by S T Branton
“What makes you think there could be peace here?” he finally asked, as we walked back toward town. Despite it being dark, I felt more comfortable with the direction and having someone with me was comforting. “Why would you be able to stop any of it? Why would you want to? You told me about what the Farsiders did to you and those,” he paused as he searched for the right word, pointing back to the village of the Vrya, “things, they’re Farsiders.”
“They are,” I was a little taken aback, “but they’re good. It’s true I had some terrible things done to me by Farsiders. And some horrible stuff was done right back, but in my name. Yet somehow, I’m still alive to talk with you right now. Against all those odds, I’m still here, and one of the reasons is those people. I owe it to them to give them a chance.”
Jonas’ head bowed as if he were thinking extremely hard about what to say. We reached the cliff face, and I noticed there was one rope left. He gestured to it.
“After you.”
Something in the way he said it made me pause. There was a flicker of distrust, although I couldn’t tell if it was from him or me. Something was strange between us. But he had my back before, and I was running out of people I could put my faith in.
“You understand, right, Jonas?” I picked up the rope so I could lower myself.
Jonas forced a smile and nodded. Some of the distrust disappeared. His smile, while forced, seemed more resigned than disbelieving. Maybe I would need to work on him a little, too.
“I believe Sara Slick can do anything she sets her mind to,” he said as I started down the rope. I looked up at him. He was crouched over the edge, holding the line to steady it. The shadows of the forest hid his face, but his eyes shone down on me anyway. “Absolutely anything.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
This will work. It's a good idea. This will work. It's a good idea. This will work. It's a good idea. This will work. It's a good idea. This will work. It's a good idea.
It was right about that point when I started wondering how many times I needed to repeat my new mantra for it to work. I was relatively new to the whole mantra thing. In fact, it was my first. But it was my understanding that if I said it enough and believed it deep in my heart, it would go out into the Universe and make hope babies that would come down and make all my dreams come true if I clapped. Or something like that. I was kind of fuzzy on all the particulars, but it was all I had going for me right now, so I clung to it.
I was sitting at a large table with Qulma and a few of the Vrya adults. We'd been waiting for more than an hour, and the anxiety and tension built with each passing moment. Ally and Jonas went off to talk to the humans and ask them to come for a meeting. It could be the best thing for everyone involved. It could go horribly. Right then, it was pretty much a crapshoot, and all we could do was wait and hope. Frankly, using my switchblade against drunken goblins was way less stressful.
A hush came over the rest of the Vrya standing behind us, and I looked up to see Ally and Jonas approaching. A few steps behind them came a group of humans from town. Cale and Shailene walked out in front, their faces a study in contrast. While Cale twitched and glared, his eyes like hot coals in his face and his teeth grinding so hard they could crumble into nothing any second, Shailene looked curious and open, willing to find out what we had to say. The two species faced each other across a divide as narrow as the table and as vast as an ocean. I bounced around like a weird little buoy in the middle.
The group of humans stopped in front of the table and stared at us. It was clear they were taken aback by seeing the Vrya and what they truly looked like—an experience I could resonate with. Murmurs and whispers rippled through the crowd and guns poked out from beneath shirts and in back pockets. Lots of guns. That didn't bode well for the whole peaceful talking idea.
There were a few tense moments where it was touch-and-go whether they would stay, but finally, Cale, Shailene, Ally, Jonas, and two other humans took seats across from us. Like the Vrya standing behind us, humans gathered behind the group sitting at the table. There was a stark difference between the group of humans and the group of Vrya, along with me. It wasn't only the large spears that the dryads held poised and ready to use them if they felt the need. It was the individuals who made up the groups. The entire Vrya community was there, including every one of the young children. They represented every aspect of the Vrya, all ages, all points in their lifespan, all elements of what made up their kind. The human group only brought adults. All the children were at home. It sent a message that made the chances of this working out seem slimmer.
I looked at Ally across the table, lifting my eyebrows slightly to communicate with her. This was her chance to use her smooth-talking superhero powers. She nodded.
"Thank you for coming, everybody. We've come together to try to bring understanding and make meaningful progress in the relationship between the humans of Hunt and the Vrya," she said.
A few on either side shifted uncomfortably, but we kept going. Shailene leaned slightly forward.
"What are you people? Are you even people?"
"They're people as much as you are," I told her.
"We are dryads," Qulma answered. "We are what we are."
That drew a line in the sand. She didn't want to get into details about their species, which I understood and agreed with. There was no reason to delve too far and make the situation even worse.
"Are those children back there?" she asked.
"They are."
"How do you have them? I mean, do you plant them?"
I cringed. This could be going a bit less offensively. But at least it seemed like the bartender was catching on, if from a completely wrong angle.
"We aren't trees," Qulma told her patiently. "We bear our young much the same way you do. And as you can see, they look like your children. They play like your children. They learn and laugh and cry and grow like your children."
"But they aren't like our children," Cale snapped. "They'll grow up to be like you."
"And what's wrong with that?" I asked.
He scoffed. "Look at you sitting over there with them like you're one of them. It's disgusting."
