Winged (Aetharian Narratives) (32 page)

I look at Councilman Yuri. I half expected to see the sneer I had come to associate him with, but I was surprised to see fear in his eyes. My heart sank and I realized that I’d forgotten that he was first and foremost a concerned father.

My own father recognized the look, too.

“That is why we’re trying to help,” he said to him. “We can offer your daughter the training and education she will need later in life.”

“Fine,” said Yuri. “I’ll agree that she needs the training, but why can’t she be trained in the South? Why is she being forced north for it?”

“Because it’s here in the North that we have the means to carry out the training,” Xaden said. “Do you expect us to pack up and move everything just for your daughter? What about all the Northerners that need to be trained?”

“We’re not asking that you move the training facility,” Oak said. “We want to know if there’s any possible way to create another one in the South.”

“You want a whole new training facility to be built in the South? For one little girl?” Rade said, not able to believe his ears.

My back straightened and I realized that Adeline, in fact, wasn’t the only child.

“What if she isn’t the only child with an ability that needs extensive training?” Oak said.

I held my breath.

“You have more children with high priority abilities?” Xaden said.

“If we said we did,” Yuri said, “could the development of a training facility in the South be considered?”

“The number of children that need to be trained would have to be large enough to justify the expense,” Rade said.

“How many children would it take to ‘justify the expense’?” said Yuri.

No one answered. My father and his generals looked at each other.

“Exactly how many Southern children have been born with high priority abilities?” said Father.

Everyone on the opposite side of the table looked at each other. There were shrugs and consensual nods.

Finally, Councilman Yuri looked back at my father.

“There are a total of ten children—”

“You’re lying,” Rade said, jumping out of his chair. “It’s an anomaly for
one
of your children to be born with a high priority ability. You expect us to believe it when you say that
ten
have been?”

“Do you think we asked for this?” Kaia said, jumping out of her chair, too. “We were perfectly happy without your
high priority
abilities.”

Oak put his hand on her clenched fist and she lowered herself back into her chair.

“We are not lying,” Oak said, once they were calm again. “Ten of our children have abilities that require training.”

There was silence.

“Is that enough?” Yuri said.

“I don’t understand how this is possible,” Xaden said. “Never before has a Southerner been born with these abilities. Why is it happening now?”

“As Councilman Yuri said earlier,” I said. “Times are changing.”

He looked at me. “Yes, but—”

I was tired of his complaining so I cut him off and continued. “Having the abilities with the power to protect the people around you means only one thing.”

No one seemed to be following.

“I believe it means that the South is evolving into its own country.”

Shocked faces were all I saw around the table.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but up to this point hasn’t the ability to protect and rule only been granted to Northerners?”

No one argued.

“It has taken a very long time, but I think that the splitting of North and South Aetheria triggered the evolution of Southern abilities to fit the current circumstances. Until now, one group of people had been given one ruler. Now two groups of people are being given two rulers. Southerners are now being given the abilities they’ve been denied for all these years as a sign that they can now become completely independent. Although they haven’t stepped forth I’m sure you will find that somewhere in the South someone has Butterfly wings. The first thing an independent country needs is someone to lead them.”

The lady with the staring problem twitched involuntarily.

“But that’s exactly what we don’t want,” Kaia said. “We created a viable army without the abilities you require for your army. We created the Council to step away from the whole monarch thing. If a Southerner has Butterfly wings they haven’t stepped forward for a reason and probably feel they’re not fit to take the position being forced on them.”

“I’m sure there are not many kings and queens that haven’t felt at least a little the way you’re describing,” said Father. “But that doesn’t mean they should turn their backs on their people and keep hiding.”

“I didn’t say you can’t be your own country without a monarchy,” I said, “or have an army without specific abilities. I meant to say that thousands of years of tradition are hard to break.”

“But that’s what we’re doing,” Yuri said. “We’re tired of answering to a king that’s hundreds of miles away. We’re tired of our people not being able to have high ranking positions because they don’t have the right abilities. We’re tired of not being able to do everything we hope and dream we can do.”

I looked at my father. There was visible distress on his face. I saw it on Arie’s face, too. I couldn’t image what it felt like as a king or future queen to hear in how many awful ways their ruling was inadequate to such a large group of people.

“I’m sorry to hear you feel this way,” Father said.

Not in a way that I knew would lead into him defending the traditions, nor in a sarcastic or hurtful way. It was said as a pure, genuine apology. In a manner that made Kaia look saddened with the way they had explained things.

“We’re not looking for apologies or explanations,” Yuri said. “A reason for agreeing to this meeting was to explain why the South will be completely breaking off from North Aetheria and becoming its own country.”

“And there’s no way this can be prevented?” Xaden said.

“We’re afraid not,” said Oak.

“Then go,” Arie said, standing from her chair. “What kept you around so long? If you don’t want to be a part of our country we don’t want you to be either.”

“They need help in learning how to train high priority abilities,” Rade said for them. “That’s it isn’t it? You know that you’re still not ready to break off completely without a little more help from us.”

No one on the opposite side of the table answered but through their silence, we knew what he said was true. I touched Arie’s arm and she slowly sat back down in her chair.

“Okay,” my father said. “We’ll teach whomever you want to be taught how to train high priority abilities.”

“What?” Xaden said. “We’re going to give them what they want and be done with it?”

“Yes,” Father said. “I’d rather let them go and try to make themselves happy rather than force them to stay under my rule and be miserable.”

Everyone was surprised by his reaction. I smiled and felt exceedingly proud of him.

“Thank you,” Oak said.

I could tell that he didn’t quite believe what was happening.

“This meeting has not gone the way we thought it would.”

He stood up and stretched his hand over the table toward my father. Generals Rade and Xeden kept a watchful eye on it, but Father stood and shook it without another thought.

