Keys of Candor: The Red Deaths

by Casey Eanes

  Seam pointed to the flag that was tossing behind the stage and concluded the broadcast with his final announcement, “Before you now is Candor’s new banner. The flag is a symbol of our new peace and of our new continental unity!”

  The crowds roared back to life. Across all the Realms seas of people began to celebrate. Peace had finally come. Safety had finally come. Revelry had not been seen in Candor like this in hundreds of years, and fireworks soon lit up the night skies. Each magnificent explosion of sound and light spun the people up into a frenzy of freedom. For one night, they would forget their troubles because soon all would be made well. The constant projection of Grift Shepherd, Willyn Kara, and Wael would be ignored for only one night.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “You.”

  The bullet that seared through Willyn’s hand felt like a distant memory, and the bullets thumping against the boat’s hull meant nothing to her. All that mattered now was that Grift Shepherd stood next to her. The man responsible for Hagan’s death was within her grasp again.

  She slammed a kick across his face, causing him to fall in a crumpled heap. She threw herself on top of him with her eyes glazed over in white fury. Her hands clawed over him, hunting for his throat. She gripped onto his windpipe like a vise, ignoring the searing pain that blazed from her mangled hand. Grift grunted and stared at her.

  Fear. Good. Let him be afraid here at the end. She did not care about the cost. If the cost was her own life, so be it. It was more than enough to know that her brother’s assassin would be crushed beneath her own hands.

  Grift’s face turned a hot red before it descended into purple, and his body shook underneath her, flailing on the cabin floor like a fish out of water. Despite his strength, Willyn continued to pin him down. Nothing would cause her to release him. A long, crooked smile grew on her face as she saw him diminish before her eyes. Only a few more seconds.

  A fist fell on the back of her neck, and a jolt of pain shot up from the base of her skull. Grift kicked himself free and crawled away, heaving for breath. She saw stars and turned around to see Luken standing over them.

  “We don’t have time for this!” he screamed at her.

  As she turned back, Grift pounced on her. She screamed as loud as she could, but soon she was locked in Grift’s arms. He held her, locking her into a choke hold. She flung her head back with a snap, hammering it against Grift’s face, releasing a trickle of blood from his lip.

  The hit failed to loosen Grift’s grip. “Willyn. You need to calm down.” Grift’s voice was ragged. He held her down and repeated himself. He would only stop to spit another mouthful of blood to the side. He was not angry. He behaved more like a parent trying to calm their child as he fought Willyn’s attempts to break free.

  She spat and cursed at him like a frenzied animal in a cage.

  “You are losing too much blood.” Grift’s white eyes flashed up at Luken. “Do something. She’s losing too much blood!”

  Luken ran out of the cabin and back to the deck of the ship without comment as bullet spray continued to pummel the hull of the small boat.

  Willyn looked down at her hand as stars began to cloud her vision. Her hand was a shattered mess, and blood was beginning to pool, sloshing beneath her on the cabin floor. It was much worse than she thought. She whispered at her captor as she felt the ship’s engine ignite and roar with life.

  “You’ll pay for what you’ve done to me.” Overcome with emotion, her voice cracked. “To my family.”

  Grift’s grip held her firm, but his voice became soft with pity. It made her skin crawl. “My dear girl, I had nothing to do with Hagan’s death. Hagan was my ally. Just calm down and listen to me.”

  The engine roared, and Willyn felt the boat rocket away from the dock. Luken could barely be heard from above deck.

  “GRIFT! I need you out here! Now!”

  Grift let out a sigh and spoke quickly, “Willyn, I’m going to release you, but if you come at me again, I will knock you unconscious for your own sake.”

  She wanted nothing more than to try and attack again but she could feel her body trembling as chills ran over her skin. She knew she lost a large amount of blood, and her attack on Grift had not helped. Her head began to feel squeezed and pressured with pain as she explored the cabin for a space to sit.

  “Lie down,” Grift said, “I have to get on deck, but let me help you first.”

  Willyn snatched her hand away from Grift as he reached for the wound.

  “Don’t dare touch me,” Willyn said, “I will take care of myself.”

  Grift shook his head and pinned Willyn’s arm before pointing back to her hand. “I am afraid you will need some help getting that shrapnel out. No way you can pull that out on your own.”

  Shrapnel? Willyn took time to inspect her shattered hand and saw the pieces of metal embedded deep within her flesh. She looked up to Grift who started gathering medical supplies from different cabinets and drawers.

  “I thought I was shot,” said Willyn in disbelief.

  A small smile crept across Grift’s face as he poured a solution over Willyn’s hand. It felt as if her hand was plunged in a hornet’s nest. Her jaw clenched as Grift spoke.

  “It looks to me like they got just close enough with a mortar. You’re lucky it was just your hand and not your head. Now lay down. This is going to hurt.”

  Willyn retreated from Grift, her face flickering with rage.

  “I said I will take care of this myself! Leave those supplies and get up there with Luken. You won’t touch me again.”

