by Cara Violet
Chituma nodded and took Caidus’s hand, turning away from her sister.
“I love you, Chit.” Chituma heard her sister’s words and dropped Caidus’s intertwined fingers to face her. In amongst the squabbling Daem-Raal above and the screeching Gorgon Queen, this Kaianan in front of her was a confused and scared woman. Not the one who had been trained by one of the most dignified Liege in the universe. By Giliou, she looked like she had lost all hope.
“As I love you …” Chituma said smiling, “have faith, Ka and I will see you back on Rivalex.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Chituma turned and felt a sense of ease run through her. This was the first time she spoke to Kaianan like she was an equal, knowing her sister was just as vulnerable as her. All that swordplay and fighting couldn’t hide the fact that beneath that hard exterior Kaianan was as fearful as the rest of them.
The touch of Caidus’s hand drew Chituma’s attention back to the smaller and safer adjoining mountain ahead and she couldn’t help but think he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Whether that would be the last time she saw Chituma, Kaianan wasn’t so sure. A hollow feeling ran through her, aware there really was no-one that needed saving anymore. Or was there? Maybe herself?
“They is coming over there, Miss, look!” Kaianan beheld the runt Daem-Raal below her.
“I don’t have time for this, Cuki, what is it?” He latched onto her tight black slacks and shook her, pointing midway up the mountain. She followed his long maroon finger. Was that Adrel and …
“Arlise?” Her voice crescendo.
But Cuki shook her harder and threw his finger out more violently. She looked past them. Another two moving bodies were heading over the smaller range, but—wait—there were Daem-Raal charging toward them.
“Who are—” She began but then the fifthly Giliou robe caught her eye in the growing mist of morning.
“Chituma? Caidus? They’re going the wrong way, away from the Mountain, fools. They’re following Arlise and they’re all heading into an ambush.”
“Cuki help! You get Gorgon girl.” Cuki waved and left Kaianan standing there, thoroughly confused. Then Dersji Brikin appeared in a mist of purple aura and she had to shield her eyes from the purple sparks that had quickly diminished.
“Would you mind not doing that?” she said disgruntled.
“I’m helping your Gorgon form, not like you, busy chitchatting, did you care to help out?” he said, looking about in a sweat. “Hang on, where’s the runt?”
“That way.” She pointed off to the Daem-Raal that were tearing down the adjoining mountain to attack Adrel and Arlise, and Chituma and Caidus. Could they not see them coming? Before she could make a move to follow Cuki and help, Dersji’s light blinded her again and he was gone. “Hey! —”
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Breaking and Entering
Blue flashes of light spun sideways as Xandou reappeared south of the Valley Woods. He staggered on east toward Forsda; a harsh breath from his lips; he fought within himself. His thoughts replayed through his mind over and over, watching Kaianan disappear through the Euclidean Vector to Croone with Caidus and Adrel. Regret coursed through his veins; not stopping her in time, not explaining anything to her, nor told her any truths. How could he let her slip through his grasp? The guilt was eating away at him. Was it his fault she ended up like this?
“As it is written in the prophecy. She is the sacrifice, Holom’s door will open, and she will give the Felrin an opportunity to silence Holom once and for all.”
Lord Raquel’s voice rolled around inside his head. Kaianan, the sacrifice? How would her parents believe this? Who were they turning out to be? And why? This was such treachery—Kaianan should have been warned! Heat filled his face. His heart was torn. Apart of this was his fault. He trusted her parents to do the right thing by her, but the King and Queen obviously had other objectives in their minds when they decided to eradicate Kaianan’s memory. If only he knew why.
No matter, he would fix this, make it right; he’d get a healer to Jahzara, and in the meantime, would claim that Felrin cruiser and get the truth to Kaianan.
Drawing closer to the edge of the city, he sighed at the emotive effect Forsda had on him. He clutched his azure robe tighter around his neck to keep the cold from his chest. The tiny snowflakes whizzing by blurred his vision but he could still see the Felrin cruiser levitating just above the crystal white Forsda Palace. The boxy azure building, the Fortress of Edification, seemed dormant a few blocks away. He reconsidered whether he should have advised his Gorgon camp he was here—perhaps Desrix could have travelled with him? That was pointless. He knew they needed to stay in Layos to keep the Insurgence stable, which meant he was on his own. Wasn’t he always?
