The World Shaker

by Abby Dewsnup

  I watched as the scene shifted again. This time we were in a shadowed alleyway, and then an unfamiliar building. It went on like this for a moment, passing between temporary destinations. It seemed that he had trekked to the Light Districts, a hood thrown over the scarred remains of his wings.

  “No one leaves the Light Kingdom, you know,” his dream-self said, turning to me. He was sitting in the corner booth of Sol Tavern this time, his hood drawn. “But I had to. I had to find him.”

  “Who?” I asked breathlessly.

  He nodded in the direction of the door as it opened. I watched in shock as Roland stepped inside, followed by Warren and Jay. I came in next, which sent a strange chill through me. One should never watch themselves enter a tavern for fear of going mad.

  I turned back to the boy. “You were there? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I was so close,” he watched the group bitterly. “I couldn’t anticipate where he would be, only what would happen. And I knew that if I showed myself, that would stop Jay from entering the Oracle Cave. Who am I to prevent the creation of the Solifeer?”

  “Perhaps your interference would’ve been justified. He’s probably dead, you know. Is he your brother?” I finally asked the boy, looking over at Jay as I spoke. The sight of him caused hot tears to prick my eyes. “Are you Kye?”

  The vision faded. I was laying down again, staring up into the Willow tree. His hand relaxed in mine and he pulled away.

  “I came looking for him. I was so close,” he said, his voice strained, as if he was trying to keep from crying. He waited a moment before saying, “Why’d you let him do it, Anya? Why did you let Jay go?”

  What could be said to Jay’s brother, the kid I had promised I would find in Jay’s very last moments of life? There was nothing. “We were betrayed by one we called a friend. Jay was trying to protect me.”

  I wished to curl up and drift away like the snow. To be anywhere but here in this moment with Kye.

  “He’s too noble for his own good,” Kye spat. “If anyone should’ve been the Solifeer, it was him.”

  “I agree,” I whispered. “But he was a Death Bringer. The world was against him from the start.”

  “Looks like you have a whole lot of justifications for what you did. I’ll bet you were glad that he was the one to die,” Kye replied with venom.

  I could feel every nerve in my body, hear the blood rushing through my ears. “You’re wrong. I loved your brother,” I said, my voice cracking in grief mid-sentence. Desperation ate away at my words until they were a skeleton of what I intended to say. “More than anything.”

  Kye was silent. “You didn’t know him like I did,” he finally said, though he held no more anger in his voice.

  “No, but I knew him enough. I’m so sorry I let your brother go, Kye. I never meant to.” I said, my own words like a knife through me.

  Neither of us spoke. I pulled Jay’s radio from his bag and placed it next to me. Fiddling with the knobs, I turned the volume down and pressed the button to turn it on. It began its familiar song, the melodic emerald lyrics floating through the bitter air.

  Kye turned in his makeshift bed until he was facing me. His boyish face reflected the orange light of the fire. “Between the four of us we’ve got a Windwalker, the infamous Solifeer, and two ghost brothers.” He grinned half-heartedly. “Some world, huh?”

  I closed my eyes, drinking in the darkness, listening to the drone of music notes. “Some world,” I agreed.

  24

  Captive

  I awoke in a fevered chill, as if my skin had turned to stone overnight. Lying in that pure white landscape, I felt as if I was on some distant, strange world, where there was nothing but snow and sky.

  Jay’s radio had gone silent in the chilled early hours of the morning, and it now sat next to me in desolation, like a shell. Emptiness leaked from it. I turned away, trying to warm my limbs enough to rise from my cramped position. My stomach gave a low growl.

  I didn’t catch the movement until it was too late. A man wearing all black, a scarf drawn over his mouth, was suddenly towering over me, his curved blade pressed against my throat. I wanted to heroically clamber to my feet and draw a hidden knife or something equally impressive, but all that went through my head was oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh.

  “On your feet, lady. The High Prince summons you,” he growled.

  “Does he want all of us there, or only our heads?” Warren asked, his voice groggy from sleep.

