Band of Blackbirds (Book 2 in the Blackbird Trilogy) Read online

  Chapter Two

  I got dressed into a pair of tight fitting pants that were soft, almost like corduroy, and very comfortable as well as warm.The air here had taken a sudden chill compared to Atlantis.Many thoughts flowed through my head like an out of control watering hose with a nozzle that won’t shut off. The hole in my stomach grew bigger each time I thought of the rest of the Blackbirds, especially Gabe.I felt like crying, but where would that get me?I had to find a way back to them.

  The structure we were in was circular and made of tightly mortared together smooth logs with an intricate lacing of twigs overhead.The floor was assembled with grey, jagged pieces of very smooth stones that were ice cold on my bare feet.I put on a long creamy white sweater with a very loose turtle neck that was large enough to wear as a hood.I bunched it down and put on a pair of brown leather boots that went past my knees and nearly covered the light grey pants.The clothes I have to say, were very comfortable.

  I opened the door to a warm fire that blazed in a blue light.I looked at it taken by surprise of its cool color and then looked at Caleb who only smirked back at me.I nearly forgot the questioned that burned more like red fire in my head.

  “Tell me about my mother right now, and how we can get back to Atlantis,” I said still holding the bedroom door open.

  “What, not so much as a thank you for healing your arm.I had to go into the forest a long way to find just the right plant too. I am so great at my doctoring skills that it didn’t even leave a scar.”Caleb’s voice still had that teasingly tone to it, but something in his wild green eyes appeared hurt.

  I gazed at him for a moment with open mouth.I knew I haven’t been acting like I was grateful, even though I was.As much as Caleb irritated me, I felt I should combine a thank you and an apology together.

  “I…uh…I’m sorry…thanks… thank you.”I struggled to reply and looked at my arm that had no more of a faded red streak as a reminder.

  I looked back up at him as he looked down at the fire.I could see his lips curl upward in a hidden smile.

  “Don’t sound like a hero, you had dried Larkspur here.”Ian looked at Caleb with a book in his hand.

  I looked back at Caleb and crossed my arms.

  “I did have to go and get water though.”Caleb tried to add to his hero resume.

  Ian only rolled his eyes as Caleb’s eyes met mine again.

  I was glad Caleb helped me, even though he was irritating, I did want to show my appreciation.

  “Well even if you didn’t have to go far, thanks,” I said with a sincere tone and a small smile.I was thankful for what Caleb had done.

  “You’re welcome princess.”His voice for that moment was as sincere as mine, losing all trace of teasing.It was like I was peering into the real Caleb.I let my gaze entangle with his even though it was uncomfortable, it was dangerously enchanting to get lost into his green eyes.

  “Emily, do you want to know about your mother?”Ian’s voice seemed to come out of nowhere.

  “Can’t you see she was staring into my eyes?”Caleb said returning to his irritating boyish self.

  I shook my head releasing Caleb’s embarrassing hold on me. “My mother-- yes, tell me.”I ignored Caleb and sat next to Ian on a long, wooden bench next to the odd, but very warm blue fire.

  “Caleb your mother kept a really good collection of family history.”Ian looked at Caleb who only shrugged his shoulders.

  “It was certainly her passion,” he said getting up and going over to the window.

  I looked at him as Ian flipped through a few pages and then her image caught my eye.

  “Wait, that’s her,” I said motioning with my hand for Ian to flip a page back.

  I stared down at the picture of her that looked hauntingly life-like as if she was shrunk down and seated for a portrait and told not to move.The color of her skin pulsated with color and the definition of each strand of her long blonde hair seemed so real.I couldn’t help but to run my hand over it hoping to catch the softness of it only made the picture ripple.

  “…like you could almost touch her.”Caleb’s words were haunting and I looked up at him.He wasn’t just looking at my mother; his eyes were somewhere else, straining to see a portrait that wasn’t there.

  “Take that picture because they are rare and never lose it.”Caleb suddenly took the book from Ian and tenderly pulled the page from the book.“My mother made them for the people she cared about and it is a gift so you can always remember her as if she never died.”

  He handed me the picture.I was almost afraid to let it rest in my hands and when it did I felt a tiny spark that made me jump.

