Creatures of Snow (18 page)

“He’s adopted.” Al helped
him out.

“That is intriguing.”
Lee’s eyebrows knitted together as he gave an approving
nod.

Sky shrugged and sank down even further into
his seat. “I guess.”

“Well,” Al bounced up from
the couch and gestured for Sky to do the same. “The main point is
that Sky should be safe. And me, well, you don’t have to worry
about me. My house, to say the very least, is probably the safest
place I could ever be.”

Lee shook his head, “What would make you say
that?”

Al laughed as he looked
around, checking to see who was in ear shot. “I’m safe in my house
because it’s not just a house, it a military base.”

“
Al.” Sky warned. He
couldn’t believe Al was telling Lee one of his biggest secrets. He
wasn’t even sure if it was Al’s secret to tell.

“Don’t worry, Sky. He
would have found out eventually anyway, this way, it’s not
awkward.” Al paused. “Well,
as
awkward.”

Lee looked genuinely
surprised. “A military base? I did not realize the government had
any bases on Archaios.”

Al smiled slyly. “They
don’t. It’s actually a base for a rebel faction opposing the
government.” Al shrugged.

Lee tweaked his head to the left. “Rebel
faction?” A look of realization came across his face, “The Taul?”
He whispered.

Sky’s jaw would have
dropped if he had let it.
How in the
worlds does Lee know that?

Al let out a laugh that
was much too loud for a private conversation. “So I was right.
You’re part of the Angonian’s Regal family.”

So Con had been right about Lee. He was a
prince of Agon. But that still wouldn’t justify his knowledge of
the Taul.

Al looked to Sky,
hopefully sensing how lost he was in the whole conversation. “My
dad just secured an alliance with the head of the Agonian Regal’s
family.” Al explained, his face beaming.

“That’s kind of big news.”
Politics bored Sky to tears and he usually didn’t ask to be updated
on the rag-tag rebel alliance Al’s dad had been heading, under the
command of Archaios’s own Regal, Octavian Moore, but this seemed to
be a little more than your average news.

Lee nodded strongly and
looked between Sky and Al, “I am aware that we contracted the
alliance, but I did not know it was your father who led them, and
our knowledge is that the Taul base is located on
Athlesis.”

“The main one is. The one
here is smaller, basically just Special Forces, and technically my
father isn’t the one in charge, he’s just the general in charge of
this particular base.” Al shrugged.

Sky glanced around the
room nervously. They were talking so casually about it, as if
everyone ran military operations out of their basement.

“You will tell your
father,” Lee said to Al, “About what has happened and I will escort
you to and from school and guard you while you are
here.”

“Come on, I think I can
watch out for myself for the few blocks I walk from the
crossroads.” Al laughed.

Lee knelt down in front of
them, “Skyden, how strong are you?”

Sky’s chest hurt and ever
since sitting down the dull ache in the back of his head had begun
to spread across his skull. “Normally? Or right now?”

Lee’s head moved in a
sympathetic fashion. “You do look unwell.” Lee shifted focus to Al,
“Skyden is a strong individual, and he is in pain. It is also safe
to assume that he got off easy. He was not an intended target, he
just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time.”

Sky understood Lee’s
point. “Yeah, and whatever happened in there,” He shook his head
and shuddered at the few scattered images of moving shadows his
mind could recall. His thoughts drifted off, trying to catch that
distant moment.
What were those
words?
But he couldn’t remember what had
been spoken into his mind.

“
Sky?” Al’s voice cut
through his thoughts, “Hey, Sky?” There was an edge of fear in his
voice.

Sky opened his eyes, not realizing he had
closed them.

“Okay, I get it. I’ll get
someone to meet me at the transport stop to walk me home.” Al
sighed. “And Sky, you should go to the nurse’s office and have them
call your dad if he’s back.”

“
I agree.” Lee stood and
offered Sky a hand. “I will take you there now.”

Sky took his hand and let
the big guy hoist him up. The room spun for a second, and he waited
patiently for the world to come back into focus. “I got to go meet
with my Axis class now and set things right first.” Even though
Lee’s suggestions sounded so much better, “I skipped yesterday and
this morning, so don’t want them thinking I can’t handle things.
I’ll go home after that.”

Lee nodded approval.
“Good. And you will find someone to walk with you as well?” It
wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah. If my dad’s not
back, I’m sure I could get Con to.” The latter being the more
likely scenario, since he had no intention of telling his dad. Not
yet anyway. If Sky bugged him with this information now he had no
doubt his dad would drop everything just to stay home and protect
him which was something they couldn’t really afford to
do.

“Good.” Lee said again and
glanced up as the first bell rang.

“You shouldn’t worry so
much, Lee.” Al flashed a fake smile. Sky knew he didn’t intend to
tell his father either. He didn’t blame him - it would have been a
pointless waste of air. Al’s father would never spare one of his
men, even if it was to protect his own son.

“Later, Lee. See ya, Al.”
Sky raised a hand to them and walked off towards the
courtyard.

Once outside he felt
slightly better. The warm breeze seemed to ease his pounding head
and the sun had never felt so warm on his clammy skin. He brought
as much of the dry air into his burning lungs and forced himself
onward. He was certain he was getting sick. It didn’t happen often,
but there was no denying how awful he felt. He paused momentarily
in front of the metal doors, trying to stop his hands from
trembling. If he was going to get through a class of physical
conditioning he had to pull it together.

“Why were you talking to
Lee?” Sara was in his face before he was fully into the room.
“What, are you friends now? Are you trying to corrupt him with your
hooligan ways? Eww, you look disgusting.”

“He said he was fine.” Con
gestured them over to where he and Ellie were standing, “So he’ll
fight. But just in case – don’t touch him, he might be contagious.
Sky, stop here, no need to change today.”

