by Hanna Peach
Alyx had told him to fly straight over them to get to the top of the hill, but something told him that this event that they were all excited about may be important. He flew down until he landed in the lower branches near where three female creatures were lying across a large colorful blanket sharing a bunch of grapes.
“…can’t believe it, Constantine. Finally, you will be entwined with Daniel,” one of them said.
“By the light of the full midnight moon. How romantic!” another one said with her hands clasped to the side of her face.
“Romance has nothing to do with it,” said the one with flaming red hair, who Piki took to be the one called Constantine. “Daniel and I should have been matched in the first place. Not with Alyx. That traitor.” These last words were spoken with so much venom that Piki couldn’t help but chirp.
He launched from his perch towards the main building. He hadn’t gone a dozen flaps away when an idea struck him. Piki swooped around and began to circle, his eyes watching the ground. He made a few passes and tightened his circles until…he clenched and let his bowels loose.
There was a screech from the redhead below. “My hair! Errrrgh, disgusting.”
That’s for Alyx, Piki thought. He couldn’t help twittering with satisfaction as he flew up the mountain.
* * *
Piki flew along the trees on the unoccupied side of the mountain, letting the wind catch under his wings. His eyes were peeled for any larger birds and the wingless creatures; however, since he had entered this section of forest he had seen neither. This isn’t good, Piki thought as a current of nerves flooded him. An area devoid of animal life was usually a warning to stay away. Along with this awareness, something was squawking in the pit of his stomach to turn around.
No. He fought the urge to turn back and remained firmly on his course. He promised Alyx that he would help her. Piki twittered nervously to himself in an attempt to calm his beating heart. This was not a good place.
Piki swooped over the area that Alyx had spoken about. He made several circles over the forest under the canopy, letting his eyes wander all over the place. This place looked like any other in this forest, trees and bushes growing out of the sloped mountain, littered with large boulders. Alyx said that he should look out for any type of structure or hiding place, but Piki could see none. Strange. Alyx was adamant that there was something here.
A rustling had Piki jolting in the air and flying into the nearest cover of leaves. He crouched close to the small branch that he was clutching. He saw movement and flashes of pale featherless skin.
It was a wingless one, moving through the forest below, moving closer. Who was this wingless one who was moving through this part of the forest? Was it a coincidence that they were here?
Then Piki caught a glimpse of his face. The recognition almost caused him to chirp in shock. It was the same face as Alyx had shown him earlier. The one that looked carved and as hard as the rock that made up this mountain. Michael.
Piki darted from cover to cover as he followed Michael through the forest. He dared not get too close. Finally, Michael stopped at the side of a particularly large boulder that looked like a roughly shaped tomb pointing its craggy finger to the sky. Piki thought he could see Michael drawing lines on the rock with his fingers. What was he doing?
Piki hopped as quietly as he could down to a lower branch to get a better look. He thought he saw a flash of pale green. Michael stepped forward and… How could this be?
Michael had disappeared.
Chapter 13
“There must be some kind of chamber there hidden by a mirage,” Alyx said, looking around at Tobias, Jordan and Dianne in the cramped compartment at the Saint’s Revenge. Vix hadn’t returned from her mission scouting for new community locations. “It makes sense that after I had been able to break into his chambers, he would find a safer, hidden place to hide his important artifacts.” Like Mayrekk’s prisoner’s apex and Raphael’s charm.
Dianne had taken a copy of Piki’s memory of Michaelea and had “gifted” each of them around the table a copy of this memory. Piki was now on his way back to Sparrow.
“We have to get in there. The apex is in there somewhere and that’s the key to freeing Mayrekk. He can tell us what kind of poison it is. Then we just have to retrieve the Threads of Dark for the cure.”
“I don’t see how it’s possible, Alyx,” Dianne said. “You’re considering not just breaking into one Seraphim city, but two.”
“There’s a way.” There had to be. For Israel’s sake and her own. If he dies, I die. “We just have to find one.”
Dianne slid back in her chair. “It’s suicide. You can’t expect us to throw our limited resources at this insane mission.”
“If we have any chance of succeeding, we have to rescue Mayrekk and steal the Threads of Dark on the same night,” said Jordan. “If we don’t, then we risk alerting the Elders into increasing their security, making it impossible for us to enter a second city.”
Alyx looked thankfully at Jordan. At least he was on her side.
Dianne threw her arms up in the air. “I can’t believe you are even entertaining this idea, Jordan. He’s a mortal-demon half-breed, for God’s sake.”
Israel. She was talking about Israel. But Dianne didn’t know how closely tied to the prophecy Israel was…no one in the FreeThinker camp knew except for Jordan, Tobias and her. Alyx suspected that Vix knew, but if she did, she never let on.
Jordan’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Mayrekk has been a friend to us FreeThinkers for decades. He has risked his life to get messages to me about new FreeThinkers, about what has been going on in their society, and even to help some FreeThinkers escape before they were captured. A lot of our FreeThinkers may not be alive if it weren’t for him, including myself. I owe him. So I’ll do everything I can to save his life.”
