Equinox (Book One of the Firebird Chronicles) WATTY AWARD HIDDEN GEM WINNER 2015

Chapter Twenty Five: Wings to Fly

Media: "Alive" by Sia. 

--- "You took it all, but I'm still breathing."

The Exchangers were exciteable that night.

In my opinion, they were already a communal bunch that wanted to celebrate over anything. They made the orphanage back home seem like a quiet chapel. And tonight was the biggest excuse that rowdy group had been given in eighteen years.

As we sat in the council's chambers, we could hear the echoes of music and dancing, increasing in volume, a crescendo of feeling rising from the angels. It was difficult to plan an attack, particularly with the rumble of movement. But we tried, and had been trying, for the past thirty minutes.

I leant against the table in the centre of the room. Walsh flanked my side, pointing at a roughly drawn map of Angelica and the Ruby district. Opposite us were the four other councillors, who introduced themselves as Roan, Kaelan, Guthrie and Trina. Roan was a muscular, dark-haired and dark skinned man who could have been anywhere from his early twenties to his mid forties. He stood on edge, his wings unfurled and tense, so orange that they bled into rose at the tips. Kaelan was impish in features; young, wiry, and with thin fae-like wings, delicate and pointed. He had brilliant red hair that stuck up wonderfully at the front; Valkyrie, who insisted upon standing at my side, was enthralled by it. Kaelan gave the young girl a kind wink when he caught her staring at his hair, as red as her own tangled locks. 

The two women, Guthrie and Trina, were both opposites. Guthrie was tall and, surprisingly, introverted; she towered over everyone including Sakura, but she only spoke when necessary, choosing to hide behind her long, curling blonde hair. Trina, her tiny friend, was a woman that did the talking for Guthrie, and more. As if to contrast even futher, Trina wore her hair in a cropped pixie cut, and was a rugged brown colour. 

As to the prison, I discovered small details about it by listening to the conversation. At first, it seemed a little hyped-- how hard could a building be, to break out of?-- but I soon realised it was the small details that mattered. Like how the building was created by an Exchanger that meant the entrances changed unpredictably. The hallways in the prison were supposed to all look the same, and then they would change, so that even if you could tell them apart, you couldn't have an idea where it would lead to. A great deal of debate consisted on how the guards knew where they were, which Sakura, Iggy and Kaelan seemed to think was a key concept to focus on. If we could figure out how they got around, it would make the prison actually accessible.

The final detail I had gleaned from the conversation was that the commander of the prison was extremely powerful, and he made sure that the outside of the prison was a hostile environment to try and break past its walls. Getting to him was what Guthrie and Trina thought essential.

"Take out the leader, and watch the rest weaken," Trina called it. Kaelan had argued that we had to find him first, and to do that, we would have to get inside and know our way around.

'Ignacio will be able to infiltrate the guards,' Sakura, who was standing next to Roan, was gesturing towards the table, where several improvised coins were acting as different angels. 'He can open the gates.'

'It's not that simple,' Trina said, loudly and slowly, and Sakura's eyes flashed in annoyance. 'The prison is guarded at every hour of the day by twelve outer guards, twelve inner guards and moving guards, who rotate throughout and so we can never pin down where they are.'

I eyed the map on the table, and the books that were opened on the table with sketches of the Ruby prison. I couldn't read, but I could imagine from the sketches. It looked imposing; a great tower, hidden amongst the rocky cliffs of the edge of the island. There were sketches of the inside, too; how, I didn't know. If nobody ever got out...