Evanescent (26 page)

She gave him a disgusted look. “Please, just get him away from me,” she groaned, then hissed as she tried to pull back the pain.

David was the one pacing now. “Oh man, I don’t like this one bit.”

“Then leave!” she shouted.

“It’s coming now!” Robert shouted, his swaying body knocking a clutter of canisters and cups to the floor.

Without further hesitation, the males in the room had found their way out of the tent.

I looked to the others, then back at her. “Thandiwe, I nee…”

“Anything you want, take it, it’s yours.”

“Umm, okay.” I snorted.

My body hit a wall of shock as her thin fingers encircled my wrist; I struggled to twist out of the vice.

“Troy,” she whimpered.

Behind the golden reflection of light in her pool of dark and desperate eyes, was something eager to release.

“I am not delivering this baby!” I looked to Anaya, but her eyes only flashed back the same confusion.

Sweat dappled the young queen’s dark features. Shaking her head vigorously, she took a sharp breath, her head dropping between her knees, she was mumbling something.

“Thandiwe, honey, please – we need to get you to lie down.” Anaya lifted her chin, wiping her forehead.

“She’s going to die.” Thandiwe looked straight at me, then silently closed her eyes, her breath returning in loud rasps.

“What did you see?” I asked her.

There was a slight sting pushing against the cloud of my own thoughts and I let my mental wall drop, opening to something she was clearly warning me against. Every push was different, some chose colors, others images. But Thandiwe pushed emotion through, which was very difficult to do.

When the push came, it was nothing I could ever have expected. It was an explosion into my head – a solid crash of despair, followed by a shudder of terror as it rippled and leaked out in tendrils of pain, leaving a hollow, dark place in its crater of finality. But I knew her vision was just that; a possibility, a flashing red light, to let me know that there is going to come a time where I must choose a difficult path.

“What is it?” Anaya whispered.

I watched Anaya’s lips move, but the words were lost.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” I told her, finding my way out of the tent.

“Bongi!” I heard Thandiwe’s soft cry emanate through the thin tapestry.

I recognized Bongi as the tall herder boy from the fields. Only, he had grown much taller and broader, it hadn’t even been that long ago. Whatever diet he was on was working.

“You need to assemble the troops,” she said to him.

I shut Thandiwe’s premonition out of my head. It had no place in my thoughts.

“And, Bongi?” her voice carried slowly.

My eyes fell to the small gap, a blue beam of light crept over the floor into the shadows of the tent. He sat on his haunches in front of her, where she tenderly removed his hand from the spear. Their foreheads touched. “Go well.”

“Yes, my queen.”

I stared into both Robert’s and Dave’s somber faces as Bongi came out, the groans of discomfort alerted us to our departure once more.

“Where are we going?” Dave dropped our bag between our feet and started packing himself with weapons.

“You think you have enough weapons, greedy?” Robert mocked.

“I will
not
die today,” Dave said.

“No one is going to die.” I hoped.

“Father!” I called back to Dad, I had never even seen him leave the tent. “Whatever,” I said more to myself than anyone around me, when I found he was nowhere in sight.

Bongi hovered around us. “The storm beyond the veil has lifted.” He frowned. “We should go now while we have the opportunity.”

I nodded, then restocked my harness.

“This is madness,” Robert grunted.

“That is what it means to be a warrior.” Tatos gave a soft smile. “To always be prepared.” He took off between a small path, which would lead us out of the narrow cluster of tents. We passed our main manufacturing tent where Greg came out to meet us. We rounded the last tent out of the camp and simultaneously came to an abrupt stop, but as usual Robert wasn’t paying attention and slammed into me. I clicked my tongue at him.

“Wow!” Dave said. “I had no idea the storm was this merciless outside,” he said. “What the hell are our tents made of?”