  “How did she die?My father told me she was in a car accident…there were newspaper clippings--”

  Caleb took a deep breath.“Well, I’m really not sure.I do know she had the amulet when my mother lost contact with her.Your mother was resourceful and worked alone.My mother said she refused to let anyone travel with her.”

  I continued to look at the picture almost waiting for her to speak to me.

  “There is a piece of her in there that will always be with you.That is what my mother told me to say to you the day you arrived.”Caleb sat down and stared into the blue flames.

  I took in a breath to ask him a question, but withdrew it as his gaze became lost in some distant memory that I didn’t want to disturb.

  I looked at Ian who waited holding the book on his lap.“Go on Ian, let’s find out about my mother.”

  “There is only a little bit.She was a lesser princess of Eutopia.She was born within the Wall and trained as…an Unseen.”Ian looked over at me with a half sympathetic and shocked expression.“Her name was Isadrel.”

  I looked into the blue flames that flickered like water in sunlight that didn’t make the normal crackling sounds of the orange flamed fire I was used to.

  “My dad said her name was Wendy and she was from Kansas.”I remembered my dad talking about her only when I asked, and even then, his answers were short and if pressed too much angered him.

  “She must have made up a name sometime when she escaped.”Ian shut the book.“That’s it, there isn’t anything else written.”

  Caleb shook his head.“And there won’t be.The best stuff, the true stuff my mother passed down verbally and fortunate for you, I’m the one she told.Like I said when I pulled you from the water, your coming has been destined and planned, manipulated if you want to call it that.”Caleb sat on his knees in front of me and took my arm that barely had a pink streak down it.“Some things are destined either planed by another’s doing or by the nature of fate itself.You have been given an opportunity Emily Moore and I would listen to it.”

  “Didn’t you hear, or maybe you knew.”Ian leaned forward.“Her mother was an Unseen.”

  Caleb pushed my arm away and looked at Ian with his flickering green eyes.

  “I know and what do you think that makes Emily…one of them as well?”

  I shook my head.“You guys are saying everything to me in pieces.What is an Unseen and why was my mother one of them?”

  Ian pulled his eyes from Caleb who got up and shuffled through some books that lined the wall opposite of the fireplace.

  “An Unseen is someone who does the dirty work of the Official.Kind of like…gets rid of unwanted persons or things that are undesirable after the Wall has expanded.They are a secret society and no one knows or cares who they are, except for Caleb here evidentially.”

  “My mother had many secrets,” Caleb said in a defensive voice.“She held her secrets with great respect and like I said, the best ones are kept right here.”He smiled pointing at his head.

  “So what are you guys saying…my mother was a murderer?”The word tinged my tongue with bitterness as I thought of the picture I once had of her.Her long, blonde hair blew in a wild breeze and she was smiling as she stood beside my dad.She was pretty and innocent looking, how could she be what they say?

  Both of them looked at me at the same time and it was Caleb
who smiled playfully at me.

  “No, not a blood thirsty murderer who randomly kills things, she was a protector of Eutopia.Well, at least anything that threatened the Wall.”Caleb looked down at me with crossed arms.

  “You mean like an assassin?”My voice was low.

  Caleb looked away cocked his head from side to side as if contemplating my question.“Yeah, sort of, but with a respect and a desire to keep the untouched city in its newly pristine condition.” He drew in a deep breath.“If you want to sugar coat it, Isadrel was a grounds keeper.”

  I took my eyes off of Caleb and before I could ask my next question, Caleb was in front of me holding both my hands.

  “You are a princess and an important one.My mother said Isadrel loathed being an Unseen.It became too much for her one day and that is when she found my mother.”Caleb searched my eyes as I soaked in what he was saying.“Too long our world has lived in separation, and it was your mother that tried to shift things in a new direction, but soon the hunter became the hunted.She had secret alliances and when she was pregnant with you, she put her desires for Eutopia away so you would be safe.She slipped through a portal and into the infant planet of Earth.She told my mother she wanted to come back, but she couldn’t.She did though make one thing certain, her child would come back and finish what she started.The amulet…”Caleb looked at Ian with his arm extended and palm up.“…the amulet Ian.”

  Ian pulled from his pocket the silver pendant that was so small and right now, so important.

