BRYCE:
His arm had completely healed in only two days. He wasn’t surprised; Merin was a miracle worker. And maybe, he thought, heading over to Bethlem’s to collect Tiernan from Kor, she had healed him in other ways, too.
But today there was a job to do. He had to watch Tiernan closely. There had started to be a murmur that a Fire Magic was in Kaybrum, and Bryce knew it would only end badly for Tiernan if people found out about him. Everyone would have an opinion about the poor boy. Later, when Aer gave the signal, he would leave Tiernan with Merin, safe in the walls.
Merin hadn’t openly said she was supporting his decision to keep helping Aer, but she hadn’t balked at his plan when he had told her the night before.
Bryce had gotten used to being inside the wall, but he wasn’t sure how Tiernan would react. He typically didn’t like any enclosed spaces that were smaller than Bethlem’s bar, but Bryce hoped the allure of seeing Merin would pull the small boy in after him.
As they neared the Wall, Tiernan gripped Bryce’s hand, but he didn’t say anything.
“Merin’s in there,” Bryce said when Tiernan slowed down half a step. The boy nodded and sped back up.
The fissure in this part of the wall was hidden now by ivy. Bryce had put it there himself. A very limited precautionary measure, but it was what he could do when he wasn’t at full strength.
A cool breeze met Bryce and Tiernan when they stepped into the twilight of the wall. Merin was here.
“TIERNAN!”
Bryce didn’t even have time to look before Merin grabbed the little boy. Tiernan cried out in a mixture of excited Hadranian and the few words he knew in their common tongue. Merin had successfully wrapped her arms around Tiernan and had him snuggled close to her. Bryce was only a little jealous. He could wait his turn.
“Hey,” Bryce said, walking up and putting a hand on her arm.
“Look, look,” Tiernan interrupted and before Bryce could stop him the little boy’s hand had blossomed into a flower made out of flame. Each tendril of light formed a petal. Bryce couldn’t even be mad. It was beautiful. Merin’s eyes sparkled.
“Love?” Tiernan asked her. She smiled without letting her eyes leave the flower.
“Love,” she said. Tiernan smiled. The flower began to lose shape and turned into one glowing mass. Bryce finally felt he could pull his eyes away from the fire.
“Fire stays hidden,” Bryce managed in Hadranian. Tiernan stuck out his tongue, but the fire disappeared into thin air. His ability to make it appear and disappear was something Bryce couldn’t quite understand.
“The rumors are still just rumors,” Merin said, “and there’s no one else here. It should be okay for him to be himself.”
“I want him to be who he is, but I also want him to stay alive,” Bryce said, running a hand through his hair.
Merin hugged Tiernan close to her. Bryce scowled. He didn’t like arguing over Tiernan when the poor boy could only understand bits and pieces of the conversation.
Tiernan followed behind Bryce as he let himself into one of the rooms they used for planning.
“Here you can play with fire,” Bryce said, turning to Tiernan. Tiernan smiled. His little teeth didn’t quite meet each other. Bryce sat in one of the chairs and put his feet up on the table, letting the chair lean on its back legs. Merin sat next to him.
“You’re still going today?” Merin asked in a whisper. Bryce nodded. Aer asked him personally, so he was going to go. It shouldn’t be that he had to hide. That Merin or Tiernan had to hide. They shouldn’t have to live like this.
“How’s Kor?” Bryce asked.
“Jacqui still hasn’t convinced the Council to even look at the Refuge. They are convinced that the filth he described must have been some misunderstanding,” Merin explained.
“Did he go beyond the first floor?”
Merin shook her head. Bryce let out a deep sigh.
“There is nothing else I can think of to do. I need to do this,” he said.
“You’ll keep everyone safe,” she leaned her head against his shoulder. He looked down at her soft hair, and her soft blue eyes looked up to meet his. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He turned to kiss her, but something caught his eye.
Tiernan had created a Raven out of fire. Orange flame rippled like feathers. The bird moved its wings, spreading them wider than Tiernan. Its eyes glowed red. It opened its beak as if it was going to caw, but only the small sound of flames crackling filled the room. It walked off of Tiernan’s hand and flew around the room. Bryce watched the bird, mesmerized.
Merin gripped his hand tight. Her fingers laced between his, her warmth, not her magic, flowing through him.
A siren went off.
Tiernan looked at Bryce with a sense of panic. His eyes trembled and the whites of his eyes were visible. The bird disappeared in a dramatic flash. Bryce could feel his heart racing, but his feet were moving faster than his brain. In two steps he already had his hands around Tiernan. Merin stood slowly, shaking.
“It’s time to go?” she asked.
“You’ll be okay here,” Bryce whispered to Tiernan. “Stay with Merin.” The little boy’s look of horror made Bryce’s voice catch in his throat. He felt like his body was trying to run even while his head was still trying to gather information.
