Terisma stepped towards me again.
"Mother said I couldn't kill you," she said; her voice calm and sad. "Father trusted Claire, but he should have given you to me. Now I'll finish you, just like father wanted." The monster in the storm burst free, swooping it's shadowy arms down at me, but I dodged and limped to the far side of the stairs, hoping to turn her away from Henri and Hagnus for long enough that they could sneak in and get the other orphans out.
Screaming as if in agony, Terisma's body turned to vapor as she caught herself up into the twist of the tornado. I felt my body leave the ground as I was sucked up into the night sky under the force of her windy cloak. A moment later, I crashed to the ground, 50 feet from where I was just standing. Terisma's body reformed and she touched down on the marble stairs with the force of an earthquake.
When the tremors ceased, I climbed to my feet and swung the staff at her, knowing it was useless, but hoping to distract her. Hagnus and Henri emerged behind her from the castle, carrying the last of the sleeping girls into the tall grass. I had to distract Terisma to give them time to get away.
Terisma was at times angry, at times afraid. I knew what sapience could do to the mind, how it used a possessed body for it's own purposes. Terisma could be another victim, unable to control the monster inside her. But I had to stop her, no matter the risk to the girl. If I didn't, everyone I loved could be killed. I realized that must be what my father thought—he had to stop me from becoming like Terisma. It was hard to argue against his decision, now that I could see what I was destined to become. But I couldn't be like him. I wouldn't kill her, unless I really had no choice. She needed my help.
I swung the staff again, this time she stepped backward, fear flashing in her eyes. I looked at the staff, half-expecting to see something dangerous, but it was still just a worthless stick.
"You have to use your imagination," Little Sae said, appearing next to me. She could be right. If sapience plays tricks on the mind, could I make Terisma imagine the staff in my hand was a powerful weapon?
Or could I do even more? Sapience blurs the lines between reality and imagination; maybe I could make the staff become something else, just by believing it was so.
I closed my eyes and focused. Wind howled around me, but I didn't dare move. I found a picture in my mind, a memory perhaps. I don't know where it came from, something I'd seen in Natural History or maybe a nightmare; a ruthless weapon of my mind turned against me while I slept.
I forced myself to believe.
I would take the weapon from my dreams. I would use it to destroy Terisma's nightmare. I had to scare her awake.
When I opened my eyes, I blinked twice, disbelieving what I saw. The staff was growing longer, like red-hot iron being stretched on a forge. It grew wider and thinner, taking the point of a razor on one side and curving along it's shaft. Longer than a machete, the blade was the same dark, silver patterned material as the hilt. It was heavy in my hands, but balanced. I swung it easily, though clumsily, with the sapience coursing through my blood.
Stumbling, Terisma stepped back again. I saw my chance and came at her, slashing wildly left and right. She recoiled, but I was faster. I leaped into the air, my handicapped leg as strong as it had ever been, and cut through the middle of the storm.
She screamed, but not in pain. She was afraid. Lightning crackled around me. Water and smoke poured from the gash I'd torn, like the storm was bleeding out it's side. As I landed, clouds swirled above us. Thunder crashed and rain poured down from the sky in buckets.
Holding the maul above my head, I strode forward to strike the nightmare dead. But as I swung, the monster's head thrust from the storm; lightning shot out of it's mouth and arced through the maul into my body. Every muscle in my body contracted, freezing me in indescribable pain as I fell backward. I thought I would tear into a million pieces.
When it was over, I saw the maul lying at Terisma's feet, nothing more than a short gnarled staff again. She stooped down and wrapped her fingers around the hilt as Hagnus ran back inside the castle. It was too dangerous; what was Hagnus going back for?
The maul began to grow again, but this time it look a different shape. It was taking on Terisma's imagination; it would become whatever it's owner wished. Six, razor thin blades extended from the shaft like light bursting from a star. Each blade formed it's own serrated edge, curving away from the shaft at the end to form six barbaric points. When it was done, the maul was as long as I was tall. It must have weighed a hundred pounds, but Terisma swung it like a stick of bamboo.
