Guardian of the Vale

by Shoemaker,Tamara

  Alayne halted beside the shuttles, six large ones lined across the clearing. Though invisible, she knew the rest of the company was already there. A general shuffling in the clearing and some coughs accompanied their arrival. She was out of breath after their jog through the woods, and she calmed her lungs as she waited for Manders's next order. Daymon squeezed her hand.

  Manders's voice called across the clearing from Alayne's right. “Attention, please. We're removing the bends so everyone can see to load up. As soon you're visible, please climb aboard. We'll re-bend the elements once everyone is on board in preparation for take-off.” Rustling filled the air, followed by a muffled bump and a curse at the next shuttle over. Alayne's mouth tipped up as she recognized Bard's voice.

  Snapping the notch off three companies, Alayne glanced around the clearing full of Last Orders. The hatches slowly raised on the six massive shuttles where they lined the western edge of the clearing. Daymon let go of Alayne's hand and finished removing the bends from the rest of the companies. “Get on board,” he told her quietly. “I'm going to make sure everyone loads up.”

  Alayne turned into a line that moved toward a shuttle hatch.

  “Layne,” Rachyl's soft voice interrupted her thoughts. Alayne turned. Her friend shifted her pack higher on her back and pulled Alayne into a hug. Eryc stood behind Rachyl. He didn't hug Alayne, but he nodded as Alayne released Rachyl.

  “You're off, then?” Alayne asked.

  “Yes. Eryc's heading north to Highbridge, and I'm going south to gather the Last Orders waiting for us in Cloudhaven. We'll rendezvous with you as we close in on Clayborne.” She reached into her pocket and held up a mirror piece with a small grin. “Manders gave us each one of these. We'll be in touch with him, so he can let you know our progress.”

  A lump swiftly formed in Alayne's throat. “Take care of yourself, Rach. You, too, Eryc.”

  Rachyl squeezed Alayne's hand, and she and Eryc jogged across the clearing and disappeared into the woods, where Alayne knew two Air-Masters waited to carry each of them to their respective destinations.

  Her heart heavy, Alayne rejoined the line and climbed the stairs into the shuttle's interior. These shuttles were at least four times the size of typical City Centre shuttles. The Last Order had appropriated military shuttles from one of the Capital bases, and the Alliance had tilted into a fit of rage when six of their largest shuttles had disappeared beneath their noses.

  Alayne fingered the mirror in the pocket of her camouflage pants as she edged to the back of the shuttle, finding space on the floor near the rear emergency hatch and leaning against the sloped wall. She glanced around the crowded space. They were packed onto the craft. Every bench was filled already, and Last Orders took up the remaining space on the floor. Almost immediately, the air grew stifling; someone opened the window vents for fresh air.

  Then everything disappeared as Daymon hurried by, notching all the bends to make sure every shuttle was invisible, along with the people in it. He clambered up the invisible steps to Alayne's shuttle, and disappeared a second later. Alayne could hear his voice excusing himself as he moved people out of the way.

  A heavy boot stepped on Alayne's. She estimated where to grab, making contact with his hand.

  “Sit down,” Alayne murmured. “You just stepped on me.”

  Daymon sat, his breath leaving his lungs in a whump. Alayne snorted.

  “You try it,” he mumbled ruefully. “It's hard to maneuver around invisible people.”

  Alayne smiled and reluctantly released his hand. She couldn't tell if he noticed or cared.

  Traveling invisibly was strange. They rose into the air, but Alayne could see nothing except the land falling away beneath them. She felt the shuttle boards under her feet and the wall behind her back, but it was hard to recall all that when the earth, looking like a furry animal, tilted beneath them.

  All around, various quiet conversations filled the air. Alayne couldn't relax. Her neck cricked with tension, and her stomach wrenched with every thought of where they were heading. She splayed her hands, struggling to relax, but as soon as she'd loosened one muscle group, another bunched. She dropped her head against the wall in frustration.

  “Nervous?” Daymon asked quietly.

  Alayne shook her head before remembering he couldn't see her. “No, why?” She sounded breathless. She turned her attention to filling her depleted lungs.

