The Xenoworld Saga Box Set

by Kyle West

  “What bargain?” I asked.

  “Surely, you have heard of him. The Nameless One would not allow me to sweep you out of the way so easily. A pity. You are...guaranteed. Even your friends.” Shal chuckled. “However...there are ways I can make it more difficult for you. There are...allowances.”

  “Just get to the point!” Shara said.

  “You must give me the Orb, Anna,” Shal said, suddenly. “It is the only way you can leave this place. It is the only path allowed. To not do so is to let the Radaskim win.”

  “They will win if I give you the Orb, because that is what you want,” I said.

  “Don’t you see that there is no right choice? Everything you choose has consequences. And all of those consequences give me what I want.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Better to kill you and end everything than...”

  “No, it’s not better,” Shal said, interrupting. “This is your path.”

  Just then, the throne room doors burst open, revealing Isandru and Mia. Both were breathing heavily and stood at the threshold, watching us.

  “I came to stop you,” Mia said, when she’d found her breath. Then, she looked at me. “There is another way.”

  “What do you mean? Did you hear what Shal said?”

  “Quiet, girl,” Shal said. “Leave now. You and your brother. This doesn’t concern you.”

  “I’ve had a final prophecy,” Mia said. “As soon as you left...I fell into a trance. I saw then exactly what I must do.” She turned her attention to Rakhim, and her eyes narrowed. “So long as I am here, your aim will not be accomplished. I have warned the Xenofold of your intent.”

  Shal’s face, at first, blanched. Then, it reddened with fury.

  He strode forward, straight for us.

  “Stop!” I called. “One more step...”

  He swept his arm, and it was as if a wave of energy whipped Isaru, Shara, and I out of the way. All three of our screams sounded in the throne room as we sailed upward. I seemed to move through the air in slow motion, rising impossibly high, even as Shal continued to march down the carpet.

  “You have lost,” Mia said. “Kill me if you must. It is over.”

  “I would say you are already dead. But I have a fate for you worse than death.”

  And then, there was a ripping sound as a sinuous, bright line opened from the air itself. It widened as shining white light shone through. It was so luminous that I couldn’t see anything within it. Maybe there was nothing within it.

  Isandru grabbed his sister, pulling her back...but there was some force, some gravity, that pulled at them both. They were powerless to stop it, their feet doing nothing to slow them. Meanwhile, I hung helpless and suspended in the air, along with Isaru and Shara.

  I knew if either of them entered that vortex, wherever it led, they would be gone forever.

  I had one last, desperate gambit. I reached into my cloak, producing the Orb.

  “Shal!”

  He turned his head, and those eyes shone far whiter than I ever would have believed possible. But his expression became one of shock as I let go of the Orb.

  “No!” he shouted.

  Instantly, the vortex winked shut with a thunderous clap, sending Isandru and Mia flying backward, where they crashed into the wall. Shal held his hands outward, and the Orb’s descent slowed, coming to a standstill mere inches from the marble floor. Then, it gently landed.

  As soon as it did, I myself started to fall, along with Isaru and Shara. We screamed as the floor rushed up to meet us. I crashed, hard, feeling something snap. I cried out in pain, looking through tear-filled eyes at my left leg, which was bent into an impossible shape. Shara and Isaru were already scrambling up, apparently no worse for wear, even if Isaru had a slight limp.

  I tried to stand, but the pain was excruciating.

  Silence.

  I sought Silence, and to my surprise, found it with ease. The pain still burned, but I managed to stand and drag my useless leg, drawing my katana at the same time.

  “Shanti, stay back!” Shara said. “This is me and Isaru’s fight!”

  “And mine.”

  Isandru stepped forward, drawing his own katana that was not unlike ours. The three of them formed a semicircle, facing Shal, who stood weaponless...but with the Orb in hand.

  I looked back to Mia, who was on her knees, watching with tears in her eyes. “Don’t do this. Please...”

  I wondered then, if by giving up the Orb, whether I had made some horrible mistake.

