by Hanna Peach
“And having your ring on me helps?”
“Yes. When you are holding something that belongs to me it helps to connect our energies. It’s the same reason why it is easier to find someone in the DreamPlain when you are holding something of theirs.”
“Can I alert anyone using DreamCalling?”
“No. Just DreamWalkers. Our ability allows us a far greater affinity with the DreamPlain and we are more sensitive to the energies. DreamCalls are very subtle. My DreamWalker ability allows me to keep a connection with the DreamPlain but, like anything, it gets tiring after a while. After years of practice I can now keep it up for several hours at a time.” Jordan doesn’t say this with any arrogance but in a matter of fact way.
He continues, “When you send out a DreamCall it’s like sending a small vibration to me which I can pick up through my connection to the Plain. But I’ll only feel it if I am also connected to the Plain and if I am open to receiving energies from you.”
“But couldn’t I receive DreamCalls if I use DreamWalker bloodink?”
Jordan scrunches his face up. “Theoretically you could. But like I said, you would have to keep up a connection with the DreamScape and that would use up your bloodink really quickly.”
Alyx isn’t getting the hang of DreamCalling. She can’t concentrate. Every time she closes her eyes she sees Israel’s face. His face in pain. How can she be expected to just lie here when...
Images of Israel being tortured fill her mind. It makes her feel sick. Like someone is gripping her chest with their fist and twisting so that she has to fight just to breathe.
“Relax Alyx.”
“How can you just sit there all calm? They could be killing him right now.”
“Michael wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of capturing the mortal if he’s just going to kill him. He’ll be fine. Besides, if you get in trouble this may be your only lifeline. Now try again. Focus your awareness on my ring and speak my name in your mind.”
“The mortal’s name is Israel,” Alyx mutters as she lies back down.
Jordan seems to refuse to call Israel by his name. She doesn’t know why but this annoys her.
They go over and over this exercise. Finally, Alyx manages to send a DreamCall.
“Finally, can we stop now?”
“That took you over a minute to get the DreamCall through. You need to be quicker. Try again.”
Alyx grumbles but she does what he says.
She has just managed to reduce the time down to several seconds when a noise outside interrupts them. A low whistle.
Lukas.
Alyx follows Jordan out onto the porch to greet him. Jordan and Lukas clasp hands.
“This is Alyx,” says Jordan. “The one I was telling you about.”
Lukas is a dark-skinned man with thick black hair and a strong nose. Alyx notices an intricately detailed tattoo banded around his left arm. On his shoulder is a pair of swallows, their feet unadorned.
“You don’t use Animale bracelets?” Alyx asks.
“Alyx,” admonishes Jordan.
“It’s okay Jordan,” Lukas says. Turning to Alyx he says, “I don’t use Animale bracelets. It’s unnecessary. My swallows, Zulu and Nerabah stay with me and help me because they want to, not because the bracelets force them to stay near. They are my friends, my family. Can you imagine being made to stay within a confined area and only being let out to carry out orders?”
Alyx thinks of her lost life at Michaelea. I can imagine.
Chapter 60
Just outside Michaelea, Alyx, Jordan and Lukas wait in silence just inside the ward’s edge. Alyx can hear the distant passing of the patrole guards through the trees. She holds her breath until the noise fades.
Where are the swallows? What if they don’t come back? Lukas seems to think he has these untethered swallows under his command but Alyx isn’t sure.
Minutes later the two swallows return. They coo softly to Lukas, one on each shoulder. Lukas listens intently, whispers something back to them and they take off back into the air.
“There is a break in the patrole lines coming up,” Lukas says. “Zulu and Nerabah will call out when it is safe for you to go. You’ll have less than two minutes to get through the lines.” Lukas looks at Jordan. “I hope you understand what you’re doing. As a Rogue within the Michaelea wards, if you get caught they’ll kill you on sight.”
“I won’t get caught.” Jordan clasps a hand on Lukas’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Thank me by getting out alive. Go. They have just called. Remember, less than two minutes.”
