“Isn’t that a bad thing?” I asked nervously. “I’m not supposed to know anything, remember?”
“Eldryn decide on things by the balance, not by standings or personal ethics. If they’d seen you as a disturbance, then you’d be in trouble but they dismissed you as a name and nothing else.” Ethan looked to me and smirked. “Only you would be insulted by being classed as ‘not worth killing’.”
Ethan dropped to his knees and pulled an unusual flask out of his pack. It looked to be silver. He unscrewed the cap and carefully dipped the bottle into the water as I watched on beside him. His caution was unnerving as he avoided unnecessary contact, but why? I couldn’t even guess. I looked at it. The substance moved like water and rippled like water, yet somehow it seemed thicker like the sugar syrup they used to pour over harvest cakes at Wetherdon bakeries.
“Don’t,” he said.
“What?” I looked up to find him staring back at me.
“Don’t touch,” he said. I joked about, waggling my hands over the surface until he continued. “It’ll kill you. It’s designed to.”
“You’re being very contradicting considering you’ve got a hand hovering an inch from the surface.” I pulled it back and crossed my arms.
He frowned at me and picked his wound clean before pouring some of the liquid onto it. With little time to react he quickly cried out in his agony, dropping the flask to the floor as he clutched his arm. I rushed forward but he held up his hand, sweat beading on his forehead.
“It’s fine,” he grimaced, crying out again.
“You just told me not to touch it because it can kill me-”
“Because you’re Gnathian. It’s designed to stop people messing with things they shouldn’t be messing with.” The worst of the pain passed and he breathed, collapsing back against the ground.
“But it doesn’t hurt you because you’re one of them – the Eldryn,” I said.
“Clearly it does hurt me, it just won’t kill me,” he scoffed. “And yes, I am.”
“That’s why you can do things the others can’t do?”
He nodded and circled his cuff. “If I’d had the choice though I wouldn’t have chosen this…whatever you want to call it: purpose; gift; curse.”
Once his breathing steadied I looked over his wound again. It had stopped bleeding at least but it wasn’t closing. “I don’t understand-”
“Don’t worry about it for now. A few tacks will hold it closed.” He flexed his arm and sighed. At least he had some sort of relief. Slowly, he picked himself off the floor and looked toward the large tablet, removing his boots and socks as he approached the water’s edge. “I need to talk to the others quickly while we’re here. I won’t be long.”
When he placed his foot on the water’s surface he didn’t sink, he didn’t even touch the water. It was an odd sight as he strolled across it, balancing atop an invisible layer, and placed his branded hand on the stone. He closed his eyes, finding and securing the connection while something prodded at the back of my mind. Snippets of voices came and went and I kept looking behind me. Ethan didn’t speak but I thought I heard his voice mingled amid the chaotic babble. The feeling of it made me nauseous, like someone was playing with my head and scrambling my thoughts. I shook it clear and stepped out into the passageway, suddenly hot and flustered. The darkness grew around me with the setting sun and the air felt too thin. The walls were crushing.
When I pushed through the curtain of water and breathed in the evening air it brought me back. I am not afraid of the dark. Air filled my lungs and cleared my head. I still had a thousand questions with only a few people I could confide in. Would I confide in them? To learn the possible truth behind my existence was sure to alienate me and turn me into another breach of trust; another disappointment. I couldn’t do that to them. Whatever I was in the past; I wasn’t that girl anymore. Catriona had made it so.
The moon had risen higher and the little fish glinted brighter than before. I sat beside the stream and watched the ethereal things dance through the water while I wrung out my hair. Though I was soaked through it wasn’t chilling me like it should. I pulled off my boots and pressed my bare feet against the ground, shifting my toes further into the soft grass. Beneath me I felt the floor vibrate rhythmically, like a faint heartbeat.
Wings flapped, tearing me out of my pensive state as something plonked on the ground behind me and pressed against my back. As I opened my eyes I saw familiar eyes staring back at me as the bird cooed and nuzzled against me as best as it could. Flecks of silver and gold glinted out against its darker wings in the moonlight and it bobbed its head cheerfully in greeting.
“Nice to see you too,” I said, running my fingers through the baby-soft feathers under its curved beak as it played with the feathered braid. It wasn’t much bigger than the last time I’d seen it but as we were, I reckon I came only to its chest. “Will you ever stop growing?” It purred and fluffed its plumage.
Its sibling appeared shortly afterward, still shy but it settled with its back to me only a few feet away. The bird behind me got up and greeted the other, flapping its wing in an impressive, and somewhat intimidating, display. I smiled and whistled the tune they’d come to recognise. The birds joined in and sang a song of their own. I watched them bob their heads and flutter their magnificent, long tail feathers. When I copied them they seemed to shriek with glee. Then as we played, something moved out of the edge of my vision.
A great shriek rattled my bones and cut through our merriment. I had little time to react as a shadow blocked out the moon and dived. The creature missed me by inches, its sharp claws ripping through the air above my head as I dove to the side. It crashed to the floor, dragging up grass and dirt in its haste to right itself. I pulled the dagger from its sheath and rounded on it, aware once I’d taken in the size of it that the blade would be little use – but it made me feel braver than I was. The two birds called and screeched, flying circles and diving at the thing’s head when it got to its feet and it calmed, clicking its beak.
The shadow was in fact another bird, much larger than the other two. Its blue-grey feathers shimmered dully in the moonlight as the tips of its wings glinted gold and silver. Its warm, amber eyes locked onto mine and I looked away instinctively. The bird could cut me in half with a single slice of its talons. One of the smaller birds landed beside me and the largest one moved, using claw-tipped wings to propel itself forward. I concentrated on my breathing while the beast circled me, taking in my scent and evaluating my presence. The great bird’s pupils dilated from an aggressive oval slice to a calm circle that covered most of its eye. Something swished beneath my feet and I looked at the long tail feathers, putting the pieces together at last.