"The Farrara'Ti are the rulers of Kresh, and there are a limited number of them. Each Marks as many Ma'Nar as they can until their Mark weakens. The Farrara'Ti over there was Sol'Kor'Vanas. He ruled five Rash'Tar, Life Clans and the Shak'Tar, or Night Clan."
I nodded slowly as the words he was saying began to sink in.
"Are you shittin’ me?" I asked, "I just took his clans?"
"We are all yours to command," he nodded toward the Kresh'Ma'Nar near the gate, "including them. The second they return through the gate, your Mark will spread down through the ranks, and they will all be your Clan."
"Holy shit," I muttered.
"What the Hell do I do with five hundred telepathic assassins?"
"Five hundred?" he asked, "You are now the master of all the Shak'Tar. The second we enter the gate your Mark will spread from us as well. We are all yours, and we are ready to do your bidding."
I stood there as all of this was registering. The link has to go both ways, my honor demanded it. I can't just let my own responsibility to them be denied. If what he said was the truth, and according to my Sight, it was, then I'm responsible for their well-being as much as I have the right to receive their loyalty.
In a split second I had become the Liege Lord of God only knows how many Demons, and an unknown amount of telepathic humans. Why does everything have to be so complicated?
Rictor came around the corner of the prison followed closely by Lyrica and the Mages filed into the clearing. Rictor looked at the kneeling Shak'Tar, and then his eyes landed on the kneeling Demonmages.
He looked back at me with one eyebrow raised. I shrugged.
"Can't take you anywhere," muttered Kharl as he took in the strange sight.
Lyrica shook her head, "Well I just brought home a dog."
***
"You're sayin’ this Mark is a template for others to mold themselves into?" asked Ric.
"Exactly," Gorvelis answered. "Not a forced match, it's what each one of us knows the Master wants. The Mark is everything the Master wants us to be."
"And you used yourself as this template?" he asked me.
"I didn't know that's what it was when I did it."
"Can you imagine thousands more of him?" Prada asked. "That's just crazy."
"Friggin’ insane," Ric answered.
"Hey, I'm standing right here," I complained.
"At least it's not forced on them to be another him," Kharl said.
"Thank God," Daphne Cavanaugh said.
"Right here," I said, "I'm right here."
Lyrica's musical laughter brought the smile to my face as I heard it.
"In all seriousness, Boss," Ric said, "Have you got any idea what you want to do here?"
I had spent the last day talking with both the Shak'Tar and the Kresh'Ma'Nar. When they go back through the Gate the countdown would begin. My Mark would spread through the Rash'Tar that currently controlled the Gates to Earth. But within days, those clans would be attacked by the others as abominations. I could only think of one solution to that issue. I would have to send them to Kel'Sin'Deres. He was the closest thing to a human I had seen from the Kresh.
My new Clans would be much closer to human as my "template" spread throughout the clan, and I had no idea where that would really go in the end. Perhaps the fact that his bloodline is mine, and his closer resemblance to what I would call human would be enough for him to protect the five clans.
I couldn't keep them here. When the Gate closed it would sever their Streams and they would die. I didn't have the forces to go through and hold the Gate facility from the attack of a whole world's population.
"The Kresh will go to Kel'Sin'Deres," I said. "I'm really not sure what to do with the Shak'Tar."
"Let me take them back through the Gate," Gorvelis said. "We will spread your Mark throughout the fifteen worlds, and remove the Shak'Tar from the control of the Kresh. We will begin the revolution."
There was an iron conviction to him. This is what he'd waited all those years. A chance to fight the tyrannical masters he'd been forced to serve all of his life.
"So be it," I nodded and he stood proudly.
It was five hours later when we watched the last of the Shak'Tar approach the Gate.
Gorvelis stopped in front of me, "We'll make you proud, Sir."
"Don't get killed," I said. "A dead freedom fighter finds no victory. And don't try to come back through this Gate. It won't be a very good place to step into."
He nodded, "I will send word through other portals when opportunity allows."
"Good luck," I said and shook his hand.
He stepped through the Gate. Dun'Fil'Resaf approached.
"We will do as you have commanded," his voice was part growl and part speech, "This alliance you suggest is not something done by Kresh but Kel'Sin'Deres is not a normal Kresh. He is different, and we will do this. The only other choice is death of our Rash'Tar."
"Show him all that happened here," I said, "and give him a message from the Rash'Tor'Ri. Tell him I said ‘Protect my Rash'Tar as if they were your own...Grandfather’."
I said the last word bitterly. He was the cause of so much of the pain in my life, but he was also one of the sources of my bloodline. And he was different from the others. Maybe he would be different enough that they would survive.
With a nod the Kresh turned, and walked through the Gate followed by the other four.
As the last one disappeared I heard Reyna, "Never, in all my days, would I have thought I would see such as this."
"The lad as a way of stirrin’ things up in a new way," Flynn returned.
"Now," I said, "we close this Gate for good."
"How do ya propose we do that?" Rictor asked.
