by Chad R. Odom
With a button push, a red line appeared over the flat one, spiking all over the monitor. Another button pushed, and a blue line appeared above the other two. Then a yellow and a green. “What, what are we seeing here?” Valac asked.
“The first line is Mod. Each one after that is…is someone else. These are separate, distinct, brain patterns.”
The four men stared on in disbelief. Only Tamrus could pull himself together enough to ask the question they were all thinking. “What the hell is going on here?”
Lengthening Shadows
Oryan, Celeste, Asher, Tamrus, and Ethanis sat around the table. As always, Celeste had prepared wonderful food. Oryan helped himself to seconds and thirds. Uncharacteristically, Ethanis ate very little. Tamrus prepared his plate of food and ate slowly so as not to get ahead of the rest. Tecton refused to wake up for the meal and Celeste didn’t press the issue.
Since his return from pursuing Balsa and Kovac, Ethanis, Oryan and Tecton had been like three kids at recess. Celeste couldn’t recall seeing Oryan so excited in a long time.
“Celeste,” Tamrus said, “I would imagine you could use a break from this place?”
“You’re so smart!” she replied.
“I’m heading to Acamar in the morning. You have a little history there, I think.”
Her head snapped up and she stopped chewing her food. To her knowledge, no one knew she had been there. She shot a glance at Oryan, who was still eating hungrily. “Not that I know of…?” she answered.
“Well, your husband is from good Acamarian stock, so sometimes I forget you come from different places. Anyway, your face isn’t as compromising as your husband’s, so I thought it might be a nice way for you to get out of the house for a while.”
“Your house might not be standing when we get back,” she warned him.
“I’m sure Oryan can handle Asher for a few days.” Tamrus smiled at the boy.
“It’s not Asher I’m talking about.” She turned her attention to Oryan who pretended to be oblivious to the jab but his smirk revealed he was paying attention.
“A pretty girl on my arm is far more valuable to me than a soldier in the field for the next several days.” He raised his hand and placed it over his heart. “I swear, on the grave of my mother, I assume responsibility for what might happen in your absence.”
“I don’t think that’s enough, but I’ll trust you this once. Think you can handle it?”
Oryan let the smirk become a full-blown smile with a mouth full of food. “Piece of cake.”
“Sounds more like the whole cake,” Celeste remarked snidely.
Asher and Tamrus chuckled. Oryan tried to swallow his food down for a rebuttal when Thomas spoke up in a vicious tone, bringing all banter to a halt. “I didn’t think you had a mother.”
Everyone eyed him curiously. “What?” Celeste asked as taken aback as everyone else.
“Tamrus swore on his mother’s grave; I didn’t think he had one.” He eased off his venomous tone. “Oh! Sorry, I forgot about the kid!”
Tamrus’s shoulders dropped slightly. “I can assure you, my mother is very real, but very deceased.”
“Funny, I just took you as a bastard born with a silver spoon up his—”
Oryan slammed his hand on the table, causing the plates and utensils to bounce and clank. He stared hard at Ethanis, a look of complete surprise on his face. There was a heavy silence in the room. “Asher, buddy.” He spoke to his son without looking away from Ethanis. “Why don’t you go wake up Uncle Tecton? We don’t want his dinner to get cold.”
Asher gave his dad a worried glance. Celeste softly motioned for him to do as he was told. Once he had cleared the room, Oryan spoke. “What’s the matter with you?”
“What do you mean?” Ethanis asked.
“What do I mean? Since when do you talk like that around my son?”
“Talk like what?” he asked, looking thoroughly perplexed.
All eyes at the table were on him. “What you just said, about Tamrus. I know the memory isn’t what it used to be but surely you remember thirty seconds ago.”
He chuckled and shrugged. He traded glances with each of them individually, confusion written all over his face. Oryan watched him closely. Subtly, slowly, the confusion in his friend’s eyes changed to defiance. Then anger. Then rage. Oryan knew the look very well. He wanted to react, but his indecision cost him.
