by Cara Violet
“Xandou be still, if not gone.” A young girl’s voice said.
Xandou? Kaianan felt excitement creep inside her. Xandou was here?
In a hazy blink, Kaianan saw azure suede walls, gold pillars, a multicolour dress flash by, as well as Giliou Shielder robes, and up close a dark-skinned, greasy haired Felrin Liege, coming straight at her.
Oh, for the love of the Sarinese Gods. Nothing happened when she tried to move her body.
“She is unconscious,” the Felrin Liege’s voice was loud because he had crouched down to touch Kaianan’s neck, “Adrel,” he spoke to the other Felrin girl, “escort Master Xandou to the Edification Centre. His dearly devoted fans are anticipating his presence.”
The momentary silence that followed those words suddenly ended. There were blades locking and angry cries sounding. Xandou was shouting.
Kaianan yanked her neck in one direction, it barely rolled but it was enough to see him. The blurry figure of Xandou took on Adrel and then the greasy haired Liege. Swing after swing, his anger lashed out toward them. But he was no match for the Liege, who finally disarmed him, and yanking his arms behind his back, slammed the Giliou Shielder into the marble floor.
Kaianan faced Xandou; puffed and blood dripping down his forehead, he said: “I’m sorry.”
Kaianan was getting accustomed to people apologising to her, she was also getting accustomed to being apprehended by strangers. She stared at the white ceiling. They’d locked her up; diagonal metal bars surrounded her. The hard bed she laid on was cold against the open sections of her skin. There was blood all over her orchid chestplate and white tunic. But the second stabbing in her chest had been healed…
Her mind was back in Sile; Julius’s hands on her collarbone and neck where she had fallen. He had healed her a second time. Why did he do that—show signs of being someone that he professes he is not? She was angry and bitter but most of all confused. She touched her cheek and neck, and remembered how his hands were all over her, fixing her, before he ‘ported out. She hated that she valued this distorted man. She mainly hated him for not trying hard enough to change.
“Kaia.”
“Xandou?” Kaianan scanned right. Xandou was in the room next to her. Although instead of the polished Giliou Shielder she remembered, he looked like more like a filthy, dishevelled prisoner in a cage. Crinkles around his eyes aged him. His frown upon her, more of a man’s stern look than a boy’s admiration.
She sat up.
“Don’t touch the bars,” he said, standing nearer to her but a safe distance from the metal, “they are electrified with aura.” She nodded. “How are you, Kaia?”
Tired. Angry. Confused. Hurt. Worried. Concerned.
“I don’t think I’ve ever told you this Xandou, but I hate being called Kaia,” she swept her frayed hair back off her face. “My name is Kaianan.”
“I had no idea,” he said unsteadily, “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be, and I’m fine.”
It was like she was staring into space. Staring into another life. Seeing Xandou, his face pastel and worried, it just seemed like someone else was living this life, not her. What happened to the days at the Manor? Swordplay and laughter between them? It was all a distant memory. This friendship, whatever it was, was so far from what it used to be, a section of her felt ashamed.
Xandou cleared his throat.
“You look worse for wear,” he said. “What happened—I mean, how was your trip to Croone?”
Croone. Kaianan tensed.
“I wasn’t able to save my sister,” she confessed dully, “… Boku Jove took me away.”
“Boku Jove?” Xandou scrunched his face up, “the Giliou Foreseer?”
“Yes.”
“But, but … he …”
Kaianan cut him off and told him the story. She explained how she ended up back on Earth, she told him about Arlise and the escape to Felrin, she talked about Croone and Dersji Brikin. At first, she hesitated still feeling the duplicity between them, but then she changed her mind and told him everything she thought mattered. She didn’t care anymore if she could trust him or not. Xandou was always someone she relied on. Even if he was going back to Forsda as King, why was she so angry about that? She needed a friend, someone to lean on, in this moment. Aside from all the anger, a deep part of her needed him; she needed him to tell her, like he always did, that everything was okay, that she was safe with him. Despite it not being close to it.
