Kaianan- Anarch Read online

  “S’was asleep, sir.”

  And the shemozzle continued. It was completely unwise to leave the girl on her own. With her memory still locked inside her brain she had no idea who Dersji was, and it was highly probable she would try to run, given the opportune moment. He quickened his pace.

  Kaianan slid her eyes open. She heard distant birds. The air was muggy on her face. She must have slept in—for once. Dersji had created a small hut for her with his Kan’Ging aura using dead trees and bark.

  They had come back to the Elixir waterfall two days ago to stay here again for another few nights. The same spot where Kaianan had to help Dersji heal. She did as he directed and meshed together a concoction of ingredients and lathered it on his gut. After waiting an hour, she perhaps thought he was dead. But he began breathing eventually, and shortly after that he was back to his charming and conceited self—much to her disappointment.

  It had been four whole Felrin weeks with him. And if it wasn’t for the Daem-Raal she probably would have killed him already. They had moved several times over the course of their time on Felrin to keep from getting caught by scouts and the Felrin Congress. And all they did was train, and train again, until she was so sweaty, and so bloody she couldn’t train anymore. She wasn’t even sure where her strength had come from, but using Kan’Ging had become second nature.

  She didn’t want to train with him again today. Her two Silver Rapiers had calloused her hands so badly they were currently stiff. She sat up in the dark hut, small rays of purple sun trickling in through the holes. She was hungry and in need of a shower.

  She fixed her black slacks on, and decidedly not putting her smelly white tunic on, re-strapped her orchid chestplate across her chest instead, leaving her boots till last. Outside the hut, last night’s fire had turned to ash and Dersji’s tent was dormant opposite that. Was he still asleep too?

  She threw back the tarp—no-one was in there. Then glancing past the trees and searching deeper into the Woods Devine, she saw no-one was around at all. Not even Cuki.

  “Hello?” she said.

  Nothing.

  She lengthened her body, stretching her arms back. Her body ached as she did. Dersji’s training was becoming more and more strenuous, she’d struggled to keep up with him and her muscles were straining with every move she made. She turned her head to the side and had a whiff of her underarms and nearly fainted. She stank. Kaianan trotted off for the waterfall for an immediate wash.

  She undressed, and decided to wash her tunic and bra while she was in the water. The water was cool against her skin, but the purple sun, brighter than ever, was warming parts of the water up. She dipped her bushy hair under and breathed out as she closed her eyes and let the rays warm her face.

  There were birds whistling above on the cliff edge; she peeked her eyes open to several small pink feathered swallows singing amongst the dusty yellow and fuchsia coloured trees. Under the waterfall she heard smaller mammals gawking at each other.

  Nature was peaceful. Felrin seemed peaceful. She exhaled and scrubbed her body and cleaned her clothes under the water. Stepping her bare feet on the moss-covered pebbles, she exited the water and dressed in her chestplate and slacks. She wrung out her tunic and bra, and hung them over a branch to dry. Droplets of water from her hair dripped down her back. Kaianan stuck her fingers through her long thick strands and tried to detangle it as best she could.

  Using the water as a mirror, she stared at her reflection tying her hair up in half a top knot. This process and act was a common occurrence of every morning, but something about today made her stop. She really looked at herself today. White hair sat against her olive preform complexion. Her eyes swirled creamy grey. Her skin, which she touched with her left hand across her cheek where three scars had remained after the Fluger scratched her, was soft. In the time since she’d transformed and left Rivalex, Kaianan had become someone else. This wasn’t normal evolution either, physically she had transformed, twice in less than a few months. But it was what she had experienced in a multitude of moments after, which changed her.

  The shock death of her parents, Xandou’s betrayal, falling for Julius, nearly dying … Kaianan was always searching for the next obstacle … not ever noticing how the scars on her chest where Julius had saved her formed into pretty lines. Or the way her parent’s death and Chituma’s departure not only opened up a huge hole in her heart, they made her look inside herself to fill it.

