The Plot Thickens (Chapters Nine and Ten)

Chapter Nine
Stairs! Liam hated stairs. Ebony and he were inside the inn, staring up at the twenty odd flights.
“So, explain to me again why you sit inside a wheelbarrow?” said Rune quizzically.
“For the hundredth time it’s a wheelchair, and I have no legs, so I need it.” Liam replied, realizing these people had no concept of a disability.
“Was it in battle?”
“No, in childbirth, are you insane, a battle? I’m only sixteen!” Rune look perplexed at this, and the boy realized that if he had lived in this society he would have been fighting as soon as he could walk...or at least talk.
“It must be fun, though, to whiz around in that thing all day. We should race sometime!” said a man at the table a few feet away.
“Yea...its so fun, we can cut your legs off and then strap you in one...and you’ll have a blast!” shot back Liam, wiping the stupid grin off the man’s face. It seemed that not everything was different on this side of the Bridge.
“So...how are we going to get you up these steps? I can carry you up, if you don’t mind.” interjected Rune.
“Actually, I do mind. Can I sleep down here?” replied Liam, unwilling to have his blood spill onto the stone
steps.
Rune conceded, and went to collect some mattresses from the upstairs rooms. Ebony wordlessly sat at one of the tables, not much of a companion. She polished her gun menacingly. The guards had left hours ago, and Liam and Ebony had eaten their meals here.
Moonlight could be seen rising through the windows, and darkness began to creep over Trilth. The last of the late night diners left. Ebony and Liam sat all by themselves. The only light was that of the roaring fire by the bar, warming the inn from the wintry elements.
“So...you like it here?” asked Liam, attempting to start a conversation. Ebony just looked at him, then continued with her gun caressing.
“I do, though I wouldn’t want to live here. I mean, first of all, it’s completely inaccessible. Secondly, nobody believes in the Fae, I mean what’s up with that? It’s like the government is trying to lie to the people. Cover up the truth. And I thought on our side it was bad. D’you know-“
“Do you know, that you talk too much.” said Ebony.
“There...I knew you could talk! Out of our little hole are we?” Ebony rose at Liam’s comment, fed up with human interaction. Without a word, she headed for the stairs. Bounding up to the top level, she left the boy all alone.
“Typical female.” he muttered under his breath. Rune came back down, and placed mattresses beside him.
“I see your lady friend took her leave of you.”
“Yea...though she’s not really my friend. I just met her last night. We’re just looking for the same thing.”
“What is that?”
“Answers.” replied Liam vaguely, not wishing to get into yet another discussion about the existence of the Fae.
“Where ya from?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe it.”
“Try me.” said Rune, a knowing look in his eyes.
“Beyond the Bridges...to the place your people call Neverbin.” Rune froze with the pillow he was about to plunk down, shocked.
“I thought such a place did not exist.”
“Neither does anyone else in this village. Yet you don’t seem as close-minded to the idea as the others.”
“That is because I’ve been a witness to...things...that should not have happened, beings that defy all logic.”
“Fae?” asked Liam.
“Fae. We cannot talk now, the hour grows late. Just, whatever you do, do not tell my daughter of such things. She’s too young.” begged Rune. He turned back up the steps, leaving Liam perplexed. Rune has a daughter? Why didn’t he want her knowing of the Fae? Thoughts swirled around in Liam’s head as he slipped from his wheelchair to the floor. Laying his head upon the pillow, Liam’s cold blue eyes stared into the fire.
Two worlds seemed to weigh heavily upon his shoulders. Liam was confused, scared, and did not know who he could trust. Good thing he had been in high school for the past two and a half years. Otherwise, he’d be in completely uncharted territory.



Chapter Ten
Flair crept into the inn, lightly stepping towards the stairs. The flames in the fireplace had faded to embers hours before, leaving the room pitch black. Her half Vanish eyes were the only thing that kept her from knocking over the scattered tables and chairs. She had spent all night in the forest among the other Vanish girls. Her limbs were sore from all the tree jumping.
A floorboard creaked ominously. The young girl stopped dead in her tracks. Hearing nothing from Rune’s room above, she continued. She vaguely remembered him saying something about going out somewhere. Grabbing the rickety wooden railing, she began to climb the staircase.
“Who are you?” came a voice that she had heard many times before. Alaric? Inside the inn? Thinking of nothing but protecting her friend, she focused on one of her hands. A ripple, similar to the one she had created at lunchtime, emanated from her palm, and a fireball ignited within it. The small flame illuminated the woodwork around her to great effect. It danced just above her palm like a caffeinated pixie.
“Alaric, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Um...I think you have me mistaken for someone else.” Flair came closer to the now sitting form.
“Alaric of Vanish, I would know your voice out of a crowd of a thousand people, now stop playing games with me.” She lowered the flame, and spread light over the boy’s face. Cold blue eyes and dark hair stared back at her intently. Yet, something was different about him. He wore strange clothes instead of the silks she was accustomed to. He had shorter hair too, and when she looked down at his legs, they were nowhere to be seen.
Holding her hand over her mouth, the girl restrained the scream that yearned to explode from her lips.
“What happened to you?” she embraced him, making sure the flame did not burn his unprotected back. He pushed her away, a look of bemusement on his face.
“Look, I don’t know who you think I am, but I can assure you that I’m not from around here. My name’s Liam, by the way.” He stuck out his hand in a strange manner, and Flair stumbled back.
“Alaric, you know me, Flair, do not jest. Tell me what happened to your legs.”
“Flair, whoever you are, whoever this Alaric dude is, I ain’t him. I’ve never seen you before in my life. You’re Rune’s kid, aren’t you?” said Liam, no longer amused.
“Will you people stop calling me a kid, I am Flair of Ragfin, daughter of the Vanish.”
“And now you’re dead.” came a voice from the top of the stairs. A soft click followed, and a racing bullet just missed Flair’s head. It pierced harmlessly through the woodworks of a nearby table.
Rolling expertly, Flair sent another ripple from her palm, this one causing trapped air to go whooshing up the staircase. From upstairs the sound of a body being thrown on its back could be heard. Rune’s daughter pulled her hand backwards, dragging the body head over heels down the stairs with a tractor ripple. Ebony landed in a heap on the floor, her forehead bleeding.
Flair ripped the gun from Ebony’s temporarily pinned arms.
“I hate guns.” she said, sending it spinning across the floor into a darkened corner. Ebony, tough to bring down, rose to her feet shakily. Both women regarded each other with contempt. Liam shrank back into the corner, praying that he would not get tangled up in this clash of titans. This was sure to get ugly.