Wings of Boden (16 page)

I didn’t say anything.

Mom shouted in the house, “Phillip! Get Ellie
in here.”

After a moment Dad said to me, “Come on in
the house as soon as you can.”

The house door tapped shut … “Well, where is
she?” said Mom.

“She’ll be right in, just give her a minute.
The boys are on the way ...”

Sounds climbed up the mountain: Wheels
chattering, horse hooves pounding, Jaydenn yelling
Hah!
The
sirens, and the echoing announcement over the forest, “This is not
a test, please go indoors and …”

What was taking them so long?

At last, the cart rattled into view,
approaching fast as horse muscles flexed out a beating rhythm.
Clouds of dust trailed the cart, drifting off the dirt road into
alder bushes and forest. Wild-eyed were the horses, their muzzles
flared and blowing. Vyn stood crouched in the cart-back, one hand
grasping the rail as his knees absorbed the jarring road. Jaydenn,
also standing, demanded the horses move with a powerful snap of the
reins. “
Hah!
”

A spot—no bigger than a fingertip—caught my
attention high above. The sun was long gone, replaced by the faint
moon in a dim sky. And the spot began to take on the form of a
hunter on descent.

Do something
.

After leaping off the porch deck, I streaked
to the barn, yanked open the wooden doors for the cart. Then raced
to slam and lock all the shuttered windows and flick on the lights.
Tasks completed, I turned and stood in wait. My heart hammering.
Pungent smells drawing into my nostrils on panting breaths.

The horses finally stormed in, sliding to a
stop, clouds of dust trailing. The carriage settled to rest as I
slapped the doors shut and wheeled around.

The wailing sirens continued outside as Vyn
hopped to the dirt. Jaydenn followed.

Lady and Giselle stood stomping their hooves,
sheened muscles twitching, shaking their heads and huffing through
foamy muzzles to catch a breath.

Jaydenn grinned down at me; grinned at me! “I
told you we’d make it.” He chuckled, which sent a wave of revulsion
through me as I gave him a curled-lip scowl.

Sweat glinted on Vyn’s skin. Dark hair matted
on his forehead. His shirt clung to his body and I could see the
infinity birthmark on his left chest through the moistened cloth.
He actually smiled. “It’s okay now, Elle, we’re here.” He moved for
a hug.

I stiff-arm stopped him, my palms to his damp
chest as I gave him a glare. “
It’s okay?
What the flap are
you talking about? What do we do now?”

“Let’s get in the house,” said Jaydenn.

“No,” I snapped. “I’m putting the horses
away. You two can go if you want but they can’t just stand here
shackled all night to a cart. They need to be sprayed off, given
water and put away, and I’m—”

“Okay, Elle, okay,” Vyn cut me off, turned to
Jaydenn. “Go in the house, Jay. Tell them we’re fine, and we’ll be
out here for the night.”

A tip of the chin, and Jaydenn was off. He
pushed open the doors, a quick glance up, stepped out and slapped
the doors shut behind him. Vyn stepped over, checked the door
latch.

Dreadful squawks ripped through the air
outside, tripping my pulse for a beat. Jaydenn’s laughter came
next, guttural and loud … He shouted, “Nice try, chicky! Better
luck next time you flappin piece a flyin trash. I’ll be seeing
you
later.”

Vyn grinned at me. “Sounds like he’s havin’
fun out there.”

What the flap is wrong with these
males?
I heaved a frustrated sigh. Then tore myself away,
tramped over to Lady, stroked her moistened white head. Dirt and
sweat tangled her mane, sopped her skin. She lowered her head, blew
some air while I patted her neck. “It’s all right now, girl, let’s
get you cleaned up. I bet you’re thirsty, huh? You did a great job
girl. I’m proud of you.” I looked to Angie’s horse. “And you too,
Giselle.” She let out a force of air, her lips quivering as she
shook her head.

“Vyn, help me get this harness off.”

Vyn stood near the back of the cart, checking
his lab supplies. “I’ll be there in a second.”

Patting Lady’s clammy neck, I said to her,
“I’ll bet that thing’s heavy, isn’t it girl?” I went to gather up
the brushes and supplies. The horses perked their ears at the sound
of water splashing into the bucket. “I’ll be right there,” I
reassured them, then requested, “Vyn?”

“All right, all right.”

After we removed the harness and pushed the
cart into a corner, the horses lowered their muzzles into two full
buckets, a sucking sound as they drank. As we began to brush them
down, the barn odors brought some comfort. I always loved the
natural aroma of wood, dirt, ropes, straw and hay.

