The Fledglings' Mentor

by C L Amos

  Sasha’s skip would be loaded next, and in death she would perform her final act of service to the High Council… a split second of light as the council executed the darkest hour in changeling history.

  Chapter 9 Green Fields

  Tom stood in the lounge with Julia, waiting anxiously for her to wake up. He felt nervous and alone. Sasha had left and with Julia still unconscious he felt alone and more disconnected with each passing second. He wrung his hands together and walked over to the window, stared out at the green fields that seemed to continue forever, rolling hill after rolling hill, seeming oblivious to the events that were unfolding around him.

  Einrich entered and put his hand gently on Tom’s shoulder, “The pack is pulling back as we speak, but I have stationed two lookouts close to the main road.”

  Tom turned to Einrich, “Thank you. It might sound stupid, but I have a really bad feeling about this… everything just seems off.”

  Einrich nodded, “The pack is also agitated and nervous; have you heard anything from Sasha yet?”

  Tom forgot all about his phone and went to grab it from the kitchen where it was charging… “Shit!”

  “And now, Tom?”

  Tom shook his head, “Sasha sent a message but then she deleted it. Why would she do that?”

  Einrich shrugged, “Maybe you should call her…it’s probably nothing but with everyone on edge it may just ease your mind.”

  Tom nodded and walked off to the window and stared out over the fields as Sasha’s phone started ringing.

  “Don’t bother… she can’t answer you.”

  Tom killed the call and turned to Julia. She was sitting up, her eyes glazed over as she stared through Tom and the very fibers of this world.

  Just then a raven began squawking overhead in pain… it tried to flee but couldn’t control its flight and crashed through the window breaking its neck on impact.

  Tom rushed over. For a second he thought it might be Sasha, but this was just a sign - a symbol of things to come. Tom’s stomach dropped as a wave of impending doom washed over him.

  Julia continued, “Her warning lost inside the void… and now …the wolf lies sleeping, the raven is bound and the cobra still… she has been taken into the void!! And now?... And now, the green fields … the heart of the clan…the heart of Blackberg will run red with blood as the Sow exacts her vengeance.” Julia collapsed back onto the couch.

  Tom grabbed her hand, “Julia are you okay… come back to me.”

  Julia finally awoke amidst the chaos, “Tom…Tom!”

  He came over and took her hand in his, her eyes still glazed, “I’m right here, Julia.”

  Julia looked around confused and tried rubbing her eyes, “I can’t see… I can’t see.” She grabbed tight onto his arm… “You need to call Uncle Pete; you need to let him know what is happening … we don’t have much time. We need to get out of here now.”

  A wolf howled out in pain; the sound cut off mid-way by the sound of rapid gun fire… a moment later a second howl sounded - it too was cut off by the sound of rapid gunfire.

  Tom called out to Einrich in panic… “Get the pack inside the house…Tell them to stand down! Tell them to stand down!”

  Julia shouted, “It’s too late…it’s too late…”

  Tom stood up and looked out the window. He could see the heavy armored vehicles approaching, the dust obscuring the view of the green fields…he took a deep breath and dialed Pete’s number.

  Chapter 10 Code Blue

  Marcelle put Jim’s phone down on the cabinet. She took Jim’s hand in hers, “Now! Where were we? …Oh yes… So, I received the most distressing call this morning! Bernard told me that a bomb had gone off and that you were being airlifted to the Mercy Port Hospital. Naturally my first instinct was to rush over and be at your side, but Bernard convinced me that we needed to hold an emergency High Council meeting. We all arrived at our headquarters within your security complex … must have been just after 9:00.” Marcelle paused and took a sip of water. “Well, all the usual suspects where there, the Rosendorffs, Bearbacks etc.… and all were most worried about you and how this had all come to be?” She took in a deep breath, preparing to rattle off the next bit, “Anyway, we called in a young sweeper, he had chased a suspicious looking boy down a side street, across a few roads and finally caught him as he made his way into another dodgy looking abandoned building…he is the one who radioed it in… the pictures from the scene were horrendous… anyway, I digress. There I was… and suddenly as if divinely inspired I was handed the golden platter… I stood up and declared that this was an act of war!” She paused briefly, “Oh I rattled off some little patriotic speech… as I said, divinely inspired, and before the meeting was over, the council had not only agreed that this was an act of war but they had agreed to give me special powers which allow me to assume full control of the High Council.” She paused and laughed, “My first motion as Chief High Councilor saw me strip Bernard of his co-regency and placed him under permanent lockdown. We can only have one clear vision in times of war!”

  Jim had only just returned from his four-hour emergency surgery and still lay unconscious; the doctor had said that the next 24- 48 hours were critical and that they needed to keep him in a medically induced coma to try and reduce the swelling in his brain.

  Jim was alive but barely; his bodyguards had died within seconds of the explosion, their internal organs ruptured, and their lifeless carcasses littered with shrapnel. Marcelle arrived at the hospital just as he was being wheeled out of theatre and into the recovery ward. Marcelle set into motion the largest full scale extermination of wolves there had ever been. She had always seen them as vermin, and now with an attack on one of the most prominent council members she was able to strong arm the other council members into agreeing to close ranks and launch a full scale assault on every wolfpack, in an attempt to bring the Faction to its knees… eliminating the potential threat they all faced.