He heard a clatter of blades and scabbards as he made his way through the inner-city. Guards. He hastily pressed himself in a doorway, twisted the knob at his back and silently pushed his shoulder into the door—locked.
“Damn these secure dwellings,” he muttered and yielded all his might into one more hip and shoulder push, and bouldered inside seconds before the guards turned the corner.
“Ah! Fath—” Xandou heard a small child call behind him but had closed the door before she finished.
“Hush, my dear friend,” he waved silence to her.
Her father hurried into the room and sent a suspicious gaze to his wife standing in his shadow; another two children—boys—scuffled in from the rear, and they stared, wide-eyed at him. Xandou assessed them all in a matter of moments; decently dressed in whites and teals and gold fabric, the little girl even had a pretty braid and gold bows in her blonde mane; the house was extremely neat and homey: the blue walls were filled with beautiful paintings, and a bouquet of flowers sat on the Miry table aside two long sofas. Xandou, for just a second felt jealous of all they had. He let go of the thought, not sure where it came from.
“Master Xandou?” the older man asked apprehensively.
Xandou tore his eyes away from the home but ignored the man and peered through the peephole in the door as the two guards marched past without hesitation. “Thank the Great Giliou,” he sighed. He turned slowly around again to reassess the five blue-eyed faces of surprise. “Well, I hope you have some faith in the Great Giliou?” Xandou said with a forced smile.
None of them spoke. They stood like stunned Seevaars.
“I need you to alert my Gorgon allies that I am here,” Xandou asked of the father.
“My eldest is in training as a Shielder, capable of ‘porting without being seen,” the father said, gesturing to the tallest of the two boys and Xandou noticed he was even taller than himself.
“Good,” Xandou said, “get him to General Tafen and Desrix in the Layos Manor and tell them I am claiming the Felrin cruiser. Tell them to get healers to the watchtower, and tell them to be prepared for war.”
The man widened his eyes. “Ryar, did you hear Master Xandou?” His eldest son, who moved out from behind his siblings, nodded.
“Yes, sir,” he said and tucked his long wavy blonde hair behind his ears in slight nervousness.
“Move to the outskirts and get yourself to Layos,” Xandou said, “and thank you.”
“No, thank you, Xandou,” the man said. Then added timidly after taking a deep breath in, “Umm, also … would you know if Manadex or Xasler were in amongst the insurgent Giliou?”
The look on the man’s face was a thousand words. He was starving for answers. This was exactly what Xandou didn’t want the Giliou to feel. Had he done this? Yes, he had. The guilt struck him again and he was back to feeling uneasy and full of self-doubt.
“I … I wouldn’t know …” Xandou’s voice was low and muffled.
The man’s son ran to his mother and bent down to hug her; even with his height Xandou could tell his frame was one of a fragile adolescent, underweight to say the least—and probably dangerously inexperienced. It was just a mission to send a message, he told himself.
“Laro thou Maiy,” the boy said to his mother.
Xandou felt the words rip at his heart. This was definitely jealousy. He never had the opportunity to know his biological parents. He watched Ryar exchange sheepish smiles with his father.
“Laro thou Maiy,” Xandou quickly repeated, trying not to sound too distant. “I thank you all.” He nodded to them, reined in the emotions suffocating him, and without waiting for a reply exited where he had entered.
He breathed out and repositioned his thick Giliou robe around his neck and shoulders in the coldness. He held his scabbard with slight indifference. If he wasn’t feeling so destitute, he might have had a smile on his face, but seeing that family sent his thoughts back to the Manor, to growing up with King Reon and Queen Agantha as unspoken parents and spending every waking moment with Kaianan.
She’d been everything to him in his childhood. It was during the winter season; they would indeed get closer. After supper with her parents they would snuggle up on the cream lounger beside the hearth in the Guest Hall of the Manor and exchange stories. Stories of swordplay with Dersji, of ploys and pranks they had carried out with their old Layos friends during covert escapes to the Swamp Lands. Xandou wondered if Kaianan even remembered any of them. He hoped she would, Darayan and Archibel were like family to her.
