Invisible Rider

by Lucia Ashta

  “What did the woman say? Did she say where she was from or what she wanted?”

  “She didn’t. I heard her only say that twins would arrive across the rock plain, and that they would deliver devastation to the Ooba tribe. Just as Pumpoo said. Oh, and also that one of us would ride dragons. But given that we’re now surrounded by a tribe that can ride dragons, I don’t know how meaningful that is anymore.”

  “You heard the seer speak this prophecy, from her own lips?”

  “Aye.” Yoon stared at Dean defiantly, daring him, it seemed, to contradict him.

  “And how did you manage that? Were you such a trusted part of Pumpoo’s inner fold that he allowed you to be part of secret meetings with seers, when no one else was? Perhaps his emissaries were, I don’t know. The rest of the tribe certainly wasn’t, that’s for damn sure.”

  Yoon stared at Dean without saying anything for long enough that I realized things weren’t as clear as Yoon was representing them. For the first time since Dean crouched in front of him, Yoon looked around him. Quickly, he looked away, back to Dean. So many sets of eyes drilled into him, waiting for Dean to extract answers that might begin to make sense of things.

  “Pumpoo didn’t invite me.” Yoon flicked a lightning fast glance in Pumpoo’s direction, but the small man was nearly as invisible as I from this distance. He was small, the warriors who surrounded him weren’t. Yoon continued in a softer voice, as if hoping the former chieftain wouldn’t be able to hear him. “I happened to be in the area when the seer arrived. I was walking behind the chieftain’s home when I heard her begin to speak. I grew curious, thinking Pumpoo might need my protection, so I went over to the sounds to see if he needed my help.”

  “That was thoughtful of you.” There wasn’t a trace of sarcasm in Dean’s voice.

  “Aye, well, I aim to do my duty.” I couldn’t tell if Yoon was serious or not. Surely he didn’t think any of us were falling for his story. He’d been spying on the chieftain, or something like that. Whatever he’d actually been doing it couldn’t have been honorable. It didn’t feel honorable.

  “So you happened to be there when this seer arrived, and what? You managed to overhear what she said?”

  “Aye. I was concerned for the well-being of our leader. Here was a complete stranger, a foreigner to our tribe, that much was blatantly obvious. I listened long enough to ensure she meant him no harm. Once I verified that he was safe, I left.”

  “Pumpoo never realized you were there?”

  Another nervous glance to the small man lost in a sea of towering muscle. “No, he never knew.”

  “And you never spoke with him about the seer’s prophecy?”

  “I saw no reason to.”

  “Did this seer speak this prophecy alone or was there more?”

  Yoon hesitated. Dean said, “Did she leave right away after she spoke the prophecy?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t stay. I didn’t want to be discovered.” Yoon hurried to amend his response. “I didn’t want Pumpoo to see me there and misinterpret my intentions.”

  “I understand. I wouldn’t have wanted Pumpoo to discover me... overhearing either. How did this seer look when she told the prophecy? Did something change about her?”

  “Oh yes, everything about her changed. Her eyes clouded over, as if they rolled into the back of her head. She started rocking back and forth—she was sitting, you see—and her voice changed tones. It sounded almost as if she were chanting. She kept clenching and unclenching her hands, over and over, rocking.” He spoke quickly now, sure of his response. “When the prophecy finished coming through her, her eyes went back to normal, or at least as normal for her. She stopped rocking and twisting her hands.”

  “That sounds like an incredible thing to watch.”

  “Oh it was. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”

  “That’s amazing. I wish I’d seen it. Did it last for a good long while then?” It almost sounded as if Dean was talking with his friend again, a man he still trusted.

  “It lasted for a good long while, aye. You would’ve loved watching her. You could tell something special was happening. It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen.”

