Shatter (The Children of Man)

by Elizabeth C. Mock

  Eve looked over into the forest with a scowl. “Haley, bring Kimiko with you.”

  Sheridan cocked her head to the side questioningly at her sister as a man with a tumble of straw-colored hair and a round face exited the forest trailing a horse behind him. Though Sheridan kept her suspicions to herself, she couldn’t help feeling confused that someone traveled with Eve. It made her stomach twinge.

  The man approached the group and the horse trotted past him to Eve in a hurry to return to her mistress. Faela helped Kade stand and turned to look at the man she had sensed in the forest. When she saw his face, hers blanched and she took a step back.

  "Faela?" Kade questioned her reaction.

  The man Eve had called Haley swept through the group and strode purposefully up to Faela who stood her ground. He grabbed her shoulders and stared at her.

  "Hey now," Jair protested. "Let's keep our hands to ourselves, ser."

  Haley ignored Jair and continued staring at Faela.

  It was Faela who finally broke the silence. "So, I can see we have something in common, but would you please mind letting me go. You've got a pretty good grip there."

  Haley dropped his hands, but made no move to give Faela more space. "How? How can you be–"

  "A Gray? I doubt I'd have to explain to you. Your name's Haley?" Faela asked her voice calm.

  The man blinked and his face transformed with a grin that coaxed a smile from Faela in response. He swept his traveling cloak around him as he bowed low before her. "The name’s Haley, miss. I be a Lusican minstrel that this fine Daniyelan woman agreed to let travel with her. Kind soul that one. Well, kind when she ain't out for holy vengeance that is. And who might you be, lovely?"

  "I'm Faela. The ebony beauty with the impressive bass voice is Mireya and the one holding her up is her Grier, Dathien. The gangly one who needs a haircut is Jair. This is Kade."

  Mireya had been staring at the churning water when she rejoined the conversation. "Wait. Faela, you just said Gray."

  "Welcome back, darling. I surely did."

  Jerking her thumb at Haley, Mireya asked, "He's a Gray?"

  Faela nodded once.

  "Oh, goody!" Mireya clapped her hands together and flounced over and shimmied her way between Faela and Haley. Her nose scrunched up, she peered at his face and promptly sneezed.

  Rubbing her finger under her nose, Mireya sniffed. "Well, he's definitely a Gray."

  "Does that mean that he's part of the prophecy?" Jair inquired.

  "How many Grays do you usually run into randomly in the forest?" Mireya asked with a snort. "He must be."

  "Well, so far my track record is two," Jair said holding up two fingers that he turned to look at and then hold them out for Mireya to count. "Yeah, so far two."

  Kade had to keep restraining the urge to pull Faela away from the minstrel. Something about him bothered Kade, but he couldn't discern what it was. Though this man was a Gray, he was not like Faela.

  "Well, if he's the second of the three," Mireya tapped her finger on her chin, "then he'll need to know where he's going now."

  "Where he's going?" Eve found her voice. “What do you mean where he’s going? Who are you people?”

  "With us," Mireya explained, as though the question were extremely silly, "to the Shrine of Shattering of course."

  "To where?" Sheridan blurted out in disbelief.

  "I did say the Shrine of Shattering, right, Dathien?" Mireya turned for confirmation from her husband. "I said it out loud?"

  "You did."

  "Oh. Have you not heard of it?" Mireya looked with concern at Sheridan.

  "No, she's heard of it," Kade answered for his flabbergasted friend. "You just told her that her childhood daydreams and fantasies actually exist."

  "So, it's a real place? You've been there?" Sheridan’s questions tumbled out in a rush of words.

  "Well, no," Mireya said slowly.

  "It's not real?" Sheridan fired back. "Then where are you going?"

  "No, it's real. I just haven't been there," Mireya explained, "yet."

  "Not this again," Kade interrupted to interpret Mireya's half answers. "Look, we're heading for Kelso. There's a man there who's a redeemed Gray. He has information. He knows how to get to the Shrine."

  "Why do we need to go there?" Haley asked. "Why do I have to go with you?"

  "Because that's where Faela is going and the nudges haven't told me that she's wrong."

