A Flight of Broken Wings, page 15
part #1 of The Aeriel Chronicles Series
“They’re experimenting on him,” Vikram breathed, his eyes widening with comprehension. “Of course, of course. I see now. Obviously, they wouldn’t want to publicise that, I suppose. No more than the IAW wanted to publicise the reinforced sifblade formula. That makes sense. Don’t worry, Ashwin, your secret’s safe with us. We understand the kind of risk you’re taking, trusting us with such sensitive information. But are you sure that Sakeen is out of the picture? No way he could have been involved with this?”
“Positive,” said Shwaan, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Then that just leaves Reivaa. Tauheen’s second-in-command,” Vikram smiled.
“What?” Ruban demanded, leaning forward in his chair to get a closer look at his friend.
Simani nodded. “It’s true. All the pre-Rebellion texts call her that, the Queen’s second-in-command. Apparently, Reivaa was Tauheen’s right hand during her rule, the commander of her army and…one of her most ruthless enforcers. After Tauheen lost the throne, Reivaa went underground with the others. Of the five, she’s been the most active over the years, from what we can tell.”
“And also the most murderous,” Vikram added from the kitchen, where he was helping Shwaan put the dishes away.
“Yes. Apart from Tauheen, she’s the most powerful Aeriel in existence. It wouldn’t be easy to take her down, if we ever manage to find her in the first place,” sighed Simani. “The SifCo attack matches her documented style, although it was perhaps a little less intense than her usual fare. Less destructive. But that may have been because it was only meant as a distraction.”
“I’ll have to tell uncle to put together a taskforce and begin the search as soon as possible,” Ruban murmured, his eyes distant. Turning to his partner, he asked: “What more do we have to go on?”
“Very little, really. Any images of her from the pre-Rebellion era have either been lost or deliberately destroyed, though it’s hard to tell which at this point,” Vikram said, dropping into the couch beside Ruban and stretching his legs. “Goddamn self-righteous Rebels. What purpose does it serve to destroy artwork anyway? The point is, all we know of her are generic descriptions by historians, most of whom had never actually laid eyes on her, and a couple of survivors’ reports from some of her more recent attacks. Not that she’s in the habit of leaving very many survivors.”
“She’s never been captured before?”
Simani shook her head. “Never. She’d have been killed if they’d caught her. Too much of a flight risk. Not the most secure prison on earth could have held her for long.”
“What do they say then, these descriptions?”
Vikram gave a noncommittal little shrug. “She’s beautiful, apparently. But then, which Aeriel isn’t? That ain’t saying much. There was one thing though…” At Ruban’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “She has the red makings of a normal X-class, of course. Only, according to some accounts she’s got two of them.”
“What?”
Simani nodded. “Of course there’s no way to confirm this one way or the other until we actually run her down and see for ourselves. But it’s turned up in quite a lot of the source material about her. Like, you know how the Aeriel Queen has three markings on her wings? And of course the normal X-classes have one. Apparently, the Queen’s second-in-command, whoever they are, will have two. It’s umm…like a badge of some kind, as far as we could tell.”
Ruban leaned back into the couch and groaned. “So, a beautiful Aeriel with an extra mark on its wing. That’s what we’re looking for? It’ll be a joy handing out that description to a taskforce.”
He had been careful for long enough, Shwaan decided. He couldn’t withhold all information from the Hunters if he ever wanted to get this over with. Given enough time, he could have found Reivaa on his own. And if it had been a simple matter of him against her, he would have taken his chances on a direct confrontation. But nothing was ever simple when it came to this mess.
Reivaa would have backup on earth, and he had none. The last thing he wanted was to get his sister’s troops involved in earthly conflicts. Bringing Vaan’s army down into the Mortal Realm would be a recipe for disaster, he knew that.
And if Reivaa somehow managed to kill him, Safaa would not rest until she had her head on a pike and all her accomplices wiped out. An all-out war between Vaan and the Exiles was not something the universe could afford, and certainly not something Shwaan was willing to risk. No, the Hunters were his only hope for now.
