10

Life or Death

Dylan sat motionless and stared at his hands. Ted slid a chair across the floor and sat down. He shifted uncomfortably and looked away from Dylan. When he looked back, Dylan was watching him. The boy focused on his hands again and began slowly.

• • •

I felt so alone. I’d never felt so alone…all of my family and all of my friends—gone. The worst thing was that I didn’t know what had happened to any of them. I took comfort in not seeing any bodies. Had they all been captured and taken to the castle, or had they escaped into the forest? I didn’t know what to do. I had forgotten about Ravelle and Tiko. I was lost in my own thoughts.

“Come!” I heard Tiko’s voice. “Look.” He was kneeling down in the middle of the road, examining the ground.

There were a great number of footprints—horses, humans, dogs, and, most certainly, trogs. Trogs rarely landed in our village, so the sight of footprints meant something terrible. In the past, the people of my village had shuddered when they flew above us. I can’t imagine how they reacted when the trogs landed.

“Where is everybody?” I asked quietly.

Tiko and Ravelle shook their heads without looking up. The silence was frightening. I could feel a gentle breeze in the warm night air. The breeze carried smoke and the smell of charred remains. I felt uneasy standing in the ashes of my once-thriving village.

The silence was broken by a muffled thump. We were all startled out of our thoughts, and we turned to face Acorn. He was standing on a charred fencepost.

“Acorn!” I yelled.

I ran toward him, and he hopped onto the remains of a cart. Suddenly, I felt a little embarrassed to be chasing after a squirrel so excitedly in the midst of all the devastation. Tiko and Ravelle were looking at each other inquisitively, probably wondering what had gotten into me.

“I know this sounds ridiculous,” I said, “but Acorn is a friend of mine. He’s helped me several times.”

“That’s not ridiculous, Dylan,” whispered Ravelle. “You are learning the ways of the earth. You have started to connect with her. I’m glad. Can you communicate with the squirrel?”

“Well,” I said, uncertain of how to explain myself, “kind of. We don’t speak to each other, but I feel like he can read my thoughts and lead me to whatever it is I’m looking for.”

“Be aware, Dylan, for spies can take odd forms,” replied Ravelle. “You cannot always be certain who is friend and who is foe.”

We watched Acorn leap from one object to the next, getting further away from us.

“Come on!” I called over my shoulder. “He wants us to follow him.”

Ravelle looked at Tiko and spoke cautiously as they started walking. “I don’t like this—being led through the woods by a squirrel.”

Every time we got within reach, Acorn fled deeper into the forest. I got the feeling that he enjoyed watching us stumble through the bush as he flittered about, chattering to himself. It sounded like he was laughing at us. Then he was gone, and the three of us stopped and stared at each other. We were standing just below the Gnarled Oak.

While Ravelle and Tiko searched the area for signs of danger, I studied the tree to see what condition it was in. The nest where my father and I had transferred power was no longer there. I smiled as I stared at the spot that Taya and I had used as our hiding place from imaginary evils. Two branches ran parallel to each other, making a large platform where we often planned how to defeat our imaginary enemies.

Suddenly, a chill went through my body. I thought I saw something move in the tree. I backed away and pretended to study the ground for tracks. Hiding behind a leafy bush, I stared up at the tree. For several minutes, I crouched behind the bush without moving. I decided that my eyes were playing tricks on me, and just as I was about to reveal myself, I heard Ravelle call “Dylan!” At that moment, a head appeared from behind the bough. Without even thinking, I ran for the tree and scurried up the trunk. I didn’t feel any fear. I climbed like I had never climbed before.

“What are you doing?” Ravelle yelled.

While standing on the first branch, I reached down and pulled out my knife. The jolt of power went through my arm and into the rest of my body. I felt invincible. Slowly, I kept climbing, keeping my eyes on the spot where I had seen movement. Standing below the platform, I stopped and listened for a moment. The stranger was breathing faintly, but quickly. I sensed that the hidden form was afraid. I didn’t understand how I could sense such a thing, but I did. I decided that it was too dangerous to look over the bough, for I might get my face slashed. I scurried further up the tree, past the platform, and looked down.

“Taya!” I cried.

She jumped as I called out her name. I put my knife away and leapt down to her.

“Oh, Taya. What’s happened?” I asked as I pulled her into my arms.

She pushed me away until she could see my face clearly. Her eyes were filled with fear, and she cried out in pain and joy. Tears rolled down her face as she struggled to speak. “Are you real? Is it really you, Dylan?”

She was in great agony, and I could feel her pain. I rested her head gently upon the bough and then hurried down the tree to inform the others that I had found my sister. Tiko leapt up the tree with great agility and carried her down as gently as a kitten.

The three of us hurried back to Agora through an entrance I had not seen before. All of my thoughts revolved around my sister as we travelled through the dark passageways. Tiko placed her on a bed of blankets and then stood above her while Ravelle examined her. She didn’t appear to have any external injuries except for a blow to the head—the blood on the wound had coagulated in a mass of hair and dirt. Her usually muscular, square stature was rounded and broken. Taya’s face was black from dirt, except for a line below each eye where a stream of tears had carried the dirt away from her face. Ravelle looked up at me and shook his head.

“It doesn’t look good. She’s very weak.”

I knelt down beside Taya and put her hand in mine. Something struck me in the forehead. I cried out and pulled my hand away.

“What was that?” I searched for the object that had hit me.

“What was what?” Ravelle asked.

“What hit me?”

