Catching Epics

by Halie Fewkes

  “They’ve locked him up?”

  “No, not in the Everarc Cave or anything,” Corliss said. “Just stuck in his room. After you ran, he went straight to Sir Avery to plead for your life and his. He’s a quick talker, and I think he saved you both.”

  “And then Sir Avery vouched for him to the rest of the Dragona?” I asked. “Because that’s the only way they’re going to believe he wasn’t in league with me.”

  “That’s what it sounds like,” Corliss said, shaking her head slowly. “But Sir Avery owns him now. Archie’s agreed to serve the Epic’s every whim, and it’s your life that’s being threatened if he screws up.”

  I sighed and pressed a palm to my forehead.

  “I have more bad news too,” she said as her eyes settled on Vack. “This… effort to get Ebby back isn’t over. Sir Avery’s declared that if she isn’t home by tomorrow, they’re executing Prince Avalask.”

  Vack clenched his jaw and stopped breathing, and I grabbed his shoulder.

  “They can’t,” I said, even though we all knew they very well could.

  Corliss shrugged sadly. “They’re putting together an Eclipsival scale celebration in Glaria right now because everything is suddenly right in the Human world. Izfazara’s dead, they suspect Vack might be dead, and they’ve got Prince Avalask in a dungeon somewhere… The Dincaran kids are safely home, and fourteen ships are about to arrive from Tekada with our returners and some sort of weapon. They say it’s going to lead to the downfall of the Escalis entirely.”

  I felt my jaw fall open at all that news laid out so casually. “Ratuan knew the timing when he planned the escape,” Corliss said. “He knew when the survivors from the Tekadan massacre would be landing, and he planned it so the kids would get back just in time. He made himself a hero, and they’re going to let him execute Prince Avalask at the end.”

  I could feel Vack beginning to shake, and he leapt into the air without warning, leaving the three of us alone in the sunshine.

  “We have to get him out,” I said.

  “How?” Corliss asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. “You can’t show your face at the Dragona, and Archie can’t leave his room without a five man guard. Emery will be killed the moment somebody sees his arm spikes, and I’m supposed to do what? Kick down Prince Avalask’s cell door and carry him to safety?”

  I fell silent, and Emery still had his teeth gritted tightly.

  “We only have until tomorrow?” I asked.

  Corliss nodded and said, “Even if we could convince Ebby to come home…”

  She shook her head slowly, and I agreed with her hesitation. Even if Ebby came home, nobody would release Prince Avalask. We all knew that.

  Emery finally unclenched his jaw to say, “Let’s all do some thinking on what we want to do, and then we’ll regroup.”

  Corliss nodded, but grabbed his arm as he turned to leave.

  “Look,” she said. “Before you go running into the woods to kill a bunch of things, can you just promise to come back by dark?” Emery glared mutinously, and Corliss said, “It’s not fair to make us worry all night about you too.”

  Emery looked out at the trees before muttering, “I’ll come back before dark.”

  “Thanks,” Corliss replied.

  He strode away from us, seemingly in control, although I doubted his calm would last once he was in the trees.

  “He’s like you,” Corliss said, watching him go. “He gets in his moods, and all you can really do is let him cool off.”

  “Have you always been the group mom?” I asked, not sure why I hadn’t puzzled this out before. She knew everyone too well, and knew how to keep the group from disintegrating.

  “Yes,” she replied. “The group mom of a slowly shrinking family.” Her eyes grew distant, watching Emery go. “We just keep getting smaller and smaller.”

  Celesta had always been a mystery to me. She was always working on something, and when Corliss pulled one of the sparkling white stones out of the ground to reveal a set of dirt stairs, we found Celesta in the dark room below, packing the dirt walls into perfectly angled corners.

  “I heard everything you said. You don’t have to repeat it,” she said, running a tool down one corner crease, smoothing out the dirt she’d turned to mud. “I know it’s hard to say.” She didn’t look upset about the fact she’d lost at least two more friends, most likely three. She didn’t even look bothered.