“Uh, there’s one more thing,” he said, trying to make his voice sound hesitant and unsure. The humans turned to look at him questioningly. “Umm, I found out something else about this…ah…Reivaa from my grandma’s old notes.”
“Yes?” said Vikram encouragingly.
“Umm, according to my grandma, Reivaa had the power to control lightning. It’s a rare gift, apparently, even among Aeriels. But according to the notes she left, one of the hallmarks of Reivaa’s involvement in a battle during the Rebellion was…well, a thunderstorm. It made her more dangerous than almost all the other Aeriels, simply because she was perhaps the only one of them who could use the monsoon to her advantage.”
“The power to control lightning?” repeated Simani doubtfully. “I have never heard anything like it.”
“Aeriels have been known to have elemental gifts before,” said Vikram thoughtfully. “Zeifaa, the first Aeriel Queen could apparently control the tides, though I always thought that was just a fairy-tale. Although I have to say, this is the first time I’m hearing about an actual, living Aeriel with elemental abilities.”
Shwaan nodded. It was true that Zeifaa had had the power to control the tides, and had impressed many a mortal in her time turning the direction of the sea for kicks. It was rare to find an Aeriel monarch who was completely sane, now that he thought about it. None of the three he had known in his lifetime possessed anything resembling sanity, though their psychoses were of vastly different types. His grandmother had been flighty, his mother was murderous and his sister anal-retentive. Talk about a proud and consistent family tradition.
Still, elemental powers were a rare enough gift that he wasn’t surprised the humans no longer remembered it. To his knowledge, Reivaa was the only one of the Exiles to have elemental abilities, and he supposed she wasn’t exactly in a hurry to enlighten them.
“Well, it was raining cats and dogs on the day of the SifCo attack,” Simani was saying, biting her lower lip as she stared contemplatively at the far wall. “Even if what you’re saying is true, I suppose a stray bolt of lightning wouldn’t have been particularly noticeable, under the circumstances.”
“There was lightning that day,” Ruban said suddenly, and something in his voice made Shwaan turn to look at him. The man was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared fixedly down at his feet. Shwaan couldn’t see his eyes but he could make out the pinched expression the Hunter wore, as if remembering an old nightmare.
“Ruban…” Simani whispered, something like pain in her voice.
“I’d forgotten it, after everything that happened,” Ruban continued. He didn’t seem to have heard his partner. “But-but I’d seen a flash of lightning…when I went out for the flowers. Miki…she asked to come with me, but I’d wanted to surprise her,” his face contorted with what could have been either rage or sorrow, or some unfathomable combination of both. “I saw lightning, there was a thunderclap somewhere in the distance and I remember…I remember being surprised ’cause it was March and…and it wasn’t even properly spring yet. And then…” Ruban closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t bring himself to say any more. He looked broken, like a man who had to struggle for every breath.
Simani left her seat and walked over to her partner, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. “We’ll find her, Ruban,” she whispered, her voice tender as she ran her fingers through his untidy hair, although her eyes looked like they had been set in stone. “We’re closer than we have ever been before, you know that. Wherever she is, we’ll find her. We’ll find the creature that did this. And when we do…when we do, with her last breath she will be begging us to kill her.”
Chapter 7: Surai
Ruban looked up with a smile as Simani walked into the office, setting her dripping umbrella to dry in a corner. It was late in the afternoon and the streets were all but choked with mud and rainwater. “What news from SifCo?” he asked.
“Good news and bad.” Simani flopped down behind her desk with a groan. “Depending on how you look at it. Someone should ban monsoons. Never thought I’d say it but I kinda sympathise with the Aeriels at this point. Everything’s wet and muddy.”
“Good news first, then,” said Faiz, leaning eagerly forward. “I don’t suppose they had a spare copy of the formula lying around all along.”
Simani laughed. Rummaging in her handbag for a few seconds, she finally seemed to find what she was looking for. Leaning forward, she held out what looked like a photograph to Ruban.
