Kaianan Page 15

  Chapter Nine: Accepting Confrontation

  The Ruins of Middle Forsda, the retreat point for the broken Gorgon and Giliou Shielders, held a gloomy atmosphere upon Kaianan’s and Xandou’s arrival. They walked wordlessly through the remains of the white castle that had been scattered across the grassy landscape. Bulky remnants protruded from the ground, a daunting reminder of the destructive civil conflict that took place between the Necromancers and the Giliou and Gorgon under the regime of the late Esri Nermordis twelve years ago.

  Esri Nermordis sparked a war.

  Apparently, the Battle of Middle Forsda was about trade. The Sile governance had said it was about resources, but Kaianan, after last night, had a feeling they were after her because she was the Defeated King’s Rivalex Mark. It was about that stupid prophecy in the Hunted Gorge that tied her to them. What would killing her do if she was meant to create a new universal order though? It didn’t make sense? Or were they trying to kidnap her? Either way, war was a good way to kill two Seevaars with one swish of the blade—trade and her. Pity King Esri didn’t see the error of this; it cost him his life. She didn’t think his brother Elli would have gone down the same path. Yet he did, and this time, Elli Nermordis had succeeded. Another war, one on the Manor, to be added to their already tumultuous history. She shook her head in disgust.

  As they got closer, Kaianan noticed a Giliou Shielder mending a Gorgon’s wound.

  Kaianan knew the Giliou, or known on Rivalex as the race of baby-faced blondes, were the Homo captiosus species that had broken away from Felrin to become guild protectors of the Siliou—G-iliou: Guild of Siliou Protectors.

  However, that notion had obviously waned after last night. Only a few hundred Giliou showed to support Xandou against the Necromancers and they were succumbed to defeat. So much for following in Giliou the Wise’s footsteps. Kaianan nodded to the Giliou Shielder woman, her long blonde hair running down behind her azure robes, and her pale face smiled through her blue eyes. Her hands still working away, dipping in two different bowls, salve and hot water most likely, and then she wiped across the Gorgon’s wounds. She was a healer, and with the right mixture of ingredients, Kaianan knew they could repair just about anything, bar death.

  She sighed. They were a beautiful people, inside and out. Kaianan prayed they would stay that way.

  They moved on. Tents and marquees were currently being erected between the wreckage to accommodate them. Back in preform, the majority of Gorgon hammered in tent pegs, and gathered wood to set up camp. Kaianan gazed at the bleak and disheartened faces, there was nothing she could do to bring back the friends and family that had been lost in battle. Her fingers were numbed and her eyes diverted from their pleading faces; this was her fault; she didn’t want to keep staring at all the damage she’d caused so she kept her head down. Ashamed.

  She followed Xandou quietly until the sky in front of them lightened with the dawn and they entered the main marquee in the centre of the ruins. Surrounded by the white interior, warm lantern lighting, and a few wooden desks and chairs, her parents, redressed in light coloured robes, looked up at her in despair.

  “Kaianan, are you alright?” Queen Agantha exclaimed, rushing over.

  Kaianan moaned as her mother hugged her, “yes, Mother. I have healed.”

  Agantha pulled her out of the hug, blood and stickiness catching to the woman. “Healed? Where did the wound go? This may be a quality of the change? The prophecy has given you gifts.” Agantha turned to confront Reon whilst Kaianan’s face displayed her irritation.

  “Maybe,” Reon ushered out, as Xandou stood next to him. “We’ve seen her great physical transformation, as great at our beloved Medusa. Our daughter has been sent to us as a blessing … the Rivalex Mark … we expect this greatness to flow through her.”

  Kaianan narrowed her gaze at her father feeling indifferent, “I doubt it.” The healing had occurred at the hands of the Prince, but she wanted to keep that a secret for the time being, at very least until she was sure what in holom’s name was going on.

  “Nonsense, Kaianan.” Agantha said firmly. “How are you so sure? You’re blessed with greatness, the people know that now, they expect it—”

  “I’m not capable of healing.” Kaianan found her voice. “The wound wasn’t that … well … serious.”

