by Turhan
Then she started moving in an elliptical pattern. Amber and Jasmine were jumping around, they were so excited they were screaming at the top of their lungs. Kira continued the elliptical flight pattern, she was trying to drag the Tornado she was creating down toward the rest of the buildings. On and on she went until finally the storm took on a life of its own, so strong, that it knocked Kira away, but she was okay and headed back to the bridge. The five of us stood there and watched the show that we had put on.
The Tornado was somehow using all the metal prison bars inside the buildings as a conduit and its suction and spinning power was smashing one building after another. It passed us and tore up all the buildings and landscape in its path, we had succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.
After lots of hugs and high fives we knew it was time to get away before any weird creatures could respond to the wreckage the tornado had caused. Xenakaz had let us know which direction to go in to find Crystal Mountain, and that was our next stop.
My head was buzzing from the explosions and the heat, or so I thought, but no, it was something else, it was Sin-dy! I could hear her!
Chapter 19
Golleenia
We were heading away from the destruction and I know she tried talking to me. “Sin-dy, can you hear me?” I kept trying but couldn’t connect with her.
About an hour later our landmark appeared in front of us.
Elektra signaled to me. “Bro, we should rest when we get there.” She pointed ahead of us at Crystal Mountain.
A few minutes after and we landed high up on a plateau, it was surreal, an almost see-through mountain. I had seen crystal in its natural form before when Sin-dy and I went on a trip to Wiltshire County in England, on a spiritual retreat, not far from Stonehenge. If you had dug even a few inches down you’d unearth shards of crystal but they were cloudy looking, nothing like this, we could see several feet into it.
My sisters were lying down on their backs exhausted. Amber and Jasmine were examining her new sword, its pommel was carved into the shape of a Grphyn head with its lion body wrapped around Tulaqan’s hilt.
Standing on the edge of the plateau I looked west, toward the direction we would soon be heading. Was this, along with everything that had happened up until now another dream? I dismissed the thought from my mind as Amber came and stood alongside of me. “What are you thinking dad?”
“Oh, just that I’m the luckiest dad ever and that I can hardly wait for us all to be back home.”
“I want to call somewhere home, it’s been like living a lie here, all these years.” Amber was talking, but not really to me, more like just talking to hear herself saying out loud that she felt disconnected from reality. “Maybe one day my sisters and I can just be sisters, instead of puppets in someone else’s evil play.”
There was something different about her tone, almost like a trace of bitterness. Hugging her tight we both stood there gazing ahead at the horizon, somewhere out there was Sector One, where Sedah Hall is located and for now, that was the next act in this ‘evil play.’ “Kylar.” I looked over to my sisters, they had their eyes closed.
“Sin-dy!?”
“Yes, it’s me! Kylar, I’m back, is everyone okay, where are you?”
“Yes we’re all fine, we just got to Crystal Mountain, can you come here? We’ll wait for you.”
“I have so much to tell you Kylar, I miss you.”
I could see everyone was looking in my direction, they couldn’t hear us but they knew I was talking to Sin-dy and had smiles on their faces. “Me too, how long before you get here?”
“I’m not sure, but don’t go anywhere without me.”
“Well, please be careful, there’s a lot of fighting going on and by now half of Ophelexa’s army must be looking for us.”
“I’ll get there as fast as I can, love you.”
I gulped, my emotions heightened by hearing Sin-dy’s voice. “Love you too, see you soon.”
Kira walked over, hugged Amber and looked at me. “Sin-dy?”
I was surprisingly calm, almost reflective. “Yeah sis, she’s on her way−”
She kindly interrupted. “We’ll wait for her.”
From behind us we heard. “Yuck.”
We turned to look at Jasmine, she had Tulaqan and somehow there was blood on its pommel.
Elektra took it from her and checked Jasmine’s hands, she was fine, but some drops had landed on the crystal plateau we were on.
“Kylar, look.”