  “I know you, Layne.”

  Her breath caught. She swallowed hard. “Daymon?” she whispered.

  She felt him shift beside her. “What?”

  “I—I can't help but wonder if tomorrow will be our last day, you know? We're trapped in this situation because of the Vale, with no way to chuck it and run. Are you ever sorry that—you met me?”

  The need for reassurance screamed from her question. She wanted to snatch the words back.

  Daymon grunted. “Mm, sometimes.”

  Alayne sucked in a sharp breath, hurt by his honesty.

  He didn't stop there. “Layne, you of all people know why. You know that as a kid, I felt trapped into a life that I'd never wanted, and that made me bitter against you for a while. And now—”

  “Now, the Vale.” Her voice was acerbic.

  Daymon sighed. He found her knee and then her hand. She resisted, but he brought his other hand to grip hers. “The Vale, Alayne, is a tool, to be used or not used according to your wishes. You are not the Vale's tool. That's an important distinction.”

  She grunted cynically.

  Daymon went on. “The thing is, even if you didn't possess the Vale, Tarry would still wage war against Naturals, and without the Vale, our chances of victory would be much smaller.”

  “Not that they were great to begin with,” Alayne muttered.

  “But we've got to try, Layne. Think of your parents.”

  “Do you think I've thought of anyone but my parents for the last year?” Her voice clogged with tears.

  “Yes. I think you've thought of everyone but yourself. You've put the safety of your friends, your family, and the Last Order in front of your own. You've invaded the High Court and confronted Leader Blankenship.” Admiration leaked into his tone, and Alayne warmed a little inside.

  “Not really.” Alayne traced circles on her knee. “I've only thought about how afraid I am, what a coward I've been. I do what you and your uncle ask me to do, but I'm quaking inside. I've run from important issues; I should have broken into the NRC while my parents were still there, freed them. I'm a Quadriweave; surely, I could have done that.”

  “They would have killed hostages—”

  “I wanted to go into hiding after Manderly laid out the battle strategy. I was willing to let all those Naturals die because I wanted to live. Tell me that's not cowardice, Daymon.”

  “Those are all natural—”

  “And I've shut you out, Daymon. You were the one I was most afraid of.”

  “Me?” Daymon's startled exclamation was too loud. A moment later, he followed with a whisper. “Why me?”

  Alayne didn't respond; she didn't know how to respond. Some feelings went beyond words, and she hadn't yet had time to sort through the box on her heart's shelf labeled with Daymon's name. She pulled her hand gently from his grasp and tilted her head to rest on his shoulder, inhaling his comforting scent. She yawned. “I'm tired. Wake me when we get there, will you?” She fell asleep to the steady beat of his heart, but not before her thoughts trailed over some painful might-have-beens.

  Alayne blinked awake, her gaze roving over the landscape below them. It was mid-morning, and the sun bathed the earth in a golden summer glow. Nothing looked familiar. She knew they had to be near their destination, but mountains, valleys, and forests coated the ground beneath the shuttles. Tarry's Earth-Movers had done a thorough job of rearranging the landscape.

  “Jake, go ahead and bring the shuttles down,” Manders's voice instructed from the front of the shuttle.

  “How close are we?” Alayne ask
ed as the earth approached, the trees moving into clearer focus below them. She sat up, and Daymon's arm moved against hers as he stretched.

  “About forty miles east of Clayborne,” Daymon answered. “We're going to land in the woods, and then hike in so we can be ready for battle tomorrow evening.”

  Alayne nodded. “The trees will be good cover; we should send Tarry a thank you note.”

  Daymon snorted. “We could have tried to remain invisible for our hike, but it's just asking for trouble. We'd end up killing off a bunch of people we couldn't see, not to mention dealing with the confusion of staying organized or the possibility of units getting lost or separated from one another.”

  “But for the hike?” Alayne asked. “We wouldn't be fighting yet.”

  “I know, and it worked for the two-mile trek to the shuttles, but this is forty-plus miles.” He shrugged against her shoulder. “Both of my uncles weighed the advantages for a long time; they finally decided it wasn't worth losing people or getting separated when we had tree cover.”

