by Mark Tufo
“I want to make it abundantly clear, Winter, I did not lie down on the bed with you,” Lendor said in all seriousness. I smiled at his modesty.
“Some strange things happened on that arena floor,” Frost said. “I am unsure as to what I witnessed, or if I even did so.”
“Yeah, she keeps saying time was running backward, but the rest of us didn’t see anything like that.” Cedar was once again coming in close, looking at my eyes.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Trying to see if you had a stroke,” she replied.
I didn’t know what that was and so I couldn’t say if I had or hadn’t. I let her go about her business, though I scooted up so I was in more of a sitting position. I had expected the swimming swirling sensation to return and was thankful when it had not.
“Why did Graylon not kill you?” Serrot asked.
“Are you that big of a dummy?” Cedar smacked his shoulder.
“I mean,” he backpedaled, “obviously I’m glad he didn’t, but you were on the ground. He didn’t have to do much more than step on you.”
“Seriously, Serrot? This is my sister you’re talking about.”
“I’m just saying! We all saw it…one second Graylon is going all beast-mode trying to kill her, the next he’s cradling her in his arms declaring her the victor. Does any part of that make sense to you?”
“Does it need to? She’s alive and that’s all that matters,” Cedar said in no uncertain terms, she even folded her arms across her chest as if to reiterate her point.
“What did you see?” I croaked out; Tallow handed me a large container of water.
“Sorry, they don’t have anything people-sized,” he said as he helped me tilt the large carafe up to my lips.
“It was really weird, Win. There was like this shimmering wave, like you see sometimes off in the distance on a hot day. Then there was the smashed spear, which no way you should have been able to dodge, much less shatter—but I’m thankful for that,” he added quickly before Cedar could wind up and deliver a punch to him as well. “Then the part at the end…he dropped the mace and went over to pick you up. The shimmer happened again right before that. Frost kept saying something about time changing, but if it did, no one else saw it and nothing happened to any of us.”
“Is that what happened?” Cedar asked.
“I really don’t know what happened; it wasn’t anything I planned on. I was looking for the time dilation that Brody had worked on with me and it felt like it broke…or I guess broke through.”
“What’s that mean?” Tallow asked as I furrowed my eyebrows trying to figure out just that.
“All boys can’t be this thick, can they?” Cedar asked of no one. “She’s trying to figure it out too, you head bone. Wait, no, that’s not it.” She looked up as if she were trying to remember something. “Bonehead. Yeah, bonehead.”
“Brounds vright,” I said as Tallow tried to drown me with the water. I had to push it and him away.
“Sorry.” He smiled mischievously as he saw the front of me was soaked and that was maybe what he had been attempting to do all along.
“I did make time go backward. The first time I just thought it was a mistake of perspective on my part. Graylon had been coming across the arena and then just suddenly he was further back than I expected. Then I attacked his legs and it happened again. Then I killed him. I buried that axe in his head; we fell over. Then the pain…it was like my brain was on fire.”
“Interesting,” Frost said. “The Genogerian remembered his death?”
“I guess,” I said.
“No wonder he yielded.” Lendor was looking me over.
I was not at all happy with the amount of scrutiny I was receiving.
“None of this makes sense.” Serrot was pacing the room.
“I think perhaps it does,” Frost interjected. “I think it is safe to say which set of descendants you two are from.”
That struck me; the story of my family was confusing, no doubt about it, and it also contained a separate tree which in itself was wholly unique. Knowing which tree we belonged to meant more than I could put into words.
“Whoa…you think I have powers too?” Cedar was looking at her hands as if she more than half expected lightning to issue forth from them. “MaryBeth from Ten Gables and the Stablehand was able to heal with her touch. Wouldn’t that be something?” She was reaching toward me.
“Get away from me with those! Knowing you, if you touch me I’ll suddenly have a love for all things plaid.” We were laughing and smiling, having come through another life or death situation.
“What’s the matter?” Cedar asked as my face quickly lost its smile and a serious expression took over. She saw what I was looking at; Graylon was standing in the doorway. I felt a pang of regret for what I had done to him, but also a sense of pride at the large bandage on his leg.
“May we have a moment?” he asked those around me.
“No,” Cedar told him. “You tried to kill my sister. There is no way I’m leaving you in here alone.”
Serrot, Lendor and Tallow stood in a protective line. Without weapons, I was not sure what the three of them could do, even though each was an accomplished fighter. It was that Graylon was orders of magnitude stronger and larger, faster even. If he wanted us dead, odds were highly in his favor he could accomplish that, with or without the brace on his leg.
“My intentions are honorable.” I could see him grimace; he was in pain. Good, because so was I.
“Your intentions are honorable? What are you planning on doing, taking her on a date?” Cedar appeared to be getting more and more worked up. She hopped off my bed and was moving toward the Genogerian. She shouldered past an astonished Lendor. She hardly reached Graylon’s midsection, yet she was all fury as she looked up at him, her arm outstretched and a finger coming close to the bottom of his jaw.
“The sister,” Graylon said. I would swear there was a note of fear in his voice and he turned his head slightly as if he was making sure he had an exit, in the event he needed to make a quick getaway.
