Revelations (5 page)

She walked in one direction for a couple minutes, and then stopped when the trail ended. “Gray?” she called out, her voice ringing loudly in the quiet forest. She stood still, waiting. When he didn’t emerge, she turned around, ready to retrace her steps to see where she lost his path. At that moment, Gray came rushing out of the bush, his mouth stained red.

Nora squatted down to greet him. She wondered what kind of animal he might have found, to have his fur stained like that. But as he came closer, she realized – with only a bit of relief – that it was just berry juice.

“So
that’s
where you’ve been.” She laughed as he jumped up to lick her face. “Come on.” She pushed him down playfully. “We’ve got to get back before they take off without us.” Gray tilted his head at her, but followed her back. She walked into the clearing to find Hunter sitting alone. He looked up at her. “Alexander and Madison went ahead,” he explained, “and I wanted to wait for you.”

“Thanks,” Nora said.

“Looks like you found Gray pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, I guess I did. I had a bit of trouble tracking him, but he was just eating some berries nearby.”

“So that’s why his mouth’s so red.” Hunter grinned and pushed gracefully to his feet. “Come on, we’ve got to get going if we want to catch up.”

“How far away are they?”

“Not far.” Hunter ran ahead, and Nora followed. Gray trailed behind them.

A few minutes later, they found Madison and Alexander walking together…but apart. They were the same distance away from Nora and Hunter, but spread widely from one another. Nora hoped the disagreement last night didn’t strain their relationship.

“Hey!” Hunter yelled out, and both Madison and Alexander stopped and looked back. On seeing them, Alexander walked toward them, but Madison turned and continued forward.

“She wanted to go faster.” Alexander grinned. “But I said we had to wait for you if we’re going to be journeying together. Now that you’re here, though, we can make use of our speed.”

“Oh.” Nora’s cheeks started to burn. “I can’t, yet. Not for long distances.”

Alexander frowned. “Have you been converted so recently?” Nora nodded. A derisive laugh made her look past Alexander to find Madison staring back at her.

“You see?” Madison sneered. “The girl is already holding us back. She should not have come.”

Nora felt her cheeks go completely red and looked to Hunter for protection. Instead, he just shrugged at her. “She’s not wrong.” He spoke so quietly Nora thought she might have imagined it. She stared after him, flabbergasted, as he ran forward to catch up to Madison.

Alexander looked at Nora and sighed. “I should speak with her, too.” He ran ahead, leaving Nora alone at the rear.

Nora watched as Alexander caught up with Madison and Hunter, who were already speaking. She couldn’t make out anything they were saying. As soon as Alexander arrived, however, Hunter turned around and trotted back to Nora, and Madison and Alexander started walking forward.

Nora followed after them, meeting Hunter halfway. He fell in beside her, but didn’t say anything. After a few moments of silence, Nora spoke. “What did she tell you?”

“Nothing you’d want to hear.” Hunter seemed strangely…distant.

The silence stretched on between them, until Nora couldn’t take it anymore. “Is everything ok?”

“Hmm? Yes, everything’s fine.” He stared straight ahead at the others, and not once did he look at her.

Nora didn’t know what she did, or why Hunter was acting so detached. They followed Madison and Alexander, walking side by side in silence. After an awkward stretch, Hunter decided to go up to Madison and Alexander, leaving Nora alone with Gray.

She could see the three of them talking, but for some reason couldn’t hear a thing. She didn’t like not knowing what they were talking about. Every once in a while, either Alexander or Hunter would shoot her a quick look back, almost as if to make sure she was still there, and then turn back to the others. In fact, a few minutes later, Nora decided she
hated
not knowing what they were talking about. And she didn’t like feeling left out either.

Yet, they continued that way until at least midday, Nora trailing behind like a stray dog, not understanding what was going on and not hearing even the slightest whisper of conversation, Hunter and Alexander taking turns speaking and sometimes even vividly gesturing with their hands. Nora wondered again why she couldn’t pick anything up – with the way her hearing was now, she was sure she should be able to. Maybe they were somehow blocking their voices from her.

Sometime after midday, Alexander slowed from his group and allowed Nora to catch up to him. He regarded her kindly, and smiled.

“I apologize. I know this manner of journeying is not what you expected when you met us.”

“Truth be told,” Nora answered, “I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Alexander chuckled. “I don’t think anybody could have predicted Madison’s reaction to you.”

“No.” Nora shook her head “I think not.”

“But I am curious about you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” he answered, “I’ve heard bits and pieces from Rafael, and I’ve spoken to Hunter, but I haven’t heard your side of the story, yet.”

“My side of what story?”

“The story of everything. How you came to find yourself in this position. You are newborn, and you haven’t yet had your first feeding, which means you were human not very long ago. For a convert to find themselves on the run from the most powerful of the Vassiz…well, it takes something special to garner so much attention. So I’m curious. What did you do?”

“Well…” Nora began, starting from the beginning. She told Alexander the story of meeting Hunter at school, told him how they had gotten to know one another enough for him to trust her. She told him of visiting the dream world as a human and somehow attracting the attention of the elders there. She told him of how she had been chased away from her school, without enough time to even say goodbye to her friends and family, and of how Hunter told her he about the Vassiz.

Alexander listened intently, and when Nora finally finished the story, with them finally getting out of the caves, he looked at her thoughtfully.

“That’s all?” he asked finally.

