by A. Wrighton
Alaister smirked at the thought of Kalyna trying to fight with a sword. It was not in her composition to fight like that – hand to hand – face to face. Her aptitude and preference to tree scaling and perching had proved as much. She had the power and concentration within her to fight a heavy hitting battle, but not like that.
The cold canyon breeze ruffled Alaister’s vest as he patted it down. He resented himself for taking Kalyna out of the safety of the Swamps for a brief, fleeting moment. There, though the world suffered, she had been safe. She had existed freely, but now he imposed confines on her while wishing to allow her free avenues. His hands were bound as were hers. The Council would come for her once they knew she lived, if they were not searching already. She had to be ready. Protected and armed. She had to know what to do when that day finally came. What to do when they could finally dismantle the Council and dethrone the Chancellor.
If that day came.
If the Council did not get them first.
The rage of the Council for missing a Runic would be fierce and swift. The “ifs” were plentiful and unrelenting and their time waned as the odds were stacked against them. But those were odds the Rogues always operated under – odds they could deal with. There were benefits to being perpetually underestimated. The unfavorable odds had a tried and true element – surprise. But, Alaister failed to find an answer to how they could possibly protect Kalyna while utilizing any element of surprise. She was enough of an unknown mystery before throwing a raging Council into the elements. They had to find a way to protect her – always. He had to find a way.
Her smile haunted Alaister and part of him relished the feeling, while another scolded it. He hated thinking of things he could never achieve. Accepting defeat or failure was not in his nature nor could it be. He disliked the taste of unsettlement. Kalyna had a way of unbinding his steadfastness. She seemed to have that effect, a freeing of the inner natures of those around her. She enabled. She empowered. She had to be protected.
“Alaister?”
“Kal!”
Alaister scrambled to his knees, confused and concerned. He knew he heard Kalyna, but she was not there. It was impossible for her to be there. He lay on an obscure plateau unreachable by foot surrounded by open sky. Even Jaxin could not fully land on the surface.
He scanned all sides of the plateau settling on where her voice seemed to have come from - north. The sky remained empty until a flash of deep flaxen hair peeked up followed by eyes. Copper eyes swept in black. She waved sheepishly, her personality unaltered by her different toned eyes.
“Kal,” Alaister stammered, “what are you doing…. How?”
“Air Runes. Remember?”
Alaister pulled Kalyna onto the cliff’s ledge and scooted her to the inner part of the outcropping. “Right. Well, would you please be more careful, Kal? We can’t lose you.”
Kalyna frowned, disappointed at Alaister’s overt reasoning, but found a small laugh at the seriousness across his face. “Sure," Kalyna said as she sat.
He exhaled before lying near her. Both engulfed themselves in the outside silence.
Kalyna cocked her head and looked at Alaister with a smile. “Can’t sleep. You?”
“Same.”
“I dreamt of her again.”
“Who?”
“Mylfina, your father's Dragon. Did anyone ever go look for her after?”
“Where would one start?”
“I don’t…. I don’t know.”
“Your eyes… they were black.”
“Air Runes.”
“They always change?”
“Yes. Differently for different Runes.”
“Blue for water?”
She nodded, her hair tussling about her.
“Green for earth,” Alaister said.
“And red for fire," Kalyna finished.
“Well… that’s pretty simple.”
“Do the Beasts’ eyes change colors too?” Kalyna asked.
“I don’t… I’ve never looked actually.”
Silence consumed their conversation as the two stayed side-by-side and a world apart on top of the plateau. The stars devoured the sky, flickering glimmers across a raven canopy. Kalyna steadied her breath and slowed her thoughts. She could hear Alaister’s cadenced breathing.
Alaister held his father’s face on his own. Kalyna stared at his profile until she was sure he would catch her. But, he did not move; his eyes remained on the sky. The men said Alaister read and decoded his father’s numerous logbooks every night. That he had been doing it since he first received his commission as High Commander. That the logs had led them to her. But how his father knew what she was and who she would become escaped her and, she suspected, escaped Alaister as well.
It chided to her core. “Why’d he save me, Alaister?” She blurted out, pink flashing upon her cheeks. “Why me over the others?”
“You were special.”
“I am not. There were tons of quads, and besides… I was a baby. He could not have known what my powers would be.”
Alaister's reply caught midway up his throat. She was right. His father had no way of knowing her powers, but then that had no bearing. Kai Paine had never been wrong. He had possessed the foresight and knowledge to get the Rogues this far, to get them this close to reclaiming what had always been theirs and should always belong to everyone – freedom.
“He has never been wrong before. He has his ways of knowing.”
“Or it was luck.”
“Fate,” Alaister corrected.
“You believe in that?”
Turning his head from the sky, he met her eyes. “I have to. It’s all we’ve got now.”
Kalyna exhaled as a chilled wind blew across the cliff top. Alaister felt the heat Kalyna radiated as she kept herself warm and was grateful that the breeze wafted some of the radiant heat over him. It was as comforting as fresh tavi and smelled like rain-kissed earth.
