Eurue- The Forgotten World

by Elaina J Davidson

  “She moved everything to Eurue?” Teighlar’s mouth hung open. “By all gods …”

  “Incredible power,” Gabryl whispered.

  “Fortress, Gabryl. Put that orb away … I thought you destroyed it when you released the Oskil.”

  Gabryl shook his head. “It simply changed state.”

  “Never mind. Take us to the fortress.”

  The Aleru Orb absorbed back into the ether surrounding him; Gabryl gripped his father’s wrist and dematerialised with him.

  The Dome

  HORRIFIED, THE KAVAL present in the Dome, listened to Jonas and Shenendo rattle off statistics too terrible to deal with calmly.

  “We’re needed on Eurue …” Belun began, and then snapped his mouth closed. Moments later he said, “Tristan says to create evacuation centres for the Kemir …”

  Everyone stared at him.

  The Centuar smacked the console. “Get to it! Frond on Petunya is still deserted, make a plan. Once we have permission, enforce it if needed, commence transports wherever possible. Rope the Grunway in. Move!”

  He strode for his ogive.

  “Where are you going, brother?” Assint demanded.

  “The Fortress.”

  A chime signified his absence.

  Chaim hustled to his vaulted arch. “I’m going to Akhavar to get the Valleur to help with rescue. I need co-ordinates for Petunya from Jimini and Kila as soon as possible.”

  Another chime sounded.

  The Kaval hurtled into action; chime after chime rang into the Gatherers’ Circle.

  Eurue

  The Fortress

  ALUSIN!

  Tristan hurtled into the shuddering fortress, ignoring the Valleur shoving spears at him. They instantly retreated, and somewhere Krestin and Jaken could be heard arguing.

  “Alusin!”

  Footsteps pounded closer, causing Tristan to swing towards the sound. Krestin, breathing hard, skidded to a halt. “I cannot find the Keeper.”

  “Alusin will be with him. Why are you and Jaken having words?” His breath, he realised, was about to desert him. Where the fuck was Alusin?

  “He suggests evacuating the Valleur here. I disagree.”

  “So do I. Help the mortal Kemir evacuate, wherever you find them alive in this hell.” Tristan held a hand up. “Wait.” He listened, saying thereafter, “Petunya. Take them there.”

  “What about you?”

  “Krestin, I can take care of myself. Help the people. If transport is curtailed in this upheaval, find a stable place to gather them until transport abilities return.”

  The commandeered bowed, and swung away, already issuing orders. Within minutes the fortress was deserted.

  “Alusin!”

  The chaos in the bloody everything - atmosphere, sky, land, water, ether - could be working against Alusin as well. Clenching his hands into fists, Tristan strode outside.

  Belun landed in a heap on the sodden lawn, scrambling to his feet with a mighty oath. “It’s goddamn crazy in the currents.”

  Yes, exactly what kept Alusin … and then the man crashed down, his brother with him. White hair swirled. Thank all gods. Tristan lurched nearer, reached down and pulled both men up. He stared at Alusin, and then they slammed together to briefly but intensely slap each other’s backs. With witnesses, it was all they allowed themselves.

  “What is happening?” Savier demanded.

  “Cathian is happening,” Tristan said.

  Teighlar stumbled from out of thin air, along with Gabryl.

  “We made it … of course we made, what am I thinking? She needs me here,” Gabryl said. “She will seal the skies soon now. All travel will cease, and all communication will be severed.”

  Tristan’s head lurched upward again. “How long before she seals us in?”

  “Minutes.”

  Tristan closed his eyes, clearly communicating. When he reopened them, he said, “The Valleur host just arrived en masse in all regions. Grunway came with the Kaval. I have instructed them to grab at least one Kemir each and to evacuate immediately again, to Petunya. All able to transport are to leave as well.”

  Savier doubled over, hands on his knees. “Thank you.”

  An almighty tearing screech permeated the air then, except it was not a tearing, it was a drawing together of the fabric of space itself. Audible became visual as mighty gloom-laden curtains seemed to draw together above.