  The shuttles approached the trees, winging between tall pines into a clearing. Alayne's constant search of the air elements around the crafts revealed no other Naturals or Elementals, at least nowhere nearby.

  When Daymon unnotched the bends, all of them snapped into visibility, and there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone.

  Daymon edged to the shuttle door and opened the hatch, motioning people through. Alayne exited the shuttle while Manders left instructions for the pilot. As soon as the last one left the shuttle, Daymon twisted the elements, and all six crafts disappeared once more. Only a whisper accompanied their liftoff as the trees to the north waved beneath their wind.

  The Last Orders glanced cautiously around, distrusting even the creak of wood on wood as the high branches rubbed together in eerie groans.

  The reality of the situation was finally sinking in, and Alayne suffered a crippling sense of powerlessness against the Vale. All the expectations battered her mind. She knew the others respected her, or rather, they respected what she could do with the Vale. After she'd collapsed the High Court, she'd caught whispers and awed glances in the Hive corridors.

  But she didn't know how to follow that up, because it wasn't her who had done it in the first place. It was the Vale that had manipulated the element harp, taking over until Alayne was only a puppet.

  Alayne crossed her arms, cold chills washing over her in the warm, summer air.

  Manders moved past Alayne and Daymon. He nodded to Kary and Bard, whom he had assigned to meet with the Last Orders approaching from the west. “Take off,” he ordered. “We'll attack at my signal; it will be after I receive word from the group coming from Cliffsides.”

  The two men jogged out of the clearing, losing themselves in the underbrush almost immediately, their footfalls as silent as experienced spies' should be.

  The rest of the company followed, taking the woods in brisk strides. Daymon kept pace just behind Alayne; he reached to help her over the larger boulders, but she ignored his hand, working her frustrations out in the physical exertion of the hike. When she tripped over a tree root and slipped down a steep embankment, she endured his smirk.

  “You try it,” she mumbled.

  “I am.” He helped her to her feet, and she yanked her hand away, turning her back on his amused face and continuing.

  Now and then, she saw a flash of something in the woods on either side of them, various colors of fur on sleek haunches whisking by in silent accompaniment to their units. Alayne wrinkled her brow in consternation. Just how thorough had Tarry been with her revamp of the environment? Some of the animals she saw weren't ones typically found on this Continent.

  When the group stopped for a rest break and food, Alayne separated herself from the others, relaxing on a semi-comfortable rock, nibbling on the grain bars they'd been given. Daymon didn't follow her; he sensed her need for alone time. He settled some fifteen feet away, his profile thoughtful as he stared into the woods.

  Alayne slid her mirror from her pocket. She wasn't necessarily hiding what she was doing from Daymon, but she wanted to be alone when she checked on Marysa and Jayme again. She'd left them fighting for their lives, and her tortured mind had replayed every second of what she'd seen multiple times through the night, as well as through their flight this morning.

  She struggled with the risk of her face showing in Marysa's mirror at the wrong moment, but if she didn't check, and Marysa were dead and the mission failed...

  Alayne swallowed a bite of her grain bar before she'd chewed it thoroughly, throwing herself into a coughing fit. She pulled some water from the elements, filling her hand and drinking before splashing the rest over her face.

  She returned her attention to the mirror. “Show me Marysa,” she whispered.

  Her reflection swirled out of the way, but only blackness appeared in the mirror. Marysa must have her piece in her pocket. Tentatively, Alayne leaned close, her breath steaming the glass as she whispered into it. “Marysa?”

  Nothing changed. Alayne bit her lip in frustration. In her first year at Clayborne, she had asked the mirror to show her Jayme while he was at Cliffsides, and it had done so, but there had been no connecting end to the mirror there. The mirror had simply bypassed it. But now that Marysa had the other end of the connection—Alayne's mirror piece only connected with Marysa's and wouldn't show her what she wanted to know.

  Alayne set the mirror aside harder than necessary, breathing a sigh of relief when it didn't shatter.

