Shieldwolf Dawning (31 page)

"Yes!" Eshgranna shouted triumphantly. "The Elders were wrong.
You
are my
Sun
.
"

Eshgranna pushed Samarra with enough force to send her flying through the air. She hit the ground on her back, her breath knocked out of her. She lay there moaning in pain and clutching her side. Eshgranna lifted her hands and a net of flux magic appeared. Dark webbing pinned Samarra to the ground with sticky anchors. Eshgranna stopped within arm's reach. Two Watchers appeared behind her; neither one made a sound. Eshgranna eyed Samarra and inspected her from all angles. Once she was satisfied, she kneeled down. Samarra struggled to free herself. She wanted to speak, but no words would come from her mouth.

"I am pleased to meet you." Eshgranna inspected her nails for damage. "Stop moving. Resistance will only result in the flux weave tightening its hold on you until it squeezes all the life from your body." She caressed Samarra's face. The net disappeared upon her touch. Eshgranna held Samarra's chin in a gentle vice and turned it this way and that. "You look exactly like me when I was your age." The turbulence in her eyes was hypnotizing.

Samarra could not look away. She could barely think straight.

"Why so quiet?" Eshgranna released Samarra's face. "Are you not happy to finally meet me, to finally meet your mother? Or is fear for your brother's safety overtaking everything else?"

Samarra said nothing. The shock of finding out that Eshgranna was her mother was too much to process right then. Samarra wasn't sure what she was supposed to be thinking or feeling.

"What if I told you he is well?" Eshgranna went on. "What if I told you he is happy?"

Samarra called on her courage to speak. "Where is he?"

"You will see him soon enough. For now, rest assured that he is safer than he ever was."

"What are you talking about?"

Eshgranna moved closer to Samarra. "Aletheia's vision was correct. If the Elders who came after her had interpreted her words properly, they would not have wasted their time protecting the wrong sibling."

"I don't understand." Samarra's head was pounding. It was too much to handle.

"Has Merganser Ravenhair not solved this yet?"

"Solved what?"

Eshgranna took Samarra's hand. "Aletheia's vision tells that
you
are the one fated to restore order. Samarra, it is you who is the
S
un
.
"

"M … me?" Samarra stammered.

"Yes, you."

"I don't believe you! Why did you take Cass if I'm the one you want?"

Eshgranna waved her hand and the flux weave disappeared from Samarra's body.

"I wanted both of you to come back to me," Eshgranna explained. "Cassian's journey to Seton Desert could not have come at a better time. He was an easy target. As for you, I could not enter the biodome. Security measures have increased a hundred fold. Shieldwolf Proper is well protected. The only way to coax you out was through your brother. My scouts told me all about you. I suspected you would find your way here if you thought your brother was in danger. Amazing what love can lead a gaian to do, hmm?"

"What are you talking about?" Samarra backed away slowly. She wasn't sure what to make of the woman who was claiming to be her mother.

"Love has led me to do both good and bad things. Some may consider what I have done is wrong, but I consider it my duty to others."

Samarra felt more confused than ever.

"Let me show you my story. Only then will you understand the truth. The Shieldwolves have tried to suppress it for too long." Eshgranna placed her hand on Samarra's temples. Colourful images began to play like a movie in Samarra's imagination.

Eshgranna spoke. "On reading the Grimoire of Signs, I came to understand that what the Elders had taught me was limiting. The Reflection is only one of two paths to ancient spirit magic — there is also the Flux. Unlike the Reflection, which is whole, unchanging, and complete, the Flux is a continuous and constantly shifting cycle of life and death." Eshgranna's voice grew fierce in her conviction. "It was obvious to me that the Flux and the Reflection were connected, but my way of thinking prompted the Elders to do everything in their power to silence me."

Each scene dissolved into the next. Samarra felt herself growing angry at Merganser for keeping such an important secret from her. Eshgranna's memories played on.

"In waves, Shieldwolves came at me from all directions. The Elders claimed that the Flux could never be controlled. They claimed that I was not to be trusted because I would lead the Kairu away from law and tradition. One after the other I defeated them and fought for my right to speak the truth. It was then that the Elders proclaimed my actions would bury Kairuhan in flux. That was when they grew more serious about the Vision. The Shieldwolves will stop at nothing to guide the Kairu according to the Book of Living, but their way of life is not for all."

