Winged (Aetharian Narratives) (17 page)

“Emma,” Mom said, getting up and rushing toward me. “You took so long; I was so worried.”

“There was some trouble getting her out of the water,” my father said.

Mom pulled me out of his cloak and wrapped me in her blanket.

“The men were somewhat alarmed when she took so long coming up. The sight of her when she finally did break the surface didn’t help, either.”

Mom pushed me toward the fire and seated me in front of it.

“I guess we should have explained the situation more thoroughly,” Mr. Amest said. “We’re just so used to her now. I’m sorry.”

The last part was directed to me. I smiled accepting his apology. Ms. Riley offered me a steaming mug of tea. I took a sip of the black tea and felt the ice melt off me. I could feel the color coming back to my face. Everyone seemed to relax at my improvement.

My father took his cloak off and sat in a chair off to the side of the fire. He was one of the most handsome men I had ever seen. Knowing what Mom looked like I always knew my father would be just as beautiful. And he certainly was with his long, graying, dark blond hair and slightly lined slender face. He was very tall and tired looking. With the country in the state it was, I understood why he seemed to take such comfort in being able to sit down for a moment.

Mrs. Amest entered the tent to the delight of Mr. Amest. He got up, put a blanket over her and seated her close to where he was.

“Sorry I took so long,” she said, taking some tea. “I worried when it seemed to be taking longer than usual.” She looked over at me. “I’m assuming there were … problems?”

“Yes,” I said. “Sorry, I guess I got stuck somewhere in the process.” I wasn’t sure how to explain something I didn’t understand. “I’m sorry if it held you up.”

Mrs. Amest laughed. “I was actually talking about their reaction to you. Everyone was still talking about what happened when you came out of the water when I finally came through.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “There was some … hostility.”

“For which I apologize,” my father said.

“Sire,” Mrs. Amest all but shrieked and stood up. “I’m so sorry I didn’t see you over there.”

“That’s quite all right, Corinne,” he said with a smile.

He was even more handsome with the smile on his face. She hit her husband over the head and made an awkward bow. My father raised his hand in a reassuring gesture.

“Please sit back down and warm up some more.”

She did, glaring at her husband. He shrugged apologetically.

“Emmeline, I am terribly sorry about the manner in which you were treated,” my father said, turning back to me. “Nothing could have prepared them for the way you look, gorgeous as you are. They have heard the rumors and know how the possessor of the Dragonfly wings can be … different. But no one has seen the likes of such an occurrence in many lifetimes. The last Dragonfly has been missing for the last two hundred years.”

He looked over at Ms. Riley. She raised her chin a bit, not breaking his gaze.

“It’s okay,” I said, looking over at Arie. “I’ve come to know it can be a lot to take.”

He got up and kneeled next to me taking a strand of my hair between his fingers.

“It is beautiful, though,” he said. “It’s a sign of change.”

He let go of the strand and looked into my eyes. So close to mine his dark blue eyes made mine almost ache.

“And change is something we are in desperate need of.”

“Sire,” Mr. Amest said. “Are things really that bad? It’s just that she’s so young. I know we have no say in the matter, but can it wait?”

My father let out a deep sigh and sat back in his chair. “I’m afraid not, Arian. Things have grown gradually worse since your family left. Emmeline’s involvement is critical at this point.”

“Exactly what will my role be?” I said, trying to hide my desperation to finally have this question answered.

He laughed. “You will learn that tomorrow when you start training.”

“Tomorrow?” Mom said, springing off the floor. “She’s going to start training so soon?”

I could hear the panic in her voice.

“She just got here—”

“And what? We need to wait until she has done some sightseeing?” my father said in a sarcastic tone that was all too familiar. “Cordelia, we are in a crisis here. We are being threatened with war. I’m sorry, but this cannot wait.”

“Javid, she is sixteen years old—”

“Oh, so now you’re suggesting we hold off until she’s eighteen? We really cannot do that—”

“That’s not what I’m suggesting,” she said to him.

“Then what are you suggesting?”

