Hearing this, Rochie turned from the fire. He looked straight into Kenar’s eyes. His blindness made them glow almost like an animal’s eyes would in this same circumstance. It explained why he could see what he did.
“Why would I have to forgive myself?” He already knew the answer to this, but at the same time, he didn’t. At least, he didn’t want to hear it from himself. Kenar would do just fine.
Kenar already knew this too. “You had your father killed Rochie. That alone would cause guilt and pain. Even with knowing that you did what you had to do.”
Rochie accepted this, and he felt glad he did because behind Kenar he watched the black wolf step out from the shade of the trees. He watched Kalima come behind him, and with seeing him, he wiped his eyes. This time, they dried quickly. With everything else, he didn’t know what to expect.
32
“You have come to us as you said you would.” Kenar saw him come behind him. He turned to him. With him doing it, it helped him to relax some because of it. Everything he feared about him disappeared. He could have killed him if he wanted to. He didn’t, so he thought no more about it.
Kalima placed his hands on his hips. He felt refreshed, if that was a good word to use for what he felt, he felt more exhausted than anything, but he did feel better. He felt completely cried out. He felt ready to get back his daughter now.
“I told you that I would come.” He looked at the back of the blind man’s head. He saw a few gray hairs now mixing in with his heavy black coloring, and it made him feel somewhat satisfied with seeing it. It meant that he was as frail as any human ever was. It meant that he had something he didn’t have and he liked that. It made him feel even calmer than he already was.
Rochie watched him come to his friend’s back, and it made him feel nervous. Unlike Kenar, he didn’t trust him at all, and wasn’t about to do it now.
“We did not think that you were going to come.” This was honest. A lot was, but this was also more polite too. He felt justified in it.
“I said that I would. I keep to my promises.” He thought about Alana. He saw her sweet pale face. He promised her the world too, and with this, he failed with it. He had to make it up to her, and the only way he could think of doing it was to get back their baby girl. He had nothing else to lose.
Rochie saw the anguish in his eyes. He looked tired. He looked almost beaten down. He could accept this. He accepted him for it, black wolf or not.
Hearing this made Kenar smile, soft and genuine.
Kalima saw the smile. “Do you think this is funny?” He stared the man down with a long and heavy glare. His voice seemed to rumble some within it.
Kenar stood up. “I do not mock you Kalima.” He heard the growl. He had to say something, so he went with the complete truth. “I was only reading Rochie’s thoughts.”
Rochie stayed ready for anything.
Kalima felt stunned with hearing this. “You can read minds?” He felt intrigued by him too. He of course knew of Wanderers and some of the things they could do, but he had never stood with one before like this. This seemed to be a good time to learn something about them too.
Kenar bowed his eyes. “My gift is that, plus I have the ability to see what Moonwalkers see. I can see the life force around all living things. I have their eyes, but only at night. I see better with the full moon.” He had other gifts, but wanted to keep these to himself. As he had always believed, it was best to keep your gifts to your chest. One never knew when they would have to use them. It was best to keep them from knowing it, in case you did.
Kalima shrugged with this. It explained a lot about the man, but he wanted to know more. He wanted to know everything he could about him.
“Can you read my thoughts?” he had to ask next.
Kenar immediately shook his head. “I cannot see your thoughts.” At first, he was not going to answer him, believing that it might be too risky letting him know that he couldn’t, but in shaking his head, he already gave it away. So, he went again with the complete truth.
Again, he felt stunned by this. “Why can you not?”
“I have no idea why. I can see anyone that does not block me.”
“Block you?” He had never heard of such a thing.
Kenar looked back to Rochie.
Rochie agreed with his friend without knowing that he did. You cannot explain your weaknesses to him Kenar. So, he spoke it to him through his thoughts. You do not know what he will do with the knowledge. It could damage us in the end.
Kenar agreed, but again, it was too late. “All mind readers can block others from seeing their thoughts. I can to a point, but I have not garnered the full secret of how to do it. So in other words, I do not know how to do it well.”
Kalima liked the fact that he was answering his questions like this. It helped him to trust him—to trust them. So he continued with it. He wanted to know how far he would go with it too.
“Am I blocking you?” This came next.
Kenar shook his head. “I do not know. I truly do not know why I cannot see your thoughts. Only you can answer the question of blocking me.” He looked at him firmly. “Are you blocking me?”
“I am not. I did not know of you until you came here.” He looked to the one behind him, and stared him down. “What can you do, Rochie, is it?”
He swallowed hard, and looked back to Kenar.
Kenar gave him a nod, telling him that it was okay to do it. If they were going to trust him, if they were going to trust this animal or whatever he may be, then that trust had to go both ways. This was the best, and the only way, to do it.
Rochie swallowed hard again. He didn’t want to do it, but he trusted Kenar. He just hoped that he was right. “I can move objects with my thoughts. I can control them even through the air. I can also see through other’s eyes.”
“Control objects…people too.”
Rochie shook his head. “I can only feel things that have no life, so no, I cannot move people—nothing living.”
