Winter's Rising

by Mark Tufo

  “Because none of this will matter in the least if you die. You’ll just be another statistic on the ledger of the countless others that have died for this useless war, and you cannot allow that to happen. The sooner you wrap your head around that the better.”

  I wanted to cry. I just wanted to drop to the floor and drown myself in tears of exhaustion and self-pity.

  Cedar and Tallow were already topside; we went up to join them. Cedar was looking down into her book, and Tallow was looking up to the setting sun. Brody walked past them without saying a word.

  “He already thinks we’re dead,” Tallow said solemnly to me.

  “It’s not that at all.” I tried to grab his arm, but he pulled back just far enough from me to keep the contact at bay.

  “We both know, Winter, that you’ve never been much of a liar.”

  I clamped my mouth shut because anything I said now he would see through. Better to leave some things unsaid.

  As we got back into town we could hear some yelling coming from the training grounds. Cedar went back to Tallow’s apartment. Tallow and I decided to go check out what was going on.

  “What are they doing?” I asked. There was no parrying, thrusting, or footwork. The kids were merely being instructed to keep the sword up in front of them like an ineffectual shield. On command they were told to slash left, right, up or down. But there was no context as no one was attacking them. They were just randomly slicing through the air.

  “Wouldn’t we all stand a better chance of survival if we taught them how to fight?” Tallow asked me. We were sitting on a wall overlooking the grounds.

  “People would start to wonder how we knew so much and eventually Brody would be implicated.”

  “I’d trade Brody for all of them; or even some of them.”

  He had a point. For most of my life I considered Brody the epitome of all that was wrong in my world, and now what? He wasn’t my friend–ally, maybe. He was the enemy of my enemy, but that certainly didn’t make us friends. And to make it even more confusing, we really didn’t know who the enemy was. If Brody were to get caught somehow, would he roll over on us as fast and casually as Tallow seemingly wanted to?

  “You know if the Overseers somehow believe we have an unfair advantage they could make us go to The War without weapons,” I said.

  “Why would they do that, Winter? I mean, I know that’s what Brody’s been feeding us, but why would the Overseers send us in without weaponry? That makes no sense. How could they expect us to win?”

  “Are you not listening, Tallow? Your hatred for Brody is clouding your judgment. The Overseers don’t care who wins or if anyone wins; they are playing all sides. I don’t know why yet, but I plan to live long enough to find out and maybe even give a little payback.”

  “I think your mind is clouded, Winter. Those people down there, they’re not disposable. They’re our friends, our neighbors, the people that live in our village with us, not just characters in your story to be needlessly sacrificed.” He jumped down off the wall and headed toward those who were practicing. He was walking around, adjusting some of the people’s grips and offering a couple words of advice or encouragement. I watched for a few more minutes before deciding to leave.

  Dusk was settling over the area. I really didn’t have a destination in mind as I walked.

  “What are you doing, Princess?” A shadow emerged from an alley.

  I just about jumped out of my skin. I was hoping that it was dark enough that Brody didn’t notice.

  “She’s a pretty one. Shame she has chosen to go to war. Such a waste.” Another Broker came out of the shadows. “Would you like a kiss before you die?” the Broker asked as he approached.

  I looked over his shoulder trying to gauge Brody’s reaction. It was clear he wasn’t going to do anything about it. He was watching, but seemingly half-heartedly.

  “Kissing is against the law.” I said.

  The Broker laughed. “I’m a Broker. I make the laws so tonight, kissing is legal.”

  A few months ago I would have believed him.

  “Princess, my friend Pex here wants a kiss. What are you going to do about it?”

  Was he challenging me? I sensed he was. But for what reason?

  “Come here,” Pex said, somewhere between angrily and wantonly.

  “It’s dark where you’re standing. I’d like to see who wants to kiss me.”

  “I told you, Brody,” Pex said, smiling.

  Adrenaline surged through my system. My mind immediately sped everything up and in the next heartbeat slowed everything down. As Pex stepped up to me, I could see his lips begin to pucker and his pupils dilate with desire. Blood was rushing to the surface of his face causing his unshaven whiskers to rise imperceptibly, his skin to redden. My first punch hit him flush in the mouth. He was still recoiling from the impact when, with my left hand, I struck his Adam’s apple. His knees shook as he nearly collapsed. His right arm came up in a feeble attempt to thwart my attack. I pushed it aside and struck him again, this time on the side of his jaw. Bloody spittle flew out in long ribbons. Pex was descending toward the ground, knees first in almost comical slow motion. I was pulling back to kick him for all I was worth in an area he thought was worth it all.

  “Enough,” Brody said. “Pex, get your sorry ass back to the barracks.”

  “What about her?” He was nearly crying.

  “What about her? You attempted to break the law and she defended herself. Do you want me to arrest her and let everyone know she just handed you your ass?”

  “We could say there were five of them.”

  “I’m not going to do the paperwork then send men out to find the four more little girls that jumped a Broker.”

  “You’re lucky.” Pex pointed his finger at me.

  “Lucky you didn’t kiss me?” I asked. “I’d have to agree.”

  He snarled before limping back toward the barracks.

