Wake up! Waaaake upppp!

The words were talons shredding the web of sleep.

Miiya tried to open her eyes and failed. It was as if her eyelids were pasted together.

Wake up. They are gone.

She tried to speak. Her tongue seemed to be cleaved to her mouth.

The girl sneaked out. The old man went after her. Wake up.

The voice ended in a screech. Then the pain came, physical pain, growing and growing.

Her eyes flew open. The dragonfly-buzzard gave her hand one final peck with his curved beak before stepping back. Her hand was stinging. She touched it with a probing finger and felt the sticky warmth of her own blood. She looked around. The cave was empty.

They are gone.

She took deep breaths, forcing her mind to focus.

Jubi, she drugged me with the nidra.

The bird’s laughter was like nails inside her head. She’s a sharp one; left you a letter. Over there on the ledge, under a stone. The old man left a message.

Miiya’s legs were so unsteady even the few steps to the ledge took time and effort. She picked up and opened the note with hands that trembled as much as her legs did.

My dearest Miiya and Cillo,

I go to seek Papa. I must talk to him. I think he will listen to me. Whether he does or not, this is the end of the journey. I will return if I can. Don’t come searching for me. You’ve done your part. Now I must do mine.

I hope I will get an opportunity to thank you for everything you have done for me. I was dead inside when I met you. Your love and care brought me back to life.

Forgive me, Miiya, for disobeying you. Forgive me, Cillo, for leaving without a word of goodbye. This is my quest, my battle. I cannot give up Papa. He is the only family I have. The world doesn’t interest me. All I want to do is to take Papa home.

I love you both.

Jubi

Miiya looked up from the piece of paper . What was Cillo’s message?

The bird’s voice was stilted. Tell Miiya I tried to wake her up and couldn’t. Tell her I’m going after Jubi.

Only that?

Only that.

Miiya swiped aside a tinge of disappointment and tried to think, to formulate a plan. It was hard. Her mind was foggy. Her body wanted to lie down and sleep.

Go.

The bird sounded confused. Go? Go where?

Go after Cillo and Jubi. Reach out to me and tell me where they are.

And you?

I’ll come.

The bird gave her a hard stare before flying away. His departing thoughts reverberated in her head. Your mind is full of clouds. Take time. Enough mistakes have been made. Don’t add to them.

Miiya sat cross legged on the floor and closed her eyes, breathing in and out, focusing on each breath. As the clouds of befuddlement caused by the soporific departed, she knew what she had to do.

Opaquing, the trick of melting into the background. “Draw yourself in, girl, blend with the surroundings,” her grandmother had instructed. “Don’t think of what tree you want to become. Let the trees choose. Let go of yourself, girl. Let go.”

After a lifetime of witchery, the art of vanishing into the background came naturally. Miiya left the cave, a non-shadow among the shadows.

The Mere welcomed her. It opened itself to her and invited her in. She paused for a second, gazing into its dark bowels, feeling its lure. Then she tore herself away from those invisible fingers and ran, didn’t stop running until she cleared the tree line.

The beach was in darkness. The moons were still gone. The starlight was weak. But dawn was close. She hurried towards the cliff, her mind open for the bird.

Where are you? The bird’s voice tore at her. Where are you?

I’m coming.

She heard them before she saw them, the sounds of the scuffle, Cillo’s groans and the bird’s ear-splitting shrieks.

A soldier – a Tailosii - was dragging Cillo up the cliff. He resisted, trying to cling to anything his flailing hand could grab. The Tailosii didn’t seem to feel Cillo’s desperate resistance. The dragonfly-buzzard’s frenzied pecking had torn the silvery slit that had been the creature’s right eye, but even the injury didn’t slow him down.

The bird’s cry was like a knife-thrust inside her head. I can’t stop this...thing. It’s all rotten inside, like dead meat.

Miiya knew what she had to do. But her entire being revolted at it. The Tailosii was no longer human. But it had been human once.

A cry of pain from Cillo decided her. She threw a Thought-bolt at the Tailosii. It would have sufficed to incapacitate, if not kill a human, but the creature seemed to feel it just barely. Still it made him stop and turn. She threw another one, this time aimed at the arm holding Cillo. The Tailosii didn’t let go of his victim but his grip loosened. Miiya pulled Cillo free, pushed him out of harm’s way and turned to her opponent.

The Tailosii had been young once, and handsome. He would never smile again, anymore than he would weep, but she could see the ghost of the lost smile on his mobile mouth.

The creature didn’t seem to sense her presence. Or perhaps it didn’t care. Its attention was fixed on the recumbent form of Cillo.

Miiya closed her eyes and did what she had to do, and opened them to see the creature incinerate from within.

Something brushed her cheek with the softness of a feather. She touched it with a finger and her eyes strayed towards the pitiful heap of ashes.

She waved a hand and the wind blew the ashes away to the sea.

The bird’s cry was urgent. The old man. He is injured.

