Cloud Shifters

Cadin reached his hand into a crevice in the rocks above Mist Lake, searching for cloud-worms that quickly scuttled away when he and Lep managed to lift the large rock. Lep’s face drained of color after seeing the slimy, white worms but held the rock in place when Cadin started plopping them in his lunch cup. He was having a great time, and didn’t understand why Lep didn’t like the worms.

They don’t bite that hard.

He reached into a crevice felt the sticky side of a worm. He grabbed and pulled, but it did not come. He was sure that it was one of the cloud-worms that had escaped through the large crack and pulled even harder, imagining the worm wedging itself between two rocks just to avoid being captured.

The worm seemed to be losing the battle as Cadin was slowly able to pull it back to the opening where he could throw it in his cup with the others if it would fit.

“I’ve got a big one.”

“That doesn’t seem like it will be a worm.” Lep stepped back.

“Oh, it definitely is a cloud-worm—grab the cup,” Cadin said as he braced his feet against the rock, his medallion shifting on his chest. He pulled hard, freeing the fat worm of the crevice. Attached to the other end of the worm and pulling fiercely was a huge, blue rock dragon the size of Cadin’s arm. Cadin was stunned and didn’t move, still holding onto the cloud-worm. Lep yelled and dropped the cup—worms flew. The dragon startled and gave a quick jerk, tearing the cloud-worm in two. In one smooth move, it gulped down its half and ran back into its home.

“Wow,” Cadin said, still sitting in front of the crevice and holding the other half of the cloud-worm that oozed clear stuff all over his hand.

“That was the biggest rock dragon that I have ever seen. He could have eaten your arm off.” Lep sounded terrified.

“I know, and did you see how blue he was? Rock dragons are usually grey.”

“You were focused on its coloring! What about its claws and spikes?”

Cadin was thinking seriously about that. “You’re right.” Lep looked relieved before Cadin continued. “He did have spikes on his back, and that means that he is definitely a rock dragon.” Cadin jumped up and set his half of the cloud-worm in front of the entrance of the dragon’s crevice. “If we stay long enough, I bet we can see him again.”

To Cadin’s frustration and Lep’s relief, the rock dragon did not come back out. They spent the rest of their time swimming, before it started to get dark and they had to get home.

The remainder of the first week of school was not as exciting or eventful as the first day. Cadin’s free time was mainly spent in the company of Lep, Vincent, Treven, Xeno and more recently a girl named Jade, who was somewhat obsessed with being around Vincent. Cadin liked Jade alright. She was nice and smart, and if she didn’t cling to him the way that she did Vincent, Cadin felt like they could be friends.

Xeno turned out to be invaluable while exploring the woods. His yellow eyes turned red in the forest, which allowed him to see far more sharply in the dark understory than any of the rest of them. He also seemed much less reserved and even joked and laughed with them during their excursions. When Cadin had said something to him about it, Xeno admitted to feeling much more secure and at home among the trees, having grown up with his grandfather on the far side of Glade within the Kling Forest—a small but dense area on the very edge of the cloud-land.

After school, Xeno, Vincent, and Treven made a habit of joining Cadin and Lep. Jade couldn’t join the boys because her parents insisted that she go home right away. Cadin had told the guys about the huge rock dragon that he had wrestled with for the cloud-worm, but after visiting Mist Lake several times and not seeing it, everyone but Cadin seemed happier at the idea of exploring near the school pond or in town.

The town was Treven’s area much like the forest was Xeno’s. After school Treven led their group into town to show them his family’s shop, Peye’s Style.

“Why’s it called Peye’s?” Lep asked as he tried on a hat.

“My parents named it after my grandma.”

Cadin like Peye’s Style, where the clothes were much more fashionable and comfortable than those in the General Market. He remembered his mom stopping into Peye’s during trips into town, but Cadin had always chosen to stay with his dad on those occasions and visit the shops that his dad sold his armor to. His general, utilitarian metalwork was sold in many of the main establishments on Glade. Tal’s finest armor with the inlaid cloud-stones was displayed and sold only within the walls of the Glade Palace.

