Sixteen
Fire enveloped Kieran, roaring its fury to the black sky. The heat seared his skin as the gnarled trees around him curled and blackened under the ravenous flames. Smoke smothered him, stinging his eyes until tears streamed down his soot-stained cheeks. The acrid taste of the smoke punched its way down his throat, making him wheeze and gag. His knees gave way beneath him and he sank to the ground, clutching at his throat as he struggled to breathe.
The flames rose up to surround him, but the heat had faded. The fire was cold as it ran up his white robes. Its bright orange colour dimmed into a pale gold, and individual flames wrapped together to form hands, hands which ran up and down Kieran’s arms.
His eyes closed as a familiar sweet smell pierced the smothering smoke. Through parted lips, he dragged in a quick, deep breath, feeling his chest loosen at last.
“Kieran…”
Tender lips brushed against his ear. He turned his head and felt hair tickle his cheek, making him shiver. A flash of gold caught his eye.
“Emily?”
She tightened her embrace on him and buried her face in his shoulder. Her shoulders trembled as she too breathed in the scent of him. Sitting on the scorched ground with the blackened, twisted trees looming out of the mist, Kieran had a strange thought that he was dead and Emily was holding his body.
“W-what’s going on?”
Slowly, Emily raised her head. Her pale hair fell away from her face, revealing cheeks stained with black tears. Blood fell from her mouth like rain and soaked Kieran’s white robe.
Horror mounted in him as slowly, he looked up from her mouth to her eyes. They were wide open and white. So white they glowed. Light began to shoot out of them until they blinded Kieran. Brighter and brighter they grew, until All Kieran could see was the white light.
Panicked, he shot to his feet and the light faded. Kieran found himself someplace else, facing Vara. Her eyes were calm as she stared back at him, but as cold as the middle of the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Slowly, she raised her gun and pointed it at him, the grey steel glinting in the African sun. The breeze blew her hair away from her face as she watched him, and in the calm of that moment, Kieran noticed the tints of blue in her hair glowing in the light, the hardening muscles in her face and her finger, tightening on the trigger.
“Kieran…”
The force of the impact knocked him flying. He tumbled to the floor, but as he hit the hard earth, the scene changed again.
He was lying face to face with Sven.
The breath left Kieran in a rush. All he could do was stare at his fallen friend, at the small, neat bullet-hole in the centre of his forehead and the curve of his lips as he smiled at Kieran.
“Kieran…” Sven said, except it was with Emily’s voice. So high and sweet and … innocent.
Kieran reached out a hand and touched Sven’s face, almost to check he was real. Sven’s eyes fluttered closed as Kieran’s trembling fingers met his cheek. When they opened again, the blue of Sven’s eyes had become brown, like Emily’s. Kieran took his hand away only to discover with a jolt of frozen fear that it was covered in warm blood.
His eyes flew back to Sven. Blood began to trickle from the bullet-hole. At first a couple of droplets escaped, but then more and more began to pour out. Soon Sven’s face was lost under a waterfall of red.
“Kieran,” sighed Emily’s voice. “Kieran…”
Kieran woke with a start. Breathing hard, he pushed himself into a sitting position. With quick jerks of his head, he peered around the moonlit clearing, half expecting to see Sven’s body lying next to him. His heart pounded hard in his chest, making the blood roar in his ears, but nothing jumped out at him. The clearing he was sleeping in was empty. That much he could tell by the moonlight creeping across the grass and glinting on the tree leaves. In fact, with the gentle bubbling of the water in the fountain, it was quite peaceful.
Unlike his dream.
He shoved his hands to his face and rubbed the sleep away from his eyes. Goddamn, it had been so real. Impossible, but real. Which seemed to be the general rule of his life at the moment.
The blood coming from the hole in Sven’s forehead…
He lowered his trembling hands and peered at them in the silvery light. As far as he could see, there wasn’t any blood on them, but the dream had been so realistic he wasn’t sure.
Heck, he wished he wasn’t sleeping in this creepy clearing on his own. Still, if Aliessye or one of the guards hiding in the bushes somewhere were keeping him company, he’d probably wish to be on his own. He was funny like that; not knowing what he wanted.
