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

  Chapter Six

  “Emily,” a distant voice called my name. “Emily…wake up.”

  I struggled to remember where I was, who was with me and what had happened.I tried grasping onto thoughts like straws.

  Images of St. F filled my head.Our little trailer that was paper thin, the Wooden Nickel where I worked for Jimmy that had an enormous oak tree hovering over it, Pandora’s where I got all of my gaudy jewelry, and then Gabe who always smiled at me.Was it Monday or Sunday…did I have school or work?I couldn’t remember.Something that smelled like liquor ran across my face.

  “Dad?”I questioned.“I don’t feel good…I’m not going to school.”I mumbled.

  I then tried to roll over when a stabbing sensation radiated from my ribs.I screamed, but that only increased the pain.

  “Don’t move--and I will get to you next,” a voice hissed.

  I opened my eyes to see a girl with dark hair sitting beside me holding up Ethan’s arm that looked unnaturally twisted.With a quick jerk, snap and a cry from Ethan, she ran her hands over his arm.I watched the blue light illuminate between her delicate fingers and his bare skin.When she was done, she gently laid his arm down and then looked at me with her dark eyes and a small smile.

  “Alicia?”I questioned.“You’re alright.”

  “Mostly, now lie still.”Her eyes widened as she looked down at me.

  Her hands moved fluidly over my chest and I couldn’t help but to wince with pain.

  “Em,”I looked up to see Gabe’s eyes look down at me as I tried to say something to him when something metallic tasting filled the back of my throat.

  I coughed expelling the warm liquid that trickled down the corner of my mouth.

  “She’s bleeding.”I could hear Ethan say with surprise.

  “Em, look at me and squeeze my hand.”I looked up into his grey eyes that swirled with different unseen colors.

  Mesmerized, I stayed focused on him as warmth filled my insides like hot cocoa on a winter’s day.I knew it was Alicia healing me, but I wanted to be somewhere else, I wanted to be on the beach with Gabe—in Atlantis.

  With our fingers laced together we would walk along the pink tinged beach watching the sun fade into the sapphire ocean.It would be warm, and he would be dressed in a white, gauzy shirt that hugged his body when the wind would press it against his skin revealing muscles that lay underneath.His frayed jeans would show teasingly peeks of skin that I wanted to see more of.I remembered looking at him when I first woke up in Atlantis.He had the same clothes on and peered out the window overlooking the beach.Bathed in sunlight he looked like a ragged angel that was waiting for me. I looked at Gabe’s hands and curled mine in his as I tilted my head to meet his stormy eyes, wanting nothing more than to kiss him, when a different face filled my vision.

  The blonde hair woman smiled back at me.She held my hands in hers. Her skin was soft and her hair blew wildly as her eyes twinkled like stars.I’ve seen her before, but only in the one picture that I had of her.

  “I’m with you only in messages, Emily.”Her voice was clear and almost sung to me.

  “Mom--” My voice was barely a whisper.

  “Take the amulet back to Atlantis.Don’t take it to the Black Abyss…they are waiting for it.I was wrong to destroy the Wall this way.It has to be destroyed from within and not with the amulet.The magic is not of this world, but of another and…”

  Suddenly her image flickered with another and her voice scrambled along with her image.The images switched back and forth until standing before me was a girl with white hair and large eyes with silver scales covering her protruding forehead.Her lips curled into a smile.

  “I see the girl!” She exclaimed like she was looking at someone behind me.“I see the child of the Crystal City that has our amulet.”

  Suddenly, her face curled into a snarl and just like the girl that David commanded to attack me, she changed into a monster.Caught between a beast and an angel, she had an icy beauty to her that reminded me of a frozen landscape—beautiful to look at, but deadly to touch.

  I let out a scream as my eyes popped open and I pushed myself up.

  “Go easy, Em,” Gabe said as a dull ache filled my sides.

  Gently he guided me back down, my head rested in his lap.I then looked up at him.

  Also peering down at me was Ethan.“You did an amazing job with that girl who attacked you.”

  “The girl…”I repeated looking away and remembering her shocked face as I propelled her to her death.

  I could hear them say something, but I didn’t pay attention.

