Heirs of War

by Mara Valderran

  Sheridan made a noise of dismissal as she straightened her shirt. "She's just trying to teach me to be strong," she said and turned around. Her cheeks flushed as she noticed Ariana sitting up and realized she had been watching the entire exchange.

  "She did this to you?" Ariana asked with soft disgust. "Your own mother? I'm so sorry, Sheridan."

  Sheridan crossed her arms over her chest. "If I'm to be a good leader, I have to be strong. I have to be able to endure whatever torture my enemies might inflict on me. She's just teaching me to be strong like her."

  Ariana stood up, her ire building. "She's teaching you to be a monster like her! A monster who beats her own daughter and tortures a bunch of teenagers to get what she wants."

  "She's my mother. And she is doing everything she can to make sure the future is better. You'll see," she promised before turning on her heel and leaving.

  Ariana shifted uncomfortably at the knowing stare Alec directed at her. "What? I'm not wrong. Kellen is a monster. Figured that out in the first five minutes."

  He clasped his hands behind his back. "Do you see now why I told you not to judge Sheridan so harshly? How much of our conversation did you hear, exactly?"

  "I don't know...All of it? But look, she said some pretty useful things, don't you think?"

  He lifted his palms in question. "Like what, exactly?"

  "Well," Ariana said, dropping her voice as she glanced the guards, "for starters she said I was the most powerful person in existence. I mean, that's got to be something we can use, right? You could show me how to use magic like Kellen does, and I can bust us out of here."

  "It's hardly so simple. For one, you also heard what she said about using too much power. This is something you are taught from childhood. Why they failed to teach you is beyond me, but I would hope they have someone prepared in Anscombe to do just that. And once we get there, you will learn, and you will be powerful. Until then...."

  "What? I'm supposed to sit back and be useless until they decide to kill me?" She took a step toward him pleadingly. "Because you heard what Sheridan said. They are going to kill me, Alec. It's just a matter of when. I can't just hang out and wait for that to happen. And I didn't take you for the kind of person who would let it happen either."

  He grabbed her upper arm, pulling her from the hearing range of the guards. "I don't intend to," he hissed. "But your way won't work. To begin with, I cannot teach you how to control your power as my people have none. We have other abilities, which I will to use to our advantage. But we have to plan this carefully, and you have to be certain you can do your part. Which means you follow my lead with no questions and no arguments. Do you understand?"

  Ariana looked at him haughtily. "I know we just met and all, but let's get something straight. I don't do well with people telling me what to do. And I argue about everything. My Dad says I argue like it's my own personal oxygen."

  He cocked his head to the side, sneering. "Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, let me just say that I don't do well with unnecessary distractions or questions. So keep them to a minimum."

  She sneered back. "Fine. Just because you're helping me." She softened as she continued to stare at him. "Which I appreciate, even if you're just doing your duty or whatever you said before to Sheridan. So what's your plan?"

  ***

  Zelene stretched lazily across her bed, pulling her blanket up over her face to block out the sunlight. She stretched her arms above her head, feeling a slight discomfort in her neck where the muscles were stiff and sore. She could hear hushed whispers not too far away and was about to tell Nora to get the hell out of her room, but then she remembered: Nora was dead. And Zelene herself had nearly been killed, but Kyle saved her.

  Only now Kyle was near death.

  Zelene curled her knees into her chest as the events of the past twenty-four hours came flooding back to her. She didn't want to get out from underneath the covers. She wanted to believe this to be one big, bad dream.

  "Come now, youn' miss, me knows ya be awake now," a squeaky female voice with an accent making her difficult to understand said from right beside her bed. The voice seemed to be level with her pillow, as though they were kneeling beside her. "Is time t' eat. Time t' wake up. Big day 'head of ya, youn' miss."

  Zelene slowly pulled back the blanket, the idea of food overruling the idea of exercising denial through sleeping. She was met with a pair of eyes so big they gave the impression that someone had screwed two light bulbs into a tan furry face and painted large black dots on them. Her own eyes widened as she screamed, flying off her bed and tumbling onto the one next to hers.