  “This is your key that Isadrel hoped would find you one day.It wasn’t an accident that it came to you, but planned not only by your mother, but mine as well.If it was ever to be separated from Isadrel, it would find its way to you.”Caleb’s eyes softened.“It is yours Emily Moore, you hold the fate of many worlds.”

  I felt myself stop breathing.How did a small town, Midwest girl fall into such a thing?I held the pendant in my palm and closed my eyes.I could feel it vibrate, trying to reach out to me, but I pushed it away.

  “It was made by Ian’s father in secret.He was always tinkering with portals and magic and by the time he fashioned the amulet, he owed a lot to many that he couldn’t pay back.”

  “Who did he owe money to?”I asked.

  “We never found out, but…”Caleb started to answer.

  “It was a man in a long black coat and voice so smooth sounding it could polish the roughest stone,” Ian suddenly said.“I hid in my father’s workshop a lot when I was growing up—in a closet and watched the man come and go several times.I never saw his face, never heard my father call him by name.He did though walk with a limp…it was his right leg.No one was supposed to be in my father’s workshop, but I always managed to follow him and watch him play with magic.”His words seemed distant as he looked away.

  “My father used to pay the man for the materials up front until one day he demanded more money that my father couldn’t pay.They argued as I hunched in the shadows of the closet.I thought they could hear my heart race and I feared I was going to be found.Then they stopped arguing.”Ian closed his eyes tightly.“I can still hear, see and feel the man- in- black’s footsteps as he walked over to my dad and then…I saw something no child should ever see.”Ian gazed at me with his distant eyes; his voice was calm like he was reading from a book.“The blood even seeped under the closet door…so close I could touch it.”

  Ian’s eyes were steady on me, like he wanted me to share his grief.I wanted to run as I could feel Ian’s fear soak into me like a damp chill of winter.But, at the same time I wanted to know more.I could see Ian’s story unfold in my head and didn’t resist it. I could see it clearly, the image of Ian hunched over his father as he lay dying, weeping.

  “The man left and I didn’t know what to do.My father wasn’t dead yet and when I told him I could help him, he told me to go because they would find me.He instructed me to go through the portal. He said it led to a secret world. His last words to me were to trust him…everything would be alright and then I left and found myself in Atlantis.”

  Ian sat back in the chair.His face had gone pale from each memory he had told us.I looked at Caleb for help in trying to comfort Ian.

  “My mother found him when he didn’t come when he said he was.She, um,” Caleb looked away for a moment and fidgeted with his hands, “my mother gave him a decent funeral.The fire burned for two days…the bluest flames I had ever seen.”

  Ian sat with his eyes closed.

  “I wished I could have gone with you,” Caleb said looking directly at Ian who slightly smiled.

  “The girls there are a little different than in Eutopia—you have better stick with the girls here.”Ian smiled and sat up as color returned to his face.

  “But Ian,” I started to say, “I’m sorry…that was a terrible thing to happen.”I looked at Ian.He slightly smiled at my concern.

  “Yes, it was, but it is in the past and I did what my father wanted me to do.”His words and voice were cut of any emotion, just like someone reading from a book.And just like someone putting that book back onto a shelf, Ian tried to put his emotions in the farthest corner where no one would see them.This, I could feel and didn’t stop him because the pain was too raw like a reopened wound.

  Suddenly, the sound of feet scampering outside surrounded us.Caleb jumped up and looked at the door as Ian stood close to me.

  “I thought you said this was a safe place,” Ian said with eyes darting to Caleb.

  “There is no safe place only less dangerous ones.”Caleb’s voice held no fear, only a tiredness that had drained him.

  Ian pulled a silver dagger from his belt that looked like the same one Gabe had in his truck when we were stopped by the two Alfheim outside of St. F.

  Ian pushed me behind him and I quickly put the amulet around my neck and under my shirt.It was my key to get us back Atlantis.

  Caleb reached for something on the ground next to the door.It was a long, slender bow with a thin, silver, string that shined brightly in the cool light from the blue fire.

  The footsteps outside stopped and a looming uncertainty wrapped around me.What if it was the wolf-like creature that attacked us earlier?My finding out would be quickly known when a polite sounding knock broke the tense silence.

