Shatterskin

by Beca Lewis

  Niko motioned for John to continue.

  “When Shatterskin comes through, no one lives. He destroys so thoroughly it will take centuries before the ground recovers—if it ever does. Now your reports tell us that he is moving faster than ever and our earmuffs and shields are not going to protect us from him.”

  That was John. Questioning. Not quite on board. But we needed people to do that, otherwise we might stumble into something we would never get out of without some of us dying.

  The Priscillas flew off my coat and arranged themselves on the edge of the table to look at me. I tried to shoo them away, but they stuck themselves there. Staring. Waiting.

  Niko laughed. “Well, I see that the Priscillas know what is going to happen next.” He turned to me and said, “Well, Kara Beth, are you going to tell us the plan?”

  Zounds, I was hoping to gain more time, stall a little. But it seemed that wasn’t going to happen. Although I did my best to fidget around a bit, hoping that what I was going to say would improve with a few more seconds of reprieve.

  Everyone was looking at me. As I looked back at our team, I expected to see everyone looking at me with complete dismay, probably figuring that if I had a plan, it was going to fail. Couldn’t blame them there. But I was surprised to see that there were a variety of looks.

  Besides the Priscillas, both Niko and Aki had that look of anticipation as if they knew what I was going to do, and they approved. Sometimes they scared me with what they knew.

  Others looked at me with pride.

  Surprisingly, Ruta was in that category, along with Beru, Teddy, Pita, and Zeid.

  Zeid had a different kind of pride in his look though. I knew that once this was all over, I would have to address what was between us. But it would have to wait. I had no room for thinking about that right now.

  Finally, the men from the village. James had the look of a father whose daughter was growing up; John was angry; and Kit, Mark, and Thomas were patiently waiting for my answer before passing judgment.

  However, before I could speak, I was saved. I was pretty sure that Suzanne and Earl’s entrance was timed perfectly for just that reason. Trying not to give away my total panic, I projected a “thank you” into their minds and in return received a feeling of warmth and safety. I wasn’t alone.

  “I’ll be helping too, Kara,” Link said.

  I included him in my thanks and then settled back to let Earl and Suzanne run the show, at least for the moment.

  Although he was up above in the woods, I could feel Cahir’s presence so strongly at my side it felt as if I could reach out and pat him on his head. I almost laughed out loud when Cahir growled and snapped at my fingers reminding me that my time was coming soon.

  “Get ready,” Cahir said.

  Well, I knew that’s what he said even though it was just a feeling, like feeling the trees talking to me.

  Thankfully, everyone had turned their attention to Earl. He didn’t need to ask for it. Now that we had all seen his power as Coro, the man standing before us was even more majestic and commanding.

  He took his time, looking at each person around the table for a long time. Perhaps he was taking a measure of who they were. The effects of his gaze resting on them was different for each person.

  The doubters seemed to squirm a little more, and the ones who had looked at me with pride or acceptance looked more grounded and relaxed.

  I prepared myself for his gaze resting on me, but it didn’t. He looked at each Priscilla, made them giggle, and then passed right over me and took in the entire table.

  I tried not to worry about why he had skipped me. Did he know that I wasn’t up to what I was supposed to do next and he didn’t want anyone to see my reaction when he looked at me?

  There wasn’t time for me to drag myself down too far because Earl started speaking. His voice filled every crevice of the room with power, assurance, and courage.

  “Thank you for your bravery out there today,” he began. “Yes, now we know how to eliminate the Shrieks, and I have sent small storms over every band of Shrieks that managed to escape. The insects have taken care of the remainders of the Shrieks that fled. We are attacking the supply lines as we speak.

  “The trees have assured me that they can handle the amount of salt we have dumped. And once this is over, we’ll help by sending clean rain down to wash the salt further down where the roots can do their work gathering it, using what’s needed, and sending the rest back to the ocean.

  “Too bad we didn’t know earlier how easy this was going to be. But that’s often the way.

  “Things seem impossible, and then a few brave people of all races and creeds band together and find the solution. In this case, it’s everyone around this table and all the ones who have supported all of you behind the scenes.

  “We think that the solution to stopping Shatterskin will follow the same scenario. The solution is easy, but it will take bravery to carry it out.”

  That’s when he turned to me and said, “Time to take over, Princess Kara Beth.”

  My heart froze. It was time. I was not ready. At all.

  Fifty-Four

  A long silence dragged out, and the longer it dragged out, the harder it got to speak. When I finally managed to squeak out a few words it was such a far cry from Earl’s booming voice which inspired so much confidence that I was sure everyone in the room would burst out laughing.

  When no one did, I straightened up and thought about all the people that were counting on me. Every moment I stalled, Shatterskin was busy destroying. If my plan worked, we wouldn’t have to wait until his battery ran down, if it ever did. We could stop him now.

  But first I had to tell a story. I looked to Ruta and Suzanne for support, and they both nodded at me to go on. It was my story to tell. I had to share what happened when Aki took me to the Oracle.