  Dersji kept telling her: mental fortitude is everything. Our level of strength is not in our body or aura which both must be trained, it’s in the way you train, in the attainment of a peaceful and pure mind.

  Every time she had come face to face with her own possible demise, she realised, no-one could stop her from doing what she set out to do—and that was to save Earth and the rest of her galaxy from the Defeated King. The Felrin and their orders to kill her, the Giliou backstabbing, her parents thinking she was the sacrifice: none of this and not one of them could break her—

  Movement drew her eye.

  Kaianan could see herself in the water: morphing. The image of her face swirled around, turning black.

  Then the water was vibrating.

  All of a sudden, the reflection reformed, but it wasn’t her, it was yellow eyes, black scales, thick bulges and huge teeth opening inside a vicious salivating mouth. The fire was swirling; water bubbling. Kaianan tried to scream but nothing came out. She couldn’t escape this image, this black dragon—she couldn’t escape the Defeated King.

  With all her strength, Kaianan tried to pull her head back. It didn’t work, her face was moving forward into the water, into the image, while the fire kept whirling in her reflection.

  In a daydream, Kaianan thought she heard her name, but with her ears and head now submerged underwater she wasn’t confident.

  “Kaianan, Kaianan!”

  Who was that?

  In the thrashing, she felt her blade drop into the water. She stared after the drifting Silver Rapier; the silver glinting in the light, in the heat of the dragon’s fire, then slowly submerging into the water, it dissipated as if it was a decomposing substance and the water set off a chemical reaction. The heat swallowed the remnants of the blade and kept coming. It was inches from contact.

  “Kaianan!”

  On the verge of feeling the fire burning, or maybe it was her lungs drowning, she felt hands on her body and a huge force lift her up and out of the water. Her ears were ringing; she collapsed under the weight of the person holding her.

  “What the Holom are you doing?!”

  Her knees slid to the ground. Her throat was tight. It took a minute to steady her breathing. On all fours, still coughing water, Kaianan looked over a shoulder to Dersji.

  “Nothing,” she lied, not ready to relive to him the strange nightmares of the Defeated King in fear of what he might think.

  “You were trying to drown yourself, Kaianan!” His eyes widened in upset. “I know how you feel about your life and that death has been chasing you, but killing yourself is not the answer!”

  “Just shut up!”

  Cuki, at this stage, had his hands on her, patting her back, making muffled noises.

  Dersji grunted, “Why must we go over the same—”

  “I said shut up!” Kaianan was up dripping water down her body and staring at Dersji as if she was going to kill him. “I am training with you, I am believing you, I am confident I can kill the Defeated King. Stop asking anymore from me!”

  She regarded Dersji’s face as her panting lessened. Deep seeded brown eyes under furrowed brows and a squidgy creased forehead scrutinised her. He ran his hand across his top knot, down his long brown strands in impatience but refrained from speaking.

  “Sometimes,” she said, “when you don’t believe me, I wonder why you’re still here.”

  He sniffed. “Where else do you expect me to be, Kaianan?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, off galivanting in the Woods Devine? Making a covert return
visit to Felrin City? Maybe seeking out your Liege Shiek wife?”

  His blade was at her throat quicker than she could reach hers. “Your skills are pathetic,” he hissed out.

  “Isn’t that why you’re here?” she shunned the blade away from her.

  “We have trained for eighteen years together,” he said quietly, sheathing his blade, “I don’t know what you’re doing here, or what is going on in that head, but my belief in you can only be justified by the way you go about it. If you’re going to dip your head underwater just for the fun of it, tell me. Don’t stop communicating. I know you haven’t remembered me. I know you are trying your hardest to, but you must be patient. With time, it either will come back to you or it won’t. You must be able to accept either version. And you must be wise enough, that from this point on, you make up your mind about me. Because if you think you can do this alone, you’re wrong.”

  Kaianan licked her wet lips and held in her tears. She hated the pain she felt. Dersji was right, not only did she play the victim, but she thought she was able to do this all on her own.