Samarra felt stirrings of compassion for her mother as she watched the story unfolding in her mind.

"While I fought on the fields of Hokken Sol, Merganser ordered Thomas Longmane to take you and your brother away from me. Your father had died in battle before you were born, so Merganser entrusted you to the Sairfangs until you were of age to join the Shieldwolves. The Elders were determined to hide Cassian from me so that no emotional connection between us could develop — that way it would be easier for him to defeat me when the time came. But things did not go as planned when the Sairfangs escaped with you both to Gaia-1. They wanted your brother for the immense power reputed to lay dormant in him." She smiled sadly. "On your return to Kairuhan, the Elders tried to keep you away from me, but my bond to you both is not one that can be broken so easily."

"Why did they take me with them if it was Cass they wanted?"

"You are his opposite. Cassian can only be understood properly in comparison to you."

There was a long silence. Samarra had imagined Eshgranna as the worst kind of gaian, but things had changed now that she had heard her mother's side of the story. Nothing made sense anymore. Samarra no longer knew for sure who was right and who was wrong.

"Do not believe her lies, Samarra. She will destroy the natural order of Kairuhan with dangerous magic," a familiar voice boomed from the entrance.

"Shieldwolf Longmane," Samarra whispered. She would know that voice anywhere.

"If the Son does not defeat the Flux, Kairuhan will collapse." Shieldwolf Longmane walked slowly to Eshgranna. His intense eyes locked onto hers in a turmoil of emotions. When he reached her, he bent down on one knee and bowed his head in deepest respect. "Return the Son to his rightful place, beloved teacher."

"No. They both stay with me. I am their mother." Eshgranna was visibly shaken.

Shieldwolf Longmane stood up and pulled back his visor. "The odds are not in your favour, Eshgranna Dawning. You have fought against us for too long, even as you slept." He gestured to the entrance of the chamber. "There are others awaiting my orders. Your Watcher protectors have been cast back into the Flux where they belong. They were filled with hate when they came for us and they shook with terror when we took them down one by one. You have no way of escape. Your Ikajarri followers are all in hiding. No one will help you now." He pointed his staff at the ceiling and cast a spell. The caverns rumbled. An invisible hand etched large complex symbols into rock.

"I have regained enough of my strength to challenge you another day!" Eshgranna roared. Her eyes blazed and her body phaseshifted in and out of flux form. "I will not allow my children to die for a doomed cause. Your tyranny will not go undisturbed for much longer."

Samarra looked to both adults for answers. What was going on?

Eshgranna pointed accusingly at Shieldwolf Longmane. "If Cassian fights for you, he will die in the name of tradition."

"How will he die?" Samarra found it hard to breath.

Eshgranna glared at Shieldwolf Longmane. "Thomas knows the end of this story better than any other."

"What do you mean?" Samarra asked. "I … I don't understand."

"The Shieldwolf path cannot deviate from the Book of Living." Eshgranna spoke with disgust and bitterness. "My passing away is necessary for the fulfillment of Aletheia's Vision. These things must occur or the foundations on which the Shieldwolves have built their world will collapse. Merganser brought Cassian back to Kairuhan to defeat me or be defeated. What she failed to see is that the Flux also walks with your brother."

"Liar!" Shieldwolf Longmane shouted. The stalactites shook. Samarra ducked out of the way when small rocks broke from the ceiling. The rumbling stretched deep into the caverns.

"This can't be true." Samarra scrambled to her feet.

"Return the Son," Shieldwolf Longmane said.

"Never!" Eshgranna stamped her foot and the area trembled. A chasm ripped open between them and dark vapours seeped into the air like veins of ice. Eshgranna magicked a suit of flux armour around Samarra to protect her daughter from what was to come.

