by A. Wrighton
They marched along the carved path without exchanging any other utterances, the three men far too entranced with the reasoning and logic behind Kalyna and her knowledge of their presence and purpose. She was agile and quick, her long legs lending her to cover a great distance at the same pace the men normally would have used. But she did not deter from the maintained path. Not once. And she made no sign of thinking to do so.
Alaister surged ahead to catch Kalyna’s long, powerful strides. He had to get her off the beaten path. He opened his mouth to speak, but in the moment he had removed his eyes from her to focus on his pacing, she had disappeared from the path. He doubled back and looked around, Lanthar and Callon following his search pattern.
“This way,” came her voice from the thick swamp brush to the right. “They won’t track us through here.”
Callon scoffed. “I highly doubt that.”
“Then you know nothing of the Swamps. The plants are always growing, moving. Tracking is impossible, if you know where to walk.”
“Move,” Alaister ordered.
Kalyna set a faster pace and, only when they were across the first two overflowing streams, did she slow to catch her breath and check the plant growth. The men looked back too, and she smiled at their soft gasps. Behind them, the foliage thickened and churned. Where they had come from, plant growth was now twice as dense. Kalyna exhaled, rolled her drying tongue around in her mouth, and snapped off a vine leaf to chew.
“Who are you?” Alaister asked.
“Kalyna.”
“You know what he meant,” Callon said.
She shrugged.
“Who said we’d come?” Lanthar asked.
“Vee.”
“Why have you been waiting?”
Kalyna sighed. Her face tightened and her hands itched. This part of her story burned. It was easy for her to focus and stay in the now, so long as she never thought about that night with the man who saved her – so long as she never bought into Vee’s bedtime stories and training. It was a game. A sick, twisted game of cat-and-mouse that would never end, because it was not real. She could hide from the Council forever, but she could not hide from the men before her. At least not now that they had found her alive and well. And, certainly not now that she had seen them.
“Because I have been raised to wait for you… trained to wait for you to come and find me.”
“Kalyna…” Alaister softened his hard jaw with a smile. “Are you one of them?”
Kalyna blinked.
Them. She hated the classification of being something other than a human, other than a person with a heartbeat and a mind. It was how they had weeded out the Runic kind to begin with – focusing on the fact that they were slightly different. Special. Dangerous. A threat.
“I’m a person, not a thing.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“We were people once. At least, we weren’t these demonized things you like to label us as. Enemies. Villains. Them. Vee even said that you once depended on us, wanted us around. Loved us. Them?” She shook her head and stared at the three men. “You should be asking yourself if you’re not one of the Council with that tongue. We had lives and rights. We had hopes. Families… But, that changed and if your kind had actually done something instead of defecting and then hiding for cycles; maybe I wouldn’t have been left alone. Am I one of Them? Of course, I am! Why else would I have degenerated into this?”
Kalyna stormed into the thickening vines, knowing that they would follow, but wanting nothing more of it. Vee and her purpose be damned. She could not be destined to aid people who called her what her mortal enemy had. Who called her what the men she would exact revenge on had used to kill her mother. Kalyna urged the vines to swirl and grow as she yanked off more leaves to chew. They obeyed at an alarming rate. She heard them unsheathe their swords to cut through the growth and keep pace.
“We tried, Kalyna. We are still trying.”
“Not hard enough.” Kalyna stopped her march. “One of Them? You should have tried harder, Rogue. We were your people, too. No. No more trying, it’s just not good enough.”
“I know. But the Prophecy—”
Kalyna could not control her laughter. Callon and Lanthar exchanged glances at her manic cackling, but they did not have a chance to speak. She laughed louder.
They had been taught the same Prophecy that Vee had instilled in her – that someone would help the Rogues retake the Realm for the people. That they would usher in a Golden Age and return the Runic race to their original status. That things would get better and people would be happy. But, the Prophecy never mentioned how an entire race could be happy when they were all gone – dead. Kalyna hated the naivety of the Prophecy the most. The naivety that one person – or even The One and the Five Catalysts – could undo so much hate and death was laughable. No one could, not even the Gods.