  No. I couldn’t have let Mia and Isandru into that place. I couldn’t...

  And I noticed then that Shal was looking at me, smiling. I was filled with loathing.

  “You planned this all along.”

  I made myself stand beside Isandru. I was going to give this everything I had.

  “It’s too late,” Isandru said, sadly. “He is the creator of the Hyperfold. That Orb gives him power to do whatever he wishes.”

  “And so I will,” Shal said.

  I made my way forward, stubbornly, but was stopped by an invisible wall. I screamed, trying to hack through it. All the while, Rakhim smiled, his white eyes gloating.

  “Now, to business,” he said.

  The Orb shone brighter and brighter, until we were all swallowed by its light. A cold wind blew, so loud and so fast that it was thunderous, yet despite all that, it did not seem to push me back. It became so loud that it was as if I were nothing, and every thought and memory was driven from my head.

  And then...silence.

  I realized my eyes had closed, and when I opened them, it was only Isaru, Shara, and I standing there.

  Isandru, Mia, and Shal were gone.

  “What happened?”

  There was no sign of any of them.

  “Isandru!” I called. “Mia!”

  “They are gone,” Shara said. “And so is the Orb.”

  Isaru just stood still, his face a mask of shock.

  “Where...where did they go?” I asked.

  My question was cut short by a sudden shaking of the floor. I tried to keep my feet, but instead, I fell, only doing further injury to my broken leg. I screamed as white-hot pain shot up my leg and through the rest of me.

  But Isaru and Shara could not help. The entire Palace heaved, even as flecks of paint from the mural above rained down in a cascade of dust, soon followed by panels and chunks of ichorstone, all slamming into the heaving floor.

  “The Palace is collapsing!” Isaru shouted.

  We crawled on all fours across the uneven, cracking floor to the doors. A giant chunk of the ceiling fell just ahead, and we dodged just before it could make an end of us.

  I didn’t want to know what would happen if I died here. I didn’t want to think of Isa waiting forever by our cold bodies. I didn’t want to break another promise.

  “There has to be a way out,” I said. “We just have to find it.”

  The shaking ceased, if only for a bit – enough time to stand. Shara and Isaru helped me along, and we pushed through the throne room doors.

  The Cerulean Stairway was in ruin, completely impassable. We would have to find another way down.

  We circled around the dome, even as the floor gave another massive heave, which threw us into the air and almost right over the balustrade. I ignored the pain, hopping along the walkway until we came to another set of stairs. They were mostly intact, and the only direction to go.

  “We can’t go up there,” Shara said. “We have to go down.”

  “Yes, this is the right way,” I said. “I can feel it.”

  Without waiting for them to follow, I started dragging myself up the stairs.

  “Shanti, we have to find a way down!” Isaru said. “What are you doing?”

  I remembered Mia’s words: that the Xenofold reached, even here. I had to trust that. It was the only way we would survive.

  “Just trust me,” I said. “I think I can get us out.”

  There was nothi
ng they could do but follow me.

  Once I reached the top of the stairs, it was to a wide set of windows, all of which were shattered. The Heavenly Windows afforded an apocalyptic view of the city – towers crumbled, bridges collapsed, and a great fire sent plumes of smoke into the sky from the forest beyond.

  “There’s no way out,” Shara said. “Even if there had been a way down.”

  I could see she was right. I looked behind only to see that the circular walkway itself was collapsing, cutting off the option of going back. The ledge of the Palace before us crumbled further, rocking the floor and dipping forward.

  I screamed, kneeling down and grabbing a nearby column. Isaru and Shara had also grabbed hold of their own columns.

  We were only delaying the inevitable.

  Please...I need a way out. Anything. I don’t want to break another promise. Never again.

  And then, over the edge...a gleaming light, hanging in the air horizontally. I had seen that before, in the Hyperfold of Mia’s dream.

  The Archway, I thought. The escape!

  “It might not be too late!” I shouted.

