by Devan Skyles
So proud was Mother Sky that all her wingfolk lived in peace
She decided that to them she would reveal her mysteries
She gave them knowledge to control the gateways she created
They wrote it down on scrolls so that this wisdom never faded
But over time they found that they could use their gift for gain
And they traded passage through the gates for treasures to obtain
Mankind wasn’t pleased, being outraged to their core
Unless they shared their knowledge they did threaten them with war
The wingfolk in their pride cast the humans from their land
And from the Ilimíra side they were forever banned
To keep them from returning they did seal up the way
And they kept their source of learning to themselves and hid away
So that only they could pass from one plane into another
With their necklaces of brass and their secrets never uttered
The Grimfolk now were scattered far across two separate planes
Their family ties were shattered and they clung to what remained
They pleaded and demanded to be granted access through
They refused to remain stranded, their convictions bold and true
When still the wingfolk granted not their humble supplication
They rose in all their strength and chanted “Rise Grimalkin Nation!”
(The audience shouted along with the last part.)
They took up arms and with the might of soldiers strong and brave
They fought the good fight valiantly for freedom’s sake to save
Seasons came and seasons went but they dared not forget
What being called Grimalkin meant nor overlook the threat
Of the foe up in the sky above that kept them from their kin
They kept the memory thereof to stir their hearts within
But battle raged for many years until few could recall
The reason for their woes and tears and bloody war withal
And then came down a warrior on wings whose breadth was great
He fought for years a foreigner but questioned all the hate
When at last he found that he could fight and kill no more
He approached his mighty foe and found a way to end the war
If the fight could stop for long enough and cease hostility
They’d find in peace they had an even greater destiny
In exchange for land on which to build their worldly gates
To them he offered access to find peace and end the hate
The Grimfolk were elated that the enemy conceded
Though the offer was belated it was everything they needed
They admonished such a soldier who would cast his sword aside
They raised him on their shoulders and they dubbed him Eaglehide
But peace was not to last for the winged people turned
On their champion of peace and the treaty they did burn
So Eaglehide took up the sword again and fought beside
The Grimfolk who had kept their word and he cried the battle cry
The battle lasted day and night but as the sun came up
The Grimfolk found they’d won the fight and drank the victor’s cup
They did not revel in the light of their great victory
For in the chaos of the fight came the end of their friend’s story
The Eaglehide did lay the path and for their freedom barter
But fell to the sword of his people’s wrath and so became a martyr
We lost our freedom and our friend on that fateful night
But we continue to defend his memory and might
And soon his spirit will return to lead us back once more
To Rim’Ithra’s shores where burn the hearts of Grimfolk evermore”
The crowds applauded the performance, many roaring their approval. Rhydian and Auram looked at each other, not sure what to think?
“I’ll be back,” Rhydian told his friend, and he pushed his way through the crowd toward Belator’s throne. The king beckoned him up, so he climbed up the tangled roots to the top.
“What did you think of the Grim’Nariit?” Belator inquired.
“It was wonderful! I’m just— a bit confused. If your people came here from the other side, the place you call Rim’Ithra, well—” he wasn’t sure how to put it. He didn’t want to offend him by challenging their beliefs. “It’s just, I’ve been to the other side many times, and there are no ground dwel— I mean, Grimalkin there.”
Belator smiled. “Well of course there are.”
Rhydian stood perplexed. Could a species such as the Grimalkin really survive for so many hundreds of years in the crowded human world inconspicuously?
As if reading his mind, Belator continued, “Tell me, Rhydian. When you visit Rim’Ithra, does your body stay the same?”
“No, I guess not. Everything changes through the threshold.”
“Now answer me this. Are there no great mountain cats, no hunting pards in the prairies and savannahs, no jungle hunters on the other side?”
He thought about it and nodded his answer.
“These are the children of my ancestors.”
This baffled Rhydian, and truthfully, he wasn’t sure if he believed it. Nevertheless, it was an intriguing concept.
Several other performances followed, and music and merriment continued late into the night. When most of the excitement wore off and the last of the Grimalkin cubs had gone to bed, Belator had his people pile up cushions and animal hides, upon which Rhydian and Auram could sleep.
Rhydian couldn’t manage to close his eyes for several hours, his mind swimming with conflicting histories and stories of his father. Could it really be that he was killed by his own people, and if he was, how was it history remembered him as such a great hero? How could he know so little about his own family? He’d grown up hearing about the heroic adventures of the fearless warrior Gideon, but he had never heard anyone say that he had grown sick of war and violence, let alone forsaking it completely. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand. It was just so contradictory to the extraordinary, larger-than-life character he’d been made out to be. But then again, the Grimalkin had made him into their own folk hero.
He finally fell asleep a few hours before sunrise, and by the time he awoke, the camp’s usual activity had resumed as before. Auram was already awake and wrestling playfully with a few of the Grimalkin cubs.
