Chapter 17
Cahir
The door shook violently as Cahir banged on the wood, the sound rattling against the loose hinges. “Open the fucking door, Benny.”
He heard shuffling from inside the apartment, and the door quickly swung open. Benny stood in the doorway, his face swollen with bruises and his brown hair a disheveled mess.
“They took her,” he said to Cahir and walked back inside, leaving the door open for Cahir to enter. He slumped into a chair, his head sinking into his palms as his leg trembled with nervous energy. “I barely made it out. I had to fight my way through Orience to get back here.”
“I need to know what you know, Benny,” Cahir said to him as he held up the red piece of paper. He walked over to the window and opened it, allowing the warm air and sunlight to fill the space.
Benny looked at the paper, and his face paled. “I knew when you saw the tattoo that you would put two and two together eventually.”
The Corvids flew into the room, blowing over items on a table, and Benny jumped up. “Those things were attacking the Rozzers! Why did you just let them in?”
Roya, Ferona, and Feich shifted forms, and Benny fell back into his chair as it skidded across the floor. “What the flying-fuck!”
“What do you know, Benny?” Cahir repeated in a dangerous tone. He did not have time for introductions. He would cut this information out of this man if he had to.
Roya stepped forward, her lengthy hair swaying in the wind, and circled Benny.
Benny looked over to her and hesitated. “Friend or foe?” He looked to Cahir for reassurance.
“Friend, now answer.”
Benny paused and sighed as his eyes shifted nervously to the Corvids. “I always knew there was more to you than you let on.” He looked down at the healing tattoo on his wrist, its dragon shape a direct replica of the dragon drawn onto the paper.
He inhaled deeply and began, “My father is the founder of The Rising. We have been organized for years. A long time ago, he spoke with what he called an oracle. She told him that The Darkened, what he thinks is a flying dragon, would save us from our own. That there would come a time when our food would appear to run low, and chaos would ensue. We needed to stay vigilant and help The Darkened return to save us; otherwise, all could be lost. The Rising has been looking for clues for years.”
Jason was always an exemplary figure in Joro.
This news was… Interesting. Cahir tried to think back to any clues he missed in his time knowing Jason, that he could have been behind any of this, but nothing came to mind.
Jason was a model citizen, teaching his children to study hard and obey the laws to avoid any issues within their family.
“What does that mean, human?” Roya asked, annoyed at the mystery. For someone who always scrambled pieces of an already confusing puzzle, she was the worst when the information wasn’t readily available to her.
“We don’t know exactly. Dad… I mean, Jason… He… He snuck into the library to find more information, but couldn’t understand what it meant. Said the library was full of useless data. When he went back looking for the oracle, he could not find her.”
“How long have you been a part of this?” Cahir asked.
“I only found out about this within the last year. When Jason was taken to the Camp, The Rising placed me in charge of continuing the search. We meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays after curfew.”
“How do you get around at night?” Roya asked as she got closer to Benny. She hovered over him and hissed in his face, “And where do you meet?”
“Whoa. Whoa. Feisty. We sneak out. We know the Rozzer’s routes through Orience. And we meet in the woods past the Gardvord.” Benny pressed his body firmly against the backrest of the chair, away from Roya as much as possible, but Cahir noticed how his eyes glittered in delight at her.
“So you meet tonight…” Cahir said, then looked at the three Corvids. “We will also go. Have any of The Rising ever been to the Camp?”
“Not inside, but a couple have escaped the dome and traveled down to investigate when Dad was taken. I remained here for Seda and Mom.”
“Where is Sara?” Cahir asked, looking around the room. “Did she make it out okay?”
“She’s in bed. She hasn’t left the house since we got home. First Dad, now Seda.” He looked toward the wall and away from everyone in the room. “She has been struggling mentally since he left. Now I fear she might not fully recover.”
“These people of yours who went down to the Camp, have you heard from them yet? Do they know a way in?”
“A way in? No… and I expect that after yesterday’s events, a way out of Joro is even harder now.”
“We need to find and protect Seda before something bad happens to her,” Feich spoke for the first time.
“We will meet you at your location tonight,” Ferona chimed in. Roya and Feich nodded their heads in unison.
“I’m staying here until it is time to go,” Cahir told the three. “Roya, can I ask you guys to please scout out the area? But be careful. They’re on high alert after the Corvids attacked in force yesterday.”
The three nodded as they shifted forms and flew out of the open window.
“What the hell are those? Do all of the black birds do that?” Benny asked.
When the curfew’s alarm across the city ended, Benny and Cahir dressed in dark clothing and quietly made their way out of the window, descending toward the road below.
They snuck alongside walls and crept low through the fields.
Cahir followed Benny. They did not run into any Rozzers as they made their way into the thickness of trees past the Gardvord.
