"I don't have much time—"
He turned abruptly and began circumnavigating the entrance hall, inspecting the windows, floor patterns and trim work like he was thinking about buying the castle.
"My Lictor Cevo," Mazol said as he pulled away from Ballard and fell to his knees, bowing low to the ground. "I didn't expect you... I mean, I'm honored by your visit of course. I found the boy, Evan Burl for you. I'll—"
Mazol stopped talking suddenly with a gasp. His neck grew longer and his feet left the ground, like someone was plucking him off the ground by his head. I watched Cevo carefully, wondering if it really could be him, looking for a sign that he was responsible for lifting Mazol. He showed no outward indication, but I could feel something on the air like static. I had felt it ever since Cevo entered the room.
I was feeling his power.
He was a sapient.
And not just any. I wrestled with sapience like a child trying to chop down a tree with a spoon; he wielded his power like a paintbrush in a master's hand. I looked at Henri and the others, wondering if they noticed the same thing, but only saw fear on their faces. They weren't the only ones. I saw a pair of eyes blinking in the darkness, just as enthralled with Cevo as everyone else. I wondered if it was Claire or Terisma and where the other was hiding.
"Lictor, please—" Mazol gasped out.
"You are the one responsible for following my instructions?"
"Every letter—"
"Where have you stored it? Where is the ember?"
"It's close. Locked in a closet just off this hall." I pictured the chest I found, the bottles filled with thin black liquid I'd taken which were now in my pocket. Could this be what they were talking about?
"How much did you produce?"
"Four, no three... bottles."
Cevo took a quick breath and his eyes flickered. He seemed to be calculating something. Whatever was in my pocket must be valuable to Cevo. I may be able to use it to my advantage.
"Your services are no longer needed." I noticed the slightest flick of Cevo's wrist and Mazol flew across the entrance hall. As he hit the wall, his neck snapped sideways. I thought he might be dead.
Cevo showed no emotion. Not even a twitch. He looked at me expectantly, as if he had just asked me a question. But I couldn't think of what it might be.
"The spider?"
"Oh, r, right," I stuttered. He had asked me about the spider, but, that was before he threw Mazol across the room and... it was like that was just part of the conversation. Like taking a sip of coffee while we chatted on the veranda.
"I..." I tried to remember what he asked me but had forgotten again. I'd never seen anyone use sapience before. I wondered if that was how Pearl saw me the morning she attacked. "How long have you been one? A sapient."
He made a sort of growling sound, his eyes narrowed as dark shadows flickered beneath them. "Don't ever say that word."
Glancing around the room, he seemed to notice Yesler, Ballard and Henri for the first time. They were staring at him, their eyes wide. Yesler's mouth was hanging open.
"I shouldn't have thrown the steward like I did, it would have been wiser to just use my hands. But he was a groveler and I abhor grovelers. I'm sure you understand. Let this be your first lesson Evan Burl. Look at how the cows are staring at me. How they act when they know what I am, they get all limp, like dead fish, they loose their minds. Or worse, they begin to plot against me, they kill my servants and those who love me. They never let me rest. It's the burden you will have to carry. No one can know about you." As he was talking, I saw Yesler and Ballard disappear into the shadows. I figured they'd seen enough of sapients. "Can you accept this?"
I nodded, mostly out of reflex, though I did see his point. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply like he was smelling the air. When his eyes popped open he said, "I have already asked you twice. This will be the last. Where do you keep the spider?"
"I don't know—"
He put his hand into the air to silence me, anger flashed on his face. "Do not waste my time."
"He's telling the truth," Henri said. She stepped next to me, into the light of my lantern; I wondered how she could stand to be near me after what I'd done to the others. I felt the handle rip from my fingers and watched the lantern fly into Cevo's hand. He took a step towards her, holding the light up to Henri's face.
"How old are you?"