In the end it had been Aliessye telling him to sleep in the clearing and not the crumbling old rooms where the other World Jumpers had slept. Kieran had just gazed around the place, trying to picture it with furniture, lights, anything that made it habitable, really.
Actually, he was glad he wasn’t trapped in one of those dark, old rooms. After the nightmare he just had it was quite soothing having the moon as a night-light, and the sound of the water bubbling quietly from the fountain. The faint whispering too, that was…
Kieran shot to his feet. He’d filed the sound away as background noise, but he shouldn’t have been so stupid. It was someone from the Black Dragons. The master had found him already. He didn’t know how, but they were there, hiding behind the fountain. They were probably fixing up a sniper rifle right now, telling the master on the phone they’d found him.
Well, Kieran was going to go down fighting.
Like Sven.
He took a couple of steps back, into the trees. There were old branches down by their roots. Sharp, old branches. Kieran would grab one and go after the person behind the tree like some kind of ninja. It was a shame the white robe he was wearing wasn’t black.
He took another step back and-
Snap!
At first he’d thought the person behind the fountain had shot him, but there was no impact, no searing pain. Only in his foot where the twig he’d stepped on had bitten into his skin.
“You are awake.”
Kieran’s heart catapulted into a sprint, but then he recognised the voice.
“Aliessye?” he called out, unable to keep his voice from shaking.
She poked her head out from behind the black slab of the waterfall. Her hair glowed silver in the moonlight. “I am sorry,” she apologised. “I did not mean to wake you.”
Kieran began to stumble toward her, wobbling slightly as the adrenaline and strength drained out of him. “Y-you didn’t. I woke up and … thought you were someone else…”
“Who?”
Kieran shook his head, even though she probably couldn’t see. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Very well. What woke you?”
“A, ah, a dream. I…” Kieran shook his head. “It was a bad dream.”
Silence. Only the gurgling fountain broke it.
“I see.” Another pause. “What bothers you?”
Kieran couldn’t tell if the noise he made was more of a sob or a laugh. He bent down and grabbed onto the sides of the fountain so he wouldn’t walk into it. The stone was cool and wet from the spray of water. “Where do I start?” he said, and then cleared his throat. He didn’t like how he sounded as though he was going to burst into tears.
There was no sound. Aliessye stared at the slab of black in front of her, watching the water roll down its sides, white in the moonlight. Kieran got the feeling she was waiting for him to continue.
“I, ah, saw someone. Someone I … miss.”
“A friend?”
“Y-yes. A friend. …I guess.”
“What happened?”
“He died.” Kieran stared at the black stone rising from the white fountain. “When all of this happened. When I…”
“World Jumped?”
Kieran frowned. “We were tricked. All of us. He wanted the stone. That – that orange stone I had. We took it from a tribeswoman. Gave her enough money to make her and her village the richest in a thousand miles. He wanted the stone…” Kieran frowned again, his mind whirring. “He knew about it. He knew what it could do. That was why he wanted it. Except he had to keep it a secret. Me, Sven and Rick, we knew too much. That was why he sent Leo to kill us and take the stone back.”
Aliessye didn’t say a word. Kieran could feel her stare on his face, could sense her soaking up every word. The horror of his story seemed to contrast with the calm clearing, making every word sound even more shocking.
“He wouldn’t kill Leo, though…” Kieran murmured. “Leo is as bad as him. Maybe that’s why… That’s why he trusts Leo, because he knows where he is with him. He trusts him because he isn’t human, and kills off the rest of us because we are.”
Kieran drew in a shaky breath. “Leo was there when Sven was killed. I was stuck behind a bush, listening to his screams. I … I couldn’t move… I…” Kieran looked down at his hands. His memories were so vivid, he expecting to see himself holding the stone again, like he was still in Africa. “I had hold of the stone,” he continued, “and I was thinking, wishing, to be anywhere…anywhere but there… Then…then…this flash and…I was. I was here.”
They both sat still for the longest time, letting the peaceful sounds of the clearing wash away the horror. Kieran couldn’t move; he was staring at the water gathering in the fountain, watching the reflection of the Brunelle moon flicker, but instead seeing the blinding, white rays of the African sun.
Aliessye placed her hand on Kieran’s.
He jumped as though a thousand sparks had run up his spine and exploded in his head like fireworks. He swung his head around and stared at her, shocked. The concern in that tender caress, the soft innocence in that gentle face, the pale, tumbling locks… Kieran might as well have been looking at Emily.
