Chymaera's Overture: a Shadowed Ways novel Page 20

  Dread filled Kai, but he forged ahead. He couldn’t, didn’t want to assume the worst, not until he laid eyes on her. He didn’t change shape, not yet, but his eyes rolled black and his hair took on a greenish hue. The creature ahead had stopped its forward progression, he could tell, but it wasn’t waiting for him. It was stomping in a fresh clearing, thumping trees and shrieking in a way that made Kai want to draw his claws.

  Then he saw her.

  He was crestfallen and enthralled in less than one hundredth of a second. His gravest fear had come to pass. Chymaera was in the midst of her Emergence, the unexpected agony and confusion plunging her into an unspeakable torment that all Earth born Thumbras strove to forget.

  Yes, this was the worst of all outcomes.

  There was no preparation for an adulthood rite. It wasn’t a ceremony, an event you could study for or meditate your way through. What it was, was the painful end of a necessary lie. Kai remembered his own as he analyzed the landscape and kept out of sight.

  He’d been in high school (his first time around), in his junior year, and he’d been arguing with his father about college, his future, his life. Yesmin hadn’t been home, she’d been the one to keep his father from getting on him about that kind of thing. She’d always trusted Kai to figure himself out, but his father was not having it. He felt like Kai was intelligent, but lazy, and he could not stand that his son would not use his gifts to do something beneficial and worthwhile - like genetics research.

  Kai had known something was wrong, he’d felt such pressure and agitation, despite the argument being an old one. And his reactions to his father’s typical provocations felt extreme, but he could not control, well anything. One second he’d been screaming teenage gibberish and the next, he’d been howling in pain. It was as if his rage had erupted and split his head open and in that space, the entire world had rushed in. Kai had felt an abundance of stimuli that flooded his system and sent him into an unthinking, panic filled rampage. It fried his circuits, but he couldn’t shut down or blackout. He hadn’t been able to sort through what was happening to him and he hadn’t been able to escape it. He remembered nothing of that time except the truest experience of pain he’d ever known. Thumbra children didn’t feel pain, but the adults sure as hell did.

  Somehow, Kai’s father had kept son and home standing (though barely) until Yesmin had returned. She’d touched him and he’d reeled away from her, her touch burdening him and burning him. Still she’d held on and spoken to him. He’d known her be the Queen in that moment. She’d cowed him to demand his obeyance. Then she’d spoken to his core, and he’d been able to focus on hearing just her, understanding just her. She’d shown him images, explained what was happening to him. She couldn’t take the pain away, but she could make him understand it could be temporary and help him find his way back.

  The truth of it was, having Thumbra children on Earth was dangerous. Dangerous to their mandate and their community. The only way to have children who could learn to interact safely with humans was to blunt their perceptions, dull their senses until a certain maturity had been reached. Because, not only was every cell sentient, every cell perceived with a blinding, deafening and soul crushing clarity. Thumbra mothers spent much of the time of gestation in a subtle brainwashing of their progeny. Fashioning a mental barrier that anesthetized their senses until the child could manage such a torrent of sensory input.

  The Emergence was the second half of birth. It was the falling away of the blinders they didn’t know that they had. Each child, typically with the help of their loved ones, had to find their way back from sensory and emotional assault or be lost to a disincorporation.

  Kai wished he had time to be pissed off because they should have never allowed Chy go on the way she had. He’d known when he met her she’d been close, close for a while. A responsible family would have looked for the telltale signs of emotional instability or explosive anger as soon as they perceived a change. Then they would have goaded that final rage in a safe space where that child they loved would be surrounded by all that was familiar to ease the transition. Especially for one such as Chy, because the stronger the child, the more volatile the experience.

  Now Kai was with Chymaera (this amazing being was more than Chy) in a place she’d never been, with all of her family miles away. He was not her friend. He didn’t have the raw strength to reach her as his mother had. All Kai had was cunning because she had just seen him and he was pretty sure she would try to kill him. It was as if she’d heard his thoughts, because she’d stilled for a moment, turned round and looked straight at him as she screeched her fury.

