by Zy Rykoa
Alkon turned to Jaden, his mouth slightly ajar as if he had not known what to say for a moment.
‘He fell into one of the crevices; no one has seen him since...’
Jaden stared for a moment, and then turned his gaze to his hands. He was not sure if it was the stress of war, being away from home so long and losing so much, or using so much energy to defend himself, but he felt nothing at learning his father’s fate, drained of any emotion that may have come.
‘I need to heal,’ said Jaden. ‘Wake me when we land.’
Alkon nodded as Jaden lifted the crystal around his neck to his eyes, entering its realm.
Alkon continued flying. They would find the travelling band of the Waikorian people, who would be waiting on the crossroad between Corsec and Yugovera for their arrival. The flight was six hours long, and Alkon used the time to think of what he would need to do to get back to Arinta, his home. He thought to take Jaden with him, introduce him to his own family and perhaps adopt him. Jaden would be given a new life in place of the one that was destroyed, and he would find those that would love and help him in the eastern nations. He would soon be a man, but for now, he was little more than a child, still finding his way in an unforgiving world.
Alkon knew what it was like to lose his childhood. He had been apprenticed in the wars as soon as they began almost three decades earlier. He had gone wherever his father took him, and while other children played with toys, he learned of battle strategies and methods of killing other men. These were sad times, and with each year that passed, his longing to know his home again grew stronger. But like all the others, he would have to wait until the Alliance was disbanded or destroyed, and then he would be free once more.
Spotting lights up ahead spanning a full mile in one big line, Alkon roused Jaden. ‘They’re here,’ he said, readying to land.
Jaden had let the crystal fall as he slept against the window. He opened his eyes slowly and rubbed them to help him wake up faster. Save for the lights on the ground, it was completely dark now, and his eyes took a moment to adjust.
As they landed, Jaden seemed to become full of life, and he raced out of the helicopter toward a group of men gathered on a small circle of five vehicles, each sitting on top and conversing with one another. Jaden ran to the one he recognised first.
‘Lendon,’ he said, picking out the Kayde of Ceahlin from the group of eight. He then looked to Lendon’s right, where he realised the two Daijuar, Adonis and Blair were sitting quietly, as if oblivious to his arrival. ‘Where is Alyssa?’
‘About six trucks down,’ said Lendon, ‘but I don’t think—’
Before Lendon could finish, Jaden ran from him.
‘Let him go,’ said Blair, seeing that Lendon was about to run after Jaden. ‘There are more pressing matters at hand.’
A smile surfacing on his lips, Jaden continued to race past the many trucks and other vehicles, stopping for none, no matter how loudly they cried to speak with a sentinel. He wanted to see her, wanted to make sure she was safe. He had been away from her for what seemed an eternity, and he refused to wait another moment that he did not have to.
He found Alyssa seated in the back of a jeep, a coat wrapped around her shoulders as she sat behind an old couple. Jaden jumped up on top, causing the old couple to look at him in disgust, and he embraced Alyssa.
‘Alyssa, I made it back!’ he said, releasing her from his embrace but still holding onto her shoulders.
The two stared into each other’s eyes, searching, but Jaden’s expression soon lost its vibrant glow. Something was wrong. Something was missing. The embrace had felt empty, as if there was no feeling being returned, making it seem that she was made of stone.
‘Lyss?’ he asked, but she just stared back at him, unknowing and confused.
‘How do you know my name?’ she asked in a faraway voice.
Jaden continued searching her eyes, trying to find the answers somewhere within to the questions building inside. So lost in the moment of reunion, he hadn’t noticed another young man coming up from behind Alyssa and handing her a cup. She took it from the dark-haired youth and kissed him gently as he took a seat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder as if to protect her from the cold and the stranger in front of them.
The youth looked up at Jaden. ‘Can I help you?’ he asked, his voice smooth, confident and strong.
Jaden was lost for words. This was Alyssa before him, the one he had given his heart to, but the girl he knew was no longer there. She was with someone else. She had kissed another man right in front of him.
