Time marches on with innocence gone
And darkness has covered the earth--“Almighty,” Wayne Watson
The two young women went through fifteen potential careers in three weeks. None of their failures seemed to faze Carina. It wasn’t like they didn’t have skills—it was just that learning was frustrating, and there were many things they didn’t know about apprenticeship. Were there dangers besides wild pigs in the woods? That was possible too, but they didn’t know.
“Well, now we know to ask for help before the grain mill tips over,” Carina had said cheerfully…after they’d finally stopped running from Pelias Village and camped in a hidden grotto a long way from the road.
It bothered Aubri. It bothered Aubri a lot.
Another day, another failure.
“Are we running away from something?” Carina had said the previous night.
“No, this time they asked us to leave nicely. I think the old lady would’ve given me another chance to get her laundry right. I just didn’t want to stay and hear it.”
“Be patient, sweetheart. Now get some sleep.”
Aubri hadn’t written anything in all that time.
Today, though, she’d stayed in camp while Carina went for food the old-fashioned (to them) way (that girl was getting good with a bow, a far cry from the near-miss of their first night together), and Aubri pulled out a couple of scrolls that hadn’t fallen in the well the day before.
* * *
“What you really need is a Quest,” the King boomed at his son.
* * *
Aubri frowned. Characters in books were always going on Quests. If something like that happened in her boring life, she’d jump at the chance. Well, things hadn’t been boring lately—but her life still felt boring. She’d been through some hard lessons and she felt a little older—but she didn’t feel that sense of adventure that she imagined went with a Quest.
She shut her eyes, fiddled with her pen…snapped it in half…and wasted twenty minutes searching her bag for a new one. Aubri resolutely set her spare pen on the paper and moved it up and down. Maybe she was writing in clichés drawn from the stories Carina had told her, but…so? She was still writing.
* * *
“Father…”
“Go! Find something to do besides bombing the moat fish with pebbles.”
“Father, I was coming to ask you if I had permission to investigate the shooting star I saw in the north.”
“A star? How are you going to win a Princess with a star?”
“I don’t want to impress a Princess.”
“You’ll go fight the South Cave Dragon.”
“Thank you, Father. I’ll go north right away.”
Cecil shut the door before his father could bellow at him again.
He packed his things, leaving out the huge dragon-slayer sword from his father. Instead, he chose a smaller one and a light coat of traveling armor.
Wait; hadn’t there been only the one sword there before? “That’s funny,” Cecil said out loud. It looked just like an ordinary short sword; same color, no markings, handle, sheath, blade. It felt lighter than an ordinary sword in his hand, though, as if the wind blew harder at it than at any ordinary object.
“What was that, sir?” said Cecil’s tutor.
“Did you put this sword here?”
“No, I haven’t been in your room all day.”
“Never mind; it’s not important,” Cecil said, deciding not to make too much of an issue out of it. “I’m heading North.”
“In that case, you’d better hurry. The King has every spare bodyguard in the castle looking for you.”
Yeah, that sounded about like what Cecil’s father would do. Why didn’t he just unmask the fourth guard from the right in the morning lineup, reveal her to be a woman, and marry Cecil off right then and there? “I can handle them,” was all Cecil said. He thought about asking if his horse was ready, but that was an unnecessary question considering that he could ready a horse himself in a few minutes.
“I thought so, but there’s someone else looking for you.”
“Kyra,” he said. It was not a question.
“Kyra.”
“I thought she was still mad at me for flaking on the lady knight jousting practice last night.”
“She was mad because you’d gone to chase the mutant spider in the castle basement, not because you missed her show. You missed her falling off her horse, too, by the way.”
“There wasn’t any spider anyway, not by the time I got there.”
“That still isn’t the point.”
“If she worries about me,” Cecil said, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Even if I didn’t have to check out the mystery star, Dad’s going to kick me out on Quest after Quest until I get married.”
“I put the sword there.”
“What?”
“By that stupid unwieldy dragon-slayer thing. I put the sword there. It belonged to your great-grandfather.”
Cecil connected the dots. His great-grandfather…not the flesh and blood one who griped about substandard mead every holiday, but the one who probably never existed, part of the legend of the Earth People and the Sword of Hope.
His tutor had followed his face. “Yes, that’s it.”
Did Cecil believe? “How did you get it? Why give it to me now? What…” he took a few swings and knocked off his own helmet…”What is it?”
