Breath of Divinity

Haley was sore. She was also cold, drenched, and weary, but the soreness stood out more than anything else. Every inch of her body ached with a sharp, searing pain. She realized that she was lying on her belly and tried to roll over, then a sudden explosion of pain radiated through her shoulder and she let out a sharp gasp. Her confusion lasted for only a second, then, as if she was watching a sped-up film, the memory came rushing back: Valarok, the proclaimed eldest brother of the Harbinger trio, had stabbed her. The blade he’d used was pure black, dappled with tiny glittering dots. It was like he had had torn off a piece of the night sky and fashioned it into a sword, sprinkled with stars.

Haley fought through the pain and tried to sit up, but whatever she was lying on gave a wild and abrupt lurch and she jerked sideways, cascading over the edge with a scream.

All at once the fog that had settled over her brain disappeared and she realized what was happening. She was perched precariously on Skylar’s back, hanging what looked like hundreds of feet above the ground as the ventus cantered through the dark and thundery night. The only thing keeping her from tumbling off into the blustering abyss below was a strong arm clutching onto her shoulder, heaving her back into place.

She flicked her sodden bangs out of her face and peered up into a pale face she recognized as Oscar’s. There was a bloody gash on his cheek and one of his eyes was black and puffy, but he was smiling.

“You’re awake!”

“What is going on?” she demanded. “Where…” She looked around and noticed something for the first time. “Where are Tim and Lauren?”

“They’re not with us,” said Oscar.

“What?”

A bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, briefly illuminating the scene, followed by a deafening blast of thunder that made Haley jump.

“Woah! Might want to hold on a little more tightly, if you go tumbling off we might not be able to catch you again.”

“I’m fine,” she said impatiently. “What’s going on? Where’s everyone else?”

“Tim took Lauren and ran off,” yelled Jonathan from the front. He was holding desperately onto the reins, and for the first time Haley noticed a ball of pure white light hovering around his head, like a miniature sun orbiting them. It was so bright it was almost harsh to look at, but its light was barely enough to pierce the darkness around them. “He told us to run, then he just left.”

“And you let him go?” Haley’s surge of incredulity was so overpowering that for a moment she completely forgot the pain shooting all through her body.

“Of course not! We tried to take them with us but we couldn’t reach them, and he just took off, the idiot! We’ve been trying to find them but it’s no use, we can’t see anything up here!”

“If it helps, I have complete faith in Tim. If he says they’ll be fine, then I believe him,” Oscar said reassuringly.

“No it doesn’t help,” Jon snapped. “It was a stupid idea. What was he thinking?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Haley chimed in. “We can’t leave them out here like this. We’re going to keep looking for them… Right?” she added, with a slight measure of uncertainty.

“Of course we are. We’re not leaving them behind.”

Haley had had her issues with Jon’s general demeanour during the course of their stay, but she had guessed that beneath the cool, sarcastic exterior, there was a compassionate heart. She was pleased to see she was right.

Jon was gripping the reins tightly, gazing down below as if determined to spot Tim’s figure streaking along underneath the canopy of black clouds. With every turn of his head the ball of light followed, shining in the direction he was looking. Haley tried to adjust her position and the pain in her arm brought her down again; once more Oscar’s arms shot out, holding her steady.

“You are still injured,” he said sternly. “You need to take it easy. Let us handle the search.”

She wanted to protest, but the discomfort radiating through her body silenced her. Haley settled for a curt nod and gently massaged her shoulder, which was still red-raw. For several minutes they rode through the blustery sky, trying and failing to ignore the freezing rains and winds trying to unseat them. Cold showers at nighttime were one thing, but riding through a literal hurricane in the slim hope of finding their siblings while suffering from a magical injury was a whole different beast.

She was just wondering where Tim and Lauren could possibly be by this point when she paused, staring into the clouds to their right. She could have sworn she had caught a flicker of movement somewhere in that area, but after staring intensely at the same spot for nearly ten seconds and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she managed to convince herself that it had been nothing.

Just as she tried to settle herself again lightning tore through the sky and Haley let out a scream.

“What? What is it?” Oscar shouted.