“It’s all right, Cedar, let him in,” I told her. I sat up more, trying to make myself look as imposing as possible.
“You’re lucky she’s so tender-hearted. I would have left you to bleed out on that arena floor, might have even had a snack while I waited.” Cedar did not move but rather made the much larger beast find a way around her and he did and also made sure to not touch her in any way as he passed. Graylon stood over my bed; he finally sat but still, I had to crane my neck to look at him. He turned to look at my honor guard.
“I’ll be fine. Can you guys maybe find some food? I’m suddenly starving.”
“Remember what I said about the snacks.” Cedar was again pointing at Graylon’s head before she walked out with the others in tow.
“She is a fierce little creature,” Graylon said as he watched her go.
“You have no idea,” I said nothing more as I was curious as to why he was here. He sat in silence; he seemed reluctant or hesitant to talk about the nature of his visit.
Finally, after long minutes, he appeared to have gathered the nerve and the words he was looking for. “It is no easy feat to die.” Again, he was quiet. I did not interrupt. “For a moment there was an all-encompassing blackness, then I was traveling. I had the sensation it was with great speed. Perhaps I saw a pinpoint of light far off in the distance, I do not know.” His head was looking toward me, though his gaze was far off, perhaps as far as another realm. “Then I remember being wrenched back into the world. It was very much like being born again; even had all the pain that goes along with it, and this time, unfortunately, I remembered the process.”
Did I want to tell him I was sorry? Because, really, I wasn’t; it had been me or him and I’d chosen me.
“I do not know what you know of Michael Talbot’s history.” He stared off into the distance. “He and Drababan were prisoners aboard a Progerian vessel. Drababan was an arena champion with unrivaled
wins and Michael was crowned the Earth champion through a series of contests he was forced to fight.”
“Forced to fight?”
“It is a long story and one better suited for another time. They were to the death, these contests. For Michael’s next and last fight, he was pitted against Drababan. Our champion was expected to kill Michael handily and would have, had not the Earthlings intervened. Even Drababan himself experienced a change of heart, thus securing Michael’s escape.”
“Why are you telling me this, Graylon?” I was tired, sore and angry. Angry I was still here.
“I do not believe much in chance, of random, convoluted events without meaning. That you are here is something much bigger. Fate has brought us together.”
I chortled, but it was issued with no mirth. “Fate brought us together? Like lovers from Cedar’s books? I don’t think so.”
His head tilted slightly. He wasn’t sure what I was talking about. Was I? “Portaliton has told me everything that has transpired. Could chance possibly have brought you from your tiny prison on a forgotten world, light-years away, right to me? How many ‘random’ events must have occurred for that to happen?”
“Are you going to let us go?” That was all I cared about, all I wanted to know.
“No, I cannot.”
I was getting up, ready to show him round two.
“Sit back, please. I do not profess to be the warrior that Drababan was, but the rest of it? The similarities? They cannot be ignored. I do not and cannot expect you to trust me yet, but I will do all in my power to earn that from you, to fight alongside you, much as my ancestor did with yours.”
“What are you saying?” I asked cautiously.
“For far too long we have sat upon this rock waiting for the lightning strike that is this revolution to ignite us, to…unite us. And I wholly believe, Winter, that the spark is you, and I vow my allegiance and that of the Warring 47th to you.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you listening, goofball?” Cedar was peeking around the door. “We’re going home and we’re going to kick everyone’s ass!”
11
Bristol
Bristol was a beehive of activity as Genogerians gathered supplies, packed ships, and continued to train. The purpose we now shared changed their demeanor. They were excited for what the future entailed. I wasn’t of the same enthusiasm. Yes, I was very much looking forward to getting back to Earth, to making sure my friends were all right, to taking revenge upon Breeson and the Iron Sides for what they had done. I was prepared to strike fear into the hearts of the Stryvers and into our new, unknown enemy, if they had one.
“Two weeks? How can it take that long?” I was out of bed the very next morning and ready to leave.
“We are moving an entire base, Winter, and Graylon is attempting to gather more allies to the cause,” Porter informed me.
Cedar was less impatient than I, but only because she’d been promised all the flight time she could manage in the time allotted. For good or bad, they did not possess flight simulators, so she was required to go off-world. I went with her mostly to learn to fly, as she had, but also because to sit there and wait was driving me crazy. The first week we had an instructor, then without warning, and seemingly without jealousy, came the moment that Sevtral said we had outdistanced her skill and that she would only be a detriment to our continued growth. We were allowed to fly solo, as it were. I stayed with Cedar another three days; she was a ferocious learner and a patient teacher. I did not at any time think I could master it with the ease she had, but I had a firm grasp of how to control the war machine. I still preferred battle on the ground, but that was highly unlikely. However, this war was won, it was going to be in space, and I was going to do all I needed to ensure we came out victorious.
“We need call signs.” Cedar was doing spins through space. I was getting nauseous watching her.
“We’ve been out here for fifteen hours; aren’t you ready to go back? I’m hungry, sis,” I told her.
“I told you to bring some food up here.”