Rhydian flew over and addressed Belator, who was being tended to by two servants.
“Your majesty,” he addressed with a bowed head. “My companion and I have urgent business we need to attend to. But we appreciate your hospitality.”
“Very well, young Eaglehide,” the king replied, then turned to his servants. “See that they have everything they need for their journey.”
“Thank you, Belator,” he said once the servants had gone.
“Thank you, young one, for honoring us with your father’s spirit. As long as you bear his presence, you will always have a friend in the hearts of the Grimalkin people.”
The king’s servants loaded them up with as much meat and ilïmbalm as they could carry, returned their swords, and saw them off.
As they rose through the trees toward the sky, a somber feeling set over them. They now knew so much more than any of their people about the enemy they had fought for so long, and they weren’t sure how they could ever go back to life as they knew it. Of course, Rhydian had already resigned himself to this fact by choosing to leave Ilimíra.
“I suppose the soldiers have probably stopped looking for us by now,” Auram pointed out. “Maybe I should see if I can get back to town to blow the whistle on Redwing.”
Rhydian nodded. “And I should make sure no one’s found where I hid the timekeeper, or the threshold for that matter.”
“You know, something occurs to me. If Nicodemus is helping them with their plan,
he may have created your threshold to help sneak troops to the other side, in which case, it may not be the safest place to hide.”
“I think if that were the case, we’d have seen troops pouring through it already. And if that is their plan, I’m not leaving Ellie there alone.”
“Okay,” Auram said with a sigh, “I guess this is where we go our separate ways then.”
“Right,” he replied. “Be careful, brother. Try and fly below the trees as much as possible so you’re not discovered. Take the back way into town.”
“I’ll see you in a few days, right? Once Redwing’s timetable has expired and Corvus has him safely behind bars, you’ll come back through to get me, right?”
Rhydian’s chest tightened and he held back tears. “Of course, in a few days.”
Auram nodded and, chopping the air with his swift wings, tore off down the canyon with tremendous speed.
Rhydian watched as his lifelong friend grew further and further away. He knew he could never ask his friend to leave Ilimíra. “Goodbye, brother.”
Letting the tears fall, he circled in the air and flew the opposite direction toward the threshold. It wasn’t long, however, before several armed Ilimíri Fleetmen sprang from the canopy and surrounded him, catching him by surprise.
Startled, Rhydian tried to dive back beneath the trees, but before he could, one of the soldiers threw a rope around him, pulling it tight over his neck and left wing. He struggled hard against it, but soon there was another rope, this one around his right leg, and then another on his other wing. In a matter of seconds, he was completely unable to fly and he hung helplessly above the canyon, struggling angrily to get free. He tried to draw his sword and cut himself loose, but he was quickly disarmed.
“Well now, it seems my spies again managed to accomplish something worth what I’m paying them,” came the loathsome, taunting voice of Governor Redwing. He sailed in front of Rhydian as his captors flapped hard to keep him aloft. He had a dark bruise under his right eye from where Rhydian had struck him. “You see, they’ve seen you fly this way on a few occasions, and when you didn’t emerge from the forest floor yesterday, I thought I’d set a little trap for you in case you made it back this way. Seems my instincts were right.”
“Let me GO, you filthy PERCH!” Rhydian raged, trying futilely to break away.
“Now, now, no need for such language. Why don’t you tell me where your little friend is so we can invite him back with us?”
“He’s dead,” Rhydian lied. “The grounders killed him.”
“Oh, what a pity,” he replied apathetically. “Well, after all, I suppose it is an end befitting a traitor. Come, gentlemen, let’s return to the city, shall we? We have what we came for.”
An Unexpected Visitor
The temperature had dropped a few degrees recently, making it clear that summer would soon be at an end. Ellie drove home after a busy day, wondering why Rhydian hadn’t been to see her lately.
She knew it was unreasonable to expect him to visit every day, but she’d grown accustomed to him being around. She found herself waking up with in the morning with a smile on her face and a swimming feeling in her stomach. No one had ever made her quite as happy as he did, making her wonder how she’d ever wasted her time with someone like Desmond, who now occupied so little of her mind that he was nothing more than a vague shadow in her past.
When she arrived home, she immediately started flipping through the papers from the cellar again. She had now read through most of them (all the ones she could make sense of) and had all the journal entries taped to the living room wall. She’d even made some notes of her own.
She didn’t take the notion of parallel worlds seriously, but it was fascinating seeing through the eyes of someone who clearly made it the primary focus of their life. Through her reading, and of course Rhydian’s unusual insights on the subject, she now felt she knew as much about the fictional land of Ilimíra as anyone could. The subject was so fascinating to her that she considered writing a fiction story based on it, though she was never much of a writer.