And she was the only family he had left. That was why doing this—telling her the truth—was imperative.
“Seize them!” Xandou heard amid sudden high-pitched screaming. On instinct, his lean athletic frame was up climbing the affixed mounted stairs of a tall residential building to get a bird’s eye view.
Another scream. Louder commotion.
Cocking his head on high alert, he crossed the square concrete roof and headed toward the noise. A few more paces and an assessment below him, Xandou’s blood began to flow with anger. Back to back, Metrix—his former Giliou Shielder friend, and Nake, the mute and scar faced Necromancer, were attacking Giliou guards, surrounded by terrified Giliou spectators. They looked battered and dishevelled. Metrix’s robe was ripped and her short blonde hair looked like it had seen a cyclone.
“Get off me!” Metrix was yelling and shaking her foot of someone. “Imbecile, Nake, run.”
Xandou froze. On closer inspection, the someone that had fallen away from Metrix was Jahzara. Bleeding and curled up on the ground, the Conductor was concussed. Then, dozens and dozens of Shielders came crashing through from the Fortress of Edification, streaming down the steps in assault. Blue aura flames shot out; Metrix and Nake were quickly apprehended. Yet it was when the Shielders yanked Jahzara’s arms behind her and she cried out in pain, Xandou started ticking like a time bomb.
“What in Holom’s name?” he whispered in malice. “Fask of a Harpy.”
When Liege Ferak Jarryd burst out of the Palace, Xandou’s tick grew quicker. “Contain them please,” the Felrin said—did he just give the Giliou orders?
Maya stepped out from behind Ferak and her face looked even more confused than Xandou’s own. Soft light brown hair possessed her, under a rigid face of fuchsia paint accompanied by a meringue sized peach dress.
“Hold onto them tight.” Ferak ordered the guards. “I’ve already lost one traitor today, can’t plan on losing a second.”
Was he talking about Kaianan? Or him? Xandou felt a huge ache in his temple.
Liege Jarryd took a step closer to Metrix; she struggled, grunting, arms twisted behind her by a guard. “You are going against the Felrin Congress now?” she said through clenched teeth. “The use of Siliou will be no longer, Liege Jarryd: you should be on the right side of history. The Felrin will serve the Defeated King, mark my words.”
“Alas,” Ferak laughed, “to be a callous supporter of a cause you know nothing about?”
Metrix spat blood. “I shouldn’t have expected better, especially from a Felrin, stuck serving the Congress. Do you have any idea what your Principals are up to?”
“They have faith in their people, which is more than I can say of you.” Liege Jarryd gripped her tattered robe tight around her neck. “Enough banter, Giliou.”
The crowd grew quiet. Xandou could not bear to watch any longer; still brooding, still ticking.
So, this was inhumane treatment by the Giliou; the Conductor was trapped and unconscious and they did nothing about it? The Giliou allowed the Felrin to control them? Just keep moving! He told himself.
He paced back and forth on the roof, locked his aura around his body in a force field of blue sparks and teleported to the roof of the Forsda Palace. He had to keep going; he dragged his eyes away from the courtyard and toward the unguarded and magnificent Felrin cruiser levitating in the sky at the rear of the Palace. Yet even with his target in clear sight, he paused after a few steps.
Tick. Tick. His chest kept beating. He had come all this way, hadn’t been caught, and now he somehow cared about the treatment of a Sile native, a home-grown defector in Metrix and—Jahzara.
“Blast!” he said to himself, turning back to the edge of the Palace. “Stop!” he shouted and within an eerie instant, the city fell completely silent below him. He heard gasps here and there, with Giliou pointing towards him.
Xandou gulped uneasily and found his voice. “Everyone stand together!”
The Giliou moved away from the Felrin and the hostages on the courtyard ground creating a circle clearing.
Ferak muttered something under his breath without taking his eyes off Xandou, then lifted his arm up, showing his palm to the Palace. “Xandou, here you are.”
Xandou frowned. “You don’t belong here, Felrin. You and your prior comrade.”
Xandou watched Ferak’s eyes flare at the mention of Adrel, his Menial no doubt, that had chased Xandou when he had escaped Forsda and ‘ported for the watchtower. Adrel had inconveniently followed Kaianan and Caidus into the Euclidean Vector.