A grotesque face had appeared in the darkness beyond them, with blood red eyes and a crude, sneering smile. She recognized it at once, mostly due to the vivid picture Lauren had painted them: it was a gargoyle, fluttering along in the storm and wearing a vile smirk. Haley pointed, feeling another spasm of agony clip through her hand.

Both Jon and Oscar whipped their heads around to find the gargoyle gliding serenely along beside them, completely unbothered by the hurricane. But that wasn’t all: behind it, a bird the size of a crane was sailing effortlessly through the storm winds. It had bright feathers that glinted like ingots of gold in the moonlight. Its beak, however, was large and bronze, perfectly illuminated by another streak of lightning. Its eyes were fixed right on them and it changed direction at once, its great, metallic wings cutting through the rain as it veered towards them.

Several other birds of similar size and appearance were rising out of the darkness below, along with a party of gargoyles, encircling them like a pack of wolves.

“They’re like the Stymphalian birds from the myths,” said Oscar. Surprisingly enough, it was this more than anything that shocked Haley the most. Both she and Jon turned to stare at him, nonplussed.

“What?” he said, with a defensive shrug. “I read.”

The first bird Haley had seen dived sharply, shooting at them with the speed of a fighter jet. With every flap of its wings a sharp scraping noise rent the air, like knife blades grating against each other. Jon whipped the reins, sending Skylar galloping downwards out of the line of fire just as the bird zipped overhead. All at once the other birds followed suit, swooping down upon them.

The creatures were gaining, converging upon them like ants on an abandoned meal. Then they pounced. At the same time Jon jerked the reins upwards and Skylar launched herself back into the night sky, smoothly slipping out of their attack.

They could hear the birds screeching in fury down below; the sound was like a number of old, rusted gates creaking open. They were faster than they appeared at first glance. Within seconds the birds had closed the distance, swooping on them yet again as they tried to peck at every inch of exposed flesh. Trying to dodge was agony, but Haley was pretty sure that whatever she was feeling now would be nothing compared to if those birds actually made contact.

She managed to evade the beak of yet another incoming target, but as she pulled back its feathers raked across her face.

“Ouch!” she yelled, clapping a hand to her cheek. She pulled her hand away and saw dribbles of blood on her palm, already being washed away by the heavy rains. A spasm of horror ran through her body. A simple graze had caused so much damage?

With one hand still clutching rigidly onto the reins, Jon was sending out large bursts of orange light with the other. Some missed, streaking through the air like emergency flares before dying out in the storm. Others, however, connected, knocking the birds sharply out of the air and in some cases actually setting them ablaze. It seemed that the angrier Jon got the hotter the orbs of light burned.

Oscar, meanwhile, had transformed his amethyst necklace into a gauntlet that spanned from the tips of his fingers to the base of his elbow. He was swatting the gargoyles away with swipes of the long, golden claws that extended from the gauntlet’s knuckles, but one of the creatures got close enough for Oscar to actually land a punch.

A small but distinct shockwave erupted on impact and the stone-like creature exploded into a cloud of dust that quickly trailed away in the turbulent winds, leaving nothing behind but a faint trace of yellow on the air where its glowing, butterscotch-coloured eyes had widened in mingled pain and surprise. Haley blinked and it had disappeared. Once, a few days into their time at the mansion, Oscar had explained how his gauntlet worked when Haley had revealed her fans. According to him it absorbed and stored kinetic energy, and when he landed a hit it released it all at once, resulting in devastating bursts of raw destructive power.

The other gargoyles began to make angry chittering noises, rustling their wings. If Haley had to guess they were incensed at the loss of their comrade, but they were holding back now, clearly wary of Oscar’s gauntlet.

“More incoming!” Jon shouted, signaling yet another flock of the Stymphalian birds.

He took aim and fired a barrage of blasts at the incoming targets, but the birds were clearly more efficient in the air than the gargoyles.

Though Jon succeeded in striking one or two of them, the others gracefully wove around every blast he threw. If the birds weren’t actively trying to kill them, Haley would have been in awe at the elegance of their movements.

One of the birds zipped past, so fast that it actually succeeded in digging its talons into Jon’s chest, where a spurt of blood erupted.