He jumped to his feet.
“I need the stone!” he said.
“Why?” Aliessye asked, a puzzled frown on her face.
“I need to go back to Earth! There’s someone I… Someone I need to… I need to go back!”
Aliessye frowned down at the sides of the fountain. Absentmindedly, she trailed a hand through the water. “You cannot go back.”
“But I – I need to!”
“It is not a matter of us preventing you from doing so, even if we were to allow you to go back to your world with the secrets of Brunelle, you will have no way of getting there.”
“The stone!” Kieran felt like tearing his hair out. “That’s how I got here in the first place!”
“Calm down,” Aliessye said, frowning at him again.
“No!” Feeling every bit like the mental three year old he was, Kieran stamped his foot. “Goddamn it! You’re not listening to me!”
“The stone will not take you back to Earth. It is orange-”
“-The hell does that have anything to do with it-”
“And therefore allows you to travel only to Brunelle or anywhere on it. A green stone will take you back to Earth, but we have no green stones. We don’t have any stones. They were stolen not long after the messenger god’s death.”
“But I… I need to go back… Emily…”
“Who?”
“Someone who I used to talk to. She knows I’ve been gone too long. She’ll try and do something stupid and then he’ll … and then he’ll find her.” Kieran’s shoulders sagged as the sense of urgency left him. “If he hasn’t already.”
He crouched down beside Aliessye and tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, unsure if he’d get shot for doing it. Surprise flickered across her face, but she didn’t tell him to go and take a running jump.
“I need to tell her I’m okay,” he said, unable to keep the passion out of his voice.
“You care for her.” Was that hurt Kieran saw in her eyes?
“No, I, ah, just don’t want her getting punished because I was too weak to…” Keep my mouth shut and keep it all inside.
Aliessye forced a small, sad smile and reached up to brush Kieran’s hand away. Her long eyelashes brushed against her cheeks as she stared down at the water in the fountain. The black stone sparkled in the light of the full moon.
“Do you know what I was doing before you interrupted me?” she asked softly.
Kieran frowned. “Talking to yourself?”
She laughed. “No, no I was… talking with the leaders of the other cities. I was telling them about you, stranger.” She stared up into his face, her eyes just like Emily’s.
“Kieran. I’m called Kieran.”
“Keerun.”
“Kier-an. I’m not from the north.”
She smiled again. “Kieran. I was telling them how a World Jumper had visited us.”
“And?”
“They were shocked, naturally, but you don’t need to worry about that. The main point is that I was talking to leaders from the other side of Brunelle.”
Kieran stared at her, feeling hope grow inside him for the first time in days. “Can I do that with Emily?”
“If she is sleeping. The mind is easier to access when all barriers are down. As she very far away, I imagine Jerhal will find it hard to sustain a good connection for very long.”
“Jerhal?”
She gave Kieran a slight smile. “Now who is not listening? Jerhal was a minor god, master of voice. Authority created him before creating the messenger god. Jerhal brought curiosity and eagerness to conversations, evolving the communications between animals – and us.” She looked down at the water, trailing her fingers through it again. “Jerhal is trapped in this water, only able to travel when we bid him to. It is his punishment.”
“For what?”
Her face darkened. “That is a story none wish to tell.”
“But-”
“Here.” She pulled him down beside her and Kieran fell forward, the stone side of the fountain punching him in the stomach. He lifted his eyes and saw the black stone was inches from his face. Water droplets fell onto his face, making him blink.
“Put your hands in the water,” Aliessye whispered into his ear.
Kieran frowned, but did as he was told. The iciness of the water made him shiver.
“Close your eyes… Think of Emily…”
He shut his eyes, but not before he saw the black stone begin to glow. Something was happening. Something was…
“Open them.”
Kieran looked up and felt the breath leave him. Brown, startled eyes peered out at him from the stone. Her blonde hair was messy and uncombed. It looked like she’d been running her hands through it countless times, anxious about something. Her image on the stone was soft, out of focus, like the one of Sven on that tree had been. This wasn’t a dream projected on a tree, though. This was her, this was really her. Kieran felt a pang spear his chest as he whispered her name. “Emily…”
