Creatures of Snow (42 page)

Zeph’s lip curled at his words, but he
morphed it quickly into a polite smile, “You’re forgetting who you
are…Captain.”

His dad looked up, finally
noticing Sky was no longer at his side. “No more lectures. I
protect this family, not the living, not the realm, but my
family.”

“Fine.” Zeph’s gaze
flicked to Sky momentarily. “I’ll take you, Skyden, if you really
wish to go.”

“Damn it no!” His dad
yelled louder then he had ever heard. “Why are we even talking
about this?”

Sky backed up a few steps.
His hands were sweating, his limbs felt like noodles, and his
heartbeat was unsteady as it beat in his throat.
How do we unseal it?

“
Stop, Zeph,” Ixanna
butted in once again, holding a hand dramatically to her chest,
“This isn’t one of your silly games, this is serious.”

Zeph let out a long laugh,
“Is it? I hadn’t noticed with all the shenanigans and goings on.
But yes, I agree, this is very serious.” His smile dropped and he
straightened, looking at no one else but Sky. “Al’s mother, the
great prophet Oh’May, will most likely be dead before this is over
and the Silent War will soon have a voice. If the Book of Nine is
taken-”

“
Allen had gone there to
destroy it.” Lee shook his head, “Those were his words.”

Zeph laughed coldly, “He
won’t.”

“Stop it.” Sky’s dad
shouted at Zeph. “Stop talking. You don’t get to talk anymore. Not
to me, not to them, and not to Sky.” His dad grabbed onto the
railing with a grip that made the wood bend, “You already took Soul
away from me and now that he’s turned his back on you, you need a
new lackey, is that it? I’m not making that mistake
again.”

I don’t know.
Zar sounded defeated,
Con, maybe. He might know.

He just wanted everyone to stop shouting, it
was hurting his head.

“Al is going there because
he thinks he can stop this mess.” Lee now stood beside Sara, “I do
not know what to make of Soulen, or the young Angonian he had with
him, but I do believe that they will not harm Allen, but I do not
know if they will save him if there is need.”

“They wont, all they are
doing is using him to find the Book.” His dad said.

“How did he even do it?
When Oh’May left she was sure to take all her possessions with
her.” Ixanna looked between them all. “Allen wasn’t supposed to
have a link.”

“Someone broke into our
house and found the one thing Zero still had left of his sister and
somehow it found its way into Al’s hands.” His dad gritted his
teeth.

“The Man of Mist did those
things, not Soul.” Sky spat, having only caught bit’s and parts of
the conversation. “Soul isn’t bad; I don’t know why you can’t just
trust me on this.”

Didn’t I tell you they would never trust
creatures like us.

“
Look what he did to you
Sky.” His dad reached up and put a hand to Sky’s cheek, “You could
have died.”

Sky backed away from him,
angry, but somehow calm, “No, that was because you didn’t listen to
me. I told you I could control it, but you didn’t trust me. None of
you did.” He set his jaw and looked down the stairs, his eyes set
on Sara. “I pushed the monster back when you were sealing it. That
was me that you did that to – just me.” He remembered it, all of
it. He regretted some of what he had said, but at the same time, he
knew he had meant it. “I’m sick of people not listening to me!”
Turning back to his dad, he stood up as tall as could, still
nowhere near his eye level, “Al’s my best friend. I’m not going to
get in the way, or to throw myself into danger. All I want is to be
there when you find him. Now, are you taking me, or is
Zeph?”

His dad stared down at him
for what seemed like forever. “Fine.” He said finally and walked
away from him without another look. “Get everyone ready, we leave
in five.”

Chapter
Thirty
-Two

He was scared and had been
for nearly two days straight. Al watched the passing stars from the
small window above his bed without a thought in his head and a knot
in his belly. He hadn’t left the room since they put him in there.
He hadn’t touched the food they had tried to give him or bothered
with the books they had set by the door. He felt like a prisoner,
but they weren’t the one’s holding him captive. He was. If he
wasn’t so afraid of sounding afraid he would have tried to talk to
Soul. They had been friends once after all. But he just didn’t have
it in him.

Al had thought it over,
again and again in his head, just what he was going to do once they
landed on Mye and, again and again, he came back with absolutely
nothing.

A knock resounded through the metal door,
filling the small room with a very large noise.

“Two hours until we land.
Get your things together.” Ellie’s sharp voice cut right through
the door and into his head.

“
Thank you.” He managed to
push out without a waver or whimper, but he doubted if she was even
still there to hear it.

Two hours. And then what? Al stood and
stretched out his legs. He had acted irrationally, he understood
that now, but what was done was done and he had to face it. He was
with the Powers and they were going to find his mom and destroy the
Book of Nine.

He walked slowly to the
door, not really knowing what he meant to do and ended up in the
hallway, heading towards the bridge.

It was a small ship, clean
and modern. He highly doubted it was theirs judging by the family
photos that lined the walls or the brightly colored dresses and
suits that filled the closets.

At the helm he found Con,
casually strewn across the captain’s chair, lazily poking at
various places on the illuminated interface.

“So you are still alive?”
Con gave a small smile, but kept his focus on the controls. “I was
beginning to wonder.”

Al edged into the room,
keeping to the perimeter as he made his way forward in the
spherical room. “
Who are you?” Al didn’t
mean to speak, but the words blurted out of his mouth.

Con didn’t turn, but let
out a little chuckle. “I’m Con Embers, I’m pretty sure we’ve met. I
thought you were the smart one.”

“That’s not what I meant
and you know it.” He didn’t dare step any closer.

“We are the Powers. We
protect the realm by any means necessary.” Con sighed.

“I heard someone say you
were dangerous. Are you?”