Thomas drew a pistol from under the table and put a bullet between Tamrus’s eyes. He went to swing the gun at Oryan, but the wary soldier stood up and threw the table onto him. Celeste jumped and grabbed Thomas by the arm, pulling his body over hers and throwing him to his back. The gun rattled across the floor.
Thomas grabbed Celeste by the hair and yanked her off him. He threw a punch at her face, which she partially deflected but not before he put distance between them and scrambled to his feet.
“Run! Get to Asher!” Oryan yelled to Celeste. Shaking, she hesitated to leave, wanting to continue the fight, but Asher had to be kept safe. She ran from the kitchen to find him.
Ethanis almost stood up, but not before Oryan could get to him. He connected with a punch and tried to follow it with a knee, but Ethanis rolled away. The two struggled, Ethanis with the intention to kill and Oryan trying desperately to make sense of what was happening. At any moment, he was sure he would wake up.
Thomas delivered a sharp blow to Oryan’s chin, sending him tripping over Tamrus’ lifeless body. Thomas jumped for the gun, but Oryan was on him, preventing him from reaching it. The fight continued, dirty, gritty, each man using anything at his disposal to inflict injury on the other.
Ethanis found a fork and sunk it deep into Oryan’s arm. Oryan grunted in pain and rolled away, pulling the object from his arm as he did. Before he could counter, he heard another noise. A snarling Shadow had found his way inside and lunged for Thomas’s throat. Shadow sunk his teeth deep into his flesh, clenched tightly, and shook. Thomas howled as the animal protected its owners.
Thomas was on the ground within arm’s reach of the pistol. Oryan called Shadow’s name in alarm and the wolf let go, retreating to Oryan’s side. Thomas gathered himself, ignoring the profusely bleeding arm. Oryan moved in to disarm him.
“Daddy?” Asher said from the doorway. Oryan’s brain was overcome with emotion, which slowed his usually sharp combat instinct. Asher screamed again, “Daddy, look out!”
Thomas regained the gun. He aimed at Asher and without hesitation, pulled the trigger. Oryan screamed and tackled Ethanis into the wall, once more knocking the gun free and taking the breath from his lungs.
In the same instant, Celeste dove into the room in front of Asher, saving her son from the bullet meant for him. Blood spread from the fresh wound on the middle of her back.
Oryan screamed, and rushed to save his wife. She collapsed in his arms, pale and weak. Asher stood close by, crying bitter tears.
Ethanis stood up, searched for the gun but couldn’t find it. The other door to the kitchen splintered off its hinges with Tecton in the pieces. Ethanis bolted for the door with Tecton in close pursuit.
Celeste lay in Oryan’s lap. He pushed his hand against the entry wound on her back. Blood poured from her body, pooled in his palm and dripped between his fingers.
“Asher,” he said calmly but firmly. Still crying, Asher did his best to see Oryan through the tears. “Asher, do you know where Mom keeps the medicine? You know the one I mean?” Asher steadied his sobbing. “Mommy needs it now, son. Go fast.”
Asher raced off as Oryan held Celeste close. “It’s okay, baby. The medicine is coming. Hang in there just a little while. The medicine is coming.”
“He’s okay?” she whispered.
“Asher? Yes. Yes, he’s fine. You saved him.”
She smiled weakly. Asher returned from the back with the small bowl which held Eldar’s salve. Asher’s eyes were red and a look of confusion and hurt filled his face. He showed the bowl to his father, who saw it had been cl
eaned out. A shiny silver surface at the bottom of the empty container mocked Oryan. Ethanis had planned this, making sure the damage he caused could not be undone.
Oryan’s eyes brimmed over, and a great sob rose from his chest. “It’s gone, isn’t it?” she asked, a small girgle was in her voice. Unable to say the words out loud, Oryan nodded, several tears falling from his face.
Her smile renewed. She was always so strong. Her body shifted ever so slightly. The pressure he held on her back lessened in the move. “Hold still, baby. Hold still.”
“It won’t help,” she whispered. “I need to give you something.” She brought her wrist into his vision. Though blurred with tears, he could see the bracelet she had fashioned for herself.
