I knocked on the door, not too hard but not too soft, either. She was probably out cold. I heard a scuffle within and a brief smatter of cursing that made me snicker.
Suddenly the door swung open to show Melaine. She was clutching a sheet tightly around herself. I felt my face grow red-hot and I turned to face the other direction, coughing.
“Uh, sorry,” I said. “I just thought you might want to wake up.”
“I’m sorry, my Lord,” she said quickly. “I’ll be ready in moments.”
“Okay,” I said. “Take your time.”
I heard the rustle of the sheet as she moved away, but there was no sound of the door closing. I didn’t want to risk turning around, so I reached behind me and fumbled for the handle. I found it and swung the door shut. It latched with a click.
By the time it swung back open not two minutes later, I had composed myself. Melaine practically leapt out into the hallway, buckling the last couple of straps on her breastplate as she followed me back down the hallway.
“I am terribly sorry, my Lord,” said Melaine, her voice low and embarrassed. “It is not like me to oversleep.”
“We’re in the middle of a war.” I shrugged. “Me and the others are sleeping a heck of a lot longer than you guys are. It’s no big deal.”
Melaine didn’t answer. We entered the great hall to find two piping hot meals waiting for us at the table. I shoveled the food into my mouth voraciously. Things tasted better over here. Or maybe I was just able to taste. On Earth, my mind was so wracked with worry that food tasted like sand.
I was halfway done when Calvin and Darren came into the hall. They took their seats at the table wordlessly. Food was brought and they began to tuck in just as Melaine and I finished up.
“I think I’m gonna head out,” I said. “See you there?”
Calvin nodded. “Of course. Not like I’ve got anywhere else to be.”
I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, then pushed my chair back and stood.
“Lady Tess arrived earlier, Lord Miles,” Darren mentioned. “She should already be at the gate.”
I nodded. “Cool. Thanks.”
We went out to the stables to find six horses ready and saddled. Melaine and I found our mounts and climbed into our saddles. Our ride through the streets was gloomy. The people were subdued. They looked up and nodded as I rode by, but there was no calling out. There were no cheers, as there had been when we first arrived. The mood of the city didn’t allow for them. Most of these people probably had a brother, a father or a son out by the barrier gate, some of them fighting on the wall. The siege was the first thing on everyone’s mind.
My mood lightened considerably as we exited the city walls. I looked ahead to see the gate standing there, tall and proud in the mid morning light. Far away, barely discernible through the thick blue haze of the barrier, I saw a mass of blackness spread across the land. But the gate seemed quiet. I’d arrived back the first day to see flashes of light and fire atop it, a battle already underway. Now it was still.
“Seems peaceful,” I said.
“For now,” remarked Melaine.
I kicked the horse into a trot, a million times more comfortable in the saddle than I had been the first time I rode. Soon we arrived at the gate. We rode through the ranks of men there, most of them sitting or laying about on the grass. As we passed, they got to their feet and saluted.
“Hail, Realm Keeper!”
I waved. Even this, I had gotten used to by now.
We climbed our slow way to the top of the tower. As we passed the arrow slits set in the front, I peered over the shoulders of the archers stationed there. The Shadows and hellions were standing there, waiting for us. Waiting for a moment of weakness. Waiting to attack us again.
We climbed out on top. Raven, Blade and Sarah were waiting there on the wall between the towers, the one that spanned the top of the gate. Tess had joined them already. She was sitting next to Blade.
“Yo, Miles,” said Blade, waving. I waved back and made my way through the soldiers to them, plopping down on the ground beside Sarah.
“Hear anything today?” she asked without preamble.
“Nope. But then again, I don’t know if I’d be the first one your parents would call,” I said.
She nodded. “Hope I’m still home when I wake up.”
I chuckled.
“Is Calvin coming?” asked Raven.
“He’s right behind me.”
“Good. They hit us again last night, and there’s something new. Big birds, all in black. Like Ella used to be.”
