Ellas

Kane

‘Kane!’ Jain shouted, almost a scream, panic filling his voice.

All heads turned towards him where he stood by the soup kettle, his face ashen.

‘It's Setia,’ he said, his voice filled with a panic I had never thought to ever hear from the man. ‘Her village is under attack… we must go to her!’

His words chilled me to the bone. ‘Luke,’ I said. He's after Luke.’

‘Whose Luke?’ Jalholm asked, his voice, too, full of trepidation.

‘To me, all of you,’ I shouted, ignoring the question. ‘Carthia, Jain and you three,’ I said, pointing to Tania, Garam and Step. ‘Will you come, too, Jalholm. Your strength in magic will be more than welcome.’

As Jalholm nodded and moved towards me, Alex said, ‘I'm coming too!’

‘No!’ I said, commandingly. ‘You are not! Sorry, but you will be a hindrance. You stay!’

‘But —’

‘No, Alex. You cannot fight. You… you would be a burden, someone I would need to protect. Please, do not argue further. Each moment we spent talking is time lost.’

Looking to the others, now gathered around me, I said, ‘Take my hand, Carthia. You others join hands with her.’ And then I took my rod from its sheath on my belt.

Jalholm took Jain’s hand firmly in his. ‘Even now, seeing it fills my heart with remorse at what I used it for. Use it quickly, Kane, and then put it away.’

I glanced around at all those before me, each clenching the others hand as if their very lives depended upon the grip.

‘Take care, Sister,’ Alex said, tears forming in her eyes. ‘Take care, all of you.’

A smile formed on Carthia's lips just as I press down on the activation point. All around us, my army, if it could be named such, stared as we vanished from their sight, few comprehending what it was that they saw, and fewer still knowing where it was we went.

The barest of instance later we stood on the packed dirt road that runs through the centre of Setia's village, Haramfeast.

All around us was chaos. Fire raged in almost all the buildings, screams filled the air, and Nargu, wickedly curved blades and axes held high, chased those that still stood, hacking and cleaving at all the could reach.

‘Stop! I command you!’ I screamed, my voice filled with every ounce of compulsion and terror that Dar'cen had bestowed upon me.

Tania and Carthia rushed into the melee, knives and swords hacking at the now still, and astonished Nargu.

Confusion filled the Nargu faces, but then a voice rang out. A voice that brought despair to all that heard. ‘Kill them, my pets. Kill them all!’ The words were few, but instantly each and every Nargu turned to face us and charged, their eyes fiery red with hatred, and yet strangely unfocused.

He controls them all, the voice inside me said. But how? Was all that I could think to reply.

‘Back here!’ I shouted to Tania and Carthia. ‘Form a circle!’

In seconds, at least fifty Nargu had surrounded us, each slashing and swinging their weapons, each intent on us their targets, each seemingly oblivious to their fellows.

Back-to-back we formed a circle, facing the mindless creatures before us. My knives flew even as my sword hacked at any Nargu that came close, Tarnia and Carthia's swords were a blur, while Step and Garam killed and swore in equal measure.

‘This is a ruse!’ I shouted. ‘We must get to Luke. We must find Luke and Setia. Jain —’

‘Jain is gone, Kane,’ Jalholm said, from behind me, his voice quiet and yet somehow clear through the sounds of battle that were all around us.

‘Gone?’ I asked, as I dispatched two Nargu who stood on the bodies of their fellows. ‘Gone where…’ I began, but my voice trailed off, as turning, I saw Jain strolling away through the throng of Nargu that tried to press in upon him, they blows glancing and bouncing away from him as if he was surrounded by some invisible barrier.

‘To Setia and this Luke that you so value. I will follow and do what I can to help him,’ Jalholm said, as he too effortlessly walked through the press of Nargu that surrounded us, those few that followed him suddenly fell to the floor, writhing and screaming.

‘Hurry, hurry please!’ I shouted, as I turned back to the fight before me.

It was not a quick fight, but not an impossible one. The odds against us were great, and my companions were not immune to hurt as was I. But his command to the Nargu had them fighting as mindless savages, stabbing and thrusting at each other in the need to get at us.

Nargu died by the dozen at their own hands, but those maimed still crawled forward, trying to fulfil the command he had so heavily imprinted in their minds.