  I slowly rose to my knees, my hands extended in surrender. “We would gladly come to our allies, but the weapons you’re using are making me think he isn’t one,” I said.

  “An ally until you turned the World Shaker against our people,” the man spat. “Is it true that you have been chosen as the High Solifeer?”

  I looked away, the blade under my neck growing unbearable. I caught Kye’s eye, who shook his head once. “No,” I said weakly. “No sir I am not.”

  He exchanged a glance with his companion, a motion I didn’t miss. They communicated silently for a brief second, before turning back to me. “Would you say such a statement in our courts?”

  I had the audacity to laugh, which was probably because I was nervous. “I know the World Shaker has taken control of the Prince’s cities. You’re not fooling anyone; you don’t have any courts anymore.”

  The man growled low in his throat. “Hold your tongue, girl. Talk like that will get you executed.”

  “We’ll go with you.” Kye was on his knees, a hooded man holding him by the mop of hair on his head. He glanced at me. “If you grant us access into the city, we’ll go with you.”

  I nodded slowly, catching on. “The High Prince is a friend. We have information for him, anyway, so your arrival is just in time.” I knew well enough that the High Prince was not a friend, but I doubted the men would think twice about my words.

  A biting worry began to nip at my thoughts. It sounded like the High Prince was no longer friendly toward the Solifeer — he believed us to have been the cause of the World Shaker’s sudden action in the city. I glanced at Kye and Warren. What if the High Prince threw us all into the Glass Cages and changed me, as the Oracle had changed Jay? I swallowed bile rising in my throat.

  I don’t want to be a pawn in their games. Jay’s words from our passage in the Dark House came back to me. With a heavy heart, I stood and offered my wrists out for the men to bind. I needed a teacher desperately or I would never learn what I was capable of. The Glass Cages were something I was going to have to risk.

  They wrapped a thick, coiled cord over my hands, binding them instantly. I found, to my surprise, that the metal was soft, as if I could tear through it. Judging by Warren and Kye’s expressions, they didn’t have the same ability. I twisted the cord slightly, molding it between my fingers when the men turned away.

  I had discovered another strange power of mine, though I knew not what it was. The metal cord was, if anything, convenient. I could escape if needed.

  Warren tucked his wings in close to his gangly frame. “You’d think the High Prince could spare a coat,” he grumbled.

  They threw me onto the back of one of the men’s horses, and it was everything I could do to hold onto the saddle. We galloped through the countryside, passing dozens of villages and ruins. The Blue Light District’s city walls towered on the horizon, a piece of the future nestled within the hills of the past, the light from within visible even in the day.

  Heavy clouds hung overhead, promising another blizzard. The cold pierced me to the bone, the merciless winds ripping through me as we rode.

  “Do you know what the snow is, lass?” My rider asked, his hooded face turning to me.

  I shook my head. “The World Shaker wants the Solifeer to die of frostbite, maybe?” I asked.

  “The snow is the beginning of the World Shaker’s rot. He descends this land into winter and then devours it with a single bite in his dripping, ancient mouth.” The rider chuckled darkly. “We tried
to put it off, but once the Solifeer’s fire was revealed, the World Shaker’s winter began.”

  I swallowed. “And what about the other two World Shakers? Have they been found?”

  He turned back towards his horse. “I suspect they’re waiting for this World Shaker to wheedle out the Solifeer. They enjoy the wait — it only gives the Fringe more time to mess up.”

  I didn’t ask him any more questions, listening instead to the horse gallop beneath me. I wished I could speak to Elmar and hear more about this title she gave me. Who was I to fight off an ancient curse? The deep-sense of inadequacy filled me yet again. If the Fringe was going to be wicked, it wasn’t my job to justify them in their evil doings. If anything, the High Prince was aiding to our plight with his Glass Cages and anarchy.

  My heart skipped a beat. So why would he send his riders out to retrieve us? If he wished me dead, surely the men could have slit my throat as I slept.