“
Uhhg, why are you even
here?” Sara snarled. “Just go home.”

“
No.” Con said forcefully.
“He said he was fine.”

Sky stopped at the edge of the training
circle, forcing back the dizzy spell that made standing still next
to impossible.

Sara followed the circle
around to the far side of the room, well away from him, which was
fine. The last thing he wanted right now was her insults, or
questions, or general feelings of malaise.

Con cupped a hand over his mouth and
shouted, “Roland, come here for a sec.”

Sky flinched at the noise
and, although obviously annoyed, Roland actually stood up and began
walking towards them.

“
Sky, you’re up first.”
Ellie barked after glancing down at her notes.

Sky nodded and pulled his
shoulders back, trying to straighten himself out. He walked as
solidly as he could towards the center of the circle. Who would he
be fighting today? If it was Ellie he was screwed, she was too fast
for him in his current state. He was pretty sure he could manage to
stand there and throw a punch or two, but just thinking about her
bouncing around, flitting this way and that made his stomach
turn.

“Roland, the champ here
says he feels okay, but he might still be fighting whatever it was
that kept him from joining us the last few classes. Thus, I would
like you and your medical brainpower to keep an eye on him. You
know, so he doesn’t die.”

He could feel Roland
eyeing him up. “Fine.” Was all he said.

“Thank you.” Con gave him
a respectful nod, one of the first that Sky had ever seen. “Sky,
you’re fighting this.” Con held out a piece of paper with a circle
drawn around some random symbols on it.

“Awesome.” He had to force
the word out.

Ellie stepped out of the
circle. “Do you know what that is?”

“
It’s a summoning.” He was
pretty sure.

Con placed the paper on
the ground directly in the center of the circle. “This is one of
the lowest classes of Fury, but if you’ve never fought one before,
you can probably expect to lose.”

“
I don’t know how to fight
it.” He said honestly, “Aren’t they invisible.”

“
This circle will give it
enough energy to manifest a semi solid state.” Ellie’s eyes flitted
between Con and Roland, she looked worried.

“If you can’t handle it,
step outside the training ring.” Con gestured around them, “It
won’t be able to cross the line.”

“
You said we were fighting
together today.” Sara blurted out, a nervous edge to her
voice.

“
There was a change in
plans. It happens.” Con shrugged.

“Then, let me go first.”
Sara shifted uncomfortably from the sidelines, “I know more about
this kind of stuff, let him at least watch and learn.”

“
Are you underestimating
him, Sara?” Con said with a slightly mocking tone as he stepped out
of the circle.

“No, I just, I don’t think
it’s fair. You know he doesn’t feel well -”

“
I don’t like excuses.”
Con’s words flowed out with a distinctly threatening edge. “He’ll
never understand limits unless he is pushed to them.”

Sky wondered if she was
still feeling sorry for him. Her pity was almost worse than her
spite. He crossed the few steps over to the paper on the ground and
took the pin from his jacket.

“Con, I don’t see this on
the agenda for today.” Roland scanned his tablet, “Did you clear
this with Professor Blanks?”

Sky stuck the sharp edge of the pin into his
thumb and squeezed out a bit of blood.

“
I promised you I wouldn’t
go easy on you.” Con smiled softly over to Sky.

With a lurch in his stomach Sky crouched
down and smeared his blood across the summons. “Orior.” He hoped he
said that right.

“Con…” Roland stepped
farther from the circle.

There was silence in the room. Nothing had
happened. Sky cursed at himself – he must have said it wrong.

“
Be…Behind you.” Sara’s
voice came out as a whisper.

Turning slowly, Skyden
braced himself for something gruesomely deformed and horrifying,
after all, he had just summoned a Fury from the depth of
Snow.

What he saw was much worse.

The pain in his chest
spread once again and brought alternating waves of pain and
numbness. His breath quickened and his heart began to pound in his
throat. “Why you?” He heard himself choke out the words.

“
It’s not her, Skyden.” It
was Ellie’s strong and steady voice that tried to find the part of
his brain in charge of reason. “They lie.”

He nodded, or at least, he thought he did.
He stared at the ghostly image of his mother, standing there,
dressed in her night robes, a bloody mess on her chest and the hilt
of the knife still lodged in it.

“
Come home, Skyden.” She
said.

He knew it wasn’t her. He
read all about the Furies and their tricks, but he didn’t want to
look away.

“
Come back where you
belong.” She reached a hand towards him.

“
Move!” Sara screamed at
him.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
The thing that looked like his mother placed a warm hand on his
aching chest. “But, it doesn’t have to.”

“
Mom…” He didn’t mean to
say it, but, he just wanted to believe it was real, just for a
second.

“You idiot! It’s not her!”
Sara yelled.

“
Don’t interfere.” Con
snapped.

“You don’t have to be in
pain.” His mom looked so sad as her other hand reached for his face
and she whispered softly to him, “You don’t have to stay here
anymore.”

“
Stop this.” Ellie crossed
the line and ran for him.

The face of his mother
morphed into something else – something dead, angry and screaming.
The fingers on his chest curled and began to claw at his flesh.
“You belong to us!” It screeched, “You belong to the
Snow!”

And then it hurt. It
really, really hurt. Like every cell in his body was being torn
apart one by one. He wasn’t sure who was screaming, but before
blackness overran his vision once again, he was certain it was
him.

Chapter Fifteen

Sky opened his eyes slowly
for the second time that day. His vision came to focus on a
circular stain on a gray-paneled ceiling. It hurt to move, and so
he didn’t. Wherever he was, it wasn’t comfortable. He shivered at
the cold metal of the slab beneath him and wondered where he
was.