Paragons of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  Emeryss hugged her. “I will. Whatever happens, I’m doing it for you all, for Neeria.”

  “No.” Her mother pulled her in and grabbed her face. “We can take care of Neeria. You do this for you.”

  Emeryss clasped onto her mother one more time.

  “Ready?” Shenna asked.

  Emeryss’s mother pulled away, nodded, and stepped into the shimmering veil hovering on the air.

  As soon as she was through, the image faded.

  Shenna peered at Emeryss. “You can do this. I know you can. Rely on each other. Help each other.”

  She nodded as a new veil hovered, revealing Jahree, Urla, and Vaughn huddled together.

  “Good luck,” Shenna said. “I’ll be watching over you.”

  Emeryss took a cleansing breath through her nose, put her hands through the shimmering edge, and stepped through.

  It was as easy as passing through a door. One moment she was on the island of Amme, and the next she was in the RCA arena.

  Vaughn and Jahree leaped back two feet.

  Urla turned and smiled once she saw Emeryss’s face. “There you are.”

  “I’ve come to help,” she said.

  Vaughn’s eyes were bulging. “From where though? Where did you come from?”

  “Long story. What are we doing?” she asked.

  “We’re getting ready to compete in the first challenge of the RCA Ethereal Series,” Jahree said. “As soon as the gate opens, we get introduced, and then we fight.”

  “Open combat with the other teams?”

  He nodded.

  “Where’s Sonora?” she asked.

  Urla grinned. “Pregnant and up in the stands watching. Seems she gets to keep a little piece of Kayson after all.”

  Emeryss smiled at first, but the happiness soon faded. “You know this is probably a trap, right?”

  Urla scoffed. “We came because it was a trap. See if they can stop us.”

  “You ready for the fight of your life?” Vaughn asked.

  She’d thought escaping Stadhold was the fight of her life. She’d thought surviving the Battle of Marana, or Sufford, or even a journey with her mother was the fight of her life. None of it was.

  Fighting to put herself out there and share the truth—that was hard.

  “Ready,” she said.

  Chapter 26

  Aurelis aqueducts — Revel

  Grier smiled at Clove.

  A familiar face in all this madness was a relief.

  But something was off. Her red eyes, her swollen nose—she’d been crying? She looked happy though. She was leaning undeniably closer to the taller man.

  “Is this Cayn?” he asked, extending a hand out to shake his.

  The man nodded. “I am.”

  “He’s a Keeper from Stadhold,” Clove explained. “He was part of the Zephyr crew.”

  “And not another one you want to kill?” he asked.

  Clove shook her head, and Grier laughed.

  “That would be Adalai,” Grier said.

  “We saw her,” Clove blurted. “She’s with the REV now. She ran the meeting. She’s going to do something tonight.”

  Cayn nodded. “Yeah, I live with her.”

  Their heads jerked in his direction.

  “What?” He shrugged. “She’s been helping me find leads on Clove. I’d heard you were in the city, possibly, but these guys needed help first.”

  “Can we do that?” Dova spoke up from the back. “Sooner than later? We shouldn’t be in these tunnels.”

  “Where are the children?” Grier asked her.

  “Children?” Clove looked around. “They have more Ingini children somewhere here?”

  Grier shook his head. “No, we’ve been rescuing Scribe children who’ve been kidnapped by Orr.”

  Clove’s face turned a shade of green, and Mack groaned.

  Dova leaned in behind him. “They’re not far. Two tunnels away at most.”

  Grier moved toward the door. “Everyone, wait here. We’ll get out together.”

  “The group will be too big,” Cayn said. “They’ll notice these people and a group of children.”

  Grier smiled. “We’ve got a back way out.”

  Clove, Cayn, and Mack stayed behind with the Ingini, while he and Kylah followed Dova to find the children huddled together in a corner of an empty office.