“It’s beautiful. You always do good work.”
“Take it. Armay told me—” She coughed, blood now trickling from the corner of her mouth. Seeing it, Asher draped himself across Oryan’s back and wept desperate tears.
“He told me it’s a key.” Her breathing was labored and painful now. “A key with no door.”
“Okay. Okay, I’ll take it. I’ll take it only if you promise to make yourself another one.”
She coughed, blood splattering across his shirt. Though he still didn’t want to acknowledge it, Oryan knew she was breathing her last. She reached a weak hand to his cheek and caressed it feebly. “I love you,” she whispered. “Take care of him.”
Her breathing stopped and her brown eyes, normally so full of life, stared empty into the distance. His wife, the greatest woman he had ever known, mother of his child and the song of his heart, lay still in his arms. The dream he had lived for so many years came to a terrible end and left him, once more, with a great hole in his life.
Through tears and sobs, he screamed a bitter, terrible sound that shook the rafters. Asher kneeled beside him and hugged his mom’s neck, kissing her cheek and softly calling her name.
Upon seeing his mourning child, another emotion stirred inside him. It came to him from the shadows, like a friend ready to warmly greet him.
Ethanis Thomas, the man whose betrayal had dealt him a wound more painful than anything he had been dealt before, filled his mind. His tears of anguish turned to tears of vengeance. In this insane world, murder seemed the only sane choice.
Carefully, he laid her body on the floor in Asher’s bedroom. Asher would not leave her side. He went back to his room and found the pistol he kept hidden from everyone, even Celeste. When he came back, he searched the kitchen until he found the one Ethanis had lost. Once he had it, he knelt by his son.
“Asher.” He gently rubbed his son’s back. “I have to go find him. Will you stay here with Mom and make sure no one else hurts her?” Asher nodded. Oryan handed the pistol to him. “Do you remember how to use it?” Another nod. “If anyone other than me comes through that door, you pull the trigger until you’re out of bullets. Do you understand?” Asher nodded one last time and took the weapon.
Oryan locked the door and headed into the darkness to reap the full measure of his wrath. Surrounding the house on three sides were dense evergreens. The only road to the home was dirt, and Oryan could only see footprints heading across it into the trees, not down it toward civilization. Beyond those trees was a sharp ledge and a river running through the center of Tamrus’s vast property. Ethanis wasn’t trying to run but hide.
Oryan struck out into the forest, screaming Ethanis’s name. Each time he did, it pumped the fire back into his body. The fresh vision of Celeste’s dead body fueled him even further. He charged on, looking every direction, screaming Ethanis’ name into the night.
How long he wandered and how many times he shouted, he did not know, but eventually, he heard a response.
“Oryan!” a voice echoed. Oryan had the gun but wanted to use his hands instead. “Oryan!” Tecton Colvitt repeated.
“I’m here!” Oryan called back.
“I have him,” Tecton told him in the darkness.
Within moments, he found Tecton. There was blood flowing under his eye and his nose was unnaturally bent toward his cheek.
Ethanis was on his knees, looking even worse than Tecton, but still laughing on the ground. He stopped only to reach into his mouth and remove the tooth hanging loose.
The rage burned over, and Oryan charged him, grabbing him by the neck as he had done so long ago in a barracks halfway around the world. “I should have killed you then!” he screamed to the traitor, who was unable to reply. Oryan reached into his mouth and yanked out another tooth, this one still firmly anchored in his jaw. Ethanis tried to scream but was still unable. Oryan threw him to the ground and the scream found life amidst sputters and coughing.
“Yes, yes, you should’ve!” Ethanis remarked, a smile returning to his face. “You still don’t get it, do you? I did this to you! I took her from you! Me! When Damrich, and even that fool Sicari couldn’t, I did!”
Damrich? Sicari? How would he know those names? He rushed onto him, grabbing a hand and breaking fingers as he did. “Who are you?” he snapped.
“I thought I could use him to get close to Tamrus and finish what you stopped me from doing. Then, he led me straight to you, too. What are the odds? I killed the old man and now I’ve burned the heart out of you.”
