Shimmerdark

by Sarah Mensinga

  “Xylia.” Kary puts his hand on my arm, and his touch still crackles with cagic. “What happened to me?”

  “I… I don’t know…” I say, but that’s not the truth. “I tried to store my cagic in you, and it came bursting back out. I think. I’m sorry.”

  Kary stares at me, his mouth trembling. “What?”

  “I have to go. I have to stop the nocturnes.” I create a shimmerdark disc large enough to ride on. There’s no need to hide my powers now for no one’s paying attention. The nearby crowd is transfixed by the burning Foundry.

  “I’ll help you,” Kary says. Tiny particles of shimmerdark form on his fingers. He brushes them off, and they make snapping sounds as they vanish.

  I shake my head. “We don’t know what’s happening to you.” This might just be temporary; the power I poured into him burning away.

  Undaunted, Kary climbs onto the shimmerdark disc. “I’ll risk it. I’m helping. Let’s go.”

  There’s no time to argue, so I join him on the disc and raise us upward. “Glowy!” I call. “Lead us to the Expansion District!”

  Yet the shiny horselet doesn’t appear. That’s troubling, but I can’t dwell on it. I’ll have to find my way without him. Using the still blazing Foundry as a landmark, I head west. I also move slowly to make sure I don’t fly into the dark star net or slam into a building. I feel like I’ve fallen into a nightmare. Every horrible story Aerro told me about Haberdine runs through my mind.

  Frightened voices echo up from the city, and I hope Clicks and Fedorie are somewhere safe.

  “Find shelter!” Kary shouts down. “Nocturnes are coming!”

  I can’t see if anyone’s listening; it’s too dark. I also wonder if Kaverleans truly understand the danger they’re in. They’ve never had to shelter before, and other than the odd owleck or carrow flying over the city, they’ve probably never seen a live nocturne either.

  I swerve sideways, narrowly missing a star net support pillar. “I wish I could see better.”

  “Maybe I can help,” Kary says.

  A sputtering ball of shimmerlight appears in front of us but then sails uselessly off into the darkness.

  “Summon it into your hand,” I suggest.

  Kary tries again. A small ball of energy flickers on his palm, and thank the source, stays there. He huffs in a satisfied way, and then asks, “Did you give me some of your powers?”

  “I don’t know,” I say, still mystified. “You summoned shimmerdark before. Could you do it again?”

  Kary lets the shimmerlight dissipate and then, after a few tries, creates a small mass of glittering dark energy.

  “Realms,” I breathe. Is he a Shimmercaster now? If he is, maybe he truly can help me.

  So as we fly down the city’s sloping west side, I give Kary a rushed cagic lesson. “Shimmerdark is firmer than shimmerlight and easier to shape and move. I use it to hit things, make shields, and travel around… which sometimes just means summoning something to hang onto. Keep your shapes simple—they’re easier to manipulate that way. And it takes time, but forcing more energy into a shape without making it larger heats it up. Once hot, shimmerdark can cut through almost anything.”

  Kary listens attentively, but will it matter? Hundreds of nocturnes are probably entering the city—all the monsters I carried Rutholyn through. I’m sure we’re already outnumbered.

  My eyes have adjusted to the dark, and I see the gray outlines of the labor agency dormitories. We’re nearly there.

  “Kary,” I say, gripping his arm. “Please don’t do this. You can still hide. We won’t survive.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” he says. “I’ll just help as long as I can.”

  I want to cry, to hold him, to tell him how much I love him, but there’s no time.

  We’ve arrived, and where there should be a gleaming wall of energy, there are only dark energy projection towers standing roughly one hundred paces apart. The star net is still attached to their pointed tops, but it isn’t charged and glowing, so it stretches over us like a useless black spiderweb.

  And oh realms, we can’t even land. Nocturnes are everywhere: sharecks and wolievs mostly, but a few sennecks slither into alleys, bearcurs lumber toward buildings, and owlecks and carrows swoop through the unprotected opening.

  I hear frightened voices and see the occasional shockgun flash. There seem to be a few Shieldbearers in the tower lookouts. I see they’ve already killed an owleck and a woliev, but it hardly matters when so many monsters are pouring into the city.