  All under the age of ten, they’d been dressed in normal Revelian clothes, probably to pass them through the streets as normal kids. On closer inspection, however, they never made eye contact. Their necks and nails were filthy. They were too skinny, too small.

  Echoes outside of the room startled them. The RCA were coming to move the kids.

  The children huddled closer together.

  “Dova, take them back to Clove,” Grier ordered. “When you get them out, just go ahead and take them to Lawrence. If we can’t follow, get them on the airship and out. The Ingini, too. Just get them all out. I don’t want them to have to wait for a transport.”

  “Got it,” Dova said.

  Grier and Kylah stepped up while Dova urged the kids to move out of the second door they’d entered through. Grier willed his shield to life; Kylah did, as well.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “We should just keep our shields up and our feet moving, so we can keep up with them.”

  “Only fight if we have to? Just block them from the group?” He liked that. “Good idea.”

  The door handle twisted, and Kylah and Grier moved so their backs were to the kids.

  Three RCA came in, looked at the ground where the kids should have been, and then back up at Grier and Kylah. Hands raised, they released purple, green, and white ether at them.

  It thumped against their crystalline black shields.

  Grier retrieved his swordstaff and swung at the arm of an RCA member pursuing them with ice whips.

  Kylah began throwing needle-pointed knives at their assailants.

  Three RCA became five, six, eight…

  Grier and Kylah turned a corner, their feet still retreating with their backs to the kids.

  He had to thin them out before more arrived, or they’d get overwhelmed.

  Grier waited until the RCA had chased them around the corner. They were close together, clamoring to throw fatal ether at them.

  Speed of thought. He pressed his scarred finger. I’m through them.

  Shield up and Burst activated, he plowed through the RCA at lightning speed. They couldn’t react in time. They couldn’t cast at him. By the time they realized what was happening, they were slamming into the ground, crushed under his force.

  Three fell unconscious to the stone floor.

  Five were between him and Kylah.

  Speed of thought.

  He swung his swordstaff again, piercing one through the chest and another through the throat. He’d sliced off the hands of two in his second pass through and stabbed the fifth in the back.

  He let the swordstaff dissolve, and the last RCA member collapsed.

  Kylah’s eyes were wide. “I’ll never get used to seeing that.”

  More calls rang out behind them.

  “Hurry, let’s catch up to the kids.”

  They turned the final corner, urging the stragglers to keep up, and opened the door to Clove and Cayn.

  “RCA are coming,” Grier panted out. “We have to move.”

  Dova led the children and the Ingini slaves through the tunnels, with the rest of them guarding and watching their backs as they went.

  RCA were calling out orders deep within the passageways.

  “Dova, when we reach the top, run!” Grier called up to her.

  “We’ve got help on the outside,” Cayn said.

  A fireball lit the end of the tunnel. Air darts whizzed past their heads.

  Dova burst through the doors, waving the Ingini on and encouraging the children to stay close.

  The streets were packed with people making their way to the arena for the tourn
ament, and they slipped between them.

  “Right!” Cayn called up ahead, navigating Dova through deeper areas of the city.

  They passed a shoe shop, a butcher’s shop…

  “Worn!” Cayn called out.

  A large man with a bloodstained apron immediately set his cleaver down and ran with them to the end of the street. He pulled a lever, and a small section of a building flew up and out of the way, revealing the next street over.

  As soon as they were through, the man shifted into an orange cat and headed back toward his shop.

  Cayn led them through other alleyways and hidden passages in Lower Aurelis. Other shop owners along the way had guided them or broken off to distract any followers.

  By the time they reached Lawrence at the airship, they’d managed to lose the RCA with the REV’s help.

  “Hurry!” Dova urged them all to get onto Fegrin.

  “Sit where you can,” Lawrence said. “We’ll be packed in here.”

  “What now?” Kylah asked.

  Grier turned back to Cayn, Clove, and Mack. “You’re not coming?”

