Winged (Aetharian Narratives)

by Sofia Vargas

  I remembered Ms. Riley telling me that when Star Stone was separated it became weaker. If I tried hard enough I might be able to at least break the large pieces of wreckage into smaller pieces. I closed my eyes and focused again. I did whatever I felt would help create a larger pulse and tried once more. My ears perked up. This time I heard the small pieces of stone break into smaller pieces. I was pleased for a moment when I saw cracks on the larger ones but then was hit with a wave of fatigue. The last pulse took a lot of energy out of me and I now felt very tired. I knew at that rate it would take forever to break the large chunks of stone into manageable pieces.

  I looked at the smaller pieces. It looked like they had moved closer to me. They were not only breaking apart, they were gravitating to me. If I could concentrate more on separating the different parts of the process, I might be able to put more energy in the pulses. In my mind I sorted out where the pulse process ended and the collection process began, but things still pulled toward me. I closed my eyes and picked another place in the process. I put all my might into my next pulse and stopped myself before everything started flying toward me. I saw the cracks grow larger when the pulse rushed past them. I seemed to have picked a good spot since nothing moved.

  I knelt on the ground and took a couple of deep breaths. I wasn’t sure how much longer I would be able to keep it up. The room looked like it was tilting slightly. The magnitude of the pulses was drawing out more energy with each one.

  I couldn’t believe how high the sun had climbed into the sky and we still hadn’t taken off. I got up and looked over the road to check on Dresden. I was about to turn back to my work when movement caught my eye. For a terrifying second I thought Dresden had regained consciousness. I dreaded what it would be like to wake up in the state his body was in; but it wasn’t him. Further down the road I saw a small object moving. More fear flooded through my body when I realized it was another carriage. Probably coming to see why the first one hadn’t returned.

  I turned back around. I was grateful that panic was enough to get my energy levels back up, but I knew I needed to take a hold of my nerves again. I hadn’t made as much progress with the stones as I needed to by that point and I had to speed things up before they found Dresden on the side of the road. Without thinking I closed my eyes and focused on my pulses again. This time instead of releasing one I pushed several, one right after the other, out of my body with as much might and power as I could. I felt the ground rumble and heard loud crashing noises but didn’t stop. I didn’t try to count how many pulses my body emitted; I proceeded until I knew I couldn’t anymore. I put all my strength into the last one and fell to the floor.

  I was scared to open my eyes and find that my efforts had been wasted, but I knew I didn’t have time. I looked around. Everything on the ground had been shattered into smaller pieces than I thought possible. My eyes ran up the walls of the tower. Huge cracks were now running all the way to the top with quite a few new chunks missing from it. I wasn’t at all sure if it was enough, but I knew that it had to do. We needed to get moving five minutes ago.

  I stood up on shaky legs and searched my mind for the beginning of the collection process. I found in my mind where I stopped pulsing and started there. All the pieces I broke apart turned green and flew to me. I bit my lip and refused to scream. The first pieces cut and sliced their way into me. I felt blood run down my back, but I knew when the skin healed around the new wings the pain would subside.

  Every piece that had connected itself to my wings was the deepest green I had ever seen. I gave my wings a flap and shot out of the now very large opening in the tower. I shot down the road without beating my wings more than a few times to stay airborne. I saw Dresden on the ground and the carriage getting too close to him. Reaching out my arms I took a hold of him without stopping and pulled him to me. The momentum pushed him into me so that I could get a good grip without any more help. I turned up into the sky and gave another flap and we barely missed hitting the carriage. The horses were startled when the force of the wind created by my wings splintered the carriage almost in half.

  I smiled for the first time in ages and we rose into the air with ease. I watched the sun’s light glitter and break through the many stone pieces of my beautiful wings. I kept the road directly below me. I knew that by following it I would make it back to the town where Dr. Zaira and the hospital were.

  After a few hours of flying I started to feel the strain of keeping my wings together. I couldn’t let myself relax for a second knowing that the moment I did they would fall to pieces and we would plummet to the ground. That thought alone kept me going and I watched the road wind around the fields below us. I kept my eyes sharp when it ran in and out of forests and along the rivers.

  The sun made its descent in the sky and my body ached with the effort of holding onto Dresden as well as keeping my wings intact. It took much longer than I had thought to get where I was going. I tried my best not to start losing hope when we had already come this far, and finally, I saw it. A small town came into view when the road started winding between fields again. While descending I could make out the different buildings, animals, people, a large gathering of some sort, and other structures within the town.

  I didn’t let anything hinder my search for Dr. Zaira and soon enough I spotted the hospital. I flew lower and my feet touched the ground in front of it. There were a few screams and yells around me. I had no doubt that I was an extremely unsettling sight. I let my wings drop and felt them fall apart around me. I bent over Dresden to shield him from the falling pieces of stone.

  “Emma.” I heard a recognizable voice. “Emma, how did you get back here?”