  Ian looked at Caleb with doubt.

  “What do they do, ask you to invite them in before they tear us to pieces?” he asked. Caleb didn’t answer and looked at me motioning with his head to move further back into the room.

  “More than likely they have us surrounded,” Caleb shot a glance back to me then to Ian.“Take Emily, you know where to go.”

  Caleb open the door as Ian pulled me back into the shadows and closer to the blue fire.I looked over his shoulder curious to see who patiently waited rather than just knock it down to get at us.

  “Ah, the Ranger from the woods and even in Eutopian form,” Caleb’s voice sneered in a fake joyous tone, “how nice.”

  “I’m not here on Ranger business.I am here to strike a bargain with you.”His voice was soft that rung with authority as well as respect for Caleb.

  I continued to look over Ian’s shoulder staring at the boy who mesmerized me in the woods.He looked steadily at Caleb as the movement of more footsteps came closer to the open door.

  “What did you do, bring the whole clan of you?”Caleb’s voice sounded arrogant.

  “If I wanted you, all I have to do is give the word and by morning we’ll pick our teeth with your bones.”His thin lips curled into a slight smile as he crossed his arms.“We come seeking an alliance.”

  “We don’t want an alliance.We wish to work by ourselves…you know three is company here and any more would just be too much and you probably shed.That would ruin my lovely home here.”Caleb’s voice teased daringly.

  I leaned out from behind Ian a little more.The boy’s topaz eyes darted to me and even though they had an animalistic warning to them, I was not scared.His short, spiky hair looked razor sharp in its multitude of many shades o
f brown.I am slightly cautious of him, but at the same time curious as I didn’t back down from his cold stare.

  “What do you mean you want an alliance, and why with us?”I asked not really knowing I did until Ian pulled me back and glared.

  Ian scolded me with his eyes as Caleb only looked back at me.The boy’s eyes were cemented on me and he shifted his weight as if trying to restrain himself from taking action.

  “Like I said, we come seeking an alliance.We are subject to the Wall as much as you are and it is worse for us.We are forced guardians of it.”The boy’s words were even toned and despite his appearance, gentleness seemed to radiate from him.“We have been planning this for a long time.The Eutopians are going to be expanding their Wall and many will die in the extermination.My kind is not protected and will die alongside your kind.”

  His words seemed to split the cool air.Caleb continued to stare at him, looking him up and down, evaluating him.Ian stepped again in front of me blocking my view of the boy.

  “That’s not my problem that you promote something that will be your own demise as well.”Caleb crossed his arms.

  “They will want her,” the boy said implying me.“I know who she is and who she belongs to.I couldn’t place it right away, but the smell of her blood was familiar…she belongs to Isadrel mostly and to another…”

  “Alright, you’ve got our attention.”Caleb interrupted just as I pushed from behind Ian and stepped in front of the boy.

  I met his golden eyes that stared at me, watching my every move.He knew more about me than I did myself.

  “You knew her too?”I asked.

  He nodded slightly.“I knew Isadrel for only a short time.I was young, but remember her presence.She organized our clan, told us about the Wall and its weaknesses.Soon the Eutopians will have all the land and we will be exterminated.Their perfect land will be erased of all of us.”The boy extended his gaze to Caleb.

  “So you’re asking us to join against an enemy that is common to us and put all disputes aside?”Caleb asked with crossed arms.

  “Yes, otherwise we all fall,” he replied.

  I could see movements in the blackness behind him swirling shadows and quick flickers of golden eyes catching the light and reflecting it like a cat’s would.

  Ian stepped forward and tried to shove me behind him again.

  “How do we know we can trust you?You hate Outlanders and we hate Rangers.How do we even manage to organize ourselves without a fight?”Ian’s voice caught everyone’s attention.

  “We’ll have to learn to trust each other, it is the only way.”The boy stepped back as the scampering of feet running into the forest echoed behind him with howls.“Time is short, I will give you until later tonight to decide.”

  He kept his gaze on Caleb and bent down starting to change into wolf form when I stepped forward.

  “Wait!”I yelled catching him with protruding ears and an elongated mouth.

  I stood there in awe for a moment at his frozen state of transformation.“What…what is your name?”I asked meekly as he tilted his head to the side and his topaz eyes filled with curiosity.