Then reality brought me back.

“Vyn, I’m serious. What do we do now?” I
brushed, patted.

“The only thing different is nighttime.” Vyn
pulled a brush stroke down Giselle’s neck. “You did a great job.
You saved so many angels with that warning.”

“What about the ones that didn’t get
away?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure they all
got to safety. And just think”—his brushing stopped with a look at
me—“The dreks might not be out in the daytime anymore.”

“Really, why not?”

“Because they know.” He tossed me a grin over
Giselle’s neck. “We can kill them now.”

A few minutes went by with that thought, as I
absently brushed Lady down. The sirens outside had stopped, but
there was no silence in my head. As much as I disagreed with
killing, the dreks deserved it. Everything they’d done to me all my
life: The mental torture, the teasing, prodding, the tears and the
nightmares. Still, it was their nature. Did we have to—?

“What’s wrong, Elle?”

“Nothing. I just don’t like killing, that’s
all.” A brush stroke down Lady’s back.

“You do remember they’re just young hunters,
right? We have to.”

Did he just ask me if I remember? Out of all
of us, I was the one who couldn’t forget. Dakarai had been my
friend, once upon a time, until the evening that he flew away a
hunter, leaving a scar of remembrance on my mind. A permanent
reminder of the dark.

“You still want to be part of the team?” Vyn
asked.

My mind wandered. Were they right, was it
just a phase? The screech in my mind reminded me of purpose.

“Don’t pay attention to that, Ellie.”

I gawked at Vyn across Lady’s neck. “You
heard that?”

“Yeah, how could I not hear that?”

“I mean, that was—” I paced around the horses
into the feed room opposite the stables, leaned over a stack of hay
bales and spied through a sliver of an opening in the shuttered
windows, searching through the night.

And there it was; a gargantuan vulture
perched on the house roof, talons clutching the brick chimney.

The hunter cocked its wrinkled-skin head side
to side, his hooked beak and gloss-black feathers glinting in the
night. Then it hit me like a punch to my stomach: Oh, Source, no.
Dakarai! He’s waiting for me! Dakarai cackled and clicked his beak.
His red eyes blinked down at me as I sucked in a breath of barn air
and pulled back from the window with a trembling hand over my
mouth.

“What’s wrong, Elle?” Vyn hustled over to me
as fog began to fill my mind. Hunching forward, I folded up into
him. “What’s wrong, tell me.”

“It’s Dakarai. He’s waiting. For. me,” I
muttered into his chest. There wasn’t enough air in the room.
“Please, help, me.”

Vyn released. I tried to pull him back but he
jerked away. He stepped to the window, studied, then turned to me.
“It’s okay. He can’t get you in here. You need to get used to the
sight of him. If you still want to kill him, that is. Come over
here. Force yourself to study him. Face him, Ellie. It’s the—”

“Ellie, are you okay out there?” Mom called
out across the driveway.

She was outside!
The fog bank lifted
from my mind.

“Mom, I’m fine,” I yelled where I stood. “Get
in the house, now. Dakarai’s on the roof!”

The sound of the house door slammed, followed
by the muffled voice of Mom screaming at Dad. Hearing the house
door swing open again, I ran out of the feed room to the barn doors
and watched through the crack between.

Under the porch lights, Dad stood
bare-chested on the deck, folded wings shimmering.

“No, Dad,” I shouted through the barn doors.
Jaydenn stepped from the house, also bare-chested, and stood beside
Dad. Like muscle-stacked machines, warriors in a defensive line,
they exchanged a nod, stepped off to the driveway. “No. Go back
inside, please!”

“Quiet down, Elle!” shouted Dad.

Vyn had already made his way to me. We
watched as Dad and Jaydenn stood like glowing marble pillars,
scanning the star-dusted sky. They each held a wooden spear
straight up with the ends in the dirt, the silver tips pointing to
the moon. Where did those come from?

Dad boomed his voice up to Dakarai, “Well,
what are you waiting for?”

Jaydenn, eyeing over the treetops, said over
his shoulder, “They’re on the way, Phil.”

“
Get off my roof!
” Dad roared.

A different hunter glided to land on the
driveway. Dad spun around, sneered at the hunter, placed his palm
up and curled his fingers in. “Here, chicky, chicky.” The black
vulture just stood there, shifting its weight from talon to talon,
until it leaned and stretched its neck forward, opened its beak and
sent a horrid screech at Dad.

