by Devan Skyles
“Wait, that’s it?” he said incredulously. “You believe me?”
She turned impatiently and threw her hands up. “Are you lying?”
“No.”
“Then what are you complaining about? Come on, before someone sees you!”
Confused, he followed her down the hall. “This isn’t some trick to lure me into a trap, is it?”
Without looking back, she rolled her eyes and answered sarcastically. “Yes. Rather than simply yelling out to the three hundred Fleet members who are currently on lookout all over the city to find you, I decided to lull you into a false sense of security and lure you into a trap.”
“A simple ‘no’ would have worked just fine,” he said under his breath.
The two snuck through the barracks, Taya peering around corners in the lead. They made their way through the barracks and flew to the top of the structure. There, she quickly ushered him into a room. He stepped in and looked around. It was a large living space with lavish furniture and a flowing ilïmbalm fountain in the corner.
“Whose room is this?” he asked, looking at the extravagant space.
“It’s mine,” she said, closing the door and drawing the curtains shut.
“Wow! I’ve gotta’ make sergeant!”
“Do you have it?” she asked him urgently.
“What?”
“The evidence, dummy. You said you broke into Redwing’s chambers to find evidence. I assume you found some, otherwise he wouldn’t be so eager to capture you.”
He hesitantly pulled the page from Redwing’s book out of his pocket and unfolded it. Rather than taking it, she sidled in close to him and read it. Auram wasn’t sure how he felt about her being so close to him, but he noticed she had a pleasant aroma.
“Well, this seems to corroborate your claims. What were you planning to do with this?”
“I was going to take it to General Corvus.”
“Well, that would certainly do the trick,” she confirmed. “Redwing somehow managed to get backing from several other council members. That’s how he’s been able to mobilize the Fleet the way he has. Corvus is none too happy about it. I’m betting he’d love to find a reason to cut the guy’s wings.”
“Great!” he replied. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go tell him?”
“Just a minute there!” she replied. “First of all, Corvus is surrounded by soldiers twenty-four hours a day. You’ll never get within a mile of him. Secondly, he’s not here. He’s out on mission with the infantry leaders. He won’t be back for at least a few days.”
“So, what do we do then?”
She thought about it for a moment. “Well, I suggest we start by spreading the word. Redwing’s not been very popular among the Fleet. Not since he went over Corvus’s head and started using them as his own private muscle. If we can spread the word about this to enough of the troops, maybe we can preempt some of their loyalties.”
“Makes sense,” he concurred.
Taya suddenly realized she was still standing very close to Auram and backed away uncomfortably. She cleared her throat and said, “It’s not safe for you out there yet. Maybe I should take the evidence and show it around.”
Auram almost handed over the page, but recalled his hand as she reached for it. “Wait. I’m glad you’re helping me and all, but I’m not letting this out of my sight. It’s the only thing I have that proves what Redwing’s up to, and even then, only barely.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “In that case, I’m going to have to convince people on my own.”
He nodded. He worried he may have been too harsh, but with his luck so far, he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Stay here,” she ordered. “I’m going to try and spread the word a bit. Try not to touch anything.”
Auram made an immature face as she turned to leave. When the door closed behind her, he paced the room, anxious and unsure. After a few hours, he grew restless and helped himself to some ilïmbalm. It wasn’t as sweet as Rhydian’s, but it was certainly better than what he received in his usual rations. He drank a few more cups of the savory liquid and dropped onto Taya’s bed. It was soft and deep, far more comfortable than his own, and after spending the past two nights outside, he was certain he’d never been more comfortable in his life.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sleeping, but when he woke, the windows were dark. He rubbed his eyes and wondered when Taya would be getting back. As if in answer, the door opened and four soldiers entered the room.
Auram jumped to his feet and drew his sword, heart pounding. A moment later, Taya pushed her way through.
“It’s okay, Auram!” she exclaimed. “They came here with me. They want to hear what you have to say.” She then looked from him to her crumpled blankets. “Have you been in my bed?”
Embarrassed, he mumbled, “I was tired. You were gone for hours.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the sword from his hands. “Forgive me. I was just out trying to organize your revolution.”
“Is it true?” one of the soldiers asked. “Is Redwing really trying to take over the other side?”
Another man, the one he recognized from his squad named Liam, said, “Can he do that?” I mean, one Governor doesn’t have that kind of authority.”
“He’s also a member of the Judges Quorum.” Auram explained. “And besides, he’s not using his authority as a judge. We found out he’s collaborating with other members of the Council.”
“That still doesn’t seem like enough to me. How do you know any of this, anyway?”
“Because I’ve heard it from his own mouth. I’ve taken advantage of my position as his personal guard in order to spy on him.” He then pulled the page from his pocket and explained the whole situation to them. By the end of what he thought was a very convincing and impassioned explanation, they all seemed overwhelmingly convinced.
“Can we count on you all to spread the word?” Taya questioned.
They all agreed fervently.
“Tell only those you trust,” Auram cautioned. “When General Corvus returns, we’ll bring the news to him ourselves, but in the meantime, it’s up to us to get the news out.”
