Whispers of Heaven

by Krista Rose

  “Brannyn,” I whispered. “What have you done?”

  He stopped laughing as he turned to stare at me, his eyes hollow and dark behind the flames. “I did nothing,” he said, his voice flat and emotionless as he pointed to me with a bloody hand. “You did this.”

  I jerked awake, screams of denial clawing at my throat, and found I was in my pallet on the floor. Cold sweat had plastered the sheets to my chest, and I struggled out of them, swearing. Alyxen was still asleep on the cot, his arm dangling off the edge as he snored.

  I scrubbed at my face with my hands. My mouth was dry, my eyes gritty. I could not return to sleep, but it was too early yet for me to head to the bakery. I sighed, and rose, pulling on my boots and cloak. Kryssa would be upset when she learned I had gone out alone, but I needed to escape the apartment and breathe fresh air.

  I slipped out the back door, and took a deep breath. The night air was warm and pleasant, and I rubbed my face again. The dream had left me feeling dirty, and I set my jaw, heading down the alley for the bathhouse, the lights of the market square beckoning me forward.

  The curfew guaranteed there were no attendants at this hour, but the flickering braziers beside the doors were still aflame. I let myself inside, my footsteps echoing loudly in the silence. Only a few tall, heavy candelabras were lit; the chandeliers above were dark, casting the far walls and the balcony above me into shadow.

  I swallowed, and forced myself to ignore my sudden unease. I’m too old to be afraid of the dark.

  I stripped off my clothes and climbed into the hettana, scrubbing the fear-sweat from my skin as the steam swirled around me. Unable to take the scalding water for long, I moved to the heccan, and tried to meditate as I soaked in the gentle heat, clearing my mind as the Lady had taught me. It was no use, and I climbed out at last, sighing when I realized I had forgotten a towel.

  I grimaced at the uncomfortable feel of my clothes clinging to damp skin, but my curses sounded too loud in the sobering quiet, and I bit my tongue, determined to leave the bathhouse as quickly as possible.

  I was almost to the door when something crashed behind me, deafening and ominous. I spun, my heart racing, and stared at the hettana’s fallen candelabra. The candles sputtered and drowned as the hot wax pooled across the tiles.

  No one else was in the bathhouse.

  It just fell. I swallowed, ignoring the hairs rising on my arms, the knot of dread in my stomach and the knowledge that I was lying to myself. I began to walk backward, slowly, my eyes darting across the shadows, searching for movement. It’s heavy, and the floor is wet. So it simply fell, while I was the only one here.

  The warm summer air outside the bathhouse was a relief, warming my skin as I backed through the doors. I smiled when the comforting light of the braziers surrounded me, and closed my eyes briefly before turning back to the market to walk home, longing for the safety of our apartment.

  The market square was filled with darkness.

  I flinched and shrank back, trapped in the weak pool of light by the bathhouse doors. The lanterns of the market had all been extinguished, and I thought I could see shapes moving within the shadows. My heart began to thunder again as terror wrapped its hands around my throat and refused to let go.

  Stars wheeled overhead, dim and distant and much too far away to help light my way home. It would be hours yet till dawn, and I would be frozen here until then, stuck in this puddle of light, afraid of shadows.

  I shook my head. I am not afraid of the dark, I reminded myself, though I no longer believed it. I took a deep breath, straightened, and-

  “Reyce.”

  My breath caught. I strained my ears, struggling to hear my name whispered in the dark again. There was no sound, not even the wind; the whole world was as silent as a grave, buried by the night.

  It has to be the Lady.

  I hesitated for only a moment, and left the safety of the light.

  It was dark, a darkness I would not have thought possible in a place with so many people, so much life. I walked forward with hands outstretched, feeling my way along carefully, every muscle in my body tight with anxiety. Somewhere in this darkness was my Lady, I was sure of it. Maybe she was hurt. Maybe she was testing me.

  Either way, she needed me, and the shadows would not stop me from finding her.

  One foot, before the other. I stumbled, and caught myself with my hands, leaving them raw and stinging. My heart was truly pounding now, fear clawing icy fingers into my skin as my mouth filled with the cold metal taste of it. My breath hitched in my lungs, and I lengthened my steps, uncaring if I fell again.

