The Fallen

by Anne Schlea

  “Anna always was much livelier than Lily.” Frances turns and draws Riley down the hallway, away from the classroom. “I understood why Lily was the one that married and had a child. Anna didn’t seem like the kind of young woman to be tied down that way. She had too much adventure in her. That’s probably why she survived so long outside our walls – sheer determination and love of life.”

  “You’ve seen her, then?” They leave the hallway of classrooms and stand in the entryway of the school. Excitat, scientia verum is engraved on the marble floor. Knowledge awakens truth. As a student he had not understood the meaning of the school’s motto. As an adult he understands it all too well – especially when it comes to the woman he’s tried to push out of his mind for a decade.

  “When she came to enroll Marissa.” She turns and faces Riley with her hands clasped in front of her. The impassive look of a feared educator comes back. “She’s different, more grounded; and if I had to guess, I would bet she’s down in the archery room right now.”

  Riley smiles. He knows she’s right. “I’m sure she is. Thank you for letting me check in on Marissa. I wanted to make sure she was settling in.”

  “She’s going to be fine, General.” She gestures toward the door. “I don’t mean to throw you out, but I know you have other things to do than stand around a school you graduated from a number of years ago.”

  “I do have other things to do.” He tips his head to the Headmistress again and thinks about the children in the hallways behind him. “Thank you for service you do these children.”

  “It’s my calling, Riley.” She smiles and turns to go into her office. “I have mine just has you have yours. Mine just might not be quite so dangerous.”

  I don’t know about that, Riley thinks to himself as he leaves the school behind. He’d rather face a horde of demons than a classroom full of teenagers. Especially if any of those teenage boys looks at Marissa the wrong way and Anna sees it. Come to think of it, being abandoned in hell might be a better alternative to that. It’s a good thing he has at least four or five days to prepare before that’s likely to happen.

  ∞∞∞

  Riley finds Anna in the archery range, exactly where Frances suggested. He stops in the doorway to not startle her as she lines up her next shot. She’s so focused on her targets she doesn’t notice him enter. He can see she’s been at it quite a while already – she’s worked her way through one target and has moved on to her second. The first is so riddled with holes he isn’t sure it would hold another arrow or if the bolt would break through and come out the back.

  The new target is relatively clean, she’s either missed a lot or just gotten started. He watches as she loads her bolt, pulls back, and takes aim. A moment later the arrow sails through the air and lands dead center in the target. She must have just started on this one.

  Anna spots Riley watching her when she turns around for her next bolt. Her face is red and there’s a sheen of sweat across her upper back. A tremor barely vibrates along her right arm. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “I just saw your last shot. Nicely done, by the way.” He allows the door to close behind him and enters the shooting range.

  Riley’s own bow is balanced in his hand and a bag full of arrows is strapped across his back. He walks lightly toward Anna and drops the bag down on a bench. She watches him with a raised eyebrow while he tightens the leather armguard around his left forearm. “Does your aim still suck? Because if it does you need to move to another target, I don’t want you to mess me up.”

  “My aim has improved a great deal since the last time we shot together.” Arms go above his head to loosen the stiff muscles of his shoulders. Somehow everything tightens up when she’s nearby. It’s like his body forgets how to relax. Head rolls from side to side. He tries not to notice how closely she’s watching him.

  “Well, it couldn’t have gotten worse.” Anna’s mouth twitches up in a smirk before she turns back to her target and sets another bolt loose. This one hits the center, too.

  Riley lines up his shot quickly, before she can even move. His bolt comes out of nowhere and lands on the target directly between Anna’s two, splitting the narrow distance in half. She spins around and looks at Riley who shot the arrow from six feet behind her.

  Her eyes narrow. “Show off.”

  “I have to take my advantage while I still have it.” He loads another arrow. This one, too, lands in the center of the target with the other three. “I won’t be able to out shoot you for long.”

  A shadow passes over Anna’s face and she turns away. She walks several steps before she looks back. “How can you be so sure? What if I’ve lost it after all this time? I’ve spent a lot of years being nothing more than a mom who worked in a department store.”

  “Trust me, you’ll always be more than just a mom working in a department store.” Riley drops his bow and feels calm settle over him. Instinct screams at him to go to her and comfort her, but how can he? She doesn’t know what he feels – she can’t ever know. She can’t know the real reason he risked everything he has to bring her home. Nor can she know how much he sacrificed.

  Her eyes narrow again. “I still think you have too much faith in me.”

  “And I still think you don’t have enough in yourself.” Riley notices her arm trembling even more. He can see she’s been in the training facility for too long. “How long have you been here? You look like you’re in pain.”

  “I don’t know.” She reaches up and rubs her release arm with the opposite hand. That hand is shaking, too. “I came right after Marissa went to school. What time is it now?”

  “That was four hours ago, Anna.” He stretches a hand out toward her bow arm. “Let me take your bow and get this place cleaned up. Go home and I’ll bring you some lunch.”

  “You can’t keep feeding me all the time.” Her protest is weak, she hands over her bow right away. It’s easy to see how exhausted she is by that motion alone. “I can cook for myself, remember?”

