Rami

Chapter 27

When dawn comes, the world is strangely calm.  No clouds mar the sky, and no breeze hisses over the water.  Goosebumps rise on my arms.  I stand on a high terrace and stare out at the sea, the baherst on my shoulder, my glider already harnessed to my back.  I can hardly believe I'll reach Hyara today.  Fear is slowly seeping into me, numbing me, freezing my bones until I can barely move.

A gull cries out overhead.  I look up.  Its feathers are starkly white, a wisp of cloud against the empty blue.  

"C'mon," I say to the baherst.  It only whimpers in reply.  I shut my eyes, scrunch up my face and take a running jump over the ocean.  My sail opens, and we start to fly.

Nothing happens in all those hours gliding above the world, but dread grows inside me with every heartbeat.  The water's so still I can often make out my reflection flying beneath me, her face a mask of unease.  We meet no other soul, no clouds ease the sun's glare and no wind rocks my sails.  It's close to dusk when at last, Hyara appears on the horizon.  It's a bulk of rock, a chimneystack mountain belching smoke into the sky.

I switch the motor into a higher gauge, tug both wingstraps and angle towards it.

*        *        *

Soon, I'm walking through a street lined with factories, machines and iron scaffolding.  The baherst is sleeping in my pack.  The earth is scarred and blackened in every direction and the smell of ash lingers on the air.  There are freshly built pylons everywhere, breathtakingly tall, yet I see no sign of ancient ones.  No ruins tangle among the houses and there are no remnants of a lost civilisation.  This island feels somehow newborn, as if it's only just been given life.  My teeth ache from the coldness in the air.

I don't like this place.  It feels so empty, so hauntingly quiet.  Like its darkest secrets haven't even been discovered yet.  

Within minutes I've reached the fortress gates.  A wall of steel and barbed wire looms in front of me.  Two guards are posted, watching the street with narrowed eyes.

I stare back at them.  The stench of ash is heavier here, almost nauseating.  "My name is Rami King.  I come from Myrag."

There's a moment of frigid quiet, then they nod in unison.  One guard tugs a chain.  Metal clashes, and the gates swing open.

"Go," one of them hisses, jabbing his finger towards a narrow walkway.  His breath is shallow, his eyes wide as if he's terrified of something.

"Thank you," I say.  My voice barely challenges the uncanny silence.

Neither guard replies.  I duck my head and quicken my pace.  The walkway leads me up a stairwell that creeks underfoot.  I reach a doorway, swallow hard, and knock.

"I've been waiting for you," a woman says.

I open the door to find a dark, windowless chamber with a fireplace blazing in one wall.  Cobwebs and unlit lanterns hang from the ceiling.  The speaker is beside the far doorway, watching me.  I open my mouth but can't find my voice.

She smiles without warmth, as if happiness has long since been drained out of her.  "You can call me Kath."

I force a nod.  "Um, alright."

Her shadow quivers in the firelight.

"Alban says you're a spy, so I trust that you can keep secrets," she says.

I say nothing.

She beckons for me to come closer.  I hesitate, then obey.  

"Why did he send you?" she says, her voice little more than a whisper.

"He... his majesty thinks the changelings will attack."

Kath smirks.  "He's not a fool.  He sent you to as a weapon, didn't he?"

"He says I'll fight if it's needed," I say, but something deep inside me shudders.  I hadn't dared to think of it so clearly before.  "I'm weaker than the other changelings, though."

She laughs bitterly.  "It doesn't matter."

"Why?" I say.

The baherst stirs in my pack.  I feel the twitching of its tail.  It gives a low, threatened hiss.  

I remind myself to comply with whatever she asks, for it doesn't matter, does it?  I'll just pretend obedience until I meet with Liar.

She brushes my question aside.  "Tell me more about Birra's condition.  Has it progressed?"

I'm not sure how to answer.  "Condition?  The sinkhole?"

"Yes.  Alban's pet experiment."

My mind lurches.

"I think-" I say, then my mouth snaps shut and my teeth grind together.  Words are hissing and scraping through my mind:

All forces ready?

Firay replies, glee edging her voice: Confirmed.

I stand there with bated breath.  She speaks again:

Then let's do this.  For the master.

I try to speak, to warn Kath, but it comes out is a scream.  Sparks fly from my cloak.

She staggers back.  The door slams open.  We both whirl around to see a soldier in Hyaran green.  A scroll is clutched in his trembling fist.

"B-Begging your pardon," he says.

She snatches it from him.  She reads it in a flash, then her face pales.  Her hands are shaking.

"Rami, they're already here."  Her voice is quiet and deadly calm.

I just nod, but bile is rising in my throat.  My powers are snarling, rising, burning me from within.  I can't control them.  I can barely move.  Thoughts blaze in my head, so fast that I doubt I'm drawing fully on my own knowledge.  The master is close and it's reaching me, empowering me, taking over my soul.  I'm terrified of the master, but warmth starts to leech into my mind.  Affection.  Love.

I feel the other changelings too.  I can taste their emotions, their wild adrenaline.  I'm sick.  I'm drowning.  Thunder echos in my heart, I can't breathe.  The dark madness, the flame and light and the shadow of the sinkholes, I can feel-

"Rami!" Kath screams.

I snap back to my senses.

Her hand lands on my shoulder.  Agony strains her face.  "Rami, we have to fight them.  I need you, so you have to resist it!"

She steps back and leans against a concrete wall.  A stairwell opens.  "Follow me, please.  I'm begging you."

So I go after her, into the dark vault.  We sprint down a ramp, but I'm so much faster.  I have to force myself to match her pace.  The hallway opens to the outside, to a dark street, to a sunset the colour of blood.

"We'll meet Sal's division on the other side of town," she says, panting, "You'll be under his command.  We've developed weapons-"

Then I can no longer hear her because I feel it again, like all those days ago in Arl.  The sky is exploding.

Master.  Welcome... 

A beast swoops down from above.  I struggle to believe what I'm seeing.  It's a monster, a machine, a nightmare with red eyes and iron fangs.  Metal plates grind with every movement of its wings.

It lands on the street, and the earth trembles.  A scream escapes me.  I'm dimly aware of the others, all of them: Nico, Firay and Gar, all the lesser changelings that serve them.

Liar gives me a maddened, tortured grin.  His sharp teeth flash.  His eyes are shining.

"Run away," he says.