by Cara Violet
“There are Felrin on board,” Kaianan said.
Dersji nodded, “two Liege, Maki and Garen, and a pain in the ass general … get down.”
Kaianan squatted and watched Adrel and Arlise running toward the cruiser. “Where are they going?”
Falling and spinning, quicker and quicker, the cruiser’s descent was heading head-on into the Felrin dessert.
“To the ship of course,” Dersji snorted. Felrin city alarms began wailing. “Ah, the Felrin are bringing down the walls now, my dearest,” his mouth went up in one corner, “the Shiek will be out in their numbers.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve sounded the emergency alarms. The cruiser has set off the—” Dersji couldn’t finish, huge pieces of steel were snapping off the ship, scattering and streaming away from it as if it was creating a glitzy meteor shower … Second after second, it kept diving … Down and down …
At the last moment, it jolted its nose slightly up, and instead of a head-on collision into the dessert, it skimmed across the sand like a rock on water, coming to an abrasive halt, deeply embedded in the surface.
Kaianan grimaced at the wreckage. Arlise and Adrel were on their way to it.
“We should help them,” she said.
A loud roar echoed across the desert and Kaianan bobbed her head down and jerked sideways … In the sky, a flaming ball of aura was plummeting to the ground … It was a figure … Two large feet kicked about, and before they landed in the dirt, Kaianan knew who it was.
“Dersji, how did he get through the Vector! Didn’t he fall?! The Defeated King is—”
“Yes, he’s here you insolent swine, pull yourself together, you’re acting like a damn anklebiter.”
“Shut up!” Kaianan snapped, lifting herself from the ground and pulling out her blade.
“No,” Dersji wrapped his hand around her wrist. “You’re not ready to take him down. We must be smart about this Kaianan, we need to wait a few months, we need to work together ….”
Kaianan stopped listening to him. The situation unfolded before her: the huge half-human, half-dragon man-beast diminished his aura, and his frilly neck dragon face immediately went skyward. Above him, through the compromised Euclidean Vector had come two Pernicious. She then heard Cuki screaming somewhere in the distance, the same time, hundreds of Felrin Shiek started emerging from the huge white Felrin walls off in the distant horizon.
Kaianan couldn’t do it anymore, she didn’t want to bear witness any longer. Something had to be done. With Arlise going off with Adrel, the Felrin cruiser in flames, the Liege most likely going to try and kill her, and the Defeated King and Pernicious about to attack the city, she wasted no time thinking about it. Her anger grew, she disarmed Dersji’s hold of her with a jab to his weakened gut, and advancing for the man-beast, she ran.
She heard Dersji calling her name and ignored it. He was right. If anyone was going to stop him and make amends for unleashing the Defeated King and Holom galaxy on the universe, it was going to be her. Embracing a steely determination to prove her point, she sprinted forward.
He didn’t know why he was running so fast, but as soon as Arlise saw that cruiser crash it was like instinct overtook him and his body started sprinting for it. The wound that he realised was at his back not his gut had nearly healed—the perks of being an immortal, he said to himself annoyingly. Knowing his aura had come back to him on Felrin, he had to save who he could from that burning inferno. He knew Adrel was safe next to him, but not the Liege trapped inside the ship.
Everything was a mess when he arrived; flames were still burning parts of machinery; pieces of steel wall were jutting out in every which direction and the malfunctioning controls were blaring so loudly Arlise couldn’t think straight. It wasn’t until he saw an arm move beneath the rubble, that he kicked into action.
He lifted up a huge piece of roof to free the body beneath it. But whoever it was, was unconscious. The white chestplated Liege was still strapped into the pilot’s seat, bent over the controls, arms out, laying limp.
He dropped the rubble away from her and pulled at the buckle around her waist. Then more limbs began appearing in the wreckage. How could he save them all? And who was that? A big man with thick black eyebrows, bald head … “General?”
General Aradar slid his eyes open.
“Fask of a—” Aradar barked, glancing over to Arlise. “What the holom is this?”
