Reign of Darkness

by Michaela Riley Karr

  I struggled to swallow, trying to compose myself. “I figured out why Rachel is having us build this house. Some of us are returning to the Three Kingdoms, and some of us aren’t.”

  Sam’s brow furrowed, but those grooves only deepened as I relayed to him everything Rachel had said. That we were returning, but our children were not. That Rachel was Rayna’s protector now, and not mine. That we were leaving as soon as the house was finished with Luke, James, and Bartholomiiu, that there was a plan to make sure Rhydin thinks the children do return with us to keep their location a mystery, and that there was really no telling how much time would pass before our lives on the mainland were stable enough to have them rejoin us.

  I pulled my cloak tighter around me as I finished speaking. Whether the island heat was dying away or my chills came from inside, I wasn’t entirely sure. Sam could only stare at me for a few moments, the gears of his mind racing to fully comprehend everything I had just unloaded on him.

  “No,” he said finally, life and fire coming back to him. “No, there’s no way! Of all the solutions out there, that can’t be the one that’s decided upon!”

  “What other solutions, Sam?” I croaked as my throat closed. “What other solution allows our children to be safe and for us to save Nerahdis?”

  “There has to be another way, I-I-…” Sam stuttered before he threw his hands up into the air and growled, “You don’t understand! I can’t do this to my kids, especially not Kylar!”

  A shred of confusion grounded my aching heart for a moment. “What are you saying? Rayna is our child too!”

  Sam shook his head, exasperated before looking to me sadly. “No, no, that’s not what I meant, Lina… It’s difficult for me to explain.”

  “Try to,” I said as I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling defensive. “Why especially Ky-…?”

  “Because my father left me, Lina,” Sam interrupted, a new kind of pain entering his eyes. “Well before I ever met you, I barely remember him myself. All I remember is him disappearing and me abruptly becoming Kidek without anyone to teach me how it’s done. My mother tried for as long as she could, but it wasn’t the same. I didn’t have mentors filing in left and right to help me like when you figured out you’re an Allyen.”

  I immediately could have run my head into the nearest tree. I met Sam when he was ten years old and remembered perfectly well never seeing any sort of fatherly figure in the picture. It was always just him, his mother, and his older sister, Kelsi.

  “I never planned on staying away long when I tried to get you to go to Caark without me. I wanted things to be different for Kylar. I wanted to help him learn his Rounan magic and help him into being Kidek slowly. Not alone,” Sam mumbled morosely, losing his temper. “Not like this.”

  I reached out and touched his arm, curling in close to him. “Sam, you’re making it seem like we’re never going to see them again. That’s not true. No matter how long it takes for us to establish some sort of safe base, we will bring them back to us from Caark. We will never allow for this to be a permanent arrangement. You’ll be able to teach our son so many things about being Kidek that he’ll be overprepared and might actually resent you for it like all kids do their parents at some point!”

  I received the tiniest of chuckles from Sam in response, but then his face slackened as he mused, “Hopefully, they don’t resent us regardless.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We have two toddlers who before they’ve even turned five have so much riding on their shoulders,” Sam elaborated as he stared back at the campfire where the two in question were gleefully playing with Evan. “The future leader of an entire, persecuted people group stretched from one end of Nerahdis to the other and a future sorceress heir to one of the most powerful magical lineages there is, destined to continue the battle with Rhydin if we fail. No pressure,” Sam added sarcastically.

  My gaze followed his to Kylar and Rayna, my heart aching. “They never asked for any of this.”

  “And neither did we.” Sam’s eyes returned to me. He took my hand tightly. “Maybe we can end it all before it ever has to be their turn.”

  I nodded quietly and hugged him. Suddenly, more than anything else in the world, I so desperately wanted that to be true.

  Even as I write this, I ardently hope that we can accomplish that and spare our children from inheriting our problems as well as our magics. Ultimately, only time will tell. But I can’t stop the feeling that the odds won’t be in our favor.

