Ashes to Embers

by Michelle Schad

  “I know what I’m doing!” he snarled.

  “Not really,” the olven boy said softly. Kaleo whirled around, feeling the resistance of his own wings on the non-existent air around him. Yira’s Realm was very strange. “And you’re dirty.”

  Kaleo glanced down at himself. Jaysen was not wrong. There was dirt on his knees and arms. His vest had a stain on it and his hands appeared as if he’d been digging in the mud. He hadn’t, but the dreams exacerbated reality a great deal. Having it pointed out made him flush. His appearance immediately changed. The dirt vanished. The thread-bare patches mended themselves and his wings vanished briefly, only to reappear again in the next breath. Jaysen chortled.

  “Better,” the boy with the clawed hands said with a grin. Kaleo only rolled his eyes at his friend but smiled all the same, letting it slide away to a frown as he noted Jaysen’s appearance. He was more faded than usual, as if he did not quite have the strength to be fully present in the Poppy Fields. Tanis, he noted, was not with him.

  “Where’s Tanis?” Kaleo asked, daring to move a little closer. Jaysen took a step back, looking down at his feet.

  “She isn’t well,” Jaysen answered, suddenly leaning heavily on a white-washed staff that was not there moments before. “I can’t stay long.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kaleo persisted. There was no reason for him to press the issue. It was irrelevant.

  They’d never met outside the dream world and were not likely to do so anytime soon. There was nothing Kaleo could do to help his friend, but the question fell from his lips all the same. Jaysen grinned, looking back up from his feet.

  “I want to live in your world, Kaleo,” Jaysen said rather than answering the question. “It sounds like a perfect world - free of pain; mostly.”

  “Free of pain? Is that really what you think?” Kaleo frowned. Jaysen shook his head.

  “It doesn’t matter. Listen to me - Argento’s song changed. It’s lighter, not as somber as it was before. You were right about your father. Just, stay out of the Sea

  of Stars. It isn’t safe there right now. They’re hunting. Promise, ok?”

  “Who’s hunting? Hunting what?”

  “Just promise!” Jaysen barked. Kaleo could see the struggle on his face, the strain he was under just to remain upright. He did not have the strength to be in the Poppy Fields. It was dangerous to traverse Yira’s Realm while in a weakened condition. It left you open to attack or worse. He was taking a huge risk in coming; a risk to tell him of Argento, of his father.

  “I promise,” Kaleo said finally. “Thank you.”

  They stood in awkward silence for a few moments. Kaleo fidgeted or looked at the poppies closest to his toes. Jaysen just leaned on his staff before turning to go. Just when Kaleo gained the courage to speak again, he felt as if he were being ripped away from the Poppy Field. He could even see the surprise on Jaysen’s slightly blurred out face before gasping awake. When he’d fallen asleep, Fionn was right behind him, propping his head. Now the chimera was gone. The darkness in the surrounding forest was rather unnatural, like in the nightmare that nearly took his life. It was too dark, yet not quite dark enough. The silence was penetrating, eerie. He looked around slowly, chest rising and falling rapidly.

  Fionn…

  There was no answer from the chimera. “Fionn?” Kaleo whispered. His voice disappeared into the silence, swallowed by it. None of this felt right. On instinct, he looked behind him to see if his wings were still there. Seeing them did not make him feel any better. “Fionn!”

  Just like the whisper, Kaleo’s call was swallowed by the silence. It went to the tip of his nose and stopped instead of carrying out to his surroundings. He was fine until the silence growled back.

  “T-tanis?” he dared, for once hoping that the young chimera was the one making the terrible noise. She did not like him, growling any time he got too close. What he saw made his heart stop. Three orbs of orange popped up before him, each with narrow, black ovals at their centers. With no shame whatsoever, Kaleo screamed as if he were being torn to shreds. Perhaps he would be, but he was not waiting to find out. He was on his feet faster than he could truly comprehend, running through a forest that was terrifyingly familiar to him.

