The Search for Ulyssa

by Heidi J. Leavitt

Help me! Dina’s cry suddenly sliced through the commotion. Ulyssa froze instantly, then abandoned the children. Kendra could feel her too—Dina was desperately afraid. Ulyssa knew exactly where her twinspark was and she raced toward her. Fear—real fear this time—coursed through her, mingling with Kendra’s own fears for her friend.

  It took only seconds for the emerald orb that Kendra instinctively recognized as Dina to come into view. She hovered near a man who was staring open-mouthed across a trampled dirt courtyard at the glowing figure standing in between two burning houses.

  Konrad Roran stood with feet apart and arms raised to the sky. His eyes were closed, and his lips moved soundlessly. Above him, hundreds of shadows streamed toward him, merging with his glowing aura and increasing his brightness. Judging by the look on the soldier’s face, he could see the glow too.

  “Captain Ridge!” a voice shouted to their left. Kendra turned to see the soldier that Ulyssa had failed to influence. “Our reinforcements can’t reach us because of the storm! What are your orders?”

  He won’t listen to me, Dina screeched. He’s going to kill our sire’s bonded human, and I can’t stop him!

  Ulyssa sped toward them, plunging into the captain, blasting him with fear and despair and panic. Kendra tried to scream but could make no sound. The captain raised his gun. She could feel his mental strain, watched him force the gun up inch by painful inch, his arms shaking with effort.

  Our sire! screamed Ulyssa. Watch out!

  The captain fired a single shot.

  It hit Konrad Roran directly in the chest and flung him backward.

  Immediately, Kendra was swamped with panic from all sides. Ulyssa and Dina both left the captain and raced toward the fallen Konrad Roran. The captain followed behind them, his gun still aimed at the body on the ground.

  Roran lay on the ground, his eyes wide and staring. He gasped painfully, the fingers on one hand twitching.

  Our sire? Ulyssa asked timidly. The only response was a wave of agony.

  The captain reached Roran, his gun held steadier now.

  “Stop the storm,” he ordered, his voice hoarse.

  Roran chuckled weakly.

  “Stop the storm,” the captain ordered again.

  “You Armada butcher,” Roran rasped. “You have just cursed yourself. The Planet will punish you and all your line until you are extinct.” There was a wave of anger and confirmation from Roran’s shadow.

  It will be done, Roran’s shadow rumbled.

  “Last chance,” the captain said, his voice firm. “Stop the storm.”

  “Never. Not until the last infidel is driven from the Planet,” whispered Roran.

  The captain fired again, hitting Roran in the head.

  Immediately, Kendra felt wrenched in two. Roran’s glowing light vanished with a crack, and Dina and Ulyssa began to scream in unison. They were being ripped apart, all three of them, their energy not draining away but hacked away, and they couldn’t stand it, it would kill them, there was no way to survive the loss.

  Sudden darkness swallowed them all.

  19. The Roran Curse

  Kendra dragged her eyes open and hesitantly took a breath. Her lungs filled easily—for some reason she expected to fight for air. She was curiously free from any pain too.

  Where was she?

  “Welcome back, Kendra,” said a familiar voice.

  “Grandma?” she whispered hoarsely, squinting upward. Her grandma’s face hovered overhead. The woman smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “Let me help you sit up.” Her grandma reached behind her back and lifted her up into a sitting position.

  Kendra’s mind was fuzzy. She had been under attack. In a village. Had her grandma been there? She glanced around at her surroundings. They were in a plain white room with a few metal chairs. It was utterly unfamiliar.

  “Where am I?” she said.

  “A private arrival room in the Omphalos shuttleport. You’ve been in stasis for the trip back from Corizen.”

  Kendra looked at her grandma blankly. Corizen? Her eyes dropped to her damp, yellow torso. Her recent memory was a confused blur. There was a sense that something was horribly wrong, but she couldn’t piece together enough details to remember what.

  Dina? she asked, puzzled.

  Just relax, Kendra, Dina said quietly. Give yourself time to recover. It was a rough trip.