“Stay safe,” he said.
“Stay safe,” she repeated, squeezing his hand. Her eyes were pleading. Tiernan was trembling behind him. Bryce kneeled down.
“Tiernan. You have to stay here. And if things start going badly, you are to protect Merin.” Tiernan nodded, but the boy’s eyes were still large. Bryce put his hand down, and Tiernan grabbed hold of it with both hands. Bryce squeezed the little boy’s hands and turned to go.
Bryce walked out to meet Aer. The image of Sid’s face kept flashing through his mind, except each time it was Aer; then, it was Merin, Tiernan, and Korvo. It was worse than the nightmares of the Refuge because he could always leave the Refuge. But he wouldn’t be able to bring them back.
He took a minute out in the hallway to collect himself. He could hear Aer giving commands, addressing the group, and explaining the plan. He figured she’d catch him up. He needed a second to breathe.
“We attack the Council Building,” Aer said, handing Bryce a gray jacket when he came into the room.
“The Council?” Bryce slid his arms into the jacket. Everyone else was already wearing one.
“They didn’t listen, so now we make a louder statement.”
Bryce recoiled a little from the ferocity in Aer’s voice. He believed in her, and maybe it was just the sound of the siren that was making him jumpy, but he couldn’t help feeling like he wanted to run back to Merin.
Kor had taught Aer how to move around the shadows. The group moved in silence. Aer led the way. The next few people flanked her on either side. Bryce’s legs felt like jelly underneath him.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the Council Building. When they got there, Watchers were already waiting for them. They lowered their rifles and began taking shots. Bryce immediately reached down into the ground to find roots while the vines he now kept in his pockets began digging down into the soil. It was easier now. The plants all the way in the garden were listening to him. Everything green in the city was craving to be with him.
Bryce let his mind fall away. He needed to almost lose consciousness in order to deal with this many plants. He had to become one with the plants. He lost himself in the green. There was no difference now between the green of his inner light and that of the plants. The only thing he could think was grow. Grow. Grow. Grow.
Only the slightest amount of what was happening trickled into his conscience. He heard explosions. They were muted, as if he was hearing them from below ground. A fire ripped through him. He wasn’t sure if something had hit him or the plants he was so connected to. Yelling broke through to his consciousness. It was Aer’s voice.
The roots he had called to the surface were being shredded with bullets. Bryce pulled himself from the roots. He shook himself. Somehow he had found himself on his knees. He rubbed his hands over his arms and didn’t find anything bleeding. He was about to go back into the plants, when a scream rang out.
Another familiar voice. He turned. Tiernan was standing fifty yards from him.
“Tiernan, run!” Bryce yelled, trying to keep control of his barriers. “Run!”
Aer screamed.
“Aer!” Bryce yelled, trying to bring the vines with him as he went. Then the air became orange. The plants shriveled in the flame. Bryce was still connected enough that the fire felt like it was going right through his veins. Bryce fell on the ground writhing. He saw Tiernan holding his hands up. His small face concentrated. Merin was coming up behind him.
Bryce tried to stand, but he couldn’t move. With the amount of power he had used, and remnants of the plants still echoing in his nerves, he couldn’t get up.
“Merin,” Bryce said getting her to make eye contact with him. “You need to get Tiernan out of here.” Merin nodded. She grabbed the little boy’s hand and pulled him toward where they had come. He wouldn’t move.
Merin hesitated. Bryce could see her waiting on the edge.
“Merin run. Find Korvo.”
With a last look, she pulled Tiernan, who was sagging a little, behind her, and she ran.
“Bryce, you need to run,” Aer said. She was also on the ground. Bryce reached for her. But there was too much space between them.
Bryce attempted to stand again, but the world became a blur of colors, and he sagged back down to the ground. He could hear the boots of the Watchers approaching them and he shut his eyes waiting for the blows. Wind screamed by him. His hair stood on end, the sound of electricity hummed in his ear.
“Aer. Don’t waste your energy,” he called without opening his eyes. But the hands never grabbed him, and the boots didn’t make contact with his ribs. The wind continued to whip through his hair.
“Bryce,” Aer’s voice insisted. “Run.”
He tried to stand again. This time he got to his feet. The sky around them was dark. The clouds bumped and collided with each other, threatening the electricity hidden in them. He took a step, found it held beneath him, and with one last look toward Aer, he ran. He didn’t look back. He couldn’t. The wind died as soon as he turned the corner.
KORVO:
Kor saw Merin coming in the cards. As soon as he saw orange fire streak across the sky, he had pulled the cards from his pocket. He laid them out with shaking hands. He saw his friends in the future, and Merin running to him. He ran to the Refuge as fast as he could, trying to meet her.