The soldiers left soon thereafter, leaving Auram and Taya alone.
“I brought you some food,” She said, pulling a loaf of bread, two olüri fruits, and a cooked tusk-ram steak from her bag and set them on the table for him.
“Thank you,” he replied, graciously accepting the food.
“I think that went well,” she said. “Tomorrow we should have even more people here.”
“I’m not sure. I mean, yeah, we convinced a few people. But how much progress could we possibly make four people at a time?”
“Give it a little time. People will listen, and they’ll tell others. You’ve got your work cut out for you anyway. I mean, like I said, a lot of Fleet members already hate the guy. It won’t be hard convincing them to hate him more.”
“Maybe,” he replied.
“I have faith in you,” she replied.
Auram smiled, which seemed to make Taya uncomfortable and she changed her demeanor.
“Don’t let me catch you in my bed again, by the way.”
“Don’t know why you would,” he retorted defensively.
That night, he slept on a pile of blankets opposite her bed, facing the wall. He wrapped one wing up over his head, the way he’d slept since he was a child.
Auram was even more bored the next day while Taya went to work, but when she returned, she walked in with twenty more people, plus the four from the previous day. They all gathered in the cramped barracks room as Auram again explained the urgent situation to them. To his excitement, they all seemed receptive. Many of them simply wanted to hear for themselves if the rumors were true, but they all left convinced.
“Can you believe it?” Taya exclaimed. “You were amazing! And that’s not even everyone. Some didn’t want to come because they were nervous it was some kind of trap to test people’s
loyalty or something, but after today, everyone’s going to want to hear what you have to say! I’d be surprised if soldiers on the ground don’t know about it in the next couple days!”
She wasn’t wrong. When she reported for work the next day, everyone was buzzing about what they had dubbed “Auram’s word.” Many of them came to her wanting confirmation. She continued to discretely share the important information with people in passing. Soon there was heated controversy over the issue, and by the end of the day, the higher officers made an announcement that this so-called “Auram’s word” was nothing more than an elaborate hoax, but not everyone was convinced, and many were already calling for Redwing’s feathers to be cut.
The rumor spread like wildfire, and by the end of the third day, Taya burst into the room, grabbing Auram by the hand and dragging him to the door.
“Come on! There are a lot more people who want to hear the news!’ Let’s go!”
Auram pulled his hand back and stopped. “Wait, I can’t go out there! They’ll find me.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” she said with a smile, and stepped outside, leaving the door open.
Auram hesitantly stepped out after her, and waiting for him all through the barracks complex, were at least a hundred people, most of them Fleet but some civilians.
“There he is!” someone shouted, and an uproar arose from the gathering.
“Are the rumors true?” Another shouted.
Auram wasn’t sure what to do, but Taya stepped beside him and gave him a nudge.
“They’re here to hear the news from you,” she said.
“You did this?” he asked incredulously.
“No, Auram. You did this. All I did was confirm what you told them. They did the rest.”
“That can’t be,” he insisted. “I don’t have this kind of influence. I’m hardly even a soldier!”
“Well, I wouldn’t tell them that,” she replied, nodding toward the crowd, who’d now gone almost quiet waiting for him to address them.
He stepped to the edge of the balcony and waved, feeling foolish. “I suppose you are all here to find out if the rumors regarding Governor Redwing are true. Unfortunately, they are. As many of you may have heard, I myself spied on him and found evidence that he has plans to create what’s called a rift, which will cause the barrier between Ilimíra and the other side to erode. When this happens, the physical laws that control our reality will spill into the human world, killing thousands, if not millions.”
“Why would he do that?” a woman called out.
“Because conquering the humans means unlimited access to their ilïmbalm supply.”
“He wouldn’t dare expose Ilimíra! Their sheer numbers and technology would overwhelm us!”
“Not if their world becomes like ours!” Auram returned. “Human technology will not function. Besides, mankind cannot fight well on our side. You all know that! Their senses become dull, their minds slow. Their bodies become heavy. They’ll be defenseless! If this rift is performed, mankind will be slaughtered! And Redwing and those loyal to him won’t even have to do much of the bloodshed. Their flying machines will crash to the ground. Chaos and panic will take untold numbers of lives. People, we cannot allow this to happen! We have lived in peace and discretion with our neighbors for nearly a thousand years! Are we really going to end that all now?”
The crowd went into a frenzy of enthusiastic agreement. Auram found his whole body buzzing with energy, feeding off the spirit of the throng.
“I call upon all Ilimíri to spread the word, that all of us decide this day which side they will fight for! And when it comes time to fight for what is right, we will stand together against this corruption!”
Taya now stepped forward and called, “Now go spread Auram’s word!
The crowd roared its enthusiasm, and soon everyone was chanting, “AURAM’S WORD! AURAM’S WORD! AURAM’S WORD!”
Taya came over to Auram and said in his ear, “This is attracting too much attention. We need to move.”