  Kendra frowned. Had she finished her three-year stint on Corizen? No, she realized. She’d only spent a year on Corizen. They’d gone to the inaugural ball, she’d been hoping to dance with Bren, and then . . .

  Suddenly she jerked forward.

  “Aunt Andie was shot!” she gasped. “Where is she?”

  “They’ve already transported her to the hospital. Grandpa is there with her,” her grandma explained. “Just rest easy for a minute. We’re waiting for a medtech to come in and clear you, and then you can rinse off. I brought you an outfit, just in case, and it’s a good thing! You didn’t come back with any luggage at all.”

  Kendra rubbed a cheek. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly have time to pack.” Her grandma studied her quietly for a moment but thankfully didn’t ask any questions. Kendra wasn’t sure she could answer them.

  After the medtech appeared and cleared her, Kendra made her way into the attached bathroom. Once in the shower, she let the scalding water stream into the back of her head, rinsing out her hair. Her last night on Corizen was coming back clearly now. She remembered the mental attack by Ulyssa during her dance with Bren, the awful sirens and the security announcing that her aunt had been shot, the news that Tiran was missing, and the final blistering attack by Ulyssa, when some other entity—one more powerful than either Dina or her twinspark—had forced Ulyssa into her mind and sent them off-planet together. But Ulyssa wasn’t there anymore. Kendra could feel Dina’s presence, but no one else. Just like normal. Well, normal except that Dina was unusually silent.

  She closed her eyes and turned around, the hot water pelting her face. What happened during the trip? Ulyssa had been able to talk to her. Somehow the isithunzi had been able to communicate with Kendra while she was in stasis.

  She gasped in horror, choking a bit on the shower water. The memory, the whole vivid experience of the death of Konrad Roran and the destruction of his village flooded back into her mind. The violence of the storm, the burning houses, the terror of the soldiers. The Armada captain killing Roran to stop the destruction. The agony of the shadows when Roran died.

  And . . . Dina’s loathing toward humans.

  Kendra shut off the water with a snap.

  Tell me it wasn’t real, she whispered.

  Dina didn’t answer, though Kendra could feel her apprehension.

  Dina? Her hands balled into fists.

  I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

  A village attacked by soldiers. Shadows everywhere. A man who glowed, absorbing the energy of the isithunzi around him. And you and Ulyssa . . . Her voice trailed off. She couldn’t describe the rest of it. She didn’t even want to think about it.

  It was real, Dina said in a small voice. Kendra could feel her anxiety. Dina didn’t want to think about it either.

  Did Ulyssa share a memory with me? How is that even possible?

  I think she used me as a bridge to your mind. She and I share a connection almost as strong as what I have with you. That’s the nature of twinsparks.

  So . . . you were there then. When Konrad Roran was killed. When the Roran Uprising ended. Kendra scrunched her eyes closed, dreading the answer but knowing what it would be anyway.

  Yes.

  Why didn’t you tell me?

  Dina didn’t answer. Kendra frowned and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel.

  You hate humans! You even wanted all the non-Rorans destroyed! It came out half an accusation, half
a sob. All her life Dina had been the one constant, the person she could trust the most. To find out that Dina loathed everything about humans stripped away every truth she believed about herself. Did Dina still consider humans invaders? Was being connected to Kendra a fate worse than death?

  That was long ago, Kendra, Dina protested. I was very young then. And people change, even isithunzi.

  Kendra buried her face in the towel, trying to calm her emotions.

  The tension eased between them. But Kendra still had a million questions. She hoped Dina would finally give her some answers.

  Who was the isithunzi bound to Konrad Roran? she asked timidly as she started to dry off. Obviously he was important to both Dina and Ulyssa.

  Dina sighed deeply, a gentle swell of grief passing to Kendra. You can call him Slade. He created me and Ulyssa. In human terms, you would call him a father—well, father and mother both. He was also a powerful leader among the isithunzi.