  With the wolves out of the way and the entire council backing her, it also meant she could take a more direct approach with the prophesized fiveling… no one would bat an eyelid if she captured them now, as they would simply be two of a thousand wolves taken over the course of the next few days.

  She smiled; she would now get to draw the fourling and fiveling out of the twins at a much quicker rate. She had learnt after years of experimentation that the threat of death motivated changelings just as much as the stimulation of the base and sacral chakras. In fact, she found it far more satisfying to watch the life slowly slip away as death was tenuously kept at bay with the re-birth of another creature gifted to protect the individual.

  Her deeper, darker desire rooted in staving off her own mortality. If she could harvest the genes of the fiveling for herself, she could replicate the same chain reaction within her own cells and gain an extra thousand years of life.

  She kissed his hand, “So you, my darling Jim, you will be avenged… I have instituted a yellow alert and our army is gathering as we speak…every filthy wolf will be under lock and key awaiting extermination before the end of the week.”

  She stood up and gently kissed his forehead, “Goodbye, my dear old friend… your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”

  She walked up to the ventilator and unplugged it. She watched as his body started convulsing, fighting for air. The alarm began to sound, “Code Blue… Code Blue!” Marcelle waited for the heart monitor to flatline before plugging the ventilator back in to avoid suspicion and managed to walk out just as the doctors rushed in and frantically began checking his vitals. She wiped a dry eye and walked off into the corridor, fixed her skirt and caught the elevator down.

  Chapter 11 Indigo Awakening

  Tom left the third message on Pete’s voicemail as the last few members of the pack huddled together inside the house. A few of the men wanted to fight, to exact revenge on their murdered kin. Tom held his resolve, “Stand down… there has been enough death today!” He proceeded to raise his hand an
d waved them back, “Please just give me a moment alone with my sister.” He turned to Julia, his voice trembling, “Julia, what the hell is going on I am worried about you… what happened in your last vision… why can’t you see?”

  Julia reached out and touched Tom’s face, “I didn’t finish my vision and now I am trapped, seeing bursting hues of indigo. I have to wait for the Raven and the Cat to return… only then will I complete my vision and regain my sight.”

  Tom leant in close, “What did you see in your vision?”

  Julia stared into the abyss of emptiness, “The raven and the cat, they took me to the fields… I saw the bright red flash, which left the orange ambers hovering in the sky, charging it with intense negativity. The ambers were acting like a flint shot off a spark and caused a chain reaction which culminated in an explosive yellow lightning storm. The flashes were so bright that I had to look away and shield my eyes. So, I looked down at my feet which were covered with grass from the green fields. A warm red liquid started rising from the soil …it was the blood of a thousand wolves, and it flooded our fields. I looked around, my heart deep with an uncontrollable sorrow for the lives lost. Slowly an intoxicating, light blue, hazy fog started rolling in and covered all I saw in a clouded haze. I squinted into the fog and in the distance. I noticed small little flashes of indigo… they were moving erratically and as they got closer I realized they were fireflies … to my horror they were being chased by a large bear, the bear continued to get bigger and bigger, fueled by power and bloodlust… the bear was hell bent on destroying the fireflies and everything in its path… that’s the last thing I remember seeing before I awoke to my indigo induced haze.”

  Tom was more confused than ever… “None of it makes sense to me…What about Sasha? You mentioned a sleeping wolf, bound raven and still cobra … and something about her being taken into the void?”

  Julia rubbed his arm, “It’s difficult to explain but it was almost like staring into two mirrors… one in front and one directly behind… within each vision is another vision and it carries on and on until it is so small you can’t make sense of what you are seeing. I can’t sense Sasha anymore…,” She started crying, “I think they killed her and if my vision is correct then the bear is on her way for us. We are the indigo fireflies, and it’s the packs blood that is going to drown the fields with their blood.”

  The blacked-out SUVs screeched to a halt, driving clouds of dust high into the air. The men filed out and took positions all around the house.

  Tom ran to the window, “They are heavily armed, there are too many of them”

  One of the youngsters snapped, “You and your sister can escape; we can hold them back while the two of you take to the skies.”

  Tom turned, “That is not an option!” He started pacing frantically.

  Julia looked around trying to follow Tom’s voice and scent as he paced. She was blind but could strangely lock in on his thoughts; she saw his plan and immediately a vision of it being short and unsuccessful end flashed through her mind. “Tom, forget it, the pack will never make it into the woods, they will be shot down. Your first instinct was right; they are in the safest place right now.”

  He bent down, “Are you reading my mind?”

  Julia nodded, “I think I am. The man outside is waiting for someone… I think he is waiting for the bear from my vision.” Julia began sobbing uncontrollably.

  Tom wiped the tears from her face. “We know why she is coming, and we knew this day would eventually come. That bombing changed something, but they still need us… and they will keep us alive as long as we don’t give them what they want sis. We need to stay strong… as long as we are alive, we have a fighting chance.”

