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Continent of Africa Gedgi Territory
The crowd’s applause was deafening and it took several minutes to stop before Chandra spoke into the microphone again. “The Arkean bloodline has run dry and the last of the great queens has been laid to rest. I will not allow a Middling raised hybrid destroy what our ancestors have worked so hard to preserve,” she said then paused as clapping ensued. “Are you prepared to do what you have to do, because I am!” she yelled.
Screams of support dwarfed the applause as Chandra raised her fist in the air and smiled. She waved to the crowd before moving out of the spotlight and off the stage.
“Cassius,” Chandra said. She walked over to the corner of the stage where he stood and gave him a quick hug. “Have you come to your senses?” She led the way down the platform stairs and into a small gathering of people. They met up with Chandra’s Protector, who led the way to a waiting vehicle.
“I just need a few minutes of your time,” Cassius said as he walked with her. When Chandra stopped beside her car, he did too.
“You haven’t come to your senses.” Chandra raised a brow and said, “And you’re not alone, are you?” She looked around.
“Soahn Brenna left for the hotel shortly after your speech began. She would like you to join her.”
***
WHEN Chandra walked into the suite, Brenna stood, acknowledging her. Chandra took a seat across from Brenna after nodding. She looked past Langley, who sat in a single chair near the window, as if he wasn’t in the room.
“You look well, Brenna.” Chandra lifted the drink Cassius sat in front of her. When he sat down next to her she smiled. Chandra looked over her shoulder at Victor, who gave her a nod. She offered him a nod in response then watched him leave the suite to join Brenna’s Protector in the hallway.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Chandra?” Brenna scooted to the edge of her seat, her expression very serious. “Are you completely mad?”
“I wonder the same about you, my friend. Considering the circumstances involving your appointment as Soahn, you of all people should understand how dangerous the girl is.” Chandra accused.
Like Chandra, Brenna had been affected by Cianne’s existence. Deni, Brenna’s mother, was called upon when the child’s powers manifested. Cianne, then known as Zaria, was unable to handle such power. Deni and the other four, which included Vivian, Chandra, and Eldra, suppressed the child’s abilities but the process weakened them all. Deni never fully recovered. Brenna was in her twenties when she inherited her place as the Quende Soahn and one of The Four.
“You blame Cianne for the sins of her father and things she had no control of. Her coming was foretold and we have been appointed to counsel her so that she can reach her full potential. To become sovereign of our people.” Brenna placed her hand over her chest. “I beg you sister, stop this sedition.”
“Cianne cares nothing for our people or our culture and she has no reason to pretend now that Vivian is gone.” Chandra looked away. Suddenly her attention moved from Brenna to focus on Langley. “You seem to have a lapse in judgment, Brenna. You know how I feel about outsiders.”
“Engraved on his skin is the same mark you and Cassius bear, the mark of the Quende Tribe.” Brenna looked at the mark on Langley’s neck then back to Chandra. “Which means, in his veins runs the blood of our people. Vivian accepted him as one of our own and we should too. To not accept him is to debate our very existence and the Source’s gift to our people.”
“Humph,” Chandra breathed. She cut her eyes at Langley again before returning her attention to Brenna.
If Langley felt anything during the exchange, his temperament or expression didn’t change to reflect it.
“I’m sorry, sister,” Chandra said then sighed as she turned to Brenna, “but I’ve made up my mind about this.”
“And just what does that entail?” Brenna stared into Chandra’s eyes.
Chandra grabbed the back of the sofa, digging her nails into the cushion. She narrowed her eyes as her head slightly shook. The two women’s eyes were fixed on each other as if no one else was in the room. Slowly Chandra’s hand rose to her head.
“You will not learn my plans like this, Brenna,” Chandra hissed through clenched teeth. “I have prepared all my life to withstand Scanners. Even one as powerful as you.”
Brenna continued to try to invade Chandra’s mind but was unable to get anything. She had to stop or risk draining her ability on one of the Four.
Chandra smiled when the pressure let up. “You shouldn’t try that again.”
“You leave me no choice, Chandra. If you proceed with this, you will be waging war. If there is something, anything I can do to prevent that, I will.”
