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

  Chapter Nine

  I looked at David and my insides told me not to trust him, while my heart barely cracked opened at the possibility to even consider trusting him.All he wanted was a chance and maybe he was telling the truth, but before I could say anything, the sound of Ian’s voice broke into my head like a shattering window.

  “Emily!Where are you?Answer me!”I pressed my head with my hands at the sudden message.

  “I’m on a beach—with David.Where are you?”

  David looked at me.“Emily, are you alright?”I removed my hands from my head and hoped he didn’t know what was going on.

  “I’m a little dizzy yet from the portal.”I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked at David.He did look like he was concerned.“By the way, where are we?”

  I looked out to the ocean and at the surrounding beach.There was nothing familiar about it and I know I hoped in vain that I would see the mansion that was on the island of Kangee.

  David hesitated with an answer and I looked at him waiting for one.

  “My father wanted to take you back to the Crystal City, but I wanted to take you here to Meropsis.”

  I closed my eyes and yelled with all of my inner strength.“Meropsis!”I hoped Ian heard me.

  “Emily, I think you should go back and sit down.”David guided me back to the make shift tent as the crashing waves came and went without so much as a ship in the distance.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said. “There were some fruit trees nearby.”

  I watched him go into the jungle and wished I knew where exactly I was in Meropsis.I looked down the desolate beach and closed my eyes.

  “Ian!”I screamed my thoughts.“Where are you?”

  “Close—keep talking you’re getting louder.”

  “Is everyone alright?”I asked with no reply, only the waves and the wind surrounded me with noise.I looked to the jungle where David went in at, and hoped it would be a while before he came back, maybe enough time for Ian to rescue me.

  “Found you!”Ian said as a plane roared overhead.

  I jumped up and waved my arms as David came up behind me.

  He threw the fruit to the ground and grabbed me by my arm.I pulled back nearly knocking him to the ground.

  “The Blackbirds found me.”I glared at him.“Gabe found me.”

  David had a surprised look that faded into a sly smile.“They don’t have you yet.”

  I was going to turn and run just as the plane made another pass and a dark shadow fell from it splashing into the blue water below.David then grasped onto my wrist and clenched it tight.I pulled back trying to break his hold as he smiled at me.

  “I really don’t want to hurt you.”His words were calm and his eyes steady.

  “Let me go!”I yelled and turned my head quickly to the ocean.“Gabe!”I yelled out not knowing if it was him or not.

  Suddenly a shadow fell over my eyes and I looked up to see if it was the plane.It wasn’t the plane but David’s hand that brushed gently across my cheek—the same side he once gave me a bruise on.It ached physically with the memory of our relationship.I tried to pull away, but he had me in his arms that curled around me like two snakes caressing me and guiding me gently into the kill.

  “Emily, give me a chance at trust.I promise that I’m not the same David you knew.”My eyes were closed and my body limp, “Trust--” David’s voice fell into a whisper that the wind carried.

  I woke to the sound of yelling.There were two voices followed by the sound of a fight.

  “I do not wish to fight, but if you make me…”I could hear David’s voice.

  “You know not what you do and to have her…you don’t understand.”It was Quil’s voice below me.

  I sat up and realized I was in a battered, old tree house-like structure.I went over to the side and saw Quil facing David.Immediately, Quil’s eyes lifted to me and then back at David.

  David lunged for Quil who moved out of the way and then grabbed David by the arm, twirling him around like a ragged doll.His face was bruised and blood dripped from his lip.

  “Stop!”I yelled catching both of their attentions.

  I climbed down the ladder as they stood facing me.Quil looked like he hardly had a scratch on him and David looked like a truck had run him over.

  “We have to get out of here—he’s poisoned.” Quil’s voice entered my head like a lightning bolt.

  I swayed a little, but regained my balance before drawing any attention to myself.I then looked at David.His body was battered and with only having one eye made him look even worse.He reminded me of a beaten and starved dog, more like a sickly pit bull or any dog with the reputation of being bad tempered and was destitute.The sudden rush of pity filled me.He did ask me to give him a chance and maybe—he wasn’t the David that I knew.

  “Poisoned—how?” I asked Quil.

