Tahlia Barrow is Mare's older sister. After losing her job and getting conscripted she's fairly certain that thing's can't get any worse, until one night in the Choke her life changes again. The first few chapters take place before the series but rest assured we'll see plenty of the canon characters.
I don't own the Red Queen universe or any of the characters from the series.
Chapter One: The Death of Tahlia Barrow
No matter how many weeks passed, no matter how desperately she tried, Tahlia could never seem to get used to the sound of gunfire. It permeated her every waking moment, and even in her rare bouts of deep sleep when she managed to escape the trenches for long enough to sleep in one of the old ratty tents for red soldiers, it invaded her dreams. She couldn't escape it.
Tonight seemed to be worse than most nights as she lay on the ground in her old sleeping bag staring up at the stars through one of the holes in her tent. At least it's not raining for once, she thought to herself, but no sooner had the thought entered her mind than a distant rumble echoed over the ever-present gunfire. Fantastic.
Abandoning the idea that sleep was coming for her she rolled over, pulling the small metal box out of her pack that held what little personal effects she had. The box was old, ugly, and rusty but it had done it's job and kept the few things she cared about dry, so far anyway. She pulled out the more recent of the two letter she had received from home and moved so that the moonlight coming in from the hole in the tent would illuminate her sister Mare's messy handwriting. Lazily she used her free hand to move her short reddish-brown hair behind her ears to keep it from her eyes while she read her sister's words.
The letter was dated nearly a month ago but she had only just received it a few days ago. She had been at the Choke for nearly four months now, and despite the fact that her brothers were also on the front lines her younger sister's letters were the only contact she'd had with any of her family. She smiled fondly as she reread the letter. It wasn't anything special, mostly just her sister complaining, but she could almost hear her sister's voice in her mind and it made her feel like she was back home, even if it was only for a moment.
She complained about their youngest sister, Gisa, and an argument they'd had recently. How they never seemed to have enough 'lec rations and how their mother didn't seem to appreciate any of the 'gifts' Mare had 'appropriated' for her recently. It should have annoyed Tahlia that she was sleeping on the cold hard ground, her clothes never dry, and doing her best to exist on what amounted to cat naps most of the time, and yet Mare was the one complaining; but she yearned for the letters and the distraction they provided. The reminders that there was still a world away from the battlefield, that if she could just make it through this she had her family waiting to annoy the hell out of her back at home.
"Why are you awake?" A small voice asked from inside the sleeping bag next to hers. A muffled yawn followed as her friend sat up and gave her a sympathetic smile.
Tahlia put the letter back in her box and shrugged, "Couldn't sleep. You?"
"I was having the best dream about home," Kaylee started, running her hand over her buzzed black hair, "But then-"
The terrible boom of an explosion, from the sound of it far too close to the tent for comfort, makes her friend stop suddenly and the two share a concerned look. Explosions are a common occurrence around here, on the lines certainly, but not usually this close to their encampment. Tahlia is on her feet in seconds, grabbing her gun and pulling her jacket from where she's had it strung up in the hopes that it will dry out a little before she had to get back out there.
"Where are you going, Tali?" Kaylee asks from behind her, sounding more annoyed than concerned. "We're off duty, it's not our problem."
Tahlia nods at her fried, "True, but that was close, and I'd rather not just lay here and wait to get blown up. I'm just going to take a look."
The raven haired woman lets out a laugh, "Trust me you'll get used to it. Lay back down and get what sleep you can before they drag us back out there."
She considers the idea for a moment before she decides to go check on that's going on. Through the chaos of the Nortan camp her eyes find her commanding officer and she moves to speak with him. She's nearly to him when another explosion rattles the ground and knocks her off her feet.
Everything seems to blur, all of her senses temporarily impaired before returning one by one. Her eyes are the first ting to adjust, struggling to take in what's happening around her. Fire dances in the corner of her vision, she can see people running and yelling, officers barking orders but all she can hear is a high pitched ringing noise. Her sense of smell returns next, the stench of smoke mixing with burning flesh invading her nose.