“You can stop this right now. All you and Eldra need to do is rid our lives of the devil called Caleb...and his offspring and her children,” Chandra demanded.
Brenna gasped. “Have you changed so much, Chandra? Is life so meaningless to you that you would kill an innocent, and children? You know, when Tristan disappeared I was reluctant to believe that you had anything to do with it, but now I can’t be so sure.”
Chandra looked over at Langley with disgust. “The Breed will tell you I speak the truth when I say I gave no order to harm your Middling king. But know that if you aren’t with me,” she said, eyeing Cassius now, “then you’re all against me.” Chandra stood and walked toward the door. She left the room without saying another word.
Langley looked over at Brenna who was waiting for him to speak. “She has no intention of ending this,” he said.
Brenna sat back on the sofa wearing the look of defeat across her face. She failed to convince Chandra that peace was best for their people. She was so upset that she didn’t see Cassius run over to the window or that her Protector, Riley, had come into the room shouting orders.
“We need to leave,” Cassius grabbed Brenna by the arm and pulled her to her feet. He looked at Langley and Riley and said, “Shoot to wound, not to kill. These men are still our brothers.”
Mid-September
Missing four months
Tristan sat on the porch steps looking out into the forest. He rested his elbows on the step behind him and closed his eyes. He let his head fall back so that the sun’s warmth covered his face. There was a breeze blowing but it wasn’t cold. It was a lovely September morning. The date? Tristan didn’t know.
“Tell me, what do you hear?” Caleb asked him.
Tristan took in an exaggerated deep breath then exhaled. He turned his head and opened his eyes to look at Caleb who sat on the porch chair by the window. He had to squint to keep the sun out. “The same things you hear.” Tristan turned his head up again and basked in the sun.
“Is there something else, something new, in the background that you didn’t hear before you got here?” Caleb leaned forward.
Tristan sat up. He looked around slowly then peered at Caleb. “Birds, the winds blowing the leaves, maybe a cricket or two,” he said. “Nothing I don’t hear every day. Why, what should I be hearing?”
Caleb sat back. He lifted his feet up on a crate that sat in front of him.
“This has to do with what you did to my ears, huh?” Tristan continued to look at Caleb. After a while he realized Caleb wasn’t going to answer him. He shook his head then returned to the laid-back position he was in before Caleb interrupted him. “I was hoping you’d continue your story today,” he said finally.
“I think we can take a day off from storytelling.”
Tristan sat up and turned around so he could see Caleb without stretching. “You are kidding, right?” Tristan grimaced at Caleb’s confusion. “You went to your room after telling your story and didn’t surface until this morning.”
***
CALEB went over what felt like the last few hours in his head. He slept most of the time and occasionally lay awake in his bed looking at the walls, but in no way did he spend days in his room.
He didn’t look at Tristan, who glowered at him with a look that most people gave the insane. The telling of Marda’s and Samuel’s passing nearly broke him but Caleb supposed he should finish what he started. Besides, Tristan was showing great improvement in his training and should be rewarded.
A deal was a deal, and he always kept his word.
Maybe when he was done his blasted story, Tristan could focus on what he had to do.
“Alright. After my family died, I had nothing to live for. Days ran together with me lying in “our” bed. Some nights I would crawl to Samuel’s room because I was too weak to stand. I’d sit there in a corner until Fredrick helped me back to my room. After a few weeks, it was decided that I should be taken back to London, but I couldn’t let that happen.
“The night Fredrick came to inform me of his plans, I was already gone. Something inside me had rose to the surface and it would drive me for the next two years.”
Tristan whispered, “Revenge.”
“I wouldn’t rest until I had it. I was owed four lives and I was willing to do whatever it took to claim my due. Arie was at the top of my shit list. But without my Protector’s strength and speed it would be suicide. Only, I didn’t care. I would take Arie’s life or forfeit my own in the process. So, I boarded the first ship that left port to the continent of Africa. My plan, stay there until I found him.
“I drew Marda’s birthmark on a piece of paper and hired a native named Modat to travel with me. Modat seemed to be one of the few not wary of me or the mark I showed. He was just as young as I was and just as fearless. We went from one village to the next showing anyone who was curious the mark I had carved. No one seemed to recognize it or would admit they did.
