Enaya: Solace of Time (24 page)

Then Nile felt as if he was floating. He opened his eyes and look down. To his amazement, he and Ashera were floating several feet above the floor.

“Are you doing this?” Nile asked.

“Yes,” Ashera said, forcing them to spin around in the air. She wrapped an arm around his neck and brought him in for a kiss. Then fireworks went off outside.

A purple haze caught Nile’s attention, and a firework about the size of a ball went off by his head. The fireworks were coming from inside the Ancrya. They continued to dance, and several fireworks exploded around them in the colors of blue, yellow, purple, green, red, and so forth. Ashera rested her head on Nile’s chest and watched.

“Is it hard to do magic?” Nile asked.

“No,” Ashera said. “All you have to do is believe.”

Nile saw the reflections of the purple fire in her eye. She smiled, but did not notice him staring at her. She was so beautiful. His left hand fell to the side and he grabbed her hand. Nile immediately thought about the forgotten season that Bancroft talked about and he knew that this night would be gone, but this memory would stay in his mind forever. Ashera smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, and together they watched the fireworks.

Chapter 33

We Are Brothers

Nile and everyone gathered over the bridge, talking and laughing as the music continued. Then a beautiful song played only by the violin echoed throughout the town, saddening the hearts of everyone willing to truly listen to what the song meant. It was hard really, to understand the meaning of a song without any lyrics, but it reminded Nile of home. Then, as Nile saw Bancroft chuckle and talk about his family, Locklin about his daughter, Leo about his uncle, Ashera about her foster parents, Nile realized that moving on was an everyday ordeal, no matter if it happened four years ago or five minutes ago.

Tears of joy and tears of pain splashed on the stone beneath them. Ashera cried and Locklin reached over and hugged her tightly, kissing her cheek. Nile smiled. This little group had become more than just strangers and friends the past few days; they had become family. Bancroft hugged Ashera and Locklin, then grabbed Nile and Leo and pulled them into the group for a hug. They all laughed, wrapping their arms around each other. Ashera kissed Nile’s cheek, then Locklin’s, smiling as the tears continued coming.

The song shifted. A piano accompanied the violin, and Leo pulled away from the group. A fire caught the corner of his eye, and he saw a small bowl consumed of fire sitting between two very beautiful peoriallites. One of the two was Charis. They held torches in their hands. Each torch was round with seven wicks at the edge. The grip was in the center, between the spider-web designs. They dipped the wicks into the fire, the torches lit, and Leo pressed through the group. He walked behind the crowd that began to gather around them.

“Is he all right?” Ashera asked.

“Ah, he’ll be fine, eh,” Locklin said.

Nile followed him, realizing he and Leo haven’t had a moment to just talk. He pushed through the peoriallites to see Leo, mesmerized by the fire. An orange glow illuminated his face. “It’s fire, Leo. You’ve seen it before,” he joked.

“Not like this,” Leo replied solemnly.

The two peoriallites danced to the music in the background. Charis spun around, bringing the torches around her body, and the fire moved like the ocean, rippling sparks to follow. Charis then stepped forward, fanning the torches at her side as she were pretending to flap her wings. She moved like an angel.

“Is this not beautiful?” Leo asked.

Nile glanced to Leo. “It is.”

Leo sighed.

Nile could tell he was wrestling with something. “What’s wrong, Leo?”

“It suddenly occurred to me, Nile.”

“What?”

Leo broke from the fire dancing and looked at Nile. “There will be no more nights like this.”

Goosebumps shriveled down Nile’s spine, and he looked back at the dancers, moving the fire around their bodies. “I know.”

“Dywnwen’s gone, Nile. The kingdom is gone. There’s nothing more for us to go home to. We don’t have a home anymore.”

“I know, Leo.”

“There’s no more of it. When my mother and father died,” Leo said, this time tears streaming down his face, “it didn’t hit me until four days after their passin’ when I stood over their graves. It was then that I knew things would never be the same.”

Tears filled Nile’s eyes.

“And all I ever wanted was to just make them proud. Sometimes you can’t laugh off the pain.” Leo looked at Nile. “Sometimes you can’t just get over it in a day, or be willin’ to, like Bancroft.”

Nile looked at the ground. “You did make them proud. Everyday your father delighted in you and your accomplishments.”

“I know he did. The reason I’m tellin’ you this is because you’re all I have.”

