The Shattered Sylph

by L. J. McDonald

  “You kissed him!”

  “So?” she shrieked. She advanced on Ril, forcing him back a step. “It’s none of your business!”

  “What did you think I came out here for? Your father—”

  “Leave my father out of this!” She slapped a hand against his hard chest. “I don’t care what my father thinks! If I want to kiss someone, I will!”

  “I won’t let you!”

  He sounded so outraged, his gaze burning behind those long blond bangs. She’d always wanted to brush that hair out of his eyes, ever since the first time she saw him. They made him look like one of the characters in her favorite childhood storybook, which her father had read to her at bedtime while Ril nested on the pillow next to her head, more often than not preening her hair while she fell asleep.

  She laughed. This was ludicrous. What was she expecting out of him, a human reaction? “What are you going to do about it?” she asked. “Guard me the rest of my life?”

  “If I have to!”

  The thought of Ril following her around and chasing boys away for the rest of her life made her laugh harder, and her anger was gone just like that. “Well, don’t bother. It was a horrible kiss anyway.” It had been. She rubbed her mouth, wishing she hadn’t done it, that she hadn’t tried to make Ril angry or ended up in a fight with him. “That was my first kiss, too. Are they all that bad?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “Let’s find out.” He leaned down and kissed her.

  Lizzy’s breath caught, her heart nearly stopping. Where kissing Justin had been like kissing a slab of warm meat, Ril’s lips were dry and full, and so warm they sent a shock through her that made her body tingle from her lips all the way down to her toes, which she actually felt curl up in her shoes. Her eyes fluttered shut and she just stood there, her mouth pressed to his and not knowing what to do other than feel. It felt good—so good—and in an instant she fell in love with him all over again.

  Then Ril was pulling back, his breathing heavy as he backed away into the darkness. Lizzy stumbled, caught herself, and stared at him.

  “Ril?” she said.

  But he’d left, telling her it never happened, that they hadn’t happened, and he’d never brought it up again, or touched or even looked at her. That’s what had happened. Lizzy remembered, even as she realized that she was dreaming about something that had occurred two years earlier. But this time, Ril didn’t desert her. He stepped forward instead. His uniform was gone, replaced by plain brown traveling clothes, and his face was exhausted and lined by strain.

  “Lizzy!” he shouted, though his voice was barely audible. He reached for her, and his form wavered. This reminded her of the other dream she’d had, where he’d kissed her and suddenly blew away into nothingness.

  “Ril!” she shouted back, “I’m here!” She ran toward him, but she couldn’t get closer. No matter how fast she ran, he was still a half dozen feet away, reaching helplessly for her. “Ril!”

  “Lizzy! We’re coming for you. Don’t give up. We’ll find you!”

  Lizzy’s eyes widened and tears poured down her cheeks. “W-we…?”

  “Your father and I. Leon…” Abruptly, Ril put his hands to his forehead, wincing, and the scene changed from the nighttime fields of that long ago dance to the kitchen of her parents’ house. Ril shuddered and looked past her. “Leon.”

  Lizzy turned. Standing in the doorway, dressed in the soft cotton pants and shirt he always slept in, her father stared at her, his hair disheveled and his eyes wide.

  “Lizzy?” he gasped. “Baby?”

  “Daddy!” Lizzy threw herself forward, sobbing. “Save me, Daddy!”

  “Wait—,” Ril started.

  Lizzy fell into her father’s arms, but instead of feeling his embrace, she tumbled into nothingness, shrieking in terror as the dream dissolved. Ril screamed and vanished with it. A moment later she started awake, blinking. Her heart raced. She was back in the bunk where she’d fallen asleep, in the room off the main harem.

  She buried her face in the pillow and groaned.

  Leon awoke, gasping. He’d dreamed he was back in his house getting ready to go upstairs to—for whatever reason—take a potted plant to his wife. Something had changed, though, and the dream, if that’s what it was, morphed. Suddenly, both Ril and Lizzy were present, the battler’s image wavering but his daughter seemingly solid and real. The dream had been real, only when she touched him, he’d woken up. He stared up at the ceiling of the room for a moment, breathing heavily. That dream had been real, but how…?