  “Well, you’re doing me a favor.” Riley starts picking up bolts from the floor. “I never learned so I’ve spent the last ten years eating in the mess hall when my sister isn’t kind enough to feed me. Now I’m going to take advantage of you until you kick me out of your place like she did.”

  Anna’s response is swallowed by the sound of a door opening. They look to see Mia, Kurt, and two of their friends enter the range.

  “Anna.” Mia nods her way and keeps moving to a target farther down with Kurt. The other two hesitate, looking her over with interest.

  “This is Anna Cazut. She transferred here yesterday.” Riley puts as much authority in his voice as he can. The young soldiers give him a puzzled look but know better than to question their superior. Both politely nod and keep walking after Mia.

  Anna’s frown catches Riley’s eyes. He’ll have to think of a good explanation for that later. Outright lies are not usually his style.

  ∞∞∞

  Riley’s waiting in the living room when Anna comes out of the bathroom door with a towel wrapped around her wet hair. He’s right, her arms hurt like crazy and she knows she over worked herself today, but it’s good burn she’s happy to feel.

  There’s a book in Riley’s hands that looks like a text book and he’s intently studying one of the pages. “What are you looking at?”

  “It’s a history text. I borrowed it from the school this morning when I stopped by to check in on Marissa.” He flips through the pages while Anna towels off her hair and begins to brush it out with her hairbrush. “I haven’t looked at this before but you might want to read it before Marissa comes home.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s a whole chapter about Jonathan and Lily, I’m sure Marissa’s going to get her hands on it soon if she hasn’t already.” He holds it out to her like he expects her to take it but her stomach growls.

  “Food first, history later.” There are two covered boxes on the table with fabulous smells com
ing out of them. The smell draws her across the room where she can open the boxes. One is filled with pasta covered in a thick meat sauce that makes her mouth water. The other has bread and a bowl over on the kitchen counter holds a salad. Anna can’t resist a piece of bread. She plucks it out of the box. “You’re going to overfeed me and I’m going to get fat.”

  “I doubt that.” Riley takes two plates from the cabinet and starts to fill them. “You’re going to need your calories.”

  “You’re probably right.” She accepts the plate full of carb-filled, high calorie pasta and sits down at her table. A moment later a glass of water is also set down in front of her. Riley takes the seat across from her. “I haven’t been great at keeping myself in shape the last few years.”

  “How are you feeling?” The pasta tastes amazing. Anna isn’t sure how the Fallen cooks in the kitchen do it, but even the dining hall fare fed to the soldiers is so much better than most normal human food. She’ll never get tired of eating it. The best four star restaurants in New York would have trouble competing. “I know you weren’t well when we found you but you look great now.”

  “I feel like I never was sick.” She hesitates and thinks about how her body feels. Her arms and shoulders are killing her, but that has more to do with the workout in the training facility today than anything else. None of her other aches and pains have come back after the night she spent with Riley on the sofa. “I lived with pain for so long I can’t believe I feel as good as I do.”

  “That’s good.” Riley absently pokes at his food with his fork. “You’re going to hurt tonight after the workout you put yourself through. I’ll make the time after dinner to help that shoulder heal up.”

  Anna is grateful for the help but she has another issue to pick with him. She doesn’t want to disturb lunch so she lets Riley eat in a comfortable silence until the food is gone. When Riley pushes his plate back Anna finally looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “Transferred?”

  “It’s easier than the truth right now.” He has the state of mind to look uncomfortable. “We’ll deal with it later.”

  “The truth is I screwed up.” She looks at him with level eyes. “You can’t cover for me forever.”

  “Not forever,” he smiles in the way that usually disarms her. His “charm,” Lily used to call it, she’d say one day it will make the girls fall at his feet. “Just until you get your feet back on the ground. Then you’re on your own.”

  Anna is determined not to let him get away with it this time, but Marissa arrives home from school to stop the conversation.

  She practically skips in the door and Anna looks at her in surprise. She’s never seen Marissa so happy and full of life after school. Her cheeks are flushed with excitement, her eyes sparkle, and there’s a decided bounce in her step. Anna thinks about teenage boys and isn’t sure if she should be happy or worried.

  “How was school, honey?” Anna stands from the table and picks up the plates from lunch. She walks them over to the sink and starts to wash them.

  “It was fantastic!” She drops two text books on the sofa and then disappears down the hallway. A moment later she reappears in her “after school” clothes and sits down next to the books. “The subjects are so much more interesting than normal school and next week they’re going to let me start working out with the other kids in the training facility.”

  Anna tries to not react. It isn’t like she doesn’t expect Marissa to start going to the training facility. She knew it would happen when they came home. It’s what all school age children do here at Orasul, but the thought of Marissa studying with swords and knives and arrows isn’t a comfortable one. “That’s great, honey.”

  “Hey, this is our history book.” Marissa picks up the book Riley set down. “We didn’t do any history today.”

  “Riley brought it for me.” Anna takes it from her hands and sets it on the kitchen counter. “I wanted to look over things that have happened since we left. Tell me what you learned about today.”

