by G. R. Lyons
Vorena gave the girl a questioning look, then chuckled. “No, Asenna, I had it last, remember? In fact…”
She turned and looked at Benash again, and pointedly glanced down at his chest. Benash frowned, confused, until he saw her project an image of the worn page that he carried. He gave her a puzzled look, wondering what was going on, but unbuttoned his coat anyway and pulled the oilcloth wrapping out of his inside pocket.
“Hooray!” Asenna cheered, jumping to her feet and clapping her hands. “Tell the story! Tell the story!”
“Asenna,” Jevon growled from across the fire. “Why don't you let Vorena rest a bit, alright?”
Benash saw smiles on the rebels' faces give way to disappointed frowns. Jevon seemed to notice, too, and Vorena put on a smile herself, struggling to sit up better.
Benash braced himself against a log and drew up one leg, propping his arm across his knee and easing Vorena back against him. She rested her head back on his shoulder for a moment, then took the oilcloth from him and carefully unwrapped the page.
The rebels quieted down and moved closer to hear.
Vorena glanced around at the camp, gave Benash a wry look, and held up the torn and tattered page from a history text on Agorani technology.
“Many years ago, on an Isle far, far away, there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle built of starglass, with rainbows for bridges and clouds for floors…”
The rebels were utterly silent, transfixed by Vorena's voice. Benash watched her, seeing her pretend to scan the page with her eyes as she spoke.
“…and the giant wolf burst through the castle gate, sending splinters of wood scattering in all directions. The grey beast towered over the girl, growling ferociously as its red eyes flashed, and it told her, 'I claim this castle and all its lands, and you will serve me!' The princess threw back her head and bravely faced the wolf, shouting back, 'I bow to no one! You do not own me!' Then she mounted her trusty renkana, a winged horse of Falsin. Her renkana was blue, with orange tips on its wings and a glorious fan of green feathers for a tail. The winged horse took to the skies with the girl on its back, and together they beat back the monster with magic flame and stomping hooves, but the wolf fought back with all its might…”
Vorena paused, staring at the page, and Benash felt the entire camp hold its breath, looking on with eagerness and confusion as to why she'd stopped.
She lowered her arm with a weary sigh and looked up at Benash.
His gaze fixed on hers, and he saw a shimmer of tears in her eyes.
Long seconds passed, until Vorena finally spoke again, her eyes never leaving his.
“The wolf's eyes flashed blood red, and it struck at the renkana, its great claws raking her flesh and sending her tumbling from the skies. The renkana landed, shielding the princess from harm, and the wolf attacked again, and it seemed all hope was lost. Suddenly, out of the skies, a piercing cry was heard, and the wolf looked up to see a hawk come hurtling toward him, followed by an army of birds in myriad colors. Together, they surrounded the vicious wolf and struck at him from all sides, pecking and clawing and stomping until there was nothing left of the great beast and its vile red eyes.
“The wolf was cast out, and the people cheered! But as the princess dismounted to thank the hawk and his beautiful friends, she saw the renkana was mortally wounded. The princess wept, and though she did not want to say goodbye, the renkana assured her that the hawk would always be her friend, and would always be there to protect her in her absence.”
Vorena paused, looking at Benash intently, and he fought back tears as he looked back at her, giving her a subtle nod.
After a moment, she continued, “So the renkana vanished into the forest, returning to the earth, but the hawk and his friends stayed, helping to rebuild what was destroyed by the red-eyed wolf.” Vorena paused again, firmed up her voice, and forced on a smile. “And the princess called up magic to fix the castle gate, and her friends rejoiced, and there was singing and dancing throughout the night to celebrate their continued freedom. No one—red-eyed wolf or red-robed man—would ever have power over them, for they were a free people, and they were happy to the end of their days.”
Asenna clapped and cheered at the conclusion of the story, seemingly oblivious to the overall mood of the camp, though Benash noticed all the men exchanging odd looks. Vorena carefully wrapped up the page and handed it to Asenna, who tucked it inside her coat, gave Vorena a hug, and then followed Jevon when the man ordered his princess back to bed.
Vorena sighed heavily, her breath catching in her throat as she blinked, a shimmer of tears still in her eyes.
Why did you change it?
She looked up at him, pressing her lips together as she tried not to cry.
How did you know I changed it? she asked. You've never heard it before.
He shook his head. Something in your voice…
Vorena looked away and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. She took a deep breath, then turned back toward him, crushing his uniform in her fist as she clung to him.
Help them, and watch out for them, she begged, her chest heaving with restrained tears. Please. Promise me you'll go with them to the Gate. Promise me you'll go find freedom.
Benash grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look up at him.
I promise, he insisted. But I'm not going without you.
With that, he jumped to his feet and swung her up into his arms.
“How far to the Gate?” he asked Jevon.
The man slowly stood, eyeing him curiously.
“Several hours march,” Jevon answered. “Why?”
“Show me the way,” Benash insisted, skirting the fire. “I'm taking her now.”
