Combatant: The Revelations of Oriceran (The Kacy Chronicles Book 3)

by Anderle, Michael

  "Babies? You mean baby. Me."

  Allan dragged his eyes to his daughter and they were ponderous with grief. "No, I mean babies." He took Jordan's hand again. "Poor Jordan, there is so much. Too much. I'm so sorry."

  "Babies?" Jordan croaked.

  "You were a twin."

  Jordan's arms marbled with cold flesh as chilly fingers traced her skin.

  "Are you okay, honey?" Allan put a warm hand on her shoulder.

  "I need a minute."

  "Of course." But he looked at her with a kind of terror, like she might vanish before his eyes.

  Jordan went to the water closet and splashed her face at the sink. She looked at the girl in the mirror: her teal eyes, blonde hair, the shape of the bones under her skin. Those teal eyes were not Jaclyn's, nor were they Allan's.

  So whose were they?

  Her eyes narrowed. Her mind searched her memory for some masculine version of her countenance. There was someone there in the shadows of her experience, someone she had seen before. But who?

  Jordan stared in the mirror for so long, and thought so hard, her head began to ache. She washed her hands to warm them, and then returned to the kitchen.

  "What happened to my twin?"

  Allan looked relieved to continue the conversation.

  "I'll tell you what I know, but there's some other things to tell you first. When I learned Jaclyn was pregnant, I was shocked… elated, but shocked. And she did nothing to disabuse me of the belief that it was a miracle, our miracle. Part of me believed it, but as the pregnancy progressed, I couldn't dislodge a sliver of doubt. The doctor had already told me that I would never father children, that it was simply impossible. Doctors are wrong all the time, of course, so I clung to the hope that this was the case. He had just been wrong.”

  “In fact, he phoned me one evening after examining Jaclyn, specifically to apologize for having been wrong." Allan paused. "It didn't occur to me at the time, but now…"

  "What?"

  "I wonder whether she bribed the doctor to get him to admit his ‘mistake’," Allan added air quotes with his fingers, “thus helping to conceal the truth. I wouldn’t put it past her."

  "That's supernaturally manipulative." Jordan pressed her palms to her eyelids.

  How can I possibly be related to that woman, and not to the gentle soul in front of me?

  Allan nodded his agreement. "I paid attention to the timeline and Jaclyn's state as the time passed. The math didn't work. She had to have been pregnant already when she returned."

  "Did you confront her about it?"

  Allan shook his head. "We'd been through so much already. Jaclyn returned with this story about being kidnapped and kept against her will, about being raped. My heart was broken already, and it broke again for her."

  "But there was no ransom? No contact at all from this person she said held her hostage?"

  "No. Nothing."

  Jordan let out a ghastly laugh that gave Allan a chill. Jaclyn had orchestrated a deception so deep that its effects had travelled forward through time, even following them to an alternate universe. Even after more than two decades, Jaclyn's deception still cut to the bone.

  "She had to talk to the police of course, and she spun a story like a black widow spins a web. It was convincing, and we believed her. What else could we do? She'd been gone for eighteen months, and she had to be somewhere. There appeared to be no motivation for her to lie; she loved her life in Richmond, and everyone believed she loved me. Why would she stay away if not because someone was detaining her? No one could have guessed what we know now." Allan sputtered with pure amazement, “that she'd travelled through some inter-dimensional portal to an alternate universe!"

  The apartment was silent for a time. Then Jordan spoke with bitterness. "So you never told her you knew the babies weren't yours?" She was hit by an emotional aftershock, like a polo mallet to the forehead. She had been a twin.

  "No. And when you were born, I fell in love all over again. There was nothing I wanted in my whole life more than a family. I was perfectly happy to take you as my own. As far as I was concerned, you were mine; not the offspring of some sadistic kidnapper."

  "Was my twin a boy or a girl?"

  "A boy."

  "What happened to him?"

