Two Moons of Sera (25 page)

“Lace?” I said. “Can you hear me?” I placed my hand on her
face, and she sighed, leaning into my cool touch.

Her blond hair was burned, most of it gone except for
patches of fizzling chaos. While kneeling next to her, I watched her exhale,
and her body went limp.

“Lace!”

Her breathing grew shallow, her flesh angry.

“Is she okay?” Elle called from where she and Lock stood.
She seemed afraid to move as the second sentry continued her tirade and flung
her spear about.

“I don’t know.”

The woman who had ignited Lace stood, her dark skin and bald
head more menacing than before. She approached me, and I crouched over my
suffering companion, prepared to defend her with every ounce of strength I had
left.

“What
are
you?” she demanded in her broken Erdlander,
eyes ablaze.

“My name is Serafay.” I stood and glared up at the
intimidating A’aihea, holding her fiery gaze with mine. Whatever had come over
Tor had no effect on me, and I wasn’t going to lose Lace too.

Before the sentry could speak again, I lifted the membrane
over my eyes and let the evening sun illuminate my silver irises. “You can’t
hurt me,” I declared, “and I won’t let you hurt my friends.”

The A’aihea screamed in rage. Flames consumed her eyes and
body as she lifted the spear and attacked.

Awareness began as a pinprick then shot through me, sharp
and bright before cascading out into my body. Silver streams of pain wriggled
through my mind, making me long for oblivion. My body remained beyond my
control, but a tingling in my leg told me it was still there.

I lay prone on the cold, wet ground. Leaves, straw, or some
other scratchy bit of dried-out nature, scraped against my shirtless torso.

The memory of the fire attacking Lace pulled me back into my
body. I sat up far too quickly. The world spun, and my stomach churned until I
flung myself to the side and vomited. Pain radiated through my head, clanging
around and overpowering the sound of my retching.

Darkness swirled in my vision as I heaved, desperate to
regain my breath. I’d never felt such agony before. I clung to the nearest
wall, trying to slow my pulse and push down the seething loss of Tor’s blue
eyes.

Where was I? The small room consisted of sticks and mud, the
floor bare earth. I was alone, and dim white moonlight filtered in through
holes in the walls.

My own situation fell away as worry over my friends, the
only family I had, burst to the forefront of my mind. I stood and braced myself
against the wall for the onslaught of pain, which didn’t disappoint.

I felt around the wall of the circular room and pushed away
from one end of the wall. The flap opened into the moonlit night filled with
huts strewn across dusty ground.

“You wake,” said a man standing just outside. Mud-caked hair
was pulled back from his face. His skin, tan like Tor’s, nearly glowed, and his
smile radiated kindness. He wore no shirt, only the same long skirt as the
sentries, but brown and made of thicker material. His right arm displayed
triangular markings, including the one sentry’s signature black band. On his
left arm, another series of bands wound between his elbow and shoulder.

“Am I a prisoner?”

He frowned, taking a step back. “Not of me, but some would
have you be.” His even, low voice contained no anger or threat. He pronounced
his words carefully, with an open sound, as if air were caught in his throat,
making each word longer and full of breath.

The night sky bloomed above us, the ruby moon so large and
bright it cast a reddish hue over everything. After looking behind the man, I
spotted a series of small huts like the one I had emerged from. Farther in the
distance, a fire blazed at the base of a cliff with a black cave mouth behind
it.

“I have to find my friends,” I said. But as I stepped away
from the door, my feet stumbled, and a wave of dizziness washed over me.

“You have to sit. Sev hit you hard.” He gestured with his
hand as if holding one of those bladed staffs. “Always goes for the head, she
does.” After holding out a hand, he led me to a stool next to the hut’s door.
He must have been guarding me while I slept.

Somehow I believed him when he said I wasn’t his prisoner,
but I had to wonder: was I someone else’s?