  “You did pretty good, Princess.”

  “What the hell was that all about?” I was shaking from the confrontation.

  “I just wanted to test you in a real life situation.”

  “He could have killed me!”

  “Let’s try not to be too dramatic. He was trying to kiss you, not cut your throat. I wanted to see how quickly you could turn on your gift if the need arose. Just be happy it wasn’t Lericho; now he might have tried to kill you.”

  “Yeah, and my kick would have landed. So? Happy with the results?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Very.”

  We heard some voices approaching. The War practice session had ended and the participants were heading home.

  “Get in here.” He motioned to the alley.

  “You’re not going to try and kiss me are you?”

  “I haven’t kissed anyone in a good long while and I don’t intend on breaking that streak now.”

  I joined him in the shadows, now almost invisible to any but the most prying of eyes.

  “What’s the real reason for this visit, Brody?”

  He hesitated only a moment. “You need to break it off with Tallow.”

  “Break what off?” I was going with the ignorance card.

  “I can smell the stink of it on the both of you.”

  “What?”

  “Love, lust, whatever you want to call it. It has its own unique smell and you two are both doused in it. As a matter of fact so is Cedar, but I haven’t figured out with whom yet.”

  I couldn’t help myself, I snorted.

  “Something funny?”

  “Umm…sort of. Even if something is going on between me and Tallow, why do I need to stop?”

  “Spoken like a true teenage girl. Admit to nothing. I’ll tell you why: it will get you both killed. Plain and simple. It’s a distraction you can ill afford.”

  “I think that’s my choice to make,” I said hotly.

  “Not really. First of all, you know bonding is illegal. More importantly, your feelings are putting everyon
e at risk. I can only hope that you don’t come to that realization too late.”

  “What good is this gift if I can’t help those around me?”

  “You already know the answer to that question.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be safe to live a long life with the grief of watching my friends die and the guilt of not saving them at all costs.”

  “Don’t be so selfish, Princess. This isn’t all about you.”

  His words stung. I knew it wasn’t all about me, but thinking as “me,” that was who I was primarily concerned about. “I don’t even understand this stupid gift. It allows me to see things at a super slow rate, yet I cannot move any faster. How does that give me any sort of advantage over an opponent?”

  “The body telegraphs...”

  “Telegraphs?” I’d never heard the word before.

  “The body communicates what it is going to do next in subtle, yet obvious enough ways. We all use this to gauge the movements of others; you’ve witnessed it yourself. You can tell which way a person may swing a sword by the muscle groups that begin to bunch on an arm. Or which direction your opponent will turn by the way their feet move. Knowing what your enemy is going to do is a huge advantage, and you can see so much more than most of us. It may only give you milliseconds of a head start but that will be the difference between life and death.”

  “When did you know you had it?” I thought the question might startle him; it didn’t.

  “I was about to die. It was my thirty-third day of The War. I’d been separated from my platoon after a particularly nasty ambush. I’d taken a spear through the meaty part of my leg and could hardly walk. I was looking to replace the poultice I had on the wound to keep it from festering. It was the same season as it is now, but there was a full moon. I was grabbing some aloe leaves when this Klondike came over a small ridge in front of me. Couldn’t have been more than ten feet away. I had a stick under my left arm, using it as a crutch to keep from having to put pressure on my leg. My sword was in its scabbard attached to my belt. If he had just rushed me right there, I wouldn’t have even had enough time to pull it free. I think he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He looked around, wondering if I was alone. When he didn’t motion for anyone to follow him, I figured he was alone as well. Good thing, too.”

  “What happened?” I interrupted.

  “You do know I’m not done yet, right?”

  “Sorry. I got a little anxious.”

  “At some point before running into me he must have lost his own weapon–Klondikes traditionally fight with spears or longswords but he was carrying a Hillian sword. And that, more than anything, made me angry. I wasn’t afraid that I was going to die. I was just pissed off that he’d had the audacity to take a Hillian sword and use it against me. I think it was that rage that triggered the change in me, or turned it on, I guess, is a better choice of words. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. He was moving so slowly it looked like he was underwater, a particularly thick water. As my hand reached for my sword, I realized it wasn’t that he was moving slowly, it was that I was observing it that way. It took what seemed like forever to pull my sword free yet he had advanced only a couple of feet. I could tell he did not feel very comfortable with his weapon. The weight and heft of it was throwing off his balance, his muscles struggled to find equilibrium; I’d never observed that in anyone before. I was processing this information with lightning speed, but I couldn’t will myself to act one second faster. It was infuriating. Then I calmed myself down; I was able to hyper-focus; I began to think out my strategy–how I was going to use his weaknesses to my advantage without exposing my own weakness to him.”

  “This is terrifying, Brody. It’s one thing sparring with my friends; I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle an environment where everyone is trying to kill me.”

  “I think you’ll be magnificent.”

  I blushed and stuttered, “Well..what happened with the Klondike?”

  “If you’d stop interrupting me I’d already be done and we could both go enjoy some dinner.”

  I nodded.