“You’re all I have, too.”

“You’re like a brother to me, and sometimes I feel like I’m tryin’ to compete against Isaiah.”

“Don’t,” Nile said. “He was young.”

“I know.”

Nile looked to the night sky. “So what do we do?”

Leo stared at the fire dancers as they spun around each other, entwining their torches together, dancing around the bowl of fire, and laughing. They danced in circles, facing the crowd, spinning their torches around their bodies gallantly, shimmering like a million stars.

“Say, Leo?”

“What can we do, Nile? It’s over. After this, there is no more fire dancin’, climbin’ up the castle, flyin’ around in some airship. It’s over.”

“Bancroft was telling me of the forgotten season in which all our memories go and we remember. He said something about us having faith—faith in ourselves and faith in hope. We can’t give up, Leo; we have to keep going.”

Charis jumped back, throwing her torches up in the air. She caught them, landing on one foot. She spun around until she rested on the ground. She waved the torches across her body, flames wavered after them, and then she spread her arms out again, fanning them like wings. Her partner did the same, their torches consuming the fire.

“I never told my father good-bye. I just watched him leave, and sometimes I wonder if he is alive, or if he thinks of me and my mother and brother. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks about coming home.”

“I’m sorry, Nile.”

“Don’t be,” Nile said. “Don’t be.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Nothing, just know that we are the same. We are in this together, Leo. We are in this until the end. We are brothers.”

The dancers fluttered around majestically. Nile and Leo watched in silence. The crowd cheered and the dancers smiled. The music played to a close and they took a bow. Leo clapped first and after a few seconds, everyone joined in, even Nile.

Chapter 34

They’ve Come

Morning fell quickly as the red sun began rising over the mountains, encompassing the city within its warmth and beauty. Locklin took a deep breath and smiled. The grief disappeared for only a moment but settled back in. He flicked some switches and the Ancrya roared awake. He took a deep breath, reached for a cigarette, and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes.

Nile stumbled in and sat beside him. “Did you sleep well?”

“I reckon, did ya?” Locklin asked, placing the cigarette back in his pocket.

“I’ve had better nights,” Nile commented, yawning. “How long have you been awake?”

“Ishmael woke me up, poundin’ on the door, said somethin’ ’bout seein’ us off before we leave,” Locklin explained. “I figured I’d get the airship started, let the sound chamber do its thing, let it juice up a bit, then I’d wake yuns and we would go see what he wanted.”

Ashera staggered into the cockpit, bumping her arm against the doorframe. Nile smiled. “You’re out of the dress.”

“That’s a one-time deal,” Ashera said, rubbing her elbow.

“You were beautiful,” Locklin said. “Ya stole the show.”

“Thank you,” Ashera said, as she stepped behind Nile’s seat. She leaned over, pushing her hands down his chest, and pulling him back in a hug. She kissed his cheek and then released him as Leo walked in shirtless.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Nile said. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did. Bancroft was checking everyone out in the inn,” Leo said.

“So what’s the plan, eh?” Locklin asked.

“Well, we talked about Kalanstar,” Ashera said.

“At the rate we are going, we need to move farther east. We should be safe in Kalanstar for the day, but first we need to warn Ishmael. We have to let him know about this so he can prepare,” Nile explained.

Through the windshield, Ishmael approached the Ancrya. Leo’s eyes widened and with a sarcastic smile, he said, “I hope he isn’t here for me makin’ the moves on his daughter.”

“You didn’t do anything with Charis, did you?” Nile asked.

“We kissed,” Leo replied.

“You kissed her!”

“Yep.”

Nile rolled his eyes and sank deep into his seat. “She is a peoriallite.”

“She is one tough kitty,” Leo said with a smile, and he then pointed his hand at Nile like a gun and pretended to fire it, blowing invisible smoke off his index finger.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

“I don’t know. I saw two soldiers do it to each other back at Woodlands,” Leo replied.

There was a knock on the side of the airship, and Nile rushed to the door. He opened it and stepped outside to greet Ishmael. Locklin and Ashera joined him, but Leo was struggling to put on his shirt. Bancroft stumbled out of the inn and saw the group with Ishmael. He hurried to them.

“We enjoyed your company last night, and my daughter has asked that I give you all gifts to depart with.”

“We appreciate your hospitality, but we don’t need gifts,” Nile said.