  The branches on the trees reached for him, stretching outward with sharp, jagged fingers.

  Not again! I wasn’t even in the Sea! he thought wildly. “FIONN!”

  There was still no answer from the chimera, no comforting presence, or looming guardian. So Kaleo ran. He ran until his lungs felt as if they might implode, all the while hearing the snarls of the beast that gave chase. None of his efforts seemed to matter. The beast still closed in on him. No matter how many times he zigged or zagged, how hard he pumped his legs or even tried to take flight, nothing changed.

  “Let go!!”

  The cry Kaleo heard made him stop mid-run, arms pinwheeling to maintain his balance. He knew the voice. Jaysen.

  “Jaysen!” he called, turning himself around toward the sound of his friend’s voice. “Jaysen!”

  “Kaleo!”

  The young avian turned again toward the sound of his name, hissing at the twigs that scratched his face or snagged his clothes. He didn’t get far, feeling himself fall into rancid earth instead of taking another step. Something had his legs, binding him from the ankles up to the thighs in tight, crawling vines that stabbed at him through the fabric of his loose pants. He could not stop the scream that was wrenched from his lungs as he was pulled upside down, hanging unceremoniously above the earth with Jaysen bound head-to-foot beside him. The olven boy twisted inside his bounds, growling like a rabid dog, eyes a furious color of red that made Kaleo swallow back bile that rose up in his throat. Just ahead of them was the three-eyed creature that Kaleo had seen in the shrubbery.

  “What is it?” Kaleo shrieked as if Jaysen could answer. He bent in half, trying to untangle himself. It did no good, the vines climbing further up his torso toward his waist to engulf him like they did to Jaysen. They made him feel weak and sluggish which made him fight harder. “Jaysen? Jaysen!”

  The growling had stopped, all the fury gone so that the olven boy hung limp in his bonds. Panic seized Kaleo’s chest, making it difficult to breathe.

  Focus, focus, focus - FOCUS! He commanded. The final focus drew out his Power. A wild conflagration of blue flame lashed outward in undulating waves that set the creature writhing, its tentacle appendages jerking and twitching within the flame that consumed them. Kaleo dropped to the ground, scrambling to his feet with the rush of Power still filling his veins. He glared at the monster, at the thing that hurt his friend. He cried out, the Power in his voice forming into sharp shards of ice that ripped the creature apart. Jaysen collapsed to the ground in a heap, still as death. Kaleo waited a heartbeat, two, three. When he was certain the thing would not piece itself back together again, he rushed to his friend’s side.

  “Get up!” he said, shaking Jaysen. “Get- -

  ***

  “- - up!” Kaleo gasped, sitting up suddenly in the dark forest on the outskirts of Fromaige in Damaskha.

  He’d arrived the day prior, though his money only got him as far as Fromaige, which was on the other end of the country from where he wanted to be. It was a start, but also confounding given what he’d just experienced. Power still coursed through him, and his chest heaved in ragged breaths. He could taste the copper tang of blood on his lip and realized his nose let out a steady stream of crimson. His face and legs hurt and his throat so raw that breathing hurt, feeling as if he'd swallowed glass.

  Kaleo!

  “WHAT?” he cried, turning to see Fionn. It took a moment for the fear and panic to subside, for him to realize that Fionn was not, in fact, another monster but his beloved audeas. As soon as that realization settled, Power drained out of him and the young avian threw his arms around the chimera’s neck, squeezing as if his life depended on it. He only prayed that Jaysen found his way out safely.

  Sensation filtered thr
ough to Jaysen’s mind before anything else. He was aware of a gentle breeze that set the leaves into a rustling song. Someone was nearby, he could feel them, feel icy fingers running through his hair and around the very sensitive tips of his ears. The smell of honeysuckle and sulfur followed next, making Jaysen’s skin crawl. He shot out of bed so fast he nearly collided with the opposing wall, tripping over everything in his path like an infant traversing a room full of discarded toys. The giggle that followed made him snarl, his head pounding and spinning in nauseating waves. He continued to move away, feeling odd furnishings and trinkets beneath his hands.

