The Rise of Winter, page 20
“Invisibility,” I whispered. “I’ll have the power of invisibility. I’m going to be able to disappear whenever I want, aren’t I?” The prospect was exciting. Hiding from Penny at lunchtime would be a breeze.
Ugh, why was I still thinking about Penny with a pack of hungry wolves thirty feet away?!
“Not disappear—hide,” Aurora corrected. “There’s a difference. Evanestium will allow you to be unseen—a mere deception of the eyes—but in reality, you are still there, as much as you would be if you were visible. So, no, it will not allow you to disappear.”
“Okay, I get it. I can make myself invisible. But how do I do it?”
“It would take hours and hours to teach you the true way to use the gift, but that’s something we don’t have. Luckily, there is an easier way. As you may already have learned, there are shortcuts with many of the Guardian powers that are often used when starting out.”
“Like when I bite my tongue to help call my Imperia?” I asked.
“Yes,” Aurora said, nodding, “but you must be careful. Shortcuts are the easy way, but they are not the right way. By biting your tongue, you cause pain. From pain comes anger, a powerful emotion that can trigger your Imperia. But anger and hatred and pain are emotions of Malum. They are powerful but unruly. You must try to avoid using them, instead learning to draw your ability more naturally. Today, I will teach you Evanestium. It cannot be drawn from pain, but there is another shortcut. Look at my wings and tell me what you see.”
Aurora hovered in front of my face. I could see all of her but her wings. They were moving so fast it was as if they weren’t there, giving the illusion her body was hovering in midair.
“I can’t see them,” I said.
“Exactly. When something moves fast enough, it cannot be seen. That is what you will learn to do tonight.”
“But how can I possibly move my whole body as fast as you move your wings? Even if I could run like Felinia, this cave is only six feet wide.”
“Run? Who said anything about running? No, you will quiver, back and forth in one spot. Just like my wings.”
“Quiver? How?”
“By controlling your own resonance, your own vibration. As I said, there isn’t time to teach you the true skill—it takes great mental fortitude to control your own resonance. But there is a trick.”
“What is it?”
“Start by taking off your sweatshirt.”
“Take off my sweatshirt?” I blurted. “But it’s the middle of the night, and it’s cold! I’ll freeze!”
“Precisely!”
Hesitantly, I pulled my sweatshirt over my head. “If you’re going to ask me to take off my pants next, I’m finding another way out of this cave.”
I threw my sweatshirt aside. I had only a tank top underneath, and the cool night air bit at my skin, pulling up goose bumps.
“Now what?” I said, rubbing my arms to warm them.
“What happens when you get cold?” Aurora asked.
“I g-g-get very irrrr-itable.”
“Yes. Perfect. You shiver. And when you shiver, your body quivers at a rate you could not normally move. We will use this to our advantage. Later, when you learn the true Evanestium, you won’t need the cold, but for now, it will take some of the thinking out of it. Watch.”
Aurora moved back and forth slowly before steadily picking up her pace. Her body became a blur, then disappeared.
“You see?”
“You mean I don’t see.”
“Exactly. Now you try.”
I shifted back and forth on the spot, transferring my weight from foot to foot, willing my body to move faster and faster. I must have looked as if I needed to pee, and I definitely wasn’t disappearing—I didn’t need a mirror to know that.
“No, no, no. You’re thinking too much. Use the cold. Focus on how cold you are, not how fast you’re moving. Let your subconscious do the moving.”
I did as Aurora said, concentrating on how cold I was. That was easy. I was freezing. I crossed my arms and held my shoulders, shifting back and forth. For the briefest of moments, something happened—I stopped thinking about Aurora and what we were doing, and thought only about how cold I was, and the cave started to blur. It was only for a fraction of a second, until I noticed the change and everything went back to normal.
“Excellent!” Aurora exclaimed. “You’re a fast learner. Now, this time, stay focused. We only have a few more hours before the sun rises, and you will need to hide for much longer than a second.”