  Grift shook his head and dropped the scalpel. He sighed as he shouldered his rifle. Willyn braced herself in the small seat with a scalpel and a bucket of water, preparing to dig the shrapnel out.

  “Have it your way, but mark my words, it would be easier if you accepted my help.”

  “I don’t want your help. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”

  “Trust me, I wish that were true, but fate, it seems, has other plans for us. I know you don’t trust me, but there is a lot that you don’t know.” Another volley of bullets rattled across the port side of the vessel. “If we survive this, we will have a lot to talk about.”

  Grift bolted up the stairs and slammed the small cabin door shut before she could respond. The sound of his rifle joined the chorus of the ship’s engine as they tried to escape whatever was pursuing their vessel.

  Willyn groaned as she looked down at her mangled hand again. Maybe a little help would not have been a bad idea.

  For several minutes she paused until she finally took a deep breath and began to cut away at the shrapnel. Each incision sent a blinding swell of pain up her forearm, causing her to yelp. Even though she was only cutting at her hand, her shoulders and neck ached in unison, a sickening accord of shocks that swelled with each shard of metal she managed to dig out of herself. The rocking motion of the boat compounded her unsteadiness, and she fought the urge to vomit with each new slice.

  As far as she could tell, her hand had five separate pieces of metal lodged inside, but after the fourth piece was removed, her arms shook in a riot of defiance. Her hands and feet were soaked in blood in a scene that fit well with the worst of nightmares. She toiled over the wound and the final piece of alien metal, but she was losing the fight. She grasped at the scalpel to make one last pass but her vision blurred together. She knew that there was no chance of successfully proceeding. Her strength was exhausted. Her body revolted at the thought of her continuing to torture herself.

  She dropped the scalpel and gave in to the rushing darkness that embraced her.

  ***

  When Willyn woke, she was still in the dimly lit cabin of the boat. Consciousness came slowly, but when she finally came around, she saw her hand mended with a bulk of gauze and bandages.

  “You’re lucky you passed out. It made my work much easier.” Grift smiled as he spoke and sipped at a cup of coffee. Both he and Luken stood over her, their faces tired, but r
elieved.

  She started to sit up but Luken put his arm out. “Lay down, Willyn. We’re safe, but you need to rest.”

  “Where are we? Did we get away?”

  “Yes, we got away, barely, but we are safe enough now,” Luken said as he flashed a quick smile. “If not for Grift’s help we wouldn’t have made it.”

  Willyn slowly sat up and fought to steady the room as it spun around her. She looked again at her bandaged hand and then again to Grift and Luken. She pointed at Luken and wished her index finger was the loaded barrel of a gun.

  “You lied to me!” She tried to sit up but her body refused to cooperate. All that transpired had spent her energy. “You knew Grift all along and played me for a fool running me from one island to another while Hagan died.”

  Luken’s smile faded as he stood and placed himself between Willyn and Grift.

  “I never lied to you. In fact I was hoping to find Grift as badly as you were. My intentions were different from yours, but I never lied.”

  Willyn had none of it. “What’s the matter, Luken? Does it bother you that I called you out on this charade? It’s very easy to play games, isn’t it, when you can somehow barge into people’s minds! Who exactly are you both working for anyway? Were you paid to kill him off, or do you have plans for me as well?”

  Luken sat back down and shook his head as he passed a glance to Grift. “You have no idea what is going on, Willyn. You’re lucky to even be alive. This is much bigger than you think. Why do you think we even bothered to save you?”

  Grift cleared his throat and stood up between them.

  “It’s time that we finally cleared the air with you about your brother’s involvement with our group. You are correct to suspect us as culprits in your brother’s murder, based on the evidence you’ve seen. But now it’s time to tell you the facts.” Grift paused, waiting for some response to shoot out of her mouth like cannon fire. When none came, he continued, “Hagan was a Keeper. A Keeper of one of the five Keys of Candor.” Again he paused, but Willyn stared at him with no response.

  “Do you know anything about the keys? Have you heard of the Five Kings?”

  Willyn rolled her eyes and croaked, “Of course I know about the Kings. The Great War, all of it. These are the legends of my people.” Her mind began to boil over. “But I have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to five keys. Hagan never had any keys. What are you talking about?”

  Grift sighed, “It’s a long story, but to answer your question, the keys were created by the Serubs for one purpose. They were not content with their rule on Candor, and they set their eyes elsewhere.”

  Willyn did not understand. “Elsewhere?”

  Luken interrupted. “Home. They wanted to go back to Aether and overthrow the only Celestial left there. Aleph.”

  “Aleph?” Willyn did not hide her skepticism. “So, you’re saying that Hagan, along with you and some others, was tasked to keep these keys made by the gods?”

  Grift nodded without a word. Willyn stared at the two men in the small boat’s cabin as it bobbed in the Endless Ocean. No one moved. They simply absorbed the silence.

