Shades of Grey

SHADOWS TRIBAL CAMP— MAY 1844

I awoke slowly, much slower than I wanted. My eyes only barely fluttered open before I heard a soft voice muttering something I could not comprehend.

Bit by painful bit I managed to turn my head and see the witch doctor standing over Forma’s unconscious, supine fairy form. Several small bowls of incense sat on both sides of her head and two steaming hot rocks lay on her heart and her stomach. I gasped as I smelt the awful aroma of burning flesh and wondered what sort of spell she had fallen under if she did not wake at the touch of the hot stones.

“Wuutt arrrr yoooo doooeeengg to herrrr?” I managed to slur as I tripped out of my cot onto the dirt floor below. “Wuuut auguree arr yoooo prrrraccticinnggg?”

The witch doctor ignored me, continuing to chant. He then moved the rock on Forma’s chest to her forehead, holding it steady with his hand. He then took a handful of powder from a nearby container and placed bits of it in both of the incense bowls. Radiant blue flames shot up as the powder entered the bowls and Forma awoke with a gut-wrenching gasp.

I flew to the other side of the bed as fast as my sluggish body would allow and gripped her hand as she looked around frantically in a wild stupor.

“Grey?!” she shouted, looking behind her.

“Imm rrright herrre!” I slurred. “I’m rrright herrre, Ffforrrma!”

She turned to me and suddenly gasped, her eyes widening in shock.

“Grey, what have they done to you?!” she said in a sudden panic.

I looked down, worried that I had been mutilated in some way, but no such injuries were present.

“What d’you mmean?” I asked, functionality slowly returning to my mouth.

“I…sense something…inside of you!” Forma cried with a wild look in her eyes. “What is it? What did you do?!” she shouted at the witch doctor, standing from the cot. She tripped once, but caught herself on the edge of the cot and regained her strength. I felt stupid as I flexed my feet, trying to force them to work properly while Forma recovered with almost no effort at all.

“We have awoken an inner strength,” he said softly with a knowing smile.

I instantly recalled the chant of the crowd from the night before, “…awaken the Dragon…”

“What are you talking about?” I asked clearly in horror-struck uncertainty.

“Wait, how did you understand him?” Forma inquired.

“What do you mean? He spoke English.”

“No, he spoke Nangani, the language of the Graylight Dragons…”

I frowned in confusion.

“So…I can understand Graylight Dragons now…”

I turned to the witch doctor, a smug little smile displayed on his face.

“What did you do to me?” I asked the witch doctor, my thoughts returning to the ceremony from the previous night.

“I told you already, we have awoken an inner strength,” he replied in a calm voice, unshaken by my tone.

I exchanged a frustrated glance with Forma. I hated when people refused to divulge information that I had a right to know.

“What happens now?” I segued.

“You begin training,” he replied. “After breakfast. Everyone is so excited to meet you!”

With that, the witch doctor left the chamber, leaving Forma and me to stare at the doorway, wondering exactly what was in store for us.

“Training?” Forma wondered aloud.

“Yes…” I replied, equally confused. “After breakfast.”

“And why would everyone be excited to meet you? Were you a Graylight Dragon in another life? Did he change you into a dragon?”

“I’ve no idea…”

Forma and I stared blankly at each other, each arriving at our own conclusions when a third voice entered the tent and interrupted our reveries.

“Excuse me?”

Forma and I turned suddenly to the tent flap as a young girl entered with a wide, pearly grin of hospitality spread across her face.

“Won’t you join us for breakfast?” she asked.

I looked to Forma, her face still showed signs of the intense sickness of the previous transformation, but she looked at me with resolution.

“Let’s go.”

I smiled at her firmness.

“Alright,” I replied as we followed the lively girl out of the room and towards the city.

“I am Freyja and I could not be more excited to meet you!” the girl marvelled, bubbling with the same giddiness as the girls in Jzasach.

“Erm…thank you…” I said, unsure of what else to say. “May I ask why?”

“Because you are the last in the house of Echo, the greatest and most fearsome warriors in the history of the Shadows tribe!”

I exchanged a confused look with Forma.

“The house of Echo?” I queried.

“Yes! The Echo line has been traced back to the origins of our tribe and they have held prominent roles in our society for hundreds of years.”

I stopped walking suddenly in dark shock as I recalled the admiration in their voices when they had spoken my last name…now it made sense…

“So…my father lived here?”

“Yes. Speaker Echo was the greatest and most revered of our warriors!”

I fell to my knees as Freyja spoke his name. I remembered hearing my mother say it during my Letum-induced coma in Automne de Fleure, but to hear it spoken by somebody who held such a respect and admiration for him brought up an entirely different sort of shock and elation that I could not articulate. Forma gripped my forearm and helped me to stand, sharing my astonishment.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“My father lived here…” I repeated dumbly. “He walked these streets…spoke with these people…”

“Oh yes, he did everything. He lived here for many years until…”

Freyja’s voice then died away, as if she had spoken of something forbidden.