“I see.” Kalima acknowledged this, but again, there was more. “Can you read the mind too?”
Rochie bowed his head. “No. I do not share that gift.” He thought of his sister again. She was the only one that he could do it with, and now, he felt like he never would again, and this feeling, this thought, was growing stronger every day. He hated it more than ever.
Kalima looked back to Kenar. He remembered about hearing the wolf’s thoughts, the one that attacked him and his parents back on their farm. He knew he heard it. He knew what it said, and after hearing this, he had to know if he could too. It at least made sense to ask. “When the Moonwalkers attacked my parent’s farm, before they ran me off, I could have sworn that I heard it speak inside my head. I heard her voice.”
Kenar bowed his head. He had to think about this. He must be a Wanderer then or at least a Walker somehow. He is a wolf, I know that, but I have never heard of a Moonwalker having such a gift. As far as I know, there are only Nightwalkers that have the gift, but not wolves. Wolves have cunning, but only instincts. So what is he? What in heaven’s name is this man standing in front of me?
Kalima watched the blind man’s face. He watched his eyes go down. He watched him thinking, and decided to take the chance, so he closed his eyes. He looked into his head and cleared it of all of his thoughts. He looked deeply inside, through the void of emptiness, but in the end, he saw nothing there. His mind was blank without his own thoughts.
Kenar watched him as he looked up. He knew what he was trying to do. “You are trying to read my thoughts now?”
He opened his eyes. “I see nothing.” He looked back to the other Wanderer and again tried the same thing with him, and yet again, he saw nothing come to him. “I see nothing from either of you.” He looked back to Kenar.
He didn’t understand this. “If you have the gift of reading thoughts than you should be able to see ours. The gift is not specific like that.”
Kalima shrugged.
Kenar took t
he chance to figure out how deep it went with him. “You said that you read the wolf’s thoughts. Could you speak with them?” The power went both ways within the connection after it was made. It should have worked with him too.
Again, Kalima shrugged. “I saw her thoughts. I answered her with my own voice.”
Kenar accepted this for what it was. The boy has no idea of his gifts, if he even had them in the first place.
He saw him thinking again. It was time to ask the biggest question of all. “Do you know what am I?” He saw the woman standing by the fire. He saw her face. He heard what she told him. He now wanted to know if they knew this too.
Kenar felt his heart sink with hearing this. It sunk because he couldn’t answer him. “I do not know what you are, but I do know that you are different. You are so different that Devish, the last Blood Walker, will do anything to get you by his side.”
Kalima swallowed hard himself. “He already has come to see me.” He felt ashamed by this, why he didn’t know, but he did. In reality, he shouldn’t care either way. He owed none of them anything. He was the one that lost everything. He was the one that they should care about, not him of them.
Kenar felt shocked by this. Hell, he was completely blown away by it. “When?” He didn’t feel him. He should have, if they were this close to each other, he should have been able to feel him easily. Like most mind readers, their power increases the closer they are to the one they want to read. Being that he didn’t see him, didn’t feel him at all, it scared him deep inside. If what he said was true, then it seemed that Devish had figured out how to block him completely. It seemed they had a bigger problem than he never saw before, and God help him now because of it. God help all of them now, more than ever.
Kalima heard this in his voice. He saw the fear in his eyes. He smelled it from his body, as he started sweating hard. He didn’t know what it meant, but he did feel it. The man’s heart nearly tripled its pace. “He was here—tonight.”
Kenar looked back to Rochie, and needed his help. He needed any support he could get. “I did not see him come. I saw nothing. I did not even feel him here.”
Rochie now felt completely shocked with this too. “How is that possible?” He didn’t know what to think. All mind readers have their powers magnified by others around them. It meant that he should have felt something, and the fact that he didn’t meant something really bad. They would not be able to detect Devish even if he was there, right now watching them from the trees. He could kill all of them before they even knew he was there.
Kenar held his heart. He hugged himself with his own arms. It didn’t help him at all.
“He must know how to block me completely.” He looked back at Kalima. “I do not know anymore.” He thought back to what happened to him all of those years ago, and it brought a chill to flow down his back and into his legs. He thought about not knowing that humans possessed a soul. He thought about how they, the Walkers, seemingly blocked him from knowing anything. It made sense, but how. How could they do it? He needed to know about this. He had to know what else they were hiding from him now too. He felt useless. Now he was just a blind man hindering their very efforts to live.
Kalima just stood there and shook his head. “You cannot read my thoughts either. Maybe you are not as gifted as you think you are.” This sounded brutal, all considering, but he didn’t care. This was his way, and if they didn’t like him for it, he didn’t care about that either. All he wanted from them was their help in getting back his baby girl, which they claimed to be able to do. Everything else was beyond his needs and that was that.
Kenar couldn’t argue with him so he didn’t. He just looked back at Rochie.
In a way, Rochie agreed with the black wolf. He was just not that brutal about it. “I am sorry Kenar, but if he is blocking you like that, then what do we do? I do not understand what any of this is about.” He didn’t.
