Shepherds of Wraith: Book One

by Nyssa Renay

  “So, have you brought us a cure?” King Lexani addressed the room as he walked inside, looking up at their faces and trying to determine whether the news they had was good or bad.

  “Yes,” Unum answered coolly. “We have indeed come to you with a solution to the blood croup.”

  “Oh, praise Ein!” Lexani clapped his hands together and let out a long sigh of relief.

  “Members of the council, please rise,” Unum commanded. Each one of the representatives stood. “Extend your hands and display the gifts bestowed upon us by our esteemed masters and mistresses.”

  King Lexani watched eagerly as each representative in the rotunda held out one hand, displaying a little bundle of silvery sticks on their open palms. They were more metallic and mechanical than organic, and were unlike anything he’d ever seen. Clearly, this was the work of the gods.

  “My honorable peers,” Representative Unum continued, “let your gifts fall from your fingers.” The representatives tilted their hands, but the little metal pieces didn’t fall to the ground. They hovered in place, glowing brightly with a strong silver light. King Lexani was mesmerized.

  The individual pieces gravitated toward each other like magnets until they met in the center of the room just over the king’s head. The fragments came together with a dull clank, and one by one, formed a jagged metal structure. The metal melted into itself until it was a gelatinous form that glowed bright silver and blue.

  The king watched as the mysterious object above his head continued to move and reshape itself until the light within it receded slightly. The floating silvery liquid gradually solidified into a long, six-sided cylinder. It was symmetrical from end to end, roughly the size of the head of a horse. Lexani could just make out the large jet-black gemstones protruding from each end as the object changed from silver to the shiny black of an oil slick while a bright silver-blue light emanated from between the small sets of black bars on either side of its frame. Slowly, the object descended and landed quietly at the bewildered king’s feet.

  “What is that?” Lexani asked apprehensively.

  “This machine is called the Curabitor, Unum announced proudly. “It contains a life transference agent created by the Children of Ein themselves. This, King Lexani, shall rid Telshakra of the blood croup once and for all.”

  “How? I mean, what does it actually do?” the king asked as he studied the machine.

  Representative Dreia cleared her throat. “The blood croup drains a child of life. The Curabitor removes the illness by replacing the lost life force in one afflicted child with the remaining life force of another. It is the means to transfer the energy safely from one body to the other, resulting in the complete annihilation of the blood croup. The treated child will cough up dried blood for an hour or so after the treatment, but beyond that, the blood croup is forever eliminated from the body. Also, the child will be immune for the remainder of his or her life, and this immunity will be transferred through the blood to future generations. This tragedy shall never affect the children of Telshakra again.” Her smile was deceptively large. Dreia wasn’t usually a pleasant being to entertain, and to see her joyful expression was worrisome to the king.

  “But what about the other child?” Lexani asked defensively.

  “Survival and prosperity cannot be achieved without sacrifices,” she replied, somewhat callously.

  “Are you shitting me?” Lexani howled. “You seriously think I am going to tell my people that in order to save one child, they’ll have to kill another? Do you know how depraved that sounds?”

  “You knew there would be risks when you accepted our help,” Unum stated flatly.

  “And who the hell is going to decide which child lives or dies? I’m most certainly not going to be the one responsible for making that decision!”

  “The mother shall decide,” Representative Zehn chimed in. “Only the vessel that delivered the child into this world has any jurisdiction to decide the outcome of the situation.”

  “What about the parents? There are countless men and women in my kingdom who would gladly give their own lives for the sake of their children! Can’t they volunteer?” Lexani bargained.

  “No,” Zehn replied somberly. “The soul of a child is weak in its development. The soul of an adult is far too strong for an afflicted child to absorb. The swapping of one soul for another must only be from child to child.”

  “This is unacceptable! Take this abomination back and ask for something else! I will not send half of the children of Telshakra to their deaths!” King Lexani shouted, and reached down to grab the Curabitor. It scorched his hand with a violent hiss. The light within the machine crackled loudly, shooting out three dark blue bolts of light with a force so powerful that the king was catapulted off his feet.

