River’s End ch 40: A Creature of Destruction

As if fighting a strong current, my movements got me nowhere. The half-formed apparition of the vedia clung to me, eyes glowing like murder-mode Paqo’s.

‘Let go of me, Alaysq!’

She faltered, restraints on me loosening enough for me to take a few steps. Fredo’s form was briefly visible before her grip reeled me back. Cheek against mine, she smiled and folded around me as if I were a child sitting on her lap.

‘You called me by my name.’

I stared at where Fredo had been. Mist cascaded and churned, forming impossible shapes—none I wanted to see. I wanted Fredo to catch me when I fell, not this vedia. I wanted his grin and puns when I told him some scientific fact. I wanted him to tell me he was on my side and always would be, that he knew nothing of what these people had planned for Grenswa.

Tears dribbled down my cheeks, and a whisper escaped my trembling lips, so quiet, even I barely heard it. ‘What is a keilan?’

‘What he is, a creature of destruction.’

I locked my jaw. ‘That answers nothing.’

‘Do you know who Vedia was?’

‘The first vedia.’ My answer sounded like a toddler’s, and I scowled.

‘Yes, an experiment gone right. He was also the father of Mykta.’

True, and Mykta’s bond had been different than her father’s, more distant and more draining to her royal counterpart.

‘Do you know the name of Mykta’s mother?’

My eyes narrowed. ‘Are you implying that is who Keilan was?’

Alaysq nodded, cheek warm against mine. ‘She was older than Vedia, the same experiment but gone very wrong.’

‘What do you mean?’ I bit my lip. The early River Guardians manufactured the first vedia, but I had never heard there were failures.

‘The idea was for the heir apparent at the time to have one mind in multiple bodies. Vedia’s consciousness was supposed to vanish, and while that is not what he became—’

‘What?’ I stiffened, turning to her in wide-eyed horror.

‘Though capable of forming a bond, you have never been told this?’

I shook my head vehemently. ‘Are you saying that’s possible, that I could stamp out Fredo’s individuality and accidently take over his body?’

‘No.’ Her luminous eyes burned with terror and hate. ‘He is a keilan, and like his ancestress, he is more likely to crush you, leave you an empty shell.’

As if I was underwater again, I couldn’t breathe. My stomach rocked, sloshed by the waves of a tempest. If Keilan was so awful, why had I never heard of her? If it was so easy to tell that Fredo was one of her kind, why had our elders ensured he lived, trusting the Lokmas to raise him?

He would never hurt me, but…

‘Could he do it on accident?’

Before she answered, shouts and screeches wrenched me back to reality.

“Your silence only lends more to your suspiciousness. Speak in your defense, or I will have no choice but to continue detaining you.”

In the middle of a mud pit filled with squealing rodents, Paqo knelt on a humanoid form. The boy’s arms were captured behind his shoulder blades, and his tail whipped the machine to no avail. A crimson scarf covered the lower half of his face, but there was no mistaking the brilliance of scales against his caramel skin or the rainbow that was his hair.

And Ambassador Lafdo called my hair incredibly colored.

This was a Grenswa-na Titanium.

Though he made no sound, the scrunch of his eyes bespoke pain. Whether Paqo intended to hurt him or not, the machine was heavy and had been designed to kill Grenswa-nas. A simple twitch from the Sentinel now would snap the boy’s arms. Even if he zapped Paqo, all that weight would crash down on him.

I wondered if he realized that or just didn’t think of zapping things as a viable defense. It didn’t work on others of his kind.

“Please explain your presence. It is extremely rude to ignore a captor in this way.”

“What if he can’t talk?” Togdy suggested as our ride stopped to lick the fence. “Wouldn’t you just be cruel, then?”

“Excellent point, masterful guide.” Paqo knelt closer to his captive’s face. “If you cannot speak, please indicate that in some way.”

The Titanium fell still, leg flat against the mud so that I could see what lay beyond it: my bag.

“Is that your signal or are you simply fatigued?” Paqo questioned.

“Or maybe you killed him,” Togdy offered.

I slid off the norahn’s trunk, side twinging and straining my voice. “Let him go.”

“But he is a truly suspicious person.”

“He saved my life. He can’t be all bad.” I snatched my bag and knelt near the Essesntia’s face. “You did save me, right? You pulled me to shore and wrapped this bandage?”

As Paqo stepped off him, the Titanium remained motionless except for a flick of his eyes toward my injured side.