  "Easy," a girl who looked to be a year or two older than her said. She donned a red and white sundress and her jet-black hair was pulled into windblown ponytail.

  “What the hell is that thing?” Zelene demanded.

  “Don’t be rude,” the girl chided. “How can you be afraid of them? They’re adorable.” She turned back to the small creature. “Zelene won’t hurt you, I promise,” she assured it.

  Zelene wasn’t sure she could keep that promise. Not if that thing came near her again. Zelene stared at the girl, thinking she was far too bubbly for their situation. Judging by the scrapes lining the girl’s pale cheek, she had been attacked as well.

  "I'm Rhaya, by the way," the dark-haired girl offered her hand.

  Zelene weakly shook it, her focus remaining on the humanoid creature with its gangly limbs. The creature was maybe two feet tall, coming to just above the girl's knees. It placed two skinny hands on its hips, its thin lips frowned at the tray Zelene had toppled over in her hurry to get away.

  "O' course she won't," it scoffed. "But now I hasta clean up tha mess. You's just goin' t' hafta wait on breakfast now. I'll hafta go make so' more."

  Zelene stared at the little creature shaking its finger at her as if she were a child. "S-sorry," she stammered. She turned to the dark haired girl and whispered, "What is that?"

  "A brownie," the girl answered with a smile causing her prominent eyes to look even brighter than before.

  "Not a brownie," the creature corrected in a patronizing way, "I've told ya, youn' miss. We's tha donnfay, not this brownie ya be callin' us."

  "I know," Rhaya said. "But that's what we call creatures like you where we come from. Brownies. They're a sort of tiny elf who help with chores and stuff if you leave out an offering."

  "Silly talk," the donnfay clucked her tongue. "No donnfay where ya come from. Can't survive there. No matter, call me what ya like. I'll tend t' tha breakfast now."

  Zelene plopped down on the bed she had bumped into, letting out an exasperated breath. "That's it. That does the trick. I have really lost my mind."

  "If you have, then so have we," Rhaya said, gesturing to a girl on a bed on the opposite side of Zelene's. "This is Isauria. I'm pretty sure she's your sister."

  "And how did you sort that out?" Zelene thought she remembered her supposed father telling her about another sister besides her twin, but she was having trouble keeping up with her new family tree on top of everything else.

  Rhaya gave her a dubious look. "Well, for starters, I used my eyes. It's pretty obvious, I think."

  Zelene stood up and peered over at the other girl. She had red hair as well though her sister’s was more of a ginger color than hers, and they both seemed to share the same freckles sprinkled across their creamy cheeks. "Yeah, okay. I can see how you might come to that conclusion," she conceded. "So what does that make you? How do you fit into this new family or whatever?"

  "I don't know," Rhaya answered, her mouth scrunched up in thought. "We arrived last night, and they pretty much brought us straight here, gave us something I'm starting to think was their version of Nyquil, and that's all I remember."

  Zelene's nodded knowingly, still feeling the groggy aftereffects of whatever drug Bianca had given them. She wasn't too thrilled at being drugged, but she could tell from the brief introductions yesterday that their arrival had taken the peop
le here by surprise. "I guess they needed time to figure out what to do with us," she mused out loud. "Well, it's nice to meet you Rhaya, whoever the hell you are."

  "She is your cousin," a soft new voice said in an accent that made Zelene think she might have stepped into a Jane Austen novel.

  They both looked up to see a young woman of about twenty-four hobbling toward them. She had one arm wrapped around her abdomen as she used the other to grip bed rails for support as she made her way over to them. Her dark brown hair was tangled and falling out of a messy braid. Her face in a grimace in an effort to reach them, determined as she was. Rhaya immediately came to her aid, taking her arm, and leading her to the bed Zelene had been sleeping in.

  "Thank you," the young woman said as she lowered herself down. She smoothed out the skirt of her dress, fidgeting with the hem. She smiled anxiously at Rhaya as the raven-haired girl sat down beside her.

  "Okay, Rhaya’s my cousin," Zelene said, picking up where they had left off. "And you would be who?"

