Midrealm

by Garrett Robinson

  So I went back and forth every day, going to school as if everything was normal. The most I’d allow myself was sleeping nearly every second I was at home. My parents were worried, but after hearing what was happening to the others in our little group, my symptoms seemed relatively minor.

  What bothered me more were the reactions from Miles and Raven. Sarah trusted me enough not to ask what was wrong. Blade didn’t seem to let it bother him. Calvin was so happy-go-lucky, despite our circumstances, that I doubted he even realized anything was going on. But Miles and Raven resented the extra time I spent at home. I could see it in the way they looked at me. And I couldn’t even tell them why without telling them what my home life was like, which I wasn’t about to do.

  So here I was, on the wall above Morrowdust’s main gate, waiting beside Calvin and Sarah because I didn’t want to be around Miles and Raven and the looks they gave me.

  “Maybe they’ll hit us today,” Calvin said. He sounded almost hopeful. Maybe he was hoping another fight would keep him awake.

  Terrence had breached the barrier and set up camp in the fields around the city the day before yesterday, and since then his army had barely moved a muscle. The humans with his army had constructed great towers made of wood and metal that had huge wheels to roll on. They’d also built catapults, but so far they’d kept them well back from the walls, out of the range of the defensive catapults that Morrowdust had. But other than constructing their weapons of war, the army hadn’t moved.

  There had been tiny little forays, attacks that seemed more like a test of our strength. Terrence sent flights of crows to attack the city from various directions, but now we had armies of archers on the walls and within the city to bring them down. He sent Shadows in the dead of night to strike at the walls to see where they were weak, but every person in Morrowdust who could fight was manning those walls with sword and spear. Those unfit for combat, the elderly, the infirm, the children and pregnant women, had all been safely concealed within the vastness of the Highwind palace.

  Elanor hadn’t been seen since Nestor’s death. One of Nestor’s chief advisors had been put in charge of the palace and the city’s day-to-day affairs. The man was fat and old, but Greystone trusted him, and that was enough for the rest of us.

  Ideally we’d all have been stationed at the same gate, but Terrence’s army wrapped so far around the city that he could easily attack either the west gate or the south gate, or both at once. Sarah had decided to split us up between the two of them, but we were ready to run to either one at a moment’s notice.

  So now we waited again, for the second day in a row, for Terrence to attack. When he made his big push, we’d all need to be here. No one was taking any more sleep than they had to.

  Except me.

  “Have you all eaten?”

  I turned at the sound of Greystone’s voice. He stood in the doorway of one of the towers. His robes were filthy, stained with soot and what was probably blood, but was now too old and browned to tell for sure. His hair looked wilted. He puffed constantly on his pipe whenever there wasn’t an attack underway.

  “Hi, Greystone,” I said. “Yeah, they brought us something to eat a couple of hours ago.”

  “Good,” he said. “When was the last time you all slept?”

  Calvin turned to him with a grin. “Okay, mom, you don’t need to baby us. We’re taking care of it. Same shifts as always.”

  Greystone glared at him. “Considering that your health and state of mind shall determine the survival or destruction of the Free Kingdoms, you will forgive me for being somewhat concerned for them.”

  Calvin waved a hand dismissively. “We know what we’re doing.”

  “Said the thirteen-year-old kid,” said Sarah, rolling her eyes.

  Greystone came over and, with a surprising amount of agility for a nine-hundred-year-old man, leapt up and planted his butt on the battlements. He laid his staff across his knees and took a long puff on his pipe.

  Calvin looked at him, taken aback. “Turning your back on the enemy?”

  Greystone waved airily. “And what of it? If a single move is made, a thousand voices will shout a warning at once.”

  “Yeah…” Calvin said doubtfully. “I guess I’m just used to everyone standing here and watching.”

  “You are too used to it,” Greystone said gruffly. “You all look as though you’ve been trampled and then thrown over a waterfall. And not a particularly gentle waterfall.”

  “I think that’s how we all feel, too,” I said with a smile.