“I’ll tell you the tale after you’re safely home. Now go…go do something important.”
“Do you know something I don’t?” Cecil asked, going off the tone in his old tutor’s voice.
“Yes. Look…life here at the castle is about to change; the old predictable routine…the castle…won’t last much longer. If you want predictable change, go fight the South Cave dragon. If you follow this star, and you return, all my sources say you’ll lose someone along the way, yourself or someone else. But I know you well enough to know you’ll do it anyway.”
“You do, huh?” That rather irked Cecil…but the rest of the conversation had been right on. “You know…you know why I think I have to? Does it have something to do with the sword?”
It was clear that Cecil wouldn’t get anything else out of his old tutor, though. After a few moments, and a few near-misses from the more devoted castle guards, he put the sword in its sheath where it belonged and slipped out of the castle the back way.
* * *
Carina didn’t like villages as big as the castle Court—that is to say, bigger than fifty or so families. Aubri didn’t like villages the size of Carina’s old island, where there were only a couple of huge, complicated families who watched your work too hard and knew everyone’s business. They found a village to compromise, and they stayed there a whole week and a half.
“I don’t want to be a nanny my whole life,” Carina had told Aubri their first night, “but this is kind of fun.”
It was more than ‘fun’ for Aubri. The children asked only that you play with them, enjoy them, be present. They didn’t remember anything you said. The rules were simple. Aubri became good at playing jacks, and learned to impersonate every animal in the forest.
Carina’s job ended before Aubri’s.
“You can work for a new family,” Aubri had said hopefully.
“Uh…do you want to stay? Childcare just isn’t my…isn’t my…”
“No,” Aubri had lied. “Let’s move on. At least we have money saved for a long trip.”
“You’re not mad? You don’t have to come along; I could look you up after…”
“I’m not mad. Come on.”
Aubri had been a little mad. She felt stupid, following around her slightly older friend like a puppy—and she felt even sillier, spending half her evenings on the road scribbling things on her scrolls that…in the light of day…weren’t even close to the visions she had in her head. But they kept moving, and she kept writing.
* * *
“Cecil!” Kyra yelled, dashing out of the castle. She looked very pretty in her White Magician robes, Cecil noted abstractly. Kyra was a redhead all the way through, and now, her hair flew behind her in the wind.
Cecil raised his sword to see if the wind still caught it more forcefully than it caught Kyra’s hair. He was getting distracted by all kinds of things, but Kyra didn’t give him time to see if his sword was still feather-light.
“Where are you going?”
“On a Quest.” He never gave Kyra more information than he could help; she was too good at figuring things out on her own. She’d been an orphan, raised for two years until she earned her own place at the castle as a White Wizard, and after making a fool of herself on a couple of horses, she’d graduated. “Congratulations, too. We’ll celebrate when I get back.”
“That’s not what I hear about your so-called Quest. You’re not off to fight nonexistent spiders this time.”
“This is just something I have to do.” He didn’t explain more. The thought, that either he wouldn’t return or he’d lose someone—well, he preferred the first. He waved to Kyra to try to appease her even a little—so she’d have one memory that wouldn’t be angry—and sped away on his horse.
* * *
Why was Cecil so insistent on going…what was it in his mind that compelled him onward? Aubri didn’t have the answer, and she didn’t want to write in the old Fate trick. There had to be more to Cecil’s determination than that. Once or twice, Aubri thought about asking Carina, but she decided against it. She wasn’t ready to have this out of her head, not yet.
Once Aubri had shown Carina something she’d written. Carina hadn’t laughed at her or anything—had seemed moved, even—but she’d never mentioned it again. What was she thinking; had she forgotten; why was it so important? But that strong reticence remained.
Was she afraid of criticism, or was she afraid of her story going to waste…a chasing after the wind…but one she was still compelled to do.
Just like Cecil.
* * *
Kiko Forest was the town closest to the place the star had been seen. The people knew nothing that the people back at Caron Castle hadn’t, or at least nothing they were willing to tell. It was not a terribly exciting start to this so-called Dangerous Quest. At least someone might have been star-gazing that night…but no one said anything.
All they talked about was the wolf preying on the pastures at night. Very well, Cecil had a sword, he would get rid of the wolf. At least that would impress Kyra at some future point.
Decision made, Cecil drew the Sword of Hope and set off into the woods.