Kalyna calmed her laughter and shook her head, flaxen waves dangling in her eyes. “You sound like Vee.”
His lips formed a grimace. He was serious and Kalyna would have to realize it. Alaister was not leaving without her, and if she deferred to Vee like she let on, then he would get Vee to help them. They had to have her; she was it. Kalyna was The One.
Alaister paused and adjusted his scabbard. “Then, I wish to speak with her. If your heart is cold to us then so be it, but your Vee will help us.”
Kalyna sneered at his comment, his words stinging. “You really think that you’re going to just fix everything with a prophecy?”
“No. I know we are.”
“That’s a sorted logic.”
“But it is what I have to believe. What we all believe.”
“Even me,” Callon said.
Lanthar spoke a soft, “Me as well.”
She balked. “Why?”
“Because,” Alaister said as he pushed closer, “I will not allow it to happen any other way. It will happen as we enact it. We will change our fates and Solera’s.”
“We?”
“We.”
Kalyna allowed his approach. She could not resist. His eyes bewitched. She softened her stance and let him gently touch her arm. Another human being had not gently touched her since she was first discovered by Vee, wandering the Swamp starving. The contact was warmer than she remembered.
“Please, Kalyna. We need you.”
Alaister’s hope in a breakthrough crumbled as she shuddered and jerked back. Kalyna continued marching through the Swamp and they willingly followed – the silence swelling around them.
After another flooded stream, Kalyna exhaled and shoved another leaf into her mouth. It was bitterer than the others. “The man who saved me – he looked like you. He was one of you, wasn’t he?”
All three men laughed.
“He was his father,” Callon said.
Was. Kalyna frowned at the idea that she would never be able to thank him. The man who had saved her life was dead and he would never know how grateful she was for even her meager existence.
The wind rustled with urgency and warning.
Kalyna shivered and turned abruptly nearly slamming into the men. “Then I will do as you ask.”
“You’ll join us?” Alaister asked.
“I’ll take you to speak with Vee.”
THE SWAMP WITCH COTTAGE
HEART OF THE CREIPAN SWAMPS, CREITALL
The cottage sat nestled beneath the Mravgoth forest along the main riverbank of the Swamp beds. The dusty green foliage hiding the pale yellow walls seemed adamant about its secrecy. Kalyna watched the men, curious as to their knowledge about the Creipan Swamps. It would surprise her if they had heard of its depths and secrets. Few did.
Alaister did a double take. He was almost certain that the nearer they grew to the cottage, the thicker the foliage twisted itself over the wooden framing. He was almost as certain of that as he was of his own breath. The plants were not just alive – they truly lived.
She fought the urge to hide beneath her hood and smile at the men’s
childlike wonder for the Swamps. Instead, she pressed through to the waist-high wooden gate and opened it. With light steps, Kalyna crossed the mossy walkway to the front porch. There, she turned and stared at the river that carved its route just below the far side of the cottage. The waters were calm. The animals relaxed.
Callon suspiciously scanned the organic surroundings before shutting the gate and approaching the door behind the others. They were not quick to try to enter the cottage. They stood on the stoop in muted awe as crisp creaks gave away that the vines swirled with fresh growth over the two-story cottage. The rickety chimney became smothered in a fresh coat of green as puffs of white smoke struggled to escape its moss-topped opening.
Slowly, Alaister extended his hand to the deep emerald and blue vein of a vine’s leaf. The green leaf tips puffed to meet his fingers.
“I wouldn’t touch that, if I were you.”
Kalyna smiled at the men’s shock. Though no other soul stood nearby, the feminine voice was certainly not Kalyna’s. The voice was soft and gentle, water lapping on a still riverbank – far from Kalyna’s earthy texture and vitality. The door creaked inward, allowing a gash of light into the interior darkness.