The dark-haired youth looked uncomfortable. ‘Move along, friend, there is no reason for you to be here.’
Before Jaden could respond, he was dragged backward and off the vehicle. Strong hands took him away from Alyssa, and the endobraces began to warm with energy.
‘Let go of me!’ he demanded.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lendon. ‘I tried to tell you.’
‘Tried to tell me what?’
‘There was an accident. Stop struggling and I’ll explain.’
Lendon pushed him away as he relaxed, and he repositioned the Daijuarn vest. ‘What happened?’
‘We left Waikor in a hurry,’ Lendon began. ‘There was a lot of confusion. We knew we didn’t have much time before the Alliance returned.’
‘Tell me what happened to her!’
‘If you give me the chance, I will,’ said Lendon. ‘But first you should know that it was nobody’s fault, and we did everything we could. She was on her horse when it happened. There was an explosion, one of the truck’s loads detached and fell. The noise must have frightened the horse. It reared up. She wasn’t ready and fell. She hit her head pretty hard.’
‘What does that mean?’ asked Jaden.
‘It means, Sentinel,’ said Lendon harshly, visibly irritated by the interruptions, ‘that she has lost some of her memory. I had hoped you were one she would remember, but it appears not.’
‘She doesn’t remember me?’ asked Jaden in disbelief.
‘Or myself, or the other sentinels, or your friend Tarsha. She remembers her father and that she came from Callibra, but nothing else.’
‘Why is that guy touching her?’ asked Jaden, looking over Lendon’s shoulder.
Lendon glanced at the couple on the vehicle, and then turned back to Jaden. ‘He has done nothing wrong,’ he said. ‘He was her caretaker. If not for him, there would have been no one else to help her. She may have died, so you should thank him for saving her life.’
‘You mean for stealing her from me!’
Lendon raised his hands. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, that is not how it happened. I know what you must feel right now.’
Jaden doubted every word he heard Lendon utter from then on. After all the soldiers he had fought, the beasts he had ran from and explosions he had stood against that would have killed any other, he was still powerless against this. The one he had dreamed of spending his life with, the one who had eased the pain of losing his home and family, the one who had given him reason to live again, to hope for a brighter future ... gone. She had been taken from him. It felt as if the very core of his being was being stripped away. His mind overloaded with anxiety and his heart racing, his stomach weak and empty, and his breath quickened, he could do nothing else than allow his eyes to become red with hatred and sorrow.
‘There is nothing you can do,’ continued Lendon.
But Jaden raced past him with the endobraces ignited at the one with Alyssa.
‘Get away from her!’ he shouted, and he readied to throw his arms forward when they were both pinned back by Lendon’s strong arms.
‘No!’ he shouted at Jaden. ‘Don’t! She is not your love anymore. Let her go!’
‘Get off me!’ shouted Jaden, tears now running freely down his cheeks.
He stopped his struggle as he saw something he had never wished to see in Alyssa’s eyes. Fear. Fear of him. What was he doing? She was afraid of him. She thoug
ht he was going to harm her. He could never do that. He would never raise a hand against her. He wanted to assure her of this, that he would never hurt her, but as she clung to the young man next to her, he realised that he was about to do exactly that, forcing her to lose one she loved.
Jaden gave no more resistance to Lendon pulling him back. Lendon then pushed Jaden further away, readying to block him from making another attempt to get at Alyssa and the youth again. But Jaden would not even turn. He stumbled twice before gaining his balance, and then he raced to the side of the travelling band toward the trees.
‘Sentinel!’ called out Alkon as he made his way toward Jaden. ‘Where are you going?’
There was no reply as Jaden disappeared into the forest, the trees at the edge becoming alight with fire as he passed them, so that none would attempt to follow.
The Waikorian people hurried to put out the flames as they burned forty feet above the treetops, but their efforts were not necessary, as the flames died away on their own, revealing the trees to still be in perfect health, without burns on trunk or leaf.