It was a good plan. Problem one: good plans on Quests never survive the first sight of anything unfriendly. Problem two: not wolf; South Cave Dragon. Breathing fire, and ready to torch the village.
Problem number three: Cecil lost his sword in about five minutes. It might have been light enough for him to swing, all untrained, but that also left it light enough to have it knocked out of his hand by the force of the dragon’s breath. It was coming toward him quickly now, much too quickly for Cecil even to get out of the way. “May Kyra live safely,” he prayed, closing his eyes.
The wind came from behind, not from ahead. Cecil spun. Millions of white bubbles streaked around him. They surrounded the dragon, then became a solid white sphere around it. Bubble and dragon vanished.
Cecil had seen that spell before, but the last time he’d seen it, it had been causing stacks of mismarked tests to vanish, not huge fire-breathing dragons.
Kyra was standing a little ways behind Cecil, leaning on a tree and gasping for breath.
“What are you doing here?”
“Saving your life.”
“I…thanks,” Cecil said. “I didn’t know you could do that spell. The only one I’ve ever seen pull it off was the old master, and he never used it on big things.”
“I didn’t know I could do that spell either.” She slid a little down the side of the tree.
Cecil ran to her. “We’ll go back to the village until you’re strong enough to get back to Caron,” he said, picking her up. “Thank you.”
“You’re going on?”
”I have to.”
“I’ll just follow you again.”
“Kyra…”
“You wouldn’t be alive to go on your stupid Quest if it hadn’t been for me.”
She had a point. Cecil started to retort, but he was close enough to see the tears swimming in her eyes. “Why do you want to come?” Cecil asked softly.
“You’ll get yourself killed without me.”
Not good enough.
“I don’t know. Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t know either.” Cecil sighed. “I guess we have to stick this out together, though. We’re still not heading out until you’re rested, though.”
The village was supposed to have an excellent nightlife, but Cecil was too busy brooding about Kyra to notice what was going on around him. No matter what his senses told him, it was hard to get around the fact that Kyra looked fragile. It took her less than a day to recover. She gathered more information than Cecil did, making conversation with the innkeeper and the various villagers who came in to look after her.
Cecil ended up being the town hero with the dragon gone. Once he finally stopped worrying and started asking questions, he ended up with traveling supplies, a short sword for Kyra and a backup for him, and a pile of scribbled notes. He took a room beside Kyra’s that evening. “As far as I can tell, the star wasn’t a star at all. It was a line of fire, like a Dragon’s breath, only straighter. Most people say it went into the North Sea,” he sighed, “although the resident village idiot insists it went into his bathtub and turned into a pineapple.”
Kyra snorted. “We need to find out where the fire came from,” she said, “if we want to find out what it is…remind me why we do want that again?”
“I don’t know. But as far as how to find out…I suppose we could look for a villager with a sense of direction.”
“The fire was visible from Caron.”
“Also Pareal.”
“The capital?” Great, now Cecil felt like a geographical idiot. Of course Pareal was the capital. He’d never been there. Unlike most of his dreamy-eyed friends, he’d never wanted to go there.
Kyra didn’t bother to answer that.
“It’s as good of a direction as any.”
“That’s better. I’m not traveling with a dumbbell.”
Cecil threw a pillow at her, then ducked into his room before she could throw it back.
* * *
Aubri put her quill down in order to finish laughing at the pineapple joke. Was it a sign that she was a good writer, or just that she was vain, that she’d made herself laugh so hard?
“What are you laughing at,” Carina mumbled.
“Nothing,” Aubri said. She changed the subject. “Are the supplies still holding up?”
“You made a lot of money. We’re still stocked for several more weeks, and I think there are more villages in this direction, just a lot farther to go.”
They’d been in the woods these past few weeks. It was good for Aubri’s writing, but she longed to get back into some village, any village. Why was she traveling with Carina? Why were her characters so bound to do something they didn’t even know?
Carina was still bubbling, “You have that gorgeous recommendation letter with you from that family you were nannying for, you’ll find a new job without any problem.”
“Yeah.” Aubri didn’t want to shut down the conversation; this was the most they’d talked with each other in all that time they’d been in the woods. “Carina? Have…have you ever felt like you had to do something without knowing why?”
Carina put the firewood down.
Embarrassed, Aubri picked up the pieces and the tools and started the fire. They both looked right into the flames, not at each other.