Chapter 49
THE SKY WAS BEGINNING TO BRIGHTEN AS I STOOD AT THE BACK OF the cave, waiting for Aurora’s command. We had gone over the plan a number of times, but I was still worried. With each passing minute the sun rose higher, which meant the air was getting warmer. The colder it was, the easier it would be to remain focused. If I let my mind slip for even a second, the wolves would see me and everything would be lost.
“GONE?!” a voice bellowed from the woods. I recognized Tantum’s gruff tone. “What do you mean, the amulet is gone?!”
“It was in the hole, right where I left it when I went to sleep, sir, and then, when I woke up, it was—”
“GONE!” Tantum yelled again. “You were supposed to be guarding the amulet, not sleeping!”
“Right, sir, I know, I—well, er … I dozed off, sir.”
There was a thrashing sound, followed by a yelp.
“When Lupora hears about your incompetence, she’ll have your liver for lunch. Tell the others to spread out and find the amulet. I want every raccoon questioned, starting with that lazy one who calls himself king.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And check the girl!”
“Yes, sir, right away, sir!”
Aurora suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Okay,” she said, “they’re coming. Time to hide.”
I shifted quickly from foot to foot, trying to focus on the morning chill. My body gave a little shiver, but that was it. I was too nervous to stop thinking about everything else. I needed something more to help me. I imagined myself standing in the rain on a cold day, and the cave wall blurred slightly. I imagined myself swimming in the frigid water around Pitchi. The cave blurred further, as if I were spinning. The colder I felt, the more the colours smeared—greys melting into greys until everything went black.
The world had disappeared, but I could still hear voices. I had to force myself not to focus on them.
“Th—there’s no one in here!” a nervous cry came from just outside the cave.
Focus on the cold, Winter, I told myself.
A few moments later, I heard Tantum’s familiar growl. “Who was supposed to be watching her?”—a short pause—“Never mind. I’ll deal with them later. Spread out, find her, NOW! If the girl isn’t back by the time Lupora returns, we’re all dead!”
I nearly lost my focus, and the cave wall reappeared momentarily before I recovered the grey blur.
“Hold it,” Aurora whispered beside my head.
Wood snapped as the wolves tore open the gate. I sensed Tantum beside me, sniffing the air, pacing the cave. Could he smell me? What would happen if he walked right into me?
Again, the thought of something other than the cold made my focus slip. The wall of the cave reappeared. I was standing behind Tantum—he was only two feet away with his back to me. Two more wolves stood outside, but they were looking frantically around the bay, not into the cave. A small group of raccoons standing near the woods spotted me, and their faces registered their shock.
Luckily, right then, Proctin burst through the trees.
“We’ve found her!” he cried. “She’s making her way through the woods. She was travelling too fast for us to catch her.”
“Of course you couldn’t catch her,” Tantum growled. “I can smell her. She’s not far. Follow me!” Tantum took off into the woods, followed closely by the other two wolves, and I exhaled in relief and slumped backward against the cave wall.
Chapter 50
I WAITED A FEW MINUTES TO BE SURE THE COAST WAS CLEAR BEFORE coming out of the cave. Wisps of cloud sat over the mountains in the distance, and behind them the sky continued to brighten.
Proctin stared nervously into the woods. The howls of the wolves echoed off the trees, and they didn’t sound very far off. We needed to get moving.
“How many raccoons are coming?” I asked.
Proctin waved his arms over his head, signaling toward the trees. From them came a slow stream of waddling black-and-grey creatures, like smoke flowing out over the beach. I don’t know what I’d expected—ten? Twenty? Maybe thirty? But the stream kept coming until the whole beach was covered with raccoons. There were hundreds of them. Small, big, old, young, a few mothers with kits in tow.
A sudden heaviness filled my chest—the weight of responsibility. All those little faces staring up at me expectantly, hoping I could take them somewhere safe. Hoping I could get them away from the wolves.