“Two long years passed with no sign of Arie or any other Coesen. The deeper into the terrain, the less tolerable the native people became of my presence. I was a white man that most saw as a slave trader. Some of the villages we entered, the people yelled angrily at me as they waved their fists. Other villages, the villagers wouldn’t even allow me to enter at all. So Modat entered and questioned whoever would listen. Then, one day Modat was told of a village that held natives who were...unusual. We set out to find this village. One night, while we slept, we were ambushed.”
Continent of Africa
Circa 1830
There was no use struggling. The rope that was wrapped around Caleb’s wrists and feet was so tight he wasn’t able to feel his fingers or toes. Flat on the dirt floor, his arms were stretched above his head and fixed to some kind of hook in the ground. His feet were hooked in the same manner, stretching him to the point where he wasn’t able to move a muscle. The only part of his body he could move was his head but even that movement was limited.
With his eyes wide open, he tried to focus on the first image he saw but the blood running from the cut above his right eye made it difficult. He turned his head to the side so that his lips were scarcely touching the skin on his arm. His gaze rested on Modat, his guide, restrained the same way he was.
“Modat,” Caleb called. He repeated this several times before Modat grunted. “Where are we?”
Modat said some words in his native tongue that Caleb didn’t understand. After taking a few deep breaths his guide spoke again. “I do not know my friend.”
“Can you get free?” Caleb struggled to see Modat, hindered by the way he was tied and the angle his friend was beside him. Modat grunted several curses in his language then said “no” in English.
Caleb looked around, digging his head in the dirt to see as much as he could. They were in a hut. It was round with one opening that was covered with a long cloth. The place was virtually bare. In fact, Caleb saw nothing in the space that would suggest that any of the natives that captured him and his guide actually used this particular hut.
“I didn’t get a look at any one of their necks, Modat. Did you see the mark?”
Before Modat answered, the cloth covering the entrance was pulled back and four tribesmen entered the hut. One of them was dressed in ornate clothing that included a large headdress. Both Caleb and Modat lifted their heads as much as they could to get a good look at their captors but neither could see much.
Modat called out but the tribesmen ignored him. Modat began shouting. That did get one of the men’s attention because he lifted his foot and came down hard on Modat’s face.
“Stop, he did nothing,” Caleb shouted but no one paid him any mind. He looked helplessly over at an unconscious Modat.
When the men started to talk amongst themselves, he strained his head up again to see if he could interpret anything. Caleb silently watched as they stood close by, speaking and making hand gestures toward him and his unconscious guide. Then they cut Modat’s bonds and lifted his limp body. As one of the men bent over to look at Caleb, he focused on the tribesman’s neck where there was no mark.
This was not the village he was looking for.
Caleb let that sink in as he watched the men carry Modat out of view. At some point Modat awakened and began to scream. Caleb squeezed his eyes closed as he listened to the struggle but could do nothing. He tensed as Modat’s screams became loud shrill cries for help. The cries stopped but were replaced by the sound of loud gurgling followed by a loud thud that caused some dust to rise from the ground and cloud over Caleb’s head.
Then there was silence.
The quiet didn’t last long. The men began conversing once more as Caleb’s anger rose. He made this journey for nothing. He wasn’t going to get the revenge he sought, and a man he called a friend was most likely dead. He roared his frustrations, silencing the conversation in the hut.
A command was given and Caleb was cut from the posts that held him to the ground. With his hands and feet still bound tightly he was lifted by his captors and dragged across the floor, leaving lines in the dirt from his heels. His limbs hung limply due to the strain that was inflicted by the ropes. Caleb let the men carry him without struggling. He didn’t open his eyes until he felt his foot drag over what his eyes confirmed to be Modat’s body.
Caleb tensed but he still did not resist. It wasn’t until he was placed in front of a brown shell-like object that looked to be as tall as he was or taller, that anxiety set in. He was going to die, a fact that he had come to terms with mere minutes ago, but in what way?
The object looked solid, and was covered with knots that resembled those on trees and curved lines that made it seem rough, like scales. But when they brushed his body against it he realized the object was smooth and gave the appearance that it was wet but it wasn’t. Overall, it looked like a large, very old, disfigured tree stump, minus the leaves and branches.