"Fourtee—"
She stopped short when Cevo leaned forward to smell her neck. His eyes were closed and he seemed to look both disgusted and insane with greed at the same time. Whatever he was doing, it was making blood rush to my head in a bad way.
"Get away from her," I said, shoving his shoulder, but he was more solid than a wall of stone. The next moment, I felt a thousand invisible hands grip my bones and yank me backwards. I went skidding across the marble floor, knocking my head against a table on the far side of the room.
"Do not make the mistake of touching me again," he said calmly, without even glancing at me. He spun Henri around with the flick of his wrist and tore the back of her blouse from top to bottom. I jumped to my feet and ran at him, my fist raised to knock his head off, but something on Henri's back caught my eye. I felt myself slow to a stop, my eye locked on her skin. I heard myself gasp as my hand feel limp at my side.
The spider.
It covered half her small pale back, between the shoulders, pulsing with darkness. The lantern light in Cevo's hand sucked to the spider, nearly going out, like a gush of wind had rushed passed. Every light in the room dimmed in pulsing sequence with the spider's ebbs. It moved, slowly, under her flesh, like a fish below the surface of a rippling creek. Like the spider was alive.
Henri's shoulders shook as she clutched her blouse to her chest to keep it from falling off completely. "I didn't mean to take it. I found it in Mazol's bedchamber, I was... drawn to it."
"It's even more than I imagined..." Cevo said. He spoke in a hushed tone, as if not wanting to ruin the moment. His reaction reminded me of what it might be like for someone to see the ocean for the first time.
"When I touched the spider," Henri said, her voice quivering, "it turned to liquid. I couldn't stop it from happening. It soaked into my skin. It hurt so bad, like someone was cutting me."
"You should be dead," Cevo said. He turned her left, then right, inspecting her like a man purchasing a rare painting. This explained Henri's rash, but Cevo was right. How could Henri survive when the other fallings had not? This spider, it felt a hundred times more powerful than the rubrics that killed Little Sae and the others.
"I thought I was going to die, I had the affliktion like the others, but it started healing on its own."
I wanted to ask her if the affliktion got worse when she put on the skull, but Cevo spoke before I could.
"What is the affliktion?"
"The fallings have been dying from something, a rash. That was what we called it."
The chandelier above us rattled and I heard footsteps running across the ceiling. Someone was up there.
"You're describing what happens to the weak when they're exposed to sapience. It makes them scratch their skin. They imagine things. Lose their minds." As he spoke, his eyes stayed locked, unblinking, on the spider, like he was unable to look away.
"We just figured that out," Henri said, glancing nervously at me. I wondered what she was thinking; did she feel sorry for me or was she afraid? "But we didn't know the rubrics could hurt the fallings."
If she was trying to tell me not to blame myself, she was crazy. How could I forget that I had asked each of the dead girls to wear those rubrics? I told them it would keep them safe.
"Why do you call them fallings?"
"All of us, except Evan, fell from the sky as babies. We can't be hurt, at least until we discovered the affliktion."
Cevo took his eyes off the spider for the first time and took Henri's chin in his hand. He pulled her glasses off and dropped them to the floor. "And you, are you sure you'
re one of these fallings?"
"I am the first."
He sighed deeply, as if he was coming to grips with something terrible that he just realized he must do.
"The falling does not make you stronger. It's the ring around your ankle that does that; a type of rubric that bestows power over many of life's trivialusities which usually harm humans."
"How do you know that?" I said. A sinking feeling grew in my chest, but I couldn't figure out why. Something was very wrong.
"It makes no difference."
Little Sae appeared next to me and whispered in my ear. "You need to run."
He looked Henri in the eyes. "I really do wish you hadn't found that spider. I take no pleasure in what I'm about to do."
"Run. Now!" Little Sae said.
"What are you going to do?"
"Calm yourself," he said. "Just be thankful that it's her and not you."
Henri lifted into the air, tilting forward, like she was laying on her stomach on a sloped invisible bed. Cevo seemed to produce a knife out of nowhere. He leaned over Henri's back and stabbed the blade into her skin just above the top of the spider. She screamed, then gagged like something had been shoved into her mouth.
