The Raiden

by Shelley Cass

  “Wait,” I said quietly. “Before we go, can you share any news of Awyalkna? Can you tell me how the King fares on the borders and how the Queen fares in the City?”

  The Lady’s eyes fell upon me, filled with empathy, and she nodded at the stout General Ace.

  The brawny little Nymph straightened from his mid-air seated position and instead stood above his chair. “The Nymph Squads have collected news that King Glaidin now has all of his troops gathered, and they have taken their first steps into Krall. The Queen has fortified the Palace and the City is full of those who seek its refuge. Some weeks ago Darziates attacked the Palace with two captured Dragons, but the City fought back and survived.”

  The Nymph General cleared his throat. “There have also been reports that Darziates has used spirits of the Other Realm again, to fuel his beasts. Beyond that, every day the surviving Krall soldiers continue their search within our own Forest for the One. They have been getting closer to the City, but they cannot find us.”

  I felt drained as I thought of the trials that faced my mother, my father, and my Kingdom.

  I hardly heard the Lady formally close the Council, or the murmured farewells of respect that I received from the Council members.

  I vaguely knew that Noal had led me back to where Nova and Naira waited, and then back to our tower. He sat beside me where I slumped against my bed on the floor as I lowered my head into my hands.

  The prophecy seemed undeniably true. Awyalkna looked to have no chance whatsoever of surviving this war.

  And it felt that there was nothing I could do about any of it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kiana

  How could the Lady, all knowing and all seeing immortal of the Forest, possibly be wrong? With that disconcerting seed of doubt, I headed for Dalin and Noal’s tree tower after the Council.

  Their moss covered door was already sweeping open as I approached, and I walked right in and across to the winding stairs. Pacing myself, I made my way unaided upwards to find them looking even more disturbed than I was by the Council’s revelations.

  Noal was sitting beside Dalin on the floor with an arm draped around his shoulders, and Dalin was slumped with his back against the bed and his face in his hands.

  I frowned, that nagging doubt suddenly sharpening with an edge of fear as I lightly scuffed my shoe on the floor to announce my arrival.

  Noal looked up, though Dalin didn’t lift his head, and I took an anxious step towards them. What had I missed?

  Noal gave Dalin’s shoulders a squeeze and stood, giving me a weak, reassuring smile before he quietly walked past and up the steps to his own bedroom.

  Dalin at last lowered his hands to his lap, and I saw that his face was drained of all colour. So pale that the scar along his jaw line seemed vivid as if just freshly healed.

  Nerves fluttered in my stomach but I crossed to sit on the floor beside him as Noal had, and I saw him set his jaw and steel himself to face me.

  “Kiana,” he at last said, his voice husking.

  “It’s alright,” I whispered with a small, encouraging smile. “Let it all out.”

  With an anguished moan he took my hands in his, and I felt how cold his skin was.

  “We’ll start our Quest once more,” I tried to reassure him. “Those attacks on Awyalkna are exactly why we are on the Quest – whether prophesied or not.”

  “There is such little chance for the survival of our country. And now with these prophecies …” he said.

  “Don’t worry about the prophecies, we both know I’m not a Fairy and you’re not a King,” I shushed him. “We’ll still do everything we can, as we always have.”

  He shuddered. “No … that is the worst of it,” he managed. “I believe the prophecies are true. Because, I have deceived you.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked.

  His face was pleading for understanding and he gripped my hands desperately.

  “I am the son of King Glaidin of Awyalkna. Prince Dalin. Heir to the throne.”

  My heart seemed to fall away from my chest. My face had frozen into a mask of shock and a moment of silence passed between us as he searched my face.

  “The wealthy clothes,” I said quietly. “The never ending supply of coin, the well bred mares, the Awyalknian search parties. Darziates wanting you both so badly ...”

  I realised even Dalin’s grief now – was for his family and his Kingdom.

