Shatterskin

by Beca Lewis

  Beru pinched my leg so hard tears came to my eyes as she said, “For zound’s sake don’t ever, ever, ever call them that.” She paused and smiled as the two came towards our table. “They are the Ginete, and it took us years to get them to join us.”

  Everyone at the table and in the tavern rose in unison and bowed their heads as the two people with little bodies, big heads, and eyes that took up a large part of their face moved to our table. I felt a silent collective sigh of relief that followed in their wake. Was it because they were afraid of the Ginete or grateful for them?

  Once again, Beru answered, “Both, Hannah.”

  Eighteen

  “We have heard of your return,” one of the Ginete said, turning its huge golden eyes my way. The other one swiveled its head towards me too. It felt as if two lighthouses had turned their beams on me.

  I looked around. Were they looking at me?

  The Ginete turned to Suzanne. “She does not yet remember? Ah. I see. You want us to conduct a remembering ceremony?”

  “We do,” Suzanne answered.

  If Beru had not given me one of her evil eye looks, I would have spoken up in protest or fled the room. Not sure which one would have come first. But there was nowhere to go, and I knew I had no say in the matter. I was sure they had the wrong person. I had nothing to remember, at least nothing important enough to have a ceremony.

  “There is a full moon tomorrow. Can you do it then?” Suzanne asked.

  The two Ginete looked at each other and turned back to Suzanne. They answered in unison, “We can.”

  “Great,” Zeid said, “Let’s eat!”

  I was furious. They were all in on it. Every one of them, including Zeid. Why didn’t someone tell me?

  Zeid leaned across the table in my direction and said, “It will be epic, Hannah.”

  I whispered back, “Is that supposed to comfort me?”

  Everyone at the table laughed, and I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. It felt as if everyone in the restaurant knew what our table was laughing about and joined in. Really and truly, I was screwed.

  *******

  Everyone acted as if the world wasn’t over and started chatting with each other. A basket of bread appeared on the table and was passed around along with a bowl of butter. Seriously? This is what they did after scaring me to death. Eat? Apparently so.

  No one had ordered anything, but within minutes Zeid said, “Ah, our food.”

  Instead of metal toadstools serving us the way they did at the Castle, each person at the table took turns getting up and getting the next course that had been laid out on a ledge in the back of the room.

  I could see hands putting it there but nothing else. I could only assume there were cooks back there somewhere preparing the food.

  In any case, a bell would ring, and someone at the table would get the food and serve each person. Even though none of us had placed an order, somehow each plate put in front of us was perfect, although none of them were the same. But I was in such a daze I barely noticed what everyone was eating. I nibbled at my food and tried to listen to the conversations.

  They didn’t sound that much different from conversations I had heard at restaurants back home in Earth. Talking between friends, renewing bonds. Words were weaving in and around, making a kind of music as each one joined in, bringing their unique voice. Of course, I was hoping to hear more about the Remembering Ceremony that the Ginete said they would hold. But nothing more was mentioned.

  Aki had taken a seat on one side of me, and Niko sat on the other side. The bell rang, and Aki got up to serve. It suddenly occurred to me that I might be supposed to serve next.

  Inside my head, I heard Beru’s voice say, “Yes, you are next. I’ll tell you what to do.”

  I was so happy to hear her I almost burst into tears. I used to be able to hear people talking to me in my head but had lost that ability when we arrived in Erda. People heard me, but I didn’t hear them. Now, for the first time, I heard someone. I prayed that meant some of my skills were returning to me. It was even more wonderful because it was Beru who was guiding me as she had been since I first met her.

  Across the table, Beru smiled that smile that lit up everything around her and then wiggled her slim fingers on the table. It had become our secret sign of solidarity and never had it meant more to me than at that moment.

  The bell rang, and I got up as if I knew what I was doing. I did because Beru walked me through it all.

  She told me what plates to put in front of what person, serving myself last. Relief flooded through me. Whatever the Remembering Ceremony was going to be, I knew Beru would be with me.

  Then the most amazing thing happened. I heard everyone’s voice.

  Suzanne, Aki, Niko, Zeid, Beru, and even Ruta said, “Hannah, we will be with you. We are your team.” The two voices that chimed in next sent a shiver of both anticipation and joy through me. The two Ginete said in unison. “We too travel with you.”

  I smiled at everyone at the table and silently answered them. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  Suddenly I was hungry. Everyone laughed and dug into their food, including me. Whatever was going to happen tomorrow night was not happening at that moment. I realized that it might be the last time I had a chance to sit at a table and eat a proper meal.

  That night as I lay in my bed, I heard a voice I hadn’t heard for many months. It was a voice that I loved and trusted with all of my being while living in the Earth dimension. But Sarah’s husband Leif had stopped coming back to Earth to visit long before I traveled to Erda.

  My expectation of seeing him in Erda had faded since I hadn’t heard from him, or Sarah. I assumed I wouldn’t because Sarah had not come through the portal with me. But there he was, in my head. It was as if a door opened in my mind while we were at dinner, and I could hear voices again.

