by Cara Violet
Did Metrix not see what everyone else saw? Was Metrix that daft? Kaianan loomed over the senseless woman for an instant, then in a cry of pain from Metrix, pulled the Silver Rapier from the Giliou’s leg.
“I suggest you follow your Necromancer allies and get the holom out of here,” Kaianan spoke peacefully, “otherwise I will rip your head from your shoulders.”
Metrix widened her eyes in shock.
“And stay the holom away from Xandou.”
Kaianan heard the Bones lifting into the air, spinning their skeletal bones in black smoke and fire, and escaping into the fresh daylight as she headed to the bailey wall.
“This is not the end …” She heard Elli Nermordis cry out as he retreated.
At the top of the Manor gates on the bailey wall, casting her hand across the Manor estate, Kaianan allowed her Kan’Ging aura to extinguish the multiple fires that were burning throughout the city. She felt no emotion as she did.
Xandou suddenly ‘ported right next to her. “Kaianan, I …” he tried to say but she gave him a look of disgust.
“Don’t speak,” she said robotically.
His face dropped in upset. Then she ‘ported herself back to the Manor grounds, and back to her parents lying dead on the Manor lawn.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Choice of Farewell
Kaianan awoke with a fright.
She’d had a nightmare. A frill-neck dragon, with spiky bulges on his mouth, a hornlike spike between his nostrils and black scales as dark as midnight, had flown directly at her. The dagger-like teeth and burning yellow eyes had hypnotised her. The beast had sucked up so much fire in its belly, when he spewed the fire toward her, she became motionless. The embers punctured her flesh. The pain had been excruciating but she hadn’t moved. She allowed the flames to burn her skin, to burn her body. What was worse, she enjoyed it.
Panting, she glanced her eyes over her old room in the Manor. It was one of the only rooms still intact. But this wasn’t her nightmare anymore, even though it felt like it was; her parents were still dead. Maybe she wanted to burn to nothing to join them. Maybe if she suffered a painful and torturous death it would make up for her letting them die?
“Kaianan,” someone was calling from the door. Xandou.
“What do you want?”
The door swung open with a groan and the Giliou Shielder trotted in. “Did you want to meet Yasminx, Desrix, Thia and Ravi? They’re the ones who have helped me convince a few thousand Giliou Shielders to leave Forsda and Queen Maya Atronix and be here with us. This is our Insurgence, Kaianan.”
“I’ll meet them later,” she said slowly, her eyes still groggy.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” she snapped, “and before you leave, thank-you for securing the Manor back.”
He flinched at this. “I, I …” he began nervously, “I wanted to talk to you.”
“No,” she said curtly. “Get out.”
“No, I want to tell you I’m sorry I got your parents killed,” Xandou’s voice was barely stable, “sorry for leaving you on Earth unprotected, sorry for not taking back the Manor in a strategic way to prevent harm to your family, sorry for not allowing you to be here to fight, sorry … sorry for everything.”
She hadn’t said anything. She didn’t rebuke him, instead she left him there, walked inside her bathroom, and slammed the door shut.
Kaianan undressed.
Hey body was the sorest it had ever been. Two Giliou healers worked their magic on her leg late yesterday with common vials of salve and she’d crashed as soon as she’d gotten into her room. Now she’d awoken, wounds healed but blood visible, and stared aimlessly into the mirror that displayed her figure. She turned her leg, the bruises blacker and bluer than they had been a few days ago but the cut was healed. Her face, where Ruby had knocked her out looked swollen.
What was the hardest thing to take was the scar she hadn’t noticed, when Prince Addi healed her shoulder the night of her transformation after Nake stabbed her. It was still there. This was also Julius’s mark on her.
Her mixed feelings crept up inside her. Anger versus love. She felt something so strong for him. Was it love? Was she even capable of such an emotion? It was only the right for the brave. Was she brave? She had power. She had Kan’Ging power, the strongest aura in the universe. She could do anything with it. But when she had tried to recapture it, it disappeared. She wasn’t trained. Maybe the reason she was researching the Felrin was to go there and learn about the Kan’Ging, about the Verticals? To learn how to be brave.