Instead of the sparkle that waltzed in Timqé’s irises, these held the fire of a million suns. A sliver of chrome bordered his pupil. Patches of neon scarlet, orange, yellow, cobalt, purple, and bronze spiraled from there, all encased in a circle of jade. His hair followed a similar pattern, every strand—at least on the side that wasn’t buried in the mud—tipped with fluorescent green. That same color freckled his gradient of scales.

Like Hent, he was a living sculpture, features stronger but with a similar delicate vibrancy. I tried not to get lost in the awe of staring at him and kept some amount of stern authority in my expression.

“You also had my bag.” I held up the item in question. “Care to explain how you got it?”

He retreated onto his hands and knees, and his stunning gaze flicked to the bedraggled pouch, then returned to my face.

“He took your bag!” Paqo exclaimed. “How highly unethical, first to steal the armor off a fallen soldier, then to take advantage of the chaos of war to further his thieving ways.”

I had done something similar as far as the Shlykrii-na battle attire was concerned, but this wasn’t the time to bring that up.

Gouges and scorch marks covered the hard, overlapping sleeves and shoulder plates the Titanium wore. Did they get there before or after he acquired the armor? Or did he inflict that damage upon its previous owner?

The Titanium frowned at the machine, muscles tense and ready to leap away. Yet, his eyes again returned to me, searching. Asking…what?

“Thief or not, what’ll you have him do about it now? No, the real question is why an Essentia was on Ledatiiss Island. Ready to explain, mystery man?”

He blinked, one foot pulling back, but Paqo grabbed his arm. Despite his wince, he made no sound. Even his footsteps in the mud were silent.

Mine were not as I stomped toward him and placed myself well within what I considered personal space. His eyes widened, so close, if he blinked, his colorful lashes would have touched my nose.

“Were you in contact with the Shlykrii-nas?”

I wanted a scapegoat, but he shook his head.

“Then tell us why you were there.”

He only looked at me, life pulsing in those brilliant eyes and scales. In deference to the scant oxygen in the air here, he breathed through his nose, too, chest heaving beneath a laced, leather tunic. His scales alone couldn’t keep up.

He wasn’t with the Shlykrii-nas, logic said. He didn’t belong here, wouldn’t last long here.

“Why are you on this ship?”

A solemn sheen glazed his eyes before they slid closed.

I shoved away from him. “Paqo, did the Shlykrii-nas take him like they took Hent? Could they not tell the difference between a Titanium and an Opal?”

Those impossible eyes snapped open, and heavy, mud-caked hair flew as the Grenswa-na shook his head.

“No? Then, how did you get aboard?”

Again, just that mesmerizing, frustrating stare.

“When I called his intentions into question, he ran,” Paqo explained. “After I saw Prince Hent carried off into the sky, this one tried to escape into the forest and grabbed a rope in imitation of the retreating soldiers. I did likewise and was pulled aboard a different transport, where the occupants fawned over me. They put me in a sorting room full of treasures, but I knew my civic duty was too great to wait for proper paperwork. I had to find this suspicious person.”

I raised a brow. “Your priorities are warped. Shouldn’t you have been trying to help Hent all this time? You think so, too, right, Titanium?”

He gave a small nod.

“Is that why you’re here?” I fished. “Why won’t you speak?”

“Perhaps he is mute after all?” Paqo suggested.

The Essentia’s brows rose, and I didn’t think that was a yes, but it wasn’t a no either.

“Maybe he likes guessing games,” Togdy supposed.

“Hmm.” I brought a finger to my chin, head tilted in thought. “The Essentia clans regard themselves as sovereign states. I’m not sure a lazy Titanium would go out of his way to help a prince he considers his enemy.”

My tongue stumbled on the last word as the Essentia’s stare bored into me. It was like a time-lapsed version of Hent’s, and I relived each occasion I had seen them change: his worried green when I first met him, his eggplant annoyance, orange indignation, golden fear, the honey color he hadn’t known, the ebony when he discovered what I was.

When I found him here, what color would he be? As much as I wanted to say azure, that bright color so similar to his brother’s that he took on when he genuinely laughed, I doubted it.

I needed to get off this ship, and Hent needed to as well.

I cleared my throat. “The king said there were thirty-two captured Grenswa-nas. Perhaps you came here to help one of the others?”

The Titanium’s gaze fell to my bag, then flicked to my bandaged side.

“Yes, you helped me, and I’m grateful, but, well, why?”

“Saving a damsel in distress is among the noblest causes in the universe,” Paqo touted, but I held up a hand. It actually worked and silenced the machine.