  “It’s more evil than you want to deal with.Step away, now.”Not only did Quil warn me with his words, but his glowing eyes as well.

  “No!”I yelled.“You told me there has been enough bloodshed!”

  Quil didn’t answer, only pressed his lips together and let go of David.He then placed both hands on David’s head and twisted it until it snapped slightly.I screamed as Quil caught David’s limp body and slug him over his shoulder.

  “You killed him!”I screamed.

  Quil stood with David’s body over his shoulder and his topaz eyes burning through mine.“If I wanted to kill him, I would have changed and had fun doing it.Come on, the plane is over here and hurry, because it won’t be long before he wakes up.”

  The underbrush was thick at times, and Quil would stop periodically, look around and smell the air.We walked in silence for a while as the sunlight flickered through the leaves overhead.The beams of light were like spotlights piercing the green leaves as if they were precious jewels displayed in a case at a jewelry store.

  “Why?”Quil suddenly asked without looking at me.

  “What do you mean?”I asked walking beside him.

  “You know he doesn’t have good intentions.”

  “You said he was poisoned, maybe we can cure him,” I said not believing that I did.

  “He is your enemy, your people’s enemy…”Quil stopped for a moment.“Don’t be so naïve.”

  “I’m not,” I said feeling slightly insulted.“I’m not stupid, he told me that it was his father making him do this and…he asked me to give him a chance.I should at least do that.”He could have killed me.I thought to myself.Something deep inside of me told me so—a voice that had always been there, but lay dormant.I had to take the chance to listen to it now.

  Quil looked down at me with his always steady eyes that were continually hard to read.They were emotionless as if he was searching for something in me that I wasn’t going to let him see.I looked away as David made a groaning sound.

  “The plane is over there.”Quil motioned with a nod of his head.“Hurry.”

  I pushed through the foliage to the rumbling plane.Ian was outside of it and slightly smiled when he saw me.I was relieved to see him again and ran up to him with outstretched arms and gave him a hug.I couldn’t see his face as he hesitated a little before returning the hug.

  “I’m so glad you made it.Is Gabe here too?”

  “He’s at Kangee.The portal took us there.”Ian expression went cold when he saw Quil practically throwing David into the plane.“What are we doing with him?”

  “He’s been poisoned; at least that is what Quil said.”I looked at Ian who ran his fingers through his dark hair.“David said it was his father making him do everything—maybe he can help us.He asked me to give him a chance to prove himself.”

  “And you believed him?”Ian asked with raised eyebrows.“We barely escaped—all of us.David was the one who pulled me away from you and shoved you through the portal.He came out of nowhere, Zach said.It was like he materialized out of thin air.”

  I looked at Ian for a moment.“He could have killed me and took the amulet.I t
hink I owe him at least a shot at explaining and proving what he says is the truth.”

  Ian shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh.“I don’t like this and he’ll be in the dungeon when we get back to Kangee.”

  I shook my head.“You have a dungeon there?”

  “I’ll make one.”Ian motioned for me to get in the plane.

  David was tied up even though he was still unconscious.Alicia and Ian were in the cockpit flying the plane, while Zach looked at David.Quil stared at David with unmoving eyes as if he could look right through him.

  “I don’t know if I can do anything for him.”Zach looked up at Quil.“This is beyond anything I can possibly do—poison by magic—this is even from another world, how can I possibly--”

  “You can’t.”Quil shifted his eyes to Zach.“It is something that is a part of him, but he may be able to overcome it by himself.”

  “I don’t think we should even trust him Em,” Zach said looking up at me.

  I looked at David whose eye opened and looked at me.Quil and Zach moved closer to him exchanging glances and readying themselves-- just in case David fought them.

  “I don’t wish to fight you, my battle isn’t against you,” David said calmly.“I know I have a speckled past, but I was forced to go against the Alliance and now I want to help you, all I’m asking for is a chance.”

  “You have to earn that.For now you’re a prisoner and traitor and that, you know, is punishable by death.”