  A soft cry sounded in his ear, right near his head, and something hit the wall. Leon rolled over and reached for the oil lamp, turning the light to full. In the bed across from him, Justin groaned. Ril lay shuddering in a bed closer by, and he convulsed, slamming against the wall. He shimmered, trying to change into smoke and lightning. If the battler succeeded in changing without Luck there to hold him together, he’d die.

  “Ril!” Leon shouted, scrambling out of bed, while Justin sat up, looking scared. Leon grabbed the battler, his fingers sinking deep into the sylph’s arms—through his arms—and shook him. “Ril, wake up!”

  For a second he thought the battler was going to disobey, that Ril would keep dissolving until there was nothing left. The sylph gasped in air, though, choking, and his eyes opened, frightened and pale.

  “What’s going on?” Justin whimpered.

  Leon ignored him, staring straight into Ril’s eyes while he drew a finger back and forth between their noses, forming a sightline on which Ril could focus. “Ril, don’t change shape. Go back to being a human. That’s a direct order: go back to human.”

  Ril shuddered, unable to think but incapable of disobeying. His shape solidified, his skin becoming solid again under Leon’s hands. He drew in a deep breath and started coughing, his eyes squeezed closed. Someone in the adjacent cabin banged on the wall, shouting for them to shut up.

  “Will you tell me what’s going on?” Justin asked.

  “Not now.” Leon sat down on his bed, wiping his mouth with a shaking hand. All of his attention was on his battler as Ril shuddered again and slowly sat up. Trembling, the sylph shifted over onto his knees, looking at him, then lunged forward, his arms encircling his master’s neck. As Ril’s weight came down on him, Leon felt the battler start to draw energy, desperately replenishing himself.

  “What’s he doing?”

  “Be quiet, Justin,” Leon snapped. Ril’s draw was so strong he didn’t need to relax to feel it. The last time that happened was when the sylph carried his entire family from Eferem to the Community, outrunning an air sylph a thousand years older than himself. He’d exhausted himself so thoroughly that he’d been afraid he’d kill both Leon and Solie, drawing from them. Mace had made sure that didn’t happen.

  “That was you, wasn’t it?” he whispered so Justin couldn’t hear. “You connected our dreams, didn’t you?”

  Still shivering, Ril nodded. “I don’t know how,” he whispered back. “I just did it.”

  “Why?” Leon asked. To see his daughter again, even so briefly, had been wonderful, but Ril had nearly killed himself doing it.

  “You told me to,” Ril said.

  Leon stiffened. “I never meant—”

  “I know.” Ril pulled away and wiped his mouth. “Never mind.” He looked across the room at Justin, who was sitting on his bed staring at them, and he snarled.

  Justin cowered. “Hey! What did I do?”

  “You looked at me.”

  “Easy.” Leon put a hand on his battler’s shoulder. “Be calm, both of you. We have a long way to go still.”

  Ril shrugged, settling down as though nothing had happened, his back to them both. Leon didn’t know if he was all right, but he couldn’t ask. He wanted too much for Ril to connect their dreams again, to find his daughter and make sure she was all right. He rose and pulled on his clothes, finding his boots before heading outside to clear his head.

  “What’s going on
?” Justin asked, following him up to the ship’s deck.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” Leon told him. They were still three ports away from Meridal. When they arrived, they’d be docking just long enough for the ship to drop off and take on new passengers, and to renew their stores; then it would continue south. It was up to Ril whether they stayed on the ship at that point. Leon hoped not. He wanted to be doing something. He wanted Lizzy to be in that city, preferably on the dock waiting for him.

  “I need to know,” Justin said behind him. Leon sighed and turned. Justin was a man, he reminded himself, and he cared about Lizzy as much as any of them. He was also risking his life.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Leon admitted. “I think Ril connected his dreams to mine and Lizzy’s.”

  “I didn’t know battlers could do that,” Justin gasped.

  Neither had Leon. Then again, Ril was the only battler to sleep on a regular basis, let alone dream. “Don’t call him by that word,” he said instead. “Not here.”