  I glanced at Corliss, who simply shook her head to tell me to leave it alone.

  “There’s a second level below this one,” Corliss said, pulling a torch down to show me another set of dirt stairs, leading deeper. The basement, for lack of a better term, had eleven bedrolls laid around the edges.

  “There used to be eleven of us?” I asked.

  “Twelve, actually,” Corliss said, and a distant sadness dulled her eyes as she looked around the empty sleeping pads. “That one’s yours,” she said, pointing to the corner nearest the staircase. I didn’t even hesitate before flopping onto it, feeling twice my weight under the exhaustion of life.

  Even though I’d spent all my daylight hours replaying Liz’s horrified stare, the sight of Ratuan stabbing Vack, Ebby screaming, Prince Avalask’s pleas to run for my life... Despite facing it all during the day, the dreams hit me even more vividly at night with their own small variations. Ratuan sank his dagger through Vack’s eyes instead of into his chest. My legs refused to move as the entire clearing looked at me in shock, and when I finally gathered enough sense to run, my limbs were sluggish and barely moved at all. The Zhauri’s dogs caught up to me in the forest and sank their teeth into my hands, dragging me to the ground in a frantic struggle for my life as I realized the death hound approached, his eyes glowing red and metal plating growing down his chest.

  He clamped his jaws around my throat as I screamed, ripping me open and waking me with my hands scrabbling to pull him off. I wasn’t actually screaming, but whimpering like a coward, breathing like I’d just sprinted five miles, and I’d clawed at my own chest and neck hard enough to leave a series of raised marks.

  I’d never scratched myself like this. I pulled my sweaty hair out of my eyes and ran my fingertips over the red welts, knowing they’d heal soon, unlike Liz’s. Was she having nightmares like this? All the time? I would have been sleeping in her room every night if I’d known.

  I shook my head and swallowed, hearing whispering from the upstairs level.

  “His brother is about to be killed,” Corliss said softly. “Assuming he even has them, I think he’d let them go if we could tell him where Prince Avalask is.”

  I caught up quickly, but I wasn’t sure if negotiating with Sav could end in anything but murder. He just hated us too much.

  “Our odds of speaking with him and leaving alive are way too low, considering the fact Karissa, Nessava, and Robbiel are probably already dead,” Emery replied.

  “We can’t assume they’re dead and leave them,” Corliss hissed. “Karissa would never do that to you.”

  “We’re not leaving them. There just has to be a better way to find them than asking. Approaching Sav right now would be suicide.”

  I shook the tingle of sleep from my arms and climbed the stairs to crouch next to them, making a triangle of conversation without so much as a good morning.

  “Aside from getting our friends back, Sav might also be our only hope of saving Prince Avalask,” I said. “We have to tell him what’s happening.”

  Emery rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and said, “Even if he doesn’t have our throats torn out on the spot, he’s not going to let any of us walk out of there.”

  “I’m on the fence,” Corliss said. “Because yes, he’s vicious and he hates us, but he does have honor. If we’re trying to give him information about Prince Avalask, he might be proud enough to let us walk away. He’ll threaten us, and send people after us, but I think he’d at least give us a head start.”

  “Oh, how generous,” Emery said.

&nb
sp; “Let him send them,” I replied. “The three of us are more fight-worthy than anyone. Who in their right mind is going to stand in the way of lightning, fire, and the ability to collapse the caves around us?”

  Emery and Corliss exchanged a quick, smirking glance.

  “I’m going,” I said, determined. “You two can either stay here or come with me. But it’ll eat me alive if Prince Avalask is killed and we didn’t do anything to stop it.”

  My face grew redder as I realized I was somehow amusing them. “I told you she hasn’t changed,” Corliss told Emery. I was growing more irritated with the both of them.

  “So the real question is,” Emery said slowly, in contemplation, “do we let her go running off on her own, because we both know she will, or do we help plan and go with her?”

