Jameson’s interest was nonetheless peaked. Besides, he too was tired. He was tired of his general’s insistence too. “Very well.” He turned to both of them, one at a time. “Would you both excuse us?” He didn’t ask.
Both Mantha and General Todd huffed at the same time. They didn’t have the choice, so they both turned and left the tent.
Only Mantha gave Donte a soft nod as he passed by him.
Donte bowed his head to him too, and turned back to his king.
“What have you found on your search Donte?” He took a soft breath now that they were alone. It felt good to be over with it. Since arriving in the area and finding their prey gathered just to their north, all they wanted to do was attack. He didn’t mind that. He too wanted to end this, but he also knew that they had to play it safe. Devish was no fool. He would expect a head on assault. In some ways, he thought that was what he wanted them to do, so he knew he couldn’t. He was not about to step into another one of his traps. He knew him better than that. With Donte returned from his search of the border areas, it gave him the perfect excuse to wait it out, and he would do just that.
“On our search for the wolves that were attacking the villages back from the Gap, we came across a Nightwalker raiding party dressed as humans.” He looked down at the child. Not knowing if it was real or not, he carried her carefully. He stayed cautious too. After watching what the man turned into, he had to do it.
Jameson listened and took everything in. “If that is true than Devish is preparing his next move against us. They must be in need of blood for the coming fight.” This was their typical pattern. The dressing as humans, well that part was new. He would have to give that one more thought before they went any further than this.
Donte shrugged.
The child bobbed as he did it.
“I do not think they were hunting, my king. They were doing something else.”
Jameson shook his head. “What else were they doing if not hunting humans?” His friend didn’t make sense. Walkers rarely differed from their patterns, so with food undoubtedly growing scarce, they would have to get what they needed, and when they could. Changing it now, doing things differently was never a part of their nature. If they have changed, then they had to find out what it was. However, if what Donte told him were true, it would explain the child. She must have been rescued from such an attack.
Donte bowed his head. “They seemed to be hunting a Walker—a Moonwalker at that.” He could explain it no other way. He still didn’t understand it himself.
Jameson now knew why he had confusion written in his eyes. He felt it himself. “Why would a group of Nightwalkers hunt a Moonwalker?” They never have before. This is new all right. It also feels dangerous.
Donte shrugged again, this time harder.
Again, the child bobbed right along with him.
“I do not know my lord. I only know of what we saw.”
Jameson left his side of the table and joined his friend. As he walked, he moved with a slight limp. A Moonwalker gashed his leg well over four years ago and he never fully recovered from it. The scar under his right eye was given to him by a Shade that came down to low and close to his head. His right arm was also still very weak, which is why he walked with it against his belly. The shattered arm that Devish gave him would remind him every day of the reasons as to why he hated them so much. All in all, he looked older than his age of thirty-years old. His brown hair also looked darker with a hint of gray in it. His short beard looked the same way. The war had taken its toll on him in every way imaginable.
“What did you see?” He now needed to know all of this. If the Walkers, if Devish was up to something new, they needed to learn what it was before he struck again. As long as he existed in the world, no matter how few of them were left, he was still very dangerous. He could do anything, and he feared that the most.
Donte looked back to the child and then back to his friend. “The Nightwalkers were disguised as my guards. Anna, the changeling, was with them. She took my form. It was still daylight when we came upon them. We fought them off, killed two or more, lost four of my men, but we did win the day. They left a man behind who they bound with silver chains, but he was no man. He turned into a Moonwalker, a kind that I have never seen before, and he escaped us. The child here was all that was left behind.” After recounting his tale, he suddenly felt tired. He also felt more confused than ever. None of it made any more sense to him now than it did back when it happened.
Jameson felt the same way. “What kind of Moonwalker did this man become?” He also thought of something else too. If Devish sent Anna the changeling out with a group of Nightwalkers during the day, he must have wanted something truly bad enough to risk it—to risk her. My friend is right. This is different.
Donte bowed his head. He thought hard to make sure to get it right, and when he felt he had, he started again. “He turned into a black colored wolf, but not like one of the human born ones. This one looked like the wolf from the battle at the river all of those years ago. It moved on its hind legs. It was larger than anything I have ever seen before. It looked like a Blood Walker in wolf form.”
Jameson saw the fear in his friend’s eyes as he recounted the story of what he saw. After hearing its description, he knew why. He would fear such a thing too. “If what you say was true, than Devish must have discovered a new type of wolf. If it is as strong as you say it is then we must find out about it too. We must discover what it is.”
Donte knew there was more to it than that. “It was struck with silver arrows my king. It had also been wrapped with silver chains. It did not die. The chains did not hold the beast down like it would with the others.”
“Impossible.” He not only felt fear with hearing this, but he now also felt true horror about it too. So much so, he had trouble thinking right, so his friend must have told him something wrong, nothing else would make any sense.
