Page a Day: Three

            I blinked. “But we already are at war.” Something passed through me, then, dark and cold as winter water. It was that sinking feeling that men call dread. 

            “They came a year ago,” I said, remembering. “From the void between the stars, in ships like moons. They never demanded anything, or told us who they were. They just came. They brought that black cloud...”

            Jerem Cozak pursed his lips. “The nightwind.”

            “The nightwind, that could change a person’s loyalty.”

            His face darkened.  “That power was not commonly known.”

            “I knew a woman. She saw things, painted things. The nightwind covering the world, and now I suppose it has. I met her just before they came. When the city fell, she... killed herself.” I frowned. “That’s it. That’s all I remember, finding her body. After that, I...” I waved my hand. 

            He frowned. “She was your lover?”

            “She would have said she was my friend.” My face grew hot.

            “Our time is hard for lovers and for friends. But it is good for allies now.” He pushed himself upright. “Come, Del. Victory never waits. ” He stepped out of the sarcophagus.  

             I laughed at him. “There are only two of us. But there are armies of millions of them.”

            I saw then that he had no scholars’ frame, soft and slight as I had often supposed, but a body wiry and tense, the build of a gunner of the veilmen, posted on the edges of the battle, but always fighting nonetheless.

            He turned and walked over to the wall, where the woman had gone out. “That was is over; we lost. The armies have moved on. But in this we will have allies. Stand up.”