  “Are you rested, Alayne?” Manders's quiet, calm presence appeared behind her. He slid onto the rock and deftly twisted the element to fill his canteen. “We'll be pressing on soon.”

  “I'm rested.” Alayne scratched the edge of the mirror.

  Manders glanced at it. “Daymon told me what you saw in the mirror last night.”

  Alayne's vision blurred as ready tears leaped to her eyes. “Sir, I don't know if they're dead or alive. Bryce betrayed them—betrayed us—running off to tell Tarry we were coming. The mirror won't show me Marysa, and I hate feeling so helpless.”

  Manders nodded. “Well,” he said at last, “to be fair, it was likely unwise of me to send Bryce, but the moment I assigned him to go with Jayme, I fully expected that we could no longer count on a surprise element. Tarry knows we're coming, but it makes little difference. She's grounded her defense well, and a surprise attack wouldn't give us much advantage.” He screwed the lid onto his canteen and set it to one side. “There's something else bothering you, Alayne.” He said it as a statement of fact, and Alayne hated how easy she was to read.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I respect that you may not wish to talk with me about it, but I will offer advice and encouragement if I can—should you choose to tell me.”

  Alayne brushed the moisture that had collected in the corners of her eyes, refusing to look at the older man.

  “I—I told Daymon something the other day, and he—flipped out.”

  “Ah.”

  The quiet word pulled Alayne's attention to him. “He told you?”

  “Daymon doesn't keep anything from me regarding the Vale, Alayne. The Guardians must work together to protect it and its possessor, and if secrets run rampant among us, we're hurting no one but ourselves and our purpose.”

  Alayne nodded, fully facing Manders, a note of pleading in her voice. “I know, sir, that you are pledged to protect the Vale, but you know that I—can't live with it as I have been, not with the way it's taking over, controlling me. Not with the way people will never stop destroying each other until they gain its power. It's not worth it. I—I want to destroy it.”

  Manders's gaze rested heavily on her, and Alayne wished she could see past the gray shutters of his eyes and read his thoughts.

  He nodded slowly. “I appreciate your thoughts and feelings, Alayne; as the possessor of the Vale, your opinion on the matter—more than anyone else's, my nephew's included—is the most important.”
Alayne opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand. “Let me just say this. At times, when it seems that there are two doors before you, neither of which seem a likely fit for the path you wish to walk, often, after a little searching, you'll discover a third door, and sometimes, the answers you seek will be hiding behind that choice.”

  Alayne blinked. “What other option could there possibly be, sir?”

  One salt-and-pepper eyebrow lifted incrementally. “I think you'll find it before very much longer, Alayne.”

  Alayne huffed in frustration. She glanced behind them, flinching when she realized Daymon was gone. She realized, belatedly, he'd been close enough to hear their conversation.

  Manders stood. “Best finish your rations, Alayne. We leave in ten minutes.”

  The company didn't stop again until darkness fell, and Alayne wondered wearily how many miles they had traversed. They moved at a rapid pace, but even the most athletic among them looked exhausted when Manders finally halted in a clearing strewn with boulders and weeds.

  Fire was strictly out of the question, so Alayne grabbed another grain bar from her pack, biting off a mouthful and wishing intensely for her mother's roast beef and mashed potatoes—the meal Alayne had always requested for her birthday.

  She'd nearly forgotten that today was her birthday. Her misery increased at the thought of her home and family.

  A sudden disturbance near the edge of the woods caught everyone's attention.

  Three women stumbled into the clearing, panting, bending double as they tried to regain their breath.

  “Last Orders,” one finally croaked, nodding to the LO badge Manders wore on his sleeve. “Finally. You were right where they said you'd be.”

  Manders stepped forward. “Where who said we'd be?” he asked. Heavy silence fell on the clearing, broken only by the heavy breaths of the three women.

  “Her name was Marysa Blakely. She and the guy she was with unCasted all of us.” The woman smoothed her hand over her cornrows. “They also took out every Caster the Alliance had sent to keep us subdued.” She shook her head. “We missed most of it, 'cause we were Casted when they started, but we were released from the Cast before it was all over, so we got to watch them in action.”