Reapers

by Kim Richardson

  She picked up and cradled her crystal with both hands, rubbing it gently with a proud smile on her face, like a proud mother cuddling her child.

  “It is as it always was and should be, but I know what you’re thinking.”

  She let go of her crystal and looked at Mr. Patterson disapprovingly.

  “It was the males that decided to ride them like bicycles. Such a ridiculous notion! Our crystals are precious and were never meant to be harassed in such a fashion.”

  “We’ve always had a different connection with the crystals, Kara,” said Mr. Patterson.

  His voice was hushed when he spoke. “We felt it correct to do as we have.”

  “Crystals are not toys, Jim,” Mistral scolded. “We never understood the males’ need to make them into bicycles. Ridiculous.”

  “We could move faster that way, and we got much more done,” said Mr. Patterson, and then he mumbled, “And it’s more fun.”

  He raised his voice. “You forget, Mistral, that Horizon is much bigger than Eden. We have many more levels, and much more ground to cover. We couldn’t possibly achieve what needed to be done with our short legs. We just made a few minor adjustments to the crystals.”

  Mistral raised her brows.

  “Minor, my eye. Well, I think it is quite scandalous. And the rolling affects your memories,” she added matter-of-factly.

  Kara wondered if the fact that the oracles in Horizon always got their names wrong was what Mistral meant by affecting their memories.

  “…That I do remember,” continued the little woman, in a business-like voice. “But again, it is not our business how you adapt your crystals.”

  She looked at Kara and continued, “The males have always done things differently. We are the same…but different.”

  She stopped and faced Mr. Patterson. “And where is your crystal?”

  Mr. Patterson tapped his front jacket pocket. “Never leave home without it.”

  He smiled proudly at her. His uneasiness seemed to have been replaced by a desire to please her.

  “Hmmm,” said Mistral. She turned around, and Kara could see a playful smile on her face as she continued down the path.

  Kara smiled. She liked this little busybody woman. She reminded her of her own grandmother, stern, but with a big heart. And she clearly liked to tease Mr. Patterson. It was almost cute. It gave her the courage to ask her a question.

  “Excuse me, oracle Mistral?” said Kara, hoping she wasn’t being impertinent by speaking out of turn.

  “You said that Eden was a place for the souls of the beasts…for the souls of all the creatures. Does that mean the animals we saw earlier were—?”

  “Souls,” answered Mistral.

  She turned her head toward Kara as she walked. “Yes, you’ll find every living creature’s soul here, from a tiny little ant to an elephant, from butterflies to trees. Everything has a soul. And here, in Eden, we look after them all.”

  “That’s why they have a light about them. It’s their soul,” said Kara.

  “Yes.”

  “So they just stay here?” asked David. Kara could tell he was just as curious and in awe as she about this place.

  “Aren’t they reincarnated back to the mortal world, into baby animals and baby insects, just like humans are?”

  Mistral sighed heavily.

  “Well, some do, some don’t. It depends. Some of the souls like it here and don’t want to go back. And do you blame them? In the mortal world they are killed for furs, burned, starved, hunted, abused, and eaten. Eventually some do decide to go back, but it can take decades for them to make up their minds.”

  In the middle of the globe twenty oracle women busied themselves in large ledgers along a great table made of solid oak. They were dressed in the same type of robe and tall pointy hat as Mistral, but in red, yellow, pink, blue, purple, and bright orange. They were arguing loudly.

  “I’m telling you, gazelle no. 1908 is ready to go back,” said an oracle woman in a purple robe. “She told me herself.”

  “Can’t be,” said another in a yellow robe.

  She scratched the top of her head. “According to the ledger no. 2014, she just got here five years ago. It’s too soon. Send another one.”

  “No, it’s not!” said another.

  “Yes it is.”

  “No—”

  As Kara and the others neared the table, the oracles fell silent. Their golden eyes moved from Mr. Patterson to David, and finally they all rested on Kara – more specifically, on what was behind her.

