Renzhies

by Mara Duryea

  As I passed beneath an archway, a pallid Adenzhen bigger than me lunged across my path, caught me by the shoulders, and flung me against the wall. His eyes were red, but they weren’t the bloody globs of a fully transformed bloodheart. He thrust a bony fist at my head, and I did the only thing I could do with full arms: I sat down. As the attacker’s knuckles skinned across the rough wall, I kicked his knees backwards. Crack! The Adenzhen’s mouth gaped in a silent scream as he collapsed. His head landed next to my foot, and I slapped Iskerkin blood across his eyes. He rolled away shrieking. Unlike Karijin’s blood, which vanished in water, mine stuck.

  “Zhin!” Karijin bellowed.

  My head snapped to the left as my breath caught. The big Berivor darted through the shadows, eyes dripping toxic blue liquid. When the substance hit the pavement, it glowed and steamed until the water rinsed it away. Karijin would reach me before I could stand.

  I threw Rilkin from me, and Karijin slammed me flat. He didn’t mean to pummel me into submission, he meant to kill. His claws ripped into my sides and face as I feebly defended my front. Black frost spread across the ground and froze the water. The streams lapping over the ice froze in turn, until a translucent black wall of ice about three feet high had formed.

  Had Sizhirin been there, he would have saved me, but better to die like this than to languish in whatever nightmare Sizhirin had in store. I could only hope Rilkin had made good his escape.

  No sooner had the thought flitted across my mind than the Antiminar dropped on Karijin’s shoulders and bashed a rock against the back of his head. The Nri Kryne’s eyes lost focus, leaving me an opening. I plunged my claws into his neck, twisted, and ripped out. Shoving him off, I whipped my blood into a stake and buried it through Karijin’s heart. I broke it off inside him. Karijin twitched like small shocks were jolting through his body.

  “Rilkin!” I shouted, throwing my hand out to him. He seized it and I swung him to my shoulder. Sprinting through the mini-rivers flowing through the streets, I dyed them red in my wake. I had to do something about my gashes before I bled to death.

  When I thought I’d gotten far enough from Karijin, I staggered into the nearest doorway and rested my hands on my knees. Little by little, my heart slowed down. The floor seemed to move, but my feet didn’t go with it. Taking a raspy breath, I straightened up and took in my surroundings.

  Rilkin and I stood in an enormous tower. Several stairways streaming with rainwater hugged the rounded walls. From where I stood, I could see each level of the tower. There were tattered curtains flapping in the icy breeze on the fourth floor. The curtains were ragged and full of holes, but they looked warm to me. The railings had rotted away, so I made a mental note to stick close to the wall. I started up.

  The tower creaked and swayed like a tree in the wind. Was that my delirium, or was the tower really moving? Great Cubons, who cared? I needed those curtains.

  The inside of my head seemed to be steaming by the time I reached the curtains. Every time I blinked my vision unfocused. Somehow, I yanked the curtains down, tore a part of them into strips and wrapped my wounds. To this day the memory of it feels like a foggy dream. There was enough fabric left to make rude cloaks for Rilkin and me.

  “Tie it on,” I said, tossing him a piece of curtain. It looked too small to me, but it ended up almost too big for Rilkin.

  As I secured a knot under my chin, the tower leaned, and we tumbled against the wall. The edifice convulsed as it collided into something. The din of fracturing boulders clattered through my brain and left my ears ringing. A jagged fissure cracked through the wall in front of us. It was going to cave in.

  “Gutless awiks!” I cried, catching Rilkin’s hand and springing out the window where the curtain had hung. The smashed roof of the next building jumped up and battered my limbs with its sharp stones. Somehow, I didn’t kill Rilkin.

  The tower avalanched.

  Waves rattled across the roof like a haladon’s roar. A thick wall of dust enveloped us in a choking blanket. The rain turned it to mud, which covered us in freezing sludge.

  As I lay there, the ringing slowly fading from my ears and the vibrations trickling off my bones, tears of pain and fear burned my eyes. I had to get up, but where was I going? I tried to move, but my limbs wouldn’t respond. The rocks under me seemed unusually comfortable. My eyes drooped and sealed shut. I just needed to sleep for a little while. When I woke up, my dad would be there, saying Mom had cooked something for me.

  “Zhin, wake up,” a voice whispered.