"Shhh," Cevo said. "I can't think with all that noise."
For a fraction of a second, I was too shocked to move. Recovering, I clenched my teeth, focusing my anger and frustration and strength into my fist. Cevo sensed it coming a moment too late, looking right just as my fist connected with his cheekbone. He flew, head first into the castle's wall but didn't stop on impact. He went straight through. The castle groaned and a few stones fell as the structure adjusted to the gaping hole in the wall.
I stared blankly, unable to believe I could hit someone so hard. My fist screamed in pain and I shook it out, but man, did it feel good.
I came to myself and realized Henri had fallen to the floor when I struck Cevo. Stooping over, I helped Henri up as she tied her shirt in a knot behind her.
"We have to run," I said.
"Do you think he's still alive, after that?" She grimaced from the pain in her back, but the wound was already starting to heal.
"I'm sure of it."
"Let's get the fallings outside," I picked up Pearl and Henri lifted Haller. We ran for the front doors, but stopped short. Cevo appeared between us and the courtyard. He looked down at his coat, dusting off a little of the dirt clinging to the fabric, then glared up at me.
"I was going to make you great," Cevo said.
"I don't want to be great. I just want to help my friends."
"Oh, you will help them. Just watch."
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Evan
Friday
10:31 pm
18 minutes until the Falling
Haller and Pearl fell from our arms as I felt something fly into my palm. I looked down and saw the bloody knife Cevo used on Henri gripped in my fingers. Against her will, Henri slowly turned her back to me and I watched as my hand raised. The invisible fingers of Cevo's sapience crawled under my skin, bending me to his thoughts.
"No!" I yelled, but I felt my mouth clamp shut. When I tried to yell again, my chest crushed and all the air in my lungs was forced out.
"You're going to help your friend by removing the spider. Then you're going to kill her."
I could hear Henri noiselessly crying, her mouth gagged like my own. My hand moved steadily, the blade closer and closer to her skin; I saw a glimmer or Little Sae with her hands on the knife, working against Cevo's strength. With her help, we fought, but the more we resisted, the more pain split through my body.
Just as the blade tip was about to slip into the bloody, half-healed wound on her back, something crashed on the far side of the room. I looked to my left to see a door bursting open as a women stepped through. At first I thought it must be Claire or Terisma, but when she walked into the circle of light I blinked, convinced my mind was playing tricks on me again.
It looked like Henri's twin.
"Aren't you going to tell the girl who her father is before you kill her?"
Cevo's face sunk. "Hagnus? How did you get here?"
"I had my own vialus." I thought of the vialus rubric in my pocket. Was that what it was for? It transported you somewhere? Maybe I could use it to take me away before I transformed into a monster.
My hand was stayed, the knife a fraction of an inch from Henri's skin. I felt Cevo's mind swimming in my body's hesitation. One moment, I felt I would be torn in half, the next, freed from his grip.
Hagnus flipped a blade in her hand so the tip was between her fingers. She took a stride forward and threw it with all her strength. It flew straight at me; for a moment I thought she intended to kill me, but the blade passed an inch from my nose with a whoosh of wind. I felt Cevo's mind leave my bones, releasing me so he could deflect the blade, but it was too late. The knife sunk into his shoulder all the way to the hilt. He yelled in agony as blood gushed from the wound, soaking his expensive white jacket.
Growling, he swung his hand from right to left and Henri, Haller, Pearl and I flew sideways, making an unobstructed path before him.
"You came in a chest, didn't you?" Hagnus said. Was she talking to me? No, it was Henri.
"Not another word." Cevo held out his hand, squeezing his fingers together like he was trying to control her, but she twisted her wrist and there was a crack of thunder. I realized he tried to hurt her, but she'd done something to block him. She was able to fight back. She was a sapient too.