Eventually few were left, and we were almost intact – Step's one arm ran with blood, but the wound was shallow and would cause no lasting harm, and Tania had broken her wrist as she'd repeatedly punched a Nargu that had gotten too close. Jain would healed them both when he returned.

‘Follow Jalholm!’ I shouted. ‘To the house at the far end of the town. Go all of you. I will finish these!’

Without a word of reply my friends broke off at a run following Jalholm's footsteps towards Setia's cottage.

Moments later, at a dead run, I followed.

Setia's house too, was aflame, smoke pouring from the shattered upstairs window.

Outside, Jain knelt, Setia's head resting on his lap, as his hands moved in intricate motions that I knew were weaving healing spells. Tania, Step and Garam looked on.

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I rushed into the small house, shouting Luke's name at the top of my voice, but I knew that my calls were in vain – he had him now, and reviving Setia to find out all she knew was our only hope.

A cough behind me as I climbed the stairs holding my breath, brought me back to the reality of the situation.

‘Outside, Carthia,’ I commanded, ‘This foul air will destroy your lungs even if it does not kill you. He is taken… but I must search regardless. Go!’

Carthia coughed again, more violently this time, and through the black smoke I could see the despair that filled her face.

‘Go!’ I said once again.

As she turned to leave I bounded up the remaining stairs into the single bedroom that occupied the first floor of the small cottage.

The air was thick with black smoke, but the flames from the burning bed in its centre cast a flickering light through the smog, enough to see that the room was empty.

All around, the room was untouched. The single chest of drawers and the wardrobe was intact – no damage at all, the drawers and doors had not even been opened, all at complete odds with Nargu ways. They would have smashed and broken everything they could for fun and spite.

I knew then that they had only come for Luke, and that the fires were set to forestall any pursuit.

I ran down the stairs only to find Jalholm with his arms wide, a wall of water moving outwards from his body, quenching the flames that now filled the room.

‘Go see to your friend,’ he said. ‘Jain has done much to heal her, but she demands that she speak with you. I will see to this fire.’

With a nod of thanks, I passed him and rushed out of the door and into the street.

I dropped to my knees in front of Setia. She sat up now her face was a mass of bruises, bruises that even as I watched, faded before my eyes. But her eyes were filled with tears and a fear that I knew only too well.

Her hands shook as I took them in mine, and her voice as she spoke was halting and choked. ‘He… he came. He came himself. I… I could do nothing,’ she said, as she broke into sobs. ‘I could do nothing.’

‘Hush, Setia. There was nothing you could do… nothing. Had we been here… all of us, we could not have stopped him. His creatures perhaps, but not him.’

Jain held her close in his arms even as I held her hand. ‘It is as Kane says, Setia. Hush now, and gather your strength so that —’

‘But my people!’ she cried. ‘What of my people?’ And then she began to sob uncontrollably.

‘Find all who survived, Jain. Heal those you can, please, my friend. Take Jalholm. He is not strong in healing, but there may be something he can do to aid you.’

At my words, Setia's sobs stopped, and she looked to me, confusion replacing the fear in her tear filled eyes. ‘Jalholm?’ She asked. ‘Did you say Jalholm?’

‘Later, Setia. I will explain all, but later. For now let us see to you and and your people.’

‘But —’

‘No, Setia, rest now while my friends see to your people.’

Setia clenched my hands tight at my words, and pulled me close. Then, her voice almost a whisper, she said, ‘I will wait on what you have to say of Jalholm… but the girl, of her I must know. That cannot wait. It is she, isn't it… it is my Carthia?’

‘Carthia?’ I said, as Setia's words of centuries ago came to my mind. My child is safe now. Now that you are free of him. And then atop them came Anna's veiled words to Carthia before she left us forever.

And then I knew the truth of it. Carthia was Setia's child, the daughter that long ago she had given up so as to protect her from what was to come.

‘Yes,’ I said, quietly. ‘I believe that she must be your Carthia.’ And as fresh tears of joy filled her face, I asked, ‘Would you like to meet her? Can you now tell her who you are?’

Despite what had just happened and the fear that must have filled her mind, Setia smiled. A smile that was not from me, but for Carthia who now somehow stood at my shoulder.

‘Mother?’ Carthia cried. ‘Is it true? Is what he says true? I knew when I saw you as Jain cared for you that… that there was something. But… but, is it true?’

And then she, too, dropped to her knees beside me and reached for her mother's hand, her face flushed and a hesitant smile upon her lips.