“Follow me,” Ishmael said, leading them up a stone staircase and into an oval structure filled with red oak bookshelves that had numerous novels, encyclopedias, and other accessories stacked on them. There was a telescope sticking out of a nearby window and a desk that was covered with papers. Nile noticed that one of the papers was a map to the stars.

“Have you ever traveled the stars?” Nile asked.

“No,” Ishmael replied, “but my father had the pleasure to journey through the stars with a group of Starlites. He came back and told me stories of it when I was a child, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to travel the stars.”

“I’m not going to anytime soon, but how do you get there from here?” Nile asked.

“You can go meet the ferryman that resides in the stars great kingdom, Nehem’s Wake.”

“Nehem’s Wake?” Nile asked.

“There you can catch the ferryman and travel about the stars as you wish. Anyway, I’ve got something for you all,” Ishmael said, walking over to a large bookshelf. He stood beside it, then pulled it open, revealing a wall of swords.

“No way,” Leo said, amazed.

Ishmael reached for a sword that was broad but narrow at the tip. There was an angel’s wing carved in the center, toward the handle, and it shined as if heaven forged the sword. Nile picked it up, recognizing it.

Ishmael smiled. “That is a sword used by a great knight. He journeyed through Peoria some time ago and gave me that as a gift.”

“It’s very beautiful,” Nile said.

“If you admire that sword, then you are blessed with it. I shall give it to you, but please take care of it. We are a peace village, we don’t believe in fighting when you can deal with reason, so you see, these weapons are here serving no purpose.”

Nile twirled the sword around slowly.

Leo then reached for a sword that set on the wall. It was narrow and curved at the tip. He picked it up and was overwhelmed by how heavy the blade was, nearly dropping it. He stretched his arm out with the sword to see if he would be able to attack with it, and then he immediately brought the sword down between his legs.

Everyone looked at him when the sword hit the ground.

Leo smiled. “It’s heavy.”

Locklin walked over and grabbed the sword. He picked it up with one hand and studied it thoroughly. “I like this one, eh. I might just take it.”

“I had that first.”

Locklin smiled confidently. “It takes a real man to carry one of these.”

Leo rolled his eyes. There were about seven more swords to choose from, so he scanned them quickly and came to a black blade with a red gem encrusted into the handle. The blade was straight and proved to be more of a long sword than a broad sword; however, the blade was still slightly broad. Leo could hold this one, and it seemed to fit perfectly into his hands.

“I might take this one,” he said, and twirled it around, accidentally smacking it into a globe.

“Leo!” Ashera called.

Ishmael turned and grabbed the globe before it fell from a table, laughing. “Perhaps you don’t need a weapon; you might prove to be more of a danger than the monsters that reside out of this city.”

Leo sarcastically smiled.

“And what about you?” Ishmael asked, looking at Bancroft.

There was a sword with a thick handle, made of leather. He reached for it, crossed the blade from his eyes, and stared at the silver shining from the sunlight that reflected through the windows. The sword was very narrow and curved at the tip. He swung it to the left, then gently to the right, letting the weight of the weapon guide his arm.

“It’s beautiful,” Bancroft said.

Nile leaned against the wall, glancing out of the window out into the ocean. His arms tucked between his pits as he straightened his back, folding his arms across his chest. As he repositioned his feet, he glanced down to his sword in the sheath, loving the heaviness of it. He smirked and Ashera caught him, thinking he was cute.

“You say you’re a peace village, but what of the thing on Charis’s arm?” Ashera asked.

Ishmael turned to him. “That child is a fool, but very creative. She made that herself. I don’t condemn her; I only ask that she is careful.”

A swarm of bees caught Nile’s eye.

“She about got us all,” Bancroft said, chuckling. “She’s very courageous.”

The swarm of bees was getting closer. Nile turned to them quickly. It wasn’t a swarm of bees; it was the Lucian Empire.

Ashera caught him. “Are you all right?”

“This isn’t going to be good,” Nile said.

Everyone froze for a second. Leo asked. “What?”

Nile rushed to Ashera, and as he did, bullets burst through the window and collided into the wall. Dust and rock flew everywhere. Everyone fell to the floor covering their heads. Nile broke out into a sweat and for a moment lost his thoughts. He looked up to see Ashera in the fetal position, jerking as each round went off. Nile’s hand crawled over the debris and found hers. She looked to him.

“Are you all right?” Nile asked as the bullets flew overhead.

