Ephemeral and Fleeting

by Patricia Reding

A moment later, he stumbled over a body. He got up on his haunches to take a closer look. It was Tanith. Apparently she’d been on the other side of the wagon that blew up when he threw the first of his crystals. Blood oozed down the side of her head. Debris from the explosion dusted her face and hair, melding in with the gray streak at her widow’s peak.

  He reached down and felt for a pulse. She was dead. So, Ehyeh is real after all, he thought, satisfied with the result.

  “It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person,” Yasmin muttered.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Now, hurry! Run!”

  With that, the four of them set out in the midst of the confusion.

  Through the pandemonium, they made their way nearer to the city wall. He, quickly assessing the situation before them, motioned for the women to duck for cover with him, behind a wagon. Then he grabbed another crystal from his pocket. He had to cause another distraction if they were to make their way any farther.

  “Right there,” Yasmin suggested, peeking out from the side of the wagon with him. She pointed out a team of nearby succedunt guards who were rounding up some of the escaping women prisoners who’d managed to make their way this far.

  “But—I could harm some of them—some of the women.”

  She grabbed his arm. When he turned to face her, she held his gaze. “Striver, they’re dead if they’re taken anyway. Now, do it! Or I will.”

  Nodding, he stood and peeked out from behind the wagon.

  Just then, a guard prepared to release the grut at his side. As the beast howled, Striver threw his crystal. It landed next to the grut and in the midst of a pack of soldiers on horseback. With the resulting explosion, the beast went up in flames and disappeared. The smell of sulphur filled the air as two horses and their riders went down. Dust and smoke billowed, mingling with the screeches of the nearby women and of the downed equines.

  Two more mounts reared, screaming, their front hooves battling invisible opponents. They dropped their riders, then brought their front hooves down hard on them. With their ears pulled back and their eyes wild, they blew out hard through their noses, as they rose up and dropped back down again, pummeling the men.

  Striver and the women ran to, and then skirted around, the corner of the city wall. Then, quite suddenly, Striver came to a stop.

  A guard stood before him, a knife in hand, and with a grin on his face.

  Yasmin dove, slamming her full weight into his knees, taking him down. As he hit the ground, the wind was knocked out from him in one great gust of expelled air.

  Striver pulled a knife from a sheath at the man’s waist, then thrust it before he could regain his breath.

  As blood gurgled up into his throat, Yasmin grabbed Striver’s hand. “Let’s go!” she ordered.

  “Wait!” Farida cried. “Look!”

  Off to their side, several horses were hitched to a line of posts.

  “This way!” Striver called as he ran toward them.

  At that moment, a grut rushed their way.

  Quickly, each of Striver and the women loosed the ties of one of the mounts. Then they all saddled up.

  As they set off into the night, the grut turned back toward the mayhem.

  When the explosions sounded out, the guards in the section of the prison where Mara, the twins, and the other Oathtakers resided, all jumped to attention.

  “Hurry!” Broden cried. “Find out what’s happening!”

  The man nearest him stared at him, as though measuring him.

  “Hurry!” he repeated. “I’ll keep watch here. These prisoners can’t escape. Now, go. Go!”

  The man hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Seconds later, he ran out with his fellow guards at his heels.

  “Gracious Good One!” Mara cried as the last of them exited.

  “What is it, Mara? Are you all right?” Dixon cried.

  “Yes! The explosion— The rock wall here cracked and— And my chain broke free from it!”

  “Is it still bound to your wrist?” Reigna called.

  It rattled when she grabbed and shook it. “Unfortunately, yes.”

  Lucy stepped to the bars. She glared at Broden who stood nearby, Carlie and Clementine at his side. “How could you?” she asked. “After all I’ve done to see to you and your safety all these years? It seems in retrospect that I should have let your mother have her way with you!” she spat.

  He hung his head.

  Reigna and Eden drew to the bars on their cell, watching the exchange.

  “Yes, Broden, how could you?” Reigna asked.

  “I still believe in you,” Eden whispered.

