Monsters & Magic

The sun scorched the world around them as Cora and Idris walked the streets of Phaedra.

“Where are we going anyway?” she asked, pulling her cloak shut to keep the heat out.

“We are going to take the long way home.” He looked up at the sky. “It is going to rain. I want to make sure everyone is safe.”

Cora gave him a skeptical look. “It’s going to rain?” she repeated.

He nodded. “I can feel it.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” she argued, looking up as well. “How can you feel rain? There’s not even a single cloud up there.”

“We don’t get much rain here. When it comes, the atmosphere changes. You’ll see,” he explained.

Cora rolled her eyes.

They continued along the curving maze of streets in silence.

Clearly Delta wants me gone… she thought, passing another connecting side street. She huffed, going over the interaction again in her head. “If she saw what it’s like there, maybe she’d change her attitude,” she thought out loud.

As they went, she found herself looking down every side road they passed, searching for the alley she had come through with Seth. Not that she wanted to leave… she wasn’t sure what she wanted.

“Where?” Idris asked.

She looked over at him and shook her head. “Nowhere.”

He raised a brow. “Nowhere?”

“Yeah. Nowhere. I was just thinking,” she said in an attempt to end that conversation before it started. She looked to the sky and did a double take. A cloud had appeared over he city, round and gray. “That’s the rain cloud?” she asked, incredulous. It wouldn’t even cover half of the city.

“It’s the start,” Idris said. “Just wait. More will come.” He picked up the pace. “Shadow-Walkers like the rain. They will come out as it gets darker.”

Cora shuddered. The alleyways suddenly seemed less interesting than they had been, more sinister and dangerous.

Without hesitation, Idris headed toward the sound.

A scream sounded from somewhere in the distance, and she nearly echoed the scream out of surprise.

Cora’s heart pounded in her chest as she fought the urge to run the other way. She glanced up to see more clouds had joined the first one. She swallowed hard.

They hurried down a side street and stopped short when they came out the other side.

Three hulking Shadow-Walkers circled a group of people.

The people appeared to be trying to fend them off but the monsters kept moving, avoiding the magic each time.

Idris put a hand on Cora’s shoulder and pressed her against the wall at their backs. “Stay here.”

She planted herself, eyes on the circling monsters. Terror kept her still. She watched as Idris moved away from her, toward the monsters.

They spotted him and stopped circling. One broke away from the others and advanced, followed by another. He raised a hand and she saw two of the other people doing the same. Then a flash of blinding light filled her vision with spots. She blinked, trying to see what had happened.

A dark shape came toward her and she threw her hands up to shield her face, fearing a Shadow-Walker had escaped the assault. Instead, warm hands moved hers out of the way. “They’re gone,” Idris said.

Slowly, the spots of light faded and she could see clearly again. The monsters were gone, their only remnants a cloud of dust settling to the ground. Cora stuck herself to his side as the group of people who had been under attack crossed the street toward them.

“Thank you for your help,” a man said, extending a hand toward Idris. His gray cloak was swept over one shoulder. “I don’t know what we would have done..”

“I’ve never seen so many Shadow-Walkers in one place,” added a young woman in a yellow cloak. She glanced behind them at their companions. An older looking woman in a lime green cloak had her hands on the arms of another woman in a gray cloak that matched the man’s. A braid of thick brown hair draped over her shoulder and down her front.

“You’re welcome,” Idris said with a nod. “Rain is coming. Stay safe.”

The man nodded.

“We’re going home now,” the woman in the gray cloak said, stepping forward and linking her arm with the man’s. She looked back at the older woman. “Let’s go.”

“We need to keep moving,” Idris commented as the group hurried away.

“Ok…” Cora answered. The uncertainty she felt shook her voice.

“We don’t have much farther to go.” Idris started forward, glancing both ways before putting an arm around her shoulders and picking up the pace.

Cora stuck close to his side, constantly checking the sky, as they walked. Each time she looked up more clouds had gathered, turning the sky gray. The empty streets of Phaedra darkened with the cloud coverage and an eerie silence fell between the rows of buildings.

The first raindrops began to fall as their door came into view. They splashed down much larger than the rain that fell in the city where Cora came from, leaving dark splotches all over the dry ground.

We made it.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, a shadow loomed from behind them making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. They were only a few paces from the door when the Shadow-Walker materialized, advancing toward them.

“Get inside,” Idris said, pushing the door open and trading places with Cora.

She stumbled across the threshold and turned as a flash of light filled the doorway. For a moment she thought lightning had struck. Then Idris stepped inside and closed the door, breathing hard.

