by Devan Skyles
“You’ve lost, General!” said Rhydian. “Just give up the timekeepers!”
Corvus couldn’t handle the idea that he’d been bested. Gritting his teeth, he stepped to the very edge of the roof. “You think you’ve won? This world will be mine!” and with that, he turned and lunged from the roof.
Before he could fall far, however, Ellie lunged after him, swooping low and snatching the timekeepers from his hand by the chains. He gave a shout of fury, being cheated of his victory, and he spiraled slowly on his one good wing toward the rioted street. He screamed in outrage and horror as the people below ripped him from the air and pulled him down into the crowd, tearing at his wings.
Ellie landed back on the roof just as Rhydian was getting ready to jump down after the General, but Desmond grabbed him by the arm, stopping him.
“Whoa! Where are you going?” said Desmond.
“Finishing this,” he replied.
“Look, Rhydian, he’s as good as dead down there anyway. And if you go down there, you will be, too!”
“No!” he rebelled. “I have to kill him! For Auram, for my father! I have to avenge them!”
“Rhydian,” Ellie said gently, placing her hands on his cheeks and looking him in the eye, “They wouldn’t want you to die so you could avenge their deaths. And I don’t want to lose you either. Please, let’s go do what we came to do.” She placed the timekeepers in his hands.
Rhydian nodded, a tear trailing down his cheek.
“We should each take one,” Desmond suggested. “It’ll triple the chances of success, in case we don’t all make it.”
“Good idea,” said Rhydian, handing them each one of the timekeepers, keeping his father’s for himself.
They took wing, but the windstorm had become so powerful that they could no longer stay in the sky, so they dipped low between the buildings above the streets, being careful to stay a safe distance above the rioting crowds.
Ellie looked down and saw a group of rioters looting an electronics store and almost laughed at the irony. Humans and Ilimíra soldiers fought in the streets, each group struggling to overpower the other. She imagined the same things must be happening in countless other places at the various thresholds around the world.
They managed to make it most of the way out of the storm, seeing blue sky not far beyond. In the distance, a picturesque park lay untouched by the pandemonium, but around them, the wind had grown so wild that debris was being flung through the air in the tempest. Rhydian felt something hard collide with his head as he flew, and he nearly toppled into Desmond.
A loud THWOPTHWOPTHWOP sound came from above and Ellie screamed, “LOOK OUT!”
Rhydian looked up to see a helicopter, propellers whirring, tumbling out of the sky towards them. Rhydian dodged left as the chopper plummeted past them and crashed with a noise like thunder into the side of a building. They were sprayed with shattered glass from the building’s windows and the helicopter fell to the ground, decimating the crowd below.
Just when Rhydian thought he’d avoided disaster, a large piece of debris from the crashing chopper flew up and caught him by the wing. Unable to stabilize his flight, he spiraled to the ground, the wind whipping him from side to side as he fell. His
breath was knocked from his lungs as he collided heavily against the ground, the debris pinning his wing against the concrete.
“Rhydian!” Ellie screamed, chasing after him.
“No!” shouted Desmond. “We can’t stop!”
“You go then!” she shouted. “I’m helping Rhydian!”
Looking back and forth between Rhydian and the park, he cursed and followed Ellie to the ground.
“Rhydian, are you okay?” Ellie asked urgently as she landed harder than she’d intended beside him.
“My wing’s caught!” he cried. “I can’t get up!”
Desmond landed beside them and immediately attempted to lift the large piece of debris trapping him. Ellie jumped up and helped, but there was no moving it. I was simply too heavy.
“It’s not going to take long for the crowd to converge on this mess,” Desmond pointed out urgently.
“We have to get him out of here!” she yelled. “Help me think of something!”
“There’s nothing we can do, Ellie!” he shouted. “We have to go!
“He’s right,” Rhydian said. “Get the timekeepers beyond the rift. Hurry!”