“Who are you?” A fuzzy grayness covered my vision, and I
feared I might black out again, but I had to find out why the A’aihea had
brought me here.

“I am called Keene.” He stood erect, his tall, lean physique
taking on strength and pride when he said his name. Then he squatted before me,
head cocked to the side. “Who are you?” He placed careful emphasis on each
word, as if trying not to spook a stray animal or an injured bird.

“I’m Serafay.”

“Erdlander and Sualwet, Sev did say.”

“Yes, I’m both,” I said, fighting down the nausea still
spinning within me. “Are you A’aihea?”

“A’aihea born, yes, but no longer of the Fire.”

“‘Of the Fire’? What does—”

Keene’s frame suddenly blurred out of focus, and I collapsed
onto the ground. I found it cool and soothing, strangely soft despite the rocks
digging into my hip. If I just closed my eyes....

“Serafay? Serafay...?” Keene’s voice drifted from far away,
as if a cloud had separated us.

While I could hear him, I couldn’t sense him. Instead, I
slipped back into darkness.

“She did not say,” I heard a man’s distant voice say. It
infiltrated the silence in my mind, bringing with it a resurgence of throbbing
pain.

A female voice responded with the long, breathy sound of the
A’aihea, but I sensed her agitation. I extended out my inner senses, searching
for anything I could detect about them, or my whereabouts. While lying still
with my eyes closed, I explored the space around me. As best I could tell, they
had brought me back inside the hut. The small room was sparse and primitive,
less sophisticated than even the cave I had grown up in, but it was clean, and
even the vomit I expelled earlier had been removed.

Beyond the hut, Keene stood watch. Seeing him with my
heightened senses instead of my eyes, I felt his power. The heat radiating
around his form transcended mere body temperature. There was something more to
him—something vital. Next to him I discovered a cooler energy, the form of a
woman, and her heat was erratic as she moved nervously from foot to foot,
speaking in quick, demanding tones.

“In Erdlander,” I heard Keene command.

“My tongue finds it rough.” Her voice sounded familiar—harsh
and without empathy.

I investigated the space around her, feeling the ripples of
the air, the movement of her clothes. By the shape of her smooth head and the
fierce heat radiating off her, I guessed she was the sentry who had attacked
Lace, but I sensed she wasn’t carrying the bladed staff.

“You must practice,” Keene said. “You must learn. Use
Erdlander words, not thoughts of fire and swords.”

“
A’ai thouah
.”

“In Erdlander!” Keene roared, and the woman reared away from
him.

Who was this man who had been so gentle with me when I
awoke, but yelled at the woman who took me prisoner?

I withdrew my senses and pushed myself up to a kneeling
position. I was still wearing my tattered pants, which had burned when I tried
to put out the fire around Lace. Lace! Gods, where was she? Where were Lock and
Elle?

I stood too fast and steadied myself against the wall,
fighting the rolling of my stomach. Once I recovered, I crept to the door and
pushed it open, my relative nudity less important than the answers I wanted.
Sunlight streamed in, blinding me. How long had I been unconscious?

“Serafay,” Keene greeted me, taking my elbow to steady me.

As my vision returned, I found myself staring at the sentry.
I jerked my arm away from Keene and scowled at her.

“What do you want with me?” I demanded, my gaze darting back
and forth between them.

The bald sentry smiled, her teeth gleaming white in the
bright sun. “I is Sev.” She chewed on her words, stretching them out like thick
molasses in her mouth.

I wanted to punch her in the throat. “Where are my friends?
What have you done with them?”

Keene reached out and took my elbow again, his hold tight.
But I saw none of Sev’s menace in his features.

“What is going on?” I demanded.

“Sev brought you here to be safe,” he explained. “Your
friends are held near, but separate. The others think you dead, injured from
beating. Sev only pretended, then snuck you here.”

“She set my friend on
fire
.” Tears welled in my eyes,
but I refused to lift the membrane in Sev’s presence. They claimed I was here
to be safe, but I was still a prisoner.

