by J. McSpadden
Chapter Eight
Illusions Revealed
"Cam, jump!" Theo screamed. Her muscles catapulted into action as she dove into a roll, narrowly missing a deathly swipe from the Chimera's claws. Just before the Chimera's enormous fangs could clamp down on her calf, the rope of Camille's trap wrapped tightly around the monster's left hind leg, yanking it up into the trees.
The branches Camille had used for her trap wouldn't hold long. They were only slightly thicker than the Chimera's enormous neck and would be ripped down in a matter of minutes. Both Camille and Theo stood their ground in front of the Chimera, tense and ready for the fight to come.
"Aim for the neck but keep away from its claws. And whatever you do, don't let it bite you. It will be the last thing you ever feel," Theo said.
Panic gripped her insides like a vicious snake, coiling and uncoiling, seeping its venom into her extremities and causing her to tingle uncomfortably. She had never fought such a beast before; she wasn't even sure she knew how. Doubt clouded her senses for barely a moment before a rush of warmth slipped throughout her body just beneath the skin, filling her with strength. The soothing heat tingled at her fingertips and radiated around her eyes.
Camille glanced at Theo, and her jaw dropped at the sudden change in his appearance. His eyes were completely black. The irises had lost all their color, the coal hue expanding past the skin of his brow line. Theo had turned from a mysterious and comical stranger into a demonic monster.
"What are you?" Camille asked, her shock freezing her momentarily in place.
"I think you should ask yourself the same question," Theo said, smiling as roguishly as if he hadn't just turned into a creature of the afterlife before her eyes.
The Chimera ripped it’s leg from the restraints in one last angry thrash before it fell to the ground in a heap. The beast didn't wait to advance; it charged forward, with Camille as its priority target.
Her body responded instinctively, slipping into a seemingly familiar dance. She didn't pause or hesitate as she lurched forward, raking one of her blades across its belly. The seven-foot-long tail of the Chimera swished with menace, each spike along its length glinting with poison.
Camille battled wildly with the creature, bringing her blade down on the tail to cleave it cleanly from the body in one slash of metal. The beast cried out, its vocal cords releasing a strangled yelp. In frustrated pain, it turned on her in a fit of rage.
"Oh crap," she mumbled as she careened backward, slightly off balance.
The Chimera took that moment to pounce on her. One front paw slammed heavily on top of her right arm, the other smashing against the hard-packed ground close to her head. Sharp yellow fangs grinned down at her, and its putrid, sickly stench washed over her face in a whirl of breath. Camille felt its massive paw crushing her upper arm, daring the bones to break, but she wouldn't give in so quickly.
Whipping out a short-nosed dagger from her belt she jammed it into the paw still holding her captive. Just as the Chimera pulled back with a nasty hiss, its foreleg now oozing a sickly black, Theo slashed his blade under the beast's thick neck, spraying the cold ground with a waterfall of blood.
Theo let out a battle cry of victory over the whimpering Chimera as Camille drove her blade into its neck. It fell to the ground in a heap of dead flesh, thick, black blood oozing from its wounds.
"That was an easy kill, eh?" Theo said.
Camille pulled her trampled arm against her body as she stood, trying to ignore the bitter ache of bruising spreading across her flesh. "That's what you have to say?"
Theo shrugged. "Next time you should follow my lead. Maybe then you won't get trampled."
"So, are you going to tell me who and what you are now?" Camille blurted out, rubbing her arm.
Theo didn't respond right away. Instead, he began to clean his bloody sword on the black hide of the dead Chimera. "You really don't remember me?" he said finally, sounding almost troubled.
"There are a lot of things I don't remember," Camille replied defensively. She felt her hackles rising at his question, desperate to prove that she wasn't strange despite her inability to explain her past.
"Not even a glimmer, eh? That's a bummer," he said casually, trying to make light of the situation, but Camille saw the murky depths of his expression. He wasn't just hurt by the realization that she didn't know who he was, he appeared to be downright devastated.
"Vesyon—" Camille started, but stopped suddenly as Theo jerked to attention.
