Shatter (The Children of Man)

by Elizabeth C. Mock

  "Potentially," Sheridan admitted. "But I want to see if it's even possible first. I want you to picture a particular place in Oakdarrow. Remember how it looked, how it smelled, any textures, the temperature. Try to visualize and feel as much as you can."

  Eve squinted at her sister skeptically, closed her eyes, and inhaled. She remembered the dust coating the back of her throat, the dry wind scraping over her skin as it kicked up that same dust. She remembered the ancient oak tree with its leaves saturated with the deep red of autumn instead of the early changes from green to yellow that should have been there. She remembered the dry smell of dirt and crushed leaves. She sneezed involuntarily. As she painted this picture in her mind, her temples glowed golden.

  Sheridan smiled at this. "Good," she encouraged. "This is exactly what you need to do. Keep remembering each detail."

  Eve barely nodded, adding the clouds high in the sky like streaks of a painters brush to her mental image. Still holding her sister's hands in her own, Sheridan’s hands began glowing red and she closed her eyes. When she closed her eyes, she saw what Eve saw, not only saw it, but felt it as well. Sheridan’s nose tickled and she sneezed just as Eve had.

  Once the image fully focused in Sheridan’s mind, a purple light flared from her collarbones and surrounded them both as an intense pressure descended on the room with a popping sound and the women disappeared. Kade felt his heart lurch and his lungs seize as if the breath were knocked out of him. The same physical sensation pulled at Faela.

  Jair stood at the bottom of the stairs, his foot still in mid air. "What in the name of darkness just happened?"

  Before anyone could answer him, the pressure fell again and with a flare of indigo light and a pop, the twins returned to the spot from which they had just vanished. Blinking, Kade shared a look with Faela. The pain had lasted less than a heartbeat. Faela’s features hardened her gaze settling on the twins, but Kade gestured for her to say nothing so she held her tongue.

  Eve opened her eyes with a grin. With a holler of delight, Sheridan threw her arms around her sister's waist to pick her up and spin her around. Eve tried to resist, but Sheridan would not be denied. Setting Eve down, she kissed her forehead with a loud smacking sound.

  "It worked!" Sheridan danced in place with absolutely no rhythm.

  Kade shook his head at her antics, but his amusement was clear. "You may be twins, but for all of our sake’s, Sheridan, please leave the dancing to Eve. That is a travesty to witness."

  Sheridan ignored him and kept shaking her rear with triumphant euphoria. "I can't believe that worked," she finally said once her dance had ended. "I can take everyone now. I'll be fairly drained though." Looking Jair up and down, she pointed at him. "You may have to carry me."

  "Carry you?" he exclaimed.

  "Hey, if I'm to pop you three days travel time, you can make the sacrifice of carrying me. Even if I am chubby," she claimed with a serious expression as she poked at her thin waist.

  Kade nodded his agreement. "Yup, you're a heifer all right."

  Jair looked at the both of them as if they had lost their minds. "She's a twig," he objected.

  "Lies," Sheridan declared. "I am most definitely chubby."

  "If you're chubby," Faela said, "then I must be frighteningly large." To make her point, Faela looked at Sheridan’s narrow hips and slapped her curvy ones.

  "You're not even chubby," Sheridan disagreed. "I am."

  Faela looked to Kade for an interpretation.

  "Don't even try to argue," he told her. "Even if you're right, you'll still lose. You're the chubbiest, Sheridan."

  "That's right," Sheridan said with a triumphant grin.

  "I guess we should get everything together and leave as soon as possible," Dathien said looking around the room.

  Faela agreed as she started up the stairs to collect her gear from her room.

  Jair lifted the strap of his pack off of his shoulders with a thumb. "Already good to go." He sat down at the table with the remains that had been the pile of sweet rolls with a despondent sigh.

  Taking pity on him, Eve told him, "You know, if you just poke your head into the kitchens, I'm sure there are more."

  With an excited glint in his eye, he rewarded her with a dazzling grin and frolicked off in search of more breakfast. As Jair disappeared into the kitchens to beg for food, the rest of the party dispersed to their various rooms to collect their belongings.