"It's disgusting that I don't think we're all that different, and that even if we were, that's no reason to want to wipe each other off the face of the planet?" I asked.
"Why do you live out in the woods?" Shailene asked.
She looked around at our surroundings. The table carved from stone sat in the middle of a clearing given a low-hanging ceiling with thick, richly colored tree branches. Flowers grew like a carpet along the edges of the clearing, filling the air with their perfume. A creek bubbled and danced only a few feet away, creating a soothing sound that brought to mind a sense of life and rejuvenation. It was a special place for the Vrya, a meeting place for peaceful talks and a setting for weddings and celebrations. They'd offered it for this gathering, a gesture of openness.
"Peace," Qulma said. "Our kind have always traveled. We move from place to place to keep our families safe. We chose this place because it felt secure. It seemed like we could build our lives here."
"That's enough of this small talk shit. I want to know what really matters," Cale interjected, shoving himself rudely into the conversation the way it seemed was his general procedure in life.
"And what real shit would you like to know?" I shot back.
Ally snapped her eyes to me, but I didn't care. I'd had enough of this man. In my time out of The Deep, I’d learned I had no patience for kale, and now I knew that turning that 'k' into a 'c' didn't make any difference.
"Why'd these things cave in our mine?" he growled.
Akker didn't give his mother a chance to try to answer. He slammed his hands on the table and leaned toward Cale. "I was distraught. One of you had just murdered my father."
Cale pressed his hands to the table and pushed himself up, spitting his way through the first words of an incoherent response. Shailene put her hand on his back and tugged him back do
wn.
"Sit yourself down, Cale. You aren't doing any good acting like that."
"Acting like what?" he demanded.
"Enough." The bartender turned to Akker. "I know my town. Cale and his pleasant demeanor aside, I can't see any of my people doing something like that."
"Well, then who did?" Akker asked.
Qulma was done with sitting aside and letting her son carry the weight of the talks on his shoulders.
"There's time to wrestle with the past later. I'm here to discuss the future. Are our people safe?" she asked.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jonas lean close to Cale and whisper something in his ear. I thought he might be trying to help by talking to him man-to-man. But whatever he said, Cale’s eyes darkened. My heart tightened, and my body went on high alert.
"Are our people safe?" he spat. "These freaks can cause earthquakes with their damned minds. They could level the whole valley."
Behind me, the Vrya were getting angry. The representatives at the table were grumbling at each other and snapping at the humans across from them. Qulma stood and put her hand on Akker's back.
"Go take a walk, son," she told him. He complied reluctantly, still muttering to himself as he made his way out of the clearing. When he was gone, she turned her attention back to the people across the table. "We can control ourselves. Can you?"
Shailene started to say something, but Cale had reached his breaking point. He shot up from his seat and looked around at the other humans.
"Are you going to listen to her? Are you going to believe them? They aren't like us. Look at them. They're nothing but freaks. They're unnatural, demonic monsters who tried to bury me and then came into our town and tried to burn it to the ground. We will never be safe as long as they live so close to us."
He was trying to rile up the others and was succeeding. Things were getting heated, shouts and slurs coming from both sides, angry words getting spat back and forth, and weapons drawn. I stood to try and calm everyone down, but only a shrill, bloodcurdling scream brought a lull to the conflict.
It wasn't me.
An instant later, a young dryad ran into the clearing. "Something has happened to Akker."
"What?" I stepped toward her.
"Somebody attacked him."
Chapter Thirty-Five
My stomach jumped into my throat, and I immediately ran after the young dryad. She backed up a few steps as if she couldn't stand being anywhere close to the spot where she pointed. An older member of her community came up behind her and wrapped protective arms around her shoulders, pulling her back against him. I had to guess he was her older brother. It was the same type of gesture I would have used to defend any of my younger siblings if something this terrifying were happening to them.
"That way?" I asked.
She nodded and pointed, waving her long finger frantically. She turned her head into the man's chest, and he leaned his cheek down to rest on hers, creating a shield around her with his body. I didn't have to go far into the surrounding woods to see what terrified her. The sight brought my feet to a skidding stop and made my heart fall.
Arrows stuck out of the trees all around me. Some looked like they were shot just for show, to mark what happened and instill terror in anyone who saw them. Others weren't as ornamental. Blood clung to the heads of some of the arrows and more spattered the trees and the ground. Ahead of me, I saw a pool of blood soaking into the earth and a narrow trail leading away from it.
A chunk of bark looked torn from one of the trees, but when I looked closer, I saw it shimmer with fresh blood. It wasn't bark, but a piece of dryad flesh. The Vrya and the human townsfolk rushed up behind me, and I whirled around to push them back.
I didn't need any of the humans getting into the area and ruining anything that might lead us to Akker or let us know what happened to him. And I didn't want any of the Vrya coming onto the scene and seeing the horror. Especially Qulma. She had already been through enough with the loss of her husband. She didn't need to know the brutality inflicted on her son.
But it wasn't enough. I couldn't stand in their way enough to stop them. As soon as they reached me, they streamed around me to see what I was looking at. Instantly, the entire group erupted in shouting again.
