Shatterskin

by Beca Lewis

  I had no other thing to do. Whatever magic I had was still hidden from me. Other than the time I fired lightning bolts from my hands, and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how I did that.

  Besides, like everyone else I was exhausted. Even if I knew where my magic was keeping itself, I didn’t know how I would dredge up enough energy to carry it out.

  “Spit on them?” I asked.

  When everyone looked at me blankly, I said, “Spit is water and some salt right? It’s stupid but worth a try.”

  Shrugging, Zeid stepped forward and spat on the nearest Shriek. Everyone laughed. It was totally stupid.

  “Okay, it’s stupid, but it feels great. Give it a try.”

  We spread out and started spitting on the still standing Shrieks. Zeid was right. It felt awesome, but nothing happened. Probably not enough salt.

  Good thing it was only us watching what we were doing.

  “Listen,” James said. Once again we paused and listened. Rustling. And laughing. Priscillas!

  Flying straight for me were Pris, Cil, and La, laughing so hard they were wavering as they flew.

  “Oh ziffer and zut!” Pris said. “That’s the silliest thing I ever saw. Spitting on green blobs. Had to be your idea, Hannah.”

  As happy as I was to see Pris, I wanted to tug her pigtails extra hard. Instead, I said, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

  The three fairies hovered over one Shriek and spat. Well, if a tiny drop of water could be called spitting.

  “You’re right, Kara,” La said. “That feels great, but we have something we think you will like better.”

  The rustling noise increased, and the Priscilla’s gestured to what looked like a moving mass of earth.

  “What the ziffer is that?” John yelled.

  “The next thing to try,” Cil said. “But, you might want to get off the ground. They might not know the difference between your feet and a green blob.”

  Everyone took a look at the brown mass moving towards them and started running to the nearest tree. I swear the branches had lowered themselves, so we all were able to grab a limb and swing up off the ground. Except for Aki who simply levitated herself up into the tree. I am going to have to get her to teach me how to do that, I thought.

  We watched from the safety of the trees as the mass came closer. Now we could see it was thousands and thousands of insects—not any I had seen before though.

  “What are those?” I asked alternately horrified and thrilled as they swarmed over every green blob and started eating it. A large group split off and took the remaining five blobs, swarming over them until we couldn’t see them anymore.

  Within minutes the blobs were gone, and the ground was cleaned of every bit of green. However, the insects appeared to be thoroughly searching for every molecule that was left, so we all stayed in the trees.

  Lady had flown down and watched the insects and was perched in a tree with us. I thought she was looking a little hungry. Insects, yum, good. The Priscillas were swinging off a twig looking as casual as if it was merely another beautiful fall day.

  “These are our friends,” La said.

  “Your friends?”

  “Yes. Excellent friends!”

  “Where did they come from?” I asked.

  The Priscillas didn’t answer. It was Link who filled us in as we sat on tree branches watching our new brown insect friends make sure there was nothing left of the Shrieks.

  “This is where the Priscillas have been going at night,” Link said. “These insect friends don’t live in this region. They had to be convinced to be brought here to fight the Shrieks. It was the Priscillas who did all the work.

  “We knew we couldn’t bring them in until the Shrieks were stopped, and we still weren’t sure it would work. But Pris had heard of these little buggers, excuse the pun, who could eat anything, digest it, and not get sick. It was worth a try, and it seems to have been very effective.”

  We all looked at the newly cleaned forest floor and agreed that it was a brilliant idea. I had a lot of apologizing to do.

  “How did you get them here,” Aki asked, always the practical one.

  “In Sound Bubbles,” Link answered.

  Complete silence reigned as we all contemplated what bubbles filled with crawling brown insects must have looked like flying over Erda.

  Once again, Aki asked the practical question.

  “Where will they be living?”

  Link’s laughter was not all that reassuring.

  Forty-Five

  Just as I thought, the Whistle Pigs and Ginete had been there all along. Teddy and Pita popped up again out of nowhere, strolling through the woods as if they didn’t have a care in the world. They took in the picture of all of us sitting in trees, and a mat of brown insects on the ground as if it was a regular, everyday occurrence.

  At Teddy and Pita’s arrival, the insects all moved over to another part of the forest and stayed there. Seeing that it was safe, we came down out of the trees to meet them. It was only then that I realized that I had not seen Ruta hop into a tree. I spun around looking for him.

  “Looking for Ruta?” Niko asked me. Niko looked as if nothing had happened in the last few hours. He was alert and unrumpled.

  Unlike me. I hoped that I didn’t look as bad as I felt, but at the narrowing of Niko’s eyes, I had a feeling that I looked, and smelled, fairly bad.

  Niko flicked his gaze over to one of the bigger trees outside the clearing where we had fought the Shrieks and said, “He probably went that way.”

  I had no idea what Niko was talking about. “What way? Is he still walking?”

  “No, he left by tree,” Niko said.