  I jerked awake. The movement sent prickles through my body. The dust still hung in the air and the rain had become light sprinkles. What time was it? The daylight seemed darker than before. Somebody stood in the gloom and pointed to my left.

  “Zhin,” a beloved voice shouted in the distance. “Zhin!”

  I almost broke down with joy and relief. Pushing myself up, I glanced at the place where the figure had stood, but he was gone. Where had I seen him before?

  “Who’s that?” said Rilkin, who was huddled beside me. “Is it your daddy?”

  “Yeah.” Wobbling to my feet, I limped to the edge of the building and rested my shaking hands on the high wall. Rilkin held onto my cloak as he watched for bloodhearts.

  “Dad!” I shouted in a raspy voice.

  “Zhin, I’m coming!”

  I closed my eyes as my head leaned to the side. This nightmare had ended. My dad would be here in a few minutes. I was going home.

  Rilkin suddenly screamed and seized my leg. I spun around expecting Karijin, but Sizhirin loomed from the dust and snapped his leg at my side. Pain speared through my upper arm as I guarded. The force sent me sprawling across the roof.

  “Come back to the mansion, Zhin!” Sizhirin bellowed. “It is your home! You shall be punished for what you have done!”

  9

  A Sunbeam’s Claim

  Sizhirin slammed into me, hailing punches into my body. I staggered back towards the tower as hot needles stabbed my wounded arm. My legs buckled beneath me as the last of my strength faded. That was when Sizhirin kicked me in the stomach. Sprawling to the ground, something sharp hammered the back of my head and the tower split into fours.

  Straddling my stomach, Sizhirin plunged a hunting knife through my arm and into the ground. He slammed his hand over my mouth so he wouldn’t need to speak through my screams. “You will never run again!” Removing another thick knife from his belt, he pinned my right leg down by the knee and raised the blade over my thigh.

  “No!” I screamed.

  Cutting through my pant leg, he sliced my skin in a sawing motion. The blade penetrated the flesh about a quarter inch, but went no further. A silent figure swung a hammer between Sizhirin’s shoulder blades. The spine snapped. The veins in the monster’s visage bulged as his face twisted in agony. My dad had come.

  With a roar broiling from the deepest wells of his raging soul, Rezh busted the hammer through Sizhirin’s ribs. Crackles reverberated up and down his side as he tumbled across the ground.

  The Berivor leaped after him with raised hammer and smashed it through Sizhirin’s face. Up and down, up and down, the hammer pounded Sizhirin’s putrid body into nothing but a mound of shattered bones swimming in a jellified heap of flesh.

  “Dad,” I wailed.

  Rezh spun around and the bloody hammer dropped from his hands. Falling on his knees beside me, he pressed my shoulder down as he grabbed the knife in his other hand.

  “Hold on, Zhin,” he said. “Deep breath.” He didn’t give me a chance to stiffen up, but yanked the blade out. There was a sickening slurp, and my body jerked against the knife. My vision blurred as my fingers and toes curled in on themselves.

  Stuffing something into the wound, Rezh pulled me into his arms. The terrors I’d endured crashed over me like a cloudburst and I broke into wild sobs. I gripped Rezh’s jacket with both hands as he tangled my hair in his fingers.

  “Sheh, sheh,” whispered Rezh. “Don’t be a
fraid. You’re safe. I’m here.” He whistled three times and received answers from three different directions. Those three sounds were like bird song on a spring morning.

  “I didn’t know where you were,” I whispered.

  “Why? I’m your tug. How could you not feel me?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know.” Fresh tears warmed my eyes. “I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what to do.”

  Rezh turned my slit wrist to the light. “But you did so well anyway, Zhin. You’re an Iskerkin let loose in a Child City. Remember when Sizhirin tried to catch you after you came back?”

  I nodded.

  “He brought his bloodhearts. Where are they now? My son, the whole city is in terror of you.”

  Soft steps pattered across the roof and Gilanra’s beloved voice reached my ears. “Rezh, is he…he looks dead!”

  “No,” said Rezh, turning his head to her, “but he used a lot of his Iskerkin blood.”

  “Minamee,” said Gilanra, as her cool aura distilled on my soul. Gathering me to her bosom, she kissed my face and wept into my hair. My mom always possessed a certain scent that nobody else did. Maybe it came from the ocean. It lingered in her clothing, hair, and every breath she took. It filled my senses the way light dispels the dark.