“I wished that I felt that way about coming to the mainland, and then leaving Court,” Carina said softly. “I didn’t, either time. When I came to Court I felt like I was making a huge mistake, and then when I left, I just felt lost.” She stopped, then added, “Things are getting better now.”
“We’re getting deeper into the mainland now. I’ve never been this far away before.”
“You’re not sure why you came along with me?”
“That wasn’t it!” Aubri blurted out. “No, Carina, I’m having a problem with that story I’m trying to write.”
“Good.” She grinned. “I’m glad you decided to leave with me. You had a great job, you could have stayed. That’s why things are better now. We’re going to get through this.”
Aubri looked back at the fire. She could feel her face growing hot. It was a kind of power: the bare fact that someone else wanted her around. She’d been a fifth child, less than a third wheel…this sensation, that she could affect, change, make things better or worse…she liked it but she wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Other than that,” Carina went on, “Have you ever felt like you had to do something without knowing why?”
“I think most of life is like that. You choose a direction and start, and you never know what would have happened if you had chosen differently. It’s not so much that directions and outcomes are fated, it’s the way that you usually only have a couple of choices at a time, and they settle in to this huge picture we call life.”
Carina was silent for a long moment.
“Was I babbling?”
“Not at all…wow. Could you use that in your story?”
“I’ll try.” Aubri grinned into the fire.
* * *
Kyra kept up with Cecil on the first day of the trip to Pareal. They both had horses; hers was even better than his, a gift from the stable master who insisted that the safety of the mare’s sisters was worth more to him than this one horse.
They reached Sarana at twilight. Again, they took adjoining rooms at the inn. Cecil fell asleep immediately, but he could hear Kyra practicing spells in the next room.
Cecil woke with that groggy knowledge that something is about to happen, a split second before an identical fire beam pierced the sky. It was much closer. The house next to the inn burst into flames. Again, Kyra was there before Cecil made it. By the time he got out of the inn and next to the house, she was already standing with her hands outstretched above her head. Buckets of water poured on the house.
A girl of about twelve came out of the house. Her clothes were singed, but otherwise she looked all right. A young man pelted across the road—he’d been running down it who-knew how long—calling “Jana!”
Cecil went over to Kyra, trying to help her stand up. Something wasn’t right. Cecil was no magician, but he’d learned about the division of spells between offensive and defensive, or white and black. Kyra shouldn’t have been able to both wipe out the dragon with the defensive “white,” and douse flames with the offensive “water.” But now wasn’t the time to question her.
Both young man and child looked all right. “I’m Cecil, Prince of Caron, and this is my childhood friend, Kyra,” Cecil said.
“I’m Joel, Captain of Sarana’s guard,” Joel said.
“Such as it is,” put in the girl.
“My daughter, Jana,” Joel said, grinning at her. He didn’t seem to want to let her go. “My wife and I were looking for herbs while it was still cool—ah, here she comes now. Stacie! Jana’s fine. Not even the house is damaged.”
“Uh, would you like to come with us?” Cecil said.
* * *
Aubri chewed her lip. Joel had some kind of special heritage…no, that was too much of a cliché. Maybe he was just there because he wanted to be there.
* * *
“Are we talking afternoon stroll? Or dangerous quest?”
“Dangerous quest,” said Kyra. “Too dangerous. You should stay with Stacie and Jana and…”
“I think we’ll be fine until Spring planting,” Stacie said. She was a short woman with long blonde hair and one of those faces that seemed perpetually amused. “You have been curious about these lights in the sky, dear.”
“I suppose so,” Joel said. “I could travel with you.”
Kyra hit Cecil in the ribs. Cecil shifted his armor. Kyra did a little piece of soundless magic that made Cecil’s breastplate turn olive green.
* * *
“So you invited along the man who was attacked by the fire from the sky,” Kyra hissed that evening.
“Did our mysterious enemy also have something against the Kiko sea?”
“I’m not going to speak to you if you’re going to be sarcastic.”
“Fine. Think about it. While you’re at it, think about how you know Black magic.” Open mouth, insert foot. Way to go, Cecil.”
* * *
Aubri frowned and took out the last line. Cecil wouldn’t know he’d stuck his foot in it.
Or would he? She always knew.
Carina had been quiet these weeks on the road; if they didn’t find somewhere to stay soon they were going to run out of supplies. Not too much time for foot-insertion by either one of them.
“Carina?”
“Hmmm?” Carina opened her hands to release a letter-carrying bird and looked at Aubri.
