Kaianan Read online

  She shook her head, sending a hateful glance toward Xandou. This relationship had been tainted. She thought she needed him, that he cared about what she had to say. He didn’t. He, like her parents, wanted her to be seen, not heard. “Did I ever have a choice, Xandou?” She rose, finding a new sense of self wash over her. “Since my birth even? Will it ever be my choice?”

  “It won’t,” he muttered. “I’m sorry.”

  What was he sorry about? That his people deserted her or that she was being shipped to a planet far, far away. She wanted nothing more to do with Xandou. She hid the anger she felt toward him and turned around to walk back to the Ruins of Middle Forsda, not giving him the satisfaction of a reply.

  Kaianan washed the blood off her face. Her hair dripped water. They’d given her one hour to clean up and be ready for dinner. Food had been brought to the Ruins via the Giliou. They were currently rationing it all out and ensuring enough people were provided with evenly portioned meals for at least the next week. There were so many tents and marquees set up now, Kaianan was somewhat happy the Gorgon people had shelter, and very thankful it wasn’t winter.

  The redness in her fingernails wouldn’t come out as she scrubbed herself clean with the small silver bowl of water she had been handed. The blood was stained in her fingers.

  “You need some more, madam?” A young Gorgon boy asked behind her.

  “No,” she said automatically. The water that was brought needed to be spared. The people needed to drink. “Can you please leave me?”

  “Do you need – er – anything else?” He said, Kaianan heard his voice was shaky.

  “No, thank-you.”

  “Okay, there are two Giliou Shielders stationed directly outside your quarters, mam, if you need anything please let them know and I’ll be sure to get it for you.” And he was gone quicker than anything.

  Something inside of Kaianan felt strange. She hadn’t seen Seran since her transformation, and the way this boy was acting around her, it was like she was some sort of –

  “I’m a monster.” She dropped the water cupped in her hands and turned back around to the opening, where he’d departed. They were scared of her. Were they all scared of her?

  Could she blame them?

  Tears filled up in her eye sockets. She couldn’t blame them for everything going horribly wrong. This was all her fault. She burst into tears. The past night had just caught up to her. Loud sobbing cries released from her hiccupping body. She hated seeing all that blood. Bladework used to be fun.

  She pushed the silver bowl away and took her eyes to the small grey tent she was in.

  “Breathe,” she said to herself. Real life was always going to find a way to her. Why had she thought she would be sheltered from all of this? Why did she think she would be immune to feeling?

  The tent fabric blew in the wind; she breathed in and stopped crying.

  Thank the Sarinese Gods she had requested a separate room from her parents to bathe in, they wouldn’t allow her to sleep here though. It afforded her with time to get completely undressed out of Xandou’s bloodied robe and washed up into new clothes. As royalty, she was lucky there were a few spare clean tunics and slacks provided, not many other people had the luxury of clean clothes after a hostile invasion.

  She’d slowly re-dressed. The sun was shining so brightly outside it seemed a shame to waste it. Going outside was not something she was allowed to do though. Her mother and father wanted her hidden; the less the people knew about Kaianan the snaked-headed beast, let alone the Rivalex Mark who’d started the period of enlightenment, the better.

  She laughed stupidly at her predicament and finished tying up her dark green tunic that was long enough to sit over her black pants to her thigh. She strapped her leather boots in and fixed her coarse hair. Her thoughts went to Chituma. Xandou had said Metrix was trusting. She hadn’t believed him then and she didn’t think she believed him now.

  Chituma had no proper training in aura, she was dreadful at swordplay and never spoke a word out of line. There was no rebuking nature within her. If she got into trouble … no, Kaianan didn’t want to think about that.

  She recalled the book she read before her ceremony about the Felrin. Why was she reading it? What mattered about the Felrin? About Sheroon: A Missing Species? And who had left her the notes on the side of the page? What about the Felrin cruiser appearing in Layos?

  Could she find answers in the Felrin system? Wishful thinking.