  Oh, my god - I have never seen such dangerous beauty.

  Perhaps that was a strange thought to have regarding the fierce creature before him, but it was also fitting. Unlike other forms that were purposeful and chosen, the Emergence skin was supposed to be an inner expression of their original purpose. No Thumbra knew what they would look like in this skin, nor did they have the ability to change it.

  Chymaera was lustrous. Her scales were tiny and tear shaped, overlapping pieces of armor. Their color was pearlescent and ever-changing. Not white, but a pale blush, then blue with a flash of silvery flourish. Her hair was the palest platinum gray, coiling and twisting around her face. Her face, she had Chy’s face, the shape of her features was the same and that would have been comforting if they hadn’t been contorted with her screeching. And those white eyes, seeking to pin him in place as she came for him. White eyes, he had never seen such a thing. He thought this as he slipped back into his own Emergence shell and widened his stance, there was nothing to do but brace for impact.

  She hit him mid torso with her shoulder and pushed up, hurling him into the air. He bounced off a tree trunk and landed on his back, then she was leaping on top of him. He had just enough time to draw up his legs and propel her off as she landed. While she was tumbling and trying to recover, he catapulted to his feet and was on the move.

  He thought of all the things he knew about the so-called adulthood rite. His mother had spoken to him lovingly, yet sternly. She’d called on him to remember that she was his Queen had reminded him of pleasant memories to draw out her son from the beast. She spoke to him of who she knew he could be, would be. But he had no such intimate knowledge to draw on. He knew things, yes, but they would sound wrong from his lips. But just like birth, if she could not remember who she was and transition out of this skin, they would lose her.

  There was nowhere to run, he didn’t want her to lose sight of him and focus on other prey, so he fought her. She was clumsy, unused to this body and unused to fighting in this way. It was obvious she wanted to treat him to the same ferocity he had visited upon the werebeasts, but she was unable. She struck at him and he parried or slid out of way. Meanwhile, his shots connected and shocked her long enough for him to move further from her grasp, but they did no damage.

  It was bizarre, Chymaera was formidable, but she hadn’t been trained to fight properly, perhaps on purpose. As if someone had foreseen this. She telegraphed all of her moves so he could keep ahead of her. That was the only thing going for Kai in the fight.

  Some folks, including Thumbras, misunderstood Thumbra physiology. They weren’t made solely of pure energy, there was matter at their core, and while the exterior was changeable and invulnerable, the core was not. It was the source of who they were as individuals and a few Thumbras, were powerful enough to reach in and suck the life from another’s core. Kai saw that Chymaera was one of those few, so he did his level best to stay out of reach of her claws and her wicked tail.

  It worked, for hours. Kai understood it was only his skills that kept him alive. She was faster, stronger and capable of savagery. She was also inexhaustible. He realized that she was not tiring of the fight, her anger was not waning and he had no idea how long he could keep this up. She was stripping the life from the region, he could not maintain his own energy stores while she fed so wantonly.

  What concerned him m
ost though was her intensity, it never seemed to flag. That wasn’t simply an issue of energy. Chymaera seemed angrier, more frustrated as time went on. The more she attempted to sink claws into him, and he evaded her, the more her wrath grew.

  “My Queen, you must stop this!”

  Kai quailed at his own words and was nearly too distracted to miss the slash of her serrated tail from the right as she feinted left. He flipped backwards at the last second, in awe of his discovery.

  She is meant to be Queen. It’s true, I know it.

  Kai didn’t know when the realization had hit him, just that it was with him now and it made things feel just that much more complicated.

  Yesmin had tasked him with seeing her home safely. He couldn’t have her lose herself in this forest. He couldn’t go home without her. A feeling of despondency filled him and he couldn’t see a way out. Drawing life from the land was second nature to Chy, so she would suck the entire forest dry before her strength waned. He wasn’t an Empath, and even if he was - there was no one, within a range that could receive any cry for help and arrive soon enough.