  I looked up and saw Dr. Zaira running toward me.

  “Doctor, please, you have to help him,” I said in a weak voice. I hadn’t realized how much energy the trip had drained from me until I found it hard to talk.

  “They said they imprisoned you and were going to bring you in front of the Council,” Dr. Zaira said.

  She fell to her knees and scanned Dresden’s body.

  “They did but we got out before they could take us in,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  She frowned. “Obviously not without a fight. He’s in pretty bad shape, love.”

  “Can I leave him here with you? I can’t take him any further and he needs to heal.”

  “Of course,” she said.

  She motioned to attendants at the door of the hospital and a stretcher was brought out for him.

  “I’ll look after him for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said, wobbling back to my feet. “I need to keep going.”

  “What? No, Emma, please,” she said, getting up with me.

  She put her hands on my shoulders and examined me, too.

  “It looks like you’ve healed quite a number of bad burn wounds and you look ridiculously tired. You need to rest for a while, too.”

  “Thank you,” I said, smiling at her and moving out of her grasp, “but I need to go on. There are things I need to do.”

  “It can wait. I can’t imagine the strain you put on your body by breaking all of that apart and holding them into wings,” she said, pointing to the shards of Star Stone that littered the ground.

  “It can’t wait,” I said.

  The stone on the ground started sliding toward me.

  “Love, please let us get you there another way,” she said, seeing the pain on my face when the shards punctured my back once again.

  Everyone watching gasped as the green stone wings formed to my back. The sunlight cast their green, stained-glass reflection onto the ground. I didn’t take the time to guess how long they were, but I couldn’t estimate it off the top of my head. I looked at the town and the people. I now noticed the ravages of war that I must have overlooked yesterday.

  “I need to end this now,” I said to her.

  I flapped my wings at the ground and launched into the air leaving Dr. Zaira, Dresden, and the rest of the town behind
without further hesitation.

  XII

  A persuasion

  Without Dresden’s extra weight I sailed through the air. The only thoughts going through my mind were how to find my way back to the castle and how to stop the war. I kept following the road while it cut through the land. I figured it had to be a main road and I hoped it would lead me where I needed to go in the North.

  I flew for several days from daybreak to dusk. I didn’t want to risk flying at night and losing sight of the road that guided me. The land changed dramatically with each passing day. The trees changed from the short, harsh, spiky trees that had been around the tower and town I had left Dresden in. They were now tall with smooth bark. The grass also changed from dry and hard to soft and short stalks that would turn bright green once winter was over. The landscape was changing, too. Several days into my journey the road started to rise and fall with hills dotting the land. I took the hills as a good sign that I was heading in the right direction. I hoped that with time they would grow into the mountains where the cabin was located.

  Eventually, I lost track of the number of days I had spent in the sky. My body and mind grew tired with the strain of the journey. At night I slept on my stomach to give my back as much rest as I could between flights.

  One morning I woke up in so much pain and so tired from the restless night that I didn’t think I could bring myself to have the Star Stone stab into my back. But I got up and forced myself to go through with the day’s flight. I knew that one day of not flying would make my trip one day longer than it needed to be. Each successive day after that was a little easier. Each morning it was a little easier to get up in the air and keep my wings together.

  One afternoon, the sun sank in the sky and I saw what I had been longing to see. The trees were growing so thick I had to keep a strong eye on the road flickering in and out of the branches. I paid so much attention to the road that it was a pleasant shock when I saw mountains in the distance. I wanted to cry in relief when I saw the purple and white peaks painted onto the northern horizon. I knew that if those were the mountains I needed I was either close or had already crossed the Northern border. It should only be a matter of days until I reached the castle.

  The next day I began flying over the mountains. I picked up speed knowing that they were not the place I wanted to spend the night. When the sun began to set I saw a break in the peaks and fields filled in the gaps. I set down at the mountain’s edge under the trees. The air had been growing colder with the passing days; this was not the night to sleep in an open area.

  I slept straight through the night and woke up to a fresh blanket of snow covering everything around me. Shivering, I collected my wings and took to the air for what I knew would be the last leg of my journey. The cold air and cloudy overcast made it especially hard to get going, but I pushed myself into the sky.

  I passed over the fields and the road was soon obscured by tree cover once again. By the time the sun had climbed halfway into the sky I saw white turrets over the tops of the trees. Once the castle was plainly in sight I finally let myself break away from the road. I flew to the right and searched for the campsite. I saw an area void of trees and began to see the canvas tops of the tents. I lowered myself into the tree cleared area and landed on the ground close to what I was hoping was the middle of the site. Several people stopped what they were doing to look at me and the great wings protruding from my back.

  “Emmeline?” a voice said.

  I turned to meet the gaze of my father. His eyes were running across my wings.

  “Hi, Dad,” I said. “I need to speak with you.”

