by Laury Falter
I sat quietly in front of him, unwilling to move. Even when Eran’s hands slipped beneath my arms, it was his strength pulling me to my feet, not mine.
Voices behind me confirmed that others were learning about the attack and had come to see the results. They weren’t good. They weren’t good…
“Can you stand?” Eran asked. “If not, I can carry you, but it is best if we don’t draw attention to ourselves.”
I nodded although I wasn’t entirely certain. It took a few tries to balance my ankles over my feet and it required the wall for steadiness, but I did it.
“We need to leave,” Eran said quietly into my ear.
Again, I tipped my head in acknowledgement and we moved through the crowd, into the streets and out of the city’s walls. After returning to the Volkmars, we awaited retaliation, waited to protect the Volkmars as I had been unable to do with my own family. But the Kohlers never came.
Weeks passed without sight of them. A manhunt larger than any ever assembled was inspired by what happened. They scoured the hills and cities and passed on the news to outlaying territories, but it was to no avail. When resources grew slim and the enraged heat over what the Kohlers had done extinguished, time and effort were realigned with the other war…against the nobles.
As time passed, a small camp of makeshift tents sprang up around us, forming the center of command of the peasant’s war. Eran and I gravitated to them, where my services were needed most, again trading food and shelter for message delivery to the other side.
And as Eran and I waited, counting on the Kohlers resurfacing to take their revenge, we maintained our verbal contract to work together. The establishment of our roles made the tension between us ebb and, in spite of his arrogance, before I knew what had happened I started to see Eran as a friend.
So when the Kohlers did return it wasn’t their actions that shook me. It was Eran’s.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: DISGUISE
ON THE MORNING THE KOHLERS REAPPEARED, the sun rose to reveal a mist clinging to the camp and shrouding it in grey.
“Friedricha,” Eran’s voice came to me as a distant whisper.
“Yes?” I said, opening my eyes.
“The sun is rising. Not many are awake. Will you come with me?”
I frowned, which he responded to with one of his own.
Only when it didn’t appear that he would be leaving me alone any time soon, I sat up and took the rapier Oleg’s brother had given me. Sliding it into the sheath attached to my black tunic, I asked, “Where are we going?”
He didn’t respond until we were at the tent’s entrance. With twenty sleeping men behind us, their snores created a jarring cacophony and I wondered how anyone could sleep at all. And for the first time in quite a while I appreciated that when I left my body at night I remained away until morning.
Eran rotated his head back to me, pressed a finger against his lips, and said, “Shhhh.” From behind it, a mischievous smile rose which almost made me giggle.
We slipped into the dense morning air and he led me to the edge of camp, up a hill to a grouping of twisted dead trees. Stopping there, he turned to face the sun as I came up beside him, intoxicated by the beauty of the moment.
The chaos and volume normally coming from the camp below was hushed now. The mist drifting between the tents gave it an ethereal, ghostly presence. Then the sun’s beams of light broke through and everything in sight sparkled.
Eran had turned and was ignoring the sunrise. “Why are you smiling?”
“I didn’t know I was…” But he was correct. I sensed my cheeks were pulled up and giggled quietly.
“You enjoy my company, don’t you?” he asked in his typical smug manner.
I laughed through my nose, contemptuously. “That…is arrogant of you.”
“Maybe, but it is true,” he insisted. “Isn’t it?”
I turned away, trying to give the impression I was disinterested but when I looked back he gazed at me with a mixture of passion and warmth.
“I enjoy your company,” he admitted unashamed, unconcerned about what I might think or do.
In reaction, a now familiar heat rose in my stomach.
Unexpectedly, he grew serious again, the tenderness in him quickly being replaced by the sobriety of whatever was on his mind. “But there is something I must tell you. It may scare you a bit. But…it’s important that you know…”
Before I could stop myself, I confessed, “I have something to tell you too…”
Realizing what I’d done, how close I was to admitting the truth about being an Alterum, I tensed. What was I thinking? It was my greatest secret, the only one I’d kept from him since our talk in the barn, and here I was about to divulge what I had so carefully restrained. There was significant danger in exposing my true identity, for him and for me. What was I doing?
His head jerked at my surprise admission. “All right, you go first.”
I inhaled, preparing the words that would either be the devastating ruin of his learning here on earth or the cataclysm that would strengthen the delicate new bond we had with each other.
And then my throat constricted. My face contorted against the sudden pain on the back of my neck. At the same time, my body began to shake.
“Friedricha?” he demanded, instantly alarmed.
My chest seemed unable to expand, to take in a breath, to respond as the panic rose in me.
Close your eyes, I told myself, ward off the feelings, ignore the pain.
It helped, until I reopened them…because standing before us were the Kohlers.
“Friedricha,” Deschan greeted me, his voice filled with contempt.
Breathe, I told myself. Draw in a breath before Eran has to handle them on his own.
He needs me, I rationalized. Turn this energy to something good. Focus on what will help, not hinder. As Eran had said in training, don’t be afraid to use your surroundings. Notice what you smell, what you hear, what you see…
And gradually my body settled.
