by Cara Violet
“You and your sister fled Rivalex for safe locks,” Julius said. “Rivalex is not safe. Don’t you get it? And now with the Defeated King on his way I am not hanging around to work things out.”
Caidus shook his head in painful disgust once more, wasn’t Julius supposed to be the one who cared? The one who showed endless compassion? “Fix yourself up, Chit, we’re leaving.” Caidus readjusted his charcoal tunic and black robe and ran his hands through his blonde hair trying to properly awaken. Besides feeling beat, he was angered by Julius’s pathetic fear. He looked again at his cousin.
“Is this who you are now?” Caidus raised his voice in irritation, letting his emotion get the better of him. “You’re going to flee like a coward? You have no home so you’re running away?” He advanced on Julius and grasped his cousin’s robe from behind, turning him to face him. “What are you, a Menial?” Caidus spat, pushing Julius back. “Need a Liege to kick you in line, A-dee?”
“What, you think now you know everything because you fell in love? Your whole outlook just changes? You hungered for power over me, Caidus. Your contradiction brands you a coward. I know the history of the Drake; we will fall at the hands of the Felrin.” Julius grabbed Caidus’s tunic, “It won’t last; our governance would fall; don’t you get it?”
“My contradiction? I’m the coward? What happened to you? The Addi I know, where is he? The one who put me in line all the time, who told me to reason with our unkind life?” Caidus searched Julius’s face, “I’m becoming the person you taught me to be. We can change what the Silkri aura means to our people, stop being a quitter!”
Julius pulsed his aura around him, and then his form changed. Inch by inch grey skin covered his face and hands and his electric red eyes sparkled under his long grey hair. “That Julius is dead and gone,” he said, and tightened his grip around Caidus. Caidus ignited his own aura and morphed into his own Necromancer form—Chituma roused herself and shouted: “Stop now! Stop! You are family.”
The two Silkri Drakes had eyes only for each other.
With Caidus finally moving his attention from the irate Julius to the distressed Chituma, he relinquished his aura and, surprisingly, Julius did the same. They let go and stared at each other.
“I cannot do this,” Caidus admitted, switching back to his blonde-haired, blue-eyed preform. “You can take yourself into the pits for all I care. Sulk in your own self-victimisation.”
Those words hit Julius hard. He cocked his head. His heart had sunk. He felt the words of Boku Jove wash over him: you can choose to be kind in life, Addi, it takes a stronger, braver person to love than it does to hate. He was troubled by all of it, but not stupid enough to create a rift between his closest ally and friend. The three Silkri Drakes were here, together, this was the perfect time for them to work out how they can work together.
“I wasn’t born for this either,” Julius confessed.
“What do you mean?” Kydra huffed. “We need to get out of here, Addi.”
“We can go to Layos,” Chituma said, disturbing the momentary silence between the four of them. “Together,” she stared at Julius.
“Out of the question,” Kydra said furiously.
“Why?” Caidus said. “Chituma has a point.”
Julius stood frozen, his entire being told him to say this was a bad idea—but in a way, he knew Kaianan may eventually return. He felt safer at this knowledge for some reason. He closed the distance between him and his sre’shi and squeezed her hand. “I think we should consider this,” he said almost placidly.
“My King, I beseech you, no,” she said.
“We cannot hide forever, Kydra,” he whispered, while the growl of Seevaars grew around them.
“And we definitely cannot stay here,” Chituma said, glancing to the cave exit.
“She’s right,” Caidus said.
“You will be accepted in Layos with me,” Chituma reassured them.
“You’re burning up in Silkri aura, how will you even be accepted?” Julius said to her, as if she should know better.
“They will not turn their back on me.”
“Who knows how long that will last?”
Silence fell over them but the forces outside grew louder. Each of the four fugitives considered each other’s unease and Julius’s eyes eventually fell on Kydra.
Her mouth twitched and then opened. “Is this what you wish? Drakes venturing together, Addi? Entering Layos?” She looked down and exhaled, “We will be trialled for treason.”