“I’m not leaving you!” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I’m not going to lose you!”
“You won’t!” he replied. “We’ll see each other again soon. I promise.”
She knelt down and wrapped her arms around Rhydian, holding him close and pressing her lips to his. She pulled away just enough that their lips brushed gently and looked longingly into his eyes.
“I love you, Rhydian.”
“I love you, too,” he replied, kissing her again.
As a crowd of astonished onlookers began to approach, Ellie and Desmond took to the air, tears flowing down Ellie’s face.
“It had to be done,” Desmond reassured her.
“I don’t want to talk about it!” she insisted. “Let’s just get this done!”
They flew hard and fast until a sudden gust of wind forced them back to the ground. Desmond skimmed the top of a bus and fell hard into the windshield of a taxi.
Ellie, who barely managed to stay aloft, hesitated, looking back.
“GO!” Desmond shouted.
She listened, hastening her flight. The sky grew brighter the closer she came to the park. Just a little bit further. She flew through wind and debris until at last she soared out over the grassy field. As she passed the rift, she felt her body change, her bones growing solid and heavy. Cold panic filled her veins as her wings disappeared and she plummeted to the ground. She hit hard, her left shoulder impacting the grass first, and she tumbled roughly for what seemed an eternity before she finally skidded to a stop, bleeding and sore.
Looking up at the sky, she saw the darkness cease to spread. There was a thundering boom like the sound of a thousand explosions all at once and the darkness of the rift shot back along the sky in the blink of an eye. All at once, the wind and the storm diminished. It was over.
Relief washed over her as she rolled over slightly. She was in so much pain she could barely move, but she was desperate to get back to Rhydian. Sitting up slowly, she tested her legs. It took a concerted effort to climb to her feet, but as soon as she did, she felt a fist impact with her face and she fell back to the ground. Looking up, she saw General Corvus standing over her, appearing human the way he had the first time she’d seen him.
“Do you really think you’ve stopped me?” he raged, a crazed look of malice on his face, his eyes wide. “In another ten years, I can try again! And I will succeed, because you and your pathetic little friends won’t be there to stop me!”
She drew her sword with one shaky hand, but Corvus merely kicked it away, beyond her reach. Gritting his teeth, he then kicked her in the gut, causing her to double over in pain.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” he said with a laugh, “almost as much as I enjoyed killing your mother.”
He knelt beside her and drew a dagger from his belt, placing it to her neck. She breathed heavily, her aching body too weak to resist.
“Let her go, Corvus!” came Rhydian’s voice from a distance.
Ellie smiled when she heard his voice. “Rhydian! You’re okay!”
Corvus, shoving Ellie to the ground, stood and faced Rhydian as he approached. “You are truly persistent! I stand by what I said, you know. You would have made a fantastic lieutenant. Too bad we’ll never know now.” He sheathed his dagger and drew his sword.
Rhydian drew his own sword as he walked, his gaze fixed on Corvus. “You’re going to die for what you did, Corvus.”
Corvus laughed. “You really think you have a chance at defeating me? I didn’t get to be General for my pretty face, boy! Unlike your friend Auram, I actually earned my positio
n!”
“Mention his name again,” he fumed, “and I’ll make your death even more excruciating.”
Corvus lunged, blade flashing. Rhydian caught the blade with his own and cast it aside, retaliating swiftly with his own attack. Corvus deflected this easily and assaulted him with a series of ruthless attacks, forcing him backward. Rhydian barely managed to defend against the barrage and had no time to retaliate. He fought hard with all his fury, but he was no match for the mighty war general. Soon he began to tire, sweat dripping from his face. His movements slowed as his arms began to fatigue. Each of Corvus’s attacks came a little closer to ending him, until he finally was no longer able to defend himself at all. As their blades bound, the edges biting into each other, Corvus moved in close, grappled Rhydian’s sword away, and threw him to the ground.
