by L M Feldt
Khane wakes to my orange eyes starring into his. He smiles in lazy contentment, handsome and mischievous at the same time.
“You’re an empath.” I accuse softly. “You shared my pain last night, that’s why you were screaming.”
The revelation had come in sudden blinding shock, and now feelings of wonder and regret war within me. That day we had sparred and he’d put me in the infirmary with a broken rib… he’d felt it just as much as I had. I couldn’t imagine it. Every blow he landed on an opponent he felt as well. How could he do it? How did he get up the next day to fight again? I reach out, my fingertips grazing the stubble along his jaw, his gray eyes turning silvery at my touch.
I am suddenly reminded of the hard muscle poking me in the side and scoot back in embarrassment. We have a safe two feet between us now, yet the tension still vibrates. Relationships and intimacy had not been encouraged in the compound, though I know many people hooked up. I just wasn’t one of them. Despite Monkey’s teachings of living life to the fullest, I had been focused entirely on survival.
“Keira.”
Khane reaches out and gently strokes my arm. I shiver at his touch and allow myself a moment to wonder, to fantasize about what it might be like to lay with Khane. Heat flushes my cheeks and I glance away, suddenly unsure of myself. When I turn back he is unbuckling his leather harness, a piece of it falls away in his hands and with a soft smile he nods at me.
“What?” Is it my turn to take something off? Are we really going to do this?
Khane holds out the strips of soft leather like a peace offering.
“You’re naked from the waist up.”
“What!” I glance down and am hugely surprised to see he is right. What little bit of tattered cloth I’d been wearing before is gone now, eaten away by the pond’s beautiful acid. Nudity in itself isn’t an issue for me. The baths at the compound had been communal after all, but the energy between us certainly puts a new light on things.
“Here, turn around. I’ll start it for you.” Khane gestures for me to turn and as I do I hear his intake of breath.
My shoulders sag as I imagine the horror my back must look like now. It no longer burns, in fact, there was no particular feeling at all but after the unspeakable pain of the pond’s acid it couldn’t be good. Then his fingers touched me, feather light as they trace the outline of my wings. Delicately, his thumb brushes the tips, the raised edges of my embedded knives. The hair on my arms stands up and I sit motionless, waiting for some exclamation of disgust.
“Beautiful.”
“What?” My head pops up in surprise.
“Your knives… they’re… they look like actual wings. Maybe from a bird of prey…” He pauses. “A blue and steel bird of prey.” His voice holds no hint of sarcasm. I can’t imagine what he means. Has the acid actually knit me back together, healed me?
“They’re like a tattoo, a raised tattoo of wings and…” He jerks back suddenly. “Ouch!”
I glance back over my shoulder to see him sucking his thumb and the image makes me laugh.
“Not downy soft, however.” He smiles ruefully and drapes the leather strap around my neck.
Ten
Together, we work the supple leather into a cross over design that offers some modesty but leaves my wings free. Amazingly, it appears I have been healed by the strange waters of the pond. Tattooed too, according to Khane. I long to see for myself but I am content to be pain free.
“You seem different too.” I muse as we pick our way through the underbrush, hopefully in a direction that will lead us back to camp. He looks the most relaxed I have ever seen him. Not as happy as when he’d first woke, but not a dark brooding mess either.
Khane nods as he holds a prickly vine away from my face with a fan palm.
“Bel and I share….Shared a connection. Last night, when I helped you out of that strange pond, something in the waters severed that connection. Before that I was sharing her experiences.” His expression closes down and I can see he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“I’m sorry.” I feel like a total ass.
Here a tiny part of me was still stewing about his behavior the past two days when all along he had been suffering the same terrible fate that had befallen his girlfriend. I shudder. The Elite Guards didn’t come for just anyone. I had never seen them, had thought them to be more myth than real. There is little doubt that she’d been taken for something terrible and I can’t imagine the sense of powerlessness Khane must be feeling right now. He had escaped with us in the hope of saving her after her Banishment…. Only to find a small boy in her place….and then to share her experience…
The jungle proves less difficult on the way back and we push through in companionable silence. I think about the vibes I’d felt between us this morning. Could I have miss-interpreted what I had sensed? Clearly, I must have imagined his interest in me. His poor girlfriend could be strapped to a steel table right now, filled full of sample holes or whatever they did to you in those labs. I don’t see him as the sort of person that could jump from one bed to the next without thought, which means that the feelings from this morning were one sided. It makes me irritated and I suddenly realize that I want a partner, someone to have my back. I want someone to care for me, not just as a friend but as a lover too. I stifle a laugh, drawing a quizzical smile from Khane. Not yet a week outside the Gates of Banishment and already I am planning a life! And romance! What nonsense.
The sound of shouting breaks through my train of thought. I exchange a look of alarm with Khane. We had left the defenseless members of our group all alone! In a panic we tear through the underbrush, oblivious to thorns and sharply bladed fronds. Together we burst out of the foliage, I’m ready to twist and Khane has his great ax out. I imagined all kinds of terrible creatures rending my friends into small bits but as I look around I see no monsters. Instead, it seems as though a brawl has broken out. The newcomer, Heb, has his puny fists raised against Aito, his face a flushed mask of anger.