As Alyx and Jordan leave the safety of their hiding place, Alyx looks back and catches Lukas staring at her, a wary glint in his eyes.
Alyx and Jordan make their way through the ward lines, darting through the canopy in silence. Once through the patrole lines they veer left around the outskirts of the lake towards Mayrekk’s hut. Alyx is still thinking about the look Lukas gave her.
“Don’t take it personally,” Jordan says. “Lukas is just worried about me.”
Alyx starts. “Are you a mind reader or something?”
“No, I can see it on your face.”
“I didn’t realize I was so obvious.”
“You’re not. I’ve just learnt to read people. Out here, as a FreeThinker, you learn very quickly how to observe people, how to know when to trust someone. You need to if you’re going to survive. You can’t just trust that if someone is Seraphim they’re your friend, nor can you assume that just because someone has horns that they’re your enemy.”
Alyx let this sink in. “So, you and Lukas have been friends for long?”
“Lukas is the one who found me when I first left Michaelea. He’s been like a brother to me ever since. We’ve been through a lot together.”
Alyx wants to ask more but Jordan signals her to be silent. They are nearing Mayrekk’s hut.
Two guards are standing on either side of Mayrekk’s door, Alyx and Jordan crouching low in the nearby bushes. They are close enough that Alyx can recognize the guards as lightwarriors, although she doesn’t know their names.
“What do we do now?” whispers Alyx.
“I have an idea. Wait here.”
Before Alyx can ask where he is going Jordan disappears into the undergrowth. She can’t see him now. She hopes he knows what he is doing.
Alyx counts the minutes that pass, each one feeling longer and causing her shoulder to pinch higher and higher. Where is he?
She sees Jordan dart from the bushes around the side of Mayrekk’s hut and up along the curve of the roof. Did one of the guards just flinch? Did he hear Jordan approaching?
Jordan peers over the edge of the roof just as one of the guards looks up. Jordan points his open palms towards them both. The other guard collapses to the ground but the one that has seen Jordan has started to resist. Alyx can see DreamWalker running off the guard’s shield.
The guard holds out his left hand. Alyx can see the swirl of red mist begin to collect in his palm. FireTwirler. Alyx launches from her hiding place towards the guard, drawing some of the WaterBearer bloodink from her ribs.
“Jordan, look out,” she cries.
The guard turns his head. Seeing Alyx coming for him, he launches his Fireball at her. Alyx throws her Water as she twists in the air.
Fire and Water collide.
Jordan leaps off the building and tackles the guard to the ground. Jordan hits him, once, twice, before his shield fails. DreamWalker flows into him and he is finally still.
Jordan struggles to his feet, his face is pale and he is breathing heavily.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Pushing two Seraphim guards to sleep takes it out of me, especially as they are resistant to DreamWalker sleep. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
“Who’s there? What’s going on?” Mayrekk’s face appears from his doorway. His jaw drops when he sees them. “Alyx? Jordan? What are you two doing here?”
Alyx stares a
t Mayrekk then Jordan. “You two know each other?”
Jordan ignores her question and speaks instead to Mayrekk, “Thank God you’re okay. I was worried when I stopped hearing from you.”
“I couldn’t get any messages out. They are watching me so closely, guarding me. I’m glad you found her.”
“Wait, you are Jordan’s source?” Alyx stares at Mayrekk as if she has never seen him before.
Mayrekk was the one feeding Jordan information. Mayrekk has more secrets then she knows.
“Come inside before somebody sees you.” Mayrekk looks down at the two guards lying at the foot of his door. “Heaven almighty. And drag them in here and tie them up.”
Inside his hut, Mayrekk finds several pieces of rope which Alyx and Jordan use to bind the sleeping guards.
Mayrekk’s happiness to see them turns to worry at the sight of Alyx’s bandages. “What happened to your shoulder, and your leg?”
“The Darkened,” says Alyx.
“Black Stone,” says Jordan.
