Wild Hope

by C. M. Estopare

  “Correct.” Alemayu nodded. “It is electricity. Harnessed lightning.”

  “Why are you showing me this?” Kato knew the Mesh had spoken of Outsiders—but they were only rumors. Invaders from the outside had to fight to get to their little island, intruding through the Veil that blanketed the island in a seething, white, mist. No one got in, or out. Other villagers—outcasts like him—have tried and failed. Their bodies washing up on the beach days later after their escape. Kato shook his head, his eyes wide as thoughts threatened to drown him. “How did they get past the Veil? You—you were marooned out here. But they…it seems like…”

  “They came here by choice.”

  “How?” Why?

  Alemayu turned to him. “Purpose, boy. Purpose called them here.”

  “That doesn’t explain how they got through the Veil.”

  “Listen.” He said. “Try to understand. To obtain purpose, one must fight for it. Prove to it that you deserve it. Protect it and grasp it—cling to it, because without it you are dead.”

  Kato blinked. Looking toward the beach, his eyes landed on the assembled Mesh. He caught sight of bell-shaped skirts and heavily tattooed arms. The Shamaness.

  Why is she down there? Why are any of them down there?

  “It is not easy. Purpose isn’t simply given to you—it is fought for. Through trials and tribulations. Through sacrifice,” Alemayu said, stressing the final word, “because nothing is obtained through happiness, but through sorrow. Character is not tested when one is comfortable, but when one is weak. When life is trying. Purpose,” he said, turning back toward the beach. “Is found in trial. Boy, you must fight to make a place for yourself in the Mesh. You must stay and learn to understand the people around you—your people.”

  “You brought me here to lecture me? To tell me to stay?” Kato’s shock died as his face reddened, anger boiling his blood. “You’ve wasted my time long enough, Alemayu!”

  “Listen.” Alemayu hissed, “I have not brought you here to lecture you, Kato. I have brought you here to show you your purpose. Look.”

  The Mesh and the Outsiders stood as if an invisible line were drawn in the sand. Kato watched, his blood boiling, as the Shamaness stretched her hand out across that line, golden nail-guards glimmering like painted talons. Another hand slapped into her palm. The hand of a woman on the other side.

  “If you do nothing else for the Mesh, Kato, I beg you: look out for that young woman. Make sure she does not die.”

  7

  Hundreds of bodies set against the tangerine sky mingled on the boardwalk when Kato returned.

  “Outcast!” a flat voice called as Kato made his way toward the crowd. “If you’ve come to shock the tribe with the hermit’s death, I’m afraid it’ll fall flat.” Seble said as she matched his stride. “Outsiders have made it through the Veil,” she paused, waiting for shock to tinge his features. When nothing came, she squinted her eyes, “alive.”

  Kato and Seble joined the crowd just as the impatient guardswoman from before held up a gnarled black contraption with a leather belt hanging from its side, “They call this a rifle. An AR-15.” The crowd sucked in a breath as she dropped her spear in favor of cradling the rifle. “You flick this and it shoots. Like an automatic bow.”

  “I assume you’ve heard already? From the hermit?” Seble gave him a quick once over, her lips twisting as she came to a realization. “You didn’t kill him, liar. I see no blood on you.”

  “I didn’t need to.” Kato hissed back, attempting to ignore her. Seble’s lingering gaze prodded him to continue. “He left peacefully. Went farther inland.”

  “I should tell Zori.”

  Kato shot her a withering look. “About the hermit’s death? Why would she care?”

  “Because you’re a liar.”

  “This,” the guardswoman held up a garment sewn with multiple pouches, “they call it a bullet-proof vest.”

  Kato whirled on Seble. If he had known that she would become an ostentatious tag-along, he would have knocked her into the river last night instead of offering her an explanation. “Perhaps you’d like to search the outskirts first, Oathbreaker. Before you go back to your mistress with lies.”

  That made her clamp her lips shut and snap her eyes forward. Kato grimaced at having to use her title—Oathbreaker. Seble was a person just like him. Their titles marked them as less than the people that surrounded them. As leeches. As people on the lowest rungs of society simply because of their blood or their past actions. He hated using scathing titles like that, but she had given him no choice.