“Korvo! I need to talk to you,” Jacqui called when he reached the courtyard of the Refuge.
“Councilman?” Kor said, coming to a stop.
“Do you know what’s happening?” The man jogged over to Korvo.
“The resistance group of Magics ran into some Watchers over at the Council.”
Jacqui’s eyes widened.
“How do you know?” The councilman took a step back and looked over Korvo like he was seeing him for the first time.
“I read it in the cards, just now,” Kor looked around the man for any trace of Merin. Jacqui eyed him suspiciously. “I didn’t lie to you about the conditions in the refuge, and I’m not lying now.”
“Where are you going?” the man asked.
“I know you may not understand, but I have to find my friends and make sure they’re okay.”
“The people who attacked the Council?”
“I don’t think they did the right thing, but they are still my friends. I need to see if they need help.”
Jacqui nodded, but his brow was creased. Kor turned. Merin had come into view. There was no time to worry about him now.
“Merin.” He ran to her side. Her cheekbones were streaked with dirt, which was disturbed by lines from her tears. “Merin, is everyone okay? Is Bryce…”
Merin just sobbed into his arms. With a last look at the Councilman, he steered her away from the open area.
Safe in Aer’s apartment—he wondered for a moment if she knew he still had a key—Merin finally stopped sobbing.
“Where is Bryce?” he asked.
Merin wiped her eyes, but the tears continued to smear across her face.
“I … I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? What happened?”
Merin, with a fresh stream of tears, began to explain how the Watchers had advanced. They had brought artillery and gas. The bullets had torn into the people at the front and Tiernan had run after Bryce once he heard the commotion; she couldn’t hold on to him. She had to stop for a second before she explained how Bryce had been writhing on the ground with Tiernan trying to help him.
Kor had known, in the deep pit of his stomach, that the orange light he had seen had been caused by Tiernan.
“Tiernan is safe back at the school. I got him there before I came to get you. He’s tired and scared, but he should be okay. But Bryce…”
“I saw Bryce in the cards. In the future.” He patted her on the shoulder. She seemed to relax. He went and grabbed a glass of water for her. He didn’t tell her how many times he had seen people who had turned out to be bodies. For now, it was still time to hope.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
“Aer?” Merin asked finally. “Did you see Aer in the future?”
Kor bit his lip and took another lap around the small room. He let his hand rest on the edge of the blanket Aer had haphazardly left when she moved into the Wall full-time. His fingers caressed the frayed edge.
“She’s alive. But other than that … I couldn’t see.” Merin nodded and stood. She walked to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face.
“Do you hate them? Bryce thinks you won’t forgive them,” Merin said, once the color had returned to her face. Kor shook his head.
“I thought the Council would continue to listen if we kept being nice and polite. I was scared.” Kor turned his head away from her.
“Because you’ve seen things like this before,” Merin said. There was no hint of a question in her voice. Kor rubbed his hand.
“I just wanted to protect you. I wanted you to have lives where you wouldn’t see the things that I’ve seen. But I was wrong.”
“But the school?”
Kor shook his head. “The school is a good thing,” he said hanging his head, “But Aer was right, I was too concerned with being the model Magics. That if we just behaved, somehow things would get better, but that’s just another form of prison.”
“But?” Merin sputtered.
“I couldn’t keep you all from the reality of what life is when you are born Magic. Maybe if I had listened to Aer. We wouldn’t be…” Kor trailed off.
“I was wrong, too.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kor said looking Merin in the eye. He had been the one to tell her what the next steps were.
Merin shook her head. “I was wrong because I thought I was doing enough. Bringing you information from my father. Supporting the school. Loving Bryce. But love wasn’t enough. The thoughts inside my head weren’t enough. Bryce knew that. He knew I didn’t understand, and he loved me anyway. I needed to do more.”
“Loves. Present tense,” Kor said without thinking. The silence crept over them. Kor was lost in his own guilt, and he was sure Merin was lost in her own shortcomings. Kor felt the desire to smooth the worry off her face by telling her they had done what they could. But he knew he’d be lying.
“Can we go get Tiernan?” Merin asked. Kor took a deep breath and tried to fill his lungs with the scent and memories from Aer’s apartment before he nodded.
BRYCE:
Bryce watched from one of the big magnolia trees in the garden of a neighboring house. It took the last bit of strength he had not to throw the large cone pods down at the Watchers who were coming in and out of the station. He was not going to abandon Aer.
She might have known what she was doing and what the risks were, but that didn’t mean he had to abandon her. He watched carefully as all the people he had failed to protect were paraded one by one into the station.
Most of them had a few cuts and bruises. A few had rags tied to their arms or legs that already showed blood coming through. Bryce wanted to scream, but he stayed hidden. It didn’t do them any good for him to get caught.