“We are in single-seater fighters; I’m not bringing food and water. What happens when…” I left it at that.
“Hate to get into the grubby details, sis, but this suit takes care of that.”
“NO! Absolutely not!”
“Prude.” She was laughing. “That’s it! I have your call sign. I shall call you Prudence!”
“You do that, and I’ll call you the Soiler!”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“What’s the matter? Don’t you think Serrot would like that?”
“Fine, fine…we’ll work on something else.”
“Seriously though, when are we going back?”
“Are you whining? Tell you what, we’ll have a dog fight. You beat me, we go back. You don’t, then you can get more familiar with your suit.”
“I hate you,” I growled, she laughed. The weapons had been disabled for our exercises, but the firing and the radar systems still worked, so it was essentially the same except for the explosions, the screaming, burning and/or freezing in space. Other than that, just the same. Cedar was off to my right and slightly ahead. “Fine, we’ll do it your way,” I told her as I gripped my joystick and turned toward her.
“I see how it’s going to be. Nice warning, by the way.” She dipped her ship down at a severe angle and so quickly she was out of my field of view in the beat of my heart. I started twisting and craning my head to catch sight of her.
“You have to trust the radar systems. Stop ‘looking’ for me.”
“How do you know what I’m doing?” I was still looking through my canopy.
“I can hear your suit rustling around.” Two seconds later, my radar warned me that I had been painted with a weapons system. “Boom,” she said just as an alarm chirped in my cabin. “I think that’s a record. I love you, sis, but there are going to be times when we are out for even more extended periods of time, and the enemy is not going to be firing bolts of light. You can’t take any of this lightly.”
“Cedar, you’re a natural-born pilot. Maybe the best to ever sit in a cockpit, according to Sevtral. How can I possibly beat you? Oh god, I can’t even stand the sound of my whining. Sorry. Let’s go again.”
“That’s my sister!” She fired again. “Boom.” The alarm let me know once again I had been scattered all over the cosmos. I pushed the joystick down as far as it would go; Cedar gave me a second or two before she followed. “Pull hard left, Win! Don’t stay too long in any one direction.”
My system had alerted me that I was being lit up again, but it was brief as I moved away from her firing trajectory. “Locking on with missiles.”
“What do I do now?” I knew those would follow me no matter what direction I turned.
“Deploy counter measures.”
I did as she told me.
“Weapons away,” she informed me.
There were a number of ways to foil missiles; now I just had to hope I was doing it right. I shut my engines down as I simultaneously sent bright flares rocketing from my tail section.
“Good one, but these aren’t heat seeking; they’re intruders.”
The moment she’d lit me up, the weapons had locked onto this vessel and would not stop until they ran out of fuel or hit their preordained destination. I was looking on the panel for my next step when I got the warning that I’d once again been reduced to parts. After another six hours, I could barely keep my head up. Cedar relented and we went back to the base. I considered it a minor victory that for the briefest of moments, I had made her screen light up in warning. Although, in fairness, I think she had fallen asleep.
Every day we would head back up into the sky. Something which I had initially been doing to while away time began to seep into my blood. While I ate, drank, and slept, I thought about going back into the sky. My skill was growing by leaps and bounds; the problem was so was Cedar’s. I had mistakenly thought she was at the ceiling of ability and all I n
eeded to do was catch her there; how wrong I had been. Her training missions with me evolved into training missions for all the pilots who would watch it back on base. They would exclaim their praise for all she had done right while picking apart everything I’d done wrong. My ego should have suffered a great bruising, but I’d risen above that. Drive, the ambition to become better, to match my sister—it was all-consuming. And two days before we were to head out, I got her. I shouldn’t have been so excited I’d “killed” my sister, but after one hundred and seventy-two defeats, I felt justified.
Took the final day off. I wanted to spend time with Tallow, Serrot, Lendor, Frost and Ferryn. I had a feeling that very soon, a time would come when all of us meeting together would become a rarity, if not an outright impossibility, and I wanted to leave that thought right where I left it. Most of what needed to be done was done, and now the rest of the Genogerians on base were waiting, as were we. An expectant relaxation, if such a thing exists.
It was Graylon that disturbed our peace. He came into the large room and tossed a piece of equipment against the wall hard enough to shatter it. Whatever it was, it was safe to say it was never going to work again.
“Cowards!” he yelled. Porter was right behind him, doing his best to calm his brother down; it wasn’t going so well. Every time he laid a hand on the other, it was shrugged off. “Fellow warriors!” Graylon now stood in the center of the room, all eyes upon him as others began to stream in to see what had upset their leader. “We have received word from the Progerian High Council. It should come as no surprise to anyone here that they will not join us in our fight, that there is not enough proof that the humans attacked and destroyed the Ogunquit, even after I showed them the footage. It seems that even after all these years, we have yet to achieve equality in their eyes, though they will say otherwise. It was unwise of me to expect more from them. They are a scourge to both our proud species!” He nodded to our table.
There was an abundance of hisses and snarling sounds signifying their displeasure at what they’d heard. There was more to say; Graylon was waiting for the din to die down.
