Aunt SaRa reigned in beside SoYa’s mount, a concerned look on her face. Her cream colored rhawn sidestepped tensely as the woman began to speak. “SoYa, we must rest. If I do not tend to the child’s wounds, she could bleed to death.”
The young Apprentice turned to look at the wilted form of the girl that sat in front of the saddle. A trickle of blood had appeared at the corner of her mouth and her breath came in rasping gasps as if she was fighting for air.
But a different concern rose in his mind, “Who knows how close they could be following us. All they had to do is saddle up a few rhawns and they’d be on our trail in no time.”
“I know,” In a long graceful motion, the winged woman swung down from the creature’s back. Her expression was one of mystery. “But we have been traveling faster than your eye leads you to believe.”
SoYa pursed his lips nervously.
“Besides, the rhawn need a break. I would hope that Zento had taught you better treatment of your mount.”
That’s true. I won’t see Thorne done in by my careless riding.
Weaving the reigns between his fingers, the Apprentice ran one hand along the neck of his steed. Thorneblade had been a coming-of-age gift from his father. As unlike his father that SoYa had been, there was one love that the two of them shared. It was for the rhawn stallions. At an early age, SoYa learned how to ride and train the creatures. He knew the ins and outs of their wild minds as well as their magnificent physical power and beauty. Next to the dragon-kin, the rhawn were by far the most noble of creatures that had been discovered by his people.
Even on the run as they were, SoYa couldn’t bear to leave Thorne behind. Besides, there would have been no way of escape had they tried to run on foot. Not only was the child too wounded to make a trip like that, but they would have been pursued on rhawnback. Chances were the Apprentices would have caught up to them within the first day.
Aunt SaRa had already laid the girl on her stomach upon the cloak. Other than a random soft-throated cry, the child had made no sound the whole ride. Her face was flushed and feverish. She had slipped into delirium and shock after the terrible events of the day.
I wonder if she will live? I know that Aunt SaRa is one of the most powerful healers we have at Nefol but…
His line of thinking broke off as he corrected himself.
We’re not at the School anymore. Not likely we’ll ever be able to go back. So I best quit thinking of us as a part of it.
The woman’s hands worked deftly, hovering inches above the broken remains of the girl’s bloody wings. A soft shimmer of white traced the outline of her palms. Her mouth moved with words of healing power, a rising and falling cadence of breath and light.
And SaRa… I wonder if she’s still like the Aunt SaRa I used to know? How is it that she has wings? Did they just appear or were they there all along?
SoYa watched, keeping his distance. He knew a tiny bit about healing arts. However, the magic that the winged woman was casting was far beyond his scope to comprehend. Something was pulling together and mending — but he couldn’t tell what it was. A double image rose in his mind, one pasted atop another. It made his eyes water to watch. So he decided to stick to his own business and give the rhawn a good restful rubdown.
As the Apprentice’s hands ran along the flank of his steed, he fought against his wandering mind. Up until now, he had been so intent on simply getting the three of them away from the School that he hadn’t had a chance to reflect on the dire consequences of their situation. More than anything else, his thoughts shied away from the memory of what he had done. The slack-jawed faces of the Apprentices, schoolmates that he had known since childhood, as he had forced his will upon them. The look of horror on his brother’s face as he had uttered the single word that SoYa feared more than anything else.
Athrylith…
A tremendous fear gripped his heart.
SoYa had only ever used his power for small, harmless things. To trace the thought patterns of someone in order to find them over a distance. To sense the emotions of someone in grief to gain the knowledge to lessen their pain. To help ease his brother off to sleep after a nightmare when he was a child. But never had he taken control of another’s mind. And the fact that it was not just one man… but over twenty of them… all at once… and with very little effort. Some of them had been the most powerful students at the School.
All immobilized. Just like that.
And what was worse…
After years of enduring the jeering, disappointed looks…. after years of feeling last in his class… of being made fun of by the occasional School big-shot top-ranker… after years of failing in the eyes of Nefol. He had shown them all. Blown them all away. Left them standing in wide-eyed and open-mouthed awe.
And it had felt so good.
How can you think like that?
SoYa removed his cap and ran his fingers through his hair. His eyes were misting over.
How can you be proud of such a cruel and shameful show of power?
One part of him was elated that finally, after so many years, he was given the chance to show everyone that he was indeed his father’s son… a power to be reckoned with. Maybe even more so than his highly-celebrated younger brother.
Another part of him shunned the arrogance and haughtiness of such thinking.