  Leif’s voice stole over me, like the blue haze in the dreams I had weeks before. “Sleep well, little one,” he said, and I realized he had been there all along. It was me that had been missing.

  Perhaps the Remembering Ceremony wasn’t going to be so bad after all. With that thought, I slept. I had a feeling it would be a while before I was able to sleep so soundly again.

  Nineteen

  Sun was streaming into my bedroom when I woke. Someone had come in and opened the curtains but had not made me get up. Every other day, Beru had shaken me awake in what felt like the middle of the night. It worried me. Was something wrong?

  And then I remembered. Tonight was the ceremony. I fell back into the bed and pulled the covers over my head. Maybe it would all go away. I kept expecting someone to grab the blankets and tell me to get up and stop hiding. No one did. Which felt worse than having Beru berate me for being lazy.

  When I realized that I couldn’t sleep and that I was curious about what was going on without me, I dressed and headed to the atrium hoping to find someone, anyone, who would tell me what we were doing. Was I supposed to go to class? Were they expecting me?

  Thinking they were probably all waiting for me, I hurried through the halls. I knew my way now. I could see the numbers on the doors but rarely had to use them. I didn’t meet anyone in the halls. I tried to look in Aki’s room, but the door was locked. So was the entrance to Niko’s training studio.

  I was getting worried. Although the Castle had very few people living in it, I always saw people strolling through the halls or sitting in the gardens, or working in what looked like offices. They never spoke to me or looked at me, but I hadn’t realized what a comfort it had been to see them. Today, no one was anywhere.

  When I reached the atrium, there was one place set at the table and one metal toadstool with a platter on its head filled with food that I like. Although I had never heard the metal toadstool speak, I was desperate. “Where
are the others? What’s going on?”

  Metal guy put my food on my plate, pointed to it with its one finger and said in a metallic voice, “Eat.”

  With nothing else to do, I ate. A lot. I ate so much food that after a while metal man took my plate away and said, “Stop!”

  I was grateful for the command. With no one to talk to, nothing to do, and no idea what was going on, I think I could have continued to stuff food in my face just to fill up the space. I dropped my forehead to the table and tried to keep myself from burping out loud. I still didn’t trust that there was no one there, and I have enough pride to try and keep noises like burps to myself.

  When I looked up, I was alone again. No metal toadstool, no food, nothing. Slowly it dawned on me that perhaps this was a test of some kind. Like a treasure hunt. Maybe I was supposed to figure out how to find them. Would they want me to search the castle or did they want me to do something else?

  A light bulb went off in my head. None of my teachers would want me running around looking without any sense of direction. They would want me to listen. The Hannah that I was in the Earth dimension was an excellent listener. It was a skill that had enabled me to be places I needed to be and know what was going on with all my friends, often before they did.

  I realized that instead of thinking of myself as two people, Hannah there and Hannah here, I had to start being one person. I had to remember what I already knew and merge it with what I had learned since coming to Erda and training at the Castle.

  Suddenly it made sense. I had been thinking that the Remembering Ceremony was something that happened at night. What if it started this way? What if I was responsible for beginning to remember on my own?

  They had given me a clue at dinner the night before. I heard them speak to me telepathically, just as I had been able to do before. Perhaps my job was to put myself together again, before whatever ceremony was happening that night.

  I was clear. That was what I was to do with my time. Within me, I could feel a tiny flame burning. An awareness was beginning to stir. Listening to my feelings, I realized that I was afraid. I had been fearful from the moment I had stepped through the portal. I was scared of what would be asked of me. I was worried I couldn’t handle it. I was afraid of the responsibility of being myself.

  Yes, I was terrified of the Shrieks and Shatterskin. But I couldn’t even begin to defeat them unless I faced my fears about myself. I might as well go back to bed and pull the covers over my head. It was tempting. But I knew it was impossible. That monster would still come for me, and those beings who had told me that they were on my team and would stand by me.

  They were willing to be afraid and still do what they needed to do. Whatever I was going to remember at the ceremony would make me even more afraid. Was I willing to do what needed to be done anyway?

  Admittedly, I mumbled to myself, I didn’t really have a choice. Just because I started to feel more grownup didn’t make me feel any less snarky about my situation. I wanted to blame someone, but none of that was going to help me not get shattered by Shatterskin. I had no idea what that guy did. Shatterskin what? I headed to the library. It was time to learn everything I could about those zonking shrieks and their controller.

  I spun around the atrium and yelled at the top of my lungs. I knew they were out there somewhere. “Okay, you good for nothing friends of mine. I am going to be ready to remember.”

  Sounded stupid even as I said it, and I swear I heard them laughing. It was hard to miss Beru’s laughter that sounded like bells and Ruta’s that sometimes sounded like a frog choking.

  As I stomped off as dignified as I could with my belly jiggling with too much food, it occurred to me that I didn’t know where to find the library. I listened and heard, “Door ten.” So metal toadstool hadn’t gone after all. “Thanks, big guy,” I said. Its laugh was as weird as Ruta’s. Think of a metal lid on a trash can vibrating. That would be close.