"He's here?" Theo barked, his eyes sparkling with fervor as they flitted around the forest. "I have a few words for him."
"Yes—he was here before you attacked me."
He whirled on her, his smile so devastatingly brilliant that it almost blinded her into shocked silence. "I didn't attack you," he replied matter-of-factly. "I merely caught you off guard. You're the one who attacked me."
"What?!" Camille shot back, no longer lost in a stupor of awe. "I was defending myself against a stranger. You put your sword to my back!"
"Always overreacting, Cam. It's not like I would've done anything."
"Not even in each other's company for twenty minutes and you're already bickering. I believe that's a record for you two," Vesyon said, appearing through the mist of the chilly forest with an armful of dry wood.
It didn't pass Camille's notice that he looked worse than when he'd left; his hair was tousled and dirty, his shirt torn at the shoulder to reveal a fresh wound.
"Didn't realize collecting wood was such a battle. What happened?" Camille asked, unsure of whether she wanted to hear the answer.
"Vee!" Theo shouted.
"It's good to see you Theo—glad you found us," Vesyon said, setting the wood down to embrace the blond man. "I wasn't sure Neeko would get to you in time. He stayed back in the village, yes?"
"Yeah, still there guarding the grounds and awaiting your next orders. He's as welcoming and friendly as a pine-cone, that one. Makes me think he only has affection for two Praetorians—and I didn’t make the cut,” Theo said, glancing at Camille.
Camille swallowed, her blood running cold at his words. "W-what?"
Theo shook his head, chuckling as he did so. "You haven't told her yet, Vee?"
"I'm sorry—you're mistaken," Camille replied, vigorously shaking her head. "I'm not a Praetorian. I'm not one of those traitors."
Silence filled their surroundings for several beats before Theo chuckled softly, his expression kind if not slightly sympathetic. "Please, you've got to tell her. It's not fair to lie to someone like this!"
"How dare you laugh at me," Camille snapped at Theo, causing his gentle laugh to cease abruptly. Vesyon ignored them both, kneeling to build a fire. "Vesyon, explain to him who I am."
"He's aware of who you are," Vesyon said. "He's known you almost as long as I have."
Camille huffed in frustration. "I don't care if he knows my name, he doesn't know who I am. I'm not a Praetorian, not one of those exiled hack soldiers."
Her words were intended to harm, but Vesyon didn't appear to care. Theo, however, went silent and turned to attend his muddied weapons. Both men avoided her glare, which only enraged her further.
She waited for Vesyon to defend her, to deny Theo's statement, but as the seconds ticked by, her desire to hear him say such a thing began to waver. If she was a Praetorian, she could go back and protect Lunci—she could keep the boy and his grandfather safe.
"What the hell are you doing?" She finally burst out in a mounting explosion of annoyance.
"Building a fire. What does it look like I'm doing?" Vesyon answered, keeping his gaze on the task at hand.
"You're a complete imbecile, you know that?" Theo snickered in Vesyon's direction, his eyes rolling with disbelief. There was a slight pause from Vesyon, but other than that he didn't appear to be affected by Theo's prodding comments.
"There's no need to worry for the moment, Camille. We are good to make camp for a bit before moving on." Vesyon nodded a
t the dead Chimera less than thirty feet away from them and continued to strip kindling from the pile of wood he'd collected.
Camille stood in a numb haze as she waited for Vesyon to explain, but he remained silent. "What do you mean 'we don't need to worry?'" she said as slowly as possible. "We have been running from those things for a full sun cycle. Killing one Chimera doesn't make me feel any safer!"
"We weren't running from them, as I told you before. We were leading the Chimera away from Sierra Village. And as for the rest," he said with a heavy grunt. "They've been handled."
A subtle buzzing began inside her head, and Camille felt almost dizzy from the flood of irritation pouring into her system. This time she recognized the wave of warmth shifting through her body and understood what it meant. Her face grew hot, and she knew without a doubt that she appeared as Theo had: solid black eyes radiating with pure rage.
She most definitely was a Praetorian.