  Gods, I had been an out of touch fool. What Awyalknian didn’t know the names of the Princes? And as a young girl I’d known Prince Noal’s family had been killed by Trune raiders on behalf of Krall. He’d been adopted as Prince Dalin’s brother. I could not believe how spectacularly oblivious I had been.

  I pushed myself away from Dalin’s grip and from his pleading eyes.

  I stood and stepped back, reeling with sudden anger and … hurt.

  “I let you into my heart. Told you and Noal everything as I’ve told no one else,” I said slowly. “Yet neither of you trusted me in return.”

  And if the prophecy was true for them …

  “Kiana?” Dalin moaned brokenly, throwing himself to his feet and reaching out to me.

  But I turned away from him.

  Just as I had for the two years before I had met him, I hardened my face, and brought the cold back into my eyes.

  “Please Kiana, please forgive me,” he placed a frantic hand on my good shoulder.

  But I stiffened beneath his touch. Then I turned my gaze to burn across his face so that his hand slipped from my shoulder, and he took a shocked step backward.

  “No,” he gasped. “Please don’t shut me out again.”

  I turned my eyes from him, staring straight ahead as I walked away.

  “Kiana!” he cried after me, as if he were breaking.

  But I didn’t look back as I exited their tower and stormed back to mine, where I retreated to the window seat in my own bedroom to brood while the sky above the treetops filled with a net of stars.

  I was still sitting with my chin resting on my knees, glaring outward when I heard the Lady and felt her presence fill my tower.

  She swept up the steps and into my room, her power at once spilling beautifully into it. But she was silent and it seemed as if the world had become still and that the stars themselves were breathlessly watching as we both regarded each other.

  I was not quite prepared though, when she calmly uttered the phrase: “Unana ren Tru Larnaeradee.”

  “Unana ren, Ronden un Sylthanryn,” I responded automatically – before my eyes widened and I gasped.

  “What …?” No, I knew what I’d said. ‘Well met, Lady of Sylthanryn.’ But how had I said it and understood it? With a stab of fear I collapsed back onto the window seat’s cushions. “How …?”

  The Lady took a step closer and immediately the armchair that had been Dalin’s during my sickness swept behind her as she sat.

  “You spoke Aolen. The ancient tongue.”

  “No,” I swallowed nervously, my mind stuttering forth from a jarring halt into a whir of uncertainty. “How could I?”

  “You are Larnaeradee. But more than that. You are the One,” she said. She was willing me to feel it.

  “No,” I repeated bluntly.

  “No mortal could speak that tongue or understand it without a Larnaeradee’s power to help them.”

  “It was you who said all of the Larnaeradee and Unicorns are dead,” I replied defiantly, but the Lady continued to ponder me, her eyes penetrating deep beyond my outer shell and into my soul.

  I frowned under her scrutiny, feeling myself wavering as I was touched by the magnitude of her magic. The raw, savage, beautiful power of all of Nature was harnessed inside her so peacefully. How could she ever be wrong? She was all knowing. Ancient. Wise. A vessel of the Gods themselves.

  “Kiana,” she said, her deep gaze capturing my own and sending chills of energy down my spine. “I will tell you the truth of who you are. And if, when I am finishe
d, you still don’t believe, then that is something I shall have to accept.”

  I regarded her stonily. “I will listen.”

  She relaxed into the chair, her expression sincere. “Then I thank you. And I will begin with what you must already know – that the Larnaeradee and Unicorns were the ‘Summoners’ and creators of Aolen, and were integral in uniting all of the races. But after Darziates’ attacks the last of the Unicorns and their Fairies parted for safety, with the Unicorns fleeing back into the lost Karanoyar and the Larnaeradee becoming wanderers, disguised as mortals.

  “It was only very recently that a Larnaeradee descended couple settled in Bwintam, where they lived with their powers dimmed, and used only to cloak their presence. They were the last surviving Larnaeradee family – your parents – and Bwintam was their final refuge, for it was guarded by our sister the Willow, and was close to our Forest.

