a metal silver frame that was void of any glass.

  “Extensively, and she won’t either tell us or she has no idea. Alicia has already taken job as interrogator seriously and Pandora stuck to her story-she doesn’t know either. She was simply hired to do a job-no questions asked.”

  “What is this?” I asked pointing at the frame.

  Ian’s mouth dropped slightly like I had caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. “One of Alicia’s projects.” He turned back to the amulet and held it to the light.

  Suddenly a ringing sound flooded my ears like a bell that rung once and then vibrated through me. I caught myself and looked at the amulet that seemed to draw me to it.

  Standing beside Ian I reached out for it like it was a magnet to me. Light blasted from my palm as I held on tightly to it. I couldn’t hear anything but the echoing of the bell. My body felt like it was being cut with thousands of pieces of glass that exploded with the piercing light. I tried to call for Ian, but I didn’t’ know where he went or what was happening.

  Suddenly I was standing in front of the silver frame holing the once topaz colored amulet that was now highly polished silver and incredibly light in my palm. I looked at it amazed at its beauty when I heard a faint whisper.

  I looked around to find no one and then I remembered what Karinna had told me about how everything had a voice and there was a message attached to it. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the faint voice that echoed like it was thousands of miles away.

  The voice was strained and I only heard fragments of words from a voice that sounded like it was drowning. ‘Portal, key and Eutopia,’ where the only words I could make out before I felt myself being pulled backwards away from the silver frame.

  My eyes focused and I was on the floor looking up at the ceiling. A sharp sting radiated from my right arm and clutched in my blood covered hand was the silver pendant.

  I jumped up as my head swam. Ian was nowhere near me and I wondered what had happened to him. I then went out of the studio hoping to find someone. Looking behind me I could see the blood trail I was leaving and then went into the kitchen grabbed a towel and decided to go outside.

  “Em!” I heard Gabe’s voice pierce through the lingering fog that surrounded me.

  “Gabe, I have the amulet! I know what it is!” I managed to yell before everything faded to black.