  He looked up at them, then turned back to Lucy, tears pooled in his eyes.

  “Tell them Broden!” Carlie cried as Clementine leaned into her and started to cry. “The guards could return any minute. Hurry! Tell them!”

  “I didn’t join him, Lucy,” Broden said. “I swear it.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she seethed.

  “Listen to him!” Carlie begged.

  Lucy looked at her, than back at Broden.

  “I swear!” he cried. “Zarek has been trying all this time to get me to turn his way—to get me to follow Daeva. But I haven’t. I didn’t!” He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.

  “Look at this,” he said, holding his arm up to show her the band he wore. “Zarek’s men put this on me when I was captured at the compound. With it, he can make me feel pain. Now, I don’t know what will happen to me as a result of all of this,” he added, waving his hand to indicate his surroundings, “but I feel certain Zarek will believe I’m behind it—somehow. Still, I had to let you know.”

  “Are you behind it?”

  “Yes! I had my friends cause the commotion out there,” he said, gesturing toward the barred windows.

  “Your friends?”

  “Striver, my ‘tutor’ in all things Chiranian, and some women that Zarek ‘assigned’ to me—Yasmin, Farida, and Ghazala. I wanted to have a minute with you.”

  “You trusted them?” Lucy asked.

  “Yes! But even if I hadn’t, I would have chanced it. I wanted to put your mind at ease.” He hung his head. Then he muttered, “Zarek’s quarters are situated not far from here. He’s sure to arrive soon. Now I may be as good as dead already, but I had to let you know that you didn’t fail with me, Lucy.” He looked back at her.

  She stared at him. Finally, she snapped, “I don’t believe you.”

  “I swear, Lucy. I would do anything for you. I would do anything for any of you—for all of you.”

  He turned to face Reigna. “I never betrayed you, Reigna. Never! I—” He wiped an errant tear from his eye. “I swear, I would die for you, for Eden, and for Ehyeh’s cause.”

  At that very moment, the earth shook violently.

  The Oathtakers’ blades, jammed into the locks on their cell doors, broke free and then dropped to the ground, each with a clang. Then the cell bars, rattling, fell open on squeaky hinges.

  “Great Ehyeh!” Mara cried. “We’re freed!”

  She stepped out, stooped down, and grabbed Spira. Then, recollecting how she’d once used her blade to open a lock, she placed it between the band about her wrist that remained connected to the chain that previously had held her to the wall. She flicked it up—and the band broke free.

  Meanwhile, Broden stood, staring at his arm. The band he’d worn had fallen off.

  “Looks like we won’t need your singing magic after all,” Dax commented to Mara as he stepped out from his cell and grabbed his blade, Immunis.

  At that moment, one regular guard, and two of Zarek’s succedunt soldiers, came running in, their boots clacking loudly.

  On sight of the first of them, Mara recognized the man. He was the one who’d heckled her when she held Mariella, dead, in her arms. Recollecting her vow to see the man dead, she let her blade fly.

  As always, her weapon met its mark.

  The man’s eyes bolted wide open. He stared at Mara.
With that, and a gasp, he sank to his knees, and then fell over.

  Meanwhile, Lucy retrieved her blade, and then threw it at one of the succedunt, while Dax threw his at the other.

  One by one, the men fell to the ground, each with a crash.

  “Hurry!” Mara cried. “Everyone out! Now!” She rushed to the body of the man she’d downed, to retrieve Spira. “We must make good, our escape!”

  The twins and Lucy stepped over the bodies of the other fallen men as Dixon and Aliza made their way out from their prison cells, then retrieved their blades.

  “Broden, I’m so sorry,” Reigna cried when she reached his side. “I’m—”

  “Forget it,” he said, as he kicked away the band he’d previously worn and that now rested on the floor at his feet. “I know what things looked like.”

  Quickly, they all gathered outside Mara’s cell.

  “Come on, girls,” she cried as she reached for the twins, “let’s go!”

  “No,” Reigna said, pulling back. “We can all get out of here, but only if you do as Eden and I say.”