  “Alicia!”I suddenly remembered her.“Where is she?Is she alright?”

  I pushed against Gabe slightly as he held me down gently.

  “Don’t move Em.You’re not done healing.”Gabe then brushed the hair from my face and tucked it tenderly behind my ear.

  “I’m fine,” Alicia spouted.“Just don’t move or you’re going to piss me off.I don’t know if I can heal you again so soon if you reinjure yourself.”I could hear her voice beside me and was relieved to hear it.

  “Where are we then?What happened?”I asked.

  “All of you got to join me in my lovely cell here.”She held her arms up towards the rippling walls that not only held us in, but blocked everything out from the other side.“David has more connections than we thought-- or could ever guess.”Alicia started to say.“He is working for someone.I heard him talking to someone when he brought me here, it was another man and,” Alicia looked at Gabe, “I know where the missing artifacts from Meropsis are.”Back in Atlantis, the vaults that housed many implements used for magic were stored in Meropsis and also went missing.“They practically have an arsenal of magic—enough to do a lot of damage.”

  “David wants me for my ability and Em here for hers.I’ve been stuck in here since then and haven’t heard anything else.But, I do know that they are searching for the amulet.David thought I had it.I tried to tell him that Em jumped overboard and it was at the bottom of the Sanudra Ocean. ” Alicia let her dark eyes settle on me.“It’s their key…and it is all they need to unlock something greater than any world can handle.”

  I touched the amulet that was under my shirt.

  “Yeah, it’s Everlight.The stuff the Wall is made from.No one knows where it comes from.”Ethan sat with a bent knee between Alicia and Gabe.

  “How do you know?” Alicia looked at Ethan with her untrusting eyes.Ethan leaned back slightly and then cleared his throat not taking his eyes off her.We sat looking at him, waiting for an answer that obviously made him nervous as well as look suspicious.

  “Answer us Ethan.”Gabe’s voice warned.

  “Most Eutopians don’t question anything here.”Ethan began with a slight trembled voice.“The Wall is the Wall to them; they don’t ask or even have the desire as to know what it is made of.I found out about it from a man in prison.I was his guard and he kept rambling on about the Wall.I always kept my thoughts to myself about Eutopia, but I knew he had information and wasn’t just a disobedient Outlander.Secretly, and for only a few minutes did I take the chance to talk to him.He said the Wall was made of Everlight and he had managed to take a small piece of it and told me it was somewhere outside the Wall.That was all I got out of him.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us about this before?”Gabe asked firmly fidgeting with his hands.I glanced between Ethan and Gabe, and I knew if Gabe had a weapon, it would be pointed at Ethan.

  Ethan looked down at his feet and then lifted his eyes to Gabe’s.“I have held many of my thoughts in secret with no one to trust here.No one shared my beliefs or didn’t even know how to think for themselves.Everyone here is programed to think a certain way and to never question the laws.It is a peaceful world without diversity as to not bring question to anything.I feel like I’m seeing it through an outsider’s eye, even though I was told I was once here, even born within the Wall.I have no memories except for the day I was found.It is hard for me to trust and I only gave you tiny
bits of what I know at first.Trust is a dangerous gamble here, and when I found you and Alicia, I thought here is my chance to ask questions and maybe…find a way out.”

  Gabe looked away and drew in a deep breath.He tightened the grip he had on my hand as Ethan looked steadily at him and then at Alicia almost begging her with the sad eyes of a lost dog.I wasn’t sure what Gabe was going to do, or even Alicia.Something felt right about Ethan to me and I knew he meant us no harm.

  “We have trusted you and I think you should trust us.I can’t imagine living here knowing this isn’t right,” I said feeling I had cut the tense air that had grown nervously still.“You had every right to be cautious.”I extended my gaze to Gabe and Alicia.

  Ethan smiled slightly.“You’re right, I should trust you.”

  “But more importantly we need to get to the Black Abyss,” Ethan said changing the subject.

  “No, we can’t do that,” I said as everyone looked at me with questioning expressions as I tried to explain.“I had a vision of—my mother,” I struggled to keep my voice composed.“She said not to take it there.She said to take it to Atlantis; the Wall has to be destroyed from within.She started to say something else before another image took hers.It was a woman—just like the one that attacked me.”I pointed to the outside of the cell.

