Page 95 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
Devastated.
That was the only word that came to mind as I beheld what little remained of the field, of the wall, of…the Knowledge Center. My stomach turned over.
People on both sides—theEnforcersand the Strangers—were doing the same as I was, standing and surveying the destruction. Helping one another to their feet. I had cried so much lately, I didn’t think I had any more tears left in me. But seeing that there were people alive, that others had been huddled on the ground just like us, waiting for the chaos to subside, brought fresh tears to my eyes. I couldn’t allow myself to think just yet of those who didn’t survive.
My gaze drifted to the beach, and I relished the sight of the ocean, blue and bright and calm under the midday sun. No longer a roiling black mass.
I started.
Where the grass transitioned to sand, outlined in an almost ethereal glow by the sunlight reflecting off the water, was a figure. A figure cloaked in black.
Silver eyes stared out from the shadows of its hood.
It stared at me unblinkingly. Then it inclined its head toward me and vanished.
The next few hours eroded my sense of relief, leaving nothing but heartache in its place. The Strangers had failed. That muchwas clear. With at this point uncountable people injured and dead, there simply weren’t enough warm bodies to keep pushing to take the city. And frankly, it wasn’t even clear how much city was left to take anymore.
The only small mercy for all was that there was an unspoken cease-fire as both sides tried to get their bearings.
Initially, there were shouts and tears and tight hugs as friends found one another still standing, talking, functioning. Still alive.
Then came the realization that that dark power, Kieran’s magic, had disintegrated all the bodies that were lying deceased on the field. Some remarked that this saved the trouble of digging graves for hundreds upon hundreds of people, but others mourned the fact that they would not be able to give their companions a proper burial.
Then people began to identify others who had been alive before the start of the chaos, and who, while still living, breathing, screaming, had been carried up by the current of Kieran’s power and reduced to nothing. Not even to dust.
Nya and I managed to drag Kieran’s unconscious body to the beach, depositing him safely in the sand with the group of injured men and women that was beginning to assemble there. As we moved on to reunite with members of our group and tend to the wounded, I began to overhear the stories. OneEnforcershared with another how his comrade had been lifted skyward before his very eyes, his mouth still twisted in a wail as he disintegrated. Another shared how his whole group had been carried away by the wind while he clawed at the grass and dirt and held on for dear life.
But the stories from our side were the most uncomfortable. Stories from people who knew Kieran, who were friends withKieran. Who considered him one of them. On their side. And yet he had destroyed members of their group. He had destroyed people who, according to the accounts we were given, had worked alongside him during long days at camp. People he had trained with. People he called friends.
When Nya and I finally encountered Cecil, there was a much-needed celebration.
Despite being covered in burns and having half his beard singed off from the kiss of barely-dodged Immobilizer blasts, Cecil was alive. He lifted Nya off the ground with his hug. Then he gave me a hug that was more careful but no less hearty. We joined him in wrapping the wounds of those who had fought near him.
Then came the discussion of what had just taken place. And even he, I saw with a sinking feeling in my gut, had a hardness to his expression. I could see that even though the battle was over, conflict still raged powerfully within him.
“We were winning, Nya,” he said, his voice low. He seemed to have forgotten that I was standing there, and in that moment, I was grateful. “We were going to do it. After…after all of it, after everything, we were going to do it.”
For the first time since meeting him, I didn’t hear the friendly, good-natured tone of a man who drew terrible maps and adored his infant daughter. I heard a warrior who had put everything on the line for the betterment of his people and had lost.
At one point later while wrapping a man’s leg, my eyes and Nya’s met. Neither of us had to say anything. We were both thinking that there was still another battle to come.
The battle between those who understood that what happened was out of Kieran’s control, and those who would not so easily be able to forgive and forget.
As we were preparing to move on to the next group of injured, Nya caught my arm. When she spoke, her voice, hoarse from screaming, was pitched even lower. “I think you need to go be with Kieran. Keep an eye on him.”
I swallowed and nodded. “Nya…what was that?”
She knew my meaning. And she didn’t bother hiding the fear in her eyes. “I don’t know, Maila. Ever since we found Kieran in the woods and took him in, we always wondered if he had other abilities besides just the enhanced vision. I guess we assumed he did, and they were dormant. But what happened today was…beyond what we had ever guessed.” For the first time since she broke into my apartment that night, I saw something like real fear in Nya’s eyes. “You were dead, Maila. Before Larimar’s magic revived you and brought you back to us, you weren’t even…” She winced as if the memory was a physical sting. “You weren’t even recognizable.”
The reality of what that must have been like for her and Kieran settled over me.
“When Kieran saw that,” she continued. “Everything went to hell. He…he lost it. It was like suddenly he was so strong. Inhumanly strong. And I couldn’t even keep up with what was happening. He knocked your Enforcer friend out of the way like it was nothing, and then he just unleashed on that horrible man. Even when he was obviously dead, he just kept going and going and going…and the sky was so dark, and I thought a storm was moving in or something…”
She trailed off. I didn’t press her to continue. I understood enough about what had happened, and the raw terror that came over her expression as she recounted everything wasn’t worth satisfying my curiosity about the details.
“Do you have his power, then?” she asked. “Temporarily, I mean.”
“No,” I replied, and I was thankful that was the truth. “I didn’t actually take his power. I think I just used my ability to communicate with him somehow. To break through to him. I don’t really understand it, honestly.”
