Chymaera's Overture: a Shadowed Ways novel Page 12

  Mama, didn’t even glance at me she was too busy shooting Papa one of her “don’t you dare!” warning looks while she gained her feet. “Simon, not yet!”

  “Martine, if not now, then when? I’ve followed you, just you, these many years. My loyalty was and is to you, our children, our family. And they are as much family as your mother. And they are far better equipped to keep our family safe from this, this rogue!”

  My mother threw up her hands and dropped on the bed, frustrated.

  “Chere.” I looked at Papa. “Our community, is just a splinter from the larger group of Thumbras. Duana, your grandmother, disagreed with her own mother about how things should be run and left with some younger Thumbras to do things their own way. They are still family and you could go to them.”

  “They are strangers, not family! And how can you worry about my safety? I wasn’t attacked Nana was. You need me here, I could help. I know I could help.”

  “Chymaera,”–Mama dragged my name out all low and pained. “I don’t want you to go, but perhaps your father is right. Yes, you could help in time, but right now there is too much you don’t know. Too much we don’t know. Too much you need to learn that we cannot teach you. You need to go. Simon, how will we make arrangements?”

  “I have contacts I can reach out to, not by phone, but near.”

  “Really after all this time?”

  “Some of us never left.”

  With that my parents stared at each other for a few moments before my mother broke the gaze and my father left the room. I was lost, I didn’t understand what the hell they had said, and I couldn’t understand everything they hadn’t. I felt my jaw working, but no sound came out. There was no point in arguing and I felt somewhat defeated, so I took a seat next to Mama.

  The silence was pristine. Uninterrupted to where I wondered if I had stopped hearing, or if there was no sound. Then Mama spoke, hushed and with a hesitation that was not normal to her,” Chy, what happened after, after your Nana…”

  “What do you mean? I screamed and freaked out; then I fainted. When I came to, I called for you and Papa and no one answered me and I found you in here. You, you looked frozen. Was it because of Nana?,”

  “No, I think it was you, child.” I shrank away because that is what I had feared, but she wouldn’t let me. “Chy, it isn’t your fault! I am not blaming you. You saw a horrifying thing I don’t want to even imagine. But listen…”, cocking her head to the side “I have heard nothing, at all. We need to look outside.” Not needing agreement, she appropriated my hand and dragged me to my feet. It was unnecessary, and we both knew it. Before we reached the front windows, we honed our senses like sonar to pick up sound. There was nothing, no real movement by any thinking creature for miles around.

  The picture window gave visual evidence to the enormity of our dilemma. Our neighborhood was a family neighborhood. Midmorning on a Saturday, there were the late joggers, families heading off to sporting events, kids and dogs and luxury SUVs, well, the whole nine yards. And they were out there, just prone like something had struck them down. Some twitched as if seizing and others had a rictus of fear and pain. Hell, the floral delivery guy had a face-planted on our walkway, having only covered about half of the distance to his van.

  Have you ever been afraid of yourself? I was terrified in that moment. “How, did I do that? What kind of monster am I?”

  “Stop it! You are my child, and my child is no monster. Someone has done violence to our family. Your trauma, was unexpected, and I think you projected that and it traveled along with your Nana’s dissipation. But focus, there is a lot of shallow breathing out there. These people are just as Papa and I were, you need to reach out to them. And we have to do it fast.”

  Something struck me then. As if the people sprawled on the sidewalks and lawns wasn’t off enough, I realized the sun was in the wrong place. More than mere minutes had passed. It had been about 10 AM when this all started; I swiveled my head and thought how much time could have passed…

  “No, no no! Mama, it’s after 2. We lost like four hours.”

  Mama didn’t blink. “Then the government knows something has gone wrong here. We have to get you out to the canyon now. You’ll need the strength of the earth. Absolute camouflage, they will use drones and satellite pictures.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Chymaera, our little piece of the world has gone dead still for the past four hours. The world outside has noticed and is trying to figure out the cause. We need to get people awake and cover our tracks. And get you out of here. Now, let’s go.”