  Allan took a deep, mind-cleansing breath. "After you were born, Jaclyn slipped into a depression so deep I feared it might only end in suicide. The doc diagnosed her with post-partum depression, but Jaclyn was broken. She went to a place where I couldn't reach her. No one could. Not even her babies could snap her out of it. I had to hire a nanny just to take care of you and your brother. Jaclyn seemed incapable of doing anything but crying, sleeping, and staring into the abyss."

  "That's when you hired Maria?"

  "Not quite. I hired her after Jaclyn disappeared the second time, and Maria was an absolute Godsend."

  "What was my brother's name?"

  Allan gave a sour chuckle. "That's a funny part in this story, if there can be any humor found in it. Your mother filled out your birth certificates at the hospital. You and your brother came quickly, and I was stuck in traffic. It was done by the time I arrived." Allan shook his head. "Jaclyn gave you your brother's name, and your brother, your name. Haven't you ever wondered why you have a boy's name?"

  Jordan blinked at this, shaking her head. She had never questioned the nature of her name. It had always been hers, so why should it be strange? "It's not all that uncommon for a girl to be named Jordan."

  "Maybe not these days, but this was twenty-five years ago. You didn't call a little girl ‘Jordan’; especially in a respected, high profile, politically significant family. My parents were horrified."

  "She gave me my brother’s name?"

  "That's right." Allan nodded. "And your poor brother got a girl’s name."

  Jordan gasped as a key slid home, and a mental lock clicked open. Her eyes widened. "Ashley."

  Allan's face expanded with surprise. "How did you know that?"

  "I met him," Jordan croaked. She folded her hands; her fingers felt like ice. It didn't matter that she'd washed them in hot water only minutes before.

  The familiar masculine face she'd been searching for; it was Ashley's.

  "Ashley was the mercenary who tried to kill me. Mom's lackey."

  Her own twin had been the one chasing her through the pouring rain over the Maticaw harbor in the dark of night. Her twin had been the one to almost end her.

  He would have killed her if it hadn't been for Toth and Blue.

  She had suspected at the time that he was a young lover of her mother's, but the truth snapped into place like a puzzle piece, with all the feeling of 'rightness'. Jordan had thought there was something familiar about Ashley; it was her own face, only it was different enough to elude her. His eyes had been dark, Jaclyn's eyes.

  "So." Allan let out a long breath. "Ashley is alive."

  "She took him when she disappeared the second time?" Jordan understood what had happened. "She couldn't leave without her son." As irrational as it was after everything Jordan had learned about Jaclyn, the bitterness of rejection twisted the last word.

  "No, sweetie, it wasn't like that. She loved you. She wanted you. I think she was just afraid that she couldn't care for two babies, wherever it was she was headed."

  "She was depressed. How do you know she loved me?"

  Allan spluttered. "She wanted you, she wanted kids. I believe that, if I believe anything."

  Jordan shook her head. "You haven't seen her recently." She met her father's gaze. "She has no love for either of us."

  Allan had no reply for this.

  "What did you think happened to her and Ashley?"

  "I thought she went back to her captor. I talked to a therapist about it; something called Stockholm Syndrome."

  "When a kidnap victim empathizes with their kidnapper, even falls in love with them," Jordan nodded.

  "Sick, I know. But that's the only way anyone could rationaliz
e it. I don't need to tell you what a nightmare erupted when she disappeared for a second time."

  Jordan shook her head. No, he didn't need to tell her. She'd been told in great detail how hard her family had searched for Jaclyn, how devastated they were by her disappearance.

  "But how did you hide my twin from me my whole life? And why?"

  "It was all to protect you, Jordan. I wanted as little of the tragedy to touch you as possible. It may have been a mistake, it may have been wrong… but that's what a parent does for their child—protects them—for better or worse."

  Jordan took this in silently. How was she supposed to feel about this lie, even if it was to protect her? Jordan didn't know what it was like to parent a child, but she could imagine it. Somewhere, deep down, she understood, and did not despise Allan for it. The truth had a way of coming out, and now was its time. But she had another big question to ask, and braced herself for it to go unanswered.

