Tales from the Earthen Sky

"Well, Telsan? What do you think?" Solis asked.

"Well . . . it's uh—" The birdman coughed, choking on the dust of the cavern. He seemed clearly to have no idea what to think, same as Solis.

The cave was tall but not very wide, and was one of two they had visited now. How was it that the island felt so foreboding, menacing, magic-laced and mystery-infused . . . and then when they actually looked, it seemed more ordinary than ever? Well . . . perhaps not ordinary per se, since most caverns did not have stalactites and stalagmites that formed curved teeth like a monster's maw, nor did they sparkle in places like gemstones, glinting brightly in the near nonexistent light as though containing their own. When Solis turned his head, he could swear he saw . . . faces?

A small squawk escaped his friend's lips, and Solis jerked away from his stare-down with the wall, heartbeat spiking. "What the—" Silently, he looked from his friend to the cavern wall they'd been inspecting, seeing no change. He was about to laugh and chide Telsan for scaring him when the ground rumbled once again.

Telsan took little notice of the tremor. He was still staring at a spot in the wall to their right, where a hole . . . smoldered in the stone. Its edges leaked smoke, and its shape squirmed as it slowly closed. Inside was a disturbing sight: a dark face with bright eyes staring out of the hole, surrounded by murky darkness, blinking every few moments.

"What . . . what is that?" Telsan hissed, just as Solis was trying to ask the same thing. They watched for another moment as the seam closed, and Solis tentatively reached out a hand toward it.

"What are you doing, Sol!"

"Gotta . . . I don't know, figure out what it is." The white-winged boy felt at the roiling edge of the stone rift with a finger. The formless face inside narrowed its eyes, which seemed either glaring white or infernal red depending on how directly he looked at them. The stone was hot to the touch, but not burningly so, and the creeping way that the hole closed in on itself felt alive on his fingertips.

"Did you see that freaky red flash when it appeared?" Telsan asked.

"I'm more interested in where it leads. And what's actually down here. This is all . . ."

"An illusion," the birdman finished, his tone echoing the moment of discovery. It made sense, really, and was what they had surmised shortly upon reaching the island in the first place. Not all was as it seemed . . . so then, what was this place?

The gap in the stone drew to a hand's breadth, and then closed over like a mouth that no longer wished to speak. The young men stared at it uncertainly, and then shared a glance. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Solis asked.

"Yeah. We should go back for the others first."

"Oh." Solis nodded, as though that were indeed what he'd been thinking. "Yeah, good idea."

. . . Your trespassing will be forgiven . . .

The words of the strange woman of shadow echoed in Phoenix's mind, as though growing more distant but leaving her mental chords resonating. The woman turned, still hovering a few inches above the ground but pausing her movement, and looked back toward Phoenix, then toward Colla. Her mouth moved, but Phoenix heard nothing, either physically or in her head.

"Y-Yes, milady," Colla said shakily, her words taking a moment to get free from her mouth, which appeared to be having as much trouble as Phoenix's. She stepped forward as the female storm of shadows continued on, following after her.

But what did she hear? What did this . . . this creature of the Earth tell her?

Again the words echoed in her mind: If you play with me, your trespassing will be forgiven.

Phoenix followed, unsure where they were going, nor even if she and Colla were going to the same place. Following the same woman . . . if woman she was . . . yes. But to the same location? That had yet to be seen.

Solis zipped over the lip of Grimstaf VI, following the faster Ornis. He beat his white wings, rising over the crest of the stairs that led to the main arena level. There was . . . no one to be seen. That figures. Where can those girls be? They'd checked a few locations already. There were only so many caves and pseudo-caves on the island, only so many places to hide . . . and they should have already been back here.

Images of the tear in space, the black area hidden behind the wall of stone, flashed in Solis' mind, accompanied by a sinking feeling.

"So . . ." Telsan, landing in front of his friend and gesturing around the area. "Are they hiding? Did they leave? Or . . ." He didn't finish, and he didn't have to.

Solis landed next to him, taking a breath and following his sweeping gaze. A long moment passed between them, and as it were a silent exchange. It was not a good exchange by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, their imaginations were stretched to the darkest extents, all the way to the void within the island, where that criminal and Faridi may well have gone. Or rather, been imprisoned.

Telsan let out an uncustomary curse. "We're fools."

"Thiiiiis isn't good," Solis agreed, taking to the air. "Where do we . . ."

. . . Look first? he finished in his head. But the answer was obvious.

With a glance back at Telsan, he sped off to the cave where they'd found the rent in the stone. They picked their way through the narrow cave, feeding their wings between stalactites, seeing the same phantom faces in their peripheral but feeling and hearing nothing . . . overly suspicious. They arrived at the far end of the cave and began scrutinizing the walls for indications of where one of the rents might appear, or what could trigger one. That last part was the real puzzle. Solis tried calling out, desperately touching every surface of rough and jagged stone, while Telsan scraped and tapped the walls with his beak, listening for anything strange.

"We're definitely doing something wrong, Sol. Something is missing. You think maybe that wasn't a coincidence that the last time happened just before the girls disappeared? And the earthquake?"

Solis thought about it—something he was hesitant to do. "OK, so maybe . . . I mean they have to be there, whatever there is. Either they found the secret we've been missing, or . . . something found them. The same thing that found Faridi."

"You think they're trapped inside, too?"