  She turned on her heel and headed back towards the kitchen where I heard Papa come in through the back door, filled with what we had just learned. I knew I was running out of time to stand still and feel anything. My grandmother was dead, countless people lay vulnerable and possibly injured and I was disappearing under the weight of it all. I scurried after my mother, scared to lose sight of a loved one.

  16 - Wish we weren't here

  Kai

  Kai didn’t open his eyes or display any obvious signs of consciousness for hours. He was aware when Kels picked him up and carried him to his room to rest at Leah’s direction. He didn’t protest then, he couldn’t, he was too weak. Now, while he hadn‘t fully recovered, the need for action drove him to move. He needed to make plans. The pain Chymaera had projected, it was obvious she’d lost someone else. A Thumbra, given the Queen’s mourning howl. Two deaths in less than a week? Thumbras didn’t expire with that kind of frequency, ever. She couldn’t stay where she was. Even if she wasn’t at risk herself, her remaining untrained with so much raw power - she was a danger to others.

  What caused Kai to shudder, what made him rise from his bed, was the memory of the human wails intertwined with her own. Human minds were not as elastic and able to withstand a mental onslaught as Thumbra ones, he wondered what had happened to those swept up within her torment.

  Kai stood and steadied himself, cleansing himself of the emotional baggage he would not have room to carry, and off he went to speak to Yesmin. Somehow he knew she was waiting for him, had been waiting for him, but she knew he’d needed time. Patience was her way.

  “Come in Kai.” His lifted hand had yet to touch the door. A deep swallow, a turn of the wrist and he was in. Yesmin wore a mask of forbearance, seated in a lotus position on her favorite chaise. He didn’t buy it, despite not being an Empath - grief and wrath radiated out of the Queen in a suffocating swell. The shit had hit the fan. He moved with deliberate and unhurried steps, the way one does around an agitated predator.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Leah is making new travel arrangements and Kels is preparing to track a rogue witch.”

  Kai didn’t sit so much as lose the ability to stand. He stumbled to his knees and fell back on his heels. Bewilderment doused whatever thoughts he’d had. “What?”

  Yesmin raised a solitary finger, motioning for silence. “Kai, I need you to listen. Hold your questions until I am done.” He nodded his assent. Up close she tried to keep her distress on a tight leash, hands curled into fists and resting on her knees. The shell she worked so hard to appear fragile and demure was all ropy tension. Her flinty voice hid nothing, carrying violence in its wake.

  “Duana, my daughter is dead. Murdered by what I have to assume is a witch we haven’t encountered before. A witch who doesn’t believe in the myth I have become. I don’t know if this attack was personal, or if it was an attempt to pilfer power, either way- I must find the culprit.” And deal with them…

  “Chymaera, is to be your primary focus. You must bring her home. She was with Duana at the end. That is why she lost control so completely. The dissolution of my child carried Chymaera’s suffering in its wake and her strength propelled it further. She may be in peril, and she imperils everyone each day she goes without my guidance. Humans have perished.”

  Kai looked at his Queen and saw the anguish in her eyes over what he knew she saw a
s her own failures.

  “Those deaths are on my head Kai, but there can be NO MORE!” Her cry held more force and fire than he’d ever heard from her. This was the Queen she’d allowed him to glimpse so many years ago, the one that had frightened him out of his own impotent rage. The quiet Queen had disappeared with the life of her child, the battle Queen had risen in her stead.

