The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Seventeen: Alec

Everythingturned to chaos once we got back to Edil. Alia and I were immediately whiskedaway to the infirmary the moment we arrived. Sabin and Megan left after passingtheir own check-ups, leaving the two of us at the mercy of the healers. My headwas still spinning, and I felt sick to my stomach but I managed to hold down whatvery little I had in it.

The nextfew hours were a blur of bandages, IV drips, nurses, healers, Alia cursing whenthey woke her up… the list went on and on. The entire time I tried to stayfocused and pay attention, but my head hurt and honestly I really just wantedto sleep.

Eventuallyeveryone left us alone, leaving only Alia and I in the room. We talked quietlyfor a few minutes before the medicine finally kicked in and I had no choice butto fall asleep.

My dreamsweren’t happy. Through them, I relived the torture I’d experienced the pastcouple of days, as well as everything Brittany had shown me with her takot powers. But that wasn’t even theworst part of it. The worst part was when the fires of Satama entered mydreams.

Thatnight is one of the few things from my childhood I remember clearly. There wasfire—lots of it— and people screaming in the streets. My family had gone overto the Raiders’ house for dinner, but as soon as the first of the attacksstarted, my parents rushed us to our house so we could all get down in our raidbunker. But everything went wrong.

Somewherealong the way, Alia was separated from us. I don’t know what happened to her,and I’ve never really had the chance to ask, but all I know is one minute shewas running right beside me and the next she was gone. Unfortunately, witheverything that was going on, my parents didn’t realize she was gone until wegot back to our house. By then, it was too late.

Iremember going into the house right behind my parents, and almost immediatelybeing grabbed up by a stream of water and tossed behind the couch. A fewseconds later, my mother’s face appeared above me.

“Alec, Iwant you to stay here,” she said. “And stay very quiet, no matter whathappens.”

She bentdown and kissed me on the forehead.

“I loveyou sweetheart. So does your dad. Remember that, okay? And tell your sister,when you see her again.”

Withthat, Mom was gone. At that time, I didn’t realize that was the last thing shewould ever say to me, even though now I understand she knew it would be. Butright then, all I heard was the snap of her signature water whips as well asthe heated whoosh of Dad’s flames. Iwanted nothing more than to get up and watch my parents fight, believing as anyten year old would that my parents were invincible and nothing could possiblystop them, but I did as I was told and hid behind the couch, even when thewindow behind me was shattered in by a rock thrown from the street. I don’tknow how long I stayed back there, but at some point I realized that the soundsof fighting had stopped and was replaced with sounds of talking.

“Come on,Mr. Parker, I know you don’t want your family hurt,” a girl’s voice said. “Sojust tell me. How do we get into Einoth?”

“Leavethem out of this,” I heard my dad say. “I’m the one you want. Fight me, notthem.”

The girllaughed. “Oh please, you’re in no shape to fight right now. Besides, I’veturned on the gas in your kitchen. Any tiny spark of flame and WHOOSH. Theregoes your house.”

I don’tknow why, but at that moment I dared to peak over the edge of the couch. What Isaw almost knocked the wind out of me. There were my parents, beaten to theground. Dad was lying in a torn up mess on the floor, one eye swollen shut andmassive cuts on either of his cheeks. He was looking at Mom with a desperateexpression in his good eye.

Mom wason her knees with her back towards me, her head pulled back by her long brownhair. A girl no more than a few years older than me was holding onto her hairwith one hand, and a silver dagger with the other. In the flickering lights ofthe street fires, I could barely make out the girl’s shoulder length hair. It’sobsidian color blended into the dark of the room and hid her face from my view,but I remember her voice clearly enough, and the fact that she had the daggerpressed into my mom’s neck hard enough it was already drawing blood.

“I’m nottelling you anything, you little brat,” my dad said firmly.

“Verywell,” she said. Then with one quick motion, she pulled the dagger across Mom’sthroat. She let go of her hair and Mom’s body fell lifelessly to the ground.