“I have faith, my sre’shi,” he said.
She smiled. “Then so do I.”
The four unlikely associates made their way out of the jungle of Niek and into the Swamp Lands. With several Necromancer Bones screeching and flying above them, they had to constantly search for cover. On the last occasion the Bones went by in surveillance, the four of them ended up in the actual Swamp itself.
“It’s tingling on my skin!” Kydra squealed from behind Chituma. Girl could complain, Chituma thought.
“It’s only for a few more minutes,” Julius said to her, and Chituma noticed him scooping the sludge in the water away from her body. “I think they’ve gone now,” he added, as they heard the last of the Bone’s cries.
Chituma kept her chest above the contaminated water but she felt like she was sinking. A splash sounded next to her and Caidus had got to her.
“This way,” he said, and guided her toward the edge where Julius was yanking Kydra out of the water.
Caidus hoisted her out of the water and Chituma glanced down to her robes and body covered in sludge and then to the rest of them looking as filthy.
“Caidus, I stink …” she admitted, “… I need to bathe.”
“I know,” he said, holding in his snicker and covering his nose.
“Thanks,” she shot back angrily.
Caidus winked at her and she grimaced at his beaming face.
“I’m so cold, Julius.” Kydra’s chin was rattling and Chituma felt like telling the girl the Swamp was hardly cold compared to Sile but thought the better of it. Things were already tense enough between them, and she didn’t need to make it worse.
“Let’s get out to the sun,” Julius said to Caidus, who nodded.
They tried to keep warm as they reached a small mountain peak in the middle of the Swamp. Out to the horizon, Chituma could see the two cities on the other side of Rivalex.
Chituma scanned the distant Forsda in angst. “Wait, what’s that? Is that a fire?” She could see the huge black smoke clouds flowing into the sky as if some explosion had been set off and the entire city was now a scorching war zone. “Forsda is burning?”
“Glad we are not going there, then,” Kydra said.
Chituma turned to her, remembering to keep her mouth shut and as an alternative gave her a look of disgust.
“What?” Kydra said unbothered. “I think we can do with a little less drama.”
“To Layos we must go,” Caidus confirmed, looking out to Chituma’s home. Kydra sighed dramatically. Again, Chituma bit her tongue.
“Have we got a better idea as to how to get through the rest of the Swamp?” Julius interjected.
“We haven’t encountered any Ebel yet,” Caidus said.
“We were in the shallows, Akki.”
“We haven’t any other way to go without being seen,” Chituma said, knowing the way to Layos from the Swamp Lands like the back of her hand. “It is nearly nightfall and we are wasting time talking. We must go. Layos will protect us, I am sure of it.”
Julius’s harsh stare upon her made her feel uncomfortable. “Chituma, regardless of whether you are royalty or not, your sister is still the rightful Queen. Not you.”
She smiled at this; she had known this since she her birth, and also known Kaianan was destined for more than just being a Queen. Her parents had constantly told Chituma that she would eventually get everything she ever wanted. They kept reminding her that Layos was hers, the city belonged to her, and no-one could
take it from her. Not even Kaianan.
“Aye, Julius,” she said, “but I am the rightful owner.”
She didn’t wait for them to ask her any questions; their confused expressions were enough for her to rotate away from the peak, walk back into the Swamp Lands, and head for Layos.
Chapter Forty-Five: The Chimaera
Kaianan couldn’t move. She had miscalculated the proximity of the two Pernicious circling and firing their spit into the air above. The Siliou was poisoned by the deformed zombie creatures and it looked like the hundreds of orchid chestplated and white robed Shiek that had caught up to them from the Felrin city had felt that impact also. Everyone was on the ground, whimpering and howling.
Whether Arlise being half-conscious next to her was a good thing or bad thing, she wasn’t sure. In truth, when she stared into her skinny giant’s blank face and golden eyes under his long strawy hair, she could have sworn that callous domineering look he gave her was exactly the same as the one he had given her back at the Woods Devine when she questioned his motives.