Mayrekk sits down abruptly, the color draining from his face.
“…discovered Black Stone. The balance of powers is shifting. The prophecy…” he mumbles as he mops his brow with his sleeve. Alyx sees the flash of silver again at his wrist.
Alyx steps forward to Mayrekk. “You know what’s going on.”
Mayrekk turns his gaze to Alyx. “You’re the Guardian that Raphael prophesized about.”
“What does this mean?”
“I’m not sure.”
Alyx cries out in frustration. “Why won’t you tell me anything? You were Raphael’s friend. Don’t tell me you don’t know what it means.”
Mayrekk looks woeful. “Raphael didn’t tell me much. He said that it was for my own safety. He said, the less I knew the less danger I would be in.”
Jordan speaks up, “I hate to interrupt but we don’t have time to waste. We have to get the mortal out of here before the guards wake and find a way to contact the others.”
“Israel is here?” Mayrekk says, eyes widening.
“Michael is holding him in Hollows,” says Alyx. “I need to get him out but I― we,” Alyx looks at Jordan, “we need your help.”
“What do you need?” asks Mayrekk.
“Bloodink. Alchemist and EarthSifter at the least. And anything else you can spare.”
“I don’t have much of anything left but what I have is yours.” Mayrekk moves towards the bloodink room and retracts the shield. There are three vials of bloodink, one green, one orange, one bronze, lying lonely at the bottom of the baskets.
“What happened to all the bloodink?”
“The Elders have stopped trusting me with them. They send someone to collect any new bloodink at the end of every day to be kept somewhere else. I only have these few that I distilled today.”
Alyx feels her heart skip a beat. “Mayrekk, you didn’t tell the Elders that you helped me did you?”
“Of course not.”
“But they didn’t believe you.”
“It’s not your fault, child. Michael never liked me because of my friendship with Raphael. He would have used any excuse...”
Her voice drops to a whisper, “Oh Mayrekk, what did he do to you?”
“Now is not the time,” Mayrekk says, stepping into the room and pulling out the bloodink vials from their wire baskets. “You have Israel to save and a destiny to fulfill.”
“I thought Israel was the one with the destiny?”
The air grows thick with untold secrets. Mayrekk looks at Jordan and something unspoken seems to pass between them.
Jordan clears his throat and steps towards the front door. “I’ll wait for you outside. Be quick.”
When they are alone Alyx turns to Mayrekk. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Mayrekk has fixed up three bloodink tattoo quills. He holds the first one up. She lifts up the side of her shirt and Mayrekk begins to tattoo along the side of her ribs under the remaining WaterBearer, AirWhisperer and DreamWalker tattoos.
“The Blood Prophecies say that if you can unite the three bloods then it will create a keye. The keye that can unlock the celestial gates. This means between earth and heaven, but it also means between earth and hell.”
If someone is able to create the keye and collect all of the pieces of the amulet... Alyx feels a chill go through her as she imagines the gates to hell opening and Lucifer’s army being unleashed upon the earth.
Mayrekk continues, “The prophecies talks about a Seraphim and a demon-mortal that fall in love. If they are to have a child, their child will have the three bloods united in his or her body.” Mayrekk looks at Alyx pointedly.
Alyx shakes her head. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“I don’t believe that your friend Israel is fully mortal.”
Her jaw drops. “You think Israel’s the demon-mortal?” And I’m the Seraphim. Alyx feels her stomach cramp.
Mayrekk looks up suddenly. “You haven’t... with him, have you?”
“No,” Alyx lies. “Of course not.”
“Good. Don’t.”
Alyx fights to keep her hands from touching her stomach. Could she be? It had only been just once.
Alyx is struggling to keep herself together. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I needed to be sure you were the one before I went and opened my mouth. I made the mistake before.” In that moment it seemed that the shadow of a ghost fell across his face. “She paid dearly for it.”
Alyx’s mind is still a whirl as Mayrekk finishes the tattoos: EarthSifter, Animale, Alchemist.