  Mistral stood before the table. “Oracles. You remember Jim?”

  At the mention of Jim, the women suddenly looked annoyed. They looked at his feet, as though they expected to see a great crystal.

  Mr. Patterson smiled nervously and bowed his head in a greeting.

  “Oracles.”

  “He’s brought two guardians with him. This is David and Kara.”

  When Kara heard her name, her wings fluttered involuntarily.

  The oracles around the table jumped to their feet and grabbed the crystals around their necks as if to protect themselves from Kara, as if she was a dangerous beast.

  “What in the souls?” cried an oracle. She backed away, tripped on her red robe, and fell.

  “I knew it! Leave it to the males to do something like this!” spat the tallest of the group. Her yellow hat fell off her head.

  It pained Kara to be treated like a monster. The oracles looked at her with the same fear and disbelief that Mr. Patterson had shown when he had first seen her wings.

  Kara caught David watching her. She hated the pity that she knew he felt for her. There was nothing worse than to be pitied.

  “Calm down, Niri,” said Mistral.

  Her expression softened when she saw the look of distress on Kara’s face. She gave her a short smile.

  “I don’t think Jim would have brought something of great evil, if he had known what it was. He might be a male, but I am sure he wouldn’t knowingly endanger us. He was given the yellow crystal so that he could call upon us for help.”

  “We all agreed to this,” she reminded them, “and now he is here, and by the looks of things he needs our help. Jim?”

  Mr. Patterson cleared his voice, and pulled at his jacket nervously.

  “Oracles, what Mistral has said is true. I have come here to seek your counsel. I cannot explain what has happened to Kara. But I will tell you what I know.”

  As Mr. Patterson recounted the events surrounding the genesis of Kara’s wings, the other oracles became interested. One by one they moved from the table to get a closer look. They inspected her like a lab rat. They prodded, pulled, poked, and even smelled her wings.

  “Ouch, that hurt!” cried Kara, as one of the oracles tried to cut off a sample of wing.

  “I fear…I hope…”

  The pain on Mr. Patterson’s face made Kara feel worse.

  “…I hope that I am wrong.”

  Kara looked at the faces around her. Their fear had become a great sadness.

  “You know what this is, don’t you? I can see it in your faces. You know what these wings mean? Tell me. Please.”

  An oracle with a light blue robe shuffled toward Kara. She took Kara’s hands in hers, and Kara flinched at the coldness of the old woman’s touch. It was like touching ice.

  “I am truly sorry, child guardian. This is a serious burden you carry.”

  Kara pulled her hands away.

  “Why is having wings such a big deal? Birds have wings.”

  “But you are not a bird or a butterfly,” said another oracle.

  “You are an angel, a protector of human lives and souls. And guardian angels were not created with wings.”

  “Okay…I get it. Angels don’t have wings.” Kara didn’t want to be rude, but her temper was beginning to rise. “And now I’m a problem, because I have wings. Say what’s on your mind. Go on. I can take it. How big a problem is this?”

  Mistral spoke
next. “We have all seen wings like yours before, Kara, long ago.”

  “Okay, so then that’s good, no?”

  The oracle shook her head. “As you put it…it is not good. It is the very opposite of good. The worst kind imaginable.”

  Kara felt her little bubble of hope burst.

  “In the beginning, only one creature was created with wings,” said Mistral.

  “They were the most vile and dangerous creatures that ever existed. They were the archfiends.”

  Chapter 19

  Augura

  Silence. The globe was like a tomb. Everyone stared at Kara.

  She wanted to disappear. She was getting used to the idea of having wings, and the prospect of flying had brought her joy, but deep down she knew that a deep cold feeling had crept inside her soul and wanted to be let out. From what Raphael had told her about the archfiends, she knew this was not going to end well.

  “The archfiends,” Kara repeated almost to herself. “My wings are like the archfiends’.”

