Trae’s eyes move between me and Videus as I ask the question. I’m acutely aware one wrong move could mean they’ll be taken the way Baxten was.
Pushing myself to a stand, I feel horribly exposed. The birds, have taken to the trees, but each and every one of their eyes is on me—waiting for their signal. The weight of their stare is palpable and the woods close in on me.
“How curious … Why can I not see it now?” Videus mutters to himself, surveying the ground at my feet with wide eyes, “Was here a moment ago. It’s all here inside the blonde one’s his head. The Tree as to be here. The blood—of course. The blood’s here.”
Still holding onto my hurt shoulder, I cast my gaze downward. Surrounding my feet, I stand in a frozen puddle of my own blood, with more joining as it drips through my fingertips.
How ironic. This where my new life began—and where Videus would like to end it. It was also where I thought I could find answers and put an end to all of this madness.
How foolish.
The wind picks up, blowing strands of my hair across my face. I look up, staring my friend deeply into eyes that don’t even remotely resemble the face they inhabit.
“Whatever you want to do … Don’t hurt my friends, Videus. Please—just take me. I’ll go wherever you want me to,” I say.
Videus lets out out an exasperated sigh and waves his hand dismissively.
“You would be the kind to sacrifice yourself. You know the irony in this? I would have jumped on the chance to take only you a while ago. But now look what you and your critter have done,” he sweeps his hand out at the snow in front of him, “No, I think instead … You’ll get the pleasure of witnessing the eradication of each and every one of the entities you hold dear and you can carry the memory with you—for as long as I want the burden to be yours.” His jaw sets, not dropping his gaze from mine as he calls out, “Start with the Waterbear.”
Widening her stance, Tethys prepares herself to fight again, but there’s nothing to prepare me.
At his command, the salamanders push forward, encircling Tethys and begin to flick their electricity across the surface of her shield like a whip, leaving seared markings where they touch. The water she holds dear, instantly boils away from her.
I let out a shrill scream as I grope at the snow, feeling each lash as if they were my own.
“Please. Stop— ” I plead, gasping for air and groping at the snow.
If Tethys’ shield goes down, I know he means every word. I’ll watch as he kills everyone I care about without any remorse.
If only the Fenton I know and love was still in there. If only some semblance of his humanity was clinging onto him … How can someone be taken over so completely?
“Ah ha ... You’re feeling this, aren’t you? Sharing her pain?” Cocking his head ever so slightly, Videus’ finger circles toward Tethys and he snickers, “Well, this is better than I’d hoped. Not only can you relive her death from your memory banks—you’ll have extrasensory memory. Brilliant. What a juicy little tidbit about the infamous Daughter of Five.”
In response, the expanse of birds screech in excitement. Some of them swoop from tree branch to tree branch—their horrifying calls filling the air.
“Stop this. Fenton—think about Kani,” I plead, pointing to her restrained form feet away. The knives she fought valiantly with lie in the snow near her feet.
Something flickers across Videus’ face—a momentary flash of Fenton maybe—but he shakes it off, snarling to the nearest salamander, “Shut her up—and keep her on standby.”
Tethys’ agitation is heightened when the salamander huffs toward me. I stumble backward, trying to get away, but it’s no use. In a lightening quick movement, the salamander slinks around my feet, biting its own tail before squeezing in on itself. I feel the flames well before they ignite—as if they were placed underneath my skin as they slowly creep up my legs.
The purple and black flames flicker at my clothes, but I don’t burn. As they rise higher, I’m imprisoned by them—the air becoming unbearable stifling, making my head light and my body lock. Anger burns under the surface at all that’s happened—everything which is going to happen. Videus is right—I’ve barely begun to understand myself, let alone my place in this world.
This is all wrong.
If I was so important, there should have been something I could do—something that would’ve stopped all of this. Why would I be urged to come out here? To seek the Tree for answers, to open the door—only to be met with this? Perhaps that was the point?
My jaw drops open. What if this had always been the plan? Lure me here to the Tree? To kill me? What if the door was never meant to open? Am I too trusting?