  A whisper so delicate I could barely hear it, but he made sure I did as I stared at him.And even in his own voice he told me his name, it was Quil.

  “Emily.”Ian jerked me backwards just as Quil jolted into the darkness.

  “Are you crazy!?”Ian stood in front of me.“That is a Ranger and you’re asking him his name?He could have hurt you.”Ian looked at me with angered eyes mixed with fear.

  “And after that risk, we don’t even know his name, shame.”Caleb teased that only irritated Ian.

  But I did know his name and looked at Ian and Caleb who yelled back and forth at each other.

  “I do know his name,” I said more to myself than them.“I heard him say his name.”

  The arguing stopped; both Ian and Caleb looked at me.I held my breath.I looked between both of their mortified expressions that changed into curious ones.

  “What?He told you his name…and without even agreeing to an alliance, not that he would say even if we did.”Caleb shrugged his shoulders.

  Ian didn’t reply only stepped forward.“I heard it too.”His voice was thin.

  “What, how did I get left out?”Caleb tried to be amusing.“We should probably be moving, they’ll be back and I don’t want to know the rest of their names.”

  Ian and I didn’t pay attention, only stared at each other in amazement.

  “His name is Quil and he only meant for you to hear it,” Ian said still ignoring Caleb.

  “But why did you hear it too?”I asked.

  “Alright, stop.”Caleb stood beside us.“This isn’t how I wanted to explain things and really, I didn’t want to explain things at all.It wasn’t supposed to come to this.The amulet was to get you here and set in motion what your mother started and then bam, I was to send you back to Earth or, well I guess Atlantis now.Your mother didn’t plan that one.”Caleb sounded almost put out as he sighed and raised his eyebrows.

  “Caleb what are you saying?”Ian’s eyes darted to Caleb.“What are you leaving out?What are you hiding from me?”

  “I shouldn’t have said anything and I will explain later.We need to be going; I will tell you everything when we get to a safe place.”

  “There is no safe place, remember?Tell me now, Caleb.”Ian’s voice pleaded in a demanding way.

  Caleb drew in a breath and let it out slowly as he sat down by the fire.

  “Let’s eat.I like to tell things of such sensitivity over comfort food.And we will need a lot of comfort food.”Caleb widened his eyes and ran his hand over his stomach.

  Ian cut up potatoes glaring at Caleb who hummed while stirring a stew over the blue fire.I looked at the flickering blue flames that looked as cold as ice.

  “Why is it that way?”I asked pointing to the flames.

  Caleb looked at the fire then back at me.“Why what is like what?You mean the fire?”I nodded and he smiled.

  “If I tell you, will you forget about what I have agreed to explain to you and Ian?”He didn’t look at me only smiled into the hearty smelling stew.

  “It is a Dragon’s fire that you have maintained by keeping it in a rock form, kind of like flint.”Ian blurted out and walked over to dump the cubed potatoes into the stew.“And yes Caleb, you will still tell us what you know.”His voice was direct and calm as he smiled quickly at Caleb.

  “You take all the magic out of my story.”Caleb stirred the potatoes into the brown broth.

  “I just cut to the facts, and besides, you probably would have dragged it out.”Ian sat beside him warming his hands by the fire.

  Caleb shrugged.“I would have added the flavor to it and yes, drag it out until the princess here fell asleep.”

  “I don’t fall asleep easily.”I retorted with a smile.

  “That is something your get from your father, Morwen Wilt.”Caleb began to hum again not looking at either one of us.

  “What?”Ian barely whispered.

  “I suppose it was to come out sooner or later, I just hate to be the one to have to do it.”Caleb let out a long breath.“And just in time, as we all need comfort now, the stew is about done.”

  “Morwen Wilt… who is that?”I asked looking at white faced Ian who got up and walked over to the window.

  Caleb continued to hum scooping out a bowl of stew and handed it to me and then one for himself as the pending silence filled with the welcoming aroma of all the colorful vegetables.

  “Well, who is it?Someone from Eutopia…”I tried to get one of them to answer me.

  Ian turned with a blank expression and looked at me with his blue eyes.“Morwen Wilt was my father.”