  How did he bond to Konrad Roran? Kendra started to pull on the outfit from her grandma, hoping to keep Dina talking.

  Slade was always an adventurous isithunzi. When the humans began to arrive on our world, he went out to investigate the interstellar gate, trying to understand how it worked. We never knew exactly what happened, but I guess somehow he must have traveled through the gate with Konrad Roran’s mother when she was pregnant.

  Like you and my mother. Kendra finished dressing and paused before leaving the bathroom. She was afraid to ask the next question, but she had to know the answer.

  What happened to Slade when Konrad Roran died? She remembered the great agony of both Ulyssa and Dina, as if their very souls were ripped apart. Was that from the loss of their father? Or because they could feel what Slade did as he lost his bonded human? Would Dina feel like that if something happened to Kendra?

  Dina withdrew into herself, trying to control a powerful surge of despair. They were both silent for a long moment, Kendra frozen with her hand still hovering near the thumb lock for the door.

  When Konrad Roran died, Slade was extinguished—as well as more than a thousand isithunzi whose energy they were borrowing to maintain the storm.

  Kendra sucked in a breath. A thousand isithunzi gone, just like that?

  Less than a hundred isithunzi survived, Dina added, her sorrow almost swamping them both.

  Dina didn’t put it into words, but Kendra understood anyway. The young Dina had been right. The humans had almost ruined them all.

  Suddenly, another of Ulyssa’s accusations surfaced in Kendra’s memory.

  Dina, Kendra said slowly, Ulyssa said that I didn’t know the truth about your family and mine.

  She just meant isithunzi and humans, Dina explained hastily.

  Did she?

  Kendra felt the dread growing from the pit of her stomach and spreading to her limbs. Dina did not want to have this conversation. Feeling sick to her stomach, Kendra pressed the thumb lock and burst into the waiting room, startling her grandma, who was sitting in a chair and staring at her flipcom.

  “Grandma! Your father died young, didn’t he?”

  Her grandma dropped her flipcom to her lap, startled.

  “Yes,” she said, her tone puzzled. “He was an Armada captain who died during the Roran Uprising.”

  Kendra’s blood turned to ice and her stomach cramped painfully. No. It couldn’t be.

  Her grandma rose to her feet and came to Kendra’s side. “Why do you ask?” She put a hand on Kendra’s arm.

  “What was his name?” Kendra whispered.

  Kendra, don’t, not like this. I can explain, Dina said anxiously.

  “Martin Ridge,” said her grandma.

  Kendra gasped.

  My great-grandfather killed your father. He killed all those isithunzi. And Konrad Roran cursed him.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you this story?” her grandma asked with a frown. “Didn’t she tell you about the curse on our family?”

  “No.” Kendra wracked her memories. Maybe her mother had mentioned a curse? It sounded vaguely familiar. If she had, Kendra had not paid any attention to it. But the words from Ulyssa’s memory were now imprinted in her brain.

  Konrad Roran cursed Captain Ridge, she remembered, horror coloring her thoughts. He called him an Armada butcher and said the planet would punish him and all his line until they were extinct.

  Dina didn’t respond.

  “So many members of my family have died,” her grandma said softly. “It all started with that curse. I don’t know how to stop it. I just know that something keeps attacking our family.”

  Kendra sucked in a breath. She stumbled to the chair and dropped into it, closing her eyes in realization.

  It wasn’t the planet that punished Captain Ridge. It was isithunzi. You shadowed him—and his family. You’ve been trying to fulfill Slade’s last command!

  Kendra, it’s complicated, Dina started to explain.

  No. It’s not. Were the isithunzi trying to get my grandma’s family killed or not?

  Dina was silent for a long moment.

  Yes, she answered. After Slade’s death, his twinspark assigned a shadow to Ridge and every relative that could be found, using his genetic signature as a marker. Then the shadow’s job was to manipulate the human into a dangerous situation.

  Ulyssa was assigned to Aunt Andie?

  Yes. When babies were born with the Ridge genetic marker, a shadow was assigned. I ended up shadowing your mother.