  “What do we do?” Kary says, his voice shaking.

  “We have to turn the barrier wall back on,” I say, “somehow.” For even if Kary and I clear this area of monsters, the cagic wall covers several miles, stretching around the entire western end of the city; our best efforts would be like cleaning only one tile of a large floor.

  Fear plucks at me as I float us over to the nearest tower. We climb into the empty lookout, and peering over the railing, I examine the energy projectors. The lenses are connected, so if I pour enough cagic into the cables stringing them together, I could technically turn the barrier wall back on. Yet I’d have to summon an absurd amount of energy; far more cagic than I’ve ever generated. I doubt it’s even possible. Yet without the barrier wall, nocturnes will continue to enter the city until they completely overwhelm us.

  “Protect me,” I say to Kary as I climb over the railing.

  He lifts his good hand and seems about to say something, but then just nods.

  I work my way down a metal utility ladder, feeling vulnerable. Not only does icy wind buffet my bare arms and legs, nocturnes could attack from any direction.

  There are six cagic projectors on the tower, three on each side. Reaching the nearest one, I find the main power cable, a thick cord the size of my wrist.

  Just as I tug back the insulating rubber, exposing the bundled wires inside, there’s a burst of cagic nearby, followed by an angry, screeching squawk.

  I look up and see an owleck flapping away, shedding feathers.

  “I’ve got you covered!” Kary shouts. “Keep going!”

  I take a ragged breath and pour energy into the wires. Blue shimmerlight spirals down my arms and into the cable.

  The nearby projector towers crackle, I see sparks spraying, and light flickers in a few lenses.

  More. I have to summon more. I reach out with my heart and mind. I reach out with my whole self.

  Drae Devorla chose me because of my cagic control, and that talent has never mattered more than right now.

  So I ignore how cold and uncomfortable I am, braced against the ladder rungs, and I trust Kary to protect me, and I summon and summon and summon. I pour every bit of cagic I can scrounge and glean into the cable. I pour myself into it, every tiny spark of energy hiding in me, from my hair, to my toenails, to whatever binds me together. Everything.

  And the cagic barrier turns on.

  I don’t just see it, I feel it. A wall of solid blue shimmerlight outlines the Expansion District like a smooth brushstroke.

  Turning on the barrier isn’t enough, though; I have to sustain it.

  Yet oddly, channeling cagic suddenly feels easy because I am the wall. I’m stretching around the battered Lower Topdwell homes and shops. I’m cradling everyone and everything within. I no longer feel ladder rungs digging in behind my knees or the frigid Dark Month chill. Instead, I feel the sturdy network of energy projectors and the occasional zap of a nocturne trying and failing to break through me.

  I can still see, yet it’s a strange sort of seeing because I’m looking in all directions at once—at the Silkord Sea, at the snowy northern spreadfarms, at the city streets. Focusing on Kary, I see he’s helping the Shieldbearers by riding a shimmerdark disc from tower to tower to recharge their shockguns. Every now and then, he looks down at the barrier, and I think he’s concerned.

  No, I know he’s concerned. I feel his worry.

  I also sense terror and pain throughout Kaverlee
City. I hear nocturnes smash through windows and doors. I feel people’s panic and agony as they are dragged into the streets.

  Yet then I feel something else; hope. Following the sensation, I’m surprised to find my Colossi lumbering into the Expansion District. They tower over most buildings and are nearly as tall as the insulaes. Prancing ahead of them, tiny and bright and leading the way, is Glowy Pony.

  Maybe I’m losing hold of reality. I’m stretched so thin, and I’ve drifted so far away from my true self.

  But no, the Colossi really do seem to be walking though the city. And each one has several Shimmerlings huddled in their shining mechanical hands, their huge fingers positioned like protective cages. I realize the Shimmerlings are moving the giant figures, working together like they did in the Courtyard of Youth. Most of the girls are cagic blind, but there’s one sighted Shimmerling in each group shouting out directions. I feel Tah Roli Miri’s presence and Paislene’s. They’ve come to help. They want to defend the city. And they also know they’re sacrificing themselves. Their trembling courage shines so brightly, I can’t look away.