  “Sorry.” He whispered as the Shamaness came forth. Moving like a wave, the crowd kneeled, kissing their foreheads to the planks beneath them with a reverent chant of thanks.

  When Kato stole a glance at Seble, her entire body trembled as she suppressed a flinch and tore her eyes away.

  “Where is the Outcast?” the Shamaness’s call sent chills sprinting up and down Kato’s spine. Springing to standing, he shoved his way through the crowd to get to her.

  “Outcast!” she called again. “Come, hurry up. I have been mulling over my decision to deny you your ceremony…” her nail-guards clinked as she rippled them toward herself. “Would you like to do something for me?” her thin smile promised something dark.

  Standing before the murmuring crowd, Kato kneeled once more and pressed his forehead to the planks. “Anything, Shamaness.” His palms became wet with humidity and sweat as he attempted to blink his racing thoughts away. Something else other than the Dreaming? Does she mean to make me do the Dreaming Anew?

  No. Kato balled his hands into fists. That would mean death—immediate death—for me. Could she be so cruel?

  Something in his mind told him yes. Biting his tongue, he still hoped for the best.

  Slippered feet stepped out of the Shamaness’s hut and into the orange light of the day. Black slippers made of a material he had never seen before.

  “This is Ava.”

  Kato choked, his eyes widening. He fought the urge to look up and stare as the Shamaness switched from their native tongue to English. How does she know English?

  “You may look.”

  As a child, Alemayu had taught him English as a game. It was his father’s native language—the language of the Outsiders. The Invaders. Of those Beyond the Veil. How did the Shamaness know how to speak it?

  “Look, Outcast.” A calloused hand clasped his jaw and forced him to look up. “She is one of your people.”

  A rectangular device stared back at him. One brown hand cradled it, while the other held it steady. Almond shaped eyes squinted at him as he stared at the device, his own eyes widened as the strange woman cocked her short head of hair, licked her upper lip, and touched the front of the device with a smile. A click echoed through Kato’s ears as the guardswoman holding his chin flinched away. White light blinded him and for a moment he believed that the Shamaness was using her power to choke him with vines again.

  “Come on—you’ve got to smile! You look so shocked. Why is he shocked?” the strange woman babbled, turning back to the Shamaness. “You people act like you’ve never seen cell phones before. Come on!”

  Behind her, the Shamaness let out a deep laugh.

  Tears mingled with sweat as his eyes burned. Blinking, he clawed at his throat in an attempt to rip away the vines. Finding nothing there, he slapped his palms to the planks and gasped as his vision returned in an explosion of white stars. His stomach rolled.

  The Shamaness switched back to their native tongue. “As you know, Outsiders have landed on the Northern Shores. Why? Because Moira has blessed them with the ability to navigate through the Veil. They give us gifts in the hopes that we will help them survive.” The crowd looked on with open mouths and wide eyes, some holding themselves while others shook their heads in disbelief. “But we know—the Island belongs to us.” Raising her fist high, rose petals erupted in a gale behind her as the blue crystal on her chest blazed. “These Outsiders are
not creatures that should be trusted. They are an invasive species that Behemoth shall crush—in Moira’s name!”

  “In Moira’s name.” The crowd chanted back, dipping into bows with their hands cupped.

  “In Moira’s name.” Kato repeated, the Outsider standing before him scanning the crowd with an amused look on her face.

  “For now, however,” switching to English, the Shamaness continued, “we welcome Outsider Ava into our tribe. We are the Mesh.” The Shamaness’s grin was fierce, her lips spreading wide like a viper’s, “We are glad to have you, Outsider Ava.”

  8

  “You are exceptional with a spear.” The Shamaness had told him. “So, you will be her guardian.”

  Kato ignored the twisting of his heart. Alemayu said to look after her, he reminded himself as he led the Outsider into his mother’s hut, this is the last thing I will ever do for the Mesh.