  “She’s right,” Eden said. “Now listen up, everyone!”

  “Girls—” Mara began.

  “No, Mara, listen to us. Now!” Reigna caught the eye of each of the others, quickly, and in turn. “Dixon,” she said, “you take Dax. Lucy, take Broden.”

  “Broden—you’ve done it,” Lucy interrupted, crying. “You fulfilled prophecy!”

  “What?” he asked.

  “‘Before evil claims all, the seventh seventh and she who is but is not, may seek deliverance. Pray for faith, that the bowels of the earth may heave.’ I thought it related to when the twins earned Ehyeh’s favor while in The Tearless—but maybe it was actually about what you just did here!” Her word came in a rush. “I should have guessed something unexpected could happen in light of the many references that we should be wary, since things are not always what they seem.”

  “What’s that?” Broden asked her.

  “Just more prophecy.” She looked at him, then suddenly, leaned in and inhaled deeply. “You’ve earned Ehyeh’s favor!” she exclaimed, smiling. “Your scent is lovely—of mandarin, bergamot, rosemary and amber.”

  She reached up and turned his head to the side. “Your birth sign has returned, as well! And you showed today what being a first amongst the Select is all about. Protecting life.” She held his gaze. “Oh, Broden, I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you—that I didn’t believe in you!”

  “It’s all right, Lucy, really.” He gazed at Clementine. “But listen,” he added, “I’m not going without the child.”

  “We can’t save everyone, Broden,” Lucy argued.

  “I’m not leaving without her,” he insisted. “You take her. Take Clementine.” He put his hands on the child’s shoulders and turned her Lucy’s way.

  She stared at him, tears pooled in her eyes.

  “Here, Broden,” Reigna said as she removed from around her neck, a leather band with a grut tooth attached to it. “You may need this to protect you from the beasts.” She offered it to her cousin.

  “All right then, girls, you’re going with me,” Mara said.

  “No,” Eden said, “you’re taking Carlie and Aliza.”

  “I am not! I’m taking you.”

  “You can’t all stay here!” Lucy cried, looking first at Broden, then at the twins.

  Eden reached out her hand. In it, she held Rowena’s shawl. “Reigna and I will wear this,” she said as she opened it, then draped it over their shoulders. Together, the twins pulled it up over the tops of their heads—and disappeared.

  “Reigna!” Mara cried. “Eden!”

  They took the covering down.

  “Did you hear us talking under it?” Eden asked. “Or could you catch our scents?”

  “No—neither. Did you say something?”

  “Yes. So, that’s good. No one can see, hear, or smell us when we’re under it.”

  “I don’t like this,” Mara said.

  “‘In those days when deliverance is sought, trust not illusion when I am born.’” Lucy muttered. She turned to Mara. “It’s more prophecy. I think you should let them go.”

  She scowled at her.

  “Remember what I told you before,” Reigna said. “We’ll follow the city gates out and then head straight back to the place where we first met Zarek. If there’s still a boat tied there, and if you get stalled for any reason, we’ll take it and then make our way to Aliza’s old place. If there isn’t one, we’ll hike along the river toward the border.”

  “Girls—”

  “No, Mara. Once you get the others to safety, then you can return for us.”

  “Please, no. Don’t do this!”

  “We must. Now, you all need to go!” Reigna ordered. With that, she and Eden pulled the shawl back over their heads and said no more.

  Mara reached for them, but felt nothing. A cry caught in her throat.

  “Hurry!” Dixon cried. “There’s nothing more to be done here.” With that, he grabbed Dax’s elbow.

  “Hold on,” Dax said.

  “What?”

  “Your magic won’t work on me.”

  “What?”

  “Leave me. You take Broden.”

  “I can’t leave you, Dax! There’s got to be a way!”

  He shook his head. “There is not. But don’t worry about me. I’ll find my way out.”

  “Here!” Lucy rushed toward the dead guards, then dropped to her haunches. “Change your clothing out for these,” she ordered as she took weapons, the black face covering, and the clothing off one of them. “Hurry!” She threw the items his way.