Kira was pointing at the blood, it was seeping into the crystal and multiplying.
“I’m so sorry Mr. Kylar, I−”
I cut in. “Just call me Kylar, Jasmine, it’s alright.”
We all started to back away from the area below our feet, the drops moved in bursts and they were increasing in volume.
“They’re taking on a shape dad,” Amber said.
She was right, the blood was trying to take on the form of an animal.
Elektra handed Tulaqan back to Amber. “You’re bleeding!”
She was puzzled. “I must have cut myself without realizing it.”
The blood continued to fluctuate and almost seemed alive, as though something was trapped inside, like a creature trying to break out of its cocoon.
Amber held up Tulaqan. “Dad, the eagle head, its eyes, they’re looking at me.”
“Put it down Amber!” She placed the swords tip into a small fissure, standing it up in the crystal. “It’s a Grphyn, eagle head and lion body,” I said.
The blood inside the crystal below our feet was still fluctuating.
“What should we do then?” Kira asked.
“Well somehow there’s a connection between the Grphyn and the blood, but I don’t understand it,” I replied.
Jasmine spoke up, she was on to something. “Maybe it bit you Amber, to let us know it’s alive.”
Kira guessed. “Then, it wants us to release it, it’s trapped and doesn’t know how to get out?”
“Yes, that must be it, but how?” Amber asked.
“Maybe a spell or chant of some kind?” Kira asked.
We tried hard to come up with ideas but after continuing for quite some time, we were unable to unravel its mystery, we were stumped.
Jasmine had been thoughtfully listening to us. “How do you spell Grphyn?” she asked.
“G-r-i-f-f-i-n, G-r-y-p-h-o-n, or G-r-p-h-y-n. I think there are lots of ways, why Elektra asked?”
“An acronym!” she jumped up. “If we knew how to spell its name, maybe that would be a clue to releasing it, if that’s really what we want to do.”
“Most titles or names around here are in Latin and the only Latin I know is the tattoo on the back of my neck,” Elektra said. “Let’s just start with spelling Grphyn with the first letter, ‘G’ what−”
“I know,” Amber cut in. “We had to learn Latin growing up. I think they made us learn it just to keep us busy and out of trouble, but anyway, Tulaqan is a sword, in Latin it’s ‘Gladius’ ”
There was something familiar to what Amber had just said, where did I hear that before? I could see Elektra was thinking about it too, she kept saying ‘Gladius’ under her breath.
“What could ‘R’ stand for Amber?”
“I don’t remember dad.”
“P?”
“Patrocinor!” Jasmine exclaimed. “It means ‘to protect.’ ”
“Good work Jasmine,” Kira said.
“Oh and I know another one,” Jasmine jumped in, the ‘N’ could be ‘Nievus’ which means ‘white or snowy.’ ”
“Sometimes ‘Snow or White’ could be used to denote virgin,” Kira said.
“So, we have Gladius ‘R’ Patrocinor ‘H’ ‘Y’ Nievus.
“Wait there’s no ‘Y’ in the Latin alphabet,” said Amber.
“Then the ‘Y’ is there just to help us pronounce the word in English?” I asked.
“I have one more dad, the ‘H’ it could be Honor, like respect or virtue.”<
br />
“Kylar, that time back at the cabin, after you used your powers for the first time, do you remember−”
I cut Elektra off. “It was Aunt Victoria, on her deathbed, you’re right, her last words were…‘Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus’
The sword moved. “Did you see that!?” Elektra called out.
I replied “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure.”
“Well it did, what does the acronym mean?”
“Um, yes!” Amber excitedly said. “I know what it is, ‘Sword-In truth-defend-the honor of the virgins.’ Say it again, in Latin dad.”
We gathered around Tulaqan while the blood below the surface of the crystal was moving around under our feet like one of those old lava lamps that were popular back in the sixties. “Are we sure about this?” I asked.
“Yeah bro, go ahead,” Elektra said.