  Clove was still trying to catch her breath, too. “The Zephyrs are here competing. Jahree went with them. He thinks it’s a trap.”

  “It is a trap,” Cayn panted. “But it’s Adalai’s trap. If the RCA have something planned, she’s going to stop them.”

  “What is she going to do?” Grier asked. Something big and ridiculous, no doubt.

  Cayn wiped his forehead. “She’s going to blow it up.”

  Shit.

  Mack and Clove groaned.

  He turned to Dova and Lawrence. “They might send RCA aircrews after you. Fly as fast as you can. You and Kylah, go—”

  “No, I’m staying,” Kylah said.

  “How will you get back?” Dova asked.

  He didn’t know. He wasn’t going to worry that far ahead. He just knew that if the Zephyrs were here, and Adalai was involved, they’d need all the help they could get.

  He turned to Kylah. “I don’t think it’s a good idea—”

  “I’m staying,” she repeated. “After what I’ve just learned, I’m staying to help.”

  Fine. He could respect that.

  “Get them to Jgenult,” he told Dova. “Give her warning about the Ingini slaves since she won’t be expecting them.”

  The cargo hold doors shut between them, and Lawrence had the ship up and heading toward Stadhold within seconds.

  Grier sighed and turned to the others. “So, Adalai…”

  Cayn looked to his sister. “I don’t know what happened between you and her, but she’s trying to help Ingini, Clove. She saved my life.”

  Clove crossed her arms. “She has a lot of making up to do for what she did.”

  “So,” Mack said, “are we going to the competition?”

  Grier nodded. “We have to.”

  They carefully dodged any glances by patrolling RCA and merged with the other attendees marching up to the arena from the streets.

  Thousands of people would be in attendance with tens of thousands more watching on Messengers. It made him feel better about the Zephyrs being in an attack. There’d be too many witnesses. But it also made him feel worse about Adalai’s plans.

  “How big are we talking?” Grier called out over the crowd to Cayn.

  “It’ll be okay. She knows what she’s doing,” Cayn said.

  Clove scoffed so loud, Grier could hear it over all the chatter and movement.

  The arena came into view, and they fell in line to enter.

  Large skystone archways towered over them with long banners flapping between them. The mass of people buzzed with excitement. This was a break from fear for these people. This was a sliver of peace, and Adalai was about to shatter it. But he couldn’t blame her. They needed to wake up.

  “What’s the plan?” Grier asked, nudging his way over to Cayn. “What’s her plan?”

  Cayn smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “To share the truth. To show all these people what’s really happening.”

  Hadn’t he said that getting the truth out was the only way through?

  “Sonora!” Clove blurted. “I hear you. We’re all here. Grier, too.”

  Grier? Sonora’s voice filled his ears.

  “Sonora, are you here?” he called out to the air above him, as they stood together near one of the several entrances to the arena.

  All of you are together? Her voice came through as clear as ever.

  “Where are you?”

  Fourth entrance on the right. Fifteen rows from the front.

  Grier led them around the arena, through the appropriate entrance, down the right number of rows, and found a bright-eyed Sonora waving at them.

  They hugged one another, Clove and Mack, too. She even hugged Cayn. “I’m so happy you guys found each other, and now we’re all here like old times. It’s fate.”

  Clove shrugged. “If you think fate is all of us realizing that Adalai is about to do something really stupid.”

  “She’s not stupid,” Sonora said. “She was misguided. I’ve tried reaching out to her, and she won’t respond.”

  “She’s here,” Cayn said. “I promise.”

  “Why aren’t you helping the Zephyrs in the tournament?” Grier asked her.

  Sonora had a small coat she’d brought with her draped over her lap. She pointed to her belly and smiled at him. “My home won’t feel so lonely soon.”

  Grier smiled back. “Congratulations.”

  “And,” she continued, “who says I’m not helping? I’m still part of the team, right? I’m just up here with a better vantage point. I can give them hints from the stands.”