“Gah!” He clutched desperately at his chest as the bird changed direction, zooming at them yet again. With his other hand he yanked the reins to the left and Skylar followed, cantering out of the way just as the monster darted past. But Haley could already see it doubling back, now accompanied by several of its peers. The birds all seemed to have their attention focused on Jon, so Haley seized her chance while they were distracted.

“Iduna,” she chanted, and her bangle melted into her twin, flower-patterned fans. With her right arm injured she could only toss a single fan with her left, but if her lessons with Sytris were any indicator one was all she needed. She partially unfurled it, took aim, and let it fly like a frisbee. It unsheathed itself fully in midair with a metallic rasping noise not unlike the ones the birds made and soared through the sky like a boomerang.

Predictably the birds swerved out of the way, once again exhibiting the same calm, graceful movements they had used before. The fan disappeared into the clouds below, while the birds continued to close the distance between them.

Jon raised his arm again, glowing with power, but completely unbeknownst to the bird the fan she had thrown came whizzing back into view. Unaware of the incoming projectile, it was caught off guard as the fan soared right for its wing. It cut through it like a steak knife through butter, spinning like a luminescent saw blade. The bird plummeted out of the air with a screech of agony, its glistening body soon swallowed up by the near-total darkness. Its allies wheeled around, but before they could react the fan had already closed in, slicing this time through the neck of one of the birds and the belly of another. The fan came swirling back towards the ventus and Jon ducked purely out of instinct, letting out a small yelp, but Haley caught it in one swift movement, folding it smoothly in her palm.

“Woah, you never said your fans could do that,” Jon said, looking completely awed.

“It never came up,” Haley said, unable to contain her own smugness.

The remaining birds and gargoyles around them pulled back, putting distance between themselves and the ventus. Jon, Haley and Oscar watched them, eyes narrowed with suspicion. Then the birds vanished from sight.

“I think we should find some shelter,” Oscar said at once. “Clearly it’s not safe to be traveling through the air in this storm. Both of you are hurt, and I hate to say it but we’re not going to find Tim and Lauren like this.”

Jon looked like he wanted to protest, but to Haley’s immense surprise he nodded. They were both looking at her now, as if expecting her to disagree. She wanted to, but there was no denying Oscar was right.

“Let’s find somewhere to land.”

It took them quite a while to find shelter. Heeding Oscar’s warnings about staying out of the air, they moved closer to the ground, where destruction loomed all around them. The storm — which Haley was totally convinced by now had been conjured by one of the Harbingers — had separated houses from their roofs, submerged vehicles in several feet of water, and blocked off just about every road in sight. It soon became apparent that there was no land remaining for them to land on, so instead they touched down in a patch of forest some ways beyond the city, which was fast becoming a swamp.

Haley had been the one to suggest the area; she could tell that the boys were confused, but she didn’t have the energy to waste on an unnecessary explanation. With Oscar’s help she climbed down from Skylar’s back, still being battered by the relentless rain.

“Whatever you’re planning on doing, you mind speeding the process up a bit? No pressure though,” said Jon, his teeth chattering, arms folded tightly around his body.

Haley closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but it was hard to do as she was fighting both the immense pain from Valarok’s blade and the unbelievable wave of cold caused by the sudden storm surge. Still, she tried her best to block it out, focusing on the plants around her, the ground beneath her feet. In moments she knew she had succeeded: she felt rather than saw as the ground in front of them shifted. Huge rocks burst from the forest floor like large, misshapen stalagmites to form a vast cave, which was about as large as the mansion’s living room.

“Wow,” Jon breathed.

“Agreed. But how about we admire it from the inside,” Oscar said pointedly. They hurried inside, followed at once by Skylar. Once they were inside Jon actually let out a deep sigh of relief, safe at last from the raging weather.

Moments after entering the small ball of light Jon had conjured floated up to the top of the ceiling and brightened, illuminating the entire region.

Finally free of the rain, Haley fell back against the wall and slid down, and Oscar and Jon joined her, their distraught faces perfectly framed in the brilliant light. Skylar knelt down in their midst, her head resting on Jon’s knees as he gently stroked her head. She let out a nicker of contentment.

