| |
Horrified disbelief was perhaps the most accurate description of Jaiya’s expression when she looked past Solin to focus in on the only other female among the small group in the clearing.
“Gods...” the quietly haunted chord of the Priestess’s voice seemed to carry on the steady wind. “Is that her? I-I couldn’t believe it when they told me...they actually let you take her?”
“Well,” the word was thoroughly smug. “They didn’t have much choice and I decided to up our schedule.”
“Schedule,” Jaiya pulled her gaze from the young woman and returned it to Solin.
He gave a lazy eyeroll paired with a half shrug. “I may have omitted a few aspects of my business.”
“Business that included taking a descendent of the High Priestess’s line?” Jaiya frowned while spanning the land with quiet suspicion. “Where are we, Solin?”
He grinned. “I can tell by your tone, you already know.”
“What are we doing here?”
“What I’ve thought of doing everyday over these last two thousand years. Reversing what they did,” soft fury was etched into the admission.
Jaiya shook her head. “There’s no proof The Essence will do that.”
Solin patted her cheek as if he were tending a small child. “It’ll do enough.”
“Whatever you’re up to, you’ll need more than me.”
“Oh, trust me, sweet, I have it,” he turned an approving eye on their surroundings. “This is where I sent Warriors to look for Keturah after she went missing. They confirmed The Essence flowed here and I know you sense it as I do. Keturah’s been more of an asset than all the scientists I’ve employed over the years. Her discovery of that energy source is what set all of this in motion. Her ability to sense massive pockets of energy got past whatever masking agents there may’ve been in place. Now we can move forward. We have our Gateway, our Priestess and our General.”
“Our General?” Again, Jaiya frowned and glanced around the property.
“See anyone else you recognize?” Solin prompted.
Jaiya noticed the two men on either side of Keturah Dyson. From their builds, she pegged them as Warriors. She knew that Solin employed mortals to keep up appearances, but Realm Warriors made up his elite guard. She looked to the man who stood farthest away. He seemed to tower over the rest and she knew he was no Malevolent half-breed. This was a full-blooded original Warrior created by the Benevolent Priests and blessed by the Gods.
The man’s wide, angular face was dark and seemed to grow darker still with the onset of dusk. Jaiya couldn’t quite make out his features, but could see the dreads brushing his broad shoulders. Sudden recognition fueled a combination hiccup and gasp that roused robust laughter from Solin.
“What’s going on?” Jaiya nearly choked.
“I think you know already. That’s right, Jai, the man you love is here in the flesh.” Solin moved in to nudge her shoulder. “I should apologize for keeping the two of you apart all this time, but I couldn't have Constant realizing who I was and go blabbing to his old comrades, at least not before I found the Gates or before Keturah Dyson was ready to do what she was born to.”
“Solin-” Jaiya paused to once again attempt to catch her breath. “You could’ve...could’ve told me you came here with-”
“He didn’t come with me when I left, Jai. He came by a different route,” Solin turned a considering look toward Constant. “The lies and trickery got to be too much for him after what happened to Soma. I considered it fate when we finally met up by way of the Warriors who were part of my elite guard. By then, he was looking for a place to belong and happy to find that place with us.”
“But he never would’ve done that,” Anguish had taken hold of Jaiya’s delicate features. “Did you tell him you got here by way of The Malevolent?”
“Where do you think he went after he left our side of the Realm?” Solin waited for realization to collide with Jaiya’s anguish. “I had only planned to keep Constant Shrouded for a short while-”
“Shrouded?” Jaiya gave a fast, frantic shake of her head. “You’ve kept him Shrouded all this time?”
“It was easier for everyone, especially for Constant with all the guilt he was carrying around for my sister. He’d have been no use to me if he’d known who he was really working for.”
“You should’ve at least told me what you were planning.”
“I should have,” Solin gracefully accepted Jaiya’s admonishment. “Thanks to Constant going off book when we lost track of Keturah and her aunt, we discovered an unexpected guest had joined them- Chikere.”