"Who are you working with?" he demanded, obviously surprised as I was. "Who's been teaching you?"
"Tell the girl the truth," Hagnus said.
"What's she talking about?" Henri said.
"Your father couldn't afford to have children ruin his plans," Hagnus said.
"That's a lie," Cevo said.
"That ring around your ankle—a gift to take away his guilt for abandoning you."
"They're safer here."
"What are you saying?" Henri said, ignoring Cevo. "He's my father?"
"And you're my... sister."
"Stop it!" Cevo yelled, but he clearly wasn't himself. He staggered, like a drunk. The knife wound seemed to do more damage than I thought it had at first. He held the knife in his hand, it pulsed black like a rubric and I wondered if it was designed to damage powerful sapients like Cevo.
"I had twelve sisters," Hagnus said. "My mother told me Cevo took them all away, he said they were sent to a school. But she started to suspect him. She hid me when I was born and said I died."
"But we don't look anything like him."
"He uses his sapience to protect his identity. Somehow, he makes sure we only look like our mother."
"Don't use that word," Cevo said, but he fell to his knees. I was beginning to think he might actually die. It was like a poison was spreading inside him.
"Help us get the others to safety," I said, picking Pearl up into my arms again.
"What's wrong with them?" Hagnus said.
"I don't know. They've been drugged I think."
"Who did it? Is there anyone else here besides them?"
"Yes, there are two others, I think they're sapients." We carried three girls between us into the night air of the courtyard, my leg searing with pain. I would have carried more, but I could risk hurting them. It was raining lightly, but a full moon shined down through a gap in the clouds. The rain soaked courtyard was lit in silver, as if a shimmering dark blue blanket lay across the world.
"We'll get everyone outside, there are places to hide out here until we decide the castle is safe."
"Where?" She said.
"Into the grass. By the lamp post." I heard something boom behind me. Looking back I added, "We should move fast."
"What was that?" Hagnus said.
Another boom rang out, this time it was louder. I turned and saw flames through the windows.
"Fire!"
We set the girls in the short grass at the base of the lamp post and ran b
ack to the castle. Flames were licking up the walls. Another boom shook through the ground and my bad leg turned to jelly. I fell into a puddle of mud.
Climbing to my feet, I limped up the steps, but Terisma was standing in the door when I reached the top. Hagnus and Henri collided into me.
"Where are you going?" Terisma said, her voice soft and sad.
"We've got to save the others. The castle's on fire."
"It's too late for that."
"Why?" I feared the worst. Were they already dead? I tried to push passed her, but she held out her hand and grabbed my shirt. "What are you doing? I need to get in there."
I tried to pull away again, I had to save the others. I couldn't let anyone else die. But Terisma's grip was too tight. An explosion of wind and water blew out from her body, knocking me, Henri and Hagnus to the bottom of the stairs.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Evan
Friday
10:37 pm
12 minutes until the Falling
Smoke and water swirled around Terisma, as if an extension of her body and long hair, rising into the air as she stared down at where I lay in the mud. Lightning cracked and thunder rolled inside the storm, as if she had released a hurricane from within her flesh. At times, the head and arms of a monster veiled in smoke struck out from the swirling pillar of wind then pulled back, like something was trying to escape from the bonds of the nightmare extending from Terisma's childish frame.
"Use the staff!" Henri yelled over the gusting wind.
"It's just a stick. I don't know how."
"You're the sapient, figure it out."
"You're a wicked boy, Evan Burl," Terisma said. She took a step towards me and the earth shook. I watched ripples run back and forth across the puddle I was laying in. Jumping to my feet, I pulled the staff from my belt.
At my touch, it darkened to pulsing shades of black. The moonlight fed it with fresh power as silver lines formed in strange patterns along it's gnarled wood handle. I thrust it at Terisma, as if a knife, then slashed the air with it, left and right. Why couldn't I have found a spear? Or a club. Or a knife. Anything would be more helpful than this stick.
Evan Burl and the Falling Page 33