There was little time for small talk. Arlise could see the Defeated King closing in on them, looking furious and the heat of the flames burning across the wreckage were increasing in size and temperature, signifying the cruiser was turning into a ticking time bomb.
“General Aradar,” Arlise said, still fumbling with the belt. “We need to move!”
The General snorted, hoisting himself out of the debris. “Shut up, will you.”
Arlise shot him livid eyes, who was the General to speak to him as such? He could end him. With aggression in his bones, Arlise finally broke the belt around the woman’s waist. “Well I’m getting out of here.” He spat, lifting her up over him.
“You don’t say.” Aradar cursed and plucked a body from somewhere underneath him.
Who was that? The white chestplate indicated another Liege. Arlise couldn’t believe how they had been reduced to nothing. Felrin Liege were the most powerful warriors in the universe were they not?
“Dammit, hurry up Brikin boy!” Aradar shouted, landing him and his captive on to the sand and away from the ship.
Arlise dragged the female Liege out of the rubble and toward multiple Shiek running for Aradar. Panic set in when he heard a roar and then the swish of fire. It wasn’t who he thought it was, was it?
He exhaled in realisation the Defeated King was firing flames, and with a quick drop to the ground, he wrapped the Liege under him –
It took only an instant. The cruiser blew in a monstrous explosion; the sound overbearingly loud as a scorching ball of orange and blue flames filled the planet’s atmosphere like a mushroom, throwing debris and shrapnel in a hundred-metre radius.
The air changed colours; amber to indigo streams of debris came down like rain, and loud enough to be thought of as rapid force fire beams. Finally, when the air cleared, Arlise rose and scanned the area. He could see no injured, only a pile of ash where the cruiser had been –
Wait. Who was that? Running, metres behind the Defeated King from the horizon of the Woods Devine. She came closer into view and Arlise automatically smiled when he saw her—Kaianan.
Chapter Forty-Three: The Defeated King
If the day couldn’t get any worse, Dersji was ropeable Kaianan unhanded him. He had no energy to fight back. If only she remembered how many times, he had stood by her, back in Layos …, he had defeated her in swordplay more times than he could count … and hurt her physically and mentally … not to mention nearly killing her … maybe it was better she didn’t get her memory back.
“Kaianan,” he said, somehow ‘porting in front of her.
“Dammit,” she chastised his sudden appearance and appeared confused as she came to a stop.
“You’re a white-haired banshee,” he said knowingly, “why are you confused? Did you think you could hide from me?”
“I don’t know what the holom I am!”
Dersji rolled his eyes and let out a moan. She was completely delirious. Where had that brazen fighter gone? The girl who surged through any obstacle before her without an ounce fear. Since the last time he saw her, he knew everything was rolling downhill; her skill, her belief, her faith in the Kan’Ging. Training her would have to be his prerogative if she was going to have any chance as a hybrid to kill the Defeated King.
There was so much power in her. He could see it brimming in those creamy grey eyes. He needed her to listen to him. “If only you had this amount of passion when I trained you … You best channel any ill thoughts you have so we can succeed in your Verticals and get you on your way to becoming a Liege…
let me—”
She screamed. Dersji didn’t know what to make of it. He scanned her body. Cuki had crept up on her and latched himself tightly to her thigh.
“Cuki,” Dersji said, trying to contain his anger, “unhand her and come here.” The Daem-Raal began to sob and staggered over to Dersji like he had been shot. “Cuki listen to me,” Dersji instructed, “I need you to go to the edge of the Woods and remain there until Kaianan and I come back. Okay?” Cuki sighed, nodding in agreement. “Okay good, off you go now.” Dersji slapped him on the small of his back and watched him run his little legs to the Woods.
Kaianan, in this time, had escaped him yet again, racing after the ash-painted sky.
Off in the remoteness she ran. Dersji clenched his fists together, and requested his aura … then waited …. and waited –
He had ‘ported to her just prior, but when he tried again, nothing occurred. He looked down to his stomach; a patched-up hole that was coming undone with green leaves and blood, expanding across his abdomen; knowing his percentage of efficiency had dropped below zero. He wanted to kill someone.
