I shrank back, afraid.
“What, Jared?” asked the first. He was quite a bit larger than “Jared,” whom I darted my eyes to, squinting at him through the darkness. This Jared had a weasel-like demeanor. He was skinny, wiry. He shook out his wings and the action struck me as awkward. I knew somehow that he was not skilled in using them, though this did nothing to reduce the threat radiating outwards toward me.
“You stupid slob,” Jared snarled. “You just can’t help yourself from opening your mouth. Now we lost the element of surprise!”
“Jared, did you not see what just happened? She should be face-down in the dirt. Nobody is able to get up right away after the guns pop out,” he said. I assumed he was referring to the wings the three of us shared. I was wracked with a desire to ply them with questions, but also to run as fast as I could in the other direction. In response to the threat, my wings flexed upward, telling my body something I struggled to interpret.
“Shut up and get her, Conner, ask questions later! Did you not hear Azrael before?” Connor froze in response, and I could smell his terror at the mention of the strange name. Not seconds after the words left his mouth, I noticed something not too far away from them, standing over a pile of garbage and looking down at us, frozen in horror.
Sam.
“Sam!” I screamed, knowing I could not flee while my brother was at risk of. . .who knows what. All I knew was this situation was about to deteriorate rapidly. Plus, the fact that we were smack in the middle of events that seemed as though they were the subject of a science-fiction movie. The only predictable element was impending harm.
Sam reacted as though he’d been smacked in the face at the sound of my voice. He straightened up, his eyes running back and forth between me and the two men a short distance away. He shook his head as though to chase the image of his sister standing in the middle of a garbage pile with two huge, new wings. When that failed, he turned back quickly and tried to pick his way down the hill towards me, crying out my name.
“Larin!!” he yelled, “Larin, get out of there!” He knew the danger there as well, but he continued toward me without regard for himself. Only for me – to save me. I started to try to run towards him to stop him. The weight of my new wings and my body not having adapted to working in synchronization with them, combined with the change to my balance, made me topple over sideways.
“Sam!” I screamed again as I wriggled around on the ground in an attempt to right myself.
“Get out of here!!”
“I’m not leaving without you!” he cried, coming closer.
No, no, no. This was completely wrong. I scrambled to try to get up again, falling face first, my legs flying up behind me. Jared and Conner laughed wickedly, enjoying the scene, but then their laughter stopped abruptly.
There was a whooshing sound followed by three hard thuds. I looked up through my flailing wings. Pushing the feathers back with my hands, I could see the new beings who had dropped roughly beside the other two men – if men was what you could call them. I realized in the back of my mind I didn’t know what I was, because I too had apparently converted into some type of bird.
“Ephreim!” Jared said loudly but uneasily. “We were just. . .”
“I see what you were just about to do, you idiot!” The one called Ephreim spat back. He snapped his fingers and the two other new arrivals leapt towards me, landing at my side and grabbing me roughly by both arms, hauling me up. “You were about to cause us to lose another one. I knew the Committee were insane to send you imbeciles!” Jared and Conner shrank back at his words.
“Let me go!” I screamed, pulling away from the two that gripped me.
“Larin!” Sam shouted, “Let her go!”
“Sam, what are you doing? Please! Get out of here!” I cried, begging and willing him to turn and run as far away from here as he could get.
“He’s seen us, Commander,” said one of the two beings that held my arm. “What are your instructions?”
“Ephreim, we had this under control,” Jared insisted, while Conner stood behind him, suddenly quiet. It was clear these two were mortally afraid of Ephreim and his companions. Given the aura of menace surrounding him, I didn’t blame them.
I could feel Ephreim look angrily at them and heard the click and sickening sound of metal pulling against metal. He was. . .was that a sword?
Oh my god, I thought.
I struggled harder, continuing to scream Sam’s name as he nearly reached us.
“Don’t you dare hurt him!” I shouted at Ephreim as he leapt into the air from the distance separating us, an impossible distance for a single leap before I recalled again that he, too, possessed wings. Clearly though, he knew how to use them.
