Wing & Nien

by Shytei Corellian

  “Not sure I have any new beliefs. Other than life is just pretty terrible.”

  Wing couldn’t help but chuckle. “I understand.” He looked at Jhock then. “Still, even with nothing, you helped save the last of our people. You were willing to go where none of our people had ever gone — into the mountains. And you got the adults to go with you.”

  “That was mostly Pree K.”

  “But were you hesitant to go with Pree K?”

  Jhock began shaking his head. “No,” he admitted. “No, I wasn’t. There wasn’t even a question.”

  Wing tilted his head approvingly. “You trusted yourself. You trusted what was true for you. So many people try to comprehend what others think about a thing, what a god might think, or a prophet, or even an enemy. But we can never answer those questions. We can only know our own minds and often that is hard enough.”

  Jhock was quiet for a time. “I chose to stay because I wanted to help Pree K and En’t. Because I knew we had to try and keep the kids alive. I guess that’s something.”

  “It’s more than something. It’s a great deal.”

  Jhock’s mood seemed to lighten. “I guess that was the mission I gave myself.”

  Wing managed a small smile and a nod of acknowledgement. Getting to his knees, he crawled forward and placed another log on the fire, the coals and burning chunks crunching and crumbling beneath the new piece of wood. He then adjusted the sword about his hips and stood, arching his aching back.

  Behind Wing, Nien said, “Get some rest, brother, I’ll take first watch.”

  Wing met Nien’s eyes and gratefully accepted. The exchange with Lily and then Jhock had exhausted him.

  “Wing,” Jhock said as Wing began to unbuckle his sword belt. “Merehr.” Wing glanced at him. “Thanks.”

  Tilting his head to the boy, Wing saw Jhock’s eyes widen with wonder and respect. It might have been subtle, but Wing had not denied nor rejected Jhock’s use of the title.

  “You, En’t, and Pree K are to thank,” Wing said. “You were incredible. You did more than could have been expected of anyone.”

  Laying aside his sword and belt, Wing took a seat on the old lounge near the base of the stairs where he’d often taken afternoon naps. Removing his boots, he stretched out, and drew an arm up over his eyes. In the darkness inside his arm, Wing breathed.

  With everything he knew, he was surprised how impossible it was to try and explain it to a mind that had not yet remembered who it was. How death in the world meant little more than the fulfillment of an agreement — for the individual soul and for its larger group. That, in the end, a physical life was as a passing spark as the soul experienced life, birth, death, and everything between in a cycle of continuous creation.

  In the midst of his contemplation, Wing felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder. Withdrawing his arm, Wing looked up to find Pree K standing beside him.

  Upon the young man’s cheek was a thin, glimmering trail —the mark of a tear’s passing.

  Wing’s brow furrowed in concern.

  “I would like to believe,” Pree K said quietly, “that the passage to the Other Side was crowded on that night.”

  Wing’s eyes softened. He nodded his head.

  Pree K continued, “I came to a point in the caves when I wondered why the shy’teh did not come to save us as it had for our people in the legend. And then Lucin came.” Pree K looked at Wing. “And then you came.”

  Chapter 85

  We’re Not Leaving

  W hether it was fate, destiny, or luck, the small family that was Wing, Nien, Carly, the young men and the children, had managed to live undiscovered on the Cawutt farm. There had been no sight of the Ka’ull at their end of the valley, not even routine patrols. Nevertheless, there remained less than four turns until Ime set in, and they were all feeling the pressure.

  Outside, Pree K was saying goodbye to the children. Jhock and En’t had continued to argue Pree K’s going, but Pree K’s logic had superseded his friends’ sentiment: he had been the Premier Messenger of the Cant and had already been over the route to Quieness. With Ime drawing in and all their horses captured by the Ka’ull, he was also the fastest on foot. In every consideration, he was the natural choice.

  Wing could see that Jhock was still not in agreement with Pree K going to Quieness — the look on the young man’s face one of fear and frustration.

