by Cully Mack
‘My name is Mirah. What is yours?’
‘I’m Haia.’
‘I don’t suppose you’ve noticed anyone dressed like the Azu? I’m looking for my friends.’
She shook her head. ‘Could you teach me how to do that?’ she asked, watching the little frog still leaping around.
‘I’m sorry it’s not possible.’
The girl’s face dropped.
‘Maybe when you’re older,’ Mirah said, trying to ease her disappointment. She regretted her words the moment she spoke them. She didn’t want Haia anywhere near Shemyaza or Bishnor or most of the other Wielders.
‘I have to go now and see if I can find my friends,’ Mirah said.
Haia trotted off, gathered the children, and they retired to their beads. A sadness overcame Mirah as she remembered how naïve she’d been playing stones with others at Barakel.
She wandered on until reaching a small brook banked against the edge of the city. On its far side, several cedar trees created long sinister shadows over the ground. She was about to retrace her steps when someone stepped out from behind a tree.
‘Gabe!’
She leaped over the brook and sprinted towards him, crushing her body against his. Emotions which had no language poured out of her with every emerging tear.
‘Easy,’ he said, stepping back to prevent himself from falling.
She never thought she’d see his mischievous grin again. ‘What are you doing here? Did Eran tell you where to find me?’
‘Eran’s alive?’
‘You haven’t seen him?’ she asked wiping her tears.
‘Geez. Eran. When I returned, I only found Tam.’
‘Tam’s alive?’
‘Can we talk about him later?’
She considered asking about Ma but knew in her heart if she’d survived he’d have already said. ‘I can’t believe you’re here.’
Relief washed over her. He looked older, nearly a foot taller, his brown hair cut shorter. His face more tanned with a slight hardening that never existed before. Perspiration glistened on his forehead and his heavy bog stained cloak hung loose off his shoulders.
‘You must be sweltering?’ She contemplated wielding air and cooling him but decided against it. She could explain that later. ‘There’s a brook back there.’
‘I’m not thirsty,’ he said, glancing behind her.
Months worth of dirt covered his dark pants. It seemed strange to see a dagger sheathed at his side. He’d never carried a weapon until now.
‘You look different,’ Mirah said.
‘So do you.’ He reached over tugging on her Taphas shirt. ‘What are you wearing?’
‘It’s kind of normal around here. How did you know how to find me?’
His eyes scanned across the brook making sure no one regarded them. ‘Come, we don’t have much time,’ he said, clutching her hand pulling her into the trees.
She followed him for a few steps but then paused. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I need to get you out of here. Somewhere safer.’
‘I can’t leave.’
He tugged on her hand and she dug her heels into the dusty soil.
‘I’m not leaving. Neviah, Abela and Ayla are here and I’m… I’m getting married.’
‘What?’ he asked. The shock halting him in his tracks.
‘I’m not being forced if that’s what you thinking. I’m sure if you come and meet him, you’d like him. He can arrange somewhere for you to stay. No one else needs to know you are here.’
‘Can you even hear yourself?’ His tone hardened in a way she’d never heard him speak before. ‘Do you realise how ridiculous you sound? You’re only seventeen.’
‘Eighteen,’ she corrected him.
She couldn’t place his expression. Was he angry? A deep pang surged through her at his sharp accusations. She snapped at him, ‘You have no idea what I’ve been through. Don’t judge me.’
‘Have you given yourself to him?’
She flinched, her hands tightening. ‘Not that it’s your business but no.’
‘Then we’re leaving. I will return and get the others once you’re safe.’
She took a pensive stride towards him. ‘I told you, I’m not going.’
‘How can you even consider joining yourself with a Nephilim? Do you know what they are? They’re disgusting murderous hybrids,’ he said, curling his lip.
‘Do you mean the giants? I’m not marrying one of them. Not everyone here is like that.’
He spotted the ring on her finger and blanched. ‘Do you understand how that works?’
‘Of course,’ she answered.
‘Then why? What have they done to you?’ His focus darted behind her for the briefest moment, checking again that no one was watching. ‘I can’t stay. I took a terrible risk sneaking here. If someone finds me—’
‘Please come with me,’ she begged, grabbing hold of his arm.
‘Meciel warned me you might refuse to leave, and I didn’t believe him.’
He turned deathly pale, and she cringed with revulsion at the pain she caused him.
Regret poured from his moistened green eyes. He grabbed her arm and placed his hand on her forehead. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘What are you doing?’ She tried to push him away, but he was much stronger.
Forcing his hand over her forehead, he uttered, ‘Galah.’
A flashing heat seared through her mind and she shoved his arm aside. He let her go so she could step away.
‘What have you done?’
‘I’ve taken the veil from your eyes, Mirah. You need to see the truth.’
She searched around trying to determine if anything looked different but everything appeared the same.
He backed up a step. ‘I’ll return at the same time in three days. I hope you change your mind.’
‘You’re walking out on me? She reached out to him. ‘Gabe, why are you doing this?’
‘Because you leave me no choice.’