  By the time Jair found his way out of the kitchens with a pear and several pastries, his companions were scattered around the room in smaller clusters talking about divergent topics. Faela and Dathien discussed the best way to braise mutton, while Eve nodded as Sheridan gesticulated wildly explaining how she had managed to get them to Oakdarrow and back in one piece.

  "You ready to go?" Faela asked as she spotted Jair returning with his prizes.

  Jair nodded since he had just bitten into the pear.

  "Good," she answered with a returning bob of her head. "I guess we can start the process, Sheridan. Unless you need to rest from the initial popping?"

  Sheridan shook her head. "Transferring just myself and one other person isn’t that draining. I'm good to begin whenever you're ready. The only time popping wipes me out is when I have to take Eve, her beast, and me. Hauling all that mass at once feels like I ran to wherever we just popped."

  Mireya touched Faela's arm to get her attention. Looking over at the girl, Faela inclined her head in question.

  "Do you know where Tobias is?" she asked her voice quiet as Sheridan flounced over to Jair to steal his food. "I want to say fare well."

  "I haven't seen him since last night," Faela said scanning the tavern. When her gaze reached the stairs, she saw Tobias talking with Kade. Kade nodded to whatever Tobias had said. Tobias' serious expression broke into a wide grin and he grasped Kade's forearm, a gesture that Kade returned without hesitation. Kade clapped Tobias' arm with his free hand and they descended the stairs to the rest of the group.

  Kade came to stand with Faela and Mireya, but swung his pack to the front in order to lean against the wall behind them.

  "Oh good," Mireya squealed skipping over to Tobias. "You haven't left yet."

  "Not yet, sweetling," he said folding her into a hug.

  As he hugged her, Faela asked Kade at a volume that would only reach him, "What was that about?"

  Shrugging noncommittally, Kade swept his hand through his sable hair to tie it back into a ponytail. "Nothing worth repeating."

  Faela squinted an eye at him in disbelief. "Right."

  Before Kade could defend his honor, Tobias said, "Faela, come say goodbye to an old, cranky man."

  Faela gave Kade a look indicating that this was far from finished, but complied with Tobias' request. When she reached the imposing man, he drew her into an enveloping hug much like he had Mireya.

  His mouth close to her ear, he whispered, "Don’t isolate yourself from those who care about you, because of who and what you are. Don’t make that choice for them. Embrace your strengths, don’t fear them. Otherwise," he said pulling away to look into her eyes and his mirrored her own with a silver glow, "well, you already know, my dear girl."

  Faela simply nodded, not wanting to argue with him. "Thank you for everything, Tobias." She stood back with his hands still encompassing hers and she squeezed them. "Thank you for being honest."

  Bringing her hands to his lips, Tobias kissed them. "May you find truth and understanding, Rafaela." Addressing the rest of the party, he said, "Safe travels, children, but I must leave you. I have much work to do and even more ale to drink."

  Dathien stepped forward and clasped his forearm. "Safe journeys, Tobias. May Ashalioris see you safely home."

  Tobias' eyes crinkled and shone with a wistful, melancholic longing. "Yes, home."

  When Sheridan folded space, it felt like the world was compressing around her and those in the nearby vicinity could feel its ripples. Experiencing those ripples did not prepare Faela for the
reality of moving with Sheridan and her stomach roiled rebelling against the wrenching movement.

  In a flare of dark purple, the tavern blurred around her and suddenly burst open into a field outside of Oakdarrow, the field where Faela had linked to Kade and Jair's minds. They stood beneath the reaching boughs of that same gnarled oak tree. At the memory, the nausea curdling in Faela's stomach rose to her throat. Stumbling away from Sheridan, she bent over one of the roots that plunged into the earth and emptied her breakfast onto the grass.

  Faela had insisted on being transferred last. She had wanted Mireya and Dathien waiting on the other side at Oakdarrow when Eve and Kade left. The idea of those two alone together on either side of this journey did little to calm her nerves. But before they could start, Sheridan and Eve had disagreed over transporting Kimiko. Their shouting finally resolved when Eve realized that Dathien stood feeding the horse a carrot blithely ignoring the argument. She seemed satisfied to leave Kimiko in his care and over the course of that last half an hour, they had traveled four days.

