The Elder Origins (28 page)

             
“With what? Am I to know what you are speaking of without being told of my offense?” she said brazenly.

             
“I know you heard the commotion, so you can perhaps enlighten us as to what took place?”

             
“I heard nothing but the sound of footsteps,” she said.

             
“Was this not designed by yourself?”

             
“I know not of what you speak.”

             
“That man of yours led them to escape! He followed you here!” he screamed at her.

             
“If indeed Jayden has, he would have rescued me first,” she said, refusing to raise her tone.

             
“Are you so sure?”

             
Madison was silent. Jayden hadn’t always been her savior in the worst of situations. He knew loyalty only to himself in the end. But regardless of his personal prejudices, he had always done the right thing by her after exhausting every other option.

             
“I have assured the people of this city that they will have their satisfaction. And your beloved will be found,” he said.

             
“Then why do you not have these men out there searching for him?”
              “I did not see it necessary. I am sure he will come running back once he hears your screams,” he said.

             
“I shall not make a sound. I have withstood greater pain than you can inflict upon me,” she said, her eyes glaring him down. He finally looked her in the eyes. If but for a second, she knew he believed her.

             
He spoke to the men holding her. She was then towed away outside. A loud cracking reached her ears from the door being kicked open. Cheers arouse from the people outside at the sight of their first victim. Someone would be sacrificed for their fear of oncoming illness, and they were elated by it.

Madison
hadn’t seen such vicious eyes strike her since the Vam-pyr-ei-ak had watched as she and her companions lay dying, watching them through the line of trees. These people took her downfall as a sort of reassurance that they would be alright. They greeted oncoming death with cries of joy. For a brief moment, she knew why the Vam-pyr-ei-ak had taken the measures they had to kill everyone she loved. If this was a reflection of how the majority of white people took their victories upon watching others die, the Vam-pyr-ei-ak had every right to fear their future oncoming to their lands.

             
The men escorting her to the outer stone wall of the city had to break through the crowds of people. Women reached for her dress and her hair, ripping away in fury what they could and clawing at her with their nails. She was feet from them before they could see her skin healing again. Others spit at her. She closed her eyes to avoid anything unpleasant making contact with her. She didn’t want to see their faces anymore. Not until she was through the stoned gate did she open them again.

             
None of the other stakes were occupied. There was only one in the center of them that she was being dragged to. The other pillars lay bare with no souls tied to them. All these people were awaiting her death and hers alone. 

             
When she looked up again, she saw their faces, unsympathetic and hungry. It was a true likeness of the creature she had been turned into, and what Caspar and Lyndon were now. Killers without remorse, and starved for blood. This new entity she had become was practically a condensed version of what these people were at heart, and what the Vam-pyr-ei-ak had feared.

             
The men gripped her arms as she struggled. Her limbs were all healed and she tried with every muscle within her to get away from their consuming strength. But she was vastly outnumbered.

H
er back hit the stake hard and her arms were yanked behind her. The same spiked chain was wrapped around her arms, chest and ankles, making it impossible for her to escape. She tried to pull away and felt the linked device tighten once more. She had no choice but to stare out and hear the voices cheering and faces jubilantly crying out for her death. Some threw extra shards of sticks and hay onto the timber surrounding her.

             
Madison looked to the woods before her. She only hoped that Jayden hadn’t followed her. But she took reassurance in the knowledge that he had gone forth to find Caspar, and hoped that the trail had led him away from this place. And she knew he was stronger than her. Even in their games he had always held back slightly to appease her. He could defend himself against Lyndon.

If the Jews within the cathedral’s dungeons had escaped, they had their own or a sympathizer to rescue them. No one had come for her.

              Caspar came through the throngs of people with a torch in each hand. He handed one to the creature had created. Together they went to each side of the piled wood and logs, and lit the pyre. He took a spot in front of all the people and crossed his arms before her, intending to watch every second. The other men leapt onto horses at the edge of the outside crowd, waiting for any movement from the woods. Madison felt one final sense of satisfaction from knowing that Jayden wouldn’t suddenly appear. They wouldn’t catch him, because she refused to make a single noise. Even as the sharpened spikes penetrated deeper into her skin and she felt the flames start to reach her feet, she would not make a sound. But it wasn’t without effort. She had never placed so much exertion into one action in her life. She refused to give Caspar the pleasure of hearing her cry out in agony. Her mouth contorted and she looked as though she could scream, but no noise left her throat. Each limb began to twitch and move as the scorching heat touched her skin. The hem of her dress caught fire and traveled up her back. By that time the people could hardly see her face anymore. The furnace of flames reached too high. The tips of her hair began to catch fire and touch high on the lengths of her dress.

