by Simon Archer
“Do you have any last words?” He laughed as though the whole thing were a joke.
Nothing.
“No?” He sounded almost disappointed. “Very well then.”
The muscles in his arm tensed as he prepared to swing the sword at me. He locked eyes on his target, signaling to me exactly where he intended his sword to fall. That wasn’t a mistake. He wanted me to know.
That was what Elle was waiting for.
Before the soldier had a chance to prep his sword, which was still outstretched in my direction, Elle’s foot collided with his forearm. The soldier had been so focused on me that he didn’t see her coming until it was too late. Even though she was a lower class than he was, the force of her body was enough to knock the sword out of his hand.
The weapon clattered against the wall before falling to the floor. As soon as it was free from his grasp, I went to retrieve it. The soldier took almost no time to soak in his mistake; once he realized what had happened, he grabbed Elle, one of his hands gripping the collar of her shirt and the other grabbing a fistful of her hair. She let out a sharp cry of pain and tried to pull away, but he had a vice grip on her. In a moment, he smashed her into the wall.
That was the last thing he ever did.
It happened so quickly that if I’d been watching, I don’t think I would have been able to tell what was going on. Less than a second after Elle’s head hit the stone wall, with both of my hands wrapped around the hilt of the heavy sword, I thrust it forward at his chest with all my strength. At that moment, every ounce of breath and energy I had was channeled into the weapon, not a thought in my mind beyond ensuring Elle wasn’t hurt again.
The sword hit the armor, which did its job. For a fraction of a second, he had a smug look on his face. However, since I was aiming up at the taller man’s chest, the blade hit the metal armor at an angle. The force of my strike propelled the blade forward. It slid up his armor and pierced his throat.
I hadn’t quite thought far enough ahead to consider what came next. I just wanted to protect Elle. Still, somehow I knew this was the only option. If he had lived, he would have been a threat to her and her family. I wanted her safe, no matter what. Still, somehow I never thought I’d kill a man.
He stumbled back from the force of the blade, but quickly fell to his knees. His body collapsed, and he fell to his side. His eyes seemed frozen, as though they were still looking at the blade before it pierced his body. Blood poured from his neck, pooling on the stone beneath my feet.
I stared at the soldier for a moment, frozen in shock as I tried to process what had just happened, the hilt digging into my palm as I gripped it tight. Then my mind flashed to Elle. I dropped the sword and crossed over to where she sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.
“Elle!” I said desperately, kneeling in front of her. I took her face in my hand. Luckily in terms of visible injury, it looked like she only scraped her forehead. There was a bit of blood that dripped down her face, but it didn’t look bad.
Her face contorted in pain, and she groaned without opening her eyes. As soon as she did, I relaxed considerably. Feeling pain meant she was alive, at least.
She opened her eyes slightly, reaching up to wipe the blood from her face. “We… We have to go.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped my arms around her, reaching up to stroke her hair. I felt tears well up in my face, both out of relief that she was alright and sheer shock as I began to process the past sixty seconds.
“I’m so glad you’re okay…” I whispered.
Elle wrapped her arms around me. As she did, I took a moment to focus my breath on her, the same way I did when I was injured. If I hurt my arm and channeled my energy into it, it alleviated the pain, so I tried to do the same for her, pouring everything I had into the places she was hurt.
Until suddenly, I couldn’t.
A massive pain ripped through my body. I gasped and felt every muscle spasm, holding Elle tighter instinctively. She pulled away, and I felt her hands on my face, but my eyes were shut from the pain as a sharp, focused burn spread through my body.
“Ren,” she said softly. “Ren, it’s okay. Just breathe.”
I opened my eyes for a second. That was a bad idea. As soon as I did, I saw my arms and my hands. Every vein seemed to glow. The light was pulsing and moving, like something was swimming through my body. A reddish-tan light came from within my body.
I fell back and screamed, as though I could somehow get away from the thing inside me. As soon as I did, Elle grabbed me, pulling me close.
“Shh,” she whispered, a calm tone in her voice. “It’s okay.”
I shut my eyes again to keep from seeing whatever was going on. Not only could I see the light, but I could also feel it, and it was excruciating. Like my blood was burning as it crawled through me. I tried to think about my breath and my energy, but it suddenly felt as though I had no access to those things. I felt empty. Empty and on fire.
Elle held me close. I came to the only logical conclusion I could think of, which was that I had to be dying. I didn’t know why or how, but I was dying.
Then it stopped.
Whatever was burning within me extinguished, and I felt normal again. I gasped and clutched at my chest as I could finally breathe. When I opened my eyes, my skin was back to normal. Nothing was glowing.
I focused on my breath again, and it seemed fine. I could access it, channel it, and control it once again.
“Elle,” I sighed, “what just happened?”
Before she answered, a massive wave of chills went through my body, and I shivered.
“Ren,” she said softly. “You just became Copper Class.”
21
“Elle,” I muttered, dumbfounded. “You said it was going to take—”
“I know,” she shook her head, seeming just as shocked as I was. “I don’t know why it happened so fast.”
