by S. S. Segran
Kody was baffled. “The Elders are always thinking about what is best for the people. They’re caring. They look out for you guys.”
“Look out?” Hutar roared. He wheeled around, delivering a right uppercut. Kody cried out and stumbled back against the wall, sliding down.
Hutar towered over him, nostrils flared, fists clenched. “They killed off my family. I only ever knew my father and uncle—they were the only people I had in my entire life. When Tayoka could have saved my father, he refused.” He paused, his eyes distant. “Of that four-man expedition the Elders sent out, my uncle did not return.”
He struck Kody in the stomach with his foot and the other boy rolled onto his side, shocked by the blow. “They killed the only people that ever mattered to me,” he said, anguish and rage fighting for dominance on his face. “They need to be gotten rid of, just like you pests.”
Jag, trying to worm his way out from the chokehold, was held down firmly by another youth who’d caught the boy’s attempt to free himself. Short of breath, he managed to voice out, “What do you mean, ‘be gotten rid of’?”
Hutar looked over at him, a disturbing smile slowly transforming his features. “We have poisoned the Elders’ personal water supply,” he responded, almost gleefully. “All they will have to do is take one drink and they will soon be choking out their last breath.”
With the bombshell dropped, the friends stared at Hutar in horror.
“I have spoken enough,” Hutar said, delivering a final kick into Kody’s side. “Relsuc!”
One of the youths came to attention and was addressed by his leader in their language. Relsuc grinned nastily and approached Jag, unsheathing a knife from his belt. Jag thrashed but the youth who had him in the chokehold was steady. Relsuc fingered his blade, testing its edge, then sprang at Jag.
Out of nowhere, a heavy clay mug hurtled across the room and crashed into Relsuc’s wrist, the force of the impact causing the mug to shatter into a thousand pieces. Relsuc screamed, dropping his knife, and clutched his wrist. His hand hung limp and he fell to his knees, sputtering what must have been Dema-Ki curses.
Those who witnessed the incident were dumbstruck. At the other end of the room, Aari slowly turned to Mariah. She wore a cross look but there was a smugness that gave away what she’d just done.
Kody, who’d been left unguarded after Hutar had kicked him, saw his opportunity and dove for Relsuc’s knife. He grabbed it and rolled toward the youth holding Jag. He raised the knife as he got to his feet. “Let him go!” he thundered.
The youth, distracted by Kody for a second, couldn’t stop Jag from twisting out of his grip. In a fluid motion, Jag delivered a roundhouse kick to his head. The training he had been undergoing had truly fortified his speed and strength—the impact knocked the youth against one of the others. He hung his head, dazed and unsteady. Jag quickly retreated with a back somersault to the bar counter and crouched, hands on the edge, ready to spring into action again.
Aari, seeing everyone’s attention on Jag, jammed his elbow back with all his might. He heard Aesròn wheeze a pained gasp. Aari reached back, wrapped his arms around the youth’s neck and flipped him over his shoulder. Aesròn crashed onto his back in front of Aari and Mariah and lay there, winded.
Mariah, thinking fast, focused on the two burning torches beside them and forced them to tip over onto Aesròn. A guttural cry was torn from the youth as the oil spilled onto his chest and the fire spread over him. He rolled around, howling as the flames spread to his upper body.
Seizing their chance, Mariah threw the glass door open and almost chucked Aari out onto the deck. “Go! Warn the Elders about their water!” she yelled before jumping away from Aesròn as he tried to grab her, even with his clothes on fire.
Shock was etched on every youth’s face as they beheld Aesròn. Matikè, who’d stood rooted to the ground, broke out of her daze. Grabbing a large container of drinking water, she ran to Aesròn. As she dumped the water onto him, the oil and fire spread off Aesròn and onto the floor. Part of his face was blackened and his hair was mostly burnt off. His shirt was holed and smoldering.
The villagers’ expressions twisted into one of pure vehemence. The youth who had exchanged blows with Jag earlier bellowed and flew toward the younger teenager. Jag braced himself on the countertop and waited until the very last moment before rolling away. The youth was too far into his trajectory to change course and sailed over the counter, landing on the hot stone grill. He let out a cry as his palms and chest sizzled and his skin burned. He tumbled off the grill, flailing, and landed roughly on his side.