“What is this?” Ruban asked, frowning as he took the proffered piece of paper.
“Reivaa,” Simani said simply. “Or as close as we could get, anyway.”
“What!” exclaimed Ruban, squinting down at the photograph in his hand. He drew in a sharp breath. It was the picture of an Aeriel, alright; a full length picture at that. The creature was flying, its silvery form stark against the overcast sky, its monstrous wings outstretched, flaring out in all its hideous, iridescent glory on both sides of the Aeriel, two tiny crimson marks staining the tips of the otherwise pristine wings. “Where did you–”
Simani smirked. “Impressive, isn’t it? It’s a composite, really. Vik helped with the wings, gigantic nerd that he is. He read up on all the reports and historical accounts on Reivaa he could get his hands on; even got Dawad to chip in, apparently. Finally, they managed to produce a more or less accurate copy. Or at least that’s what they say, anyway. It’s better than nothing, so I guess we might as well trust them.”
“But what about the rest?” asked Faiz curiously. For once, Ruban was grateful for his inquisitiveness. He himself felt too flummoxed to say much. He peered down at the picture, trying to see in it any hint of recognition, of familiarity. He felt like he should know it, somehow; feel some inkling of remembrance, looking at the face of the creature that had destroyed his life. He didn’t, though. It was almost surreal.
“Apparently, one of the junior scientists working in the west wing at the time of the attack had happened to look out of the window just before the blast. She says she saw an Aeriel flying towards the building just before everything went to shit. We got her to cooperate for a composite sketch. Then got the wings photo-shopped into that so there’d be a cohesive picture for the taskforce to work with. Of course, the woman only saw the Aeriel for a few seconds, and from quite a distance at that, so it’s not as accurate as we’d like. But as I said, it’s better than nothing.”
“Why hadn’t this woman come forward before?” Ruban asked, carefully putting the picture down on his desk.
Simani’s lips quirked into a sardonic little smile. “Apparently, before we reached out to her, she thought she had been hallucinating.”
“So what now?” Faiz asked, sitting back in his chair. There was an expectant glint in his dark brown eyes. “When do we get to put a blade into this Aeriel, then?”
“Hema is at the IAW headquarters now, briefing the taskforce as we speak,” said Simani, running a hand through her damp hair. “One way or another, we’ll get a lead on this Reivaa soon. Which brings us to the bad news, Ruban. Once this taskforce has been formally set up, we’ll lose some of the autonomy in this case. The taskforce will be answering directly to the IAW.”
Ruban shrugged. “Well, we have Uncle Subhas to deal with that side of things. Plus, I don’t think they’ll dare try anything so soon after that video was leaked. If luck’s on our side, we’ll have this case wrapped up and over with before the IAW becomes a problem again.”
Simani nodded. “You want to talk to the taskforce yourself? Brief them on the case, what they should be looking for?”
“Nah. I’ll leave you and Hema to handle that. For now, I was thinking of taking a trip to Surai.”
“Your hometown?” said Faiz, sounding baffled.
“Yes. There are some questions I have about this case that only Surai can answer.”
“Are you going to go alone?” asked Simani worriedly. “I can come with you if you want.”
Ruban shook his head. “I need you here, Sim. Somebody needs to keep an eye on things in Ragah. I can handle this on my own. It’s just recon anyway; not like I’m going on a Hunt.”
“You can take Ashwin with you then,” Faiz suggested.
“Yeah. He’ll just be in the way here, anyway,” Simani agreed, perking up a little. “Take him with you to Surai.”
Ruban dipped his head, smiling, his hands raised in surrender. “Alright alright. I won’t go alone. Sheesh. You’d think I’m going on my first school trip or something.”
Hotel Sunrise was far from the worst establishment where Ruban had ever spent the night, despite the damp walls and the peeling paint. It was also very far from the best, though. They had been driving for about eight hours by the time the sun went down and it became too dark to continue safely on the remote highway almost completely unarmed. They had left Ragah behind nearly four hours ago; and while the capital and its immediate surroundings had become considerably safer over the last decade or so, the same could not, unfortunately, be said for the hinterlands of Vandram.
