by Ryan Wieser
Present Day
By dawn, a handful of men had abandoned camp, but only a handful. Falco’s men were, for the most part, very loyal. He had offered them refuge in Aranthol in return for their service in battle. Many of them had lived under his rule for years, many had fought at his side before, and were ready to do it again. “It is better that they’ve left. We don’t need the disloyal watching our backs in battle.” Jessop reminded him, running her hand across Falco’s back.
“They need to die for their treason.”
“Falco—”
“You know it’s true. It is what would have happened were we still in Aranthol and I was still just the Shadow Lord.”
“You are not just a Shadow Lord anymore…You are the leader of Daharia, Lord and Protector. You cannot rule as you ruled Aranthol.”
He nodded slowly but Jessop knew she hadn’t convinced him of anything. “We can deal with the deserters once we have Jeco back.”
He grabbed her hand. “You’re right. I just ...it’s been a very long time since I’ve had to kill any of my own soldiers.”
“Falco ...maybe the issue is that you lead the Hunters now. Those soldiers, a band of dangerous rebels, they aren’t truly your men anymore.”
He shook his head. “I might not just be the Shadow Lord anymore, but I’m also not going to rule Daharia as all those before me have. These men, those who still remain, they have proven themselves to me time and again. I won’t forsake those who are loyal to me now.”
“Good to hear,” Kohl spoke, his head ducked through the flap of their tent.
Jessop and Falco instinctively moved apart as he stepped inside.
Kohl flicked his gaze between them. “We have news—Korend’a has already found a Voyager.”
Jessop felt her heart quicken. “So quick! When will they return?”
He turned his amber eyes to her, a small smile pulling at his face. “They think they can return by tomorrow evening, perhaps the morning after—they do have the fastest Soar-Craft in the fleet.”
As quickly as the elation came, it disappeared. She didn’t know what she had expected. She knew how long it took to travel Haren’dul Daku, she knew the treachery her friend faced. The fact that they had somehow found a Voyager so quickly was incredible ...and yet she was not pleased. “A day—perhaps two? That’s too long. We need to get to Bakoran.”
“Jessop.”
“It’s too long.”
Falco and Kohl both stared at her, concern filling their eyes. She couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t stand to feel their pain as she so keenly suffered her own. She couldn’t stand to be so close to reclaiming her son and having to wait still. She pushed around them and ducked out of the tent.
The desert was unforgiving. She moved past groups of Kuroi and Falco’s men training and working, some making food while others organized weapons and provisions. She walked on, leaving them all behind her. The portal wall rippled and waved, a world of darkness on the other side that she so longed to enter. She walked towards it, knowing better than to touch it. The Voyagers were a certain type of being—they could create travel portals where they needed to, they could navigate dark space, and they could touch such walls without suffering grave harm. Jessop was not a Voyager.
Nonetheless, she walked as close to the wall as she could. She walked in the heat, past the Voyager hut, past the burial site, leaving the camp far behind her. She walked and walked until she could no longer hear the warriors training, until her camp was nothing but a small speck in her periphery. She walked as the sweat trailed down her neck, prickling her thirsty flesh. She walked as her throat dried and her eyes itched. She walked until she finally came across something she had not seen in the longest time—a tree.
It was lush, with thick foliage, wide-brimmed green leaves, and cool, brown bark. She didn’t know how it existed in such a place, but there it was, tucked against the galaxy wall with roots disappearing straight into the sand. She fell at its welcoming base before turning and resting her back against the trunk.
She had needed the space. She had needed to put distance between herself, Falco, and Kohl. She knew that only Korend’a could have somehow crossed the desert and found a Voyager in one night. She knew that only he could return so quickly. But she was impatient ...Nothing was quick enough. She thought of Jeco and her heart broke again and again.
“Your boy is fine.” The foreign voice startled her.
Calis stood before her. He wore all white, his whip secured to his hip, his glowing eyes fixed on her. She scrambled to her feet. “How did you get here?”
He smiled, taking a step closer. “Where exactly is here?”
“Don’t toy with me—I’ll kill you where you stand.”
“Have you fallen asleep, all on your lonesome, so far away from that mighty husband of yours?”
Jessop opened her mouth, ready to argue, when she realized that she didn’t know. Had she fallen asleep? Was this a dream or was he truly standing before her? Did it matter, if their actions were just as lethal in their dream world as in their waking?
“Where is my son?”
“With his family.”
“He has no family aside from myself and—”
“You’re the first person I’ve seen with eyes that glowed in so many years…” He stood but two feet from her, his glowing eyes fixed on hers, completely ignoring her words as he stared.
She narrowed her gaze at him. “We are both part Kuroi. I was raised with our people—you were not.”
He let out a surprised laugh. “Oh, I was raised with our people, Jessop. I was raised by family.”
She didn’t know what he spoke of. She didn’t care. She would do whatever was required to get her son. She knew Hydo cared for him—she could hurt him, or take him hostage. Unless it was truly just a dream, in which case, she didn’t know if she could do anything but cause him harm.