Glade Palace wasn’t really a palace; it was just the most extravagant and well-protected shop/museum/bank in Glade, or maybe even in the entire Calvarian System. The huge, freestanding white building sparkled in the sunlight. Cadin had asked his dad how it sparkled one day when they went to make a special delivery. Cadin had to stay outside of the gates.

“Crushed up clear cloud-stones are added to the paint.” He had also explained that it was so well guarded and angels under eighteen weren’t allowed in because it carried and sold some of the most precious and sought-after wares in the System.

After Treven was done showing them around Peye’s, they sat around the main fountain, flicking snack leftovers to the pigeons.

Cadin watched the only white pigeon fly up and over the town. A distant gleam caught his eye and he jumped up. The rest of the birds scattered.

“What’s up?” Lep asked.

“Guys, let’s take that passage out of town that Treven told us about so Vincent and Xeno can see Glade Palace!”

“Yeah, the old merchant trail. The guards won’t be able to see us,” Treven said.

“Sounds better than feeding fat birds.”

There was an excitement about the group as they made their way through the vines and weeds that covered the path. The trail faded into a small hill and Treven held up his hand. Cadin edged forward to see over the top and looked down. Glade Palace sparkled in the afternoon sun.

The boys who had never seen it before whispered about the unique architecture. It was the coolest cloud-structure that Cadin had ever seen, with the main building rising and then curving inward to form a domed ceiling. Long windows circled the building twenty feet from the ground. Four attached side buildings rose and wrapped around, ending at the bubble-shaped top. Cadin guessed that the small structures that wrapped around the main building were staircases, and that the room on top was where all the best treasure was held. He desperately wanted to see what was in that room.

“So, how do we get in?” Cadin asked the group. Most of them looked back at Glade Palace, but Lep just stared at Cadin with a hard look on his face.

“I don’t know, Cadin; we could get in really big trouble if we get caught.” The others started to look at each other and Cadin could tell that he was losing them.

“Imagine what we will see in there, guys,” Cadin said pointing at the building. “If the outside is this amazing, it must hold something special on the inside, and I bet that the top room has the best of everything in it. Maybe secret treasure or stuff from Earth!”

That had done it. Even Lep was looking back at the top room with longing. Treasures from Earth were rare in the Cloud Systems. Humans didn’t know about angels with any kind of certainty, and only the most trusted angels were allowed to go to Earth on missions. There were strict rules as to what could be brought back with the angels to the clouds, and those items were unusual and highly sought after. Cadin’s mom told him about an angel bringing back a box of ice cream in a cooler. Everybody went crazy about it, as they had only ever heard of ice cream before. Sara said that it was unlike anything that she had ever tasted. Cadin couldn’t understand liking something so cold and sticky. However, other treasures from Earth intrigued him.

“Angels from other cloud-lands come here just for Glade Palace. There must be something valuable in there,” Treven said.

“I imagine that it will be worth the risk to see what is inside,” Vincent said a little pompously. Cadin rolled his eyes, but smiled all the same. The top of the trail was up high and came out to the side of the building. It offered good cover, so that there wasn’t a good chance of being seen by the two guards that were standing by the entrance gates, nor by the other two standing at the front doors. Cadin and Vincent snuck along the hill that turned into a ridge near the back of the building. They saw a back door with only one guard, and a good place right near the middle of the Palace between the two doors where neither the front door guards nor the back-door guard should be able to see them climb over the wall and get in close to the building.

When Cadin approached the wall, he found thin lines that were clear and very hard to see. Rubble from the hill had built up at the base of the wall and Cadin could see over the top. The thin wires spread up and over Glade Palace, connecting to the wall surrounding it.

“Wow, check out this net thingy,” Lep said as he came down the hill with the others and stopped next to Cadin.

“I guess this is so angels can’t just fly right in, forcing them to go through the front gate,” Xeno said.

“Yeah, but I don’t think they take non-winged kids into account.” Cadin showed them the space in between the lines. “We can easily fit through here without touching them.”

“Well, maybe not easily,” Treven said with a smile, “but we can probably fit. We definitely should not touch the lines though; they might set off some kind of alarm.”