  “You’re not the one making this determination, Lexani!” Dreia bellowed. “The Curabitor is a gift from the gods, and you will abide by their wishes!”

  “I will not! This isn’t a solution!” Lexani raged, knowing there wasn’t anything he could do against the Council of Ten, but he also knew in his heart the purpose of this terrible machine was wrong. Desperate for action—any action to take against them, King Lexani rose, unsheathed the sword at his waist, and swung with all his might down toward the Curabitor.

  Representative Quattor quickly pointed his fingers at Lexani, shooting out a blazing orb of fire that streaked across the rotunda like a comet and exploded into flames as it hit the king’s blade. The weapon disintegrated into smoke and ash as Lexani reeled back from the heat of the blast while Novenai rapidly waved his hand across his chest and thrust his fist outward, sending three conjured molten blackbrass plates hurtling across the room. One plate wrapped around the king’s wrists, fusing them together. Another bound his ankles so tightly that he wobbled and fell to the ground. A third plate slapped over King Lexani’s mouth, burning into his flesh and muffling his screams.

  “This sort of impertinence is precisely why we can’t trust the power of the Curabitor to you or any mortal soul!” Dreia snapped. “The Curabitor burns your flesh as you touch it because it wasn’t meant to be handled by you! It was designed to be operated and guarded by a being of our choosing, and we’ve chosen wisely!”

  Representative Seches removed a little leather bag from the sash around her chest. She held out her hand and presented the bag to the council. Representative Dreia inhaled as deeply as she could and blew forth a sparkling dry wind that swirled around the leather bag, suspending it in the air with a tiny compressed tornado. As the cyclone slowly circled the room, Representative Quattor shot fiery charges from his hand, engulfing the little bag, making it glow.

  King Lexani was frozen with fear and captivated as he watched the glowing leather bag turn a soft shade of red. The swirling winds kept perfect control of the bag as it made its way toward Representative Unum. When it reached him, Unum leaned in toward the tornado and touched the leather bag very gently. The bag began to pulse, and Lexani could now hear a distinct rhythm. Ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom. The king thought it was the beating of his own heart, but as he watched, the leather bag morphed into a living, beating heart, the sound of the beating growing louder and louder.

  The Council of Ten began to hum and chant a prayer in a language unknown to Lexani. The tornado took a new shape as the heart within it beat simultaneously with the chanting of the council. Slowly, the winds shifted and began to expand and solidify. King Lexani was astonished to see a slender female form envelop the beating heart. Standing nearly seven feet tall, she was much taller than the women of Telshakra. Her skin was the pale yellow-green of a salty sea, and she had animal-like horns instead of ears. Her face was beautiful with delicate and dainty features like a fairy, but in contrast, her eyes were completely black and void as the nighttime sky. When she looked up at the council members, her deep black eyes caught the light and glimmered like onyx.

  The creature craned her neck and slowly turned her dead stare around the ro
om. When she saw the Curabitor, the creature raised her right arm and held out her long, thin hand toward it. The Curabitor rose from the white tiled floor and drifted quietly through the air toward her until it stopped before her, hovering in midair at her waist.

  “Her name…is Illimit,” said Unum. “She’ll protect and operate the machine. Tomorrow when the sun rises, you’ll send Illimit and the Curabitor from home to home to begin the eradication of the blood croup. Appoint a team of your strongest royal guards to escort her. The gods desire no delays or disruptions in this process. Am I understood, King Lexani?”

  The king reluctantly nodded. He had no idea what consequences this machine would have upon his people, but there were no other options for salvation. Without the Curabitor, all the infected children of Telshakra would surely die, and there would be no future generations. Life on Telshakra would cease to exist.