  “If it went on for a ‘good long while’ then surely she said more than the short prophecy Pumpoo shared with us. It was only two things. There must’ve been more. Good thing you were there so you can tell us the rest.” Excitement crossed Dean’s face, and I could no longer tell if he was being earnest, or manipulating Yoon. “What else did she say?” Dean’s green eyes sparkled with intelligence and enthusiasm. I found myself holding my breath, waiting for Yoon to tell us what Dean so much wanted to know—what I so much wanted to know.

  But Yoon’s face, which had begun to lose its worry, fell. Seriousness settled into place, and more disinterest. “That was it. She didn’t say anything more than that bit about the twins and riding dragons. Nothing else.”

  “That can’t have been it. Maybe you’ve forgotten the rest. Think for a bit.”

  “I don’t need to think,” Yoon snapped. “My memory works just fine. That’s all there was.”

  “That was it?”

  “That was it.”

  “And you heard the words directly from the seer’s own mouth?”

  “Aye. Basically.”

  “Basically?”

  “Dean!” Shula’s strong voice interrupted. “Dune! You both need to get over here right now.”

  No! Dean finally has Yoon’s back against the wall!

  Dean didn’t hesitate. With a glance at the shadow warriors who surrounded Yoon, which I interpreted to mean, Watch him, Dean stood and faced Dune. A few seconds for mind speaking with the shadow leader, and then both men were moving fast toward Shula.

  I didn’t blame them, even though I was desperate for Dean to continue questioning Yoon. But Shula’s request had been urgent. If the reserved Shula, who was as experienced as Dean, had seen reason to interrupt what he was doing, then Dean needed to hurry.

  I felt woozy from blood loss or shock or something—all I understood was that I didn’t feel my usual self. But when Traya and Rane stood, I let them help me up, nursing my injured arm. Rosie scooted across the ground to press against my lower legs, but she didn’t stand on her cut leg. Poor girl, I thought, but my attention was ahead of me. I craned my neck, as did so many of the others around me.

  This had to be about Pumpoo. It had to be.

  “Hurry!” Shula called. “It looks like he’s pulling faithum to him so he can get out of here.”

  “Crap!” I said, urgency pulsing through me. I wanted to run to Pumpoo, to do something—anything—to stop him before he could disappear to later cause more harm.

  Rane, who knew me better than anyone, clenched down on my good arm. “Stay here.” His voice was soft, but it was a command. He wasn’t about to let me expose myself to Pumpoo’s level of danger again.

  Besides, what could I do? But even as a part of me wanted to pretend I was helpless without any idea what to do, another part of me whispered, That’s a lie. You can do whatever you need to do. You’re as powerful as you believe yourself to be, as powerful as you’ll allow.

  That first part jumped, with a ready denial. But I wouldn’t let it rear and hold me back anymore. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it was there, undeniable. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe I was weak anymore. I was finished with that—so finished.

  Of all of us here, even among an entire tribe of people who were shadows, I was the only one who could become invisible. I was the only one who could extend that invisibility to others. Even my twin couldn’t do that. None of the Ooba had managed to stream as much faithum as I had without any training.

  I wasn’t a freak. I was special. And the only person who had to believe that was I, dammit. I was ready to believe.

  I was ready to charge at that sniveling heap of a man, disguised in colorful garb to hide his darkness.

  I didn’t even think. I dropped my inv
isibility with as much ease as one discarded a cloak.

  Rane and Traya startled. I didn’t look at them. “Let me go,” I said, assuming that Rane would fight me on this. He was my protector, always had been. Surely he’d resist me wanting to go up against the most dangerous man our people had ever called a leader.

  But he didn’t. That surprised me more even than the shifts I sensed running through me, which I had no desire to analyze.

  “Go,” was all Rane said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  And I knew he would. Rane always had my back, as I’d always have his.

  But as I started covering the open ground between me and the warriors who surrounded Pumpoo, Traya and Rosie followed too.

  I dropped my injured arm to my side, forgotten. Fresh blood stuck to my clothes, I barely noticed.

  My stride was free of my earlier wooziness. Magic was building inside me.

  I felt Luma’s attention settle on me. My heightened awareness also felt the forcers of the Alpha Team sense what was building in me.