  A noise came out of the dark behind me, something that was definitely not my Lady, something I knew without looking wasn’t even human.

  “Reyce.”

  It was Felice’s voice. I threw caution to the winds, and ran.

  I tried to reach out to the others, but they were asleep, and when I called to Brannyn there was only darkness where his mind should have been. Terror wrapped itself around my throat and wiped my thoughts clean, so I could not focus to call upon my will. I did not even realize where I was running to until I saw the gleam of the Eternal Flame rising out of the darkness at the far end of the alley, a brilliant light in my shadowed world.

  I ran toward it with all the strength I could force into my legs.

  Something snatched at my ankle, and I fell, hard, onto the cobblestones. My mouth filled with the taste of blood; I had bitten my tongue. I wheezed, struggling to draw breath, and rolled over, screams rising in my throat as I gazed above me.

  Three sets of glowing white eyes circled me in the darkness.

  KYLEE

  8 Davael 578 A.F.

  A woman woke me.

  At first, I thought it was Kryssa, but her presence was strange and foreign, and as I sat up I could see my sisters were still on the floor, asleep. Still, I was utterly calm as I looked up at the stranger, waiting expectantly as she leaned over me.

  “He’s in danger,” she whispered, and with just those words, I knew. Reyce. I scrambled from the bed, yanking on my boots. The woman had already left the apartment when I looked up. I stuck my head into the hall to see the door to the alley gaping open as she disappeared in to the blackness beyond.

  Kryssa rolled over, groaning, and blinked at me groggily. “Kylee? What is it, dear heart?”

  Fear was choking me, but I managed to speak around it. “Reyce.”

  She came awake instantly. I rushed down the hall and out the door, her shouts following me. I nearly pitched headfirst down the stairs, and gasped, blinking at the complete lack of light. The torches in the market were extinguished, and my stomach sank. I lifted my gaze up at the moonless sky.

  “Reyce,” I whispered.

  My legs began to move on their own, carrying me down the stairs and across the blind streets as I began to search for my brother, trapped somewhere out here in the drowning darkness. I could not sense him, could not find him in my mind, and my heart screamed against what I knew, what I was afraid to even admit to myself.

  The moret’ethla had him.

  REYCE

  The glowing white eyes were all around me, close enough that I could smell the decay of their flesh. I tried to swallow, tried to scream, but I had forgotten how to breathe, and could not make a sound. I was helpless, frozen in place.

  Something skittered across my chest. It felt like the legs of a heavy spider, and I realized it was a hand.

  Felice laughed, cold and vicious, leaning forward until I could make out her face. She gripped my shirt and tore it open with a flick of her wrist, exposing my throat and chest. Her eyes came close, inches from my own- terrible, empty, monstrous. “Did you miss me, little cousin?”

  I stared into her eyes, frozen with fear, and knew I was going to die.

  KYLEE

  I found them, though I do not know what pulled me toward the Temple. I could see the moret’ethla, two sets of white eyes glowing in the darkness as they circled my brother like
vultures, and the third perched on his chest.

  There was no time to think, and so I didn’t. I raised my hand, and summoned the lightning.

  The first blast missed, and struck a pile of rotting lumber. It caught fire, illuminating the creatures, and revealing the one atop Reyce to be Felice.

  She laughed. “Yet another of the little lost Roses? Must be my lucky day.”

  “Stop this, Felice.” I summoned lightning, held it in a ball in my hand. “We haven’t done anything to you.”

  “Funny, Brannyn said almost the exact same thing.” A chilling smile twisted her features. “I didn’t listen to him, either.”

  My stomach clenched at my older brother’s name, and I reached out to him, but found only darkness. I didn’t have time to consider it, though, because one of the Vampyres leapt for me, clawed fingers outstretched for my throat.

  I loosed the lightning ball, and it caught the creature in the chest, sending it howling back into the wall of the alley. The second one hissed and ran toward me, its ghostly eyes locked on mine as it tried to paralyze me with fear.

