Yet it’s only a quick embrace. Letting go, Kary exhales heavily and looks around our dark, glittering cocoon. “We need to get out of here. Rucks and his kids are nothing but trouble.”
“And I don’t want to deal with any Shieldbearers either,” I add. If I can force my way through Kaverlee’s barrier, surely I can walk out of a rundown cauponium. “Which way is the door?”
Kary points over my shoulder. “At least, I think it is.”
So I twist around and move our energy shelter in that direction, and although we collide with a few tables, I soon work the awkward shape through the doorway and over the stone stoop.
Now there’s damp mud and gravel beneath us.
“I’m going to make an energy disc,” I tell Kary, who’s behind me. “We can escape on it.”
I feel him shift. “What?”
Realms, I have so much to tell him. Putting on my goggles, I hastily explain my plan. “I’m going to make a flat cagic shape with this dark energy—like a big plate. We’ll need to quickly climb on it, and then I can carry us to safety.”
“That’s possible?” Kary touches the energy shield. Sparks gather around his fingers like metal filings drawn to a magnet. “This isn’t anything like shimmerlight.”
“It’s stronger,” I say, “But I still can only make one shape at a time. We’ll have to move quickly.”
Our energy shelter shudders. The big man and his sons must be trying to break through it. I make a tiny opening and peer through. Rucks and his sons are now hurling chairs at my shimmerdark and a crowd has gathered. So much for not drawing attention to myself.
“Are you ready?” I ask Kary. I once thought angry humans weren’t as dangerous as nocturnes, but now I’m not so sure. Humans can be malicious. Nocturnes, as vicious as they are, can’t.
“I’m ready,” Kary says.
I take a deep breath and rapidly expand the energy shell, hopefully shoving back anyone brandishing a chair. I then release the cagic, much like popping an ink bubble, and quickly create a disc large enough for Kary and I.
We jump on the glittering circle, and I immediately raise us up toward the star net.
“Cagic witch!” Rucks shouts.
I rather like hovering in the air. I feel much safer. But the more time we spend aloft and extremely visible, the sooner Drae Devorla will find me. So I guide the disc over only a few buildings, and then I lower us back down onto a muddy roadway.
“Gods’ mercy!” Kary stumbles unsteadily as he climbs off the disc. “That’s incredible. You’re a lot more powerful. What happened?”
“Soon—I’ll tell you everything,” I say, proudly aware that I’m about to astound him even more. “Glowy Pony, where are you?”
The cagic horselet appears, and Kary covers his mouth, murmuring an astonished, “Realms!”
“Glowy, we need somewhere to hide,” I say. “Somewhere close.”
The shimmerdark pony turns and trots off.
“C’mon,” I say to Kary.
His mouth opens and closes, and I can tell he desperately wants to slow down, think all this through, and discuss it in detail.
“Come on,” I urge again, and thankfully, he begins to move. He also gives me a familiar look, a trusting look, and I hope I don’t let him down.
22
Reunion
Glowy Pony leads us into a rickety insulae apartment building and up several staircases. Each flight is wobblier than the last, and then the cagic horselet urges us up a ladder into a musty attic. Kary struggles to climb with his lone hand but manages. And once we’ve shut the door beneath us, I create a ball of shimmerlight, which reveals a sparsely furnished home.
“Someone lives here.” Kary steps over a tattered bedroll. Lying beside it is a crate of dishes and rusted cagic stove.
“I think someone used to,” I say, for everything’s covered in dust. “Besides, Glowy Pony wouldn’t have brought us here if it wasn’t safe.” Although he did lead me to Aerro, who ended up being very dangerous. The cagic horselet may have a knack for finding things, but he definitely isn’t all-knowing.
“So… Glowy Pony, is it?” Kary crouches beside the gleaming creature. “What is he? Where did he come from?”
“I don’t know what he is,” I say, sitting cross-legged on the bedroll. It may be dusty, but I’m too exhausted to keep standing. “And I may have made him?” I stifle a yawn. When did I last sleep? “I have so much to tell you.”