  I don’t know what I expected, but I was still trying to make sense of what happened. Ruta was part of the story. Grumpy Ruta who had treated me with disdain when I first arrived. Ruta, who had done his job only because Earl had told him to. Now I knew it was Earl’s voice that moved through the wind that day in the clearing and told him to take care of me.

  And Ruta had done his job of taking care of me, even though it didn’t seem like something he wanted to do. Over the past few months, Ruta didn’t become less grumpy, but some of his disdain seemed to have faded.

  It was always Ruta and Beru who made sure that everything I needed was always available. They were my protectors. Beru and I had developed a comfortable relationship, even though she sometimes treated me like an errant child, probably because I was. However, Ruta had stayed distant and just done his job.

  Until the Oracle.

  For me, the word oracle meant some mystical person or being who knew everything and only shed their wisdom on some people and always in riddles. That’s what I expected. In a way, that’s what I got.

  After the hobbit door closed behind me, I couldn’t see anything at all except for a small blue light. I felt my way around the walls until I was in front of it. By then my night vision had clicked on a bit, and I could see that the blue light was inside what looked like a tree trunk.

  Since the walls were composed of tree roots, in one way a tree trunk was not surprising. However, we were at least fifty feet underground. How was there a tree trunk down here?

  The blue light sparked, and I heard the question inside my head, “Is that your question for the Oracle? How is a tree trunk down below?”

  “I guess it depends on how many questions I can have answered while I am here,” I answered. “I would like to know, but that’s not the most important question I have to ask. Anyway, if you are wise and all-knowing don’t you know the question I am here to ask?”

  I heard what sounded like chimes and decided it
might be the Oracle laughing since the light had fluttered while it laughed.

  “Ruta shared stories about you with me,” she said. “He said you were a bit feisty. Of course, I know that you have always been that way.”

  At least I assumed it was a she, since the Oracle had a lovely lilting voice, and weren’t most Oracles female? I didn’t want to ask that question, though, because, once again, I didn’t know how many questions she would answer.

  But I couldn’t help myself when I asked, “Ruta? You know Ruta? Do you speak with Ruta? And you know that I always have been feisty? Do I know you?”

  If the Oracle had answered the question, I never heard it. Instead, the next thing I knew I was back in my bed, and it was morning, and Aki was sleeping in the air beside my bed.

  It was Aki who showed me what had happened when I visited the Oracle. It was Ruta who told me who she was, but I didn’t share that knowledge with the group. It was still too new for me. Afterward, if all went well, I could talk about it.

  I told the group around the table that I had been practicing, and I thought I was ready to demonstrate but not in the closed room. I stood and said, “Follow me.”

  It was an odd feeling to have all those people following me. Even though I hadn’t seen myself in a mirror for a long time, I knew that I was average everything: average height and unspectacular brown hair that I tied back in a ponytail.

  And even though Zeid seemed to think I was beautiful, I am not. Just average. Although I have been told that my blue eyes sometimes do sparkle a bit. I was just a teenage girl leading a group of grownups to their destiny. Nothing to stress out about. I felt Cahir’s presence and his reminder that I wasn’t alone and felt a little better.

  A few minutes later we were in our practice room. The last time we were there I was trying to send practice blasts with my shield to a target without hurting anyone. This time the target was a massive piece of metal at the end of the room.

  “Would you all stand behind me please,” I asked and turned to face them. Then without saying anything, I sprung into the air, spun around and headed for the target, shooting lightning from my hands.

  Within seconds the entire piece of metal was melted and lying on the ground.

  I landed as gracefully as possible. In practice, I kept falling over, but miraculously I remained standing this time and turned to look at everyone in the back of the room trying to look as if what I did was an everyday occurrence, not something that Aki and I had been working on ever since the Oracle.

  On the way to the meeting, I had felt the trees’ energy pulsing through me opening more of my memory of how to access the power within me to fly and to produce that lightening.

  James was smiling at me. His brother and the other men from Beru’s village stood open mouthed staring at what I had done.

  Everyone else looked as if they had expected it. “Well, that’s a relief,” Niko said. “You were cutting that close.” Seeing my puzzled face, he added. “Yes, we knew you could do that, it’s one reason we needed you back in Erda.”

  Niko turned to Aki and asked, “Is it enough?”

  Aki looked at me and whispered, “It’s best to tell the whole truth here, Kara Beth.”

  I knew she was right, so I answered. “I’m not sure. We’ve been practicing, and I am better than I was a few days ago, or even this morning. But we can’t wait to find out. The Riff is only a few miles away from another village.

  “I am going to need everyone’s help to do this, that is if you are willing. I’ll understand if you don’t trust me enough.

  “However, I don’t think we can do it without everyone. All I can promise you is that I will do everything not to let you down, and to destroy Shatterskin before he gets to that village.”

  Zeid stepped forward. “I’m ready. When do we go?”

  “Now,” I said. “I have assignments for each of you. Then we go.”

  Everyone stepped forward, and tears rushed to my eyes in gratitude and love for every one of them. Tears might not be expected for a leader, but it was my way.