Craving more, she poured over her computer, searching for any reference of Ilimíra on the internet, but found nothing. Frustrated, she tried the library in Clearbrook, but the librarian just looked at her with a peculiar expression. Finally, again rooting through the old papers, she found something she’d overlooked before. It was the section she first read aloud to Rhydian: I’ve calculated where the next most likely entrance should be, as corroborated by Ms. Rose. At the bottom of the page was scrawled an address.
Ellie grew excited. Maybe this was where this so-called Ms. Rose lived! She knew the area. It was in a city, maybe an hour’s drive from there. She was so excited that she almost jumped back in her truck and drove there right then, but realized she should probably wait for Rhydian. They had both been working on it together, after all. She was beginning to get frustrated that his phone still wasn’t working.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Her heart racing, she jumped to her feet and ran to the door, a smile on her face. Swinging it open, she saw not Rhydian, but an old, gray-haired man. She recognized him instantly as her neighbor. She’d never seen his house, but he apparently lived alone in a cabin in the woods somewhere. On occasion, he’d come by just to talk or, as he’d say, just to check up on her. She felt a bit sorry for the lonely old man, and always made time to indulge him.
“Oh, hi,” she said, trying not to sound disappointed.
The man looked slightly unsettled. “Is this a bad time?”
“No, of course not,” she said with a smile, welcoming him inside. “I was just expecting someone else, that’s all.”
“Not that good-for-nothing lowlife you were telling me about last time?”
“No, he’s long gone!” She replied. “Um, I’ve actually been seeing someone else lately.”
She tried playing it off like it was no big deal, but really, she got butterflies in her stomach having someone new to tell about him.
“Well, does he treat you right?”
She smiled. “He really does. His name is Rhydian.”
The old man’s eyebrows rose.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s an unusual name, that’s all,” he replied, then peered around at the papers about the room.
“Oh, sorry about the mess,” she said. “I found these out in the woods. It’s really pretty interesting, actually. It’s all about this secret world that no one’s supposed to know about.”
The man chuckled. “You don’t believe in that sort of thing, do you?”
“Well, no. Of course not, but someone clearly did.” She gestured at the journal entries and the barely legible scientific notations.
“Yes, so it would seem,” he replied, lifting one of the papers in his hand. “Where did you say you found these?”
She wasn’t sure why, but she got a funny feeling about telling him of the cellar. “Just out by the trail in a box,” she said vaguely. “Looked like someone just abandoned it there.”
“Was there anything else with it?”
Ellie looked quizzically at the old man. “No, just these papers. Why?”
He looked up abruptly, seeming to be shaking himself from a trance. “No reason. I wouldn’t pay it any heed. Looks like nonsense to me.”
“Well, maybe, but it’s all in fun. See, Rhydian and I—”
“You really should get rid of it, Ellie,” he said curtly. “All of it. I should be going. Just came to check up on you, but I really should be going.”
Perplexed, Ellie followed him to the door, where he let himself out.
“Um, okay,” she replied as he walked away. “Anyway, it was nice seeing you again, Nicodemus.”
Auram’s Word
Auram fluttered back and forth, weaving in and out between the trees beneath the first level of the canopy. When he was within view of the great Monolith City, he realized there was something very wrong. The entire city was swarming with soldiers, some s
tanding guard, others flying patrol. Sneaking back in was going to be next to impossible, but by now Rhydian would be through the threshold with the timekeeper, so there was no chance at doubling back to catch up. He thought for a moment about returning to the ground, but he dared not go back to the Grimalkin without “the spirit of Eaglehide” by his side, whatever that was supposed to mean.
He had no choice. He’d have to try and get past the soldiers unnoticed. He flew all the way to the canyon wall, as close to the city as he’d dare get without the cover of the treetops. Then, in a mad dash, he flew as fast as he possibly could to the rim of the cliff and, keeping a wide berth, winged his way over the grassland to the back of the city.
He was very pleased with himself as he entered the long hallway through the top of the city that led to the barracks. Landing, he rested his wings. But before he could catch his breath, he was grabbed from behind and thrown against the stone wall. Shocked, he looked up into the violet eyes of Sergeant Taya.
“How did you find me?” he said incredulously.
“I followed you, you idiot,” she replied. “I’m surprised nobody else saw you sneak back here. What are you doing here, anyway?”
Auram was so shocked he couldn’t speak.
“They’ve got half the Fleet out there looking for you and your buddy,” she exclaimed. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” he replied.
She looked at him dubiously and continued to hold him against the wall.
“Look, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Try me.”
He took a deep sigh and replied, “Okay, look. Rhydian and I uncovered a plot by Redwing to breach the barrier between worlds and take over the other side. Rhydian has one of the timekeeper’s he needs to make it happen, and that’s why he’s after us. Oh, and he might have also caught us breaking into his chambers to steal the evidence so we could have him arrested.”
She continued to look at him like he was insane. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I know it is, but it’s all true, okay?” he said, impatiently pushing her off of him.
She shrugged her shoulders again. “Okay. In that case, we’d better find you a hiding place.” She started to walk down the hall.