Hutar missed the entire scene, transfixed as he was on Aesròn as Matikè tended to him. Aesròn had grown to be his right-hand man. They were nearly alike; the way they thought, the way they carried themselves, the way they were usually undefeated. Seeing him now was almost as if Hutar was seeing himself go down. The thought infuriated him. He dragged his gaze past his two comrades and over at the fire that spread toward Mariah at the side of the hall.
“Witch,” he hissed. He saw Tegan making her way to the other girl but a youth grabbed her hair and pulled her to the ground. Hutar looked back at Mariah and saw her standing still, focusing. He couldn’t afford another one of her tricks and tore toward her, leaping over Tegan and her captor as they fought. Tegan saw him coming and, with perfect timing, kicked up her legs from where she was pinned to the floor. Her action sent Hutar hurtling off his course, crashing into Mariah. Mariah tried to scrabble away but he seized her feet and yanked her down with him.
Jag, crouched on the countertop again, saw Mariah in Hutar’s grasp. In one bound he took off like a coiled spring and landed on Hutar, wrestling him away from his friend. No one noticed the fire that now burned toward the rug where the musicians had performed earlier. The flames jumped onto the wall and crept toward the log beams that held up the roof.
Matikè dragged Aesròn to safety beside Relsuc, who was still clutching his broken wrist. She looked around, counting off the four outsiders, and paused. There were supposed to be five. Then it hit her that the glass door to the deck had been left unguarded. Barking at the other girl to follow her, she grabbed the bow and quiver she’d stashed behind the bar and sprinted past the fire and through the open glass door to give chase.
Aari raced like he never had before. Gotta get to the Elders, gotta get to the Elders, he thought, driving himself forward. At least no one’s following me. Almost as if on cue, something whizzed past him, so close that he was sure it had nearly nicked his right ear. In a delayed reaction he stopped and ducked, then looked behind him. He could just make out two forms hurtling toward him. He bent double and made a break for the bridge leading to the other side of the village. The moon darted in and out of the thick clouds, casting a dim, gloomy light around him. Aari wished he had Jag’s abilities of speed, agility and strength. Though he could sense the marvelous physical training working to his benefit now, the two phantoms on his tail were relentless.
In the old community hall, Relsuc, Aesròn and the youth who had been badly burned on the hot stone grill stayed out of the fight, much as it pained them to do so. The youth whom Jag had kicked in the face had battled to remain conscious and won in the end, and was now trying to wrestle Kody to the ground. Kody still held onto Relsuc’s hunting knife and jabbed it at the villager to keep him away, saying “poke-poke-poke” with every prod and infuriating the youth. He would take his eyes off his opponent every few seconds, keeping tabs on his friends. Tegan had managed to free herself from her captor after crashing a knee into his groin, causing him to limp away in retreat.
Jag had succeeded in pulling Hutar off Mariah, but the older youth would not yield. With Hutar still pinned to the ground and Jag holding onto him from behind, the villager coiled himself tight, the muscles in his arms rippling in preparation. Pushing up with such force that he sprang vertically, he left the ground with Jag still hanging on to his back. They crashed into a log beam above them, smashing Jag’s bac
k. Jag’s grip on Hutar immediately loosened. Hutar landed on his feet and watched with satisfaction as the teenager plummeted to the floor and lay unmoving.
On the other side of the village, Aari started to feel lightheaded from running flat out as he shot past the gathering square, past the greenhouse and past the stable. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the two girls chasing after him. From their fast-paced, steady gait they didn’t look anywhere near as tired as he was.
Another arrow whipped past him and he saw it bury itself deep into a tree several yards ahead of him. At that point he decided it was best to duck between the trees instead of remaining on the straight path. He continued running until he saw the shapes of the neyra in the Elders’ cluster. Almost th—
Something wrapped around his left ankle and he stumbled. “Oof!” He tried to shake free but saw two spherical weights holding him down. A bola! he realized, panicking. It was an instrument that some of the villagers used to tangle up the legs of prey. As Aari got to his feet and started a limping run, one of his pursuers grabbed the back of his shirt but couldn’t get a firm grip. He writhed away from her, hearing a frustrated hiss from the huntress behind him, and ran as fast as he could with the weight of the bola around his ankle. As the trees cleared he could see a couple of the Elders entering their neyra.