As they approached the webbed net, Cadin felt a strong vibration and stopped the other boys. Cadin walked the fence back and forth between the guard’s sight-line. He noticed Vincent approach to ask him what he was doing, but he just held up his hand. He figured it was some kind of alarm or current that would shock them as they crawled through the netting, even if they didn’t touch it. He was focusing on finding a part of the fence that was vibrating less. Without finding a weak point in the vibration he decided to slowly get closer to the fence.

“Don’t touch it!” Vincent whispered.

“Of course I won’t. I’m just trying to get a sense of what this vibration is.”

Cadin saw the other boys look at each other with confused expressions, but they let him continue without further interruption. Cadin approached to within inches of the net. He felt the vibrations externally; however, as he concentrated on his goals of getting past the fence, the vibrations began to internalize. Cadin felt jolted and powerful for a split second and then the vibrations were gone.

He stepped back and looked at his friends expecting some kind of reaction, but he could tell that they had not sensed what had happened. It was all so fast, Cadin was beginning to doubt whether anything had happened. He approached the fence again and found the vibrations were lacking in the small area that he had been concentrating on.

“We can go through here,” he said confidently.

They all slowly crawled through the lines and dropped down to the other side. “How are we going to get back?” Lep asked, sounding worried.

“I guess we will just have to stand on each other’s shoulders,” Cadin answered quickly. “Let’s worry about that later. We have to get into the building before any of the guards see us.”

They all ran quietly to the side of the building. Cadin touched it where it sparkled. They were in the shade now, but it was still beautiful.

“We didn’t think this all the way through,” Vincent said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “We got here, but now how do we get in. There are only the two doors that we saw, and they are both being guarded.”

Cadin was looking up, counting under his breath. Vincent seemed a little perturbed that Cadin wasn’t listening to him.

“Yep, I think we have just enough people!” Cadin said quietly. “We are going in through that slit window,” he said as he pointed up. “I noticed that every other one is open, and this one should drop onto the top of this stairway inside,” now pointing to one of the wrap around buildings.

“But that is nearly twenty feet high! How are we going to get up there?”

Cadin smiled and answered, “We turn our bodies into a ladder.”

Cadin looked up at the four boys that were standing on each other’s shoulders and leaning against the white wall of Glade Palace. He felt a shiver of excitement run through him as he started climbing up Xeno who was at the base. Cadin noticed that the ladder of boys was sturdy as the building turned into the curved dome and they could lean forward instead of being completely upright. Cadin climbed onto Lep’s shoulders, reached through the window and anchored himself to the inside. Cadin felt Lep grab on to his ankles tightly. “Okay Lep, I’m ready,” Cadin whispered as quietly as possible. He barely heard Lep relay the message to the other boys to start climbing up.

Cadin felt a strong pull, and held on tightly. Now, being the anchor at the top, Cadin was holding up four boys that were hanging from him. Angels were quite strong, but this was still a lot for Cadin. If he let go now, they would all fall and get caught. To distract himself, he began looking around. To his relief, this window opened to the top landing not of a stairway like he had imagined, but a flyway.

Of course, why would there be stairs in a building where no un-winged angels were allowed? At least it was a perfect entrance as nobody below would be able to see them; however, Cadin could not yet see down either.

He heard some soft voices, but could not make out what was being said. Looking up a bit, Cadin saw that the window extended up and out over the room, following the curve of the dome, and where it stopped, the dome roof flattened out. The floor of the top room, Cadin thought as he felt a great tug. Xeno came crawling over the top of him, jumping lightly through the window. He turned towards Cadin and pushed his feet to the wall while grasping Cadin’s arms to support himself.

“Better?” Xeno asked quietly.

“Much,” was all that Cadin could say in return. His body ached, but Xeno’s support and lack of weight helped. Treven was the next one up, and then Vincent. By the time that Lep was crawling up, Cadin was not holding on at all—the boys were all holding onto him, and eventually tugged him all the way over the windowsill and onto the landing.

He had no idea how they would get back over the high wall—his arms felt like jelly and his chest hurt from bending on the window edge to support everyone. However, he soon forgot his pains with the realization that they had done it! They were inside Glade Palace!