‘Where is he going?’ asked Alkon as Lendon approached.
‘Who can say?’ asked Lendon with a shrug. ‘He will find his own way. There are more lives than his at stake here. We should return to the others now to decide our fate.’
Lendon walked on, leaving Alkon looking into the trees where Jaden had disappeared.
‘Until we meet again, young Sentinel,’ he said, and with a slight bow, he followed Lendon back to the leaders.
* * *
Jaden didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know what he was going to do. He felt he didn’t know anything anymore. Everything he had come to believe was being taken from him, again. It was the fall of Callibra repeated. Nothing was safe. Not him, not Alyssa, not the cities they would have lived in. Nothing.
Jaden continued to run deep into the forest, the endobraces ignited, allowing him to dodge through the trees automatically as his mind tried to escape elsewhere. It had all been pointless. Everything he had achieved was in vain. He should have stayed with Alyssa like he had wanted to. He shouldn’t have listened to Adonis or Blair. They had used him. They had made him leave Alyssa to deliver their message and they had let Alyssa fall. They had given him some training, but it had only been because his grandfather had wanted them to. The Daijuar, he thought, did not remain elusive because they needed to hide, they just didn’t care for anything but themselves. Those that were meant to protect the innocent were frauds, and now there was nowhere he could turn.
He closed his eyes in defeat, running blindly through the forest. His foot soon clipped a tree root at the edge of a stream with a waterfall crashing down into it on the right. He fell face first into the water with a great splash, and it began to glisten with what looked like thousands of tiny stars dancing on the surface as the endobraces released their energy into it. Jaden made no attempt to get up as the waterfall pushed him further downstream toward another steep descent. He could hear something inside him telling him to stand up and save himself, but it was soon overridden by a single repeating question.
Why?
There was nothing left. It had all come to an end. Soon his final breath of air would fail, and he would take in another of water, giving himself back to the earth.
But as the air pocketed under the water, nothing else entered his lungs. He was being lifted above the surface, as if the endobraces had a mind of their own and were saving his life. As he reached the bank, he coughed out some of the water he had allowed in and he opened his eyes to a woman sitting in front of him.
‘Raquel,’ he whispered.
She bowed her head to him and then looked to the stars above, where the rings shown brighter than usual. She was no longer paying him any attention. Ignoring him, as if she didn’t care why he had chosen to let himself drown, why he had been running or why he was crying. Jaden put his head down on the ground in front of her lap. He did not feel up to trying to understand her this night, or how she had come to be in the same place as him at all. The kiss he had seen Alyssa give her new love haunted him. He had not been ready for it. He had expected her to be happy to see him, not to look at him as if she had never met him in her entire life. It was too much. What had he done to deserve it?
‘I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this,’ he said, and he felt Raquel’s warm hands rest on his back, soothing and calming him as he drifted half to sleep.
‘Your power grows,’ she said, but Jaden did not seem to hear.
‘They call me lost,’ he said after a few minutes, ‘but maybe I am the one that found the way.’
There was no response given by Raquel, and they remained where they were for the rest of the night, with Raquel doing what she could to help heal his wounds.
* * *
All eyes at the head of the Waikorian band focused on Alkon as he approached. Hayden, a man equal to Alkon in stature but with short brown hair, once caretaker of the northern district of Waikor, greeted Alkon with a hearty handshake. Both wore wide grins as they acknowledged one another.
‘My friend,’ said Alkon, ‘it is good to see you.’ He then nodded to the man next to Hayden, who resembled Hayden a little save that he was shorter. ‘I trust negotiations went well?’ he asked the man.
‘As well as a bottle of Lassahn wine!’ replied the man gleefully, picking up a bottle next to him and taking a long drink.
‘Isn’t that the truth!’ agreed Hayden as he picked up his own bottle, took a drink and then offered it to Alkon.