Oryan bent down and bit into his ear, then tore it away from his face. There were screams but finally a familiar voice rang clear. “Oryan, please! Please!” It was Ethanis this time. Somehow, his friend was back behind those eyes. Oryan stopped.
“Please, Oryan. Please kill me before he comes back. I can’t…” he stuttered and shook, closing his eyes tightly. When they opened, Ethanis was gone.
“What’s the matter, Arkon? Too soft to kill your friend? You always were weak. That’s why you didn’t kill me when you should have and that’s why she’s dead!”
The rage returned, and Oryan grabbed him by the hair, dragging him to the edge of the cliff above the river. He threw him on the edge, drawing the pistol. Tecton stood beside him in silence, ready to do it himself if need be.
Ethanis’s voice was gone. In its place was maniacal, haunting laughter.
“Now you’re going to do it? Now? It’s too late, Oryan. You’re too late, and she’s dead! Not that it matters, now or in a few years Damrich will kill everyone anyway. I took care of your whore; he’ll finish off your son!”
Oryan drew the pistol but only to see the gaze of Ethanis return.
“Oryan,” Ethanis pleaded through tears and extreme difficulty. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I tried to, but he, I couldn’t…”
Despite his anger, Oryan’s compassion filled his heart. He saw there, not the focus of his wrath, but a friend, one of only a handful he’d had, suffering from an injury he couldn’t begin to heal.
“I know,” Oryan croaked in a hollow voice.
“I’m sorry. Please kill me before he comes back. Please. He’ll do it again.”
“I know,” Oryan said with more compassion.
Ethanis’s face contorted in pain. Oryan could see a struggle a literal battle commencing inside the Ethanis’ mind. The demonic eyes that silenced Celeste settled on Oryan but were choked down and replaced by the gaze of his friend and brother.
“I’m sorry, I love you.”
Tears ran freely down Oryan’s cheeks. “I know.”
Ethanis closed his eyes and the pistol sang. The shell of Ethanis Thomas went limp. Oryan stripped the corpse of the vambrace once belonging to Sicari before letting the body slide over the cliff into the darkness below.
***
Tecton walked away from the house after he lit it on fire. Oryan wanted it burned. People would come looking for the person who had killed the King of Vollmar, and the evidence in his home would lead them to him unless he destroyed it. He had to protect Asher above all costs. Tamrus burned with his home. Ethanis lay in the rocks at the bottom of a cliff. Celeste, his Celeste, was forever still in the bedroom where only the night before he had slept beside her.
Tecton remained with him, as any true friend would, even after Oryan begged him to leave. Asher was also at his side, a boy who was seeing his family ripped away from him, just as his father had seen a lifetime ago. Shadow, usually running happily through the grass, sat beside them, head bowed.
Oryan missed the simplicity of being the Warlord of Navarus. Kovac had isolated him, forcing him to either fight back or die, but the choice was so much easier to make then. The Warlord surrendered and chose death. Oryan, son of Armay and father of Asher, could not accept that fate. Her last wish was simple: take care of him. He would see it done no matter the cost.
Turning his back to the flames consuming her final resting place, he led Asher and Tecton into a world of hopeless desperation.
Genocide
Less than a week later, Oryan stood on Acamarian soil. Each year, leaders from around the world gathered to discuss the issues pressing not just in their homelands, but across the globe. It lasted several days. Tecton and Asher were not far away, but this part he had to do alone. He needed protection for all of them, and he only had one hope left.
Tamrus’s death had made headlines around the world. Many facts were kept from the press, including the details about finding two more bodies nearby. Most news organizations placed blame directly on men radicalized by Roanoke. If anyone knew differently, they were happy to let the manufactured story stand. It rallied more and more allies in the fight against Roanoke.
Oryan waited for one of those leaders. Earlier in the morning, Tecton broke into the garage where the dignitaries and leaders’ vehicles were kept. He identified the one belonging to Heyman Stehli, picked the lock, and left a letter where it could not be missed. The contents were simple: “If you’re still willing to help.” It was signed simply with an O and a location and time to meet.