Rhydian looked up at Corvus, who was gripping his sword with both hands above his head. In a moment the sword would fall and his life would be over. He’d have failed both his father and Auram in avenging their deaths.
Corvus gritted his teeth and began to swing when suddenly— BANG! BANG! BANG! — three large, bloody holes appeared in the middle of his chest and he staggered back, his eyes wide with shock. The sword fell from his hands and clamored to the ground.
Rhydian turned and saw Ellie, standing with her father’s revolver gripped tight in both hands, smoke rising from the barrel.
Corvus’s hands shook as he placed them over his bleeding chest, a look of horror on his face. Rhydian, heart racing, picked up his fallen sword and swung with all his might. Striking true, Corvus’s head fell from his body and, a moment later, he was standing over the general’s body, breathing heavily.
Ellie dropped the gun and ran to Rhydian, her strength, for the moment, renewed. Rhydian dropped the sword and embraced her.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she said, burying her face in his shoulder.
“You’ll never lose me,” he promised.
They stood there a long time, holding each other tenderly, but soon a crowd began to gather and they thought it wise not to linger. So they retrieved their weapons and started to walk off.
“That’s the one there!” a man cried out, pointing at Rhydian. “He’s one of them! One of those angel people! I saw him!”
Rhydian shook his head as the crowd converged on them. “I’m no angel.”
“He’s lying!” the man said. “I saw him. He had his wing trapped, so he made his wings disappear and ran off!”
“Why are you attacking us?” a woman shouted.
“Look! He just killed that man!” someone else yelled, angrily pointing at Corvus’s body.
“No!” Ellie pleaded as several people grabbed Rhydian and yanked the sword from his hand. “Let him go!”
The mob began to pull Rhydian away, but she wouldn’t allow it. She reached into the small of her back and wrapped her hand around the grip of her revolver, just as someone accidentally elbowed her in the face and her vision went dark.
No Way Back
When Ellie came to, the mob had departed and Rhydian was nowhere to be seen. Panicked, she scrambled to her feet and looked around, frantically calling his name. She ran out of the park and back down the street, where a multitude of confused, angry people still amassed. Cars still congested the road, but traffic was beginning to move again.
She came across a discarded motorcycle lying on its side. Hoisting it off the ground with all her might, she looked and found that the key was still in the ignition. Straddling the bike and starting it up, she weaved in and out of traffic through the city, looking for any sign of Rhydian. She made her way back to where the threshold had been, but it was no longer there.
She spent three days asking around to see if anyone had seen him before she succumbed to despair and gave up the search. Perhaps, she thought, he had also been unable to find her and went looking for her at her house. So she got back on the motorcycle and pulled onto the freeway.
She rode all through that day and into the night, stopping only to beg strangers for gas money. When she finally rode into Clearbrook, she pulled to the side of the road and abandoned the bike. She spent the next couple of hours walking up the dirt road to her house.
The first thing she did when she got there was make her way to the stream and dip her mother’s divining stone into the water. Nothing happened, so she ran to the cave where she had first crossed through into Ilimíra. At the back of the tunnel was nothing but stone wall.
Saddened and discouraged, she wandered back to the house and checked on her horse, which stood in a clean stable with fresh food and water. She had hired a teenage boy from town to come and clean the stables twice a week and was relieved to see he’d been by.
She walked solemnly to the house and entered the dark living room. Making her way to the bedroom, she sunk to her bed, too drained even to cry. That night she dreamed of flying, just like the dreams from her childhood, only this time she was soaring high over Ilimíra on a pair of broad, white wings. She woke wondering if the whole adventure had simply been one long, lucid dream, but then she saw the stack of journal entries her mother had written sitting on the coffee table.
She flipped on the TV. Every news channel was still reporting the events caused by the rift.