“Magic.” Robert folded his arms, looking back at the almost transparent shield cupped over the village. The sun was gleaming off its blue haze a hundred feet above us and for a moment, the sky appeared brilliantly azure. We all looked back to the maze of tents and colorful huts as they stood unharmed beyond the slight shimmering of the shield’s wall. The rest of the landscape surrounding the village had not been so lucky. Trees ruined yet still intact with roots, sprawled across a bed of torn branches and flattened bushes, big craters evident where boulders used to mark the perimeter of herding fields. The fact that Father’s replication of Ava’s shield was holding, soothed my anxiety of leaving the village. I thanked our lucky stars that the rebels were held in the caves of Mount Inja, even if my dad’s sanctuary was now known to all – it was a small sacrifice he was willing to make for their safety.

“Let the others know we are departing immediately.” I secured my weapons to my belt for a second time.

David put the earpiece in, and softly mumbled to our sister command in Vista over the secured frequency.

“We haven’t had any meals today,” Robert protested. I shot him a look. We had lived in the comfort of our own ways, way too long. Our design would be tested for the first time. The Minoan warriors crossed through the shield’s barrier first, and we followed suit. In the expanse of open fields, I noticed for the first time the battle markings on Willard, Rion, and Tatos’ face and arms. Their beads had been removed, and more feathers had been added to their chosen weapons with the mirrored effect strung in their long hair. It was hard to read their expressions under all the war paint.

My face twisted in mock amusement. “You had time to paint your face?”

Tatos gave the usual blank, yet sarcastic stare. “You don’t like it?” His eyebrow cocked.

“Don’t mock the paint, man.” Rion popped his head out from behind his tall leader, a cheesy grin spread across his face.

“Nice one!” Robert gave him the thumbs up.

David’s soft grumble caught my attention.

“How long until they send some reinforcements?” I looked at Dave for confirmation. I should have left five minutes ago. It was no mystery to me as to how Ava had vanished, I had seen it happen before. Only now, after reading the coordinated journals of the Two Mothers, did I fully understand how the Shadowing disease connected each blood member. We had discovered intimately through Ava’s thoughts, and through the words written in the Broken Diaries, that when in close enough proximity, one carrier of the disease was connected to another, and when mixed with the darker arts, could be called on will.

“So, let me get this right.” Robert rolled his eyes, his fingers waving before him. “She was blood transported.” Gently his head nodded, trying to make sense of it in his own words.

“It’s like teleportation, the carriers use their blood signature as the vehicle, and their minds as the wormhole. Their body matter simply dissolves and gets fed from point A to point B,” Greg stated, like it was common knowledge.

Robert’s nostrils flared.

Dave stepped around the two arguing men as I carried on our walk to the gathering point.

“Will your father be coming?” he asked.

“He will meet us there, I am sure,” I answered automatically, but my mind was somewhere else.

“I know that look.” David crossed his arms, coming to a standstill. I stared into Tatos’ back as he was the one pushing past us.

Sighing, I felt the guilt of withholding trickle up.

“You are keeping something from me.”

“Yes,” I confessed, finally able to speak about what had been plaguing my mind. “Enoch has been using Ava to spy on us,” I confirmed, feeling anger take its hold with a fierce, hot, grip in my chest.

Robert swore behind me. “How did you figure that one out?”

“It wasn’t easy. I never would have expected it, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. The timing of all the events, her strange behavior. He is hiding behind her. That is why I took her to the apartment with me, why I left her with you guys that first night back. There were certain things she could not know. So perhaps, I mislead him through her.”

“Some of the things she knows, are things we did not want him to know,” Dave scowled in dispute.

“Perhaps.” I gave him a wry smile, slapping him on the shoulder, adding a complacent tone for effect. “Let’s go.”