Naoaki is yelling, though at whom I can’t tell and Aito merely looks irritated. Our sudden explosion from the thick jungle causes a sudden lull in conversation as they all turn to stare. Shocked expressions all around and I realize we must look quite a sight. Scratches on our faces and arms, mud clumps clinging to our clothes and hints of luminous purple and blue where residue from the pond still glows.
We all gape at each other until Naoaki breaks the spell and falls down laughing. Tears streak her cheeks and she holds her stomach as though the very image of us all muddy and bloody is itself a big joke. I suspected she is just blowing off steam.
“What’s going on?” I ignore Naoaki on the ground. It’s the polite thing to do. I look to Aito for an explanation but it is Heb that has his say.
“He’s a thief! He stole something from me and I want it back!” Heb’s dark curls bounce in indignation, large eyes nearly popping out of his head. “I know it was you! I saw you rummaging through my things!” He shouts at Aito.
“Can we maybe talk about this in quieter tones?” I worry that all the yelling will attract one of the locals, something I’d like to avoid. The fog that has kept most creatures hunkered down, has lifted.
“Thief! Give it back!” Heb screams, his face turning a funny shade of magenta. I try to guess at what his twist might be.
By this point Naoaki has collected herself and recognizes the danger. She is trying her best to shush Heb but some fit seems have taken him and he keeps yelling ‘Thief!’ over and over at the top of his lungs.
I look at Khane, thinking maybe we will have to knock the small boy out to quiet him.
Then the ground starts to tremble. I feel the vibrations travel up my legs and waste no more time with conversation. Whatever is coming is huge. This is not a fight or flight moment… we need to get gone now! I race to the tent, grab Fish, cinch him in place and grab the straps of two packs. Then I am off, trusting that the others have enough sense to follow my lead. I hear them behind
me as I crash back into the underbrush. I figure our best bet is to head back to the strange pond. The trees grew much closer together in that area and I hope it will be enough to slow down whatever is coming for us.
Then I hear Naoaki scream, stopping me cold. Glancing back, I almost wish I had just kept going. Over the tops of my friends heads, through the swaying purple palms, I see my own worst nightmare. I can’t see the beast in entirety, a flash of beak and a tentacle is all it takes to turn my insides to ice. I want to vomit but instead I race back, tossing the packs I was carrying to Khane as I run past him. ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ a voice in my head screams. At least I think it is all in my head. I hope I’m not yelling my fool head off like an idiot. Everything is a blur of fear ridden images and I struggle to stay focused.
I grasp Naoaki’s arm in a steel grip and throw her arm across my shoulders, taking the pressure off her twisted ankle. It takes every ounce of combat training to not run away and leave her but every warrior knows that we are only as strong as our weakest link. That, and it is Naoaki… somehow this miss-matched group of society’s discards have become something more to me than just a means for survival.
I can’t say how long we crash through the jungle. We skirt the pond, Khane yelling a warning before anyone dove in. Fear and adrenaline keep us moving forward as the creature doggedly pursues us. It is slowed by the purple palms just as I’d hoped, but our scent keeps it interested. We run until our legs turn to jelly. We run until we can’t. We run until we break from the jungle and crash into an outcropping of giant gray and beige colored boulders. We have been fleeing since morning and now the orange haze in the sky suggests the end of the day. We’d been running, tripping and picking each other up, nearly the whole day.
I sag, exhausted. Panting, sweaty and exhausted, I hand Fish over to Naoaki and find a
patch of shade to crumple into. I am spent. I could have fallen asleep on the spot, would have if Aito didn’t insisted we move further into the boulders. How he has the energy to think at this point I don’t know.
“Here! There’s a path.” Aito pushes us to move and is met with a chorus of groans and other less polite sounds. The distant bellow of something gets us up, however.
The path is a meandering route through large dun colored boulders and I am sure Aito is making it up as he goes. We crawl over rocks still burning hot from the day’s sun and scoot on our butts under wide overhangs of flat stones. It is as though some big hand has scooped up a mountain and let it dribble to earth from a closed fist. At one point I have to squeeze through a narrow alley, not sure I will make it through to the other side. My back only barely brushes against the rough wall and I brace myself, expecting pain. But it is merely discomfort, the grazing of skin on stone, nothing more.
By now the sun is setting, the sky behind us fading to dark. As I step out onto a narrow plateau and join the others I am met with an expanse of crimson, rose and violet.
The whole world is spread out before us and I am awed by the enormity of it. Passing storms and the setting sun have given us a gift. Every color I can name flowers briefly and then fades to something more muted but equally beautiful. Small, wispy clouds glow pink and teal.
We stand in a line, battered, bruised and scratched. Shoulder to shoulder we watch the sun set, mesmerized. I can’t speak and I feel lines of wetness trailing down my cheeks. The colors finally fade and the last sliver of brilliant orange has dipped below our line of sight. There is a flash of brilliant green and then night is upon us.
