Vincent had listened to everything, and he didn’t like any of it. It felt wrong. It felt dangerous.
“You must not stand up against him like that my lord.” He showed his fear. He didn’t have the choice but to voice it to his father too.
Michael understood his hesitation, but he was the head of the family. He was the maker of Vincent. He was the one that should not be questioned, and Vincent should know that too. However, with everything else considered, it was not the time for such a show of strength. Vincent was right. He should not stand up against Devish. It was dangerous, but that was not his plan. He just had to play the game.
“I know what he is up to Vincent. I know what is happening and what I need. That is all you need to know for now.” They left the courtyard and exited the gate.
“It is just…” Vincent bowed his head as they headed to their carriage driven by two wolves fastened to the front of the buggy. They were where the horses would be if they had them. They didn’t so the wolves had to do. As for his pausing, it was out of respect for his master. Questioning him in front of wolves, or anything else for that matter, was wrong. He waited until they were inside the carriage before he began again. “…if you share with me what you are planning I would be able to assist you more openly. I could help you accomplish it faster.” He meant every word. When it came to his maker, he always did and always would.
Michael knew this too. “I am sorry my friend, but I cannot trust Devish and how far his knowledge of any of this goes. I must keep my agenda to myself, and only to myself. I do not and shall not risk anything or anyone else with such a dangerous game.”
Vincent nodded as they rode off together, sitting side by side. “I understand my lord.” And he said nothing else about the matter. He only hoped he was right.
Back in the hall of his great castle’s Keep, Devish did no such thing.
He just stayed there and stared at the floor. Inside, his thoughts were turning. He was thinking about his brother. He was thinking about everything that he had just heard and felt. He couldn’t get one thing out of his mind.
Is my brother truly with me? Is he truly at my side? The saddest part about this was that he didn’t truly know the answer to this. But now, he needed to find out, one way or the other. He saw some of what was also inside Michael’s mind. He couldn’t believe it but at the same time, he did. They, the Elders, are trying to find someone to challenge me for the leadership of the council. They believe that it is Kalima. He wasn’t sure if he could challenge him or not. He was a full blood; Kalima was only half, so he didn’t think he would have the strength. At the same time, he just didn’t want to find out, but he needed to know for sure if he could trust him. With this, he didn’t have the choice. I will have to have a talk with my dear brother. I need to know where he would stand in this if he were asked. Would he challenge me as they hope he would? He also knew something else too. If he learns the truth about his child, he may do just that. He felt a chill race down his spine with this thought. It told him what the answer to this was. He would. Kalima would challenge me if he learned the truth. I am going to have to make sure that he does not.
He stood up, feeling the gorged blood racing through his body and cooling his mind. It made him feel relaxed. He felt calm. Feeling this now, he decided to wait. There would be plenty of time to do what he needed to do.
2
“Are you sure about this Rochie?” Kenar stepped to the shoreline. He could see the light glowing from all of the fish that were huddled along the water’s edge. He could see them swimming just beneath the waves. The water was calm enough to see everything. As for them being there, looking for a lost village of humans uncontrolled by the Walkers, he still wasn’t sure about that. Inside, he heard not one soul bantering. He didn’t hear their voices. He didn’t hear their thoughts. The area sounded as quiet as the water did. He heard nothing.
“I am sure this is the right place.” He looked out over the calm water and could just barely see the outline of an island not a thousand yards out from the shore. As for what they told him, the human traders near the mouth of the great central river, he felt sure they were right. There were several humans living on this island. They lived untouched by the war, and kept to themselves. They bothered no one. The Walkers didn’t even know they were there. He trusted what they told him. They had to be there. She had to be there too.
The Seer of Golan was hard to miss. Her diamond colored eyes, and her overwhelming knowledge were both as bright as the sun. She gave herself away as no other Wanderer ever could. It has to be her. No one else has her eyes. She has to be there. The traders knew who she was.
Kenar still wasn’t convinced, but in all of this time, he has come to trust Rochie about a great many things. Since the dark days came again, his visions have become clouded. They have become nothing but darkness surrounded by the black of night. He couldn’t see anything anymore. He couldn’t even see her, and this made it hard for him to understand how he missed her. But Rochie was right. She was as bright as the sun, and always would be. He should have seen her, but he didn’t and it hurt his very soul.
“You do not sound convinced.” Rochie turned to Devin. He watched him prepare the small boat that they had procured from the traders, and watched him put it in the water. His golden colored hair sparkled in the moonlight. His equally golden colored skin sparkled like the water behind him. He looked so normal for such a young man. It hid his great powers just right. The same went for Shelley. She looked so young. They were both what he called the second coming of the Wanderers, with him being the oldest, and Kenar being the first. They were just so young and inexperienced when it came to living a life like this, always on the run and fighting a hopeless cause, that in some ways he regretted letting them come with them. They should have stayed with the humans. Seeing them together like this, her helping him with the boat and looking unsure of themselves as they did it, only added to this feeling. It made him regret it even more.