  Chapter Ten

  A few days went by after that, each of which took Sam and Cayce away empty-handed in the morning and home bearing food and building supplies in the evening, never a spare cent to be seen. Each day also saw significant progress on the house that would shelter Rachel, Jaspen, and our children for an indefinite amount of time, and all the lumber from the previous day was always completely gone by the time we quit building for the day.

  I had joined the building crew now. Even though every nail I pounded into every board felt more like a spike to my own heart as I watched Kylar and Rayna nap or play nearby, I knew that I needed to help or I’d never forgive myself.

  One day, during our lunch break, we finally met the people who lived in the shack just about a quarter mile away from ours. They were two young women who dressed as though they were Auklian, although they didn’t have the usual, nasal Auklian accent that even my brother showed traces of at times. The first, who was short with hair a mint green color, Chelsea, was nice enough, but Sonya, statuesque with hair the color of blood, pretty much ignored the whole lot of us. They had tried to scrape by our camp on their way home from town unseen, but managed to be caught by the ever-sociable Rachel who pried as much information as she could out of them like the good investigator she was.

  “I still don’t know about those two! I’m starting to wonder if we should have built this house somewhere else,” Rachel abruptly mused aloud as the rest of us worked the next day.

  “Wouldn’t know, I,” Jaspen responded moodily as he lifted a beam into place just a bit above his seven-foot head. “Looked fine from a mile away, they!”

  Rachel rolled her eyes at her mate. Jaspen was apparently still peeved at how short of notice he and Bartholomiiu were given to make themselves scarce before Chelsea and Sonya were called over to our camp.

  Bartholomiiu began to cackle, his eyes like a fragile, pink petal, “The ocean is happy!”

  We all kind of just smiled or agreed in response as we had taken to doing whenever Bartholomiiu had something to say. I still hoped he continued to improve from the brain damage Rhydin had inflicted, but maybe that was impossible.

  “Why don’t you like them?” Evan asked as he nailed Jaspen’s beam into place. “They’re probably just more refugees since they’re Auklian, although I couldn’t sense any magic from them.”

  “Just a feeling,” Rachel harrumphed as she warmed a kettle over the fire. Luke and James glanced at her knowingly, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she meant.

  Meanwhile, I ran out of nails and hopped down a makeshift ladder to grab more. Evan met me halfway with another bagful, and his eyes met mine sadly as he handed them over. We’d told him and Cayce about the Ranguvariians’ plan last night, and it’d been slow and painful. They had finally come to accept it as we had, but it was at a much steeper price.

  Their tiny baby could not be separated from Cayce yet, so she would remain in Caark with him until he was weaned. Therefore, in order for Rhydin to believe our ruse of returning to the mainland with the children, we would have to create Einanhis of not only the three children but of Cayce as well, which only complicated things. Either way, I had been suddenly humbled about my own situation. I, at least, did not have to be separated from Sam.

  “Well,” I called out to distract my own mind as I returned to my post, “we should at least invite them over for a meal or something before we leave. They are going to our children’s neighbors, and it would be best if they don’t think
we hate their guts.”

  Rachel grumped, “No way. Jaspen and I are more than capable of guarding three small children by ourselves regardless of whether they like us or not. It’s much harder to guard adult twins who seem to have a knack for finding danger.”

  “Which, I might add, is not entirely our fault,” Evan announced as he hammered a window frame into one of the walls.

  “Hey, look,” I said loudly as my eyes picked up two figures leaving the shack across the way. “There they are now. Go invite them to dinner, Rachel,” I laughed.

  My friend glared at me, her blue eyes like ice. “No, thanks.”

  “Fine, I’ll do it. I want our kids to be as safe as possible,” I responded. Then, I set my tools down on some shingles I had already nailed down and put both arms into the air, yelling, “Hey! Chelsea, Sonya! Come here for a sec’!”

  The two people paused for a moment, seeming to deliberate, and then continued on toward town a little bit more in our direction. I was left wondering whether they really were heading our way for several more minutes before they clearly left the main road and truly headed toward us.

