by Franc Ingram
Lysander laughed. Hands on his belly, laughing with his whole body. So genuine and unexpected the gesture was, Oleana couldn’t help but laugh herself. “Me. An Heir of Eternity?” he shook his head in wonder, with a sly grin. “That would be a feat. If this is some elaborate going away prank, it's odd, but amusing. You will have to tell me the secret of the light show, but it is time we are done with this.” He sheathed his sword, but Oleana noticed the tension in his shoulders remained, like a coil ready to spring.
“Seeing it on the other side, I see the silliness of the objection,” Leith said.
“This is no joke,” Oleana admonished him, all laughter and merriment leaving her. She turned serious, and looked him straight in the eye to convey the auspicious moment. “You are one of the three, Master of Earth. Your bare the mark on your arm.”
“This?” Lysander said holding up his arm in confusion. “This is just a dark spot. It isn’t the mark of anything.”
Oleana grabbed his arm, surprised at what she saw. His mark should have been a complete ring. Instead it was a fading crescent shape. The edges were rough, blending in with the olive brown color of his skin.
“I don’t understand,” she muttered confused, “how can that be?”
Lysander snatch his arm back. “This, whatever it is, has gone from amusing to cruel. I’m taking my leave of this foolishness.” Lysander turned and left before Oleana could even think of an objection. Her mind whirled with what his distorted mark could mean.
“We can’t let him leave,” Lorn said.
“This is his home. He won't go far,” Lillian said. Oleana didn’t miss the sarcastic bite. “I told you, Mira, I wasn’t being naïve. I recognized the mark. As soon as he was born it stood out like a beacon, but it wasn’t complete. So, I went to the Thousand Years Library and read all the Founders books on the Heirs of Eternity, and the potentials. These potentials were born with a sensitivity to the smart particles that bind us all, but they were never meant to be activated.”
“Clearly he was activated. We all saw that.” Everyone nodded in unison. “So why does his mark still look like that?” No one responded. “Why does everything have to be so complicated with you three?” Again no answer. Oleana was moving past aggravated and into a territory near mental exhaustion. “Nadir, did you want to chime in here? Maybe explain yourself? Say anything?” Oleana threw up her hands in exasperation as she paced back in forth beside Nadir.
Nadir refilled his glass, and reclined in the desk chair, staring out the nearest window as if he had the room all to himself.
“I don’t have time for this. We don’t have time for this.” Oleana said sweeping her arm over the room. “Cornelius knows our faces, knows we were searching for the last of us. It won’t take him long to track us here. The longer we stay here, the more risk for everyone. I don’t need another Solon on my hands. I need to convince your son, now, that he is who I say he is.”
Lillian stood in the doorway blocking Oleana’s exit. “He’s my son. I’ll calm him down. You just wait in the front lawn for him.”
Oleana stared into Lillian’s fierce green eyes. The two of them were never really friends, more like friendly competitors fighting for the same awards, and the affections of the same man. Oleana’s pride told her to take Lillian’s posturing as an affront to her dignity and position, but as her previous rant pointed out, they didn’t have time for foolishness, and any more conflict would cause further alienation of this family.
“Do what you need to,” Oleana sighed, backing down.
Lillian hesitated, as if she wanted to press her advantage. The older woman nodded, her eyes still tight at the corners. She turned and left with a whoosh of fine fabric, leaving a trail of cardamom and vanilla behind her.
“Can I come help?” Lorn said, practically bouncing on his tiptoes.
Oleana looked between Lorn and Leith. “No. I need you two to entertain yourselves for a little bit. Get Tycho to show you around or something.”
Oleana spared Nadir one last glance, but the man she once admired and adored for being brave, smart, and compassionate, was sulking in the corner like a child, nursing his drink. Time was a cruel taskmaster that could turn even the strongest mountain into a pebble, and Oleana didn’t think she could take much more of its abuse.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: AMBUSH
The sound of hoof beats against the stone roadway startled a flock of birds into the air, the horizon filling with a blue and white swirl of movement. Lorn let his eyes follow their path, but his mind remained in Central City, with his mother and Lysander.
