Band of Blackbirds (Book 2 in the Blackbird Trilogy) Page 8

  Chapter Eight

  Before anyone could say a word, Quil had his sleeve rolled up and took from his belt a knife.I gasped as a thin line of black blood surfaced from his forearm.Quil looked at me and then Gabe.

  “No Quil!”Aria yelled. “You don’t know if that really works—it’s hearsay.”

  Quil let the blood trickle down his arm and then looked up at Caleb.“Go get something to put it in—a cup.”

  Aria knelt beside Quil and whispered in his ear as Caleb and Zach found a cup.I started to walk over when Ian grabbed me by the shoulder and shook his head.

  “Are you crazy?”Aria kept protesting to Quil.“Ranger blood is potent as much as any other poison.He is better off with trying to get the portal to work and send them to their world.”

  “He’ll be dead by then.”Quil’s words were soft as he filled the cup with his black blood.

  Quil’s eyes met mine as he sat back and let Caleb and Zach have Gabe drink Quil’s blood.

  “Are you sure this will work?”Alicia asked with Quil’s eyes staring at hers.“Promise me it will work!”Alicia demanded pointing her finger at him.Her face was pale, but her voice was strong.

  Quil only nodded to her as Caleb pressed the cup to Gabe’s lips.

  “He’ll be fine now…I can see your heart is with him…there has been enough death on Eutopian soil.”Quil’s mouth didn’t move, but his voice was as clear in my head as if he had spoken them.

  Aria got up and stood a distance away glaring at Quil, then at me.

  “He risks this for you…”Her voice filled my head as she went to join Ethan who stood in front of a large wood frame.

  I looked at the structure with its intertwining vines that were rectangular in shape and reminded me of an empty picture frame.

  The sound of Gabe coughing took my attention away from it and I went over to his side.Already color was returning to his face and his eyes sparkled when they met mine.I smiled back at him as Caleb and Zach were on either side of him.I sat behind Caleb and reached for Gabe’s hand as I looked up to where Quil was standing.I wanted to thank him, but he was leaning against a tree a distance away.

  I looked back at Gabe who had shut his eyes and was sleeping.

  “I can’t believe it worked…do you know how close that was…”Zach said to Caleb with a slightly shaking voice.

  Zach covered his face with his hands as he sat with bent knees on the ground beside Gabe.Caleb patted Zach on the shoulders.“It looks like your friend is going to live.”

  I sat beside Zach and watched with him as Gabe slept.

  “He’s the one that recruited me.”Zach started to say in a low voice.“I would still be in the Shilands if it wasn’t for Gabe.”He looked at me.“I owe him a lot.”

  I smiled back as I couldn’t help but to be drawn away by two piercing topaz eyes.Quil watched from a distance.I excused myself from Zach and went over to him.

  “If you came to thank me, don’t.I did it because I wanted to, not to save anyone heartache.”His words were dry.

  “Well, I still want to thank you—the words you said—“

  “—were nothing more than an observation,” Quil said as he joined Aria around the portal with Ian, Claire, Ethan and Alicia.

  Ian worked feverishly on the portal as I sat beside Gabe.His color had returned and he opened his eyes a few times as I held his hand.I could still feel Quil’s eyes on me from the edge of the forest.I tried to ignore him and watched Ian sit beside the portal exhausted instead.

  “He looks better,” Alicia said from behind me.“It’s a good thing that worked.”Her eyes pierced the forest to where Quil stayed in the shadows.

  “He helped him, helped us and that’s all that matters,” I replied as Alicia handed me a drink of water.My lips were chapped and my throat was so dry I could hardly get the water down my throat.I took a few sips until it was gone.“Thanks, I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”

  “Your brother is getting on my nerves.Ian’s having trouble with the portal and no one can help him.You might want to go over and try. I can watch your prince here for you.”Alicia looked down at me with her dark hair framing her white skin.

  “I don’t know anything—wait, how—did Gabe--” I turned and looked at Alicia wondering how she knew Ian was my brother.

  “You and Ian have similar auras even though you’re only half siblings.That’s how I know.I could see it a little when you first came, but that is when I was just starting to see them.I knew for sure when we were on David’s ship and if Ian was anything like you--”

  “You knew he might be able to receive messages.That is why you had me try to send one”I finished her sentence and remembered her wanting me to send a distress call from David’s ship after he kidnapped me and Alicia who posed as his spy.

  “Yeah, well, I find the whole thing disturbingly interesting R-girl, so…my concern is Gabe.”She said his name in a low voice looking over her shoulder.“Look, a lot hangs in the balance, things I never thought would, but Gabe really likes you and it’s good to see him happy because he is like a brother to me, so…what I’m saying is…don’t break his heart if it lies with another.”Alicia got up with her eyes on the edge of the forest.