"You have to understand," Vesyon said without looking at her, "I needed you out of Sierra Village. There was no safety in keeping you there any longer. If the Chimera attack hadn't occurred, I would've requested you leave on different orders. You might be angry at me for not explaining to you what you are, or that we could've defeated those beasts on our own. The truth is, you still protect those people by not being in that village. I hope you can understand and trust that I know what's best for you, as well as them."
The last year of her life flashed in front of her eyes with a stark and unavoidable truth. She could run faster than anyone in her village, hunt better than men who'd been hunting their entire lives, her body could heal in a matter of hours, and now—glancing back at the Chimera carcass—she could battle like the best of them. Vesyon hadn't told her the truth because she would have stayed in Sierra Village. She never would've left Lunci behind if she'd known how capable she was of protecting him.
"I think she's starting to come around," Theo said with gentle ease, shifting an inch or two further away from Camille, leaving Vesyon as an easier target to reach when she felt inclined to strangle one of them. "It's not that bad, Cam. Us Praetorians have a great life once you get used to the blatant disgust the High King harbors for us, the way we must slink in the shadows amongst most of upper-level society, and how we can drink gallons of ale without feeling a damn thing! It's quite magnificent."
"Ignore him," Vesyon said, slashing his dagger against a flint stone and sending sparks into the kindling. "I didn't tell you what you are because if you knew, you'd never have left that boy’s side."
She wanted to hit Vesyon directly across his bearded jaw. "You lied to me! I should be protecting them right now!"
"I did what was necessary," Vesyon countered, finally looking at her directly. His irises flashed, a myriad of steel-grey stone and frigid ice, emotionless and unapologetic.
A stinging wetness gathered at the corners of Camille's eyes, but she blinked it away. "They were all I had," she said shakily, her anger crumbling into crippling grief.
"No, they weren't," Vesyon said simply. "Peter and Lunci are safe now; that's all that matters."
"We don't know that Lunci is safe! He could be dead!" Camille snapped.
"You will understand my reasons in time, Camille."
Camille fisted her hands and stalked around the two men, avoiding the patches of mud as she searched for a place to sit. "How many Chimera did you kill?"
Vesyon didn't even hesitate in answering. "Twenty-six."
It didn't surprise her. They hadn't been running because Vesyon was unable to handle the beasts alone.
"So, I am a Praetorian?" she confirmed, rolling the syllables around and trying to make sense of their meaning.
He waited an achingly long thirty seconds, allowing the fire to grow, before facing her. "Yes, you are. As am I," Vesyon said, reaching into the neck of his shirt pulling out a silver medallion with a single black stone inlaid in the center of the interweaving metal branches and roots—one just like Camille's.
"You hardly look old enough," Camille spat.
He gifted her with a small smirk before shaking his head. "No, you're right about that. I don't look old enough."
His offhanded response piqued her interest, and Camille scrutinized Vesyon's face and body with a more critical eye.
"Trying to assess my actual age?" Vesyon asked.
"No!" Camille shot back, though her eyes kept roving over his features. She was unable to see how he could possibly be any older than he looked, and it was then that she heard Betty Anne's voice lingering in the back of her thoughts: They never grow old—from the day they turn, their bodies are frozen in time. They can neither age, nor be injured without intensely great effort.
"It can't be true," she whispered. "I can't possibly be older than eighteen."
"But you are. Your flawless complexion, however, will remain forever young," Theo said with a saucy wink.
She ignored him and continued to stare at Vesyon, who was now regarding her with equal fervor.
"Twenty-five," Camille said in quick succession.
Vesyon silently shook his head.
"Thirty?"
Another silent shake.
"I can't possibly be forty," Camille said.
"Forty-six, to be exact," Vesyon said coolly, continuing to stoke the flames.
Camille studied her hands—the smooth, unmarked look of them. She had no visible scars running the lengths of her arms, legs, or hands; even the extremely painful whipping at the hands of Grenswald hadn't permanently marred her perfect skin. Theo was right; she was the embodiment of youth, forever captured in the body of an eighteen-year-old woman.