The rest of the boys were already peeking over the edge and looking down. Lep turned back and helped Cadin move to the front and he almost gasped as he looked over the edge. The domed ceiling was all white like the outside. He had assumed that the inside would be all white as well, but as he looked down, he saw that the walls were subtle shades of different colors that sparkled brilliantly when the light from the windows hit them. Cadin thought of his dad’s story about crazy old Mira and her cloud-stone house and wondered if it looked anything like this. There not just one great room, but several that were divided by walls but not covered by ceilings, allowing the window-light in. Looking down on the rooms reminded Cadin of a maze.

There were wonderful things hanging from the walls, mounted on pedestals and positioned on shelves. To Cadin’s delight, the largest of the rooms (aside from the entrance-way) was devoted to weapons and armor. Most of the armor, he could tell even from a distance was made by his dad with the inlaid cloud-stones. There were some rooms in the back with large, solid doors. Fine clothes, jewelry, and sculptures were displayed throughout. There was a vest that caught Cadin’s eye. Even from a distance, he could tell that it was finely tailored, but it was the way it was displayed that interested him. One half looked normal, with all the pockets in place, and the other half had the many pockets and folds opened to reveal numerous tools and contraptions.

A few people were being shown items in different rooms by angels that obviously worked there, wearing white vests that sparkled. Cadin couldn’t see into the rooms on the far side of the Palace, but he had seen enough to know that if in these rooms were the finest things that angels had made and could purchase, then above them must be even more valuable things.

“Let’s find a way into the top room,” Cadin whispered to the others. As he said it, he was sure one of the men with a white vest turned his head to look up at where they were hiding. He quickly gestured the other boys to put their heads down. Crap. How do we get out of here fast? Not the window and the wall. The door.

“If they know that we are here, then we have to jump over this wall and escape through the front door,” Cadin whispered as quietly as possible.

He chanced another glance over the edge at the floor and saw many white vests moving quickly towards the flyway.

“They know. Jump!”

All five boys quickly scrambled over the edge, and people throughout the room started shouting or even screaming in surprise. Everyone got separated instantly when they jumped. Treven and Lep landed in the blue room, Vincent in the yellow room, and Xeno and Cadin were able to land on the top of the wall in between the rooms. The white-vested angels rushed in to try and catch them. Cadin took off sprinting across the wall, making his way to the other side of the room in no time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xeno running as well, and then a white vested angel launched himself into the air and grabbed him off the wall.

Just as others were preparing to fly after Cadin, he jumped down into the closest room. This was the weapon and armor room, and Cadin had a momentary urge to grab something off the wall to aid in his escape. The thought passed and Cadin ran out of the room without touching anything. He just wanted to escape without being caught, and hopefully get his friends out too.

Changing directions to move towards where they had grabbed Xeno, Cadin slowed down, peaking around the corners before moving. There were a lot of white vests talking quickly, and then a shuffle and both Xeno and Vincent came into view. One of the men was asking them how many of them there were and how they had gotten in.

Cadin thought about the layout of the rooms that he had seen from above and decided on a different route to save them. He could only hope that Lep and Treven had already gotten away. Slipping around to the back side of the room where they were being held, Cadin quietly moved a beautiful necklace that was displayed on a high pedestal to a different table.

Balancing on the pedestal, Cadin peeked over the top of the wall. The white vested adults and one of the guards from outside were huddled on the other side of the room near the only door, yelling about what to do next. They had obviously decided to stop interrogating the boys already caught for the moment to put more effort into searching for the others.

“There were four or five altogether. Two got out through the front doors—we are in pursuit,” the guard said.

“But, how did they get in?” a small man with a bald head and silver vest was yelling. The side of his face and back of his neck was bright maroon. One of the big men moved behind the little, red man, blocking some of the others’ view from Xeno and Vincent.

“Guys,” Cadin said quietly. Once they looked up, Cadin once again wrapped himself over the edge, crushing his chest and extended a hand to each Xeno and Vincent.

“Jump.”

