by D. N. Leo
Caedmon struggled but managed to sit up. “I’m sorry. Moss had already killed him when I went back down.”
“How do I know you didn’t kill them both?”
Caedmon got to his feet. He swayed, and she had to hold him. “You don’t have to believe me, Sedna. I lied to you, so I don’t expect you to trust me ever again. But I didn’t kill Afton. Moss did. I killed Moss.”
She wiped the tears from her face. “It doesn’t matter now. He’s dead.”
“It does matter. I need you to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing.” He held her shoulders. “It’s for a greater cause, and if it means I have to live with your wrath, so be it. The key isn’t an antique item, and I am not a treasure hunter. The key holds the power, and if it gets into the wrong hands, the multiverse— I mean, people will die.”
“And you’re saying you’re the rightful owner of the key?”
Caedmon shook his head. “It’s not for me. It will be kept in a safe place. The position of the scorpion statue had to be kept a secret. If someone pulled the sculpture out…” He paused. “Forget it… You’re smart, and I know you can take the truth. The sculpture was needed to plug an astronomical hole. If the hole were exposed, it would destroy Earth. It’s as simple as that. Everyone living on this little planet would die.”
She frowned. “You consider Earth little?”
He nodded. “It is compared to where I come from. And before you ask, yes, I’m technically human. I just don’t live here.”
“So you’re alien?”
He smiled. “I don’t like that term, but if you need to label me, I guess it fits. As for my special power, I can control it, like switching it on and off. But when it’s on, I have a weak point. If that point is hit, it could be fatal.”
“And that’s where I kicked you in the hotel?”
He nodded. “Not exactly, but it was close.”
“If that’s your fatal point, why are you telling me?”
He pointed to the right side of his chest. “I have my power on now to heal my injuries. It’s right here. You can kill me by hitting me right here, right now.”
She touched his chest, where she had kicked him before, and felt a lump in her throat. “Do you trust me that much?”
He nodded. “Not only do I trust you, but I want you to come with me to where I live. You have no family here. And because of this mission, I’ll be separated from my family. We can be together, Sedna. We’ll be happy. I want to be with you.”
She smiled.
They heard a noise and then footsteps. Anatole stepped out from behind a rock with a gun in his hand which he pointed at them. “Not so fast. Go wherever you like, but the key stays with me. I know you have a super power, Caedmon. But as you’ve said, you’re recuperating. You’re weak. And I don’t think any power that exists can save you from a bullet in the head.”
“Are you working for Hoyt Flanagan? What did he promise you?” Caedmon asked.
“A lot. Nothing you could ever match. Now put the key down and step back. I would have shot you already, but Sedna was in the way.”
Sedna stepped in front of Caedmon. “In your way? Like this?”
Caedmon pushed Sedna aside. “Don’t do this, Sedna,” he said.
Anatole clucked his tongue. “I’m only interested in the key. Put it down, and I won’t shoot either of you. But don’t try my patience.”
“If you take the key to the wrong person, a lot of people will die, Anatole,” Sedna said.
He laughed. “I kill people for a living, Sedna.”
“And the sculpture? Your client wants that, too?” Caedmon asked.
“Yes, but I’ll worry about that later. Now, put the key down.”
“If you take the sculpture, it will destroy Earth. And that will kill you, too,” Caedmon said.
“Yeah, I heard that part. But I’m not going to live here, so it’s not my concern. If you say one more word without putting that key down, I’ll blow your head off, Caedmon.”
20
Blood rained down on Caedmon and Sedna as Anatole’s head exploded.
From behind a rock, Neva stepped out, holstered her gun, and grinned. “Before you jump, keep your key. I don’t want it.”
“What about the sculpture?” Sedna narrowed her eyes.
Neva laughed. “You were certainly out of touch with the tribe business. The sculpture is a symbol of leadership only if there is competition.”
“You never beat me in a contest, Neva.”
“True. I never beat you when it comes to scuffling.”
“Martial arts.”
“Whatever.” Neva patted her gun. “But when it comes to using guns, you’re likely to shoot your own foot.”
“Are you that bad?” Caedmon raised an eyebrow at Sedna.
“I don’t like guns,” she snapped. Then she turned to Neva. “You want me to give up the leadership without a fight?”
Neva shrugged. “I hate martial arts. I could have taken you out with my gun. But I didn’t. So let me make it easy for you. You don’t want the leadership. You just want your guy.”
Caedmon smiled.
“Excuse me!” Sedna exclaimed.
“Come on. It’s been four years. You’ve turned down dates. You kept the same stupid handkerchief and beat the crap out of a pickpocket when he tried to snatch it. I always thought you were being ridiculous, but now that I see him, I think he’s worth it. So go with him—and leave the tribe to me.” Neva grinned again as Sedna’s jaw dropped.
“You spied on me?” Sedna raised her voice.
Caedmon bit back a laugh and said nothing.
“Do we have a deal? Or do you want a real fight?”
Caedmon touched Sedna’s shoulder. “Come on, leave with me.”
“You see the price I have to pay for this?” Sedna said, pointing at Neva.
“I’ll compensate you. Come on. Let’s go,” Caedmon said.