  As Faela clung to the root, she tried to remind herself that gaining that time had actually been worth it. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who got sick?" she asked wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

  "I didn't at the time," Jair answered trying not to look where she had emptied her stomach, "but I'm not feeling so good now."

  Though Kade said nothing, he did look a little white around the lips. Sheridan, however, had the complexion and the energy of a victim with an advanced wasting sickness. Eve had an arm around her sister's waist and barely managed to keep her upright.

  "Well, I got us here," Sheridan said her voice thin and feeble, "but I think I could sleep a week and honestly, Eve, you owe me for bringing that beast of yours. Do you have any idea how much Kimiko weighs? That is a lot of mass to pop on top of lugging about the rest of you."

  Eve kissed her sister's hair. "You won't be complaining while you're riding her today."

  Sheridan snorted. "If I don't fall off and break my neck that is."

  "You won't," Eve said admonishing her.

  "Is everyone whole, here, and ready to move?" Kade asked, color returning to his cheeks.

  Faela patted Jair's arm and stood on steadier legs. "I feel better now."

  Everyone responded positively, so Eve and Kade helped hoist Sheridan into the saddle.

  "Thanks," Eve told him after her sister was situated.

  Kade gripped her shoulder and gave her the kind of wink he usually reserved for Sheridan. Eve looked down to hide her smile, but Lucien caught her eyes when she raised them. Spinning around to break the contact, she grabbed Kimiko's reins and clucked her tongue to get her horse moving.

  "Let's keep outside of town," Faela said pulling her hat out of her bag and tugging it into place. "We need to head north."

  "Ah, just like old times," Jair said with a wistful sigh.

  Only Kade and Faela laughed at this as Kade cast an eye to the position of the sun. He pointed back toward the town. "We can skirt it, but we'll need to head that way."

  As they passed by the outer stone wall, Faela's toe caught on a rock and stumbled, but Kade was close enough to catch her hand with his and place another at the small of her back to keep her from falling.

  "Blasted feet," she said with a laugh, "never do what they're told."

  Helping her right herself, Kade's hands touched her not a second longer than necessary. Once he was sure she was steady, he moved to a respectable distance from her.

  Hiding a grin, he replied, "Has any part of you ever done what you were told?"

  Sucking in her lower lip as she thought, she shook her head. "Nope, not that I can remember."

  As they passed around the corner and out of the sight of the town's main avenue, two men in black adorned with weapons stood by the blacksmith's yard. After watching the exchange, they disappeared into a small alley between the buildings that headed to the northern edge of Oakdarrow.

  Eve walked listening to Haley and Jair discuss the latest ballads coming out of the Lusican Order, but she offered no opinions. Due to a recent resurgence of songs about the Shattering, Jair and Haley had vigorously debated for the last few leagues whether tragic ballads needed to be in minor key. Behind them, Eve allowed Kade to lead Kimiko while Sheridan rode regaining her strength.

  "Kade," Sheridan said breaking their companionable silence. "This is as good a time as any to discuss what I found."

  "Go ahead," he said as the afternoon sun beat down on them dispelling the chill in the air.

  Taking a deep breath, Sheridan began to recount what she had discovered in her investigation regarding Nessa’s death. She stopped after explaining what she found in the alley with Gareth’s body. Kade waited for her to continue, his eyes roaming the rolling moors they crossed. Despite this route being the fastest to Vamorines, he felt his neck tingle at the lack of cover. He hated being this exposed.

  Sheridan removed the throwing knife from her jacket’s pocket. "He received no trial, no formal judgment as far as I can tell." She watched Kade's minuet reactions, but he merely continued scanning the wide expanse of the heath. "Unless you have a record of it in your logbook?"

  "I no longer have it," Kade reminded her.

  "What happened to it?" she asked disturbed by this revelation.

  "Caleb took it to the Nikelan Scion and I assume that’s who still has it."