  “What do you want?” he growled.

  “So jumpy,” a woman purred. No, not a woman - another monster. Cartha was full of them, whether they were created or spat out of the Spellforged Crater straight from the Nine Hells. This one in particular delighted in tormenting Jaysen.

  “Get out,” he continued, sinking into the furthest corner he could get into. He heard her shift, heard the clack-click-clack-click of her boots as she took slow, calculating steps across the marble floor to where he sat. He was aware of the heat of her body, the stench of her, the gentle caress of her breath as she crouched to his level and lifted his chin with a clawed hand.

  “You’re welcome, by the way,” she purred almost directly onto his lips. “You should be more careful in Yira’s Realm, little lamb.”

  Jaysen frowned, pulling away from Madhavi. He felt the confinement of the walls around him and growled at the woman before him. She was a sibling of Daemodan; one of seven. She’d taken a fancy to Jaysen some years back when she’d been told to teach him how to traverse Yira’s Realm safely. In the dream world, she appeared as a tall, winged creature with pale, reddish skin and long black hair. He doubted she appeared as benign in the waking world.

  “You’re hiding a wonderful secret, aren’t you?” she continued, petting Jaysen as if he were a creature kept in her pocket. He wormed away from her, reaching out to find Tanis. Were she in the room with him, Madhavi would not have been allowed to get so close. Tanis was very protective of her audaen. “Who is that beautiful boy with the wings, my lamb?”

  Jaysen’s stomach clenched tight. Kaleo was his secret, his friend, his brother. They’d grown together, learned together. He never questioned much and simply accepted Jaysen for who - and what - he was. He would not put Kaleo at risk.

  “How should I know?” Jaysen answered, crawling away from Madhavi to a different part of the room. It was not his room. None of the furnishings were in the right place and there were too many rugs on the ground. “You’re the one snatching random people out of the Fields. You should train your monsters to hunt more carefully. I don’t like being a chew toy.”

  Madhavi chortled. Jaysen heard the sound of her boots again as she moved around the room, though she maintained her distance from him this time.

  “He’s Powerful,” she continued as if Jaysen had not said a word. “And he seems to care a great deal about what happens to you, my lamb.”

  Jaysen’s mouth went dry. He had no answer this time, no witty retort that would keep Kaleo safe. Instead, he was saved by the opening of a door. Or, rather, the slam of a door against the wall.

  “Gods, why are you here?” Xandrix said with so much disgust in his voice it was nearly tangible. He did not like Madhavi, though the reasoning for it was not known to Jaysen. Given how he felt about her, it was not hard to imagine why the Corrupted hunter would hate the dragon-born woman.

  “Checking on my protégé,” she cooed. Xandrix sniffed. “Why are you here, hunter? Don’t you have a job to do?”

  “Yes,” he replied, walking over to where Jaysen crouched. “Collecting him before you put him in more peril.”

  He said nothing more, grabbing Jaysen by the upper arm until the young olve could stand upright without being dragged. Jaysen did not argue or fight, not this time. Any excuse to be away from Madhavi was an excuse he would take. He waited, maintaining silence as he was guided through the manse to his own quarters.

  Tanis was there. He knew it as soon as they walked in. She whimpered at him, eking her way to his bare feet and licking his toes. Only then did Xandrix let Jaysen go, shutting the door so they could speak in private.

  “What happened?” the hunter asked. “Daemodan is in a mood over you.”

  “Ask Madhavi,” Jaysen replied. He felt weak, tired, and ravenous. “She’s the one hunting the dream world. Her pets don’t know their heads from their tails. They hunt anything with Power. What are you doing here? Don’t you have Vessels to hunt down?”

  “No,” he said. Jaysen heard him moving about, things opening and closing. “We do. The Corruption worked - mostly. He won’t speak, but he lived and so did his creature. Daemodan wants the Kormandi king.”