  Breathing light into her hand, she massaged my head. Her tears dropped on my face. Even these were like the gentlest of caresses. They mingled with my own tears and washed them away even as my pain flowed into relief. A tingling sensation stirred in my wrists and streamed through every vein in my body. The clogged feeling behind my eyes dissipated. To seal it, Gilanra kissed my forehead and the light covering my body vanished inside me.

  “Thank you, Mom,” I whispered. I could have fallen asleep on the spot. Now that I was safe and healed, I could think clearly. “Where’s Rilkin?”

  “Who?” said Gilanra.

  “My brother. He’s a little Antiminar.”

  Rezh scanned the rubble and spotted a small grungy head in the swirling dust. If Rezh hadn’t possessed a hunter’s eye, he wouldn’t have seen Rilkin perched among the broken stones like a dusty statue. He stepped over to him and knelt.

  They gazed at one another in silence. If ever there was a Kabrilor who could love a Metirin he had just met, that one was my dad. Something passed across his face. Nobody would have believed he’d just smashed Sizhirin to jelly.

  “You’re coming with us,” said Rezh, and scooted Rilkin into his hand. He returned to us. “Gilanra, we can’t leave him here. He needs us.” He opened his hand before his wife, and her eyes locked with Rilkin’s.

  “Baby,” Gilanra whispered. Gently releasing me, she traded me back to Rezh as she took Rilkin in her hands. She folded him against her like a tiny pillow. Rilkin snuggled into the small of her neck as a contented sigh escaped him. It was then that the color returned to his skin. I hadn’t realized how much of a bloodheart he’d looked until then.

  As Gilanra healed my brother, Rezh carried me to a boulder and set me down. He wrapped an arm around me, as if a bloodheart would come and snatch me from him. With my shredded nerves, I didn’t feel close enough.

  “Is he a Cedrite too?” said Rezh.

  “Yeah. Sizhirin took him from somewhere, but he can’t remember.”

  “Like you?”

  I nodded, and then my lower lip trembled. “Do we have to take him back to his family?”

  Rezh pressed me closer. “Someone might be hurting like I was. If Rilkin remembers, we’ll have to take him back. For now, he’ll be with us. Remember, Zhin, never force anyone to be a part of your family like Sizhirin has. Let them choose you before you claim them. They might be familiar to you, but always let them choose. Look at all the damage that’s happened because your freedom to choose was taken away.”

  “Okay.”

  Gilanra kissed Rilkin’s cheek and the light rushed inside him. “All better?”

  Rilkin wiggled his feet. “Yeah!”

  “Take this off.” Gilanra removed the sling, and Rilkin flexed his tiny arm. His mouth fell open in awe.

  “It’s not broken!”

  Gilanra rubbed noses with him.

  I sighed heavily. For a moment, I could understand Sizhirin’s pain, but I knew like no other that to submit to this pain would turn me into a monster. Maybe Rilkin’s family was dead. I didn’t feel too bad for hoping it. Still don’t.

  “Gilanra,” said Rezh.

  “What?”

  I stiffened, thinking he would bring up the subject of where Rilkin belonged. Instead, he said, “Zhin’s lost his tug. Why, do you think?”

  Gilanra gazed speculatively at me. “When did you lose it?”

  I thought back. “I could feel it all the way to the beach, but then Sizhirin and Karijin came.” I shuddered. “Sizhirin kissed my head, but nothing happened, and he got upset. So he told Karijin to do it. And when he did it, I hurt so much I blacked out. When I woke up, I didn’t have the tug.”

  Gilanra breathed in angrily. “Karijin claimed you, and losing your tug is how it must have affected you. What did he claim you as?”

  “His brother.”

  “Then someone has to claim you back from him, but as his brother.” She looked at Rilkin. “He can. Would you accept his claim?”

  “Would it be okay?” I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “What if his Metirin family wants him back?”

  The edges of Gilanra’s mouth tugged down, but then she smiled. “It would only be bad if he was claiming you as his son. Siblings can always claim one another without being in the same family. All the same, you have to submit to the claim willingly.”

  I looked at Rilkin. “He’s my brother.”