  Greystone sighed, taking another puff. It was silent on the wall for a moment.

  “Do you think we have a chance?” I asked quietly.

  “We have more than a chance,” said Greystone. “The city is defended by thousands of soldiers of Morrowdust. They will not abandon the walls lightly.”

  “True,” Sarah said cautiously. “But there’s a lot of wall.”

  “If the walls are taken, which they very well may be, we shall fall back within the Runehold and the royal palace. There we may remain for months. If Terrence thinks he had difficulty breaching the barrier gate, he will rue the day he attempted to breach the walls of the Runehold. They have never fallen to the enemy in all their centuries.”

  “Neither had the barrier, until we showed up,” I said.

  Greystone’s attention snapped to me. “How do you know that?”

  I looked up at him, suddenly nervous. “What? I…I heard it somewhere.”

  “Where?” Greystone’s eyes narrowed.

  “One of the officers in the palace,” I mumbled. “He…mentioned it. To someone else. I just overheard it.”

  Greystone slid off the wall and came to stand in front of me. “Lady Tess, I do not care to make accusations,” he said. His voice was stern, but somehow gentle at the same time. “But if you are not telling me the truth, there is nothing I can do to help you.”

  “Help me with what?” I asked, looking around for help. Sarah was staring at me quizzically. Calvin was looking blankly between me and Greystone. Only Nora looked at me with something that looked like sympathy.

  Greystone sighed. “Have you begun reading the thoughts of others?”

  I blushed. I didn’t want to answer.

  “I shall take that for a yes,” Greystone said irritably.

  “I didn’t mean to!” I said quickly. “It just sort of…happened. And I haven’t read anybody else’s mind. I don’t…like…know anything.”

  “Lady Tess, I have told you how imperative it is that you do not delve into that aspect of your gift until you are ready.” Greystone stooped slightly to look into my eyes — or at least, the one eye that wasn’t covered by my hair. “You must trust me in this regard. I can teach you how to control it, but you must exercise that control.”

  I nodded, unable to hold his gaze.

  He put a hand on my shoulder. “All right. First, in order to learn how not to do something, you must learn at least the basics of how to do it. So we will start with Lord Calvin.”

  “What?” shrieked Calvin.

  “Let’s not,” Sarah said pointedly. “Let’s have her start with someone else. Nora. Or me, even.”

  Greystone shot her a look, annoyed. “Oh, very well, we shall acquiesce to your childish concerns of modesty. Now, Lady Tess, reach into yourself and contact your gift.”

  I slowly let my mind slip into the peaceful calm it felt when I meditated. I had been exercising that “muscle” so often these days that it came almost instantly. The world became a white fog, with every living being a bright pinpoint of light. The Shadows on the field looked like a roiling mass of blackness.

  “Man, that always creeps me out,” murmured Calvin. I knew that my eyes had gone white, something that always happened when I used my powers.

  “Now, I want you to look at Lady Sarah,” said Greystone, ignoring him. “How does she appear to you?”

  “Like a point of shining white light,” I replied.

  �
�Really?” said Sarah, sounding surprised and pleased.

  “Do not flatter yourself,” said Greystone. “Everyone appears as such to one using Mind. Now, Lady Tess, I want you to look into that light. Reach out to it with your mind. Seek to touch it, to feel its light pouring through your veins.”

  “Um…okay,” I said nervously.

  I did, and suddenly I was someone else.

  I’m on the wall, watching Greystone and Tess. Her eyes are white. It’s not as disturbing as the others make it out to be. I mean, like we haven’t seen the same thing in every movie since the beginning of time. What must it be like to read a mind? I wonder if she sees everything, or only what I’m thinking now. Will I even know when she’s in my head? Oh, no…

  “Oh, no.”

  Don’t think of Wyrmsp — NO don’t even think the word think of your birthday happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday —

  The panic in her mind disturbed me, and I released my hold on my power. The world shifted back to normal, the fog fading away.

  Sarah was looking at me with wide eyes, as if fearful.