Watchers streamed in and out with and without Magics in their hands. Some of the Magics he saw go in weren’t at the Council Building with them. The Watchers were just using it as an excuse to round them up.
“Why did I let you talk me into this big of an attack, Aer,” he whispered when two kids were pulled into the station. They were younger than Bryce and usually ran messages out in the Wall District. Aer wouldn’t have let them come on something like this; they were innocent.
“Finally,” he whispered when he spotted Aer. She looked bad. She was barely picking up her feet. The Watchers on either side of her had fingers digging into her arms so hard that her skin was turning white below their fingertips. The space around her eyes was already a garish purple, and she was favoring one side as if she had been kicked in the ribs. Her hands were tied behind her back, and a cloth was tied around her mouth. She lashed out every once in a while.
“Give it a rest,” one of the Watchers said and jerked her shoulder. She grimaced but continued to walk. Bryce admired her. Her face was angry, but there was no hint of fear.
“I hope you’re happy with your little rebellion,” the other said with a laugh, “because it’s over.”
Aer didn’t react. Not even a muscle on her face twitched.
“We’re raiding those nasty walls you rats call home,” the first spat. They laughed. Bryce’s heart sank. Even if they didn’t find all the secret rooms in the Wall, the Wall District still had most of the Magics in the city. And the hospital beds.
They had passed him now, and Bryce could see Aer’s fists clenched so tightly her knuckles were white.
“Have anything to say for yourself?” one of the Watchers asked, poking Aer in the side. She stumbled. Her eyes flashed hatred. “Well, little lady?” The Watchers lifted the gag from her mouth.
“You think you can stop the people?” she asked, looking straight forward. “The people will always rise.”
“Not when we turn them against you. You may have played on the hearts of the people, but that ends today.” They yanked the gag back into place. Aer said nothing but began to hum as best she could. The Watchers hesitated. Their hands came off her arms. But they quickly shook the power of the song off. The gag was too much even for Aer.
They pulled her through the door, and Bryce knew he needed to get to Korvo. He’d know what to do.
KORVO:
When they got to the school, all that was left was a smoldering pile of ash.
Kor’s stomach sank. He felt like he wanted to throw up. Merin had started running through the neighborhood screaming for Tiernan, but Korvo couldn’t move. He tried to center himself, but the light that normally seemed to fill his inner thoughts was missing.
“Tiernan, Tiernan,” Merin sobbed. Kor looked away. He didn’t need to put any more guilt onto her shoulders. He needed to find answers. He finally moved from the spot to look for more clues. The soot showed heavy footprints from large boots. Lots of them. Going in different directions.
“Watchers,” Kor said to himself. He heard Merin’s breath stop in her throat. At least, from the looks of it, Tiernan had put up a fight.
“They would have taken him to the Refuge?” Merin said, letting her inflection turn her statement into a weak question.
“I would hope so, but…” he trailed off.
“But what, Kor?” she demanded in between her sobs.
“There is a possibility that they would take him somewhere else. He’s a Fire Magic, after all.”
“How do we get him?” A sob caught in the back of her throat.
“Tiernan? Merin?” Bryce’s voice came from the edge of the clearing.
“We’re okay,” called Merin. Bryce stumbled toward them. His legs were weak, and Kor could see his eyelids drooping, how his breath was ragged and uneven. Flashes of Kor’s time in the jungle overtook him. His chest clenched tight. He reached for the cards to help him make sure Bryce wasn’t an illusion, and that everything else was just ghosts from the past.
With his hand in his pocket, the feeling of the ragged edge of the cards made him relax enough to see only Bryce and Merin in front of him. They were both worse for wear, but they were alive. Merin was sending the most minor streams of power toward Bryce, but only the lines around his mouth seemed to release. His eyes still looked dark and haunted.
“They took Tiernan,” Merin said, looking up at Bryce. He scowled and spit on the ground.
“Refuge?” he asked.
“Probably,” Kor said.
“I’ll go,” Bryce said, and he turned around before Kor could stop him. Kor hurried after him. He barely caught the boy’s shoulder.
“I know you’re going to tell me I don’t have to go,” Bryce said, keeping his face staring in the direction of the Refuge, “but Tiernan was my responsibility. I let him down. I let you down.”
“We’re not certain he’s there,” Kor said in a last-ditch effort to keep Bryce in front of him.
“But if he is there,” Bryce took a deep breath, “I need to make it right.” Then he shrugged Korvo’s hand off his shoulder and headed toward the Refuge.
“He’ll be alright,” Kor said to Merin, who had come to stand next to him. But he couldn’t bring himself to put any real meaning into the words. They hung hollow and flat in the still air around them.