“What kind of compensation?”
“Whatever you want.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Sedna circled her finger around a spot on Caedmon’s chest. Neva shrugged and walked away.
The double steel door slid open, revealing a round station at the grand control center of Eudaiz. Caedmon held Sedna’s hand and walked in. His heart skipped a beat when he saw his father turn to him from a monitor at which he was working. He would have felt more comfortable meeting at home rather than here. The scene in front of them was a bit intimidating. But to his surprise, Sedna’s hand was steady. She was as calm as the still Arctic water had been.
“Sedna Aardel, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Ciaran said and bent down to give her a hug. He winced, absently putting a hand on his left side as he stood back up.
“The pleasure is mine. Caedmon has explained the situation, and I understand.”
Ciaran nodded. “I’m glad.”
“You’re injured. Do you want me to heal you?” Sedna asked.
“What? When?” Caedmon asked.
“Thank you. My injury is minor, and it will heal by the time I get to my bed tonight. My wife won’t even know what happened during the day.” Ciaran smiled.
“Please don’t tell me you got injured because of this mission. I told you I could handle it myself,” Caedmon said.
“When you broke protocol and went ahead with the fight at the temple, I had to interfere, not as your king but as your father,” Ciaran growled.
“You couldn’t round up your commanders in time. We had no intelligence in Xiilok to do anything remotely. So whatever you did, it had to be direct. Please don’t tell me you went there by yourself.” Caedmon stared at Ciaran. “You did! Oh dear the multiversal god! What if something had happened to you? What am I going to tell Mother?” Caedmon raked his fingers through his hair and paced the room.
“Nothing is worse than what you would do to her if you failed this mission,” Ciaran said.
“What did you do in Xiilok?” Sedna asked.
“I broke into their contro
l center, hacked the system, and replaced the contracts Hoyt has made with people on Earth regarding the Scorpio key. I basically told the contractors the deal is off, on Hoyt’s behalf, of course. I only had time to handle three contracts. By the time they figure out the signals were fake, it’ll be over. The key will be where it should be.” Ciaran reached his hand out, palm up.
Caedmon placed the key into his father’s hand. Ciaran turned and locked the key in the vault with codes that might take Caedmon a million years to figure out.
“What are the contracts you canceled?” Sedna asked.
“Moss, Anatole, and Neva,” Ciaran said as he was working on his monitor.
“Neva!” Sedna exclaimed.
Ciaran stopped typing and returned. “Yes. What’s the problem?”
“So she knew the deal was off, she shot Anatole to gain Sedna’s trust, and she bluffed Sedna to give up the leadership without a fight,” Caedmon said.
“Wicked. I’m sorry, Sedna,” Ciaran said.
“No worries—the leadership doesn’t mean much to me anymore,” she said.
Ciaran smiled and glanced at the bracelets that both Caedmon and Sedna were wearing. “I can see you both chose to lock in your profiles. You’ll remain at this age and make for a very long time. This time resistance should be fine for a brief visit. You should go back to your future time.”
“That’s too soon, Father. Would you like me to help finding the other keys?” Caedmon asked. Seeing the look on his father’s face, he muttered, “Guess that’s a no.”
Sedna smiled. “I think it’s time to go.” She kissed Ciaran goodbye and turned on her heel.
“She’s a keeper,” Ciaran said.
Caedmon smiled. “Thank you, Father.” He shook his father’s hand, then before his father could react, he pulled his father in for a hug.
Then he turned around, followed Sedna back to his future.
21
It had been a year since they had been married, and today he had received the best news ever: he was going to be a father.
In front of a control panel inside his private chamber, he glanced at the report of the seven stations he was handling as part of the practice his father had assigned him in preparation for his commander role.
He chuckled to himself. His father had been conceived during the Red Stage of the Daimon Gate and had lived his whole life under the pressure of being the best creature in the multiverse. Caedmon had also been conceived during the Red Stage. It was worse for him, however, because on top of his biological and ontological make, he had his father to live up to.
No matter how much his father tried to lessen the pressure, Caedmon always felt it whenever anyone in the multiverse laid eyes on him. And in those unfortunate encounters, he had promised himself a thousand times over that he would never make his children go through what he had been through.
Now it was time to prove he could keep his promises.
Father! Imagining the word rolling off the tongue of his child, he smiled.
He closed the report on the screen and switched to a plantation station nearby. He wasn’t in charge of that station, but he had a friend living there, and he had been working on a very special kind of flower for Sedna. The flowers hadn’t blossomed yet, but he would harvest them now as a present for her. He sent his friend a message and was about to leave when he saw a red flag at a gateway on the screen.
“No!” He opened the gateway’s log and disliked what he saw before he could even see it clearly. Sedna had broken the seal, passed the time traveling gate, which she didn’t have permission to do, and traveled to the past.
He called her communicator. “What are you doing, Sedna? Where are you going?” The signal bounced. He shook his head. She had passed the gate and had obviously turned off her communication unit. She didn’t want to be tracked.
“Come on, come on!”
His fingers flew over the keyboard, accessing more data, and there it was. On the screen was her last message to his father.
