by Beca Lewis
I could tell who hadn’t known who he was, because most of the table, like me, gasped. The Priscillas, on the other hand, were now adorning his coat. No fear there.
Earl smiled down at them, and they all looked up at him adoringly. “Yes, some of us have been friends a long time,” Earl said, and then his massive hands carefully patted each fairy on her head. If I had done that they might have chewed off my fingers. When Earl did it, I think they actually purred.
Suzanne spoke. “Earl, as Coro, is our delivery system. My father will sweep up waters from the oceans. He’ll carry the salt water to where you are fighting the Shrieks. My mother will assist him in directing the water to only the Shrieks and not dumping it on you, at least as much as possible.”
“Your mother? Who is your mother? Where is your mother?” I asked, totally confused.
“My mother is Ariel. She is the leader of the winds. I fly with her every day. She prefers to be the wind over being locked into a physical body, but I am sure she will be present as herself for you one day, Kara Beth.”
I had to force myself to listen to what Suzanne said after that. Was I going to return to my family? Did she mean Hannah’s family or Kara Beth’s family? I suspected it was my Erda family that she was referring to, and at that moment I realized I still didn’t remember them.
“Let it go, Kara Beth,” Suzanne said. “It will happen soon enough, but only after we have completed this part of our mission.”
When I still looked puzzled, she added, “Get a grip, Hannah. We are here to deal with the Shrieks and Shatterskin.”
“You said ‘this part of our mission.’ What other parts are there?”
For a moment Suzanne’s face softened. Perhaps she hadn’t meant to tell me that. “This is enough to think about for now.”
John, who seemed to have taken over being the spokesman for the men from the village said, “Okay. Earl here brings the salt water, and his wife dumps it on the Shrieks. Let’s say that works. What happens to the salt?”
Ruta stepped to the head of the table. Aki took one look at him and somehow levitated him up high enough so all of us could see him. He gave her a grateful look before speaking. “After the Shrieks have been killed and devoured by the Priscillas’ insect friends, the trees will take care of the rest. They have developed a supplemental root system that will pull the salt out of the soil, and then release minerals from the salt that are beneficial back into the ground.
“After the roots have absorbed all the excess salt, the trees will release the supplemental roots that are storing the salt water. Those roots will drop down into the underground streams and eventually the streams will carry those roots to the ocean. Over time, the roots will dissolve and return the salt to where it came from.”
“Seriously?” I said. “This is all going to happen this way? Are you kidding? How do the trees know how to do that?”
“You mean you have a harder time believing that the trees have intelligence and understanding than you do that Earl is the commander of the storms and his wife of the wind? Aren’t you saying then that people are smarter than nature? Especially trees?” Ruta demanded.
“Well, if you put it that way,” I began, but Ruta wasn’t done. I swear I thought I saw smoke come out of his head.
“Look around you, smart girl. What’s holding these rooms together? Yes, tree roots. What are you breathing? Air. Who put it there and took out what you can’t breathe? Trees. You live because trees have made this world habitable for you and every other form of life. Where does all this magic come from? You can’t even remember. But guess. It’s not hard. Trees, Hannah. Trees.”
Everybody had been staring at Ruta. When he was done, all heads swiveled to me. I stood there rooted in my seat not knowing what to say. I was furious. I let the anger build. I allowed myself to feel what it felt like to be powerless, to be called a little girl, to know that I was failing my friends. I heard Link say, “That’s it, Hannah. Control it. Now surrender.”
I did what he said. I surrendered to everything that Ruta had said. I surrendered to my helplessness. I surrendered to who I could be. As I did, the anger turned to something else, and within me rose a massive surge of power as the door to my memory opened and the past rushed out.
Forty-Eight
The table and everyone around it faded into the background. I was alone and yet not alone. Shadows and images of the past surrounded me. I let the memories of the past seep into me. From the ground beneath me, I felt the heartbeat of the earth.
Around me, I could feel the pulsing from the tree roots that made up the walls, floors, and ceiling of the room. The trees heard everything. They knew everything. They stored all our memories within their bodies. Even in what appeared as death, they remained in different forms. Their fire warmed us. The smoke eventually returned to earth and fed the next generation of trees. Trees that fell in the forest provided homes and food for thousands of beings that lived in harmony with them.
Trees breathed in and out. They transformed every form of energy into something that was useful. They were the breath and life of the world.
The past sat on the edge of my vision waiting for me to acknowledge it. I let it in.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the stretch of a long meadow that ended at the base of a tall hill. Beru and I were playing together.
The Priscillas were dancing on the top of flowers singing and laughing over the antics of their insect friends. Ruta stood at the edge of the meadow, just at the tree line. Watching. Protecting. It was glorious. We were all happy without a care in the world.
Suddenly a wind rose from the west, and five runners burst out of the woods and into the meadow. Long legs were heading towards our home in the village. They were messengers from the Castle. I recognized Niko leading the way. Lady swooped out of the trees and headed the same way as the runners. We knew something terrible was happening. Beru, Ruta, and I ran as fast as we could to follow them, the Priscillas flying ahead of us.