  Pulling aside the bead curtain, he let the Outsider in. “It’s so dark!” she chirped before fanning her hand, “And stuffy! What is that smell? Lavender?”

  His English was nowhere near as good as his father’s, but he’d still try. “What is the word for…” holding up his pointer finger, he snapped at it as if attempting to light a fire.

  Pursing her lips, the Outsider tapped a finger to them. “Ah!” she clapped, “Incense! It must be incense!”

  Kato shrugged. It sounded right to him.

  There wasn’t much in his mother’s hut. As a cultivator, she collected and groomed the plants that grew on the outskirts of the Wilds. Honeysuckle vines threaded through the huts wooden interior, white and yellow flowers blooming the higher the vines climbed. Smooth teak wood made up the floor, the planks glistening with thin white mist that crept through the open windows during the morning. Moving in slow circles, the Outsider took in the hut with her arms outstretched.

  “What Fiete would give to have a vacation home like this.” She murmured as she stopped her circle and strode to the window farthest from the door. A waterfall skipped across smooth oval stones, the window allowing her a panoramic view of the village’s vast water source. “Does this place have a name?”

  Place name, that’s all he understood. “Nyx.” He said, clasping his hands behind his back. “The place down there?” he asked, referring to the wooden skeletons on the beach.

  “You know, it was hell getting through that fog. It’s like this entire place is just…enshrouded in it.”

  Kato scratched his head. Is she talking about the Veil?

  “There was lightning as big as skyscrapers! And if you looked over the side of the boat, you could see these…ghost ships just floating along under the choppy waves.” The Outsider did a double-take, turning her gaze back to Kato. “You know, I never got your name.”

  Your name, Kato bit his tongue. “Outcast Kato.”

  “Well, I’m Ava Morgan Black. Mermaid extraordinaire!” she crossed the room and held out her hand. “Go on. Shake.”

  Her face reminded him of his father. The cat-like eyes and wide nose slightly upturned. Crimson paint brightened her lips, while her dark complexion softened the harsh ridges of her cheekbones. She was older than him, he realized as he took in the bright eyes and crinkled lines edging the rims. With his gaze on his feet, he clasped her forearm and shook it.

  “That’s the way, huh?” she laughed. “Okay, then! Does this mean we’re friends?”

  Friends? He barely knew her.

  Sliding a rectangular device from her pants pocket, she came around and looped her hand onto his opposite shoulder. “To new friends!” holding the device high above herself, Kato caught a reflection of his face in the contraption like a mirror. He looked small. Scared. Beside this gleaming older woman with her wide smile and obnoxious attitude, he looked like a child. Like a boy that would never become a man.

  The device clicked.

  9

  The Shamaness left nothing up to chance. As silent as a whisper of wind, she let herself into the hut and glared up at the cell phone device as it mirrored her face and two others.

  Kato sucked in a breath as he collapsed to the floor and kissed his forehead to the planks. He met her eyes in the device and he cursed himself. No one was supposed to make eye contact with the Shamaness—no one.

  “Would you like to come with me, my dear?” the Shamaness drawled, holding her hand out toward Ava. “You’ve come to learn our ways, correct?”

  “Kato?” Ava said, touching his shoulder lightly. “Is he alright?”

  “He’s an obedient little thing, isn’t he?” The Shamaness chuckled. “Get up, Outcast.” She said with a quick clink of her nail-guards. Switching to their native tongue, she said: “You’re upsetting the Outsider. Get up.”

  He sprang to standing, keeping his eyes to the floor.

  “Come, friend. Let me show you the beauty of our home.” The Shamaness said, her English beyond Kato’s understanding. Whisking the shorter woman away, the Shamaness brought her out into the daylight. Kato followed, knowing that the protection of the Outsider laid squarely on his shoulders.

  The Shamaness led them through Nyx, the Outsider stopping every so often to flick up her device and click it. Stealing pictures of their watery home. Villagers threw themselves to the boardwalk as the Shamaness approached, muttering thanks as the Outsider snapped their pictures and asked, “Why are they doing that? Are you a Queen?”