And another part was scared. He had not only showed everyone a part of his true strength, but had also become an outcast and hunted man. Cast out of his own home, just as Father had warned him. By his own hand he had destroyed what little was left to his familiar life.
AsaHi is gone. Aunt SaRa is some sort of who-knows-what… Father, whom I thought to be dead all these years, is somewhere still alive. And now TsuYa has gone absolutely mad… taking up Father’s robes and control of the School to do some weird ritual to little winged children.
He dropped his head forward.
And me… I’m not much better. Controlling the minds of other people with a power that shouldn’t even exist, much less be used. And liking it!
The heat of emotion stung his cheeks.
I’m horrible… horrible… how could I allow something like that to happen? How could I lose control like that… after all these years! I’m not fit to hold this power… not if I do things like that… I’m not fit to even allowed to-
A soft touch dropped upon his shoulder. SoYa spun instantly on his heel, abruptly coming to face the figure of the winged woman.
At first he wanted nothing more than to recoil. A hissing whisper of loathing choked him. Loathing for himself. Loathing for the now-changed form of his aunt who was no longer what he had always known her to be.
Her hand tightened upon his shoulder. SoYa could feel it… once again… a parting of confusion replaced by clarity of mind.
The Apprentice blinked, shaking himself out.
“What… what was…?”
“He is trying to take you, too.”
“Huh?” SoYa’s mouth fell open. “Take me? Who?”
“The one that has ensnared TsuYa’s mind,” Aunt SaRa gave a pained look. “I did not see it until it was too late for him. I should have been more aware. I’m so sorry…”
“Whoa… hang on a minute!” He waved his hands back and forth in utter confusion, “What are you talking about, Aunt SaRa?”
The woman pursed her lips. There was a deep weariness upon her brow. All in that moment she once again felt like the Aunt SaRa he had always known. “Do you think that TsuYa would act this way of his own choosing? Do you really think he would have claimed the position of High Guide like this?”
“I… don’t know,” SoYa admitted. “It always bugged him that I was the eldest… that I had inherited the School. He never saw me fit for the position, I know.”
“SoYa…”
“You can’t say it wasn’t true! No one said it outright. But the feeling was there. Everyone thought I was a disgrace to my Father’s memory.”
“SoYa,” she said again, this time more firmly.
He looked away, answering her question, “No… It’s not like him to do something like this.”
“Something has embedded itself in his mind,” Aunt SaRa spoke quietly.
The Apprentice choked on his breath.
“I felt it for the first time when I looked in his eyes. I don’t know what it is,” Her eyes flashed as she lifted her gaze. “But I do know that the darkness wants you, too, SoYa. Perhaps… your mind is so strong that it cannot do what it has done TsuYa. So it tries to muddle your heart… to turn your fear inward.”
SoYa’s head jerked up. “Don’t say such a thing! TsuYa isn’t..!”
“SoYa…” She reached a hand out, tracing a finger down the side of his cheek gently. “TsuYa isn’t acting of his own will. Something dark is controlling him.”
The Apprentice jerked back from her touch, “He’s not that weak!”
“No… he’s not,” Aunt SaRa answered somberly. “But the darkness that grips him is just that powerful.”
“Isn’t there something… anything… we can do to help him?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But the one thing I do know is that you cannot help him if you allow yourself to fall prey to the same darkness. You must fight the thoughts and fear that rise in your heart. They are not of your own making.”
SoYa blinked up.
“I don’t even think that it was your hand alone that led you to cast that magic upon those men,” Aunt SaRa gave him a long, quiet look. “It was not like you…”
“No,” he shook his head. “That is my power, Aunt SaRa. I really am… …”
“Athrylith?” she finished for him.
He nodded.
The woman sat stone-still, continuing to watch him.
“Do you… hate me?” SoYa finally choked, the silence growing too much for him.
“Of course not, SoYa,” she answered quietly, without a second of hesitation. Then she added, “I could ask you the same thing.”
The Apprentice took in a quick breath, eyes studying the winged form standing next to him. Her voice, her mannerisms, her inherent gentleness… it was all the same as he knew her to be. Even with the wings.
“Do you think that I am the cursed and tainted creature that your brother proclaims me to be?”
Their eyes met for a long moment. SoYa didn’t trust himself to answer.
“Everyone embraces their own secrets, SoYa. Some secrets are simply heavier to bear than others,” her voice came softly to his ears. “There will always be the frightened people who will shun the things they see as different. But you have to go on loving those people just the same.”
He felt his chest tighten as the words that his father used to speak so often rose to his ears.
“In the end, we are all nothing more than wanderers in the shadow of this world.”
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