  “I can lead you to the missing implements.”David, I know was prepared to negotiate his punishment at the same time I knew he was taking a chance at even being here. “My father scattered them when he was in charge of security in Meropsis.They are all over Atlantis.”The plane turned slightly as Alicia looked back to see what was going on and saw David.“Emily has the amulet to open Pandora’s Box.My father wants its power—the power of the glass people.He nearly has control over Eutopia and when he can control the glass people as well—Atlantis will be a piece of cake for him.”

  I held the amulet between my fingers, rubbing the heart shaped pendant gently.

  “Beware.”My mother’s soft voice echoed through my head and goose bumps ran up and down my arms.

  “What the hell is he doing here?”Alicia yelled as David only looked up at her.

  “It isn’t what you think Alicia.”I stood up and faced her.

  “Have you gone crazy?”

  David suddenly groaned and curled his legs to his chest.His body trembled to the point I thought he was going to explode.He yelled out and pulled at his restraints as Zach and Quil tied more straps around his convulsing body trying to contain his strength.

  “You need… to find…Pandora’s Lock…here in Meropsis.”David closed his eyes tightly and yelled out in pain.“Pandora’s Box…can’t…destroy.”David’s body suddenly stopped shaking and he drew in deep breaths as Quil still held onto his wrists.David turned his head to me, his eye patch had fallen off and I grimaced automatically at what I thought would be a mangled eye socket.

  Instead of a vacant hole, was an eye that matched his other, only instead of an iris and pupil, there was nothing but two, white balls staring at me.The pallor of his skin had faded and his dark hair had turned white and curled around his head as it grew longer.All of this happened in the matter of seconds.

  “He’s changing!”Quil yelled at Zach.“Land the plane, now!”

  Quil practically lay on top of him as well as Zach.Alicia went to help Ian as I stood and watched.I had seen what David was changing into before, and I knew what the poison was running through him.He was changing into the glass people.

  The plane made a steep incline as the distant palm trees and blue waters flashed by the oval windows.Zach pinned down David’s arms as Quil again snapped David’s neck until his body went limp.This time I wasn’t sure if it was to render him unconscious or kill him.

  David’s body was still and had turned back, all the whiteness had faded.

  “Is he dead?”I asked with trembled voice.

  Quil only looked at me, his eyes restrained with what he really wanted to do to David, but didn’t because I requested differently.

  “Why didn’t you kill him when you had the chance?”Alicia yelled at Quil as everyone stood outside the plane.

  Quil’s composure was calm.“What Emily says has some truth in it.We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.He may be of some use, though he struggles between himself and becoming a glass person.Like I said,” he looked at me, “he is poisoned and that he will have to overcome himself.”

  I looked at Alicia as she paced around and Zach who stopped her and looked into her eyes as he whispered something close to her ear.I’m sure it was something encouraging like “everything will be alright,” or, “I’m here with you—everything will be fine.”I thought painfully of Gabe wishing him here, but glad he was safe in Kangee.

  “What did he mean by Pandora’s’ Lock?”Ian asked.“I’ve never heard of that and I don’t think it was cataloged in the implements directory, unless it was only known by Ulric.”

  “Whatever it is, David must know about it.”Zach now had his arm around Alicia.“The trick is getting him to lead us to it and not some trap.”

  Alicia stepped out from under Zach’s arm and stared at David as if looking through him to find his very core.

  “His aura changes,” she said not blinking, but looking at him with her dark eyes.“I caught only glimpses of it at first and it changes so quickly from black to blue to white.”She shook her head.“So many colors are at war.”Her eyes lifted to me.“He has made a connection to you; I can see it as a part of your aura.”

  I felt a sudden rush of suspicion in Alicia’s eyes.She stepped closer until she was in front of me.

  “He has affected you—either by trying to get someone to believe in his lies or just maybe, he is screaming for help.David is though at war with himself, the glass people and his father.”Alicia looked down at him.“He’s walking on a tightrope, and it is up to us to sway him into being our ally.”

  “Tie him up tighter and let’s get to Atlantis,” Alicia said after a few seconds of silence.

  Ian, Quil and Zach got David back onto the plane tied him up with whatever they could find.I sat looking at David.He looked innocent as he slept and my pity for him grew.Maybe he never meant to be mean to me, maybe it was his father behind the whole thing and now David was struggling to surface from everything that poisoned him.