  She saw the shocked expression on David’s face and looked away.

  “Yes,” answered Mistral. She raised her voice so that it carried inside the entire building.

  “The archfiends were created before the archangels and angels. They were the most powerful beings in all the worlds. But they lusted for power and became too strong. We began to fear them. After the war, after the archangels had been created, the archfiends were banished forever. Your wings bear their mark.”

  David recognized the look of panic on Kara’s face.

  “Don’t listen to them, Kara. You’re not evil. And you’re not one of those things, whatever they say. They don’t know you. I know you, and you’re not bad. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re stuck here in Eden. They don’t know what’s going on out there, and they’re not warriors like us. They’re just a bunch of stupid old ladies.”

  “I beg your pardon, boy?” The oracle with the purple robe pressed her hands firmly on her hips and eyed David crossly.

  “Who do you think you’re talking to? We’ve existed since the beginning. You are merely an impulse creature, a passerby, a fleck of dust.”

  David opened his mouth as if he were about to tell off the oracle, but at the last minute he decided against it. Instead he took Kara by the shoulders and turned her to face him.

  “Stop what you’re thinking right now,” he said. “You’re not evil. You’re not one of them. You’re not an archfiend.”

  “Aren’t I?” Kara said softly.

  His words left her quickly, as though they carried no weight, no meaning. She pulled away from him, aware of the hurt feeling on his face. But she couldn’t look at him right now.

  Kara felt a tug on her wings.

  “I think that somehow you have been made into one,” said Niri. She secured her hat back on her head. “Your wings are very much like theirs, smaller, but very like them, too. Such evil creatures, they were. Such destruction.”

  She shivered as though just the memory of the archfiends made her skin crawl.

  A mousy-looking oracle in a light pink robe said, “Well, I am glad they will never resurface.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not entirely true,” said Mr. Patterson.

  The oracles all turned their attention to him and urged him to elaborate. He told them about the reapers, and the imps who were searching for the key.

  The oracles were all silent, pondering this new bit of information. Their golden eyes shone brighter, as though a light illuminated them from the inside. And as Kara watched their expressions change, a tilt of the head, eyebrows raised and furrowed, she was sure that they were communicating telepathically. Most likely, they were arguing.

  Mr. Patterson watched Kara solemnly, his face a mask of pity and regret, as if the suspicions that he had hoped would be false had now come true.

  “This is what you didn’t want to tell me?”

  Kara’s soul felt like it was breaking. Her wings seemed heavier somehow, and she avoided looking at David.

  “Yes,” Mr. Patterson answered. “I had hoped I was wrong. I didn’t want you to suffer again. You’ve been through so much with the legion; I had hoped to spare you any more misery. We had some insight into what to expect from you when we discovered your elemental powers. But this…this is strange and unfamiliar territory. And we fear what we do not understand.”

  Kara stared at the ground. It was the worst news she could hear. She was not turning into a fairy as Jenny had hoped. She was becoming an evil creature with black leathery skin, sores and exposed flesh, bat wings, and fangs like the mouth of a piranha.

  The more the oracles confirmed her suspicions, the deeper she buried the last of her hopes. She knew that if she let the darkness in, if she succumbed to its demands, she would be lost. Would she even remember who she was? Would she hurt her friends? The thoughts frightened her because she didn’t know the answers.

  Kara remembered the man-creature that had injected her. Was he an archfiend? He wasn’t human. She was sure of that. And yet, she was pretty certain he didn’t have any wings.

  She struggled to find her voice.

  “If what you say is true, if I’m part them—” She strained to continue even though her voice shook. “How and why would they do this?”

  Mistral spoke.

  “We’ve decided that we should make sure our suspicions about you are true. We are going to call upon Augura. She will be able to see inside your mind. She will know who made your wings.”

  “Ladies!” She clapped her hands firmly. “To your feet!”

