Whole in the Clouds
Page 16
Barnibus regarded the queen with a tenderness that Cora hadn’t expected him capable of. Taking advantage of his lapse in rage, Serene rushed to her husband’s side, which only served to rekindle Barnibus’s fury.
“Leave him!” Barnibus spat. “It is I who loves you, who has always loved you.”
Serene wept over Thomas’s limp body, lowering her face to his with a sob of despair.
“I’ve tried to change the world for you. Why can’t you see how much I love you? He’ll never love you like I do!”
Serene’s cheeks were streaked with tears. She raised her puffy eyes to Barnibus, looking on him with pity.
“But I don’t love you.” She sighed, glancing again down at Thomas. “I love him.”
The look of softness in Barnibus’s eyes dissolved. Any gleam of tenderness was suddenly replaced by seething hatred. He raged toward Serene and violently struck her, knocking her down beside Thomas. Patrick and Cora ran to her defense, Patrick pushing Cora behind him and placing himself between Barnibus and the limp bodies of the king and queen.
“I won’t let you do this, Father!”
Barnibus stopped his onslaught but his expression remained vengeful.
“You disgust me!” Barnibus spat at Patrick. “You defy your own father to stand in defense of the Finnegans?”
“I do.”
“Then you can die with them,” Barnibus declared, raising his sword at Patrick.
Cora’s instincts took over and she raced toward Barnibus. Her only desire was to protect Patrick at any cost. She thrust herself between the men, putting forth her best attempt to disarm and surprise Barnibus. He only chuckled at her futile display and in a heartbeat had Cora by the throat and Patrick at the end of his sword.
“Please!” Patrick pleaded. “Don’t hurt her! I’ll do anything, anything you want!”
“Oh, you will, will you?” Barnibus was smiling, his thick eyebrows tented in delight. His asphyxiating grasp on Cora’s neck was tightening and she could feel the life seeping from her body.
The look of elation dripped clean from Barnibus’s face as he drew a sharp breath, now painfully aware of the tip of Thomas’s blade pressed into the middle of his back.
“Let them go,” Thomas said darkly, pressing the blade’s point a bit harder against Barnibus.
Barnibus loosened his grip on Cora’s neck and lowered his sword.
“Now turn and face me,” Thomas instructed. “Die like a man.”
Barnibus turned quickly, slashing his sword at Thomas. The blades met and a sharp clang rang through the air. The men were evenly matched.
As the battle raged on, Patrick did his best to comfort Cora as she slowly regained her senses. She watched as a silent, helpless spectator while the dueling pair moved closer and closer to the edge of the clouds. Patrick noticed as well, and took Cora’s hand, pulling her with him toward the dueling men.
The men continued to battle, unaware that their footing had taken such a dangerous path.
“The edge!” Patrick called. “You’re getting too close to the edge!”
The clanging that had filled the air abruptly stopped. Cora raised her heavy head just in time to see Barnibus, backed to the edge of the clouds, lose his footing and disappear.
Patrick raced forward as Thomas turned toward him, sword drawn.
“Look out!” Patrick yelled, pointing behind Thomas, whose face contorted from an expression of suspicion to that of surprise in an instant. The king fell to his knees, pulled down by Barnibus, who was still clutching the edge of the cloud from which he’d fallen. Thomas grappled at the ground as Barnibus yanked ferociously at his leg. By the time Patrick reached them, both men were dangling from the edge, only the whites of the knuckles visible from Cora’s vantage point. Patrick approached at a dead run, flinging himself to the ground and lending an arm to each. He struggled, his face reddened and already sweating, trying to hold them both.
“Help me, Cora!” Patrick called back.
Cora tried to summon the strength but could not.
“You’ll have to choose,” she heard Barnibus grunt.
“He’s right,” Thomas breathlessly agreed, “Or we’ll all go over.”
Cora dragged herself across the ground with her aching arms begging her to give up and her head spinning. Though she could not see the pair of men dangling from the edge of the cloudscape, she watched as, with his last ounce of energy, Patrick released one of them, and directed his remaining strength to pull the other up. As desperately as she tried to make out the man at the other end of Patrick’s grip, Cora’s weak body had been pushed beyond its limits. It was only Patrick’s dark eyes that she could see as they melted into the blackness of her unconsciousness.
#
When Cora finally awoke, it was dark outside. The cool wind of late evening drifted in through her bedroom window and danced upon the ceiling. Sweet and familiar smells of lilac and lavender crept in along with the breeze, giving texture to that which was without substance. Cora dreamily yawned and outstretched her arms, wriggling into the comfy folds of her bed with a pleased sigh.