  Julia nodded, “I think I see where you are going with this…You want us to hand ourselves over to her, and while the sweepers are distracted with us, our pack tries to escape into the woods?” She nodded, “I can’t see if it will work this way either… it’s 50/50”

  Tom squeezed her hand, “If just one of them manages to survive, then it will be worth it.” He stood up, “Tell everyone in your contact list what is happening here, broadcast it wide… take pics and share… a bear is invading our land and has already killed two of our brothers, and they plan on taking Julia and I hostage. When we walk out there, their focus will immediately shift to us and in that split second you must run, spread out as far and wide as you can and make your way to the Eastern clans. They won’t hurt us until the rebirth of the fiveling, but our survival rests with the support you can generate from the other packs. They say it is darkest before the dawn and we are heading into a very dark chapter.”

  A chopper approached from the west; Tom squeezed Julia’s hand. “It’s show time.”

  As the chopper landed Tom walked out of the door, his hands raised above his head. He called out “Don’t shoot!” He held out his hand and guided Julia out the door, “We are unarmed.” Tom’s eyes immediately locked with Marcelle’s as she climbed down from the chopper.

  Marcelle walked closer, her gaze meeting his, smug and unfaltering.

  The tension in the air was ripped apart by the sudden rapid fire of gunshots and the cry of a wolf. Tom winced in pain… “Call your men off!! You have us!”

  Marcelle laughed, “All wolves are to be brought in dead or alive for questioning regarding this morning’s bombing…it’s your choice.” Tom glance to the side; the sweeper had his weapon unstrapped in his holster. Tom dove at him, pushing him to the ground, and pulling the gun from the holster cocked it and raised it to his head. “If another one of my pack is shot, I will kill myself and you will never get the fiveling.”

  The sweepers all looked back to Marcelle for guidance, “Lower your weapons.”

  Tom shouted, “Run… Run now!!” His pack exploded into the forest, running as fast as they could.

  She shook her head, “You are only postponing the inevitable. They will be hunted down like the dogs they are and be brought to justice for the death of Jim.”

  Julia cried out, “We had nothing to do with the bombing!”

  “If that was true, then why wouldn’t you let them come down for questioning? You act as if your pack has something to hide.”

  Tom shook his head… “We are only concerned with our pack’s welfare… you have already taken three innocent lives today.”

  Marcelle became impatient, “I have played your games long enough.” A sweeper grabbed Julia from behind and pointed a gun at her head. “We only need one fiveling and your brother seems pretty sure it’s him… making you expendable.” She looked at Tom… “You have five seconds to put the gun down… Five … Four… Three… Two…”

  Tom dropped the gun. The guard released Julia and handcuffed her, while two men jumped Tom and wrestled him to the ground.”

  Marcelle climbed back into the chopper, “Bring them to the complex and kill the rest of their mangy pack.”

  Julia sat sobbing quietly while Tom just hung his head in defeat, praying that he had bought the pack enough time to escape.

  As they approached the compound, they were met by a long line of trucks, all filled with wolf changelings young and old. Their vehicle came to a halt and Julia looked around, still unable to see, “Are we here, Tom? Can you see what’s going on?”

  They were stuck in a traffic jam of trucks some waiting to offload bodies – some were already dead, and the rest would follow soon enough. The furnace was full, and the skips lined up; they were pieces of human coal waiting for incineration. Tom shook his head and tried to protect his sister, “Just the usual city traffic.”

  They finally pulled into a loading bay in front of the main building. The back of the van opened, and Julia and Tom were hit with the thick, unmistakable stench of death. They were pulled from the van and dragged up a steep trolley ramp.

  Julia turned to Tom, “This place smells of death.”

  Just as Julia said that, a body dropped down the chute, its fall cushioned by the bodies already lining the skip�
� Tom gasped. In that moment a deep emptiness rose in the pit of his stomach and cried out … “Sasha!!!” he glanced back at the trucks carting skips to the furnace and knew within the depths of his soul that Sasha’s body was amongst them… her dead body, waiting for incineration. He turned to Julia, “We have lost.”

  Julia shook her head. “Have faith, Tom… have faith! If she can’t be with us in person, then she will be with us in spirit… don’t lose hope, Tom.” She wasn’t sure if she even believed what she was saying, but she needed to give her brother some sort of reassurance even if it meant lying to him… the truth was that she too was doubting everything. She had never seen this possible reality in any of her previous visions, so how could she trust anything she saw? She felt stupid and naive for thinking - for believing - that Tom and herself were in some way special enough or powerful enough to bring down this massive operation… they were just tiny specks of dust in a vast ocean that of the High Council.

  Chapter 12 Into the Darkness

  Pete’s flight took two hours to complete and as he landed at his shared home with Janey, he was apprehensive and filled with an overwhelming sense of dread. Janey’s car was not alone in the driveway; at least three or four cars flanked every side of the driveway and even from where he stood the faint humdrum of chatter and arguing could be heard.

  Just then Pete felt someone hit him hard in the back as they forced his body to the ground and cocked their rifle. Pete opened his hands and moved them slowly away from his body, “I am unarmed.”