We arrived out of breath and just in time to hear the name of Abbadon for the first time. Abbadon the destroyer was on the move. The King’s brother had decided that what he had was not enough. Abbadon wanted more. He wanted it all. Niko described the Shrieks. My mother screamed. My father reached over and held her hand as Niko continued to tell of the destruction. First the shrieking, then the shattering of every living thing. Every village in the Shrieks’ path had been destroyed. Most of the West Coast was brown and dead.
My vision cleared and I was back in our meeting room—everyone silent, waiting for me. I felt like throwing up. I wanted to run and scream from the room.
But the time of running was over. I knew everyone had seen the memories played out before me, and were waiting for me to ask the next question. I could feel a surge of support from Aki. She had done it before for me in our practice sessions, when I wanted to give up.
Those practice sessions back in the Castle seemed as if they had been a lifetime ago, not just a few weeks. So much had changed. I had remembered.
I asked, “How long ago was that, Niko?”
“In Erda time, just two years. A few lifetimes in Earth time. As soon as your parents, the King and Queen, heard about what we had seen, they didn’t hesitate. They were afraid to lose you, so they sent you through the portal to the Earth Realm. You know that Suzanne was given charge over you, so we had reports about your life almost on a daily basis.
“We loved hearing about how happy you were, and we were all willing for you to stay. But then Abbadon got better at what he was doing, and Suzanne thought you might be able to turn the tide in our favor. By then, your parents didn’t have a say in the matter.
“We needed you. We didn’t know you would have forgotten everything. We thought you would be ready as soon as you returned. At first, we were devastated, thinking that perhaps we should have left you
in Earth. But now that you were here, we had to give it a chance.”
I know if I had a mirror to look at my face I would have seen that it had turned white, drained of blood. What could I do, now?
“Two years and all this destruction? Just two years of your time?”
The awareness of what Abbadon was doing overflowed into my veins, bringing the blood rushing back. I opened myself and reached out trying to feel the connection to the magic that I knew I had. It was time to remember. It was time for me to stop fighting my destiny.
I stood up. I felt my connection to the trees. The trees that had been trying to tell me something ever since I had arrived. It was their power that flowed in my veins. I rooted myself in their embrace, an embrace that reached into every surface of the earth.
I lifted my internal sight to the ground above us, where parts of the trees that grew in air stood, patiently providing. I saw Cahir guarding the circles that would bring us up to the forest floor. His gold eyes flashed as I entered his mind, with his permission.
He showed me that the trees were drooping, bark peeling away, limbs barely attached. I remembered that I could help. I could heal the trees. I sent out a pulse of energy through the ground, through the roots into the trees above. I directed it into every tree affected by what we had done.
Through Cahir’s eyes, I watched the return of the trees’ lifeblood flowing through every branch. Repairing breaks and healing scars.
No more little girl trying to remember her magic. I remembered. I knew that I was still weak from lack of practice, but I knew who I was, Princess Kara Beth.
I returned my vision to the room and to the people who had been watching around the table who had waited for me to return to Erda and then to myself.
“Thank you, Ruta, for always watching over me.” Taking each person in, I looked into each face treasuring what I saw there.
“I remember all of you now. I also remember this.”
On my open palm, a ball of light danced. My magic. A gift from the trees. The Priscillas shrieked with joy and flew up into my hair. Even Pris kissed me on the cheek. Ruta smiled proudly. The five men from the village hugged each other.
Earl clapped, breaking the celebration. “Congratulations, Kara Beth. But don’t get too cocky. You haven’t remembered everything. But now, with what you do remember we can fight and win. Abbadon has sent a wall of Shrieks to our location. They will be here soon.
“Even with all our magic, we may not succeed. Abbadon has learned some tricks with his Shrieks. And after watching the last battle, he will have more ways to deceive us.”
Looking around the room, Earl asked, “Are you ready?”
“Ready!” we all shouted.
In my head, I heard the nursery rhyme I had played in Earth. “Ready or not, here we come.”
I hoped it was the Shrieks and Shatterskin who were not ready. We’d find out soon enough.
Forty-Nine
“Except me,” Zeid said after everyone else had left the room. We had both stayed behind because he knew my secret. When I had looked around the room, I saw Zeid sitting beside Suzanne and Beru. I looked straight at him, pretended that I knew him, and moved on.
But it had been a lie. I didn’t remember Zeid, and he knew it too. I could see the pain in his eyes. I wanted to remember. I just couldn’t.
There was nothing to say. I wasn’t doing it on purpose. But that didn’t make it hurt any less for Zeid. I could at least feel that. There was something between us, something important, but the memory of it was hidden from me.
“Is it because of this?” Zeid said lifting my left arm and revealing my friendship bracelet from Johnny. I remembered Johnny. But my life that included Johnny felt like a dream from another lifetime.