Laced in shadows, Vee stood staring at them. Her long, waist-length gray hair draped over her right shoulder in a fat braid, flowers nestled amongst the strands, either by random placement or happy gardening-related coincidence. She leaned against the hallway, slightly hunched, her plain brown dress showing the green smudges of a day full of gardening. Her softened old skin, despite its sun-kissed glow, looked weary and her ashen gray eyes glistened in the humid air.
Kalyna frowned. Vee should have looked beyond upset. Furious. Enraged, even. Instead, she looked sad. The two locked eyes and Kalyna hurried to her side. Kalyna pointed to the men but before she could introduce them, Vee waved her off.
“Fetch water,” Vee said.
Kalyna nodded, without the energy to argue with Vee in her current state. As long as Kalyna had known her, Vee was never sad. She was always strong and resolved and usually bristling with anger about something she had not done properly. Like listening. Or following simple directions on her lessons. Or losing flowers. Or calling too much attention to herself.
“Come,” Vee said just above a whisper, “find warmth by the fire while you can.”
The men followed Vee warily into the main room, where she slid into her aging chair. Kalyna dispensed the water glasses and found her place on the bottom step of the spiral staircase that twisted its way up the back wall. The wooden stair creaked a small protest that was lost in the shuffle of leather boots against the floorboards, but Vee relaxed at the sound.
There was something comforting about them.
They smelled of fresh leather and sky.
“The doors,” Vee said.
Kalyna huffed, too comfortable to return to her feet. With a jilted wave of her hand, the thud of the front door echoed. Vee cast a look that stabbed deeper into Kalyna when the sound of all the windows and doors bolting echoed behind the door’s thud. Vee glared only at her then, ignoring the curious stares of the men. Kalyna watched Alaister open his mouth to speak, but she knew the futility of it. There was a lecture coming and none could stop it once it began. Kalyna braced herself on the wooden step, but Vee’s silent glare prevailed until the gaze turned hot. Bowing her head, she stared at the uneven floorboards.
“Kalyna, what have you done?” Vee’s voice was soft. She did not grit her teeth or have the sound of weighted disapproval. Vee’s eyes danced with urgency and what looked like fear. It terrified. Vee was never afraid.
Kalyna swallowed audibly. Complete thoughts escaped her. “I… I did what… They followed me while being followed. I covered their tracks.”
“Were the guards following you as well?”
“No… Maybe… I don’t know.”
“Kalyna…”
“I know… but I—” Kalyna stopped when she noticed the intensity on Vee’s face. Vee had finally broken her scolding glare on Kalyna to inspect their guests. She stared at Alaister with a twisted and convoluted look.
Kalyna gestured towards him. “He’s their leader.”
“You look just like him.”
“Milady?”
“Kai – your father.”
Alaister stared at the woman without any movement as reward. Kalyna gawked at Vee, her mind seared by the hurt and deception. She had not known Vee knew the man who saved her. She had never said anything about him until now. Kalyna started to stand, but Alaister’s urgent gaze and gesture to calm stayed her. She sat back down dejected.
Vee’s watch retreated to the fireplace and after a short silence, she spoke indifferently to the burning logs. Every now and then, her voice would shake. Kalyna was mesmerized. This was not her strong and prudent Vee. This Vee, she did not know nor was she sure she wanted to know her.
“Your father was a good man. He always put others before his own needs. There should have been more like him, really. Might have made all the difference.” Vee’s eyes danced with the flames in an odd state of enhancement and detachment. She grew distant then, gone far away from her cottage dwelling.
“You knew? You knew him?” Kalyna said, sharper than she realized.
Vee did not answer. Frustration filled Kalyna’s fair skin. Her cheeks singed an angry pink that even the men felt the shame of. Why Vee had kept Alaister’s father a secret from the child he had saved escaped reason. Everyone who knew his father was proud to boast of their kinship. They all rejoiced in his memory, his accomplishments. But, not Vee. Alaister’s mind scanned the pages of his father’s logs long ago committed to his memory. His father never mentioned a woman named Vee.
