Winged (Aetharian Narratives)

by Sofia Vargas

  I stayed silent and kept listening to him.

  “You didn’t deserve it. You haven’t deserved anything that’s happened to you.” He looked up at me. “I’m sorry it took seeing you in so much pain to realize it. Pain that I caused you, no less.”

  “He was going to make someone do it,” I said when he was done speaking.

  He shook his head “If all of us had said no he would have made one of his own people do it, which was how it should have been. All of my frustrations overflowed and I actually wanted to do it to you. That worries me the most. A doctor should never want to cause pain like that. Torture someone the way I did. It’s the opposite of what I should be working to become. When I heard your back pop the way it did, I saw my whole career come crashing down around me.

  “And even after all the pain and resentment I poured on you, you were still able to smile at me the way you did. The fact that you were able to comfort me when I wasn’t the one going through the ordeal—”

  He stopped and buried his face in his hands.

  “Jaedyn, you were going through your own ordeal,” I said to him.

  He looked at me with reddened eyes.

  “I saw the look on your face when you heard that pop,” I said. “And I saw how hard it was for you to continue after you heard it. Your face was as full of pain as I’m sure mine was. I wouldn’t wish what you were going through on anyone. You put both of us through quite a bit that day.”

  A single tear rolled down his left cheek.

  “But I forgive you,” I said.

  Jaedyn kneeled down, taking my hand in his. He pressed his forehead to it.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, smoothing the dark blond hair on the top of his head with my free hand. “But can you promise me something?”

  He turned his head and placed his cheek on my hand so he could look at me. I could see the remnants of a few more tears under his sky blue eyes.

  “Anything.”

  I didn’t let my eyes leave his. “Please forgive yourself.”

  He smiled.

  “It will take me a while,” he said, “but I’ll work on it.”

  * * *

  “Well, it looks like you’re done, love,” Dr. Zaira said.

  She moved various parts of my body around and scanned them to make sure everything was staying in place and working properly.

  “Is there anything still causing you pain?”

  I rolled my head around my shoulders, stretched my back, and lifted my arms and legs.

  “Nope, still a bit sore and stiff but that’s it,” I said, dropping my limbs.

  “Yes, you’ll be like that for a couple more days,” she said. “The important thing is that everything’s repaired and fully functional.”

  “I believe that’s been achieved,” I said. “Now what?”

  Dr. Zaira frowns. “Now I have to turn you over to the Council.”

  I heard the heavy footfalls I had hoped never to hear again. They stomped their way down the hallway and stopped right outside my door. I looked at the door over her shoulder. There was a heavy knock seconds before it slammed open.

  “It has been reported that the prisoner has fully healed,” said the voice that had been haunting my dreams.

  “Yuri, please don’t refer to my patients as prisoners,” Dr. Zaira said, turning to him.

  “She is healed so she is no longer your patient,” he said. “Or your concern.”

  “She has,” Dr. Zaira said, stepping forward, “but she hasn’t been released from the hospital’s care yet.”

  “As of now she has,” he said. “Turn the prisoner over or have her seized forcibly.”

  “You can’t do this—” she said, but I cut her short by jumping off the bed that had imprisoned me for a month.

  “Dr. Zaira, please,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. “Your work is finished.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “I’m ready,” I said before she could object.

  She pursed her lips and nodded.

  “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” I said.

  I walked past her toward the men waiting at the door.

  “Taking up responsibility,” Yuri said when I reach him. “Good.”

  “I’m responsible for nothing,” I said.

  He frowned. “We’ll see about that.”

  I followed the group down the hallway. I tried to ignore the smug looks on the faces of the hospital personnel. If there were one thing I was looking forward to, it was being released from their suffocating stares. I saw Jaedyn walk out of a room and watch the oncoming procession. When I reached him he stretched out his hand and put it on my shoulder. He squeezed it and gave me a comforting smile. I patted his hand before I slipped from beneath his fingers and was out of his reach. We marched out of the building. I shuddered in the cold sunlight.

  “It’s a little cold,” Yuri said, pushing me out the hospital doors.

  A small marketplace similar to the one outside the castle surrounded the hospital. Everyone on the street watched me shoved out the doors and toward an awaiting carriage. They pushed me into the carriage and slammed the door shut.

  “Take her to the tower,” Yuri said to the driver.

  He climbed into the front passenger’s seat and the carriage started to move.

  We rode down the market road. I huddled on the floor of the wagon and tried to ignore the jeers from the onlookers. My body ached with every bump on the road out of the marketplace and into the desolate fields outside the gated town. We rode past endless fields while I watched the sun sink in the sky. As the sun sank lower, the winter wind blowing through the carriage’s barred windows got cooler.

  Finally, I could see a tower looming on the dusky skyline. It grew taller and the carriage’s speed slowed. I heard a rustling in the tall grass to the side of the road. I got off the floor and grabbed onto the barred window to look.

