by Devan Skyles
“So, you’re my volunteer, are you?”
“Yes, sir,” he replied with an outstretched hand.
Redwing simply glanced down at his hand, then back up at his face. After a moment, he turned around and continued to talk.
“Mr. Kerser, it would appear that your replacement is here. You’re dismissed.”
The disgruntled soldier’s eyes widened with relief and he shouldered past Auram, seemingly anxious to get out the door before Redwing could change his mind.
“Aaron, isn’t it?” Redwing continued, his back still turned.
“Auram, sir,” he replied with a smirk and a roll of his eyes.
“Yes, well, Mr. Auram, let us hope you are not quite as incompetent and useless as your predecessor.” He turned around and instantly Auram straightened up. “You do know how to take orders, I presume?”
“I think that’s what the military’s been teaching me,” he replied sarcastically. He regretted the words as soon as they escaped his lips, but luckily, Redwing seemed to have been talking only for his own benefit and didn’t even notice that he’d replied.
“I expect my security guards to be punctual, meaning you will be here fifteen minutes before your shift begins. If you are here fourteen minutes early, you are late, and I will be forced to pursue disciplinary action. Am I understood, Fleetman?”
“I think I can manage that,” he replied, trying very hard not to be sarcastic.
“Good,” Redwing said, now holding out his hand. “Welcome.”
He begrudgingly shook Redwing’s hand, beginning now to see why Rhydian didn’t like this guy.
For the next few days, Auram’s responsibilities included standing at attention during meetings, following Redwing at a discreet distance wherever he went, and running various errands, like getting the Governor’s lunch (which he knew was not part of his job). And any time these tasks were not performed to Redwing’s satisfaction, he got talked down to or yelled at like he was a disobedient child. It took every ounce of willpower he had not to reply with some snarky comeback each and every time, as he knew his friend was counting on him.
As if that wasn’t enough, his lessons with Taya were becoming increasingly rigorous, and he went home sore every night. She’d been making him go through drills over and over, which he only seemed to be getting marginally better at. He still was unable to get even a single attack to connect when they would spar, and his aggravation was growing by the day. She refused to let up on him even a little and continued to boss him around.
On his fourth day of guard duty, he finally heard something useful from the Governor. He was surprised he even picked up on it, as he was currently falling asleep standing at attention. Redwing was in a meeting with one of the other local judges when he happened to overhear part of the conversation.
“You know we’ll support you if things should go bad,” the judge muttered under his breath, “but you have to secure the other two timekeepers first. We can’t just go on faith. Do you have—”
Redwing, as if just now noticing Auram’s presence, silenced his colleague with a raised hand.
“I’ll be meeting with the others tomorrow afternoon,” he muttered cryptically. “I won’t know for sure until then.”
Gatemaker
Auram flew as hard as he could to Rhydian’s house as soon as he was off duty. He didn’t even bother dropping off his armor and weapon first. When he arrived, he landed and knocked at the same time. Hopefully Rhydian was home. He had a sneaky suspicion he’d be on the other side. He knocked again. After another moment, the door swung wide open, and inside stood Rhydian, holding a dagger at the ready.
Auram jumped back in alarm. Rhydian relaxed a little when he realized who he was, but he quickly ushered his friend inside and closed the door, locking it at once.
“Hey, Rhyd. Uh, everything okay?”
“Everywhere I go, there’s someone watching,” Rhydian explained. “I can’t get to the threshold.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive! I think they’re really getting desperate to find that timekeeper.”
“Yeah, about that,” he began. “I found out something about your friend, Redwing.”
Rhydian’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Really? What is it?”
“Well, I know whatever he’s planning, he’s in on it with other government officials. He was meeting with another judge today and I overheard them talking about the timekeepers.”
“Are you sure? I mean, they could have been discussing an ilïmbalm run, or—”
“He said, ‘the other two timekeepers,’ so I’m thinking he’s got one of the three he needed already. And,” he added with emphasis, “he said he’s meeting with ‘the others’ tomorrow afternoon.”
“Who are the others?”
“I don’t know. Maybe more judges? Government officials? Who knows how big this thing is?”
Rhydian pondered the situation for a moment, then announced, “We need to be at that meeting.”
“How? We don’t know where or when it will be, and how will we get past his security detail?”
“You’re on his detail, aren’t you?”
Auram shook his head. “Only during the day. I could try and switch to the afternoon shift, but not before tomorrow.”
Rhydian thought about it for a long minute. “We could try to sneak around them. He only has two guards at any given time, right?”
“Maybe. But that still leaves us with the problem of knowing where and when the meeting will take place. The guards will definitely notice if someone’s following them around all afternoon.”
Rhydian smiled. “I think I’ve got a plan for that, too.”
Auram grew increasingly anxious toward the end of his duty shift the next day. He was excited to discover what Redwing was up to, but he was skeptical about how they’d pull it off. If things didn’t work out just right, they could find themselves in a lot of trouble. Either way, though, it was worth it to him. He was sick and tired of just standing by and putting up with his new boss. He couldn’t wait to find the evidence that would put him away and cut his wings.