  He was alone, and he needed to do something soon. Even while she reached for his hair intending to rip his head off, Kai couldn’t stop thinking he wanted to know what kind of queen she would make. She was so different from what he was used to, and he wanted to know what it would be like to serve such a tenacious spirit.

  Then it hit him. If his fighting only increased her desire to to destroy; if his negativity only fed hers, what would his submission do? She didn’t know him; he had no history with her to exploit. But she was a predator and a leader; it was In her nature to fight and continue fighting until she won. But if he laid down his proverbial sword and offered his life, perhaps the anger could fade, her blood lust sated. If he didn’t struggle to the last, if he filled his mind with the act of service he was offering to this future queen, maybe it would be enough.

  All he could be sure of was Yesmin would know if he died and she could arrive fast enough and help Chymaera if anyone could at that point.

  He acted before he could talk himself out of it. Before the need for self-preservation, persevered. She’d come at him like before, attempting to leap on him after momentarily stunning him. He thrust her off, further this time, and she landed in a narrow stream. As she got to her feet, he dropped to his knees. As she roared her displeasure; Kai willed himself into a body that would be no challenge to her. Into the most familiar face he could offer her. He didn’t face the ground. He wanted to see her if it was the last sight he was to see.

  She was glorious. He wished he’d spent more time with her. He wished he’d had the chance to serve her. But this was all he had left, so it would have to do. He saw no recognition in her eyes as she lifted him by the neck. She pulled him to her with one hand and her tongue flicked about his face. He stared into the white orbs of her eyes and felt the hair, that was not hair, writhe around them both. He feared to know where her other hand was. Then there was no fear of knowing, he knew, he felt her claws tear into him, through him.

  Then he felt nothing. There was nothing.

  Epilogue - Running up that hill

  Chymaera

  I awoke on a bed of dead leaves well past nightfall, and that was the first sign that something was horribly wrong. I sure as hell didn’t remember laying down and couldn’t imagine why I would’ve done something so screwy, considering the circumstances. The last thing I could recall was being incensed, fucking infuriated with Kai. I mean, he’d ordered me off like I was a damn useless idiot when I could have (and would have loved to) handle one of those rabid dogs! But no, he’d barked at me to leave and I’d stormed off, so distracted in my anger I’d squeezed Fiddle too tight and damaged its neck and…

  … And I didn’t have a clue what had happened after that. Which isn’t supposed to happen! This wasn’t the same thing as when Nana died. When Nana died - I’d lost it mentally, but my body stayed in the same place. I knew I wasn’t in the same spot as before; that area had heavy tree cover, and the sky hadn’t been visible, but now I was lying on my back and staring into a wide sky filled with stars. There was no way I should have a blank memory when I’d been doing, something.

  Steady Chymaera, let’s not get hysterical or anything…It’s ok, you can figure this out.

  First I listened, which proved to be disquieting because I didn’t hear what I expected to. Nature was never this hushed. I didn’t hear Kai, or anything in Kai’s size range moving around. I didn’t hear the night birds or insects, not even the small rodents that forever scurried back and forth. To speak plain, I heard nothing alive. I heard leaves fall, too many for spring. There was a light breeze that moved through the brush and it startled nothing. I heard a dead forest, but the one I remembered had been alive.

  Then I sniffed. That was a treat! How many smells of death there are. There was the stench of rotting meat and dirty entrails that were what remained of the werebeasts I think. That intermingled with the slightly sweet and pungently moist aroma of decaying plant matter. The water from the nearby stream reeked. Literally everything smelled of decay, and it was probably my fault.

  I mean, I felt different, and robust, tingling with energy like I’d been feeding deeply and for a while. Which was also super weird. I don’t feed when I’m asleep and what in the hell had I been doing that would have required me to feed like that and strip the surrounding area so thoroughly?