Defeated, I look into Videus’ twinkling black eyes and he sneers in return.
“Are you ready? About to be pandemonium on Pendomus,” he says gleefully.
Ripped from my internal anguish, I fight inside my mind against my imprisoning fire as the three salamanders shift the focus of their arcs at the ground around Tethys. A rippling band of lightning undulates like waves over each other at her feet. For a moment, I lose sight of her when a cloud of electric fog envelops her. Once it finally lifts, the ground is barren and exposed down to rock in a large circumference. They’ve removed her contact with the water.
“Fenton … please,” I beg, one last broken attempt to will my friend back to his body.
Lightening flicks furiously across the remainder of Tethys’ shield—her body quaking as she tries to hold on, but simply can’t. With the last remnant of her water spent, there’s little fanfare as her shield disengages with a soft burst, exposing her.
The birds cackle an almost human-like laugh and the little juncos sweep in. It seems the birds have always been able to see her and now is no exception as they take purposeful swipes, clawing at Tethys’ back in a victory lap. The salamanders shift from side to side, excitedly waiting.
“Excellent. Now the fun begins,” Videus says.
Tethys’ energy is impatient, again oddly anticipatory, despite her pain. I press my lids shut. I don’t want to see this—he can’t make me see.
Instead, I focus on Fenton. On the person I thought he was. No, the person I know he is. If this is the end—I refuse to give in to having the memories Videus demands. I refuse to play this on his terms. I will make my own rules.
In my head, I conjure up Fenton’s goofy grin, the yellow band that is so much a part of who he is to me. Even his strange manner of speaking—his accent. I miss that the most. He could always make me laugh, even when I had no clue what he was saying. I focus on the way he helped Trae research my brother, research for me—he’d really come through then. In the short time I’ve known him, he’s shown such ingenuity. Not to mention, gentleness … The way he cared for his friends, for Kani.
I remember the surprise I’d had when I found out they were together. The touch I’d seen him share with her in the dining area my first day. Looking back, their touch started to wake me up from the hazy dream I’d been living inside the Helix. That touch in some minor way, led me to Traeton.
“Stop—” Videus snarls, his voice breaking through the birdcalls.
Jolted from my memories, I open my eyes.
Videus’ hands are clutching at the sides of his head. Bewilderment casts a glow across his face as he glares directly at me.
“Now, that’s new. How did you make me see those things?” he spits.
Suddenly, the humming from the Tree behind me switches to a thunderous roar and the world around me goes white. I’m completely blinded by it like all those times I’d been connected before—but there’s no nausea, no voice. The snow on the ground flies upward, a blizzard surrounding us all.
The lightening stemming from the salamanders becomes more ardent, and I watch the glittering white turn into a sheet of water, particularly around the salamanders near Tethys. But she doesn’t have this kind of power—at least not without direct physical contact.
The melting
snow extinguishes the salamander’s flames momentarily, causing Traeton, Kani and I to be released from our prisons of fire. Though mine holds tight at my ankles, the salamanders holding Trae and Kani slink away, merging with the sea of others to create unity between them. Kani immediately drops to her feet, scrambling to grab her knives. Without hesitation, she throws one at the nearest salamander. The blade sinks into the salamander’s head, causing it to slump forward and severs its connection with the others.
“Runa— look at the Tree,” Trae yells, pointing over my shoulder as he runs toward me.
I twist around to find the entire Tree is a brilliant crystalline white and emanates an intense energy both powerful and reverent at the same time. Snowflakes fly feverishly from the tips of each branch as if the Tree is commanding them from within itself. As the snowflakes gain momentum, they swirl together, winding around like twisting white snakes— until they merge into a single monolithic serpent.
Gasping for air, I stumble backward. The serpent flows with intention, shimmering with an unearthly quality—a force to reckon with as it takes control of the scene. The salamanders surrounding Tethys are the first to be hit by the spiraling blizzard. They try to hold their ground, heating the water to the point of evaporation, but the bare ground beneath them seems to move on its own accord, encasing the salamanders’s feet, and snuffing out their flames. More importantly—cutting off their ability to summon their lightening.