“LAR-!!”
A hideous slicing sound reached me through the darkness, and Sam pulled up short. He was close enough now that I could see the shock and realization in his eyes of what had just happened. He held his hands out, inspecting them. They were dripping. Even if I couldn’t see it through the darkness, I could smell the blood as it spurted outwards from the place where the blade had cut through his chest.
“Sam!” I wept, pulling with all my might against the arms that held me.
Sam fell forward, hitting the ground hard. He slowly looked up, reaching a hand out towards me.
“Sam. . .no. . .” I cried, sobbing his name and knowing it was too late.
“Larin,” he gurgled weakly as his mouth filled with blood. “Please. . .”
His body jerked once, violently, then stopped.
He was gone.
Ephreim knelt down and wiped the front and back of his blade on Sam’s shirt, standing back up and sheathing it as though the act of murdering was nothing more than a casual task.
“NO!” I shrieked, falling to my knees. “No. . .no. . .” I thought briefly to our encounter only minutes ago, and I was overwhelmed with profound sadness. Regret that I had not had the chance to know Sam as he wanted me to know him. That we had been denied so many chances to be there for each other when we had nobody else. Sadness that I never got the chance to tell him I loved him.
And now it was too late.
There was a sudden shift in the air, and I noticed yet another being coming up rapidly from behind the spot where my brother’s lifeless body now lay. A new figure, his hair so pale it seemed to glow effervescently in the moonlight. Three others touched down beside him, all holding swords. Ephreim cursed loudly, looking back over his shoulders at the others.
“What are you waiting for?! Get them! And you,” he barked at Jared, “get the girl out of here. Meet us back at the base!”
“I think not, acolyte,” said the white-haired one. His voice rang out in the darkness, pure and strong. There was no fear in his words, and his aura of confidence radiated outward. There was something different about him compared to the others. “Tell Azrael that he’s too late for another one. She’s coming back with us.”
“The hell I am!” I shouted through my sobs, struggling harder. “Let me go! I’m not going anywhere with any of you!”
I was shoved down roughly onto the ground as more blades could be heard being unsheathed. A foot came down hard on top of one wing, holding me down. The new nerve endings in my wings responded, seeking to snatch themselves away in the same manner one would react if accidentally placing their hand on a hot stovetop. I gasped in pain.
“Don’t move!” snapped a woman’s voice, and I struggled to get my head upward to see her face. It was obscured by the darkness, but I could make out short, cropped hair and a slim build. Her skin was so dark that her body in conjunction with her black wings appeared little more than a silhouette against the night. Her eyes suddenly flashed strangely as they caught a ray of light from the distance. “Stay down!” she said, before leaping into the scrum.
There were crashing and crunching sounds, the sound of metal striking metal. I rolled onto my side, willing my wings to work with my body to get me off the ground. This would be
my only opportunity, while they were all distracted with fighting amongst themselves.
I closed my eyes and tried desperately to communicate my needs, instructions, to my wings. They folded closed, and miraculously, I was able to get up.
The white-haired one was busy with Ephreim, their swords skillfully crashing against each other. I heard Connor scream, and I knew the sound was an indication of his being on the losing end of a blade. I heard his body crash hard onto the ground. The woman who had told me not to move moments before appeared behind him, putting one leg on Connor’s body for purchase and reaching down to extract her sword from his back, from the place between where his wings met. The white-haired one obstructed my view as he grappled with Ephreim. He held one hand to Ephreim’s forearm as he struggled with the other to get him to drop his sword. Despite his distraction, the white-haired being turned his face towards me, and I turned away. As much as I thirsted to see Ephreim die after what he did to Sam, self-preservation took over and I ran as fast as I could, with all my might, away from the fighting, stumbling over obstacles and losing my footing on several occasions. Somehow though, my wings continued to obey my commands to cease their interference and I got up every time, running farther away until the sounds of the fighting disappeared behind me.