“Raphael left me instructions for you,” Mayrekk says. “Wait here.”
He moves through the shelves of his hut and stops at a shelf half-way across the room, crouching to the bottom shelf. Alyx can hear a tinkering of objects being shuffled and moved in a jar.
Mayrekk returns with a small circular object in his fingers.
“What is it?”
“On its own it doesn’t make sense, but with its partner...” Mayrekk pulls out another charm from under his shirt then slots the circular object into it. It clicks perfectly into place. Mayrekk then removes the necklace from around his neck and holds it out to her. “This is for you.”
“It doesn’t look like anything.” Alyx asks picking up the chain from his palm. A chain with a circle of metal hangs off the end. “What does it do?”
“Touch it,” Mayrekk says.
Alyx frowns and put the fingers of her other hand to the metal. At her touch it begins to shimmer. She gasps. MirageWeaver magic had been weaved into the charm.
The glamour falls away revealing a silver charm, an eight pointed star within a circle. Engraved around the outer and front edges of the circle are letters that shine as if it has been written in pearl-ink.
Alyx turns the charm as she reads the words out, “‘Look within your soul to find the path to the truth.’ Mayrekk... what does this mean?”
“I don’t know,” he says, slumping into his chair. “Raphael just told me to give this to the Guardian. He said that only the Guardian could understand it. He said I’d know when she appears. He told me he wouldn’t be around to give it to her himself. He gave it to me the day before Michael killed him, as if he knew it was going to happen.”
“Killed him?” Alyx says, as the story of the First Betrayal flashes through her mind. “But Raphael wasn’t killed, he took his own―.”
She doesn’t finish the sentence. She realizes the truth. The Elders’ story of Raphael’s Betrayal is exactly that, a story. A lie. To keep the Seraphim ignorant. Raphael didn’t take his own life. He had been killed. Silenced.
Raphael knew this was coming.
Alyx realizes the danger they’re all in. Michael killed for this prophecy. He killed one of their own, one of his own Brothers... and now he has Israel...
Alyx places the necklace around her neck and rubs the charm. “Mayrekk, what if I fail? What if I can’t stop him? What if I’m
too late? What if―?”
Mayrekk places his hands on her shoulders, silencing her. “Have faith. Raphael had faith in you. So do I.” He smiles. “Now go. You don’t have much time.”
“You’re coming with us.”
Mayrekk shakes his head. “I can’t leave this place Alyx.”
“Why?”
Mayrekk lifts his right hand and pulls down the sleeve of his shirt. The flashes of silver Alyx kept seeing... it is a thick silver cuff with symbols etched on it.
“It’s a prisoner’s bracelet. A more powerful version of an Animale bracelet. It physically stops me from moving too far away from the cuff’s apex. The apex is the tether and is also the key to unlock the bracelet.”
Alyx remembers how Mayrekk halted suddenly in the woods once when they had been walking, as if he couldn’t move any further forward. She understood now, he had reached the end of his magical-tether.
“You can’t get it off?”
“It’s designed to inject a poison in through the skin if anyone tries to break or remove it.”
Mayrekk is a prisoner. Has always been a prisoner.
Alyx feels her body grow hot. “Why would they do this to you?”
“I was Raphael’s confidant, his supporter and his closest friend. I did things and continue to do things for him in defiance of the Elders. The Elders have never has any real proof although they have always suspected me. The only reason they haven’t killed me is because they need my gift.”
“Where’s the apex now?”
“I’m sure that Michael has it somewhere, hidden and shielded.”
“What does it look like?”
But Alyx already knows the answer. She remembers where she has seen similar markings before.
“It’s another silver cuff that fits over this one, inlaid with the same markings.”
A silver cuff inlaid with markings. The cuff in the secret drawer in Michael’s chambers is the apex. The key to Mayrekk’s freedom. A curse falls from her lips. She had her fingers on the damn thing. If only she had known how important it was. If only...
“Why don’t you fight your way out? Use the bloodink you distil against the Elders?’’