Nervously I repeated the words. “Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus ”
There was nothing. “Say it louder Kylar,” Kira said.
“Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus! ”
Again, nothing. “Mr, I mean Kylar,” Jasmine said. “The sword doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to Amber.”
“She’s right,” Elektra agreed. “Go for it Amb’. ”
Amber put her fingers up to her hair and started twirling it into a ringlet. “I think we should all step back.”
Then as we looked on at the blood and the sword, she spoke out the words that had been a mystery to me for all these years.
“Gladius ReVera Patrocinor Honor Niveus.”
The fissure that Tulaqan was in began separating a little more, so Amber grabbed the sword and held it with the blade flat and sitting horizontally across both her opened palms.
She repeated the sentence once more.
The Grphyn head stirred and the blood that had been moving under the crystal made its way to the now wide open crack. Then, the Grphyn separated away from the sword hilt and began crawling up Amber’s wrist.
“Amber!”
“It’s okay Aunt Kira, I trust it.”
The Grphyn continued until it wrapped itself around her upper arm and stayed there. A mist, or maybe its soul? flooded from its mouth and entered the fissure. The plateau beneath us started to vibrate, the blood and the mist combined and began spraying upward out of the crack and into the air above.
It twisted and turned as it danced its life into the huge and powerful shape of a magnificent Grphyn. Soaring into the sky and spreading its eagle wings up and around it went, then to our surprise it took off into the sky, and it was gone.
The five of us stood there scanning the skyline. “Ungrateful−”
“Aunt Elektra, he’ll be back, he’s just stretching his wings.”
Elektra turned to face Amber. “He looked ferocious, I hope he’s one of the good guys.”
Touching the metal Grphyn wrapped around her arm. “I know she is,” Amber said, quietly to herself.
After destroying the encampment earlier and witnessing the birth of a Grphyn, things had caught up with me, I was feeling beat. “We should all get some rest until Sin-dy gets here,” I said.
Jasmine had some dry-food, like Freekah cakes and nut bars that she handed out to us. The calm of the moment was enough to ease my mind as I closed my eyes.
***
“That was delicious, I’m stuffed,” We had finished dessert and I apologized for being such a klutz and messing up the Origami swans. Sin-dy laughed. “Next time you can make them.”
“Next time?”
“Yeah, at your house, unless . . . ”
“No, I’m such an idiot, yes, we will.”
We were curled up on her couch and she reached over and put her finger on my mouth to stop me stammering like a fool.
“Kylar?”
“What is it?”
“You said you had the “right words” for the wrist-cuff I gave you, can you?”
I snapped open the studs and handed it to her.
“No, can you read it to me?”
I snapped it back on and didn’t need to look at the inscription. We snuggled a little closer. “Our souls are the vessels that only we, ‘Kylar & Sin-dy’ can fill with desire.”
Sin-dy pulled up on my shirt and eased it over my head, throwing it down on the carpet. She stood up, un-zippered the back of her skirt, then taking my hand she led me to her bedroom, as the door closed, I knew that there would really never be anyone else for either of us.
***
“What is that?” I asked. Something was in the distance and it was approaching fast, not knowing if this was ‘friend or foe’ we moved around to the far corner of the plateau.
“It sounds like it’s mad, whatever it is,” Kira said.
Screeching and roaring it headed back to us, just like Amber had said. It was the Grphyn and its incredible eagle eyesight had picked us out, there was no hiding from it.
Moments later it reared above us and turned to land on the plateau, we were speechless, none of us could say a word. The only sound that did come out, was from the Grphyn, it curtsied before Amber. “Mistress, the lady is here.” It turned to one side and to our amazement, Sin-dy, dismounted from its back.
Amber was the first to collect her senses. “Sin-dy! You’re safe.”
“I found her a few thousand miles from here,” the Grphyn said.