She turns to where her CO was only to find his body slumped on the ground a few feet away, a hunk of shrapnel stinging out of his back. Someone grabs her arm and she whips her head around to see Kaylee leaning over her. The buzzing noise is still filling her ears but she can just make out the words "we need to move" being shouted at her.
With a nod she lets her friend haul her to her feet, and they start moving. Their camp is on the west bank of the Maiden River near the south shore of Lake Tarion, their legion having recently crossed the river and been ordered by command to hold this side by any means necessary. Most of the foot traffic seems to be heading toward the river, away from the bombs.
Tahlia stops suddenly, grabbing her friends sleeve to stop her too. The full weight of what's happening here hits her like a slap to the face; her voice comes out at barely a whisper when she finally speaks, "They're corralling us up against the river, their going to slaughter us." She's not even sure if her voice was actually audible but the look of realization in her friend's eyes suggests that it was. For the first time she feels the loss of her gun, realizing that she must have lost it when that last blast knocked her off her feet.
"Tali-" Her friend is cut off again, this time by a bullet striking her in the chest.
Tahlia expects to hear herself scream, or feel the familiar burn of tears in her eyes but she doesn't. She's not sure if it's because of the number of people shes seen die over the last few months or if it's just because she knows she can fix this, but she just feels numb as she watches the older girl's body crumble to the ground.
She's not exactly sure when she realized that there was something wrong with her. It started in the heat of her first day on the actual front lines, she thought that she'd been shot but then suddenly she was fine again and able to get out of the way before the bullet could hit her; but she'd tried to convince herself she was imagining it. Then it had been an undeniable sense of deja vu when she was arguing with another soldier, suddenly he said something again for what she could have sworn was the second time in the last minute, but later when she asked around no one seemed to have noticed.
It had taken her a couple of weeks of similar off-putting encounters to realize that, somehow, she was doing it. Somehow she was rewinding time and replaying it. She would find herself back where she had been before, sometimes as little as thirty seconds and at her best around five minutes when she really focused, everything back to how it had been but with the knowledge of what was about to happen and the chance to relive or change it.
She stared down at her friend's still twitching body, willing the fickle ability she shouldn't have to let her try again. She was sure that it looked like she had frozen to all the other soldiers running around but with any luck they wouldn't remember this. Another spray of bullets, one just barely missing her head.
She dropped to her knees. "Please," She begged quietly, although she had no idea who she was talking to, "Please."
Suddenly the familiar feeling of the world spinning and swirling around her came and she slammed her eyes shut in relief. She wasn't sure how long they'd been shut for when she heard Kaylee's voice again.
"Tali? We need to keep going, don't freeze up on me now."
Tahlia opened her eyes to see her friend staring back at her, no bullet hole in her chest, right after she had stopped running. She nodded, "Not that way." She grabbed Kaylee's sleeve before she could protest and took off running against the crowd just as a spray of bullets hit the spot where they had just been standing. "The Lakelanders," She started turning her full attention to the task of getting away, "They're pushing everyone toward the bank of the river. It's going to be a massacre."
Kaylee stopped running, causing Tahlia to be jerked backward when she tried to keep moving, "We can't just run, where are we going to go? Even if we make it out that way is the front lines, we'd be executed for abandoning the camp we were told to hold, they won't care if it was the only option. And if we do manage to make it, we'd be in Lakelander territory, they'll shoot us on sight."
"Do you have a better idea, Kay?" She found herself shouting back, a bit more gruffly than she intended. "If we don't go now, if we just stay here to die I might as well have..." She let herself trail off, even if they were about to die she was still too afraid to tell anyone what she could do.
"Might as well have just left me behind? Like we're leaving everyone else to die?" Her friend supplied with narrowed eyes.