He’d never seen his mother look at someone the way she did Nadir. He’d also never seen someone get so mad at being called an Heir, as Lysander did. Lorn didn’t think his mother’s sometimes abrasive ways were going to go over well with Lysander. Logic impelled Lorn to be there to mediate between them, but his instincts said it was best not to get in the middle of things he didn’t understand.
“Don’t worry so much, you’ll wrinkle your face before its time,” Tycho said, pulling Lorn out of his thoughts. “Enjoy the scenery and the fresh air.”
“That why boss man go on a supply run? For the air?” Leith asked pulling ahead of the cart Tycho was driving.
“Anything is better than watching Nadir and Lillian pace around the residence while Mira and Lysander run around the yard,” Tycho replied. “Besides, its good for even the boss man to get his hands dirty occasionally, or he forgets how to work them. These supplies happen to be weapons built to my specs by a new supplier I was encouraged to trust. I need to make sure they turned out the way I needed them to, or they can get right back on the train, and right back to the supplier.”
“That make us free labor if they do be right?”
“Is he always so negative?” Tycho asked, his eyebrows lowered, giving Leith a glowering look.
Lorn glanced at his fellow Heir. “Well, I’ve only known him for a few days, but from what I can tell, yes.”
“Amusing,” Leith grumbled.
“So Tycho, how did you managed to become such a decorated man? You hang out with the reagent of Caledon, and the guardian of the three, and instead of being dwarfed by such big personalities and positions, you make a big name for yourself. How’d you do it?”
Tycho laughed, it was a belly shaking affair, big and bold like everything else he did. “I feel as if I should be offended, but I think I’ll take it as a compliment instead. Thank you. Besides, Nadir and Mira were never big titles to me. They were my friends that had a lot of pressure to live up to what people expected of them. You should understand that, you do call Mira, Mom, after all.
They worked hard, and pushed me to do the same. I grew up in a ranger family, knew early on in life what my track would be. The physical aspect of it came rather easy to me, as you may have guessed,” Tycho said flexing his broad chest. “The academic side of things was tougher. Mira was the opposite, so we pushed each other, taking time outside of class to get in extra practice, or study the books harder. No matter what title you wear, or task ahead of you, it is hard work and determination that give you the edge. As your mother knows, sometimes even that isn’t enough to guarantee success. That's life.”
“No regrets?”
“I regret watching your mother leave. I would’ve followed her anywhere. Her leaving left a command gap, and Nadir found himself pulled more and more by political matters, leaving Lillian and I to fill very big shoes. That first year without her was hard. I may have been in Central City, but my heart was in Gaeth with her, searching for you. Then when we learned of her death…” Tycho turned away from Lorn and he feared his question had gone too far. “Her loss was hard to take, for all of us. Even knowing she would be reborn, there was no way to tell if we would ever see her again. What was even worse in my mind was running into the guardian again and not recognizing anything about the new incarnation. Knowing for a fact that the Mira I knew was gone forever, replaced by some strange thing that claimed to know me.”
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br /> Lorn nodded. He tried his best to avoid thinking about who he’d been before. His mother had an advantage in that she remembered her past lives. She called them a burden, but the years of compounded knowledge prepared her for life in a way no one else could claim.
Seeing the way people from his mother’s past reacted to the new version of her always made him wonder, are they really seeing her, or are they just seeing the past? Maybe there were certain qualities that she possessed, no matter what the outside of her looked like. Mom would often say how his passion for learning more followed him from one body to the next.
Lorn thought it important to know that something from his past lives carried through. The smart particles coursing through his veins made him more than human, but every lifetime he had parents, maybe siblings and friends. People loved him, and he couldn’t even remember a single detail about them or how he may have impacted their lives.