“So, does anyone want to break the silence on the steaming pile of horse manure we landed ourselves in?” Oscar asked.

“Which part exactly?” said Jon. “The part where the Harbingers showed up at our house unannounced, the part where our parents are trapped in a magical pocket dimension, or the one where our siblings are lost in a supernatural storm that wrecked half the city?”

Oscar shrugged. “I’m not very choosey, take your pick.”

“How did they even find us?” Haley said, more out of anger than curiosity. “I thought Sytris said the mansion was concealed under a dozen protection spells?”

“They tracked us somehow. Using some kind of magical artifact,” Jon said. “I heard the kid — the oldest brother I mean (which is still weird, by the way) — talking about some kind of nexus. It’s obvious they think we have it.”

“That’s ridiculous! They have no way to even verify that. They probably just assumed that we have it.”

Oscar remained quiet, but there was a kind of contemplative look on Jon’s face that made Haley curious.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Obviously not. Spill it.”

“Forget about it. It’s stupid.”

“Jon…”

A menacing rumble tore through the ground, punctuating Haley’s comment.

“Well I was just thinking,” Jon said hastily, with a nervous glance at the damp floor. “I didn’t think much of it at first, but did you see the way Erymithia looked at Sytris when he showed up? It was weird, like they’ve got some history. I mean it could have been nothing but… You know, I always thought he was shady. He was less like a guardian and more like a prison warden.”

Both Oscar and Haley remained silent, Haley deep in thought, Oscar looking blank.

“Regardless, I think he truly believed that he had our best interests at heart,” Haley said quietly. “Even if we disagreed on the ‘how’ of it, we all wanted the same things right? To keep us safe.”

A small frown creased Jonathan’s forehead. He looked like he wanted to say something but seemed to think better of it. A moment later, however, he seemed have reached the decision to speak his mind anyway. “Are you talking about Sytris or your dad?”

Haley had a physical reaction somewhere between a gasp and a cough. She stared incredulously at Jon, her fingernails digging harshly into the skin of her knees, but as painful as it was she didn’t remove her hand. Neither Jon nor Haley spoke, but Oscar’s eyes were swiveling from one to the other as though following a ball at a tennis match. After a few seconds however, Haley’s shoulders sagged. All the fire burning within her suddenly disappeared, as if it had been sucked inside some great vacuum in the pit of her stomach.

“You know what the sad part is? I don’t even know.” Her eyes were stinging, but not from the cold or the pain in her arm. She wiped her eyes impatiently and sniffled, then said, “Maybe both? I know what you guys must think of my dad, but he wasn’t always like that. He was kind, helpful, affectionate… fun.”

“So what happened?” Oscar asked.

“I have no idea,” Haley said truthfully. “Growing up, for the longest time everything was great — and then suddenly it wasn’t. My dad would take us to the movies, to amusement parks, we even went camping pretty often. He let me stay up late, we had family game nights, and half the time our dinner was ice-cream and pizza, even though it drove my mom nuts. He even taught me how to paint. Believe it or not, I’d have more fun painting with him than doing anything else.

“My mom would be furious when it was all over though,” she continued, a small trace of a laugh in her voice now. “We’d ‘accidentally’ smudge paint on each other, until it turned into full blown paint wars. Laundry day was a nightmare.

“But then it all stopped. As a matter of fact, I think I remember exactly when it all changed. I was about six and we’d just got home from the market, and my dad went in with some of the bags while I stayed behind to help my mom with the rest. I was following her inside but then something caught my attention: something moving in the trees. I thought it was a dog at first, since we had a lot of strays in the neighbourhood, but something about it felt different. I was actually going to go into the bushes to see what it was — don’t ask me why, I don’t even know why — but then my Dad came out. He yelled at me and my mom to get inside and she swept me up and kind of teleported inside. It was crazy, the only time I’ve ever seen her move that fast was during the Black Friday flash sales.

“Dad was gone for about half an hour, and when he came back there was… there were green splatters on his shirt… Oh my God.” She looked up at her brothers and saw that they had the same look of realization on their faces. “We moved a few weeks after that, but even before we left my dad was a lot more tense and reserved. We stopped going out, we stopped painting together, and he was really jumpy all of a sudden.