  "Do you have any idea who my biological father is?"

  "If I knew that honey, I would tell you." Allan took her cold hand and squeezed it. "I hope you believe me."

  Jordan nodded. "I do believe you, Dad."

  Allan's face was soft with compassion. "I'm so sorry. I've made so many mistakes, but please understand that everything I did, I did for love of you."

  "I know. And I will have more questions, of that I'm sure." Jordan got off the stool and looked at the blue sky visible beyond the terrace. "I'm not finished with Jaclyn," she murmured. "Or Ashley."

  "What do you mean?"

  She didn't answer at first. She needed time to process, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she could not simply walk away from her history, her blood-mother, without making her face what she had done.

  Jordan set her jaw.

  Sometimes, in order to move forward, one had to go back. Things had happened in their past to bring them to this present time and place—–but things were happening now, too.

  Jaclyn worked the Maticaw port, as bizarre as that seemed, and it appeared that she was messing with trade. Jordan had a twin; as unbelievable as it sounded, it was a fact. What has Jaclyn told Ashley about me? Anything?

  The colors of the chessboard had changed, but the same game was still in motion.

  "I mean," she turned back to the man she called her father, "this story isn't over."

  FINIS

  Author Notes - A.L. Knorr

  Written December 20, 2017

  I know, I know! It’s been a hallmark of this series to end on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the third book is no different. Rest assured that the final installment of The Kacy Chronicles; TRANSCENDENT, is already in production. I also have a few ideas for spin off stories, so when you get through Transcendent, I’ll ask you for your opinion on these potential stories and will look forward to hearing your thoughts.

  The end of every novel written is the end of another intense session of planning, writing, and learning. I never fail to learn so much from this process, and hopefully get a little better every time.

  Some things in Jordan’s story may have taken you by surprise, other’s you may have guessed at, but my hope is that you thoroughly enjoyed being in the moment with our Strix friends and were swept away through an astral portal of your own.

  As I pen these author’s notes, I am sitting on a bright red overstuffed couch in a Venetian apartment. Rain sprinkles from gray skies on this fine winter day, and a hot tea sits on the table at my knee. Footsteps echo under the window as people stroll along the canal and voices murmur, perhaps telling their own story, as boats float along like river-ghosts. What writer could ask for a more moody, melancholic place to create?

  As always, there is some anxiety that goes along with launching a new story. Will my readers like it? Will I disappoint them? Will their hearts beat a little faster at the battle scenes or the moments of love? Isolated as I am from you, I’ll never know unless you tell me, and so I hope you do.

  Thank you to my wonderful editors: Jen and Nicola. Thank you to my Street Team and Beta Team for your feedback. Thanks also, so much, to the JIT Team at LMBPN Publishing, as well as to Michael, Martha and Steve for all the support. I’ll be cracking along to work on TRANSCENDENT, for as Jordan just told you, this story is not over yet.

  I hope you’ll come find me on Facebook, at my website, or over email. I am always thrilled to hear from readers!

  Warmly,

  A.L. Knorr

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Written December 19, 2017

  So, apparently, I’m really a Texan now. My blood has thinned out and I’ve gotten used to 45 degrees being cold. You see, I thought it would be a good idea to go back to my old stomping ground of Chicago during Christmas time. The city really knows how to get in the spirit and I missed being able to see snow, visit the Kinder Market, go to the Music Box and see It’s a Wonderful Life. I like to do so much Christmas, diving right into the lights, the parades, the scent of pine and the caroling so that by the time it’s December 26th, I’m done.

  Only thing is someone left open the giant freezer door of the world and the place was 20 degrees BEFORE the wind chill. And trust me, that close to Lake Michigan the wind chill can shave another 20 degrees right off the top and leave you at zero. Mind you, all my old buddies didn’t seem to notice but I had a few moments where I really wondered what warm felt like anymore. That would have been a good time to know how to open a portal and go to Oriceran and the warm Dark Forest.

