The Phoenix Series

Chapter 11

11

At first, it was only images. Flashes of beings and places I had never before known moved through my mind. As they slowed, a feeling of recognition grew in my body. I could feel the soft texture of the feathers under my hands, but I was blind to all but these memories. They became a steady pulse, changing like the movement of the second hand on a clock.

I saw Sid smiling up at me, Yeren at his side. A deep gaping wound devoured her left shoulder. Her beautiful fur was peeled back and matted with blood. I had her kneel in front of me as I place a hand on either side of the wound. A deep pulse of energy began low in my body. It grew and grew until it poured down my arms and into Yeren. I felt her back arch with a mixture of pleasure and pain as I drove my hands, hot with power, into the folds of the gash. I pulled the skin together and watched it join. As my wings unfurled, Yeren let out a final howl, and the healing was complete. She collapsed and gazed up at me with heat in her eyes. Sid sat beside her, pulsating with his own energy. I felt their joy and shame of the forbidden thing that had just transpired. I heard the vow of secrecy I made them utter.

In another vignette was Noiryn. I took her face in my hands as I laid a gentle kiss on her closed third eye. A tear rolled from it, and I used my lips to wipe it away. Keeping contact with my hands, I moved around her body. A thick gold cord was looped tightly around her neck, and a long gash crossed her back. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed my face to her shoulder. I listened to the rhythm of her breathing, letting my body rise and fall with it. I felt power grow deep within me causing her breathing to slow. As the power moved through my flesh, I ran a hand along the wound. I felt it knit and mend under my touch as the movement of my wings sent a gentle breeze across our bodies. When it was done, I gently removed the cord from her neck, caressing the flesh underneath with my clean hand. Then I washed her blood from my hand in a cool stream. She stared at me with a mixture of awe and apprehension. Again there were vows.

There were others I healed, but the images came too quickly to identify them all. They were not many compared to the vast numbers I knew inhabited The Void. I felt their joy in the Healing, I could taste it on my tongue, but it always ended with fear. Once they realised what I’d done, the power that it took, they became frightened. I knew what I was doing was forbidden and strange, it went against our ancient laws. No one before me had been able to heal across the boundaries, to cross the species.

Then everything stopped. A complete world engulfed me. I was in a dank and dark cell. The floor was covered with a thick layer of mouldy straw. The place smelt of human waste and death. In the centre of the room was a man in a brilliant red robe; he sat at a small wooden table. The only light in the room was from the fat candle in front of him. To his left stood a man in simple dress with a board and quill, he appeared to write down everything said by the man in red. At first, from my place against the wall, I did not see her. It was her sound that drew my attention. A pitiful whimper, like a beaten dog, came from the corner of the cell. I slid along the wall, feeling the thick dirt smudge my wings. I stopped moving when I saw her.

She huddled on the floor, naked from the waist up. Her skirt hung in rags that barely covered her lower half. Her hair had been roughly chopped off down to the scalp; the blade used had left weeping sores on her skin. Her back was a river of dirt and blood. I couldn’t count the number of whip strokes that had found her. But still, her face held a beauty. Even with the swollen eye and bloodied lip, this human was beautiful. The man in red asked her a question I had no ears for; my attention could not be torn from this ravaged, yet beautiful, creature. Under her wounds we looked so similar, with wings, she would be my sister. She reached out a pleading hand to the man in red, and I saw that her fingernails had been ripped out from the root. The man in red spoke again:

“You must confess to your crimes, my dear. It is the only way to salvation.” He was so calm it made my blood boil. The candle flickered. When the woman could not answer, he turned to his clerk and smiled.

“I think we must press her further. The evil has not yet left her body.” He turned his gaze to the darkest corner of the room. “If you would please continue.”

A man stepped from the darkness. He wore simple clothes like the clerk, but his were covered in blood and other things that leave humans in the face of fear. As he moved across the room, the woman on the floor began to cry. At first, it was a small sound, but as he drew nearer, she pulled herself against the wall and let out long ragged screams. Her torturer smiled.

The rest of the scene unfolded like a horror show. I watched the man do unspeakable things to this innocent woman. His determination to degrade her was unstoppable. I tried desperately to heal her, but the full strength of my powers could not cross to her world. In the end, I crawled as close to her as I could and whispered soothing words, trying on some level to lessen her pain as her blood splattered across my face. This close, our likeness was unavoidable. I had never before noticed how much I had in common with the female of this species.

After what seemed like days, as the torturer rose from her body, her head rolled towards me, and we locked eyes. Her pain cut through the shield of power that keeps us Travellers invisible. Gazing deep into my eyes, she whispered ‘angel’ and died. Her torturer wiped his hands on her tattered skirt and followed the man in red and the clerk out of the cell. I sat there for some time with my wings draped around the woman, weeping.

I wept and wished I could have done something for her. The shield between our worlds was too strong. I wanted desperately to cover her body, to provide her with a modicum of dignity in this terrible place, but I could do nothing. I couldn’t even close her eyes.

After a time, knowing I could do no more for her, I pulled my wings back from her body. I stared down at her fragile form, wishing again that I could cover her, but my hands were useless here. I exited the cell and walked through the halls, witnessing a myriad of similar scenes. There were so many women here, all held like animals and treated with even less respect. As I walked through the dungeon, I tried to send my healing powers to the women but could do nothing. Rage and impotence prickled my skin. I had always thought I was so powerful, but outside The Void, the ancient laws were too strong. My powers meant nothing here. As long as the laws remained, I could do nothing. I needed to make The Guard understand. We could help these people. They had the power to change the laws.

I was raw by the time I walked out into the courtyard. A group of people had gathered around a burning pyre. They were yelling obscenities and hurling rocks. The smell of burning flesh was overpowering. Rage filled me until I trembled with it. It coursed through my veins, filling me with a red glowing power. The power grew until it crackled like lightning along my skin. I stood there in the courtyard hearing the screams, my skin sparkling with the same colours of the flames. I had never reached this level of power before, and I rode it without fear. When I had spun the energy to a fevered pitch, I poured all the power I had into the poor soul writhing in the flames. Her screaming stopped, and I collapsed back into The Void.