  “You have got to be kidding me!”Alicia spurted out from the cockpit.“The plane won’t start.”

  Ian and Zach looked at the planes motor and I was left alone with Quil among the leather bound seats.He looked at me for a moment and then at David.I wanted to ask him why he looked at me that way.It was almost he was going to say or ask me something that was right on the tip of his tongue, but it would never pass his lips.

  I thought of what he said about him seeing me before he met me—a princess to save his world.I wondered if I’m what he expected or am I a disappointment.I didn’t want to know, really, and I didn’t care, but the thought bugged me and I knew it would until I had my answer.

  “It’s no use and there is no reason that this plane can’t fly.”Alicia announced.“Send a message R-girl.”

  I closed my eyes and thought of Karinna and Jimmy, they were the only ones I knew of that could get my message.

  I sent several with no reply back.The sun was fading and darkness would surround us soon.

  “We are on the southern tip of Meropsis.Our best hope is to flag down a ship passing by.Otherwise, we walk the thirty miles to the nearest village.”Ian looked out at the distant ocean.“It’s going to be dark soon.”

  “No messages?”Zach asked and I shook my head as David made a groaning sound.

  “Why do you have to do that?”He rolled from side to side as his whole body was wrapped in thick, brown rope, so tight he looked like a mummy.

  “What did you do to my plane?”Alicia pounced on him as Zach pulled h
er back.

  “You’re plane?”David shook his head as it was the only thing he could move.“I didn’t do anything to your plane.”

  “It was him at the same time it wasn’t.”Quil got up from sitting on the ground and at the edge of lantern’s light that was placed close to the plane.“When the poisoning surfaces…so does the effects of the poison.”He bent down so he was looking right at David.“He’s probably blocking any messages as well.”Quil gave us a quick glance then looked intently at David.“If you wish to overcome this then you must fight your own way.”

  David looked at Quil.“I don’t know how to do that… it just comes without warning.I don’t know how to control it.”He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.“It was my father’s idea, his way to make me better.”David’s voice strained.

  “How did he do this to you?”I asked stepping closer to him.

  David turned his head to me.Something about David was surfacing—a David I had never known.I thought he was just a nasty person, but, now, that nastiness was shedding and slowly, I was uncovering the real one.

  “It was in small doses, at first.He said it was something to make me stronger because he needed me to be strong to take over our enemies.He couldn’t afford to have any weaknesses, nothing in the way of his plans, he couldn’t afford any slip-ups and I did without asking.Later, I found out about the glass people and where my father got his elixir.”David shut his eye tightly as if in pain.

  I felt a sudden shock of concern for David run through me.Everything he had done in St. F to me wasn’t his fault and he needed help to overcome this.

  “The girl, the one you killed at the main guard station,” David said.That image will never be erased from my memory; her eyes staring down at me as she hung from the ceiling impaled by a long spike.“Emily,” his voice cracked.“Don’t let them do that to me…I know you can see me…the real David.”

  “Can we untie him?”I asked surprised that the question came out of my mouth.

  Everyone’s eyes lifted to me with question.

  “We have to help him!”I yelled between David’s cries.

  I stepped forward and Zach caught me, holding me back.

  “Don’t Em,” Zach said in my ear.“It isn’t him, he’s tricking you.”

  Zach held me in his strong arms as Quil went over to David that was followed by a cracking sound.This time I thought he had done it.

  “He’s fine,” Quil said walking over with his eyes focused on me.“I didn’t kill him, not yet.”

  He took me by the arm in a way you would a child that said something bad and didn’t realize it and was going to be scolded for it.We stood on the other side of the plane, alone.His silhouette stood out against the darkening sky and his eyes glowed slightly reflecting what light there was.

  “His poison is affecting you.”Quil stated.“He’s a danger and slowly he will be gaining control over the rest of the group.”He paused for a moment.“It’s spreading like a disease.”

  “But--”

  “It’s true,” Alicia said stepping behind me.“I can see his aura, or actually lack of one.Whatever he has is taking over and very quickly.”

  We stood in silence.I thought of what they said, but I felt a piece of David was still left and I had to rescue him.I rubbed the amulet between my fingers and wished I could hear my mother’s voice.