  Smiling, Gilanra rested her hand on Rilkin’s forehead and pulled his head back to look at her. “All you have to do is kiss his forehead.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  Gilanra brought him over, and Rilkin hopped onto my knee. He kissed my forehead where Karijin’s putrid lips had burned my brain. Little sunbeams filled my being as they purged Karijin’s claim. A heavy weight lifted off my heart, and off the tug it had crushed into immobility. It fluttered, as if reminding me it still lived.

  My surroundings faded into a memory. There was a clifftop overlooking a lush, windy valley. Clouds floated lazily across a summer sky. Rilkin was perched on my shoulder, and Gilanra stood beside me. We’d hiked all day to reach this place.

  “Mommy,” said Rilkin, “did you bring snacks?”

  Gilanra laughed. “Of course, baby.”

  “How can you be hungry already?” I said.

  “It was a long journey to come here,” said Rilkin.

  “I was carrying you the whole way!”

  Rilkin grinned at me. “But what about the snacks?”

  Movement caught my eye in the valley. Somehow I knew this wasn’t part of the memory, but Gilanra and Rilkin could see it, too. We glanced at one another in confusion.

  There was a Hatrin man down there. As he looked up at us, his blue eyes transformed to amber; his black hair turned shaggy and brown. His hulking frame slimmed to a wiry build. The shaggy tail vanished and the pointed ears shrank and rounded. The Berivor held his arms out to us as a beloved smile lit his face. The tug jerked at me, and my heart leaped. It was Rezh. Without explanation, I knew this meant Rezh had utterly replaced Sizhirin. As we raced towards him, the valley faded back into the ruins.

  Gilanra’s aura expanded until the air itself fluttered with joy, and she threw her arms around Rezh. I caught him around the middle, and Rilkin grabbed his head with his whole body. Despite what any of us had been worried about, it was obvious Rilkin’s choice had been made in our favor.

  “Uh, what?” said Rezh in confusion.

  “Rezh, Gilanra,” Rindar called through the dust.

  Gilanra started. “What do we do about Rilkin? The Sivarins are with us!”

  Rezh shoved Rilkin into his biggest pocket. “Stay still, Rilkin.” He looked at Gilanra. “If it’s just Dad and
Terros, we’ll show them.”

  “Okay.”

  Just the two of them appeared a few seconds later. When they beheld me, they sprinted over and embraced me. Rindar held me a little longer than he usually did. He was like a fortifying shield that nothing could penetrate. Sizhirin could hurt us all, but he could never hurt Rindar.

  “You look like one wild child again, Zhin,” he said. “You look hungry.” He pulled meat from his pocket. I stuffed it in my mouth so fast I almost choked.

  Terros burst out laughing, and I was suddenly overjoyed in the middle of that cursed Child City. His was a laugh to dispel the gloomiest of hearts. It shattered every horror and transformed nightmares into things of naught. Still smiling, he glanced at Rezh’s pocket. “Who’s in there?”

  Rezh and Gilanra glanced at one another. As for me, of course Terros saw it. If he didn’t, I would have thought him ill. With a sigh that included his shoulders, Rezh pulled Rilkin out and presented him to Terros and Rindar.

  “Rezh,” said Terros, “you don’t just put children in your pocket whenever you feel like it.”

  Rezh smirked.

  “You really going to keep him?” said Rindar, poking Rilkin’s cheek.

  A squishy look entered Gilanra’s blue and pink eyes. “He’s my baby. We have to hide him from the Sivarins.”

  “All the way to Vaylania?”

  Gilanra, Rezh, and I nodded.

  Terros tilted his head. “He’ll need a better pocket.”

  “Where are the Sivarins?” said Rezh.

  “Gathering children who not bloodhearts,” said Rindar. “We gonna get out of here tonight, when the Syladins sleeping.” He touched my face. “I gonna carry you, minamee. No whining. Gilanra heal you, but you still very weak.” He gathered me into his arms and we started through the ruins, but not the way Rilkin and I had come.

  We reached the seashore just as darkness set in. The sky was clear out on the sea. Rafts waited on the sand where the rescuers had left them, including three new ones. The Sivarins were loading three dozen children onto these. They consisted of both Kabrilors and Metirins. Semrin Arencor was a decent fellow. Many other Kabrilors would have left the Metirins behind. This didn’t mean we could tell him we were keeping Rilkin, though.