Neither boy hesitated as they grabbed a hand while Cadin rocked back and jumped as he pulled. They grabbed onto the top of the wall as Cadin fell backward into the room, the pedestal falling and smashing beside him. The adults were all yelling in the other room and Xeno and Vincent landed next to Cadin. Cadin bolted up and led them to the flyway, hoping that there wasn’t a door. Running towards the entrance, Cadin was thrilled to see the same kind of fine wire net covering the entrance. Again, Cadin noticed that no one with wings would make it past the netting, but there was enough space for three boys to wiggle through.

“Hurry, they’re coming!”

In a mad scramble, all three boys wiggled between the net, and Cadin felt the back of his neck touch one of the wires in his haste. Alarms went off everywhere, and someone behind them shouted in a panicked voice, “They’re after the Bridgestone!”

Cadin slid through the rest of the way and ran toward the base of a flyway with the others only to hear Vincent curse, and felt the blood drain from his face—this flyway was incredibly steep and wide, shaped like a large, flat slide that curved around the cylindrical building. There was no way that they could shimmy up to the window. Behind them, Cadin could hear adults reaching the netted entrance. Cadin was next to Xeno, trying to climb up the ridiculously smooth flyway when they heard wings ahead of them.

Flying towards them, and angled down at what Cadin recognized as an attack position was a fully armored angel, wielding a spear. Not good thought Cadin as he slid down the short distance that he had crawled up. Positioning himself in front of Vincent and Xeno, Cadin put his hands up in a surrendering posture, but took a ready stance in case the angel continued his attack and he needed to jump out of the way and drag the others with him. In as loud of a voice as he could muster, Cadin shouted the only thing that came to mind as the armored angel shot towards them.

“Stop!”

To Cadin’s utter astonishment, the angel stopped his attack at once, almost so quickly that Cadin wondered if the angel hadn’t already begun to stop before he had shouted. Again surprising him, Cadin heard the angel laughing from behind his ornate helmet.

Still flying, but hovering in place rather than propelling forward to attack, the angel took off his helmet and tucked it under his spear-wielding arm, revealing black hair with silver streaks and powerful shoulders. His grey eyes focused on Cadin as he laughed again and spoke. “You didn’t think that I was going to kill children, did you?”

The angel’s eyes shifted from Cadin to Xeno to Vincent and back to Cadin again, his gaze dropping to Cadin’s chest. The angel landed, somehow not sliding down, and started his loudest laugh yet. A yell came from behind the netting, demanding to know what was happening.

“I have everything under control,” the armored angel answered quietly, but with a huge amount of authority behind the words.

“Do you have them? Did they get anything? Do you need back up?” Cadin was sure that this voice was that of the bald, red-faced man.

The armored angel chose to ignore any further questions and spoke instead to Cadin. “You must be Cadin, Talvarian’s boy.”

Cadin was at an utter loss for words.

“What are three fine young lads such as you doing breaking into Glade Palace?” The angel asked casually.

From behind them, Cadin heard the red-faced man again. “They’re dirty thieves, obviously. Lock them up!”

“Oh, do shut up, Ruben.” Nothing more was said from behind them, but there was some mad sputtering.

Cadin decided that escape was no longer an option and this man did not seem inclined to hurt them, so he relaxed his stance and asked, “How do you know who I am?”

“It was your fine medallion that gave you away.”

Cadin reached for his medallion as the angel continued. “I would recognize Talvarian’s work anywhere, because he made the only piece that I have ever chosen worthy to meld to myself,” the angel said while pointing to his right forearm guard. Cadin looked and saw that it was made from more than one cloud-metal. There were no imperfections that marred the surface, and along either edge, Cadin saw small, inlaid cloud-stones.

“Of course, it also helped that your father and I talked about you just earlier today while we were catching up. I had hoped to meet you before my visit ended; however, I must admit that I didn’t expect our meeting to happen in quite this fashion.”

Cadin looked down as he blushed with harsh embarrassment. What would his father think of this? Certainly, he was in big trouble.

“Sir, may I ask who you are?”

“You may, if you answer me first. Why have you broken into Glade Palace?”

Cadin couldn’t see the harm in answering, as it certainly wasn’t to steal anything. “We simply wanted to see what was inside of such a cool-looking place. We figured that there had to be some Earth treasure in the top room.”