“I never understood it until now, but that thing in the bushes had to have been a monster. Right there, in our front yard.”

“Sounds like it,” said Jon. “From what I gather, he realized that he was too complacent and he had to become more serious to make sure it didn't happen again.”

“I hated him for so long after that happened. Uprooting our whole lives, forcing me to leave the school I loved and the friends I’d made. And I never once realized that he was doing it to protect me. And now… I can’t even tell him I understand why he did it, or to thank him…” Her eyes were stinging again; she could feel the tears springing forward, but there was nothing she could do to stop them.

She dissolved into tears. Jon looked at a complete loss for words, but Oscar closed the distance between them and placed an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in.

It was nothing like the kind of comforting, strong-armed embrace her father used to provide, but in that moment it was enough. Several minutes had passed before she was able to stop crying, and when she finally regained control of herself she looked up to see Jon still looking rather awkward.

“Sorry,” he said, his eyes fixed on the ground. “I’m not good at the public affection thing.”

“It’s fine,” Haley said, wiping her face. “I’m okay now.” She gazed out into the dark and stormy night. “I can’t believe Tim and Lauren are stuck somewhere in that mess. It’s not fair.”

“No it’s not.” Jon heaved a deep sigh, but then, with an obvious measure of reluctance, he said, “But I think Oscar’s right. We should have faith that they’ll be all right.”

“See, that’s the spirit,” Oscar said cheerfully. “’Don’t worry, they’ll be fine and we’ll find them soon enough. Or who knows, maybe they’ll find us.”

“But what about our parents? And Sytris?” Haley asked.

“I have complete faith that they’ll be fine too,” he said in the same breezy tone.

“Are you just saying that so we’ll stop worrying?”

“Well yes,” Oscar said shamelessly. “But I also believe it. Now, how about we get some shut-eye? We can try looking for them again tomorrow.”

Haley found herself chasing sleep for several hours that night. She kept her eyes firmly closed, tossing and turning restlessly for hours on end, but after a time she had to concede defeat. Between the rain hammering against the cave roof, the deafening booms of thunder, and Oscar’s elephantine snoring, there was no way she was going to fall asleep tonight. With a sigh she sat up, noticing that the little ball of light that had floated up to the ceiling had disappeared. It seemed obvious at first: Jon most likely wouldn’t have been able to sustain it since he had fallen asleep. Or so she thought.

She realized she was wrong when she noticed Jon’s figure sitting at the narrow mouth of the cave, tossing a pebble into the air and catching it in his palm.

“Can’t sleep either?” he said without turning around.

Haley tucked her hair behind her head and crossed the mulchy floor, came to a halt just beside him and joined him in the act of staring out into the bleak sky.

“It’s a miracle he can sleep through this at all,” she said, jerking her head at Oscar, who was lying spread-eagled with a faint line of drool tracing from his lips. “I don’t think I’ll be able to though. Too much going on. You?”

“I thought one of us should keep watch.”

“And you volunteered without discussing it with us first? There’s that Whitmore selflessness we’ve all heard so much about.” Haley grinned at him but Jon didn’t react. Her smile faded; she knew what was bothering him because it was bothering her too.

“I’m sure Mr. Whitmore is fine,” she said. “Unless the Harbingers miraculously know where the mirror in Sytris’s room leads to, they’re in a much better position than any of us.”

“And what if they do know?” Jon’s voice wasn’t even worried, it was hollow, empty, as if he had already resigned himself to the worst.

“They might,” Haley admitted. “Nothing’s impossible. But they might not. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but the Harbingers were more interested in us than them, they probably won’t even spare a second thought at them. I believe they’re safe.”