  “When your father Kires first left the village to visit the Forest, there was such incredible joy and celebration. But no amount of pleading could bring him to stay. He and his wife Gwendis were the last of their clans, and they could not bear to step out of the world that they loved.

  “The Forest was solemn and quiet as Kires left, but he promised that he would send messages and, as promised, over the years we heard of yourself and your brother. The messages also described how hidden and dormant the talents of your parents were and how safe it seemed. Kires even returned to the Forest when your sixteenth birthday neared so that together we could find your present, though again, Kires was gone too soon and I was not to see or hear from him again.

  “When a Nymph Squad found the ruins of Bwintam it seemed that despite all efforts to remain hidden, the last of the Larnaeradee had been slaughtered by accident. But the squad told of the possibility of a survivor. They had felt the faint presence of a magical being other than the Witch, and our minds turned to the prophecy – perhaps it was like a promise that one of you had to have lived.

  “I sent my mind out night and day to try to piece together what had happened, and by chance I found you. Huddled in a cave, near catatonic.

  “Even then in that weakened state your power kept your exact location hidden and it drove me to exhaustion, but I sent out my voice to spur you to find help. You healed outwardly, made your weapons and began to hunt again. And every now and then I caught glimpses of you on your journeys across the vast lands, until I deciphered that you were withdrawing to a smaller place – heading toward Gangroah.

  “I watched over you while you were there, until one day a beast came to your cottage by mistake when it was looking for two Princelings. And I was convinced that the prophecies were true as you came together, the Three Questors the Gods had promised.

  “Dalin, a man of royal and honourable blood, revealed himself to be the Raiden. Noal – the one to keep you all together. And you. You are the One of the prophecies, the last of your kind. The One, or Tru, Larnaeradee.”

  It felt as if my lungs had broken because my breath was coming in strange bursts. My eyes were wide and staring at her.

  “Stop saying these things. I must think,” I whispered hoarsely.

  “Qui?” she asked steadily. ‘Why’.

  I flinched at how easily I had understood that word, again in Aolen.

  Her tale brought terror to my heart. Because I could believe it. I knew it was all true. I had felt the truth of every single word that had passed her lips.

  Deep within myself I had known all along that I was different and that my family had been different.

  And once again, I felt terribly alone. The last of my kind. Alone within this darkness.

  I stood, my face blank of the emotion raging inside of me. I willed my mask to hold for just a few more moments.

  “Please leave,” I said in a low voice. “Give me time.”

  The Lady rose and looked ready to speak, her lined hand reaching out.

  “Please just get away from me,” I almost hissed this time.

  Her knowing, caring eyes stayed on me for a moment and then she silently, respectfully turned, leaving as quietly as she had come.

  Her presence gradually faded from my tower, and at last I allowed my face to crumple, turning from the chair where she’d sat and had irreversibly changed everything.

  My sight blurred with horrible tears as, in a sudden rage, I crossed to a vase filled with flowers that Dalin had brought me in past days – and thrust it furiously from the table. But with that simple, aggressive motion, a familiar nagging ache began once more in my shoulder.

  “Frarshk!” I spat, suddenly repulsed and afraid to be trapped in my own skin and in the City itself.

  I had to get out. I had to think. I had to burn away this pain, like I always had. With the blade of my sword.

  I crunched across the broken vase and threw open the cupboard door, where all of my weapons and clothes and even the General’s stolen globe were stowed.

  All I needed was the feel of my sword – the heaviness of the hilt in my grip. And I took it down from where it had rested idly for too long, not caring about the shots of pain in my shoulder as I firmly held its weight again.

  For now any weakness was overcome by a burning flood of confusion, hurt, anger and pent-up frustration that made my teeth clench, and with new purpose I turned on my heel.

  Quietly, stealthily, I left my tower, and despite the keen eyes and ears of the Elves and Nymphs, not a single being heard or saw me as I grimly flitted through the City and silently climbed the slope to the outside.

  I left the City and stepped back into the Forest with my sword as my only companion.