  "Any cosmic forces poking you now?" Jair asked.

  "Other than the prophecy, nope."

  "So, will you come with us, Haley?" Faela asked, her arms interlaced across her chest.

  "Wait," Eve interrupted finally regaining her mental footing. "Just wait a moment. You're not going anywhere. Kade has to return with me to Finalaran to stand trial."

  Sheridan turned to her sister. "I told you, Eve. He didn't kill her. He doesn't need to stand trial and the murderer is dead. There will be no trial."

  Eve's jaw clenched in a hard line as the wind blew the water misting from the river into her face. "What proof do you have? How do you know that he didn't kill her? You're just trying to protect him." Like I tried to protect Lucien.

  Sheridan's eyes darkened as she approached her sister and pulled her close. She spoke so that only Eve could hear what she said. “Had Kade done what you assumed, I would be the first to bring him to Finalaran. Never doubt my resolve, Evelyn. I won't discuss this now, but trust me." Sheridan’s expression softened as she looked at her twin. "Just trust me for now, Eve. He's innocent of Nessa's death."

  Eve sighed, though her eyes still burned with rage. "Fine."

  "We need to figure out what's going on here. Why is there a Nikelan wandering in Nabos? How is it that not only is this woman a Gray, but also the man you're traveling with and what in the name of the Light is this prophecy and what does Kade have to do with all of this? We need to stick this out, Eve."

  Eve nodded her assent. "I said, fine, Sheridan. We'll at least stay with them until they reach Kelso. How could there be a redeemed Gray running around the countryside without the Orders knowing about it? Something doesn't add up here. There's something about that Gray woman. I don't trust her." Eve glanced at Faela out of the corner of her eye.

  Faela stood behind Kade with a hand flat on his chest while she prodded the flesh between his ribs. He shook his head at the question she asked too quietly for them to hear. Her face was focused, ignoring everyone else around her but the man she examined. Nodding her head, she stepped away from him with a satisfied expression in her eyes.

  Closing her fingers in toward her palm, Eve narrowed her eyes at Kade as the briefest hint of orange flashed across them. She pulled her closed fist back and Kade stumbled as though he had lost his balance. She smiled to herself imperceptibly. The binding worked. Now you can't escape me, Kaedman.

  Steadying Kade, Faela's eyes found Eve and the silver had darkened resembling cold and hard granite.

  *****

  Chapter Thirteen

  To fight off the growing cold of the night, Sheridan scooted closer to the fire. Her hands tucked under her armpits, she slid her feet until they nearly touched one of the flaming logs.

  "Let me see if I understand." She began looking at the people sprawled across the camp. "You don't know why you're on this journey?"

  "That's not exactly accurate," Mireya said trying to explain. "I know that I'm supposed to aid Faela and apparently Haley here now too."

  "Okay, so why are we finding this Shrine?" Sheridan ran her fingers rhythmically through a strand of her hair. "I mean, don’t get me wrong. I'm thrilled with the prospect of finding it, but I'm more than a little obsessed with the old legends."

  "A little obsessed would be owning a bookshelf dedicated to the legends. But you," Kade said poking at Sheridan with the toe of his boot, "you have every manuscript you've been able to borrow, trade, and steal concerning these legends."

  Sheridan looked injured, but her eyes sparkled. "Not my fault! Yo
u're the one who filled my head with these stories when we were kids. Not responsible! It was all you."

  Kade chuckled and threw a pebble at her. "Spoiled rotten that one."

  "I'd like to point out that if I'm spoiled, you’re to blame. But really, who could say no to this face?" Sheridan’s lower lip protruded and trembled pathetically.

  "Someone with the same face," Eve suggested.

  "Oh, that's just cheating," Sheridan said waving away the comment before turning her curiosity to Faela who used Jair for a backrest. "Why is it so urgent that you get to this Shrine?"

  "I have my reasons." Faela felt anxious with so many new people in their camp. Though these people knew that she was a Gray, they did not know why. In fact, none of them knew and Faela still didn't know how her companions would react to the news of what she had done. If she had to tell them she would, just not yet, not tonight.

  "Really? That's all you're going to give me?" Sheridan leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees and spoke each word slowly. "You have your reasons?"

