Wings of Creation

by Brenda Cooper

  I wasn’t Joseph’s sister! I was his lover. Now what. What if I said no? Now I knew that was what I wanted to say.

  No.

  How much had Amalo risked taking me from the jail they’d been keeping me in? What would he do to me if I refused, especially after I’d almost begged?

  Even a risk-taker knows when isn’t a time for risk. Or maybe I was finally learning. I tried to buy time. “Thank you for the honor and trust,” I said. “I do need to tell my family.”

  Amalo hesitated, and then said, “That may be difficult.”

  “I know where some of them are.” Maybe if I found them they would keep me safe from myself. Why did I always make that so hard?

  “For now, perhaps we should answer your questions.”

  Okay. I had questions, anyway. Asking a question wasn’t a commitment. “How long does it take?”

  Marti smiled shyly and mumbled. “It took me three months. And then two more to condition to fly. For others it takes longer. Rarely less. You are already strong, and it may take you less time to teach your body to love its wings. I came from Silver’s Home.”

  “What if I succeed, and then I change my mind?”

  Amalo answered. “We could cut your wings off, and you would become like Seeyan, a wingless flier. But you cannot go back to being who you are now. You will be transformed.”

  “If you can turn me one way, why not also the other?”

  “There has never been a demand to go the other way. The processes have not been tried often.”

  Interesting, that they had been tried at all.

  Marti added, “But you will not want to go back. Perhaps you are hesitating now, but to fly is to touch the skies and see the world all at once, to gain a perspective that no ground-born can ever have.” She made sure I was looking at her, and then she spoke softly but firmly. “Don’t let your fear keep you from this. It is the most beautiful state in the world, to be a flier. We turn away thousands of petitioners every year. You’ve suffered, and because of your suffering you have the soul of a flier.”

  She clearly believed it. What had I done?

  The slow flap of wings told me to look up. Tsawo and Angeline flew in the top of the house, Tsawo’s face dark. Before they had even landed, another flier came in behind them; the blonde from the first day. This morning she looked even angrier than she had at the welcoming feast. On a flier’s face, anger was a strange expression, twisting her features, elongating her chin. Their faces were made for serenity, and joy, and pain, but less so for anger or desire. Right after she landed, she shook her wings hard, as if needing to get every feather into place.

  Tsawo turned to her before even acknowledging any of us. His voice dripped a bad welcome. “Mille. What a surprise.”

  She let him have it. “Why thank you for keeping me in the loop. You know they think Joseph succeeded? They think your niece can have babies. You will change all of our world!”

  Angeline looked dryly at her. “You mean Silver’s Home won’t need you to broker babies anymore?”

  Of course, that wasn’t the position Mille took. “I mean we will no longer be the beautiful martyrs we are. We will become like all the rest, only less. We will be animals.”

  Tsawo laughed in her face and she backed up two steps, but she didn’t stop her rant. “They will never admit us to the Court of Worlds. The Islans will no longer care about us. Everything we know will change.”

  Angeline again spoke quietly. “Marcus has already arranged a place for us on the Courts. It is done. We are full humans.”

  Wow. Good for him. I mean, I didn’t know what that meant, not really, but it sounded good.

  Mille looked like she’d swallowed a bee. She sputtered and glanced back and forth between Amalo and Tsawo.

  It was like watching three jeweled butterflies argue.

  Amalo cleared his throat. I expected him to talk to Mille, but he spoke to Tsawo, his voice full of authority. “What about our promise to take sides in the war?”

  He was on Mille’s side?

  Tsawo answered politely, as if he did, in fact, answer to Amalo. “I have a plan.”

  Amalo frowned. “A promise was made. Even though you and I did not make it, all of us will be held accountable if it is broken.”

  Angeline grabbed her brother’s hand and held it up. “I trust Tsawo. He should have his chance.”

  Amalo gave them both a look that would have withered a paw-cat. Apparently Tsawo was used to it. He just stood, waiting, and while he and Angeline stood quietly, some of the anger leaked from Amalo. The feather around Tsawo’s neck rose and fell as he breathed, and his hair blew a tiny bit in a soft eddy of wind that came in from the open roof, kissing him and moving on. Otherwise he might as well have been part of a carved statue.