I tried to think of what time it was—I must have only minutes until I transformed into a monster myself. I had to protect my friends from what I would become. I knew with Hagnus's help, Henri and the others could handle Mazol and Yesler now. But I couldn't leave them with Cevo and Terisma. Somehow, I had to make me, Cevo and Terisma disappear.
Then I remembered it. The vialus rubric in my pocket.
If I could get Cevo and Terisma close enough to me, I could use the vialus rubric and we would all be gone. It was the only way to save my friends.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Claire
Friday
10:40 pm
9 minutes until the Falling
Everything about this house felt so familiar, but it was dark and I couldn't be sure of what was just my imagination and what was real. My house was destroyed in a fire, how could I be back in it again like nothing ever happened? It was like I'd gone back in time, to before the fire. But if that was what happened, where were all the servants? And how come I didn't know any of the people who said they'd been living here their whole lives?
I watched my sister Ani from just inside the door to our house. No one had seen me, hiding in the shadows. Anastasia looked scared. I imagined she felt like me. Something terrible was happening inside my mind, I felt like I was living inside a dream. The storm swirled around Ani, calmed from the torrent it was a few moments earlier.
I watched Evan and my sister fight, but didn't know if I should help. Which side should I take? I saw what my father feared in Evan. I loved my Papa; I wanted to trust him. He said Evan was dangerous; he reminded me of Anastasia when she turned into Terisma, something terrible simmered behind his eyes. He was trying to hurt my sister, didn't he see she needed help? Something happened when Papa died—both of us changed—it was hurting Ani now too.
Evan walked towards her, seeming to grow larger with every step. She was holding his weapon, but he didn't seem afraid. He must know it's secrets; maybe it only answers to him. I could see it in his eyes, he was going to strike Ani. He was going to kill her.
Anastasia was moving towards Evan too, but she wasn't walking. It was like she was being pulled to him, her feet almost dug in like she was afraid. The last few yards, Evan's feet left the ground too and they both floated through the air, colliding at the center of the storm. Lightening struck into the sky and the hurricane raged again. I had to stop Evan; Ani was the only family I had left.
Wind and rain beat against me as I darted out and lunged at them. They turned to me, their arms locked on the weapon, shock on their faces. I pulled at Evan's fingers, trying to weaken his grip on the maul as the three of us fought in the eye of the storm.
A woman emerged from the house. Behind her, a man staggered onto the porch, a bloody knife in his hands. Evan turned from Anastasia and saw them.
"Hagnus!," he yelled, but it was too late. The man thrust the black knife into her back and she fell. I flinched as a memory flashed through my mind. I'd seen a knife like this before. It belonged to my father; the weapon that killed him. I tried to push the thought away, but it wouldn't go so easily. Who was the one holding the knife when it pierced by father's back? Was it the shadow, or my mother? Or could it have been the woman who had just been stabbed? Evan called her Hagnus. She was the one who brought it here to my house. She tried to kill the man with it. Now, her own knife had been used against her.
I looked at the man standing over
Hangus, surprised he wasn't dead himself. Papa died so quickly after being stabbed. But this man was only cut in the shoulder. Papa was stabbed in the heart. Maybe that was the reason the man was still fighting. He looked weak, but there was a desperate fire in his eyes.
A pin of light appeared above his palm; it grew into a ball of white fire, brighter than a star. Something deep shook in my stomach as the clang of a bell rang in my ears. Light shot out from the star and I felt my body carried on it's shockwave. My stomach felt left behind, but it caught up to me with a lurch when I hit the ground. The light vanished and I saw nothing, my eyes forced to adjust to the darkness again.
When I could see, a pair of boots stood over me. I rolled over and saw the man who killed Hagnus, knife in hand, the women's blood dripping from it's tip. I looked behind me and saw Anastasia lying on the ground, unmoving. Further off, laying in the grass, was the girl who was with Evan. All of us had been blown to the ground by the blast.