  “I’m trying, Dersji,” she disclosed in a whisper.

  “Trying your best?” he sniggered sarcastically.

  She growled, “why are you laughing?”

  “Because you’re failing.” Dersji said firmly. “Where is your damn conviction?! Grow up Kaianan, it’s time to talk in absolutes!”

  She rose. “I will kill the Defeated King! There, are you happy?”

  Dersji had his arms up in a shrug. “Do you believe it?”

  She opened her mouth; she did believe it, but there was a small part of her that was avoiding how she was going to do it. Her lips closed shut.

  “Get back to camp,” he spat, “we’re eating Falcreet, and then we are training.”

  She reluctantly nodded. She hated when Dersji was a smart-mouth, but she hated it more when he was angry at her. She pulled her blade back up out the water keeping her distance and trotted off back to camp, reminding herself to return soon for her wet clothes.

  “Miss, a drumstick?” Cuki’s huge orange eyes smiled at Kaianan.

  “Any thigh?” she answered.

  “Yes ma’am,” the little maroon stick insect creature said. He sat crossed legged next to the fire collecting bits of meat off Dersji, his toddler-sized frame barely reaching out to Kaianan to hand her the portion of Falcreet.

  “Did you go hunting this morning?” she asked.

  “I did,” Dersji replied.

  Cuki nodded at her happily.

  “What are you going to do with him?”

  Dersji glanced sidelong at Cuki before he spoke.

  “Cuki will have to stay here when we go in search of a Conductor.”

  “No, sir please!” Cuki began, “I’m help sir, that what you wanted?”

  “Cuki—”

  “How does he speak such elegant Vernacular?” Kaianan interjected. “It’s like a talking child pleading with you?”

  “I’m very smart, ma’am.” Cuki said.

  “Cuki,” Dersji said, “you’ll listen and do what you’re told.”

  The Daem-Raal nodded and Kaianan felt slightly sympathetic toward him.

  He walked off with a small piece of Falcreet to eat on his own, and Kaianan heard him wailing from where she sat.

  “He’ll come to terms with it soon enough,” Dersji said.

  “Will you come back for him?”

  “Of course,” he snapped, “I’m not a liar.”

  “I would hope not.”

  Kaianan had seen too much death for someone like Dersji to leave a small Daem-Raal out here on his own. Even though she had killed many in the battle at Croone, Cuki was helping them and he deserved their refuge. But it was Dersji who continued to intrigue her.

  “How long did you spend on Rivalex with me?” she said.

  “I told you, eighteen years.”

  “And we trained that whole time, just like we have the past weeks?”

  “Yes, Kaianan.”

  “That’s why I’ve been able to survive so far, that’s why I’ve held out.”

  “You’re an exceptional fighter when you want to be, which I must say, is not often.”

  She scowled him, ignoring his rudeness. “How come we can both ‘port? Is it because of our connection?”

  “Hmm. I don’t think so. You see the Giliou under Giliou the Wise—like that lovely man, Boku Jove before he sacrificed himself—are a people of protection and care. They are selfless and unseeking citizens of the galaxy. Unlike the Felrin, the planet Felderin sought to fight for those without aura. Giliou the Wise is not a god, no. But he represents a people that are giving at heart … I don’t know how I’m giving, perhaps more to my son and the Felrin—but you are. You’ve always fought for the little guy, especially children and animals. I saw it in you growing up. I think Giliou the Wise gives people free time movement when they reflect his ideals. They use their aura not to overtake others in the hierarchy, or satisfy their egos, but to assist those who cannot assist themselves.”

  She didn’t know why this upset her but it did. She always considered herself self-indulgent.

  “I don’t love children and animals,” she confessed.

  “You might think that, but you can’t help but care for them when they are in need.”

  She didn’t want to talk about it. Reddy somehow seized her thoughts and a stabbing feeling went through her heart.

  “Did you ever attend the parties?” she said, going back to her Layos childhood. “Like my birthdays and my parents’ festivities?”

  “Kaianan, I was practically your surrogate father.”