  “I saw the blood,” Agantha said sternly, her eyes gripping onto every inch of Kaianan’s lying face.

  “Not enough to do damage—”

  “My Majesties,” General Tafen entered the marquee with his two lieutenants, bowing his stringy black hair and plump body and cutting off Agantha’s further questions—much to Kaianan’s gratification.

  “Yes, General Tafen?” Reon snapped.

  “The perimeter has been safeguarded and Giliou and Gorgons are on watch on alternate shifts.” The general said, “The ruins are perfectly arranged above the hilltop, so we can predict an attack well before it arrives. We will post guards around the clock.”

  “General,” Kaianan interjected, slightly irate, “do we have sufficient forces to be able to fight now, or are we to remain ridiculously stagnant?” She had no idea why, but she felt this deep-seeded urge to speak her mind. That something had to be done to fix all the people weeping out there in the Ruins. “We need to rally the Gorgons now. The threat is imminent, the Necromancers won’t yield, there is no time to waste soldiers on guard rotations; if I’ve triggered the enlightenment, we must pledge assailants to dismantle the Necromancers now.”

  Xandou, whose sweaty and bloodied blonde hair and robes made him seem more threatening than ever, stepped forward. “Kaianan, it is time for you to be unseen; leave the strategy to our own army. You and your parents are safe here and General Tafen knows—”

  “Nothing!” Kaianan yelled; emotion surging through her. From the blank nothingness of her memory, to standing there in the middle of the Guest Hall and transforming into a hybrid Gorgon, her anger was pulsing in her muscles and bones right at this moment. She would find a solution for her people. “I am telling you, Xandou, we cannot let them take claim of the Manor. Stop trying to control every situation!”

  Apart of Kaianan was yelling at him for what he had done to her by lying about Metrix. He deserved her words.

  Xandou brushed his hands through his dirty locks, clearly agitated and stressed. “Calm down, Kaianan, you need to be patient. Don’t be rash simply to comfort your anger. This can’t be turned into a suicide mission, we are all broken-hearted, now is the time for rest and recuperation.”

  She wanted to scream: ‘LIAR!’ She wanted to shout at the top of her lungs that they were all hopeless and pathetic.

  Instead the anger settled in her. Kaianan took her body across the room and dropped into her mother’s throne chair, exhausted—exhausted from the battle, exhausted from the conversation, exhausted from overthinking. It was time to stop arguing.

  “I beg your pardon, General,” she said politely. “Your plan is sufficient. I just have some personal vendettas that must be settled.” She closed her emerald eyes and exhaled feeling the adhesiveness of her hair all over her neck. She got up, looking for a cord or tie between the belongings on the table. Her change back to preform had her looking like a dirty, unkempt spinster. When she finally located one, she started to tie the top half of her hair in a top knot, turning around to sudden blank faces.

  “Kaianan, you will do no such—” Her mother began but stopped, studying Kaianan’s hands finishing her hair.

  No-one said a word. Had they just seen a ghost? Seemed odd; nevertheless, everyone was silenced so she took the opportunity to speak: “Relax, Agantha. I will resolve them once I return.”

  “Bite your tongue, young lady,” Reon’s voice was malice-filled; Kaianan had never seen her father so angry before, “speak to your mother with respect. Do not make a mockery of this family now just because you see ill fit to carry yourself after battle.”

  Ill fit? They had scrutinised every little detail about her life. As i
f playing with Seevaars and Ebels, and swinging blades with Xandou, Darayan and Archibel was unladylike and not fit for royalty. This is what she was trained in, superbly trained in. Did they not see why Xandou worked so hard for them? For her? Her actions were far from ill fit. This was about their damn period of enlightenment!

  Kaianan felt her face flushed with indignation, “Father, I was stabbed. Did you not see me fall?”

  “Of course I did!”

  “Then you would know the person who carried me away was Xandou, and he will do it again now to get me to my safe lock. Xandou,” She looked to him and wished he would go back to his normal confident self, and that everything was okay between them, it upset her to see him so exasperated. “We’re leaving.”