Jared was thrown roughly down onto the ground and pulled up again into a kneeling position, a hand on his shoulder holding him in place.
Azrael said nothing at first, getting off his throne and walking around behind Jared, and if he wasn’t so angry, he might have enjoyed watching the creature tremble in terror. As it was, there was another who was the source of his ire for the moment.
“Perhaps I placed too much confidence in you,” Azrael snarled, looking directly at Ephreim. Ephreim did not move, staring respectfully at the ground and keeping his head bowed. The thing Azrael liked about Ephreim was the fact that he did not cower as the others did. He respected his lack of fear, his countenance of self-assuredness. He wondered briefly if his confidence at being elevated to one with such high standing in his guard was problematic, although he also knew that he required minions who could not only obey but keep their wits about them in situations of danger.
Ephreim kept his head bowed as he spoke. “My Lord. I am sorry. The others arrived too quickly.”
“Did they now?” Azrael asked in low tones, coming up beside Ephreim and leaning into his bowed face. Ephreim almost faltered, his powerful master’s closeness something that clearly discomforted him. “So, what you are telling me then is that you are as incompetent as the other. . .beasts,” he finished, the disgust apparent in his voice.
“I take responsibility for not arriving in time to oversee the new one’s capture,” Ephreim replied. “Apologies, my Lord. It will not happen again.”
“There will be no apologies needed if you fail again,” Azrael said, watching for Ephreim’s reaction. He received none. This made him smile. This creature was truly different from the others. There was blood on his robes, Ephreim’s being a darker red than the other robes they all wore, a symbol of his place of respect in Azrael’s inner circle. He hoped Ephreim’s crew had killed more of them than they lost. But every death in one of his army meant the army of his enemy grew stronger. He knew their numbers were not even, as Azrael still captured the majority of the vessel’s as they awoke, but he would not be content until he had them all.
“Kill it,” he said, turning away from Ephreim and walking back to his throne. Jared put his hands over his head, quaking in terror.
“Azrael, no, please!” Jared begged, “Wait, you need to hear something!”
Azrael turned back, holding his hand up to stay Ephreim’s blade. Ephreim withdrew it, but not before he failed to contain his frown. Azrael smiled to himself, liking his bloodlust.
“Speak,” he barked, sitting down on his throne.
“Azra. . .” Jared started, looking up just as a foot kicked him in the face. Jared slammed sideways onto the ground, holding his jaw and groaning.
“You do not look upon the face of your LORD,” Ephreim snarled, reaching down and pulling Jared back roughly into a kneeling position, “and you do not speak his name!”
“Apologies, m-my lord!” Jared stammered out, his hands still holding his jaw. He was grimacing in agony, his jaw evidently broken. Azrael allowed himself to grin despite his annoyance, enjoying the creature’s display of pain.
“The new one,” Jared began, speaking through the pain in a strange way from his broken jaw. “Her wings. . .when. . .they appeared. . . we were there when they emerged. . . she—” he stopped, clearly in agony. Ephreim shook Jared, and he continued with considerable difficulty. “She wasn’t. . .it wasn’t like it was for the rest of us. . . she could. . .use them,” he said. Azrael stood up again, interested.
“What does It mean?” he barked, “speak plainly, beast!”
“I mean she could get up. . . it was like she knew how to use them. . . she wasn’t in any pain. . .”
It was no secret the process of changing from human to vessel was enormously painful. After the wings emerged, the pain continued for some time, and so too did the fever. Learning how to get up, to use their wings in synchronicity with their bodies was akin to watching a child learn how to walk. It was why more than one Gatherer had to attend an awakening. It often took hours for them to learn how to stand unassisted, but the fever persisted for days. Even then, it was usually with considerable residual pain until their human bodies completed the transition to vessel. It would be many weeks after that before they learned how to use their wings to fly, thus two Gatherers were required to transport one vessel back to Solomanta.
Azrael shot an angry glance at Ephreim. “Is this so?” he barked.