             
The burning abruptly reached the back of her hands, her chest, and tremendously across her thighs. Along with the ripping her skin, she felt herself giving way to the reaction Caspar so desired. She let out an ear piercing scream that even startled the crowd of onlookers. Her voice carried the sound farther than she was previously able. But when she looked at Caspar through the fire, he wasn’t there. None of the guards were there. The people had stepped back and weren’t even watching her anymore, but something behind her.

             
Madison felt the earth move from under her and she fell forward, not yet having control of her burned and ripped skin. Strong arms caught her just before her body touched the pyre. She was lifted up towards the sky and carried in someone’s arms. She couldn’t make sense of what was happening. The movement around her was faster than she could see, and her eyes were completely blinded by the smoke.

She was lifted upon something heavy. It held her weight with little effort. The arm that had gripped her st
ill held her close so she wouldn’t fall to either side. A heavy breath stirred from the animal beneath her and began to move. It was the horse she had taken from Rome to these regions. She recognized it first as her vision returned to her.

The pain from her limbs
slowly stalled and she felt the spikes pushing out from her skin. The burning lingered for minutes after, longer than any other wound she had received.

The woods from around the city became re
cognizable to her as the sun pierced through the towers of trees. The arm around her was tight, making sure she couldn’t waiver. Madison reached into her rescuer’s mind but felt nothing. She wondered how a man could have the ability to block her from being able to observe his emotions. But this man’s aura was closed off. She couldn’t penetrate the air around him. Rather, he sent vibrations through her. They were soothing. She felt calm. Almost too calm. It was the same sensation she had when around the healer. She allowed him to keep her tight to his chest as he led the horse quickly through the woods. They were miles into the wilderness before he brought the horse down to a trot. He stopped it once they reached a clearing and brought it to a stream. The horse bent forward to take the water, clearly exerted from his run.

             
The man let go of her gently and dismounted the horse. She finally had the chance to look at him. He wore the same cloak that Caspar’s men had worn. She couldn’t see his face, but she allowed him to take her into his arms. He brought her down to the ground before him and steadied her. She didn’t feel the need to speak right away. She only felt at ease. It was a feeling she hadn’t known for many months, and she didn’t expect to have ever again.

             
The man bent forward and reached for the tattered ends of her gown. He ripped the charred pieces from the bottom. Reaching within his cloak, he took two clothed slippers from his tunic pocket. They were the exact same styling as the healer had given her. The same intricacy of design and color graced their front; the same weaved lining sewed their edges together. He knelt forward and slipped her feet into them.

             
Standing before her, he held her face in his hands, taking in the sight of her. He then removed his cloak and wrapped it around her softly, revealing his face.

             
It was Jamison.

23

              Madison couldn’t speak. She only wanted to look at him. She didn’t even care how he had come to stand before her or how he had survived, at least not yet.

             
He lifted himself onto the horse and brought her up in front of him, wrapping his arms around her to hold the reigns. They slowly walked the horse a distance farther. The murmuring of those nearby echoed through the woods. People were chatting amongst themselves, men, women and children. The sight she came upon was something she was completely unprepared for.

             
The people from the dungeons within the cathedral were all gathered together in the forest. Children were sitting in their mother’s laps with fathers close by, all trying to compose themselves. The children had obviously been aided first. A few of the men and women were still bleeding from their torments, but they were growing calmer. Their breaths no longer came in heaves and the sound of their beating hearts didn’t meet Madison’s ears with rapid crashes. The few men standing about were helping to heal them. The scent of the rayen reached Madison’s senses quickly and she understood what was happening.

             
Taking Madison’s hand, Jamison led her to the group before them. “The ‘rayen,’ as it has been named, heals them from more afflictions than the pestilence. It heals them should they be an inch from death,” he said.

             
Yet it was the sight of who was feeding it to these victims of torment that caught Madison’s attention. There were three men doing the healing, one at a time. They held the most traumatized by the hand, and steadied them by their shoulders to compose them. These three men were the natives she had left only a brief time ago. The people she had grown to know and appreciate from the land she had long since left stood before her.