  Rachel rolled her eyes as both Jaspen and Bartholomiiu disappeared into flashes of bright light, no doubt to go visit Bartholomiiu’s “happy ocean” again since they couldn’t be seen. Luke and James remained busy with putting up walls, but I could tell they were keenly paying more attention to the world beyond their work than they were before. What was it about Chelsea and Sonya that sprung their gut instincts so much when they seemed perfectly normal to Evan and I?

  Chelsea had a political smile on her angelic face when they arrived at our campsite while Sonya wore her usual scowl. The first flicked a strand of mint green hair out of her eyes and then planted a hand on her hip as she said, “Hello there, again. What is it?”

  As both Sonya and Rachel grumbled in the background, I climbed back down our homemade ladder and smiled politely. “We were wondering if you two would like to join us for dinner sometime? To get to know each other better.”

  “Ah,” Chelsea responded, hesitation flashing across her face briefly. She looked to Sonya so rapidly I nearly missed it, and then turned back to me. “Sure. Of course. Just name the date.”

  “Great!” I replied a little too enthusiastically in my effort to cover the awkwardness. “How about…?”

  I trailed off, and panic gripped my throat as heat gripped my spine. For just a few seconds, it seemed that I was the only one who could sense it, but when my gaze shot behind me, I could see the realization and fear on Evan’s face as well.

  Darkness had arrived. Rhydin’s darkness.

  Immediately, Rachel, Luke, and James stopped what they were doing and jumped up, looking all around them to find the source of Rhydin’s magic that we were sensing. I tried not to panic as I looked around and instinctually located Kylar and Rayna sleeping peacefully between the fire and the house. However, a bloodcurdling snarl erupted from behind me and instilled a new kind of fear in my heart.

  Where Chelsea and Sonya once stood were now two, beast-looking humanoids. They were only around four feet tall, but my eyes were arrested by the sight of ferocious fangs and long, lethal claws that extended from fingers clad in lavender skin as smooth as an eel’s. They glared up at me in fury with golden eyes, one of them capped with mint green hair and one with crimson hair that spiked in every which direction.

  I finally got a hold of myself and jumped back just as Jaspen and Bartholomiiu reappeared in a burst of light declaring, “On the beach, they! Headed fast this way! Not sure if Followers or Einanhis, th-…”

  The two Ranguvariians stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of what used to be Chelsea and Sonya, and the two dwarf-like beasts hissed maniacally at their appearance. Rachel, Luke, and James leapt forward to separate Evan and I from the two strange beings as a cacophony of voices and magic reached my ears from the direction of the beach. Half a dozen figures in black were racing this direction with all of us squarely in their sights.

  Rachel growled in frustration, momentarily torn between whom she needed to take care of first. I snatched my sash, balled it up, and summoned my sword from within, trying to be ready for anything. I turned to the creatures in front of me, but to my surprise, they snarled, hissed, and leapt right over our heads, furiously sprinting toward the oncoming midnight squadron.

  While the Owenses stared in shock, Jaspen and Bartholomiiu didn’t waste any time gaining on their heels, drawing their blades to engage with Rhydin’s scouts. Evan and I hurried after them, and as soon as we grew close, I gained confidence when I saw one of the black-clad invaders dissolve into sand after being impaled by the crimson-haired creature’s claws.

  They were just Einanhis. We had hope.

  “Don’t let any of them get away!” I shouted as I reached the fray, charging an attack spell and launching it at the Einanhi that was sparring with Bartholomiiu. The Einanhi dissolved, and I hoped I had gotten to Bartholomiiu fast enough to stop him from getting fatigued.

  To my surprise, he turned to me with a wild grin on his face, not weary at all compared to when they normally came into close contact with Rhydin’s magic. My mind raced with confusion, but now simply wasn’t the time. Bartholomiiu, instead, turned like lightning on his heel and plunged his blade deep into an Einanhi trying to sneak up behind him. It turned to dust.