  “You listen to me, young lady,” the King summoned with a shake of his fist, “just because—”

  Kaianan blew out the air in her lungs and tried to mask her father’s words by thinking other thoughts—about the Prince, about her extensive knowledge of combat …. suddenly his voice began fading out and light-headedness took over. When she tried to open her eyes, she couldn’t. Exhilaration spiked inside her chest as her stomach clenched through some sort of free fall. The next thing she knew she was standing on the outskirts of Middle Forsda, one hundred and fifty metres from the Gorgon Camp and the marquee she was in mere moments before. The purple aura flowed through her and she bat her eyelids, sceptical she had never felt such energy before—or had she?

  Purple sparks zapped around her. Kaianan stared at her hands. Xandou materialised out of the remaining embers as the purple mist evaporated back into her body.

  “How did you find me?” she said in shock.

  He took a moment to reply. “I shadowed your ‘port out.”

  She widened her eyes. “My ‘port out?”

  “Yes, the trail that remains for a few seconds when someone skips through time,” he said firmly. “You just ‘ported, Kaianan.”

  “What? I did? But, how could I? Gorgons can’t ‘port, only Giliou.”

  “I don’t know, Kaia,” he sounded agitated. “Can you do it again?”

  “I don’t even know how I did it the first time.”

  “Try again. You closed your eyes, and then the purple aura flowed around you.”

  “It did?”

  “Well, do it again. Close them now and try to teleport.”

  Kaianan crossed her arms and slammed her eyes shut. “Fine.” Silence fell. They waited.

  “Think of somewhere to go, somewhere close, and picture being there,” he instructed, and Kaianan could hear the frustration in his voice.

  “I’m trying.”

  After a long minute, Xandou huffed angrily. “Enough. Leave it. You’re doing more harm than good straining your mind like this,” he sighed. He parked himself down on a fallen tree trunk.

  “Fine.” She sat next to him, a metre away and he shifted closer.

  “Look,” Xandou began, “I wanted to talk about earlier—”

  “There is no need.”

  “Is everything okay between us, Kaianan?”

  “Yes,” she lied, “why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Because of the information you received?”

  “Why would that worry me?”

  “No reason.” He sat there silent.

  Kaianan felt her blood boil. There was so much going on with her at the moment, Xandou’s indiscretions were not something she ever wanted to talk about, let alone know.

  “It is very unique that you were able to ‘port, Kaia,” he said and she turned to face him, “More importantly, we must harness this ability before you lose it. Even though I have my doubts about you ‘porting, this will give you the upper hand. No enemy will expect you to know how to ‘port. In combat, it can be the most lethal weapon; you have the ability of free time movement. No boundaries of placement, as far as your vision can see. This is Giliou the Wise’s gift. He gives it to us, but rarely to others.”

  “Rarely?” she said in perplexity, “I thought it had never been given to anyone outside the Giliou race?”

  “Why did you do that knot?” he said, not answering her question. She titled her head, “on your head, in your hair,” he specified.

  She shrugged. She had no idea why. It was strange he would even ask.

  “Where are you taking me, Xandou?” She questioned his distant gaze.

  “We are going to be leaving the Felrin Galaxy completely, Kaianan. We are going to the Milky Way Galaxy,” he finally responded.

  “Intergalactic travel?” Her eyes widened.

  “Yes. I was the one who scoped it out when I first became a Giliou Shielder and could travel via the Euclidean Vectors. It is a very safe system and planet.”

  “How so? What are the species like?”

  “There are only two species in the Solar System. Jupiter’s moon has the Sewans, inferior to the form on the third planet from the single sun, Earth, which habitats our preform, humans.”

  “Our preform?”

  “Yes. The form before, they were one of the colonies that ventured to our galaxy I believe. Along with several other preform worlds.”

  “No aura use then?”

  “No, Kaianan. They are Homo sapiens.”

  “What’s the point in this?” she said confusedly. “How is that going to help me survive?”