  “I think my new friend knew I was injured. Although I had drawn my sword, I was obviously favoring the leg and I hadn’t really moved all that much. He began to toss his sword from hand to hand, taunting me, showing me how good he was. I knew it for the ruse that it was, but his inexperience still trumped my injury. I watched the slight, but rhythmic patterns of muscle movements each time he was about to change the hilt from one hand to the other; I noted the half-second gap in between. I dragged my leg forward and poked the sword out of his reach just as it flew from his right hand, heading for the left. He closed his hand around nothing; that was, of course, until I drove the point of my blade through his stomach. Then he wrapped both hands around that.”

  My stomach was turning so violently I felt as if I were the one getting run through. This was war; it was the ability to survive at all costs; the willingness to take life from another.

  “Want to know what else I learned that day?”

  I nodded.

  “There’s no moonlight, Winter. I can’t tell whether you nodded to agree or shook your head to decline.”

  “Yes.”

  “My wound had stopped producing puss.”

  “Sorry?” Had I missed something?

  “How are your ribs?” he asked.

  “A little sore, but not horrible.”

  “I cracked one of them,” he told me. “On purpose, I might add. Oh, I know you’re looking at me funny–I can almost feel it. I did it, because I had to prove exactly this point. There’s something with the Time Dilation that speeds up your ability to heal. It won’t do anything if you catch a spear through your heart, but bleeding wounds and broken bones will heal at an accelerated pace.”

  “How accelerated?”

  “I don’t know; I’m not in the habit of injuring myself with the hope of seeing how quickly I can be fixed.”

  “It all goes back to why, Brody. Why are we able to do this?”

  “It’s a natural gift, Winter, and for whatever reason, you have it. I think if we had more time we’d really be able to see how deep it goes; what more we could do. As it is, we’re almost on the same level, but by next month, I’ll be doing all I can to fend you off. As for why? I think that’s an easy enough answer. I was meant to survive so I could find you and set you on the right path. As to where that path leads, well, you’re going to have to figure that out on your own. Seems to me you got the harder part of this bargain.” He laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow. And don’t beat up any more of my Brokers.”

  “Tell them to behave and there won’t be a problem.”

  “Remember, Princess, get rid of Tallow or it will be the end of you both.”

  “As opposed to just him?” I asked, but Brody didn’t answer. He had already turned and was heading toward the back of the alley.

  When I got home, Tallow wasn’t there and Cedar was crying inconsolably on the couch.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked, rushing over towards her.

  “He...he left!” was all she managed to blubber out.

  How could Tallow have known I intended to end our relationship? And where could he go that I couldn’t find him? Dystance was big, but it wasn’t that big; I knew every hiding spot, and I could track his clues if he went off into the wild…plucked berries, blood trails from hunted game, cold cooking fires…it would be easy enough.

  “When? When did Tallow leave? Did he say anything?”

  Cedar looked over at me with a confused expression. “Tallow?”

  “Oh Cedar, you have got to be kidding me! Are you talking about your damned books again?”

  “Patrick left her at the altar, Winter!” Cedar sobbed. “What could have possibly happened that he would do that?”

  “Cedar, it’s a book. I don’t even know what an altar is, so I have no idea why he’d leave her there.”

  “It’s a place inside a church. It’s where tw
o people are united from individuals into a couple, forever more.”

  “So just to be clear, we’re not talking about Tallow?”

  “What? No. He hasn’t even come home. And why would he leave? Seems to me he’d have even more reason to come back.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Why? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” I said, standing trying to get away from her inquisitive gaze.

  “Oh my gosh, Winter! You’re lying to me.”

  “No I’m not.” I was trying to make a hasty retreat down the hallway.

  “You so are!” she accused, getting up to follow me.

  “What is she lying about?” Tallow asked from the doorway.

  Cedar and I both turned to look at him. We wore very similar expressions of guilt as if we had just been caught stealing something.

  “Um, nothing,” Cedar said, heading back toward the couch.

  “Have you been crying?” he asked.

  Cedar sheepishly pointed to the book she’d been reading.

  “A book did that?”

  “What’s so surprising about that? A book made us revolt against the Brokers, then a book made a Broker join in our quest to discover the truth,” I said.

  He thought about it for a moment. “Got me on that one. Cry away, Cedar.”

  “Patrick left her on the altar, or was it at the altar?” she sighed sadly before once again burying her nose in the pages.

  “Winter, I’d like to talk to you.” Tallow had followed me into the bedroom.

  I was torn between pulling him close to kiss him furiously and shoving him away. How could this be fair?

  “What?” I asked. My mixed feelings showed in my response as I snapped it at him.

  “God, you’re beautiful. I can’t even begin to believe I’m about to do this.”

  I could feel my mind wanting to slip into Dilation mode. I had to consciously keep it from doing so. Seems my mind knew something harmful was coming before I did, even if that made absolutely no sense.

  He gulped. “I think now that we’re no longer under house arrest that you and Cedar should, umm, maybe move back to your own places.”

  I wanted to punch him in the head, then I wanted to tenderly stroke the place I would have punched him. He’d done the hard part for me, so why was I angry with him? Was it because he’d set the terms? Could I be that shallow?