Chapter 79: Frederico – Kite
Frederico thought that a kite must feel exactly like that. Tied to the world by an invisible line, but very distant, in a different atmosphere, almost unable to see the world, which was constantly erased by dark clouds. Just like that Frederico was dragged across the Frontier, across Baynard (so similar to Patire) all the way to Tuen.
Nobody came close to him. How very funny all those people being afraid of him, especially him, the man whoul couldn’t kill hist brother’s murderer. The blond innkeeper put a mug in front of him. The beer bubbled, minuscule white explosions finding freedom in the air.
‘Welcome to the Plume,’ she said with honesty, it seemed, but not with joy.
Goose plume? Or vulture plume? If only he could kill Neville, avenge his brother. And yet, what for? What a horrible thing, this War. Senseless. If it was to live like that, stripped of meaning, why wouldn’t they just let him be in grey?
Frederico recognized a pair of eyes in the crowd. Brown. Purple. His arm itched where the twig bonded him to color and pain.
‘I have seen you before,’ said Líran. ‘Full of ideas, full of hope.’
‘Dead, all of them.’
‘You are not entirely here,’ Líran looked at his arm.
‘The part of me that is present was dragged here against its will.’
The black twig stopped Frederico from sinking in darkness, but it was him who had to emerge to life, to color, to himself. If he wanted to reach Líran, he’d have to go down a corridor that whipered through a bloody door with a dagger in his hand.
‘You must return,’ said Líran.
‘What for?’ The only thing waiting for him on the other side of darkness was the little dog’s scream.
‘To be complete.’
‘Completely useless.’
He raised his hand to Líran’s face, felt a tingling in his fingers, but he didn’t touch her.
‘I might come back for you. But your beautiful violet eyes, they turn brown when they see me. If I am to admire you from afar, I can see you perfectly well from here.
What would the Old Woman say if she saw him now? Frederico tried not to think about it.