  A boy climbed out of the brush and onto the back of the carriage. I backed away from the door when he grabbed the bars and looked at me through the window. He had the darkest skin I had ever seen, but his eyes were probably the lightest blue that existed. They were so pale they blended almost completely into the white surrounding. Locks of platinum blond hair curled around his examining eyes.

  “You’re the Dragonfly,” he said, mostly out of ceremony rather than necessity.

  “Yes,” I said with a nod.

  “Well, we’ll have to get you out of your current situation now, won’t we?” he said with a smile.

  The carriage slowed more and he jumped off the back. I hurried to the bars in time to see just his foot disappear into the tall grass on the side of the road. The carriage came to a complete stop and a few seconds later the door was yanked open.

  “Home sweet prison,” a guard said and motioned for me to get out of the carriage.

  My body shook when I lowered myself to the ground.

  “Follow me,” he said, walking to the door of the tower.

  He unlocked a large door made of what seemed to be crystal that also made up the rest of the structure. The inside of the tower looked like it was one big room. Upon closer examination I realized it was stone I was familiar with, not crystal. The Star Stone shined a brilliant blue in the fleeting sunlight.

  The room was divided by thin columns of the stone placed closely together. The columns divided the entrance area from two other enclosed areas and melted into the ceiling above me. The guard pushed me through one of two doors cut into the columns.

  “Please make yourself comfortable,” the guard laughed, slamming the door behind me. He walked out of the entrance of the tower.

  “Yeah, right,” I said to myself.

  I put my back against the wall and slid to the blue ground. I stretched my stiff, aching legs. As beautiful as Star Stone was, it was not comfortable to sit on.

  “They’re not very friendly, but you get used to it after a while,” said a voice from the other s
ide of the wall.

  I looked up and saw Dresden move into view.

  “Dresden,” I said in almost a laugh.

  No one in the hospital would tell me anything about how he was doing. I wanted to cry with the relief of seeing him alive and well.

  “What are you doing here?” I said, springing to my feet.

  My bones screamed for me to at least try to take it easy. I clenched my teeth and limped to where Dresden was standing.

  “I guess we are both worthy of their highest security prison,” he said, leaning against the bars.

  I looked around at the empty entrance area. “This is the highest security prison? The guard just left which makes the security count zero.”

  “Well,” he said, “I guess they feel they don’t need guards for a place that’s impossible to break out of.”

  “Dresden, please,” I said. “It can’t be impossible.” I looked around at the blue surroundings. “Maybe we could…” The strongest material in the Aetherian world was all my eyes met. “Or maybe…” There was not an inch of any other material. I sighed.

  “I’ve been down every thought path you’re going down right now,” he said. “Aside from ripping each other apart and throwing each piece through a window, there’s no way out.”

  “Well, why don’t we just do that?” I said.

  “Because then someone would have to put the pieces back in the right order so we can heal ourselves and run away,” he said. “I’m pretty sure no one around here is going to do that for us.”

  “So, what are we going to do? Just sit here and let everyone go to war?”

  “That seems to be all we can do,” he said.

  “How can you be okay with that? People are going to die for unnecessary reasons.”

  “Look, I know that this is all new to you, but everyone is prepared for it,” he said. “Everyone is ready and knows that war is what all of this is going to come down to.”

  “But it doesn’t have to be that way,” I said. “War does not have to be the answer here. How can everyone not understand that?”

  “War is the answer here, Emma,” Dresden said. “These people are rebelling—”

  “These people, Dresden, aren’t any different from you. All of us are the same and should be working together instead of fighting against one another.”

  “That’s what we’ve been doing,” he said. “All these years Aetheria has been one united country ruled over by one royal family, but that’s changing. The South broke off and now there are two Aetherias, which is why they are now viewed as another people—”

  “But they’re not another people,” I said. “They are the same as you.”

  “No, they’re not,” he said. “As soon as they broke off they were different. Do you know they’re making their own military now? A military composed of people that aren’t supposed to be in one.”

  “Who says they’re not? Who says someone that wants to fight for the people they love can’t? They beat you guys, so their unorthodox military must be as good as yours, if not better.”

  “Our military wasn’t prepared for that,” he said, defending what had happened. “It isn’t that their military is better; it’s only that they caught us off guard. They’re messing everything up, years beyond years of tradition just thrown away.”

  “If you disagree with them to such an extent why don’t you let them go? If they’re offending your people and throwing away your traditions, let them go and mind their business.”

  He looked at me. “You talk as if we aren’t your people.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m serious, Emma,” he said. “As different as you look from us, your blood still comes from the North. Not only the North but the royal family itself.”

  I looked him straight in the eye. “That may be, but I don’t agree with anything they are doing. All of this is meaningless.”

  “You’d think differently if you’d grown up in Castle Larnex. If you’d partaken in the traditions and grown up loving your people.”

  “I don’t think I would,” I said. “Although I didn’t grow up here or know anything about it until a month ago, I still think you’re wrong. North Aetherians are my people but not more so than South Aetherians are.”