Sensing Madison’s astonishment, Jamison answered her query without her having to utter a sound.
“These men started the change shortly before you left their lands,” he said. “They are warriors for their people, Madison. They wanted to help. Inazin, your ‘healer,’ asked these three to join me, and they did not hesitate.”

The young man
who had been forced to provide his blood to her and Jayden was there. He slowly stood from handing a woman a vile of water with rayen, her legs too weak to carry her.

He turned to Madison, his gaze unmoving f
rom her eyes. He stepped closer to her. She half expected him to become irritated at the sight of her, but he appeared different than he had before.

             
“There is much to explain,” he said as he approached her, in perfect English, although his native accent was still thick. He took a tunic and pair of trousers from the satchel on a nearby horse and handed it to her, her own garments now in ashy burned tatters. “One of these men said upon our rescue of them, that they heard a young woman being taken to the lower cellars. We went back for you, but you had already been sent away to be burned.”

             
“You saved them?” said Madison, looking at him with surprise.

             
“All four of us, yes. There is more to be done yet. Now if you excuse me, I must attend to them,” he said, leaving Madison alone with Jamison.

             
“His name is Mahkah,” said Jamison, his arms still wrapped around her. “He is the one who tended to the rayen just before you left and delivered it to Inazin, your healer.”

             
“How do you know that?”

             
“Because that was how I found him. I was drawn to the scent of the rayen as he began planting it from your blood. Apparently Inazin had taken a portion of it from you during the process of healing you. He knew of its value.”

             
“I didn’t even know he had any,” she said.

             
“The only way to cure you and Jayden of your thirst was to drain you partially. But you were both in a state of hypnotism, so you would not have noticed.”

             
Madison had only been with her brother for a matter of minutes, but she still felt as though she had waited too long to ask him the obvious.

             
“Jamie, how did you survive? You were hardly moving when I left you. If you were growing stronger, why did you insist that I abandon you?” she asked, anxious for his answer.

             
“I thought as you did, Madison. I thought I was going to die. I didn’t want you to see it. But when Lyndon and Caspar began spilling blood,” he hesitated for a moment, trying to find the words. “Something awoke inside of me.”  There was a hint of shame in his voice.

             
“But I could hear them coming. They were coming to kill us, Jamie. How did you get away from so many?”

             
“I took the first one to approach me and drained as much from him as I could. I was replenished within seconds. The others came after me with arrows. I ran for you trying to catch up when I saw Jayden directing you to the ravine. I realized that I was leading them to you unintentionally. I then ran for the ocean and took cover within it. I spent the next two days trying to find you. But I had no sense of where you were. I didn’t realize until later that it was because Inazin had taken you in.”

             
“I wish you had found me,” she said softly.

              “It was as if you had disappeared. I could no longer feel the connection you and I have always shared. And there was no possible way I was going to approach Jayden. He was nearly rabid, attacking everything within a mile around him. Caspar and Lyndon were the same. They didn’t even dispose of the Vam-pyr-ei-ak they had killed. They merely made way across the seas once they found how quickly they could swim.”

             
“Why did you not come to me once you knew?” she asked.

             
“In truth, I had not known you survived at all until after you left. I assumed you may be dead when I discovered that Jayden was alone. I travelled to the western regions of the native’s world before coming back to find that you and Jayden had left for England. I met with tribes across the lands. I learned their ways and more about how to control our abilities. You have no idea of the things I saw, Madison. I must teach you everything. I know you have learned much, but there is a great deal more. Inazin taught me his ways.”

             
“What ways?” she said.

             
“He showed me everything, Madison. How he cured you, how to use the rayen, and so much more. The other tribes showed me things as well. This world is far grander than any god the white men could have created. The mere notion of a one god is completely unknown to the rest of the world. They have spirits guiding them in ways that we cannot imagine.”

             
“Is that why you came here?” she asked.

Jamison nodded. “All of this was a larger part of the Vam-pyr-ei-ak’s plan to destroy the white man. They saw it as a necessary measure,” he said.

              “It cost them many of their people,” she stated coldly.

             
“The only way to defeat the white men, was to destroy them, or
us
shall we say, before we came to enough power to overtake them,” he said.

