by Frankie Rose
******
The trees’ bare branches were like witches’ claws choking the sky overhead, blocking out the stars. A rich black velvet, spangled with the brilliant pinpricks of a thousand other times and a thousand other places, lay spread out above me like a graceful map. My mind snapped back into place like a jigsaw puzzle, and my surroundings came bearing down on me all at once: freezing cold, dark and ethereal. I still wore the thin t-shirt and jeans I had been wearing back in the hangar. Kayden, on the other hand, was leaning against a tree, wearing a thick parka. Bastard.
“Why am I on the ground?”
Kayden’s silent laughter slipped free from his lips in a visible spiral of fog. “Wanted to give you a soft landing. Sorry.”
“No, you’re not,” I growled. I pulled myself up on my elbows to see that snow lay in a thick blanket over the ground. It coated everything in a ghostly shroud, giving off an eerie silver glow. I got to my feet, glaring at Kayden, who was definitely trying to give me hypothermia. Sure enough, my t-shirt was soaked through and my jeans were already freezing against my skin. “Where are we?”
Kayden drew a deep breath into his lungs. “Alaska. Can’t you smell it on the air? The untarnished, untameable aroma of the wilderness.”
“Can’t smell anything.” The cold had a way of robbing the senses like that. I had been to Alaska before; it had been a cold and lonely place then, too. “Where are they?” Kayden wouldn’t have dragged me all the way out into the wilds to socialize. Despite the banter, Kayden loathed our meetings just as much as I did. That meant the Quorum had to be close by.
“This way.” He turned and started crunching through the crisp mantle of snow, creating slight indentations where he walked. When I followed, my feet sank up to my mid-calf, and by my fifth step my shoes were soaking and my toes were numb. There was no way I was going to say anything, though. I wouldn’t give Kayden the satisfaction.
The thicket of naked silver birch we were in soon petered out to overlook a sweeping downward slope, where a group of figures stood in a broad circle at the center of a clearing. They wore long cowled robes, inky black in the bleached moonlight, drawing their faces into shadow. They turned in unison to look up at us as we emerged from the tree line.
I was about to make a smart comment about the Quorum members being seriously freaky but Kayden, there a second ago, had vanished. When I turned back to look down at the clearing, I saw him standing like a stiff pillar behind one of the figures, watching me, his blond hair shining like a halo of beaten silver.
“Creep.”
“Daniel Montisauri,” a booming voice—male or female, I couldn’t tell—echoed through the thick silence. It rattled off the narrow spindles of the tree trunks. A flock of birds, startled from their sleep, took to the sky as one, shrieking and flapping their dark wings overhead. The sound of my full name was like breaking glass in my ears. I recoiled, slipping in the snow.
“You have been summoned, Daniel,” the voice declared, louder than before. “Come before the Quorum.”
“All right, all right,” I hissed under my breath. “We can’t all just click our fingers…” But I obeyed all the same and started down the slope. The snow on top here was loose, and underneath a slick layer of ice had formed, making the steep way down treacherous. It was a full five minutes before I reached the bottom, by which time I was shivering uncontrollably.
“Come forward, Daniel,” the voice said. The figures—I counted eleven in total—were gathered, facing towards one another, statuesque in their stillness. It was tough to tell who had spoken and where I should be heading, and I paused, scanning their lifeless forms. The figure Kayden was standing by seemed like the wisest bet. The boy watched me with a blank expression, his usual humor and faint arrogance all but disappeared as I made my way over.
“I am Emissary Nevoi, head of the Quorum,” the voice said, “You have been called before us to discuss the matter of Miss Farley Hope. We understand that she is currently under your protection?”
“She is,” I replied warily. The way the Emissary asked the question made it sound more like an accusation.
At my response, the voice spoke again from inside the cowl of the robe, fogging the air. It was a surprise. I’d almost come to suspect that there wasn’t really anybody inside the robes at all, but the mist on the Emissary’s breath gave evidence to the contrary.