Ephreim nodded. “Yes, Lord. We didn’t witness the emergence of her wings, but when we arrived, we did find that she seemed to possess control, such as it was. She did not appear to have the sickness still.” Ephreim glanced angrily at Jared, clearly upset at having to make up more excuses for his failure. “We would have captured her easily had the others not arrived when they did. It does explain how she was able to flee. Nobody could have expected her to be capable of that.”
Azrael moved so quickly, no human eye could have followed.
Jared’s head made an uncomfortable thunking sound as it hit the ground, separated from his body. Ephreim let go of his shoulder, and Jared’s body sunk down, lifeless.
“Lord - ” Ephreim began.
“Silence!” Azrael shouted, furious. “How could you have let the others get her first!” The room shook from the violence of his anger, and Ephreim resisted the urge to grimace.
“They did not get her, Lord,” Ephreim said reluctantly. “She. . .escaped.”
Azrael stopped, turning slowly towards him. For the first time, Ephreim showed fear. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face. Azrael leaned down, so close that he could peer menacingly into Ephreim’s eyes. Ephreim looked at his master and stood taller to face whatever fate would have because of his failure. He was certain he was about to meet Jared’s grizzly end. After several agonizing moments, though, Azrael spoke.
“Get. Her,” he hissed, and Ephreim took off, not waiting for another moment to risk his master’s further displeasure and what that would entail.
I became aware of an uncomfortable sensation and shifted, expecting the springs of my old mattress to be the culprit. I took a deep breath and was rewarded by a mouthful of dust and the stench of mildew and sat up abruptly, coughing and waving the particles away from my face.
I froze, looking around me. I was inside an abandoned factory building, surrounded by long-discarded equipment in various states of decay. Garbage lay strewn here and there, and I squinted my eyes against the onslaught of the sunshine as it bore a hole through broken windows and straight through my mind.
Everything came flashing back at once and I was overcome again by the horrible memories of the night before. I had fled from the fighting, seeking refuge not far away
in the warehouse district near my home. I’d miraculously escaped notice, the area now a harbour for vagrants and other wayward souls. I spared little thought to them, hoping only that the other winged beings could not find me as I desperately searched for somewhere to hide.
Inside one of the decrepit buildings, I’d found some burlap and twine, and used it to wrap my wings as close to my body as possible. I threw the burlap around my body, knowing it was likely a futile effort at hiding my new appendages, but I found I didn’t care. Overcome by a supernatural sense of exhaustion, I’d collapsed behind enormous, rusting equipment I had hoped would hide me well enough, and I had passed out.
Awake now, I allowed myself a few moments of self-indulgence, not bothering to stem the flow of tears before I hastily made my way onto my feet, awkwardly given my tightly-bound wings and my continuing lack of familiarity with my new body. An old woman I had neglected to notice nearby was laying sideways among a pile of old clothing and garbage bags, a foot wedged between the bars of the shopping cart that presumably held all her earthly possessions. I noticed she had not moved and was eyeing me suspiciously. While I was thankful that Ephreim and the others hadn’t yet found me in this place, I knew it was equally dangerous for anyone to lay witness to my inherent differences – namely, the two enormous wings currently twitching in protest to their confines. I reached down and picked up the old burlap of the evening before, side-eyeing the old woman as I did so. She made no move to stop me, nor to address me, and I walked quickly back towards the building entrance.
I had no idea how to proceed. I wanted desperately to find Kaila or Gee, to contact them, but I had no idea how to go about that course of action. It wasn’t as though I could show up at school and put on a fashion show with my new body parts. Still, I knew they were my only hope of helping me piece together whatever was happening. They’d always jumped to action at every problem and we’d face it together, discussing the details until we’d found a solution. Even if we didn’t, the act of talking-it-out usually resulted in significant catharsis, and I would inevitably always feel better. I knew in the back of my mind this wouldn’t be the case – this situation was seemingly impossible. But I just wanted desperately to see them. There seemed to be no other viable option.
Herald Page 5