“Nothing.”
Aubri left the story as it was.
* * *
Kyra didn’t speak to Cecil for the rest of the journey to Pareal. Twice more, they saw light flashes. Each came close enough that it might have been aimed at them. If Kyra had anything to do with the fact that no one was hurt on the road, she wasn’t telling.
Many more times than twice, Cecil tried to tell Kyra he was sorry. The words stuck in his throat. He’d only said the truth; he was sure of that. But maybe she was supposed to know dark magic.
“What’s up with her?” Joel said on the second day.
“Nothing,” said Cecil. He went back to scrubbing the last olive green tarnish off his armor.
“Uh, when Stacie gets like that…”
“It’s not like that.”
Joel smirked. “I see. Okay, when…when my buddy isn’t speaking to me.”
“We’ve got bigger problems,” yelled Cecil. He pulled out his sword for the first time since the fight with the dragon that Kyra had won. It still felt mysteriously light—like he wasn’t really the one in charge of its direction. There was a bigger, meaner dragon in the air, and this time he was going to win before Kyra did anything illegal.
Joel grabbed a sword from the packs and stood beside Cecil. Kyra put up her hands, and all three of them were surrounded by a white dome.
A fifth lance of fire came from the sky. It went directly through the dragon, through the dome, and through Kyra’s head.
“Kyra!” Cecil yelled. The dome came down, and no one cared. He rushed to her.
“No.”
Kyra stirred and opened her eyes.
It was then or never.
“I’m sorry for doubting you. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“I never blamed you. I was just scared.” She fainted.
* * *
Joel wordlessly made camp. He had to do all the work. Cecil went through the motions of helping, but his contribution was to carry Kyra over by the fire, then watch over her as if he could eliminate the weird light by his touch alone.
When she woke up the next morning, she insisted on going right in to Pareal.
Cecil didn’t feel like teasing her about sleeping cold if Joel had not gone along as she had wanted. She had burst through the capital gates, not like a woman on a mission, but like a girl fleeing from the dark.
Cecil might have been resigned to the fact that there were going to be things he didn’t understand, but he still didn’t understand even what he was doing, and that frightened him the most of all.
Joel tapped Cecil. When Cecil didn’t notice, he slugged Cecil’s arm.
“Ouch.”
“I think she knows something,” he indicated a girl of about eleven.
“Are you a magician?” Kyra said. She bent toward the girl.
“Yes, and I’ve found something important, and no one will listen to me because I’m too young!”
“Show us,” Joel said.
She projected a picture. It was their world in miniature, with Pareal a sparkling jewel. Miniature lines of fire split its landscape. “Look, they all come together here. What is that place?”
Cecil had been about to say that it was in the sky, but this time he stopped himself when he saw Kyra’s face. All the color was gone. Even her hair looked faded.
Joel spoke instead. “What’s your name?”
“Laesha.”
“Do you think you can get us to that place, Laesha?”
“Can’t. Not strong enough. I can’t even levitate myself until I’m twelve.”
“I can get there,” Kyra said. “But you shouldn’t come.”
“You can’t carry us?” Joel said.
Cecil knew better. At this point, nothing about Kyra’s magical abilities would have surprised him.
“I can carry you, but I’d be taking you to get yourselves killed.”
“This is my quest. I’m coming with you.”
“It was never your quest,” Kyra said, “and you aren’t a warrior.”
“I have a sword.”
“Someone gave that to you, and you look like a dork when you pick it up.”
Cecil rolled his own eyes at how they sounded. Kyra’s eyes rolled back in her head. Cecil stuck out both hands, one to grab Laesha’s and the other to take hold of Joel’s shoulder, then propelled all three into Kyra.
They were floating. Kyra was still immobile, but underneath the alien language of the magic she was using were phrases like ‘moron’ and ‘should put you back down if I could.’
It was an awfully uncomfortable journey. There was nothing below. Cecil expected Laesha to whimper and shut her eyes, but instead she stared down, and there was awe in her eyes.
* * *
“We’ll just have to ration, that’s all,” Carina said.
“We should go back,” said Aubri.
“We’d never make it all the way back, not with what we have.”
“I’m not bad at hunting.”
“You try it this evening, then,” Carina said. “It would be nice—if we could live off the land, we could travel indefinitely.”
“Are we going further inland?” Aubri said suddenly.