"Look at this!" one of the Vrya screamed. "Look at what they’ve done! These people say we're freaks and putting them in danger, but look what one of their kind has done to Akker!"
"Us? What evidence do you have that it was one of us?" a human man shouted back at her.
"Of course, it's what they're going to say," Cale sneered. "These disgusting monsters get off on ripping through their kind and then blaming us. They won't hesitate to start working their way through us."
"None of the Vrya did this." Another dryad squared his chest against Cale. "This isn't the way of our community. We wouldn't do something like this."
"You think any of us believe you? You're filthy liars. You probably planned this whole ridiculous meeting so you could lure that creature away and do this to him."
"That creature is my son," Qulma shot back angrily.
"I don't care who or what he is. One of your collection of freaks wanted to have us around to see this. They're getting some sort of sick pleasure out of parading around what they did right in front of us. They did it to him, and they'll do it to our children," Cale insisted.
The humans roared, and the Vrya started toward them, but Ally and I managed to stay between them.
"You don't know what you're talking about," a dryad hissed. "Unlike you humans, the Vrya are kind to one another. We don't turn our backs or enjoy hurting each other."
"Don't you dare talk about humans," Cale seethed.
"That's enough, Cale," Shailene said. "You need to back off."
"No. Why should I back off? The good people of Hunt shouldn't have to be afraid of these demons lurking around in the woods outside our town. This is our land, our town. We shouldn't have to worry about the lives of our children. Can you imagine what they would do to them?"
I glanced at Ally, and she looked at the tree beside her, indicating the arrows with her eyes. I nodded.
"Arrows?" she mouthed.
"Akker's father had arrow holes," I responded.
She shuddered. The feeling was mutual. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence that the man lying in the morgue was riddled with arrow holes and now his son was missing, leaving behind blood and arrows.
"We would do nothing to your children," Qulma said. "How dare you accuse us of something like that?"
"Ask your family. They're the ones causing all this." He turned to the humans gathered behind him. "Now is the time to defend yourself. Don't live in fear or let monsters take control of your life. There may be some people who are willing to lower themselves to associating with these creatures, but I won't. This shit has gone on long enough, and it's time for it to stop. They want a war, and I'm more than happy to give it to them."
That was enough. I would deal with a lot. I had dealt with a lot. I'd had my fair share of idiocy in my days, and I tried to channel that to keep this situation under control and not resort to fighting. But the second I heard Cale start spouting shit about war, I was done. Bad hamburger at a crummy chain restaurant done.
"Every one of you shut the ever-living fuck up and back off!" I shouted. "We tried to get everybody together so we could talk like civilized adults, but if you're going to refuse and keep acting like out-of-control children, so help me, I will put every single one of you in time out. I am not fucking kidding."
"You're going to put me in time out?" Cale asked. If a voice could have the swagger of an entitled drunk man with a sock stuffed in his crotch, his did.
I turned my glare to him. "Try me." He backed down. "That's what I thought. Now, everybody take a breath and listen. No matter what anybody says, no one knows what happened here. All we know is Akker is gone and is likely seriously hurt. I will get to the bottom of it. I will get to the bottom of all of it. But you nee
d to stay cool." I looked at Ally. "You keep things in check."
"Where are you going?" Ally asked.
"To find Akker," I told her.
I looked around for Jonas. This would be a moment when his help could come in handy. He was nowhere. I searched the faces of the crowd of human townsfolk trying to find him, but he wasn't there. Thinking he might have crossed over and joined the Vrya, I turned and looked through those who had gathered behind me. He was nowhere in sight. Weird.
The strange feeling his disappearance created stayed with me as I pushed past everyone gathered in the tight space and followed the grisly trail left by Akker and his attacker.
Chapter Thirty-Six
I felt the ground move beneath my feet, although it was barely perceptible. It felt less like an earthquake and more like someone moving heavy furniture a floor below. I kept running, following the signs of struggle and small drops of blood. I worried about the blood because while there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of it, it was collected together in little groups. Like the victim was being brought somewhere against their will and kept stopping for a moment.
The trail led me around the heavily wooded area leading to the clearing and eventually the Vrya encampment, and out toward the riverbed. Then it went up, climbing the steep hill leading away from the town and heading to the dam. The damn dam. That was where this was going, and where Akker would be. I knew it.
Not bothering to look for the clues anymore, I started booking it straight to the dam. As I crested another large hill, the dam looming beyond, I came upon a flat area overlooking the dam, the city, and the countryside, across from the mountain the mines ran through. In any other circumstance, it would have been a beautiful place where I would have enjoyed laying back and enjoying nature. But there was something horrible there.
Akker sat in the center of the field, battered and bloodied, stripped nearly naked and on his knees. I ran to him, yelling his name, but he didn’t respond. It was only when I reached him that I realized he was chained to a large metal stake, holding him to the ground. The chains bound his arms behind him so he couldn’t try to pull them apart, and he was stuck facing the earth, only able to hold his head one way or the other. Blood streamed from a wound on his forehead, and he moved so the rivulets flowed away from his eyes.