Kaianan- Anarch Read online

  © Cara Violet 2019

  ISBN: 978-0-9953667-3-2

  www.caraviolet.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Cover by Mitchell Nolte

  The Kaianan Trilogy

  Kaianan

  Queen Kaianan

  Darayan (Companion Novel: Kaianan 2.5)

  Kaianan: Anarch

  The Prequal Novella

  The Battle of Middle Forsda (Coming 2020)

  THE WORLDS OF THE UNIVERSE

  FELRIN GALAXY

  Felrin System

  Felrin – Species: Felrin

  Sheroon – Species: Extinct

  Rawl – DESTROYED

  Roame System

  Waterak – Species: Unknown

  Rivalex – Species: Gorgon, Giliou, Necromancer

  Fewdeter – Species: Jugwugbugy

  Dowaric System

  Janjuc – Species: Sprite

  Valendean – Species: Kinsmen

  Vengard – Species: Mandalayn

  Feldara System

  Elzara – Species: Archa

  Felderin – Species: Giliou

  Delrinmino – Species: Chormeda

  Hyravane System

  Hilan – Species: Harpy

  Whidal – Species: Aquamorph

  Tinwala – DESTROYED

  Abergot – DESTROYED

  Croone System

  Croone – Species: Daem-Raal

  Havan System

  Deloit – Species: Crucibal

  Sari – Species: Sarinese

  Namea – Species: Necromancer

  WHIRLEED GALAXY

  Star Systems – Unknown

  HOLOM GALAXY

  Absentee System

  No planets

  MILKY WAY GALAXY

  Solar System

  Mercury – species: N/A

  Venus – species: N/A

  Earth – species: Preform human

  Mars – species: N/A

  Jupiter – species: Sewan

  Saturn – species: N/A

  Uranus – species: N/A

  Neptune – species: N/A

  For you, who in fifty to a hundred years’ time, will make change.

  Contents

  KAIANAN: ANARCH

  Prologue

  PART ONE

  Chapter One: Patience is a Virtue

  Chapter Two: Felrin City

  Chapter Three: The Horrors of a Foreseer

  Chapter Four: A Walk to Plead an Immoral Case

  Chapter Five: Blood and Water

  Chapter Six: A Gathering of Gatekeepers

  Chapter Seven: Three’s a Crowd

  Chapter Eight: A Liege State Funeral

  Chapter Nine: The Felrin Citadel

  Chapter Ten: Becoming Excessive

  Chapter Eleven: A Bigger Picture

  Chapter Twelve: Farcry

  Chapter Thirteen: A Duality of Lies

  Chapter Fourteen: The Shiek Verticals

  Chapter Fifteen: The Only Way Out is Down

  Chapter Sixteen: Negotiating the Heart

  Chapter Seventeen: For Fun and Games?

  Chapter Eighteen: The Preparation Ball

  PART TWO

  Chapter Nineteen: Somewhere Far Away

  Chapter Twenty: Conviction of Status

  Chapter Twenty-One: A Conversation of Mutiny

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Sewing Hearts

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A Startling Arrival

  Chapter Twenty-Four: The Pretender

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Thoughts to Think, Feelings to Feel

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Can’t Keep a Caged Animal Down

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Doing what is Right

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dethroning

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Run Faster

  Chapter Thirty: A Warning

  Chapter Thirty-One: The People Decide

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Open Your Eyes

  Chapter Thirty-Three: The Amalgamation of a Solid Bond

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Friends Through Time and Space