“For the gods' sakes man,” Jevon said with a dry laugh. “It's night. You might as well rest for a bit, and we'll head out in the morning–”
“She needs a doctor now!” Benash insisted. “Please, we have to get her to Agoran as soon as possible.”
“I'm right here,” Vorena muttered, but Benash ignored her.
Jevon was silent, studying Vorena as she hung there in Benash's arms. All around them, several rebels stood up and gathered their things.
“Where are you going?” Jevon asked, looking around at them.
“The Hawk is right,” one said. “I'll take him up there if you won't.”
Others joined in, rapidly gathering supplies while some prepared to bed down for the night. Ashyn came and stood beside Benash, resting a hand on his arm, and Asenna tore out of her bedroll and came to stand at Benash's other side, looking up at him with an oddly adult determination.
Jevon shrugged, fighting a yawn. “As you wish.”
He gave the rebels a few last-minute instructions, gathered his things, and led the way out of camp. Benash secured Vorena in his arms, and with Ashyn and Asenna beside him, he followed the rebels up the mountain.
Chapter 41
BENASH TREMBLED with exhaustion by the time they reached a split in the trail that wound its way up the mountainside. Jevon stopped the rebels there, walking ahead with his bow ready while the others waited behind.
Benash set Vorena carefully on the ground and tried to catch his breath, watching her intently. For the past hour, her lungs had been heaving in fits and starts. Though she hadn't coughed up any more blood, she was struggling more and more just to breathe.
“We're almost there,” he whispered to her. “Hold on.”
She tried to look around, but winced and curled in on herself as her breath caught.
“Can you see it?” she asked in a choked whisper once she could speak again.
Benash looked up and squinted into the darkness of the forest. He saw Jevon follow the left fork in the trail and come to a sudden stop.
Jevon pushed aside a few low-hanging branches, then drew back a heavy cloth of some sort and tucked it against the nearest tree.
The starglass Gate sparkled amidst the shadows of the trees.
“There it is,” Benash whi
spered in awe. “Look, Vorena, we're almost there.”
She tilted her head back, staring at the Gate, then looked off down the right fork. Benash followed her gaze, and saw the path fade away into a carpet of grass as it met the clearing on the mountainside, the one he'd always wanted to reach.
The sky was just beginning to lighten as dawn approached.
“Take me out there,” she said breathlessly.
Benash looked down at her, wide-eyed.
“What?”
“Take me out there,” she repeated. “Please.”
“Why? We're so close!”
She shook her head. “Let me see one more sunsrise.”
Benash narrowed his eyes at her. “You can see it on Agoran. Come on–”
“Benash,” she groaned. “Please. Before I go to my first eternal dance.”
He felt the rebels watching them as he stared at her, torn with indecision. Though he still didn't want to believe it, he saw death written in her eyes.
He was tempted to just pick her up and run through the Gate, but if this was the end…
“Please,” she whispered.
Benash squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, clenched his jaw, and took her up in his arms, following the path out to the clearing.
He heard the others follow, but they stayed behind the tree line, not saying a word as he laid her carefully on the grass, the sky slowly lighting up above them. Vorena fixed her gaze on the horizon, and Benash stretched out beside her, watching her intently, ready to spring into action the moment she said she was ready to go.
He had to get her to Agoran. She had to live.
“Benash?”
“Yes?”
She moved her gaze from the horizon to his face, her breath catching in her throat before she asked, “Would you kiss me one last time?”
Benash choked on a sob, staring at her, but his body moved of its own accord, curling over on top of hers as he looked into her eyes. He trailed his fingertips down the side of her face, lightly touching his lips to hers, never letting his gaze stray.
She kissed him back, gently at first, then more deeply as she clung to him as though her life depended on it.
“Stay with me,” he whispered between kisses. “We're so close.”
She shook her head, and her gaze was drawn away. A slight smile tugged at her lips and she nodded off at the distance.
“Look.”
Benash turned his head, seeing the first hints of light at the horizon, and watched as the suns slowly crept upward, seeming to rise out of the very earth itself.
“A new day, a new possibility,” he said, repeating her own sentiments on the sunsrise. He looked down at her, watching her as she watched the suns come up, then turned back to the view himself. “See, today we'll get you to Agoran, and a new life can begin for all of us.”
He fell silent, watching the glorious golden light as it spread across the sky.
“Beautiful,” she whispered.
He looked back down at her, intending to agree, but was startled to find her looking at him instead of what she had always claimed was the most beautiful thing in the world.
She stared into his eyes with a smile on her face, and murmured, “Infinitely more beau–”
Her words cut off as her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes went wide as she clung to him.
“Benash–”
“Stay with me!” he urged her. “Please, dear gods, stay with me.”
Vorena's gaze fixed on his as she held on to him, his coat bunched in her fists while she struggled to breathe. Her chest rose and caught and sank again, shuddering and choking and trembling.
“Vorena…”
Minutes felt like hours as Benash held her, hearing every little catch in her breath, and never letting his eyes leave hers.
Benash trembled, his heart racing with worry.
Then the pain eased out of her expression, and she took one slow, steady, deep breath. Her gaze focused on him more clearly, and a smile tugged at her lips.