  Isaru and Shara looked at me, and I let go of the column with my left arm, pointing downward. “That silver plane in that arch. It will lead us out. I’m sure of it!”

  The archway was also a good fifty feet down, and perhaps ten feet out, hanging perfectly in the middle of the air. Likely, it had seen no other place to open up. Why it had to wait until now, and not in the throne room, I would never know. Maybe I could have summoned it there, too, if only I was thinking of it.

  “Jump through,” I said. “It’s the only way.”

  “Your leg,” Shara said. “You won’t make it!”

  “Watch me,” I said.

  The archway was closest to Shara; she merely had to let go, and would probably roll far enough to hit it directly. As far as Isaru and me, we’d have to jump over to her position when it came our turn.

  “I’ll be the guinea pig, then,” Shara said. She forced a smile, but there was fear in her eyes.

  “It’s probably temporary,” I said. “We have to...”

  She let go, standing up and running down the ledge, leaping off at the last second.

  “...hurry,” I finished.

  I watched as she fell down, and it felt as if my heart was going to leap into my throat. And then, there was a snapping sound – the same kind that had sounded in the throne room with Shal’s vortex.

  I worried that I had just sent her to wherever Shal was going to send Mia and Isandru. But it was either the archway or dying here for sure.

  The floor shifted again, and the angle of the floor became more precarious. It teetered until it was clear that, in seconds, there was not going to be a floor.

  Isaru and I had no time. We both leaped with all we had toward the column Shara had vacated, a column which was now collapsing. We crashed into each other, haphazardly rolling down the ledge.

  It was up to fate, now.

  And then, we were in the air. The feeling reminded me of the fall in Colonia, only this time, Isaru and I were falling together.

  We looked at each other for a brief moment, no more than a second, before the Hyperfold winked out of existence.

  WHEN I CAME TO AWARENESS, I was standing in a black void surrounded by a multitude of stars. They shone brightly in the darkness, and I knew, somehow, someway, I hadn’t returned to my body in the present time.

  I was somewhere else, or at least my consciousness was.

  Despite the beauty of seeing the stars in sharp contrast, I felt a darkness lurking out there...a darkness I felt my mind connecting to, even as I did everything I could to keep that darkness at bay.

  Shara was floating not far away, and Isaru still even further, barely discernible with the distance.

  Shara and I floated closer together, and I was relieved when we locked arms, allowing us to float together.

  “We need to get Isaru,” I said.

  “He’s getting further away...” Shara said.

  I could see that she was right. Isaru was smaller, now.

  “Isaru!”

  If anything, my voice seemed to make him get further away. I felt myself panic. I couldn’t move here. Somehow, Shara and I had already been heading toward each other, but Isaru had blasted off in a different direction.

  It would be impossible to catch him.

  “Isaru!”

  His name ripped from my throat. My voice didn’t sound like my own, filled with sheer panic and fear. I knew he wasn’t coming back. Wherever this was...

  “No...” I said.

  And then, there was a bright light, shooting past our position and into the cosmos. Despite the light, I still couldn’t see Isaru. Tears were stinging my face, and all of a sudden, it got very cold. The air seemed to be going away, and my tears froze to my face. I tried to call his name again, only no sound came out. It was so cold...

  And when there was no more air, I closed my eyes. In the Silence of my mind, I saw Isaru as clearly as if I were looking at him face to face. His own eyes were closed. Ice had formed on his lashes and his hair.

  I knew he was dead.

  And then, a dark presence entered my mind, uninvited.

  Soon, Elekai. Soon...

  The voice filled my mind, dark and ominous. It had come from out there.

  Who are you? What did you to do to Isaru?

  I felt myself filled with dread, a dread that came from beyond me.

  I have waited long for this moment, Elekai. Not yet, though. Soon...

  The stars faded until there was nothing.

  I OPENED MY EYES TO find myself on top of the Tower of Shal. I stood and looked around, to find Isa still kneeling beside Isaru.

  “Is he all right?”

  Isa looked at me, shock registering on her face. She stood and ran to me, giving me a fierce hug.