  Evan made quick work of the fourth Einanhi while the two bloodthirsty terrors took care of the fifth. There was only one remaining that had separated itself from the rest, and my jaw dropped when I realized it was about to lay hands on Luke from behind. Images of Jaspen’s and Bartholomiiu’s horrific wounds and scars from the last time they had been touched by Rhydin’s magic, Rhydin himself in that instance, during the war burst in my mind. Before I even knew what I was doing, I drew upon my magic and summoned an attack spell, hurling it over my head as hard as I could.

  Before the buzzing ball of golden energy could make it, the last Einanhi grabbed Luke by his bare forearm. While my ears expected a scream of agony, Luke gave a loud grunt before he shoved the Einanhi off, and my spell collided with it, reducing it to sand the same as the rest. As soon as the danger had vanished, Luke rapidly began inspecting his forearm, his eyes widening and turning a deeper topaz with every passing second.

  Rachel jogged over to her brother, concern swamping her face. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  Luke nodded numbly as the rest of approached. His forearm looked nothing like the ugly, melted skin that Jaspen and Bartholomiiu experienced. It was red and blistering a little, like a bad sunburn that would likely peel at some point, but nothing more.

  An idea popped into my mind. “The Einanhi, Rhydin’s pure magic, touched him,” I said slowly, “Is it not as bad because he’s part human?”

  Rachel shook her head like molasses, incomprehension perfectly visible on her face. “No. We’ve been touched by Rhydin’s magic before and have plenty of scars to prove it.” She paused for a moment, still thinking, and then turned to her mate and other brother. She stuttered, “Did either of you feel tired at all around them?”

  One by one, Jaspen, James, and even Bartholomiiu shook their heads back and forth, their eyes as wide as saucers.

  “Neither did I,” Rachel murmured, before she suddenly remembered that the two creatures that were once Chelsea and Sonya were still here.

  She whirled on the two of them just as they turned into glowing, soft-blue silhouettes which stretched back up to the average height of a human being and lost the claw outlines. When the glowing faded, they appeared as Chelsea and Sonya again, the former appearing very sheepish while the latter seemed even angrier than she was before.

  Rachel crossed her arms furiously. “I knew it. I knew we couldn’t trust them.”

  Before she could move, I threw my hands in her direction. “W-w-wait! Our neighbors randomly transform into terrifying creatures, and that’s all you have to say about it?” I looked around at all the Ranguvariians surrounding me, who all
appeared calm if not a teensy bit miffed. Evan, on the other hand, seemed as panicked as I was. “What’s going on here?” – I turned to Chelsea and Sonya now – “What are you?”

  Sonya threw a hateful glance at my five Ranguvariian friends. She said still with the hint of a hiss, “I’m not surprised your special Ranguvariians didn’t tell you about us. They like to think Nerahdis only belonged to them before the humans invaded!”

  “And it did!” Rachel’s temper flared. “The land was ours and the seas were yours! That was the agreement that dates back a thousand years! I don’t see why you’re all still so angry considering the humans actually stole our territory while your waters remain untouched!”

  “Untouched?” Chelsea scoffed, “The humans have fished our waters so thoroughly that species have gone extinct and our hunters must work night and day to feed us! When we wanted to attack the humans and drive them back to their ships, your great Clariion refused!”

  Luke spat in response, “They had nowhere to go! We wanted to live in harmony with them. We Ranguvariians actually want peace unlike you filthy nymphs!”

  “Aatarilecs,” Chelsea corrected with a sneer. “Address us properly you ‘giants’!”

  “Alright, alright, enough already!” I shouted as I put myself between Rachel and Chelsea. “Will somebody please enlighten my brother and I as to what’s going on here?”

  James piped up with a surprisingly calm voice even as his eyes never left Chelsea and Sonya. “Ranguvariians are not the only native inhabitants of Nerahdis, or ‘mythical creatures’ as you humans like to call us. There are also Aatarilecs. Our mortal enemies for as long as our peoples have existed.”

  “Ah-try-lehks?” I sounded out the strange word and looked Chelsea and Sonya up and down. “Why do you look human?”