“Mom!” Iscreamed, which was probably not the smartest thing to do, since Dagger Girlhad yet to see me. But I’d just watched my mother be murdered. I had a right toscream if I wanted to.

DaggerGirl immediately spun around to face me. Her bangs were hanging in her eyes, soI couldn’t see them well, but she gave me a feral grin when she saw me.

“Aw, oneof the Parker-spawn,” she said. “Good, just what I needed.”

“Alec,run!” my dad shouted to me.

But I wasfrozen in place. Even if I had wanted to heed my dad’s warning and get out ofthere, I don’t think I could’ve.

DaggerGirl was moving towards me, her dagger swinging in her hand by her side,dripping with blood. She was going to use that on me, I realized. But still Icouldn’t move.

Whathappened next happened so fast I still have trouble processing it all. Rightbefore Dagger Girl reached me, my dad grabbed her by the shoulder and pulledher back. Surprisingly, she resisted his pull. On instinct, she spun around andstabbed him. He fell to the ground right beside Mom.

NeitherDagger Girl nor I moved for a few seconds. We were both staring at my lifelessparents, her in irritation and me in complete disbelief.

“Frick,”she muttered under her breath. “I wasn’t supposed to kill him.”

Sheseemed to have forgotten I was still there, so I jumped over the back of thecouch and stared at her.

“Youkilled them,” I stated, loud enough to be heard over the din of the streets,but not to the point where I was shouting. “You killed my parents.”

Sheturned around and looked at me again. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, as if she hadforgotten I was there. “Well, I guess I could take you in his place. Maybe yourfamily up north will pay the ransom for you.”

I didn’tpay attention to what she was saying. Instead, I clenched my hands into fistsand glared at her with all the hatred and emotion that was boiling up inside ofme.

“You.Killed. My. Parents.” I ground out.

“Yeah, sosorry, whatever,” she muttered. “Can we go now?”

“YOUKILLED MY PARENTS!” I finally screamed, throwing my hands out in front of me.

I’m stillnot sure what happened after that. I remember screaming as a huge blast of fireshot from my hands and the girl swearing loudly as she ran out of the way.

Beforethat night, I’d already known about my fire elementest powers. Out of ourfriend group, Sabin and I were the first to discover our powers, so we’d bothalready started training and learning how to use them. But I had never used mypowers to the extent I did that night. As fire filled the room, I realized themistake I’d made too late. Dagger Girl had turned on the gas from our stove andhad allowed it to leak through the house. She’d done this to prevent my dadfrom using his fire powers, but I didn’t think about this until a suddenexplosion threw me backwards through the window at my back. I landed hard onthe ground with the breath knocked out of me and my energy completely drainedfrom over exertion of my powers. In a few seconds I passed out cold.

I woke upin the Edil infirmary, my head still spinning from all the dreams. As I pushedmyself into a sitting position and fought to get oriented, I glanced over andsaw Alia, still asleep. Her hair was still loose from its braid and was spreadout around her pillow. I tried not to think about how much it looked like ourmom’s hair.

Alia hada peaceful look on her face, which I was glad of. To say we’d had a rough pastfew days would be the understatement of the century. Seeing Alia with such anexpression on her face after what we had just went through reassured me thatshe would be all right. Of course, this was Alia. If anyone could bounce back,it was her.

It alsobothered me, though, because I hadn’t seen Alia look this peaceful since we’dbeen reunited a few days ago. Even in her calmest moments—when she didn’t looklike she was about to take someone’s head off—there was always a look of… well,regret, in her eyes. I couldn’t understand why it was there, but I was worriedabout it nonetheless. It didn’t take an IGS to tell that Alia was carrying aheavy burden on her shoulders.

“Will youstop staring at me?”

I jumped,startled at Alia’s exclamation. She hadn’t even opened her eyes yet. How didshe know I was staring at her?

“Did youforget about my telekisenses?” she asked, still not looking at me.

“I can sense you looking at me, doofus.”