  Chapter Thirty-Five: The Amalgamation of a Solid Bond Part II

  Chapter Thirty-Six: The Invasion of Hilan

  PART THREE

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Announcing Authenticity

  Chapter Thirty-Eight: Home and Heart

  Chapter Thirty-Nine: A Broken Man No Longer

  Chapter Forty: A Fragmented Goodbye

  Chapter Forty-One: Dying is My Friend

  Chapter Forty-Two: Erratic Behaviour

  Chapter Forty-Three: Natural Enemies

  Chapter Forty-Four: No Time Lost Between

  Chapter Forty-Five: The Binding Ties

  Chapter Forty-Six: The Sacrifice of Dersji Brikin

  Chapter Forty-Seven: Love in the Deep

  Chapter Forty-Eight: The Ramification of a Love Lost

  Chapter Forty-Nine: Event Horizon

  Chapter Fifty: The Whirleed Galaxy

  Chapter Fifty-One: Civil War

  Chapter Fifty-Two: Turning Pernicious

  Chapter Fifty-Three: A Process of Deviation

  Chapter Fifty-Four: Agree to Disagree

  Chapter Fifty-Five: Sile Sends Love

  Chapter Fifty-Six: Together

  Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Diplomatic Matrimony

  Chapter Fifty-Eight: Clarity

  Chapter Fifty-Nine: An Escape Artist at Work

  Chapter Sixty: The Departure

  PART FOUR

  Chapter Sixty-One: A Certain Outcome

  Chapter Sixty-Two: A Home away from Home

  Chapter Sixty-Three: Send Word

  Chapter Sixty-Four: A Friend, A Fighter

  Chapter Sixty-Five: Unwelcome Arrivals

  Chapter Sixty-Six: The Painful Truth

  Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Universal Election

  Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Reckoning

  Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Predictable Verdict

  Chapter Seventy: In Two Pieces

  Chapter Seventy-One: One Single Crack

  Chapter Seventy-Two: An Emotionless Goodbye

  Chapter Seventy-Three: A Way Out

  Chapter Seventy-Four: Reconciling Earth

  Chapter Seventy-Five: Back to Felrin

  Chapter Seventy-Six: A White-haired Banshee Stands Alone

  Chapter Seventy-Seven: A Fake Party

  Chapter Seventy-Eight: A Rude Awakening

  Chapter Seventy-Nine: Ambitions Aside

  Chapter Eighty: The Leverage of Fulcrum

  Chapter Eighty-One: Dripping Paint

  Chapter Eighty-Two: Embracing the Unknown

  Epilogue

  KAIANAN: ANARCH

  Prologue

  They’d landed somewhere. Somewhere completely unknown, and not even five clicks of the tongue and ‘portation could get Xandou out of the mess he was in. With Ryar and Jahzara hobbling along at his rear, he was stuck weeding his way through an overgrown, over-infested, stinky forest.

  “Come on Saffie!” Ryar called out.

  “Enough of that!” Xandou said, letting his frustrations boil over.

  “Let her go, Ryar.” Jahzara’s voice was clear and Xandou frowned at the heartlessness of the words.

  “But she can’t survive on her own.” Ryar panicked. “We’ve no idea where we are.”

  Jahzara spread her palm out forward, bending branches aside and exposing a flock of birds. Not the Felrin Dovelet but smaller, bluer, more petite and squeakier in their calls. “She’s found some friends.”

  Ryar made a noise. “But she needs protection? She’s a domesticated animal—”


  Jahzara laughed, her orange curls falling about her face. “The key word is animal, Ryar. Her instinct is still there,” the Conductor of Rivalex stared after Saffie who sat intently on a perched branch staring at the family she so craved to meet. “Sometimes stability is in the family we long for; one already settled we can join that represents us, and no matter the loss of protection, the love and happiness is worth the risk.”

  Xandou observed Jahzara shift her palm right, merging the two branches and allowing Saffie a chance to hop over to the others.

  “Hmm,” the Giliou Shielder began, “I don’t know if Dersji Brikin would take so kindly to you unleashing the pet he owns.”

  Jahzara snarled at him.

  “Nothing—no-one is owned, Xandou.” Her words were curt, “Everyone has the right to consistent love. And not everything needs to be wrapped up and hidden from the world.” Her eyes went back to the birds who’d begun squawking at each other. “Saffie knows the risk, she’s willing to let go of her human dependency because of it. Question is,” Jahzara dropped her hold of the branches and gave the birds their own space while focusing on Xandou, “are you capable of the same?”