  “We have to destroy the amulet—the only thing that will draw the glass people into this world.Ulric has no idea of what damage they can do and if he thinks he can control them, then, he has greatly miscalculated.”Quil looked at me.“Ian is the portal maker, his father touched the magic and it is him who it is familiar with, he must make a portal and send it to the Black Abyss.”

  “We were in the Black Abyss--” I looked at Quil.

  He looked at me for a moment.“No,” he said.“We were in the land of the glass people; the Black Abyss is the voids between the worlds where nothing exists.There is no way out of them, unless opened by its keeper.Ian is the only one who can do this.”

  I drew in a deep breath still holding the amulet.

  “Send another message R-girl, maybe one will get through.”

  I sent several with no reply.David was still asleep and Zach would check on him every once in a while with Alicia helping him.Ian knowing he had to design the portal started drawing it out on scraps of paper.Quil stood in the shadows and patrolled the area while I sat by the plane and a little ways from Ian who talked mainly to himself even answering himself at times.

  “Did your father talk to himself too?”I asked as he slowly lifted his eyes to me.I‘ve been watching him for a while and began to wonder what he was like.

  “No, I get it from my mother.Father usually hummed while he worked and sometimes whistled.”Ian looked back down at his drawing and then crumpled the paper up.“It’s no use!”

  I scooted closer to him and undid the crumpled piece of paper he threw.Ian had drawn an arched door with several irregular peaks that looked like upside down V’s and curved slightly at the tips.There was a half circle at the top and the sides went straight down, pooling at the bottom into swirling lines.

  “It’s pretty.”I tried to complement.

  Ian took the paper from me and shot me a quick glance.“Pretty doesn’t matter here, it’s the mechanics of it that matter.It has to be strong enough to hold against someone smart enough to open it and elaborate enough to keep out the cunning, and,” Ian looked over at me, “easy enough to get into if I have to.”

  “Then why make it so elaborate?Why not make it plain with a really good lock.”I suggested as Ian let out a sigh and rubbed his chin.

  “A lock,” he repeated.“It could work.”Ian took another small scrap of paper and started drawing.

  I leaned back and watched him work for a few moments.“Did you help your dad a lot?”

  Ian didn’t answer right away and I knew better than to have a conversation when someone was engrossed into their work.

  “Hmm, what did you say?”He looked up at me for a moment.“Oh, working with my father, yes, a little, enough to know the basics.”His words were mechanical, like he was reading them from a book.

  I guessed I had Ian pictured with our father working together as father in son in some Norman Rockwell painting with bright colors and smiles on their faces.

  “I wish I could have known him.I mean I had a father on earth, but he was never really a father, not like someone to teach you things.”Ian didn’t look at me.“I always wanted to have that life, you know--”

  “I think I got it!”Ian said with a big smile.“Or actually maybe, I have to try it.”He flipped the paper over evaluating it.“We really need to get back to Kangee.”

  I guess our heart-to-heart moment was over before it got started.I wanted to connect to Ian, but everything with him was either covered or contained in some box somewhere.He walked away from me showing his design to Zach and Alicia.

  I watched them converse.Ian did most of the talking and pointed to his drawing while talking with his hands.I was glad I had a brother, or actually a half-brother, but I felt Ian didn’t feel the same way.I wanted family to connect to, and I wasn’t sure if he wanted to let me into his life or not.

  I watched Zach and Alicia ask Ian questions and pointed to the sketch as well.I didn’t know anything about portals except that I have sealed them, barely, and have passed through them.But the construction of one I couldn’t even fathom.

  Without warning and not feeling cold, I shivered.I wrapped my arms around myself surprised when my eyes led me to a shadowed area just past Ian, Zach and Alicia.Quil stepped out slightly, eyes fixed on me.I could tell he had been watching me, watching Ian and me.

  “You try too hard.”Quil’s voice entered my head.

  “It isn’t your business.”I returned his message.

  “You should let things go by themselves.When he is ready, he will talk to you.”Quil continued anyhow.

  “What are you, the expert on relationships—please stay out and
also out of my head.”