Shieldwolf Longmane charged at Eshgranna like a bullet. Rage distorted his usually handsome face. Eshgranna's body tensed and she raised her hands, making magical signs in the air. Dark light exploded from her fingers and formed spinning orbs that hung suspended in space. She made a fist. Instantly, the orbs encircled Shieldwolf Longmane and trapped him in place. He countered with words of power and the orbs shattered into a million shards. Shieldwolf Longmane wasted no time. He pointed his staff at Eshgranna and called out to the earth.

"Stop it." Samarra rammed into his body, knocking his staff out of his hand. The weapon tumbled out of his reach.

"What gives you the right to interfere with the Fates as they unfold?" he asked Samarra angrily.

Samarra regained her balance in time to dodge another wave of rocks as they came crashing down around her. She couldn't speak.

"I warned you not to take them from me." Eshgranna blasted out a bolt of fluxing energy that hit Shieldwolf Longmane square in the chest. He flew into a stalagmite with a bone-crushing
crack
. She watched him with merciless eyes. "I warned you all that I would return for my children one day."

Shieldwolf Longmane struggled to his feet.

"Why are you both doing this?" Samarra backed away in fear. "Why are you both fighting like this?"

The area shook violently. "Stay where you are," Eshgranna ordered.

"Samarra," Shieldwolf Longmane said weakly. "You must come with me."

"Why?" Samarra wished she had the answers to everything at her fingertips, but she didn't.

"Because you are one of us."

"Thomas Longmane." Eshgranna moved in on him with even more determination. Her body had phaseshifted completely into flux form. "I once loved you, but now I want to see you suffer for what you have done to me." She broke into a menacing chant. Her voice turned animalistic, a dark howling summoning monsters from the swirling depths of the Flux. The mantra of unlife ripped open the fabric of reality and golden claws emerged from the Flux, reaching for Shieldwolf Longmane's body and crawling up his arms. Claws soon turned into hands, and hands expanded and grew into the body of a Watcher.

Samarra looked on in horror. At Eshgranna's command, the Watcher grabbed Shieldwolf Longmane by the neck and choked the life out of him. The monster waited until his victim was teetering on the brink of death and threw him to the ground. Shieldwolf Longmane hit his head on a jutting rock. The Watcher stood still and waited for its orders. Eshgranna readied herself for another attack.

"Get away while you can, Samarra…" Shieldwolf Longmane reached for his staff. "Find your brother. Return Cassian to his rightful place with the Shieldwolves." With what was left of his strength, he drew a pattern in the air.

At once, Eshgranna was hauled to the jagged ceiling by an invisible force. She shrieked as she jolted back into solid form. The ceiling cracked open and a barrage of rocks came raining down. Eshgranna struggled free and dropped to the ground.

"Move!" She charged at Samarra in time to push her to safety before a stalactite snapped off its anchor. Eshgranna tried to jump away, but twisted her ankle and fell. She gasped seconds before she was crushed under the weight of heavy rock. "Save yourself." Eshgranna lay in a twisted heap. Her face was deathly pale.

"I can't leave you." Samarra tried to push the rock off her mother to no avail.

"There is nothing more you can do for me." Eshgranna winced. Every word seemed to cause her pain.

Samarra kneeled down and held her mother's limp hand. She wasn't sure what to do next.

"Your brother is with the Ikajarri," Eshgranna whispered. "You will find them in a golden city in the clouds around the mountains to the east. Summon his Watcher and ask him to take you to Cassian. Call out for Asâêl — the Watcher will find you." She swallowed with great difficulty. Samarra wanted desperately to look away. She couldn't bear the sight of blood trickling out of the corner of her mother's mouth.

"The revolution does not end today," Eshgranna said. "Shieldwolves believe that Cassian is the Son. It will take them time to recover from this blow, but they will find a replacement." She tightened her fingers around her daughter's hand. "Promise me one thing." She shivered uncontrollably.

"What?" Samarra cradled her mother's head and caressed her cheek.

Eshgranna's eyes changed from black to brown as her connection to the Flux waned. "You will always struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the Shieldwolves. If you ever expect to leave them for a different way of life, do not tell anyone what you are, not even your brother." Her breathing grew more laboured. "At times you will feel confused and frightened, but no price is too high to pay for the right to own your fate."