  All she had to do was obey orders. Orders sending her on an intergalactic journey to Earth. She wondered if it was the right thing to do. Prince Addi had warned her, was it about this? About leaving.

  Prince Addi. The Necromancer Prince. He was as far from any orderly Felrin as you could get. Yet thinking about him made her smile. She touched her shoulder where her flesh had regenerated. He did this. A flash of his captivating red eyes and parted grey mouth seized her brain. Her whole body tensed up.

  “My lady, your parents are waiting for you.”

  The words broke her thoughts; she pushed Addi right out of her mind and promised not to think of him again. Kaianan nodded at the Giliou Shielder who had stuck his head in, and gathered herself up to join her family at dinner.

  “You look fresh.” Kaianan heard her mother comment as she sat down on a chair in the royal marquee.

  “Don’t I always?” Kaianan replied.

  “I thought your attitude would have lessened since your transformation …” Agantha eyed her father, “none of your friends speak out of line.”

  Kaianan ignored her mother and looked around at the marquee, which had a lot more things in it than there was this morning. Her mother was filling up the place with as many Stav beds and rugs and blankets as possible. Kaianan learnt forward in her Miry chair, the Miry table in front of her was small. Only room for four people. When her father sat down though, it was basically only big enough for him. Kaianan could tell her mother was displeased at this, yet under the circumstances she had no other choice.

  “This isn’t a contest of powers, my young child.” King Reon was staring his chubby face at Kaianan, she dropped the irritated look she had toward her mother in understanding. Kaianan didn’t have the power yet. Not as a princess, but she would as a queen. “Now,” her father went on, “you have transformed into such an amazing hybrid, this is exactly what the period of enlightenment expected …”

  A few Gorgon boys began serving them bread which looked four or five days old, and then they set down three bowls with some sort of green slop in it. Kaianan stared down at it as her mother decided to speak over her father.

  “Your father is right, as the Rivalex Mark, Kaianan, you will set the universe in new alignment.”

  “What about the Felrin?” Kaianan asked, the memory of that book still fresh in her mind.

  “They don’t live on Rivalex, do they?” Her mother laughed. “The Gorgon people are relying on you.”

  “But I saw a Felrin cruiser here.”

  They tried to hide their faces from her, either by eating or turning away.

  “Nonsense.” Agantha said darkly, “don’t try and change the subject. This is about you. Bringing about universal order for our people Kaianan …”

  Kaianan had begun eating the slop, it actually wasn’t that bad. She kept shovelling it in her mouth so she would stop herself from snapping at her parents. That anger she felt toward Xandou, she felt toward them too. Why was she so angry? Maybe because everything about the prophecy was an assumption? And they like talking about what ifs?

  She finished her meal before them. They had kept talking, she asked to be excused, she wasn’t allowed to leave the marquee. There was a Stav bed in the corner for her. She’d ask for a book; no one had any. When the table was cleared by the Gorgon boys, and her parents were continuing to rant on about what will be the best way to get back into the Manor and make sure Kaianan has a place to ‘be the Mark’ when she returned, Kaianan found a thick blanket, jumped on the Stav and pus
hed herself so far underneath it, it covered her whole head.

  Just one night. She told herself under the covers. Closing her eyes, she attempted to sleep, but the Felrin text book kept popping in her head and all the pages that were marked: aura versus aura, the Havan System, The Deloit Pest: Mugadeer Population Control, a name circled: ‘Dersji Brikin,’ Felrin: The Greatest Evolution, Rawl: The Unknown Destruction, and the last one, that she had learnt about since school: The Fall of the Defeated King: Saving Rivalex.

  What did any of this have to do with her? Besides the Rivalex section, why was she researching the other events? What about the Felrin cruiser in Layos? Her eyes had pressed together so hard her head began to ache. After a few more minutes of trying thought, Kaianan let the deliberations go and sleep finally struck her.