  Quil nodded his head with his eyes still on me.I turned away, got up and went over to join the rest of the group.David was still asleep and we decided to take turns on watch duty.Quil finally joined us from lurking in the shadows.We had a few small blankets spread onto the ground and decided to sleep outside since the air was warm and inside the plane was very stuffy.

  Quil said there wasn’t anything threatening nearby, and he should know since he had patrolled the whole area like a dog checking his new surroundings.Ian, who had studied Atlantis from its history to its demographics, told us the top of the food chain here was the small coyotes.

  “You could have them as a late night snack Quil.”Ian teased, to my surprise, Quil who gave him a small smile not out of finding it humorous, but more at Ian who always seemed serious.

  I let my eyes intertwine with Quil’s.He stared at me for a moment and I could only guess he was waiting for me to send him a message.After a few moments, he nodded his head and I curled up onto the small blanket and fell asleep.

  The yelping of coyotes woke me.I sat straight up listening to their haunting call.I’ve heard them many times in St. F and their call still made my heart pound.Even though there were probably only a few of them, it sounded like there were hundreds of them.

  I looked at everyone and they were still sleeping.Zach who was on first watch was asleep next to Alicia. They looked peaceful together.He had his arm around her and she rested her hand on his forearm.Even in their sleep, the gesture appeared genuine not like they just ended up that way from falling asleep.At some time they must have come to terms with their feelings for each other or Zach got rid of his guinea pig that I remember Alicia threatening to kill if it got loose and entered her room.

  The yelping faded as the coyotes ran in another direction.I continued to stare at Zach and Alicia, glad they couldn’t see me gazing at them and looking like some sort of a pervert.I wanted to do that with Gabe.I wanted him to hold me gently until we fell asleep together.I could only hope that I would get to one day.

  “Get up!”Quil’s voice broke my trance.“Get up!”He yelled.

  Disoriented I stood up and wobbled slightly half asleep and half daydreaming.Quil shook Ian, Zach and Alicia awake.

  “What is going on?”I asked.

  I looked around to see the ropes that bound David sat in pile on the ground.He had managed to escape.Zach, Ian and Alicia all got up and looked at the ropes that held David.They looked like they simply snapped at the strength that it contained.Ian, wide eyed looked at one of the frayed ends.

  “We have to find him.”Quil’s eyes darted to all of us.“I only left for a little, when I thought I heard a noise and when I came back, he was gone.”

  “And when we find him, how are we going to subdue him?”Zach asked.“I don’t have a tranquilizer gun.”

  Quil looked at Zach for a moment and then turned his gaze on me.His eyes glowed and keeping his eyes on me, he began to change into a Ranger.I watched the transformation without blinking and Quil kept his eyes open and focused on me while he did—almost like he wanted me to watch him.

  Quil darted into the jungle and Zach and Alicia rummaged through the plane.

  “Don’t you have any guns here?”I asked.

  “No, they are from Earth and not legal in Atlantis, though I wish I would have smuggled one in right about now,” Zach said pulling out a bow and arrow with a very pointed tip that looked as thin as a hair at the end.“--good thing the Alfheim know how to make weapons.”

  Zach, along with Alicia and Ian stood encircling around me with their eyes focused into the blackness, weapons in hand, protecting me, protecting the amulet from David.Silence and the pounding of my heart were all that I heard.I too peered into the darkness trying to catch a glimpse of any movement.It seemed like hours ago since Quil had jolted into the jungle and the silence grew eerie by the second.

  Just like a lighting strike coming out a blue sky, David all in white and silver sprung from the jungle leaping towards Zach.Before he could even shoot one arrow, David raked his silver claws across Zach’s neck.Blood spurted out covering Alicia in red speckles.Alicia screamed and threw her knife at David only to miss as he pushed her backwards through the air.Ian stood beside me with his eyes focused in fear at David.His face had gone white and his open mouth quivered, Ian was paralyzed with fear.

  I knew I had to react and bent down to pick up the bow and arrow when David wrapped his rock solid arms around me and ran into the jungle.His movements were fast and before I knew it, we were deep into the jungle. I screamed out as the large leaves slapped across my face cutting into my skin.