  She could see what I only denied.Quil was something different, something I couldn’t understand and something out of my reach.I pushed what Alicia said away as she motioned with a nod of her head to go over to Ian.

  In the openness of the meadow Ian stood trying to trace a line in mid-air.His lines of silver were graceful and fluid, but quickly faded into dust just as he finished drawing them.He didn’t see me or notice my footsteps as the portal had his full attention.I wasn’t sure how I was going to help.

  “It’s no use!”Ian threw a clear, pencil –like glass rod to the ground.It embedded into the ground like a harpoon just by my foot.

  I stopped and looked at the sharp object as Ian turned around surprised.

  “Oh, Emily…I didn’t know you were behind me.Sorry.” He said as I pulled the glass rod from the ground.

  “It’s alright, no damage done.”I handed it to him.“I’m glad to see you’re alright.”

  He looked at me with his blue eyes that nearly matched the sky.“The Outlanders are good people, that is why we have to save this place and the son of a portal maker can’t even make a portal to save not only his own skin, but a whole world.”He looked down at the glass rod.

  “This is how Zach and Claire got here, but now the etch doesn’t work, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t.It brought them here…even with Zach using it and now I can’t even get it to hold a line.I even made the thing in Atlantis.”He looked at the rod in his hand.The glass was clear as water and amplified the lines in his hand as he rolled it back and forth.“Maybe it has something to do with Eutopia.”

  I took my eyes from it and looked at Ian.“What about the amulet?Why not use it instead?”I asked pulling it out.

  The heart shape pendant burned with flecks of red and orange at the same time glowed with the coolness of blues and greens.

  Ian’s eyes widened.“What happened to it?”

  “It changed when I was in the Abyss,” I said.“My mother was there and she said to take it back to Atlantis—the Wall has to be destroyed another way to stop the glass people and David.”

  “And his father too.The Dragon clan is gaining power over the rest of the Alliance—that is what Zach said.”Ian looked steadily at me.“Atlantis is changing Emily, and I can’t do a thing with this.”He shoved the etch into a leather holster he had on his belt.

  He took a deep breath and looked at the amulet.Slowly he lifted it and ran his thumb gently over it as the shifting colors responded by swirling from his touch.

  “There’s a battle going on in there and I can feel a part of you in it, a part of you that is stronger than the rest.”Ian let the pendant go and I caught it before it touched my skin.I then pinched it between my fingers.

  “I don’t trust it because last time I used it, it bro
ught us here, but I’m getting nowhere with my etch.”He turned and faced the openness of the countryside where he had tried to make a portal.“When you make a portal you have to make sure it is facing open sky—space, that is the key to good portal making.Next you clear your thoughts and think of where you want to go.The place has to be clear in your mind, so vivid that you can almost smell it and feel it.Remember how the waves crash onto the beaches of Atlantis,” Ian motioned for me to take the amulet in my hand, “remember how the air smelled of the sweet passion flowers that grow wild there.”

  He stood behind me and grabbed my hand in his.I pinched the amulet so the pointed end was exposed.I thought of Atlantis and the waves that caressed the pink sands and the salty sweet air that curled around Gabe and me as we walked along the beach.My hand that had the amulet in it grew warm and vibrated slightly as I looked up at Ian’s arm extended over mine, almost as if we were one.

  Liquid silver flashed from under its tip as my thoughts clung to Atlantis.Ian gently pulled at my hand downward carving a burning line in mid-air.My hand shook and when it did the line waved slightly and then straightened as Ian tightened his grip.Even though I couldn’t see everyone, I could feel their presence.

  “Is this going to work?”I asked Ian in my thoughts.

  “Don’t talk, just concentrate,” he replied.“You’re doing good.”

  The pendant grew hotter between my fingers and my arm shook.Weakness started to fill into every part of me and if Ian wasn’t standing behind me, I would have crumpled to the ground.

  We now traced the silver line up the other side and almost to the top when I felt Ian pull away from me.My hand shook uncontrollably as I cried out his name.I didn’t know what was happening, but continued to push the pendant almost reaching the start when I could feel the amulet slipping from my fingers that had gone numb.I had no control over them and just as I could see the amulet slip from my useless fingers, another hand grasped onto mine.

  His touch was cold and sudden, like bare skin touching metal exposed to the coldness of winter.I gasped as the hand forced mine to connect the lines.I knew the portal was complete and in my weakness, my thoughts of Atlantis were fragmented.I could only hope that we would make it.

  The first thing I noticed was the crashing of waves that were rhythmic like a beating heart.I listened to them for a while as my senses slowly came to me.I opened my eyes to see cream colored, gauzy material flapping in the air overhead.Everything was quiet as I propped myself up and looked around.