Kenar turned back to Kalima. “How did you get away from the humans?” He had to figure this out the old-fashioned way, so it was time to do it. He had to figure out why Devish wanted this wolf. He had to have something he wanted. Devish wouldn’t do anything like this unless there was.
Kalima looked down to his feet. He saw that they were bare. In all of his turmoil, with all of his pain, he left his house without shoes. He didn’t care, but did, and didn’t know why.
“I woke up. I saw the humans. I turned and ran.” He had nothing else to say so he kept it brief.
Kenar knew that there was something else. He didn’t need to see his thoughts to hear it in his voice. “How did they manage to take you in the first place?” He saw the black wolf pass Rochie. He saw what he saw. The beast was massive beyond words, and would not have been taken so easily like they did. He looked stronger then all of them together.
Kalima held his chest. He used it to keep his anger down some too. As far as he was concerned about any of this, it was pointless. They were wasting time, time that he no longer had. He had to get back Sima, and that was that.
Kenar saw it all over his face. “I am sorry for all of the questions, but I need to know why. I need to know why he wants you and is doing all of this.” He thought about the little girl, and decided that he had to include her in on this too. “He might want the little girl too.” It wouldn’t hurt, or so he figured.
Kalima kept his eyes down. “She is my daughter.” He felt the sensation of tears again welling up in his eyes, but they didn’t come. He figured that he would never cry again.
Both Rochie and Kenar felt for him, but they knew what it meant. “She may have a gift that he wants Kalima. He may know what she is, and is trying to get it too.” All Wanderers possessed something; even small gifts may matter to Devish. With the Seer with him, someone he knew had to be helping him in some way; he could know everything about her. He had to keep everything in mind.
Kalima shook his head. “I do not know what she has or does not have. All I care about is finding her.” He huffed out. A snarl rolled around inside his throat.
Kenar understood it. He felt the same way. “If I can figure out what Devish wants you for, I will be able to prevent him from getting her too. He will use her if he can. He is cunning. He has powers too. He may use her to get to you.” This sounded like a good thing to point out to him too, so he did. He had to use everything he had to get him to understand. To battle the Devil, everyone one of them did.
Kalima finally looked up. “They shot me with arrows,” he finally answered him. Wasting time or not, he had to do it. He didn’t seem to have the choice.
Rochie understood this. “Yet you lived?” He took a step towards Kenar, and stopped right beside him. “Just like your village, they used silver and you lived.”
Kalima sighed heavily. “Yes.”
Kenar took his turn and looked down. He saw nothing but the blackness of a lifeless night. What he did have to do is think about all of this. He had to question everything again. He is immune to silver, but I wonder if he is also immune to gold. This seemed important so he looked back up. “What about gold, the sun’s mental? Can you touch it? Does it burn you?”
He shook his head. “I have held it occasionally, but no—it did not burn me.”
Rochie now gasped. “That is impossible. No matter what you are, you have to have a weakness. Something has to hurt you.” He just couldn’t fathom any of this. Walkers, and he stressed, all Walkers have a weakness to the rare metals. For Nightwalkers, it was gold. It burned them like the sun would, but more concentrated. It was more brutal. Silver would likewise feel extremely heavy to them and would weaken them so they couldn’t move. Blood Walkers were no different. The same things harmed them too, maybe even slightly more than made Walkers. Even Moonwalkers had some weakness to gold, but silver would kill them instantly, even if they held it in their hands. It poisoned them like nothing else ever did. So with hearing all of this, he didn’t know what to think.
Kenar agreed with him but hearing this, everything began to make sens
e to him. He was obviously immune to their weaknesses, and if this was true, he could be very dangerous in this war. He could survive anything the humans threw at him. He would be very dangerous in deed.
Kalima saw him and something dawned on him, so he volunteered it. “I am also able to heal from everything—well so far. Any wound can heal almost instantly.”
Again, Rochie gasped. “All wolves can be killed without silver, if you can get close enough to them to snap their necks, or break their backs. If what you are telling us is true, than you are immune to everything.” He looked at Kenar and then turned back to the black wolf. “It sounds like reason enough for why Devish wants him.”
Kenar looked up. “Yes it does.” He looked back to his friend and then back to Kalima again. “Your child has nothing yet? She shows nothing?” He had to be certain about this. Wanderers sometimes had to reach puberty before they showed their true powers. Some of them, such as he, himself, had it earlier but that was rare. Most of them had to become adults first.
Kalima shrugged some.
Kenar saw this, and it made him feel uneasy. “She has shown something. I can see it in your aura.”
Again, he shrugged. “She shows nothing.”
Kenar turned back to Rochie, saw him thinking the same thing, so they both turned back to the wolf. “If she is aware of her gifts, he will be able to find out what she can do Kalima. If her mind can be seen by Devish, he will discover what she is, and he will use it to his advantage in the end.” He so had to stress this part. He had to know how dangerous he really was—not just to humans, but to him too.
Again, he said nothing.
Kenar didn’t have to see his thoughts to know that he wasn’t going to tell them. With that said, he went back to his original thoughts.
“I think he will try to use the child to get to him.”
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 42