  “She wasn’t Eutopian, at least like no one I have seen within the Wall,” Ethan said casting his gaze to Gabe.“Could she have come from Atlantis?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like her before and if Em had talked to another one like her in a vision, then maybe she is from another world,” Gabe said.

  “Whoever it was, knows that I have the amulet and that I’m in the Crystal City.”I began to hate being trapped in David’s cage.“We need to get out of here.”

  “Well, yeah, I think we know that, but how?”Alicia widened her dark eyes at me.

  I looked away for a moment then lifted my eyes and met hers.I smiled and pulled the amulet from under my shirt.“With this,” I said letting the silver stone dangle in front of me.

  Alicia gave me a skeptical look as I went over to the side of the rippling wall and began to trace a line.I didn’t have to see everyone to know that they watched me like a magician executing an illusion.The wall’s barrier wasn’t like the shield I had to cut through, this was much thinner, like a knife through soft butter.

  Soon, I had a small opening made and we slipped out easily.I retraced my cut, sealing the opening as though nothing had happened.

  “That was very good.”David’s voice echoed through the room.

  I jumped up as Gabe stood close to me.We looked around the room, but we couldn’t see David even though his voice sounded like it was in front of us.

  “Emily, I’m impressed with your gaining knowledge of the amulet.It will be very helpful.”David’s voice and footsteps came closer to us.

  Alicia, caught off guard, was thrown to the ground.She tried to get up, but something invisible pinned her down.

  “Get off of me David!”She groaned through clenched teeth.

  “You used to beg me to get on top of you, you know.”David’s voice was passive, like he was remembering the way things used to be and now was longing for them to return.

  He stood with his foot pinning Alicia down by her neck and his one remaining dark eye lifted from her and focused on me.Alicia squirmed and clawed at David’s leg.He only gazed at me not bothered by Alicia.

  Gabe and Ethan charged at him, but with a raise of David’s hand and his quick cat-like reflexes, they were thrown backwards and skidded across the floor.I looked back at them. They looked like two scarecrows glued to the wall with outstretched arms and legs. Both struggled to free themselves which only amused David.

  “Save your energy.I think you’ll need it later.”His voice echoed, “Now, for you.”

  I squinted my eyes, tightened my fists, and felt the same rush of power I did before. David removed his foot from Alicia and calmly walked towards me.

  Alicia got up and took no more than two steps and without looking, David raised his hand towards Alicia.She was thrown backwards as well and pinned against the wall.

  David looked like a brick wall to me with broadening shoulders and an energy so strong it illuminated all around him.

  “You don’t want to fight me princess,” he warned.

  I didn’t say a word; only let the building power be released as I charged at him.David raised his hand and I could feel his power push against me like a strong, hurricane-like wind.I didn’t stop, only pressed harder watching the surprise slowly bubble on his face.

  The air glowed in silvers and gold almost catching fire from the friction between me and it. I burst through his invisible force, breaking it like glass until it dissolved like thick fog.

  Just as a lioness pouncing on its prey, I extended my arms and pushed the dumbfounded David to the floor.I was on top of him and it was like slamming into a large, cold, stone wall.

  He quickly grabbed me and rolled me over so he was on top.David smiled as I tried to push him off.He let out victorious chuckle evidently enjoying the position he was in with me.His smile faded and for a moment he looked into my eyes with a sudden dazed look.His mouth opened and then shut quickly restraining what he was going to say.He then lowered himself closer darkness flooded all around him and his lips were nearly touching mine.

  The rush of power I had felt was gone, and a weakness took over.I struggled to try to recover it, almost begging my body, or wherever it came from, to fill me again.

  “Not so strong are you?”His voice slithered like snakes as he grabbed me by my shoulders and slammed my head into the floor.

  Something wet and cold ran over my face.My eyes popped open and were flooded with a bright light.I tried to move, but my arms wouldn’t move.As my eyes focused I could see two figures, one pacing around the other that was standing still.Voices slowly materialized into words I could understand.