One reporter announced, “After the catastrophic power outages around the globe that have left scientists puzzled, Chicago residents have reported unusual wildlife activity in and around the city. Multiple sightings of large wild cats have been reported, and calls continue to pour in to local animal control units. There have been no reported incidents of the animals becoming aggressive with people, but Chicago residents are cautioned to stay as far away from the animals as possible if you happen to come across them.
“In related news, the ‘angelic visitation,’ as many are calling it, has got the religious community in an uproar, many claiming that the event was a sign of the end of days. Scientists are still left to speculate on the incident, as it appears there is no evidence of any kind of winged creatures having visited at all. In fact, since it seems all forms of modern technology were rendered useless by the outage, no video footage or photographic evidence exists of the supposed visitors. This has led many did not experience these events to question whether it did in fact happen, or if this could actually be the result of the largest hoax in world history. Hoax or not, the death toll worldwide is estimated to be in the tens of thousands and climbing.”
Ellie shook her head and turned the TV off. “If only you knew,” she sighed.
She ate a quick breakfast and got on her father’s motorcycle, riding out to Rose’s house. She asked the old woman how she could get back to Ilimíra, thinking that, somehow, Rhydian may have found his way there.
“Oh, I’m afraid there’s no way back now, dear,” she said over a steaming cup of tea. “After the rift was reverted, the barrier collapsed. Every threshold in the world sealed itself shut. It was lovely having my wings again, though, even just for a short time.”
She went home discourage. The next day, Benji came by to check on her, having not seen or heard from her in several days. She told him she hadn’t been feeling well and politely sent him on his way. She realized that eventually she would have to accept her reality and move on with her life, but she couldn’t bring herself to go back to work just yet.
Her thoughts lingered on Rhydian much of the time. She wanted to see his intense, blue eyes again, kiss his lips, feel his strong, comforting arms wrapping her up tight. With all the time they’d spent together, she was angry with herself for not taking a single photograph of him. She sat down with a pencil and paper and tried to draw his face, but she had never been particularly artistic and she quickly gave up.
A couple more days passed, much the same, until she finally decided she needed to get a hold of herself and she went out for some fresh air. She left her shoes by the door and walked along the field, looking up into the sky. She talked to her mother a bit, telling her all that she had seen and done; that
she had fulfilled her wishes and gone to Ilimíra.
When she wandered back to the house, a cloud of dust rose on the dirt road and a pickup truck rumbled towards her. She didn’t recognize the vehicle and grew cautious, reaching for the revolver that now went with her everywhere.
The truck pulled to a halt in front of her and the engine stopped. The windshield was too dirty to see into, so she stepped around to peer through the side window. The driver’s door opened and Desmond stepped out.
“Desmond,” she said, surprised.
“Hey Ellie,” he said solemnly. “Look, I know I’m the last person you want to see right now. I did some horrible things to you and your family, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. I wouldn’t forgive me.” He walked around the truck to the passenger door and pulled it open. “But I hope this can start to make things right.”
Ellie’s heart filled with joy as Desmond reached into the truck and helped a barely conscious Rhydian down out of the cab.
“Rhydian!” she cried, running to his side and supporting his weight with her shoulders. “Rhydian, thank goodness you’re all right! I looked for you! I looked everywhere! I even tried to get back to Ilimíra to find you!”
“I had to get him out of a bit of a jam back in Chicago,” Desmond explained.
Ellie kissed Rhydian on the cheek, helping him to the house. Desmond closed the passenger door and walked back around to get into the driver’s seat.
“Wait,” said Ellie, turning around. “What will you do now? The thresholds are all sealed shut.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really know. Everything I’ve done for the last two years I did for my sister. Now that she’s gone, I don’t know what to do with my life anymore.”
“I suppose now you live for yourself. Where will you go?”
“I’ve gotten by as a human before. I’m sure I can manage it again, find a nice, quiet spot somewhere.”
“She’d be proud of you, you know,” she offered. “Your sister, I mean.”
He nodded silently, got back into the truck, and drove off.