Was what Julius did, brave? That he went back to the very family he was trying not to be like? Why did he lie to her? And she’d told him to compromise! There was no compromising with someone who encouraged torture. Had Elli Nermordis tortured her people, the ones who’d he taken hostage before releasing them in the recapture of the Manor?
This was anger, there was no love here.
Suddenly Chituma’s bound hands and body swept through her. She couldn’t leave her sister to rot. Her parents were dead. Her mother asked her to save Chituma.
And she would.
Fresh tears fell down Kaianan’s cheeks. She looked at her burning bloodshot eyes, under disgusting matted hair in the mirror and felt the death of her parents so deep she almost wished she died with them. Anything to ease the pain. Instead, she fell to the ground and cried, until the only thing that was left in her was exhaustion.
Xandou stood tirelessly at the edge of the Haret River having not slept the night before. All night he’d tossed and turned on a small divan in the housing camp erected in Layos, hoping the other Giliou asleep hadn’t heard him.
He had gone to the Manor early to see Kaianan.
But that hadn’t gone well and he didn’t want to think about what she was going through right now.
It had been an eventful evening helping the wounded, and it had turned into an even gloomier day, although that was not in direct relation to the weather because the sun was shining and the humidity was pleasant, it was in relation to today’s inauguration of the memorial ceremony for the King and Queen. He exhaled, not wanting to dare evoke the details of their abhorrent demise.
They were as much his parents as they were hers.
Behind him stood all his Giliou Shielder comrades who had helped him recapture the Manor: Desrix, Yasminx, Ravi and Thia and the Gorgon General, Tafen. To the left of him, Kaianan had re-suited in her Felrin-made white tunic, orchid chestplate and tight, robust black slacks, and Xandou knew she most likely did not know they had anything to do with the Felrin when she plucked them from her wardrobe, with the exception of her dark leather boots.
He held his tears in his eyelids and assessed the two bamboo vessels floating away from the shore, carrying his surrogate parents. The few thousand Gorgon and Giliou that were in attendance, all threw white frangipari flowers into the concaves where the King and Queen lay, with some landing on the water itself.
The crafts sailed away into the distance and Xandou refused to cry.
The Haret River was a beautiful sight of weeping trees and lush moss, but it could not change the sorrow or ill feeling that possessed him when he stood staring into the fading vessels. The audience had been silent the whole time the boats took the royal bodies far into the wilderness and Xandou was relieved when he felt Kaianan shift next to him, fixing her topknot. Above the rest of the cohort they held the higher ground, and the new Queen advanced a step to regard those below her.
“My people of Layos and of the Insurgence,” She said and Xandou scrutinised her manner that was completely lacking in emotion. Was she a mechanical robot? Why was she not affected by this? “… we are at a time of war.” She went on. “It is clear our enemy knows no bounds and has taken two of our most beloved leaders … It is in this time I ask of you …. Courage. Faith. And above all hope … I am a wanted fugitive, as are those who follow me, but I believe we can evolve in strength, we can keep the Necromancers back and we will live in peace on a pl
anet that we founded first!”
The crowd cried out in her support, Xandou had never seen so many Giliou so heavily involved with open support for a member of the Gorgon Royal family. Her words were honest. She didn’t try to make it superficially attractive or appear as if she had the answers; she appealed to their conscious of freedom to speak out and act against what is not right, which is exactly what the Giliou had always believed in. Xandou was resoundingly proud, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason they were mourning the death of the King and Queen was because of him.
Was Kaianan being cold and ruthless because she blamed him too?
“I loved them; your father was my brother.” Xandou heard General Tafen whisper to Kaianan as the rest of the gathering Insurgents returned to Layos. The general had put his hand on her shoulder and was choking back his grief—Kaianan was trying not to grimace. “We have much work to get our family back and keep our kingdom alive.”
“There is much to do, General,” she said in a monotone, “I’m sure Xandou can accompany you as you continue to speak to the people.”