“We require that the girl be handed over to us.”
My heart contracted. “Why?”
“The girl is essential to the balance. The Quorum maintains the balance. We fear she may be endangered if she is not cared for properly. You are aware of the prophecy?”
“Of course.” A twisting feeling writhed in my gut. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere I cared to go.
“Then you know what must happen in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled.”
“No. I know what you think must happen. The prophecy’s a thousand years old. It’s been translated into as many different languages. There could be any number of different interpretations.”
“There is only one,” the voice replied. An edge of irritation had grown in its timbre. Seemed the Emissary didn’t much like the way I was talking back.
“Why have you brought me here?” I demanded. If they wanted Farley, Kayden could have just taken her back in the hangar. There had to be something else. The Emissary stepped forward into the silent circle, still buried beneath the folds of thick material.
“The girl is collateral damage. We need to make sure you understand that. We have the same goal, you and I. The Reavers have upset the balance and must be destroyed. You also want them dead. The girl has been pre-ordained to sacrifice her life, but there is another part of the prophecy that must be fulfilled, also. We haven’t taken the girl because we require your help, and we are aware that you harbor feelings towards this Farley Hope.”
“What?” Even I didn’t understand how I felt about Farley. There was no way they could.
“You know what we refer to. If not now, then at some point in the future your emotions towards the girl will deepen. It will be as inevitable as the drawing of breath for you. You must make an oath before us now that you will not act upon these feelings.”
A cold hand forced its way inside my chest and squeezed its frigid fingers around my heart. The only warmth I felt came with each of the Emissary’s words, thrusting into me repeatedly like a searing hot knife.
“I can’t make that oath,” I whispered.
“You have no other choice. If you do not, Farley will become our ward until the time comes when she is to die.”
It was all I could do to keep my teeth from chattering. “And what else? You said you need my help to fulfill another part of the prophecy.”
“We do.” Emissary Nevoi stepped closer until the two of us were standing less than a foot apart. Still I could see nothing but the hollow depths of darkness inside the hood. A hand, female after all, withdrew from the folds of the robe, and the Emissary reached up and touched my face. It was a feather-light stroke, but with it came a bewildering flurry of images and information that made me drop to my knees, gasping for breath. When it was over I looked up at her, feeling the cold seeping in through the wet patches in my jeans.
“There’s only one way I’ll agree to what you’re asking of me,” I said. Now that I knew what they needed from me, it seemed silly to worry about Farley’s safety. She would be safe; they would do whatever I wanted so long as I promised them this one thing. The Emissary gazed down at me, the hint of her eyes suggested in a soft reflective shine from within.
“What would you have?”
“Farley stays with us. And you have to swear you’ll do everything in your power and the power of those at your disposal to research the prophecy. You have to swear you’ll try and find another way.”
“Agreed. But whatever the outcome, you must surrender the girl all the same. When the time comes.”
I tasted blood in my mouth. Something e
lse, too, like fear. I nodded.
The Emissary drew an ancient-looking bone-handled dagger from her robes. It glittered in the cold midnight blanket of the Alaskan night. She drew it swiftly across her palm, squeezing her fingers around the blade. “It shall be done.” She held the dagger out to me. “And you swear to do all that we ask of you in this, and that you will not involve yourself with the girl beyond your duties as her protector?”
I took the blade, noticing that my hand was steady. I was always steady in these situations, but it was surprising that I was calm right now, given the gravity of what I was promising.
“It shall be done,” I whispered. The pain of the steel biting into my skin was barely anything at all. I clasped hold of the blade the way Emissary Nevoi had done, pulling it free from my clenched fist.
Fat, weighty droplets of blood dripped from its end to fall amongst those of the Emissary’s, which already stained the perfect white snow. By the time I looked up from the irrefutable evidence that I had done something big, the Emissary was gone, and so were the other Quorum members. All that was left was Kayden. He watched me with a keen, detached interest that I’d never seen before. For a fleeting, half-dreamed moment he almost looked sad.