  “After what you’ve done?”

  “How you clutch to others?”

  “I clutch to no-one.” Xandou’s voice was raising uncontrollably.

  “To Kaianan, you do.”

  “I’ve given up that—”

  “You only say you have,” Jahzara bit back, “your mind is clouded with guilt!”

  “I’ve heard enough!” Ryar interjected, “All these things are happening, and my family is back home on Forsda where war could be brewing! Things aren’t okay, but you two need to stop attacking each other while we work it out!”

  Xandou breathed out, uncertain.

  “I am asking you both,” Ryar said, “because I’m angry too, and I will not stop being angry until I get home.”

  “Home is not where you think it will be, young Ryar,” Jahzara said. “Don’t let our anger make yours any worse.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means nothing,” Xandou said. “It means we all think differently and Jahzara has her own way of dealing with things. Right now, we move forward.”

  No-one spoke. The silence was comforting. Xandou simply turned and headed for a small clearing. But it wasn’t a small clearing. It was a wide, gravel pathway.

  “Where does it lead?”

  Xandou shook his head at Ryar. “Possibly to a civilization.”

  “Are we stuck here—”

  “Let’s work it out as we go, shall we?” Xandou was trying not to sound condescending. He wished the silence would return.

  Thankfully it did. They continued walking without exchanging words; the path getting wider and wider as they scaled the forest: eyes peeled, looking for a way out.

  His senses told him nothing. It had been hours since the sun began escaping them. Daylight was running out. Xandou had no idea how much longer it would take to locate a species let alone a Homo captiosus civilisation.

  One more step on, high-pitched noise startled him. He felt shivers up his spine.

  Creatures were screeching. The path was as big as it had ever been.

  “What’s that?” Ryar said apprehensively.

  The morbid sapphire sky was riddled with darkness and stars. Shadows crossed by above them; they looked to the flickers of light sweeping by.

  “Salators,” Jahzara said, narrowing her sight.

  “A Sala what?”

  “Screaming Salators,” she repeated. “The hunting fish of the sky.”

  “Who they hunting?”

  Xandou didn’t wait for Jahzara’s answer, he already knew. Firing up in aura and flicking his blade up and out, he ushered them toward the forest.

  “This way,” he said rapidly, his aura burning through him in anxiousness.

  Immediately, Xandou stopped in his tracks.

  “What are you waiting for?” Jahzara panted.

  “Turn back!” He screamed.

  A huge Salator emerged from the overfilled trees. Shrubs and branches snapping apart as a narrow flat head, as big as Xandou’s chest squawked at them in desperation; spit flying in its wake. The tip of its ginormous pointy beak was dipped in colour; bright spots of yellow and crimson matching its rising scaly body and featherless wings: four claws sprawled either side, spotted and webbed for flying. It was the Salator’s large talons on its hind legs it was now standing on that had Xandou unnerved.

  “Watch from above—”

  “Help!” The shout came amongst the barking Salators.

  Rotating, Xandou witnessed Ryar in the clutches of a Salator that had pierced one of its talons into the young boy’s collarbone region and was elevating them both into the sky. Sending an aura beam to the Salator behind him and a revolving blade to the Salator in the sky pulling on Ryar, Xandou ‘ported to the flying bird grasping Ryar, landing atop it.

  The beast struggled in response; tackling his grip with an airborne snapping beak.

  A sudden vibration milled below them. Then everything stopped.

  Time stood still.

  Xandou felt Jahzara as he had in the watchtower back on Rivalex.

  There she was. Below, the sea of tentacle hair and black pinafore strips spread, flapping about as the wraith summoned the Siliou into her control.

  The Salator’s rough skin under his palms the only thing he could comprehend—Xandou was frozen. They all were.

  Billowing black aura cascaded upward. Blindness upon him; the mist took over. The next second the Salator was unconscious and falling from the sky.

  “Not again,” Xandou chastised, eyeing the short fall and bracing himself for impact—repositioning the beast away from Ryar with whatever movement the fall provided him. They picked up pace—

  Squash!