“Yes?” I probed passionately, eager to get as much information out of her as possible. “What is it?”

“I can’t say,” she replied, quickly changing the subject. “Please follow me to the breakfast hall!”

Freyja promptly left the chamber and led us across the wooden city, fending off the admiring citizens who stared at me with reverential awe.

“Forma, the witch doctor said he awoke an inner strength…do you think that means that I am now a Graylight Dragon?” I asked.

Forma looked at me studiously, when her eyes widened suddenly.

“Dear God!” Forma cried. “It makes perfect sense! If your father really was a Graylight, that would make you half-Graylight! All they did was awaken your dormant dragon! That’s why you look so different to me!”

My mouth fell agape in shock. I was a Dragon: a half Creature, by definition. Never had such a situation existed, there had never been a Hunter who was half Creature before. My thoughts immediately fell upon the devil child I had seen rip through the stomach of the pregnant Queen Grey during my odyssey into my subconsciousness. This loose connection made my stomach churn. Could I have unconsciously been aware of my Creature heritage all along?

“Do you suppose this is the reason everyone seems to be after me?” I asked.

“Possibly. There’s never been a Hybrid before, excuse the phrase,” she replied.

I thought about all the mysteries that had surrounded my life thusfar. The professors had sent me away as the school was burning because they knew that the Centaurs were after me…Verrilius had sent the Centaurs to the school because he had heard rumours about me and wanted me for some clandestine purpose that he had chosen to hide…Saul had told me that I needed to destroy the one who carried the fate of them all…and now it was revealed that I was half-Creature: how on earth could all these random details be connected?

Freyja led us towards a very large cave near the city border paved over with bright redwood floors and high, curved oak ceilings lit resplendently with several torches and jovial pits of fire. There was a particularly large fire pit in the middle of the room over which sat a long spit that was presently cooking numerous large animal carcasses.

“I think they’re cooking the Turmas from the other day…” Forma whispered with a shudder of disgust.

I laughed.

“Then you should be all the more proud to ingest them.”

“Shut up.”

“Follow me!” Freyja said as she descended the dark mahogany steps leading down into the cave, when several boys and girls called Freyja over to their table.

“Is that her?” asked a girl with long dark hair that hung loosely around her soft, pale features.

“Yes. Everyone, this is Grey Echo. Grey Echo, this is everyone,” Freyja laughed, gesturing to the group. “This is Roslyn, Caelan, Ravesca, Syla, Goran and Ian.”

I smiled and waved awkwardly to the group.

“Hello all,” I said awkwardly.

“Hello Miss Echo! You look so much like your father,” said the dark-haired girl Freyja had addressed as Syla.

“Thank you. Did you know him?” I questioned softly.

“I only met him once when I was very young. He was quite handsome…” she grew quiet as she tried to remember.

“Shut it, Syla, you’ll scare her,” chastised the thin, pale boy Freyja had called Ian.

“Well you’ll just worry her with your stories about the curse on the house of Echo!” Syla shot back.

“Syla, that’s so rude!” reprimanded the dark-skinned boy called Caelan. “You don’t speak of stupid legends in front of those the legends concern!”

“Well now you’re just making it worse!” snapped the redheaded Ravesca. “She’s going to think we’re all crazy!”

The conversation continued in this manner. I exchanged a glance with Forma, who appeared just as bewildered and amused as I did.

“You certainly have a way with the young people,” she marvelled adroitly.

I laughed to myself, which silenced the group’s reprimandations and caused them to gape at me.

“Uh…” I struggled. “I’ll see you all later?”

Elated smiles stretched across all of their faces.

“Alright everyone, stop gaping. As she said, we’ll see you later,” Freyja reproved. “This way, Miss Echo! And don’t worry about that stupid ‘curse’. Ages ago, your great-great-great grandfather angered a wizard by hunting from his private menagerie. After that, he fell strangely ill and passed. Since then, members of the Echo family have met untimely and early ends, most with varying degrees of gruesomeness. It is foolish to believe in such things, but when your father disappeared and the Echo line was broken, the youth of the tribe brought it back as a way to remember Speaker’s accomplishments. There is nothing to worry about.”

Freyja smiled broadly at me and gestured to the front of the cave, cutting easily through the throng of people. Forma and I waved goodbye to Freyja’s friends and followed her through the crowd to a long table festooned with the most beautiful food I had seen in a long while. The chief stood in front of the head table, laughing and talking with several citizens. As soon as he saw me, however, he immediately redirected his attention, along with the attentions of the entire tribe.

“Miss Echo! How gracious of you to join us!” he cried with scrupulous hospitality.

“Thank you, Chief,” I replied with a bow.

“Come, sit at my side while we feast, for the lost daughter of Echo has finally returned!”