The man kneeled down next to me, his hand moved towards my neck. He was going to cut my throat, but there was nothing I could do to stop him. I looked behind me and saw Evan Burl running towards us. The man looked up and scowled. He stabbed the knife at my neck and I braced for the pain, but the blade flew from the man's hands into the air just before it cut my skin. Evan pushed his hands in front of him and the man flew backwards.
I felt Evan lift me into his arms and we were moving away from the house. As we splashed through the mud, I thought about what Papa said about him again. I wanted to believe my Papa was a good man. I thought that meant Evan had to be bad. But maybe they both were good. Maybe Papa was a good man who had just made one bad decision. A moment later, Evan set me on the ground, next to the other girl.
"I've got to go," he said to her.
"Where are you going?" she said weakly.
"All the girls are out, they're safe, by the lamp post."
"And you?"
"I need to get Hagnus," he said, but I thought he was hiding something. He acted like he was saying goodbye. I didn't want him to go.
"What about my sister," I said.
"I'm going to take care of her," he said. I must have looked skeptical because he added, "I promise."
"Don't do anything stupid," the girl said.
"Good bye," he said, then he was gone.
The girl covered her face with her hands and began to cry.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Evan
Friday
10:45 pm
4 minutes until the Falling
I stooped over Hagnus, trying to ignore the pool of blood she lay in. I didn't have the will to check her pulse, but I knew the truth just by looking at her. I had hoped Hagnus would stay and help Henri. Now she was even more alone.
Once I got Terisma and Cevo near enough, I would use the vialus in my pocket to pull us away from Daemanhur—and Henri—and all the others--forever. I swallowed hard, not allowing myself to think about it. There was no choice.
I turned my attention to Cevo, the man who was supposed to be Henri's father. The man I thought might help me understand what was happening to me. He rose, grimacing, to his feet. I thought he should have been dead by now, Hagnus's knife wound seemed to damage him so badly. But he kept coming, hunched over, his eyes burning.
Terisma wasn't far, about 20 feet away, huddled on the ground whimpering. I held out my hand to lift her into the air, to pull her to me, but I felt something wrap around my sides. I staggered and fell to my knees. Cevo limped towards me, seeming to gain strength with each step. The binds around my arms and chest crushed me like an anaconda. I felt a rib pop and yelled in pain.
Cevo stooped down and whispered into my ear. "I could have given you the world. I'm going to make you watch me cut the spider from her back before I slit your throat." He kicked me in the back, forcing me face first onto the hard marble porch.
I lifted my head to see Henri floating through the air towards us. Cevo clutched the bloody knife in his hand, it's ebbing darkness soaking in the moon light.
"Terisma," I yelled, "help us!" I was desperate and there was no one else to turn to. She looked up, her face soaked with tears and rain.
"Why?"
"Because we need you." Henri rushed through the air, she was feet away from Cevo.
"No one has ever helped me."
Henri came to a stop, hovering beneath Cevo's raised hand.
"But—"
"I don't want to!" She hit her fist into the ground and the earth shook. Cevo stayed his hand, steadying himself. He looked up at Terisma, his eyes wide, but he would not be so easily distracted from the spider. The ground continued to rumble as he turned back to Henri. He aimed the blade, but as his hand was about to fall he stopped again. Seeming to sense something behind him, he looked up. A chunk of the castle's was tumbling, on a path that would crush him. With a wave of his hand, the stone exploded into a hundred pieces.
The earth continued to shake, more violently with every passing moment.
Terisma stood; she stomped her foot and yelled. "It's my birthday!" As her foot fell, more stones dislodged from the castle's wall. Cevo turned them to dust like the first, but he could not keep from being crushed without loosening the bonds holding me captive. Sensing his weakness, I focused my strength and burst free. Pulling Henri from his grip too, we ran.