  They all shuffled forward and scrambled around until they stood side by side in a straight line.

  “Is it me, or did we just get front row tickets to see a line dance?” said David, laughing. “And I forgot my camera.”

  At first, Kara had to agree with David. It did look like the little women were about to perform a dance of some sort. But then they began to run, and the giant crystal building began to roll.

  With a roar like thunder, the great crystal structure tipped, shook, staggered and then began to roll faster and faster. It was like a giant bowling ball catching up momentum after the throw. The oracles’ feet moved in unison, with the tap tap tap rhythm of a motor running.

  Kara was amazed at the agility and skill of these little women. They moved together, skilfully and effortlessly, and manoeuvred the colossal globe with precision.

  It all made sense now. The furniture was fixed to the sides and ceiling of the spherical building because it was a movable structure.

  Kara ran alongside them to keep from falling. She moved her feet, faster and faster until she was running up the walls of the giant sphere and passing furniture that had originally been on the ceiling. It was like they were running in a giant hamster wheel.

  If Kara hadn’t been so glum, she might have really enjoyed this part. And finally, the tiniest of smiles appeared on her face. She couldn’t help it. It was contagious. It was an awesome feeling.

  Mr. Patterson looked thrilled to be moving the crystal ball, too. Even David smiled as he ran behind the oracles.

  The tiny windows closed as the ball rolled forward. But the thick crystal walls were impossible to see through.

  “How do they know where they’re going?” Kara cried over the noise of crunching gravel. “Can the oracles see through the walls?

  “They’re oracles,” said David, laughing, “I guess they can see where they’re going.”

  And just when Kara was beginning to forget that she had wings at all, the oracles stopped running, and the crystal slowed to a stop.

  The oracles shuffled outside. Only Mistral remained.

  “This way please.” She gestured for them to follow her as she made her way outside as well.

  Together they stepped through the threshold and onto the green grasses of Eden.

  A single oracle in a white robe was kneeling by a stream. Her back was toward them, so Kara couldn’t see her face. The ot
her oracles led them toward her.

  The oracle in the white robe turned as they approached. She was short and slender, and her thin face was ancient and riddled with deep lines, like the grooves in an old tree’s bark. But her golden eyes were true and full of vigor. A single bun of white-silver hair was neatly pinned to the top of her head like a crown.

  When she smiled at them, her tiny eyes disappeared into the folds of her skin. She turned, and Kara felt a tiny prick on her forehead. The white oracle emitted great power. She didn’t seem as surprised at Kara’s wings as the others had been. It was almost as though she had expected to see them.

  “Augura,” said Niri, “I would like you to meet—”

  “Kara,” said the Augura.

  Her voice was deep and commanding. It was a young voice that didn’t match her face. Kara flinched at the mention of her name.

  The white oracle focused on Kara for a second longer and then moved over to David.

  “And David,” continued oracle, “And of course, Jim.”

  Mr. Patterson smiled kindly and bowed. “Augura, how nice to see you again.”

  David leaned toward Kara and whispered, “How did she know our names?”

  “Because the crystals told me,” answered the white oracle, clearly not suffering from any hearing loss. “Because I have seen the future, and you are both in it.”

  Kara looked away. She knew that the white oracle could see the darkness in her.

  “And what does the future say?” asked David.

  Augura closed her eyes and concentrated for about twenty seconds.

  Without opening her eyes, she reached down and grasped the crystal that hung on her large golden chain. Within seconds, a tiny light flickered inside the crystal. It grew steadier and finally shone like a little star.

  Finally, the white oracle opened her eyes.

  “It is strange, very strange. But I cannot see who did this. Just when I’m about to reach that memory of your past, Kara, the visions stop and there is a blackness. It is a cold blackness, like a great wall that cannot be breached… even by me. Something is blocking me. It is very powerful, and I cannot break through it. I’m sorry, but I cannot reach inside your mind any further.”