  “Ha!” She held her stomach. “Did you brush my hair and walk me down the stairs too?”

  “Not quite.”

  “I didn’t think so. Training me like a Seevaar is one thing, being my friend is another. I’m guessing we weren’t friends?”

  “Nonsense, it was a working relationship, one I enjoyed.”

  Kaianan found that impossible to believe. He’d been as foul-tempered and abrupt as Arlise. She had a feeling Dersji would definitely be someone who kept their enemies just as close as their friends. That said though, people she had met spoke of him like he was some great person. Kaianan was unsure how true any of it was. But after the past weeks, she trusted he knew his stuff with Kan’Ging.

  A rustling sound graced her ears, her sight deviated from Dersji. Several glowing pupils were hanging around in the woods. “Can you see—”

  She couldn’t see what they were due to the distance but Cuki, looking like he was stuck in some kind of trance, was saying something to her. “You miss, they won’t ever harm you in this forest, you’re their master, you’re the dragon.”

  Kaianan froze as the vision of Cuki walking toward her and the glowing eyes suddenly all disappeared.

  “Kaianan?” Dersji’s voice unsettled her. “Kaianan, are you even listening?”

  “Do the creatures normally attack people?” she said quickly, eyes on Cuki still sobbing and eating his meat against a tree trunk, as if the past few seconds hadn’t just happened.

  Dersji nodded. “They hate the Felrin, imagine if a species culled your kingdom? How would you feel?”

  “I thought we are part of that kingdom.”

  “We are a different genus.”

  “Would that be true though? I’ve been in this woods with Arlise and now you, and we haven’t been attacked. Not once.”

  “It’s just good luck, or as Xandou would always say, good protection.”

  “Xandou?” Kaianan frowned; anger still embedded in her when it came to Xandou.

  “Xandou, your inaction will cost you and I think the time for forgiveness is over, don’t you?” Famous last words before she died at the hands of the Defeated King? Perhaps. But Kaianan distinctly remembered Xandou’s face, his expression, the things he told her: that she had to wake up. Wake up? After he’d lied to her about her knowing Dersji Brikin, lied about what the prophecy was
meant for, lied about what her parents, the King and Queen, wanted her to do—to be the sacrifice to open Holom’s Door. He was just a fraud. Her blood boiled thinking about him. “Did you and Xandou get along? Did you ever butt heads?”

  “Did we butt heads?” Dersji mocked with a snort. “Every day, Kaianan. The boy was in love with you.”

  Kaianan swallowed and her mouth went dry.

  “I was trying to turn you into a warrior,” he went on, “Xandou was trying to hole you up in your room and keep you there. I didn’t like the way he thought you needed to be protected, and he didn’t like the way I assumed you could fight better than he could.”

  “I remember sparring with him, not you … with Darayan and Archibel.”

  “On rare occasions he chose to spar you.”

  “Was he always so, so overprotective?”

  “Yes,” Dersji said, taking a bite of his drumstick. “Since I can remember, and I got to know him before you.”

  “Why does he think I need so much protection? I mean he lied to me, Dersji. Lied to me about me and you, lied about how I knew Kan’Ging.”

  “I’m going to be honest with you and say your parents put an immense amount of pressure on the young man. He tried his best to live up to their expectations.”

  She sniggered. “Not even I could do that, Dersji.”

  “Aye; he, unlike you, didn’t have real parents to seek love from. He sought it in them, and in you.”

  Kaianan felt guilt shoot through her.

  “Don’t pull that face,” Dersji said. “Xandou was told several times what his incompetence would cost him. I’m glad you have finally seen the true him.”

  “I feel like my best friend turned into a stranger the moment I found out he was set to marry Metrix and become King of Forsda.”

  “Yes, and it’s probably because in that role he wouldn’t have been able to protect you.”

  “I don’t need protection!” she exclaimed.

  “But you’ve become accustomed to it,” Dersji said, pulling at the chicken on the bone of his drumstick and shoving it in his mouth.