A spray of bullets near their feet forced them to stop arguing and keep moving, it's obvious that the soldiers shooting at them aren't going for accuracy, just trying to force them toward the river. They mean to take back the land on this side of the river and decimating the camp of soldier's holding it will send the strongest message. Not that King Tiberias will care about all of their lost lives, just the ground that their deaths will lose him.
Another bomb hits the ground a few hundred feet in front of them, keeping them from moving along the river. Tahlia's eyes scan the area around her, desperately searching for somewhere to go, but the only way left to go is toward the river and her impending death. With no choice but to do what the Lakelanders want or get gunned down where they stand, the pair move closer to the river bank.
The land drops off abruptly about five feet above the rushing murky waters of the Maiden River. She stares into the freezing water for a moment before turning and meeting her friend's wide eyes again. A silent apology passes between the pair as they both wait for what's to come.
Everything around her has been a blur of activity until now, but it all seems to slow down suddenly, everything happening in slow motion. Two more explosions go off, one too close for her to escape the blast. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a flash of something grey and Kaylee go down but she can't react properly since the force of the blast has knocked her backward. She stumbles for a moment before slipping over the edge and falling toward the water below.
In the short time between when she slips off the edge and when her body hits the water below her mind wanders back to the old days back in the Stilts; playing in the Capital River with her brothers and Mare after their chores were done on hot summer evenings. One memory in particular sticks out above the others, she had been seven and her oldest brother, Bree, had been eleven. They had been arguing about something stupid, she couldn't for the life of her remember what it had been now, but just as they reached the water he had let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed her around the waist. Next thing she knew she was flying toward the water, too surprised to do anything but scream. This moment was very similar, except when she hit the water this time it was like being stabbed by a thousand tiny blades and not the familiar welcoming embrace of the water back home.
This time she won't break the surface and find her brother's crooked smile greeting her. Shade won't be there to help her to her feet and call Bree a brute. How she wished she had appreciated those moments before they were gone forever.
As the current sucks her under her last thought is for her parents. Her mother who held her so tight she couldn't breathe when the legionnaire came for her and Shade. Her father, in his wheel chair squeezing her hand and telling her to take care of herself. She promised them she would come home, and even though it had been an empty promise that they all knew she had no way of keeping it had given them all something to hold on to. And now she had let them down one last time.
xxxxxx
Gisa pulled her coat around her more tightly as she wound her way through the quiet streets of Summerton from her new master's shop. If this were summer these streets would be overflowing with silvers and reds, but since is was mid January and the royal court was long gone back to Archeon, the city was nearly deserted. The only sounds this evening are the hushed conversation between the security officers patrolling the street and the snow crunching under her old worn boots. The seamstress apprenticeship hadn't been offered a moment too soon, Gisa hadn't been sure how her family would make it through the winter.
As she entered the post office to check for any letters from her siblings at the war front she took a moment to savor the warmth filling the small building. As soon as she made eye contact with the old woman behind the counter, though, her heart sank and the chill crept into her bones again.
Ever since she had accepted the apprenticeship she had made it a habit of stopping here each day on her way home, desperate for any news of her family, so the employees had become familiar faces. Today instead of sending her a small smile and informing her with a small chuckle that there still hadn't been any letters in the post addressed to the Barrow family, Mabbel gave her sad look, her eyes full of pity and Gisa knew what had arrived.
She shook her head slowly, "N-no."
"I'm so sorry, Dear," Mabbel said simply, holding out the white envelope that would forever take one of the young girl's older siblings from her.
Gisa took it silently from the old woman's wrinkled fingers, refusing to look at the neat writing on the front, knowing that it would be addressed: 'to the family of...'. She couldn't know which of her siblings was gone, not now, not until she got home. She had a feeling she was going to shatter when she finally read the words, she had to keep herself together until she got home.