“Ah, guys….What’s that twinkling light? Is that a city?”
Eleven
Greedily I stuff chunks of raw fish into my mouth not caring if my table manners offend anyone. It is wet and sweet and nothing has ever tasted so good. After a long day of navigating the shale and rock strewn mountainside we have been traveling for four days with scant water or food. There had been a fair amount of cloud cover, so in that at least we’ve been lucky. We are also fortunate that no storms caught us out while exposed on the barren mountainside. We’d escaped the beaked nightmare, been treated to a beautiful sunset, only to wake the next morning to discover that the only path open to us went straight down. It had been an exercise in creativity, turning our bodies to either step forward or tip-toe backwards as our trembling muscles threatened to give out. Shuffling sideways worked well too especially on the shale sections, but then Heb had tripped and sprained his ankle. We had all taken more care after that, fighting not just cramping muscles but also the effects of hunger and dehydration.
I lean back after the third silvery minnow, sated. I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of not moving. A cool breeze kisses my face and I decide never to leave this spot, not ever. The fallen log behind me is thickly covered in reddish and pink moss. It makes for a cushy backrest, one I share with Fish and Naoaki. Across from me, Aito, and Khane are still eating. Heb has seated himself a little apart. I assume he is embarrassed. He should be. It’s his fault we’d had to rush off and leave our tent behind.
I open my eyes and look over at Fish. He still has not eaten the small bits of fish Naoaki prepared for him. He’d taken a little water but that is it. He doesn’t look good. His gray skin has wrinkled up and taken on a waxy appearance. His hair has fallen out and he squelches more if that is possible. He can no longer speak. Even Naoaki is unsure if this is a stage of his metamorphosis or if he is slowly dying. Also, his twist to find food and water no longer works, or if it does he is no longer able to communicate with us. We’d found this thriving, well-stocked stream completely by accident.
“We could go back, just us two.” I shift against the log, unhappy with the only solution that presents itself.
Naoaki stares at me, her features a map of shifting emotions as hope wars with dismay. She sets down her piece of fish and climbs to her feet, groaning as her muscles rebel. She kneels next to Fish and I look away, not wanting to intrude. I sneak a glanced at Khane, wondering if he would miss me if I left, wondering when I had started to care what he thought over the approval of Aito.
Over the past week, Aito has taken on the mantle of leadership. It suits him but in the process I have lost him as my little angel. A stranger now sits in Aito's place. His appearance hasn’t changed, not really. The blond curls need a trim and his skin shows the effects of days in full sun, chaffed and sunburned like the rest of us. Maybe it is his eyes that are different. I don’t know. It makes me sad to think of how our friendship has shifted to something so economical, so sterile. He still has his engaging personality when he wants but there are moments when I notice an almost clinical detachment in him. Has it always been there and I just haven’t seen?
“The pond may offer the best solution. You could bring back a sample…in case someone else needed its curative properties.” Aito responds.
There it is again, I think. His concern is for the ‘curative properties’, not my welfare, not Fish’s. Isn’t he worried I might run into the malformed beast that’d chased us for an entire day? Aito is convinced that the pond water was not acid but a genetic stew of some kind, the very wellspring of life. He’s become obsessed with it and talked about nothing else during our scramble down the mountainside. Every rest period was met with careful questions until I am bone tired of the subject. I am happy to be healed but it is not a cure I would wish on anyone except as a very last resort.
“We risk two people then.” Khane glares straight ahead, gray slitted eyes focusing in the trees above my head. I resist the urge to turn and look behind me. He is arguing the case against my taking Fish back up to the pond and it makes me feel warm inside. At least someone cares about my hide beside me. It also raises the question of whether or not I was up to the challenge of climbing the steep cliffs we had just come down….never mind sneaking past the creature of my nightmares.
To be honest, I’m not sure I am up to it. Would I even get there in time? Fish seems to be degenerating or morphing far too quickly. The strange truth is, I can�
�t just sit and let glumpy, lumpy Fish die. I have to try to help him, no matter the cost, and this is a revelation to me. I understand loyalty and honor, the warriors path is based on such ideas, but these were obscure concepts before. Now it is far too real. The warriors code is a construct of behavior I’d created for myself from various myths and stories. Of course I will choose to do the honorable thing….but life is a whole lot messier than lofty ideals. It is a bit of a shock to discover I really am a true warrior, beneath all the blood and grime and attitude. I am brought out of my private musings by a fluttering movement to my right.
“Fish says he must go west. There is a mineral pool about a day away.” She removes the bits of fish he had refused to eat, her face grave. “Unfortunately, he may not have a day.”
“Is he…” I flush, embarrassed by my thoughtlessness. Fish is sitting right there.
Naoaki doesn’t appear offended, however.
“I’m not sure.” She pats Fish gently. “He isn’t able to communicate well, even signing is too exhaustive for him, but I think that by this time tomorrow it will be too late for him.”