  David stood with his back to me as an older man with short, dark, greying hair stalked around him, limping as he did with his black eyes fixed on David.He was tall, nearly a head taller than David and stocky in appearance, like his body was carved from stone.

  “You can’t let things go like this.Everything is supposed to run smoothly.I let it go the first time you lost her, and now you nearly let it happen again.”The man stopped pacing and stood directly in front of David.“What would you have done if she escaped…went into the city…it costs me time and that is something that is running out for us.”

  “You didn’t give me the back-up I needed.I tried…” David said and his words were cut off as the man smacked him across the face.

  I stared at them, watching their argument unfold and it brought a much dreaded memory of St. F.David used to do the same thing and I can still feel the sting on my cheek and see the bruise that slowly ripened on it.He deserved it--that was my first thought, but then the man slapped him again.

  “Excuses!I don’t want to hear them and I don’t need them!” The man walked away bumping into David’s shoulder. David turned his head and shot a glance over his shoulder at the man approaching me.I looked at David hoping to catch his attention, but he only kept his glare on the man.

  I stiffened upon the man’s cool smile as his hungry eyes met mine.He had a glass in his hand that he threw to ground splattering fragments of glass across the floor.

  “You my princess are a slippery pet to have.But we fixed that.”His voice was cool and matched the air that surrounded us.“You must have some power to you, especially since you fought off a glass soldier and even managed to kill it.”

  “What do you want with me?”I tried to act oblivious.

  He raised his eyebrow and gave me a sideways glance.“Really, you know what I want.” He paused. “I want the amulet and now I have that, but I also need you to guide me through the Black Abyss.”

  “I don’t know how to do that.”

  He casually walked over to my right to a table that had Alicia tied to.She le
t out a noise from her gagged mouth and tried to look over at me.The man took his hand and turned her face to his.Gracefully, from his other arm, he let a small dagger slide out from under his sleeve and let it rest over Alicia’s chest.He looked at me and smiled.

  Alicia pulled at her restraints, and glared at the man standing over her.

  “You know, I was going to see if a Phoenix can manage to heal themselves, especially if the wound is fatal.I wonder if she has enough power to do that.” He let it drag across her shirt, barely using any pressure.

  “Don’t,” I said forcefully.I could feel the same strength begin to boil inside of me as he lifted his dark eyes and smiled.

  “You learn fast and unfortunately for you, you have compassion for others—I never acquired that emotion.”Slowly he lowered his dagger and pinched Alicia’s hair between his index finger and thumb, rolling it until it fell from his fingers.

  David stepped away and walked over to the wall and under a window that hung several feet above his head.I couldn’t see him very well as the shadows hid him.

  “I’m sure you remember how to work the amulet, don’t you Miss Moore.”He then looked down at Alicia and ran the tip of the blade over her cheek.“Such a pretty thing and also full of power,” She flinched away and then glared at him.

  He then grabbed hold of her chin tightly and ran the dagger’s tip over her right cheekbone until a delicate stream of blood rolled down Alicia’s pale skin.Her scream was muffled as she squirmed to free herself.“Let’s just call that a little of insurance—next time it will be more than just a scratch.”He turned and smiled ruefully at me.“I don’t want you to have any doubts about me.”

  Alicia’s body went limp as I tried to loosen my hands again.

  “David,” the man said ignoring me as I struggled to free myself.

  “Yes, father,” he replied in an obedient tone, this time he briefly let his eyes fall on me.

  David surfaced from the shadows as I glanced between him and his father.I looked at the two as they stood mirroring each other.David was a few inches shorter, but the resemblance was there.

  The man then looked over at me.“I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself.I’m David’s father, Ulric.I am also leader of the Dragon clan that I’m sure by now, are familiar with.”

  “You’re with the Alliance…” I said in a low voice.

  “Yes and…no, I don’t agree with the beliefs of that organization.It has gone stagnant.I could go into great detail of my beliefs, but that really doesn’t concern you.”

  “But you’re going against the Alliance.”I still was putting everything together as Ulric rolled his eyes.