  I began seeing signs of the rot as the rider had described. Anywhere the snow wasn’t blanketed was sickly and dying, shriveled up grasses and yellowed trees. Even the villages we passed through appeared desolate, with only a few people outside to wave as we passed by. Their faces were unsmiling. I wondered what exactly had happened within the Light Districts while we were away.

  A shadow fell across the ground ahead of us. I shot my head up and made out the faint silhouette of a Skysailor ship, its sails rippling in the chilling wind. It was heading away from the Blue Light District, a lone ship in the clouds. I couldn’t help but feel that this ship may have been the Captain’s crew, and we had missed our rescue mission.

  I pushed my thoughts away and instead focused on the looming Blue Light District ahead of us. I would have to convince the Prince to take us in and to teach me all that he knew about the Solifeer. It was embarrassing to be riding into the city on the back of his horse, and a part of me wanted to jump from the saddle and escape into the forest with Warren and Kye. But I knew that was a bad idea. I had never been one to ask for help, and my stubbornness was not something I could give in to. I was lost, hurt, and in desperate need of instruction. The High Prince was my chance — my only chance — at making it out of this land alive. Despite my humiliation, I knew how badly I needed him.

  A prickling sensation washed over the back of my neck. I glanced over my shoulder, catching Kye’s eye as I did so. He stared at me solemnly, his gaze filled with a message I couldn’t decipher. He must’ve seen something. I shivered in my thin shirt. He only broke eye contact once I looked away, and even then I was certain his green eyes were still trained on my back, trying to convey an unseen urgency.

  We reached the gates, and the riders slowed the horses to a stop. He jumped off, pulling me from the horse — I was handicapped from the metal bonds — and turned her loose. The others did the same, but the men were less gentle with my companions. I winced as Kye stumbled and fell hard into the gravel road, his face bleeding from the fall. He spat at their feet.

  The front gates of the Blue Light District were ominous, with heavy metal grates and flickering blue torches. Four of the Prince’s men stood guard, their leather hoods and crackling staffs familiar to me. I was surprised to see them — I had suspected the Light Districts to have been seized by the World Shaker, and yet nothing seemed amiss.

  The rider threw a wool cloak over me. “Keep your head low,” he growled.

  The other riders made no motion to offer Warren and Kye cloaks, and they watched me put on the heavy fabric on with stricken, worried faces.

  “State your name,” the central guard demanded as we approached.

  “Clark Loss, sir, and my sister, Clara,” the rider strode forward, opening his empty hands. Blue light pooled across his palms, materializing into a slim metal rod. “We’re citizens.”

  The Prince’s guard was watching me, his knuckles white on his staff. “Unveil your faces,” he said. “It’s only protocol.”

  The rider dropped his hood and pulled the fabric mask from his mouth, revealing a grisly face beneath. His grip tightened on my arm. “You understand, sir, why my sister cannot show her face. She is to be wed within the hour, and it’s unlawful for the bride to be seen before the ceremony. The Oracle said so herself.”

  The Prince’s guard raised his head with a sigh. “Such laws are obsolete when the city is under martial code. Come, girl, prove your status.”

  Something was wrong. If the High Prince had sent these riders, then the gate guards would know of their mission.

  I glanced at my rider. That familiar prickling rose again on my neck, and a thought invaded my head. He reeks of winter.

  I yanked the hood from my head. “Send word for your Prince,” I cried. “These men work for the World Shaker.”

  I turned to Kye and Warren, a cry on my lips, just as the guards sprinted forward, their staffs crackling with lightning. Pain blossomed in a sickening shade of scarlet through me. The rider pulled his knife from my stomach. I fell to my knees.

  Warren cried my name. I clutched the wound, gasping for fleeing breath. The guards slashed the rider with their blades, and he fell to the ground, dead.

  Metal twisted around me, keeping my upright. The Prince’s guards couldn’t control metal, could they? I faintly recalled their blue light, and the lightning machines they rode on through the city. There were never any metal manipulation.

  I inhaled sharply as the pain washed over me. As quickly as it had come, the wound re-knit itself together, the blood seeping back into my skin, and my life brightened. I coughed, leaning against my metal restraints, trying to recover from the blow.