“Okay,” I said, steadying my voice, “let’s go.”
We set off down the rocky beach toward the mountains, the high wall of the escarpment on our left leaving only a narrow strip of beach. I felt claustrophobic. If the wolves returned, we’d be trapped. It would be a massacre. Our only hope was to be far enough away by the time they got wise and turned around.
“We should run,” I said, looking down at Proctin as we followed the escarpment. By his side was Procynia, moving nimbly over the rocks and boulders despite her age.
“We could probably make better time if—” My words caught in my throat. We had rounded a corner and there, sitting on a large boulder, was a familiar raccoon, his arms crossed defiantly over his chest, twiggy crown sitting lopsided over his right ear, an unpleasant scowl splayed across his face.
“Raycor,” Proctin groaned.
The last thing we needed was to be held up.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” Raycor spat, his usual mocking tone replaced by something between hurt and anger.
“We’re leaving,” Proctin said meekly.
“Leaving!” Raycor yelled, his eyes twitching as he glared at the raccoons.
“Yes,” continued Proctin, “we’re going with Winter to the mountains. We’re getting away from the wolves. Come with us.”
“Since when did you start giving orders?” Raycor snarled. “I wear the crown.” He pointed at the rim of twigs on his head. “I make the decisions. No one is leaving! Especially not with Lupora’s prisoner.”
Proctin stepped sideways to hide behind Procynia. “But Raycor, the wolves have been—”
“Shut up!” Raycor hissed, jumping down from the boulder and walking toward his brother, finger pointed like a dagger. “After all I’ve done for you. Bringing you back after you shamed our family, giving you a second chance, making you official servant to the king, and this is what I get in return? A mutiny against our allies? Aiding Lupora’s prisoner to escape and manipulating the gaze to follow you? I should never have let you come back. You’re a disgrace to our family, a disgrace to the gaze, a disgrace to every raccoon on the face of this planet. The only thing you’re good at is eating.”
Proctin’s head slumped and he sat, defeated, behind Procynia.
“And you,” Raycor said, lifting his finger and pointing it around the beach at the rest of the raccoons, “all of you—you should be ashamed of yourselves! After all the wolves have done for us, offering their protection and asking nothing in return.”
“Raycor, the wolves—” Procynia started, but Raycor lifted his hand and struck his mother across the face with the back of his paw, sending her sprawling sideways over the rocks.
There was a collective gasp from around the beach. Proctin got to his feet and glared at Raycor.
Raycor, however, didn’t notice. He stared down at Procynia, nostrils opening and closing, seething with rage. “How dare you even open your mouth?” he shot. “My own mother—leading the pack. It sickens me. But then, you’ve never loved me as you’ve loved Proctin or Father. I’ve always known that. It’s been clear in your every gesture, your every criticism of my leadership. Look at what I’ve done. Look at what I’ve accomplished. Does it mean nothing to you? When Father was around, the gaze cowered from the wolves like rats in the trees, and now we walk among them as equals. I have raised us up and made us important in this world. I have given us power.”
“The wolves are not our allies,” Procynia said from the ground. “They have been picking us off one by one in the night, and they plan to finish us once Lupora returns.”
“Lies!” Raycor spat. “Manipulative lies.”
“It’s the truth,” came a voice from the middle of the crowd. Several raccoons stepped aside to show the speaker, a mother raccoon surrounded by several little ones. “Just last night they took one of my sons.” The raccoon let out a loud sob, and the others moved to comfort her. There were murmurs of discontent.
“Even if that is true,” Raycor said, waving his paw flippantly, “how many more of us would have died without their support? How many would have gone missing when the wolves were our enemies? No one of importance has been taken, and the wolves have made no threat to your king.”
Proctin walked slowly toward Raycor, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides, his back stiff, eyes narrowed—an expression I’d never seen on his usually gentle face.
He looked possessed.
