Chapter 31

Jam

For seven years I’d watched my sister age, without truly comprehending that I was doing the same.

In a few more years, if I lived that long, I’d look older than my father.

Would my mother and brother even recognize me when I joined them in the Far Beyond?

WHEN THE OTHERS RETURNED

The lone cot, we’d brought with us so I could rest upon, was now occupied by Carter. My sister Angie was seated on the canvas floor of the tent beside him. Her hand rested on the edge of the cot barely an inch away from Carter’s head. His hair was now almost completely white. Only a few patches of grey with a hint of light brown feathered across his forehead. The kid was ageing and fast.

I was tired. Bone weary. The sun was setting and our makeshift camp was settling in for the night.

I eased myself down beside Angie. My knees creaked and my hip joints protested. I managed to find a position that didn’t hurt too much. Stevron’s latest treatment had lessened the pain in my wounds and I was thankful.

“Jake said he’s going to die.”

I stiffened at Angie’s whispered words. There was enough in that one statement to make me shiver in fear.

I took a deep breath. I didn’t know exactly how I should react. Angie had no idea that I knew she talked to Jake. I had to tread carefully. “So Jake’s taken to talking to you?”

I watched Angie nod. She rolled a bushberry around her mouth.

I never did like the fact that Angie was communicating with the Far Beyond. It was a dangerous path for any of us to be taking. “And he says Carter will die?”

“Yes.”

“You believe him?”

Angie shook her head, then she shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know what to believe.” Her voice was soft and maybe a little distant. “I don’t want to think that’s he’s right. But look at him, Jam. How much longer can Carter last before his body gives out? I know I haven’t always been easy on him, but he came back for me. He risked his life…and now…”

Carter the hero, I wasn’t surprised.

In the three years since he’d shown up there wasn’t anything that Carter hadn’t done for my family. His unconditional love for Em was self evident. The fierce loyalty to my father he’d exhibited on numerous occasions was noteworthy. The ingenuity he’d put into solving every problem and dilemma, Stevron and I had laid out before him, as well as his tenacity in helping Calvin with his research was second to none. And of course his immeasurable tolerance for Angie’s anger had proven to me time and time again that Carter was in this for the long haul. There wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t do for my family and I doubted anything would tear him away from Em’s side. I didn’t even know if death would. My heart hoped we’d never find out.

“What else did our brother tell you?” I asked my sister.

“That Em will cry and some weird shit about more than one half sky. Then something about love being their downfall and…”

I tried to swallow but couldn’t. “And what?”

Angie wet her lips. “Jake told me ‘the hidden son has been ordered to kill and that The Oracle-to-be must die.’”

“Hidden son as in a person?”

Angie nodded. “I think so.”

“Who’s this Oracle-to-be?”

Angie shrugged.

I felt the weight of depression crash down onto my shoulders. I hadn’t been with the crew when Jake’s latest invasion had burrowed into Angie’s mind and now there seemed to be a brick wall between me and my sister, blocking me from sensing what I could before.

I shifted my weight. I had no idea what more than one half sky meant. The writings in my mind had become more frequent and less cryptic over the last year, yet there had been nothing about Carter or Em crying. Nor had there been anything about a hidden son and definitely not a word regarding the birth of a new Oracle.

Was Jake sending some kind of message about my own death? Was I the hidden son or The Oracle-to-be? For a long time I’d sensed that I wasn’t long for this world. The Prayers attack finally had me resigning myself to the inevitable. My life was nearing an end.

Angie raised her head and turned to look at me. I felt the catch in my breath. Angie’s features had softened. The lines around her eyes, the lines that I had been watching increase over the years, had all but disappeared. The grooves on her forehead and along her cheeks were fading as well. She looked less and less like our mother and more like the beautiful teenager I remembered. The fyre crawlers’ venom was making her young again. My heart thumped a couple of erratic beats. My sister was going to be okay. Unlike me, she was going to make it.

Angie reached out and grasped my hand. Even the strength of her grip had increased.

“Do you think it’s possible that Jake can actually cause death?” I asked.

Angie pressed her lips together. A flicker of fear splintered the newly formed gold swirls in her blue eyes. “When I finally banished Jake, Carter stopped convulsing.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s capable of killing.”

“What does it mean, then?”

I snorted. “That our brother is close to losing it? That he like all the others that are trapped in the Far Beyond are reaching the critical point.”

“And then what?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, Ange, but Jake’s certainly laying it on thick though. All doom and gloom. You remember what Jake was like, a shitty little drama king.”

Angie smiled and gave me a laugh. “Yeah, he did have some pretty good tantrums didn’t he. But seriously, my response was equally as dramatic. I warned Jake not to ‘screw with me’.”

I found myself suddenly laughing along with my sister. “Good to see us Sky’s are not going down without a fight. We may just give the Far Beyond and the Larcore a run for their money.”

Angie’s smile turned into a frown. “Neither should you.”

My laughter faded away. I shook my head. I knew what Angie was implying. That I should expose myself to some of the fyre crawlers’ venom. That I should at least attempt to reverse my own ageing process. I hated to dash her hopes.

“That isn’t my path, Ange.”

I watched tears gather in her eyes. The gold I saw now swirling amongst the blue colour only reinforced my resolve.

“But to die is?” Her voice was choked.

©Legend of the Sapphyre Wings by Janet Merritt