“I don’t know,” she yelled. “I don’t know.”

“Cordelia, the time is here and now,” he said. “We need her
now
.”

“She’s my daughter,” she said, thinking it was all the explanation she needed. “She’s
your
daughter. How can you not feel the way I do?”

“Because as my daughter she has obligations,” he said. “As the Dragonfly winged she has a commitment to fulfill. Not only a commitment to us but to her people.”

“Which I intend to fulfill,” I said.

They stopped arguing and looked at me.

“I’ve been fetched. I am here to do what needs to be done. So can we please drop it for now?”

“But, Emma—

“Please, Mom,” I said. “I’ll be all right. This is why you brought me here.”

They shot each other one last look before nodding and dropping the subject.

“I’ll have all of you shown to your tents,” Father said, walking to the tent’s opening. “It would be a good idea to get some rest. There are long days ahead of us starting tomorrow.”

We got up and walked toward the entrance of the tent. There was a glowing guide waiting for us.

“Emmeline,” he said when I passed him.

I stopped and looked at him.

“I am very glad you have finally come home,” he said, giving me a hug and another kiss on my forehead.

“Please,” I said with a smile, “call me Emma.”

He nodded. I turned to rejoin the group. Mom put her arm around my shoulders and steered me out of the tent.

The campsite was big enough to be considered a small village instead of a camp. We passed by many people going about their work. It was a bit unsettling to see them stop what they were doing to watch me walk by in our guide’s glow. We walked to the back of the campground where there was a little cul-de-sac of tents before the site ended at the fence.

“Miss Larnex,” the guide walked to the first tent and held it open for me.

“Goodnight, honey,” Mom said, kissing me in the same place my father had on my forehead. “Try and get some sleep.”

“‘Night,” I said. I nodded goodnight to everyone else as I passed them and went into the tent.

The guide dropped the flap and I watched the light from his body through the tent lead the others onward. The tent was the size of a big room. In the middle was a fire surrounded by a rounded dome. It was smaller than the one in Father’s tent but still big enough to heat every bit of the inside. On the right were a floor length mirror and a table with towels, a bar of soap, and a hair brush on it. A water basin was perched on a lower shelf. In the back was a small wooden closet with various articles of clothing hanging in it and shoes at the bottom. On the left was a twin bed with big blankets, pillows, and nightclothes folded on top of it. Next to it was a chair with clothes I figured I was supposed to wear tomorrow.

I changed into the nightclothes and got into the surprisingly warm bed. Being in such a strange place made me think it would take a while to fall asleep. I closed my eyes and thought about the events that had taken place that day. I don’t remember the exact point at which my thoughts turned to dreams, but I drifted off to sleep in no time at all.

* * *

“Miss Larnex?” a faint voice floated through the fabric of my tent’s entrance.

I turned over in my warm bed and chuckled to myself sleepily.

Tent? I thought to myself. Why would I think I was in a tent?

“Miss Larnex?”

My eyes sprang open when I heard it again.

“Y—yes?”

“Your training starts today,” the person said. “It would be wise to start waking up and preparing yourself.”

I rolled back over and watched the shadow of a person walk away with his light guide. It felt like I had been asleep for only a couple of minutes. I looked up through my tent’s smoke vent and remembered everything that had happened the previous day. The sky above was lighter than it had been when I closed my eyes. Though it was darker than when I normally liked to wake up. Nonetheless, it was most certainly morning.

I got up and looked around. Near the entrance to the tent was a steaming pitcher of hot water. I looked at what had to be, cold clothes on the chair. I looked at the dome around the fire. I went to the chair and took the clothes off of it. I spread them over the dome and placed the boots at the bottom.

I took the chair and pulled it as close to the fire as I could and put the basin on top. I poured the steaming water into it and washed myself. After I put all my warm clothes on I walked over to the clothes rack and found a sizable jacket to wear outside. In hindsight, it probably should have worried me how military-like all the clothes looked. All that was given to me were a couple pairs of pants and button-up, long-sleeve shirts made out of a rough, scratchy material, and thinner underclothes. There was no color to them that wasn’t an earth tone, or black or white. I figured that with the country on the brink of a war, everyone probably wore those kinds of clothes to blend in with each other.