Caleb watched in silent horror as an opening appeared and a long thin transparent yellowish appendage or tentacle reached out. The thing moved like smoke wafting through the air toward him, light and graceful.
Instinctively, Caleb attempted to move back but there was a man on either side of him securing his arms, and one man behind him with a firm grip on his hair to secure him. His eyes widened as the appendage floated closer to his face. Only a few inches separated him and the smoky haze as it moved around his head.
No one in the hut made a sound and nothing moved but the thing for what seemed like forever, then Caleb’s breathing became labored. His eyes rolled back in his head and his body began to shake.
“My food usually begs for their life. Aren’t you going to beg for yours? No...I suspect you won’t. You are not like the others.”
“Leave my head!” Caleb yelled. But the thing continued doing whatever it was that caused Caleb’s head to feel like it was being pounded with a hammer.
“I’ve been waiting for someone like you. Someone to free me.”
The men released their grip on Caleb and backed away when his body began to shake more rapidly. Suddenly the cocoon cracked open and a gust of wind blew throughout the hut. An airy figure appeared, with long horns that resembled those of an antelope, a narrow face that had wide eyes, and a long slender body.
Its smoky form hovered in front of Caleb for a moment, then just as quickly as it left its protective cocoon the entity fused with Caleb.
“Whit debil!” a tribesman he assumed to be the spiritual leader of the tribe shook his staff.
Present Day
“It asked my permission to bind to me. All I could think of at the time was how badly I wanted Arie. It read me you see.” Caleb rubbed the back of his neck.
“What the hell was it?” Tristan gasped. He sat on the porch now, using the crate in front of Caleb as a chair.
“I don’t know,” Caleb admitted. “Once it entered me everything shut down. I know how this is going to sound but I swear I felt nothing, heard nothing, and I saw nothing. Then, as if something jump-started me, I was back. My body rebooted. Only, I couldn’t catch my breath. My lungs burned as I tried desperately to suck in air to breathe. I was suffocating. We were suffocating.
Central Africa
part 2
“Kill him!” the leader yelled.
As he struggled for air, Caleb heard and somehow understood the words the man in the headdress yelled. His eyes were open but everything went black when the “thing” fused with him. Now, with another threat of death, he needed air desperately to protect himself.
“Take his heart now.”
From what Caleb now understood, the man barking the orders was the spiritual leader of the Bressi tribe. He gave the order to kill a second time as he shook his staff at his tribesmen.
Their language wasn’t all Caleb understood now. He knew things too. He knew that for generations the Bressi offered many of their tribesmen and anyone else they came across as a sacrifice to their cocooned god they found and brought to their village long ago.
The Bressi lived unconquered among the local tribes for all these years because of their god and Caleb soon understood that they would not allow him to take their deity away.
Still reeling from the merge, Caleb didn’t realize that one of the men had driven a spear through his chest until he raised his hand to clutch his throat and brushed over the wood spear. Just as he made the discovery and grasped the wood so it couldn’t be buried deeper, another of the men came up from behind and wrapped his forearm around Caleb’s neck, pulling him hard to the ground.
The spear, still lodged in Caleb’s chest, ripped through more flesh as both Caleb and the man who drove the spear into him continued to hold on to it. Still gasping for air like a fish out of water, Caleb took one of his hands off the spear and pushed the man holding the other end in the chest as hard as he could.
To Caleb’s surprise, the man flew into the air and through the roof of the hut as his scream trailed off in the distance.
Caleb could allow himself only seconds to be in awe of what he did because he was still suffocating. The spiritual leader and a third man, the youngest of the four who helped carry prisoners to the cocoon, watched everything unfold in a frightened trance. They both backed out of the hut.
Caleb gripped the spear and pulled it out of his chest, spilling blood that seemed too light, all over him and the ground. Refusing to let go of his neck, the man squeezed tighter and arched his back. With more ease than seemingly possible, Caleb pried the large arm from around his neck and was finally able to take a deep breath.
The sound of the man’s wrist bone snapping didn’t even register with Caleb, nor did the gut wrenching scream from the man’s mouth that followed. Caleb was only concerned about the hole in his chest as he scrambled, slipping on his own blood, over to the cocoon.