He couldn’t even remember the parents he’d lost this time around. His earliest memory was of sitting alone in an abandoned house, scavenging the torn remnants of a forgotten life for enough covering to keep him warm on a very cold night. Lorn remembered his stomach rumbling loud enough to scare off any monsters that may have been lurking in the shadows. His unconscious mind randomly pulled up other memories in that vein on rough nights, but that was all Lorn had of his past.
“Hate to interrupt the chatting,” Leith said, pulling his mount up next to the cart, “but danger comes.” He pointed to the tree line off to their right.
“What does that mean?” Lorn said not seeing what he meant.
“Tannin, least five yetis coming this way from the forest.”
Lorn squinted until he caught sight of movement just inside the line of fuzzy evergreens that separated the pasture land from the woodlands, moving away from the coast. Lorn recognized the form of five yetis, and their dangerous wrangler, Tannin.
Questions flooded Lorn. How could they have found them? Was Cornelius nearby? Was this where his fourth life would end? Panic chilled his body.
“Why couldn’t they have found us after we gathered the weapons?” Tycho said with surprising calm. “How did you even spot them?”
“Predator sense.”
Tycho nodded. “You two head back to the city, warn the others. I’ll slow them down.”
“They’ll slaughter you,” Lorn objected.
“This cart will slow you down. They’ll be on me before I can unhook the horse, and riding with one of you would slow you down. So, do what I say, and get going.”
Leith kicked his mount into motion back toward the city, leaving Lorn torn between what he wanted to do, and what he felt was the right thing.
“I can take care of myself,” Tycho said, pulling twin axes from their resting places on the bench beside him.
Lorn went too, but instead of heading back toward the city, he charged straight at the yetis. A million objections ran through his mind as he leaned down low on his mount, picking up speed. Had he lost his mind? Was he trying to show off, prove he wasn’t just a kid that needed protecting? Lorn knew it was more than that.
His mother drill him in fighting techniques since he was eight. She taught him how to deal with superior numbers. Charge the enemy, she would say. Catch them off guard and force them to scatter. That way they can’t use their numbers against you. Tycho needed time to free his horse, and Lorn could give that to him without getting himself too close to danger.
Working with a clear spring sky wasn’t ideal, but Lorn could feel some heavy clouds out over the ocean. They just needed some coaxing from him and they would produce the lightning he so desperately needed.
“Come back here,” Tycho bellowed, but Lorn had no time for discussion.
The shadowy figures breached the tree line. They abruptly changed direction, like a flock of birds, in response to Lorn’s charge. He had difficulty matching course, and concentrating on the movement he needed in the sky. His skin tingled with the energy he was putting out, warming the air around him, and calling to the cold clouds just off the coast. He knew the two could meet miles away, and he could draw the lightning in. He just needed that one spark.
Lorn was off the road and into the high grass, the weeds smacking against his calves. The yetis split apart, letting him run right through the middle, until they made a wide circle around him, and Lorn was forced to arrest his speed or run into them. His mount objected to being so close to the strange beasts, rearing up and stomping the ground. Lorn wanted to grab his sword strapped to the side of the saddle, but he needed his one hand free.
One brave yeti swiped at his mount. Lorn easily dodged it, backing away. His body tensed, but it wasn’t from the beasts. His spark hit. Electricity was in the air. It was his game to play now. His heart thumping against his chest, surging with adrenaline.
Lorn thrust his hand into the air, his palm and fingers alight with a familiar blue glow. His heart pounded in his chest, straining to give him as much energy as it could. For that moment, Lorn saw past the skin of the world, and peered into the microscopic. He saw the miniscule little machines that seeded the planet, and altered it into something not Euphoria, not Earth, but a mutant hybrid of the two.
The yetis were swirling, raging clouds of the stuff, while the plants and insects around them were like a neat, well designed web, each element connected to the other in an intricate and beautiful system. Looking up, Lorn pulled destruction down over his head in a thick trunk of particles. At his command, it split like a treetop, forming five branches that went for the yetis.