Three men surrounded a small fire as they approached. As soon as they spotted Benny, they stood up and placed their hands over their hearts, revealing dragon tattoos on their wrists that matched Benny’s.
“Rising, please meet Cahir. He is Seda’s friend. As you know, my sister was taken yesterday, and we want everyone’s help to try and get both her and Jason back,” Benny said as he entered the circle.
The Corvids flew down from a nearby branch into the circle of men, looking at Benny for approval before shifting.
“And don’t be alarmed, but Cahir brought friends.” He pointed down to the birds, and the men looked over at them.
“These things went crazy yesterday,” said a man in his twenties with blond hair, wearing a Rozzer uniform. “They were cutting Rozzers up left and right, and right now I’m dressed as one. Do they understand us?”
The Corvids shifted forms, and the men jumped back, each reaching for a hidden weapon within their clothing.
“It’s okay,” said Benny, holding his hands up and jumping between the men and the Corvids, calming the situation. “They’re friends and want to help.”
The men all looked at each other.
“How do we know we can trust them?” asked the Rozzer.
“We can trust Cahir, and he trusts them.” Benny stepped forward and beckoned Cahir into the circle.
“Please meet Askold.” He pointed to the uniformed Rozzer and shook his hand.
“As you can see, this is how we get inside information. And this is Ruel.” He pointed to a tall man in his mid-thirties with broad shoulders.
“Ruel is one of three Traversers in The Rising. He knows a lot about what it is like outside the dome. The other two are out there now.” Ruel nodded toward Cahir and the three Corvids.
“And lastly, this massive fucker is Ojore. Ojore is a butcher and a longtime friend of my father’s. ”
Ojore towered over Cahir in his human form, was built like a house, and had rich, chocolate-colored skin. He reached out to shake Cahir’s hand and grasped it firmly instead, pulling him close and looking into his eyes. “You better not fuck this up, Cahir. We don’t just trust anyone.”
“Ahem.” Roya cleared her throat and walked around the men.
“Since you’re all introducing yourselves so politely, I’m Roya, and this is my murder.
” She pointed to her siblings before continuing, “My sister Ferona and my brother Feich. Our only goal here is to find and protect Seda. We have the gift of the sky, so whatever you need us to do to help with this, let us know.”
The men nodded, and Ojore released Cahir’s hand, leaving a cramp behind. Cahir flexed his fingers.
This fucker…
“Leaving Joro is going to be even harder than it was before,” said Askold as he sat back down near the fire. “They have increased the guard at the exits.”
“There was a crack in the wall,” Cahir said.
“Not anymore, at least it’s not unprotected anymore. There was a fight of some sort there recently, and the Rozzers have it blocked. It’s now fully guarded.”
Cahir and Roya exchanged a glance. Their fight to save Jason might have blocked their only escape. “We need to get out of here. Seda could be hurt right now,” Cahir said as anxiety coursed through his body again.
“There is a way out, but no one is going to like it,” Ruel suggested as he looked at everyone. “The Murkway. The pipes lead out under the city. No one watches it.”
Askold groaned loudly and said, “No one watches it because no one is stupid enough to go through there. You can’t be serious.”
“What’s the schedule like down there? And can we get a layout?” Benny asked Askold, ignoring his complaints.
He groaned again before replying, “I’ll find out.”
Ojore was sitting across from Cahir and watching him intently, “Why do you look so familiar?”
Cahir’s eyes remained locked onto Ojore’s. He did not break it once as he replied, “No idea.”
“Does anyone know how she and the others just disappeared yesterday?” Askold asked. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Magic, you idiot,” Ojore answered, breaking the staring competition with Cahir. “Someone has some fucking magic. This place is so fucked. The oracle was right. We need to get moving and find what we need. But first, let’s get Jason and Seda out of that fucking place.”
“I say we just go down to the Murkway now and try to get out,” Ruel said.
Cahir agreed. He liked Ruel already.
“With no plan?” Benny interjected. “No. We cannot risk getting caught, or no one will be able to save them. We need a plan in place, a map, and a schedule to navigate ourselves out so we can safely reach them. Instead of Thursday, let’s meet back here tomorrow night.
Roya, can you guys get a message to our other two outside the dome? ”
Roya stood, her siblings following. “Tell us their names and their appearance. We will be on it. We will meet you south of the Murkway pipes tomorrow night.”
Benny nodded and shared the information with them. Roya, Ferona, and Feich took off through the dark sky, through the glittering dome, and began their search.
“Roya is stunning,” Benny said as he sat back down and ran his hands over his neck.
Called it.
“She is dangerous and wild,” he warned.
The men discussed their next steps into the late hours of the night, until the next shift of Rozzers were due to swap, and then they put out the fire and carefully made their way back home.
The plan will work, Cahir thought. There is no other option.