  Bones crunched. Xandou had managed to work the Salator’s body under Ryar and protect him. In doing so, his own body took a hit—abandoning the free time movement for the in-training Shielder. Laying awkwardly in discomfort and catching his breath, Xandou rolled away from the injured Salator and over to the evading darkness; it took a while for the smoke to finally clear.

  “I’m sorry.” The masculine voice said, becoming visible.

  “What for?” Xandou wheezed out, standing, getting a clear image of the white eyes and pale skin of the wraith that stood well above him. “You haven’t stopped them yet.”

  Jahzara flinched.

  In no time, the screaming Salators ringed out in fury.

  “I’d say they are angrier now.”

  “Sir,” Ryar breathed out in thanks as Xandou painfully lifted him from the gravel. “Thank-you. Are you okay?”

  Blood dripping from his mouth, Xandou held in his broken ribs. “We have to keep moving—”

  Reek! Reek! Reek!

  Several Salators turned into over twenty. Every which way Xandou pivoted he was met with those spotted pointy beaks and drooling cries on land and in the air.

  “We’re trapped,” Jahzara’s deep voice said.

  “If you didn’t decide to send out a flair,” Xandou said calmly, “we wouldn’t have alerted the entire flock to our arrival.”

  “I—” she began to defend herself but a small cry broke through the others. From behind them.

  The Salators flapped their mighty wings toward the ground to stand on their hind legs and stopped wailing. They were relatively silent. The small cry from their rear grew. Xandou almost dropped to his knees when he observed the pint sized Dovelet come into focus.

  Squawking, Saffie, flapped hard and fast toward them. Stopping as she met them to face the Salators. A mere purple speck in the gravel as she closed in her wings and pushed out her chest. Her neck elongated upward and she addressed the animals twenty times her size in ravenous squawks. What she continued to rant and rave about, Xandou did not know. But she went on, and intermittently the Salators listened.

  It was by a stroke of sheer triumph, t
hat when the Salators screeched and made hefty holes in the gravel as they disembarked and disappeared into the night sky, Xandou knew, allowing that bird its freedom was what saved them.

  Saffie, swivelling around to them, bowed and also soared into the sky.

  “Thank-you,” Xandou said, interested in staring after the Dovelet, who he swore winked back at him.

  PART ONE

  DEMOCRACY

  Chapter One: Patience is a Virtue

  Dersji slid back the arrow from the bow he had assembled while hiding in the Woods Devine, and let it soar. Through the sky and past the bright coloured trees and straight into the Falcreet it sunk. The huge bird, with thin blue legs, a fluffy pink round torso, and flat beak, howled and whimpered while it fell to the ground.

  Dersji inched over to the animal, pulled out another bow and put the bird out of its misery. He didn’t like to see it suffer, nor did he like killing animals unless required. You would think, as one of the most notorious warriors the universe had seen, he would be accustomed to the effects of killing by now. But no, Dersji was not untouched by the thousands he had killed in his one thousand, two hundred and ninety-two years as an immortal Liege. He just got masterfully better at numbing the feeling.

  The second moon was not hanging around for long and Dersji, after wrapping the Falcreet up, headed straight back to camp, where there were three mouths to feed, not just his. After all the debacle and the release of the Defeated King, he had somehow gotten himself caught up in a complete shemozzle; his former Menial had turned into some type of hybrid banshee and the Daem-Raal, who he had befriended on planet Croone—was literally stuck to him.

  “Get off, Cuki!” Dersji tried to fling the tiny stick arm and stick leg critter off him.

  “Sir, breakfast?” Cuki beamed at him, falling to the ground.

  “You fool,” Dersji grumbled, the Daem-Raal brushing his maroon skin down, getting to his feet, “of course it is, now stop making a racket, some of these animals in here are not impressed with our presence, so keep it quiet and let them sleep or roam elsewhere.”

  Cuki nodded and walked closely beside him.

  “I thought you were watching Kaianan.” Dersji said, ignoring Cuki’s heavy breathing.