  "Terrena," she answered. "I am also your cousin." She turned to Rhaya and affectionately took her hand. "And I am your sister, Rhaya."

  Rhaya blinked rapidly. "Really?"

  "What's the matter?" Zelene asked sarcastically. "Can't look at her and tell?"

  Ignoring Zelene’s comment, Rhaya kept her focus on her sister. "Sorry, I just...I didn't realize I had a sister, I guess. Raemann never mentioned you before, but then I guess he wouldn't, would he?"

  "I understand," Terrena said as she rested her head on the pillows behind her. Her heavy lids shaded her eyes momentarily, the pain of her still-healing wounds showed on her face. "I know this is a lot to take in, but if you use your gift, you will be able to see I am telling the truth."

  “Gift?” Zelene parroted snidely. “Care to share with the class?”

  "We all have specific abilities based on the elements we represent. Like Isauria. She was born under Air and thus has the gift of seeing,” Terrena turned to Rhaya. “You are born of Water, and the gift of knowing."

  "The gift of knowing?" Zelene repeated sarcastically. "Can you vague that up for us a bit? It's not quite unclear enough yet."

  "I'm basically an empath," Rhaya explained succinctly. "I can sense what people are feeling."

  "As if it weren't already obvious by your eye color," Terrena said with a wry smile directed toward her young cousin, "your temperament gives you away to be of Fire. Which means you must be Zelene. Your gift—"

  Zelene held up a hand to stop her. "Is either the art of getting the crap beat out of me, or something I don't want to know right now. I'm already on information overload here."

  "Of course," Terrena said with a laugh. "I know this must be very overwhelming for you. You weren't even raised in our world, so there's a lot for you to learn."

  Rhaya squinted at Terrena as if she was trying to place her. "Your name is Terrena?" When she nodded, Rhaya's face lit up with understanding. "You're the one Izzy has been dreaming about."

  "I had always hoped she could see me somehow." Terrena said with a wistful air.

  "She's been writing about you for years now," Rhaya explained and scooted closer to her sister. "Isauria and I met before everything went crazy, and we were brought here," she gestured around her. "So, I guess everything she wrote was true. And about us."

  Terrena lifted a shoulder. "I suppose. I'm not sure how much she would have been able to learn from observing my life since Kenward and I were in hiding. There was much we couldn't say for fear of my true identity being discovered."

  "In her story, there's a prophecy about five girls. It's us, isn't it?"

  "It is," Zelene surprised everyone by answering. She sat on the edge of her older sister's bed, her fingers twisting the edge of the blanket into knots as she sighed. She looked back up at their expectant faces, a heaviness on her own as she faced the truth of their situation. "My, uh, my...father," she said as she cleared her throat, "mentioned that last night. He said usually four rulers are born into each generation, but there was a prophecy saying that one generation there would be five. We're supposed to be uber-powerful or whatever. The four of us. My twin sister makes five. So yeah, that's us."

  Rhaya looked around pointedly. "Any idea where she is?"

  "Probably with the bad guys," Zelene answered bluntly as she sucked in a breath between her teeth. At their horrified looks, she elaborated. "All I know is my father said the Cahirans tried to kidnap us back in the day, and he seemed pretty freaked out when she wasn’t with me. Varrick's eyes were still all black and creepy when…." she trailed off, not wanting to explain the events leading her here, "and he said it was because my sister was still in trouble. And since that sister," she nodded to Isauria, "doesn't look to be in trouble, I'm guessing that means it's this Ariana chick."

  Rhaya seated herself at the foot of the bed Terrena was lying across. "What can you tell us about this Prophecy?"

  Terrena exhaled. "The Prophecy says the generation with five born instead of four to lead the worlds will be the ones to unite the worlds," she summarized. "I don't know the exact words, but that's the best way I can explain."

  Zelene folded her arms over her chest. “Not to blow off this whole saving the worlds thing, but I’ve gotta say I haven’t exactly seen much division since I got here. In fact, things look pretty damn good for a war to be going on.”