  Cathian Lowry would soon have control of her chosen battleground.

  Seconds before the terrible shrieking stilled, another hurtled through the ether to land up on his knees before them.

  Amber eyes stared starkly up. “She is entirely over every edge. She has control over the immortals in our dome.”

  “What exactly has happened?” Savier demanded.

  Gabryl, while staring up at the dark heavens, tracking the roiling movement there, murmured, “Cathian transferred the dome and towers from Lintusillem to Eurue, and that has caused the altering to the natural order of this world.”

  “Where has she deposited the complex?” Belun asked, his presently indigo orbs far larger than usual.

  Alusin, Gabryl and Tristan glanced at each.

  “The Kiln,” they said in unison.

  Chapter 49

  How precious it is

  ~ On Life ~

  Eurue

  The Fortress

  IT BEGAN TO drip then, large drops, warm drops. And then sheets of water plummeted down, threatening to pummel them into the already sodden earth.

  Slipping, sliding, kicking up clods of grass and mud, they raced indoors. Despite the levels between them and the roof, the drumming rain was thunderous.

  “Trapdoor,” Alusin gasped, and raced deeper into the building, stumbling in his muddy boots, careening off the walls.

  Tristan ran after him. As Alusin was about to jerk the thick wooden door to the circular pit open, he shouted, “No!”

  Breathing hard, the Kemir stopped.

  “Too late,” Tristan heaved. “Open that door and you flood this level.” He pointed at water seeping from the wooden reveals.

  The pit’s inundation had to be at chest height already. The swiftness of the event revealed how much the natural order had sundered.

  “Fuck,” Alusin said.

  “Help me seal it,” Tristan said, and together they placed palms on the swelling wood and muttered.

  A few minutes later they stepped back.

  Tristan eyed Alusin, who stared back at him.

  “Never thought I’d say this, but I wish now Gabryl had made his play earlier, while his sister could still be stopped.”

  Bending to place hands on knees, inhaling deeply to calm his racing heart, Tristan nodded. When he straightened, he said, “And I wish for you to never leave my side again. I prefer being in danger with you.”

  Alusin smiled then. “Well, for that I will personally thank Cathian.”

  Laughing, Tristan gestured back the way they came and, together, they ambled back into chaos.

  EVERYTHING THAT could fall from a place had fallen. Objects great and small littered every space, but the walls held up under the onslaught. Shudders still permeated the land, and yet the monstrous edifice stood.

  “It was her home,” Savier said as they entered the library space. “She no doubt understood it would survive anything. That was meant to protect her sarcophagus, no doubt, and now it helps us.”

  “Belun?” Tristan prompted.

  The Centuar lifted both great shoulders and slumped them back down. “Absolutely no communication. I can’t tell if the Valleur and Grunway managed to get off planet with evacuees before it sealed.”

  Teighlar, busy clearing the area before the fireplace, said, “I place my money on the Valleur being swift enough. Let us remain positive.”

  Vian moved towards the Emperor - carefully, Tristan noted. “My lord. I am Vian of the Wulvyn.” His arm twitched as if he sought to extend it for greeting, but needed to know whether such a gesture
would be accepted first.

  Straightening and kicking a shattered vase out of his way, Teighlar swung to face the man his missing daughter fell in love with. That love had yet to be proven, in his opinion. Thus far all he had seen and heard spoke of was coercion.

  “How is it,” he rasped, “that my daughter was pregnant? I fathom a son from her mortal union with an Algheri here on this world, but you are an Immortal.”

  Vian drew himself up and shoved his hands into pockets. “I do not know. It was a miracle beyond all miracles.”

  Taller than most men, Teighlar closed in to stare the few inches down into the Wulveyn’s amber orbs. “I have this uncanny ability to tell truth from untruth, know that. Vian of the Wulvyn, did you love my daughter?”

  Unblinking, Vian said, “I love her still.”

  Unmoving, Teighlar watched the man’s every twitch of expression for some while, and then he sighed and stepped back. He extended his arm. “Love will not save her now, I hope you realise that.”