  "That's why you went to find him?" Sheridan asked confused as her thumb stroked the leather of the saddle’s pommel.

  "Not exactly. I went to find him to discuss what happened in Montdell and what was happening with the Brethren in our Order." He shrugged. "Given our history, who better to ask? I wanted him to take it straight to Tomas and no one else."

  "But clearly he didn’t," Sheridan interrupted.

  "No, because of the revelation you heard from him yourself in Moshurst."

  Sheridan thought about this for a while as her thumb moved to tracing the ridges of the saddle. "When I went to the cellar, where Nessa died." She paused again considering her words carefully. "Gareth mentioned a vote on the council that he wanted you to veto for the Brethren."

  Kade did not react; he just led the horse at a steady pace down the small dip of the moor. The withered grass crunched under his boots.

  "He also said that you had assisted in such measures before, that you had gone along with Brethren positions."

  "You want to know if there is any truth to his claims," Kade concluded for her.

  Sheridan chewed on her thumbnail. "Yes."

  "He wasn't lying," Kade admitted.

  Sheridan nodded slowly as she processed this information. "What did you do? What were these positions?" She refused to voice the apprehension that knotted her insides.

  "You know what I did during the war, Sheridan, right? You understand how they used us?"

  "You were part of a small unit under Caleb's command. You did whatever Scion Benjamin ordered you to do."

  "Well, that depends on who you ask," Kade said with a humorless laugh. He led Kimiko around a patch of small scrubby bushes covered in green berries with splashes of red where they ripened.

  "I don't follow," Sheridan conceded with an irritated flattening of her lips.

  "It's not important," Kade said moving forward. "You need to understand that we did what was necessary to stop the war. That was our mission. But in completing that mission, I watched the Nabosians use children to protect supply trains heading for their troops. I saw fathers die."

  He paused, remembering Henry's slow smile and limitless generosity, but the memory soon shifted to his sightless eyes looking up at Kade. The blistering made Henry’s face unrecognizable. "Their children would never see them again. I don't have to remind you of that, Sheridan."

  Remembering her own father's death during the war, Sheridan tightened her knees into Kimiko's side causing the horse to whuffle in surprise. She thudded the horse's neck. "Sorry, beastie."

  "After you lost
your father, Sheridan, you refused to eat for two days." Kade's hand gripped the reins pressing the leather into his palm. "You were only seven. No seven year old should have their lessons interrupted to be told that their father died in the service of his king."

  "And a nine year old shouldn’t have to stay up with her every night to keep the nightmares away," Sheridan said countering his point.

  "I'll sleep when I'm dead," he said deflecting the comment. "Sheridan, the war destroyed families. Look at Jair's story, it destroys the land, entire villages. That kind of destruction should never happen."

  "Of course, it shouldn't," Sheridan agreed. "I wish my father were still alive, but I would never have kept him from fighting and I don't regret working as a field healer for the Tereskans."

  "That was a lot for Scion Ianos to ask of children," Kade said in a quiet voice.

  "It was brilliant," Sheridan argued defending Ianos. "We learned how to use red magic fast and we were saving people, Kade. How can that be bad?"

  "We saw things no children should see."

  Sheridan narrowed her eyes as she heard in his tone what he really meant. "You mean I saw things I should never have seen."

  "Your nightmares didn't end until you were seventeen," Kade said as a statement of fact, not a reproach.

  "That's a small price to pay for the lives of those men and women we saved."

  "That's what I mean," Kade replied. "I never want any other little girls to be afraid to sleep."

  Sheridan sighed. "What does this have to do with the Brethren?"

  "Gareth proposed that I encourage the passage of certain laws placing more of the civil authority under the domain of the Daniyelans. What could it harm for the keepers of justice to decide what is best for the people?"

  "What could it harm?" Sheridan asked her voice low. "Kade, you may be brilliant, but you’re an idiot. What could it harm? Are you a farmer?"

  At that question, Kade stopped and turned to look at her. "What?"

  "I asked you, if you're a farmer. It's a simple enough question."

  "You know I'm not. My mother was a member of the same Noble Houses as yours."