  I looked down to my left wrist at the two bracelets that sat there. My friendship bracelet from Johnny, and the one with the jasper stone given to me by Professor Link.

  One was my past, and one was my future. Seeing them both there reminded me that I was of both worlds and that was what made me stronger than Abbadon’s Shatterskin. And I was going to prove it.

  Fifty-Five

  Thirty minutes later some of us were above ground and moving towards Shatterskin. Teddy and his team had tweaked our earmuffs again. We needed even more protection from the sonic booms that Shatterskin was sending out. Working against the Shrieks had helped perfect that part of our protection. We planned to stop Shatterskin before he stopped us—well killed us—but we had to get close enough to do it. Getting close enough was one part of the problem.

  The other part was that our entire plan rode on the belief that if we sent enough heat and energy towards Shatterskin, he would melt the same way I had melted the metal down below. When I had explained that was our plan there had been complete silence until John spoke up. “Seriously, you are going to melt Shatterskin. Are you crazy?”

  “Probably, but I’ve been told that it will work,” was my answer.

  I didn’t tell them who told me, but they thought it was the Oracle and I wasn’t going to say otherwise. I agreed with them that on the one hand, it sounded too simple to be true that all we had to do was melt him.

  But, on the other side, it wasn’t simple at all. We had to get close enough to blast him, without him killing us first. Not a simple feat. In fact, it seemed impossible. Shatterskin could shatter trees and rocks. Our bodies would not be able to sustain a hit from his sonic blasts.

  All our earmuffs were doing was lowering the decibel level of the sound, but even what we didn’t hear could kill us. So we needed to be where he didn’t expect us.

  Which meant our first plan was to make him think we were someplace we weren’t. To do that, we turned on our shields. We didn’t believe that our reflecting Shatterskin’s sounds back to him would hurt him. All we wanted was Abbadon to send Shatterskin after us.

  As soon as our shields started reflecting, Shatterskin turned our way. The sonic sounds and the horrible noise of the trees as they were ripped from the earth was terrifying. It was hard not to break down watching the death of everything in Shatterskin’s path that couldn’t get out of his way.

  Cahir had evacuated everything that could move far from what was going on, for which we were grateful. The Ginetes and Whistle Pigs were deeper underground hoping to get behind Shatterskin before he collapsed the tunnels where we had just spent the last few days. They were also busy preparing Shatterskin’s final surprise.

  The rest of us were above ground. Really above ground. But not behind our shields. We were flying. Not the way I had flown underground. I could not sustain that kind of flying for long, and we had a long way to go. Instead, all of us were riding the pileated dragons.

  Riding the dragons was almost as terrifying as watching the destruction on the ground. We were flying as high as we could over Shatterskin’s head, hoping that he couldn’t see us. Below us, we could see the ripping of the earth and trees as Shatterskin passed. Even as high as we were, we could feel the vibrations from the thunderous noise it made. We had to get behind him before he noticed that we were not where we had attached our shields to the trees.

  Suzanne had given us each a harness that we placed over our dragon. The harness was not for the dragon. They knew how to fly us to where we were going. They were for us. I knew I was not the only one terrified of flying on a dragon. No one had done it before. What if we fell off, or froze to death? It was so cold I was shivering within minutes. Or maybe I was trembling from fear.

  I could see Ruta and Beru riding to
gether on one of the larger dragons. Beru was holding onto Ruta for dear life. I wasn’t sure which one was more terrified. They both hated heights. Ruta especially. But Ruta had to be there. He had a task to do that only he could do.

  I was riding Lady. I knew we were asking a lot of the dragons. We were heavy. They weren’t used to flying with a passenger, but it was the only way to get where we were going fast enough.

  I had asked about the Sound Bubble, and Suzanne had looked at me as if I was crazy. “You and that bubble. We’ll ride it again, but for this, it won’t work. It would shatter, and it can’t get high enough. One blast from Shatterskin and that would be the end.”

  All of us were tuned into Link’s channel, and no one was to do anything until everyone was in place. After what seemed like an eternity, everyone checked in and said they were ready.

  Massive dust clouds were rising from the ground, whipped up by Ariel’s wind. The dust obscured our view of the land, but it also obscured Shatterskin’s view of what was going on above his head, and behind him.

  We were wearing goggles. The dragons were not, but they had assured us, through Lady, that they would be okay.

  “Now,” Link said, and Lady and I began our descent.

  It was now or never. As we dove straight down through the dust, the noise level increasing, I touched the star around my neck and saw what I was looking for: Shatterskin’s Achilles heel.

  “Go,” I shouted to myself, and jumped.

  Fifty-Six

  Lady had gotten me close enough to fly to the opening behind Shatterskin’s neck. We knew there had to be an opening because the Shrieks had been seen swarming over Shatterskin every time they brought him a new battery. It seemed obvious that they didn’t need all those Shrieks for that job, so we figured that they were hiding how they got inside of the machine. They were protecting Shatterskin’s Achilles heel.