What was wrong with her? Had she no compassion? Why was she not touched by this? On top of that, Xandou could sense General Tafen’s disappointment at her statement. “General, I’m sure we can talk later,” he said, interrupting them. “Let Kaianan take some time to grieve on her own.” Xandou could feel her mind was elsewhere and by the time the Gorgon assembly had disappeared beyond the horizon, General Tafen, in low spirits, had turned and trotted after them.
“Why are you doing this?” Xandou stated bluntly and angrily to Kaianan.
“Don’t ask me stupid questions.”
What was she talking about? The leadership was in her hands right now. She had their support. Couldn’t everything else wait?
“Can’t you wait for me to escort you?” He said. “Let me work out the structure of the Insurgence, Kaia, and then I can travel with you to find Chituma.”
“No,” she said firmly. “I want to thank you for working with Rashid, the Earth’ Conductor to get me home and again thank-you for securing the Manor. But now I must do this alone. I am far better equipped to go alone. I need answers. Answers about how I know Kan’Ging … and I need to find my sister and bring her home. Keep my people safe, Xandou, while I figure this out. I have faith in your leadership. Get us ready for anything. Don’t let me down.”
Xandou felt the stab of her declaration right through his heart—it was a stab of guilt. Knowing he still held the information of her Liege from her and also vital knowledge about her Kan’Ging aura, had him anxious. He didn’t realise he had started sweating. His eyes darted to the forest and back again.
Could he tell her everything now? Should he? But did she really need to know? Now is not the time to expose unnecessary deceit, he convinced himself. And he wasn’t going to stop protecting her until the day he died. He had sworn that oath to her parents when he became her Guardian, and now he owed it to her for getting them killed.
“My Queen,” he began sternly, “you know I care for you deeply. You can’t just run off like this. It’s not safe. I need to go with you—”
“No,” she said across him. He stared at her angry face for what seemed like an eternity. “I’m leaving, and Xandou, I don’t blame you for their deaths.”
His eyes slowly opened and closed, something came over him, it was fear, he bent down, almost touching her skin with his lips, but she immediately retreated a step.
“Xandou,” she said with spite, “I need you to protect the people of Layos and do what you can to keep the Manor and Swamp Lands a home for the Insurgence.”
He felt rejected and wounded. She didn’t care about him the way he cared about her. What could he do to change her mind?
Nothing. He would do as he was told. He’d do anything for her. He let his punctured feelings go by simply nodding and sighing in reply. Yes, this was the moment he would lose her forever and it would take him a while to realise just how significant this moment would eventually be to both of them.
Watching the long blonde locks fly over his upset, pale and blue-eyed baby face, then get caught in his multiple silver earrings, had Kaianan bitterly angry. Assessing the nervous man in those preceding seconds changed her whole outlook on who Xandou really was. For years she had admired and looked up to him, but underneath that exterior was a scared young boy, fearful of change and afraid of demise. His morals were one thing, but his actions, the lies and deceit, spoke volumes as to his longing and priority for control. He wouldn’t get it from her—she wasn’t her parents and she wasn’t going to be a puppet as a leader. She didn’t want any of it and he needed to know that.
All she was required to do was to get to Jahzara, get to Croone, and find Chituma. And doing that meant doing it on her own; wrapped in a blanket and stuck in a bubble her whole life hadn’t abetted her one bit, it was about time to change that.
“Xandou, I want to know: how did so many outerworlders make their way to Earth?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure.”
“Is Rashid the only one who can allow and disallow Earth’s Euclidean Vectors?”
“Aye, Kaianan.”
“And he is directed by the Felrin who created the system?”
“Aye … why all the sudden questions?”
“I fear, there may be many Conductors who have no control over what they can and can’t do.”
“Rashid has a conscience, Kaianan.”
“I’m not so sure anyone does anymore.”
Xandou was silent. Why wouldn’t he be? He wasn’t concerned with conspiracy theories, like the fact the two Necromancer Princes had followed her to Earth.