“That was close,” she said breathlessly.

The rain beat down on the windows above, growing heavier and filling the room with noise.

Idris hung his cloak up on the hook by the door. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Cora nodded. She walked over to stand under one of the windows and watched the water splash onto the glass. She frowned. “Will it damage the city?”

“No. It won’t last long. As long as the magic holds, the buildings will be fine,” Idris answered.

“Oh…” Just that morning it had been so hot she had willingly taken her cloak off just to cool down, and now the sky was completely covered with clouds. The change was jarring compared to the predictable gray skies of the city she was used to.

If it was up to Delta, I would have gone back there. She narrowed her eyes, turning her scowl on the table as she thought over the hostile interaction.

Idris disappeared through the doorway to the other room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Delta had been like a completely different person from the quiet woman she had been the first time they had met.

As quickly as it had started, the rain let up, slowing until the clouds were gone and the sun once again shone through the windows. It cast long rays of light across the room.

“See? I told you it wouldn’t last long.” Idris emerged from the other room.

“What’s her problem,” she grumbled, heading for the table. She snatched the leftover pastry she had saved from the day before and took a bite. It was not as satisfying as she had expected and she set it ack down with a sigh.

“Yeah…” she agreed, looking up at the window. “Now what?”

“Now we wait for the clouds to dissipate and then go out and check on things.” Idris opened the package of fresh baked herb bread they had bought at the docks the day before and plucked one out.

“Oh.” She narrowed her eyes at the bluing sky.

It did not take long for the clouds to be gone completely. When they were, Cora followed Idris outside.

“Where did you find Marin?” she asked when her mind conjured up and image of the injured boy laying on the street.

“Not far from here, actually,” Idris answered.

Cora shuddered, half expecting to find him again, or someone else who had been caught alone in the rain. Each corner they rounded and every street they passed had her on edge, ready to move if they came across someone.

Humidity hung in the air and the ground held rapidly shrinking puddles; tiny reflections of the sky dotted across the otherwise dry ground.

The farther in they went the smaller the puddles became until the ground was once again dry.

“What’s the point of rain if it just disappears as quick as it came?” she wondered out loud.

The streets were empty as they made their way around the outer edge of the city and then slowly inward.

She opened her mouth to ask when a pair of women in purple cloaks approached, their hoods lowered revealing smiling faces.

“Hello, Idris.” The first woman spoke softly, her voice smooth and clear.

“Hello Felicity, Tempest.” Idris nodded at each woman in turn. Then he looked at Cora. “This is Felicity, the fourth Gifted, and her partner Tempest.”

The second woman smiled brightly, her blue eyes shone like the sky after the rain and her short cropped hair revealed ears lined in earrings of all shapes and colors. “Hello,” she greeted.

“This is Cora.”

There were no signs of any kind of lakes or rivers around the desert city. The closest water source she could think of was the bay on the other side of the market. Where does it even go?

Felicity nodded. “Ah, yes. We have heard your name mentioned. Welcome to Phaedra, Cora.”

“Thanks…” She frowned. If her name was being spoken around Phaedra, that could not be a good thing. Who is talking about me, and why?

“Are you just returning?” Idris asked.

“We are. This trip took longer than expected, but we have brought back enough water from the Spring to last for quite some time,” Tempest answered.

A set of goggles were parked on top of her head, holding back waves of amber hair that looked like it was about to explode from the braid it was trapped in. A leather bag hung across her body from one shoulder, sticking out from beneath her cloak and pushing it aside to reveal long pants that had been tied tight around her ankles and a shirt that hugged her middle.

“We came from the market during the rain. The city is all clear on our end. Did you find any trouble?” Felicity asked, glancing around.

If she had not seen it with her own eyes, Cora would have had trouble believing it had rained at all. The sun had dried up the ground and the buildings around them as quickly as the rain had soaked them.

“No,” Idris answered.

“Wonderful,” Felicity said. She turned to Tempest. “Shall we return home?”

Cora narrowed her eyes, trying to recall the map with the stars on it that marked the homes of each of the gifted. Unable to picture it, she settled on the assumption that they must have ducked into one of the houses nearby.

“If they covered the rest of the city, we can go too,” Idris said, turning his attention to Cora.

She shrugged. “Fine with me.”

As she said it, a shout echoed up from somewhere nearby, bouncing off the buildings. It sounded like a cry for help, sending Cora’s heart into her throat. She did not have to ask to know what Idris’s response would be.

“Come on,” he said before hurrying off in the direction of the cry.

They passed quickly and when Cora turned to watch them walk away, they had already disappeared.