We trailed through the remnants of the cyclone. The heat wave left the air hot and humid, causing the ground to dry quickly, leaving behind shallow pools reflecting mauve skies on their shimmering surfaces. My hunger to find Ava became restless and wanting. If I lost her to the Shadow, I had no reason to be, and so I would simply seize to exist, death would come back for its claim straight into my beckoning arms. It was a vicious, ravenous monster that would cause me to risk my oath as her guide – I would change her fate and mine if it meant I could keep her safe, change the natural cycle of life if I had to. It had always been my number one priority to love her until the time came where that luxury would be taken away from me. To love her for one minute and burn an eternity for it, was worth it. If she could feel what I felt for her, for even the briefest moment… This is what it means to be the Ignited one – it moves me with claws of unattainable power, devouring me from the inside. I had fought it for far too long, thought myself selfish for wanting her so badly. But, I was slowly starting to realize it was our path. My only regret was that I had not shown her sooner. Screw the prophecy.

A rampant fire inside me kept house only by my desires and raging regrets. It had been a long time since I had felt it so intensely, the burn was hard to digest. The feeling brought on the deepest remorse for how I had handled it before. I was no innocent, I had almost taken a life because of it. I had no right, none at all to take a life. The worst part is he deserved it, but I was not meant to think like that. I was a warrior of souls who had judged him against all my so-called beliefs. I would have lost her that day if I hadn’t taken things into my own hands. So now, I had selfish to add to my ‘achievements’. I could possibly not slip down the moral ladder any further. Dad was freaked, because I was heading down the same path he had. It was our destiny to deliver the weapon. But what he doesn’t see, is that it’s our path. This time I had to restrain myself, this time it would be at my hands that I lose her. Thandiwe’s vision was clear on that. I loved Ava for her weak moments. I’d remember her in the tender ones. Our first kiss. I carried it in my heart for all my days, through all my struggles. I would find the compassionate Ava with her shy smile, her vibrant beauty and her gray, stormy eyes that swallowed me whole. I would not believe a stupid premonition, there was just no way I would harm her – ever. I would find her and carry her every step of the way, until she no longer needed me. The thought lifted me through the dark moments. Perhaps it was a good thing Ava was not around, that way I could use my magic. It terrified me, of course it did, I had only used my true magic once and its power frightened me. I was perhaps not ready for any of it, but I had no doubt in my abilities any longer. Reservation was something I could not afford to have. My mind sobered the moment we arrived at the gathering point. Dad already waiting on us. I looked to him as we stood before the traveling mirror; he was looking absolutely exhausted, running on vapors of magic at that point. Even a simple spell like healing was no longer a comfort to him.

“Dad?” I pulled him back from the gathering crowd.

My eyes caught the single-file row heading through uprooted trees, and a carpet of leaves that made the path impossible to find.

“What did you do?” I asked him, fully aware through experience what his earlier absence meant.

“I had to, you must believe that,” he said in low whispers.

I studied Dad’s sunken shoulders, his shifting eyes. “I was wondering why Thandiwe was able to make it this far.” I suddenly knew.

Dad’s shoulders slumped further forward in defeat.

“You can’t save them all,” I told him.

“Would you accept that answer?” He cleared his throat, a smile playing behind a haggard face.

There was more. “Why can’t Anaya heal you, Dad?” Everyone had noticed his limp.

“I don’t want her to.”

“What?” I was shocked, and he was being ridiculous.

“She is going to need it more.”

“You know something?” I queried, studying him.

“No, just call it a feeling.” He turned, hiding his face from me.

He looked at my leg but I, of course, had healed the very moment Ava was out of my honing range.

I stared up at him. “You are not coming with me this time.” I was adamant.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to make that offer,” he said on a smirk.

“You just needed to tell me Dad. You don’t owe us anything.”

“Would you have told me?” he teased.

“Stop that,” I joked. “Those antics won’t work on me.”

Dad and I both looked to the clearing skies, listening to the mass crush of feet through hidden paths as Zulu warriors gathered.

“Dad, the power of sustaining this shield, it’s going to kill you.” I looked back at the glimmer dome over the Zulu village.