I heard their heartbeats. I smelled their unwashed skin. I saw Kaila’s battle axe, Deschan’s hammer, and Cedric’s bulge of chemicals beneath his clothes.
With absolute calm overtaking my body, I gave into it, and my muscles loosened. My pulse slowed and the shaking subsided.
They were scowling at me again. I didn’t like it.
With a brief shrug of my shoulders, I allowed my cloak to fall to the ground, exposing my rapier to them and my back to the brisk air.
Then, without warning or intent, my shoulders rolled forward, arching my back out of habit, expanding to loosen and lengthen the skin between my shoulder blades. And from between them, my appendages sprang outward, tearing the back of my tunic down the sides.
I caught Eran staring at me, and it wasn’t the expression I had expected to see.
He was smiling, proudly.
I was encouraged by it and the secret I had failed to reveal earlier stretched wide. I flapped my appendages, enjoying the freedom I had been denied for so long. I caught sight of them in my peripheral vision just before they folded into place along the length of my back.
“This…,” I muttered to Eran, “is what I was going to tell you.”
“Funny,” he said almost cavalierly. “I was going to tell you the same thing…”
Suddenly, his cloak slid off and his tunic tore loudly as stark white wings emerged from his back.
I watched this in utter shock with my jaw hanging open, unable to pull my eyes away.
Almost inaudibly, I confessed, “I never knew…”
And one side of his lips, those seductive lips, lifted into a knowing smirk.
And again, I found my breath caught in my lungs but for a different reason.
“Kohlers,” Eran said, refocusing his attention on them. “It’s a bold move for you to return here. Your names and faces are on everyone’s mind. They’re intent on justice.”
“And as you can see,” I pointed out with a motion that covered the tents below, �
�there are hundreds of them.”
“They are peasants…,” Deschan said, his thin, unappealing lip curled in disdain. “They won’t be able to touch us…and they surely won’t be able to help you.”
Eran’s shoulders shook with laughter. “We won’t need their help.”
We had come to a head, once more flinging insult and threats from both sides. This time there was vehemence in the air palpable enough that I was convinced the Kohlers wouldn’t back down without a casualty. Eran felt it too and stepped to the side, covering me from their first strike. As he did, something began to grow from behind the Kohlers.
They slipped into view and then were gone only to expand out from behind their shoulders.
Grey wings, the length of their bodies, fluttered once, settling the feathers in place. They thrust downward in a unified show of force and lifted the Kohlers into the air where they hovered just off the ground.
It was surreal, unexpected. It couldn’t be happening.
The Kohlers had fallen?
Eran sprang into the air, and I followed. Our ascent was so fast we broke tree branches on the way up, but once the Kohlers began making excited animalistic grunts all that was forgotten.
Eran angled himself to take on the boys and I met the girl.
She threw a punch, which I deflected without effort.
With my wings keeping me aloft, I had full leverage over my limbs and I used that advantage easily. I bent my arm and rotated my elbow into Kaila’s cheek, swiping it across her face so powerfully it propelled her head to the side. She groaned but recovered quickly.
When she came at me again there was no restraint in her attack. She threw punches and kicks and I did my best to dodge them. What surprised me was that she wasn’t sloppy in her execution. Her strikes were exact and yet quick.
She got me in the leg, across the left side of my ribs and across the jaw, but none of it was with much power.
When she retreated it was to preserve her strength and I knew she was tiring. After that blast of energy, I didn’t see how she could go on much longer. And that was her weakness.
She drew in a few good, deep breaths and came at me again.
Her hits were still precise but slower, and it was easier to avoid them. She didn’t touch me this time.
I didn’t launch a counter-attack when she settled back to catch her breath again. Instead, I took the time to find Eran.
We were over the trees, on the opposite side of the hill from the camp, and moving out into the misty fields. The stirring swirl within the flat grey mist drew my attention. Eran was still in the midst of fighting Deschan and Cedric, blocking one hit while striking the other. In the few seconds I had, something in Eran’s movement stood out to me… It looked synchronized, almost effortless on his part, as if he might begin to fight them with one hand behind his back to make it more engaging.
I almost smiled as Kaila slammed into me, carrying me farther into the field. She had come at me from a higher angle and we ended up on the ground, tumbling through the yellow, dried grass and damp dirt.
The impact didn’t hurt, but she got a good fist to my forehead during our roll downhill.
I needed a way to end this. She was tiring, which was an advantage, but it wouldn’t finish her off. I needed something to incapacitate her.
We hit a dip and our bodies twisted over each other. I spiraled through the air and slammed my foot into her side. She bowed into it, contorting from the pain.
And we rolled again.
In midair, her appendages came close to me and I reached for them but she recoiled and evaded it.
Before I could hit the ground again, I pumped my appendages once and steadied myself clumsily in the air. Kaila did the same.
Our tumble had dizzied us and we dropped to the earth to find our balance.
Crouching, facing each other, ready for the next advance, we stared each other down.
Her gaze shifted to something over my shoulder and she was momentarily distracted.
Whatever it was, it was serious enough to send a twitch through her face.
This was my opportunity. I prepared to spring on her.