  Thank the realms, they are also being clever. The Shimmerlings spread out along the cagic barrier, and once in position, they have their Colossi place them in projection tower lookouts or on sheltered balconies. I then watch the huge metal figures attack the nocturnes invading the city, crushing them, swatting them against walls, and snapping spines. It’s impressive and immensely helpful, and yet the nimbler nocturnes like sennecks and catterns elude them and head deeper into the city.

  Kary joins a group of Shimmerlings just in time to protect them from a carrow. His cagic shapes are lop-sided and he moves them awkwardly, but he still bashes the huge, black-feathered bird against a wall, crushing its head.

  And something else starts to happen too. I feel it before I understand it; something’s stirring, something familiar.

  Tah Roli Miri suddenly whirls up into the air, shimmerdark clinging to her legs.

  I sense her amazement as she reshapes the energy covering her lower body into huge spike of energy, and she then plunges herself into a nearby monster.

  Stumbling free from the dead cattern, she’s stunned and afraid something’s wrong with her.

  No, nothing’s wrong, I long to say. This is what you’re meant to be.

  Moments later, Paislene transforms too. Cornered on a ledge, she suddenly wraps a shimmerdark whip around a senneck.

  Not long after that, a tall, fair-haired girl encases an owleck’s head in shimmerdark, blinding it and causing it to collide with a building. Then another girl’s cagic changes and another.

  Tury, Aerro, and I became Shimmercasters when we were in danger. The same thing must be happening now.

  From my unusual, removed perspective, I experience these Shimmercaster transformations differently than I’m sure I would otherwise. I feel the energy whirling intricately through each girl. It perfectly completes little energy puzzles inside them, closing loops, connecting edges, twining loose threads of their being into firm cords. It’s beautiful and satisfying, and if I could cry, I would.

  Before long, there are more Shimmercasters than Shimmerlings, and now that my cagic-touched sisters can battle the nocturnes directly, they start hunting down the beasts who’ve crept deeper into the city. Abandoned, the Colossi sit motionless in the icy streets.

  Now that I’m acutely aware of everything, I’m also aware of the huge figures and their hollow cores. I wonder why they weren’t built with protected chambers inside for their human puppeteers. It makes no sense.

  Unless they were never made for us.

  Realization sweeps over me.

  I once tried to make Glowy Pony larger, but he couldn’t maintain his shape. A Colossus, though, would help him keep his form. It would be like a massive exoskeleton.

  Kary! I try to call, even though I have no mouth, no voice. Kary!

  Thankfully, I seem to be able to press my thoughts into him. Kary twists around, searching for me. He’s just carried a Shimmerling too young to transform into a tower guarded by shockgun-wielding Shieldbearers. I sense he’s glad I’m still alive but alarmed that I’ve reached for him in such an unconventional way. I’ve slipped into another realm, he worries.

  Kary, give Glowy Pony more energy, I try to tell him. Make him larger. He can control a Colossus.

  Thank the realms, Kary seems to understand. Creating a cagic disc, he rides it back into the fray, passing new Shimmercasters and the many monsters still prowling the streets. He soon finds Glowy Pony trotting in impatient circles around Sevensy.

  Can Kary add energy to a shape I created? Yes, it seems he can. Perhaps Glowy Pony chooses the energy he accepts. Yet Kary’s not an experienced cagic sculptor, and when he makes Glowy Pony larger, he simply turns him into a shapeless, four-limbed mass.

  But that doesn’t seem to matter. Glowy Pony slides his new form into Sevensy. Then amazingly, Sevensy begins moving again. Yet the Colossus no longer sways like a marionette; he stands up like a person, using his arms to steady himself. Then, limbs swinging, eyes gleaming, he thuds off into the city, chasing the monsters I know he can find faster than anyone else.

  My attention returns to Kary, and I’m not sure why he’s cornered Paislene and is waving his arms around. She’s baffled; I can feel it. But then her confusion shifts to understanding, and she and Kary create small amounts of shimmerdark.

  Kary brings his mass of energy over to Goliah, and Paislene dashes over to Winch with hers, and I realize what they’ve done. They’ve summoned—or I suppose requested—cagic guides of their own.