“I think so,” said Carina. “I’m not the best at directions, though.”
Aubri chewed her lip. “Me, neither.”
“You are good at hunting,” Carina said. “I’ll get the fire started.”
* * *
It was another week before Aubri had the chance to pick up her quills and ink at all. The memory of the narrative she was creating had been like a light in her mind. She was much better at hunting than she’d remembered herself being when she’d learned it…in another place, in someone else’s lifetime. They weren’t going to starve, but they weren’t going to find another village to settle in either.
* * *
“At least give me your sword,” Kyra said to Cecil. “I’ll just see if I can get the rest of you…”
“Not a chance,” said Cecil, and he put his hand on the hilt and held tightly.
Another beam of light came through the sky. It narrowly missed them. This time, Cecil saw the hand gesture that Kyra used to bend it.
“Look, tell me what’s going on,” he said.
“I’m trying to get rid of magic,” Kyra said. “Once I do, this castle’s not going to stay up.”
“Back up,” Joel said. “Where are we? What are the light beams? What are we trying to do?”
“A lot higher in the air than you can safely fall, deadly weapons, and nothing,” said Kyra. “I’m getting you back down as soon as Cecil hands over the sword.
“Kyra,” Cecil said softly. “It was given to me, not to you, and there has to be a reason.”
“If I tell you everything, will you let me put you down?”
“No.”
“Then no deal,” Kyra said. She did some funny little hand motion, and Cecil felt himself letting go of the sword. Instead of levitating it, Kyra reached over and plucked it from the scabbard.
Cecil was about to jump in front of her, but instead, it was Laesha who put herself forward.
“This has to do with the fire that’s been attacking my village for years and burned down my house…”
“I’m sorry,” Kyra said, pushing her gently aside and moving a little away from the group.
“It wasn’t your fault, it’s a magic village and that’s why I can…”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Joel said, interrupting both Laesha and Kyra.
“Please tell us what you’re talking about,” said Cecil.
“I’ve…I’ve known all my life that I’m supposed to do this,” Kyra said. “Abolish magic, I mean. That’s what the fire lines are, they’re concentrated magic. I’m the biggest target.”
“A little arrogant,” Joel murmured.
“They were aimed at me.”
“They were still the caster’s responsibility.”
“I can stop them.”
“If we go together, there’s a chance we’ll all come back.”
“No chance,” Kyra said. “Cecil…”
“I’m not going to let you kiss me goodbye,” Cecil said, and he came forward and took the sword back from Kyra. “We go on together.”
She waved her hand. Joel and Laesha started drifting slowly back toward the ground. Cecil held tightly to the sword. His feet stayed planted on the ground…or whatever it was. It was like standing on a beach in the sky. Something grayish-white that could have been sand or solidified cloud stretched into the distance in all directions. The sky was completely overcast. He’d thought it was a sky castle at first, but it looked more like a stone temple.
Kyra wasn’t looking at Cecil. She was looking down. Joel and Laesha should have been specks on the ground, but somehow their faces were visible through the faux ground. Laesha was superimposed over a giant plain of rubble that looked as if it had once been a village, passing a glowing white light over a sword like Cecil’s.
Following Cecil’s gaze, Kyra started to cry. “I’m so sorry,” she called.
“Kyra, it wasn’t—“
“Don’t say it,” Kyra warned. “May I have your sword for a moment?”
“I’m going to hold the end.”
“Fine,” she snapped, and the vulnerability was gone. An identical white light appeared in her hand, and she passed it over the sword. Words appeared in the same language Kyra had used to levitate them all…or perhaps in ancient Hebrew, for all Cecil knew, but from Kyra’s whispers it sounded the same. She said the same words over and over, then looked up and let the white light fade. “Right,” she said.
“Where are we?”
“I told you. Too high to survive the fall.”
“What are we doing?”
“I told you that too. Waiting for you to quit being stubborn so I can get you safely down.”
“Stop it, Kyra.”
Three more beams of light had passed almost unnoticed, but Kyra seemed to be tiring.
“Why haven’t you done your magic already?”
“I have to get the stupid sword out of your hand first.”
Cecil put it back in the scabbard and clutched the handle more tightly. With his other hand, he grasped Kyra’s. “I told you, we’re in this together.”
Light beams were coming thick and fast.