“Good tosee you too,” I muttered, turning my eyes to look around the room. I hadn’tpaid much attention to it earlier, since I’d been too focused on making myselfstay awake so the medics could do their thing faster and then leave.

Aliachuckled lightly as she opened her eyes and sat up.

“Ugh,”she groaned. “I don’t like that medicine.”

Ismirked, knowing full and well what she meant. They hadn’t put Alia under anyanesthetics fortunately, otherwise I would’ve been having a conversation with athree-year-old at the moment instead of my grouchy sister. I remembered whenAlia had been little, she’d had a surgery to remove an extra tooth. I hadn’tbeen there when they’d put her under, but when she had woken up, she’d askedabout me. So Mom and Dad had brought me in to see her. Let’s just say that loopy only began to describe her.

At leastthe IV drips had been taken out sometime while we were asleep, though I wasn’tsure why. Neither of us could’ve been very well hydrated when we first gothere. Of course, the healers at Edil were often praised for being some of thebest in Sankruus, so I guess that’s probably why.

Thehealers wouldn’t heal everything. Any fatal wounds they would heal to the pointthat it was stable and the victim wouldn’t die. For minor wounds, they wouldnormally just heal against infections. Anything else just had to heal on itsown. It wasn’t that the healers didn’t want to heal every little hurt theycould (I was friends with a few of them, and knew they would heal everythingcompletely in a heartbeat if they were allowed), but healing powers took a lotof energy, and at a military academy, that wasn’t something that could bewasted. So the healers had to be conservative with their energy, which leftAlia and I both looking like a couple of mummies who’d been dragged down theroad a few times each.

“How areyou feeling?” I asked.

“Likefive day old spit,” Alia muttered. She looked over at me, her eyes soft despitethe serious expression on her face. “What about you?”

“I’vebeen better,” I admitted, not missing the fact that we were carefully avoidingthe subject of what had happened to us.

Fortunately,two people walked into the room right then, saving us from having to continuetalking.

Thenewcomers were both wearing the light blue shirts of the IGSs. The bigger ofthe pair was a tall guy who was maybe a bit older than me, with light brownhair and a mischievous glint in his eyes despite the concerned look on hisface. I’d seen him a few times around the academy, but his name escaped me.

Hiscompanion, on the other hand, was hard to mistake. She was short, maybe fivefoot five inches at best. Of course, she couldn’t have been any older thanfifteen (a first year student, by the looks of it), so there was hope for herat least. Her black hair fell freely around her shoulders, but was pushed outof her face so that her green eyes shone brightly when she smiled at Alia andme. I definitely recognized her, but I admit I didn’t remember her name either.

Aliasaved me on that part.

“You’reSabin’s younger sister,” she said to the girl. “Nicki, right?”

“I washoping you’d remember me,” Nicki said. “I mean, I was pretty young the lasttime you guys saw me but you know…”

The guywho’d come in with her cleared his throat.

“Oh,”Nicki said. “This is Tyler, by the way. He’s known me almost as long as youguys have. He graduated last year with Sabin, and is one of the IGS drillleaders here. He, uh, also helped rescue you guys yesterday.”

“Thanks,”Alia and I both automatically said.

Tylerwaved his hand dismissively. “Not a problem. It’s what I do. Anyway, we justwanted to come in and make sure you guys were okay. Megan and Sabin are a fewrooms down. They… had some complications when we got back here. But they’re allright. We’ll go let them know you two are awake.”

Aliafrowned. “What complications?” she asked. “What happened?”

Nicki andTyler exchanged glances briefly before Nicki turned back to us.

“Whileyou guys were gone, we found out that a lot of the Commanders here are workingwith the konna. We suspected Commander Mecah might be too, so when Megan andSabin went in for the mission debrief, they went in with the instructions tofigure out if he was.”

“Turnsout we were right,” Tyler added bitterly. “He was the one who orchestrated yourentire mission, even the part of you getting captured. Megan and Sabin got theinformation we needed from him, but just as Megan’s brother Zig was about to goin to make the arrest, Mecah shot Megan in the shoulder and Sabin in thestomach. Then he flew out of his office window and escaped. We’ve got peopleout looking for him now.”