  I was alone, on a beach with pink sands and blue water that mingled with the sky in the same hues.If I had to guess, I would have guessed I was in Atlantis, but where was everyone?

  I sat up and looked around the small tent like structure with walls of the same gauzy material.My head felt heavy, but there was still no sign of anyone, so I slowly stood up and pulled back the flap that was blowing in the wind.

  I looked in every direction.There was no sign of anyone.My heart began to race as I closed my eyes and tried to send a message to Ian and Karrina as well.

  I waited a few moments for a reply, but all that I heard was the wind and waves.Maybe my message would take a little while to reach them.

  I stepped out into the sand and looked around hoping to see Gabe, Ian, Alicia or anyone I was with.I hope they made it and maybe the portal dropped them off somewhere else like when Gabe and Alicia jumped into the portal Ian had made that took us to Eutopia.

  My head spun slightly and my body was still weak, but I pushed myself away from the tent to hopefully find one of them.

  My legs were still trembling as I made my way to the tall palm trees that swayed like dancers in the breeze.Through the flickering light of the sparse underbrush, I could see someone coming.My vision was blurry and I stopped as my legs were on the verge of giving out.

  “Gabe!”I yelled with all my might.

  The image came to me in a dark shadow.I watched him come closer hoping to see Gabe’s golden hair reflect the brilliant sun and strong arms coming to lift me up, but the image stayed dark and as he came closer I realized who it was.

  My knees gave way. It was David, not Gabe that came closer and lifted me up and carried me back to the tent.I tried to scream, tried to hit him, but my limbs were still weak, all I could do was lay there.

  “Here,” he said pushing a glass to my lips, “drink this.”

  The sweet liquid ran down my throat as I tried to cough it up.I was helpless to David as I sat against his chest.Slowly, my head quit spinning and strength returned to my legs.I pulled myself up and away from David who didn’t resist and only looked up at me.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said in a clam tone and something I never thought would come out of his mouth.

  “What happened to the rest of the Blackbirds?”I asked through a raspy voice.“What did you do to them?”I yelled standing in front of him.

  He only snickered and looked away shaking his head.“I didn’t do anything to them.The amulet is the one that separated you from them.”

  “Then why are you here instead of Ian?”I started to step backwards away from him.

  David only looked at me.“Would you rather be here with my father or me?”His voice sounded amused.

  “Why…why are you doing this?”I demanded with a trembled voice.

  “If I didn’t push Ian out of the way, then my father would be here with you instead…and,” David jumped up and stood in front of me, “he isn’t as nice as me.”

  I gave a huff and turned away as he grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him.I smacked him across the face and he hardly flinched with a small smile almost appearing he liked it.I wish it would’ve stung him.

  “You’re a little quicker these days.”His smile deepened.“Even with only one eye I can still manage.”

  I could feel my dry lips part as he continued to smile.

  “Don’t look so shocked,” he said.“My senses strengthened because of it.When you lose a little of your senses, the others strengthen and fill in the gap that you’ve lost.”

  I looked at him.David paced around me passively kicking at the sand with his feet and his hands laced together behind his back.

  “What do you want?”I asked.

  David stopped and looked at me.“I want out.”He continued to stare at me as his lips trembled.“The opportunity came and I took it.I want away from my father.”He shrugged his shoulder and looked away.

  I shook my head as David continued to pace around me.

  “There are certain things I don’t agree with and I don’t like the way he—teats me.”He didn’t look at me, only faced the crashing waves in the distance.“I wanted out Emily, out from under his fingers,” he then turned to me, “out from under his control.”

  I took in a deep breath not knowing what to say or do.David was abusive to me in the past and now I could see something in his face, almost child-like, was exposed.

  He reached for my shoulder and I flinched away, curling my arms around myself.

  “I know you have no reason to trust me, but, I am sorry for everything.In St. Francis I had to act that way because if I didn’t, my father would punish me.He said love only amplifies our weakness and to love is to be weak.I never had intensions of hurting you.”David’s voice was soft, something I’ve never heard and was entranced for a moment.

  “Then, why, why now?”

  “Opportunity doesn’t come often, and I had to take the chance when it came.”He looked at me and tilted his head to the side.“No other girl has intrigued me as much as you…and I cannot tell you how sorry I was for the way I acted.All I can say is that—I’m glad you and Gabe got together.”

  I glared at him, not believing a word he said.David was nasty to me and to believe in his words was like voluntarily drinking poison.I looked around the desolate beach wondering if anyone was close by.I had to get away from him.

  “Emily, this is the real me.”He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me like he was going to shake me into
believing him.“When I first saw you I wanted to be with you, but my father found out and…he was furious.I was jeopardizing everything, everything he had worked for.And now, I have escaped that.”He shook his head.“I know I can’t make you believe me by words, so, please let me show you.Emily, please give me a chance.”