Kary sits down on the other end of the bedroll. “Tell me then.”
So I talk, and while I do, he’s his usual patient self. He never interrupts, he listens attentively, and he offers all sorts of satisfying reactions: a snort of anger when I describe my confrontation with Golly, an open mouth when I talk about Glowy Pony’s first appearance, and a soft hum of caution when I mention Aerro’s strange behavior. And when I tearfully tell him about Rutholyn’s death, he pulls a clean handkerchief out of his pocket for me. I finish my story by sharing what I learned last night; there’s no such thing as winking out. “All Shimmerlings could become Shimmercasters, Kary, every single one of them. Drae Devorla says she’s obeying the law, but,” and I find this hard to say, “I think the law’s wrong.”
“Of course it is,” Kary says with a certainty I appreciate. “Drae Devorla knows that or she wouldn’t keep what she’s doing a secret.”
“That’s true,” I say, and my lingering worries—maybe I’m overreacting, maybe I misunderstood something, maybe I’m just being naive—vanish. Kary’s always been able to see things clearly, and I missed that. Realizing he’s grown quiet, I ask, “What is it?”
“Well, I… I think I was downleveled,” he says.
“What?” I lean forward. “Why didn’t you tell any of us?”
“I didn’t figure it out until just now,” he says, shaking his head incredulously. “But what you say happened to that kid… I remember something like that—it’s my earliest memory. I remember a woman attaching me to a big machine, and I remember pain. All this time, I thought it was some sort of cagic medical treatment.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
He smiles wistfully. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be cagic-touched.”
I’ve never tried to describe my abilities before, so I think for a moment, and then I say, “Imagine a fire here, deep in your lungs.” I nearly put my hand on his chest, but after our kiss-gone-wrong, I’m not brave enough to casually touch him. Will I always feel this awkward when I’m near him? I hope not. “Now imagine that fire sending hot tendrils through your arms and legs.”
Kary laughs. “Sounds uncomfortable.” I’m about to explain that it usually feels good, but he keeps talking. “I wish you hadn’t found me.”
Surely he doesn’t really mean that. My disappointment must show because his expression softens.
“My problems will only make your problems worse,” he explains. “You should be talking to Clicks or Fedorie.”
I shake my head. “Drae Devorla knows where to find them, but she doesn’t know where you are.” Again, I’m tempted to touch him, to take his hand with both of mine. “Why did you leave Clicks’s house?”
Kary’s head falls to one side. He has the same clouded expression he often had on the Grimshore when we asked him about his missing hand.
“Why?” I press.
He gives me a weighty look that seems full of the ‘long story’ he hastily mentioned in the Bearcur.
“I told you everything,” I say, inching closer. “Now it’s your turn. Tell me. Maybe I can help.”
Kary is quiet for a while longer, but then he leans back on his good arm, sets his jaw in a determined way, and says, “People are looking for me. Bad people.”
“What? Why?” I say. We haven’t been back on the mainland for very long, and he couldn’t have angered anyone while we were on the Grimshore. Before that, like me, he was a child.
“You know that my father went to prison, yes?”
I nod, and say, “F
or burglary.”
Kary nods too. “He stole a famous jewel, the Vaylark, and no one’s seen it since. He said he threw it in a river, but the thieves guild thought I had it. They tried to make me tell them where it was.” He lifts his wrist stump and smiles ruefully. “But I didn’t know.”
“So that’s what happened,” I say softly.
Kary lowers his damaged arm. “Matreornan soldiers came looking for me too, so I ran. That’s why I was on the ferry. That’s how I ended up on the Grimshore.”
I feel sudden pity for young Kary. I can still remember what he looked like back then, skinny arms and legs, wild hair, and huge dark eyes. “What’s so special about the jewel?” I picture it as a brilliant blue gem in a heavy gold setting.
“It’s valuable,” Kary says. “But that’s not just it, it’s a symbol of Matreornan. It’s even on our cityland flag. People think it once ransomed a Highland Tilber king, and an old thrall apparently cursed it too. Most people, though, blame it for letting nocturnes into our realm.” He chuckles softly as if that’s preposterous. “I do wonder if it’s cursed, though. The Vaylark certainly ruined my Dad’s life and…” He lifts his injured arm again. “I don’t think it’s done with me.”