Leaning back against the hard metal-like shelter that he originally thought was wood, he placed his hand over his wound. A blood and dirt-mud mixture dripped through his fingers, to his leg, then to the ground. Startled by a sudden movement in front of him, Caleb pushed back, digging his heels in the dirt as he raised his hands up at the man racing toward him with some kind of ax.
Wanting, wishing, or willing the man to halt, Caleb didn’t know which he did, but the man stopped. Seeing someone running full speed at him then seeing them come to a full stop without slowing, like there was an unseen wall blocking their progression, scared the hell out him. It seemed to frighten him more than the thought of what the man planned to do to him.
Breathing now, but with immense pain, Caleb dropped his hands and again placed one over his chest. To his surprise the man dropped as well, his head held at an awkward angle. His neck was broken from the force that stopped him.
Caleb, expended, closed his eyes. An image of Marda and Samuel dying was what he saw. “I cannot expire now,” he called out to no one in particular. His anger forced his pain aside as he clenched his chest. “Not until he pays for the wrong he’s done to me.”
Present Day
Caleb took a deep breath before he went on. “That was the first time I healed myself.” He fisted his hands so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I’ve had a lot of time to consider what “it” was and why “it” chose me. Pithos...that was the name I gave it because it never gave me one—”
“Like Pandora’s box,” Tristan interrupted.
Caleb agreed by nodding his head. “Pithos never again communicated with me aside from that day. What Pithos was I didn’t know; I still don’t but I know how it makes me feel. Invincible, fearless, and callous with no regard for anything or anyone, not even myself.
“Why Pithos chose me, that’s easy. I was the perfect vessel. My body was strong due to the reconditioning I endured during the cycling or transition to become a Protector. To my knowledge, no non-Coesen has ever survived the transition other than me, and of course, you.
“The right host was vital but the hate that consumed me and the fact that I really didn’t care if I took another breath was apparently what Pithos needed. I gather that the cocoon was protecting it for a very long time. How long, I can’t say but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t able to survive outside of its cocoon without a vessel. The Bressi were the only ones who could answer any questions about Pithos’ origins.”
Caleb sighed.
Central Africa
part 3
Healed and barely alert, Caleb emerged from the hut. He paid no attention to the frightened villagers who backed away from him, creating an aisle but avoiding his gaze as he made his way to the border of the village. Everyone was afraid they might suffer the same fate as the two who died by his hands.
Outside the village, Caleb fell to his knees by a bed of water. He began to cough violently over the water until he expelled a bitter dark fluid from his mouth. After coughing up what remained in his belly, he rinsed his hands then cupped some water into his mouth.
Quenched and clear of the blood on his face, he sat down on a large boulder.
With his breathing better than normal, he took a moment to think. Not about what just happened or the dead friend he traveled with the last two years, whose body he had to step over to exit the hut.
No, he thought about how he would find Arie.
In that moment, the moment he thought of his enemy, a feeling overcame him. Caleb felt an overwhelming urge pulling him southwest. It was a strong source of power that beckoned him, or rather, called to the thing that was now housed inside of him.
Why he was being led to his desired destination didn’t matter to Caleb. He knew the source of the power was Marda’s people. They wielded great power, a power that no other humans possessed.
Caleb got to his feet. He staggered forward as he took in the landscape. After getting his footing, he began to jog then slowly accelerated into a run. To his surprise, he was fast again. Not Protector fast but infinitely faster.
He sprinted over dry plains and lush landscapes for who knows how long until he came to a chasm from which a cataract waterfall fell. Hidden behind the water was a small entrance to a cavern that Caleb’s newly acquired vision permitted him to see with ease.
Without thinking, he began to climb down on pure instinct only, not once considering his own safety. Every move he made was quick and precise as he drew closer to the power source and Arie.
The entrance was clearly man-made but inside the cave was pitch black. Caleb’s eyes adjusted as he walked along a slippery path that followed a wide stream of fast flowing water from the falls. He increased his speed gradually the further he went on. After walking for miles, light filtered ahead through a narrow opening.
Stepping through, Caleb stood on a rigid ledge where the cave opened, allowing the water to plunge a couple hundred feet into a pool. On the shore, several people stood looking up at him. Another two were climbing up the sharp rugged cliff toward him.