The thick paper felt more like a rock as she put into her pocket, threatening to pull her down into the ground. She mumbled a perfunctory thank you to Mabbel before turning and rushing from the building and back into the cold winter air. Everything was a blur after that; walking to the gate in the diamondglass wall, showing her identification card to the very disinterested guard, walking along the Royal Road toward the Stilts, and climbing up to her house all blurred together. The weight in her pocket the only constant, the only thing that she was sure of as she made her way into the kitchen where her mother was making dinner and her father sat in his wheelchair at the table fiddling with the broken wall clock. If her older sister Tahlia were here she would have had it fixed, she had always been good with clocks.
Mare was leaning against the counter, excitedly showing their mother something; probably whatever she had stolen today if the concerned look on their mother's face was any indication. Her father was the first one to notice her standing there and as soon as their eyes met Gisa lost her battle to keep the tears back.
"Gisa..." He said, concern flooding his expression.
Her mother and Mare both turned at the sound, her mother rushing to her side as soon as the first sob left her youngest daughter. "What is it, Baby? Tell me." Gisa could only manage to shake her head as another sob came, "Gisa, what is it? Did something- did something happen with your apprenticeship?" She could hear the fear in her mother's voice but she would almost prefer losing her apprenticeship to what actually happened.
With another shake of her head she pulled the too white envelope from her pocket. Through the tears she saw her father's face fall and Mare's face pale. Her mother nearly jumped back she moved so quickly, like it was a poisonous snake and not a piece of paper.
"Who?" Her father asked, his voice hollow and almost too soft to hear.
"I couldn't..." She took a deep breath, trying to will the tears to stop but failing miserably, "I couldn't look."
She held the letter out to Mare and her sister came toward her slowly, like someone marching toward their death. She took the envelope carefully, taking a deep breath before turning it over in her hands. Gisa saw her sister's eyes prick red as she read the address line, the first indication of emotion her sister had shown since she had arrived home.
She tore the envelope open slowly, not hungrily like she normally did when a letter came. She took a shaky breath before she began, "To the family of Tahlia Barrow-"
"No. No, no, no," Their mother began, sinking to the floor and shaking her head desperately. Gisa sank down next to her, rubbing her back silently with one hand and reaching for the newest earring in her ear with the other. The orange stone is just a little bit nicer than the others, just different enough to make it noticeable. Unlike their brothers, Tali had a steady job, she was never supposed to be sent to the choke. So when she had come home a couple of months before she and Shade turned eighteen and solemnly informed them all that she had lost her job, their mother had nearly died of panic. Tali would never tell any of them what happened, she had just said that her boss had encouraged her to seek employment elsewhere and that was that. She had used the last of her money to buy the little orange trinkets for her little sisters before she left.
"Go on, Mare," Their father had instructed once everyone had quieted down again.
"To the family of Tahlia Barrow. This letter is to inform you that your daughter was killed in action during a push to take and hold the West bank of the Maiden River at Lake Tarion. Unfortunately her body could not be recovered to send any part of her uniform home as is the custom. We thank you for your daughter's life given in the pursuit of victory and in defense of the kingdom of Norta." She pauses, trying to relax her hand which has crumpled the paper as it turned into a fist the more she read. "It's signed by King Tiberias and some general."
Their father scoffs loudly, his eyes dark with anger, but he says nothing. Their mother is still sobbing loudly and Gisa continues to rub her back comfortingly, still fighting back tears of her own. After a while the silence becomes too much to bear and Gisa has to pull herself up. She moves toward her sowing box, removing what she'll need before walking out onto the porch in the pretense of getting the family flag down to add the black bar through the red star the represented her older sister. Once she's alone, though, she lets her body slide down the side of the house until she's sitting next to the door in the freshly fallen snow.
Her sister's light brown eyes flash up in her mind and she has to bring the hand that isn't holding her sewing needle up to smother the sob that tears from her mouth.
A/N: Let me know what you guys think about the story and Tahlia. Reviews mean a lot to me! I already have most of chapter two written so it should be up soon!