  Dax caught them, then started pulling the man’s clothing on over his own. “You all need to go,” he said. “I’ll get to safety.”

  Lucy took up a leather cord she wore around her neck. “Take my grut tooth,” she said.

  “I don’t need it. I’m immune to the gruts’ poison—it’s magic.” With that, he proceeded to drag the body of the dead guard whose clothing he’d taken, into a cell, out of sight.

  “I’m staying here with Dax,” Broden said.

  “Broden—” Lucy argued.

  “No,” he said. He crouched down, pulled clothing off of the remaining succedunt soldier, and then, back on his feet, quickly donned it. Like Dax, he put on the black face mask that the man had worn. Then he pulled the dead guard’s body into one of the cells.

  “Take Clementine,” he said when he was through, as a ruckus of faraway footsteps, fast approaching, sounded out.

  “Are you sure?” she asked him.

  “I’m sure. Get her to safety.”

  “Fine. Dixon, you take Aliza then,” Lucy said. “And you, Mara, just take Carlie. Get her to Nina.”

  “I’ve got her,” she said. She grabbed the girl’s hand. “Ready?”

  “I’m sorry, Mara,” Carlie said.

  She shook her head. “Don’t be. The twins were right. We can all get out of here safely.” She turned to Dixon. “I’ll get her home,” she said, “and then head straight back for the twins. Under no circumstances are you—or any of the others of you,” she said catching the eye of each of the others momentarily, and in turn, “to come after me or to go after them.”

  He held her gaze for a long second, then embraced her. “Fine,” he finally agreed, stepping back. Then, “Is everyone ready?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Lucy said.

  “Let’s go, then!” Mara cried.

  And with that, they all disappeared.

  The twins edged their way along the wall, past their cohorts’ former cells. When they arrived at the door leading out, they stopped and waited until Dax and Broden rushed out ahead of them, Dax shouting, “Hurry! Hurry!”

  Seconds later, they heard footsteps coming their way.

  “Reigna?”

  “Yes?”

  “Did you hear Broden?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking then?�
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  “I believe I am.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They waited as several guards entered the prison. Then they slipped out the door and down the hall.

  “He said we were close,” Reigna said.

  “We’ll have to hurry.”

  “Here, pull back.”

  They scooted up against the wall as more guards hurried by them, toward the prison.

  After they passed, Reigna pulled her twin along. “I’m guessing his quarters are down this way since that’s where all the commotion is coming from.”

  “Agreed.”

  They kept on, dodging the occasional person. Soon, they approached the doors of a room from whence they’d seen a number of people exit.

  “Now?” Eden asked.

  “The next time it opens,” Reigna said, “we’ll make our way inside.”

  No sooner had she spoken, than four succedunt guards exited the room. Quickly, the twins stepped inside, allowing the door to slam closed behind them.

  Before them, Zarek and Pestifere paced. Both fumed. Their breathing came in heavy, angry gasps.

  “Stay along the wall,” Reigna cautioned her twin.

  “Yes. Then when we find an opening, we’ll draw near—and I’ll kill them,” Eden said.

  Just then, the door flew open again. Two succedunt guards, looking like all the others of their kind, each with a black cloth over his face, entered.

  “The prisoners have escaped!” one of them shouted.

  “It’s Dax!” Reigna cried.

  Zarek, accompanied by Pestifere, rushed to the door. “Keep an eye out here,” the emperor ordered.

  The moment they exited, Dax turned toward the twins. “I thought you girls were headed straight out—behind Broden and me. But when I turned back, you weren’t there.”

  “You can see us?” Reigna asked.

  “Of course. That magic,” he motioned with his hand around his head to indicate their shawl, “doesn’t work on me. I can see through it. Anyway, I told Broden we had to turn back to find you. Fortunately, I saw the two of you just as you entered here. What possessed you to come this way?”

  “I’m going to kill Zarek,” Eden said.

  He looked at her, his eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “With my attendant magic.”