“This is difficult for me, too, you know. Seeing you like this, seeing this rift that has been caused,” he spoke.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You know who I am, you know who Falco is ...Whatever you want, I can get it for you, just help me get my son back.”
“I do know who you are. I know who you are better than you do.”
Jessop lunged at him, grabbing his white tunic and wrenching him forward. She spun and slammed his body against the tree. “Enough with these games! Where is my son?”
“Safe. With his kin.”
Jessop pulled one of her daggers loose from her back, bringing the point to his neck. “Stop saying that.”
He smiled at her softly. “Easy, Jessop, you wouldn’t want to kill your own brother.”
She faltered, the point of her blade accidently nicking his flesh. She stepped away from him. “You lie.”
“Can’t you see it?”
He smiled. And she instantly recognized the smile as her own, when the rare occasion had called for it. But she knew it was only her mind playing tricks on her for hearing his lies—she had no kin. “I have no brother. I have no siblings.”
He took a step towards her. Every move he made was suddenly familiar to her. She knew she must have been imagining it but he moved as she did.
“It’s what Hydo wanted to tell you the other night, before we fought, when you saw us.”
“Us?”
“Your brothers.”
At the word, she thought of Urdo. She thought of the Hunters. She thought of Trax—of the men she had come to know as brothers. It took her a moment to remember the first dream. The dream where Jeco had been playing with other children, the fine setting, the plates of food, and the men ...
“I have no brothers.” It was all she could say. She would have remembered. She could recall her entire childhood with ease, she knew her parents had no other children. But then she remembered what Mar’e had said—Hydo had visited her family
every year of her life before they died, and Jessop had no memory of that.
“I resisted in the beginning too. You and I, we are siblings born of Kuroi lineage but our brothers are not the same.”
“Stop.”
“You are not the only one with the Fire and Sentio. Hydo has both. I have both. Our younger brothers have both. Feel free to search my mind and find that you are not alone, Jessop.”
She knew that she could be in his mind in an instant. She could see his entire life if she wanted to. But she also knew it could be a trick; a way to distract her from the present, to pull her focus while slipping a blade through her.
“I would have known if either of my parents had had other children.”
He cocked his head at her. “Of course, you still don’t know ...Jessop, your parents aren’t your parents. I had a guardian family too—Octayn and Kezo.”
The hilt of her blade was slick with sweat. She tightened her grip. “What?”
He moved closer to her. He reached for her hand. She had intended to rip it away from him—but she didn’t. She couldn’t. He slowly took her wrist, the very wrist that bore a snake-like scar thanks to him, and he raised it to his face. “Just look. I wouldn’t lie to you, Sister.”
Her hand rested against his smooth skin, her fingertips grazing his temple. She closed her eyes and began to fall into his mind. She soared past memories, beautiful and vivid happenings—a wondrous palace, private tutors, a band of young boys all running around testing the limits of their Fire-Wielding. She flew past these images until she found something more familiar—Beyond the Grey. She recognized the territory instantly. She saw him as a young boy. He seemed happy. He laughed.
Behind him, a man appeared, smiling as he watched over Calis. He was a young man and his eyes did not glow. From their small home, a woman emerged. She stood at his side. For a quick moment, Jessop was certain she was staring at her mother. The woman had long blond hair and bright green eyes. But her eyes, like the man’s, did not glow.
Jessop approached the woman. She studied her face. Her movements. She was near identical to her own mother. But she wasn’t her. “Octayn,” the man called her, as they took Calis inside.
Jessop fell from the memory. She needed to see more, needed to see something more telling. She traveled through the waves of images until she saw a face that she most certainly recognized. Hydo. She dropped into the memory and found him, the young Lord Protector, speaking with Calis’s parents.
“You say he’s already displayed Fire-Wielding? This will please his mother greatly.”
Jessop watched as they called Calis into the room and asked him to show the Hunter what he could do. The small boy outstretched his hand and closed his eyes, squeezing them tight as his fingers suddenly erupted in flames. He smiled as the adults praised him.
“It’s time he is returned to his mother now.”
Jessop was amazed. None of this made sense. She could see the man and woman were not Kuroi, she understood they might not have been Calis’s biological parents, but he believed they were his mother and father and they had surely raised him and loved him. But they nodded, with understanding, ready to let Hydo take the boy.
Jessop circled Hydo. She wanted to interrupt the memory. She wanted to demand answers. He froze in their doorway before turning back to them. “The girl—she has shown no abilities so far. Octayn has told me to perform the test.”
The man and woman looked despondent. “Perhaps some more time? Why risk the child’s life?”
He shook his head. “It’s been too many years already for both children. She says the child will survive the fire. That when forced, the girl will prevail. Only then will I be able to take her home.”
Jessop fell to the ground. Of course, the memory version of Hydo did not see her falter. He just continued to speak with Calis’s parents—or guardians. He was speaking about her. He was talking about how he would have to burn her home ...to see if she was a Fire-Wielder or not. He was talking about another Octayn, who was neither her mother nor this woman before her. Octayn Oredan.