“I don’t like the sound of this Arlise fellow,” Xandou said when she’d finished, “who is he?”
“He’s that Dersji guy’s, son,” she replied, feeling a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders, “I was told Dersji was a mentor of mine, a Liege?”
Xandou appeared as if he’d just seen a ghost.
“Are you okay, Xandou?”
He didn’t answer.
“Anyway, Boku Jove sent me to Sile,” Kaianan admitted, “to the wedding in Sile. That’s where I’ve come from.”
“What?!”
“King Nermordis is dead.” Kaianan left out all the parts about the conversation with Julius. She was one, embarrassed she’d fallen for him, and two, she didn’t want Xandou to see inside her heart. Plus, information and weight bearing burdens were one thing to share, but emotions, no, she would save that dialogue for Chituma.
“Elli Nermordis?” Xandou’s voice was a derisive falsetto.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He was poisoned, I overheard the Arch Mage tell Julius.” The sound of his name felt funny pressed against her mouth. “He was double crossed by General Krivta, Metrix and some guy named Fenix.”
“Metrix?” Xandou frowned.
“I’m sorry, Xandou. I know she was your friend.”
“No, she wasn’t, what has happened to the leadership?”
“Well, Julius has become King and he wed that Kydra girl, so he’s taken on the Sile governance. For how long before he is overthrown, I am not so sure. But with the way it was, his support wasn’t that absolute.”
“So it wasn’t a rumour,” Xandou said not catching on to Kaianan’s strange behaviour.
“What rumour?”
“We heard a whisper about a wedding in Sile, I was going to go with Yasminx to find out more.”
Kaianan felt odd when he talked about Yasminx, only because she knew they were close friends, but she also had a suspicion there was something else between them. She cleared her throat.
“Well enough about Sile, how’s the Manor?” she said, “how are my people?”
“They are surviving, we are doing the best we can to rebuild.”
“Thank-you,” Kaianan said appreciatively. She had hoped Xandou would lead Layos back to the city it once was, but it wasn’t comforting to see him locked up beside her in the Giliou capital. Kaianan had already assumed her body had opted to send her straight to Xandou as one of her only known allies. Besides the fact he kept those secrets and their relationship was heavily strained, Xandou would never harm her and his overprotective nature, right now, was most probably a blessing. “Why are you in Forsda?”
“Queen Maya wanted to negotiate with me.” Xandou’s blue eyes moved sidelong under his falling blonde hair.
“Negotiate about what?”
“Listen, Kaianan I have something to tell you. Don’t be spooked okay.”
She glared. “No, not at all.”
“The Felrin are hunting you. This Liege, Ferak Jarryd, is after you. I’m not sure whether it has anything to do with you being the Rivalex Mark, or because we took back the Manor, but they offered your people freedom and a peaceful existence if you were to go with them.”
Kaianan tried to compartmentalise her thoughts. The Felrin were hunting her? A Liege was after her? This is exactly what Jahzara had predicted, yet it still didn’t make sense.
“They offered what? When? Wait, what were they planning on doing to my people, Xandou?”
He exhaled. “I don’t
know, Kaianan, they just wanted me to relinquish all support and protection for you. Obviously, I thought that was when you would return to Layos after you rescued Chituma.”
“That plan has backfired at this point,” she said angrily.
“This isn’t a plan anyway. You can’t go with them.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know what they have planned for you.”
“I don’t care! My people can live in peace!” Kaianan was off the concrete bed and standing to face Xandou. “This means everything to me.”
He looked her up and down, probably slightly shocked at her death like appearance with blood stuck all over her. “You’re insane,” he said, “what good would it do if the Rivalex Mark was captured by the Felrin? The period—”
“Oh, shut up, Xandou, about the period of enlightenment. It’s all made up. My parents spoke of something that would never happen. Do you know why?”
“No,” he said worryingly.