  I looked at them both and then shifted onto my knees so I could hunch forward and treat the floor like a map. “I don’t want to blaze our way through a mass of Escalis if we don’t have to,” I said, packing a line of loose dirt together, “but we do have to acknowledge that the three of us weren’t built for stealth.”

  “Especially not Corliss,” Emery said, looking much more like his mischievous self as he relaxed into a more comfortable position on the floor. “She sometimes can’t control when she bursts into song and dance.”

  Corliss said, “It makes for an excellent distraction though. The people love me.” She nodded very seriously, and said, “If we can incorporate that into the plan, I’m in.”

  We planned and we plotted, and I eventually excused myself, needing to get outside and use the environment because I hadn’t done so since waking. I climbed up the dirt-packed stairs and pushed the entrance stone out of my way, pulling myself into the blinding sunshine without thinking to check my surroundings.

  “Hi Allie.” The greeting nearly made me pee myself.

  “Ebby?” I gasped, clutching at my heart. Her white dress sparkled without a single stain remaining. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, looking at the ground. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just... I need to talk to you, and so I waited out here.”

  I took a deep breath, knowing there was no reason to be upset with her. “It’s fine,” I said. I crouched to her level, nearly sitting on my heels to get her to look at me. “What’s happening? Are you alright?”

  Ebby nodded and I set a hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on?”

  “I... I was listening to you talking earlier, about going to Savaul to see if he had your friends. And so I did it for you.”

  She glanced carefully into my eyes, as though afraid I would scold her.

  “You looked for my friends?” She shook her head and I felt my eyes widen. “You mean you went and spoke to Sav for us?”

  “Yes. Jalia came with me. And I’m an Epic. I wasn’t really in any danger.”

  She looked ready to cry until I squeezed her shoulder and said, “That was really, really brave of you.”

  Ebby’s face lit up, like my approval was all she needed. “I wanted to find out where your friends are,” she said. “But Savaul doesn’t know. He’s put a ransom out for anybody who can kill a Tally, but nobody’s brought back a body yet.”

  Incredible relief washed over me, even though we weren’t a single step closer to finding them. “Thank you for telling me.”

  Ebby beamed, then looked back at her feet, suddenly shy once more. “I… need you to help me too,” Ebby said, grabbing at her dress to twist it nervously in her hands. “Vack told me what’s about to happen in Glaria.”

  I waited with uncharacteristic patience as she gathered her words. “Savaul’s also heard about the weapon coming in with the survivors, but he doesn’t know what it is. He wants me to get out and wreck the ship carrying it before anybody knows what’s happening.”

  “You don’t have to do anything Savaul says,” I told her. “I’m sure he threatened you, but you’re the Epic. He has nothing to hold over you.”

  “He didn’t threaten me,” she said, “but they’re going to kill Prince Avalask as part of the celebration. Savaul thinks he can save him if I can distract Sir Avery out on the ships.”

  I groaned and knelt fully down as my calves began to tingle from crouching too long.

  “Prince Avalask can’t die,” she whispered, and I nodded my agreement.

  “We’ll help you,” I said. “I’m just not really sure how.”

  “Just be there, please,” she said. “I was hoping you could just blend into the crowd and be there in case we need you.”

  I opened my mouth to explain that I couldn’t show my face among the Humans, but Ebby cut me off. “I can change what you look like. I can make your hair dark, or your eyes bright blue.” She looked me over and said, “I can even make you fat. Whatever you want.”

  I snorted a short laugh and rubbed my dark brown eyes, imagining them like the summer sky.

  “It won’t last more than a few hours,” she said. “We’d actually have to do it right before you went in. Can you meet me outside Glaria?”

  “Glaria is a long walk from here,” I said, making one more pass over my tired eyes.

  “I could jump you over there,” she said. “I’m just... not great at jumping.”

  “That’s fine,” I said, giving her a kind smile as I stood up, adding a couple fidgety steps to the motion. “I’ll talk to Emery and Corliss and make sure they’re willing to come too. First though, I am so sorry, but I really have to pee.”