But her wings pumped and she soared into the sky, twisting to meet the other winged body coming at her. They didn’t collide though, but spun and steadied themselves. The other was missing a wing and needed her support. Propelling themselves higher, they fled together at full speed over the hillside and out of sight.
I twisted around in search of Eran.
He stood over a small body lying in an odd position. Its head was facing me and I could see Cedric’s face, dirtied with his eyes closed. His back was exposed and the grey appendages were in the midst of sinking into his body.
I looked up to find Eran staring over his shoulder at me, his handsome face contracting into dread.
He spun on his heel and sprinted for me, the fear in him deepening with each step.
As I waited for him, something flowed into my left eye, blinding me. I brought my hand to it and wiped. It was warm and stuck to me. When I pulled away to study whatever it was, a deep crimson color was swathed across my fingers. It collected at the bottom of my hand and dripped, splattering the same color on the dirt at my feet.
Blood…
Lots of it…
I suddenly felt dizzy, weak. I reached for Eran.
He was closer now, having taken to flight, the mist clearing in his wake. Down that narrow grey tunnel he created, at the end of it, something stirred. It left hollowness in my heart.
Cedric wasn’t dead.
He was knocked out and beginning to revive.
With Eran facing me, he had no idea.
I searched for my rapier, the one Oleg’s brother had given me. Somehow it had made it down the hill, landing a few feet away. The silver in its handle contrasted with the yellow grass, peeking at me from between the dead blades.
I went for it, picking it up, stumbling under its weight.
Then the ground came at me as I fell toward it. But before we could meet, I used the thrust of my fall and sent the rapier through the air.
My toes twisted with the force and my body rotated until I could no longer see Eran or Cedric or the rapier. I was facing the hillside by the time my shoulder and hip slammed into the dirt. But I was smiling because the aim was good. The rapier would hit its target. Eran would be safe.
I was smiling for all these reasons, and because I didn’t have the slightest notion how much danger I was actually in.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: RENEW
WHEN I AWOKE IN THE HALL of Records, it was no longer peaceful. The end of a scream still vibrated the air.
Without thought, I braced myself, knowing that Messengers who had died before me had awoken with a scream on the stone bench just before perishing.
I placed a hand to my forehead expecting to find a gash, but the wound to my head was gone and the blood that had been streaming down my face was as if it had never been there.
“It wasn’t you,” someone grumbled to my right.
The voice came from Dante, a slender, genteel man known for his lack of humor and abundance of cynicism. “He’s down the way a bit…or at least he was…”
I opened my eyes to find a stream of people flying overhead, all going in the same direction and all doing it so quickly that the hem of their dresses and long jackets fluttered behind them. Sitting up, I discovered that Dante and I were the only ones not heading for the source of the scream.
“Who was it?” I asked.
Dante was leaning casually against the scrolls, legs crossed at the ankles, attentive mostly to his fingernails. As he filed them, which wasn’t necessary in the afterlife, he didn’t bother to look up. Clearly, they held greater importance than me or the newly deceased.
“Some cheerful fellow. Name started with a B. Brutus…Bastiaan…Batista…” He shrugged offhandedly and gave up.
Before he was finished with the third attempt, I leapt to my feet and sprang into the air.
“There’s no need to rush,” Dante called after me. “He’s not coming back any time soon.”
I ignored him, flying so fast I had to turn my appendages to catch the air and slow my arrival. I met the solid mass of onlookers and tried to peer in, but they were shoulder to shoulder, head to head.
I circled them, located a hole, and slipped in.
There on the bench was Benedictus’ blood, gradually disappearing as his body had done.
He had chosen a tall, lithe facade, lacking muscle for which he made up for in humor. There wasn’t a night that went by I hadn’t heard him laughing.
“Not another one…,” I muttered before my tone grew contemptuous. “Not another one.”
Before anyone could address me, I pumped my appendages and lifted myself from the crowd, determined to make my mindless utterance a reality.
I soared over the heavens and swooped down into mine. There, Daniel and Jacob were standing alone in the clearing, awaiting their students.
“It’ll be too much for them,” Daniel was saying.
“It’ll be exactly what they need!” Jacob countered.
As my feet slammed into the ground and I stumbled, having misjudged just how much gravity I’d built into my world, both of them promptly stopped their arguing.
“Are you all right?” Daniel asked, moving to help me up.
Jacob, who never coddled, sighed and rolled his eyes at his partner.
I disregarded them both in order to get right to the point of why I was there. Not knowing how much time I had before being pulled back to my body on the other side, I spoke quickly.
“We need to make our trainings harder.”
Pleased with my announcement, Jacob slapped Daniel’s chest with the back of his hand. “There you have it,” he said proudly and I got the sense he’d just won the argument from a moment earlier.
Daniel eyed him, unconvinced, before asking me, “How so?”
“We need to prepare them to fight Fallen Ones.”
Jacob threw his hands in the air and spun around, indicating that I was following his line of thinking. When he’d made a full circle, he said, “That’s the best approach. I was just telling Daniel, teach them how to fight the worst offenders and they’ll be able to handle anyone.”