Miiya whirled around. The sight of Cillo, lying prone where she had thrown him, banished every other consideration. She knelt by him and saw the gaping wound on his chest. His robe was sticky.

Cillo’s eyes opened. “Miiya?”

She placed one hand on his clammy brow and the other over the wound, touching and probing. The cut was too deep, it had damaged a lung beyond repair and he had bled too much.

His eyes darted around, searching for her. “I can’t see you.”

She made herself Materialize. Cillo tried to smile. But a grimace was all he could manage.

“They took her.”

She focused on closing the wound. There was nothing she could do about the internal injuries.

“I’m going to take you back to the cave.”

“No, don’t waste time. I’m done for. Just listen to me.”

Do something. The bird’s words were a command and a plea.

He’s right. He cannot be saved.

The bird screamed. Miiya had no idea whether she was hearing him with her ears or in her mind.

Perhaps both.

Cillo was trying to speak but the pain defeated him. He whimpered. His breathing made a grating sound.

She placed a finger on his tightly pressed lips gesturing silence. He closed his eyes, in a mute sign of assent. She placed her hand on his brow, drawing out his pain, taking it into herself.

Her lungs became clogged, as if they were filling with water. Her heart began to burn. Breathing was an effort. Shockwaves of pain crisscrossed her body. But she felt happy, happier than she had been for a long time.

“Miiya!” Cillo’s face had cleared, his eyes were focused and his breathing regular.

“Sublimation,” she said. “You’d have seen it done.”

His eyes brimmed with tears. He caught her hand and kissed it.

She felt the cost of his physical movement, as if a sharp knife sliced through her body. That too was a part of Sublimation. Someone always had to pay the price, as her grandmother never stopped reminding her.

Cillo noticed her grimace of pain. He let go of her hand a stricken look in his eyes.

She smiled. “Now tell me what happened.”

“Going through the Mere slowed her down. I caught up with her,” he spoke in staccato sentences, obviously to spare her as much pain as possible. “I reasoned with her. She wouldn’t listen. We got to the top of the cliff. They were waiting. Tailosii and a man. He had a limp.”

She nodded, ignoring the pain. Jubi’s father.

Cillo shuddered at the memory. “He...he ordered them to take her alive and kill me. She resisted, but they were so strong. She yelled at me to run. I knew her father didn’t intend her any harm, not immediately. I ran, but one came after me and stabbed me.” His eyes met hers. “Then you came.”

Miiya wanted to scream. If only she had been a little faster, if only she had arrived a little sooner, if only Jubi didn’t give her so much nidra. The anger she had felt about Jubi’s betrayal, which she had kept in check up to now, threatened to spill over.

Cillo must have divined her feelings. “Don’t be angry with her, Miiya. Please save her. She mustn’t become like them.”

At this moment, she didn’t care whether Jubi turned into a Human Husk or not. But she didn’t want to refuse Cillo anything. “I’ll go after her. But I must make you safe first.”

He smiled. “I’m safe now. I’ll be even safer soon, Miiya.”

The physical pain coursed through her veins and concentrated into an unbearable pinpoint in her heart.

He was careening close to the end.

She yearned for tears. All she could do was to take his hand in hers and press it.

“Miiya, will you tell that dratted bird that I love him.”

The dragonfly-buzzard would have heard. But he made no response; just sat where he was, like a bird painted against the background of a rising sun and a slowly awakening sea.

Cillo pressed her hand. His voice had a desperate ring to it. “Miiya, don’t lose time.”

She took a deep breath in a vain effort clear her lungs. Her vision was blurring, a blood red cloud swirling in her eyes. “There’s time enough for her. Are you comfortable?”

He smiled. “Jubi is in your care.”

“I’ll look after her.”

His face relaxed into an expression of contentment. His fingers tightened on her hand.

Dark stars splattered the red mist in her eyes. All the physical pain was now coagulated in her heart. She bent down and kissed his brow, her lips lingering on the already cooling skin.

Cillo closed his eyes. She sat by his side, holding his hand with both hers, her gaze fixed on his paling face.

The red cloud and the black stars merged, forming a black wall which blinded her. The pain in her heart turned into a fire ball and exploded.

Her sight cleared. Her lungs unlocked. The pain was gone.

She could feel the inveigling touch of the first tendrils of delirium

“Miiya!”

She looked down at Cillo.

“I always envied Terryc.”

She carried the hand she was holding to her lips. “I wish we had more time together, Cillo, much more time.” She smiled at him. “Though even a century might not have sufficed to get to know your ways.”

His fading eyes sparkled for an instant. “But we did have some time, Miiya. More than I ever hoped for.”

His eyes were dulling again, the light in them fading. She touched his cheek, her fingers moving up and down with caressing softness. “It was a good journey. Go in peace, my friend.”

His gaze clung to her for a second. Then he closed his eyes.

He wouldn’t open them again.