  "That's right." Faela chewed on her thumbnail, giving every indication that she intended to give nothing more as she glanced at Sheridan and Eve’s uniforms.

  "That irritates you, right?" Sheridan asked Kade. "I mean like really irritates you?"

  He shrugged. "She's got a right to her privacy"

  Sheridan squinted an eye at Kade. "You would never let me get away with that."

  "Yeah, because you have no right to privacy."

  "Tyrant."

  "Brat."

  "So, I get why Mireya and--" Sheridan paused, biting her inner lip "--Dathien, right? Why Mireya and Dathien have to go where she's going. But what's the story, Kade? Why're you going?"

  "Repaying a debt." Kade gazed into the fire.

  "Well that be terribly tragic sounding," Haley said from his seat against a tree. "Sounds like a story be in there."

  "There's always a story," Eve said almost to herself, "isn't there?"

  "What's your story then?" Jair asked resting his chin on Faela's shoulder looking at Eve and Sheridan and then back again. "But first, since tonight seems to be introduction time, my name is Jair and I'm a devotee of eating."

  "Yeah, be careful what you leave out or it just may end up missing," Kade said in warning. "And by missing I mean, he'll have consumed it without chewing."

  "I chew!" Jair said objecting to the perceived slander. "Sometimes."

  "Oh, yeah." Sheridan straightened her posture. "I just realized that I never actually introduced myself. I'm Sheridan Reid and I am also a devotee of eating."

  "A bigger understatement has never been uttered," Eve said to no one in particular.

  "Actually," Kade said pointing two fingers at Jair, "you may have met your match in this one. Be wary when she gets to the food first, because there may be nothing left for you."

  "That happened once," Sheridan said in protest. "And I definitely asked you if I could have your share beforehand."

  "I wasn't there. How does that count?"

  "Not my fault."

  "It never is."

  "Uh huh." Sheridan wiggled the toes of her boots pleased with herself. "Now you're catching on, such a bright boy."

  "You were introducing yourself," Jair reminded her.

  "Ah, yes. Well, I know it will come as a shock to you, but the one sitting over there all grumpy-like is my twin sister, Eve."

  Eve merely crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

  "She's usually very pleasant." Sheridan leaned toward Faela and Jair and spoke in a loud whisper so that everyone in the camp and several woodland creatures outside the camp heard. "You just caught her on a cranky day."

  Eve observed her sister as she tossed a twig into the flames. "You seem to have recovered your humor."

  "Well, clearing someone from a murder investigation tends to put a little spring in my step, don't you know."

  "When did you and Kade meet?" Mireya asked pulling her cloak in more tightly.

  Sheridan looked at him and framed his face with her fingers and thumbs. "Since before the Shattering of the Light? Okay, so not quite that long ago, it just feels that way. I think I first met you when I was, what, five?"

  "Sounds about right." Kade nodded. "You were all pigtails and flashing people with your dresses back then, such a lady. Wouldn't stop following me if I remember correctly."

  "Hey, it's not my fault that no one else wanted to catch frogs with me. And I am a lady, I'll thank you."

  "At least you don't wear pigtails any more." Kade left the implication hanging in the air.

  Sheridan’s face didn't change as she leaned over and punched Kade in the arm as hard as she could.

  "See what I mean?" Kade said laughing as he rubbed the spot she had hit.

  "We met when Eve and I were sent for temple training and since Kade's gifts and my own mirror one another, we were tracked together."

  A look of understanding dawned on Faela's face. "You're an Amserian as well." She addressed her revelation to Kade.

  "Yeah, he is," Sheridan interrupted before he could answer. “He just wishes he were a popper like me.”

  "Were you in Montdell before you popped here?" Kade asked.

  Sheridan nodded. "I had continued the investigation, while Eve was supposed to find you for questioning."

  Jair's eyes bugged out at this news. "You were in Montdell? How'd you get here so fast? That's hundreds of leagues away. I never knew Amserians could pop that far."

  Sheridan’s grin widened. "Want to see?"