“You would do the same to save so many.”

We found ourselves in the grain fields, or what was left of them, when it suddenly hit us all as we gawked at the disaster. The crops in the Zulu lands and no doubt in the city, were ruined. Soon the Council would attack the small Minoan village, taking out their food supplies and holding them hostage into obedience, them being the holders of any and all nutritional resources. The Zulu village could not possibly have stockpiled for more than a few weeks during the small amount of warning they had, thus leaving the entire planet at the mercy of the Council. The timing of the attacks were perfect.

The girls stood beside us, watching in horror and a mixture of awe of what might be our final hour, fear rode our veins in waves as troops went through the rippling, glossy surface of the traveling mirror. We had found a way to expand its surface to accommodate our masses, but this meant the mirror was made weaker, and had to be turned off for a while once we crossed over; the surge of energy too much, which would cause the entire thing to overheat and melt down. This would be the first time we actually tested the upgraded version, not even sure if it would work or come back on, once we passed through. There were now two mirrors on that moon, one Enoch and his father had replicated that stood in one of the towers in his fortress; the other, the accompanying one we were about to enter, stood behind the dunes and mountains of golden sand, our original landing point behind the green lake. Father had filled me in that the hidden moon had been a guard post for Poseidon once, and that its location behind so many dust clouds was exactly why we had never known about it. I spared one last glance around as the last of the troops headed in. We had to time our entry just right for our designated troops to go through the correct ‘tunnel’, at the right time. If they entered and slipped into Enoch’s replica – some would probably not make it to the other side due to the surface area being too small. Anaya came to see Maya off, who we unfortunately had to revive and take with us; her blood tie to her sister had found her before, and we had to use it now. I was not pleased about the idea of taking Maya with us just moments after she had woken from her fragile state. She had gone through enough. But, using a blocking spell to rid her of whatever plagued her mind was working – for now. I had enough to worry about but knew Maya was strong, always had been, and of late my connection to Ava was a dangerous one. With Rion and Robert assigned as Maya’s personal bodyguards, I hoped it was enough to keep her safe. Maya took her long hair and tied it in a pony. Her eyes caught mine and she smiled – barely, but what intrigued me was the shimmer of the silver band around her wrist. Ava had the same gauntlet on her arm. The two pieces of jewelry belonged to the first Pure sisters, and kept safe until the time had come when it was needed. In battle, the gauntlet acted as a talisman to the wearers and as Ava was now the overseer of all the ancient pieces, we were hoping this, too, would make the sisters’ connection stronger. I hoped it would be activated soon. Dave gave me a slight shove toward the mirror as its surface iced over. We counted exactly 30 seconds between crossovers. Maya’s diamond pendant glowed when she neared the mirror, a sign of the connection between all things that belonged to the ancients. The potency of its magic was the reason Anaya had found a way to lift her from the dark spell. The white radiance lit the gray air around us as Maya held the correct entrance path. I looked to David and Rob, weapons sparkling in the twilight hour. The mirror came alive, the radiance reflecting off weapons and silver eyes. Twirling a blade in my hand, I thought back to our collected glimpses of our battle ahead. Dad had his feelings, Nomsa hers, and Thandiwe had some visions. Once again, the dark cloud of her vision plagued me. My hands shook with anger and anticipation as the last of the Zulu troops crossed over. Greg turned, and Shane smiled eagerly. Bongi adjusted his short handled spear, or assagai, as he watched the last of his warriors disappear. We sent Willard and Tatos with Shane and Greg as our frontline leaders. Willard let out a sharp breath as the cold, crystal hardness of the rippling mirror’s surface took him and transported him to the other side.

“The first time is always the scariest,” Robert said.

20 seconds.

Anaya hugged us goodbye, and I felt the unsettled beat of her heart as she came closer.