“And if they’re not?” he asked, and there was a slight quiver in his voice now. He turned to look at her, and at that precise moment a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the entrance of the cave, gleaming on a lone tear that sparkled in his eye. “You, Oscar, Tim, Lauren — all of your families are fully intact. My Dad is all I have left. If something happens to him too…”

His lip quivered but he didn’t burst into tears, although it seemed to be taking all his willpower not to. Haley looped her arms around him and laid her head against his shoulder. He didn’t push her off, but simply sat there, shaking with silent sobs.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again,” he said. “And I never even told him…”

“It’s okay,” Haley said soothingly. “I think he knows. Of course he knows. You’ll see him again, just like I believe I’ll see my dad again too. And for the record, whatever happens going forward, even if he was all you had before that’s not how it is now.”

He looked up at her and gave her a feeble, watery smile, then placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed gently. They remained like that for a few moments, listening to the rain and thunder. Jon settled at last, sitting up now.

“You know, you really don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders anymore. I think that’s what Sytris wanted when he brought us all back together. For us to realize that we’re not alone anymore.”

Jon exhaled deeply, then nodded, wiping his eyes.

“Can I ask you a question?” she said.

“Depends.” He gave her another melancholy smile.

She didn’t want to ruin the moment but she was genuinely curious. It was a shot in the dark, but she took it anyway. “What was your mom like?”

Jon didn’t answer for so long that she realized she had made a terrible mistake. “Nevermind, that was stupid to ask. I’m sorry —”

“It’s not that,” Jon said, his voice so low and unfocused that it sounded like he was in some kind of trance. “It’s just… I spent so many years trying not to think about the bad, that I guess I forgot about the good parts too. She was really nice. Always patient, understanding, never got upset. Well, except for that one time when my parents found out I traded my ring for an action figure. I mean, I understand now why she reacted like that, but even then it never bothered me.

“I guess everybody says this about their mom, but she really was the best mom in the world.”

Haley realized that she was smiling ear-to-ear now. She had never heard Jon speak with so much fondness in his voice before. It was like a breath of fresh air.

“Horrible cook though,” Jon said bluntly, and her smile slipped slightly. “I remember once when my dad was trying to impress his boss because a promotion was on the table. Dad wanted to get takeout, but she insisted on doing a home-cooked meal. She thought takeout would send a bad message. Dinner was two hours late that nigt and when she finally took it out of the oven, it was dreadful.” He was laughing now, his eyes bright.

“The smoke detectors went off, and I think my dad’s boss almost fainted from the smell of the meatloaf alone. My dad’s chances were in the gutter by now but we couldn’t stop laughing. Mom was furious with us.”

“What’d she do?” Haley asked, the corners of her lips twitching as she struggled to contain herself.

“She banned takeout and cooked us dinner for the rest of the week,” Jon said, and the two of them exploded in gales of laughter. “My Dad and I had to smuggle in any form of pastries and junk food we could find just to survive. But then she found them, and she ate our entire stash right in front of us.”

Haley giggled, then she glanced at him and smiled at the tender look on his face.

“She sounds like a great woman.”

“She was,” he said simply. He was still smiling but his eyes looked distant, as if he was no longer seeing the storm unfolding in front of them at all.

Haley was about to speak again, but she paused abruptly, whipping her head around.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asked Jon, snapping out of his reverie.

“It — it sounded like something was clopping around outside.”

“Clopping? You… you mean like a goat?” Jon was frowning now, clearly deeply confused. Haley shrugged. “It’s probably nothing, I’ve been hearing all sorts of weird things the past few hours but I never saw anything out of the —”

He never got to complete his sentence. Before he could get the last word out, there was a sharp swishing noise, followed by a loud thwack. Jon coughed and spluttered, grasping at his chest as Haley uttered a small scream. Something long and thin was sprouting from his chest now, where a stream of blood was trickling out. She heard the swishing noise again and hauled Jonathan out of the line of fire just as another arrow flew loose, burying itself in the grass where Jon had just been sitting.

Once he was securely out of the way, she crept up to the mouth of the cave and peered outside, terrified. She was expecting to see the Harbingers standing out there again, which was why she was immensely confused to see what looked like a herd of horses gathered in front of their earth tent.

After a few seconds she realized that they weren’t horses at all. They had the lower bodies of horses, but where the necks should have been their bodies melded smoothly with what were obviously human torsos, all of which were clutching bows and arrows and aiming right at her. Not goats.

“Centaurs,” she breathed.