  “Are we doing that kind of riddle, like ‘who’s on first?’” I asked. “He left by tree? And while we are talking about where and how people come and go, where did the two of you come from, Teddy and Pita?”

  Teddy grinned, probably thinking it was friendly, but his grins were always slightly terrifying with those two big teeth in the front meeting the equally large teeth from the bottom. I tried not to think about what would happen if he decided to nibble my hand.

  “Well, if we’re saying it Niko’s way, we came by ground,” Teddy said pointing into the woods where I saw more Whistle Pigs arriving carrying something that reminded me of a pet carrier, but much bigger.

  “So if you arrived by ground and Ruta left by tree, where is he now?”

  “Probably already at the meeting room we have prepared for you. We brought water for bathing too.” Teddy said, not so subtly.

  “And food?” I asked.

  When Teddy nodded yes I didn’t waste any time getting to the area where the circles appeared to be, but once I got there, I had no idea how to make it work. Everyone else seemed to know how. They stepped on one, and swoosh they were gone.

  I caught Pita and Teddy laughing. Standing on the circle, hands on my hips trying to look commanding, I said, “Are you messing with me?”

  Before I could get the words me out of my mouth, I was already underground, and Pita and Teddy were still laughing at me. But now we were all standing in another vast room that seemed to be just like the one we had left. I wondered if it was the same one, and this was all an illusion.

  “Well,” Pris said, “Yes, in many ways all of this that we are experiencing is an illusion, but not the kind you mean. So no, this is not the same room. And no, you can’t apologize right now. We have to go make sure our insect friends are being taken care of.”

  With a haughty flick of her head, Pris flew off. Cil and La looked as if they would have liked to stay, but Pris gave them one of her famous “get over here before I tear your head off” looks and with an apologetic glance at me, followed their big sister.

  “Go get cleaned up everyon
e,” Niko said. “We’ll meet in the food hall in an hour.”

  Niko didn’t have to add that we had a problem, or two, or three. But at that moment we were safe, and dirty, tired, and hungry.

  Once the Ginete explained to us that the tunnels and rooms where we were now were patterned exactly like the ones we left, none of us had trouble figuring out which way to go to get to our rooms.

  Pita walked with me to my room and waited for me to say what was on my mind before opening the door for me.

  “Where were you?” I asked Pita.

  “We traveled beneath you. We are not fighters in the same way that you are. We provide what you need. Partnering with our cousins, the Whistle Pigs, we can do things we could never do on our own, and of course, a little magic never hurts. Think of us as the Red Cross in Erda. Well, not exactly, but close. Maybe a cross between them and your ministers. No, not that …”

  Pita stopped as I laid my hand on his arm. “Thank you. That’s not what I meant, Pita. My words don’t come out right some of the time. No, most of the time. Your being here is the best thing I could think of. What would we do if you didn’t have this space for us? I was just worried for you and Teddy, and all of your families.”

  Pita’s golden eyes sparkled with tears as he opened the door for me. I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I pretended not to notice.

  As I walked in the door, I thought of something else. “If the Ginete and the Whistle Pigs are sorta like the Red Cross and Faith ministers, does that mean you have healers, too?”

  This time Pita laughed. At least I think it was a laugh.

  “Of course we do. What do you think happened in that ceremony we did for you back at the Castle?”

  “A healing?”

  “A healing of sorts and it’s still in process. But to answer the rest of your question, yes, there are healers that work on physical injuries, if they are not too serious. Sometimes, no one can help.”

  Pita took another look at me and said, “Oh. You’re asking about the trees and plants that were injured today, aren’t you?

  “That is something that will be on the agenda at the meeting. Go ahead, get cleaned up, I’ll wait here for you.”

  After Pita closed the door on me, I looked at the closed door for a long time. I thought about how Beru would shut the door at the Castle, lock it, and then stand guard. Here, Pita did the same.

  What was there to guard against? What were they protecting me from here in this safe space? Or, since I heard the door lock, perhaps they were protecting themselves from me?

  I shook my head. That was ridiculous. I was not dangerous at all, except for the way I looked and smelled. But that was easy to take care of. I decided to worry about the rest later.

  Forty-Six

  “We have a problem,” Niko said.

  “Not like we don’t know it,” John huffed. Behind him, the other men from the village agreed with him with grunts and agreements of “Yea, we do!”

  I felt terrible for them. These men had left their families to come help us. Now it looked as if our solution for killing the Shrieks might not work, and what we did might have made everything worse because Abbadon now knew what we intended to do.

  “Sure, we managed to stun them and then dissolve most of them, but at what cost?” Kit added.

  It was the first time I had heard Kit speak up in a meeting. Up until now, he’d gone along with whatever Niko said, but something had triggered his fear to the point he had gotten over his shyness.

  I knew what it was, but I waited until someone else said it.

  Niko continued after acknowledging John and Kit, but not answering them directly. “Before we go down the rabbit hole of what didn’t work, let’s acknowledge what did,” Niko said.