Against what he stood for, he put one foot in front of the other and began running …
Panting, he finally made it alongside her.
“This is manual labour and I’m not inclined—”
“Stay out of my way,” she said, her voice full of agitation.
“You speak over the top of me again and … and—” He lost his speech. Kaianan had strangely stopped running. Dersji had followed her eyesight and halted beside her.
Amidst the ruins of a burnt Felrin cruiser, the Defeated King, a huge winged beast was gyrating in Silkri aura and flying up and down, attacking—attacking Arlise. It was a display of a man-beast who had been dying to fight for hundreds of years, versus a boy who had absolutely no idea what he was doing and had lost all sense of proper swordplay. Dersji was repulsed—it was another righteous insult.
They needed a strategy, something to take the beast down; he turned to Kaianan and realised she had left his side and was off again.
“Kaianan!” Dersji kept shouting, running after her. “Kaianan, you’ve got to listen to me. I’m not capable of doing this on my own in this state, but neither are you.”
She glanced briefly over her shoulder as he caught up to her. “I’m a white-haired banshee, aren’t I? Of course, I’m capable.”
“Oh, two-pronged harpy shaslik, grill me up and feed me to the Seevaar.” Dersji groaned out a sickening sound of revulsion. “Kaianan, if I hear you speak like that again … Don’t you know the historical outcome of aura versus aura, we’ve been over this a hundred times, the planet blows up! Stop running for him! You can’t take him on.”
She wasn’t listening to him though; there was no more backchat from her at all. Instead, her white aura had taken over. Dersji watched as she gained ground on him and in the next second ‘ported straight to the Defeated King, blocking an attack before it connected with Arlise.
Dersji felt his anger rise. Stupidity was an understatement at this point. He had been tempted to kill someone prior to this, and staring at his two former Menials back to back, looking dishevelled and swinging their blades carelessly about at the dragon beast, he had a pressing urge to show them what defying him would mean.
“I’ll kill them myself,” he mumbled out, hand on hilt.
Then, as if the world had told him no, a stabbing force dropped him to his knees and everything went dark.
Chapter Forty-Four: The Unusual Alliance
Grunts, bawls, hisses and howls bellowed around Julius as he removed a protruding branch out of the way of his path. He leant back and let Kydra through. The two of them stepped through the sticky and muggy terrain of Niek, distancing themselves from the noise, in search of a way out.
Julius wasn’t in the right frame of mind to even contemplate how he was going to covertly start dethroning those who had banished him, but he knew that they had to find a decent place to set up camp, get rest, eat and start planning.
With the night fading and first moon setting; the jungle was serenaded by a howling wind in harmony with the birds and buzzing insects at sun’s rise. Julius’s thoughts suddenly pulled him to the ground; he touched the soil and recalled footsteps, here not too long ago, turning and descending down … down into the hollow.
“This way,” he said to Kydra and she followed him down the cave. The first rays of the sun were filling it, and it was blinding within. Julius moved cautiously, quietly, and as soon as he got deep enough into the cave, he caught sight of his cousin at rest. Immediately he slid his hand around Kydra’s mouth to silence her and upon bending his knees down for a closer inspection, his face betrayed utmost shock.
“What do we have here?” Julius whispered, assessing the sleeping girl across Caidus’s chest.
Kydra frowned in confusion. “I’m not sure, I think it’s my brother with the she-Gorgon?”
“Aye, I believe so,” Julius said. “Whatever shall we do, my dear?”
“Hmm, what do you think, my sre’shi?”
Julius cocked his head in thought and lifted his hand up to block the morning light shining on Caidus’s eyes from outside. Then he split his fingers apart and allowed the light to beam on his cousin’s eyelids. At the second movement of Julius’s fingers opening and closing, Caidus stirred and within another instant, had awoken.
Glaring light graced his pupils, Caidus shielded himself with his forearm. A heartbeat after that, the awareness there were others standing above him, had him pushing Chituma backward and immediately getting to his feet.