“The Nermordis boys,” she began, trying not to show any feeling in her face but wanted to see his reaction, “I felt something about them, something that was similar to the aura within me. They couldn’t be Silkri Drakes, could they—”
“Absolutely not, Kaianan.”
“They could be from Namea?”
“No.” Xandou said sharply. “That aura died long ago, you know that. The Felrin Liege are the only ones with that much control in the Siliou.”
Kaianan’s anger toward Xandou grew. He was a liar and in denial. Like so many of the other people she had met in her life. Would he ever believe her? Her best friend, her former confidant? She didn’t care if he never did, because he was no longer the person she trusted.
When his demeanour changed, Kaianan sensed there was a lot more going on in his brain then he let on.
“There is something you should know,” he started, carefully but quickly, “Layos was left to your … your sister, which includes the Swamp Lands and the Manor. You lay claim to nothing. Your parents have mentioned you only once, as the rightful owner of the Silver Rapier, your father’s blade and the sister blade to Medusa’s Gold Steel. You will, however, remain Queen and be in charge of the people, given you are the heir to the throne of Layos.”
Besides the shock she was experiencing, Kaianan’s thoughts turned to Caidus. Was he right? Maybe Chituma was the one who was hidden deeper because she was the rightful owner of Layos? “I hope you can find out the reasoning behind these instructions. I don’t want the status of Queen. Chituma can claim it when she returns.”
“You’ve no choice, Kaianan. It is what is written and until you die, no-one can make it otherwise,” he said dramatically. “Besides, I wouldn’t allow it.”
Kaianan merely let out a moan. “Xandou I know you want to remain my protector and want to ensure nothing happens to me …and that I fulfil my role as Queen, the list is endless I’m sure, but just be careful the way you do it. You don’t know what’s best for me nor my Gorgon people. I respect your decisions, but please don’t make mine for me.”
His steely blue eyes looked angry. Kaianan did not care.
“I must depart,” she said sternly.
After several trying seconds of silence, he finally voiced: “Laro thou Maiy.”
Quickly, she hugged
him and turned her back. She didn’t have to see his face to know his reaction, she could feel it—strongly. But letting go of Xandou didn’t upset her, holom it was liberation that swiftly filtered through her. For the first time in her whole life she was untied, unprotected and unaccompanied, and without a second thought, doubt or hesitation, she set off for Jahzara.
Epilogue
Assessing the sullen boy take a few parchments off one of the Sile Manion’s library desks and rip them apart, had Boku Jove slightly frustrated. The ancient foreseer had seen so much coming in the young man’s future, he had prepared the young Prince for this moment—yet, he had not embraced it. Their meetings in the Valley Woods falling short of the openness and strength Julius truly had; the courage it took him to go to Earth and betray his father by keeping Kaianan alive. It was all supposed to shift the universe. Fix Boku’s Jove’s own mistakes. Sliding his azure robe over his shoulders the older Giliou let out a sigh.
“You cannot show yourself just yet,” he said in his wispy voice.
The young Julius Addi turned around in surprise, wiping his eyes.
Boku Jove remembered the same tears running down the boy’s cheeks at six-years-old. He flashed back to the Valley Woods. Miry trees stole his vision, hiding in amongst the ravine trees, he observed the wind water the young boy’s eyes. Copious curly brown hair and soft green eyes stood out against preform complexion as the boy stood alone in the open plains Middle Forsda. The castle was completely destroyed after the Battle of Middle Forsda, known now as the Ruins of Middle Forsda. Julius’ little body ran with all his might up a pillar before he slipped and twisted his ankle, slicing his leg open so quickly he barely had time to register it. Before Boku Jove knew, the young Prince was tumbling over the stone to the grass, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.
The white-haired man breathed out. This was the moment he could wrong his rights. Fix the instability on Rivalex. He took a step forward and emerged from the Woods, spreading his light forward. White and azure Giliou robes fluctuated around the old man, and Boku Jove calmly strolled over to him, smiling and stroking his short light grey beard.