Kyra’s face and hair had been pale, but then they glowed white. “I am Karayana,” she said in a voice not her own, “I am Princess of the Sky People, and I am your target. I have brought the Sword.” She hissed to Cecil, “Let go and I’ll get you out before they notice you.”
“The Sword, and the Servant of the Sword,” a deep voice boomed from all around.
It was coming from the sword.
How could the people want the sword and be the sword all at the same time?
Then Cecil couldn’t help letting go. He clung desperately to Kyra’s…Karayana’s…hand, as the sword swirled away and the temple shuddered.
“Let go, you moron, and I’ll go back to my people.”
Numbly, Cecil did what he was told.
* * *
Stacie handed Cecil his fourth cup of tea.
“No,” she said in answer to his unspoken but urgent question, “I still don’t have anything else. And you’re still not leaving this house.”
“I don’t understand why I was given the stupid sword in the first place.”
“No one knew who Kyra was,” Joel said.
“No one knew why you came along. No one knew why Pareal.”
“No one knew why my whole town got burned up,” Laesha interjected.
Cecil felt ashamed of himself.
He shut his eyes. Kyra was there, her hand stretched out to him. Or was it Karayana of the Sky People, turning her back on him as she moved to embrace the huge voice from all around?
Did magic still work?
Cecil didn’t have the heart to ask Laesha. She had enough to deal with. Joel and Stacie were making her as welcome as possible, and Jana was about her age.
Still, he had to know.
He muttered something about finding something else to drink, and stumbled out into the woods. He wasn’t sure how long he was out there…could have been months. The sun dipped lower. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, either…some object…some form of magic, or of its absence…some answer. ‘Why’ was the most powerful question in the universe.
“No, it isn’t.”
“What?”
“No, it isn’t. ‘Where’ is the most powerful question.”
“Karayana?”
She was there, that familiar smirk on her face. She looked wan and tired, but uninjured. “Kyra. They never were my people.”
He didn’t even remember taking the steps across the ground to hug her, only the way she felt in his arms.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re home.”
She searched his face. “Something’s still bothering you.”
“If you could read my mind, magic still works.”
She held up her hand, as if to make it glow. Nothing happened. “You said it out loud, stupid.”
“You can’t turn my armor green anymore.”
“You can’t stand up in armor anymore. It’s not magic.”
“I missed you.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
“None of it was ever your fault.”
* * *
Aubri couldn’t sleep by the campfire. She couldn’t rearrange supplies or draw lines on maps or chart how close they were to this land’s version of “civilization…” Carina was reading her story.
She practiced moving silently through the surrounding woods, not noting how many twigs snapped. They’d been remarkably safe thus far…closer to people, they’d have to see. Maybe she could climb the tree on the edge. The branches weren’t so high that she couldn’t shinny up…
It was a good thing Aubri didn’t have to be quiet. Her fall made quite a loud noise.
“Are you okay?” Carina said, looking up.
“I’m fine,” Aubri mumbled.
“You’ve seen me look stupid before,” Carina said. “No need to be embarrassed. Why were you climbing trees?”
“I’ve always done that,” Aubri mumbled some more. She didn’t want to stop the conversation; it was just reaching into territory that she was afraid of, things she didn’t think about.
“Maybe I’ll try it too, later,” Carina said.
“Nothing’s stopping you.”
“I want to keep reading,” Carina said.
Aubri grinned. She went back to practicing “prowling”—and Carina really didn’t look up at the pops and snaps. She could do anything.
Halfway through the night, after Aubri had built up the fire twice, Carina set the scroll aside. She didn’t seem to be surprised to see Aubri awake, staring into the fire and back at her.
There was silence, but it was comfortable silence.
“I was inside that world. You make a place with your words, and it reaches out, and it has room for me.”
Aubri couldn’t think of anything to say. She didn’t need to, though.
Carina grinned, and reached out a hand to lay on Aubri’s shoulder. “Keep at it,” she said. “So, what’s next?”
“Oh, I was hoping you could give me a few pointers on dialogue…”
They fell asleep somewhere in the midst of their laughter.
I feel your cold heart crying…
Because the color of this world tells you you’re alive
But that dream inside your head just feels like it’s slowly dying
…With this burden now sunk in and your hope worn thin
I see you crying out, but I’m here within
Because I stand beside you, no matter where you go
And I turn, when you turn, though you’ll never know
If you ever think this world is pulling you down
I say you are holy, holy on unholy ground.
--“Holy on Unholy Ground,” Newcomers Home