  Amalo finally said, “I’m old, and I didn’t expect to see this day.”

  I didn’t quite understand the conversation. I glanced at Marti, who hadn’t said a word since the other fliers came in. The color had drained from her face. No one seemed to be honoring her because she was a wingless human given flight. Rather, she seemed afraid, and shrank back a bit from Mille. The other fliers all ignored her.

  Mille cleared her throat and said, “I don’t care who leads us or who made what promises to whom. We shouldn’t let these children of our masters lead us to war.”

  This time it was Tsawo who seemed to temporarily side with her. “Not to worry. I won’t.”

  “Or fly.” She glared at me, as good as Amalo at sending scorn without a word. Maybe getting old made people good at that. “Don’t give them wings.”

  I wanted to stick my tongue out at her, but I followed Tsawo’s lead and simply stared back. Unlike Amalo, she didn’t wither at all, and I thought perhaps we’d stare each other down like dogs until one of us keeled over from hunger.

  Amalo cleared his throat and announced, “I am the one who chooses, and I have chosen.”

  Mille stepped back, looking like she wanted to raise a hand to him but didn’t dare. Tsawo’s head snapped around and his dark eyes bored into me, taking the place of Mille’s more malevolent gaze.

  I did turn away from him.

  He stepped close to me and put a hand on my cheek, turning my face toward his. “You will lose your ability to run like the wind.”

  His words drew a shiver from my core, and it was all I could do not to look away from him. He rewarded me with a soft kiss on the forehead. “If you live, I will be your flying teacher.”

  And then he kissed my lips. He tasted of sweat and nuts, and the sweet clear air of Lopali.

  I still wanted out. I wanted both things, for Tsawo to teach me to fly the way he did, to kiss him again, to kiss him every day, and to leave this place and never come back. To stay with Joseph and cheer him on, and make him take risks when he needed to.

  Mille glared even harder at me and gave a great leap and a hard flap of wings, so hard she gasped in pain as she cleared the roof, and then she was gone. I immediately wished to never see her again.

  Amalo did not appear to like the kiss that Tsawo had given me a whole lot more than Mille did. He gave me a slightly disgusted look, and took Tsawo by the arm, and gestured up. Amalo and Tsawo took off, far more gently and with far more control than Mille had shown. Angeline looked more confused than angry or disgusted, but she followed the others into the sky. Apparently they needed to talk without me.

  I glanced at Marti, who shrank a bit from me this time. I sighed, loudly, and said, “I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.”

  She shook her head, as if she’d run out of words.

  “Excuse me,” I said. “I need to freshen up.” When I said it, I really did mean to go to the bathroom. But as soon as I was there, looking in the mirror, it was the most natural thing in the world to turn my mod on, and walk right past Marti and out the door.

  41

  JOSEPH: THE JOURNEY

  Twenty pointless minutes passed while we waited for word about Seeyan. We’d moved to a scrap
of grass by a perch so Matriana and Daniel would be more comfortable. Kayleen and I sat below them, too close to talk without being overheard. Marcus paced, walking circles around us all. Beside me, Sasha’s head followed Marcus, so between the two of them, I felt dizzy.

  Kayleen looked quizzical. “How come you’re so tense?”

  “I keep expecting Induan to poke me out of thin air and make me jump.”

  She grinned. “I’d think you’d be used to it with Alicia and all.”

  I reddened. We had played night games that took advantage of her invisibility. “I hope Alicia’s with Chelo and the others. Your mom, too, of course.”

  Kayleen smiled, her face soft. “Me, too. I’m happy for the few minutes of rest.”

  Of course she was. She’d had no break since we almost lost her. I had a map in my memory: Charmed wasn’t far; as close to Oshai as SoBright, but more of a tourist destination. We needed to start soon, or risk Lushia or whatever Star Mercenary was after us this time.

  Finally, one of the two fliers who had chased Seeyan off landed right behind Matriana and Daniel, the look on her face drawing us to our feet. She had black feathers with a few orange highlights on the tips, and matching highlights in her short hair. She gasped for breath.

  “What happened?” Matriana asked.

  “Chelo . . . we saw her.” Gasp. “She’s with the bigman with the knives for nails.” She stopped for a few breaths. “He . . . he killed her.”