  Justin hunched his shoulders. “Can he do that to me? See into my head?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Justin glanced uncertainly toward the cabin, probably wishing they didn’t need Ril at all, but finally he sighed and turned back. “Lizzy’s okay?”

  “She seems to be.” That at least was a relief.

  Justin smiled, his shoulders relaxing and dropping away from his ears. “I’ve been thinking. Of after. I’d like to have my father’s earth sylph Stria build a house for us near the lake, where all the blackberry bushes are. My father promised me half his herd when I marry, so we’ll have money. It’s not a big herd, but I can be a drover as well.” The shoulders went up again. “If you don’t have any objections.”

  Leon managed a smile. Justin wasn’t the first person he’d choose for a son-in-law, but he couldn’t fault the boy’s courage. No one else had been volunteering for this trip. “Don’t you think you need to ask Lizzy?”

  “Yeah, but, well, I need your blessing first, don’t I? Can I have your blessing? To marry your daughter?”

  His daughter, married. Grandchildren. Leon’s smile softened. “If she’ll have you, yes, you have my blessing.”

  Justin beamed.

  Chapter Eleven

  When breakfast didn’t seem imminent, Lizzy poked her head out of the room where she’d slept and peered around nervously, just in case someone was waiting to grab her. Eapha was outside, giggling madly along with a half dozen other women who ran around the main room, dodging a battler with the number 200 tattooed on his chest. He wore a breechcloth and seemed to be having a glorious time trying to grab them. The sylph snatched Eapha around the waist, pulling her against his chest and nuzzling her neck while she shrieked. Letting her go, he lunged after another woman, his clawed feet digging into the marble floor as he chased the dark-haired girl down the hall. Lizzy had to giggle. She knew how fast battlers were. This one was playing.

  Eapha trotted over. “Good morning, sleepyhead. You slept all night.”

  Had she? Lizzy remembered her dream and smiled. “I guess I was tired. Do they ever feed us?”

  “Of course. They leave the food at the other end. Most of it will probably have been eaten by now, but there’ll be some left.”

  So the girls were forced to walk the entire gauntlet if they wanted to eat, Lizzy realized. She shuddered but made herself step out of the sleeping chamber. Her belly was rumbling and she couldn’t stay hidden forever. Eapha just laughed and took her hand, leading as she had when first showing Lizzy where to rest. Lizzy followed, tugging her gauzy gown closer around her, for all the good it did, and trying to comb out her sleep-tousled hair with her fingers.

  Even though she was watching for just such a thing, she didn’t see Two-hundred pad up behind her—not until he put his arms around her, his hands on her breasts, and pulled her back against him. Lizzy screamed.

  Eapha spun around, her eyes wide. “Lizzy,” she gasped. “It’s okay! Don’t hurt him!”

  Hurt him? How was she supposed to do that? Lizzy wondered, even as Two-hundred sniffed her neck, inhaling deeply. He froze, and a moment later released her. Lizzy looked up to see him staring at her with confusion. He leaned close and sniffed again. Then he glanced to Eapha and back. Silent, he nonetheless made a discrete series of motions with his hands and straightened.

  “W-what?” Lizzy managed.

  Eapha looked equally confused. “No one’s going to want her?” Fear crossed the dark-haired woman’s face. “They have to!” She shot a look at Lizzy and back at the battler. Then she looked past him, up at where the walls joined the ceiling. Before Lizzy could turn to see what she was looking at, with a forced gale of laughter Eapha grabbed both of them by the hands and dragged them into the nearest alcove.

  The place was small, wreathed in silk with a soft mattress sunken into the floor. Eapha stumbled on it, pulling the battler with her, and turned to face Lizzy. “If no one wants you, they’ll turn you into a feeder.”

  “What?”

  Eapha looked at Two-hundred. “They have to sleep with her!”

  “No, they don’t!” Lizzy squealed.

  Eapha grabbed the battler’s arm. “They’ll cut her tongue out, Tooie! They have to!”

  Tooie looked at Lizzy again, and back at Eapha. Silently he shook his head.

  “Well…pretend!”

  Tooie considered that and finally nodded, his eyes sparkling. Wandering over onto the mattress, he started to hop up and down. The mattress squeaked loudly. He looked amused.