  “His body is cold,” she said. “I’m afraid...”

  I walked toward him and knelt down, but already, I could sense that he wasn’t there. He wasn’t sleeping. He wasn’t moving. It was just his form.

  “No...” I said, tears coming to my eyes. “I tried. I tried everything.”

  Shara came to join us. The three of us looked down on his immobile body.

  “He should be awake,” I said.

  I remembered what Shal had told me: people couldn’t leave the Hyperfold without losing a part of themselves.

  That much had been true, then, at least for Isaru.

  And yet...nothing had happened to Shara. I looked at her, just to see if she had remained the same. She was as she had been in the Hyperfold, seeming to be completely herself. Tears filled her eyes, falling on Isaru’s shirt.

  “He’s...gone, isn’t he? How did he get so far away from us?”

  My face lowered. I couldn’t bring myself to respond. I grabbed his hand – his cold hand – and completely broke down. It felt as if something were ripping me apart, I was crying so loud. We were all like that.

  “Isaru...” I said. “Forgive me.”

  I found Silence, reaching out. On the slimmest of hopes, I wanted him to be there. I wanted there to be some sign that perhaps I couldn’t see. Any chance...

  But there was nothing. Just a giant wall. It was like trying to connect to a rock.

  Perhaps I had come back, and so had Shara, but there was nothing but the pain of loss.

  And then, a high, inhuman scream sounded on the air, followed by several more. I turned to see, through the broken wall, a line of Radaska dragons bearing down on the Tower. Two dragons were ahead of the pack, and would be upon us within a minute.

  We had escaped the Hyperfold only for it to end like this.

  The two dragons that were approaching were much closer, now – close enough to clearly see that they were smaller than the others flying behind them.

  And each of them bore a rider.

  All of us stood in front of Isaru’s body, swords drawn, just as each of the Askaleen landed on the
floor in front. Each bore a familiar figure, the first being Elder Tellor, his swarthy frame and hard face unmistakable.

  The other was Elder Isandru.

  I was so shocked that I just stood there, speechless. Seeing Isandru after seeing him disappear in the Hyperfold was surreal. His wrinkled face was hardly recognizable, although those light gray eyes were the same. He looked out at me, his expression unreadable, his form slumped and exhausted.

  “We came as fast as we could,” Isandru said, at last, “and I am glad it isn’t too late.”

  Shara, Isa, and I moved out of the way, revealing Isaru’s prone body. Isandru’s eyes widened, and then his face became grieved. Even Tellor’s face, which was normally like stone, softened.

  “He is dead?” Tellor asked.

  I made myself nod, and started sobbing.

  Isandru’s eyes next went to the Orb, completely forgotten by the three of us. It was dark and clouded. He gave no sign of recognizing what it was, though surely that couldn’t be the case.

  Looking into his eyes, though, there was no sense that he remembered anything about our time in the Hyperfold. All I had were questions, but still, the Radaska swarm was flying toward us from the city.

  “We must hasten to the Sanctum,” Tellor said. “I can bear the prince and one other.”

  “I will fly with you,” Isa said, her voice quavering.

  “Yes, we must make haste,” Isandru said. “But not to the Sanctum. The only path left to us is north.”

  “North?” Tellor said. “There is nothing but an endless waste!”

  “Yes, but the dragons are behind. They will be upon us should we tarry here.”

  “He’s right,” I said. “North is where we’ll find the Elder Dragons and the True Hyperborea. That was where they were supposed to go, back then. It’s our only hope now.”

  “If this is Elder Isandru’s wish...” Tellor said, in his slow, calculating way, “then I will not oppose it. He will need me if it turns out to be dangerous.”

  The three of us first lifted Isaru’s limp body onto Elder Tellor’s dragon. Isa held onto him, keeping him stable, even as tears coursed down her face. Shara and I got on behind Elder Isandru. Altogether, our weights might be too much for the dragons, but there was little other choice. And we needed to move now, because the other dragons were less than a minute away.