  I’d take on Pumpoo alone if I had to.

  Faithum built within me with a crackling ferocity. Magic swirled around me, building like a wall as strong as any mountain. This magic wasn’t my own.

  21

  Dean and Dune reached Shula before Rane, Traya, Rosie, and I did. By the time we got there, energy—magic, I imagined—crackled nearly tangibly in the air, and several dragons swarmed high above us, blocking the sun in flickers as they flew across it.

  “Whatever he’s doing, he’s almost finished,” Shula said, her voice clear in its urgency. She and the rest of the Alpha Team circled Pumpoo. Boom and Scar held him from either side in a fierce grip no ordinary individual could free himself from—but Pumpoo wasn’t ordinary. He was pulling something to himself that went beyond the usual human limits.

  I felt a flash of admiration for the Alpha Team. They had to know something explosive was coming, a burst that undoubtedly would intend to severely injure if not kill them, but I saw no signs of fear in them, no signs that they’d back away to save themselves. One of the principal tenets of the Dragon Force was to put the well-being of the Ooba tribespeople before your own. Well, the Alpha Team did exactly that, and my chest squeezed in the kind of anticipation you never want to feel, the kind that warns you that something terrible is about to arrive, the kind of thing you’ll want to change as soon as it happens.

  Rane and I stopped just behind Dean and Dune, Traya and Rosie right behind us. The dragonling, even with her injured leg, pressed against the back of my bare calves. I couldn’t spare her any reassurance—just then, it would have been a lie. I didn’t like what was coming.

  My eyes flicked across all the members of the Alpha Team—Dean, Shula, Boom, Scar, Peachy, Crush, and Brute. Dean had said they were the ones who’d learned to draw on faithum and use it as a tool, in this case, a weapon. Their expressions were intent, focused on the small man in the midst of a group of warriors so substantial that his only hope at escape had to be faithum.

  I didn’t see any visible signs of what the Alpha Team must be drawing to themselves, but I could feel it. I was certain that Rane, his grip still firm on my good arm, could sense it too. It was building within my twin as well.

  “What do we do?” I whispered to Rane, not wanting to distract anyone else with my question.

  “Be ready” was all he said. I would’ve asked him to qualify, but I understood exactly what he meant. We couldn’t possibly know what was about to happen, but we had to be ready for it just the same. Whatever Pumpoo hurled our way, we’d give it all we got.

  That simplified my preparation. I’d launch every single speck of faithum I could amass at the former chieftain. I cared if it killed him, but not enough to restrain myself at the risk of sending too little faithum. Pumpoo was too dangerous a man to be allowed to go free. If he died, then that was on him. It would have to be. I’d already killed one man because I misjudged the power of my faithum. I’d risk doing it again to protect the forcers here—and the shadow people. The shadow warriors assembled might not be my people, but they felt as if they should be.

  “Prepare,” Rane said, his voice tight. Tingles, almost painful in their intensity, ran between our arms. Rane dropped mine, but stood so close we were almost touching.

  Unwilling to close my eyes and miss anything, I sucked in the energy that surrounded me. I didn’t think that was the way to do faithum, but since no one had taught me, I did whatever I thought to. With invisible tentacles, I reached in all directions, and pulled into me whatever the air was charged with. The well within me was filling.

  I meant to continue pulling energy and directing it inside me, but I lost my focus. Dune was immediately in front of me, positioned at an angle so that I could guess at the determination of his features on his swirling, shadowy face.

  “Give him space,” Dean barked, as if the shadow leader had communicated the request to him across mind waves.

  All but Boom and Scar, whose grip only tightened on Pumpoo, took a few steps back.

  Dune motioned his arms out to the side in big, arching motions, which suggested he was scooping the air inward. If he’d been doing what I was, I understood he was collecting something far more powerful than air.

  His movements were quick. He reached as far out as his arms could span. Then he pushed it all inside him.

  And he didn’t pause.

  He seemed to pull out the magic in thick unseen strands. He threw them in Pumpoo’s direction.