The roar of the fire drove apart the tongue-tied gathering. The silence threatened to consume them all until Vee broke away from the flames and turned back to her guests. “So what was it he decided to call you?”
“My name is Dagin…”
“Don’t feed that line of gavasti to me,” Vee snapped. “I knew your father well enough to know when he was speaking gavasti and I certainly can tell when you are.” Vee exhaled slowly as she straightened her dress. “So, Young Paine, what is it they call you, really?”
“Alaister.”
She seemed to smile. “And your mount?”
“Beg pardon?” Lanthar asked.
Kalyna hid a small smirk. Lanthar was the most uneasy and nervous of the three and now looked like he wanted to retreat, but was somehow rooted in place, awkwardly leaning further and further away from the fireplace and Vee.
“Al,” Callon whispered, “I think she—”
“Silence, Caldenian,” Vee said with a thin finger pointed at Callon. Her aim shifted to Lanthar. “And you as well, Alerian. I will get to you two later. Your mount Alaister Paine, what is it?”
“Jaxin of Mylfina. A Fire male.”
“A bloodline calling it was indeed. And your Caldenian friend – a Fire Rider too, I’d wager from his cocky demeanor and lack of curt tongue.”
Callon smirked and then bowed a deep bow that exposed both swords’ gilded and jeweled hilts. They sparkled in the firelight.
Kalyna smiled. He really was a Caldenian duelist. Legends be damned to Udlast.
“The name is Callon McKafrey, Rider of Syralli.”
Vee bowed her head. “A pleasure.”
“Will you not guess at me, Milady?” Lanthar asked.
“No. I think we both know who and what you are… Lanthar is it?”
Alaister knelt beside Vee before Kalyna could raise a protest. Vee’s eyes softened at his proximity, her strict demeanor fading in his presence. “Milady…”
“Vee.”
“Vee, you knew my father?”
There was a short huff and laugh. “You could say that.”
“He never mentioned you.”
“And you never mentioned him,” Kalyna muttered as she bit the inside of her cheek. It pained her that a man they had just met had gotten more out of Vee t
han she had in her cycles living beside her. It did not make sense. It stung.
Vee looked back into the flames, avoidant of Kalyna’s stare. “No,” she said.
“I don’t follow, Vee. My father…”
“Your father was a wise, careful man. If anyone knew a Dragonic had befriended a Runic? Well, he’d never have achieved much in his life.”
Lanthar found his breath first. “So, you are a Runic, too.”
“Vee…” Kalyna whispered.
“Indeed.”
Callon stammered, fidgeting with his hilts. “But you’re…”
“Charming?” Vee laughed. “No, I suppose you want to know how I am still alive? It’s a funny life hiding in plain sight. Takes cycles off you that you didn’t know you even had.”
“Vee…” Kalyna spoke louder, anger mounting.
“Unlike the Others, I never flaunted my talents. No one knew, so it was easy to hide. And then this place, well no one would ever bother an old woman in the Swamps.”
“Vee!”
The room fell silent as all eyes found Kalyna.
“Vee,” Kalyna said approaching Vee’s chair. “They are being followed. We have to get them out of here. Safely… or have you forgotten to tell me something else, too?”
“You forget half of what I teach you, Kalyna,” Vee frowned. “Just once I’d like you to remember all of it.”
Alaister watched the two women stare at each other, having an entire conversation with their eyes. Kalyna was the most shocked at the gravity of the silent conversation. Callon gestured towards the two and Alaister shook off his suggestion. This was beyond them. Kalyna had been denied truths for some reason and it chided him for her sake. He knew what it was like to be left in the dark of things relevant and necessary, and the nature of her situation now would make convincing her to help all the harder.
The women’s stares broke apart as Vee sighed and leaned back into her tufted chair, a small poof of dust rising as she did. Kalyna knelt beside the fire and quickly worked to smother it. She knew that if she could douse the fire fast enough, the vines could completely cover the house. They could be safe again, if only for a short while. Kalyna was grateful when Alaister broke the thick quiet.