Leo crawled to the window. He pulled himself up and as he did, three bullets flew over his head. He ducked, pressing himself against the wall. Then, he looked up again, only to see several ships land in Peoria. There were others that continued to fly over the ocean.

“Get to the Ancrya!” Locklin screamed.

Everyone scrambled to their feet, tripping over the debris of fallen stone and decorations. They rushed downstairs and out the door until several shots went off. Bancroft pushed everyone back in, closed the door, and peered out of a window. There were soldiers holding down several peoriallites.

“We’re not going to make it,” Bancroft said.

Locklin peered over Bancroft. “I believe ya right.”

“What is going on?” Ishmael asked, shaking in his knees.

“Get everybody out of here as quick as you can. Peoria is under attack by the Lucian Empire,” Nile said.

“They’ve evolved,” Ishmael said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“I can explain later,” Nile replied.

“Are you the reason why they are here?”

“No,” Leo replied hesitantly, “okay, yes.”

Boom!

Everyone looked outside to see smoke rise above the structures. Nile took a deep breath, grabbed Ashera by the hand, and opened the door. He started down a small street and then jumped the staircase leading out of the village to where the Ancrya was resting. In a quick motion, he jumped the metallic staircase leading into the airship. He ran toward the cockpit and looked through the window to see an airship hover over the bridge connecting the village from each side of the mountain. Soldiers slid out on black ropes and landed on the bridge, immediately running in formation into the village.

As Nile looked around, the tower in the corner caught his eye, and it was clear too. “Give me a rifle,” Nile demanded. Leo rushed to the cabins, grabbed one, and came back to Nile.

“Just aim and pull the trigger,” Leo said.

Nile grabbed the rifle and took off to the entrance. Ashera quickly caught his hand. “Please be careful.”

Nile looked at her for a few seconds, hoping that he did not have to say anything. Then he nodded and took off, landing on the fallen leaves that crunched beneath his heavy feet. Nile rushed toward the tower with all his force. Then an explosion went off in front of him. He stopped suddenly, then quickly picked up his pace as he jumped the small stone steps and down a street leading to the tower.

As he came around a house, a soldier was aiming a rifle at a little child. The soldier was screaming at them, tormenting them, and then the soldier broke concentration as Nile entered his vision. The soldier aimed up at Nile, and then a bullet flew over Nile’s shoulder and hit the soldier in the mask. When Nile turned around, he saw that it was Leo who guarded him.

“Go,” Leo said.

Nile rushed into the tower where a wooden ladder set against a wall, leading up to the top floor. He slung the rifle over his shoulder, sheathed his sword, and jumped on the ladder. He scurried to the top, knelt down by a window, and aimed the rifle out.

A loud explosion roared through Peoria and Ashera turned abruptly, nearly falling as she did, to see a house swallowed by flames. Nile watched her from the tower. His attention quickly bounced to the airships that flew out in the distance and then turned toward Peoria. Several missiles peeked through their weaponry, then zig-zagged through the air, hitting Peoria all at once in many different places. Then a bright blue captured Nile’s eye, and he turned to see Ashera holding out her staff, protecting several children as an explosion went off.

An airship lowered several yards away from Nile. It was at perfect level, and Nile aimed at the windshield. He could see the pilot, and with a quick press of the trigger, a cylinder-shaped bullet fired out, broke through the windshield, and hit the pilot. The airship immediately spun out of control and lowered into the forest outside of Peoria. There was a large ball of fire, and then smoke rose to the sky.

“Whoa!” Nile said, pulling away from the gun.

A crow landed on the tip of the rifle. Nile looked at it warily, thinking of the first painful thought that had entered his mind: the day his mother and brother died. The crow hopped up the barrel, staring at Nile, cawing as it did. The head tilted quickly from side to side, but the eyes stayed fixed on Nile.

Then another crow landed on a loose stone at the window. The stone crumbled at the corners, and the crow cawed as the rock moved slightly. Then the window became cluttered with more crows.
The crows cawed and looked at each other, communicating in a language that Nile did not understand.

Almost immediately, with the blink of an eye, a crow flew into another, their bodies twisting and turning, forming one flesh, or feather. Nile jumped to his feet, backing away from the window. The crows leaped and cawed after him, fluttering their wings. Nile stumbled over loose rope that led to an upper level. Nile glanced up through a square cut hole in the ceiling and saw a bronze bell hanging.