Featherlight (11 page)

His black eyes bored into mine. I almost dropped my gaze, but pride
made me stare right back at him. That probably wasn't the smartest idea, since
he was still trying to “gain control”, whatever that meant. Someone really
needed to tell me what was happening here.

I couldn’t stop my eyes from trailing downward. John was wearing a
tight gray shirt, showing all his hard muscles. His gorgeous black wings were
fanned out behind him, large and intimidating. His muscles were all flexed as
he tried to restrain himself.

I felt embarrassingly flattered. Part of me treated all of this as a
fun high-stakes game. The other part was baffled at what was happening. And, I
tried to tell myself, both parts were most definitely
not
attracted to
John.

Jacqueline Winters had more important things to worry about than men.
Actually, that was probably the only thing I would need to worry about, if the
past few days were any indication. I just didn’t need to worry about dating…
Especially if it evolves any men who tackle and/or chase women.

Out of nowhere, the Marshal completely side-tackled John and took him
down to the floor. The whole thing would have been extremely comical had I not
been so terrified.

John didn’t fight the Marshal. He just glanced at his father and
nodded.

Still on the floor with the Marshal holding him down, John's breathing
eventually slowed. I stood rock-still. His scent from the tackle clung to me
like an intoxicating cologne. As he calmed down, his wings folded back behind
him. Marshal finally stood, looking disappointed that John hadn’t caught me. I
had an evil urge against Marshal to shove those weights somewhere dark and damp,
even though he just saved my ass.

Samantha came over to where I was standing and told John, “You should
have known better than to walk in here. You can’t control yourself around her.
No one new can!”

“I just-”

John barely started protesting when the Marshal stood up and
interrupted him, “You wouldn’t have been able to catch her anyway. Haven’t seen
someone run that fast in decades. Just wait till she flies, son. You won’t have
a chance in hell.”

I glared at Marshal. Even though he had given me a complement, from my
point of view he was not on my side. I wasn’t really sure what side that was
yet, but I’d figure it our soon enough.

By now, Rene was staring at me. “Seven seconds,” she whispered.

Sam, Marshal, and John stared at me. Goodness. Let’s all have a ‘Stare
at Jacque’ party! I’ll be the hostess. On the bright side, it seemed I was now
immune to stares. I didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable, and it was about
time.

After a minute, I couldn't help but grin. From the reaction of the
people in the room, I had power. Well, maybe not in the traditional sense, but
I had
speed.
And to me, above average speed meant power. After fighting
helplessness from the moment I arrived on this planet, I had an edge. No one
could catch me. The Marshal’s complement sank in with this realization. Feeling
invincible, I grinned and did a small bow.  

Sam told me, “The books said that folium
were fast, but we had
no idea how much so.”

“What?” I always had such a way with words.

“No one alive has seen a white-winged. The folium
have been
extinct for centuries. They were, well,
are
legends. Some don’t believe
your race even existed. That is why you are so special. The reason we came here
today was to test out that myth. You just broke our top speed record, Jacque.
To say the least, you surprised us all.” She smiled, and I stayed silent,
trying to take in everything.

Rene added, “Also, you proved the stories true. It is a tremendous
relief knowing that our most ancient sources are accurate.”

I eagerly asked, “What can the books tell us?”
About me,
was
silently added in my head. Information to answer my endless questions was now
within grasp! There was a light at the end of this tunnel.

“Science. The books hold science,” Rene said. At this point, I
wouldn’t have been happier even if she told me they arranged a spaceship home. I
was finally going to find out who I was, and what made me so special.

Part XI

“Let’s go,” Marshal said. We all started walking to the door.

John handed me my coat. “I am sorry about earlier,” he told me as I
flipped up my hood.

Even though I knew it wouldn’t help much, the hood made me feel a bit
safer.

“Don’t worry about it,” I only semi-sincerely replied.

He shouldn’t have chased and tackled me, but I saw how it was kind of
out of his control. Earlier, I wouldn’t have let that be an excuse. After my
unwilling run through the woods yesterday, I could sympathize.

I was completely surrounded as we made our way across the grounds.
Rene had taken off as soon as we had exited the training building, and we
followed on foot in the direction she flew. We were going to the library on the
opposite end of the grounds.

Sam, to my left, whispered, “We would have sent more people to escort
you to the gym, but we were afraid a large group would create a scene.”

As if to prove her point, several shadows sliced over the ground.

“Lullary are too curious for their own good,” John muttered.

Light thumps sounded behind us. We were being followed.

Samantha whispered, almost too soft for my extra-sensitive hearing to
catch, “Many walking adults are a rarity. Our people only walk long distances
if injured or young and wingless.”

I was comforted by my brown coat, which I pulled closer to me. The
library was less than a hundred yards away. Very briefly glancing up, I saw the
glorious glass dome roof. An open section allowed several flying forms to gracefully
enter and exit.

With twenty yards to go, I counted a total of 26 thumps. We had 26
curious followers. Samantha yanked open the small rusted door and I gratefully
ran inside. We were in a thin hallway, and having John so near me set my
instincts on fire. Adrenaline and fear raced down my legs and refused to be
slowed. It didn’t even feel like I was in charge of my own body. I turned
around to face him and began backing away, down the hallway. John’s breathing
hitched, and he shut his eyes.

“Get her out of here,” he commanded through clenched teeth. I was transfixed
by darkening wings.

Reluctantly glancing back, I saw that Rene had appeared at the end of
the hallway. I gratefully made my way to her, keeping John in my line of sight,
and then followed Rene up the stairs.

