The Girl Born of Smoke (29 page)

Trying to figure out how it was possible,
she drifted slowly through the rest of the house. Everything else
seemed exactly how she remembered it, and what's more, the
dimensions were exactly the same. There seemed to be no space for
her bedroom to be any larger, yet she remembered that it had
been.

Puzzled, she watched as her younger self
burst out of the room suddenly, heading toward the kitchen for
dinner. Tarana trailed after her, watching intently. The younger
Tarana spoke little to her mother, eating in silence and then
quickly heading back to her bedroom. When the girl entered her
room, she turned toward the empty wall where Aurora's bed ought to
be and glared. “Where have you been?” she muttered.

Tarana stared at her younger self, taken
aback. The girl stared at the wall for a moment, then shook her
head. “Don't lie to me. Allison and Tina didn't ask about me.
They're your friends, not mine. I don't know why you hang out with
such snobs. I hate them.” She quickly turned away, and Tarana saw
something flicker between her fingers.

In the darkening evening, the girl sat on
her bed, tossing a globe of light between her hands. Its color
changed subtly, going through all the hues of the rainbow, until it
faded into white light. Then it began to pulsate slightly, growing
in energy, until the entire room was intermittently lit up by the
ball. In the moments of light, Tarana saw that the girl's short
hair stuck up in tufts, like a static charge, and her eyes were
narrowed in concentration.

Finally, she threw the ball against the
wall, where it dissipated into thousands of tiny specks of light,
which slowly spread throughout the room and faded. Turning once
more toward the wall, she shrugged. “Yeah, goodnight.” She slipped
under the blankets on her bed, burying herself under them, but
continued to flop back and forth, thrashing around for a long time.
Tarana continued to watch, feeling a horrible sadness tighten her
throat as she realized what was going to happen.

Finally, the younger Tarana resurfaced from
under the blankets, blinking wearily and sighing. She slipped out
of bed and tiptoed across the room, peering out the window. She
stood there for several moments, then sat down in front of the
bookshelf. In the dim moonlight, Tarana saw that the bookshelf was
nearly empty, with only a few dusty, old books, toppled over on
their sides.

The girl picked one of the books up,
flipping through it distractedly. Glancing around, she ran a finger
down one of the pages, leaving a trail of smoke. Trying to scream
or make any noise, Tarana suddenly sprang from where she had been
stranding and attempted to tear the book away from the young girl.
Her hands passed helplessly through it and she tried to yell in
frustration, but no air passed from her lips.

The girl drew her finger down the page again
and this time a small flame appeared, followed by more smoke. She
watched intently as the small flame spread across the page, the
edges blackening and curling upward. Very carefully, she set the
book back on the bookshelf, still gently burning.

Dashing across the room, she jumped back
into bed, and pulled the blankets over her, leaving her head
unexposed and her eyes open, staring at the door. The fire slowly
engulfed the book, then quickly leapt to the other books, the smoke
rising steadily and the crackle of fire growing more insistent.

The ghostlike Tarana frantically grabbed at
everything in the room, trying to get something to smother the
flame. Hurtling through the door, she found her mother in the other
room, asleep in bed. She grabbed at her, trying to shake her awake,
but it was useless. She finally returned to her own bedroom, and
slumped down next to the bookcase, watching the fire spread and
waiting for her mother to wake of her own accord, as she knew she
would.

As the bookshelf itself caught fire, the
smoke grew thick in the room, and the young Tarana started coughing
uncontrollably, still watching the closed door. Her older self
turned toward the door as well, waiting for her mother to burst
into the room, but nothing happened.

Growing steadily more concerned, she stood
and glanced back at the girl. She was slowly climbing out of bed,
her eyes opened wide. Her body shaking as she coughed, she suddenly
raced toward the door, throwing it open and slamming it closed
behind her.

Standing alone in the burning room flooded
with smoke, Tarana realized no one was coming to save her. All she
had was herself. Drifting out of the room, she glanced in at her
mother, still asleep. Smoke was beginning to creep in under the
door and Tarana looked at her sadly one last time, then headed
downstairs, out the door, and into the front yard.