“Do not fear me, dear cousin,” the voice said, and Caidus advanced a step, taking a good long look at Prince Addi, in his dishevelled robes, unkempt brown hair, dirty skin and hollow green eyes.
“I do not,” Caidus said. “Yet here you are stalking me in my sleep.”
“Is it sleep you were up to?” Julius raised his eyebrows mockingly.
“And you’re a king?” Caidus said cynically, feeling Chituma stir below him.
Caidus had to breathe out, and not be so concerned with Julius wanting to kill Chituma. Everything was going to be okay. She was fine. He got a better look at the girl standing a few feet away from Julius and tilted his head. Who was this? He knew her, more than knew her, they were family.
“Kydra?”
She only smirked.
The shock of seeing her as a preform had him gawking. He had never seen her as a preform before. Pale complexion, soft green eyes, still a womanly figure, but much more—well, she just didn’t seem ‘wench looking’ as a preform. Was her Necromancer form that frightening? Yes. Distracted by Julius’s hands floating about, Caidus noticed him raise his eyebrows curiously. What was he doing? Trying to feel the Siliou? What for? And when Julius’s glowing green eyes laid on Chituma, Caidus stiffened.
“There is Silkri around her?” Julius said. “You turning her into a Drake?”
“No,” Caidus spat angrily.
“You know you can only choose one partner to live that life with? Don’t be throwing it away on her.”
“I’m sure you would have done the same.” Caidus’s eyes did not break from his cousin’s. This was a searing reminder of his prior love and admiration for Kaianan.
“What are you doing here?” Julius’s tone hardened.
“I’ve come back for you, cousin,” Caidus paused, searching Julius’s blank expression, “to help you.” And at the same time desperately try to get Chituma protected and out of harm’s way.
“You come back now? After I needed you, after moments of absolute duress. I am betrayed by the Onyx Office, by scores of Arch Mages and you fled me?” Julius exclaimed. “You pulled me into the pits, Akki. I was lost without you as support.”
Caidus felt guilty; he had felt guilty whenever he thought of his actions towards Julius. He did not support his cousin then, but coming back for him was his way of trying to make up for this behaviour. How to explain it?
“I had
to save Chituma.”
“Before you represented me?”
“A-dee, try to understand: what she means to me is different to you,” Caidus said, grabbing the anxious Chituma by her arm as she stood, keeping her behind his back. “Let’s not make this about importance either. Come cousin, I am here now.” Caidus reached out to Julius with open arms and a half grin.
“You are careless, killing and calculated and here you are in front of her acting like you have a heart of gold.” Julius sniggered and turned, stalking to the base of the Hollow’s entrance and staring out to the rising sun. “Caidus Akki Nermordis, what you seek in Sile is no longer available to you. I have declared you banished.”
“Banished by an overthrown King?” Caidus said. “I was coming to reinstate you. We can do this together, can change the ways of fear our people follow. You and I can set new ways, new order. I know you feel it somewhere in you, as I do. We are not of our lineage, Addi, we are a people of great strength, yes, but strength in freedom.”
“You know, you’ve gotten weak since the last time we saw you.” Kydra’s vicious words cut across Caidus. “Poor Akki, in love with a hideous fask of a Harpy. Look what she has turned you into. You sound like a bleeding Felrin!”
“This has nothing to do with you, Kydra,” Caidus said calmly. “The Defeated King is on the loose, Addi. I am here to help rebuild Sile, a Sile we can look up to, for our own families.” Caidus was confident Julius’s thoughts dwelled on the same things, these same dreams.
“As you said cousin,” Julius mumbled, “I am overthrown … I am fleeing … exiled.” He spoke each word as if it had wounded him.
“To where?” Caidus asked, “What safer place is there than Rivalex?”
“Ask your Princess that.” Julius shot Chituma a pointed look.
“I’ve no idea what you are talking about,” Chituma said, having stood silently behind Caidus’s throughout the conversation. Now she stood alongside him, looking gruff. “Explain yourself.”