  Lizzy stared at Eapha, baffled. “What’s going on?”

  The woman sagged. “I told you. They only keep girls who the battlers will have sex with. Tooie says no one will want you, though. That’s nearly a death sentence in this place.”

  “Um. It’s not like I want to, but…why not?”

  Eapha shrugged and turned, making a series of hand motions at Tooie. To Lizzy’s surprise, he returned them. Eapha made more and finally finished. “He says you smell mated already. I don’t really understand. He’ll pretend, though—he already does with a lot of the women. The handlers think Tooie’s a lot more active than he is. They won’t care about one more.”

  “I don’t understand,” Lizzy said.

  Eapha blushed prettily. “I shouldn’t tell you this. I hardly know you…but I’d feel awful if you got turned into a feeder, and Tooie wants me to ask you about that mate. When he wants something, well…” She grabbed at her hair, tugging it with a groan. “I hate this! You better not be a spy. No, you can’t be a spy. Tooie would know.”

  Tooie made more gestures at her while he bounced, and finally Eapha sighed and clasped her hands. “It’s the handlers. They’re evil. I’ve known Tooie for years. He loves me and he doesn’t want to be with anyone but me, but the handlers don’t want the battlers to love. If they knew he loved me, they’d turn me into a feeder right away. So he pretends to sleep with a whole bunch of women to hide it.”

  Lizzy gaped, even though she’d had six years of experience interacting with battlers. Given a choice, they all preferred monogamy. “He does?”

  Eapha regarded Tooie again, and her expression made Lizzy’s throat thick. “Yes. There are a bunch of us with battlers who want to be exclusive. Tooie pretends he’s sleeping with all of them. So do the other battlers. There’s only about a dozen of them that are that organized, though, who talk to each other to plan out who’s going to be with who. Believe me, most battlers won’t talk to each other at all. They just jump anyone who interests them.”

  Lizzy noticed Eapha didn’t say whether any of those battlers had ever shown an interest in her. “How do you talk to him?” she asked instead.

  “Gestures.” Eapha made a few motions with her hand. Tooie returned them. “They all mean something. One of the women who was in here a few years ago had a deaf brother. She taught the gestures to a few of the girls and a couple of the battlers. There aren’t many of us who know how to do it, though, and
we have to keep it a secret.” Her face hardened. “I’ll teach you how to sign, but please, don’t do it outside the alcoves if you can avoid it, and be careful who sees you. Tooie never should have done it out there, but you surprised him. Me, too. The handlers watch us through vents at the base of the ceiling. If they knew we did this, they’d take us all for feeders. It might be even worse for Tooie and the others. They’re not supposed to talk at all. The handlers have no idea, though. They can’t see what’s happening in the alcoves, and we usually only talk in here. Still, please be careful. There are some girls we think spy for the handlers, and there are a lot of battlers I’d never trust.”

  Behind them, Tooie kept bouncing on the bed, slapping the ceiling with his hands on every bounce. Lizzy watched him for a moment before looking again at Eapha. That they were friends she didn’t allow herself to doubt. In this place, she needed friends. Now she had two.

  “Has anyone ever escaped?” she asked.

  “No. I know women who’ve tried, but the only way out is the door, and that’s locked and guarded.” Eapha saw Lizzy glance at Tooie and gave a bitter laugh. “He can’t help either. He’s under orders not to help us get free. Battlers can’t disobey their masters—did you know that?”

  Lizzy nodded. Back home, no one took advantage of their bondage. She’d seen one man abuse his fire sylph, driving the poor creature to distraction, but the battlers had sensed her distress and told Solie. She’d had the sylph transferred to a new master and the abuser banished. He’d been lucky the battlers hadn’t killed him. They’d wanted to. Also, her father was always careful never to order Ril around, knowing Ril had no choice but to obey.

  Thinking of the blond battler and the warmth of his lips, Lizzy blushed. They were coming for her, Ril and her father. He’d told her so in her dreams. But was that even possible? Lizzy wanted to believe with every bit of hope left in her, but there was so little remaining after weeks caged in the dark, and now in this place, with its soft fabrics and interminable lust.