  Twenty

  The library was exactly how I expected it to be. It looked like the library back home with rows of book and tables for working or reading. The only difference that I could see straight away was, once again, there was no one there. Not even a metal toadstool.

  How was I supposed to find anything? The word “listen” popped into my head again. It must have been the word of the day like the old Groucho Marx show my parents told me about. “How about a new word, people?” I asked in my head.

  I knew I was irritable because I was afraid, so I told myself to shut up and listen. I thought that maybe I was being punished for my rudeness because I didn’t hear anything.

  Then I remembered what Beru kept telling me. Feel. It was the same as listen but didn’t always have words. Listen to the feeling. It wasn’t as hard to do as the first time when I was trying to feel doors. My practice was paying off because within a few seconds I knew, no, I felt, what to do.

  I sat down at a table and asked for information about the Shrieks and Shatterskin. A screen popped up in front of me with options. Did I want pictures or information? I chose information. After reading for a few minutes, I almost wished that I hadn’t. Too graphic. So I asked for pictures. That was even worse.

  But I made myself stare at them until I could look without shaking the table. Then I went back to the written information which consisted mostly of descriptions of the destruction.

  I learned enough to be even more terrified than I thought was possible. The Shrieks did what their name implied. They shrieked with a decimal level that made it impossible to think. The pain was intense, and the disorientation made everyone incapable of doing anything other than curling up in a ball, holding their ears. The Shrieks cleared the way for Shatterskin.

  After I read what Shatterskin could do, I thought that he probably didn’t need those little bastards given what he could do by himself. Maybe he liked the company.

  Although Shatterskin also used sound, he used a decimal level that shattered everything in his path. The vibrations went deep into the earth and shattered tree roots, rocks, whatever was there. Earthquakes and volcanoes often followed him.

  When Shatterskin directed his sound into the air, it instantly shattered anything flying within range. Usually, only bits of feathers and tiny bones were found after his passing. That’s if anyone was brave enough to follow after him. On the surface of the earth trees shattered, and all beings blew apart. He literally shattered every kind of skin that was within reach of his sound. No wonder we ran.

  The writer conjectured that Shatterskin’s sound range was not far since to make that sound required an enormous amount of energy. Survivors guessed that his range was not more than perhaps one-hundred feet around him. That didn’t mean much considering how quickly he moved and shattered as he went. I thought that the Shrieks must make up for his lack of range, since they traveled ahead of him and laid open a space where there was no one to oppose him.

  The images of the Shrieks and Shatterskin were hand drawn. They weren’t photographs. The artist said some of his pictures were conjectures based on seeing these beings from miles away. Anyone close enough to see details was dead.

  Abbadon had built an utterly effective means of destruction with the Shrieks and Shatterskin. Was his quest for power so great that he was willing to destroy the land and the people? Didn’t he know that destroying nature would ultimately destroy him?

  I looked at the pictures one more time. The Shrieks literally looked like big mouths within blobs of green goo that slithered. I couldn’t see any features other than a hole that changed shapes. I had to assume that it made different kinds of shrieks depending on the size of the opening.

  Shatterskin looked like my picture of an evil metal robot. A terminator made of metal. What kind of metal, I didn’t know and neither did the writer. Maybe it had to be metal so the sound the Shrieks were making wouldn’t shatter it? Could we make someth
ing out of the same metal to protect us?

  I looked up one more thing. I figured I was so terrified that learning about the Riff would not increase my terror and I might as well get it over with.

  In that, as in so many things, I was wrong.

  *******

  I must have fallen asleep after reading all that information and scaring myself to death because I woke up with my head on the library table. Maybe it was a defense mechanism. Only so much terror allowed into one person before the brain shuts down. Memories of what I had read about the Riff started to filter back in, and I shut them down with a “no, not now” command. I thought of Niko and the defense moves he had taught me, and I used a few of them on the images in my head. That helped. They backed off, at least for a time.

  The high slitted windows in the walls of the library showed me a darkening sky. Was it possible I had slept all afternoon on a library table? I was hungry enough to think that it was possible. I rose to go, thinking that my friendly metal toadstool would be waiting with some food in the atrium, when I heard one of my favorite sounds, Beru laughing.

  “Zut,” Beru said, “You look a fright.”

  I had to restrain myself from practically leaping over my chair to hug her. But as sweet as Beru looked, hugging was only allowed if she initiated it, so I held back and wiggled my fingers at her instead.

  “Where have you been? I am so happy to see you. Yes I probably do look terrible. Not used to no mirrors and then no friends to make sure that I am put together correctly,” I rattled on without thinking.

  Beru just stood there and smiled.

  “Hungry?” she asked.

  She didn’t even wait for me to say anything before she was out the door and heading towards the atrium. I followed as fast as I could, but let me tell you when Beru starts moving, she moves. She was way ahead of me by the time I reached the atrium. I could smell food, and I was happy as could be. I had almost convinced myself that the idea of a ceremony and then off to defeat undefeatable monsters and a gods-forsaken Riff in the earth was never going to happen. Until I rounded the corner and saw them.