  Chapter Ten: All Locked up With Nowhere to Go

  The cell door screeched shut after the General threw Dersji back in here to wait for the Felrin Liege. Aradar powered up the aura destabilisers and departed. Dersji sat on the floor of his cell, against the concrete wall, legs crossed, contemplating his own death. Maybe it was possible for an immortal to die. Perhaps. The memory of holding Arlise in his arms and his heart breaking as his son’s heart stopped beating assailed him.

  Congress wanted him to find Arlise? It was insane.

  It had been over twenty years since he’d even let his son’s name enter his mind, to even let the memories of his death come to the surface, but here they were. This hurt, and not just a little bit. The blood was back on Dersji’s hands, dried on his tunic and chestplate. The horror of Arlise’s death was debilitating to Dersji. Didn’t they know that?

  He pressed his hands against his face and he pushed his fingers through his hair. He tried not to feel the pain; tried to let it go.

  It was useless. He remembered everything. He had been to blame. Sachin had blamed him. The Felrin Congress acquitted him—but what right did they have to do that? Arlise was not assigned to his last mission, Dersji was. And Arlise had broken the Felrin command by aiding his father, and in doing so ending his own life …. So holom-bent on proving himself.

  Dersji hated the way Sachin and the Liege had pushed Arlise. He needed time to become a Liege. Dersji knew it took patience, and emotional composure. Arlise had a life of high demands and many conflicting opinions. Dersji wished he had given his son better instruction. Where’s that onion when I need it?

  “I’ve been observing you, Dersji.” Sachindra sat on the bed in Brikin’s cell.

  “Is there a game on? Are you hunting, Sachin?” Dersji scathed back.

  She played with her hair, brushing the curly strands with her fingers. “No, Dersji. Can’t I stare at a man in conflict?”

  “As long you don’t have any blades out; I may actually survive.”

  “Dersji! I’m here for comfort,” she replied, nostalgically.

  “Oh yes, I’m all for great comfort.”

  “Hush your tongue!” She snapped.

  “We have no more Siliou connection, dearest. Can’t snap my mouth shut anymore, can you?” Wench.

  “Will you ever forgive me, Dersji? You know how hard it was for me. You just up and left. I found out from Congress about your exile on Rivalex. Why couldn’t you tell me?” She got up off the bed and went over to sit down in his lap.

  Forgive you? When they last thing you said to me was … I wish you died, not Arlise. Can you be any more contradictory? “Get away, Sachindra.” He looked away from her but he could not escape her sweet scent of vanilla filling his nose and shifted uncomfortably.

  “No, I don’t want to,” she said, resting her head on his chest. “I’ve missed you so much.” She spoke into his collapsing lungs.

  “How is it I still allow this?”

  “Don’t you miss me too, Dersji?” She wiped her tears on his tunic.

  “It’s been, what, eighteen, no twenty years, Sachin. I don’t know you anymore,” —and you’re most likely still a wench— “please get off me and sit over there.”

  “I only wanted to say: be careful out there. The Daem-Raal are a violent race and I don’t know what they will have done to him, Dersji,” she said, scurrying away from him.

  “If you’re so worried about it, why haven’t you done something already? You would have known about this a long time before I did.”

  “They won’t let me go. They know as a mother I can’t keep my relationship out of it. I have requested to go on three separate occasions, and each time I have been denied. I have never gone against Congress, Dersji. I just needed someone to find him.” She stared at him with affirmable guilt.

  “Ah …” Dersji murmured and could see every inch of her was tense, “You asked them to find me and recruit me, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t know they would break your Menial from you. I thought you would go together.”

  Dersji was too bewildered to argue with her. He smirked at the thought of Sachin asking Congress to instruct Dersji to find Arlise. It would have taken a tremendous amount of courage, considering they had departed on such bad terms. Perhaps not the biggest wench.

  “I want to show you something, it’s about your Menial,” she finally said, composure overcoming her.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “I’ll bring you straight back here when I have, I promise. They won’t find out.”

  “Just tell me what it is.”