  What? No!

  “Killed Seeyan. Seeyan’s dead.” Her eyes closed slowly, and then opened again, still slowly. “Her neck broke. She has flier bones; she didn’t stand a chance.” She looked as if she were trying hard not to cry.

  “Where are they now?” Daniel asked.

  “Coming. Following Atoni.”

  That must be the other flier. “What direction? Can you take us there?”

  “No.” It was a command from Marcus. “Wait. Let them come to us. Let’s get the wings out.”

  Wrong answer. “I want to go to her.”

  He just stared at me.

  “Why fly anyway? It has to be more conspicuous.”

  “Most of the people trying to hurt us aren’t fliers. We should be able to avoid them.”

  I wanted to knock him aside and race down the road to find Chelo. Of course, he was right. He was always right. The strategist as well as the Maker. I gritted my teeth and started pulling wings carefully out of the four-wheeler. What had the flier meant? Bryan—she had to have been referring to Bryan. How could he have killed Seeyan? I understood what the flier had said, had been deep in the sims and knew how fragile they were, but that didn’t really help me understand.

  I just couldn’t see it. Her dead, or Bryan killing her.

  We pulled a dozen pairs of wings out of the vehicle, one after another, so many it didn’t look as if they could have fit inside. I smiled when I saw Stark had included a set of power-assisted wings for Bryan. The efficient assistant. Just as I rested the last pair on the ground, Sasha whined, nearly drowning out the footsteps and wing beats that announced the arrival of a storm of our people. Chelo came first, racing right into my arms. She smelled of sweat and tears and of herself, and I breathed against her skin and clutched her to me, happy to hear her heart beating.

  Kayleen flew past me and Chelo, heading straight for Paloma, who was flanked by Jenna and Tiala. They ran one on each side of her, with Dianne close behind, so the three women had her cupped. As Paloma swung around in Kayleen’s embrace, tears glistened as the sun touched her cheeks.

  I ran my fingers down Chelo’s cheeks. They were damp, too. She ran her hands through my short hair. “You cut it.”

  “Induan cut it. Part of a disguise.”

  The flier landed, a man with white wings spangled with small black spots, like a peppered egg. Atoni.

  Bryan and Ming seemed stuck together, both of their faces hard to read but Bryan’s eyes angry and shocked all at once. Marcus stopped them, firing questions I couldn’t quite hear, and didn’t really care about. “Where’s Alicia?” I whispered. “Where is she?”

  Chelo pushed back from me, and ran the backs of her hands along her cheeks to dry them. “She went with the fliers.”

  “Who? Tsawo?”

  “A gray flier. Gray wings, gray eyes. And a bright red flier girl, might be young. She’s small, anyway. I didn’t get their names.”

  “We’re leaving,” I whispered. “We’re leaving Lopali.”

  “What about the babies? Liam?”

  “They’re coming.” They had to be. “With a man named Stark, maybe. Anyway, with someone.”

  Her features hardened for a moment. “They better be safe.” She let go of me and went to Kayleen and Paloma, talking to them in low tones. I looked around for followers. Surely there would be some.

  Nothing. Not yet, anyway.

  Marcus must have had the same thought. “Come on. We have a lot of flying to do. We’ll have to go around Oshai.”

  Dianne put a hand on his arm and whispered in his ear.

  He leaned down to listen to her, and a frustrated look crossed his face. When he stood his message had changed. “Get them food and water. Ten minutes and we need to go.”

  Of course. They’d been captives.

  Their stories unfolded as we fed them. As I learned about Seeyan betraying Chelo, and Juss being a bad guy, I had to work at it not to be glad Seeyan was dead. Except I’d liked her, and I guess sometimes the people you like aren’t what they seem. Like this whole planet.

  We each selected wings. One set lay out on the ground unclaimed. Alicia’s wings.

  No one knew where Alicia had been taken. The women who had been imprisoned with her mostly thought she’d gone of her own accord; not a prisoner at all. Enough seemed sure she wasn’t still in the compound to keep me from wanting to stay here.

  Would she have left me of her own accord? A hole seeped into my body, the one she filled when we were close, when her head rested against my chest and we talked.

  I was angry with Alicia and the gray flier, and mad at her for the gray flier, and I missed her.