Kenar shook his head. “They have done what they thought they should do Rochie. That thought alone makes them stronger than you think.” He watched their golden colored auras sparkle around them like spotlights would blaze a person standing in front of them. They were a magnificent sight in deed.
Rochie just nodded. He didn’t know what to say, so he just dropped the thoughts.
Kenar understood this, so he went back to his original question. “I am not sure that she is here. She would have told me where she was if she were.” He felt sure about this, but didn’t know why he would be. Ever since that terrible day, ever since the tides changed in the struggle for the world, she stopped talking to him. She was obviously trying to hide from them, he knew this, but why would she show herself to a bunch of humans like those that she supposedly did? This bothered him more than him not seeing her. It just didn’t make sense. But then again, that too also sounded like her. She never did make sense to anyone other than herself.
Rochie felt for his friend. “I know that you do not trust the humans, but you need to trust me about this.” He moved to his friend and stopped between him and the others now standing there and waiting for them to head to the boat. “You did say that the humans were telling us the truth. You saw their thoughts.” He wondered why he was acting like this, but at the same time, he thought he did understand it. Being blind cannot be easy. Being unable to know every detail as he has done in the past has to be harder yet. In a way, he is now blinder than he was before.
Kenar could agree with some of this but not all of it. “I am not sure why I did not see her here Rochie.” He felt somewhat ashamed of this, because Rochie was right. He did feel helpless. He had grown terribly arrogant with his gifts. He shouldn’t feel this way but he did. He had more in common with the humans than he ever thought was possible before, and it now showed. It explained the way he felt, but there was more to it than that. “Why do I not see the people that supposedly live on this island?” He felt right about this. He should have felt so
mething. Humans were so easy to read. He should see their dreams. He should feel their loves, and deaths. But he felt nothing at all. This explained the worry he felt too. He was worried that this was nothing more than a giant waste of time.
Rochie didn’t know what to say, except this, “Maybe the Seer is also gifted at blocking you.” It did make sense. Someone had done so well with his friend, blocking every thought as they have, blocking every idea that so much so, they both knew that someone had to be doing it, and that someone had to be more powerful than the average mind reader ever was. Knowing how strong the Seer was with her gifts, why couldn’t it be her? Again, it made complete sense.
Kenar did nod. “You are right Rochie. She could be blocking me, but I am not sure.” He thought about everything the traders told both of them. “If there are as many as they say that are living on this island, then she should not be able to block so many of them at once. I have never known someone who could do that. It is hard enough to concentrate on one, let alone ten—twenty—if not more than that.”
Rochie only shrugged. He didn’t know how to answer him, but it was time to go. “Well, I guess we are about to find out if we are right about any of this or not.” He took his friend’s left arm with his right and led him over to the others. He then helped him into the boat.
It felt too small for him. It felt cramped. He didn’t like it. “Are you sure this thing will make it across the channel?” It didn’t feel safe.
Rochie laughed. He didn’t answer him, and just climbed into the boat. He sat down on the floor next to him.
Shelley and Devin climbed in too.
Devin took the oars.
Shelley sat at the bow.
Devin rowed them out to the channel.
It took several long minutes for them to reach the island. The calmness of the water helped them with the effort.
Devin and Shelley jumped out first. Devin took the bow of the ten-foot long dingy as she stood guard.
She let her blue eyes shine. She held her breaths. She waited for anything. She might have been young, but she had lived long enough to know that they always had to be ready for anything. She agreed with Kenar. This could be a trap.
Rochie helped Kenar out of the boat and back on to solid ground. With his friend safely standing on the small beach, he turned back to the island.
Trees lined the small ten-yard deep beach all along its breadth. No sounds could be heard. Not even bugs were singing, as they should be doing on such a beautiful night. It looked deserted. It looked wrong.
Kenar stood beside him. “Again, are you sure of this my friend?”
Rochie now wasn’t so sure himself. “We should make our way to the interior.” It sounded like a good idea. The traders didn’t tell him where the people were. Without knowing for sure, it just told him one thing. They had to look for them themselves.
Shelley and Devin joined them.
“So now what?” she asked first. She had been with the humans for a while now, and after everything that happened, after the emergence of the black wolf, everything changed for her. Her gifts of striking Shades with lightning and using the wind to fight them no longer worked with their stronger abilities to heal from her efforts. Because of this, the humans no longer trusted her. They lost their faith, so when Rochie asked her to join them in this search; she found it worth taking it. Now, being there, at what he told her was the end of the journey, she wasn’t too sure. She didn’t come here for this, an empty beach of nothingness. Seeing the look on Rochie’s face, it made her feel even worse. He looked the same way she felt.
Devin felt the same way. “Are you sure that there are people here?” He too was told the same things about the trip that Shelley was. They were looking for someone, a child, who could help them fight the black wolf and to change the tides of this fight. Now being there, seeing nothing but an empty beach, any hope he had vanished as fast as he had found it. He now didn’t know what to think about any of this.
Rochie looked at both of them, now joining with him on his left. “We should go.” This was all he had to give them.