  Later that evening, King Lexani appeared on every Telshakran video screen and addressed his people. There were angry burns around his mouth from where the blackbrass plate had silenced him earlier. Sister Meratta, the most experienced practitioner in attendance, had dabbed Lexani’s face with medicines and makeup to conceal the burns, but the wounds were too deep.

  “My loyal subjects,” King Lexani began, “through the grace of the gods, I am pleased to inform you all that the Church has been blessed with a cure for the blood croup. Our children will be safe once again, and this disease will no longer inhabit our world or future generations to come. I urge you all to pray tonight and give thanks to the Children of Ein for their generosity and compassion in our situation.” He didn’t believe in the words he spoke, but there was no delicate way to address the horror that was about to befall his people.

  “Starting tomorrow, those administering the cure will travel from city to city. This process will take time, but you have my word that every household with an ill child will be visited and treated as quickly as possible. I urge you all to remain patient and calm. Do not, under any circumstance, interfere with this process. I firmly believe that Telshakrans…my loyal subjects…are a compassionate and patient people. Now is the time to display and demonstrate that patience to me…to the gods…and to Ein, Himself. Trust in the Church.” These last few words, he did believe. This would be a difficult transition, and some, King Lexani imagined, wouldn’t take well to the outcome.

  “I bid you all a pleasant evening. Ein be praised,” he said and signed off. The light on the Rectory video camera popped off and the screens reflecting his disfigured image back to him dimmed.

  “Oh, praise be to Ein for this miracle, Your Majesty!” Sister Meratta smiled as she helped King Lexani up from the chair. “Those poor suffering families out there, they’ll finally be able to wake up to a happy day for the first time in weeks! Oh, how wonderful!”

  “Yes. Yes, it’s great,” the king said, distracted as he slowly made his way past the crowd of aides and assistants toward his chambers for the night, where he would hardly sleep at all.

  -13-

  My father woke at sunrise and waited by our front door for signs of King Lexani’s people. We were lucky that Quelstren was the closest town to the Divine Mountain, hoping we would be one of the first homes they would come to. All morning long, my father peeked through the curtains and paced around our front hallway, anxiously waiting.

  Upstairs, I woke earlier than usual, but didn’t get out of bed. Though my case of the blood croup was still not as severe as my sister’s, I had massive coughing fits if I didn’t lay absolutely still. Lying there in my bed, I felt stronger and in control of what little I could be.

  My sister was not as lucky.

  Linna was at the mercy of the blood croup. She was ghastly to behold as her withered nine-year-old body steadily coughed up more and more blood during each fit. Her skin was thin and dry; cracked like crumpled paper. The color from her face was all but gone, leaving her a dismal shade of gray. Her hair had started to fall out and all that remained of her once beautiful auburn locks were a few thin strands of scraggly hair in random patches across her shriveled skull.

  My mother spent most of that morning steadily changing Linna’s blood-soaked linens and trying to keep my sister as calm and rested as possible while repeatedly checking with my father to see if he’d seen anything down the block. When the clock in our front hallway struck one in the afternoon, my parents’ prayers had been finally answered—or so they thought.

  “Irenea! They just came around the corner down the street!” he shouted happily. “Irenea!”

  “Vim, keep your voice down!” my mother whispered loudly as she rapidly descended the stairs, worried that my father’s shouting would be too stressful for my sister. “You’re going to startle Linna!”

  “They’re almost here. Look!” he said excitedly, pointing out the window. “They’re only a few houses down.”

  Outside one of the nearby houses, the royal guards marched in formation across the lawn and stood at attention by the front door. There was one very tall individual with them, shrouded in a teal cloak, towering at least a foot taller than the guards. The strange being stood in the center of the formation and appeared to be carrying something carefully about its midsection, just underneath its billowy shroud.

  “Oh, praise Ein! This nightmare will finally be over.” Happy tears trickled down my mother’s cheeks. “What should we do? Should I bring the kids down here or leave them in their beds? I mean, how does this work?”