Ruban had expected Ashwin to resist the idea of going to Surai with him. He had thought the Zainian would want to stay in Ragah, in the thick of things. Ruban often suspected that Ashwin wanting to be involved with the investigation into the SifCo case had as much to do with the young man’s warped sense of adventure as with him wanting to set the world to rights by foiling those ‘evil Aeriels’, as he called them.
He didn’t know Ashwin quite well enough, apparently, for the Zainian had just shrugged and nodded when Ruban told him about the trip. Perhaps Ashwin had had enough of the whole mess after all. Not that Ruban was complaining. The other man’s unexpected pliability certainly had made life easier for him, and they had set out that afternoon itself – Ruban telling Simani to keep him posted in case they uncovered any leads on either Reivaa or Tauheen.
Upon nightfall, Ruban got off the highway and drove up to one of the many hotels and inns lining the NH130. After registering themselves at the counter, they’d been shown by a rather malnourished young bellboy to their room on the second floor. Sparsely furnished with two single-beds – one nightstand between them – and a single writing desk tucked into a corner, the room appealed to Ruban a lot more than many of the more floridly decorated ones often found in such establishments. To him, austerity was by far preferable to fake ostentation.
“You can go in now, if you’d like,” Ashwin said, walking out of the attached bathroom in embroidered cotton pajamas; long, wet hair dripping onto the concrete flooring. Ruban sighed. Speaking of ostentation…
“Order something for dinner,” he told the Zainian, throwing him the menu-card he had been perusing while waiting for his turn in the washroom. “We haven’t had a morsel since we started. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
“And you’re sure it was Reivaa?” asked Ashwin, pushing his rice absentmindedly around the plate. Hunched slightly over his meal, he seemed lost in thought.
Ruban hummed noncommittally. He didn’t feel very sure of anything at the moment, but it was the only explanation that made any sense. And he supposed that since he was dragging the Zainian to his hometown on what was basically a personal errand, he owed the man something by way of an explanation. Still, recounting the details of the attack on his home, remembering that nightmarish day in any way whatsoever was still painful; unexpectedly so, considering how long it had been. And he wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. “It’s the logical explanation, don’t you think? The lightning, the fire – it all adds up. And if you’re right, we don’t have very many to choose from anyway. Only five Aeriels on earth who can use fire-shells, and one of them has apparently been stuck in Zaini for the last twenty years.”
“Still,” said Ashwin, chewing thoughtfully on a green chilli, having entirely abandoned the remnants of his meal by now. “Reivaa is a very powerful Aeriel, one of the most important in Tauheen’s coterie. By all accounts, she was instrumental to the Queen during the Rebellion and after. Why would she be dispatched to a place like Surai for a random attack on a private, civilian dwelling? Even if Tauheen had, for some reason, wanted to attack your family, Ruban, surely a much less powerful Aeriel could have accomplished the task just as easily. Why send her greatest general for a task a foot-soldier could have performed just as well? Which again brings us back to the original question: Why did Tauheen want to attack your family in the first place?”
“How should I know?” Ruban growled. He could feel his nails digging into the palms of his hands. His heart clenched painfully as the memories of that day flooded back into his mind. He felt like he was being choked. “They’re Aeriels! Isn’t that reason enough? Do you think those blood-thirsty, murderous motherfuckers need a reason to destroy everything in their path? They’re terrorists and murderers. It’s what they do.”
Ashwin made a soft clucking noise, shaking his head slowly. There was something in his eyes – something like reproach – that Ruban didn’t entirely understand. And at the moment, he didn’t really want to. “You’re being simplistic, Ruban. You know it. If Tauheen sent Reivaa to attack your home eight years ago, there had to have been a reason for it. And until we find out what that reason was, we’ll never find out anything else.”
“We?” repeated Ruban, raising an eyebrow.