“Girl you know lives,” Sev said flatly. “She will scar.” She
shrugged, her voice calm and distant, as if her actions didn’t matter, as if
she hadn’t tried to kill us.

“Keene, she hurt us—hurt
me
. Why should I trust
either of you?”

“All you have is we,” Sev offered, but her smile fell after
one look from Keene.

“Serafay, I understand. Sev is an important A’aihea. You
call them Devil’s Daughters. She guards those of the Fire.”

“Stop,” I said. “Stop talking. You aren’t making any sense,
and I don’t care who you are. Take me to my friends. I need to know they are
safe.”

“You cannot.”

“You said I wasn’t a prisoner.”

“You are not, but in leaving, you would become one.”

“What does that even mean?”

Keene sighed and ran a hand over his matted hair before
exhaling and speaking to Sev in their native tongue. She seemed to argue with
him, but when he barked at her with stern eyes, she nodded and walked away.

“Sev will get another who speaks Erdlander tongue. She may
have more words for you.” He gestured to the stool. “You sit. There is food.”

“I.... Thank you.” I dropped onto the stool with a heavy
weariness that threatened to undermine what strength I had pulled from my
reserves.

Keene walked around the side of the hut, beyond my line of
sight. While he was gone, I looked around and noted the ground was dry and
barren, the grass brown and dead. Paths crisscrossed between the huts, showing
untold years of traffic, but no one walked around or sat outside. Did anyone
else live here? Was this some kind of prison where I was going to be left to
dry out and die like the grass?

My existence was cursed. This wasn’t the life I’d envisioned
back when I used to recline in the sand and dreamed of leaving the cove. I
wanted to cry again, but was as dried out as the dust beneath my feet and worn
down to my soul. My hands were dry, the lines in my flesh cracking. After
licking my lips, I tasted blood, and realized the corners had split. Was it
from Sev’s blow or the cruelty of the dry air?

Every time I closed my eyes, Tor’s face appeared, distant
and hard, his eyes filled with burning passion.

Keene returned with a tan shirt and a plate of bread and
nondescript mush. “Erdlander food is dust; no taste. Here. Eat this slow.”

After pulling the shirt over my tattered clothing, I ripped
a hunk from the crusty roll on my plate and scooped up the food. It was the
same color as my shirt, as Keene’s skin, as the dirt. After placing the bite
into my mouth, my tongue lit up with flavor. The bread was soft, and the mush,
whatever it was, tasted alive, filled with meat and spices and other flavors I’d
never experienced before, all mixing together to create something unique.

“This is good.” I stuffed another bite into my mouth.

“Glad to see so.” When Keene smiled, his green eyes sparkled
in the sunlight.

“Are my friends all right?” I asked between mouthfuls. “Where
are they?”

“Others beyond stone ridge, past field. Held in arms, but
safe.” He stumbled over the words more than before. Whatever he was trying to
say must have been hard to translate.

“But Lace is alive? She was badly hurt—”

“So Sev said, so it must be so.”

His confidence in the sentry wasn’t much comfort. “Can I see
them?” I didn’t dare hope I’d get permission, but the longing for something
familiar, something safe, was too strong to deny.

Keene shook his head.

“Well, where are they? Are they in a prison?”

“Within a building—solid. Others are safe. No harm will be
done.”

I ate in silence. It had been a long time since I’d had
anything this good. I soaked up every drop of the flavorful meal with the bread
and only stopped when my plate was empty. Then Keene handed me a bowl of water.

The fresh liquid cooled my throat, revitalizing my body. As
I drank, my every cell came back to life. My nausea dissipated, and my mind
cleared. I drank bowlful after bowlful until my skin felt looser and my tongue
no longer stuck to the roof of my mouth.