"Oh, now we're going back to plan A."
It took another hour to get everyone out to the ridgeline in front of the Facility. My new Romanian subjects, included. I wish they hadn't been affected but they were and I am responsible for them now. It's something I'll have to figure out after we leave here.
"You ready?" I asked Lyrica.
"You've tested this?"
As my memories flashed back, she laughed. Apparently, it was quite humorous to see me blow myself off the top of a mountain in Tennessee.
She began forming a massive shield somewhat like a cupped hand. I did the same thing with one that looked like the opposite hand. They were huge shields but they weren't solid. We pushed them into the mountainside on each side of the complex.
We each had ten Mages crowded in close. They placed hands on us to be support if we needed it. The shields were now in place.
"Set?" I asked.
"Yep," she answered.
"Pull," I ordered.
Three hundred Mages Pulled from the Source. They felt that Pull back in Kansas, Paige had told me after we had returned home.
Half of the Mages had steered their Pull to the spot where I would take it, and the other half to where Lyrica would use it.
Together we poured the power down the huge tendrils with which we had fed our shields. The shield flared with power, and it surged down into the earth to fill the area inside the shield. It was solid rock.
I had found that this would have a very explosive result some years back.
Nothing happened for a moment after we stopped and Reyna said, "That was a little anti-climactic. I thought it..."
It felt like the whole Earth lurched as the two sides of the mountain slammed together and about a million tons of mountain fell on the Gateway.
"Madre de Dios," Reyna said.
"Sian ger han Deros," muttered one of the three remaining Shak'Tar. I don't know what it meant but it sounded a lot like what Reyna had said. Mother of God.
Chapter 34
"I told you to be careful with that particular skill," Paige said.
"I know," I said. "I had no idea what I was doing, and seventy-three people are messed up afterwards. You can't berate me any more than I already do myself. It's something I'll never do
again. And these people will be taken care of for life. I doubt I could feel worse than I already do."
She still wasn't happy but she didn't say more about it.
"I have some other news for you," she said, "Your pet Senator tried to escape, and he left three Guards in the Psych ward."
I sat forward quickly and I felt the rage begin to build.
"I'll take care of him," I said. "He was warned."
"No need," she said. "He ran into Kevin and I as he was leaving. Those mental attacks are awful. I was unconscious almost immediately. When I came to, Kevin was holding me, and the Senator was dead. I asked Kevin what happened. He said 'The fool tried to use fear on me.' The Senator went nuts after we asked him what it meant to be marked, after the report you sent in to me. I wanted to know the effects this was going to have on those people. We're all responsible for them, not just you. The Soulguard will help them, as well."
And I thought I couldn't feel worse.
"I'll take a look at the Guards in the Psych ward," I said. "Maybe there's something I can do to help them. I have three of the Shak'Tar with me, and they know more about these types of attacks than anyone. Maybe I can fix, at least, this part of my mess."
"Your skills removed the Shak'Tar, and actually turned hundreds of thousands of Kresh into allies, Colin. There is an up side to this thing. That is a great accomplishment. It's just that with most great accomplishments, there is a great price. This one is paid by seventy three innocent Romanians."
I had found that these Romanians were farmers, and that their families had been captured by the Shak'Tar and the Kresh. Their farms were destroyed, and many family members had already been killed. They had nowhere to go when we left the base in Romania. I brought them back with us.
The Mark didn't make them completely change who they were, but it placed my imprint forever in their minds. They know me like I had been with them forever. The children would run to me as if I was their father, the older ones treated me as if I was a long-lost friend. All of them were from many different families, yet, they were one family now. My Mark made them pull into one family as if they had always been one.
There were benefits for them when this occurred. All of them had lost family and friends but now they had more to lean on. There were ten children who had no one left at all, and they were pulled into this family as if they had always been there.
No matter how much good my Mark does these people, it was put on them without their consent, and I will have to pay for what I did. Because there was harm done as well. They aren't exactly who they were, and it all boiled down to the fact of consent. They may be in better shape than the Kresh would have left them but it wasn't my right to force it on them, however unwittingly.
"Where are your wayward Romanians?" she asked.
I know where they are at all times, I can feel them. Another part of the Mark that I have discovered. Just as I can feel them, they can unerringly point out where I am.
"Wichita, for now," I said, "I asked them what they would want to do now, and the majority of them want to farm as they did before. Several of the younger men and women want to join the Guard, as well as several of the older ones. Three of them were soldiers in their youth, and have a good bit of experience."
"And your plans?"
"I had Warren buy a big chunk of land in Oklahoma. It's close enough to here that I can go there pretty regularly, and it's far enough away to be out of immediate danger when they come through the Gate. This knocked a big hole in my fortune but there's enough to set them up nicely. The ones who want to join the Guard will have to pass the testing as any other has to. If they pass I'll sign off on them to join and put them in training."
"It sounds as if you have things in hand there," she said, "but you have to be careful with this telepathy you have. Things could have been so much worse than they turned out."
"I know, believe me, I know."