Finally I understand why he wasn’t eager to leave the Grimshore. “It’s been seven years. Do you really think people are still looking for you?”
“I’m sure they are.” Kary folds his injured arm against his chest. “Matreornans are obsessed with the Vaylark. They’ve been fighting over it for centuries. Seven years is nothing to them.”
Kary tells the rest of his story fairly quickly. He left Clicks’s house as soon as he had land justification because the newsreaders were running headlines like, “One-Handed Matreornan Boy Among Ferry Survivors.” He made his way to Lower Topdwell, where he changed his name and found work at the Bearcur. That was fine at first, but then he learned Rucks was illegally siphoning cagic from the city lines and selling it. “And after he told me, that gut stone burnt my land justification docs and swore he’d hand me over to labor agents if I told anyone else.”
I give him a sideways smile. “You should have asked Clicks and Fedorie for help too.”
He sighs. “I wanted to protect them. Rucks is terrible, and the Matreornans searching for me are worse.”
I roll my shoulders. It would be nice to lean against something. “Battling wolievs doesn’t seem so bad now,” I joke.
Kary laughs but then looks at me gravely. “What are we going to do?”
I love that he says “we,” and I wish I had the courage to hold his hand. This feels like the perfect moment to reach for him, but I’m not sure I know how to recognize perfect moments anymore.
When I don’t respond, Kary keeps talking. “Let’s go see Clicks and Fedorie then. They’d want to help us, and who knows, maybe they can.”
I nod. “I think we should wait here for a while, though. The Great Drae probably has Shieldbearers looking for me.”
Kary agrees, and because I was awake all lunar night, he encourages me to get some sleep. “I’ll keep watch.”
So while he sits on a crate, I stretch out on the bedroll. Since Glowy Pony seems to have vanished, I make the shimmerlight ball hovering above us a bit larger and brighter.
I feel better than I have in a long time. Facing trouble with Kary is far better than facing it on my own or with a vulnerable child. Yet now that I’m lying still and no longer trying to explain something or escape something, I realize I’ve ignored my body’s least glamorous needs.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Kary, and then I climb down the rickety ladder to find a lavatory. Now that it’s mid-morning, a few other people are moving around the insulae, but no one pays attention to me. There are surely about fifty or so apartments in this building, so the people who live here must be used to seeing strangers. Even my expensive pallacoat only raises a few eyebrows. I soon find the third floor’s shared lavatory, which is only a few doors down from the ladder. Once I’ve relieved myself, I look into the scratched mirror on the wall.
My once pretty emerald hair color has faded to a queasy grass green. My forehead is a motley of bruises and so swollen I have a perpetually furrowed brow. And beneath my vivid pallacoat, I’m wearing a rumpled sleeping gown. No wonder Kary never seems as enamored with me as I am with him. Well, I can’t do much about my injured head or clothes, but I might be able to coax my hair into a becoming knot. It takes me a while to tame it with my fingers, but I eventually twist the strands into a roll and hold it all in place by using the goggles as a headband.
Just as I’m about to step back out into the corridor, I hear someone say, “Then I saw them climb that ladder.”
23
Flight
No, no, no; that voice belongs to the skinny girl from the Bearcur; the girl peeling sour roots.
She keeps talking too. “Pa thought no one could follow their glowing circle, but I’m a fast runner.”
I clench my teeth because hitting the wall in frustration would make too much noise. I should have carried us further away.
Then I hear a voice that’s even more familiar: Drae Devorla’s. “The one-handed young man—you’re sure he’s in the attic too?”
“Jemes? Yeah,” the Bearcur girl says. “He’s up there.”
I cover my mouth with my fingers, and I have no idea what to do. If I was alone, I’d run, but I can’t leave Kary behind.
“Legate, Grould,” says a man, probably a Shieldbearer. “You two go up and bring down whoever’s there.”