I squeezed Setia's hand gently and smiled as I stood and turned back towards the still smouldering townhouses. They needed time to themselves, time to get to know each other, and time to think on what life now had in store for them.

Strange, I thought, Carthia, the one I think of as a daughter, now has a sister and a mother.

I took only two strides, and another thought came to me, I thought that chilled me to the bone. Dar'cen now has one to replace me. One that he will never let free.

‘Dare we go after him?’ Jalholm asked, as he walked towards me, thankfully saving me from the memories of the days that now lay ahead for Luke.

Meeting his eyes, I answered, ‘No, Jalholm. Were we to do so, he would recapture us both and enslave or kill the others. We cannot stand against him, not now, not like this —’

‘But the boy… Luke. What of him?’

‘I should have done more, Jalholm. More to hide him, more to protect him. But… but now it is too late. We can do nothing for him.’ I looked away from Jalholm as I finished, the shame at my failure eating deep into my thoughts.

Jalholm put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You did all you could, Kane. You set watch, and Jain and Setia were linked. We came as soon as we could. You could have done no more… you must let this go, let the boy go. He is his now, and guilt will not change that.’

Again I met Jalholm's eyes. ‘You are changed, Jalholm. Stronger, much stronger than the man I first met in that hospital. I knew it from the moment you stood against him, but every day you now grow more. I thank you for your words. And I know that all you say is true, and is the way that it must be if we are to continue in this fight. But what Luke must now face is my failing, and the guilt of that I cannot easily put aside.’

Jalholm nodded as he removed his hand. ‘I, more than any other, understand, Kane. I carry the guilt of millions such as Luke, but…’ Anger filled his voice as he continued, ‘But it is him, Kane! He did this! Not you. And hundreds of years ago he destroyed the world, not I.

'I am stronger now because I no longer blame myself. I blame him, and my life is now dedicated to his destruction. It was you, you and Alex, that gave me the strength and the resolve to face what I had done, and allow myself to move on. So I give to you the same lesson… he did this today, not you.’

And with those words, Jalholm turned and began to walk back to the town. ‘Come, there are those that still need our help this day.’

Carthia

I sat before the woman, the woman that was my mother, my true birth-mother. Tears filled my eyes and ran down my face, as they did on the face of the woman mere feet from my grasp.

‘Mother?’ I choked, my throat constricted and my heart hammering. ‘Are you truly my mother?’ But it was a pointless question, for I knew the truth of it. Something inside me had known when I first saw the woman in Jain's arms, unconscious though she was.

A wave of sobs took me and I lunged forward taking the woman, Setia, my mother, in my arms. ‘Oh, mother… mother, how I have dreams of this day. This moment.’

Setia pulled me close to her breast, as she, too, sobbed, sobbed and laughed, as she repeated the words, ‘My child, my daughter, my baby girl,’ over and over.

Moments passed before the tears dried and our sobbing subsided.

‘Here, let me look at you,’ Setia said, as she leaned back and took my face in her hands. ‘My eyes are not as good as they were,’ she said by way of explanation, as her fingers probed my features. ‘You have your father's look, his eyes too, not blue as are mine.’

‘My father!’ I gasped. ‘I had never thought of a father. My thoughts, my dreams, had always been of you, of finding you.’ The word ‘Father’ sparked in me a desire I had never known. ‘Who is he? Who is my father?’

‘That is a tale for later, my daughter…,’ Setia laughed, a bright and cheerful laugh filled with joy. ‘My daughter,’ that is something that I never thought to say aloud… my daughter,’ and she again took me in her arms as the tears began anew.

Another moment passed, and then Setia said, ‘Come, I must go to see to my people. Jain is strong in healing, but he will need my aid. Come. I will tell you of your father another day. His is a tale that will bear some thought before the telling, Daughter.’

‘You will understand when you hear, Daughter. Fear not, for there is great joy in that tale... for your father gave you to me,’ Setia said, as her hand tightened on mine. ‘Help you old mother up, will you, Child. I grow frail in my old age,’ she chuckled.

As we slowly walked along the dirt packed street to the village centre, I turned to Setia and quietly said, ‘I have a sister, mother. A dream sister who is now my sister true.’

Setia's face hardly changed, a slight smile only broke her lips as she spoke, ‘I know, beloved daughter. I know… that, too, is a tale that needs to be told.’