  I forced my eyes shut, and fired the lightning again.

  I opened my eyes when I heard it fall, found it lying almost at my feet, a smoking crater in the center of its face. I gagged as the putrid smell reached me, and stumbled back, just as Felice voiced a hideous, inhuman shriek and lunged forward, sinking her teeth into my brother’s neck.

  Reyce’s scream echoed across the whole of Fallor, high and loud and completely terrified, and his agony slammed into my shield.

  I flinched, staggering, and barely managed to raise my hand in time as the first Vampyre rushed me again. It dodged the bolt I shot at it, hissing as it forced me down the alley, away from my brother. I bit my lip, firing again and again, desperation pushing me past the point I knew to stop at, a raging headache building behind my eyes.

  Reyce stopped screaming, his thoughts going cold and dim, and it frightened me far more than even the moret’ethla could. I had to reach him, to save him- but the creature was between us, and I could not focus past avoiding its jagged nails.

  I tripped, falling onto my back. The Vampyre screeched in triumph, and leapt onto my chest, its head rearing back as its mouth gaped open in a gruesome smile, ready to bite through my fragile throat.

  I glared, raising my hand beneath its chin. “Go to hell,” I muttered, and released a bolt of pure white lightning straight through its skull.

  It collapsed on top of me, heavy and dead, and I shoved it off. My stomach cramped violently as I tried to rise to my feet, my legs shaking and weak. A sharp pain was piercing through my head, blinding me in one eye. I had used too much; I could barely see.

  Still, I raised my hand, wavering, struggling to focus. I have to save him-

  But Felice was gone, leaving Reyce alone beside the burning lumber. I gasped, dropping to my knees to crawl to his side. Blood smeared his neck and shoulder, his eyes clouded and vacant as he stared up at the sky, his breath rattling through his chest.

  Kryssa stepped into the alley. I knew later it must have been the migraine, or maybe my hysteria, but it seemed that my sister glowed as if she had moonlight trapped beneath her skin. She raised her sword, looking around for the moret’ethla before dropping to her knees beside us.

  “You’re late,” I managed, and fainted.

  ALYXEN

  8 Davael 578A.F.

  Alyxen! Kryssa’s voice reached out of the darkness, panicked and terrified. Alyxen, help!

  Where are you? I peered into the alley behind our apartment, trying to see in the pitch-darkness where I had waited since she had woke me. I can’t see anything.

  Near the Temple, there’s a fire. Some lumber in an alley. Reyce was bitten, and Kylee’s fainted. I need your help. I can’t carry them both.

  I’m coming. I took off at a run, my hands in front of me to keep from running into a wall as I headed toward the Temple. What happened?

  Felice attacked Reyce. It looks like Kylee killed two of them, but I don’t know where Felice is. She could attack again any moment.

  You’re standing guard?

  Yes. She sent me an image of her holding a sword and Reyce’s dagger, standing over the prone bodies of our siblings. Please hurry.

  Where’s Brannyn?

  I don’t know. I can’t find him. I keep calling, but-

  I spotted the flames, burning down the back of an alley. I see you. Almost there.

  Her face was streaked with tears when I approached, fear etched into the lines of her face. She held out her hands toward me, and they glittered in the light of the fire as if she held rubies.

  I swallowed. Godsdammit, where are you, Brannyn?

  BRANNYN

  I groaned, and sat up slowly, my head ringing. Our torches had gone out, and the stars spun dizzily above me, too far away to provide any light. I closed my eyes, reaching hesitantly for the lump at the top of my skull. My fingers touched matted, sticky hair, and I winced at the pain. Tanner would laugh at this, he always said-

  Tanner. My eyes shot open. I ignored my aching head as I levered myself onto my hands and knees, searching for him. The alley was too dark for me to see, so I created a small flame in my palm, though it looked weak and sickly even to my light-starved eyes.

  I found him a few feet away, unmoving, and I scrambled to his side, lifting my flame over him to look for wounds. His shirt had been shredded, but his chainmail was still intact, and I breathed a sigh of relief to find him unbitten.

  “Tanner.” I shook him roughly, trying to disguise how badly my hands were shaking. “Tanner, wake up.”