  “I think I was there for a second,” I said doubtfully. “Were you singing happy birthday?”

  Sarah smiled weakly and nodded. “That’s it? That’s all you saw?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. It was pretty faint.”

  That was a lie. It hadn’t been faint at all. I’d been IN her head, like I was Sarah and not myself. But if Sarah didn’t want me to know about something in her head, then I wouldn’t let her know I had seen it, simple as that. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable or start to fear me. I had enough trouble with Miles and Raven to have Sarah have something against me, too.

  “Well done,” said Greystone, nodding in approval. “That is how you reach into someone’s mind. But if the person is of ill intent, or knows how to defend themselves, they can wreak havoc with your thoughts. Not enough to damage you permanently, but enough to disorient you greatly. Worse still, if a foe knows what you are doing, a trained individual can plant false thoughts in their own mind. This could lead you into grave peril.”

  “Got it,” I said. “Okay, so how do I stop doing that?”

  “It’s just that simple,” said Greystone with a smile. “Just don’t do it.”

  “What?” I asked, confused. “But I didn’t do that with the officer in the palace.”

  “You did, you simply didn’t realize it,” said Greystone, chuckling. “As with all your powers, this is like a muscle. And a muscle may jerk. It may spasm occasionally, out of your own control. But once you are aware of the spasm, you can calm it. Now that you know how to do it, you can keep a wary eye and stop yourself if you catch yourself in the act. And I must repeat — you must not do this until I tell you that you are ready.”

  “Okay,” I said meekly.

  “Good,” said Greystone, satisfied. “Now, Lady Sarah, there is a matter I must discuss with you. If I may?”

  “Sure,” said Sarah, her brow furrowing.

  She followed Greystone back toward the tower. But just before they reached it, Greystone stopped dead in his tracks.

  I felt something at the same moment. A twinge in my mind. I looked around, confused, suddenly feeling as though I’d forgotten something.

  Greystone flew to the wall, staring out. The army of Chaos was just where it had sat for the last two days. Nothing had changed.

  “Lady Tess!” Greystone said quickly. “There is a mask! I cannot pierce it!”

  “What?” I asked, scared by the tone of his voice. “What kind of mask?”

  “An illusion! Quickly! Tap into your gift!”

  I tried. My heart was beating too hard, my breath too fast in my chest. Slowly I forced myself to calm down. I slowed myself down, let the world fade and become glass around me.

  Once my body was in control, I stilled my mind and reached deep within.

  Instantly the world became a fog. And there like a curtain, as plain as day, I saw a shroud of grey. It was large. It was thick. It ran across the plains in front of us, and it was moving.

  “I see it,” I said. “What do I do?”

  “Get rid of it!” snapped Greystone.

  I gritted my teeth. What was I supposed to do, just reach out and brush it aside like cobwebs?

  As though it had been a command, I felt my own mind grasp at the shroud and cast it aside like the blanket over the head of a child playing peek-a-boo.

  I gasped as I was shocked out of my stillness. The fog drifted away, but not before I saw the mass of blackness.

  I saw the real world again, and there on the grass was an army of Shadows. They were creeping toward the wall slowly, carefully, stealthily. The shroud of illusion had covered them, and now they were right on top of us. There were so many.

  “What the — ” cried Calvin. “Where did they come from?”

  “Foes! Foes at the walls!” cried Greystone.

  All up and down the wall, soldiers of Morrowdust leapt up from where they had been resting. Hundreds of fingers drew arrows to nock them to bowstrings.

  A chorus of trumpets sang out from the Shadow horde, and they charged. I saw many of them holding ladders. Others in the center hauled battering rams toward the gate. In seconds they would be upon us.

  “This is it!” said Greystone. “This is the assault. Ready yourselves! I must summon the others!”

  With a burst of wind, his body took flight. He flew away down the wall and vanished from sight.

  Calvin summoned a gale that blasted into the Shadows carrying the battering rams. They staggered as winds whipped and tore of them. Some of them staggered and fell to the ground. Two of the battering rams fell useless to the grass, and Shadows scrambled through the wind as they tried to pick them up again.