She found her younger self, sitting on the
dewy grass, hugging her knees to her chest, and staring at the
house as licks of flame eventually burst through the windows,
lighting up the night. It was far too late when neighbors finally
awoke and tried to put out the fire. The house collapsed as both
girls sat next to each other, watching silently. The neighbors
stood back, empty buckets hanging uselessly from their hands as the
house burned itself out. By the time the sun began to rise, it was
only a twisted pile of rubble and ash, thick tendrils of smoke
rising from the ruins.

“Tara?” She heard the voice as a murmur and
looked around curiously, but no one seemed to be speaking to her.
The other people from the town stood a short distance away, their
hushed voices swept up into a drone.

“Tara!” The voice was slightly louder and
much more urgent, but sounded distorted. Her body jerked suddenly
and everything went black around her. There was a loud ringing in
her ears as she opened her eyes wide, trying to see beyond the
nothingness. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was back in the
mud, lying on her back. She saw Djerr's face above hers, his
expression terrified.

“Tarana, please answer me,” he pleaded.

She opened her mouth, but no words would
come out for a moment. Finally, she took a deep breath as the
ringing in her ears subsided and she groaned. “Djerr, what's
wrong?” He embraced her suddenly and she brushed away his tousled
hair from her face. “Seriously, Djerr, you're scaring me.”

“I thought you were dead,” he replied, still
holding her. “I woke up and instantly felt like something wasn't
right. When I touched your hand, it was so cold. I don’t think you
were breathing, Tara.”

She shook her head. “You must have been
dreaming. I had to have been breath-” She cut herself off suddenly
as she vividly remembered the feeling of being unable to breathe.
Closing her eyes, she began to remember what she had been
experiencing before she awoke. “Djerr,” she said slowly, opening
her eyes, “I wasn't dead. I just...wasn't here.”

“What?” He lifted his head and looked at
her.

“My sister, Aurora. I, I don't think I
killed her,” she said brokenly. “I don't think I had a sister. I
made her all up, Djerr. I didn't want to kill her.” She stared up
at him and realized her body was shaking. “I just wanted someone to
rescue me.”

“It’ll be alright, Tara.” He held her close
again and she breathed in the warm scent of his skin. She felt her
body slowly calming down, her heart rate slowing. And for a moment,
everything really was alright.

Chapter 13

“So I’ve been thinking,” Djerr commented as
they trudged through the mud. The mid-day sun filtered through the
thick fog and they had to squint against the brightness. Their hair
lay plastered to their foreheads and necks, glistening with water
droplets.

Shaking her head to get the hair out of her
eyes, Tarana glanced over at him. “Yeah? What about?”

He hesitated and stuck his hands deep in his
pockets, looking down at the ground as they walked, sidling around
the occasional bush. “Well, I was just thinking that there must be
a few towns out here. I mean, people live in all sorts of weird
places. I’m sure there are some who like living out here. Anyway,
maybe once we find somewhere, we could just y’know, settle down
there. It might be kind of nice living out here, away from all
those crazy people obsessed with the war. We could find some work
to do, make some money, eventually get our own house. I think we
could be really happy.” He looked nervously over at her, twisting
one of his black curls of hair through his fingers.

Tarana looked away and shrugged. “Yeah,
maybe we could do that. If we can find a town, that is. Remember
when we were up on that cliff? We couldn’t see anything down here
at all. I have no idea which way we should be heading.”

Wrinkling his forehead in thought, he moved
closer and took her hand as they walked. “Can’t you use your magic
to find somewhere? Hey, remember when you transported us from
inside that dungeon to the outside? Couldn’t you just transport us
to the nearest town?”

“But I don’t know where the nearest town
is!” she protested. “I have to know where something is, in order to
move us there. Besides, I don’t think I have enough energy to do
something like that, I’m too hungry and exhausted.”

“You know, maybe we should have thought this
through a bit more.” Djerr laughed. “We could have at least grabbed
some blankets or some food or something.” They were silent for
awhile. “Do you think Kirian’s mad?”