Donte stared his master down. “It is true. On my wife’s life I would swear to it.”
Jameson accepted this. Donte met his lover six years ago when they rescued a village in the south end of the continent and would never let anything harm her. He knew his friend well enough to know that, but it now meant something else. If he was right, it meant a whole lot more than that.
“If that is true then I know why he wants it. If it can survive silver, if it can break it when it is made into chains, we will not be able to stop it with our weapons. It would be unstoppable.”
Donte couldn’t agree more, but again, there was more that happened that his king needed to know. “This child was with the Nightwalkers.” He looked at her long shoulder length black hair. He saw her features. She looked very similar to the man who became the wolf. “This child resembles the black Moonwalker. I believe it to be its child.”
Jameson heard this and swallowed hard. It meant only one thing. “It must be a Wanderer then.” He took a few steps closer to the child, and looked at her softly. Again, he now understood why Donte looked the way he did. This was all too unnatural to think about fully. It trashed his very mind.
“I believe it could be, but I do not know how to tell if it is or is not.” Donte knew this too. All Wanderers looked just like humans, until they used their powers, he could never tell them apart. Their blue colored eyes sparkled like gems emblazed by the sun. Without seeing them, they looked like everyone else. “They must have known it was or they would have killed it if they believed it to be human. Why capture it if she is only human?”
Jameson acknowledged this. “I agree, but it does not answer as to how they knew about it, about its father.”
Donte shrugged again. He had nothing to speak about the matter. Why would he? “I do not know my king. I am only speaking what I know and of what I witnessed.”
Jameson accepted all of this. He looked back at the child and then back to his friend. All he could think of to do is to find the one person who might be able to help him with this. He needed Kenar’s advice.
>
Kenar could see inside anyone, and with a Wanderer, it was no different. He could see their thoughts. He could feel their gifts. He used them on more than one occasion to find others like them to help them in the war. So hopefully, he could use it on the child.
“We need to find the blind Wanderer. He has returned to us according to a message that I received from Rochie. He will know how to proceed with this.” He could only hope he was right, and right now, he wasn’t so sure. They could be anywhere by now.
Donte shrugged. “I do not know where they are my king.”
Jameson did, at least he hoped they were still there. “Rochie told me that he and Kenar were on the other side of the gap, heading to the small village of Glomar. I will send a rider to them. They are not that far from here, so it should not take long. I will call them back here.”
Donte agreed with the plan—at least it sounded good enough for him.
Jameson turned back to his desk and limped back to a folding chair made from wood and cloth on the other side of it, and took a heavy seat. He placed his elbows to the top of the table and folded his hands in front of him. He had nothing else left to say.
Donte knew his friend well, so he turned, and headed back to the door. He left his king there to think.
He took the child to the prison tent, another normal looking white colored square, peaked looking building, and gave her to the guards. After convincing them that it was a threat, something they doubted being that she was only a child, they took her inside. They took her to small cage in the center of the room, and put her in the cage and latched it closed. They would guard her there.
Finished, exhausted beyond words, he then headed to his tent to rest. He would have to. His king could call on him again at any time.
31
“What do we do now Kenar? Can we trust him? Can we trust it?” Rochie had no idea. He couldn’t get the image of the wolf rumbling past him out of his head. It seemed like it was going to be branded inside him forever—a nightmare to live with for the rest of his long life.
Kenar looked down. With the night back, he could see well again. “I do not know what is in his head, but I do know what I heard in his voice. He loved his wife. He loved his child and would do anything to get her back again. So yes, I think we can trust him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Love is a powerful thing Rochie, you know that. It will bend you to places and keep you grounded. He will do what it takes to find her with a purpose. It is that purpose that we can trust.”
“And what about the wolf?”
Kenar understood his feelings, but he also knew what it was like being a Moonwalker. He remembered his mother and everything she went through when she became one. He knew it because he lived through it too, through her.
“The wolf is almost separate from the human that lives around it, but it is the same person. As the wolf, it will act like an animal and use its instincts to survive like any other beast would. But it is also still human. It still possesses the human side of life. It can still see its eyes.”
Rochie never understood that about Walkers, even though he lived with them longer than all of the other Wanderers ever have. He just could never get inside one like Kenar could.
“I still do not like it. It does not feel right. It feels dangerous.”
“It does and is.” A voice answered him inside his own mind. She was back again, he knew her instantly. She came stronger than ever before.
“Rana?” He stood up. They were sitting together on a downed log, but after hearing her voice, he couldn’t sit any longer. In fact, he felt like he almost jumped out of his own skin.
Kenar watched him stand. His golden colored aura sparkled around him and looked like gems. He looked even brighter with him saying his sister’s name.
“I am here brother.” Her voice sounded soft, almost playful.
God he missed it so much that it literally hurt his very heart.