“We will take good care of Maya, I assure you.” I hugged her back as tightly as she had me; she was like a big sister to us all, and we had always been in this together. Her bottom lip quivered, unsure if she should stay. Unsure if any of us would make it back. In this battle, every life, every moment was Evanescent. I looked back to Dave with a hard glare, reinforcing the need to win this battle and get back to our family. If Enoch was working with the Council, he had given my true identity away, traded our secrets for something he needed. I was sure they had supplied him with the necessary requirements to accomplish his droid army, but there had to be something more they were after – together, a mutual purpose. I knew how both parties worked, what made them tick, but I also knew that they would betray another for what they wanted, and those wants were fickle. I smirked to myself – their weaknesses were many. Greed was an easy thing to predict. Especially if I had felt its powerful claws before. Could one be greedy for someone? I was. Yeah, and look where it go us. It might have started the downward spiral of all of this. I
might
even have started her change too soon, greed was what I counted on right now.

10 seconds.

“Yeah,” Dave said smugly. “I can already taste it.” He meant the approaching victory. My posse and I, together with the Truth Seekers, had worked for many Poseidon cycles to get to this point. It was never easy to hide my identity from the Council, especially if you had a rep like I did. Until recently, I was sure the Keepers thought me a fictitious character. How could I, by any means – in any lifetime, have penetrated their defenses, influenced their subjects and found Ava before they did? How could I have swayed so many? Simple. I was right under their rotten noses all that time. I was responsible for getting the general on our side. I was guilty of getting my friends off the meds supplied by the Council, the ‘good hormones’, which in reality were controlling substances. It was no easy task, I assure you. But I was a product of broken blood, my influences were no match. Once Dave had come around it had been much easier to get the others, and the general, to see things the way that they actually were. My thoughts touched everything that had brought us to that moment.

“All we have been through, I promise, hasn’t been for nothing,” I reiterated, holding Dave’s head to mine, our foreheads touching. A little heart to heart on the battlefield made for good motivation.

“We did good boys!” Robert called out to us, shaking out his arms.

“You boys about ready, talked away the nerves then?” Bongi chipped in.

Tatos laughed. “Humans, you should see them sometimes.”

Robert shot Tatos a look.

“Especially this one.” Tatos pushed Rob playfully.

“You’re just jealous,” he piped back.

Tatos snorted.

“I wish I could go with you, sounds like a fun battle lies ahead.” Anaya shook our hands, a gesture she had learned from me, the bowing thing was getting a little old. Besides, now that they were not hiding from the Council, I suppose they could act a little more ‘human’. Take for instance Dad’s sudden change in appearance. I had no idea he still owned the clothes he had worn in his time on Earth. He’d preserved them well under his purple Minoan caftan. Thank goodness denim and leather had stood the test of time, fashion wise, or I’d have had to crush his feelings by telling him he dressed like a dork. We all kept our eyes on Father and Anaya as we took our final steps. Beads of sweat had dappled Anaya’s entire body. She had turned and headed back to be with Thandiwe in her final moments. Minoans could adapt easily to outrageous weather, their kind had outlived many planets. So, there was only one reason she was sweating, she was nervous – very.

Tatos smiled. “It’s being near him.” He cocked his head toward Dave, implying Anaya had feelings for Dave.

“Ah, you saw that.” I grinned.

“What?” Dave played all innocent.

“Let’s make it back, and you will find out.” Tatos played along.

“Shhhh,” Maya said, concentrating on dividing the paths through the mirror.

It was a huge risk to take, but necessary to throw Enoch off. We all entered at the same portal opening, only we were delivered to two separate spots. My nerves burned. I had no idea what awaited us in that tower, we could very well be walking into a trap. I smirked to myself. Any trap he had planned was breakable by me. I had nothing to fear. Then why did I have such an unsettling hole in the pit of my stomach? My drive was warning me but I had no need, nor the time to listen. Maya grabbed my hand and smiled at me, blue eyes so much like her sister’s in shape and essence.