  “It will help tremendously. We are lucky enough to be able to hide on a planet no-one travels to, and even luckier we have been able to persuade Earth’s former Conductor, who after a thousand years of keeping the Euclidean Vector closed, to reopen it for our safe arrival. You are in deep hiding with the humans, Kaianan. You should appreciate the fact they’re letting us in.”

  She mulled it over. “I am appreciative, Xandou. I do fear my knowledge …” She struggled to find the right words. “… well, no aura use, the inferior human race could be bothersome,” she stated, thinking of how the topic of dresses and socialising put joy into Chituma’s life.

  “Not inferior, Kaianan. The human form we all take is our inauguration. We were once completely human, a preform, Homo sapiens, a body with a dormant source. It takes something more to believe, to embrace the Siliou and transcend above the normalcy in which the citizens of Earth remain.” Xandou turned her face to his. “They are our kin, yet to learn about the Siliou. Try to understand from their point of view.”

  “I will try.”

  “I know … Listen to me, you will be positioned among the humans as one of them; you are not to use any form of the Siliou, and you must remain neutral at all—”

  “I will need to tap into the Siliou to protect myself,” she cut in.

  “No. You won’t. You will be in deep hiding. No Siliou use at all. This way you will not be tracked,” he said, with an air of finality. “You will be a preform; take on a preform name. You will live with a group of unclaimed humans and blend in. No transformations, and certainly no ‘porting.”

  “Unclaimed humans? Come again?”

  “Apparently, people give up their offspring and send them to institutions that care for the unwanted beings until another guardian wants one.”

  “Who gives up a child?”

  “Kaianan, this planet is unlike our own. They cannot sense the Siliou, so they do not harness any sort of aura. Their Euclidean Vector has been closed for over a thousand years, with only a few other world stragglers remaining underground. The humans are a mass; we have a population of five hundred thousand on Rivalex—there are seven billion humans on Earth.”

  “So many of them, yet no-one can perceive the Siliou?” she said, startled. “Have they even tried?”

  “It’s a race of survival, Kaia. This survival is away from utilising the Siliou.”

  “How have they survived the galaxy wars, and Holom, and the short reign of the Defeated King?” She had so many history lessons on the subject she knew most feeble systems had been greatly affected. “Why haven’t they been wiped out like most of the others?”

  “No-one ever both
ers to travel there,” Xandou said in justification, “and there are no resources known that channel Siliou—a few Underworld creatures perhaps.”

  “Strange.”

  “I have to run a few errands, see the Conductor and straighten out a few misunderstandings,” Xandou said. “I am leaving you here with your family and the General. You will be safe here for tonight. There are Giliou Shielders guarding.”

  She sighed. “Can’t I come with you?”

  “Not where I’m going,” he said, standing up and patting down his robes. “I promise I will be back in the morning to get you to your safe lock. In the meantime, get yourself fed and clean, and please make peace with your parents and say goodbye before my arrival at first sunrise.”

  “I will,” she agreed, with haste. “What’s the plan? Hide out for a season, then back to Rivalex to start the Insurgence?”

  “Kaia, you won’t be returning until the Insurgence has succeeded in taking back the Manor.” His eyes left her face. “You are too vital to be part of the conflict.”

  She put her head in her hands and bottled the anger. “There’s the Necromancers after my skin,” she said in a muffled voice, “… Rivalex domination is at stake, and the Giliou seem to not want to be our neighbours anymore … Xandou, I need to be here, I need to protect Layos and my people, my family …”

  “No,” Xandou’s tone was callous. “I’m afraid Princess, that in the interim you just don’t have a choice.”

  Kaianan stared at the weeds growing among the grass. At the spiky leaves invading the soft parts of grass. Her stomach had dropped. She felt sick. Sick about everything. So much had happened in such little time, but the question was—would she really be ejected from fighting against the Necromancers? By now she should be trusted, as someone able to assist. Though she wasn’t sure what her transformation was, indisputably she was a lot stronger than the others, definitely more capable. How had they missed that? Was it because her outspoken mouth made them think otherwise?

  And with all the feuding still going on, Rivalex politics threatening to destroy the people, she should be here to help out. She wanted to stay.