"You aren't alone, sweetheart. I'm one year older than you are. Vesyon is the grandpa," Theo said nonchalantly, moving even further away from where Camille stood.
"You need grandchildren to be a grandpa," Vesyon said in Theo's direction, his eyes never leaving Camille's. "I'm sixty-four."
Camille's jaw dropped wide open. "But you can't—that's not…" Camille said, her mouth flopping like a fish to speak.
"Possible?" Vesyon asked with a smirk. "Many things are possible."
She waited in silence, staring at one and then the other, hoping their mouths would split into a smile, bursting into laughter at the joke they were playing on her. They didn't speak, nor did they laugh.
"And in being a Praetorian, you're a protector of what, exactly? The crown?" Camille blurted out, desperate to learn more about this strange new world she was apparently a part of.
Vesyon seemed bothered by Camille's question, based on the way he squinted as he cleaned and sheathed each of his daggers. "We aren't here to protect the High Court—we're here to protect the people of Aspera. We were never created to protect the High King, Camille. You should know that first and foremost."
"And you're a Praetorian as well?" Camille accused Theo. There was something about him that put her on edge, but she couldn't place what. It might've been his cocky air, or the way he walked, fierce confidence and surety that she had never seen someone carry quite as well as he did. Perhaps it was the fact that even though the fighting had stopped, Camille's pulse kept kicking into overdrive whenever he looked at her.
"Yep. I'm the Praetorian protecting Romeo Village now," Theo said quickly, lifting a small silver medallion from under his shirt that held a single dark sapphire in the middle. He casually dropped the silver piece back under his shirt before glancing back at Vesyon and picking up a long skinny stick to poke the fire aimlessly. "I thought you were lying to me. Playing a trick on my soft emotions," he said, blinking rapidly and clearing his throat as he jabbed one of the larger logs sending loose a spray of sparks into the darkening lavender sky. "She really doesn't remember a thing."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, Theo. I don't take kindly to rudeness," Camille snapped.
Vesyon laughed softly at her retort, arranging the additional kindling near the fire pit. "Just because she can’t remember you doesn’t mean her intuition doesn’t.
I guarantee Camille will be just as sweet toward you as she always was."
"Great," Theo mumbled.
Camille ignored his response and pulled out some hunting gear from her pack. "Can I go?"
Vesyon nodded wryly, while Theo simply glared at the dancing flames.
She hastened away, needing distance and a silent moment alone. Her entire world had been dumped upside down in a matter of days, and she needed to understand what was left of it.
***
Stomping through the underbrush, Camille made a show of her irritation by kicking every fallen stump and punching as many low-hanging leaves and branches as she could. Despite the torrent of things to be frustrated with, her buzzing anger seemed to zero in on Theo.
How dare that man point his sword at her back and then battle alongside her, expecting them to be chummy friends afterward! He was the most arrogant and overly confident man she had ever met.
The worst part was he was right. Camille couldn't remember a single thing about him; there was nothing but a fleeting sense of familiarity floating in the deepest narrows of her past. It irked her. How could she possibly not remember him? Who was she? More importantly, what was she? Where had she come from?
It hadn't escaped her that these two strangers had all the answers to her questions, and it made sense to remain at their sides for now. They not only knew about her past, they knew and understood what she was.
She raised her bow just as the first tasty option crossed her path, letting fly the sturdy arrow directly through the rabbit's eye: a direct kill shot. Camille shook her head in bewilderment—even after everything she'd been through, her instincts were still spot on. It was a little eerie.
Why had Vesyon come for her just after the Chimera attacked Lunci? Why not sooner? She stopped dead in her tracks at the thought of Lunci running free through the woods, a smile shining on his jubilant face. It didn't fit the image of that same little boy she'd seen on the table, ashen-faced and dying. I should've protected him.
She kicked at another pile of dead leaves as guilt washed over her, which sent several squirrels scampering across the damp ground. Her arrows flew straight and true, downing two meaty squirrels. It was strangely comforting to methodically yank the arrows free, clean them, and shove them back in their holster; it was a small moment of understanding in a world blown severely off course.