             
“Yes,” she said, nearly breaking into laughter, “Jayden and I assumed that already.”

             
Jamison held her tighter.

“Does Inazin not have the same fears for his people?” she asked.

              “Another reason he had me change his best men,” said Jamison. “They are here to insure that such a future never becomes of their people. They will aid us in any way possible for certainty that we use our influence to its greatest effect.”

             
“Inazin gave you these men to help, then? They are skilled in Inazin’s ways as well?”

             
“Yes, and they will help me to salvage what little of Europe remains. Mahkah grows the rayen from the earth, and we have begun to spread it as best as we can. We will make our way eastward now. We have tried to help as many as we could with droplets of rayen here and there. It is only when people consume our blood for as many weeks as we did that they are in danger of becoming a vampyr. Otherwise, our blood acts as a poison when drank, as you have seen across these lands.”

             
“Vampyr?”

             
“That is what Inazin calls us,” said Jamison. “We were made from the ‘Vam-pyr-ei-ak.’ Therefore he named us from them. Then he chose three of his strongest men from his tribe, and told them that they were to come with me back to England. Their tribe’s survival depended on our ability to contain this plague. He claimed that if they permitted the white people to be annihilated, those changed into vampyrs would eventually retaliate.”

             
“By Caspar and Lyndon’s creations,” she said, beginning to understand the depth of the situation.

             
“We have contained the illness in these lands. Now it is time to move onward. Its spread was faster than I anticipated.”

             
“I will come with you, but I must find Jayden. That is if Lyndon has not reached him first,” she said.

             
“I have a feeling that Jayden has already outwitted him. We will find him in the lands that we make way for.”

             
“How do you know this?”

             
Jamison smiled and stepped away, guiding her to where the others were gathered. “I told you, I learned a great deal from Inazin and many other tribes along my journey. I will show you everything. But first, I want you to meet the others,” he said.

             
“They are not like Caspar’s men, are they?” she asked apprehensively.

             
“No, not in the least. After Inazin healed me, he showed me how to heal the thirst of others, thus I would pass the skill along. Caspar’s men however, were beyond reproach.”

             
“These men are not your guards then?” she said.

             
“My guards? Heavens, no. They are Sioux warriors, Madison. We must treat them as such. Our survival is dependent upon one another. If they help to contain our plague, we will in turn protect their people from the oncoming of white men to their shores. Or at least control it to our best efforts in the future. And that day will come, Madison. They are here to protect their people by first protecting the whole of the European lands from this sickness.”

             
“A favor for a favor then?” she said.

             
“An act of compassion; or perhaps a mutual understanding. In doing so, these men protect their tribe’s future.”

             
“And Europe’s future by the looks of it,” she said.

             
Jamison smiled at her, pleased that she understood.

             
“So you see, we are dependent upon one another.”

             
“How can we stop the coming of white men to their shores when we don’t even know when it is to come?” she asked.

             
“By living,” said Mahkah, listening to them from feet away. “We live through the ages. We watch as progress grows. We contain what wars we can and be there to advise those in power where possible. We control the emotions of those who hold power, and therefore control the advancement of mankind.”

             
“That is hardly realistic,” she said. “People will always want power over one another.”

             
“Precisely,” said Mahkah, looking directly at her. “We must be there to gauge how much power is given.”

             
“You mean kill those who seek it?”

             
“No,” he said. “As a vampyr, you have found how persuasive you can be, have you not? People willingly give you their blood for you to sustain yourself. If you can convince someone not to fear you ripping into their skin with your bare teeth, you can convince men to not heed to their own desires.”

             
Madison stared back at the group of people who were starting to stand and treat one another as they gained their strength. She was unsure if such a plan could ever be made a reality.

Jamison felt her doubt.
“There is no guarantee that this will work effectively,” he said. “But we have been shown a way, Madison. We must try to keep to it.”

***

              Mahkah offered Madison a horse to rid, but she gave it to one of the wounded women and her child. She walked beside Jamison as they headed eastward, not wanting to be too far from him. She was tempted to reach for his hand again, but didn’t want to appear eager. Jamison insisted that they lead the people they had found to safety before moving on to find Jayden. He claimed that there was land nearby where they could tend to their needs until the effects of the plague wore down. It would be some years before the efforts to lay blame for the sickness would pass.