  Swallowing, Vian accepted the arm of greeting. “Love could not save her then either.”

  Agony twisted over both faces and then they released the clasp.

  Able to breathe again, Tristan glanced at Gabryl, and found the same look of suffering there. Frowning, feeling the need to weep, he met Teighlar’s thoughtful gaze.

  “I think now you understand Torrullin’s dilemma when he faced his own son on a battlefield of manipulation,” Teighlar murmured.

  “I do. You have been in this position before …” Tristan paused. “The Three Voices?”

  “No,” Teighlar growled, “not ever again will I deploy the Triple Song.”

  The Triple Song - known to the Valleur as the Three Voices - was an insidious whispering of coercion and was how Teighlar stopped his murdering sons’ ages ago. Torrullin employed it to fell Margus on Valaris. Both men still suffered nightmares about it.

  “There are men and women in our compound undeserving of the Triple Song,” Vian stated.

  And that was the crux of the matter. The Voices did not distinguish between friend and foe. Any who heard it, died. In the worst manner imaginable.

  Tristan touched his forehead. “Forgive me for mentioning it.”

  Teighlar inclined his head, and hunkered to rebuild the fire.

  Moving to the centre of the chamber, Alusin said, “We need to wait for nature to find equilibrium. We cannot wade through floods and fight fires and still hope to be strong enough when we get to the Kiln. This will be a physical journey if we attempt it now, because we cannot rely on our abilities to get us from one point to another. We are in the north here and need to cross an ocean to get there.”

  “Yes, when it settles, a measure of transport will return,” Belun said.

  Savier nodded. “Then we use this time to find chinks in your dome, Vian, and how to approach the Kiln without being seen.”

  The Wulvyn agreed, but Alusin said, “From the intel we gathered, that dome is larger than the Kiln, and doesn’t even allow for the five watchtowers. However Cathian did it, she pulverised mountains to set it down there. Unseen, brother? I doubt it. Instinct tells me she has created a great ring of emptiness around her.”

  Gabryl stepped into the conversation. “She will summon me when she is ready. I suggest we all attend that meeting and do as we planned to for Lintusillem.”

  “Suicide,” Vian said. “She controls the sorcerers.”

  “Does she?” Gabryl murmured. “Or is she merely siphoning power from them for this extraordinary feat?”

  Frowning, Vian paced into shadows and then back. “I cannot know until I am there.”

  “But it is possible?” Tristan questioned. He held a finger aloft. “She has achieved death and destruction here on an epic scale, and thus is her first wish fulfilled; whether or not she controls or siphons power, she does not need to hold onto it anymore. It will tire her needlessly. Soon even the most ignorant Kemir will know her name … her true name. Her name.”

  “Yes!” Gabryl swung to face Tristan. “You spoke mine and set me free …”

  “… but if I force her to say her true name in my presence, she frees me.”

  “And control of Cathian Lowry is yours,” Vian understood. A new spasm crossed his features.

  “I am sorry,” Tristan murmured.

  “Let us say it works and you are able to control her,” Teighlar spoke up. “What will you do with her?”

  “That is something we need to decide on together.”

  Teighlar smiled. “You are a good man, Tristan.”

  Vian sent an oblique look. “He is.”

  “We bind her and then attempt to reason with her,” Tristan murmured. “Same plan.”

  “Tried that,” Vian sighed.

  Savier shook his head. “Forgive me, she may be … she was … my grandmother, but Eurue now suffers because of her. Reason with her? Give her a second chance? How is that justice for what happened and happens here?”

  “Was it not your family that did this to her?” Belun drawled. “Take some of that blame also.”

  “I do, Centuar, and yet a reasonable soul would not exact revenge on people who had nothing to do with what happened to her. The Kemir do not merit this, and the animal kingdom particularly does not deserve this.”

  “She knows us,” Alusin put in. “She knows Savier and I are not to blame for what happened with the Oskil. We sat on her lap when she told us about Filkemir and instilled in us the lessons of compassion. She knows, and yet she destroys.”