“All?” Nora was shocked. “I came into the dream world as a human, which is forbidden by the ancient creed, and have been wanted dead or alive ever after. Preferably alive, so I could be subject to an eternity of torture.” She had purposefully left out the part about killing two members of the Vassiz.

“Yes, I understand that,” Alexander replied. “What I don’t understand is why a human girl visiting the dream world would garner so much attention. It is so…insignificant.”

“Insignificant? Hunter said it was a breaking of the Vassiz creed!”

“Mmm, yes and no.” Alexander replied. “The creed guides us and what we do, yes, but…there have always been allowances. Are you certain there is nothing else Hunter showed you there, nothing that would be deemed important to our kind?”

Nora shook her head. “I’ve told you all I know.”

“Interesting. Interesting that the elders would pay so much attention to you.”

“What do
you
know about me?” Nora asked. “Just what did Rafael tell you?”

“Ah. Well, Rafael told us of a young couple on the run who found themselves inside his place of refuge. He said you were trapped inside, after having killed a bounty hunter who was coming after you.”

Nora’s cheeks blossomed as she realized he knew about the killing. And that he knew she had avoided telling him of it.

He must have sensed her unease. “A smart omission,” he told her. “I would avoid speaking of it to anybody as well, just as you have. You never know who might be listening.”

Nora smiled somewhat weakly at him. “Thanks.”

“Furthermore, you can never be completely sure of who to trust. Do not be distrustful of all, for that will consume you from the inside, but do not volunteer information freely, either. That is the way to survive a long time in this world.”

“That’s good advice,” Nora agreed.

“Yes,” he said.

“What about you?” Nora asked. “What’s your story?”

“Where do I begin?” Alexander asked, with a laugh.

“At the start. How long have you been a member of the Vassiz?”

“Over six hundred years,” he told her.

“Wow.” She’d thought
Hunter
had been alive for a long time. “Is it usual for most Vassiz to be that old?”

“There haven’t been many newborns in the last few centuries,” Alexander told her. “Our kind has been dominated by the elders, and they have forbidden expansion of our numbers. It is hard to find other members of the Vassiz because of that, so the ones you do meet are of my age, or perhaps older. A youngling like you, however, is most definitely a rarity.”

“What about Rafael?” she asked. “You said you met him when you were exploring the archive?”

“A very long time ago, that. Over two centuries back. But I still remember it to the day. Both of us were outcasts, wandering without a pack or a permanent home. In our own ways, we both ended up on the path to the archive.”

“And what did you find there?” Nora asked.

Alexander smiled slyly. “Not enough. But I am hoping this time it will be different.”

“Why would it be?”

“A lot has changed since those days,” he explained. “The hierarchy within our race has shown cracks. Oh, those at the top deny it completely – they deny it vehemently – but in truth, they are scared. Scared to lose their position of power, and their position of influence. That is why, I think, they took such interest in you.”

“In me?” Nora stopped to regard Alexander curiously. “What could I have ever done to threaten their power?”

“It is not what you have done,” Alexander said, “but what you have the potential to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“You do not know it yet, Nora, but hidden in the Vassiz creed there is mention of a prophecy. A fleeting few words, overlooked by nearly all. But I do not believe the elders to be foolish enough to overlook it. I suspect in my heart that your arrival in the dream world may have triggered some of their memories of that prophecy.”

“
My
arrival?” Nora was shocked. “What kind of prophecy are you talking about? Not like a…destiny?”

“Perhaps,” he answered obliquely. “Or perhaps not. We will find more answers in the archives when we arrive.”

“Just what
do
you expect to find there this time?”

“Answers. And, in all likelihood, more questions.”

They walked silently for a few minutes, each with their own thoughts. Then something occurred to Nora.

“Why did you say you trusted my word last night?” she asked. “Madison certainly didn’t.”

“I…saw something about you.” H shrugged. “It’s a gift I have. Sometimes, I can see things about people – about the Vassiz – that others cannot. And I know them to be true entirely.”

“A gift? You mean your
ability
?”

“Yes, some might call it that,” Alexander replied. “Most would not be so easy to share theirs with others, though.”

“Hunter told me that already,” Nora said. “But he never explained
why
.”

Alexander spread his hands as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The Vassiz are not the most trusting of species. When you live for as long as we do, you start seeing the same patterns, the same ways of the world, over and over again. You grow cold and suspicious of others, because you know how often they have let you down. And when your only partners on the journey are those with the same suspicions…well, let’s just say it doesn’t hurt to hold one ace close to the sleeve.”

Nora frowned. That sounded very bleak. “Do all of you live in suspicion like that?”

“I wouldn’t say that we live
in
suspicion, really,” he replied. “Rather, it has become deeply ingrained within us. We do not know how to survive in any other way. It is who we were born as, and who we have grown to be. It is the only way most know.”

“That sounds awfully depressing,” Nora said.

“It can be. That is why it is worthwhile to find at least one other you can trust. Another you might take on your journey.”

“A spouse?” Nora asked.

Alexander laughed. “No, we do not marry. A…
lover
would be more accurate.”

“Hmm.” Is that what she and Hunter were destined to become? Mere
lovers
? “Is Madison, then, your…err, I mean, is she…” Nora cleared her throat. “…Uh…”

Alexander laughed again. “She and I have journeyed far together, yes. Sometimes our paths lead to different destinations, but we always seem to reconvene. I have known her for very long, almost as long as I have been alive.”

“So there is…romance between you two?”

Alexander nodded. “A blunt way of putting it, but yes.”