by Anna Silver
Eclipse rested, curled tight in a ball. Anya hoped that she would be ready to move on her own two feet soon. Beside her, Roanyk had leaned back against the mountain of sand, at last finding sleep. Anya was the only one awake. She and the Astral itself.
Rising to her feet, she moved a few paces away in the dark. An answering zephyr flared up around her, lifting her skirts. She stopped. “Enough,” she barked, fed up. “I'm not going anywhere of import. Only stretching my legs.”
As if it heard her, the wind rustled down to the sands and died. Anya crossed her arms over her chest. “So this is what my heart is worth to you? Three lives? Or will there be more? How many must you claim before you are satisfied?”
Around her there was only stillness.
Frustrated, she kicked at the sand, sending it flying before her in golden sprays. “Have we not given enough?” Her voice bounced off the dunes and rang back.
Slumping to the ground, Anya buried her face in her hands and let the tears come as they may. “I only wanted a life with him. I didn't ask for this, did I? I didn't ask to be the Si'dah, to be born with the black eyes of a Traveler. I didn't strike this deal—my heart for your wisdom. How can you hold me to it?”
Her shoulders shuddered with her sobs and she felt the answer rise up in her as though it were the Astral's own voice. No, but you took my wisdom just the same. You have held me to the bargain we made, your people and I. And so I must hold you to it also.
“There is another,” she whispered aloud. “She is young, but she will grow. And she will take my place. Can we be free then?”
Again, the answer rung through her mind. Was it enough when you came? Did your mentor take her heart back?
Anya knew the answer to that all too well. Alyna had no heart to share. When her time was up, she left as Anya had, by her own choosing, and made her peace on the Highplane. Maybe that was the answer. “I'll give up the rest of the Highplane. Let me have him, and I will not seek your refuge when my time is done.”
This time, the answer seemed to flow out of her, circling her in the lonely sand. Take your rest where you may, daughter. You are a child of the Astral now, and you will return to me at your life's end, like it or not. This is beyond either of us to alter.
Anya shivered in the darkness. You are a liar, she thought, but Roanyk's words came back to her, The Astral is nothing if not true.
“Tell me then,” Anya whispered. “What would you have instead? Leave me him and take whatever else you will.”
Your party seeks my shores to enter another world. But I would not be used so easily. I am not a path you trod for your own amusement. To know me, you must submit to me.
Anya rose to her feet. Was this really it? Would she get her answer? “Name your price,” she said to the sighing wind. “I submit.”
If you would reach the far shore, you must leave something here with me.
“Anything but my heart,” she cried, desperate. “Anything but him, for he is my heart.” Her eyes fell on the sleeping Roanyk, oblivious to the new deal she was striking to buy them a life.
Leave me…your memories.
“Our memories?” Anya spun in circles, but there was no face to go with this voice. “I don't understand.”
If you want to be born Other, you must give up who you are now. To become the Other, you leave Anya behind. And your friends, each in turn, must do the same.
If they gave up their memories of who they were, how would she and Roanyk know each other in this new world? How would they find each other to build the life she dreamt of? Was the Astral tricking her? “But…how will we know one another? How will we know you?”
Like always recognizes like. Love will respond to love. And you will respond to me.
Could she believe this? Could she strike this bargain for all? Was it fair to offer up the memories of the others without their consent? If the Astral was true, then no one had made it to the far shore yet, and Hantu, Geode, and Atel were as lost as she, Roanyk, and Eclipse. It meant this deal, this trade, was their only hope. Under those circumstances, she could justify it.
Will you trust me? The voice asked her now.
“Yes,” she said to the night. “It is done. You may take your price when we reach the far shore.”
Very well. And you may have your heart.
Anya rushed to Roanyk's side and curled up against him. He threw a large arm over her, unaware of what she'd just done. She'd sold all knowledge of their love for the hope that they would love again. Something in her broke, and she wept silent tears until sleep overtook her.
At first light, Anya, Roanyk, and Eclipse rose from their soft indentations in the sand. The mists overhead were bright and clear as mists could be. The wind was nothing more than a whisper at their backs. They were free to carry on. But only Anya knew exactly what that freedom would cost them.
They moved forward carefully at first. Roanyk wanted to be certain that the storm wouldn't pick up again. Anya knew in her heart it wouldn't, but she could no more assure him of that than admit what she'd done. It had been her only choice, hadn't it?
Eclipse eyed her speculatively as they moved forward. “You seem calmer now,” she observed.
Anya shrugged. “The Astral is tired of fighting and Roanyk is here. I have little else to fret over.”
The girl seemed to accept this, but not without hesitation. She nursed her wounded wings as they moved on, and before long they were making great strides and finding the footprints of their friends who, like them, were walking somewhere up ahead.
The breeze picked up, and the scents around them began to change. The footsteps they followed deepened until, at last, they could see a vast ocean sparkling in the distance. Eclipse's eyes widened and her wings gave a sad little flutter. “We're here!” she cried.
Anya didn't smile as Roanyk did. Unlike him, she knew what she was leaving behind on this shore, and she couldn't help but worry it would cost them the very thing she'd traded it for—a life loving him.