  I strapped my wings onto my biceps. As I fastened the chest belt, Sasha gave out a forlorn whimper, and I remembered she couldn’t fly.

  I knelt down. With my wings serving as balance, I kissed her wet, dark nose and whispered, “Run along with us. I’ll carry extra water for you. I can’t fly fast anyway.” I wasn’t willing to leave her here, not after I’d brought her all the way from Fremont.

  She was a normal dog from home, with no enhancement at all, but she understood me. She licked my face and sat, her head cocked to one side, so she appeared to be listening for something. She was so patient and steady, so true. “Sash,” I said to her, “you’re my role model.”

  She merely cocked her head to the other side.

  Chelo came up beside me. She had been crying. “Help me look out for Bryan.”

  I couldn’t hold her because we both wore wings. “Of course. Did he really kill Seeyan?”

  She nodded miserably. “He didn’t mean to, and he hates it. It’s hurting him. I thought . . . maybe . . . maybe you had a similar . . . you could help him.”

  I could. “As soon as we get away safely. There’s not time now.”

  “I know. Thanks.”

  “Let’s go!” Marcus called out. “Matriana and Daniel will lead. Then Chelo and Joseph, then Kayleen and Paloma, Jenna and Tiala, Bryan and Ming, and then me.”

  We went, following his order. Matriana and Daniel stayed really low through town, flying straight back the way we’d driven in.

  The other two fliers, Atoni and the woman with black-and-orange wings, flew high above us all, as if watching for unexpected threats.

  Sasha flowed along the ground below us, running all out. It was harder for her—we could fly straight and she had to go up and down the hills, and sometimes, around obstacles. I’d have to fly slower if she was going to make it. I might have counted on Seeyan to help me before, like s
he’d brought Sasha to the cave, and the thought made me bobble and lose altitude so fast Chelo yelled at me. When I got straightened back out, flying at the right level and beside my sister again, my dog had fallen behind. I thought I saw her topping a rise of hill behind me, and below the last of our group, but I couldn’t be sure. It was too hard to look backward and fly frontward all at once.

  We left the city behind and flew over open fields, our path keeping us from roads. Here, Matriana and Daniel led us higher in the air, and more fliers came in to join us, one by one by two by one. Soon we had an escort of twenty or thirty, which wasn’t exactly a way to avoid attention. Maybe. My thought felt bitter. Maybe Marcus was making this into a story to spin for the world and he needed visuals.

  We flew over an hour before Marcus called a halt. The whole crowd of us landed by a copse of trees near an open field, and three Keepers jogged out of the trees and gave us water and nut-buttered bread and fruit, hand-feeding us so we didn’t have to take off our wings. The man who fed me and Chelo kept his head down, and his hands shook. He had a huge smile the few times he let us see it, a clue the shaking was more from pleasure than from fear. As he left he said, “Bless you. Bless you all.”

  Chelo and I looked at each other, and her eyes looked like I felt—like she was caught up in some strange dream and that the dream itched. We didn’t talk about it, but just checked the buckles and straps on our wings. I watched for Sasha, hoping to see her bound up over a rise, ears flapping.

  She didn’t show.

  My shoulders felt the strain by the time we finally got close to Charmed, and I had fallen farther to the back. Chelo flew next to me. Kayleen looped back and forth between us and Paloma. Marcus had the rear, with at least four or five of our ever-growing escort. I couldn’t really be sure how many were behind, but when I’d last counted the escort it had grown to over thirty, plus the eleven of us. Bryan and Ming were in the front, Bryan looking almost graceful in his power-assisted wings.

  Charmed’s spaceport looked a lot like the one at Oshai, complete with cargo vehicles and a ring of perch-trees. Sunshine gleamed on two of the most elegant deep-space ships I’d ever seen. They stole my own attention from my aching shoulders and lower back. Both were tall and slender, one twice the size of the other. Something about them spoke of the joy of flying, although I couldn’t have identified what piece of the design gave it such elegance if I’d been asked directly. The smaller one was the same class of ship as Creator, and the bigger could have held our group ten times over. Its sleek exterior suggested it hadn’t ever dirtied itself carrying much cargo. Probably we were going to take the bigger one.