He shrugged, “If I have to
be.”

“Are you a danger to
me?”

Con lowered his head and
let a devious smile pull up his cheeks, “If I have to
be.”

He let out a short laugh
when Al stepped back towards the door. “Don’t worry short stuff.
We’re well past all that now. You’ve already opened the flood
gates, killing you now wouldn’t do anyone any good. Plus, I like
you, you’re a good kid.” Con leaned back into the oversized chair,
his hand dancing across the controls. “But do understand that I
can’t and won’t hesitate if sacrificing one life will save
billions. It’s not a choice. Understand? We’re just doing what
needs to be done. There are no heroes in this war.”

“What war?”

Con’s eyes grew dark and
he let them drift up and out into the depth of space. “The Silent
War; The war between the Choirmaster and the Councilmen. The war
that will define the fate of the Living realm. We’ve been in a
stalemate for years, but now-”

“Con.” Soul’s voice cut
through the room.

Con rolled his head lazily
towards Al. “Looks like your ride is here.”

“Come on Allen.” Soul
gestured him towards the door. “We’re close enough to the planet,
we can jump from here.”

Al’s stomach dropped at
the thought of being pulled through the Snow again. “We aren’t just
going to land? Ellie said it’s just a few more hours.”

“Every moment counts
Allen. Just think, by the time they land, we’ll already have
completed our mission.” Soul said.

Al nodded and started
towards him.

“Con,” Soul stepped to the
side as Al passed. “After you get there, if they come and Sky is
with them,” he reached up and placed a heavy hand on Al’s shoulder.
“Don’t let him fight, keep him safe.”

And then Al felt it once
again. The pull of the Snow, surrounding his body and engulfing him
in its odd mix of shadow and light. He didn’t like it. It was empty
and cold. He could almost see reality through the haze; buildings,
people, planets, suns…and he swore, he saw something else too.
Something beautiful and warm and full of light, but it was always
too brief. All the moments were too brief in the Snow, there was no
understanding it, there was no balance, no control…it was
chaos.

“Al, open your eyes, we’re
here.” Soul’s soft voice urged him, and he obeyed.

Sure enough, they stood on
a rocky bluff overlooking the small mining town of Gadimine. “How
did you find it?”

Soul placed a tracker on
the ground for the others. “I look for energy patterns. Since
Telic’s give off quite a unique pattern and Gadimine has quite a
few of them, it was rather easy.”

Al nodded, he understood
what Soul meant – when he let his Telic powers out he could see a
physical flow of energy, but what he didn’t understand was how Soul
could see it too. “What are you?” He had to ask. There was no
logical explanation for what Soul was able to do.

Soul didn’t move for quite
some time. He just stood there, overlooking the town. “They changed
me.” He said softly. “I don’t think I’m really anything
anymore.”

Al looked at the ground.
Soul had always been so quiet and gentle, so to see him as he was
now, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what they must have done to
him. “You will always be you.” Al would have patted him on the back
if he wasn’t still afraid of him. “No matter what.”

Soul let his head drift
up. Al wished he could see his face behind that damn mask. “Why do
you wear that anyway?”

Soul traced his fingers
along the symbol carved into it, “It protects me.” Was all he said
before he started down the rocky slope. “Let’s go.”

He was on high alert
before they even reached the edge of town. Something felt off -
Soul must have felt it too. They came to an abrupt halt at the tree
line, hidden as long as no one was looking too hard.

“Are those government
ships?”

“Con,” Soul was on his
wav-com immediately, “get on the gov nets, what’s happening in
Gadimine right now?”

There was static on the
other end while they waited, Al’s anxiety grew into his throat and
down into his legs.

“Get out of there now.”
Con’s voice came back rushed. “Repeat, get out of there. The towns
under lockdown, they’ve got it-” but the wav-com was knocked to the
ground, they were already surrounded by the blue clad soldiers of
the government’s army.
 Guns were
shoved in their faces and voices yelled at them to get on their
knees.

Al’s shaking hands clasped
tightly behind his head as he knelt down. He stole a desperate look
over to Soul who was on the ground as well, his arms stretched out
in front of him as the soldiers disarmed his guns and short
sword.

One of the soldiers
pointed a device at them. Al recognized it as an energy field
reader and didn’t have to wait long to figure out why they would
need such a thing.

“This one’s a Telic.” The
soldier shouted, a finger pointed in Al’s direction.

“No!” Soul shouted and
slammed his body into the first soldier that reached for Al. “Leave
him alone.”

Two of the soldiers
tackled Soul to the ground, hitting him again and again, cracking
his mask.

“Stop it!” Al screamed.
Why didn’t he just disappear? “Soul, get out of here!”

Something hard and metal
hit the back of his skull. His vision went black, and he felt the
cold ground meet his face.

“How did they even get
here?” The voice sounded so far away.

“Ask ‘em when they wake
up.” Were they laughing? “Put ‘em with the rest.”

Chapter
Thirty-
Three

Sky awoke as they landed. He could hear a
commotion outside his room and sat up slowly from his bed.

His eyes drifted out the
port hole above his bed. The rocky terrain of Mye was complemented
by a dull grey sky. He felt himself let out a long sigh, a bad
feeling churning in his guts.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed
he paused a moment, staring at the floor. His mind was groggy and
his body felt heavy and sluggish, like maybe he was still stuck in
what had been a strange and vivid dream. But no, he was awake; the
cold metal floor on his bare feet was testament to that.

He closed his eyes,
forcing back reality for a few more seconds. The images that had
been so alive in his mind just a moment ago were already fading. He
felt almost like he should write down the little that he could
still cling to, before it retreated completely, back into his
subconscious.