“So naturally you had to withhold information,” Jaiya chided.
“And I’m sorry for that-my mind was on moving as quickly as possible,” Solin lightly cupped her face and then sent a speculative look around the flat land. “It’s a miracle Chikere hasn’t already hidden this place. Now’s the time,” he saw Jaiya look past him and he smiled.
“I promise you’ll have time with Constant, but after we take care of our priorities.”
Jaiya’s features tightened. “This was never a priority for me.”
A sharpness laced Solin’s gaze then. “Constant is a priority for you though, isn’t he? Get me what I want and I’ll see you have an eternity together.”
Longing overturned the suspicion in Jaiya’s eyes. Solin read the emotion clearly and took it for his answer.
“We’re not alone here,” she said.
His brow quirked. He was unconcerned. “No one will see us until it’s too late to do anything about it. Now let’s go say hello to our guests.”
~~~
Keturah didn’t know who was more stunned, she or Constant who looked as though he were seeing a ghost. Jaiya seemed equally stupefied but appeared to shake her daze by the time she looked to Keturah.
“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Jaiya said.
Keturah offered her hand. She didn’t know if ‘same here’ qualified as an appropriate response to an immortal priestess. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
“Same here,” Jaiya’s smile defined when she saw the subtle delight in Keturah’s eyes. “And if you and Osmium are as close as I sense, I suspect my name has been mentioned a time or two,” she sent a hesitant look toward Constant and added, “Both our names, I suppose.”
Keturah looked to Constant as well. “It was a hard story for Oz to tell.”
Jaiya seemed intrigued. “Still,” her tone didn’t beckon a reply though she looked beseechingly to Constant.
“Is it you, Jaiya?” He asked.
She gave a tremulous smile. “It is.”
Constant’s unreadable expression betrayed a slight fracture. “How?” He seemed barely able to get the word out.
“You have the right to answers for all your questions, Con,” Solin interjected. “But may I ask you to hold them until later?”
Constant didn’t looked pleased. He abided following a look to Jaiya and seeing her nod.
“Shall we?” Solin directed Jaiya to take her place at his side.
Moises and Rayan tugged Keturah along between them while Constant followed behind them all. They moved at a steady trek behind Solin and Jaiya who seemed to know just where they were headed.
Keturah observed the man and woman closely, silently admiring the regal air of their strides. Despite the situation, she couldn’t help but to experience a wave of pride in a part of her heritage she never knew existed. Years of studying Greek gods, Roman history and the great dynasties of the Orient...it was a refreshing, enlightening and inspiring change to discover her own history was even more riveting and mysterious than she already knew it to be.
Rayan gave her arm a tug and Keturah decided she could do with a little less mystery. Exactly what was the plan here? For some reason she had the idea that The Essence wasn’t the main part of it. Whatever was to come, she couldn’t resist a moment to indulge in the rapturous sensations that intensified the closer she drew to what invisibly exuded.
Jaiya stopped mid-stride, bending at the waist as though she were attempting to catch her breath. Solin didn’t seem to be as affected, but he smiled as if in acknowledgement.
“Have we found it?” he asked.
“You have.”
Solin nodded to Moises and Rayan who drew Keturah closer. He raised a hand toward Constant, urging him closer as well.
“What now?”
Solin ignored Keturah’s snide query and looked to Jaiya. She looked miserable.
“I...I can’t do this, Solin.”
His expression was apologetic. “I was wrong to keep my plans from you, love.”
“Because you knew,” Jaiya seemed to be toiling to muster effort to speak. “You knew I wouldn’t approve of you using The Essence for your own ends. It can’t be controlled, Solin.”
“Told you...”
“Quiet,” Solin snarled to Keturah and moved past her to stand before Jaiya.
“We’ve waited centuries for this,” he told the Priestess.
“You’ve waited centuries for his,” Jaiya threw back. “What needs to happen here has nothing to do with you.”
“Open the Gates, Jaiya.”
“I told you, I can’t.”