The small room was quiet. Alyx stared at Jordan as he made his impassioned speech. Could it be that Mayrekk had helped her parents escape? She had so much to ask Mayrekk. Once they had rescued him.
Alyx slipped her hand onto his knee in thanks for his support. He placed his hand over hers and their fingers twisted together. A thought struck her as she stared at their entwined fingers.
“Daniel and Constantine’s entwinement,” she said. “They’re getting entwined in Michaelea at midnight on the night of the full moon. That’s in two nights’ time. It’s the entwinement of the year. Most of the Elders from Gabriela and Urielos will be in attendance. If we have any chance, it’d be on that night.”
“But won’t that mean that Michaelea will be harder to breach without being noticed?” said Tobias. “There’ll be so many Seraphim everywhere.”
“No. We can use that to our advantage. We’ll hide in plain sight. There’ll be so many Seraphim around that we won’t even be noticed.”
Dianne shook her head. “But they’ll recognize you.”
“Not at all,” said Alyx, and she grinned. “We’ll all be wearing masks.”
A look of realization came across the faces of everyone else in the room. The Entwinement Ceremony custom was for everyone to wear masquerade masks except for the entwinement couple.
“And as Michael will be the one entwining the couple, we know that he won’t be in the forest chambers where Mayrekk’s prisoner’s apex is.”
“What about getting into this secret chamber?” asked Tobias.
“It has to be protected by a magical shield.” The last time she broke into Michael’s chambers, she had used Elijah’s pick. But now Michael had that. “Tobias, do you know how to make something that will disrupt a magical shield?”
He frowned. “I’ve never tried.”
Alyx did her best to describe Elijah’s pick to him, the lightness and the coolness of the metal. She told him that Passar had described it as a mix of Alchemist metals.
Tobias nodded. “Magical shields work off a kind of Alchemist current circulated across by Airmagic in a thin sheet. Essentially how it works i
s that this Alchemist current converts the air into a wall of impenetrable glass. This one is likely to have MirageWeaver magic entwined in it as well. It is very likely that the pick that Elijah created uses a mix of metals that disrupts either the current of Air or the Alchemist or both. I can start working on it right away, but…I fear I may not have enough time to experiment with this.”
“Do what you can,” Alyx said.
“If it doesn’t work, then what?” asked Dianne.
“In Piki’s memory, it looked like Michael was using some kind of localized entry panel instead of a keye,” said Jordan. “We’ll just have to figure out the entry code.”
“Assuming you can.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Alyx muttered.
The room filled with an empty silence, as if everyone had taken a deep breath collectively.
“So that’s a basic plan for Michaelea,” said Jordan. “What about Urielos? We’ll need an Alchemist.”
“If you are happy to donate your blood, Tobias, I can do it myself,” said Alyx.
Everyone turned their eyes to Tobias.
He frowned. “I am not one to turn away from danger. You know that, Alyx.”
“I know. But there is a broken community of Seraphim here who need you more than I do.”
Tobias looked to argue again. But it seemed that Alyx’s words filtered through to him. He nodded and it was settled.
“The only thing left is figuring out how to get into the Archives without anyone noticing,” said Alyx.
“Sometimes the best way to figure out how to do something is to do it,” said Jordan.
“That’s suicide. We can’t just figure out how to get into Urielos by going to Urielos.”
“That’s not what I’m suggesting.”
“What are you suggesting?”
Jordan grinned. “We could workshop it in a DreamScape.”
* * *
Alyx gazed across the Urielos DreamScape from above and grazed her lip with her teeth. The city was laid out like a giant map below her. She could see the possible paths that she would take, the darker paths through the skinny alleys, the areas where overgrown trees and bushes would provide cover.
She spoke to Jordan, who was floating beside her. “I still think that it’d be better to come in from the sea side. The path is more covered this way. We won’t have to worry about anyone coming from the village behind us.”
Jordan shook his head. “But it’s a longer approach from the south than from the north. I say the north side is a better approach. It’s a shorter distance, hence it would be quicker.”
“Oh really?”
“Really.”
“Care to race on it?” Alyx glanced sideways at him.
He laughed. “Are you serious?”
Alyx let a slow smile crawl across her face. “Are you scared you’ll lose?”
Jordan snorted. “I’m scared I’ll kick your butt so hard your pride won’t be able to take it.”
Alyx felt the familiar buzz of competition running under her skin like a current. “Then let’s go. You take the north side, I’ll take the south. You activate the DreamShadow guards using Trida’s memories. When we’re in position we’ll start the race. Then we’ll see who gets to the Archives first.”
Trida was one of the Aradale survivors, a lightwarrior who recently defected from Urielos. Trida had allowed Dianne to take a copy of her memories of Urielos’s defense system for Alyx and Jordan to use in this DreamScape training. Alyx had been startled to learn that Jordan could also weave parts of Trida’s memories to create guards in the DreamScape that performed and acted similarly to the guards of Urielos. They would all be mirror images of course, being created from a memory copy and would mostly fight left-handed. Jordan called them “DreamShadows”.
“You could create DreamShadows, too,” Jordan had told her earlier. “Just like you could create a door or a blue smoke globe or anything you want. Doing anything in the DreamScape is about controlling your mind.”
