With another twenty men now standing with him, Jameson swelled with a powerful pride. There was no way they would now lose this fight.
“Surround the Walkers.” He looked back to Kenar. “We kill them all.”
Kenar shook his head. He continued watching the fight and couldn’t drop his eyes from seeing them. He knew this wasn’t going to go well, and what he felt from Satar, he now feared it. He cannot do it. He will not hurt his son. This wasn’t good. This was not good at all.
Satar was now pinned. He wasn’t using all of his strength—not against his own son. He was losing. He shouldn’t be doing that, but was.
Kenar watched Devish plow down with his open jaws.
The bite rippled through his neck. His teeth tore through his father’s throat, and gashed him completely to his spine.
Devish knew it was a deathblow, but it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more. He needed more blood and death. He lifted his left arm, and with everything he had in him, he swung down. He let his clawed fingers go first.
The hand smashed through his chest, plunged deep through his sternum, and found his heart.
He squeezed it into his hand. He tore it out with a tight and firm grip once he had it.
Satar gasped. He gurgled his own blood, as he watched his own heart ripped out from his chest and brought over his face. He breathed his last lungful of air to the last gasp. He died, watching his son’s hate filled face.
They all felt stunned with what they saw. They all gasped with the brutality of all of it.
Finished, Devish held his father’s heart in his hand. He looked at it oddly, and truthfully, fully sad. “I own your heart now father. It no longer will lead you astray. It does not belong to her!”
Jameson couldn’t believe it. How could anyone destroy his own father? It hurt him completely as he watched him die.
“Kill the last two.” He turned back to Mantha, now with Donte standing beside his horse.
Devish turned. He dropped the heart to his father’s chest. He roared out a loud and powerful gasp.
Mantha understood. He rode fast towards the beast. He rode hard at his chest.
Devish saw him ride. He saw the other humans now lined up along the road. He now knew he was outnumbered. He didn’t have the choice. He had seen enough.
They watched him turn into a Shade. They watched him catch the wind beneath his wings, and continued watching as he leapt up into the air.
He flew off before Mantha reached him.
Odan likewise saw the road. He saw the humans now amassed into a large line of silver carrying blades and instantly knew that this was the end. So he turned back into a Shade, and followed Devish off into the safety of the night.
Watching the last of them leave, Jameson broke out with a loud and joyous shout.
All of the humans now shouted out. Victory was so bitter sweet.
Kenar felt nothing but sadness. He felt nothing but heartache for what happened. He just couldn’t pull all of his thoughts together long enough to feel right.
Rochie felt the same way. “I cannot believe that Devish took his father’s life.” It felt impossible. The father was the oldest. He was the strongest. He should have controlled his son with ease. But it didn’t happen and now he didn’t know what to do.”
Patrice stood over his body and looked down. “What do we do now?” She just shook her head.
They all turned to Kenar, hoping that he had an idea.
He really didn’t. “He could not take his son’s life. He could not prevent him from taking his.” It felt wrong even though he did understand it. He understood a parent’s need to protect their child. His own mother ran away for him to keep him safe from herself.
“We are going to have to move on with the humans. Devish is still dangerous. Now that he is free, he will be worse. More blood will be spilled.” Rochie came to Kenar’s side. He watched Patrice come to them.
Kenar agreed. “We have to hunt him down. We gave him what he wanted and now no one is here to stop him. War has come and he will bring it.” He wiped both eyes with the back of his left hand. He knew this was not the time to cry. The future would shed more than enough tears.
Patrice took a deep breath. “At least we won the fight.” She didn’t think they would.
Kenar didn’t feel like they even did. “Tonight maybe, but this is just the beginning. There will be thousands more like it. A lot of blood has been and will be spilled before the end times come. Nothing will ever be the same way again.” He didn’t know what else to say. Pain was all they had left.
47
The screams flushed the cool night air. Spring had already returned after a harsh and tattered winter had swept over the world.
Rochie and Kenar waited outside the thatched and mud house.
“I am not sure of this Kenar. We should cut our losses before it returns to harm us.” Rochie felt right in this. He had ever since he had found out about her being with child. It felt dangerous. It also felt wrong.
“I know it is a risk, but it is one that we had no choice in the matter.” He agreed with his friend. He too felt weak about this, about her. He feared what a union like this would do, but he also knew about what Satar had told him about the Seer. He knew what she told him, and how right she was. A child was about to be born of the two worlds. He didn’t believe in coincidence. This had to be real.
Her screams came again, now only seconds apart. She had to be close.
“What if this child is a threat? Maybe not now, but one day, it could destroy everything.”
Since the night by the river’s edge, everything changed just as they thought it would. Blood flowed over the world and death followed it. The world turned into utter chaos and pain. The humans struck out at their Walker overlords and killed, tortured, and battered every one of them they found. It was a horrific time that turned into a terrible age.