  “While you were, recovering, news reports came in. Her emotional outburst devastated several square miles within Orange County which lies south of Los Angeles. Humans collapsed, their entire bodies seized in a rigor for hours. She projected the abject terror she felt and people were injured, some died. Traffic accidents, falls, heart attacks, strokes. Her home in Silverado Canyon is a less populous area, or the numbers affected could have been devastating. Still, people experienced what they are calling seizures as far away as the neighboring cities of Irvine and Tustin. The military and various government agencies are there now. There is talk of a terrorist act. There is already speculation regarding some kind of gas or airborne contaminant because the survivors are speaking of what they believe is an engineered hallucination and posting on social media. They have suspended flights into the region. We are arranging transport to take you via private charter to a small airfield outside LA. From there you must walk in, and out. Kels will travel with you to her home, but he will stay and try to pick up the trail on the witch.” Kai wanted to acknowledge her loss, but he knew that wasn’t what she needed from him. She was holding on to her composure by remaining as remote as she could, he would do his job now and be her son when he’d completed his mission.

  “She’s been severely traumatized. We aren’t taking the roundabout approach anymore. Will she be prepared? What can I tell her?”

  With an effort, Yesmin unclenched her fists and reached for his hand. She clasped his between hers and suffused warmth into him. He tried to focus on her words and not let his imagination run away with him. “Chymaera doesn’t know who she is, she doesn’t know what we are, and she does not understand who she could be. You can tell her the first, you can answer any question she asks–except not who she will be, not why I need her here. That is mine to tell. Her parents will prepare her to leave. I doubt it will be easy for her, but they will see to it she leaves with you.”

  “One more thing, Kai. She is powerful as you know–and somewhat volatile. I will not provide you with transport back. You will need to walk her the entire way out. Choose the most rural, least populated areas. Circle her around and run down some of that emotional energy she has. I need her, stable and ready to learn. Can you do that?”

  “I can.” I have to. “When do we leave?”

  “A helicopter will pick you up in 2 hours to take you to the regional airfield. Get in tonight and take your leave tomorrow night or the night after at the latest. See what you can make of how she has been living in the meantime. Be companionable, she needs to feel at least comfortable with you, if not trust. Go in your skin and bring what is necessary. I will provide a satellite phone and cover documents, but I don’t suggest you travel as human unless you must. I am sending you because I know you understand how important what I’m asking is and it will take all of your skills to complete. Now, prepare yourself for what lays ahead.”

  Her face was stone as he backed out of the room. Kai couldn’t imagine the amount of pain she was concealing. Duana wasn’t the only child she’d ever lost, but, she had been the favorite and the youngest of the children the Queen had given birth to. That was the only reason she’d been allowed to betray her mother the way she had. Running off, forming her own community, flouting her mother’s rules; it had all caused Yesmin pain. She had expressed the hope that Duana would come to her senses in time, time was something that Thumbras were supposed to have plenty of. Except, well obviously. And while Duana had left centuries before Kai was even born that hope had persisted in every conversation Yesmin had about her. Now the temporary breach was permanent, and Kai was certain the witch would pay for that. There hasn’t been a stripping in quite some time. Though that wasn’t Kai’s concern.

  What was Kai’s concern was a messy extraction of an emotional potential Queen who might be a target of a rogue witch. It wasn’t ideal, but, nothing ever was.

  Kai left the house and sensing no one who would cause him any concern, he sprinted to an ugly, silty, rocky spot. There were narrow streams of mineral deposits useful to him, but far too difficult for humans to mine. After divesting himself of his clothing, he sat upon the soft earth and took a meditative position. But there was no meditating. Just preparation, for battle.

  It was possible. Not only did Chymaera live in a territory that wasn’t Thumbra, today’s unrest would have had a negative effect on those others as well. Some might look for a fight, no matter how useless it was. He wanted to put down any problems quickly, so they didn’t draw any unnecessary attention to themselves. He also wanted to avoid anything that might stress Chymaera out more. Not that he thought there was an obstacle out there that could prevent him from meeting his objective, other than not being prepared. He excelled at traveling into the unknown, divining the truth of a situation, properly assessing threats and opportunities, and the most important part-returning with whatever was needed.

  Not all of his skills were because of the Queen’s training. Kai had special gifts as well. Chymaera could read emotions, and Kai could read abilities. It didn’t matter how the being presented itself, Kai could tell what it was and what it could do. It made no difference if the being in question even knew of their own special talents. He also knew of their weaknesses. So he was never surprised, and not easily overwhelmed.