Lightning hit in five distinct spots, knocking the yetis off their feet, sending them flying in different directions, and leaving Lorn awash in static, but unharmed. Lorn felt shaky, as if he’d expended all that his body had to offer. When his vision adjusted, he still saw spots of black dancing around, and the world looked too bright to be real. Lorn clung to his agitated mount, fearing a close encounter with the ground.
When he heard someone grunt behind him, Lorn struggled to turn himself around enough to see. In his hurry to dispatch the yetis, Lorn let Tannin slip by. The multiform descended on Tycho with a brutality that would have crushed a weaker man. Tycho managed to hold his own, but it wouldn’t be for long. Lorn didn’t think he had enough in him to be of any help.
“Mom,” he cried loudly, gasping for breath, but not knowing what else to do. “Help me, please!”
100101
Lysander stared skeptically at the intruder, who claimed to be a living legend, and an old friend of his parents. When his mother pulled him from the training ground, he foolishly thought it was to have a family meal, maybe discuss the possibility of him being allowed to go on campaign with the other fresh squad leaders.
Instead, they threw nonsense at him, and expected him to swallow it down with a smile. Lysander had long since moved past the need for fairy tales. Despite his mother’s efforts to convince him otherwise, Lysander couldn’t believe what this new woman told him.
“My mother has tried to convince me you are the Guardian, and what’s more, you are the woman Uncle Tycho, and to a lesser extent, my father, talk about. I remember my father telling stories of when you were in the squad together,” Lysander said. He circled around her, sizing her up, as they stood in the middle of the Residence’s front lawn. Oleana took his scrutiny with confidence, shoulders back, chest out. Whatever Lysander was looking for, Oleana didn’t seem to think he would find it. “He even showed me pictures of those days. Showed me the woman you once were. Your skin is a darker brown this time, and I have to say, I do miss those blue eyes.”
Oleana shook her head, her loose dreadlocks, with their multi-colored threads laced throughout, slapping against her face. “I had blue eyes during my first lifetime. My eyes were brown the time I spent with your father. Always thought those dark, coffee bean-brown eyes were so strong and striking. I do like the flecks of green in these nut-brown eyes. They remind me so much of my mother, Orda,” her voice sounded far away, as if pulled
into the past. “I tried explaining to her why, at the age of fourteen, I needed to leave home. I don’t think she really understood. My father either, but it’s my mother’s tears that haunt me at night.” Oleana shut her eyes against the painful memory. It was just one of a thousand she wanted to keep buried. “I didn’t want to leave them, mind you, but I knew if I didn’t go on my own, something would force me out. The longer I stayed, the harder leaving would be.” Oleana took in a deep breath, which seemed to steady her. Lysander stopped at her right side so she had to turn to look at him. “If you’re done testing me, can we get on with our business? It is my job to teach you how to use your unique abilities, and with Cornelius barreling down on us I don’t have time to be my usual kind and gentle self.”
“Ha,” Lysander laughed. Oleana gave him a look that rivaled his mother. He got a brief glimpse of what the two of them must have been like, working together in the same squad.
“I..,” Oleana froze.
“Mom!” the word cut through the air, banging against Lysander’s skull. He didn’t know how, but he knew it to be Lorn. “Help!”
Oleana looked at him, her eyes wide and glistening with barely contained tears. “Grab as many men as you can get. We have to go save them.”
Lysander was startled he didn’t know if he could believe his own mind. “How?” he asked, grabbing Oleana’s arm.
“I keep trying to tell you, they are you are connected to us. They are your brothers, if not by blood, then by the quirk in your DNA that makes you an Heir. There’s no time for explanations. We have to go save them.”
“Follow me, I know the way.”
Oleana was already on the run.
100101
Guilt tugged at Leith as he fled. When the flash and bang cut through the air he stopped his horse dead, nearly toppling over the front of it as a result. Still he resisted the urge to look back. If it was from Lorn, then things were taken care of and they didn’t need him anyways. If the attack was from Cornelius than turning back would waste precious seconds that he needed to escape the vengeful Ice Ultra.