I moved my arms and flexed my fingers. They felt strange, but that could have just been residual from the massive pain I’d just experienced. I couldn’t tell if anything was actually different.
Elle took my hand and squeezed it. “That’s how it sometimes happens out of nowhere. Something about the fight must have pushed you over the edge. Using your training or… something? I can’t be sure.”
I took a deep breath and stood to my feet. Elle followed suit. I felt stiff, but I was okay. I looked up and saw Elle wiping more blood from her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I think so,” she nodded. “I will be. But right now, we have to go.”
“Right.” As soon as I was safe, I was going to have a lot to process.
Elle nodded to where I’d dropped the weapon on the ground. “Get the sword.”
I walked over to pick up the blade. The tip of it was lying in the pool of the soldier’s blood. I couldn’t help but stare at the corpse for a moment, but only a moment. I had no time to spare. The soldier’s sword was heavier than any of the other weapons I’d used so far, but I could still hold it with one hand.
I gave Elle a look as though to say I was ready, and we headed for the door of the prison. When I pulled it open, I was shocked to see another pool of blood by the threshold. It was coming from the body of another soldier lying a few feet away. Next to him was another body that had fallen against the wall, clutching his wounds before dying. Over the two bodies towered the huntress from the woods.
She looked up as we came out, sheathing her weapon at her hip. “Thought you could use some help.”
Elle and I stared at her in utter disbelief. I managed to clear my head enough to ask one of the many questions on my mind. Well, more or less.
“What did…?” I tried to ask. “Why, um…? What…?”
“If you don’t mind waiting,” the huntress interrupted, “there are nine more soldiers to deal with.” She turned as though she were about to go to the square and slaughter the rest of them right there.
“No!” Elle stopped
her. “That’s not necessary. We just needed to get Ren out.”
The huntress turned back and nodded, crossing her arms. “Then do you have a next step in mind?”
The fighter bit her lip. “Not exactly.”
“Where’s your father?” I asked Elle.
“We took him home,” she assured me.
“Let’s get you back there,” I nodded.
“We’d have to sneak through the woods again,” she frowned. “It would take too long.”
The huntress shook her head. “Not exactly.”
We both turned to watch her as she walked past us and around to the edge of the prison. She waved us over to follow her. When we rounded the corner, there were two horses just like the one she’d had that day in the woods. She handed one of the horses’ reins to me, then looked at Elle.
“Sorry, I couldn’t create more than two that we could ride,” the huntress apologized, “but he can ride a horse without falling off at least.”
“I don’t think I could balance right now anyway,” Elle muttered.
I smiled a bit at the huntress’s vague, semi-compliment before helping Elle onto the horse.
“You’re sure this is safe?” she asked.
“Positive,” the huntress nodded. “He’s intelligent enough to get you where you want to go, and as long as you hold on tight, you’ll be fine. He can carry you both to the other side of Eon, no problem.”
Before mounting the animal, I adjusted my belt so that I could hook the soldier’s sword to it. It was uncomfortable, but it would do. Thankfully, Elle was already on, so she couldn’t see how awkward it was for me to lift myself up onto the horse behind her. I tried to remember the last time I’d ridden a horse. I’d been short on time and desperate, just like now.
“I’ll have to follow you,” the huntress said as she lifted herself on the back of her horse. “Ready when you are.”
I wrapped my arms around Elle to hold the rope and kicked the side of the horse to get it to go.
Nothing happened.
I pulled on the rope and kicked its side again. Nothing happened. I sighed and looked sheepishly at the huntress. She gave the smallest hint of a cocky smile before reaching over and slapping the horse. I held tight as it began to move, guiding the animal through the trees in the general direction I thought her house was in.
“Which way?” I asked Elle, looking over her shoulder.
She pointed me in the right direction, and I squeezed the sides of the animal with my calves to get it to speed up.
For a second, it worried me that I couldn’t see the huntress, but within a moment, she was practically beside us, as though she knew where we were going better than we did.
“What’s going on in the square?” Elle called to her as we rode.
“That fire is pretty bad.” She spoke calmly despite the circumstances. “But they’ve managed to surround it, so it doesn’t get any bigger.”
“What’s wrong with the window?” I asked. “When they came to get the soldiers, they said it was damaged.”
The huntress nodded. “A window is a place with an especially strong connection to elan. When--”
“Elan?” Elle frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“What do you call it?” The huntress paused and glanced over at us. “Breath?”
“Yeah,” Elle said slowly, obviously confused and perhaps a bit suspicious.
“Anyway,” the leather-clad woman continued without missing a beat, “that’s because the place it sits on has been tilled and nurtured. Most places in Solivann place stones over the area to protect it. The fire bled through their mosaic, and once it damaged the land, the window stopped working.”
I felt Elle’s energy shift. I hadn’t thought about the potential repercussions of the fire being let loose in the middle of the village. My own concern was about keeping her family safe and escaping.
“Elle,” I sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head. For a second, it seemed like she was going to say something, but she stayed silent.