At a minimum, he was sizing her up. But for what? Should she feel scared at what he was capable of doing to her? Was there a part of him that knew, she was just the Rivalex Mark, a function of a prophecy and relative only to his destiny? A deformed hybrid? A white-haired banshee? Maybe he believed she was supposed to be the sacrifice? Maybe he would blame all of this on her? His face gave nothing away.
When his hand went to her neck, she jerked away from it. The only thing she kept thinking was: ‘don’t let him hurt me.’ His face flattened in disappointment, her heart stung from the sight and she went back to feeling drawn to him.
If they were to die together, right here, right now, maybe it was fate their lives crossed. Maybe this was their destiny.
Was she just overthinking everything about him and he was actually meant to protect her? She reached her arm out to him, but before she could touch him, someone began shouting: “Prudence! Prudence!”
“SAIL THROUGH THE SHADOWS, CREATURES OF THE DEEP!” a woman shouted so loud Kaianan went looking for her. The white chestplated Liege rolled over in the dirt some distance away from her and Kaianan suspected this was Prudence. Her curly blonde locks fell about, and she struggled in the sand as much as the next Shiek … this is who Ferak Jarryd wanted her to meet, Principal Prudence … how had she ended up on the front line of Shiek? And what had that scream been about –
Kaianan’s mouth, all of a sudden, became dry. The noise of wounded cries had stopped. Actually, Kaianan heard no noise at all. Not even Arlise’s breathing or the screeching of the Pernicious –
And that’s when she heard it; a sultry sound of soft melodic tunes loudly filling her ears.
It was a somewhat soothing sound that reminded Kaianan of the flutes she used to hear as a child at the Manor, when she was laid down to sleep in her crib. But where was this noise coming from? Her limited movement kept her stuck alongside Arlise. However, the darkness of the Pernicious had relinquished and Kaianan was able to stick her neck out, the way of the sound, and see. What was that? Was that the river swirling upward with the rhythm? Yes, the music was coming from the river flowing around the Felrin walls. Smoke grew out of the water like steam evaporating. It rang a bell in her head, this was like the smoke usually swirling around the watchtowers of Conductors. This was odd. Overly odd. What was it doing coming out of the water?
The melody kept going. But something changed in her body. Her chest pounded. Kaianan was rising to her feet. The paralysis of the Pernicious seemed gone. But when she went to advance, she couldn’t. Something was moving her body for her. And it wasn’t just her that was robotically walking toward the city. Each person, including the Defeated King, the Pernicious, the whole Shiek army, began turning to the river and the Felrin walls and, step by step, headed straight toward it …
Kaianan shot her eyes down in panic, ordering her feet to stop. However, her body kept moving. Her mind was actively fighting against her body to change course. How could she beat this?
Overhead, she heard the Pernicious fly past, reaching the river first—as if they were hungry and mesmerised by its current. All the while the music kept playing. The two half-deformed zombie creatures floated closely above the fluctuating shades in the water; their ghostly eyes not daring to turn away; their bodies becoming motionless an inch above the water. What were they looking at? What were they waiting for?
What came next Kaianan would have never in her wildest imagination believed unless she had seen it. When the water began rippling and bubbling at the surface, heart racing, she took an instant to fixate on the violent ripples … after a few seconds, some sort of grey nose splashed up out of the water, followed by a dozen more –
To her disbelief, over several huge, grey, nearly transparent like fish creatures brought their near whole bodies up out of the water’s surface.
The huge grey scaled fish, swirling in smoke, opened their mouths, and enormous teeth and jaws bigger than the Pernicious themselves widened. Did they have little thin arms and legs too?
She couldn’t even think to inhale or work her lungs. What were these things?
When they started snapping their teeth, yowling and attacking one another, Kaianan became nervous; it wasn’t until the shrieking hostile creatures took bites into the Pernicious that she gasped in fear. Huge teeth ripped through zombie flesh and black gore flew out in every direction as the feeding frenzy in front of her became a violent execution.