“Hold your ground,” Videus calls out in determination to the rest of the salamanders. “You’re not afraid of a little water, are you?”
Trae and Kani run to my side, standing back and watching as the snow serpent wraps around the first salamander at Tethys’ feet, then instantly breaks itself off to arc around to the other two. Squeezing tightly, it slices the salamander bodies in half with a sloppy scraping squish and redirects itself to envelope Tethys.
Though the serpent doesn’t linger with her long, Tethys’ strength returns and I realize this is what she was anticipating. This was what she was hanging on for.
Holding my breath, hope returns—almost. I will the serpent to come to me, to get the salamander at my feet so I can get to Tethys—I want nothing more than for my guardian to get her shield around me and find a way for all of us to get out of here.
As I follow the serpent’s movements, I realize the field isn’t nearly as full of salamanders as it once had been. Videus swaggers awkwardly but manages to send out a hand signal.
Having all but forgotten the birds, they dive in, attacking the swirl of snow. When they collide, I cover my ears at the thunderclap that follows. The birds manage to call upon the wind around them, twisting the snow away with an almost tornadic quality. The snow serpent pushes back, blinding the birds and they struggle to maintain their place in the sky.
In an odd combination of relief and despair, Rowan—Caelum takes flight. He’s the first to flee and a handful of birds follow after until they’re tiny specs in the distance. Others are not as lucky as they appear to freeze in midair. Too many to count begin to drop like a stones to the ground.
Through the blinding snow, I search again for Tethys and find the sliced salamanders have begun to shrivel away. Almost nothing is left of them but the steam they seemed so intent on creating.
Suddenly on the move, Tethys stomps toward me, not yet able to summon her shield.
Videus follows her progress and screeches, “Runa— Take her! Now!”
Heat and flames erupt at my feet, surrounding me again and shifting to an unbearable temperature. The wall of fire consumes my entire line of sight. When my vision beyond the fire returns, I’m in a long hallway with large metallic looking doors going off on either side. Moans escape the tiny slits above them. The heat in this place is intense and I know immediately where I’ve been taken.
The vassalage.
As the gravity of my situation catches up with me, I’m ripped from the scene. Staring Tethys in the face, I blink in confusion. I look downward to find her massive claws lodged in the head of the salamander at my feet. In a swift movement, she pulls back. With a disgusting squish, its head severs clean from its body in four neat chunks, and sizzles in the snow.
I reach a trembling hand out to Tethys’ head. My heart throbs unevenly and with wobbly knees, I step around the disintegrating salamander to get to her.
Swallowing my trepidation, I take a look around. Trae rushes to my side, fear and concern mixing in his face.
“Are you alright?” he asks, breathlessly.
Suddenly, Delaney and a small team are on the scene, rushing to our aid. Two of the men, Ash and Patric, are armed with special weaponry that incinerates its prey on contact—killing off five of the salamanders in the blink of an eye. Kani is taking advantage of the confusion and is working her way toward Fenton’s overtaken form.
Behind me, the Tree of Burden shimmers white, casting a glow onto Tethys—and a brilliant white light seeps from the doorway. Its hazy white tendrils reach for me and begin to fill with a swirling of color—white, blue, purple, green, pink— They reach for me gently, caressing my face, lifting my arms and urging me to stand. Beckoning me.
Slowly, the light pulls back from the tips of each branch, summoned to return to the core of the Tree. As the last inklings of light pull back, leaving the cool sensation of the mist, my eyes rest on the wooden door carved on the side of the Tree. No longer locked tight, but instead, open wide. Inside, the light remains, pure and bright. It whispers in my veins, calling me forward.
“The Tree—it’s materializing. Now. Burn it—burn the Tree!” Videus screams, pointing at the remaining salamanders.