The first thing I noticed upon ascending was the smell. The building
smelled like a library, through and through. My nerves were instantly calmed as
fond feelings found their way to my terrified heart.

The local library at my hometown was a safe-heaven from my house.
Well, more specifically, my father. I helped shelve and catalog books whenever
he was in one of his ‘moods’. I would sit for hours in the chair by the window,
reading countless novels. Libraries were always comforting to me, and this one
was no different.

The glass dome shed light upon thousands and thousands of books. I
made a nerdy mental note to ask about the damages (if any) of Auro’s sun on the
valuable tomes. The shelves reached twenty feet into the air, seemingly endless.
The library had three stories with glass floors. My heart stopped beating. This
was heaven.

Rene jolted my heart back to life when she flipped a switch that
closed the dome window. The glass panes slide sideways, shutting softly.
Samantha beckoned to a chair, and I sat while looking around the room. We were
the only three in the main library floor, as far as I could tell.

My hood had fallen back, and she smiled at my amazement.

“This is incredible,” I whispered.

Her smile widened. “We take great pride in our library.”

Rene returned with her arms filled with books. She spoke over them, “We
are going to brief you about our history. All I ask is that you keep an open
mind.”

I nodded in confirmation.

Rene set the books on the table and started speaking, “According to
the books, the white-winged folium
were the first of our kind. They
lived on Earth with the humans, but later settled on Auro. The white-winged
lived on Auro’s snow covered mountains for centuries. Eventually, a group of folium
split off and took to the woods. They then called themselves lullary
.
”

She asked me, “You’re familiar with evolution?”

“Yeah.” I might be young, but I knew my science.

“Well, hundreds of years after living in a different environment, the
once-white wings of the lullary
turned into shades of gold to help them
blend into the permanent golden sky caused by the two suns.

“Many years after that, some lullary
moved to the forests, and their
wings turned brown to blend in with the trees and dirt floor. Although the
brown-wings are still lullary
,
they are often called common.

“One last group split off, making four distinct races. This last race
moved to the dark side of Auro. They were named the kiren
.
Their wings
eventually turned black, and they were soon able to see in the dark.

“For years, the four races cooperated with one another. Besides
diplomacy meetings, the different races would join annually to discuss and
socialize during a week-long festival. The festivals were glorious, and every
high-born attended. One year, over a century ago, the black winged kiren
and
the white winged folium
had a disagreement.”

Samantha whispered, “Although it was never confirmed, many said that
the disagreement was over a woman.”

Rene continued, “It was nighttime, and the kiren
were hosting
the festival in their capital city. The fight turned into a battle that lasted
into the morning. Many kiren
died that day, but the folium
suffered
more. The whole royal family was killed, including the women and children. Massacres
like that were unheard of at the time, but the kiren
had evolved with
their wings, becoming more human-like. Finishing what they started, the kiren
flew to the home city of the folium
and attacked with the cover of
darkness. The folium
were pure and peaceful, and they knew little about
fighting. That night was the last time anyone saw a white-winged, until you, because
the folium did not stand a chance against the kiren
.
”

I could see the regret in her eyes and it inspired a question out of
me. “Why didn’t the lullary help?”

“The lullary did not interfere because it was not their battle,” she
answered briskly.

Samantha joined in, “Also, back in that time, they, like the folium
,
did not know how to fight.”

I felt oddly protective of my ancestors. Anger (and maybe a little bit
of fear) made me ask, “Where are the kiren
now?”

“They remain on their side of the world, and we see their ambassador
once every few years.”

The most important question of all weighed my tongue down. Might as
well spit it out. What was the worst that could happen?

“If every folium
died that night, then how am I here?” There. I
admitted it. I was one of them. This world was a part of me.

“That,” Rene said, “is the big question that we would all like
answered.”

“Hmm,” I wondered for a minute, but the possibilities were endless. My
mom wasn’t a folium
.
My aunt wasn’t one. I wasn’t born on this planet,
or if I were, I had no memories of it.

I moved my thoughts to the next order of business and asked, “Why’d I
run from Peter yesterday? I didn’t wanna run, but it was like my body didn’t
give me a choice.”

Rene grabbed a book from the pile and handed it to me.

She said, “The
folium
believed
everyone should be treated equally. Women and men, rich and poor. They were
what most humans call communists, more or less. The soon-to-be lullary
that
broke off were tired of the way they were living. Although all were equal, folium
society was tightly controlled.”

Samantha
said, “The Marshal’s ancestors were the ones that formed the new lullary
group. This city was their original location of
settlement. Eventually, the lullary
turned into what you know of as a
republican dictatorship. One appointed ruler makes decisions for everyone.
Although elections are held regularly, leadership has never left the Marshal
family.”

“You
keep saying ‘The Marshal’. I thought his name was Marshal.”

“His
family name is Marshal, and, since his family has always been the leader of the
lullary for so long
,
the leader is referred to as ‘The Marshal’. My son
is John Marshal, and my name is Samantha Marshal. When John becomes leader, he
will be the Marshal,” she explained.

Understanding
clicked into place. One question was out of the way, time for another.

I
reminded them, “You never answered my question. Why did I run yesterday?”

Rene
nodded to the thick book in my hands. I opened it. The book was old and
leather-bound. The pages were yellowing but still in good condition. The title
was
Evolution of the Folium and Beyond.
Luckily, it was in English. I
made another mental note to ask why everyone here also spoke English.