“We have to have faith.” Kenar could only offer him this. He only had left a halfhearted smile.
Rochie didn’t agree with this, but Kenar was right about one thing, he didn’t have the choice. Lina chose to carry the child. She chose to bring it into the world, knowing full well what it was. She knew who the father was, and what it meant to her. She hoped this would repay his sacrifice. She didn’t love him, but she did respect him for what he felt. That was why she came to them when she learned the truth. Her brother could not be trusted to let it live, but they, two Wanderers with great wisdom, well she knew they would. They would let it live.
They weren’t so sure of this themselves.
After yet another scream, the air fell still. A child’s cry broke the silence that befell the home.
Hearing it, Rochie and Kenar looked at each other with wide eyes.
The midwife soon came out to see them and to tell them the news.
Kenar greeted her first. “Well?” he was dying to know.
“It is a girl.” She showed no emotion. She kept her face soft. In fact, she was tired beyond her many years.
“A girl?” He blinked. He truly didn’t understand. “I thought it would have been a boy.” He thought back to what Satar had told him, and felt sure he was right. A boy—it should have been a boy.
Rochie heard the shock in his voice. “You were expecting something else?”
Kenar just shook his head, as another set of screams bellowed from behind them at the open door.
The midwife said nothing; she just turned and headed back inside.
Rochie took the time to set this right. “You expected a boy.” He didn’t know what his friend was thinking, and needed to know what he was. They were in this together to the end.
“I did.” He turned away from the door and looked out into the trees. “I had been told that it would be a boy. He would change the world that is what she said.”
It was Rochie’s turn to blink. “Who told you that?”
A second set of screams came from the open door.
He saw nothing inside. He stayed fr
om away from having to watch.
Kenar shrugged. “The Seer said it to Satar. She told him about a prophecy.”
Rochie now shrugged. “What prophecy?” He told him nothing of this. He knew nothing.
Kenar turned, but yet again, the midwife returned.
“And also a boy.” She only said this, and turned back to the house.
Rochie’s heart skipped a beat. “Two of them.” Everything he felt just became a thousand times worse. “Now we must worry about two of them.” He tried to swallow a dry mouth but failed at it fast. He felt completely dry inside.
Kenar literally felt himself slide down into cold chills. “She was right, but not by all of it.” He looked back to his friend. “I have to find her and find out what she meant. I have to know what she told him, and why.”
Rochie shook his head. “You are worrying about some prophecy of a smooth teller, when we should be worried about them. What are they? What will they do one day? This is what keeps my concern.” Sometimes, he worried him more than even this.
Kenar repeated what he already said.
This made Rochie even more upset. “Kenar?”
“Yes.” He did hear him. He was just making his plans. He was just trying to think straight. To be honest with himself, he didn’t know what he was going to do.
That was Rochie’s idea as well. “What are we going to do about them?”
“We have to know what this means Rochie. The only one who can tell us this is the Seer of Golan. She told Satar things that led to this. She will tell us just that.”
Rochie didn’t agree, but then again, he didn’t have the choice. In thinking about this whole thing, a new thought popped into his head, and it caused a sharp chill to fly down his back.
“Devish will not let the children live, if he finds out about them. He will hunt them down just for what they are, whatever that is.”
Kenar knew this too. “We have to protect them.” He thought about how to do this, and it suddenly came to him that he had no ideas. Devish was gifted at controlling and reading the mind. When he was close to them, he could do anything. At a distance, and not feeling them nearby, he was helpless. How could this help them, he didn’t know.
Rochie knew this too. “How do we do it?”
Kenar shook his head.
Rochie thought about it for a moment, and the only thought that made sense came to him quickly. “We must block our knowledge of the children. We must keep it out of our thoughts and minds. It is the only way to keep Devish from knowing about them. It is the only way to keep them a secret from the world.”
Kenar agreed, but not in the same way. “If we block our minds, it would not take much to unblock them. We cannot be trusted to do it to ourselves.”
Rochie agreed. To block one’s self was always risky. All they needed to do is learn that they possessed a secret and then release it from their own mind. Then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. So yes, they had to do it better than that. If they should do it all that is. He still wasn’t convinced they should.
“What if we do this and they are dangerous. Without remembering them, would that not make things worse?” It made sense to him.
Kenar shook his head with this one. “No. The Seer told him, told Satar, that the child would unite the world together in peace. If he will do that, then he must be peaceful. He must be pure. We have to have faith in that.”
“Faith in the Seer?”
Kenar did agree with him on that. “Everything she told him has come to pass. Everything that happened did happen. I have to believe that this will too.”
That was nice and all, but there was now more than one.
“If you believe the boy was the one to bring peace to the world, what about the girl?”
Kenar hadn’t thought about that. He only knew of the boy. The whole twin sister thing just threw all of that off. Quite frankly, he didn’t know. But he did know this, “They are twins. They have come from the same family. You as a twin know what I am saying is real. They should be a like. They should be the same. That means if we have faith in one, we have it in two.”