That took me aback. “With riders, too?”
Raven shook her head. “No, no riders, lucky for us. That guy was nasty. I wouldn’t like to have to fight any more like him. But the birds are bad enough. They landed up here and did some pretty bad damage before we fought them off.” I noticed her picking absently at a stain on her sleeve. It looked like blood.
“Yeah, we were wishing all night that Calvin was here,” Blade said. “A little gust of wind would knock those things right out of the sky. Of course, fireballs did that, too.” He grinned.
“And lightning bolts,” added Raven.
“Well, he’ll be here today. But I’ve got night shift tonight.”
Sarah shook her head. “I need Calvin to switch with you. He’s got to get rid of as many of the crows as he can.”
“Crows?”
“That’s what we started calling them,” Sarah said with a shrug. “But anyway, Chaos is getting smarter. They realize there’s fewer of us during the night, only three or four instead of all six. So they’ve started mostly attacking at night. We got hit four times last night.”
I gawked. “Four?”
She nodded. “I told you. They’re getting smarter. And meaner.”
Tess spoke up. “Calvin was just on night shift yesterday. Or last night, or the day before. Whatever. You know what I mean.”
Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. We need him.”
I looked at Tess, a little annoyed. It was all nice of her to try to be thinking of others, but she wasn’t even pulling night shifts. I didn’t understand why, and Tess hadn’t volunteered an explanation. Sarah was cool with it, so I tried to let it slide, but I’d have been lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed by it.
The tower trapdoor opened, and Calvin poked his head up. “Howdy, fellow warriors of righteousness!” he called out.
I sighed. “Hi, Calvin.”
He came over and sat down. He looked better than when I’d seen him in the Runehold. Maybe the food had done him some good. He looked almost chipper. “How are things?”
“Five hits last night,” Sarah said.
Calvin’s eyebrows reached for the clouds. “Five?”
Sarah nodded. “And I need you to pull a night shift tonight. They’ve brought in crows — big birds, all black. We need them to have a nasty accident in a windstorm.”
“Um…okay.” Calvin ducked his head. If he wanted to protest doing a night shift again so quickly, he didn’t say anything about it.
That’s when I came to a decision.
“Hey, Blade,” I said.
Blade looked up, an eyebrow cocked. “What’s up?”
“What are you doing? On Earth, I mean? You’re here all the time. Where’s your body?”
He picked at his fingernails. “How come?”
I sighed. “Because I want to join you.”
“What?” snapped Sarah.
Blade looked back and forth from me to her. “It’s all good, bro. You’ve got more stuff happening back on Earth than I do. No need for you to skip class.”
“You’re skipping class,” I said.
Blade laughed at that. It was the first genuine, hearty laugh I’d heard from him in days. Maybe from any of us. “You seriously think I’m worried about high school?” he asked. “Like I ever had a chance at getting into college, anyway.”
“Miles, can I talk to you?” asked Sarah. Without waiting f
or an answer, she stood and went to the tower at the end of the wall. I followed.
As soon as we reached the tower’s roof, she turned to me. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do,” she said. “But seriously, you need to think about your life back home. There’s a big difference between pulling a couple of night shifts a week and staying here day after day with only a couple of hours’ sleep, like Blade.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I asked, harsher than I’d meant to. My heartbeat began to rise.
No. Not here.
“Sarah, it’s hell for me back home,” I said quietly. “I can’t think. I can barely eat. All I can think about is that any minute, Shadows could breach the Runehold and kill me in my sleep. And I’d drop dead on my desk at school and no one would know why. Including my family.”
She shook her head. “I know, but there’s nothing we can do about that. So why keep worrying about it? Abandoning Earth isn’t a solution.”
“It is for me. When I’m here, I’m at peace. At least I can see something coming. I know you and Calvin can deal with it. I know you can put your heads past it and just live your lives normally, but I can’t. I had a panic attack today, Sarah. I ran out of class and threw up in the bathroom, and I was shaking for an hour afterward.”