  With the food Carly had packed and the water skins Wing had prepared, Pree K had donned the pair of leather boots made for him by Nien. To assure Pree K’s feet were in good condition for the journey, En’t had offered to break them in.

  “All yours, now,” En’t said, watching as Pree K pulled the boots onto his feet. “And don’t worry, my feet should heal in say three, four turns.”

  Though En’t spoke with a wink in his voice, everyone knew the truth of it — they’d seen his blistered feet.

  As Wing and the others looked on, Nien stepped up to Pree K, the last to say goodbye.

  “Tell SiQQiy — the Empress — that I, well, that I…”

  Wing saw Pree K nod kindly. “I know,” he said, reassuring Nien. “I’ll tell her.” And with that he set out across the fields.

  Wing felt for Jhock as the boy stood watching Pree K go.

  You won’t have to worry for too long, Wing thought. For they would all be heading to Legran the next day.

  As Wing, Nien, and Carly began to pack that evening for the trip to Legran, Jhock, En’t, Lily, Fe, and Hagen came into the front room like clouds gathering for a storm.

  Wing stopped what he was doing, as did Carly. Nien came in from the back duffels in hand and, seeing the children, set the bags down.

  “We want to stay here,” Jhock said.

  The others were looking up at Wing, eyes wide with hope but also, he noted, determination.

  “I understand,” Wing said. “But it’s too dangerous and you’re all too precious to remain here. If the Ka’ull discover we are here…”

  “They could have discovered us a hundred times when we were living in the caves,” Jhock said. “Me, Pree K, and En’t came across a few patrols. But we hid and they never found us. If they’re going to discover we’re here now, then they will. Either way, we don’t want to leave.”

  Wing listened but he still felt as determined as they. “Jhock, you and En’t have done enough. In Legran, Kate and Monteray can keep you safe. You’ll be able to rest, and be warm, and there’s lots of food and you won’t have to worry all the time, constantly be on watch…”

  “We don’t care!” Lily said. Her little fists were clenched at her sides. She took a step forward and looked Wing in the face. “Remember in the village that day a long time ago? I was littler, but I knew you were Merehr. Remember?” Wing nodded slowly, he remembered. He’d been on his way to Carly’s place for dinner with her family when a group of children playing in the street had stopped him, asking him if he was Merehr, if he knew what to do that could save them from what had happened to the upper valleys. It had shaken him deeply. He’d been out of sorts when he’d reached Carly’s house. “Well, you’re still here. You survived. And we survived in the caves until you came. And now you want to send us away again? No.” She stamped her foot. “No.”

  Nien had come to stand next to him and Wing wished his brother would say something.

  Taking Wing’s cue, Nien was about to speak when Hagen said, “Have a little faith, Wing Merehr. If we were supposed to be killed, we would have been in the castle that night. If we weren’t supposed to have lived we wouldn’t have survived the caves or the mountain patrols.” Hagen raised the stump of his arm. “I wouldn’t have survived this.”

  Wing swallowed. He glanced left at Carly and then right at Nien. Carly eyes were troubled but thoughtful. Nien shrugged as if to say: The boy’s got us pinned.

  Wing drew a breath and sighed, his shoulders sagging. “This is foolish,” he said.

  “Of course, it is,” En’t said. “Everything since that night has
been! But we’re still here. So are you. And we’re not leaving.”

  Wing’s throat tightened and he thought he glimpsed the brief reflection of tears in Carly’s eyes.

  With a deep heaviness in his heart, Wing dropped his head and said, “All right, we stay. We all stay.” A cheer went up from the children. “But we’re going to come up with a contingency plan and we’re going to practice it, every day,” Wing added before they could become too exultant.

  Excited nods and smiles met his abbreviation and Lily leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Wing’s legs, mashing her head into his belly. Wing cradled her head as Carly knelt down and folded Hagen in her arms. En’t lifted Fe and the rest gathered around.