When I finished, Sev had returned. Next to her stood a
female figure draped in orange fabric. The A’aihea woman stood shorter than me,
but the bright color and full-body covering marked her as different from Keene
and Sev. Despite the clothing masking her appearance, I could
sense
her
beneath it. Goodness and love radiated around her form, and the warmth of her
presence struck me with its intensity.

At the top of her head, a hole had been cut in the fabric,
through which long black hair tumbled down her back. The tresses were almost as
long as her arms. Next to the hairless and nearly naked figure of Sev, this
creature appeared alien.

“Hello,” I greeted, standing up. I didn’t know if A’aihea
shook hands like Erdlanders or if I was supposed to bow or what.

Keene motioned to the strange woman. “This is Velka. She was
a high priestess of the Fire for many years but has left to join the Order of
the Sun.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Velka.” I bowed my head, unsure of
the right thing to do, but it seemed right. After all, respect was respect.

Sev’s body language was tense, and she kept looking around
us as though worried we would be seen. Her fingers twitched, and I wondered if
she missed her staff. Was there something dangerous about my meeting Velka?

“Greetings, Serafay. You are a Daughter of the One True Moon
as well as Child to the Earth, yes?” Velka’s Erdlander was clear and only
slightly accented; I found it a relief to hear someone speak so clearly after
trying to understand Keene and Sev’s odd phrasings and thick accent.

“My mother was Sualwet, but I am half Erdlander.”

“So, it’s time then. The war is upon us.” She turned to
Keene and he bowed.

Good, I had done the right thing. But, wait,
war
? “Wait,
what? No,” I protested. “I’m not at war. I don’t want anything to do with their
war.”

Sev’s eyes flared as she glared at me. With breathy words
that sounded like a curse, she admonished me. “Velka speaks of truth.”

The shrouded woman who held so much power over these two
spoke in calming tones, and her A’aihean words brushed past my ears, forcing
Sev to lower her eyes.

“There is much you don’t know, Daughter of the One True
Moon, old things, ancient things that few are told. But you are the harbinger
of war and the mother of all salvation.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. I’m a mistake. I was made in a
lab. I’m just here to get Tor back, to find my friends, and then we’re leaving.
We don’t want anything to do with any war.” I panicked and my words streamed
from my mouth, just trying to stop this crazy talk about wars and salvation. I
wasn’t special, I didn’t want to be anything other than a girl. That’s all I’d
ever wanted, to be a normal girl. I should have known my life would never be
simple: webbed feet and hair just weren’t a normal combination. But the idea
that I could be some kind of savior chilled my blood and made me want to run
from this dark place.

The high priestess nodded, and I wished I could see the
expression on her veiled face. “Every story has a beginning,” she said. “And
yours is much longer than you know, having been born into the end.”

Velka’s serene voice sent a wave of calm over me. Her
complete faith in what she said tried to infect my mind, but I shook it away,
wanting nothing more than to go
home
. I didn’t even know where that
would be anymore, but all of this overwhelmed me, and it was more than I could
take.

“The A’aihea now of the Fire,” Sev interjected, “the lost
child. You and he did mate?” Her stern face focused on me in a way that made me
want to back away from her. Her direct gaze frightened more than any fire she
could produce.

“Yes, Tor is my... he’s mine.”

“Show Velka the eyes,” Sev commanded.

“I—”

“
Now
.”

“Serafay, please?” Keene implored, and while I had no reason
to trust him, I complied.

After looking at the shrouded priestess, I lifted the
membrane covering my eyes, showing their true color and iridescence.

Velka nodded and turned away. She walked down the dusty
path, but the long shroud made her appear to float, as if the color of fire and
consumption glided over the hardened earth. Sev followed, and Keene urged me to
go as well.

“I just want to find Tor,” I told him.

“To find him, you must live. Velka can give answers, safety.”
He peered down at my toes and raised an eyebrow. After a pause he gestured to
his hut. “Or hide Within and abandon hope.”

With that he turned and followed the dusty path Velka left
in her wake, leaving me to decide whether I was willing to venture further into
the unknown with them.