  As it always had been before.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dalin

  “I don’t know if I can be the glorified Raiden, when I hardly measure up as a Prince. And I don’t know if Kiana will ever trust me again,” I told Noal. A great empty chasm inside my chest was widening as our tree tower darkened with the growing night.

  “I had a hand in not telling her who we really are,” Noal reminded me.

  “But you were following my lead.”

  He sighed. “I hate to be predictable. But I might as well say exactly what I was supposedly prophesied to say. We’ll have to find a way to come back together and overcome this. The three of us need each other and the Quest needs each of us.”

  “Raiden!” Asha yelled then, crashing at top speed through the diamond shaped window on the opposite side of the room. Her hair was standing straight out from her head, her wide red eyes were flashing urgently and her olive skin was unnaturally pale.

  “Asha, what’s wrong?” Noal asked in alarm.

  “Have either of you seen Kiana?” she gasped as she tried to catch her breath, zipping around the room as if to find Kiana hiding in some nook or cranny.

  “No.” My voice sounded strained. “Not since this afternoon.”

  “Oh Gods!” she blustered. “GodsohGodsohGods!” she yanked on her hair in anxiety.

  “Asha,” Noal addressed her, fear now edging his own voice. “What’s happened?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t know!” she wailed. “I saw the Lady go into Kiana’s tower, and I knew the Lady would force Kiana to confront the truth about being the One … But just now when I went to see if Kiana was alright, her tower was empty. Her cupboard was open, and her sword was missing.”

  “Frarshk …” I groaned, feeling my stomach churn. “How long do you think she’s been gone?”

  “Her power still swirled strongly about the tower, but I searched everywhere before I came here and I couldn’t find a trace of her. She’s not in the City.”

  “She would’ve taken her daggers and bow if she hadn't been planning to come back,” Noal stated quickly.

  “She’s gone on a hunt to calm herself,” I agreed, not feeling better at all.

  It was Noal’s turn to groan. “Alone, still healing, and still weakened by Agrona’s poison.”

  “Right,” Asha said, her mood changing quickly. All anxiety
dropped from her stance and she became the Nymph Squad Commander and Council leader, full of confidence. “Calmed down or not we have to bring Kiana back. There have been sightings of the Krall soldiers searching for her, so I’m going to get help. Ready yourselves.”

  She whirred at top speed back out of the window.

  Noal and I belted on our swords as we thundered down the stairway and out of our tower, to be joined within moments by Frey, Vidar and two other Elves blurring to a stop at our sides. Asha also returned, with Ace and Flash darting out of the trees after her.

  “This may be difficult. The One’s magic keeps her hidden,” Ace rumbled.

  Frey nodded. “But Agrona’s poison still weakens her power.”

  Rebel, Nova and Shiva now burst out of the darkness with another three Elves I’d heard called Alvar, Astor and Quidel in tow.

  “Ready?” Frey asked, quiet but burning with energy.

  We each nodded in response, though I was hardly prepared for the instantaneous burst of speed that I was swept along by when I took Vidar’s offered hand.

  I heard Noal suck in a gulp of air after he too took the Elf Quidel’s hand, and we found ourselves passing through the City in a blur.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kiana

  “I heard movement this way,” an adamant, gruff voice whispered. “And a cry of pain.”

  As I pressed myself against the rough bark of a towering trunk to hide, I knew I had behaved idiotically.

  Abruptly, awfully, a burst of pain like the one that had given me away only moments before exploded in my shoulder, and I tried desperately not to gasp. It ebbed for an instant and then shot savagely right throughout my body so that I had to bite my lip and grasp at the tree behind me for support.

  I heard a snapping twig to my left and forced my body to lower quietly into waist high ferns, right as a line of figures in spiked armour melted out of the night to unconsciously surround me.

  “I swear to the Gods I heard something from this direction,” a burly soldier grunted coarsely, pulling off his helmet and wiping his forehead with the back of his fist.