  “Sarah!” cried Calvin.

  A mound of earth rose from the ground, casting Shadows aside and covering the battering rams. The Shadows screeched as they dug furiously at the dirt, trying to unearth them. But there were other rams, and they were nearly to us.

  I looked up and over the Shadows to see the rest of the army practically on the heels of the frontrunners. The shroud of illusion had covered almost the entire force. It boggled my mind to imagine a wizard of Mind that could summon that sort of power.

  Terrence had finally brought his own magic into the fight to combat our own. I cringed as I thought of what that could mean.

  A row of catapults wheeled into position as I watched. To either side of them rolled massive siege towers, each standing twenty-five feet tall or more. They moved inexorably, dragged by massive chains tied around the torsos of hellions.

  I heard a creaking of wood from far away, and the first catapult fired. I watched the massive boulder fly through the air at the wall. It was at least ten feet wide, and it looked like it was coming right for us.

  Crying out, I tried to stop it with a wall of force. The wall shattered and I felt the impact like a knife in my mind. It knocked me to my knees. The boulder passed through the air not ten feet above our heads to crash into the street below. It bounced once, flying through the wall of a building. The rest of the structure crashed heavily to the ground.

  Ladders flew into the air as the Shadows reached the wall. One slammed against the battlements right next to me. Nora snarled as she grasped the top of it and shoved sideways as hard as she could. The ladder toppled over, but another was raised not six feet farther down. I was still shaking from the impact of the boulder on my force field, but I raised a shaky hand and tried to push the ladder away. It jiggled, but it stayed put.

  Come on, I urged myself.

  I saw a black and formless hand reach the top of the ladder.

  I shoved again, and the ladder toppled backward. Several dark voices cried out in shock, their shrill tones a lance in my ears.

  “Tess!”

  The sound of Miles’ voice was a welcome relief, and I spun toward it with a smile on my face. There he was, with Blade and Raven at his heels.

&
nbsp; But between me and them was a Shadow. The top of a ladder was propped against the wall right behind it. Two more scrambled onto the wall in what seemed like less than a second.

  With a shriek, the Shadow leapt at me. On reflex, I blasted it with pure force. The Shadow flew back as though jerked by an invisible string. As it flew through the air, a ball of fire leapt up to engulf it. It sailed over the edge of the wall to crash, flaming and screaming, into the ground below.

  The two other Shadows were met by Melaine, Barius and Samuel, who leapt forward with blades drawn. They sparred for only a moment before the Runegard dug their blades deep into the Shadows’ bodies. They dissipated into the wind, and Barius kicked their empty suits of armor off the back of the wall with a disgusted grimace. Together with Samuel, he seized the top of the ladder and shoved it away.

  Nora appeared beside me, sweating and breathing hard. She had a cut on her forehead, but she smiled at me reassuringly.

  “That was well done, my lady, and I thank you for receiving no harm. It would have gone ill for me otherwise.” She tapped my hip. “Just as an option, remember that you still have your sword.”

  I stared down at it, dumbfounded. I’d completely forgotten about our weapons. I nodded mutely.

  “Not that magic isn’t better in most cases,” Nora admitted. “But it may well come to blade work before the end of the day.”

  I heard another sharp creak and turned my fearful eyes to the catapults. Three more loosed, sending their spinning balls of death arcing toward us.

  “I got them!” cried Sarah. She swept her arms left, and one of the boulders curved to crash into the Shadows clustered at the wall. She swept her arms right, and another flew well above us to land harmlessly in the street.

  The third landed right on her, crushing her before she could scream.

  MILES

  THE WATER I HAD BEEN forming in the air slipped from my concentration and splashed onto the ground. I stood there, dumbfounded, looking at the rock that sat where Sarah had stood just a second before. I couldn’t speak. I felt nauseous and dizzy. Couldn’t breathe.

  I’m going to have to tell her parents, was all I could bring my mind to think. They’ll wonder what happened.