  Moments later, Winch and Goliah are back on their huge feet too, looking around for nocturnes.

  I’ve seen this scene before, I realize, in the underground temple’s mural—teams of Shimmercasters battling nocturnes alongside Colossi. And although my sense of self is no longer very human, joy still seeps through me. I wish I was fighting with them too, but it’s also an honor to protect everyone and watch them work harmoniously together.

  I have a dislocated, sad sense that I may never find my way back to myself. But if this is the last thing I ever see, realms, it’s magnificent.

  27

  Recovery

  The noise wakes me; a deep, rhythmic, thud, thud, thud, thud. I’m cold yet lying on something warm, and that something is bobbing gently up and down. I’m also sore in a non-specific, achy way. And I feel weirdly euphoric, and well, small.

  “She’s waking up,” Kary says.

  My eyes don’t want to open, they’re swollen and gummy, but I manage to squint.

  Above me, the star net glows blue. It’s back on! I exhale, relieved. I also see several Colossi walking nearby—so that’s what the noise is. Two-story and three-story buildings stretch up around me, and maybe they’re Upper Topdwell shops; it’s hard to tell because they have no lights on. I’m also surrounded by sweaty, bloody, bruised Shimmerlings. They’re walking, and I must be lying on a moving shimmerdark disc.

  “We did it,” Kary says, leaning over me. “You did it.”

  “I’m… back to normal?” I ask weakly.

  He nods, grinning.

  And I do seem be myself again. I can feel my arms and legs, and the only emotions inside me are mine.

  I look around blearily. “Why is everything still dark?”

  “We aren’t sure,” Kary says. “The city walls and star net are on, but nothing else. The Shimmerlings say when they left the palace, engineers were trying to reconnect Triumvirate Hall’s energy reserve to the damaged city grid. Maybe they only powered the essentials? After the barriers came back on, we found you on the ground, shining with cagic.”

  My head feels unusually cold. I reach up and… “Where’s my hair?”

  “It was gone when we found you,” Kary says gently.

  “And you had no clothes on,” adds a solemn looking Shimmerling who’s probably only about twelve.

  Merciful realms. Now that I think about it, I realize I’m wrap
ped in something but otherwise naked.

  “You’re alive, though.” Kary touches my shoulder.

  “And the nocturnes?”

  “Dead.” He smiles proudly. “At least the ones in the city.”

  “All of them?” I ask.

  Kary nods.

  “The Colossi helped us hunt them down,” Paislene says, appearing in my line of sight. Her curly hair looks even wilder than usual, and her stola’s drenched in blood. “A lot of strange things happened today.”

  “The cagic guides,” I say softly. “Of course—they can find anything. Amazing. You’re all amazing.”

  Nearly everyone smiles at me, which is a little like the Bright Month dawning early.

  “Why don’t you rest,” Kary says. “We’ll be there soon.”

  I nod gratefully, not quite sure where “there” is, but confident that if Kary chose it, we’ll be safe.

  Yet even though I doze, I’m still mostly aware of what’s going on. We arrive at our destination, Clicks’s house, but no one’s home. Paislene knows how to pick locks though, knowledge from her pre-palace days, so we’re soon able to head inside. The cagic guides, still wearing their Colossi suits, remain in the street, keeping watch.

  Without power, the house is cold and dark, but several of the new Shimmercasters create cagic shapes to provide light and heat. Whoever’s controlling my shimmerdark litter, Kary, I think, carefully places me on a sofa. Everyone else splits up to tend wounds and search for clean clothes and beds to rest in.

  After a while, I sense someone at my side. I open my eyes and find Tah Roli Miri kneeling beside me. I used to think she was plain, but grimy clothes and messy hair suits her. She looks like a powerful warrior who just emerged from a glorious battle, and I suppose that’s exactly what she is.

  “How are you?” she whispers.

  “Tired,” I say. “Why are we here?”

  “I don’t know who to trust at Triumvirate Hall.” Always slightly distracted, Tah Roli Miri tugs a loose thread out of her tattered stola. “Your friend told us what happened to you at the Foundry and what happened before.” She frowns. “After what you did today… powering the barrier… it should be you—you should be the next Great Drae.”