Alaister returned to staring up at the sky and traced the patterns his father had taught him. The Rouge Dragonics navigated the sky based on his father and Synge’s original mappings that few knew. It was what kept them hidden in the sky, and he found solace in re-tracing the patterns each night. He could almost hear his father’s voice echoing their names as his eyes found the familiar patterns.
Alaister paused at the Abandoned Sickle and looked over at Kalyna. Her eyes were also tightly entangled in the sky, but they were the vapid black he had seen before. He pushed up on his forearms and felt a wave of cyclical air rush through his hair. She was playing. Again.
“I looked for Mylfina for months after I was bonded, but by then…” Alaister shrugged.
“Do you remember him?”
“Always.”
“Me too,” Kalyna said with a soft smirk. “As crazy as that seems.”
“He had that effect on people.”
“A Paine charm? Sounds quite painf—”
Alaister nudged Kalyna’s side silencing her with a smile. “Be kind, Kal. It is far too late to be teasing.”
“I’ll tease if only to hear you laugh. You are so kind… alive when you laugh. You sound like him.”
She shrugged her eyebrows and giggled until Alaister nudged again. They both fell into an easy laughter that rang across the canyon and simmered in the air. A gleeful participatory roar from Jaxin drowned out their laughter.
“Your Beast will wake them all!”
“Then, I suggest we stop laughing.”
Kalyna collected herself with a nod and motioned towards the sky. “It must be amazingly beautiful riding in all those stars.”
“You know, I never noticed… or looked at it in that way.”
“You can really see the Watcher’s Heart from here.”
“And the Listener’s Hand is just on the Southern Horizon. See?”
Kalyna frowned. “I wonder what it’d have been like if They hadn’t left Their heart and hand in the Heavens.”
“We wouldn’t be here.”
“Fate passes what it must allow.”
“Why must it allow such hurt and pain? How is it that one thing… so small... can yield such a great aftermath?”
Alaister stared at the flaxen-haired woman beside him. “It’s not that hard to believe.”
“The cynic converts?” Kalyna met with his intent gaze. “What?”
“What I do find hard to fathom is how I am lucky enough to be a part of what’s helping the Prophecy come true.”
“Oh Listener, please... if I’ve learned anything of you Alaister Paine, is that come danger, turmoil, or conquest – a Paine will always be around. You Paines are a constant…” Kalyna paused long enough to burst into giggling. She smiled brilliantly before uttering, “…pain.”
“Really, Kal?"
“It’s the least I could do to cause you some sort of duress. You’re always so…serious.”
“Comes with the territory, I am afraid.”
“I see.”
Alaister watched her track the stars. “You see where the Heart and the Hand touch?”
Kalyna nodded and watched, her teeth to her lip, as Alaister slid behind her.
He extended his hand and gestured to the sky. “Look to the right and up from it. See that row of three stars?”
“Yes.”
“We call it the Sword of Durent. It’s how we always find home again. It leads us North.”
“What?”
“It’s how we stay hidden, Kal. It isn’t luck, we just navigate using different stars than others – patterns you didn’t know existed – and it allows us to fly higher than any other. They don’t know we’re up there because they can’t fathom being up that high themselves because they’d lose sight of the Heart and Hand.”
“Beautifully clever.”
“Yes.”
The pair fell into silence as they gazed at the web of stars.
The folds of her dress were soft between his calloused hand and he longed for the first time in a long while to feel the warmth that the softness could provide. But, Kalyna was the One. She was not just another woman. And, Kalyna’s eyes were elsewhere, unaware of his touch. Her eyes laced through the stars and wove patterns he knew he would never be able to see for himself. His father had shown creative genius in creating the map of the stars exclusively for the Rogues, but he did not inherit that nature.
He had his mother’s inability to create anything of beauty with his own hands but compensated for that draught with his manners and tongue. Beside Kalyna, whose manners and tongue often proved lacking, though her creativity knew no ebb, he felt a balance. Her artistic capabilities and creative nature flourished and nurtured his need for those abilities, while he knew his patient tongue and constant persistence steadied her uneasy nerve. She had said so herself. She feared that she could not control the powers within her – that they would consume her. But, he could control them.
He rubbed the familiar yellow dress between his fingers and returned his eyes to the sky. He found the Abandoned Sickle formation again and turned to explain it to Kalyna. He was met with her stirring copper eyes and a slight smile.
“Well?”
“What?”
“What is that one?”
“That’s the Abandoned Sickle. We don’t really use it much anymore… but my father said it would be able to guide Dragonics who had to cross into foreign lands where our stars might not be as readily visible. That it would always guide us back to our own stars.”
“Places like Lythgor?”
“I’d imagine.”
“Do you think he ever tried to see if it was visible from there?”
He had never thought of that. “It’s possible,” Alaister said.
“Alaister… I’m scared... This is too big for me. This is too much.”
“You sound like I did once…”
“Once… but not anymore. You are strong and gifted with the ability to have people like you wherever you go. I do not, Alaister. I am simple and plain, my only exceptions are my powers, which I fear I won’t always control.”
“You will.”
“How? You won’t always be there to stir me, Alaister.”
“You have it in you to do great things. You’ll find a way.”