About five minutes before his shift ended, he made his move. He and the other guard were following close behind the governor as he strolled from shop to shop. They were on a massive ledge near the east side of the city that served as a community marketplace. There were several permanent stores around the edge of the market, but most of the venders simply set up carts and tables to sell their wares. As Redwing was busying himself looking through fine clothes, Auram approached close behind him and pretended to stumble into him. Redwing fell forward into a table stacked high with products, which nearly fell over as well.
“You clumsy fool!” Redwing shouted as he tried to right himself.
“Your honor, I’m so sorry!” Auram fervently apologized, grabbing him by the arm and helping him to his feet. As he did, he slipped a small object into Redwing’s pocket. “I should have been watching what I was doing!”
Redwing brushed him off abruptly. “Get off!” He fluffed his feathers and straightened his clothes, completely unaware of Auram’s sleight of hand.
Auram apologized once more and turned, smiling. He was very pleased with himself. A few minutes later, the next two guards arrived to relieve them, and Auram flew straight to the sparring field in the Fleet complex. There, he met Sergeant Taya, who again ran him through rigorous drills and combative techniques. Rhydian hovered close overhead, watching his friend train. Auram, of course, hated having an audience to this humiliation, but he tried not to let it distract him.
“Keep the hilt out further in front of you,” Taya instructed him as he tried to defend against her attacks. “You’re letting me get too close. You don’t want me that close until you know you have a clear shot.”
Auram noticed the way her sword was raised just a bit too high and his heart skipped a beat. This was it. “You mean like this?” He hollered as he lunged forward, thrusting the point of his weapon at her e
xposed gut. He held nothing back. This was it!
Without even stepping back, Taya brought down her sword, parrying his with a circular flourish and finishing the circle with a downward stroke to the head, ringing his helmet like a bell.
Auram took off his helmet in outrage and hurled it across the courtyard, hollering his frustration. A few people turned to stare.
“You almost had me there,” Taya said. “But next time, don’t take the time to announce your attack. A little faster and I wouldn’t have had time to react.”
“I can’t GO any faster!” he shouted, forgetting he was addressing a sergeant.
“Yes you can,” she said simply. “Now, go get your helmet and—”
“If you tell me to do it again, I swear… I just, I don’t know. I don’t think I’m cut out for this. I always thought I was, but—”
He was suddenly cut off when Taya swung her sword directly at his head. He panicked, as he was no longer wearing a helmet. Instinctively, he raised his sword and parried her blow to the side. She instantly attacked again. Horrified, he parried again, but this time he retaliated. Realizing she would not let up her onslaught, he swung again and again, each time striking only the steel of her blade. Finally, as she brought her sword up to block a downward blow, he changed direction in a fraction of a second and came up under her arms, striking her hard in the breastplate. The sound it made was extremely satisfying and he immediately lunged back in a defensive posture.
Taya stood there smiling as Auram realized what he’d just done. His jaw hung open is shock. Had he really just beaten her?
“Yeah,” she said sarcastically, “you’re probably not cut out for this.” She started to walk away, and then added, “Work on your edge alignment. You’re cuts are a little sloppy.”
“Did you see that?” Auram loudly reveled as Rhydian circled down and landed nearby.
“Well done, brother!” he praised.
“I didn’t even know I had it in me! I can’t believe I won!”
“I always knew you had it in you,” he replied. He then stepped closer and lowered his voice. “So, how’d it go at work today? You know, with our mutual friend.”
Auram smiled. “He didn’t notice a thing. I put the amethyst right in his pocket.”
Rhydian smiled too, taking out one of the small, purple and white spheres he had bought at the Treetown marketplace. He placed the ball on the level, stone ground and it instantly began rolling to the left.
“Looks like we have a way of finding that meeting,” said Auram.
The two flew, using the amethyst as a sort of compass. Every once in a while they would land on the flattest surface they could find to see which way the stone rolled as it was drawn toward its counterpart. They found that it would even roll along a slight upward slope, so they knew it had to be working. Every so often it would change directions, presumably because Redwing had moved to a new location, at which point they’d redirect their path. When at last the amethyst consistently rolled in the same direction it was already starting to get dark, and Auram was exhausted from flying around in his armor for hours.
They flew in the direction the stone had indicated, which led them deep into the heart of the canyon to the outskirts of the Treetown. They could see the glow from the colorful light stones in the distance as they landed on a suspended platform near what appeared to be old, rundown houses. The wood planks creaked as they stepped along the walkway toward the structures. Outside one of the houses stood two Fleet guards, standing on either side of the door.
Auram and Rhydian stood in the shadows for a moment, wondering how on earth they’d get close enough to hear anything, when they were startled by the approach of another person. Dropping into view from above came an old man with gray hair. He landed gently on delicate legs and rested his weary, fragile-looking wings. He walked by so close that they were surprised they weren’t discovered. He approached the door, where the two guards admitted him.
“Is that who I think it is?” whispered Rhydian.