Seconds later we had all embraced Sin-dy. “You look like crap,” Elektra said. “But we sure are glad to see you again.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it later,” she said. “But if it wasn’t for my ride I’d still be hours away.” She turned and patted the Grphyn’s feathered chest.
The Grphyn turned to face Amber. “Mistress, you were destined to release me, and I shall serve you until you too are released.”
“Well that should work out just fine,” Elektra said. “We don’t plan on being here much longer. So, Grph’ what’s your name? I’m really glad you can talk, it’s kool.”
“Golleenia,” the Grphyn replied.
“That sound’s kinda ‘girly’ are you a−”
“Like you Elektra, I am female.”
While this was all going on Sin-dy and I hadn’t let go of each other.
“Thank you Golleenia,” I said. “I’ll always be indebted to you for bringing Sin-dy back to us safely.”
“How did you know where she was flying?” Amber asked.
“I heard everything all of you have been saying from the moment I was set free by you at Rock Island.”
“Golleenia told me what happened with Qirvana and I know about the encampment too,” Sin-dy said.
With the encampment gone, we knew that Sarine and Ophelexa’s plans for the girls of Sarturas had probably been stalled, though exactly for how long we didn’t know.
Sitting at the Crystal Mountain plateau we caught up with everything that Sin-dy had been through back in New York and England, but I felt like there was something missing from her story, especially at my girlfriend Enya’s Greenwich Village Theater.
“There’s no need to stay here any longer,” Kira said. If we’re all ready−”
“No, sorry sis, I just need a few minutes to ask Sin-dy about something.”
“Sure bro, we’ll be over here if you need us.” Kira took the guys over to the other side of the plateau.
Sin-dy was looking away. “Kylar,” She had a weird tone to her voice.
“You’re holding something back, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Well, it’s about Enya−”
“What? Is she okay?”
Sin-dy looked back up at me. “Oh she’s more than okay.” Her eyes searched mine to see if I guessed what she was hinting at.
“Then what is it? I don’t understand!?”
“I can’t do this, you’ll never believe me.”
“After everything that’s happened, I think I can handle anything.”
I could see Amber glancing over at us.
“Enya’s not what you think she i
s.”
“Listen Sin-dy, when we get back I’m going to talk to her.”
Amber was getting up and began walking over.
Sin-dy looked over to her. “I don’t know if this is the right time Kylar.”
By this time Amber was at my side. “What’s going on?” she asked.
I put my arm around my daughter and waited for Sin-dy.
“Enya, Enya . . . ” she licked her dry lips, “is Ophelexa.”
“Dad!” Amber could see my face was turning ashen.
Listen, Sin-dy, I’ve known her for a couple of years, there would have been a clue, you’re wrong.”
“No, I’m certain, there is no doubt.”
My mind was awash with thoughts and flashbacks and I thought that this might be a ‘jealousy thing’ by Sin-dy.
“Do you remember when she turned up as Ophelexa? at the cottage when we first got here, somehow she must have known you were planning on meeting your daughters because she should never have been there if she was getting ready for the Impregnation Ceremony.”
Thinking back to my conversation with Enya before leaving for Russia, I remembered joking with her that I was going to look for my daughters, in Hell, if Sin-dy’s right then without realizing it I let her know exactly where I’d be.
“There’s something else I didn’t tell you yet. When I found her at the theater, she told me she’s Enya and then turned into her, she was mocking on you and started making sounds as though she was having an org . . . ” Sin-dy was staring at Amber. “I mean started talking like Enya and . . . ”
She’s Ophelexa!? why, why would she do this?
“Kylar.”
“Oh I’m sorry, I’m just trying to make sense of it all.”
“Are you guys okay?” Kira called over.
“This is about your sisters too,” Sin-dy said, as she turned in their direction. “Come over here guys, you should hear this.”
“Ophelex−”
“Yeah, we heard, you guys weren’t exactly speaking quietly,” Kira said.
“So, what is it we need to know?” Elektra asked.