  Fuck!

  Not having answers was not improving my mood, so I prepared to get up and look for clues of some sort. That’s when I realized I was naked. Naked and standing there with damp leaves falling off places no human girl would want slimy leaves. Ugh. I must have shifted forms in my frustration and forgotten my clothes as I switched back. But what had I changed into and why didn’t I remember? While I reconfigured my appearance to cover my ass; I looked around and took in the sights. There had been a fight. I could see as clearly at midnight as I could at midday and there were signs of struggle everywhere. Someone had ripped branches from trees and hurled someone or something into the trunks. The earth was gouged deep in some places as if something with talons had been hit hard enough to push them back several feet. There were claw marks in the tree trunks that went clear through to the heartwood.

  I couldn’t feel the fight in my body. It was clear I’d been feeding too much to feel fatigued. I wasn’t damaged, but I also don’t think I’d have been in this place if I hadn’t been a part of whatever had gone down. So I freaked out, just a little.

  That didn’t help. I wanted to scream for Kai, but I couldn’t bear to break the silence in such a violent way. Just the sound of my light footfalls was jarring against the backdrop of nothing. Finally, I stood still and took a few calming breaths. I had to focus, if anyone was alive within miles of me, I could find them. I ran through the meditation ritual Nana had drummed into me since childhood. This cleared my mind and my heart. Within a few minutes I became aware of two points of life near me. They were both thrumming in a way that someone unconscious does. I kept my eyes closed to keep focus and followed the thrumming. The first signal wasn’t as strong, but too strong for me to ignore. It was on the far side of the clearing, near the tree line and as I got closer, I dropped to my knees to feel among the leaves. The leaves on the ground were thick while the trees were bare.

  I don’t know why, but I trembled as my fingers raked at those leaves. I tried moving in a grid pattern to cover every square millimeter because I knew something was there. Then I brushed against an object and it touched me back, not physically, more like a mental jolt. I was shocked for a moment, but I returned to the area and carefully brushed the leaves from Fiddle. Yes, my Fiddle. My instrument had displayed no ability, other than to strengthen my music, but now it seemed to be alive, reactive in some way. Even more bizarrely, while I remembered crushing its neck, the violin was now whole, with thin white scars on it, as if, as if it had healed. I picked it up delicately, and it resonated with me as if it approved.r />
  Fuck me…

  I swept my free hand around and found the bow as well. I admit I held both in one hand away from my body because, WTF?! Then I refocussed on the second thrumming I’d felt, and it was much closer to Fiddle than I’d been to either of them. Feeling anxious I continued sweeping my free hand through the damn leaves as they contrived to cling and impede my way. Rather quickly my fingers rammed into something, stiff, large and unmoving.

  “Kai?” I whispered his name like a prayer I was afraid to make.

  I gulped and said his name even softer, like I didn’t want to disturb his sleep. But as I cleared him of debris, I knew he wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t dead, but neither was he in good shape. He looked perfectly like Kai, except for the foot long gaping wound that started where a sternum would be and ended just below his belly button. It looked like a claw had reached in and ripped something out. Ripped everything out, maybe. His eyes were open, and no one was home.

  Fiddle slipped from my hand and fell back onto the leaves. I placed my hands on either side of Kai’s face, the thrumming was still there, there was still life in him, but not enough to respond. I looked at the gash, he’d hollowed himself out to carry Fiddle for our trip, but I’d had the violin when I’d run away, but still. For reasons I don’t understand, I reached into Kai and my hand fit, it appeared something only moderately larger than my hand had clawed into him.

  It came in flashes. I don’t know if it was my memory or the memory of Kai’s flesh, but I could see. A gleaming claw had held Kai by the neck as a second had ripped into him, searching for something. That claw had found Fiddle and the bow, still damaged as I had remembered them. The claw had torn something of the core of Kai and I saw the life fade from him as the claw tossed him away.