“Rana, I have been trying to reach you for several days. Why have you not answered me?” He felt like crying, and in fact, his eyes did begin to water over some. With everything that happened between them, he thought he would never hear her voice again. It felt like a warm blanket covering him on a cold winter’s day. It felt so right.
Kenar just sat there and watched. He listened to everything too.
“I know you have Rochie. I also know that you have also been searching for the black wolf. I know that you have found him.”
He held his heart. “I have.” He knew that Kenar could hear this, so he spoke with his mouth as he talked with her. There was no reason to hide anything from him, so he didn’t even try. “I also know that Devish wants him.”
“He does.” Miles away across the ridge, she stood in Devish’s throne room and talked.
Devish stood there with her and like Kenar, he too just watched. Unlike him, he marveled at everything she was and is. Also unlike him, he heard nothing she said. She continued blocking out everything from him. He didn’t mind this. He trusted her completely.
“I also know that Kenar is with you.”
Kenar swallowed and wondered with this. He always knew they feared him, and hearing her voice stress his name, it dawned on him that they still did. He liked this. It meant that he was still important enough to fear.
“He is with me too.”
“As is Devish. You are correct. He does wish to have the black wolf. He is the one.”
Rochie looked at Kenar and their eyes met. “The one what? What is he the one of?”
He heard her laugh. “There is so much happening that you will never understand Rochie. You will never understand what he is to this world. You will never believe what he can do to it.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “What can he do?”
She laughed again. “He is the beginning. He is the end. He is the answer to the world’s greatest questions. He is the solution to everyone’s pain.”
Now he was lost.
So was Kenar.
“I do not understand Rana. Why is he so important?”
This time, she didn’t laugh. She grew serious all too fast. “If only you knew.”
He turned away from Kenar, and looked out into the blackness of the trees. “Is that why Devish wants him? He wants him because of this?”
“Devish will have him by his side Rochie. He is angry because the humans stopped his wolves, but he will not give up. He will bring him back to where he belongs.”
Rochie closed his eyes. The old pain for everything that happened between them came back again. Just hearing the word home made it all too clear. “I miss you Rana. Can we ever go back home again ourselves? Can we ever be the way we were before?”
A tinge of anger now sounded heavily within her voice. “Home? This is home to me now. If you wished to have it like that, you should have not done what you did. You should have left our father alone.”
He swallowed with this. “I had to do what had to be done, Rana. Father would have done the same to me if he was given the chance.” That pain felt raw, as it ever was. It made his heart miss several beats, and it made his mind explode again inside his head.
She grew angrier. “He was still your father Rochie. He was mine!”
Kenar stood up with hearing this. “Rochie, you must find out what Devish intends to do with him. All of this is an old wound that must remain so for now.” He had to say something. Things were too serious for anything else.
Rochie listened and strongly sighed. “You are right.”
Rana did everything her brother did too. “Kenar is right Rochie.” She looked at Devish, saw his smile flaring, as he loved watching her, and turned back to what she had to do. Everything else would clear itself in due time. She knew this, and so did her brother. “Devish will turn the tides when he gets the black wolf by his side. When this happens, the human race will not stand a chance. They will die, and the world will be set right again.”
He blinked. Hearing her like thi
s, saying this, it made him weep for her. He felt sadder than ever before. “Rana?” He felt her voice leave him suddenly, and felt the emptiness of his own self explode again throughout his soul. He already missed her. He already regretted what he just said. “Rana, do not leave me?” A tear filled his right eye.
Kenar watched it streak down his cheek. He felt for his friend. He always did, but now, it felt that much worse.
Rochie turned to him with his left eye now looking like his right.
He knew the connection was gone. “I am sorry Rochie. I am.”
He bowed his head. He looked to the fire they started hours ago as they waited, and stared at the flames. He watched every ember and saw his sister’s face within them. How clear she looked. How beautiful she was.
“I do not know what I am going to do about this Kenar. I do not know what to do with her.”
Kenar watched him closely. He didn’t know what to say, but he did know that he had to say something. He was his friend after all. “You are right in this situation Rochie. You did what you had to do. He left you no other choice. Just like, she had no choice in her defense of him. You both did what you thought was right.”
Rochie wiped both eyes with both hands. He used his index finger’s knuckle to dry them. It didn’t work. His eyes didn’t want to dry.
“How can I fix it with her, if that is true?” He didn’t like hearing this, and it only made his eyes grow wetter. The tears continued to flow down his face.
Again, Kenar did his best to help him. “When one experiences great pain Rochie, they must come to understand that on their own. Your sister feels that pain. She dwells in it, but you must give her time. She needs time to come to terms with what happened.” He felt his friend’s tears, and it suddenly dawned on him why they were there like this. It wasn’t just because of his feelings that he betrayed his sister. It was more than that. He felt that he betrayed his father, and with that, he felt guilt—a real pain for it himself. Knowing this now, understanding it, he felt that he could help his friend after all. “You must also give yourself the time to forgive yourself.”
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 41