Jessop felt as though she would be sick.
She forced herself out of the memory. She fell through Calis’s mind. She fell until she was back at the palace. There were younger boys. And they were fawned over by a beautiful woman with long blonde hair and bright green eyes.
She spoke to Calis with a soft voice, introducing him to the smaller children, telling him how he was their oldest brother and he had to care for them. She told him that a sister would be joining them soon.
Jessop let her hand fall from his face. Her knees buckled and she hit the sandy ground beneath her. Calis didn’t move. He didn’t touch her. She turned to her side and retched. She felt faint, dehydrated and sick. He hadn’t been lying.
Calis knelt beside her. He waited in silence as she tried to recover. She dabbed her mouth on the back of her hand and shifted so she could rest against the tree, in the shade, once more. She stared at him. She wanted to call him a liar. She wanted to ask him what he’d been told about why she had never arrived. She wanted to fight him and she wanted to embrace him. But more than anything, despite any news of their supposed relation, she wanted her son back.
“We weren’t raised together.”
“For safety, as children of Bakora royalty, we were separated to live with our respective guardians as inconspicuously as possible.”
“If you are a brother to me, why do you side with my enemy? Why won’t you help me get my son?”
Her voice was almost unrecognizable. She was parched. She needed water. He shook his head slowly. “You must know we would never harm your son, he is our kin. But there is more to this all then you know, Sister.”
She flinched at the word. There had been a time in her life where all she had wanted was family. And then she’d had Falco. And then they’d had Jeco. And she had forgotten the feeling of ever being cared for or needed by any other.
Calis took a deep breath. “Our brothers who are not part Kuroi—they are Hydo’s sons.”
Jessop forced herself to her feet; almost certain she had misheard him. “What?”
“You and I, we are the children of Octayn and of the Kuroi...but our brothers, they are the sons of Octayn and Hydo. We cannot kill our brothers’ father, Jessop.”
Jessop thought she might be sick all over again. She knew that this couldn’t all be true ...that he might be lying for Hydo. That despite all she had seen in his mind, he hadn’t truly proven anything, despite how compelling the images might have been.
“Do you know who my father is?”
Calis shook his head. “She does not speak of yours, or mine. We have Kuroi blood. That is all I know. Hydo has been a father to me for many years though.”
“He is my greatest enemy.”
“Jessop, you need to—”
“Help me get my son. Calis, you must help me get Jeco,” she yelled, grabbing his tunic once more, shaking him.
He grabbed her hands. He was so strong. “Jessop, you need to wake up.”
“What?”
“Wake up.”
* * * *
She choked on the water flowing down her throat. She rolled to her side and coughed violently, heaving over the hot sand. Falco held her hair back. She looked around, her heart racing. “Where is he? Where’s Calis?”
“Who? Jessop, you collapsed from the heat; you need to drink,” he ordered, forcing the flagon back towards her.
She knocked it back. “Falco! Calis. Calis. The man you fought in the dream, with Hydo ...He was here.”
“There was no man, Jessop. I found you under this tree.”
She shook her head. It had been in her head. She had fallen asleep under the tree. Had Calis truly visited her in her dream, or had it just been a dream? She grabbed her face. She was dizzy. “I ...He’s my brother.”
Fa
lco poured water over his hands and slowly touched her neck—cooling her off. “What?”
“Calis is my brother.”
Chapter 18
Haren’dul Daku
Present Day
Jessop sat under the tree for a long time beside Falco. As she considered everything she had seen, everything Calis had claimed, she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. Falco turned his gaze to her, his brow raised.
She smiled softly to herself. “When I was a child, after Hydo killed my parents, I vowed to set fire to all he ever loved… And all he ever loved are Bakora—they’re fire proof.”
She laughed. She laughed loud and hard. She laughed until her chest hurt and her stomach cramped. She laughed until she could hardly breathe. She laughed as the tears fell to the sand. She welcomed Falco’s tight embrace, as her laughs simply turned to tears.
She leaned against his strong chest. The irony of her situation—of her life, really—was not lost on her. She had hated the fire since her parents’ death, only to become a Fire-Wielder overnight, incapable of using her newfound abilities on those who most deserved it. She thought back through the years, to all the signs she might have been one of them, to all the times it was alluded to that she was somehow different. She had long ago believed it was her Kuroi lineage that made her more receptive to learning Sentio, but what if she had been wrong? She thought on Hydo’s presence Beyond the Grey, on the times she had seen him in the village, barking at Falco, from a distance. There was still much left to be answered.
She rolled to her knees and got to her feet. Falco rose with her, keeping her hand in his. “Are you ready to return?”
“I must speak with Dezane.”
* * * *
“I didn’t know,” he answered firmly, seated in his meditation position in the large tent. She believed him—or at least she wanted to. He had known her all her life and she had trusted him. But she also struggled to believe that someone hadn’t known.
“Your mother—the woman who raised you, the one we knew as Octayn—she was part Kuroi. Your eyes, like hers, glowed as only ours can. It was enough to welcome your family Beyond the Grey.”