  The stab wound was gone.

  “Jay,” I gasped out. “Jay’s alive.”

  Warren was sparring with his rider, but at my words he froze and kicked the man over. “What did you just say?” he cried.

  My response was cut short. A thin metal cord had snaked its way up my torso and wrapped around my mouth, gagging me. I fought against it, trying to wiggle myself free. At my movements, the metal only tightened, my abilities useless.

  The High Prince’s guards stopped their fighting, each rider had fallen to the ground at their feet. I watched as similar restraints coiled up their legs, binding them in place. Warren took flight into the sky, but a cord whipped out and latched onto his bare ankle. He let out a cry of pain and slammed back to the ground in a plume of metal feathers.

  A shadowed figure was approaching the gate from the inside, flanked by a dozen armed men. Each wore a gray hunting outfit with a wool hood and symbols engraved across the belt. A quiver of arrows protruded from their back, but it was their eyes that startled me the most; how they stared at me as if I was a piece of meat they would very much enjoy devouring.

  The central figure sent a chill through me. His clothing was the same, but emblazoned in gold, singling him out as the leader. A shock of white, metallic hair fell across his pale skin, and it seemed as if gold was dusted across his cheeks. A laurel curled into his hair. He was thin but strong, his eyes sharp, a hawk that probed the ground. A clever half-smile toyed with his lips.

  I knew instantly that this was another form of the World Shaker. He had shed Mane’s persona and instead adopted one of a young god, a cynical player from the dawn of time. His eyes had yet to leave mine, and it was obvious his irritating smile was meant only for me. He believed he had won.

  I tore my gaze away. He was handsome, an angel amidst ruins, but something dark emanated from him. Evil. His very skin reeked of it. This was the World Shaker that the Fringe feared. This was who had come in the night to devour us whole.

  “Solifeer!” he called out, his voice resembling the dead of night. Silken, brash. “Why must you march little boys to my doors?”

  Kye struggled against his restraints. “I’m a Lucent, you ridiculous worm. I’m no smaller than you.”

  The World Shaker approached me, signaling for his men to stop. I grew conscious of my height and how they towered over me. “My Stygian speak only of your skin,” he reach
ed out, a single hand trailing down my shoulder. “Of how they touched you in the dawn light. Did it hurt?”

  The metal cord released my mouth. I let out a trembling breath, wanting more than anything to leap from my restraints and strangle him. “Couldn’t handle the arthritis anymore, World Shaker? Needed a more compelling form?”

  He chuckled. “It’s always such fun when the Solifeer is angry. Ah, but your symbols are rising. Have I scared you?”

  I glanced down at myself. My light marks were visible now, and burning red. I could feel my palms growing hot.

  “You don’t know how to control yourself, Solifeer. That is your problem. In past worlds, the Elders raised the Solifeer by their own devices, and they were amiable opponents. But you haven’t the command to summon the sun and that is where you will fall.” He flicked my metal restraints with a bored expression. “For truly you will fall.”

  “Why have you come?” I asked through gritted teeth. My skin was growing hot, my vision rising in scarlet light. Jay could be alive. That thought alone sent a ripple of hatred through me. This World Shaker was all that stood between me and finding him.

  “Now, you know better than to set yourself on fire,” he said, cocking his head. For a brief second, his shadowed expression broke and I could see an almost human look within his gaze. Almost. “But go on ahead, Anya. Do your worst.”

  I leveled my eyes with his. “You can’t touch me, can you?”

  “You are fire, and I am ice. And I burn.” He chuckled again. “I cannot touch you yet. You are still untrained, and the Oracle’s seal lies on you until that time, curse that woman. No, I cannot touch you. But he can.”

  The man nearest to him lowered his hood. His hair was slicked back in a bun, his dark eyes filled with an apology that I didn’t care to see. Roland the Bounty Hunter — the traitor — stood before me.

  The World Shaker’s lips curled into a smile. He saw the anger in my eyes, too.