“Wait!” he yelled, not sure if they could hear him.
The two phantoms chasing him came to an abrupt halt. They knew they couldn’t stop him now without getting caught. Reaching a silent agreement, they turned and fled; not back toward the old community hall to warn their friends, but to sneak back into their homes and pretend they were never a part of anything.
As Tikina was about to close her door, Aari, with his legs on fire and hardly a breath left in him, charged at it and shoved it inward. He tumbled into the neyra to see a very surprised Tikina gaping at him.
“Don’t drink it!” he rasped before his legs gave way. He fell to his knees, barely able to breathe.
Tikina dropped down beside him and called for Nageau. “Don’t drink what?” she asked, helping Aari sit up.
“There’s . . . there’s poison in the water,” he panted, worsening the lightheadedness. He tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. “. . . in every single one of the Elders’ water supply.”
Tikina’s head whipped toward her mate. Nageau’s calm exterior was shattered. He sent out a telepathic blast to the other Elders that stopped them immediately in their tracks. As he told his companions about the water, Tikina pressed Aari. “What is going on?”
“Old community hall . . . Hutar—he tried to poison our drinks.” Aari could barely form coherent words. “There’s a fight happening—I don’t know how the others . . .” He closed his eyes and collapsed from exhaustion.
In the community hall, Kody kept his opponent at bay as he continued jabbing the knife forward. Stalemate, he thought. He needed to gain leverage. He chanced a quick look around and saw Mariah by herself standing against a wall, catching her breath. “Mariah!” he yelled. “Help!”
When she saw his situation, she focused on a fallen chair and willed it to move. The chair shook and wobbled. Then, in the blink of an eye, it launched itself clear across the room—but rather than hitting the youth, it nearly collided into Kody. The chair shattered against the wall behind him, leaving him to stare at her in disbelief.
“Are you kidding me?” Kody roared. He stabbed the knife again as the youth tried to duck around to his other side. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a motion. Hutar, with a blade in his hand larger and deadlier than the one Kody held, charged at Mariah from behind. She didn’t know the threat was fast approaching.
Without thinking, Kody threw his knife as hard as he could. The weapon whipped straight past Mariah and buried itself in Hutar’s right shoulder. Hutar roared and stumbled back but held onto his blade. Mariah spun around. Realizing he had been about to stab her, she quickly moved away.
Kody had only half a moment to admire the result of his throw before the youth he had been fending off seized him and threw him to the floor. He crouched over Kody, grabbed his neck and began choking him.
At the other end of the hall, Tegan found Jag lying face down, dangerously close to the spreading fire. She darted to him and crouched down, pushing his hair back to see that his eyes were closed. She shook him. “Jag, come on.” He didn’t respond. She shook him harder. “Jag!”
When he remained unconscious, she took matters into her own hands. Grabbing his arms, she dragged him to safety as the flames licked ever closer. As she pulled him, she heard a strange, cracking sound and looked up. The beam directly above them was ablaze and the log’s hold on the roof weakened.
“No,” she murmured as she saw that the beam was about to give way. With a punch of adrenaline she yanked on Jag’s arms, so hard that she may very well have pulled them right out of their sockets. She swung him across the floor and away from the fire just as the smoldering beam finally plummeted down where Jag had just been.
Relsuc saw Tegan and Jag. He boomed at one of the other youths in his language. “Cretin! Take care of those two!” He was still cradling his limp hand as oaths flowed freely from his mouth. The youth he had given the order to approached Tegan and Jag from behind and landed a punch to Tegan’s head. She fell forward, stunned for a moment, but staved off the pain and flipped onto her back, then sprang up to face the youth.