I pulled on the rope of the horse to bring it to a stop as we reached the road we had to cross to get to her house. “Should we go around? I don’t want to risk being seen.”
Elle swung her leg over and dropped down from the horse, stepping out into the road. She looked down the street to see if there was anyone who’d see us before beckoning us across the road. When the horse stepped out of the trees, I was surprised to see dozens of people in plain view, but I quickly realized that no one was paying attention in this direction. Everyone was preoccupied with the fire. I could see it above their heads. Even if I couldn’t, the cloud of smoke towered into the sky.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept moving. When I stopped the horse to let Elle back on, I must have looked as awful as I felt. She put her hand on my knee to get my attention and shook her head, a sympathetic expression on her face.
“We had no other choice,” she said softly.
To hear her say that was a relief.
With Elle back on the horse, we continued riding through the trees. Finally, we stopped at the katsura tree next to the family’s yard. This time, I was greeted by the smell of caramel coming from it. I stopped the horse next to the tree, hoping to get as close to the scent as possible. It was possible this would be the last comforting thing I experienced for a while.
As soon as the horses stopped, we dismounted, and the huntress and I followed Elle into the house. They’d brought a mattress from the top floor downstairs for Solem to rest on. Kaia had set out every bottle and tin of medicine and supplies she had on the table, and when we walked in, she was bandaging scratches on his arms and face.
August sat next to Solem with his hand on Maylon’s shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw us.
“Elle! Did anyone see you? What happened to your head?” he asked as he stood and came over to check on us.
“I’m fine, uncle,” she shook her head.
“Actually, we were spotted,” I began, “but he won’t be a problem.”
“I told Elle it wasn’t safe for her to go,” Solem shook his head. “She insisted.”
I looked over at her with a soft smile. “I might not have made it if she hadn’t.”
“Every one of you is a bleeding idiot!” Solem roared from his horizontal position on the mattress. He struggled but managed to sit up on his elbow. “You should have run. You didn’t have to come back for me.”
Elle rushed over to kneel next to the bed and check on her father. I followed her slowly.
“Solem,” I began, “you should never have been put in this position in the first place. You saved my life with your help. The least I could do is return--”
“Oh, fuck off with your pretty speech,” he groaned as Kaia forced him to lay back down. “That life debt stuff is for fairy tales, not real life.”
I stayed silent while he took a few labored breaths and tried not to think about how much pain he had to be in. It helped that he didn’t seem to blame me like Kaia had, but I couldn’t help but feel responsible for the detriment that had fallen upon this family.
“Thank you for coming back,” Solem finally said. “It was the most stupid thing you could have possibly done, but thank you.”
“Ren,” Maylon asked, his gaze lingering somewhere behind my shoulder. “Who’s that?”
I turned around and realized that we hadn’t exactly introduced our guest. Everyone looked to see the huntress, still standing next to the door, not having said a word.
“Oh, this is— Elle and I, well, I met her on the way to Grave. I guess she was in the area and realized we needed help.”
A look of realization spread across August’s face. “Is this her? The huntress from the woods?”
I nodded, a bit embarrassed for some reason at the idea of her learning I’d talked about her. Thankfully, she didn’t seem phased.
“Aviri,” the huntress bowed her head in a polite greeting. “Pleased to meet yo
u.”
August shook his head in disbelief and crossed over to her. “I have so many questions. They told me--”
“Uncle,” Elle sighed. “We don’t have time. The village is burning down, and the soldiers could look for Ren any minute.”
“Maylon,” Kaia said sternly. “Go run to the village. Tell someone what we talked about. Go. Hurry.”
The little boy nodded with determination and stood to his feet before dashing to the door.
“What did you talk about?” I asked.
“We told him to find an adult,” Elle explained, “and to tell them dad had a fire like this once in the forge, and he put it out by smothering it.”
I bit my lip as I thought about the danger all of this had caused. “How did they keep the fire from spreading anymore?”
The huntress, Aviri, answered. “The carpenter had some materials they used to barricade around the fire to keep it from spreading.”
“No one was hurt, right?” I’d been avoiding asking that question as long as possible, but I needed to know.
“No one’s died,” Aviri shrugged. That wasn’t exactly what I asked. “I’ve never seen a fire like that before, that needed to be contained and exploded with water. Where did it come from?”
“It’s what you get when you light grease on fire,” I explained. “They’re fairly common where I’m from.”
I noticed that she seemed surprised, almost impressed. Perhaps I could revel in that later. For now, I needed a plan.
“So,” Solem cringed, sitting up again, despite Kaia’s protests, “what exactly do you intend to do next?”
I sighed and dropped my head in my hand before raking it through my hair. “I wasn’t actually sure we’d make it this far. I guess I’ve just gotta run.”
“Elle?” Her father looked at her expectantly.
She looked at me for a moment before looking down. “Ren… I can’t go with you.”
I swallowed hard. I knew that. Ever since we realized Solem was in danger, it had been obvious. Still, to hear it was hard. I’d formed a bond with Elle, and she was the only person I really trusted here. That was the scariest part.