She was right. Fleet soldiers were beginning to fly overhead. They could very well have been coming to join the congregation, but they didn’t want to take any chances. She pulled Auram back into her room and the two climbed out a back window, disappearing down an alleyway.
They later established a secret rally point outside the city, where the people loyal to Auram met in discretion. It was in a large grotto about halfway down the cliffside from the city, which was partially built out with stone columns, but had long since been abandoned. All throughout that day, people came to offer their support. When the sun went down, most of the excitement had died down with it and all but ten people had gone home.
Auram couldn’t wait to share the news with Rhydian. Three days ago, he could not have imagined accruing so many loyal followers. Taya had organized a list for people to sign. All in all, they had ninety-six dedicated members of their movement. Of those, eighty three were Fleet soldiers, and he was confident those numbers would grow with time. He wondered if word had already reached Corvus’s ears.
Auram was about to settle in for the night when a young man from the rally flew in in a frenzy, completely out of breath.
“Auram, sir! I’m so sorry to interrupt,” he said frantically.
Auram was unaccustomed to being referred to as ‘sir.’ “What is it?”
“It’s Rhydian, sir!” he explained. “I was just assigned a guard duty over your friend. They’ve got him locked up in a building at the edge of the Treetown.”
Auram jumped from his seat, his chair flying backwards. “What? How many guards are there?”
“Five, including me, but as soon as I saw who we were guarding, I came to tell you right away.”
Auram placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Thank you.” He then turned and addressed his ten loyalists who remained, which included Taya and Liam. “Are you all ready to prove your dedication?”
Taya drew her sword and smiled grimly.
Interrogation
Redwing’s men dragged Rhydian to the outskirts of the Treetown and dropped him heavily on the platform in front of the old, abandoned house where he and Auram had first spied on the Governor. They then dragged him inside and shackled his wrists with chains hanging from the ceiling. Tying his wings to his body, they left him and stood outside the door. The shackles restricted him to a standing position, but they were so high up that his heels didn’t quite touch the floor.
He hung there for several hours before Redwing sauntered in, whistling to himself gleefully. At this point, Rhydian’s wrists were so badly swollen that he could barely feel his fingertips.
“Good afternoon, Rhydian,” Redwing said in a casual manner. “Lovely day out today. You should stretch your wings and enjoy the breeze.”
“You know what, Redwing?” Rhydian taunted. “I was just thinking, maybe we should start calling you Blackeye. It seems to suit you better these days.”
Redwing chuckled lightheartedly, touching the bruise under his eye gingerly. “Clever. I’m sure you enjoyed your little temper tantrum in my office yesterday. Now, how about a little payback?”
Redwing reared back and slugged Rhydian in the face, causing him to sway slightly from the chains. “You know, I usually have others do this type of work for me, but I’m a firm believer in a strong work ethic.” He punched him again.
Rhydian managed to gain his footing again and settled on the balls of his feet. “Is that all you’ve got, Blackeye? It’s too bad you weren’t on the ground with me earlier. The Grimalkin could show you a thing or two about violence.”
“Yes, well, I suppose you know that better than most, given how you left your friend down there to be devoured by those savages. You know that’s how your father went, right? They tore him limb from limb and fed him to their savage little younglings”
Rhydian spat at Redwing, who in turn punched in the stomach, making him swing by his chains again.
“We could play this game all nigh
t, Gideonson. I could interrogate you. You could taunt me. But the thing is, you already know what it is I’m going to ask, just as I already know you’re going to keep telling me the same lie you’ve been telling. So here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to hurt you until you tell me what I need to know. If you lie to me, I’ll hurt you some more. Is that agreeable?”
“Go rot, perch.”
Redwing smiled, shaking his head, and punched him again.
Rhydian took blow after blow to the gut until his stomach revolted and he retched on the floor. When the punches let up for a moment, he spoke feebly. “Getting tired yet? I just drank some fresh balm if you want to lap it off the floor.”
Redwing grew angry now and punched him so hard his feet left the floor this time. This continued for over an hour, until Rhydian began to feel woozy and faint. His bottom lip was split and a trickle of blood ran down his chin.
Redwing, sweaty and out of breath, stood back a couple paces and ran his hands back through his hair. “I think we’ve made some excellent progress, you and me. I’d love to continue, but I have a meeting with the Judges in the morning. I’d like to be well rested, so if you’ll excuse me. Sleep well.” He laughed as he exited and the guards closed the door behind him.
Rhydian was so sore and miserable that he found himself fading in and out of consciousness throughout the night. His legs quickly tired from standing so long on the balls of his feet, so much so that his muscles twitched and they would no longer hold his weight. His wrists chafed against the steel shackles painfully, and his shoulders cramped from having his arms stretched above him for so long. In the morning, there was not a single part of his body that didn’t ache. He managed to distract himself from the agony with thoughts of Ellie, which worked sporadically, but very soon he was in the worst pain of his life. After what seemed an eternity, the door to the hut finally opened and in walked Redwing.
“Well, I don’t know about you,” he said with a smile, “but I am very eager to continue our work from yesterday. Shall we begin?”