"Sing to me!" Terisma yelled. The sound of her voice moved through the earth, like a wave on the sea forcing us to the ground. The castle groaned with a crack of thunder rippling through it's great walls. I looked from Terisma to Cevo and felt my face fall. They were too powerful. There was no chance I could escape, taking both of them with me.
But there was another way to save the others.
I took the rubric from my pocket and floated it into the air above my palm. Then, like on a gentle breeze, I made it fly to the seven fallings laying at the foot of the lamp post. If I couldn't take Cevo and Terisma away with me, I would send the others away instead.
"Take Claire to the lamp post," I said, helping Henri to her feet.
"What are you going to do?"
"What you've always wanted. I'm going to make you disappear."
I could feel her question, she wanted me to come too. I saw stubbornness in her eyes, I thought maybe she wouldn't go. But she had to; she must see that. Henri breathed in deep, then turned away from me. The castle walls quivered as she helped Claire to her feet; they limped towards the lamp post together. A chunk of stone crashed down and I blew it to pieces a moment before they were crushed.
I only had to buy them a few more seconds.
Behind me, Terisma had begun to sob. Cevo turned his attention back to me, but a chunk of the castle's wall fell between us. He threw his hands sideways with a yell and the stones flew out of his way.
He would be upon me in moments, but that was all I needed. Rocks fell on all sides as more and more of the castle began to disintegrate, but as soon as Henri and Claire got close enough, I would crush the vialus and send them away. I would remain behind, try to look after Terimsa if I could.
Try to stay alive.
Henri and Claire were steps away; I concentrated, ready to break the vialus.
Dozens of stones rained down around me and I began to fear I may not survive long enough to send them away. I dodged one, then barely escaped another. Jumping to my right, I realized a moment too late I had dodged the wrong direction. A chunk of wall flew straight at my head and I couldn't think fast enough to blow it up. It struck me in the skull and I hit the ground, clenching my hand into a fist on the way down.
As I fell, I thought I saw the vialus break.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Henri
Friday
10:47 pm
2 minutes until the Falling
I turned just as the stone hit Evan. Watching with horror, his perfect, beautiful eyes flickered shut as he fell. His hand clenched into a fist and I remembered the vialus. Floating in the air above the seven sleeping orphans, the glass burst.
Smoky vapor swirled out, finding it's way into the girls' skin. Claire and I were still ten feet away, too far for the vapor to find us. I had planned to leave her at the lamp post and return for Evan. I couldn't abandon him to Cevo and Terisma. But, I hadn't moved fast enough and now Claire would here at Daemanhur with us. A powerful wind rushed passed, nearly knocking us over. My feet felt like stone as I watched the seven fallings turn to smoke, carried away on the wind.
I managed to recover, pulling Claire back to Evan as she looked around wildly. It seemed the whole world was raining down on us. Crouching next to him, I checked his pulse. He was still alive. I had to do something to save us, if only I were as strong as him. Evan would know what to do.
Cevo stepped towards us, throwing stones and broken walls out of his way left and right.
"You can't have him," Terisma yelled. "He's my birthday present."
She was talking to Cevo. She thought he was going to take Evan. She beat her hands into the ground and the world shook even more. A thin crack appeared in the earth, growing wider, running across the marble stairs and under the castle. Fire and steam shot out. I pulled Claire away from a fissure as it split open so wide she nearly fell in.
"What's happening?" Claire said, her body shaking.
The cracks split the castle's foundation. Looking up, I saw the walls shudder. Lightening fell on Terisma from the sky and a shockwave blew outwards in all directions. It rippled up the castle's walls; causing the great stones to shake like jelly as every window shattered to dust at once. Whole walls tumbled outward.
Evan opened his eyes. He looked over my shoulder and yelled for me to duck.
I heard an explosion behind me. A wall of stone shattered in every direction. It took me a few moments to realize he had just saved us from being crushed. Turning back to him, I could see he was weak. He wouldn't be able to save us again.
Evan Burl and the Falling Page 34