Benash opened his mouth to say something, feeling a burst of renewed hope, but the next moment her gaze changed, and though her eyes were still directed toward him, he knew she could no longer see him.
He let out the breath he was holding and stared at her.
“Vorena?”
But she was completely and utterly still in his arms.
Benash gathered her up against his body and, not caring who saw, burrowed his face against her throat and cried.
Chapter 42
BENASH SAT next to a grass-covered mound in the clearing on the mountainside, and watched as the Fathers' suns came up from the horizon.
“I wish you could see this one, Vorena,” he murmured to the air. “It's exquisite.”
Without looking, he rested a hand on the mound of earth beside him, trailing his fingers through the grass.
She'd been gone for a year, and not once, in all that time, had he ever missed a sunsrise.
He heard footsteps behind him, and turned to see Jevon sit down on the other side of Vorena's grave. Jevon offered him a nod, and both men turned to look out at the horizon as both Sehryl and Subhadin began their separate journeys across the sky.
“If it's any consolation,” Jevon began quietly, “I spoke to a few doctors on Agoran.”
Benash looked over at Vorena's cousin. While Benash had been working with the rebels on Tanas for the past year, trying to draw others to freedom, Jevon had been working on the other side, helping the escaped rebels adjust to life on the only free Isle in the world. Jevon had made several trips back and forth between the two Isles, but Benash had not yet gone through the Gate himself.
He just wasn't ready.
“And?” he asked.
Jevon glanced over at him, then back at the horizon. “I told them about her symptoms, and they were even able to run some tests on an old blood stain–”
Benash nodded absently, recalling Jevon's request, two months ago, for his grey uniform coat. Stained with Vorena's blood, Benash hadn't wanted to part with it, even if it did represent the lifeless existence he'd left behind.
Jevon took a deep breath before he continued: “They said if they had caught the symptoms six months before she died, there might—might—have been a chance of saving her, but after that, there was nothing they could have done.”
Benash let the information sink in, his hand tightening on the grass as he fought tears.
“She was only in the prison for four,” he whispered, and saw Jevon nod in his peripheral vision.
“She was dead the day you met her, Hawk,” Jevon said gently. “There was nothing any of us could have done.”
Benash shook his head. “I could have at least gotten her there sooner. At least given her a chance to know freedom.” He clasped his hands in his lap, his knuckles turning white. “I should have saved her.”
A pregnant silence filled the space between them before Jevon said, “But you did.”
Benash started, and looked across at the man.
“You did save her,” Jevon insisted. “You freed her.”
A bitter laugh escaped Benash's throat as he turned away, shaking his head.
“Benash, do you know what Vorena wanted most in the world?”
“Freedom,” he answered bitterly.
“No, more than that,” Jevon said, his voice so intense that Benash turned to look at him again. “The only thing she wanted more than freedom, and the only thing she thought she'd never live long enough to experience, was love. But you gave her that, Hawk. You gave Vorena her dying wish.”
A tear rushed down Benash's cheek before he could stop it, and he looked back out at the horizon, seeing Sehryl rising steadily on its usual path while Subhadin danced across the sky.
“Infinitely more beautiful than the sunrise,” he said in the barest hint of a whisper, recalling her last words.
“She wanted the freedom of Agoran,” Jevon murmured, “but you gave her something she wanted even more. You did fr
ee her, Hawk. Don't ever doubt that. Now it's time to let her return the favor.”
Benash gave him a questioning look, and Jevon nodded back toward the forest.
“You made it here because of her,” Jevon explained. “Now it's time for you to go through the Gate. She wanted us all to be free. The greatest thanks we could give her would be to do just that.”
Benash took a deep breath and nodded, but looked down at the mound of earth, running his fingers through the grass again. “It's so hard to leave. And I kept hoping more people would come along. I wish I could have freed more of them.”
Jevon shrugged. “Some people love their chains, and don't know what to do without them. You were like that, once.”
Nodding, Benash whispered, “But for her.”
“Yes.”
They fell silent, and Benash knew the man was right. Vorena would have wanted them to be free rather than always running for their lives on Tanas.
He knew it was past time for him to go, but he wasn't sure he could yet bear to leave her side.
“I'll give you a few minutes,” Jevon said, and got up to walk away.
Benash nodded absently, taking in the view as he continued to stroke the grass at his side.
“Hawk?”
He looked over at the sound of the little voice, and saw Asenna approach. Without asking, she climbed into his lap and looked up at him with wide-eyed concern.
“Are you sad still?”
Despite himself, Benash laughed through his tears. “Yes, Princess.”
“You still miss her?” she asked, and when Benash nodded, she said, “Me, too.” Then she stood up, reached inside her coat, and pulled out the oilcloth wrapping that held the worn page. With no hesitation, she handed it to him and took a step back.
“What's this for?” he asked.
“You smiled when she told the special story,” the little girl said with mature gravity. “And you need to smile again.”
Benash hesitated, weighing the gift in his hand. “You're sure you don't want to keep this?”
Asenna shook her head. “I remember the story. I got to hear it more than you did. You should keep it so you can remember it, too.”