Her sore muscles ached and provided an unpleasant reminder of the day’s unfortunate events. She sat up with a start, peering frantically around the dimly lit room for a sign of life. Had it not been for the bright moon that was shining, Cora may have overlooked the sleeping figure of Patrick propped up in a chair at the foot of her bed. He looked entirely uncomfortable, having slipped half out of his stiff seat, and yet he continued to slumber. Cora studied him with affection, wincing as her eyes travelled past the scratches across his knuckles and the bruises tracing his arms. She was immediately flooded with her last conscious memory—that of Thomas and Barnibus, both dangling from his failing grip. Her pulse quickened in an instant, settling only as she rose to an upright position and spied Thomas, Serene, and Motley fast asleep on an overstuffed couch beside Patrick’s chair. They looked like beautiful dolls that a thoughtless child had discarded after playtime, and Cora smiled as she gazed at them.
After quietly folding back her blankets, Cora crept out of bed and tiptoed toward Patrick, but he awoke before she could even reach him. He made a quick attempt to smooth his ruffled hair and regain a proper sitting position.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” he lied. His eyes were rimmed in red and they turned glassy as he watched her.
“Me either,” she teased back, laying a tender hand atop his. As their flesh touched, Cora felt a spark pass through her chest and in an instant she was inside Patrick’s mind-- inside his memory. She saw Barnibus and Thomas dangling from hands that were somehow Patrick’s but also her own. She watched Barnibus’s lips curl as he told her “You’ll have to choose,” and she felt her own heart ache, just as Patrick’s had, as she let him go. And as Barnibus was swallowed by the nest of clouds below, she felt her gut quake when his mouth curled into a sneer just before it vanished. When she opened her eyes, Patrick was staring at her. He was trembling.
“So, Barnibus is gone?” she whispered. Her words shook as they left her lips.
Patrick nodded and looked down at the floor. He seemed disheartened but light with freedom at the same time. He was quiet for a time—some mixture of sorrow, relief, and fear boiling in the veins that ran hot under Cora’s sensitive grip.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said.
“Don’t be.” Patrick’s expression was stoic as he lifted his head again. “I would do anything for you. And besides, it had to be this way. It had to be this way for you to be safe.”
Cora felt her face warm with a smile, despite Patrick’s somber devotional. “You’ve made us all safe,” she replied.
“And the wounds of Clouden have been healed,” a third voice interjected. Thomas was sitting up on the couch and clearly alert, as though he’d been listening to the pair for some time. Whether he was addressing her or Patrick, Cora could not be certain, but she noted the look of admiration in his eyes as they fell upon Patrick. “The Finnegans and the Treinbau
lms are brothers once again. Our family is whole,” he added with a fatherly smile. “All because of you two.”
Patrick gave a silent and respectful nod and then turned back to Cora, “We are whole,” he repeated, growing a boyish grin. His eyes were clear as they joined with hers, Cora felt a swell of that magic that had for so long been missing, and it filled the empty space inside. For the very first time, Cora felt whole.
Whole in the clouds.
About the Author
Kristine Kibbee is a Pacific Northwest native with a love of language, nature, and animals. Kristine’s passion for creative writing began in her early youth and led her to the doors of Washington State University, where she earned a degree in Humanities with a focus in Professional Writing. Kristine has since had works published in The Vancougar and The Salal Review Literary Review, S/Tick Literary Review and is a featured columnist for the nationally syndicated magazine, Just Frenchies.
Kristine makes her home deep on the heart of a forest on the outskirts of Longview, WA. Over the years she has been involved in her local community by way of dog rescue, Animal Assisted Therapy and promotion of the creative arts.
Kristine’s novella The Mischievous Misadventures of Dewey the Daring is available on Amazon.com and she anticipates following the release of her fantasy novel Whole in the Clouds with the comedic collection of dog stories, Frenchie ‘Tails’—which are short, cheeky and ripe with mischief!
Credits
This book is a work of art produced by illusio & baqer,
an imprint of The Zharmae Publishing Press.
Danielle Romero
Editor-in-Chief | Editor
Janice Bini, Kalli Damschen
Readers
Peter Brockhammer
Artist, Interior Art & Design
Shaughnessey Marshall
Typesetter
Cynthia Scott
Copy Editor
Heather Maloney
Proofreader
Andrew Call
Reviewer
Allyson Schnabel
Managing Editor
Tomiko Breland
Associate Publisher
Travis Robert Grundy
Publisher
August 2014
The Zharmae Publishing Press