Rochie agreed with his logic—at least some of it anyway. In the end, again, they didn’t seem to have the choice.
“Alright then, how do we make this work? We cannot block ourselves.” If we are going to do this, we had better get it right. Devish was relentless. He would not stop until he found them.
Kenar knew the answer to this already. “I will block you. You will block me. Then, we can only release ourselves together. Without both of us, it will never be undone.”
Rochie agreed. “We have to do it in a way so we do not forget everything that happened. We must only forget the children, and not everything that happened to bring them to life.”
Again, Kenar agreed. After all, he still needed to see the Seer. If he blocked him entirely, he would not know why he was there to see her. Everything else would just slide away, and he wouldn’t be able to help with the war about to rage.
“We block ourselves with only the knowledge about the children and nothing more.”
“Agreed.”
Kenar looked back to the door. “What about her?” He looked back to Rochie. “What about Lina?”
He thought about this some, but again, an answer was already there.
“We block her mind. We take the children to other families and separate them. That way Devish would never find them both, no matter what they became.”
Kenar nodded. “We do it. We do it now, and join back up here in three days. Do not speak to me about where you took them. When you return, we will not remember anything about them or who they are.”
“I will.”
Agreed, they set about their tasks.
Rochie removed the children, and told Lina that he was taking them to a place where they would be safe until she was ready. Kenar then blocked her mind. He removed her knowledge of Satar. He removed her memories about her father and brother. He removed everything she was, and replaced it with a new world. He planted new memories. He then used his gifts on the midwife, and made her Lina’s mother. He was gifted at this, and it showed. He proved his power yet again.
Rochie took the children to two separate villages, used his Wanderer’s gifts, and planted them into another life. He then returned to Kenar. They did what they had intended. They blocked each other, and painted a vale over their minds. When it was finished, they set about the tasks they intended to do.
Kenar headed south, knowing only that he needed to speak with the Seer of Golan about the message that Satar was given.
Rochie went back to Jameson’s side. He told him that his sister was attacked on the road by a wolf. He saw it all. His memory of the attack was perfectly placed.
Jameson would use his sister’s death as a reason to spill more blood. He would seek out the wolf that took her life.
The war had now begun.
After that night
After that night, humans rallied around the banner of Jameson. Village after village overthrew their Walker leaders, as blood flowed across the land like the flood of damnation ever could. Together, he united them into a single force, and led them headlong into war.
Odan was the first to fall. He put up a strong fight but in the end, the human swarm overtook him, and he died in his home in the land of Lapland. They wiped out his entire clan from the face of the world.
Devish eluded his once human prey, and escaped their attack on his home, as he watched his castle burned to the ground. He left with what was left of his and his father’s family, and disappeared from the world.
Free, the humans formed small kingdoms around what was left of the clans. Jameson led all of them as one, and they crowned him their king. He became a powerful leader. He became a good king at that.
Several of the Wanderers joined their now human allies, but not all of them did. Rana stayed with what was left of the clans. She stayed by our father’s side. She stayed loyal to him to the end. I respected her for that
. I still loved her as much as I ever did.
As for me, Rochie, I stayed by Jameson’s side and helped him on his quest to rid the world of the Walkers. I did what I could, but at the same time, I regretted it some too. I felt for my once friends. I felt their pain. I felt them suffer, but it did not last long, for I too grew colder in time.
After Seventeen years of fighting, I no longer cared for them. I too grew to hate the Walkers as much as Jameson did. I too longed to extinguish them from the world, and I did it well, until one day, I came upon a boy that I had never seen before, and he would change my life forever. He would challenge my very being. He would awaken in me a passion for life, while also bringing me down to the darkest reaches of my soul. He would become powerful. He would become strong, and his name was Kalima.
The Saga continues with The Rising Son…
A Werewolf’s Saga
The Rising Son
Michael Lampman
© 2015, 2016 by Michael Lampman
All Rights Reserved
Made in the U.S.A.
Get into the entire Saga with:
A New Soul
Changes
The Pack
Redemption
Returning Pain
The Wanderer Awakens
Darkness Rises
The End Times
The Beginning Trilogy
The Dawn of Humans
The Rising Son
Changing Tides
The Gathering Storm
The Puppets and the Strings
Coming in 2016
Reemergence
Power and Pain
Or visit www.AWerewolfsSaga.com for more information
The Beginning of the End
It has been years. The times feel different now. Then everything felt calm even though it was not. Everything moved in slow motion when the Walkers dominated all of the life on this world. In a way, I miss them. I miss the calm. I miss the simple way of life. I miss the way I was. I miss Rana. Now the world breathes in nothing but blood. Now I am relentless in killing things, Walkers that is. I have spilled my share of this world’s life and death.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 26