“Even if I had no inherent DreamWalker ability?”
“Of course.”
“Let’s do it then,” said Jordan, snapping Alyx back to the present. “Let’s race. It’ll be good training for us anyway.”
He pointed to the DreamScape sky over Urielos. Alyx gasped when the black night sky faded, then began to glow a brilliant green, burying the pale stars away against its overwhelming color. Alyx noticed the green was bolder nearer the horizon and faded to a lighter green straight above her. Staring more intently at the midpoint of the sky above, she noticed the lightness was caused partially by what looked like shimmering golden flecks. It was unearthly. No clouds marked the alien sky above.
“After we send up our signals that we are in position, watch for the sky to turn back to black,” Alyx heard him say. “That’s our signal to begin.”
Alyx nodded, still staring at the sky. “It’s kinda beautiful, isn’t it?” she said. “I could stare at this sky forever. The color is just…stunning. And is that gold in there as well?”
His voice was quiet. “Now you know how I feel.”
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “Your eyes. The sky is the exact color of your eyes.”
Alyx blinked as she processed this. The sky was the color of her eyes.
“I could stare at this sky forever.”
“Now you know how I feel.”
Alyx tore her gaze from the heavens to stare at Jordan. As always, he stood with his chin held high and his assured gaze on her. But there was a shy smile that softened the usual stoic confidence.
Alyx smiled. “That’s really sweet.”
He shrugged. “I supposed I could have just as easily colored the sky red or purple.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t pretend what you did doesn’t mean anything.”
Jordan scowled. For a moment, Alyx thought that she had truly offended him.
She was about to speak again when he spoke, almost to himself. “And she will stand before you reflecting you back onto yourself, like a mirror to your soul.”
Before she could think too hard upon these words, Jordan took off across the sky, calling behind him. “Last one into position is a rotten Dragonberry.”
Alyx laughed as she sped off toward the south side of the village.
* * *
Alyx hung off the side of the cliff under the tip of the spit. Only the very top of the southern watchtower could be seen from where she hung. She held out her hand palm up and closed her eyes. She remembered what Jordan had said to her about manipulating the DreamScape. “If you can create a door, you can create anything in here. You just have to believe you can.”
Alyx sent her full focus to the space above her palm. Believe. She imagined white feathers and small round eyes. She imagined the claws poking lightly into her skin and how the weight of the bird would feel in her hand. Believe.
She heard a cooing.
Alyx couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her when she opened her eyes. Sitting in her palm was a small white dove. Its head tilted as if it were inquiring as to what was so funny. She gave the dove a stroke down its soft body and a light kiss on its forehead before she threw her hand to the sky. The dove flapped his wings and aimed for the heavens.
Alyx watched as the dove grew smaller, aiming for the golden flecks. She smiled when she saw a second dove joining hers. This was Jordan’s signal. The two doves twisted around each other as if they were dancing, before they disappeared out of sight.
The gold and green began to fade. The sky darkened to black and the pale stars appeared again. The race had started.
Alyx shot up and along the rocky cliff until she reached the lip of the spit. She peered over it. A little farther up the cliff, she knew from Trida’s memories where the first patrole line ran. Two ’Shadow warriors, both dressed in warrior blacks, were moving along the edge of the cliff towards her. She tried to ignore an uneasy feeling.
Alyx felt her stomach coil as one of the guards moved into a moonlight patch, showing a strong-jawed, dark-haired warrior. Was that…Lutando? Her old flock mate?
She tried to steady her heart, which had begun to race as she squinted at the figure moving closer. No. It couldn’t be Lutando. Just someone who looked very much like him. Alyx silently let out a breath. Silly girl. Why would Lutando even be here?
Alyx watched the guards as they made their way around the edges of the village and disappeared from sight.
She double-checked that no one was in sight before slipping from the bushes and flying along the ground to the closest building. From there she slipped up along the wall and up onto the top of the roof. She grinned. This was going to be easier than she thought.
Alyx ran along the rooftops, the night air rushing to get out of her way. At first she was cautious when she approached the edges of the buildings, peering down to make sure that the city was still silent. Soon she grew more confident and more eager, leaping from the roof’s edge, landing on the next one with the lightest of touches. She would win this race.
Soon the Archives was before her. Alyx made her way to the edge of the building opposite the Archives over a tiny lane. She scanned the sky beyond and the street below. She couldn’t see Jordan. But she could see a ’Shadow guarding the front entrance, his face hooded in shadows from the hanging street lanterns above. Alyx dove over the gap between buildings in a silent arc. She tucked into a roll and rose straight up to her feet on the roof of the Archives.
Peering over the edge she could see that the guard hadn’t moved. She unsheathed her dagger and dropped silently behind him, knocking the butt of her handle on his head as she dropped. The guard started to collapse but Alyx had sheathed her dagger and tucked her arms under his armpits before he could fall too far. She dragged his body to the darkened side of the Archives building into an empty alleyway. Once tucked into the dark side of the building, Alyx lay the unconscious guard down. His head lolled back to one side so that his face turned towards her.