  * * *

  We sat in silence, letting the time drag. Every now and then one of us got up and walked around to stretch our legs. I couldn’t help but wonder what the plan for each side was now that the North’s two highest ranking officers had gone missing. I wondered what Oak was thinking now that I wasn’t around to help him.

  “I can’t stand this,” Dresden shouted. “I should be out there. I should be helping.”

  He paced his cell in frustration.

  “Look, I know it’s hard to wait it out, but we’ll get out of here soon,” I said. “I’m sure Oak is trying to find a way to get us out as we speak—”

  His pacing halted and he looked at me.

  “Oak?” he said.

  He looked like he was waiting for a response from me to confirm that he had heard correctly. I had no idea what to say so I nodded my head.

  “Oak?” he said again.

  This time it wasn’t a question; it was more of an angry statement.

  “That’s who you ran away with? The cook?”

  “I didn’t run away with him,” I said, turning red and jumping to my feet. “I was… searching for alternatives.”

  “Alternatives to what exactly?”

  I could see the anger in his face, but I didn’t care.

  “What do you think?” I said. “To the war, of course.”

  “Emma, there are no alternatives,” Dresden said.

  The words exited his mouth slowly as if to penetrate the thick skull he obviously thought sat on my shoulders.

  “Dresden, there is always an alternative,” I said in the same manner. “And I think you know that. You don’t want to admit it.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because you came looking for me,” I said.

  He stared at me so I continued.

  “If you truly believed war was the only answer you wouldn’t have followed us. You would have called in the troops and started the war now that you had good incentive to do it.”

  My certainty faded away when I saw a smile creep over his face—even more so when he started to chuckle. His chuckles turned into an all-out laugh. He sat on the ground and held his stomach with his arms, trying to control the laughter.

  “Wh—why are you laughing?” I said.

  I obviously had missed something. I watched Dresden start to dry heave in his attempts to stop his laughter.

  “What’s so funny?”

  His laughter was reduced to small giggles. He wiped tears from his eyes.

  “What’s funny,” he said. “Is the fact that … that’s exactly what I did.”

  I could feel my heart tighten and plummet to the bottom of my stomach.

  “You … you did what?”

  His laughing ceased entirely and he got off the floor.

  “I told the troops to start the war,” he said, dusting himself off. He looked into my eyes. “You know, since I had good incentive.”

  “You didn’t,” I said.

  My eyes watered for a very different reason than his. I walked to the bars of Star Stone that separated our cells and gripped them with my hands.

  “Please tell me you didn’t really do that.”

  “I’m afraid I did,” he said, walking to the bars, too. “Guess you know me better than you’d like to.”

  I put my forehead between two of the bars and felt the tears run down my cheeks.

  “Of course, I probably wouldn’t have acted so rashly if I’d known you’d left voluntarily.”

  I shook my head. “War’s been raging for a month and all I’ve been doing is lying in a hospital bed.”

  “Now you’re feeling what I’ve been feeling,” he said.

  “Why did you come after me?” I said, looking at
him.

  My eyes met his and he took a couple of steps back. I could only assume he saw something he didn’t like.

  “Wh—what do you mean?”

  My tears seemed to evaporate off my eyes.

  “If you were so anxious to start the war,” I said, my voice rising with anger, “then why didn’t you stay with the troops and start fighting?”

  I watched him juggle answers in his head.

  “Why did you come after me?” I said again.

  “I—I guess it was a hastily made decision on my part,” he said. “When you weren’t in your tent and we couldn’t find you anywhere I panicked. I was so sure they had kidnapped you, maybe even hurt you that all I could think was at least to try to catch up to them. Now that I think about it, I had no clue what I would do if I did catch up.”

  A realization struck me. “You were the fourth horseman that joined the group.”

  Dresden nodded. “I followed your group as best I could in the dark. It was extremely difficult considering you had a Silencer. After a while I thought I’d lost you guys until I saw a flash of light. I knew the flash had to be an Illuminator in your group so I rode toward it. I had just reached you guys when another horse joined in front of me and everyone disappeared.”

  I remembered the night as he explained what he had seen.

  “I could only keep up for a little while,” he said. “I couldn’t see the group nor did I know what direction they were heading. Eventually I began to hear my horse’s hoofs hit the ground and realized I’d lost all of you.”

  “How did you find the cabin the next day?”

  “In the morning I was able to find the trail you guys left. It didn’t snow that night so the hoof prints were pretty fresh when I searched for them in the light. I followed them southeast out of the forest. Then the trail continued when I got to the Eastern Plains. I followed it for a while and realized they continued into the mountains.

  “I figured if I was heading into an ambush they would more easily see and hear me if I approached on horseback so I took to the air and searched from the sky. Sure enough, just over the southeastern slopes there was a cabin standing alone. I didn’t expect to see a bunch of kids running around the lawn in front of it. Nor did I expect to see a jet of water shot at me from one of them. All I remember was the water puncturing a hole in my wing, me falling, and then blacking out.”