  “This is what I have strived for…what all the hard work has produced…we are at the threshold of power—magic that is not tainted by the hands of another.It will be mine for the taking.The Alliance has never understood this.They could have great power of unknown worlds and expand their rule, but they choose to curl into a cocoon and hide.”He looked at David.“Go and get the box.”

  David went back over to where he was standing and from a small table he carefully took a small box, about the size of a shoebox, over to his father and presented it to him.

  “You see Miss Moore; I have been assembling this for a long time.Many people have stepped in my way, and well, let’s make this short…their not here anymore.I want you to know I don’t like killing people, but if they disrupt my plan—I don’t mind.”His words were exact and in a very calm tone.“You have friends—Gabe and that other boy with him, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want anything to happen to them.Do you understand what I am getting at?’

  I shook my head in agreement as I looked at Alicia.

  “Good.”He smiled.“Let’s get started.”

  David’s father motioned with a nod of his head to David to untie me.David quickly undid the restraints of rope letting circulation flow through my aching hands once again.

  “Come, I don’t bite.”His calm voice was pleasant and made me feel uncomfortable as he extended his hand and motioned for me to go over to a circular, glass table.“This is the original podium that this very box was crafted.Amazing isn’t it?”He asked rhetorically admiring the unadorned table of clear glass.“I have acquired many treasures like this…it’s simply remarkable.”He complimented himself.

  “Now it is all coming together.The amulet…Miss Moore,” Ulric’s smooth voice deepened and his eyes darkened.

  I hesitated as his eyes darkened and he stepped closer to me.

  “I don’t play games.I know you have it because it was designed to find you—an impurity that was inflicted on it by your mother.”His eyes flickered, “the amulet Miss Moore!”

  I could feel the amulet burn against my skin.I grabbed it by the chain pulling it out.Ulric’s eyes twinkled with contained mad delight as he placed both hands on the box.The box was simple in design, and made of what looked like a mirror, but it didn’t reflect anything surrounding it.

  “I have a proposition for you Miss Moore and I’m not going to lie…I can’t do this without you to use the amulet.There is so much power, raw power that is waiting to be used.I can do many a thing with it and I need your help.”

  He took a deep breath.“You see this box here,” he said moving the box so the front of it was facing me.“This box is a portal to another place, another world.It is an ancient one, much older than Eutopia.It was given as a gift at one time that turned out badly.”Gently he repositioned the box and folded his hands behind his back.“Have you heard of Pandora?”His eyes shifted to me as he stopped pacing.

  I thought of Pandora-- the thrift shop owner that once had a store in St. F and later I found out was a Magical Implement Maker and tried to blame me for stealing the amulet she planted on me.“Yes,” I replied.

  “Pandora--the original one was a beautiful girl.”He began the story. “A long time ago she caught the eye of…one of these otherworldly people that I call glass people.Anyhow, the story goes on of their love for each other, passion that drove them to risk everything, desire for no other … and blah, blah, blah about how they want to be together, but they couldn’t.A box was made as a way to continue their relationship.It was simply a portal and Pandora was never to open it herself, but wait until it was opened from the other side.She obeyed until days turned into months and soon a year went by. Her needs of her otherworldly lover grew to be too great, and when she opened it—it was too late to close it.

  Her lover was not there, but an army of glass people that cursed Pandora’s world.They didn’t want to be found out and our knowledge of them was our curse.They released bits of magic all over Eutopia knowing that the effects of it would be our own downfall.With magic spawned ignorant greed—we didn’t know how to use magic and therefore, we succumbed to it.Wars, diseases that we designed to destroy one another, spread throughout the lands.The glass people didn’t have to do a thing—just let the magic do the work for them.Our stupid ignorance destroyed us—until now.”Ulric’s eyes gleamed.“I have the knowledge and the ability to control the magic like no one has before.Just think Miss Moore, the cure to all the illnesses that have plagued not only Atlantis, but Earth as well, is in this box.”

  Slowly, and almost as if he was performing a sacred ritual, Ulric barely ran his hands over the box whispering something that sounded like chanting.The box began to glow in cool, silver light that veined through the air reaching out towards me, towards the amulet.The vining tendrils faded in their delicateness barely reaching me.Ulric turned to me and opened the box.