“If we go back now, the wolves might be merciful. Perhaps Lupora won’t need to learn of what happened.” Raycor shook his head from side to side. “Nearly setting her prisoner free—the very prisoner that destroyed our homes, I should remind you. Yes, if we are lucky it can all be blamed on one fat raccoon and—”
Raycor stopped. He had finally noticed Proctin, two feet away, and fear flashed in his eyes.
He took a step backward.
“Now you look here—” he began, but Proctin cut him off.
“You. Hit. Mother!” he said through bared teeth.
“Well, I …”
Proctin continued to advance, pushing Raycor toward the water. “And you’ve known all along what the wolves have been doing—haven’t you?”
Raycor stumbled over a loose rock, his hands raised in defense. “As I said, no one of importance—”
“Everyone in the gaze is important!” Proctin growled, his nose inches from Raycor’s.
“Well, it’s my decision!” Raycor said, his confidence returning as he held his ground, the two raccoons now in a face-off. “I’m the king! I wear the crown! I make the decisions! Your talents are for eating, not for leading. You passed up your chance to be king long ago.”
Proctin wasn’t backing down. He was much larger than Raycor—both in girth and height—and it looked as if it would take a hurricane or tsunami to stop him.
“Maybe I won’t be a good leader!” Proctin yelled. “And maybe I’m better at eating than I am at leading. But you know what? It wouldn’t take much to be better than you. And I’ll have Mother and Winter to help me. I’m going to listen to their advice—unlike you.”
Raycor was slowly sinking toward the ground under Proctin’s downward glare. “B-b-but I wear the crown—” Raycor said feebly, touching his head as if to convince himself it was still there.
Proctin reached out and snatched the crown from Raycor’s head, snapping it in two before tossing the pieces into his mouth.
Just like that, it was gone.
Impressive.
“That was mine!” Raycor cried, fear overcoming him. He stood and tried to claw at Proctin’s face, but Proctin thrust out his large belly, which struck Raycor square in the chest like a heavy sack. I’d never seen a raccoon fly until that day, but up Raycor went, catapulting five, ten, fifteen feet through the air before landing with a splash in the cold water of the bay.
There was a collective cheer from around the beach.
“Hurray for Proctin!” called a raccoon from the back of the group.
“Our king has returned!” yelled another.
“King of the Red Woods!” called a third.
Proctin turned around and looked at the gaze, his angry expression evaporating and a nervous smile replacing it.
“Well, King Proctin,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “what do you say?”
Proctin looked at me, confused.
“What do you mean, what do I say?” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
I bent down. “Say something to the gaze.”
“Like what?”
“Say … something inspiring. They want you to be King.”
“Okay,” Proctin said with a nod. He stood up straight, thrust out his chest (as much as he could) and yelled, “Something inspiring! They want you to be King!”
A silence fell over the gaze, and I put my hand over my face before leaning over and whispering, “Just say, I’d be glad to be your king. Follow me, and together we will find a new, safe home, away from the wolves.”
Proctin repeated obediently. “I’d be glad to be your King! Follow me, and together we will find a new, safe home, away from the wolves!”
The raccoons cheered again.
“Now turn around and start walking,” I prompted.
“Now turn around and start walking!” he bellowed.
“Not them, YOU! Ugh.” I grabbed Proctin’s little paw and marched down the beach with the raucous gaze of raccoons following closely behind.
Chapter 51
WITH SUCH A LARGE GROUP, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE QUICKLY along the beach. We were only as fast as the slowest raccoon, and with so many little ones in tow, I feared we wouldn’t get more than a kilometre before Tantum and his pack caught us. The high wall of the escarpment loomed on our left, trapping us like pigs in a pen.
“Does this wall follow the beach all the way to the mountains?” I asked.
Proctin and Procynia had been walking side by side, not saying a word. Well, at least not to anyone else. Proctin had been muttering to himself since we’d left Raycor. Things like, “King … King Proctin … Proctin the King … need to be smart … need to be heroic … need to be brave … don’t think about lunch …” Other than that, everything had been relatively quiet.