Tarana scoffed. “Mad? I bet he’s furious!
He’d probably kill us if he found us. You know how I told him about
me and everything? Well, he was absolutely insistent about us going
back to his dumb army after that.”

“I figured he would be.” Djerr shrugged. “He
only wants the best for you, but his idea of best and yours don’t
exactly match up.”

Looking up, she noticed the fog above them
had gotten slightly brighter and showed hints of blue in some
places, but she couldn’t see more than a few steps in front of her.
A few small boulders appeared in front of them, threatening to trip
them. “Oh, hold up.” Tarana called to Djerr as he started to
clamber over the rocks.

Reaching into her pockets, she came up with
a small forgotten metal coin, which she placed on top one of the
flatter surfaces of the boulder. Resting her hands nearby, she
slowly channeled a stream of heat into the coin. Waiting until it
was glowing brightly, she carefully stretched it into a long,
thinner shape without touching it. Pulling some moisture from the
air, she cupped her hand, allowing the water to pool, then quickly
splashed the metal with the water and left it to cool the rest of
the way on its own.

Watching in wonderment, Djerr leaned in
closely, staring at the now unrecognizable coin. “Why’d you do
that?”

Touching it timidly, Tarana lifted it up and
tossed it from hand to hand before deciding it was cool enough to
let rest in the palm of her hand. It glinted dully as a few small
slips of sunlight caught it. “Well, with a bit of magnetism,” she
concentrated for a moment before continuing, “it should point in a
single direction, so if we keep that steady, we can head in a
straight line without going in circles all day.” She smiled as the
strip of metal scraped lightly across her palm and pointed toward
her thumb. “Nice.” She slipped it back into her pocket. “We can
check it again later to make sure we’re still heading the same
direction. Better chance of actually heading somewhere useful, that
way.”

“Wow,” Djerr said simply. “How did you learn
all that anyway? I have no idea what you just did, but it sure
sounds impressive.”

Her hands still in her pockets, she fiddled
with the warm metal in between her fingers. “Well, there’s this guy
who’s been teaching me stuff.”

Looking sharply over at her, he climbed over
the boulders and reached out a hand to help her over. “What do you
mean, a guy? When? Where? Who is he?”

“Sheesh, lay off me,” Tarana grumbled,
ignoring his hand and scampering over the rocks herself. “It’s just
this guy, he used to be a wizard before he died a long time ago and
he’s been teaching me stuff while I sleep. We’re wizards, so he
doesn’t need to actually be here, in order for us to talk and do
stuff.”

“How long has this been going on?” he asked
apprehensively.

She shrugged. “I dunno, since the night we
started looking for Kirian in the Citizens’ camp, I think. Look,
it’s no big deal! I need his help if I’m going to learn how to do
stuff like this.”

Still looking concerned, he finally nodded.
“I suppose so, but I don’t like the idea of some ghost whisking you
away in the middle of the night. It’s just weird.”

“Well, you make it sound much worse than it
really is.”

They walked silently for awhile, until Djerr
fell into step with Tarana and took her hand again. “Do you think
you could make us some food or water or something?”

Tarana sighed and stopped walking. “I can
pull together some water, no problem. There’s plenty of that
around, but I don’t know how to make food. There are so many
compounds and I don’t know how to make them all.” She noticed his
blank stare and sighed again. “Put out your hands.”

She pulled moisture from the air fast enough
that a slight breeze ruffled their hair and filled his hands
quickly, then her own. They drank several handfuls of water, trying
to keep it from spilling as they lifted it to their mouths and
slurped it down. She was thirstier than she had realized and they
were silent as they drank, rivulets of water trickling down their
chins.

“Wow,” Djerr said finally. “That was
delicious. You make some tasty water. Hey, look at the sky.” The
breeze had swept away almost all of the fog and the sun hung low in
the sky, lighting up the stray clouds in the distance, streaked
across the horizon. Tarana pulled out her makeshift piece of metal
again, and checked to see which way they were heading.