The angel gave a little chuckle. “I see. As that is the case, your punishment is outside of my hands. You will be turned over to Mr. Ruben and the local authorities after I give him my evaluation of the Glade Palace security. I have some suggestions, as you might imagine.

“As per our agreement,” he said as he walked towards them, his wings still expanded for balance on the slope. Vincent and Xeno took a step back as he approached, but Cadin stayed his ground. Reaching out his hand, he said, “I am Master Sanjen of the Calvarian Core, born on Galen.”

Oh, crap! Master Sanjen, the military leader of the entire Core.

“I can’t believe it, Cadin. I can’t believe you would jeopardize your future like this!” Cadin’s dad was pacing back and forth in the living room. His mom was sitting silently off to the side, and Cadin was sitting in the middle of the room holding his head down, feeling dejected. He had never seen his father so upset.

“And to meet Master Sanjen this way!” Tal half laughed at this, though Cadin knew it was not a funny laugh. “When he comes back in here, you had better…had better… I don’t even know what.” Tal finished his last sentence with shame etching his face, looking at Cadin’s mother for help. Sara seemed to be in shock at what her only son had done, and was unable to say anything.

Instead of looking into his parents’ faces, Cadin looked out front to where Master Sanjen was saying goodbye to the red-faced Rubin. Cadin didn’t much care for Rubin, but was thrilled that he had agreed after Master Sanjen’s heavy persuasion not to press charges, and settle for community service. Cadin would not be spending his community service time with Rubin at Glade Palace (Rubin had refused to let thieves work there), but instead would be working at the Town Hall in the Sanitation Department.

Master Sanjen was shaking Rubin’s hand. He doesn’t act like a Master of the Core, Cadin thought while he watched. He is just too cool, and laughs too much. But then Cadin thought back to the flyway and how he had been charging them. He was certainly intimidating then. “A commanding presence” is what Tal had once said of Master Sanjen. Just then, Master Sanjen had turned and was looking right at Cadin. Cadin knew that he should look down out of respect and shame at having broken into Glade Palace, but he felt held by his gaze and fascinated by this powerful angel. Cadin hadn’t noticed Master Sanjen’s Aura before that moment, but was a little shocked to realize that it was green. Cadin hadn’t thought about what color Aura the leader of the Core would have had, but he did not expect the color that he had seen every day of his life.

Master Sanjen smiled as he walked back through the door towards Cadin, Tal and Sara. “Well, now that we have that all straightened out, Talvarian, I was wondering if we could continue our talk about the new protection for the Core?” Master Sanjen asked. Cadin was surprised that Master Sanjen was so ready to drop the issue of Cadin’s break in to the Glade Palace, and just as hopeful that his parents would follow Master Sanjen’s lead. Looking at their faces, Cadin could tell that his mom was willing to drop it for now, but his dad was obviously conflicted about releasing the subject so easily. Cadin saw the instant excitement light up his dad’s face of the idea of talking about armor with the leader of the Core, instantly followed by a furrow.

Tal looked back and forth between Cadin and Master Sanjen, occasionally looking at Sara as if for some help. Cadin thought he saw his mom give the tiniest of smiles to his dad.

“Oh, alright,” Tal said with a defeated huff. “We are finished with the Glade Palace incident for now.” he finished, looking directly at Cadin.

Cadin was so relieved that he jumped up and gave his dad a hug. Tal hugged him back warmly, but still had a firm voice when he continued. “For now, you need to go up to your room and study, while your mom and I talk to Master Sanjen.”

Cadin walked out of sight and slowed his pace as he heard his dad ask in a low whisper, “Any updates?”

“Yes,” Master Sanjen’s deep timber rolled up the stairs. “Unfortunately, what we feared had been confirmed.”

Cadin heard his mom gasp and his dad moan. He couldn’t help but slow to a cloud-worm pace as Master Sanjen continued. “I know you said you can’t re-enlist in the Core and I respect that. However, I would like to commission your innovative metal work.” There was a long pause and Cadin almost missed the last bit as he reached his room. “We are going to need better armor.”