“Request access to Ciaran LeBlanc. Matter: private. Priority: code red - urgent. Content: Meet me at Ice Station with the Scorpio key. Now. Your time.”
He stormed out of the control room and charged toward the time traveling chamber. The technology was new and needed improvement, but he’d have to take his chances. He triangulated the time stamp of the message, the time in Eudaiz, and the current time in Iilos and figured out the time and place to which Sedna had traveled. Math had never been his friend, but he hoped his calculations were accurate. He had no choice but to trust they were.
He made a prediction and entered commands into the machine. It shuddered, and the engine came to life. In no time, he walked out into the middle of the Ice Station.
The chill breeze blasted at his face. This was part of the transitional zone of the multiverse. It belonged to no one. No authority. No governance. And of course, no justice system.
In the distance, he saw a couple of shadows on the icy white surface. On Earth, the white stuff would have been snow. He wasn’t sure what it was here, but Sedna had chosen this location for a reason.
“Sedna!” he called out.
Sedna and Ciaran looked at him. Then, when his father was turned toward him, Sedna hit him in the head with what looked like the Scorpio key. As Ciaran toppled to the ground, Sedna turned around and ran away.
He had many talents. But flying wasn’t one of them. Caedmon ran as fast as he could over the icy ground. In the meantime, Ciaran had groggily risen to his feet and was chasing after Sedna.
Sedna had grown up in the snow. She had told him many stories about her homeland. As much as he loved her, those stories were too much like fairy tales to him. He hadn’t accepted them as hard facts.
Snow and ice. What had she said about them?
He kept running, but he couldn’t close the distance enough to have a conversation with his father. Ciaran kept running after Sedna, and she kept darting away, remaining just out of reach.
Caedmon came to a skidding halt as he remembered the twisted version of Snow White Sedna had told him. Snow White knew the apple was poisoned, but she took it so that the evil queen couldn’t hurt anyone else.
Sedna was running away with the Scorpio key. He could think of only one reason right now why she was doing this, and he had to act on it. He used his strongest talent and willed a mind blade. With the blade, he cut into the piece of ice in front of his father to stop him from following Sedna.
Ciaran turned and looked at him. Sedna stopped running, looked at him one last time, and then jumped into a dimensional gateway of an ice oblivion hole. A massive explosion erupted from the hole, blowing Ciaran backward and sending him sliding across the ice.
Caedmon scrambled toward his father. Ciaran wasn’t conscious. He tossed him over his shoulders and charged toward a flying capsule. Shortly, they arrived at Tower Three, an exclusive area of the king Sciphil healing chamber. The computer shouted for the access code, and he placed his father’s palmprint on the control panel to gain access.
Once inside, he placed his father into the chamber. A computer voice intoned, “You are injured, Sciphil Three. The healing process will commence immediately.”
The round glass door shut, and the healing chamber spun like a small tornado.
Ciaran stirred and regained consciousness then ordered the chamber to stop and signaled Caedmon to come in.
“Father, the healing process hasn’t finished. It’s taxing to stop it midway.”
“Caedmon, come here.”
“No, I have to reactivate this. Will it take my command?”
“Caedmon.”
“Yes, Father?”
“Come here.”
He did as his father asked and sat down next to the raised bench where Ciaran lay.
“I’m sorry about Sedna,” Ciaran said.
The emotion hit Caedmon like a storm. He buried his head in his hands and let it all out. He felt Ciaran’s hand on his head, but it gave him no comfort. He wo
uld never be able to control his emotions like his father. He knew crying was weak. But he couldn’t stop himself.
After a while, he looked up and found Ciaran looking at him, waiting. “It’s unlikely Sedna would survive the blast,” his father said. “I’m sorry, Caedmon. She said the key was fake and that she wanted you to find the real one. I didn’t expect the blast, and I don’t understand why she said it was her fault.”
“She’s a mage. She knows many things we don’t. If I go back to Earth and fix this, do you think it will change anything?”
“You have already manipulated the past to get the key, and that’s what caused the unfortunate incident just now. I don’t think you can do it twice. But if Sedna wants us to find the real key, then we will.”
“She didn’t say we, did she? She wanted me to do it. So I’ll find the real key. I’ll find the reason behind all this. And I will kill whoever caused this.”
“I should tell you revenge doesn’t change anything, but I would be lying. Because it does give you resolution and closure. I’ll need you back here to take your commander position and manage the district where you are much needed.”
“Then I’ll go now.” At the door, he turned and asked, “Do you believe Snow White knew the apple was poisoned but still took it so that the evil queen couldn’t hurt anyone else?”
Ciaran shook his head. “I’d kill the queen before she even had a chance to come close to Snow White.”
Caedmon nodded and left Tower Three to go back to his time traveling chamber. People always said time healed everything, but because he had time traveled for the greater good, he’d gotten his wife killed.
He didn't need time to help him heal. He would use time to kill whoever had caused him pain and robbed him of his family.
The End
Continue the Bloodstone Trilogy – Book 1, Light of Demon.
BLOODSTONE TRILOGY
BLOODSTONE TRILOGY
by D.N Leo
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