“Runa, you have to go. Find your answers, we’ve got your back,” Trae says, planting a quick kiss on my lips and turning to face Videus and the remaining salamanders.
With my jaw set, I dash for the open doorway. The breeze ruffles my hair as I race to the Tree before Videus can stop me. Each determined step forward gives me strength as I reach for the door. My fear of the unknown lies dead on the ground as I grip the rough edge and thrust myself inside. The light is blinding and there’s nothing to see but radiance.
Videus may know more than I do, but I need to rectify that. It’s time I figure out who I am and why I’m so important.
My foot leaves the safety of the past, entering the blinding chasm of the unknown as the gigantic wooden door slams shut behind me.
23
Traeton
RUNA DOESN’T HESITATE. She takes her opening and heads straight into the tree’s doorway—vanishing before my eyes. The moment I turn to defend against anything wishing to attack her, the tree sends out a shock wave, knocking me and everyone in the vicinity to the ground. As I scramble to my feet and turn back, the tree seals the natural gash along its trunk, erasing the opening and making itself whole.
Will I ever see her again? I shake my head.
Of course I will. I have to.
A cry of panic breaks out and I twist around to find the source.
Delaney’s expedition team has come at the most opportune moment, but Kani has completely lost her mind. Fenton’s possession by Videus has evidently caused her to act rashly. My best-friend’s features contort into a wicked grin as he takes a step back, gripping Kani by her neck. Delaney, Patric, and Ash all stand by, ready to make a move if an opening arises, but I seriously hope there isn’t one.
“Whoa guys—” I say, holding my hands out in front of me, trying to be the voice of reason before things get out of hand.
“Let go or so help me—” Kani says, clawing at Fenton’s arm. However, Videus stands perfectly still, as if her efforts don’t even faze him. With a deliberately slow maneuver, he plucks the knife from Kani’s hand and presses it against her throat, making her instantly still.
“I do believe everyone needs to take a moment,” he says, his voice ice-cold as he tips Kani’s chin upward with the blade, exposing her neck even more, “Traeton, call of your guard dogs, or Kani will die. It will be slow
and painful and it will be done by me.”
As if conflicted, Fenton’s face flickers momentarily from being completely encompassed by Videus’ possession. His eyes flash from black to his natural brown—but the effect doesn’t last.
Trying to seize the possible opportunity, I say, “Fenton, this is Kani you’re talking about. You don’t want to hurt her— ”
“Eh, eh,” Videus says, shaking his head, “C’mon Traeton. You know better than that. Let’s not get confused.”
I shoot a glance at Delaney, who nods her agreement. None of us want to run the risk of hurting Fenton’s body, or getting Kani killed.
“Everyone, put down your weapons,” I tell them.
Setting down the sonic resonator at my feet, I kick it forward a bit and stand back with my hands raised. Delaney and Patric follow suit, but Ash quickly takes aim and fires. The shot clips Videus in the ear, splattering Kani in Fenton’s blood.
Kani’s scream is abruptly cut off as the knife in Videus’ hand sinks into her skin and opens a thin line in her neck. Blood pools in Videus’ hand, dripping down Kani’s neck and onto her white jacket.
Videus touches his ear with his other hand and takes a deep, calming breath as he surveys the area around him.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he says, maintaining the pressure on a very still Kani.
“Ash,” Delaney warns.
Ash lowers his weapon, keeping his eyes trained on Videus the entire time.
The field of salamanders have been annihilated down to two survivors, which hover near Fenton’s feet, huffing menacingly. The birds have all but abandoned their master to save themselves and I know this is Videus’ last stand. If he’s painted into any more of a corner, he’s going to lash out and the result will be the loss of Kani, and likely Fenton. We can’t let that happen.
What we need to do is capture Fenton and find a way to kick this Videus guy out of him—or something—but if he makes a move to harm anyone else, I know Delaney won’t hesitate to take him out.
The Complete Pendomus Chronicles Trilogy: Books 1-3 of the Pendomus Chronicles Dystopian Scifi Boxed Set Series Page 21