They began to move, taking several steps towards the tree line, with Rochie leading Kenar, when suddenly; he pulled at Rochie’s arm. He saw the color red glowing and coming from the trees. He saw a tannish colored hue sparkling next to the red. Seeing their auras, seeing so many of them, maybe a couple dozen of them, and surely more that he didn’t see, he had to stop. He might not be able to read everyone’s thoughts, but he could still see them in the moonlight. By their colors, he knew what they were.
Rochie felt his grip and didn’t like it. He could feel him tense up. “What is wrong?”
Kenar swallowed hard. “Walkers, there are Walkers in the trees waiting for us.”
Hearing this was all that Devin and Shelley needed. Their eyes turned to a sparkling blue color—the Wanderer’s glow.
Shelley already had hers flaring. She gripped her mind and let her powers come out from the void at the back of her mind. She gripped for the air. She took a hold of the wind, and felt the charge within her mind. She readied herself for the fight.
Devin felt the ground. He felt the very earth move. He readied to shake if he had to next.
Rochie looked to the trees. He saw nothing. He didn’t feel anything there.
Kenar saw them, but he also saw something else. He saw a yellow color also within the trees. He couldn’t believe it, but he knew what that color meant too. “Humans are with them.” They stood side by side with the Walkers. Seeing this, he lost all rational thoughts. He didn’t know what it meant. He hadn’t seen anything like this; Walkers and humans standing together, side by side, in such a long time that he didn’t know how to understand it. In this day and age, it became that unusual. It didn’t feel right, not even to him.
Rochie felt the same way. “They have humans on this island with the Walkers?” It didn’t make any sense. “They are mortal enemies. Why would they live here together?” The more he thought about this, the more he thought he knew why. He didn’t like this idea at all. “It must mean that they occupy the island.” He let his eyes flare to their blue color too. He felt for the trees. He felt for anything he could find with in his mind. All he felt were a few stones at the feet of the trees. He didn’t like this. He didn’t have anything to fight them with, if it came to that. He didn’t know what to do.
Kenar watched one of the red colors move. It came out from the trees and stepped headlong into the moonlight over their heads.
Rochie saw her come out in to the light. He gasped when he saw who it was. “Sharlia?” He hadn’t seen her in years, in a decade maybe, not since everything changed that night by the river. He now didn’t know what to think.
She must have felt the same way. “Rochie and Kenar?” She obviously couldn’t believe who they were. She never thought she would ever see them again. She also didn’t know why they were there. How did they find this place? How did they find us?
Rochie left Kenar and moved towards her with a cautious stride. He stayed ready for anything. It had been too long since he had ever trusted another Walker and he was not about to change it now.
“Sharlia, what are you doing here?” In all of these years, he didn’t know where she was. He didn’t know what she did or what she knew about everything that happened. She was an Elder back then, and for all he knew, she could still be one now. If she was, if she was still important in the Walker world, she could still be dangerous. Again, he didn’t know what to think about any of this.
Again, she felt the same way. “How did you know to come here?” She of course remembered Rochie well. She respected him then, and in a way, she still did. It had been a very tough war for all of them, she knew that, but at the same time, so did he. He was always trustworthy, and it wasn’t his fault for what Devish did back then. She couldn’t blame him, or them, for doing what they obviously had to do. She had always believed that Devish had to be stopped, and now...living here and seeing what she has, she beli
eved this, now more than ever.
He moved towards her but stopped as he now saw several shadows stepping out from the trees around her. Even from there, he could see that some of them had red eyes. He could see some of them moving on all four legs in a very doglike manner. He could even see a Shade crawling along the ground in front of an obvious human walking with it. It just all blew his mind. They didn’t look controlled by the Walkers. The humans didn’t act afraid of them. He didn’t know why but something told him that this was different. He had to find out. It was time to ask.
“I was told of this place by a few human traders. They said that people lived here.” He still didn’t know what to think about seeing her with them, but even with this thought, he still believed in Sharlia. She was one of the few Elders he respected. She thought freely. She respected the humans. She did not stand with Devish.
She nodded. “There are people here.” Now could she trust him? She didn’t know, but it was time to find out. “There are Walkers here too.” She moved until she was now standing in front of him. She saw his blue colored stare. She looked at the others with him and saw their blue eyes too. She knew they were ready for a fight, but there was more to it than that. She had to keep to the bargain she struck when she found this place, but at the same time, this was Rochie. It was time to test him. It was time to see how far their trust went. “They are all here, and here, they all live as one.” She now swallowed hard. “The Walkers and the humans live together in peace. All of them are equal and stand as one.”
He heard this and he scoffed.
Devin and Shelley did the same thing. They both kept their powers heightened and their eyes sparkling.
Kenar understood. At least he thought he did. “They are living here together.” It sounded too good to be true. It didn’t sound real. He didn’t know what to think about any of this.
Sharlia looked at him, and nodded softly. “They have all come here to live together.” She turned and looked back to the others behind her, felt their trepidation, and so she turned back to the Wanderers. “They have come here to protect the ones they love from the world.” She looked back to Kenar. “They protect each other from Walkers and humans alike.”
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 51