After I had dressed and put everything in my tent back where I had gotten it, I decided there wasn’t much use waiting around for instruction. I put the jacket on and walked out of the tent. It wasn’t hard finding the center of the campground. It was, however, hard figuring out what I should be doing while trying to ignore the stares that followed me around.

“Miss Larnex?” a voice said after I had wandered around for a while.

I looked around and found a large, bar-like food stand with a burly man in a chef’s hat standing behind it.

“I thought that had to be you,” he said with a smile.

There was something different about him that set him apart from everyone I had encountered so far. Though his head was shaved, I could still see stubs of blond hair. He had light blue eyes, but his skin was considerably darker than what I had seen so far. It was darkened past the point of being a tan, not to mention the fact that it was the middle of winter and the chance of getting a tan was extremely slim.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said, happy that my being lost seemed to come in handy.

I took a few steps toward him. Whatever he was cooking smelled really good to my empty stomach.

“How could you tell?” I said.

The guy looked pleasant enough. He was, after all, the first person to choose to talk to me rather than stare.

He laughed. It sounded closer to a bear’s growl than a laugh.

“Lucky guess, I suppose,” he said. “How does breakfast sound to you?”

I bounced into a seat at the bar. “It sounds great.”

He laughed again, seeming pleased. With what exactly, I didn’t know. I figured he was just pleased with me in general.

“What would you like?”

At that moment my stomach made a loud, embarrassing noise. I could feel my face turn red and I gave a shaky smile at his smirking face.

“I’m not particularly picky at the moment,” I said.

“Bacon, eggs, and toast it is,” he said.

He cracked some eggs over the skillet in front of him and laid out a couple strips of bacon and bread.

“Coffee or tea?”

A mug flew onto the table in front of me.

“Tea, please,” I said.

A teabag landed in the mug and a kettle of hot water wasn’t far behind to pour over it. I wiped the astonishment off my face and looked at him again.

“Thank you…”

“Oak,” he said. “And you’re very welcome, Miss Larnex.”

“Please call me Emma,” I said. “Being called Miss Larnex kind of freaks me out.”

“No problem, Emma. I guess I should give you the greeting you didn’t receive last night,” he said, putting down his spatula and holding out his right hand. “Welcome to Aetheria.”

“Thanks,” I said, shaking it.

I couldn’t help but watch the bacon flip over on its own.

“As much as you surprised us, it’s amazing to think that we can surprise you.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, realizing that I was probably staring too much. “I shouldn’t be. I know everyone here does—stuff.”

“That we do,” he said. “My ability is pretty common so it’s nice to inspire some awe for a change.”

“Where I come from—” I said but stopped. “Or thought I came from, something like that is not common at all.”

He scooped the food onto a plate and put it in front of me with some utensils.

“Well, things are different here where people have talent.”

I laughed. “People have talent there. Most of the time they’re just not appreciated for it.”

I took a bite of toast and watched a rag wipe off the grill. “But they most certainly don’t do anything like that.”

Oak looked at me. He seemed not to understand something.

“You know,” he said, “you are not the person I thought you would be.”

“And…” I said, not quite knowing what he was getting at. “Is that a good thing?”

“It is a very good thing,” he said. “See, around here people stick to their position, class, or group.”

He nodded his head to the people going about their business. I looked around and saw the workers talk to other workers, soldiers walking around with other soldiers.

“I guess some things never change,” I said to myself. “Why are people like that?”

“They don’t like what’s unfamiliar,” said Oak.

I looked back at his sky blue eyes.

“Which is why they don’t associate with those they’re not completely comfortable with.”

A group of soldiers looked at us while passing by.

“But I’m glad you aren’t like that,” he said, louder than his previous comment.

The soldiers that passed by gave us one more look before continuing on.

“If there was one person,” he said, “that I would pick not to believe in that crap, it would be you.”