  Ebby giggled at that and I messed up her wispy hair before dashing toward the trees.

  Convincing Emery and Corliss to come with me took about a sentence and a half of explanation. Emery wanted to see Archie in person to make sure he was alright. Corliss was believed to be Human and perfectly welcome there. Celesta said nothing and we didn’t ask her to come.

  Ebby came back for us, and that girl was not kidding. She shouldn’t be allowed to jump to save her life.

  She nervously took my hand and I jumped with her, reappearing in the air above a massive twisting oak with Ebby nowhere in sight. I screamed and flailed my limbs as I fell into the sharp branches of the bare tree, breaking through several limbs before hitting one that I could grip in a screeching halt. I rubbed my back and left shoulder and came away with more blood on my hands before wincing and lowering myself to the ground.

  Ebby found me with a look of pure terror in her eyes as Emery hunched over next to her to laugh at my sorry state.

  “I’m sorry,” Ebby said, looking ready to cry again. “I told you I’m not—”

  I found myself laughing as well, because she was right. She’d warned me. “It’s fine,” I said, because the damage was already nearly healed. No permanent harm done.

  I was a little jealous though, to see Corliss land perfectly on her feet beside Ebby a few minutes later.

  “Looks like somebody’s third-time lucky,” I muttered as Corliss gave me a pose like ta-da!

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Allie

  Ebby made sure nobody could use magic to track me before she leapt away, and I promised Emery and Corliss I would be alright if they went down to the celebration without me. I’d join them as soon as Ebby came back to disguise me.

  I imagined my feet were feathers as I brushed silently through the forest, knowing I had to be back in a few hours to meet Ebby, but not worrying much about it. I imagined that no tree, no rock, no leaf would ever know I’d passed by. I was a whisper. I was a tendril of smoke among the forest, easily ignored and even sooner forgotten.

  I don’t mean to say I was sneaking around Glaria. The forest recognizes mischief. The world will shout your name across the ridge-tops when you try to sneak. What I was doing was moving with the grace of the unhurried, which is something I can’t remember doing... ever.

  A sea of leaves pattered softly above me as a deep-woods breeze brushed through them. Wisps of hair drifted up around my shoulders and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath of the ocean air
as a soft whistle carried past on the wind.

  I’d only caught the faintest hint of it, so I waited in peaceful patience until a second whisper of song echoed through the trees.

  I took great care to appreciate where I was stepping and what I was passing as I approached it, and I began to hear an undertone of beautiful darkness — the shrill hum of contemplation that made the hair on my arms prickle.

  I knew it was Archie’s whistling, even though I could hardly stand to believe I might be so lucky.

  The beautiful song disappeared, but I moved toward the silence, suspicious of why he would be so conveniently close. The ground sloped away from me, into a deep valley with a tiny creek snaking back and forth through the bottom, and Flak glided from the trees to land on my shoulder.

  I braced for the grip of her talons, but she took me by surprise when she bit my ear and tried to rip it off the side of my head.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at her, shoving her off. She flew to a nearby limb and muttered an angry screech at me as I started moving again. “Flak, it’s him,” I whispered to her. “I know it’s him.”

  She hissed at me, and I bared my teeth to hiss back. I could understand that this felt a little trap-like, but it was Archie’s whistle. If he was being forced to lure me in, he would change the tone or do something to tip me off. “I’ll be careful,” I whispered, trying to appease Flak even though she was a shanking bird.

  I was the epitome of careful as I heard the sad duskflyer whistle once more. I crept close until I saw Archie, sitting beside a slow trickle of a creek, leaning back against a mossy maple trunk. And I watched him for fifteen minutes more to make sure nothing was amiss, even though I wanted to run straight to him.

  He threw a rock into the little rivulet, and I circled painstakingly around behind him, watching, listening, and smelling for signs of anybody else nearby. I knew in my gut that this was too good to be true, but I was so close, and I truly didn’t sense anybody else as I crept toward him.