“They…were shot?” Alia asked, her words catching in her throat.

Nickinodded. “They’re okay now though. It took a little while for the healers to beable to help them, since both of the bullets were tainted with konna darkenergy. But eventually they got the bullets out, and now both of them areresting.”

“We’rewaiting for the okay to move Sabin, then you four are going to be taken toAelston,” Tyler said.

“But,why?” I asked.

Again,Tyler and Nicki exchanged glances. With a sigh, Tyler explained.

“When werescued you two, we figured out that the konna at that base were planning anattack on Edil. Originally, their plans had the attack scheduled for someobscure date a few months from now, but after our little… excursion, we thinkthey’ve moved those plans up.”

“It’lltake a few days for them to get their forces here,” Nicki said. “Or, at leastthat’s what we’re betting on. Either way, everyone in the infirmary is beingsent to Aelston.”

“No,”Alia and I both said.

Tyler andNicki didn’t even looked surprised. I didn’t know much about either of theirpowers (though I remember from last year when we’d worked on a project togetherSabin mentioning Nicki was undeveloped), but I didn’t doubt the fact thatthey’d expected Alia and I to refuse moving.

“We aren’tgoing anywhere,” Alia continued. “We are more than capable of fighting, andyou’re going to need us.”

“She’sright,” I agreed, before Nicki or Tyler could protest. “We aren’t leaving.”

“You’reboth crazy,” Tyler said.

NeitherAlia nor I bothered to respond. Tyler and Nicki stood there expectantly,waiting for us to say something, but left eventually, saying they were going togo let Megan and Sabin know we were awake.

A fewmore minutes of silence after they had left, Alia finally spoke with a shakyvoice.

“Alec,what’s going to happen?” she asked.

I shookmy head, not understanding the question.

“I mean,the konna and sankrin have been on the verge of war for almost twenty years,and sure, the konna have been gaining strength while the sankrin are justbarely managing to hold steady, but I still never thought that it would get tothe point where our own Commanders would turn on us.” Her voice shook slightlyas she spoke, but she didn’t stop. “So, what’s going to happen, now that weknow what’s going on? Is it going to turn to war?”

“I… don’tknow, Alia.”

She tooka breath and looked at me, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

“It’swhat the konna want,” Alia said. “A war with the sankrin. They know they havethe upper hand—more strength, more bodies… possibly even better plans. And wecan’t do anything about it.”

“Als…”

“Alec youdon’t understand,” she said. “After Brittany put us through the takot visions and they took us back toour rooms… Tyrone came and saw me. He… he told me a lot of stuff. About thekonna and their plans. It was mostly hubris, but I think he was trying to getme to join their side.” Alia gave a bitter laugh at that. “As if that wouldhappen. Either way, I know what they’re planning ultimately. I don’t… I don’tknow if we’re going to be strong enough to fight them.”

I watchedas Alia tried to cover her face with her hands, only to stop and curse when sherealized that her left arm was in a cast from where they’d broken her wrist.

“Dammit,”she swore softly, staring accusingly at her hand.

Shelooked so broken down, it was hard for me to watch. And the fact that she wasadmitting she wasn’t sure about us being strong enough to go to war against thekonna made me really concerned. That wasn’t the kind of thing Alia would admit.

“Alia,look at me,” I said, leaning over to touch her shoulder, careful not to touchany of the bruises or cuts that I could see. She lifted her head slightly, hereyes holding an emotion I couldn’t describe, but understood nevertheless. Itook a breath before continuing.

“We’regoing to be okay,” I said. “We’ve got each other back, finally. And Sabin, andMegan…”

Alia’seyes flashed at the mention of Megan’s name.

“That’sright!” she exclaimed, before jumping out of bed. She wobbled slightly, tryingto regain her balance, but that only took a few seconds before she was stormingout of the room.

“Als!Where are you going?” I shouted in vain. She was already headed down the hall,leaving me with no choice but to follow her.