Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

“Sorry,” he said. “It doesn’t matter now, and I know what you’re going to say: she got us this far, and I know that. I know I’d be dead without her and without you. It’s an egg already snatched at this point.”

“She helped us see the truth, Jace. We were never safe in that camp even before we met her.”

“I know, I know.”

Tayel taped her burn wrap closed, and dropped the rest of the gauze back in the med kit. “So what did happen, then? When you were in the guard sector, I mean?”

“Well, after meandering around there for almost two weeks, I decided it was time. It had to be. You hadn’t stopped going to the woods with Shy, and I knew you were stealing fuel. You were breaking laws and camp rules and — I had to do it.

“I went to the guard sector after dinner one night — like I usually would — near the main tent where refugees could report problems, but I got nervous again. I kept thinking I’d tell the story wrong and that you’d be kicked out of the camp or jailed or who knows what, so I took a walk to clear my head. I played what I would say over and over in my head until I realized it had gotten really quiet. When I looked up, I’d somehow stumbled into the guard barracks area. You know, where refugees aren’t supposed to go? The tents were huge, and every single one had the Elshan military insignia on it.”

“Is it that easy to stumble into?” Tayel asked. “I thought a guard-only zone would be, well, guarded.”

“It must be that easy, because it happened. If every foot of the perimeter was manned, I doubt I’d have gotten in. It’s not like they keep anything valuable back there, right? It’s just to give camp guards a spot to meet, I thought. Or a place to take a break.”

“No idea.”

“Me either, but the point is I was there, and I was so scared I was going to be caught.” Jace wrapped his good wing around himself. “I was sneaking back to the main part of the sector when I heard muffled voices in one of the tents. I thought the guards inside heard me, so I froze, but they were talking about a group trying to escape camp.”

His face strained like he was trying to remember every detail. “They said they were going to deal with the perpetrators by… infiltrating their group. They’d captured someone’s DNA and were going to wait until someone was gone before… before shaping. ”

“Shaping?”

“It’ll make sense in a minute, I think. When I heard all this, I couldn’t help remembering what Shy said the night she’d told us her plan: that Igador had been invaded by shapeshifting aliens. On top of that, I thought the guards must have been talking about you and Shy. I thought I’d been too late to stop anything. I thought — just for a minute, initially — that Shy had been right about the Rokkir. So when the two people talking left the tent, I followed them. They went back to a refugee cluster in the middle of the guard sector, and they just watched people coming in and out of this one tent for, well it seemed like forever.

“Something felt off to me then. Like, guards didn’t need to do stakeouts like this. And I didn’t know what they’d meant by capturing DNA or shaping or…”

“Is this when you told Fehn about where you’d been going?” Tayel asked.

“Yes. I found him” — he blinked — “Alhyt, I found him yesterday. Yesterday morning.” He shook his head. “This all feels like it happened forever ago.”

“I know the feeling.”

“After what I saw, I had to tell someone where I was.”

“…But not me?”

He winced.

“It’s fine,” Tayel said. “Just tell me what happened next.”

“W-well, last night I went to the guard sector again, around the same time as the night before. I wasn’t thinking about turning you in, I was just thinking about those guards and what they’d said. I found them in the same place, by the tent they’d been spying on. A lot of time passed. I don’t remember how much. I was just so nervous.

“I remember someone left the tent, and then those two guards went in. I watched for a bit, and when no one else went in and no one came out, I thought I could peek in — just a little — to see what was going on.”

“Oh, Jace.”

“When I looked, there was only one guard and this black, floating cloud. It transformed into a person . Not the missing guard, but someone else entirely. Before I could do anything, they grabbed me and dragged me inside. They… they hit me. They started asking me questions and… and that’s when you showed up. The next thing I remember is waking up in a cell.”

Tayel shook her head. “You were brave, but you should have said something. You should have told me . Going alone was…” She shook her head again.

“I didn’t want you knowing what I’d planned to do. I never wanted you to know I intended to turn you in. For all my squawking, I know…” He turned away. “I know you were doing what you thought was right. You always do.”

She wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

“And you were right,” he said. “The Rokkir are real, and they need to be stopped. What they did to those people…”

“It’s awful,” Tayel said.

He tapped his talons together. “Are — are you mad at me? For what I did?”

“Jace.” She squeezed him a bit, ignoring the resulting throbbing in her arm. “No, I’m not mad at you. I was, but… you had every right to be upset, and we were technically breaking laws. And if it weren’t for you… well it’s possible we wouldn’t have been able to confirm the Rokkir were real at all. You were braver than any of us. You didn’t do what was easy, and you did it all on your own. After everything that’s happened, I’m just happy you’re safe, and that you’re right here.”

He buried his head in her side. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

She stayed still, and for a few minutes according to Jace’s wristband, just enjoyed the silence. She reveled in doing nothing. No running. No screaming. No expedited pulse or adrenaline surges. Nothing at all except listening to the thrum of the ship’s engines. Even with the steel floors and walls, it would be easy to fall asleep. But she and Jace weren’t the only ones who needed patching up. She forced her eyes open.

Fehn still stood motionless across the hold. Rivulets of blood had dried on the wall, now rust-like stains against the steel. She frowned. He had a hole in his shoulder. He should’ve been bleeding a lot more, and she aimed to say so, but Shy appeared and leaned against the archway between the hold and cockpit corridor.

She looked the best of all of them, even with a scrape running almost the full length of her arm. Her braided hair frizzed out of its ties like a halo around her head, and her clothes, while scuffed and torn in a number of places, didn’t seem to sag from her frame like Tayel’s clothes had started to. Tayel followed the intricate pattern of decorative stitches up the tunic until she met Shy’s eyes.

How long had she been staring?

“How’s the arm?” Shy asked, and Tayel could swear she saw the quirk of a smile, hear the lilt of amusement in the princess’ voice.

Tayel swallowed. “Um, it’s okay. What about you? Are you hurt? Badly, I mean?”

“I’m fine.” Shy moved her gaze to Fehn. “Hey.”

No response.

“Fehn,” she tried again.

Jace stirred awake in Tayel’s arms. Fehn lazily rolled his head along his shoulder to glare at Shy.

“What’s with the dark aether?” she asked.

“Not now,” he said.

She scoffed. “We were just chased through Castle Aishan by bastards wielding that stuff — Rokkir bastards. Seeing as how they’re the only people I’ve seen use it, I’d like to know why you can, too.”