The Coalition Episodes 1-4 (5 page)

CHAPTER 12

Shai

The sandbags held and the rain finally relented at dawn. Shai walked back to the Hill House alone, with her soggy leather boots smacking the muddy road. She got as far as the bottom of the hill when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She pushed off her hood and turned slowly around.

Aliah stood on the side of the road a few feet away, watching her. He walked towards her, the grey light of the early morning casting long shadows across his face.

"How long have you been watching me?" Shai asked and squared her shoulders. He shrugged and came closer. Gooseflesh formed along both arms and she sucked in a breath.

"I heard you had some trouble so I came to find you." His face came so close to hers that she could see the tiny lines that creased the corners of his green eyes. A small smile teased at the edges of his mouth, making her heart hammer. Heat rushed into her cheeks. His intensity pulled at her, drew her in. The heat in her cheeks became a full-bodied flush. Her knees wobbled. Brain-fog from lack of sleep mixed with the sudden shot of adrenaline. She stepped back and managed to drop her eyes.

Breathe...

She had twenty days remaining in Lael. She wasn't about to get caught up in confusing feelings for her best friend. It would only make it worse when she had to leave him.

"A little trouble? You could say that. Missing kids... flooded river...and Sileas's infraction. Where were you?" She sipped the air, forcing her breathing to slow down. Then she raised her eyes to his. The pale light of the rising sun washed his face in a rosy glow, lightening the green of his eyes. He smiled.

What does he find amusing?
She crossed her arms in annoyance, as well as to still the fluttering in her stomach.

He came closer and draped his right arm across her shoulders. His face became sober. "Walk with me."

She shouldn't be with him. Not after last night.

She shook her head. "Look at me, Aliah. I need to go to the Bath House. I'm cold and wet. Not to mention dirty."

The weight of his arm around her increased as he pulled her against him and began to walk slowly, forcing her to walk. "Look, I want to apologize." He paused and the fluttering in her stomach became a pulsing frenzy. Being caught this close to each other would get them both into trouble.

She stepped away from him, dodging his arm as he tried to pull her towards him.

"I don't need your apology, Aliah. I need an explanation. Sileas said you found her when she broke into the Chapel. She showed me a letter you gave her, a Recruitment letter!" She spat out the last word then took a breath before continuing. "You Recruited her, Aliah? What is going on? Why do you keep sneaking off at night into the woods?
Tell me!
"

A hurt look crossed his face and guilt gnawed at her. But it was easier to be angry with him than to keep trying to push aside the strange feeling in her stomach.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Shai. I never saw Sileas. And I never gave her a letter. I sent a letter to
you,
asking you to meet me so I could talk to you. I don't want any more secrets. And I certainly didn't come back here last night. I left after I carried you to bed."

"You don't want any more secrets? That's funny, Aliah." She looked down at the ground and pushed at a pebble with the toe of her boot. "Well since we're telling secrets let me tell you something. I've been having those visitations again. Even after you made me promise to send him away." She looked up at him but he looked away, his face unreadable. He never spoke of the past, keeping it sealed like a tomb.

"I'm telling you right now, Shai. I never gave a letter to Sileas. And I'm not a Watcher... not like you think. Don't you trust me?" The question hung in the air. Was he lying to her now? He ran his hands through his dark hair, making it stand on end, something she would have teased him about before.

"Aliah, didn't you hear me? I've seen him again! Don't you have anything to say about it?" She didn't know why she wanted to pick a fight with him. Maybe so it would be easier to say goodbye. She clenched her fists at her sides, fighting tremors of anger and regret.

Movement in her periphery stopped her mid-thought. A row of thick bushes ten feet to her left ran from the back corner of the Hill House all the way to the river. A dark figure disappeared into the bushes.

“Watchers!” She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the place where the figure went, then glared back at Aliah. "You know why they're here! Just trying to catch us breaking some Law! And
you're
one of them!"

The accusation stung like venom in her mouth. Instantly she ached to take back the words. Sorry she had hurt her best friend, yet furious that he wasn't denying it.

But Aliah had started running towards the bushes. His unbuttoned cloak flapped behind him, his feet barely touching the muddy ground. When he reached the row of bushes he pushed some aside then kneeled on the ground, his back towards her. When he hadn't moved after several minutes, she walked slowly towards him. He remained in the same position with his head bowed over something on the ground.

"Aliah?" She crept closer to him. His silence sent her pulse racing. Sweat trickled down her back in spite of the chilly morning air. Something wasn't right. An eerie stillness pervaded the atmosphere.