  “I have no idea!” My father laughed. The smile on his face was tremendously wide. “Uh, let me think…give me a few minutes to get a fire going in the living room, and then bring Linna and Vigil downstairs. There’s more space down here, and I don’t want the kids to be frightened alone in their bedrooms. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’ll face it as a family.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea, Vim,” my mother chirped and kissed my father before heading back upstairs to tend to my sister.

  I lay in my bed, clinging to my stuffed cat and keeping still as a stone. I heard my parents rustling about. I heard Linna’s coughing as my mother helped her from her bed. I heard my father crumpling paper and striking matches in the fireplace. And then I smelled the sweet and heavy comforting aroma of the well-tended fire crackling downstairs.

  The stairs creaked a little as my mother carried my sister down into the living room and gently laid her on the sofa, wrapping her in a clean comforter. With my sister being so incredibly ill, my mother constantly had to do laundry. Fresh towels with faint stains of Linna’s blood were drying wherever there was space to hang them. My father grabbed the nearest one and came back to tuck it gently beneath Linna’s chin as she curled up tightly in her blanket.

  “Soon this will all be in the past,” he said, and kissed her searing forehead.

  Moments later, there was a knock at my bedroom door.

  “Vigil?” my mother said quietly as she slowly opened the door. “Are you awake?”

  “Yes, Momma,” I said, coughing as soon as I began to speak. I threw Tooga to the floor for fear I’d get blood on his fur. Linna had ruined all her dolls this way, and I didn’t want to ruin anything of mine. But as I continued to cough, I noticed that there was still no blood coming up. This should have made me feel better, but it didn’t. I couldn’t imagine what kind of torment Linna was experiencing.

  My mother helped me sit up as she slapped my back a few times to help ease me through my coughing fit. Although her slaps did sting a little, I winced and tried to hide my discomfort from her. As always, she was very observant of me.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Vigil. I didn’t mean to slap you so hard.” She hugged me close and kissed the top of my head. My hair was sweaty and dirty, but my mother didn’t seem to care as she kissed me again.

  “It’s okay, Momma. I’m fine now.”

  “Good. Now, listen…we’re going to go downstairs for a little while. Your father has built a lovely fire, and Linna’s lying on the sof
a. We’re going to spend some time together as a family. Doesn’t that sound nice?” She smiled.

  It did sound nice. I nodded.

  “Good boy,” she said as she wrapped me in my blanket and picked me up, holding me close. But as she walked toward the door, I stopped her and pointed at Tooga, who still lay face down on the floor by my bed. “Oh, of course! You need your brave kitty by your side.” She smiled sweetly as she picked up my favorite stuffed animal and handed him to me.

  As my family gathered in the living room, Linna murmured from the sofa as she teetered somewhere between consciousness and an exhausted, restless sleep. My mother sat in her armchair and snuggled me in her lap while my father continued to watch at the windows and poke the fire to make sure it stayed strong and warm.

  Finally, my father saw the entourage approach the front of our home. “Oh! Oh, Irenea, it’s time!”

  My mother stood up, gently settled me back into the chair, and then went the front door with my father. As soon as the doorbell rang, my father quickly opened the door, and both of my parents stared out enthusiastically at the captain of the royal guard.

  “Are you the household of Voronto?” The captain addressed them mechanically and cold.

  “Yes, we are. Please, come inside! You’re most welcome here!” my father said as he gently moved my mother aside from the doorframe to let the royal guards in.

  They filed into our home one by one and scattered throughout the lower floor of the house. When the captain had ushered the last of his team through the door, he pounded the end of his blackbrass spear onto the floor. The sound and vibration from this action called the guards to snap to attention, making them resemble large, menacing statues with their blackbrass armor and unyielding, stern faces.

  Then, the shrouded figure slowly entered, ducking through the doorway. When she straightened up, her head nearly touched the ceiling. She just stood there, looming motionless; silent and unsettling.