  "I know you know nothing of our world besides what you have seen so far, but you must understand Anscombe can be very deceptive. Things seem wonderful and peaceful here, but beyond the gates is a different story. There is war. Starvation. Poverty. Desperate people turning to desperate means in order to survive. Cities are collapsing." Terrena stared at her upturned palms as they rested in her lap. "Innocent people are dying all over the worlds."

  "Why doesn't Anscombe do something about the war?" Zelene asked and gestured around her. "I mean, seems like they're doing fine. Why don't they share the wealth?"

  "It's not that easy," Terrena said sadly. "The Duillaine have kept the peace, but they don't really tell people how to live their lives. There are certain customs that are mandatory to prevent conflict. Or because that's how it's always been. Our way is not to step in when things aren't going well for another world. They must persevere and prosper on their own, as have we all." The sigh escaping her lips seemed to echo her views on the matter. "Suffice it to say, things work much differently here from what I'm sure you are used to. There is a lot for you to learn in order to understand our ways."

  "Ya don't say?" Zelene retorted. "I think I figured that part out when some guy threw Kyle through the air without touching him."

  Rhaya straightened. "Me too! What is with that?"

  Terrena shrugged with some effort, wincing at the movement. "Manipulating Air as a defense is easier and quicker than manipulating the other elements."

  "I think I see what you mean about having a lot to learn," Rhaya commented. She tilted her head as she examined her sister, her mouth twisting. "Why do you sound like you're British? Does everyone around here talk like that?"

  "British?" Terrena repeated with confusion.

  "The accent. The way you talk," Zelene clarified before turning back to Rhaya. "No one I've met has an accent."

  Terrena inhaled deeply with annoyance. "Much like you, I did not grow up here in the city. I've been living out west for so long it is hard for me to remember to speak in the natural accent of Anscombe."

  Before they could continue their conversation, two donnfay returned carrying trays of food above their heads. They set them down on the nightstands on either side of the bed where Terrena and Rhaya sat. One of them, who appeared to be a female with thin strands of gray hair surrounding her pointy ears, padded around to Terrena on her big bare feet.

  "Come now, Mistress Terrena," the creature chided in a gentle voice. "Ya shood be in ya own bed. Ya were 'urt bad. Ya need ya rest."

  Terrena flushed as the small creature scolded her. "I know, and I will get plenty of rest, Ae
ryn. I wanted to visit with my sister. Do you remember Rhaya?"

  "O' course I do," the elf said, exasperated. "Visit at ya bed. Ya hurt. They not." She held out her hand for the young woman to take, which she reluctantly did.

  Rhaya picked up a tray of food and gestured for Zelene to come with her before following them to the back part of the room. This area held three beds cordoned off by white curtains to give the patients privacy. Remembering Bianca's promise to move Kyle here, Zelene peered through the partitions to find him lying unconscious still. She felt a pang of guilt since she had been too preoccupied with everything going on to check on him again until now. Granted, she had also been drugged unconscious herself, but she felt like she should have thought about him first.

  "Um, I'll catch up to you guys later," Zelene said as she ducked into the makeshift room. She sat a bench resting against the curtain at the foot of the bed. Her conflicting emotions battled each other as she looked at the usually vibrant young man lying inert before her. They had been through so much together in the past twenty-four hours she felt like their days of resenting one another were a lifetime ago. She supposed it was just part of who he was. Kyle had always been someone she could depend on when she needed him most, and the past day would definitely fall under that category.

  Watching Kyle now, looking like he straddled the line between life and death, she knew there was no denying what she had been told. Her childhood had taught her all too well how to differentiate between what was real and what was a dream or hope. She had prided herself on being a grounded individual, believing in what she could see, and hope was not something that usually lent itself easily. Looking around now, she knew there was no getting around what her eyes were telling her. This world she had found herself in was very real, and Kyle's unfortunate condition made this new reality all the more obvious to her.

  She wasn't sure how long she sat there, staring at him and willing him to wake up, before Rhaya peered around the curtain. Her smile faded when she looked at the boy unconscious on the bed. He was pale, with dark circles under his eyes and dry lips. His shaggy hair was mess, matching the slight five o'clock shadow lining his rectangular chin.