“I don’t belong here?” Liege Jarryd’s eyes remained unfazed as he smiled, gazing instead to the bloodied Metrix. “Let’s see, I’ve heard that before, your companion, is it not?” Ferak kicked her in the abdomen.
Xandou averted his eyes, the tick in his chest stronger than ever, “I am here for my people.” He looked to them. “My Giliou people, what is the reason by which you persecute these people?”
“The Giliou will not sit by and allow the Defeated King to reign,” Liege Jarryd’s voice had twisted into derisive falsetto. “Or have you forgotten who Metrix now serves?”
The Defeated King? What was he talking about? A footstep behind him startled him. Xandou turned. Without warning, a Giliou guard’s fist pummelled into him—the impact sent him spiralling off the roof and tumbling to the crowd below.
He ‘ported seconds before he made contact with the ground, planting his feet down instead. During the fall, he was able to get a glimpse of Maya running down the Palace steps toward him.
“Seize Xandou!” She yelled, and at those words, the ticking bomb deep within him exploded—Xandou’s anger rose across his skin. He felt his aura zap around him in erratic sparks of blue fury, and the next minute he was unsheathing his blade to defend himself from Ferak’s swinging blade trying to slice him in half.
Xandou had never felt so much hatred toward the Felrin. He threw his blade about with heated blows. His rampant aura and rage consuming him; fuelling completely misguided attacks. Then Ferak fired up in his Kan’Ging aura and everyone stepped further back.
Watching the mauve aura spin chillingly up and down the Liege’s fingers, Xandou held in his breath.
“You want to play now, Shielder?”
Ferak’s eyes sparkled in the reflection of his aura: it slingshot itself to the blades of four Giliou Shielders. Singing in electricity, the aura guided the blades up out of their host’s holsters and toward Xandou.
“You’re not a warrior, Shielder,” Ferak said sending the blades charging at him. “You’re a nothing.”
Xandou retaliated; protecting himself from two blades as one slashed the left side
of his rib cage.
Ferak laughed as the Giliou faltered. “A flesh wound!”
Another blade burning in aura swept below Xandou, he jumped away from it using free time movement but Ferak was there to meet him. Two blades either side of him, cutting the Shielder on both arms.
Spitting blood, Xandou lowered to his knees.
“Oh, must have hit a lung,” Ferak said indulgently while dismantling the blades and dropping his Kan’Ging.
The Giliou people came back into focus and Xandou felt ashamed at his attempts to overthrow the Liege.
“You’re more foolish than I thought, Xandou…”
Even as Xandou heard the Felrin speak, he knew that was the truth. He was foolish and impulsive. Dersji Brikin came to his mind. One of the first times Dersji said yes to swordplay with the Giliou, he was fourteen and overly eager. He had been through six years of Giliou Shielder training and felt invincible. Dersji ended his vain ego in a matter of seconds, sending him face first into the dirt. That day he had warned Xandou. The Felrin told him— “The head first, then the heart.” Pointing to each as he did. “Be aware of what you are lacking, and focus on what you do well at. Don’t be precipitate, Xandou. Your heart can be divided quicker than you know. Your job is to look out for the Princess, not carry her emotional stability; that will no doubt take you down a forsaken road.” Those words echoed through him in despair. He had forgotten that encounter. Maybe, because of defeat, he had rid himself of it?
Was this the forsaken road Dersji had mentioned because of his ill-fated heart? Heavy exhalation had him twisted in his own downfall yet again.
“They’ve escaped!”
A voice wailed in the background in distraction giving Xandou the split second he needed. Reaching out to the half-conscious Jahzara and using what strength he had, ‘ported them out.
Chapter Thirty: The Choice
Dersji ‘ported in, seized Cuki climbing the rock face and ‘ported out, landing them right in the middle of the smaller mountain, between the downward sprinting Daem-Raal and the upward climbing Arlise and his three oblivious friends. “Right, now chap, you’ve failed me three times today.” Cuki saddened at Dersji’s words. “Don’t give me that. I need you under that small rock right there, and in exactly sixty beats, yank it sideways.”