A lifetime when I had been just a young girl and Johnny had been a young man who had only begun to suspect how I felt about him. Johnny lived in a world without Shrieks. Without a monster called Abbadon who intended to destroy every living thing.
When I lived in the Earth Realm, I knew of evil people. Johnny and I had escaped more than once from men that had wanted to harm us. But it was nothing like what was happening in Erda.
The crush I had on Johnny felt just like that now. A schoolgirl crush. But maybe the memory of that crush, kept me wearing the bracelet, and made me feel guilty when I looked at Zeid. Perhaps I had closed the door on who Zeid was to me, because of Johnny.
Zeid dropped my arm but continued to hold my hand. We stood face to face only a few inches apart. Even though I didn’t remember Zeid from before, he pulled at me. I wanted to stand there looking into his eyes that reminded me of the ocean until all of the nightmares of Abbadon faded away.
It was Zeid who broke our eye contact. “Stay safe, Kara Beth. It doesn’t matter that you don’t remember, because I do.”
Zeid dropped my hand and left the room without looking back. My heart sank. I should have told him to stay safe too—so many things I should have done and didn’t.
I didn’t have long to wallow in regret because Pris flew in the door and pulled my hair. “Stop it!” she said. “Bring your ziffering magic and let’s go. You don’t have time to be mooning around after Zeid or anyone else for that matter.”
After pulling my hair, Pris switched to my earlobe and dragged me towards the door. For a tiny thing, Pris had a lot of strength and determination. I followed. She was right. I had no time to be trying to figure out who Zeid was to me. Besides, there was no way I was going to get Pris mad at me again.
Niko had assigned everyone with something specific to do. He had given us an hour to get it done. Even though no one wore watches, everyone always appeared on time or finished in time.
Once I was late to a meeting, and Aki had spent our next two sessions teaching me how to access time internally which is where she said it resided anyway.
There were only forty-five minutes left before we were heading to the surface. But Niko’s assignment to me was different. I was to go into the meditation room and be quiet. Listen. “Get back to listening, Hannah,” he had said.
Calling me Hannah was probably a signal to me. As Hannah, I had been good at listening to my internal guide. The disorientation I faced when I returned to Erda had thrown me off, and listening had not been high on my priority list. Now it had to be. Niko had said so, and I could see Aki nodding in assent.
I almost rolled my eyes at him, and then stopped halfway through the roll. We both pretended that it hadn’t happened. Even with the eye rolling, I knew he was right.
“Okay, okay,” I yelled at Pris who wouldn’t let go. “I’m going right now.”
“Better. I have to go feed our insect friends.”
“Where are they?”
“In a big room. You don’t want to go in there though. They’re everywhere. We’ll have them right behind you to clean up after you all dissolve the Shrieks.”
Pris flew off down the hall. Her wings sparkled in the light of the tunnel. Now I knew that it was the trees that were providing the light source. They used a portion of their energy to glow where a light was needed. When light wasn’t, they automatically turned themselves off.
As I walked the hall to the room, I asked the trees to dim their light, and I slowed both my walking and my breath. I didn’t need to wait to get to the room to listen. I could listen while I walked.
With each step, I opened myself to hear what to do. The Oracle had taught me how to reach her, and I opened myself to her. The return of my memory was due in large part to what had happened in that room.
Now I asked what I needed to know and to give me the wisdom to do the right thing.
I was running even before I felt the first boom. In the transport room, Beru tossed me my shield, headset, and backpack. We were still taking our own supply of salt and water. No one wanted to
be trapped with a Shriek while Coro was busy with another.
Within a split second of stepping onto our circles, we were on the surface. With our earmuffs set on high and shields in front, we advanced toward the sound. Not just shrieking. Shattering. The Riff had come to us.
Fifty
The surface was total chaos. Every living thing was trying to flee from the ear-splitting sounds that the Shrieks were making. But this time they had nowhere to go. They were trapped in an ever-narrowing box surrounded by Shrieks advancing on them.
Abbadon must have learned a new strategy to use with the Shrieks. Probably from watching the last battle through our mirror shields and how we had won it. His new plan appeared to be frighteningly effective. Hundreds of Shrieks were arriving from all four directions. All of them moving towards a center where they had trapped their prey.
They had abandoned the line moving through the forest, and instead, each massive column headed towards the center. Once they reached the center, everything would be dead, and maybe then they would advance again in a line, killing as they moved through the land.
Yes, that meant they were stunning themselves for a time when they shrieked at each other, but then the next line moved forward and took over. And there were lines upon lines of Shrieks ready to step in and take over.
The sound they fired at each other wasn’t enough to stun them for long, and after a few minutes, they were moving again. Relentlessly forward towards the center.
And that was the Shrieks that we could see. Now that we learned from the last battle that they had learned to be invisible to us, there was no telling how many Shrieks there were actually present.
At the last minute, Teddy and Pita had rerouted where we came to the surface, so instead of emerging in the middle of the converging Shrieks, we were on the outskirts of the line advancing from the east.