  Though he’d been defeated, and though they could all very well come to regret it, it was a moment, Wing thought, that he would never forget.

  One hand on Lily’s soft head and the other resting on Carly’s back, he closed his eyes as the children laughed and sniffed back tears of relief.

  Have some faith, indeed, Wing thought, looking down at Hagen. So, it is. He would leave it up to the greater workings of the world because Hagen was right. Those that were still here were still here, just as those that had passed had passed. Trusting that fact just might be all they had.

  By that evening he, Nien, Pree K, and Carly had come up with a plan which, in the event the Ka’ull discovered them before SiQQiy’s forces arrived, the children would have a chance to escape. Digging a hole in the back stall of the barn, they would stock it with traveling supplies and food. From there they would fashion a false door through which the children could get themselves away and, with luck, to Legran.

  In the meantime, Jhock had agreed to be the one to go to Legran to Master Monteray.

  Wing was worried for the boy getting lost but Nien decided to go the first couple days with him, figuring that, as long as he got Jhock pointed in the right direction to Jhiyak Canyon, the young man would be able to make it from there on his own.

  Tasking the children with gathering a few non-perishables and preparing duffels, Wing, Carly, and En’t began to dig the hiding hole in the back stable of the barn.

  Nien and Jhock had taken off that morning. Wing’s thoughts were on them as he and Carly and En’t prepared the hole they hoped would be big enough to hold Jhock, En’t, and the children. Another advantage, Wing thought, in having Jhock go to Legran. If it came down to the children having to escape without Wing, Nien, or Carly, Jhock would now be able to get the children to Kate and Monteray.

  But there was another help that had occurred to Wing — Lucin. In case Jhiyak Pass was impassable, the shy’teh knew the route over the mountains. Wing had no doubt the big cat could get them clear of Rieeve.

  Struggling on his hands and knees to free a rather large rock, Wing prayed once more that they’d decided rightly in allowing the children to stay in Rieeve. Staring down into the hole, the image it conjured of open pits, the murdered bodies of their people, burned through Wing’s mind with acidic indifference. He closed his eyes. They had to be right, because if they were wrong, if the Ka’ull discovered them and they were unable to escape, the very last of their race would be lost.

  Chapter 86

  The Clearing

  W arm in his bed, Nien awoke to find Wing bending over him. Blearily, he asked: “What is it?”

  “Will you come with me?”

  Nien rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He’d only just returned a few hours earlier from leaving Jhock in Jhiyak Canyon. Extraordinarily tired he, nevertheless, pushed himself to his feet, pulled on his boots, took up his sword, and accepting the long cloak Wing offered, followed his brother out the door and into the fields.

  “Where are Wing and Nien?” Carly asked later that morning as the first sunlight began to fill the house. Walking over to the large southing window, she looked out. The sun was barely up, shining at a steep angle across the fields.

  “They left together before sunrise,” En’t said, the last one on guard duty.

  “Did they say where they were going or how long they’d be gone?”

  “No,” En’t replied.

  Deep in the Mesko forest, in a small clearing beneath the rising sun, Nien stood facing Wing.

  Since that night in Legran after Wing had come back from the river and told Nien they would return to Rieeve, there had been so many questions Nien had wanted to ask. As they stood now with time alone together in the familiar Mesko clearing not one of those questions would come to Nien’s mind —

  But it hardly seemed to matter, for everything Wing said to him was both the question Nien could not ask and the answer he could not fathom.

  As the last steps of the moons passed away beneath the burning light of their blue sun, Nien muttered, “Wing, you should write all this down.”

  Wing’s eyes were kind as he said, “I have, a bit. But be careful of it, Nien. That’s what the ancient prophets did and I don’t want to repeat their mistake. What we’ve been through, what we know now, well, it’s a great deal more than our people knew. I think knowledge should be like that. It should grow. Like the rings of the Mesko, every new ring should expand upon the last. Scriptures, prophets, gods; they all tend to draw people away from themselves, rather than into themselves.” Wing pressed his fist to his chest. “When you need to remember, you will. For now: You are the creator and the created, the killer and the killed, the before and the after, the lover and the sinner. Within the contradiction lies the truth of opposition, within opposition lies the truth of life. Between dark and light, between man and woman, between friends and enemies is the truth of oneness. We are everything, working in concert, as opposites. There is nothing and no one we are not.”