Caleb knew he was in the right place as he watched the men climb with ease, grace, and speed. The two men moved like spiders. When they reached Caleb, one of the men jumped to the ledge.
The man looked much older than Caleb and he bore a mark that was similar in size and shape as Marda’s but it was in a different position. His stare was intense but Caleb didn’t quake.
Instead, he took note of the people that stood by the water’s edge. They must be the first line of defense, Caleb thought. There were both men and women but he didn’t see Arie.
“I am here for Arie.” Caleb said as he slowly looked from the people standing below him to the man standing beside him.
The man looked at Caleb a few seconds more before he turned around and yelled words Caleb understood down at the people below. They were getting permission. Caleb had no issue with waiting but he would fight his way to Arie if they didn’t let him in.
A woman below took off in the direction of a wooded area. When she returned a short time later everyone was still in the same position, waiting patiently. She called up to the man who stood next to Caleb.
“He awaits you. Do you need help getting down?” the man asked. His English was very good.
When Caleb first looked at the man standing beside him, he only glanced at him to make sure he wasn’t Arie. But when the man spoke, Caleb looked at him again. He saw this man before, at his home.
“You offer me help now?” Caleb said through clenched teeth. He then leaped off the ledge, falling very close to the side of the cliff. Halfway down, he grabbed a small protruding section of rock with one hand. Then, turning so he faced the people below who watched him with curiosity, shock, and suspicion, he let go, landing near the edge of the pond on his feet.
As Caleb began to walk, the Coesen who waited by the pond flanked him on either side while the two men, who took a little longer to descend the cliff, fell in behind them. The group led Caleb into a grove of large trees that were all the same size and evenly spaced as if nature had no hand in how they came to be arranged. On the other side of the grove was a large village.
They walked until they came to a large empty area. Standing on the far side were several people who gave off the vibe that they were important. Among them was Arie. Caleb’s jaw ticked. He set his eyes on his enemy as he and the guards closed the distance.
“I am Garwa. You have traveled a great distance to find my kingdom, stranger. It is a place that is almost impossible to find. Why have you come?”
Caleb turned his piercing gaze from Arie to the old man who spoke. He was dressed no differently from the others, tightly fitted tops with loose bottoms, only he wore a thin gold band around his head and a large stone hung from his neck.
“I have business with Arie.”
Garwa didn’t seem surprised, but the woman who stood next to him was. She frowned, “I am Mina, first wife. What is this about?”
Caleb looked to Mina and instantly saw the resemblance. His posture almost faltered as his pain surfaced. Caleb pushed what heartache he had aside and willed his anger to the forefront.
“He feels he has been wronged mother,” a young girl who held Mina’s hand said.
Caleb looked at the child. No older than eight, the girl stared at him with her lovely brown eyes.
“He wants revenge for lives lost when our sister passed over.” She looked at Arie, then to her mother. “An unborn son and a small boy with sand tinted skin, his and Marda’s young.” The girl pointed to Caleb.
Several onlookers gasped. Mina dropped to her knees and screamed out. Some of the women near them tried to console her as she sobbed openly.
You look just like her, Caleb thought.
“My sister and I share the same mother and father,” the girl said.
Caleb focused on the girl but said nothing while she continued to talk in his head.
“The wives were not aware of the children,” she said looking at the women who surrounded Mina. “My sister, Marda was the first born and would have succeeded father. Your son would have been next in the line of kings.” Her tone suggested she was sad.
Garwa continued to just look at Caleb. There was no emotion on his aged face. Caleb didn’t consider Garwa; instead he looked down at the women, forgetting his mission. He focused on a woman who wrapped her arms around Mina.
“That is Sele, my half-brother’s birth mother.” The girl looked over at Arie. “She is also second wife to Garwa and birth mother to Arie.”
“Is what your sister says true, Arie? Did you... Did you judge the innocent?” Sele asked as she held Mina.
Arie did not respond as he stared at Caleb.
“Marda was of me and I mourn her as you do.” Garwa looked at his wives as they cried. “But what has happened cannot be undone.” He concentrated on Caleb. “My daughter chose to forfeit her life when she took you as her mate. That is our law, Middling,” he said. “You survived but you do not see this as a gift, instead you come here to welcome death.”