  Having gathered all the materials he needed, he settled into making fine alterations for travel. First, he hollowed himself out, ditching the synthetic viscera that made his insides match his faux outsides. If he needed to carry anything; it made sense to keep it in his body cavity. Traveling in the skin meant just that, no luggage, no clothing. Most Thumbra wore clothes as a simple shortcut, but when he knew he would be out in the open for a while, it was too inconvenient. Instead, he created a skin that looked like clothing. He figured a youthful, slightly slothful, daytime hiker look would work best and go unnoticed. That translated into cargo shorts, a long-sleeved t-shirt and hiking boots. He made himself a tad bit leaner, with scruffy facial hair and a tousled “do”. He wanted to look like a guy, just a regular, probable stoner guy and not a memorable one.

  Once he was comfortable with the changes he’d affected, it was time to head back into the house and iron details out with Kels. There was work to do. Being born a Thumbra, meant being born to a rank and a role. Whatever else Chymaera might not have been privy to, Kai hoped she knew that much.

  17 - Everybody hurts

  Chymaera

  Guilt still lingers when I think about what happened next. So many years have passed that this is now just a historical event to humans. There is no context for them, no sense of loss. Eh, dead bodies or dead leaves-it is all compost to them. What consumes them is a desire to fathom how I felt about it all. It is strange their only concerns are the details of my life. They are immune to the awfulness of that long-lost moment, but I’m not.

  Exhaustion didn’t begin to even touch what remained of me as I worked to undo the damage I’d done. The extremity of my circumstances left me barren of hope; it scraped me clean of any belief I had a positive purpose in this world. Faced with the evidence of how destructive my feelings could be, I wanted to cast out all emotion, but that wasn’t an option. Once Mama and I realized the scope of repair needed, we camouflaged ourselves and hiked out to the uninhabited region of the canyon. Papa similarly disguised himself and headed over to a friend’s home where he could communicate without detection to the powers that be. Papa got off far too easy.

  I’m not sure how my mother helped me find my way out there. How do you fix broken people? Despite Mama’s words, I didn’t understand how I’d damaged so many, much less how to heal them at such a distance. B
ack at the house, I had touched my parents and loved them. It had been instinctual and pure, and uncomplicated by the knowledge of what had happened outside our home.

  But, out on the ridgeline, even though life surrounded me, all I could think of was death. Well, if not death, an emptiness that seemed close enough to it. Nana’s final moments replayed constantly in my mind and her despondency covered me in a shroud. All I wanted to do was shrink in on myself and hide. But my Mama refused to blame or coddle me; she demanded I do what only she knew I could.

  There is no doubt, I wouldn’t have been able to rouse as many people as I did if it weren’t for Mama. Her belief in me uplifted me into a tranquil headspace. She refused to mirror my temper. She didn’t give in to my anger and self-loathing. Nor did she feed my negativity. Instead she talked, and chanted, and sang me into connecting with the earth. And then she took me on a tour of pleasant reminiscences, dusted them off and made them new again by reliving a bright detail. She told me some of my favorite stories. Silly things. Happy things. And she petted me. And coaxed me to share those feelings, those warm and light as a child’s tinkling bell laugh kinds of feelings. I let them roll out of me like a gentle sea. Continuous waves that slid over each other and pushed further out.

  To the people seized with fear, I gave bits of lazy summer afternoons riding atop my father’s shoulders in the turquoise surf. The rush of a fleet four-footed run down a canyon wall. Or the exquisite joy of Fiddle in my hands as I played a favorite piece of music. And, I gave the sense of completeness, the harmony of when my parents and brothers came together with me, so rare a thing it was. By the time Papa arrived and told us it had worked and people were waking, I was numb, but I had been a useful conduit. Also know this, there were spots I couldn’t reach, couldn’t rouse, I knew the numbers of the dead long before the official count became public.