  Nien was feeling so much at the moment he simply wanted to dissolve. It was as if he were on the verge of something great and beautiful and yet could not, quite, grasp it.

  “Wing, I — ” He stopped.

  Wing was watching him. Kindly, he tipped his head at him. “Between the sun and the Mesko there is a symbiosis of life, between the Mesko and us another. Our moons pull on the great waters, snows melt and the grasses of the fields grow. There is no thing that is not a part of every other.”

  The words entered Nien like sunlight and wind; still, he shook his head. “I know, but I don’t get it. And what does this have to do with what’s coming? What does this have to do with the Ka’ull?”

  Wing fixed Nien’s gaze with his own. “Working in concert, Nien, as opposites. There is a symbiosis, a reciprocity between us and the Ka’ull. Find the reason behind their actions. Find it and you will end this war.”

  Grief and glory rent Nien’s heart. “I will end this war? Wing, I…I don’t understand.”

  “Have a little faith, brother,” Wing said gently, almost playfully. “You will.”

  Nien felt saturated. He was also frustrated.

  “So many times,” Wing said, “you stood between me and the Void. So many times you brought me back from that place. Lonely. Terrifying. It marked the extreme end of opposites. It seems you are immune to it.” A smile lit Wing’s face even as Nien felt tears begin to stream down his own. “In Legran, that night by the river, I found that the void came into existence in order for life to experience Itself. Encompassing every opposite, it’s still the one thing, that one place from which all things come and to which all things return. This life now — you and I as brothers, as Rieevans — is but one aspect of many forms. These come and go. When these names are shed, we’ll see again what we are.”

  “Wing,” Nien said. “You’re hurting my head.”

  “Even if my words don’t make much sense, you can feel them, can’t you?”

  Nien sighed wearily. “E’te. I can,” he acquiesced. “I just can’t put it into any workable context.”

  Wing raised his hands, palms up. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course.”

  “That’s enough,” Wing replied. “Close your eyes.”

  Nien closed his eyes.


  “Remember,” Wing said.

  Nien had no idea what Wing was doing or what he intended but just as Nien began wondering how he would tell Wing that he was simply too daft or at least way too tired, the sound of the word and Wing’s voice struck an unsuspecting chord. Singing out from every seed and root of Nien’s body, it flooded him with a sudden and instant realization…

  He and Wing had been here before. They’d stood in this exact clearing before, just like this, and from here they’d…

  Nien found himself in a remote, beautiful place. Before him a massive glowing sphere of energy pulsed. Small drops of the sphere were moving out, one by one, parting gently and coalescing, each new drop tended to by beings of impossible presence and light.

  Nien could see and feel these drops of platinum light, could hear their laughter, and knew that they were himself and Wing as well as others that they knew. His sight lifted and he saw that there was present, all around them, vast fields of light woven like that which might be reflected from the heart of clear crystals.

  It was all very immediate and familiar and felt like…

  Home.

  It felt like that moment back in Legran when he’d known Wing had left and then returned to the world.

  There were no words in any language that could come remotely close to helping Nien describe what he was experiencing…

  As the sight slowly closed, Nien slumped, the impression of it continuing to burn in his mind, indelible and everlasting.

  Wing had been right…

  He was Nien, and yet he was so much more. He had been, seen, and experienced so much more than he’d known. A single drop of awareness, forever reaching and expanding, taking on and dissolving form in a million different ways, in thousands of lives, on myriad worlds. The expansiveness he felt would have shattered his mind had it not been so familiar. And he didn’t have to go anywhere, do anything. He simply realized he was already there. That, in fact, a part of him had always been there.