  Willyn spoke, “So, you two actually believe these myths of the Five Kings? That the Five were actually Celestials before coming to Candor?”

  Luken nodded his head. “Yes. The keys serve as the gateways into Aether, into Aleph’s Realm. Once the portals were constructed, the Serubs entered them, only to be bound there on the outside. The Keeper of the Keys locked them in their portals.”

  Willyn nodded her head, but a wide smile was planted in defiance on her face. “Yes, I do know the old myths, but this bit about the keys is news to me. It’s amazing that I’ve never heard this, after all my years of instruction in the Alephian religion.” Her voice descended into a low growl, “What is more amazing, however, is that I am with two grown men who believe these stories as literal facts.”

  Grift ignored her and continued to forge ahead. “The fact is, Willyn, that your brother himself believed these same things, as well as his father before him, because it is your family that has served as the Keeper of the Grogan Key...until now.” He reached underneath his shirt and pulled on a necklace. There, threaded on a worn leather string, was a small, onyx key, shaped like a dagger. Willyn looked at it, suspicion flowering on her face. “This is one of the keys that our Order has sworn to protect. That your brother also swore to protect.”

  Luken spoke, “Yes, Hagan was a Keeper. So were High King Camden and Filip Darian. They were all Keepers, and now they are all dead. Three Red Deaths.”

  “Red Deaths?”

  “To murder a Keeper is to commit a Red Death and a sign that the Serubs are regaining their strength. Already three keys are outside the Order’s protection. Once all five are in one’s possession, nothing can stop them from unlocking the Fallen. The one who holds all five becomes the Keeper of the Keys and wields power that is truly unimaginable. ”

  Willyn’s mind felt like a barrel in a rushing river, tumbling over the knowledge drowning her. If Grift had not been her brother’s murderer, then who was? Her mind arrived at the answer in a second and filled her with rage.

  “Hosp. Aleph above, it was Hosp this whole time, wasn’t it?”

  Grift nodded and spoke. “It was not just Hosp, but it was also Seam Panderean, whose alliance, I must admit, eluded us all for far too long. They set the board game, engaged in a false war in order to hide their crimes, and now are planning for something much more sinister. The two must have been orchestrating these attacks for years. We are just now seeing the first fruits of their labor. It did not all come together for me until their recent datalink feed.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Grift played the datalink transmission that was sent throughout the entire continent. Willyn slammed her good fist into the wall and turned her back to Grift and Luken. She felt like a fool. Her face became flush as she fought back hot tears. I failed you, Hagan. I was blind. Played like a pawn. How did I miss it? Her hands trembled and she fought to maintain her composure, but it felt impossible to look back to the man she chased for so long. The man that Hosp convinced her was the one who poisoned her brother.

  Grift’s voice was soft, “Willyn. There is nothing we can do to bring Hagan back, but he fought hard to survive. We did everything we could to remedy his condition, but even medicines from Preost could not stop the poisons from spreading.”

  Willyn laughed as she thought back to the surveillance video she used to incriminate Grift. She wiped a tear from her cheek.

  “So, you mean to tell me that your trespass onto Groganlands soil was to deliver medicine to Hagan?” The irony fell on her like an avalanche. She kept her back to Grift and waited to hear the words that would tell her what a fool she had been.

  “Yes. I trespassed in hope of helping to save Hagan. He contacted me and I sought what help I could offer. Unfortunately, it was not enough. I still ask myself if I could not have possibly done more.”

  Willyn cleared her throat and rubbed the tears that refused to be denied. She turned back to the men. “That makes two of us, Grift. At least we have that in common.”

  She could not remain in the room anymore. She forced herself up from her cot and reached for the door. She took her time climbing the short staircase onto the ship’s deck, leaving the two men behind. She looked out over the waves that tossed the small boat from side to side. There was no land in sight as they bobbed up and down. The vast, empty ocean only compounded her overwhelming sense of isolation.

  I have no one. I have nothing. I have lost. I failed Hagan and I failed my country. Willyn leaned over the railing of the boat, imagining what it would be like to sink to the bottomless void below when a hand grasped her shoulder.

  Grift pulled her back, “You are not alone, Willyn. You still have your country. Many men and women are still fighting for you and for Hagan. We have to hide for now, but we will do whatever we have to do to get you back to your people. They
need you.”

  Willyn spun on her heels and searched Grift’s eyes. The man was earnest and determined. She felt like such a fool. Her face was flushed as she swept her eyes from his gaze.

  Her face clouded over with sorrow when she thought about her homeland and her people. “What are you talking about? My country is following that mad man now.”

  Grift shook his head and pulled his datalink from his pocket.

  “Not all of your country. A lot has changed since you left. When you began your search for me in Elum, Hagan succumbed to the poison. Hosp wasted no time in naming himself Surrogator. It was not long after that unrest broke out amidst many of your people calling for you to take the lead. Hosp did his best to suppress the opposition, but once you were announced as a traitor and conspirator, all hell broke loose.”