“Because I don’t want to dictate as Queen, I want to reorganise the structure of the Gorgon.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Now, who are these Felrin?” she said, ignoring him. “What do we know about them?”
“What has gotten into you, Kaianan?”
“I’m learning, Xandou, that I can make change,” she said calmly. “Is that a problem?” he said nothing and looked away, “good, now remind me again what the Felrin did to the Defeated King.”
‘They killed him, Kaianan,” he replied without facing her, “to protect the Giliou and the Gorgon and the whole planet from imploding.”
“And that’s why we don’t trade with the Necromancers. That’s why they’ve been after me since my birth?”
“The Hunted Gorge plaque forewarned your birth, so yes, they’ve been after you since then,” he said.
“But why wait until I transform?”
“Well King Esri didn’t, he tried twelve years ago.”
Kaianan nodded.
“Nevertheless, your transformation has started something, it was obviously something these scheming Necromancers knew about that no one else did,” he said.
Kaianan narrowed her eyes. “What would they know about my transformation that we don’t? They don’t speak of a period of enlightenment. What does the history tell us? I feel like it’s come three sixty. The Silkri aura was reawakened, right? The Defeated King wanted to end the Felrin Congress governance and the Felrin came to Rivalex to kill him, right?”
Xandou shrugged. Kaianan remembered she had received this version of events from Arlise.
“The Felrin are back in Rivalex,” she said. “Why? What does my prophecy, my transformation have anything to do with them? If they were so worried about me, why didn’t they do something about it when I was born? Something doesn’t add up, Xandou.” Kaianan’s brain was in overdrive. “Arlise said the Felrin hated King Warlowes for speaking out, for going against the Universal Order, that’s why they silenced him … Maybe the Felrin are here now to do that again?”
“That’s absurd,” Xandou said preposterously, “besides the civil war that could eventuate here, who’s going against them? I mean they’re the Felrin?”
Kaianan inhaled and breathed out slowly, “I am.”
“That’s a lie. You’re not.”
“But I’ve just started the ‘period of enlightenment,’ right? You just said so. I’m the Mark that will bring about alignment, they would be furious at that.”
“Nothing’s happened, Kaianan.”
“Yet. … If the Felrin are going to invade Rivalex maybe the Necromancers will help us defend our planet? I’ll have to find out from Julius.”
“The Necromancers tried to assassinate you on Earth, do you not remember?” Xandou exclaimed.
“And what,” she cried sarcastically, “your Giliou Shielders are going to help—they will attack the Felrin so my people don’t get wiped out then?”
A protruding in his jaw symbolised he was upset by this.
She sniffed, “I didn’t think so. If the Necromancers don’t agree with the Felrin we need them on our side. Your insurgent Shielders are not enough, Xandou. These are Liege.”
“The insurgents will do as I inform them,” he stated quietly, “but they may not want to fight their own people, so if the Giliou who have remained in support of the Queen, show face with the Felrin, I will be honest and say, this won’t be much of an insurgence.”
She already knew that. The planet would be split down the middle. The only good thing to know was that the Necromancers, as much as they loathed her, they hated the Felrin even more. That could be the only advantage they had to sway Julius and his Arch Mages to fight with them.
“I know you have done everything for the Layos Manor and my people Xandou,” Kaianan began, “and I know your insurgents have had enough and want to go home to their loved ones, but this is much bigger than what you or I can grasp. The Felrin have Liege working for them. If they wipe my people out, they’ll probably wipe us all out. The Giliou and Necromancers too. Don’t you think they would want less witnesses when they annihilate a race? We must work together, I must get in contact with Julius, while he still holds his throne. If I can get the Arch Mages siding with us, we may then stand a chance…”
She knew Julius wasn’t like his father. She knew if she told him what was happening, he would try and protect Rivalex. It was a deep-seated knowledge but it was there.
Xandou shook his head in repulsion. “You’re not still friends with him, are you?”