  Marissa begins a run-down of her day and Anna puts on her “mom hearing.” She looks over at Riley who still sits at the table. His eyes are on Marissa and her story. It makes Anna smile to see how comfortable Marissa is with him, how much she’s already fitting in. It makes her feel less like she screwed up as a mom.

  Chapter Seven

  Anna and Marissa had been in Orasul almost a month when a delivery arrives at their door. True to Riley’s word, the boxes from their home in the city are transported into their living room where they can sort through the things they want to keep and what can be given away. In the end, Anna is able to keep most of her books and a few mementos from her life outside Orasul’s walls. Marissa is thrilled they’re able to keep their television. Televisions are not unheard of in Orasul, but they are a rare commodity to own.

  School is the highlight of Marissa’s time. She’s always ready to go early and often comes home late from the library. Knowledge is being soaked up like a sponge and she continues to get top marks in all areas of study. It’s soon apparent to Anna that she isn’t going to be able to help her daughter study. Anna was smart and did well in school, but Marissa is fast outpacing her. Mia is engaged to tutor her after school and in the evenings.

  Anna spends six to eight hours of each day down in the training facilities to get herself back into shape. Her initial success shows to be short lived and is probably due more to the additional adrenaline shooting through her body than any retained skills. It’s a slow process of building muscle, eating enough calories to prevent weight loss, and remembering the higher mathematics and geometry to hit fast moving targets. She can instinctively get the math, but the strength behind putting her arrow where she wants it to go is a different story.

  After a month of hard work, she finally feels like she’s back in some resemblance of her prior shape. She hits ninety-five percent of her targets and is almost ready to face the rest of Riley’s army again. Overall, he has only about two dozen archers and she’ll have to meet all of them. So far, Riley’s kept her away. Anna suspects that will come to an end before long. There have been several skirmishes near Orasul and she’ll have to go into battle soon enough.

  Their evenings have formed a comfortable, predictable pattern. Mia comes over to help Marissa study after school whenever she isn’t in the field and Riley shows up a little while later. He’ll go over the day’s training with Anna and then they all sit down and eat dinner together. It’s very much like inheriting a family to feed, three of whom are soldiers that require a fair number of calories, but Anna doesn’t mind. It’s comfortable and according to Riley much more enjoyable than eating with the other soldiers in the mess hall.

  Anna has no reason to suspect this night is going to be any different than every other weeknight has been until Riley shows up at her door in the middle of the afternoon.

  “Isn’t it a little early?” Anna looks up from the arrows she’s working on. The fletching on the arrows made for the armory doesn’t suit her needs so she dedicates one afternoon every week to creating her own supply. She special orders shafts from the armory in the correct length. Regular practice shafts will come with a traditional head so as to not do too much damage to the targets. She also now has a collection of broad head points, fish head points, and her favorite, broad head points with expandable blades. This last kind of arrow will expand upon impact to create something not unlike a large, four hook fishhook.

  “I’m not here for a social call today.” He’s dressed in battle gear, ready to go out. Anna notices the sword strapped across his back and the daggers sheathed at his ankles. “Today you’re coming, too.”

  Anna’s heart jumps into her throat. It isn’t that she doesn’t expect to be called; she just didn’t expect to be called yet. Her self-esteem screams that she isn’t ready but her body doesn’t agree. Every part of her hums with anticipation. “Now?”

  “There’s a couple of Legion demons rooting around outside one of the city’s entrances.” Riley
talks like a few Legion are no big deal, but Anna knows Legion demons are at the command of something larger and more deadly. “They’re probably nothing but we need to take them out before they go back to whatever commands them. They might be gathering information.”

  Memories of the night on the rooftop in the city flood Anna’s mind. She raises an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose you expect to see a Kappa demon this time?”

  “No.” He laughs. “It’s still daylight, the Kappas are locked away somewhere dark. Now go get yourself changed, we need to be down in the Hall of Tapestries in fifteen minutes.”

  “Seriously?” She gathers up her arrows and pushes up from the floor.

  “Seriously. Go get changed.”

  ∞∞∞

  Anna feels more than a little out of place standing in the Hall of Tapestries beside Riley. There’s a complete squad of Fallen soldiers with them waiting to go out. Six archers and six soldiers with swords all wait patiently to be taken to the closest exit of Orasul to where the Legions have been spotted. Her gear is a little uncomfortable – still too new to be broken in properly.

  Her gloves fit beautifully because she rarely takes them off now that she lives back in the Fallen city. It took some time, but that part of her body seems to be fully functional.

  Her leather pants, on the other hand, are a little stiff and her black cotton tank top is itchy along the seams. She knows should have worn the battle gear more often when she was training. Battle gear doesn’t wear itself comfortable, she reminds herself. One dagger is strapped to her thigh in case she has any close run-ins and there’s a short sword strapped under her quiver in the case of a true emergency. It’s the weapon she’s spent the least amount of time working with the last few weeks and it’s one she needs most to improve with. When an enemy is too close for an arrow she must be able to adapt to the sword for backup.