“No,” Drae Devorla says. “I’ll go first. Xylia’s dangerous. I may need to restrain her.”
I think of how easily she subdued me only a few hours ago. I’m no match for her.
I tense as I hear ladder rungs creak.
I can’t leave Kary defenseless. Drae Devorla will probably send him back to Matreornan. I’m so agitated motes of shimmerdark frazzle the air around me. Drae Devorla and I have the same powers, I tell myself. If she can defeat me, I can defeat her.
I peer into the corridor.
Five armed Shieldbearers stand near the ladder—five—as well as the girl from the Bearcur. The Great Drae must be up in the attic. I can’t see her, but I do hear her having a muffled conversation. She’s probably asking Kary where I am, and I bet he’s insisting he doesn’t know.
“She’s not here,” Drae Devorla shouts down seconds later. “Search the building!”
I scurry back into the lavatory. If I run, they’ll see me, and if I don’t run, they’ll soon find me. Somehow, though, I need to save Kary. Yet despite everything I could do, should do, I stand paralyzed and uncertain.
Feet shuffle, and I hear the confused voices of insulae dwellers. Then the ladder creaks again, and Kary says, “Don’t downlevel her. It’s not right. You know it isn’t.”
“It’s for her own good,” says Drae Devorla. She then must turn to the Shieldbearers, for she adds, “Take him to the palace.”
I can’t let that happen. Still without a plan, I step into the corridor.
“There she is!” someone says, maybe the girl from the Bearcur.
By the time I take another breath, both Drae Devorla and I are creating shimmerdark shapes. As I expect, she attacks me like she did beneath Triumvirate Hall, trying to wrap a ring of energy around my head. But I beat her to it; I shape a band of shimmerdark around my eyes first. I then expand my loop, forcing her to widen hers, and after that, I drop down, escaping both. Landing hard on my knees, I send a cagic cube hurtling toward the Great Drae. Yet, ergh! Kary’s beside her, and I don’t want to hurt him too. With an angry cry, I disperse the energy before it strikes. The air’s still glittering as Drae Devorla hurls an energy sphere at me.
I’m knocked backward, and WHAM, I slam against something—a wall probably. I know I have only seconds to react. As soon as Drae Devorla covers my eyes with cagic, the fight will be over.
Well, if she can’t see me, she can’t catch me. I fling up a shimmerdark barr
ier, sealing off the corridor just like I blocked the mid-passage of the seg-coach.
I realize I’m crying. What have I pulled Kary into? If I can’t rescue him, I need to at least escape so I can help him later.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Xylia,” Drae Devorla shouts through the zapping, crackling field of energy. “I know you’re upset, but you have to trust me.”
I laugh bitterly. She has no idea how badly I want to trust her. I just wish this horrible nightmare would end, and I could wake up in a world where I didn’t have to question everything I once believed.
I make another quick decision. I take the energy I’m using to block the corridor and rapidly ball it up like crumpled paper. Then I send that poorly shaped mass of energy through the wall at my back, bashing a gaping hole into someone’s apartment. I scramble through the jagged gash, rolling to the left so Drae Devorla can’t see me.
I nearly collide with a startled family, but I don’t stop to apologize; I keep moving. I smash the ball of energy through another wall, and luckily, it’s an exterior one. As I race toward the new opening, something hot and not quite solid sweeps past my arm. It’s surely another one of Drae Devorla’s attempts to capture me, but she’s too late. I dive out into the cold air and land on a curved saucer of shimmerdark. Thank the realms I practiced this sort of thing.
Clinging to the energy, I guide it sharply to the right and streak away from the insulae, hoping the Great Drae isn’t good at transference.
And I don’t think she is, because instead of chasing me, she sends another sphere of shimmerdark my way. She misses, fortunately, but punches a hole in a nearby building. Bricks and wood briefly soar skyward before plunging down into the street.
After a quick look over my shoulder, I keep going. I need to put distance between myself and Drae Devorla, although I wish it didn’t mean leaving Kary behind.
Shimmerdark Page 22