“A lot of primitive cultures believe the Seallaii-na Sojourners are capable of impossible things.” Togdy scratched his ear. “Maybe he saved you hoping you would help him.”

As if the Titanium had answered me himself, I didn’t look away from his burning, rainbow gaze. “I’m not a Sojourner. I’m on my own, but I will do everything I can to help. Do you know where they’re holding the Grenswa-na prisoners?”

Another nod.

“If Paqo releases you, will you show us the way?”

The nod was slower this time, but I didn’t doubt its conviction.

“What does a fake Sojourner want with those prisoners?” Togdy asked with a yawn.

A chill trickled through my core. It was akin to fear, a distant cousin that I couldn’t name. I was a fake Sojourner, not qualified for this, and if I messed up, I wouldn’t be the only one to pay.

My fists clenched. “I’ll free those prisoners and take them home.”

“What if you can’t?”

Peeling my gaze from the Titanium, I whirled toward the Dossie. Why was he being so negative? He sounded like he didn’t even care.

“What I can’t do,” I sounded out, “is do nothing to help them.”

“I do not doubt her cleverness,” Paqo added, and I cringed. “For instance, surely the Sojourners are tracking the signal from her purse. They will swoop in to our rescue when the time is right.”

“What signal? Where?” I pivoted toward the machine, bag held up as if it contained fire.

“It is a simple tracer signal. You likely stuck it on or within an object so it would not look suspicious. Seallaii-nas are so wise.”

“Which object, Paqo?” Flinging open the flap, I thrust the sack toward the machine’s face. “Pull it out.”

“Oh no, I could never rummage through a lady’s purse.”

“Your twisted priorities are sawing off my last nerves.” Both hands on the bottom of the satchel, I upended it and shook out its contents. “Show me which item is sending the signal.”

“Must you always be so overly dramatic? It makes it hard for others to find you likable.”

“Look who’s talking. Just be useful for once and point out the tracer.”

With a huff, the machine pointed to a vial, one of several clear tubes that weren’t within the silk pouches where they belonged. I snatched the tiny cylinder and twisted it to read the unfamiliar label hand-scrawled in Menyazé: Midkeilan.

Tears of Rain.

My heart stopped, whispered words escaping. “I didn’t put this in here.”

So, who did?

This Essentia? Why would he bring a tracer showing Shlykrii-nas where to attack? And why would the label be written in Menyazé?

Tears of Rain. It uses Keilan’s name.

No. Oh-no, no, no, no. Why did it point to Fredo? If I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anybody.

“The powers of Grenswa will most assuredly come to our aid,” Paqo insisted, arguing with something I’d missed Togdy say. “They will do anything to retrieve our Opal prince.”

The Titanium’s head listed, scales burning even brighter for a moment.

Fear jumped into me.

“That’s exactly why this situation is so dangerous.” I tried to force authority into my voice, but it was sheer as the wind. “The Shlykrii-nas know they can use Hent to get their way or break the people’s spirit. That’s why we must get him out of here.”

“If you can’t?” Togdy sniffed the back paw he had used to scratch his ear. “Do you have the strength to kill him if that’s the only way to save him?”

I gave the Dossie the sternest stare I had ever conjured and spoke through barely moving lips. “River Guardians do not kill.”

“They do when they have to.” He met my gaze with no remorse, no cowardice, only wisdom as old and deep as the center of the universe.

My own words to Ambassador Lafdo echoed in my head as if every drop of my inner mist whispered it.

Sometimes it’s necessary to prune off a few bad limbs to protect the whole plant.

Hent wasn’t bad. Cranky and misguided at times, but not bad, just in a bad situation.

Still, I understood what Togdy meant. In the end, the greater good and Hent’s own sanity considered, his death might prevent even more tragic outcomes.

This wasn’t the time to make that call. I was a child lacking the insight to make such decisions, and so was Togdy. I would hold on for as long as I could, resolute in what I believed was right. I would cling to hope because it was soft and warm. I would offer it to others and use it as padding against prickly fear.

Fear had enough spines. It didn’t need me sharpening them with what ifs.

Still, the thought lingered. If the only way to save Hent from being the key to destroying his world was to destroy him instead, could I do it?

Again, I saw his eyes, golden in terror when his father had warned Seallaii may ask for his life. In my mind’s eye, the color swirled to onyx, and my heart rent in two.

I choked on a sob, shaking my head and grinding out words. “We have to find him. Let’s not dwell on bridges we may never come across.”

Continued in chapter 41: Until My Dying Breath

Thank you for reading!