"Aliah." She reached out to touch his shoulder but he flung his left arm out to bar her.

"Stay back!" His voice was rough and edged with something that spiked fear in her. She stepped backwards then hesitated.

Aliah rose to his feet, pulled the hood of his cloak over his head then slowly turned around. The hood concealed his face.

"Go inside, Shai. Lock the door. Stay there until I send word." A shiver convulsed her. What was going on? What did he see?

"Aliah, you're scaring me. Tell me what's going on!" She moved closer to him but he snapped his head up causing the hood to slip back. The early morning light slanted across the right side of his face. The green of his eyes were flecked with something dark, cold. He pulled the hood down again but not before she glimpsed the red rims of his eyes, the paleness of his skin. She shuffled back another step then stumbled on a rock and reached for Aliah to steady her.

He pulled away from her. "Go inside, Shai!"

Her stomach twisted. Tears stung her eyes then slipped down her cheeks. She swiped at them with the back of her hand.

With his back to her, Aliah bent down again. He struggled with something as he stood back up. She sucked in a gulp of icy air. A pair of legs dangled over one of Aliah's arm
s and a head, shrouded in a dark hood, hung over the other arm. Against her best friend's chest was a slender body.
Who is that? Are they sleeping? Why would anyone sleep in the bushes?

Aliah turned to slide himself and his burden through the bushes. A twig caught the person's hood and twisted it sideways, revealing thick dark hair and a slender face. Horror gripped Shai, turning her palms slick with sweat. Nestled in the crook of Aliah's arm was the gentle-featured face of a young girl. Even with pasty-grey skin and blue lips, Shai recognized her.

Sileas.

Her large, grey eyes were open. Staring, glassy. It was not the face of sweet slumber. A sharp gasp escaped Shai and she turned and ran, tripping over loose stones. She fled to the House, stumbled through the door then rammed the thick steel bolt into place.

Heaving and gulping great breaths she slid against the door and crumpled in a heap on the floor. She refused to let any tears fall. An ache grew inside her, coiling tighter and tighter until it sprung loose inside her like a rabid animal. She had never felt this before. Its darkness enveloped her, swallowed her whole then spit her back out. It tossed her around before leaving her whimpering on the hard wooden floor.

Then she remembered something. She'd comforted Aliah the last time she'd seen that look on his face, long ago.

He must be feeling what she was experiencing now: the ache of grief.

Oh Sileas.

CHAPTER 13

Aliah

Sweat ran in rivers down his back and chest, soaking his white shirt until it stuck to him like a second skin. Mud was caked under his fingernails even after he scrubbed his hands and arms in the river. He swallowed around the giant lump in his throat.

Sileas was a sweet kid. Burying her in a shallow grave near the swollen river seemed heartless. He grimaced, then sat on a large rock near the edge of the hole he had just dug using his hands and a thin stone. That was the word: heartless.

He glanced down at the thin body of the young girl. Her hands were clasped across her chest, folded as though she were resting. But beneath the grey cuff of her ruffled blouse, a crimson stain darkened her chest on the left side. He shuddered. It was what he had tried to shield Shai from seeing. Sileas's blouse had been torn open across her breasts. A fist-sized hole gaped below her ribs where her heart had been. The horror of it bore the mark of someone worse than the Gracious Leader.

Someone like Lael's enemy: Samael, the ruler of Death. But what would Samael want with Sileas?
The enemy was rarely seen and only mentioned in Lael by the Mothers as a fear tactic: to keep the children from crossing over Lael’s boundaries.

Shai mentioned Sileas had an infraction last night. Something about the Chapel. What did Sileas do? She must've broken into the Chapel. Well that was stupid, but it wouldn't have been the first time someone had attempted it. There was only one thing worth breaking into the Chapel for: the Book.

That had to be it.
If Sileas had broken the
big
Law it was punishable by Death.

One of the Watchers must have reported Sileas for her infraction. Which meant the Leader must have sent Samael to do his dirty work.

Rage flared. If he ever found out who had reported Sileas he'd do to them what Samael had done to her. Never had he seen something so heinous.  There had been many people attempt to touch the Book, but not one of them had been given a punishment greater than isolation or lashings.

That meant one thing: Sileas must have
stolen
the Book. Another thought made his blood run cold. If someone had seen Sileas in the Chapel with the Book, they probably also witnessed her receiving his letter: the letter meant for Shai. If anyone discovered he had written that letter requesting a private meeting with Shai, he’d be exiled as a rebellious Watcher. And his plan to get Shai out of Lael would be ruined.