  “What are you saying, Alusin?” Tristan frowned.

  “I am not baying for blood, Tris, but this woman cannot ever be allowed freedom.”

  “It pains me, but I agree,” Teighlar murmured. “I am prepared to hold her, reason with her, hope to return her to herself, but in a place of eternal safety. Hers and ours. This time Vian will not be alone in the trying.”

  “She will be publicly shamed,” Savier stated. “If death is not her fate, than shaming will bring the Kemir the closure they need. By all gods, as Keeper, I have to insist.”

  Vian strode in to stand nose to nose with said Keeper. “I will agree to that only if you swear to tell your people the whole truth. Your part in it. Your less than salubrious history.”

  Moving in, Teighlar placed a hand on the Wulvyn’s tense shoulder and looked at Savier as well. “The truth sets you free, this I swear to you. I am Alexander Diluvan and today my people know that. Torrullin Valla stood before his people and revealed his cycles, and that truth released him to a portal world where he now knows happiness. It can be thus for you. Eurue, with all its faults, can then claim alliances and trade with the worlds out there, no longer forgotten and ignored. No one is blameless, Savier, but acknowledging that sets you free.”

  The Keeper closed his eyes and nodded. “I shall tell the whole truth.”

  Teighlar briefly squeezed the Wulvyn’s shoulder and then moved away. “This eternal place of safety will become an eternal secret also. Again, for her safety and ours. Any who wish to aid in her recovery or be there to witness our failure in achieving it will be sworn to secrecy. I will not have warmongers or foolish Darak Ors seeking her out in the future to use to their own ends. Is this understood? If you want no part of it, you are excluded from this …” He threw his hands up. “… sect.”

  “I am with you,” Vian said immediately.

  “Count me in,” Gabryl murmured.

  Savier stepped back. “I cannot.”

  Belun groaned. “I want to help, but that bloody console in the Dome will ferret it out. I choose therefore to bow out of this arena.”

  Alusin stared at Tristan. “I am with my brother on this.”

  Pinching the bridge of his nose, Tristan nodded. “As I have to agree with Belun, but …” He swung his gaze to the Senlu Emperor. “I want periodic updates.”

  “Why?” Teighlar growled. “If you want nothing to do with this, then nothing you will know.”

  “Because, my Lord Emper
or, everyone deserves a second chance. If, by some miracle, Cathian is completely healed and wishes to sincerely atone for her deeds, she should be granted that opportunity, however far away it is. I wish simply to know, periodically, what her progress is.”

  Placing his hand over his heart, Teighlar said, “I am honoured to know you, Tristan Skyler Valla. You are, without doubt, a good man.”

  “Indeed.” Vian bowed low.

  Tristan shifted his attention back to Alusin, who smiled at him and then winked. Giving the room the finger, Tristan strode out muttering about coffee.

  The Kiln

  A CRY TORE through the darkness, but it was not of the natural world.

  In the dome still shuddering as it searched for firm foundation on what amounted to a salt plain, men and women of varied races cowered on hearing it. They called their home the Vault of Life and until now had believed it unassailable. That was no longer true, and even for those who usually did not regard death, it now became a spectre all too real. The threat of extinction grew ever greater as the woman in the turret drew more from them to ground the entire complex.

  They were, literally, powerless to stop her.

  This dome possessed the concentric tiers of benches the original Guardians conceived of for their space edifice, and on these benches they sat, clutching at edges, ducking with every sound.

  “The bitch,” someone hissed.

  “Vian should have dealt with her a long time ago,” a woman muttered.

  “Hush,” an older man murmured. “Concentrate on retaining the kernel of your power. Ignore all else.”

  Silence fell amid the spectators to annihilation, but a new shriek tore through the darkness.

  SHE PACED. The curved walls drove her insane. She would rout all circular items from the goddamn universe! Clutching at her hair, she inhaled with one step, exhaled with the next.

  Calm, Cathian. If Gabryl see you like this, he too will lock you up.

  She currently held too much power; it unseated stability. Time then to alter the dynamics.