“So, what if I am? He doesn’t want to kill me.”
“Kaianan he is a Necromancer, a sworn enemy—”
“He’s more truthful to me than anyone else in my life. And he saved me when the whole galaxy placed a target on my back…” Kaianan thought about the whole situation. Julius had said a Felrin Liege was her mentor, Jahzara had said the Felrin were after her, she had also turned into a huge giant monster and had visibly started some type of galactic panic when she transformed. If what Arlise said was true, about the Felrin silencing the Defeated King, she was certain the Felrin were here to do that to her.
In addition, every arm or body under the Felrin system would have been notified of this. Every single gatekeeper worked for the Felrin; they must have known each time they sent her through a Vector it was most likely to her death. All those uncomfortable assumptions about Rashid, Jahzara and Tiegra were true.
“They’re going to kill me,” she said casually. “My people and this whole planet can be saved if I go with them, I can prevent any war that is brewing between us.”
“You’re being ridiculous—”
“Am I?! I’m a deformed hybrid, Xandou,” she cut him off. “You do know that, right? Just like the Defeated King was. Look what I have done, look at what I have become! I’m part Felrin Shiek, part Gorgon, part—”
“JUST STOP!” Xandou exhaled. He looked an absolute mess.
The sound of a door opening or closing reached her.
Kaianan looked around. “Did you hear that?”
“Kaia, listen quickly,” Xandou said all the colour was drained out of his face and he looked tired. Kaianan didn’t want to correct him on her wrong name either that’s how fragmented he looked. “I found out; your parents had been given very good indication that you would be the … be the sacrifice … the sacrifice to open Holom’s door. That the prophecy was written about you … opening the Door to Holom.”
Kaianan stared at him blank faced. “Me? Open Holom’s Door?” This time the pieces didn’t fit into her brain as she tried to make them. “The sacrifice? ….” Then realisation struck her, “… they expected me to die?” she asked, hollowly.
“I’m sorry, I wish I had of known more at the time. But you’re talking about this history and I can’t keep it in any longer, there is more I need to tell you—”
Kaianan’s mind clicked. The whole thing was about her dying? That she needed to die to open Holom’s Door? But how would th
at bring about an enlightenment? It didn’t make sense? “Who gave them this information?” she said tears blotched in her eyes. “wait …. did my mother plan for me to die? Why would they talk about the period of enlightenment as a good thing, if I was expected to die for it?”
“Listen to me, Kaianan—”
Her chest had become so tight she couldn’t breathe properly. “Xandou, did my parents expect me to be killed that night? Answer me!”
“The reason you know Kan’Ging, the reason you can ‘port, the reason Arlise came after you on Earth,” Xandou hissed out, “it’s all because Dersji Brikin was in fact your Liege. I’m sorry I hid it from you, but you must wake up!”
Kaianan’s jaw dropped, then the door to her cell swung open.
Chapter Twenty: Burial of a King
Glowing in the flames of dozens of burning musk-scented black candles that were scattered down the aisles in tall wooden holders and across the main alter, the Previle Temple was glowing for the burial of the King. A gold-coated prehistoric cathedral of glass paned windows—each with an image of a red-robed Drake ancestor—was home to the many worshippers of the Silkri. They would come here to pay homage to those that had come before and fought valiantly for the right to establish the Silkri as a prominent Siliou presence in the universe. And none was more worshipped than King Warlowes from Sile. The ceiling of the Temple was a direct tribute to the Necromancer. The painting that covered the entire ceiling of the Temple was in his honour. Though now he was known to the universe only as the Defeated King.
Julius stared up at the long grey mane of Warlowes and analysed his stocky fingers tightening in a strong grip on his hilt. He had been an intimidatingly bulky man, but with a thin face, boasting an unpleasant pointy nose and beady eyes. He was slightly terrifying. Julius knew he had to engage his people in a similar way. Was that his nature though? To be threatening? Of course it wasn’t. But did he have a choice? Of course not.