It was Nicodemus. But why was the old Gatemaker meeting with Redwing? What connection could they possibly have? Then something occurred to Rhydian: Whatever reason Redwing had for stealing timekeepers, Nicodemus could be helping him with his plan. But why would he?
Auram peered through the darkness. He recognized one of the guards from his platoon, a pretty but slightly hefty girl named Emma.
“How do we get past them?” Rhydian whispered.
“We don’t need to,” he replied with a chuckle. “See the girl on the right? She’s been flirting with me for the last month.”
“First of all,” Rhydian argued, “that has absolutely no relevance. Secondly, I’ve seen what you think a girl flirting with you looks like. Saying, ‘How was your day?’ doesn’t count as flirting.”
“Would you let me finish?” he shot back. “Her name is Emma, and she has a reputation for being lazy. She’ll use any excuse to get out of work. Watch this.”
Without another word, he walked confidently up to the guards.
“What are you doing?” Rhydian hissed after him. “You’re going to blow the whole thing!”
Auram, glad now that he had not taken the time to remove his armor, sidled up next to Emma.
“Auram?” Emma said, surprised. She instantly straightened her posture, fluffed her feathers, and fiddled with her hair. “What are you doing here?”
“Hi, Emma,” he said with a coy grin. “You look nice tonight.”
Emma blushed a deep shade of red that was visible even in the dark.
“So, I was instructed to relieve you for the evening.”
“Really?” She replied. “I still have four hours left in my shift.”
Auram shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. I’m just following orders.”
She shrugged in like manner and left her post. “Thanks, Auram. See you later?”
He waved with a little wink, to which she again blushed.
The remaining guard rolled his eyes as Emma left. “Figures. I wonder which officer she’s seeing to get the night off.”
“Actually,” Auram said to the man, “I heard she has a crush on you.”
The soldier turned to him. “Who told you that?”
“Oh, come on. Everyone’s been saying it.” In reality, of course, he didn’t even know the man’s name. “You really didn’t pick up on it? I mean, she was the one who requested the same shift as you.”
The guard smiled to himself. Auram waited patiently for a few minutes to let the man’s imagination do the rest of the work, then looked down and pretended to pick something up off the ground.
“Uh-oh,” Auram said, holding up the amethyst stone. “I think Emma must have left this here. You want to take it to her?”
The man took the stone and looked at it. “Maybe I should wait until morning.”
Auram shrugged. “Sure. Makes sense. Although I know she’d be touched if you went after her now.”
He hesitated, as if considering the idea, but knowing it would be irresponsible.
“Go on,” Auram prompted. “I’ll cover for you. If they come out early, I’ll just tell them you went to pee.”
The guard nodded with a grin and flapped off after Emma.
Impressed, Rhydian ran up to his friend. “Nice work! I don’t know how you did it, but nice work.”
“I only bought us a few minutes,” he said, and they both pressed their ears to the door. Within, they heard muffled voices.
“It’s about time you got here, Nicodemus,” Redwing’s voice rang.
“I’m flying on aged wings, Redwing,” came the old man’s weary voice.
“May I remind you, old man, that without you, this plan falls apart?”
“I was about to remind you of that very fact,” he retorted.
“Can we just get on with this?” came a third voice.
It was the same voice he’d heard in the courthouse; the person Redwing was secretly meeting with. Rhydian racked his mind for any
recollection of the man’s voice. It had a very distinctive quality, but no matter how much he thought about it, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Growing impatient, he crept over to the window and peered in. The curtains were drawn, but he found he could see a small part of the room through the slit in the middle where the curtains didn’t quite join. He couldn’t discern much, but he saw Nicodemus leaning against an old table, addressing the others.
“As you both know, we have only a small window of time to perform the rift. If we do not accomplish it within the next three weeks, we will have to wait another ten years.”
“In ten years, Ilimíra will be dying of ilïmbalm starvation. It has to be done now,” said Redwing aggressively.
“Do not pretend you are doing this for the good of your people, Redwing,” Nicodemus retorted. “We all know that all you crave is power.”
Redwing’s face went red with anger, and he was on the cusp of an outburst when the third voice intervened.
“The reasons are irrelevant if it can’t be done. We still have only one out of the three timekeepers.”
The man moved into view slightly and Rhydian got a look at him, but his back was turned and all he caught was a glimpse of russet gold feathers before he moved out of view again.
“As you know,” said Redwing, “I have spies on Gideon’s boy night and day. As soon as he goes to where he’s hidden it, he’ll lead us right to it.”
Rhydian’s heart skipped a beat, wondering if there could be prying eyes watching him at that very moment.
“Can’t you just use your own timekeeper?” The third voice asked. “You know, just make it work. I mean, you’re the most skilled Gatemaker in the history of Ilimíra. You’re telling me you can’t just— bend the rules?”
“They are not my rules to bend, young man,” Nicodemus replied. “We are talking about the laws of nature; the very fabric of space. Imagine trying to damn a river with only a pebble. I could not accomplish it even if I tried. Breaching the barrier is a very dangerous and precise science. I need all three master timekeepers to do it.”