The Coalition (Book 1)

Chapter 47

"Shai look at me." She tried to shake her head. She couldn't see, how could she look anywhere? She couldn't even breathe. Then the crushing pressure around her chest lifted and she fell, her body suddenly weightless, suspended. A bright light flashed and she saw a face. Flame-blue eyes that ripped apart the last threads of the veil of darkness. A thin, jagged scar cutting across his right cheek. His mouth, for once not smiling.

Remiel.

Her back struck something hard. Pain gouged her shoulder. The fresh, damp smell of the earth and the hearty scent of roasting meat filled her nose.

I am alive.

She sat up trembling, and looked around. She was lying on the ground still wrapped in Aliah's cloak. A fire crackled to her left inside a ring of stones, and some kind of dark meat roasted over a spit, dripping juices into the flames. The sun had set, leaving the sky a velvety-black with tiny lights where the moon and stars pierced the night sky. Tall trees with leafless branches cast eerie shadows on the ground.

Aliah sat across the fire from her. His legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed, his hands supporting him from behind as he leaned back. He raised an eyebrow when their eyes met, but he didn't move.

"Where are we?" Her throat felt rusty and her voice cracked.

Aliah glanced to his left and Shai turned her head to see Remiel sitting on a log, his forearms resting casually on his legs as he leaned forward, letting his hands dangle between his knees. He grinned and deep dimples appeared in his cheeks.

She swallowed hard and looked back at Aliah who watched her unblinking.

"Aliah...can you... can you see him?"

Remiel laughed. A low lazy sound that Shai felt in her chest.

"Can yousee me, Shai?" His eyes shone in the firelight.

She nodded.

"Then he can see me as well."

"How? How are you here right now when I've only seen you in visions?" Every breath burned as she forced air through her raw throat.

"You thought I appeared to you in visions, but we were communicating through a ripple of sorts. Three Worlds separated by a thin layer, but the ripple let us see each other. And recently we've been able to hear each other." Remiel looked at Aliah, then Shai, and smiled. "Don't worry. You'll know more about that later. And to answer your first question Shai, we are several miles northwest from where you started. Less than a day's journey from our destination: Sector Seven. Otherwise known as Kent. That's where I've been staying, and it's the place of your birth."

Shai glanced from Remiel to Aliah then back at Remiel. "What do you mean 'the place of my birth?'"

Remiel turned to Aliah. "You want to tell her or should I?"

Aliah shrugged one shoulder, still watching Shai.

Remiel picked up a stick and cleared a spot on the ground in front of him with his boot. He drew a small circle in the dirt with the stick then jabbed the end of the stick into the center of it.

"This is Lael, where you and Aliah grew up." He drew a larger circle around the small one.

"This is The Division of Edan that surrounds Lael." From the edge of the small circle he drew lines to the edge of the larger circle like the spokes of a wheel. When he was finished there were seven pie-shaped wedges of equal size.

"These are the Seven Sectors in the Division. The space between the Sectors, including Lael, is what you call the Borderless. At the top we have Sector One: Adena." He drew a sideways number eight inside the wedge. "This is their symbol. They supply power, electricity through water, to the rest of the Sectors."