  The looks Kato received were scathing—who was he to walk so closely behind their Shamaness? Instead of shrinking away from their burning gazes, he decided to lift up his chin. Every look made his heart thump, but he could fake confidence. At least—for a day. Biting his inner cheek, he puffed out his chest and kept his gaze straight forward. Listening in on the women’s conversation took his mind away from the jealous looks that stabbed daggers into his back.

  The Shamaness laughed deeply. “I am a spiritual leader.” She told the Outsider. “Like a…Pope, I suppose. I don’t hold absolute power. I am nothing like a Queen.”

  Ava nodded, her mouth a small O.

  “Without me, the Mesh would not survive.”

  Ava scoffed. “Are you quite sure of that?”

  Exiting the village, grass crinkled beneath Kato’s toes as he followed them. A cold sweat broke on his back at the Outsider’s flippant tone. Though he couldn’t completely understand her phrasing, as the Shamaness’s aura vibrated with sticky static, he knew the Outsider’s choice of words were damning.

  But the Shamaness threw her a bright smile. A mask. “Yes.” She said, her lips not moving. “I am.”

  She led them to a precipice. The same cliff Alemayu had led Kato to last night. Below them, Kato watched men hacking away at the wooden skeleton. They were adding more to it, building it higher and higher.

  At the edge, Ava shrank back. Aiming her device down, she cocked her head before moving the rectangle to face the Shamaness. “That thing on your chest,” she began bringing the device closer to her face, “it glowed earlier today. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “And you never will.”

  “Outsider,” Kato murmured, stepping in closer. “You ask too many questions.”

  “Let her ask what she wants.” The Shamaness snapped. “Do you want to know what this is? How I got it?”

  Ava snapped her gaze between the two of them. Kato was dreading her decision. “I think so.”

  “Yes, or no?” the Shamaness snapped.

  Holding his forehead, Kato stepped away.

  “Yeah—yes. It’s so…fascinating. Almost magical.” She reached out to touch it as the Shamaness held the crystal in the palm of her hand. With a sharp glare, the Shamaness stopped Ava’s reaching hand.

  “It is a Scion Crystal. It houses souls.”

  Here we go.

  “A Scion Crystal?” Ava repeated, her voice wavering. Plastering a smirk onto her face, she brought her fists to her hips. “Next you’re going to tell me that it controls—oh, I don’t know! The water or something!”

 
The Shamaness’s smile rang warning bells in Kato’s head. Dropping the crystal, it thumped against her chest as she raised her right hand. “Why, in that regard,” her hand snapped closed. “You would be wrong.”

  The ground violently bucked beneath Kato’s feet and he reached out to catch Ava by the forearm before she tumbled head first over the cliff. Down below, a massive sand dune speared up through the water. The construction workers shouted as men in hard hats fell from the structure, smacking into the sand with an explosion of dust. Others ran to the shore as a miniature mountain sprung from the emerald sea.

  “What the f—”

  “It allows me to control earth.”

  Snatching her arm from Kato’s grasp, Ava looked at her with wild eyes. “And the entire tribe can do this—all the Mesh?”

  “Look.” The Shamaness pointed. “What is he wearing?”

  Ava followed her finger. “Nothing.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So, only you?”

  The Shamaness shook her head.

  “Who else?” she choked—almost screaming. “Who else can do shit like this?”

  The device in Ava’s hand buzzed.

  Raising her chin, the Shamaness smirked. “Shouldn’t you get that?”

  Ava swallowed, licking her lips as she stared wide-eyed at the Shamaness. “I thought you people didn’t understand cell phones.” She muttered before bringing the device up to her ear and barking, “What?”

  The thing hissed back at her, fizzling and crackling like boiling oil.

  “Nothing—nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’ve got everything under control—everything! Yes!” she kept her gaze glued to the Shamaness as the woman sauntered away from the cliff edge. She moved as if to leave them there, but stopped two steps away from Kato.

  “If she asks any more questions,” she said, using their native tongue, “you come to me. You understand, Outcast? Tell her nothing.”

  “No—don’t send Xavier, none of the men. I’ve got this, okay? Trust me—please.”