  Musicians lined the edges of the wide stone floor of the arena. Across from them was an elevated section, covered and decorated with extra banners and dangling orbs. The advisors sat there, probably, and with the king, but it was too far to know for certain.

  The arena itself felt as big as the Great Library, but he knew better. It was still definitely several times larger than any of the sparring pits for Keepers.

  Keepers.

  That word turned his stomach. To be right about the children, about his role at the library, about Avrist… It didn’t feel good to be right. Getting the truth back to the others wouldn’t be easy, but it was the next logical step to fixing this.

  An announcer began calling out the teams.

  “Here we go!” Sonora was bouncing her knees. “I know this is all bad, and if Adalai is involved, something crazy is going to happen, but I can’t help getting excited over these tournaments. You live for these in the RCA.”

  Some of Grier’s favorite moments in Stadhold were sparring against other Keepers, improving on weaknesses and honing strengths.

  “Oh! They’re next!” Sonora squeaked.

  The gate lifted and out stepped the Zephyrs right on cue.

  Urla was first, then Vaughn, then Jahree, then…

  He rose to his feet. “Is that… Is that Emeryss?”

  Sonora squinted, mumbled something under her breath, and turned to him with a hand on his arm. “Yes. It’s Emeryss.”

  Emeryss’s head turned toward him, twisting his heart into a million pieces.

  Chapter 27

  RCA Arena — Aurelis — Revel

  Emeryss swallowed, her eyes roving over the immense crowd and sheer size of the arena.

  Emeryss? Is that you? Sonora’s voice had come in gently.

  “Yes.”

  We’re to your left. Fifteen up.

  Emeryss turned her head and counted up the rows.

  Grier.

  Her heart stuttered. She could see him only because of his blond hair, Sonora sitting on one side, and that Keeper she’d seen earlier sitting on his other side. She wanted to run to him, let him hold her, ask him what had happened, find out if he’d really moved on.

  She bit back her tears and faced the arena. She’d worry about that later. For now, he was here and watching her, and she was abou
t to do the scariest thing she’d ever done.

  Guys, Sonora’s words came through to all of them at once. I’m going to help you from the stands, but you need to know Adalai is here, too. She’s planning to interrupt the competition.

  Jahree nodded. “I just thought we’d get the chance to see her first.”

  The musicians exited the arena floor, and the crowd went wild.

  Urla assumed an offensive stance. Vaughn did, too.

  “They really just jump into this, don’t they?” Emeryss asked, her heart thundering loudly.

  She ran through everything she’d learned, everything Grier had taught her.

  Keep moving.

  Be faster.

  “We’re not supposed to kill each other, but accidents happen,” Vaughn warned. “Be careful.”

  Right.

  Keep moving.

  Be faster.

  Be careful.

  The last one was obvious, but she would use it to remind her to take calculated risks. She was there to help the Zephyrs if this was a trap, but she was also there to show the Revelians what was possible.

  The other teams near them were some she recognized from the Battle of Marana, but others she hadn’t.

  “Get ready!” Urla announced.

  Emeryss dropped the veil of ether around her and bent forward, ready to dodge or pounce as quickly as possible.

  Something was counting down above them. The crowd had joined in.

  “Stay together!” Urla shouted.

  Jahree took the front point, while she and Vaughn took either side of him. Urla stayed in the back, but as soon as a horn blew, she disappeared.

  Urla had gone left, zapping and laying out almost an entire team before one of its members stomped the ground around him. Ripples of dirt and stone moved out from his foot like water, and Urla was caught by the wave and knocked back.

  Two spears whizzed by Emeryss’s head.

  Keep moving.

  She spun out before a third could hit her in the shoulder, and she brought up Air Slices in the direction she’d thought it’d come from.

  The crowd cheered.

  Vaughn turned pebble after pebble into boulders, distracting and pinning people on the right side of the arena.