“Thank you for understanding.”

My father nodded his head.

“If you’d please excuse us for a moment,” Yuri said, also standing up. “We had one more matter to bring up, but I think it’s best if we quickly discuss outside whether we want to bring it up or not.”

“Of course,” Father said.

Everyone on their side of the table stood and filtered around us. They walked out of the room and through the front door. I stood up and stretched my legs. Everyone else did, too.

“You were great,” I said, walking to my father and giving him a hug.

He kissed the top of my head. “I’m sure the person I owe my ability to see where they are coming from is you.”

I let go of him and smiled, but then we heard yelling from outside.

“It doesn’t sound like things are going well out there,” Dresden said, walking over to us.

He shook hands with my father. I wrapped my arms around Dresden’s waist.

“If some of them feel so strongly they should talk about it with us,” I said.

The front door slammed open and a person with glowing skin walked through toward us. His skin gradually turned brighter as he got closer to us. I let go of Dresden and took a step toward him.

“What’s the problem out there?” I said to him.

He was taken aback at the sight of me but regained his composure. The fact that I recognized him hit me like a slap in the face.

“No,” Dresden said, pulling me closer to him.

The action confirmed my dread.

“No!” I screamed.

His body turned from a bright white to red.

“What are you—?”

There was a rushing sound and a flash of light. The angry looking lady from the end of the table appeared in front of us.

“Everyone, hold onto each other,” she said, wrangling all of us together.

All of us squeezed into her arms seconds before we were engulfed in light. I was alarmed by the disappearance of the ground from beneath my feet, but the shock was short lived and the light almost immediately started to dim and I felt hard surface below me again. Everything was still and we could hear the tail end of an explosion in the distance.

My legs shook so I kept a tight hold on Dresden and my father. I squeezed my eyes shut, so grateful for the solid earth.

“What the hell were you thinking?” someone yelled.

I heard feet slam against the ground and fade away.

“We’re so sorry,” said Oak’s voice.

I opened my eyes to see the rest of the Council running toward us.

“We tried to stop them—”

“So was that the plan?” Father said, pointing to the side.

I looked to where he pointed and saw the remains of the cabin we had been standing in. Someone was running toward it.

“Talk us into giving you what you want or blow us up?”

“No,” Kaia said. “Please, not all of us agreed to what happened.”

I looked around the group. There was a sinking feeling in my chest.

“But it was still part of
someone’s
plan,” Father said.

I couldn’t believe the ferocity I saw in his face. I let go of Dresden. Tears start running down my cheeks. I carefully looked over everyone again.

“Emma?” Dresden said, touching my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“All of you are Winged,” Yuri said to my father. “No one would have died.”

“That was your reasoning for thinking it would be okay?” Xaden said with almost as much anger as my father. “Because we wouldn’t have
died
?”

“Please,” I said to everyone.

It sounded like a mere croak coming out of my throat.

I made my way to the middle of the group of people yelling at each other.

“You can’t imagine the injuries we would have sustained,” Rade said. “The weeks of pain we would have gone through to heal. What were you hoping to accomplish with a stunt like that?”

“Shut up!” I screamed over everyone’s voices.

My vision swam in and out of focus through my tears. Everyone stopped arguing and looked at me in alarm. I wiped tears from my cheeks, too angry to break down into sobs. I was afraid of the answer I would get to the question I was about to ask.

“Where’s Arabella?”

* * *

I ran across the field back to the remains of the cabin. The only thought in my head was to get to Arie as quickly as possible. When I approached the huge pile of ruins I saw that the person who had run to it earlier was already pulling out a body. He heard me approaching and looked over at me. It was Taegan.

“You,” I said, watching him pull his friend out of the mess.

He heaved him over his shoulders. The body was discolored and his head lolled unconsciously.

“I’m sorry,” Taegan said, looking at me, then at the rest of the group who had caught up. “To all of you.”

He walked away with his friend across his shoulders. All of us gathered at the mess of the cabin. I walked to the spot that Taegan had found his friend and start lifting up chunks of wood. Dresden appeared next to me and did the same.

“We’ll find her, Emma,” he said.

He took on the particularly large chunks of wood. I nodded. I knew that he was fine with me not saying anything back to him.

In no time there were more hands around us lifting up the chunks of wood—light and dark skinned hands. I saw that not only was my father and his generals helping us move the wood, but all the members of the Council were, too. Oak put his hand on my shoulder as he passed by me to help Dresden lift a ceiling beam.

In my head I tried to remember where Arie had been standing when the guy had exploded. I was pretty sure she hadn’t moved too far from the chair she had been sitting in, but I couldn’t pinpoint her exact location in my memory.

“The blast probably would have blown her across the room,” someone said.

Everyone tried to figure out where her body should be.

“So we’re probably going to have to clear as much of this area as we can. The blast could have thrown her anywhere.”

Everyone worked eternally, clearing out wood and being careful to see if they could find any sign of her. I thought about how much Viper was going to hate me once he found out what I let happen. He would kill me for letting Arie get so hurt.

“He’s not going to hate you,” Dresden said, working across from me.

I looked at him and wondered if I had been talking aloud.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

He reached a hand out and brushed a tear off my cheek.

“As much as you think he will, Viper will never find it in his heart to truly hate you. I’ve noticed that you seem to be kind of special to him. Though he may be quite upset…” he gave the wreckage a sideways glance.

I took the step between us and kissed him.

“Thank you,” I said.

It took what seemed to be a very long time, but I was the first to see a sign of Arie. They were right in predicting that she had been blasted across the room. I was a significant distance from where Taegan had dug out his friend when I moved a piece wood and saw a patch of blond hair. It was protruding from beneath a particularly large pile of debris.