The specks of their waiting friends could be seen in the distance, black dots against the bright water. Eclipse caught up to them first, and there were smiles and shouts and cheers of reunion. For everyone else, today's quest had been as much at question as their time in the storm, never knowing if and when the winds would pick up. Only Anya had risen with the dawn knowing that they would reach their goal.
She let Hantu and Geode hug her. Let Atel tap his staff against the side of her leg happily. The water lapped like a playful child at their feet. They were all so overjoyed, so ignorant of what this would cost them. The Astral's price might be the difference between them being able to salvage Hantu's world or not. But would the Astral harm itself in that way? Surely it would want to see them succeed at saving Hantu's world as much as they did?
The voice rose unbidden in her once more. Will you trust me?
She could answer only in her mind. What choice do I have? I submit.
Dream brave, daughter. Her own words echoed back to her in the voice of the Astral as she had spoken them to Dyna, her successor, just before leaving.
Next to her, Roanyk took her hand in his and beamed. “This will be our world. Our life.”
She smiled up at him. “I hope so.”
She took a step into the water, and then another. Beside her, Roanyk did the same. Left of them, Hantu and the others were also wading in. As they moved deeper, she clutched frantically at Roanyk's hand, the waves threatening to pull them apart as they grew in size and strength. The water was above her navel, splashing into her face with every swell, causing the scratches on her skin to sting and then go numb.
She paused and looked left, watching the others wade deeper and deeper. One moment they were at one another's sides, smiling and helping each other along, and in the next it seemed they moved off in differing directions, oblivious to their parting, like a basket coming unraveled. With one large, final wave, their heads slipped under and were lost.
Anya's heart dropped, and she sque
ezed Roanyk's fingers at her side. What would become of them? What had she done?
Roanyk's hand went slack in her own as a wave coursed over their heads. Anya coughed and sputtered and turned to him, but the look in his eyes sent her reeling. He was vacant. The icy blue of his gaze no longer holding the fire for her it once did. The Astral had exacted its price, and their memories were forfeit. Hers would be the last to go, but go it would.
She clutched the man at her side just the same as another wave took them. Something inside her was slipping, slipping away, causing her to forget the man at her side. She plunged under the water and surged ahead until she didn't remember the hand she'd been holding either, the current at last pulling it from her. She didn't remember herself, her name, or who she was. There was just the water and the waves, and the one ringing certainty in her mind, repeating itself as even the current disappeared.
I am…Otherborn.
From the Author:
Thank you so much for your interest in my work and the OTHERBORN series. If you enjoyed this free novelette, please take a moment to leave a review. Reviews are the lifeblood of any author or book's success. Thank you for being a part of mine.
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Want to continue Anya's story?
Pick up these additional titles in the OTHERBORN series.
OTHERBORN (Otherborn #1)
“Anna Silver weaves a dark new world full of taut suspense and characters that leap off the page.” ~Sophie Jordan, NYT bestselling author of the Firelight Trilogy
London and her teenage friends live in a reprocessed world.
Confined within Capital City's concrete walls, London has done the impossible and the illegal. She's created something New- a song. But her mentor, club owner Pauly, is not impressed. Since the historic Energy Crisis forced everyone behind walls generations ago, the Tycoons have ensured there is truly nothing new allowed under the sun. Pauly warns London to keep her song to herself, if she knows what's good for her.
What he doesn't know is that London is keeping an even bigger secret: she dreams. And she's not alone. London's band-mates and friends have begun dreaming as well, seeing themselves in “night pictures” as beings from another world. As Otherborn, they must piece together the story of their astral avatars, the Others, in order to save their world from a dreamless, hopeless future.
When Pauly is murdered and an Otherborn goes missing, London realizes someone is hunting them down. Escaping along the Outroads, they brave the deserted Houselands with only their dreams to guide them. Can they find their friend before the assassin finds them? Will being Otherborn save their lives, or destroy them?
Read the first five chapters on Wattpad now!
ASTRAL TIDE (Otherborn #2)
“Anna Silver has limitless potential and this spellbinding sequel is proof.” ~Emma Michaels, author of the Society of Feathers series
London and her friends are fugitives in a reprocessed world where anything New is illegal. But as Otherborn, they're different. They can dream and create, which hasn't gone unnoticed. After fleeing Capital City with an assassin on their heels, the Otherborn found nothing went according to plan. Now, they are down by two and on the run in the Outroads, but the Tycoons keep mysteriously gaining on them. And seven months later, London is no closer to her promise to go back for Rye, if there is anything left to go back for. But Zen is teaching London that there may be more to her heart than the pieces she left behind, and London can't help but feel guilty about not looking back since they fled New Eden. Should she hold on to hope that Rye is more than just a memory, or embrace a new life and love with Zen?
In their race to outrun their enemies, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: they can only run for so long. Eventually, they'll have to face what waits when the road runs out. Eventually, their fates will catch up to them.
Read the first five chapters on Wattpad now!
About the Author:
Anna Silver is an author and artist living in the greater Houston area with her family, pets, and overactive imagination. Her art has been featured in the Houston gallery Las Manos Magicas. She studied English Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edward's University. She's freelanced for private clients and small publications like the Hill Country Current. OTHERBORN, her first published novel, has been featured on two of Amazon's “Bestsellers” lists. ASTRAL TIDE is her second published novel.