  As if Boom and Scar understood what the shadow man was doing far better than I, they stepped aside just in time.

  Dune looped his arm over his head, and Pumpoo gasped several lengths away from him. Dune pulled more from his center. He repeated the looping motions, then cinched, pulling his arms toward him as if he’d roped a wild dragon.

  He dug his feet in, leaned his body back, and held on.

  He didn’t turn his head in Dean’s direction, but I watched Dean nod at him, unspoken understanding evident from his profile.

  Dean advanced on Pumpoo. Boom and Scar stood right next to the small man, but didn’t hold him as they had before. Perhaps it would have interfered with the binding Dune evidently had on the man.

  Dean, his hands at his sides, clenching and unclenching, got as close to Pumpoo as he could. No more than an arm’s length separated them, but I realized that, if not for Dune’s hold on the former chieftain, he could have still escaped.

  I moved to the side to get a better look at Dean, and bumped into Luma. I gasped, startled. The usually gentle-seeming girl didn’t even smile at me from her shadows. She only said, What Father is doing won’t hold long. The man is too strong in his magic. Keep yours at the ready.

  I didn’t ask questions, I obeyed. I fixed my eyes on the scene ahead of me, and waited for my chance, half hoping it would never arrive.

  I thought I could actually see sparks flying off Dean’s hands, but I must have imagined it. Faithum wasn’t visible.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?” Dean said, loud enough for all of us nearby to hear.

  Pumpoo’s nostrils flared in affront, and I thought he would either die or disappear with all the answers we longed for. But no... I shouldn’t have feared. Pumpoo was ultimately too proud to keep quiet.

  “I have no need to say anything to you. I don’t answer to you.”

  “Today you do. I’m representing the Ooba people, and you have a lot to answer for.”

  “No one has elected you their leader.”

  “No one will oppose it. The Ooba people know I act with only with their best interest in mind.”

  “Not anymore.” Pumpoo’s smile was wicked. I realized this was his real smile, any pleasant one he’d ever offered just an act that hid who he really was. I wanted to pull away from the ugly sight, but I was riveted at the transformation in the man. “Not after I explained how you hurt their beloved dragons. You’ll have a hard time convincing them otherwise. They believe everythin
g I tell them. And I’ll be back to tell them lots more.” His smile grew into a grin. A shiver of revulsion ran through me before I could stop it—an unpleasant mix with the faithum I was trying to hold on to.

  “I’ve never in my long life of protecting the dragons done anything to hurt them, nor has anyone in my charge. But you already know that. Has a single word from your mouth ever been the truth?”

  “Truth is little more than a matter of perspective.”

  Ugh. Only someone as twisted as Pumpoo could ever say that, and clearly believe it.

  “Did you and your ancestors invent the sacred purpose of the Ooba?”

  Of all the urgent things Dean could have asked before Pumpoo disappeared or died, this wouldn’t have been one of my first choices. Now that the question was out, I found I was dying to know.

  Dean added, “Was the protection of the dragons ever necessary?”

  Pumpoo stared at Dean for a long beat without reaction. Then he threw his head back and laughed, a foul sound that made my skin crawl. “You think yourselves so smart and strong, saving the dragons.” He laughed until he started wheezing and stopped. “But they are dragons, and you are fools. Announcing the protection of dragons the sacred purpose of the Ooba was a brilliant move by my grandfather. I didn’t care much for the man, but I have to give him this, he sure knew how to pull your strings. Day after day you went up against the terrifying beasts who’d do anything to rip you to shreds, and yet you never hurt them, why? Because you believed what we told you, like good, obedient, little people.”

  I rankled at Pumpoo’s response far more than Dean seemed to, and I admired his resolve. I was ready to tear at the nasty little man with my bare fingers. If Rane’s clenching muscles were any indication, he was ready to do the same.

  “The sacred purpose of the Ooba was a fabrication,” Dean said as if he’d long suspected it. I hadn’t. “Why?”