  “Good luck with that,” Jaysen replied, making his way over to the bed. Tanis followed, settling beside him so he could pet the top of her head.

  “You’re coming with me,” Xandrix said firmly. He grabbed Jaysen again, pulling him up to a sitting position. This time, Jaysen growled at the man,

  wrenching away from the Corrupted hunter. He did not like being manhandled. An armful of cloth was shoved into Jaysen’s arms by way of response, making him grunt and narrow his sightless eyes in annoyance. He did not like hunting. He needed to get back to Yira’s Realm anyway, to leave a warning for Kaleo to stay away lest Madhavi find him. Xandrix persisted, however. “Don’t make me dress you. I’ll hand you back to the bitch if you’d rather.”

  “Pass,” Jaysen grumbled. “I can’t Travel. I’m useless to you.”

  He did not have the energy to traverse the nation by magical means. Even if he was not the one casting the spell, Travel was hard on the mind and body for anyone. The Corruption weakened him more than he cared to admit. He did not understand why that happened yet - no one did. It had happened when Roth was created as well, though he was not nearly as ill now as he was then. He thought he might die then.

  “Then we’ll ride. I want to be gone before Daemodan gets into another mood. I’ve already been saddled with two of you, I don’t need to add a third.”

  “Two of us?”

  “Roth is going with us,” Xandrix said just before the door burst open again. Jaysen was almost glad he was blind, groaning loudly and falling face first into his pillow.

  “ROAD TRIP!” the Corrupted Speaker squealed in giddy delight. “May we stop for infants on the way? I fear I may need a snack. Oh! Jaysen’s awake! Hello, Moppet! Did you miss me?”

  Jaysen wanted to hang himself.

  Chapter Eight

  The sounds that echoed around the confused bard were not the sounds he expected to hear. Rather than the lapping waves or squawking gulls, he heard the muted murmurs of conversation and a distinct ting-ting- ting of a hammer striking anvil. He dared to open his eyes, rolling onto his side with a groan from a sore back. He’d been abed too long, though how long that might be was beyond him. Reven felt the stiffness of his muscles, the creak of joints protesting against movement. He moved anyway, staring at a pair of cerulean eyes literally at the tip of his narrow nose.

  “How long have you been sitting there?” Reven asked. Serai merely grinned, drawing a bare knee up to her chest so she could prop her chin on it.

  “Here? Three days and some hours after breakfast,” she replied. Reven blinked at her. Three days? “Do you feel better now? You were very sick.”

  He did not remember being sick, nor did he remember anything beyond the Hex Storm that struck their tiny ship along their crossing from Kalaegh to Avir.

  “Are we…” he began, forcing himself upright. His head screamed at him for such a bold action. The bard groaned again and curled back up into a ball on his pillows.

  “Avir,” Serai finished. “Liam told me to not move. I moved. I had to urinate, and I got hungry.”

  Reven opened his eyes again, frowning at this gem of a creature who was so literal, so pure, so terrifyingly simple it made his head hurt. No, it was not
Serai that made his head hurt; it was something else.

  Something just out of reach. He sat up again, slower this time, and made sure to press in on his temples with the heels of his palms just in case. It helped, the headache not as hateful and the vertigo nearly imperceptible. He saw people moving back and forth through the window directly ahead of him, heard their steps falling on the wood planks that made up the walkways and bridges of the floating city. Over two hundred ships docked in Avir, all of them anchored to a shallow point created by a single, tiny mountain where the ruling guild built their fortress. Avir was not the only city of its kind but was, by far, the largest of the four that Reven knew of.

  “When did I get sick?” Reven asked, still confused.

  “You had the fever. After the storm. It hurt you. There was too much Power and you have no audeas.”

  “I have no… what?” he asked. Not everything she said made sense. He could see the wheels turning in her mind. She wanted to explain but did not have the right words to do so. He waited, rubbing his eyes and re-acclimating to being upright. Liam claimed the bard would fall into fever fits from time to time though Reven never remembered them. Liam, the bard was still learning, liked to claim a lot of things.