  He groaned, coughing. His eyes opened slowly, unfocused and confused as he stared at the flame in my hand. “I think you’re on fire, Farmboy.”

  I helped him sit up. “It’s alright, Tanner.”

  “Felice attacked us,” he mumbled, rubbing his face before looking around. “Where’d she go?”

  My stomach clenched, and I massaged my temples with one hand, trying to ease the pain. “I don’t know.”

  He stared at me, bewildered. “Brannyn, why aren’t we dead?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “I-”

  BRANNYN! Kryssa’s voice slammed into my head, and I cried out, collapsing and clutching my skull. My pitiful flame went out, leaving us in the dark. THANK THE GODS YOU’RE ALRIGHT!

  Please stop screaming, I begged, whimpering against my knees.

  Felice attacked Reyce.

  What?!

  Reyce was bitten. We’re taking him to Grandfather’s. I- I think he’s dying. Her voice retreated, only the urgency and the fear remaining.

  “Reyce,” I whispered, and forced myself to stand. The world spun, sickening, and I sagged against a wall. “I- I have to get to Reyce.”

  “Why? What’s happening?” Tanner scrambled to his feet and reached down, swinging my arm around his shoulder. “What’s happened to Reyce?”

  “Attacked.” I swallowed, and took a step. My knees buckled beneath me; if Tanner hadn’t been holding me up, I would have fallen face-first. “I- I have to-”

  “Where is he?”

  “Tarrow Street,” I mumbled, wincing at a spike of pain in my head as we started forward. “My grandfather’s.”

  LANYA

  I pounded on the door until I thought my hand would bleed. Grandfather answered at last, scowling and sleep-tousled, barely awake. “What?” he demanded, then saw me, and his eyes widened. “Lanya? What is it, girl?”

  “It’s Reyce.” My heart was in my throat as I stammered in fear. “He’s- he’s-”

  “Come in,” he instructed, and turned back into the house, searching for matches to light the lanterns. I followed, trembling and helpless. I could feel the others, out in the night, slowly drawing closer, their panic cloaking them, and me.

  He managed to finish lighting the lanterns, and began stoking the fire in the kitchen. His eyes were calm and penetrating as he looked up at me. “Tell me what’s happened.
”

  I took a deep breath, and told him. I told him of Kylee’s attack our first day in Fallor, the attacks Brannyn had witnessed, the horrors of Felice, who had become a Vampyre out of vengeance. I told him things I probably shouldn’t have, my distress loosening my tongue of its secrets, until I wasn’t even sure what I was saying after a while, and was only using my voice to fill up the silence.

  Grandfather listened to it all gravely, and nodded when my words finally ran dry. He left the room briefly and returned with a large chest, the ancient wood scarred from heavy use. He opened the lid, revealing his healer’s tool kit, filled with trays of sharp surgical knives and bottles of cleansing alcohol and small, colorful vials of liquid and powdered curatives. He moved a bowl of fruit from a small side table and began setting up his equipment there, instructing me to boil water.

  I leapt to the task, grateful to have anything to do, and poured buckets of water from his hand pump into the kettle.

  I felt it when the others arrived, and ran to open the door before they could knock, the lights from inside pouring out around me to illuminate the street. Kryssa half-carried, half-dragged a white-faced Kylee, who held a hand over her eyes against the light, and Alyxen staggered behind them, his arms and legs straining beneath Reyce’s weight.

  I stared at the vivid blood soaking through Reyce’s collar, my chest constricting painfully until I remembered to breathe. I stepped back out of the doorway, and led them into the kitchen.

  Grandfather barely glanced up from cleaning his hands, scrubbing them with a rag dipped in the boiling water. “Put him on the table. Lanya, get his shirt off.”

  I watched out of the corner of my eye as Kryssa gently eased Kylee onto the floor. Grandfather bent over her, examining her briefly before he turned to his tray of vials, picking one filled with bluish-green liquid. He handed it to Kryssa with a murmured instruction to make Kylee drink it. She nodded, and knelt by our sister, gently tipping back her head to pour the vial’s contents down her throat.