How had Zev fouled up his first assignment? While Zev was giving the message to Ellersly about taking the children, he should've delivered Shai’s letter himself in spite of the risks. Of course Zev gave it to Sileas by mistake, he didn't know one girl from the other.

Damn!

He spat on the ground then slid off the rock. He crawled on his hands and knees to the edge of the hole then peered down into Sileas's white face. Her tangled hair looked like little black bird nests arranged around her face. She must have given a good fight.

He searched her pockets for the letter Zev had given her but he came up empty-handed. Maybe she'd dropped it somewhere during the attack.

The thing that bothered him the most was the look that had been permanently frozen on her face. Horror. The last face she would have seen would've been Death's.

Her wooden tear-drop pendant lay nestled in the hollow of her neck; its chain still intact. Aliah wiped his face on his sleeve then pulled sharply on the chain, breaking it. He pocketed the pendant before pushing a waterfall of loose stones and mud into the hole. The first lump of earth hit the body with a dull thud.

"Good night, little bird." He continued to shove dirt, mud, and river stones into the hole. He worked until sweat streamed into his eyes and the trench was mounded into a small hill. Cramps assaulted his arms and legs as he sat back on his heels, shoulders slumped.

He took Sileas's pendant from his pocket and with a flick of his thumb he popped the top off then spilled its contents into the palm of his other hand. Only the remainder of a few pale yellow grains of a sand-like substance fell into his cupped hand. Someone had already emptied it. Maybe she'd even done it herself in an effort to die faster.

He blew on the grains, watching as the wind whisked them away: the essence of who she was. He pushed the cap back on and shoved the pendant deep into his pocket again.

The snapping of a branch behind him made him jump. Adrenaline surged through him. He leaped to his feet, fists curled at his sides. Waiting.

I got the message you sent me: twenty-one missing children. Clever. The one you just buried is a message from
me
.
The words echoed inside his head in a sharp, clear voice as though it had been audible.

Pain sliced through his skull. He dropped to his knees, rammed his hands against his ears. "I didn't send the message to you! It was meant for the Leader of Lael! I have no fight with you!" His own words rushed out in screams and burned his throat.

I am the only Leader of Lael. And by taking those children you've upset the balance in Lael that I've created. You've broken the Law of Life. You have twenty days left to restore it.
He could feel the smile in the voice.
Deliver Shai to me in Gershom, not to Elchai, before twenty days is up.

Aliah squeezed his eyes shut. Muscle spasms seized his jaw and a dribble of blood oozed out of the corner of his mouth. He ran his tongue over the wound his teeth had made in his bottom lip.

He spat again then gripped a handful of his hair in each fist and dropped his head to his knees. "I...will...kill...you!" He screamed. Hatred churned in his stomach and bile rose in his throat.

A twig snapped behind him again. Bringing his hands down from his head, he twisted his neck and glimpsed a large, black wolf, less than five feet behind his right shoulder.

You can't kill me. I'm the Master of Death. Just bring Shai to me for her Reward, or I will destroy all of Lael, beginning with Shai and ending with you. I will father the next Leader of Lael.

The voice seemed to come from the wolf this time. Its head hung low, hackles raised. Yellow eyes pierced Aliah's soul. Its black lips curled in a silent snarl before it turned and dis
appeared back into the bushes. The voice fell silent, but still echoed in his mind.

Aliah remained at Sileas's grave for a long time. Disgust mixed together with rage like an acidic drin
k that turned his stomach sour.

This is my fault
. He sat in the dirt until the pain in his head subsided and a numbness settled in. He pushed himself up and brushed the dirt and dried mud from his trousers. It had to be nearly mid-day already. He couldn't waste any more time.

He pulled his hood over his head and ducked into the bushes, taking the same route the wolf had. When he came through the other side of the shrubbery, he stopped at the spot where he had found Sileas. Bent grass created a small bowl where she had lain but there was no sign of blood. Her body must have been placed there, long after her death, to serve as Samael’s counter-message.

He stood and buttoned his cloak, giving a quick tug on his hood and whispered, "Do what you want, Samael. But you won't get what you're after. You'll never find Shai."

He was ready to continue with his plan. He looked up at Shai's stone house as he neared. She stood near the steps, her arms wrapped around herself, watching him as he emerged from the bushes.