***
"They love you," Lyrica said.
We watched as Talib Yarrow inspected the new tractor that had just been delivered. Children ran in circles around us yelling. I couldn't understand what they were saying but they were very exuberant.
"They didn't really have a choice in that, now, did they?" I replied.
"We are in a far better place than where those monsters intended for us to end up," a voice came from behind us.
I turned to find Terena Isora standing behind us. She was the closest thing to a leader the Romanians had. While they were in the prison, she was the glue that had held them together, and afterwards she became somewhat of a Matriarch to the seventy three members of my new "family".
"One form of slavery is much the same as another," I muttered.
"One thing that has been made quite clear to us is the fact that we can go or do as we please. We choose to stay together, and we choose to consider you as our leader, whether you like it or not. If there is one thing that we know it is that you are a good man, and one worthy of the loyalty we choose to give."
"How do you know that doesn't come from the Mark?" I asked. "Would you feel the same if things had been different?"
"We would have stayed together because we all lost a great deal inside that place. We saw loved ones slaughtered and eaten. Children left without their parents. What you did gave us a reason to live on instead of giving up. You see it as a violation of our rights, perhaps our minds?"
I nodded.
"We feel that you have set us free from the despair that comes from the loss of so much. Yes, we are a little different than before. But Romanians have always been believers in family, and we are no different. We lost our families and you have given us all another one. We owe you a great debt for what you have given us, and we will repay this by helping you in any way we can. Our warriors are your warriors, our farmers are your farmers, and our children are your children."
I really didn't know what to say or even what to think so I did the best I could.
"I just hope I can prove worthy of what your people offer," I said.
"When I close my eyes, I can see you there," she said with a smile. "We already know you are worthy. You just have to come to understand that yourself."
"We've been trying to tell him that for years," Lyrica said. "He'll figure it out one day."
Terena smiled and turned to walk away, "There will be a Feast and a dance tonight as a celebration of the second home to be finished. You both will attend?"
"We wouldn't miss it for the world," Lyrica said.
It seems that seventy or so people can build houses at an astonishing rate. Three weeks after we had come back from Romania and the third house was begun. It helped that the materials were readily available. I was told that the planting season would still be several months away so they were concentrating on getting homes for all of them built.
It's nice to be a part of building something instead of destroying them. Lyrica and I spent a couple of days in those three weeks here helping build homes. It was quite relaxing and I could almost see myself as a carpenter in another life.
Chapter 35
"What about a link from our streams to yours?" Cristof Damaris asked.
We were trying to come up with a way for them to support me when I needed it. It was a bit crowded when ten Mages were trying to reach me at one time.
"That may just work," I said.
"Also we would not be constrained by the distance," Adaya Tovah added.
Cristof had come in from Greece with his squad of Guards and Adaya was an Israeli Mage. There were also Alexei Rostov from Russia, Alec Brighton from Australia, and Asante Xhosa from Nigeria in Africa. Each had brought their own squad of ten Guards. Flynn had brought together this Company from all over the world. Reyna was from Argentina, Stone came from England, Yueh from China, and Flynn from Scotland. Prada, also had a squad, and Rictor was in command of the whole lot. He was very familiar with this position, anyway, much like he had been as a Guard Captain. He was second in command under myself.
&n
bsp; "If I build the links and we put a portal at your end, then you can keep from being hit by the drain at a bad time. It might just work," I said. "Shall we experiment a little?"
"I bet I know who the test subject gets to be," Rictor grumbled.
"Of course," I returned, looking at Prada, "You know how much he likes to try new stuff."
"It's a shame you're not throwing him out of a plane," she said.
"Still harpin’ on that?" Rictor asked, "I swear, it never ends. Throw someone out of a plane, one time, and you never hear the end of it."
Adaya laughed, "I have heard some others talking of this. I must say you have a novel approach to bypassing orders."
"Never start a mission without a plan to circumvent stupid orders that should never have been given," Rictor said. "No tellin’ when you're gonna need to do it. Always keep some sort of backup plan in mind."
Rostov chuckled, "It was a serious lack of planning on your part when you chose a woman to throw out of the plane, Friend. I have found that men will forgive much faster than a woman. They hold grudges forever."
"So true," Rictor agreed. "All right, Boss, let's get to it. Experiment away."
I built a hollow tendril that sprouted from my back to fasten on the side of Rictor's Stream. A rush of power from his stream ran through me as if my Stream had grown again.
"I felt that," he said, "My stream feels smaller."
I built the portal on his end of the tendril and closed it.
"That's better," he said.
"I just put the portal in," I said, "Let me light it up for a minute so you can see where it is."
As I lit up his stream and mine, I felt power flow up my Stream into me. No huge torrents, just a gentle flow. He located the portal and opened it. A flow of power ran down the tendril to me as my body sucked it up to hold the streams visible. I shut it off.
"Now, close it," I said.
He concentrated for a second and the flow stopped, "Got it."
"I think we just solved the problem with supporting."
Soullord (Soulguard Book 2) Page 15