The emotion that was beating like a drum inside her, got louder in her head. She had to think and think quick. Her life was about to have the same outcome as the Pernicious. The creatures finally finished ripping to shreds and ingesting both of the mutilated Pernicious and Kaianan was sent into overt panic mode. Had she trained for this?
She was a Gorgon, could use the Kan’Ging, and had turned into a hybrid when Boku Jove asked her who she had wanted to be. Was that enough to take these things on?
She had scoffed at Dersji for calling her a white-haired banshee, but he was willing to train her. Should she have listened to him? Where did her holom-forsaken strength lie in this form? The whole time since her transformation, she felt so indecisive, so half-hearted about everything. Why was that? Why couldn’t she make one damn decision with her brain?!
Castigating herself wasn’t helping the situation, and when she felt a tight clasp press around her stomach, she almost swallowed her tongue.
Choking, something was tapping her on the back so she could cough it out. After a few moments, Kaianan finally got her breath back. In the loss of energy it took her to breathe again, her head fell forward and her pupils dropped down to realise there were claws wrapped across her torso. Long grey fingers, grey skin, black nails…
The Defeated King yanked her body sideways to face him. This wasn’t like anything she had ever imagined. This was the second time she was close enough to see inside his dragon’s mind; see those intertwining webs of his yellow pupils. Something was stirring deep within him.
He started shaking her.
‘What are you doing? Stop!’ She wanted to say, but couldn’t, the music kept playing over her thoughts.
It was like he was pleading with her in that unmoving gaze. What did he want her to do? What was he asking? He shook her again and moved them away from the river. How did he have control of his body? Was he the only one?
‘I can’t feel my hands or legs, you fool!’
From the corner of her eye, she noticed Dersji, Arlise and Adrel join the other entranced Felrin edging themselves closer to the bank.
‘Stop! Stop!’ She fought for control of her body, like a legless Mugadeer, to warm them. But none of them, she noticed, even acknowledged her.
The creatures were swirling up out of the water again. Waiting patiently with salivating mouths. Kaianan was sickened and horrified. This couldn’t be happening … It couldn’t happen …
In a tremulous panic, using what brain power she could muster, she set h
er glowing grey eyes on the Defeated King and tried to communicate with him about the fish in the water. Better yet, she had slammed her eyes shut, imagining the actions of the animals in her brain because she couldn’t use her hands or speak. She concentrated on sending him the message. At the last instant, someone’s voice rung in her ears.
Stop fighting Kaianan, breathe and visualise where you need to go.
Who was that?
Never mind, it was all too late. People started to scream out in alarming and horrifying pain.
Once she opened her eyes to it, she wished she hadn’t. To her shock, the sea creatures were now feeding on the Felrin Shiek. Like what they did to the Pernicious, the fish were slashing and munching through huge chunks of flesh and bone of the Shiek. Kaianan felt even sicker than it was possible. Why are these creatures eating everyone alive—eating the Felrin who they were supposed to be protecting, right?
Arlise and Dersji and Adrel were only a few metres in the line of Shiek, still looking like robots. Every fibre of her being wished she could just reach out and grab them and get them to safety. From the corner of her eye, she got a glimpse of the curly blonde, Prudence. She was upright, and no longer in the line. Where was she walking to?
Kaianan’s hand unexpectedly stung. She hadn’t realised that they—her and the Defeated King—were glowing in white aura. Was that her white aura? Yes. It was glowing around both of them as he remained clutching her around the waist. Huge white flames were burning outward.
Stop fighting Kaianan, breathe and visualise where you need to go.
The words rung in her head again. Then she started spinning and, without warning, Kaianan felt a rush within her—only for a second, because after that, she and the Defeated King were gone.
Chapter Forty-Six: Through the Vector, He Goes
She thought her bones were going to break, or something like that. Kaianan had hit a wall so hard it broke against her. Glass and debris were all over her where she collapsed. The purple sun rays came streaming into the massive whole in the wall prickling her eyes.