Caleb heard Garwa but was looking at the girl who continued to stare at him. She looked so much like his Marda when she was a child. She welcomed his gaze with a sorrow in her young eyes, but her look soon turned suspicious.
Her eyes grew wide and she cried out, “He carries a powerful evil inside him.”
With that Caleb launched himself at Arie. To his dismay, Arie was pulled aside and his Protector took his place, hitting Caleb with such force that he sailed into the air and fell hard to the ground. Caleb was stunned but not hurt. He stood and looked at his opponent. It was the same man who offered him assistance a few minutes ago, the same man who held his son in New Orleans.
Some of the people backed away while some, possible the soldiers of the tribe, stepped forward. Caleb took no notice of their formations. He walked toward Arie’s Protector in an unhurried pace. The Protector quickly closed the distance, running at Caleb with blinding speed. The guy was fast but, Caleb was faster.
Caleb reached for the warrior’s right arm, twisted him around so that their backs were touching. With his free hand, Caleb reached behind him, grabbed his opponents chin, and twisted his neck with such speed and power that the man slid to the ground, dead. Caleb then turned around to see the shocked faces of all the spectators. He stepped over the Protector he just killed and slowly began to close the space between him and Arie.
Arie lifted his hand. A blast of force hit Caleb in the chest, throwing him into a structure a few feet away. “Go for shelter!” Arie yelled at the females as Caleb crawled from the rubble.
“That should have killed him,” Garwa said in disbelief. He backed away.
Within seconds, Caleb was up and on his intended path again. As he came closer, Protectors attacked him from all sides. With a wave of his hand they all stopped, frozen in place. Caleb didn’t want them. He wanted Arie.
Again, Arie raised his hand only this time Caleb spun. The blast missed him and was headed for an onlooker when Mina stood. She quickly raised her hand, creating an invisible barrier between the onlooker and the blast. The blast hit the barrier and dissolved.
Arie unsuccessfully tried to hit Caleb again with his blast, but just as before, Caleb moved from its path and grabbed Arie by his neck, lifting him in the air. Heat pulsed down his arm into his fingers, burning Arie’s neck. He smiled with satisfaction as Arie’s cries filled his ears.
With revenge a heartbeat away, Caleb couldn’t help looking to the girl who looked so much like his Marda. His fractured mind wanted to tell her he was doing what he promised, that he was getting revenge for them, but he suddenly felt light headed. Caleb peered once again at Arie before everything went black.
***
CALEB blinked a number of times before he was able to keep his eyes open. He lay on the ground staring out at nothing for over a minute before he dug his fingers into the soil beneath him and pushed himself up and to his knees. His movements were slow due to his stiff, sore muscles and an inability to focus his vision.
As he got to his feet, Caleb looked around the once lively village that was unnervingly quiet. He didn’t hear any people, animals, or insects. The only sound he could hear was the sound of the water in the distance.
Suddenly dropping to his knees, Caleb cried out, pressing his temples as an intense pain ricocheted through his head. When the pain subsided just a few moments later, his vision was clearer than it had ever been but what he saw caused him to gasp in shock. He closed his eyes and turned his head away.
Caleb slowly opened his eyes again. Horrified, he looked around at the dozens of lifeless bodies that littered the ground. He crawled over to the closest body and rolled it over. It was Arie. He searched the body but there were no visible signs of trauma.
He looked around again at the bodies. Men, women, and children lay dead all around him.
“I did this.” Caleb sat back in disbelief. “So many innocent lives lost because of my need for revenge.” Somehow, he knew.
It didn’t take long for Caleb to search the entire village. Nothing survived. Pets, livestock, insects, even the trees suffered the same fate. As Caleb climbed the cliff the image of the little girl and her big brown eyes came to him. Then it dawned on him; he didn’t see the girl among the dead.
Present Day
“I found myself standing at the top of the large waterfall that hid the opening to the Quende village.” Caleb closed his eyes, hoping to dissolve the memories he suppressed so long ago. “Feeling sadness and regret, I jumped to rid the world of the monster I’d become.” He took a deep breath before looking over at Tristan who blankly stared back at him.