Ravelle looked at me curiously. “Nothing hit you.”

“It felt like something struck me,” I responded. “I felt a sharp pain in my head.”

He looked at Taya. “Was it on the left side of your forehead?”

“Yes, it was. Why?”

Ravelle put his hand on my shoulder and spoke solemnly. “You’re feeling your twin’s pain.”

“What do you mean?”

“It is Aarial.”

“Well, can I use it to help her?”

“Perhaps, Dylan, but it’s dangerous to do so. You’ve only just received Aarial, and you have not yet developed its healing powers. There has only been one other who had the power to heal, and it almost destroyed him, several times.”

“I want to try, Ravelle.”

“It’s risky, Dylan. If she’s close to death, it will most certainly kill you and her. If she still has life left in her, she may pull through and you may die. Or…both of you may pull through. I emphasize ‘may.’ It’s very risky.”

“I’ll take that chance.”

Before Ravelle could utter another word, I placed both of my hands on Taya’s head. A sharp pain shot into my skull and spread throughout my body.

The room was dark when I came to. I tried to sit up, but I didn’t have the strength. I lay completely still, trying to think of what had happened. The memory of my home came into my mind, and I felt a sense of loss. I remembered walking around my village in horror. I was thinking of my family when I thought of Taya. My head throbbed, and the pain got worse as I strained to look around the room. Taya was completely still on the other side of the fire. She shimmered in the dimly lit room. I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead. I tried to call out, but I had no voice.

“Welcome back, my friend.” The sound of Ravelle’s voice was comforting. “We thought we’d lost you. Do you have any idea how long you’ve been out for? It’s been two days since I saw you move.”

I tried to ask about Taya, but I couldn’t speak.

“I think she’s going to be okay,” he said, as if reading my mind. “She’s had a rough time, but she seems to be healing. She called out for your mother two days ago, but that was the last thing she said.”

I was relieved by the news of my sister. My head was pounding and my body ached. I drifted off again. I saw my father eating and drinking with Nero in a palatial room. They were laughing and enjoying themselves while my mother served them. Ravelle and I charged into the room with our swords blazing, and at the sight of my father, we stopped in astonishment. Nero and my father burst out laughing. Then we dropped our swords and joined my mother in her serving duties.

The next thing I knew, Nero and my father were arguing. My father knocked Nero’s goblet to the floor and leapt through the window. I watched him turn into a hawk and fly away. My mother and I looked at each other in horror, and Nero smiled at us menacingly. He pulled two chairs away from the table and invited us to sit. We sat down nervously, and Ravelle picked up the serving dish and started filling our plates. Nero sat down at the other end of the table. He lowered his head as if to say grace, then he lunged at me and struck me in the forehead with a spoon.

I awoke to the sight of Taya leaning over me. Her sad eyes made me want to get up and hug her. I tried to sit up but couldn’t. She wiped the tears from her face and dabbed my forehead with a wet cloth. I smiled up at her. Her brown eyes sparkled in the light of the fire, and I felt her strength as she held on to my hand.

“How are you?” I asked slowly. My throat was dry and sore.

“I’m fine,” she responded. “You’re the one we’re concerned about. You need your rest. Don’t talk. We’ll have plenty of time for conversation.”

Taya lifted my head and placed a firm pillow under it. Ravelle smiled at me as he carried a bowl of soup to my sister. She spoon-fed me just as I remember my mother feeding her as a child. The warm broth soothed my throat.

Over the next few days, my sister and Ravelle nursed me back to health. Slowly, I regained my strength, and I started to move about the cave. I slept a lot during that time, but when I was awake, I spoke to my sister about the good times. She said she would tell me everything when I was strong enough.

Through Taya, I eventually learned what had happened to my village. Two or three days after my father and I had disappeared, Nero pronounced that all of the leaders of the surrounding area were to meet with him to celebrate his crowning. According to rumors, most of these men were decapitated at the ceremony; their heads were stuck on poles and paraded around his courtyard. Apparently, Nero was furious that my father hadn’t shown up for the meeting. Trogs came to my village and turned the place upside down looking for him. Finally, Nero himself came to the town and said that if Macor’s whereabouts were not revealed, every home in Duffle would be destroyed by the next sunrise.

The people gathered and decided that they had to leave, for they didn’t know where my father was, and they wouldn’t tell even if they did. Three quarters of them fled to the forest before Nero returned with the trogs. He was enraged to see that almost everyone was gone, and his anger led to the destruction of our homes. He gathered up the remaining residents, including my mother, piled them into a wagon, and took them back to his palace. Taya didn’t know what their fate would be at the time. She believed it was death.

She said that my mother hadn’t wanted to leave because she thought that my father might return to the village and would need to be warned. When the trogs entered our house, they caught my mother pushing Taya up into the rafters and out of sight. One of the trogs grabbed my mother by the neck and threw her to the ground. Taya leapt down and bit the trog on the arm—so hard that he let go of our mother. With his other hand, he knocked Taya to the ground and then kicked her several times. She was left, bleeding and unconscious. They probably thought she was dead. The trog grabbed my mother and took her away. As Nero and his troops left the village, they burned everything to the ground. Acorn, at least I think it was Acorn, awakened Taya, just as our house was about to collapse. She escaped through the back window and hid inside the cold storage room. She lay there for a day before fleeing to the forest.

• • •

Okay boys, go back to class now,” said Mrs. Evans.

Ted looked over his shoulder at the principal and smiled. Dylan closed his eyes and pushed his chair away from the desk.