“If I cannot?”
“Are you asking me what would happen if you can’t control your powers?”
She nodded. “You’d do what’s best for everyone, right?”
Alaister looked away. He knew what she meant. What she asked with her softened voice and slumped shoulders. What she asked with doubt on her words. He knew he should have been able to give her the exact answer she sought, though it would wound her to hear it. They could not have a crazed, uncontrolled Runic in their midst, and Alaister knew how to remedy that situation as he did all others. It was simple. He should say that he would kill her for the good of the Cause – for the good of the others – even if she was one of the last Runics.
“I’d keep my oath.”
“To the Cause. Good—”
“To you.”
“Alaister!”
“I gave my oath to protect you, and so I shall.”
“You gave your oath and your life to the Cause.”
“Which you are a part of.”
“And, if you can’t have us both? Alaister there may come a time when you will have to choose. Not that I want that, but you must know you have to do what is right and just and good for everyone. Alaister, if I can’t control this… you will have to let go.”
“Your place is here with… with us.” His face was sullen.
“And, if I destroy us?”
“Then we are lost just as we are lost without you.”
Kalyna sighed, frustrated at the cyclical nature of it all.
“No pain will ever befall you Kal that I cannot stop. You understand that, right?”
She nodded and turned around to find that Alaister inches from her face. His square jaw was a breath from hers and his hands cupped her face. He stared with a pained look in his eyes. She did not move from his touch. She hovered with him, unmoving and unbreathing.
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Which is why you will be trained in swords by Callon.”
“Me? Swords?”
“Yes.”
“If that is what you wish Alaister, I will.”
“I want you to use my old practice sword. It’s lighter than usual and you’ll like it; it was my father’s – covered in Drakanic. I’ll leave it for you in your room.”
“Thank you. That’s more than kind.” Kalyna rose then and stared down at Alaister solemnly. “But Alaister…”
“Yes?”
“There is no greater pain to me than not having control. Remember that – will you?”
Alaister watched her flaxen hair as she walked to the plateau's edge. Her hair swished against her back and nipped at her hips before Kalyna stepped off and glided herself down to the Underbelly.
“I will,” he whispered.
THE UNDERBELLY
THE DEN, NORTHERN SOLERAN MOUNTAINS
“Kaly, I don’t like this…”
She looked at Gage and his soft hazel eyes. They always betrayed a slight hint of concern, but never like this. Kalyna stammered, considering for a fleeting moment of yielding. But then, there were times when worry was worth it in the end. She needed this. Their lives depended on it.
“Well, if it were pleasant, I wouldn’t have to learn to fight it…”
“She does make a point, Gage.”
“Stop encouraging her. Honestly…”
Vylain shrugged and wandered to Gage’s side. The old friends stood at an impasse and Vylain waited for Gage to bend under his influence. He always did. Gage blinked and leaned into Vylain’s beckon.
“You actually think that’d stop her?” Vylain whispered.
“It might…”
Gage paused as Kalyna hurled a water bolt at Floxen. The Beast embraced the water barrage, cooing
encouragingly from the sky as he shook off droplets of water onto them. Kalyna laughed playfully and summoned a ball of frost that she began to aim at Tiryne.
“…Not," Gage said.
“Exactly. Kaly, wait.” Vylain approached her spot on Underbelly Ledge and straightened her back. “Pull back deeper; it’ll go farther. And don’t aim at her chest. She’s strongest there. Aim for the throat plating, just under the jaw.”
Grimacing, Kalyna nodded. With a deep inhale, she lobbed the bolt at Tiryne and watched it arc on target towards her throat. Her lips pulled to a smile as the frost bolt crept towards Tiryne who remained steady, daring it to hit her.
“Do I want to know what is going on here?”
Kalyna’s smile lodged angrily in her throat. She cast sideways glances to Vylain and Gage who stood beside her. None turned to address the challenge. They were frozen in place knowing all too well who the lulling voice belonged to.
The frostbolt broke against Tiryne with a glass-shattering ring. Tiryne roared painfully and the three spun away from the ledge to avoid Tiryne’s flailing tail as she dove deep into the canyon. Kalyna rose first, a sheepish grin on her face. She waved from her hip and smiled.
“Hi, Lanthar.”
His lips moved and his celadon eyes grew bigger, but the words Kalyna expected to hear were not there. A large shadow loomed and grew larger over the Ledge.
“Down!” Lanthar ran to close the gap between him, Vylain and Gage, and Kalyna. Tiryne had primed and hurled a delightfully massive boulder half the size of the Ledge right on track for Kalyna.
They could not lose her. Not now – not to one of their own at the very least.
Lanthar leapt off the ground as he watched Vylain and Gage dive aside. But, Kalyna did not move away. She turned, faced the boulder, and before his hands could grab and yank her free, she rose a sealed fist into the air.
The air shuddered with violent warmth.
Behind her closed lids, Kalyna willed her eyes the deep emerald of Earth Runes. She felt the ground beneath her feet and the taste of salt on her tongue. Her eyes opened to the boulder a few moments from collision. She opened her fist and closed it again. She shut her eyes.