Jaw clenched, Solin bowed his head and appeared to be having an inner debate of sorts. He looked up and a second later, punished Jaiya’s cheek with a swift backhand blow. The woman dropped to her knees and Keturah intervened with a shove to Solin’s side before she knelt to assist Jaiya. There was no time for Solin to draw Keturah away, Constant had him by the throat and was lifting him high and effortlessly from the ground.
Sadly, the Warrior’s literal upper hand couldn’t last for long. Solin swiped his arms down over Constant’s and broke their brutal connection. The move also ignited a fiery path along Constant’s sleeves.
Jaiya watched, horrified by the display. Keturah’s focus however had been tugged in a different direction. In the distance, she swore she could hear voices, the clang of metal and...an engine?
Constant ripped away his burning jacket. Still, the flames continued their destructive path. The fire seemed to have attached itself to his arm, stripping away the sleeve of the shirt he’d worn beneath the jacket.
Moises watched with an arrogant smirk. Rayan’s smirk seemed more amused than arrogant. Solin looked on dispassionately and then offered a wave that extinguished the flame.
“Open the Gates, Jaiya-use Keturah and Constant as they were meant to be used, or my next display will ravage the very impressive body of the man you adore, not to mention that pretty face of his.”
Keturah’s gaze spewed pure venom Solin’s way. “You really are an idiot,” she seethed. “She can’t open it, Louis. You’ve been misinformed, I’m happy to say.”
“Shut your mouth, Keturah.”
“I told you, you’d need a General.”
Jaiya’s words had Solin returning his loathing glare in her direction. He blinked at the uncharacteristic ambivalence he saw in her eyes.
With Keturah’s help, Jaiya pushed to her feet. “I said you’d need a General. I didn’t say which one.”
Solin’s upper lip curled. “What difference does that make?”
Jaiya shook her head, her lovely features harboring their own brand of savagery. “Keturah’s right, you really are an idiot. It makes all the difference.”
~~~
Oz’s silver stare literally blazed, fueled by an otherworldly element that made it glint with an extraordinary and deadly appeal. “Get this son of a bitch on the ground,” he snarled to no one in particular.
The group had arrived at the airstrip in Fort Worth and decided to take a chopper to the camp in hopes of making up for their opponent’s head start. Nightfall should have already set in and yet the camp seemed illuminated as though the sun hadn’t quite decided whether it was ready to set.
The lightning cast the area in a dim almost sepia toned shadow, but it was easy to make out the scene below. The chopper hovered over the Gate clearing in time for Oz to see Keturah and another woman on the ground. Above them, two men were locked in a fierce struggle. Correction-one man appeared locked, his neck in the grip of the other.
“Sango’s Fire,” Tron breathed, edging closer to peer out his side of the helicopter. “Is that-”
“Constant,” Oz finished.
“Dammit Nep, land this piece of shit!” Borg growled then.
“Patience,” Neptune growled back.
Agatha watched the scene from her perch in the cockpit near Neptune who manned the controls. “Can they see us?” She asked, through the headsets they wore to communicate.
“Chik has us Veiled,” Neptune explained. “The technique is similar to Shrouding, but not quite as elaborate.”
“He’s so preoccupied, he doesn’t realize he and his men can be seen,” Chikere shared from where he sat.
Everyone understood that ‘he’ was Solin Domual. Agatha refused to acknowledge the shivers taunting her spine when she saw the man she had known as Louis Moland.
The chopper hovered close enough so that the faces of those on the ground were clearly recognizable. Yet, no one below registered their presence thanks to Chikere.
Agatha smiled. Noone registered their presence except her niece. She had seen Keturah looking up and around as though she were searching for something other than a way out of her predicament. Agatha’s proud smile tensed when she too looked off in the distance and saw the swell of bodies at battle. In that moment, she was just as eager to land as she was to remain airborne.
“Who is that?” Tron’s cavernous voice filled the cab again. “Down there, with Ket? The other woman?”
Chikere frowned for just a moment. Then, his expression cleared with discovery and disbelief. His voice was a whisper. “Gods...it’s Jaiya.”