  * * *

  The crushing weight of my wings caught up to me and I released them. I heard people gasp when they saw the shards of stone turn blue and fall to the ground.

  “Is that … is that Star Stone?” my father said.

  “Yes,” I said rubbing my shoulder

  “Where did you get so much of it?”

  “I’ll have to explain that later,” I said, looking at the people around us. “But right now we need to talk.” War was evident everywhere. The camp had been turned into a makeshift first aid center. Many of the people had bandaged injuries.

  “Of course,” he said.

  He motioned to his tent and I followed him in. He closed the entrance and had a seat by the fire in the middle of the tent. I did the same.

  I opened my mouth to speak but he started first.

  “Emmeline, where have you been?”

  I took a deep breath. “I know you’re concerned and have a lot of questions, but I can’t go into the details of what I’ve been through. Not right now.”

  “But, Emma, I need to know,” he said with force. “I need to know where they took you and what they did to you.”

  He must have seen something flicker across my face because he took my hand in his and patted it. He smiled softly.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart, we’ll make them pay for whatever they’ve done to you.”

  His words sent a chill down my back. I took my hand out of his.

  “They haven’t done anything to me that you wouldn’t have done to one of them.”

  He looked a little angry. “Perhaps, but they don’t have the authority to do so.”

  “Yes, they do,” I said. “They’re only trying to protect themselves.”

  “Protect themselves from their own people?” he said with a laugh.

  “No,” I said, “protect themselves from you.”

  “I am them,” he said, his smile disappeared again.

  “They seem to think you’re not.”

  “And that’s what is giving them problems,” he said. “If they would stop this foolishness all of this would be over.”

  “What foolishness? Wanting to be their own people? Seeking change so that they don’t have to answer to a government thousands of miles away? Creating their own government that understands its people better?”

  “Why do they need a new government? We are all that they should need.”

  “I’m sorry but you’re not,” I said. “They need more than what you are willing to provide. They need a government that doesn’t treat them like second-rate citizens.”

  “We don’t treat them as second-rate citizens,” he said. “A Southerner is valued just as much as a Northerner is. It’s not my fault that they are not born with the required abilities needed to get a better job than most of them have.”

  I bit my lip. I refused to be the one to tell him what they had been hiding in the mountains.

  “But even if they did, they’d be packed up and brought here. Look at what you’re doing to that little girl and her family.”

  “They should be proud to have a daughter with such an ability,” he said. “They should willingly send her here to take up her rightful place.”

  “Oh, so her parents should willingly send their daughter that many miles away and hope that they will get to see her again?” I said. “Her community should be proud to give her up and ignore the fact that she could do so much for them if she stayed?”

  Father leaned back in his chair and sighed. “At what are you getting, Emmeline?”

  My eyes met his. “You need to call off this war.”

  He didn’t say anything so I continued.

  “You need to let the South live the life they want to live. Nothing will come from fighting each other over something that will only make one side happy.”

  “So we should be the one to concede even though we are supposed to have the authority?”

  “That’s not the point,” I said. “The point is that you are reigning over people that neither want nor need to be.”

  “And what makes you say they don’t need to be? They are Aetherian just as we are. Doesn’t one group of people function better from under one government?”

  “Not when half of those people don’t support that government,” I said. “In your eyes you’re simply ruling over your people. In their eyes you’re holding them captive
under a government they don’t want.”

  The expression on his face changed and I could finally see what was holding him back from letting everything I was saying happen.

  “Emmeline,” he said, his face full of concern. “What if they can’t make it on their own? All they have known was this way of life. I don’t want to see them crash and burn. They need us.”

  “But what if they don’t?” I said. “What if they can make it on their own and you’re stifling their potential? The only way to know is to cut the strings and let them try.”

  He looked at me. Not as a teenager, not as his daughter, but as his Dragonfly.

  “You truly believe that they can make it on their own?”

  I smiled. “I have absolutely no doubt about it.”

  * * *

  I exited the tent and saw Mom running toward me.

  “Emma, thank God you’re back,” she said, hugging me. “Are you okay? Where have you been? You had me so worried.”

  “I’m fine, Mom,” I said. “There were some things I had to do.”

  “Well, don’t you dare scare me like that ever again,” she said. “We didn’t know if you were hurt, if you were okay…”

  I looked at the main tent and saw Viper standing in the entrance.

  “Well, really I’m fine,” I said again.

  The weight of everything I had been through pressed down on me and I realized how tired I was.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so exhausted. Can I please explain everything later?”

  “Okay, come in the tent and rest a little while,” she said. “Are you hungry? Do you need anything?”

  “No, thanks, I’m not very hungry.”

  “Well, all right,” she said. “If you’re sure. Thank you, Viper.”

  Viper stood aside to let us enter the tent. The tables were almost empty—only a few people sitting together having discussions.

  “Have a seat here and I’ll go see if I can find us some tea,” she said, pulling out a chair and jogging toward the entrance again.