❊ 24 ❊
Mirah hesitated under the cedar trees. Part of her longed to chase after Gabe, to convince him and to beg him to stay but he’d bolted too fast and not even looked back.
One moment her hopes had come alive and the next they shattered. She knew Neviah would grab Abela and Ayla and run but what about Nate, would he come with her? Everyone would be in danger when Shemyaza came for him.
Galia, Arella and Zeev flashed through her mind. They were her friends. She didn’t want to leave them. She rubbed her fingers over her forehead to soothe the oncoming ache. He’d given her three days to decide what she would do. Three days to come up with a plan to try and persuade him to change his mind.
She crossed over the brook into the old quarter and cast her eyes to the inky darkness sweeping across the sky. The wind promised an unleashing of torrential rain. A flash of light snapped against the blackened clouds, forcing them to submit and descend lower.
The children playing with the beads had scattered. She hurried along the dimming pathways past the rustic mud-brick houses. The old quarter was abandoned, and she considered if the people thought the coming storm an omen of some kind.
Near the canal, dread wept like the rain itself on the women’s faces. She would have put their desperation down to the suspect omen if it were not for their clenched expressions slathered with ruin.
Widows—though conquered husbands laboured at their side, barren—though coerced children gripped their skirts.
It wasn’t just the defeated gods’ temples brought to ruin, under their lush clothing, shattered shells remained. Everyone unique though unified by a muted wail of agonising grief.
The wind howled and would have extinguished their dreams if they hadn’t died long ago. How had she not seen this before? She curled her fists and fled.
By the time she reached the Diatheatre her face paled ashen. Her breathing as stuttered as the rain. There were no spectra of women smiling in an array of coloured gowns. The once safe
haven now as empty as the expanding void inside. She sat on the well-worn steps, too afraid to go back outside.
What had Gabe done to her? She lifted her knees and hugged them tight against her body. Sometime later the Fallen Star sat by her side.
‘I see someone has removed the veil.’
She cast her gaze over his empathetic frown. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Shemyaza glamoured the city. The truth is what you see now.’
‘How is that possible? Their faces, the people, they are broken.’
‘Perhaps the question you should ask is why?’
She caught the heaviness in his eyes before he explained. ‘Shemyaza’s empire is built on a lie. If the people here don’t submit, then he fills their minds with deception, conditioning them to serve him. They are nothing more than slaves. You already comprehend what happens to those beyond his borders.’
Mirah unfolded her legs and rubbed her hands over the back of her knees, pushing the blood flow into her calves. ‘Why don’t they fight back or leave?’
‘Most don’t know any different and those who once did, can’t remember.’
‘But I’m friends with people who remember. People who are not deluded.’
The Fallen Star’s brows pulled together, and he fixed his gaze on hers. ‘As you know, he has other ways of controlling them.’
She closed her eyes and brushed her thumb in smoothing rotations over her palm, her index finger grazing over her amulet. Her mind flashed to Nate sitting in the garden when he’d said, if there was a way, I would have found it. She looked up to the Fallen Star for answers, maybe he knew something they didn’t.
The Fallen Star stared at her ring. ‘Do you understand what that is? How it functions?’
‘Not really. I mean, I know how to wield but not how it works.’
‘You’ve seen the Isten Baba?’
‘Yes. It’s a portal through which the gods walk.’
The Fallen Star scoffed. ‘They are not gods. Although they attempt to claim the title. The Isten Baba is the first gate from which they descended on the mountain from another realm. It’s not the only gate.
In the unseen realm, time doesn’t dictate like here.’ He drifted, imagining things undefinable and then blinked. ‘There are other beings in that realm who for reasons I’m not at liberty to explain can’t cross over. The amulet you’re wearing is a link between you and a being from the other realm. The Wielder has no power.’
‘I thought the amulet had given me power of my own.’
‘No. The Wielder using the amulet channels another being’s power into this world.’
‘What sort of beings?’
‘They are malevolent, some of them serve Shemyaza. They have no flesh and desire a body of their own.’
Alarmed, she sat up straighter, a tightening rip in her belly seared at the sudden movement. ‘Do any of the Wielders know?’
‘Possibly. I suspect some may have heard their voices.’
Whatever this being was it had been using her. She sensed its taint creep across her flesh. Her skin prickled as if in warning against her destruction. She grabbed her finger to wrench off the ring.
The Fallen Star reached over and placed his hand across hers. ‘I wouldn’t do that right now. Not if you’re planning on returning to the mountain.’
‘Does it know, this being, my thoughts and my feelings? Does it have a name?’
‘It perceives what you allow it. As for its name, there are many. I don’t know who is linked to that ring.’
‘Does Nate know about this?’
The Fallen Star patted her hand. ‘I’m sorry.’
Her voice picked up speed as panic erupted. ‘Why didn’t he tell me that everything I see is an illusion?’ She swallowed the bile rising in her throat. ‘Why didn’t he tell me about this?’ She shook off his hand and lifted her own to show him the ring.
‘That’s something you’ll need to ask him.’
‘How did you find out about this?’
‘I once came from that realm.’
Mirah jumped up from her seating.