  You tried to get my mother killed.

  Dina didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to.

  Everything made sense now. And with the same stroke, Kendra’s whole world fell apart.

  ♦

  Late that night, Kendra slipped out the back door of her grandparents’ silent, darkened house and walked to the wooden railing that edged the deck. The fields of her grandpa’s farm stretched before her, dotted with shadowy rows of young plants. A jeweled expanse of stars filled the sky, and Kendra gazed up at them, wondering if she could see Corizen’s sun from here.

  Where was Tiran? Had her uncle found her yet? What about Bren? Had he learned that Kendra had left the planet?

  A light breeze ruffled her hair, sending a long strand into her face. Kendra brushed it away absently and found that her cheeks were wet again. Stiffening, she shoved all the guilt and betrayal back into a box and cast her mind about desperately for something else to think about.

  You can’t ignore me forever, Dina grumbled.

  Try me.

  You’re not ignoring me right now.

  Fine. Answer some more questions for me, then. What happened on Corizen, Dina? she asked, forcing herself to feel nothing but impartial curiosity. How did Ulyssa get stuck with me? It was like you were both bonded to me somehow. At least temporarily.

  Dina did not answer right away, and Kendra suddenly realized that Dina had been desperately hoping that Kendra would not ask this question. All of a sudden her curiosity was no longer casual. What else was Dina hiding from her?

  Fear snaked around her heart. More awful secrets? What more could Dina do to shred Kendra’s soul into pieces?

  Dina? What are you hiding this time?

  For another long moment Dina refused to respond. Then abruptly she relented, resignation flooding across to Kendra.

  What do you remember about the last few moments before we left the planet? Dina asked.

  Kendra furrowed her brow, trying to remember.

  Ulyssa came one last time. You told me to build a wall to keep her from coming with us. I did, and I felt her leave. She frowned. But then . . . there was someone else.

  Yes. A Presence.

  Another isithunzi? Kendra asked.

  Dina hesitated. No. At least, I don’t think so. A being like an isithunzi. But far, far more powerful than me or Ulyssa. S
tronger than all three of us put together.

  Kendra suddenly recalled the alien presence sifting through all her memories, observing and weighing, as if judging the worth of her very core. It hadn’t scared her, though. The presence had not felt hostile like Ulyssa.

  The Presence somehow bonded Ulyssa to you against her will, Dina explained. The bond was temporary; it dissolved as soon as you woke from stasis.

  So for some reason this presence did not want Ulyssa on Corizen.

  Yes. I glimpsed some of its feelings and motivations, the same way I do with other isithunzi. It feels very protective over the humans of Corizen, and I gather that Ulyssa caused a great deal of harm among them.

  So whoever this powerful being was, it had decided to shove Ulyssa into Kendra and make it her problem. Yet another invisible alien trying to wreck Kendra’s life. But if this alien presence was stuck on Corizen and didn’t want to harm humans in general, why worry about it?

  Because Ulyssa is worried about it, Dina whispered fearfully.

  So? She’s here, while that presence or being or whatever is on Corizen and no threat to her.

  She will convince the other isithunzi that it is a threat. Most of them will agree.

  And then what? Kendra prodded skeptically. Would they all swarm the gate and mount an expedition back to Corizen to launch an attack on a being they knew nothing about?

  And then I do not know. But Kendra, Ulyssa now knows how to permanently bond with a human—I couldn’t hide it from her.

  You think Ulyssa—who hates humans with a fury like I have never experienced—would intentionally bond to a human?

  Speakers, as the Rorans named them, are far more powerful than any isithunzi could ever be on its own. We are living proof of that.

  Dina sighed.

  She may just convince the rest of the isithunzi to create an army of Speakers.

  An army of people just like Kendra? No way the Armada could keep that secret. How would normal people react? How would the Union react? It could turn into a bloodbath. Or a free-for-all if powerful Speakers decided they had little interest in Corizen and would rather rule Zenith. Konrad Roran had shown with graphic brutality how that would play out.