Sarah’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God, Miles. I had no idea.”
That made me snicker. “Of course you didn’t,” I said, smiling. “You were here fighting. Remember?”
Sarah didn’t return my smile. “What did you tell your parents? What are you going to tell them, if you do this?”
“I’m going to say I’m spending a few nights at Blade’s house. I’ll make up a social studies project that he and I have been assigned to together. I’ll check in with her once a day. Heck, I might even have Blade come stay the night at my house once or twice just to help sell it. I’ve got to, Sarah. Waking moments on Earth are tearing me apart.”
She looked deep into my eyes. “You’re sure you want to do this?”
I nodded. “Never been more sure.”
She let out her breath in a long, slow whoosh. “All right. Fine. You do what you’ve got to do. Just don’t lose touch. And don’t do something to get yourself in big trouble back home.”
“You didn’t say that to Blade,” I said joking.
“That’s because Blade is always in big trouble back home,” she grumbled. “Come on. Let’s get back to the others.”
We went back and sat down. “So, what’s the deal?” I asked Blade. “Where can we hook up?”
Blade shrugged. “I’m in the Holiday Acres campsites, twenty minutes out of town.”
I nodded. “I know it. You want to pick me up, or you want me to drive out to you?”
“I’ll pick you up,” Blade said. “No prob.”
“Sweet. I’ll try to work things out so you can spend a couple of nights at my place, too. Sleep on an actual bed.”
“You have no idea how good that sounds. My car seat gets old after a while.”
“You’re sleeping in your car?” I asked, shocked. “You didn’t even bring a tent?”
Blade shook his head. “My family’s never been big on camping,” he said, a bite in his voice.
“I’ll grab one from our garage,” I said. “And some sleeping bags. I’d try for air mattresses, too, but there’s only so much I can get without it being suspicious.”
Blade chuckled. “I’ll be fine. You sure have a weird idea of roughing it.”
“Raven?”
Tess’ small voice made me start and look over. Raven had slumped to the side, her eyes closed. She’d dozed off.
“Shoot,” I mumbled. “Barius!”
Barius was sitting a ways off with the other Runegard. He looked up sharply and saw Raven. Cursing, he pushed himself up from the wall’s floor and came to her. He scooped her up in his arms as though she was a toddler. Her head lolled against his shoulder.
“I’ll get her to the Runehold,” he said, irritated. “My apologies for not keeping a closer eye.”
“No problem, Barius,” said Sarah gently. “We’re all tired, and Raven more so than most. Just get her back safe.”
Barius nodded and left.
“How long before you want to go join her?” I asked Sarah.
She shrugged. “I’ll stay up as long as I can. If I feel like I’m getting useless, I’ll go back. But it’s easier to just stay.”
“To stay, and wait,” I said. “Feels like we’re doing that a lot these days.”
We stood guard on the wall all day. Chaos struck only once before the night shift went home. I saw the crows during the attack. They swooped in low, raking at the men with their claws or scooping them up. Fortunately, they weren’t really that big, and they could be brought down with arrows, so they were wary of the wall.
Once Calvin entered the battle, it was a massacre. He swept them from the sky with great gusts of wind, sending them spinning and screaming to the ground where they crashed and lay still. Sometimes he’d fling them straight into the barrier, where they fizzled from existence like moths against a bug zapper. When they were gone, we turned our attention to the hellions who had used the distraction to reach the gate. After a few minutes of concentrated fire, they died or turned and ran. A sizable pile of bodies and armor was starting to accumulate below the gate.
Blade and Raven went back to the Runehold to sleep, and the rest of us stayed on guard. There was another attack in the early afternoon, with twice as many crows as before. They flew low this time to make themselves harder to hit before climbing suddenly and striking hard at the archers that sought to bring them down.