“As I lay broken and in severe pain, thinking that I was breathing my last breath from my blood-filled lungs, I prayed that God would allow me to see my family in heaven before the demons of hell swallowed me. I woke several hours later. My bones seemed stronger, the damage reversed. Healed but mentally broken, I was certain of two things. Pithos was not going to let me die as long as he inhabited my body.”
“What was the second thing?”
“That God doesn’t exist,” Caleb said plainly.
Tristan turned from him and peered into the forest. Caleb thought that maybe he should have kept that god comment to himself, knowing that Tristan came from a religious background. Caleb shrugged as he watched Tristan lean forward to pick up a branch that lay next to the crate in front of him. The kid peeled back the layers of bark from the branch like a banana. Caleb wondered if Tristan was imagining that the branch was him.
“I prepared myself for several reactions that you might have. Your silence was not one of them.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint.” Tristan broke off a small piece of the branch and threw it to the ground.
“It’s a lot to take in. Knowing the type of man you are, I applaud your restraint. I’m sure you want my head,” Caleb said.
“My silence isn’t in response to anger. I’m silent because I’m ashamed. If my family...” Tristan grimaced then said, “I’m not sure I would feel the guilt you do.” He threw the rest of the branch away, got to his feet and walked to the other side of the porch. “I don’t know.” Tristan sat down on a chair next to Caleb on the porch.
“What happened to me was no excuse for what I did. Innocent people died. Women and children, who will never know the joy of life or the pain of loss, died because I needed revenge.” Caleb sighed. “And the worse of it was that I had no idea of what or how I did it. So, I went back to the Bressi village to find out what Pithos was and how to free myself of it.
“The destruction I unleashed on the Quende tribe extended for miles beyond their hidden village. All that flew had fallen from the skies. Death was extended to any land animals or burrowing pests as well. I walked for hours before the first sign of life appeared.
“When I finally made it back to the Bressi village, it was as if I was caught in a nightmare. Everyone, just like the Quende village, was dead. I felt sick and had to run to the stream to wet my face, maybe take a drink...and that’s when I saw it. The black bile I’d thrown up had eaten through the rocks and gotten into their water.
“I was responsible for the massacre of two tribes, and their ghosts will haunt me for a lifetime,” Caleb said, “or three.” He sighed. “I’ve gone over it a million times and only one thing could have saved my family. Fate brought Marda and me together but I allowed us to be ripped apart when I let pity stay my hand. In that deciding moment, my crossroads, I failed. That night in Dominion, I should have killed Bill.”
Tristan looked down, his expression one of concentration, then he looked up. “Was there anything that could tell you what Pithos was?” Tristan asked.
“The cocoon was gone; it had dissolved. In the rubble, I found a small piece of material, a type of metal for which I’ve never been able to find a classification. I would eventually use that metal to make two rings.” Caleb pulled a long chain from under his shirt. Two rings dangled from it.
“There was nothing for me to do then. I later realized that my search wasn’t to kill Arie, it was to provoke him to kill me. With dying no longer an option, and believe me when I tell you it’s not, I could do nothing except exist. Only that wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
“The Coesen hunted me relentlessly. They knew I was the one responsible for the deaths of over two hundred Quende and they wanted my head. I had to break ties with my family to keep them safe.
“The years passed with the Coesen discovering my whereabouts from time to time. Some by chance and other times I actually think they located me using some special ability. I did my best to limit their casualties as I got away but I wasn’t always successful. As the years changed, the Sovereigns changed as well. Most of them were humane but some not so much. They all wanted the same thing, me dead. Depending on the Sovereign, the importance to apprehend me varied. The ones who gave orders to relentlessly pursue me did so with no care for the lives lost.”
Caleb smoothed his hands over the armrest of his chair. “It didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t aging, and that presented a whole new problem for me. I could never get comfortable with any place or anyone. So, every five years I left whatever town I was in, doing my best to never return. I’m sure you can guess that maintaining a connection with my family became harder and harder until I stopped communicating with them all together.”
He shrugged. “I traveled the world learning my abilities slowly, perfecting each over time, never allowing myself to feel anything for the people I came across. I began to see people as supporting actors in my own private hell. It was easy to disconnect, or at least that’s what I told myself until about twenty years ago.”