  Sheridan stood up and Jair removed himself from his duty as Faela's backrest. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Sheridan’s eyes glowed indigo and the light oozed out until it surrounded her and Jair as well. There was a quick increase in the air pressure and a loud sucking sound like swirling water down a drain and they were gone.

  From far away they heard a yelp and then a splash followed by a cackle of laughter. Two or three heartbeats later, the air pressed down around them again and in a flash of indigo light they were back, but Jair was now soaking wet and Sheridan perfectly dry.

  Kade took one look at them and shook his head chuckling. "I warned you about her."

  "Woman! You dropped me in the river." Jair wrung out his drenched right sleeve, when a thought seemed to occur to him and he twisted his left sleeve over Sheridan’s head. "See, that's river water."

  Sheridan yelped and danced back from Jair's reach wiping the water that had trickled onto her forehead. "That's cheating!"

  Jair blinked. "I'm sorry," he began as though she didn't understand and then increased his volume, "but you just dropped me in a river."

  "It's not my fault that you lost your balance," Sheridan said her face the picture of innocence.

  Jair narrowed his eyes. "My vengeance shall be slow and involve paper cuts, many paper cuts."

  "Should I be worried?" Sheridan asked Kade over her shoulder.

  Kade shook his head.

  Jair continued as though no one listened. "And lemons. Oh yes, I shall have my lemony revenge."

  "You're still talking?" Sheridan asked. "I promise this is not a tragedy."

  "Says you! It's freezing!"

  "Let me show you another trick," Sheridan said walking toward him.

  Jair put up his hands. "Oh no, you don't. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you for tripping me while I tried to run away."

  Sheridan laughed once at that. "I like this one. Can we keep him?" Sheridan directed her question to Eve.

  Despite Eve’s suspicions, she couldn’t help but smile at Sheridan’s antics. It had been too long since Eve had gotten to see this truly manic side of Sheridan. She had missed it.

  Her only response was to say, “Sheridan, just do it before he freezes.”

  At that, Sheridan pounced on Jair who squealed like a startled girl. Her hand flashed with purple light and Jair’s clothing was bone dry in an instant.

  "Handy, right?" Sheridan said grinning.

&
nbsp; "Where’d you learn to do that?" Jair asked his jaw slack with wonder.

  "It’s just a little trick I picked up working as a battlefield healer." Sheridan shrugged and folded her long legs underneath herself as she sat.

  "When you were eleven," Kade added.

  "It hadn’t stopped raining for eight days. My socks were soaked. I," Sheridan said holding her hands up and shrugged, "improvised. I just moved the water back to the river. It’s where it wanted to be anyway, just putting things right."

  Jair nodded never taking his eyes from her. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're mad."

  "By that you mean brilliant and winsome, of course."

  "Of course," Kade answered his tone wry.

  "You, good ser, conveniently changed the subject and never finished answering my question." Sheridan targeted Kade. "Who're you doing a favor for?"

  "Caleb."

  Both Sheridan and Eve froze where they sat, but Eve spoke first. "You're helping that traitor?"

  Half a heartbeat behind her, Sheridan asked, "Caleb's mixed up with this too?"

  "I'm sorry, Eve was it?" Faela said her tone low. "But what did you just say?"

  "He's talking about a traitor to the Daniyelan Order," Eve explained matter-of-factly. "He disgraced himself and was stripped of his rank in the Orders at the end of the war. If he's involved, nothing good will come of this."

  "I see," Faela said a strange look in her eyes. "Well, then, I guess we disagree on what constitutes a traitor."

  "He was tried and thrown out of the Order by the Scion himself, Tomas Segar. There can be no disagreement regarding that bastard’s guilt."

  Kade felt Faela's fury like standing next to an open forge and readied himself to intervene if necessary, but Faela reined her anger back as she rose without a word and left the camp.

  "Evelyn," Kade reprimanded, "you need to learn to hold your tongue."

  "I spoke nothing, but the plain truth." Eve said without any guilt. "I see no fault."

  "That woman," Kade gestured after Faela as he stood, "is Rafaela Durante, Caleb Durante Murphy's little sister."

  "Oh, Eve," Sheridan said in barely more than a whisper.

  Kade just shook is head as he trotted in the direction Faela had started walking. "You never think."