  “We worked!” Pris sang as she fluttered down on to the center of the table and did a little pirouette.

  Her performance prompted a round of clapping, which I was sure was exactly what she was aiming for. But she was right. Their insect brigade did work. I clapped as hard as I could to let her know how proud I was of her. Pris was still peeved at me, and I missed her. I hoped she would get over it soon.

  We were all seated around another large table just like the one we left behind. I thought about how much the Ginete and the Whistle Pigs had to do to be ready for us this way. There had to be some serious magic going on that enabled the cousins to not only dig the tunnels but furnish them for us too in such a short time.

  Cil whispered in my ear, “These tunnels and rooms have been here forever, Hannah. They are not building them as you move.

  “What they do is add the portals that will bring you down here. Once you move on, they’ll remove the portals, so the wrong people, or things, don’t trigger them. Like the Shrieks.”

  Cil shivered when she said that, and so did I. The idea that the Shrieks might be able to come into this safe place scared me too.

  “Thank you, Cil,” I whispered. “You saved me from making an even bigger fool of myself.”

  I wondered how long Pita and Teddy would have let me continue to believe that they were that fast. Fooling the new girl. I caught Pita’s eyes, and he winked a big golden eye at me! The nerve.

  “Some people say it’s better to believe anything is possible than to have a closed mind, Hannah,” Niko said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s better that you have an open mind than one that can’t accept a new idea.”

  Speaking to the entire group, Niko added. “And that is what we are all going to need—a belief in possibilities. I’m serious about looking at what worked. Until a few weeks ago, we didn’t have a single weapon against the Shrieks. Now we do.”

  “Sure. But how is that going to work in a bigger picture? How are we going to be able to carry enough salt and water to dissolve the Shrieks?” John asked.

  “That’s not all. How are you planning to transport insects everywhere? That’s not counting the fact that the trees and plants took a huge hit from both the sound that was blasted towards them and the salt that was dumped on the ground.”

  When Niko started to answer, John held up his hand.

  “Let me finish. There are not enough of us to stun and then dissolve the hundreds and hundreds of Shrieks that will be attacking us next time.

  “And even if you solve these problems, we have huge ones that I don’t see any solution for. How did the Shrieks know we were coming? How did they hide from us? And finally, the biggest problem of all, to do what we did, the mirrors were left on for a long time.

  “The possibility that Abbadon knows what we did is huge. And he probably saw what worked and what didn’t work and he will use all that against us.”

  “And,” Kit added. “He knows where we are right now!”

  Niko paused. “Does anyone else have any concerns that they want to voice?”

  When no one else said anything, Niko said. “Thank you, John and Kit for bringing up all the problems that we need to address. But we will solve them.”

  “Because we have to,” James added. “If we don’t, we don’t have a chance. I know that we all miss our families, and want to go home, but if we don’t figure this out, there won’t be a home to go back to. If we want our wives and children to be safe, we can’t give up.”

  John looked at his brother and nodded. He didn’t look happy, but what James said was true. There really was no choice. We had to solve the problems and do it fast because John was also correct. If Abbadon knew where we were right now, wouldn’t he target us first?

  “Okay,” Niko said. “One problem at a time. Which one first?”

  “We have a solution for one of them,” Teddy spoke up. “We were already working on the issue of salt and water. We just needed to see if it worked at all. Now that we know it does, we only had to solve getting more water and salt faster. That tu
rned out to be easier than we thought.”

  “But won’t a huge amount of salt destroy the plant life?” John asked.

  “Yes, it could,” Teddy said. “However, we have addressed this issue in two ways. More plain water after it’s over to flush the salt down into the ground as far as we can get it. And the trees had been working with us to develop a counter to the salt once it gets deep enough for their roots to deal with it.”

  “You’ve been working with the trees?” I asked.

  “And what delivery system could possibly be big enough?” John demanded.

  A huge blast of air blew through the open door, and Earl walked into the room accompanied by Ruta.

  Niko turned to the two of them and said, “Great timing. It’s your turn now.”

  Forty-Seven

  Earl, imposing as ever, and Ruta, who always reminded me of a tree stump with arms and legs, walked into the room together. They were an interesting pair.

  Earl didn’t give us any time to wonder what they were doing there; he strode to the head of the table and stared at us. His hair streamed down his back flowing like a gray river. Earl had a face that looked as if it had remained that way for thousands of years, unchanging. Now that I knew more about Erda, it was possible that was true.

  Earl looked at me and smiled. “I see you have learned a little bit, Hannah. You know your name now, and you’re beginning to grow into it. Still trying to remember your magic though. Although that little display of lightning bolts from your hands was a nice prelude. Do you know how you did it yet?”

  I shook my head no and then asked, “Am I the only one who doesn’t know your true name, Earl?”

  Earl looked around the room taking in our team. We were all so different. His gaze rested on Suzanne, and she smiled back at him.

  “Well, they’ve heard of me, as have you, Kara Beth. But not everyone knows me as Coro, the commander of storms.”