Three of the crows latched on to one of the ballistas and tore it from its mount. They sent it crashing to the ground below the gate before we could drive them off. When the forces of chaos retreated, they left more than a dozen bodies lying motionless above the gate.
Blade returned after just a few hours of rest. Then, when it was time for the day shift to go home, he followed me back to the Runehold. I took one of the sleeping potions and passed out instantly.
I got ready, taking my time. Blade would need at least twenty minutes to get here. I took a long shower, enjoying the soothing water.
I realized as I climbed out and got dressed that the stress I’d felt my last day on Earth was gone. Now that I knew what I was doing, I wasn’t worried any more. Soon I’d be spending most of my days in the world where I was the one in control. It was liberating. I couldn’t keep a small smile from my face.
I came downstairs to find my dad sitting in the kitchen. I had about ten minutes to get out the door and go to school. But I wasn’t going to school today.
“Hey, pops,” I said. “I wanted to let you know, I’m going to spend a couple of days at a friend’s house. That cool?”
My dad’s brow furrowed, and he leaned back from his meal of toast and eggs. “Which friend?”
“A guy from school. His name’s Winston Frederickson.”
He thought for a moment. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“He’s one of the other kids from the detention thing. A year older than me.”
He nodded. “Right, I remember him. Doesn’t he go by…what is it…”
“Blade,” I said. “It’s some kind of tough guy thing. He’s cool, though. And we’ve been assigned to a social studies project together. It’s going to be a lot of work, so I figured it would be easier if I just spent the next couple of days at his place.”
“I don’t see why not,” my dad said cautiously. “But for how long?”
“Not sure exactly. Until we’re done. It’s due in…um…” I thought hard. How much time should I give myself? How much time could I give myself? “It’s due in a week. So why don’t we do a couple of days at his place, and then we’ll come here for a couple days. That work?”
He sighed. “I suppose so. Unusual, though.” He looked at me sternly. “I just want to know — and please tell me I’m wrong if I am — you aren
’t actually going to go to Clarissa’s, are you?”
“What?” I nearly shouted. “No, dad. Jeez. Clarissa and I are…kind of on the outs, anyways. I mean, we’re kind of fine, but we’re having…I don’t know. Issues.”
He smiled gently. “Oh, son. I’m sorry about that. But don’t worry. These things have a way of working themselves out. But do you think maybe you should be spending a little more time with her, rather than spending all of it at Winston’s house?”
“Yeah, maybe. I’ve thought about that. It’s just…we’ve been hanging out at school a lot, too. Since the ‘incident.’ And he’s actually a pretty cool guy. We’ve become really good friends.”
I smiled a little as I realized that the words came so easily because they were true. I did consider Blade a friend. I didn’t know if you could fight beside somebody in a bona fide war and not consider them a close friend.
My dad looked at me thoughtfully. “Well, okay, if that’s how you feel about it. I’ll let your mom know. She’ll want you to check in, though.”
“Of course. At least once a day,” I said.
“More, if you can.” He checked his watch. “And now, you’d better be going if you don’t want to be late.”
“Sure thing. I’m going to leave my car here. Blade drives, so he’ll be giving me a ride back and forth to school.”
“Sure, sure. Now get out of here.”
I gave him a quick hug and ran out the door. I looped around to the side door of the garage and snatched up the bagged tent and two sleeping bags.
Blade was waiting for me in the street, his old sixties Mustang rumbling. The thing looked like a hunk of junk — the paint was peeling, and the upholstery was torn and faded.
“Hey,” I said, nodding as I swung open the door. I tossed the tent and sleeping bags in the back.
“Sup, yo,” said Blade. The difference in his appearance was shocking. In Midrealm, his Realm Keeper’s robes gave him a look of authority and vague menace. On Earth he had torn jeans, a spiked wristband and a dark, threadbare concert shirt from some band I’d never heard of before. He was back to being the punk kid I’d known for months before our lives changed forever.
Midrealm Page 55