“What the flap is he doing? Dad has lost his
mind,” I said through the doors.

A squawk fell down from the sky as another
hunter descended from the treetops.

Bub was barking inside the house,
Roaf!
Roaf! Roaf!

Wings tight to his back, Dad launched
forward, spun a circle with the spear trailing him like a whip. It
landed square into the hunters head, stunning the vulture to the
ground.

Roaf! Roaf!

Jaydenn was busy with the other hunter. A
beat later, his spear plunged into the hunter’s neck. The lifeless
vulture dropped to the dirt. The other hunter had already recovered
and sent a beak snap at Dad, grazing Dad’s leg and tearing his
slacks. The hunter lunged again, ripped the spear from Dad’s grasp
and sent it hurtling into the pines.

Jaydenn yelled, “Down!”

When Dad crouched, Jaydenn swung the post of
the spear, only to have the hunter intercept it, snap it in two
with his beak like an inconvenient twig. “I’ll keep him busy,”
Jaydenn said. “Get to the barn.”

“I am not going out there,” I said to
myself.

Dad rambled toward the barn.

Vyn reached down, unbolted the door and Dad
busted through, hit the floor and tumbled. Vyn slammed the bolt
shut. I looked out again. Jaydenn was backpedaling to the house,
holding the hunter off with half-spear jabs. The hunter sent
Jaydenn a last squawking snap before Jaydenn disappeared into the
house, the door banging shut behind him.

The hunter spun and bounded into flight,
pushed up into the night. A dead hunter lay on the driveway.
Shadows swept across the dark sky. Distant screeches—indistinct
sounds of a thousand nightmares under the stars.

When I turned around, Dad had already pulled
up into a slouched and seated position on the dirt, his knees drawn
to his chest, one pant leg in shards, bulging veined forearms
resting on his knees with clasped hands. His wingtips lay bent on
the barn floor, feathers mottled and matted with grime and sweat.
He looked up at me. “Well, that was fun.” He smirked.

“Dad, are you flappin crazy?” I asked … then
angled a look at Vyn as he stood above Dad with an amazed look of
shock and admiration. “What are you thinking, Vyn?”

“What? Oh. I’m a scientist. I’ve never— that
was just, awesome.”

“Yeah, well,” Dad said to Vyn, male ego
peeking out, “now you know. Now you know how important your work
is. We need to get started, soon. Tomorrow morning sounds about
right.” He slid his dark jade eyes up to me. “Changed your mind
yet, Ellie?”

“I can’t think about that right now. I’ll get
some leg wraps. We need to stop that bleeding.” His shredded pant
leg was soaked with blood, an open gash in his thigh oozing red and
dripping to the dirt.

Dad glanced at his leg. “Hmm. Yeah, I
guess.”

The cabinet with the wraps, tools and medical
stuff hung near the back doors. The horses perked their ears as I
walked by, nervous twitches, on edge. I knew how they felt. While
pulling a bundle of wraps out, I happened to notice through the
crack between the back doors, a red eye blinking in, startling me
for a moment. A jaw clench pushed the feeling aside. NO. I grabbed
a hoof pick from the cabinet, sidled close around the wall, and
waited … Just as Dakarai blinked again, I swung and jabbed the pick
through the door crack. A loud
squawk
rang out, followed by
the fading sound of wings flapping away.

Slack arms by my side, the pick in my right
hand, adrenaline pumping through me, I turned to see Dad and Vyn
staring at me.

“Got em right in the eye.” I fluttered my
wings with a smirk. “Does that answer your question, Dad?”

Dad chuckled aloud. “That’s my girl. I knew
you wouldn’t quit on me.”

Is that what he knew? That’s not what I’d
heard. I made my way over, went knees down on the dirt, and ripped
the fabric away from Dad’s injury.

Even as I began to clean and wrap his thigh,
a heavy patter of hunter feet on the roof sent all eyes up. Dust
sifted off the ceiling rafters. The horses stirred. The hanging
light bulb swayed and flickered in the stuffy barn air.

We had stayed out in the barn all night. Dad
had offered ideas to get us to the house, but I’d stifled those
when I’d pointed out the fact that the barn had no door locks, and
there was no chance I would leave the horses vulnerable. A new lock
jumped to the top of my morning chore list. The boys had attempted
to keep my awareness on lighter things with talk of the new home
and such dreams, which had helped, as I had drifted off
semi-peacefully on Vyn’s lap.