‘Who is this man?’ asked Yahtai, once caretaker of the eastern district and the thinnest of the group. He had pointed features and short blonde hair and always seemed concerned about something.
‘I am General Alkon Zaccarah. Who are you?’ asked Alkon mockingly, as if the question were ridiculous.
‘I am Yahtai. What are you the general of?’
‘Wine!’ said Hayden, handing Alkon another bottle.
‘You wear the uniform of the Alliance,’ said Yahtai.
‘He is the perceptive one,’ explained Hayden to Alkon in an overly audible whisper, his drunkenness becoming overwhelmingly obvious.
‘And this man,’ said Yahtai, pointing to the man next to Hayden. ‘He joined us just before the Alliance attacked. He is a friend of yours?’
‘They are like brothers to me,’ said Hayden, putting an arm around each.
‘They are from the Alliance, then.’
‘Yes,’ said Hayden, waving a bottle in front of Yahtai. ‘They are. How else do you think we were able to send them packing with their tails between their legs! He got them to stand in front of us like stunned rabbits!’ Hayden laughed loudly. ‘It was brilliant!’
‘I knew you were up to something,’ said Yahtai.
‘You knew nothing!’ Hayden retorted, trying to point his finger at Yahtai’s nose unsuccessfully and prodding his cheek instead.
‘We still have a decision to make,’ interrupted Anthon, once caretaker of the western district and a man with short black hair and dark features.
‘Yes,’ said Hayden, finally putting down the wine. ‘We do. General Alkon Zaccarah, if you would be so kind, please inform us of the Alliance movements once more, so that all present may know.’
‘They seek to take Corsec, you would have heard. And they will. They have forces massing on either side of the Quartun Bridge. When the time comes, they will unleash an attack like no other seen. They are weakening in their other strongholds around the world, so this is the most important battle for them. It is an act of desperation. Once the Resistance has fallen at Corsec, they will take absolute control of Phaiross, Cejian and Tiquan, and in time, Aurialis.
‘The ocean between Equadon and Phaiross has allowed the eastern nations to be immune to the Alliance threat, but once they have control of Aurialis, that is where they will head. My people and I will be making a stand there, before we make our own attacks to take back the world and rid it of the Allianc
e for good.’
‘Who are your people?’ asked Yahtai.
‘The Arintians,’ said Alkon.
‘And that is where we are going!’ said Hayden.
‘I’m not going there. Why would it be any different?’ Yahtai turned to Alkon. ‘Do your people possess a greater army stationed with the Resistance at Corsec?’
‘Not as yet,’ Alkon explained. ‘That is why we bide our time. Within the next five years, we hope to be ready. That is why I am requesting your service now. You will be welcomed allies to us, and we hope to reinstate you at Waikor when the Alliance is driven back.’
‘I am with you!’ said Hayden.
‘As am I,’ said Anthon.
‘That’s four votes,’ said Hayden.
‘I only counted two,’ protested Yahtai.
‘There was mine, Anthon’s and then there was the general’s, which counts as two. That’s four.’
‘He is not part of this council,’ said Yahtai.
‘What difference does it make?’ asked Hayden. ‘We’re going east. That’s the end of it!’
‘If there is confusion,’ added Alkon, ‘it might be wise to allow your people to decide for themselves. I have said all I need to for now. Once I have refuelled, I’m leaving. I will see those of you who choose to come east when you arrive.’ He turned to Hayden and the man next to him. ‘My friends, I must get there as soon as possible. I am months late already.’
‘It was a pleasure,’ said Hayden with a final shake of Alkon’s hand and quick embrace.
Alkon then shook the other man’s hand and bowed to the others before leaving.
‘Well, Yahtai,’ said Hayden. ‘If you are going to be difficult, perhaps we should let the people decide.’
Yahtai considered the offer. ‘If it means you will not attempt to persuade us any further, then I accept.’
‘Very well,’ said Hayden, and he picked up the radio device within his vehicle. ‘People of Waikor, we have a decision to make.’