Solis tilted his head to the side. "Don't know." With a sigh, he raise a clenched hand over his head. He paused, then pounded on the stone. "Hey! Whoever's here, let us in! Stop toying with us! Take down these illusions now!"

He paused, and only his aching fist attempted to break the silence. After what seemed multiple minutes, just as he was making to repeat the vain effort, a raspy voice slithered out from the stone, indeterminate in source or identity: Very well, overeager explorers. Come in.

Phoenix could no longer see Colla. The Flameborn girl walked through a world she knew not where, stepping in shadows, sending up flakes of blackest dust in her tracks. What light source lit the nightscape, she couldn't tell. She had the vague impression that it was all of the night-woman's making, or else the home whence she'd come to spirit them away. Her chilling words still haunted Phoenix, so careless and yet so weighty, as though a goddess had invited her to a relaxing game of who shall we kill?

And yet, where was the woman now? Phoenix could not say, yet she knew where she was to walk: straight ahead, as she'd been instructed. And something about a choice. One of them . . . one of them would . . . Don't think about that, Phoenix. Just survive and get out of here. She had a feeling that, by the end of this, they would either have the answers they'd come to find, or she would be taking her friends' hands and shouting, "Fly! Fly!" She wanted nothing more than to do exactly that—and yet she dared not, not here in this constricting darkness.

Just a bit farther, little bird, came the woman's blustery whisper. Out of the thick dark or from within her own skull, Phoenix could not discern.

The Flameborn made no reply. Rather, she gulped, shifted her shoulders uncomfortably, and quickened her pace a bit.

Soon, she saw something, a distant brightness like the coming of dawn, but it swept over her unnaturally quickly, before she could register it. She was . . . in a room. A stone room, yet shaped like a residential one, perhaps a single floor of a particularly well-constructed roost . . . made with stone. Inside stood Colla, face running with tears.

"I'm—I'm sorry, Phoenix," she blubbered. "I'm so sorry. She told me. The . . . the black storm woman. She told me to."

Phoenix approached her hesitantly. "Colla? What are you talking about? Colla?"

The woman was hearing a voice in her head, as was clearly visible. She looked at war with herself, with her own emotions and conscience. Sobbing, eyes still streaming tears, she repeated, "I'm sorry, Phoenix. It's you or him."

Now we see, said the voice.

Colla attacked.

Characters

Solis Lightwing (SOLE-iss)—The main character, a white-winged boy of unceasing curiosity who longs to see inside the forbidden Earth.

Telsan (TELL-suhn)—Solis’ best friend, a young man of the Bird Tribe.

Phoenix Dolce (DOLE-chay)—Friend of Solis and Telsan, a Flameborn girl of sixteen years. Daughter of Falla Dolce.

Pim Lightwing—Daughter of Fey of Longfell and mother of Solis and Floris.

Arthur Lightwing—An exterior miner, husband of Pim, head of the Lightwing household.

Faridi (fuh-RID-ee)—A Tapiq man who frequently volunteers for lookout duty.

Colla—A female Tapiq; often works with Faridi.

Melka—One of the three living Tapiq Magnates.

Donnor—Said to be the eldest of the three living Magnates.

Spore—One of the three living Magnates. Doesn’t say much.

Fey—Solis’ deceased grandmother, a former Magnate.

Floris—Solis' younger sister. 11 years old; aspires to be a physician.

Caris—Eldest of the three Lightwing children, now married and residing in the neighboring Tapiq village of Dram.

Falla Dolce—Phoenix's mother, a Dustborn from a powerful elementalist family of Fenaback. Kept her family name due to unfortunate events she'd rather leave buried.

Terms

Earth, The—An immeasurable continent that looms over the entire sky. Forbidden to all save those whom the Magnates choose each year.

Tapiq (tuh-PEEK)—The tribe of winged men who dwell in Ameros and the surrounding islands. As with most tribes, they have adopted some from other tribes and races as their own, while others are visitors.

Ornis—Also called the Bird Tribe, though this isn’t entirely accurate, as there are multiple; most simply live farther north.

Hiding, The—The six hours in the middle of the day when the Sun’s low-angled course takes it behind the infinite cloud layer that looms beneath the sky world.

Magnate—One of the three living souls of the Tapiq tribe who have ascended to the Earth and returned, bearing supposedly infinite knowledge that they choose to keep hidden.

Ameros (AM-uh-ros)—Largest island in the southeastern quadrant of the sky, where the Tapiq village of Megeth lies.

Megeth (Meh-GETH)—Capital city of the Tapiq people.

Grimstaf VI (GRIM-stahf six)—An artificial island created west of Ameros by the Harbinger.

Elementalist—One born with a Kinship to an elemental force. They usually lack wings.

Kinships

Flameborn—Kin of flame. They form their own wings as needed from tongues of fire that sprout from their backs.

Dustborn—Artists of soil and dust. They fly with wings created from nearby dust particles.

Windborn—Wind kin. Unlike other elementalists, these often grow wings just like any other, though some possess heightened abilities allowing them to fly without wings—and thus lacking them.

Waveborn (aka Watchers)—Keepers of the invisible wards that protect the sky islands from falling hazards. Also, those with the rare ability of sound manipulation.

Dewborn—These control moisture and redirect water.

Stormborn—Creators of small storms and electrical currents.

Snowborn—Bringers of frost and snow on a small scale.

Sunborn—Manipulators of light.

Beastborn—These rare kind, seen largely in the northwestern isles, come in different orders according to a certain class of living creature.

Cragborn—Manipulators of stone.