  “You won’t believe me even if I tried, and you know it, Dersji.”

  It was true. It didn’t mean Dersji wanted to be shown anything.

  She got up and with a few waves of her aura undid the stabilisers zapping around his cell. “Lucky we’re not connected anymore.” She smiled. “You coming?”

  Dersji stared straight at her. Every inch of him told him to stay and wait for the other Liege. For Liege Lofar and Liege Ryhad. Deep inside him though, the young adventurous Felrin boy he used to be was bursting to come out.

  “Fine.” He got up and followed her, knowing any wrong move he made, would be a reason for the Liege to kill him. Here’s hoping.

  Chapter Eleven: Euclidean Vectors

  The moonlight had been shining to her left when she went to bed, now it was streaming in from the right.

  It was only early morning though, perhaps just past midnight.

  To the right, on the next Stav bed, her parents slept. They had spent over two hours talking through what was going to happen from this point on before they retired. Kaianan had stayed under her covers the whole time without saying a word. She had come to the realisation she didn’t know them anymore. These people were different. Either that, or she just didn’t belong. It was exactly the same thing with Chituma. Kaianan didn’t understand how she fit in with them all. Her family were not like her; or she was simply not like them.

  Her parents had discussed the consequences and ramifications of her actions, they then advised on her abilities as a hybrid Gorgon, they also explained what the period of enlightenment would eventuate to: some utopia where the Gorgon set the parameters on Rivalex.

  She had hugged them good-night, and kept her brain clear during the whole conversation. They were ill-informed and fearful of so much. Adamant that the only people that mattered were the Gorgon. It didn’t make sense when they lived so closely with the Giliou. Wouldn’t they want peace with them too? And what about the Necromancers?

  Kaianan’s heart pulsed and her hands sweat. Prince Addi’s big red eyes under that long-tousled charcoal hair came to mind. There was just something else about him. Was it only his Siliou ability? And if he was a Silkri Drake, could she trust any of the people in her life with that information? At this stage, no. None of them believed her, none of them thought she was capable at all to help. How long would she have to do what they said though? Until she was killed in the process?

  She was irritated by the whole situation. Not as much as she was irritated with herself for thinking about the prince again. It was not the time nor the place.

  Angry, she pulled t
he covers back over her and slammed her eyes shut.

  A chirping bird reached Kaianan’s ears; morning was upon them. She dressed silently and did not disturb her parents as she departed. She’d said her good-byes last night, she didn’t want to interrupt their sleep, and she didn’t want to get any more emotional than she already was. She blew a kiss to them, grabbed a small piece of bread from the table and turned. It had been an overcast and chilling evening; the crisp air hit her when she swung open the marquee.

  Two Giliou Shielders bowed their heads as she passed them and she walked through the camp chewing on her breakfast. Small fires were being set-up outside some tents and Gorgons smiled at her as she passed. Kaianan promised herself she would do everything she could for them when she was in charge to prevent civil conflict destroying their planet. She wouldn’t allow this beautiful planet; with its two sunstar sunny days, its large forest in the Valley Woods, the Ebel filled Swamp, and the many different species living in cohabitation—she wouldn’t allow anyone to diminish this rich history and culture. Not now, not ever.

  “Kaianan.”

  Her head turned. Almost on cue, Xandou was approaching, his legs on an angle as he took large strides downhill.

  The two Giliou Shielders that had been following her, ceased and headed back to the royal marquee.

  As Xandou drew nearer, his face appeared worn out and beat. The clean Giliou robe that he had re-suited in prior to his departure had become dirty. Where exactly had he been?

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “Morning,” she replied. “Where did you go?”

  “Nowhere,” he answered after a moment.

  If he didn’t want to talk about it, then neither did she. Their relationship had somehow come to this point. Not that she cared, he’d arrived just as promised, and after deliberations with her family, and her painstaking curiosity about Prince Addi keeping her up half the night, departing Rivalex for a while might be a blessing in disguise.