‘I’m not like them,’ he said, quickly. ‘Whilst I’m here, I try to ease the people’s pain and suffering.’
A growl tore across the sky and Mirah raised her hands over her ears shielding against the thunder’s lament.
‘The storm is a good sign. As I said to you before, everything has its time and its season. Your journey, as difficult as it has been will one day strengthen you. You should go now before someone wonders where you are.’
He was right, Nate would finish with his men soon. She thanked the Fallen Star and left. She’d figure out what to say to Nate on the way.
As she neared the mountain, the heavens unloaded torrential rain. Her clothes clung and sagged against her skin. Keeping to less travelled roads, she saw no one and was glad, she didn’t think she could bear to see their tormented faces.
Would Nate be the same? What would she do when she faced him?
Gabe had taken the veil from her eyes, only to submerge her in what felt like an ocean of fire. She tried to keep above its waves but the closer she came to the mountain the hotter its heat burned her airways. She was going under. Time felt irrelevant, frozen in the space between unknowing and knowing. A place where she began fading.
She drifted across the deserted courtyard and shivered in the darkened shaft. Her plans to search out Nate’s chamber shifted as she decided to change out of her wet clothes first. She still didn’t know what she’d say to him.
❊
She’d finished changing when he tapped on her door and entered.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked, concern rising on his face.
Her stomach lurched and tried to escape her. ‘Did you know about the glamour?’ she shrieked.
He rushed towards her.
‘Don’t touch me. Did you know?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’ She couldn’t bring herself to say anymore.
‘We can’t discuss this here.’
Rain drenched her clothing as they crossed back over the courtyard.
Nate passed her his cloak. ‘Please take it,’ he urged.
Darkness had arrived early because of the storm. He led her through the deserted city coming to one of the rustic tower homes. Guilt and relief flowed through her. Nate still looked the same.
As soon as he entered the building, he stripped to the waist, dropping his wet clothes on the floor. His blue eyes never left hers as he redressed. She pleaded with herself that he had a good explanation.
The rain pelted against the reed thatched roof almost drowning out the sound of his voice.
‘You’re safe here,’ he reassured her.
Under different circumstances, she’d have asked why he had this place. Not that she could see much in the dim light. She stayed silent, waiting. The only sound, except for the rain was water dripping from his sodden cloak still wrapped around her, as they pattered onto the wooden beamed floor.
He left the room and returned with a woollen blanket. ‘You need to remove those soaking clothes.’
She ignored his offer, refusing to uncross her arms clamped over her breast. Not daring to force her, he lay the blanket on the back of a chair.
‘How could I explain to you what you couldn’t see?’
Mirah conceded to herself his answer made some sense. If she were in his position, how could she have explained it? Relief crept to the edge of her senses but she held it at bay, not able to give into it yet.
‘How did you break through Shemyaza’s glamour?’
She wasn’t ready to expose Gabe and diverted his question with another. ‘Do you know about the beings orchestrating the wielding?’
‘How do you know about that?’
The sharpness of his tone took her off guard, and she blurted out, ‘The Fallen Star seems to be the only one in Hermonial who tells the truth.’
Nate’s shoulders sank, and he reached for her. ‘I didn�
�t want to frighten you.’
She took a step back. ‘So you promised to keep me safe by lying?’
‘I didn’t lie.’
No, he hadn’t lied. He hadn’t mentioned anything at all.
‘You let that Beast use me? You allowed that Beast’s power to surge through me. You said you’d keep me safe.’ She shuddered at the repulsion heaving through her. Couldn’t he see the damage he’d done? ‘Tell me, Nate, where does the truth go when it’s unspoken?’
The tears welling in his blue eyes made them glassy. His voice dipped low, and he surrendered, ‘I never wanted any of this for you.’
‘Neither did I,’ she snapped and dashed out the door into the rain.
His footsteps squelched behind her, following from a short distance away. When she crossed under the lapis archway, they silenced.
❊ 25 ❊
The next morning Sumer came to her room. As soon as Mirah saw the shadows under her weary eyes, she realised Nate had spoken to her.
Did she know about the glamour and the wielding? She was old enough to remember before Shemyaza’s arrival. If she knew then probably so did Zeev and what of Galia and Arella? Did they know about the beasts wielding their power?
‘I’m fine. I’m not hungry. Leave me alone,’ she said, before slamming her door.
After she heard Sumer’s footsteps pad down the tunnel, she peeked out of her chamber and left to speak to Neviah. She had an idea she wanted to test, but they needed to be far from the mountain.
She slipped into Neviah’s room and shut the door. ‘I’m not going to training. Will you meet me by the river later? There’s something we have to discuss?’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I can’t talk about it now. Please, just stick to your routine. I don’t want anyone to become suspicious.’
‘What about Nate?’
‘Tell him, I’m unwell.’
For the next few hours, she stayed in her room fretting that he might knock on her door.
❊
When she approached the river, Neviah stood up and wiped the sand from her clothing.
‘What’s going on? Nate looked as terrible this morning as you do. He stormed off into the city when I told him you were sick.’