Twenty feet away, Hutar clenched his teeth and pulled the knife out of his shoulder. Blood ran down his arm and dripped to the floor. Now wielding two blades, he advanced toward Mariah, his breathing heavy and ragged, his face contorted in a murderous snarl. He backed her to the side of the bar and spat, “No more of your little games, pest.”
Mariah looked around for something she could use to uneven the playing field to her favor, but the fire had destroyed any objects she could have used.
Hutar raised the blades over his head. Mariah let out a bloodcurdling scream as the knives arched down.
Like a specter appearing from thin air, a figure leapt in front of her, shoving Hutar’s arms away and delivering a mighty kick to his abdomen that sent the youth sprawling back. Mariah covered her mouth, the burst of adrenaline making her head pound and her entire body tremble. “Akol!”
There was a loud boom as the front door burst in and slammed to the ground, hinges and all. At the entrance stood a man, straight as an arrow, with flaming red hair. And he was livid.
Tayoka surveyed the scene with indescribable fury in his storm-gray eyes. The youth choking Kody shrank away from the Elder, letting the boy go. Kody passed out, but not before he saw Tayoka come through the entrance. He dropped unconscious with a smile on his face.
Relsuc cast his eyes downward; not in shame but in admission of defeat. He sat back against the wall and watched the fire slowly starting to move toward him as though he would have rather been engulfed by the flames than face the Elders after this.
The youth fighting Tegan as she stood guard by Jag had heard the door collapse inward and turned to look. Upon seeing the Elder, he bolted toward the still-open door to the deck. His boots smoldered as he made the headlong run but he didn’t care to stop and hurtled out of the building. Tegan watched him go, utterly thankful. Seeing the fire drawing closer, she grabbed Jag’s arms again and pulled him away.
Across from her, Akol had pinned Hutar down. “You tried to kill the five and the Elders!” he snarled.
“Maybe I should have killed you first, maggot,” Hutar spat. He tried to push Akol off but the other youth didn’t allow him room to maneuver away.
The fire had spread along the beams and one directly above them creaked and groaned. Neither youth noticed; not until it started to come crashing down—all two hundred pounds of burning log—did Hutar see it. He yelped, eyes stretched wide. His terror turned into disbelief as the log halted suddenly, hovering in midair above Akol’s head, before it flipped on its side and dropped a few feet away from the youths.
Tega
n, who had seen it happen, looked at Mariah expectantly but Mariah shook her head—she hadn’t acquired that level of skill yet. If not her, then who? Tegan wondered. She found her answer when Saiyu strolled through the front entrance, wearing the same look of silent fury as Tayoka.
“Get out, all of you,” she said icily.
As Hutar’s comrades got to their feet and hastily exited the burning building, she added, “And I know all your faces. There is no hiding now.” The youths couldn’t look at her.
Mariah lifted Kody’s unconscious form and got him to stand by leaning him against her. Taking his arm and slinging it around her neck, she half-walked, half-dragged her friend out. Tegan tried to do the same with Jag, but Jag had bulked up with his training so she opted to simply tow him by his hands.
The two Elders in the building watched the fire with unreadable expressions. Their eyes landed upon Hutar and Akol. Akol still had Hutar restrained but didn’t look like he could hold out for much longer.
Tayoka strode toward them. Hutar saw him coming. He stopped his struggling and looked away angrily. The Elder gazed down at him, embitterment written on his face. He went down on one knee and looked Hutar in the eyes. “You have brought shame to your community, Hutar. Your father would have been utterly disappointed—and heartbroken.”
He reached for the dark blue crystal hanging around the youth’s neck and ripped it off. Grabbing him by the collar, he dragged Hutar out of the burning building.
48
Taking a quick glance at the heavens as twilight finally fell upon the forest, Akira tucked her wings by her sides and dove through the clouds that hovered above Ayen’et. She vanished for a few moments before shooting out from the bottom of the cloud. Spreading her wings, she leveled off to a glide as the mining site came into view. What caught the eagle’s eye was the large, roofed-over shed in the middle of the site. Curious, Akira flew lower. She didn’t notice a man with auburn hair in a black coat gazing up at her as he headed to the shed, astonished at her proximity to the ground.