  It was so cold that on Friday, FRIDAY, not SATURDAY, I asked Abby-Lynn if she’d like to do a short livestream on Facebook to advertise a sale going on with her books… for Saturday. I have no idea why Abs went along with this scheme except that she was in Canada (I think) where it’s even colder. I’m telling you, there’s a theme here. So, we told everyone the books were on sale that day and it wasn’t until I pointed out to Magic Mike that the prices weren’t changed and he said, “That’s because today’s Friday,” that I had a clue. You have to laugh… and drink more hot water and lemon while wrapped in a blanket.

  Still… I love Christmas, no matter how I can get it. For me, it’s a reminder that joy and peace are always possible and it can begin with me. Enjoy Combatant, third book in the Kacy Chronicles series and snuggle up to someone close near a warm fire and think of me, back home, finally warm again.

  Publisher Notes - Michael Anderle

  Written December 20, 2017

  Thank you for not only reading the stories, but allowing us the opportunity to share a bit of our lives here in the back!

  Right now, I’m not looking out the window in a Venetian apartment. Although I was blessed to be in Venice this last June so I can imagine the image Abby is describing.

  Rather, I’m in Texas looking out my back window. I see my dormant light-brown grass and down a row of eight homes on the left, and eight homes on the right. My house is sitting similar to the head of the table, looking at everyone else down the table which is the back of their homes as they recede into the distance. There is another home at the end, which is facing me.

  Nothing very Venetian, I assure you.

  I share Abby’s concerns when new books come out. You would think that would go away after doing twenty-something of my own books and almost a hundred others, but it doesn’t. It seems that my mind has the creative ability to come up with yet a NEW and exciting way to bite the ends of my fingernails off.

  Unless I’m exhausted. In which case the book goes live and I’m collapsed somewhere, trying to come back to reality. When this happens, I start by peeking at the web page to see if I have a ranking yet. Then, are the reviews starting to come in? Have I really screwed up and went in a direction that you fans weren’t expecting (and didn’t like?)

  I’ve done that once, and OMG was it a seriously horrible experience. I had to write a new series of four books (The Dark Messiah books) to fix that bad decision.

  Now, I get to talk about Michael Anderle – Author plans for Oriceran. As you
know, or might know, I started the effort to create Oriceran as a place to play a little when I was done with my first Kurtherian Gambit series.

  Having just provided Martha a small overview, I’ll share them with you here first.

  My character in this Universe is called Mr. Brownstone. The series is “The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone,” and he is essentially a magical bounty hunter who uses his abilities to track down both magical and non-magical people who need to come back to justice.

  Or not.

  Will he decide a couple of times to just leave the reward and take care of the bounty, permanently? I’m not sure.

  Yet.

  During these efforts, he meets another bounty hunter who is not what she seems, and a little blind teenager who is the linchpin for his lonely existence. A loneliness he has to recognize before he can do anything to fix it.

  I have three core character stories that I’m planning and hope to have a twelve (12) book release for these characters in Summer of 2018.

  GO ME! (LOL. If you don’t yell for yourself, who will?)

  So, that is part of my plans here in the next few weeks to get that kicked off as I work on the next two books in the TKG Universe.

  I hope you and your family – whether they be typical or atypical, enjoy the end of the year.

  If 2017 kicked your ass, then flip it off as we walk into 2018 with a new determination to at least smile 10% more. If for no other reason than you can, because it is a choice.

  Now, if 2017 was awesome for you, then enjoy the HELL out of the results. Be pleased and don’t let anyone bring your happiness down. Let 2018 be the next step going up to a brighter and better future for yourself and your family.

  I hope we have brought you a few smiles, a few ‘hell yeah’s!’ and perhaps a tear or two this year with our stories. May we do it again in 2018.

  Wishing you the best in life, love, and happiness.

  Michael

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