Shieldwolf Dawning (8 page)

"You told the Sairfangs something before we left. I'm remembering it now. Can you tell me what you meant by returning Cass to his rightful place? You didn't mean Kairuhan, did you? You meant something else."

"You are perceptive, little one, but you must have patience."

"Please, Merganser," Samarra begged. "I need to know."

"In time you will learn about Cassian's role, as you will learn about yours." Merganser touched Samarra's arm gently. "For now, you must focus on adapting to your new environment." She made moves to stand up. "Unless you have further questions, I shall let you rest."

"Wait! What happened to the Sairfangs?" Samarra was worried, confused, and even a little scared.

Two small creases appeared between Merganser's eyebrows and she sat back down. Her eyes seemed shut, but under her lids she watched Samarra closely. There was an uncomfortable silence. "They are no longer your concern." Merganser stood up and motioned to indicate the subject was closed. "You must rest." With a slight bow, she bid Samarra goodnight.

Samarra beat her fist into the pillow. She knew no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon. She tossed and turned as she remembered more and more about Cassian, the Sairfangs, and her old home. Samarra's thoughts ran deep and fast until the memories of her life eventually settled into a coherent story.

To pass the time, she grabbed the green tablet and searched for information about the Shieldwolves. Perhaps an hour went by; Samarra couldn't tell. There were no clocks in the room and the sky was still dark. She waited a little longer until the cottage had fallen quiet. Then she climbed out of bed and tiptoed out of her room. Instead of going downstairs this time, she went further down the hallway.

There were two rooms nearby. She peeked into the first room. Merganser's chest rose and fell rhythmically as she snored softly. The next room was stacked with bookshelves and a desk piled high with ancient tomes. Samarra resisted going in to see the books close up. She was about to make her way downstairs when a sparkle at the end of the hallway caught her eye. She walked to the end of the hallway until she was standing in front of a full-length mirror. A wispy image of herself took shape in the glass. Samarra gasped and reached out to touch the image, but it dissipated into sparkling swirls on contact. Her hand went right through the mirror.

Samarra snapped her hand back in fright. "Hmm," she murmured approvingly at the sight of her sparkling fingers. She reached into the mirror again. This time she wiggled her fingers in the empty space on the other side before she pulled back. It took her a few moments to talk herself into what she wanted to do next. With a deep breath and a "One… two… three," she stepped through the mirror and into a secret room.

The room seemed to be suspended in the middle of a star-filled galaxy. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of glass. Samarra could make out the three-ringed moon she had seen before. Kairuhan also had another moon, much smaller than the one it hid behind. Unlike its big sister, the smaller moon was grey. There were at least five other planets of various sizes scattered around. Farther in the distance was a bright sun.

Although the sprawling galaxy was more beautiful than mere words could express, Samarra was most captivated by something inside the room. Tucked in the folds of golden silk sheets was her brother asleep in a large bed.

"Cass." She sighed in relief and rushed to him, but an invisible shield knocked her back. "Ouch!" she yelled, rubbing her sore arm.

Samarra came at the barrier from all sides, punching and kicking as hard as she could to break through, but she was blocked every time from getting closer to him. When she eventually concluded that nothing she could do would shatter the magic that separated them, she sat down and leaned her head against the barrier. She would have to be content to watch over him from a distance for now.

Aletheia's Vision

Samarra adjusted the diamond monocle to fit her eye. Pixels bent and stretched as the polarizing lens zoomed in on Merganser's cottage. "Focus," she said, and the picture sharpened. From where she sat on the top of the hill, it was easy to make out the details of the landscape. The cottage built from glass and stone nestled amidst a rolling backdrop of lush green forest to one side and a long stretch of rocky beach to the other. Its distinctive roof, comprised of three sets of interlocking, vaulted glass shells, sat on a terraced platform that wrapped around the small building. Hundreds of tiny solar panels covered the shells and sparkled in the bright morning sun. A restless sea separated the mainland of Gudrun Wade from the islands of Pythia to the east.

"Zoom in." The monocle went static before magnifying Samarra's view of the beach. Dozens of Merfolk thrashed through wave after wave. As they dived in and out of the water, their metallic tails reflected light in all directions. Unlike their cousins in the southern regions, these Merfolk were unpredictable.

One never knows what they might do to a lone gaian
, Merganser had warned.
The brutes can be as savage as the sea they call their home. You would be wise to err on the side of caution. Do not approach them.
So Samarra was happy to stay on the hill and observe them from a safe distance, even though what she really wanted to do was sneak down to the beach for a better look at the magnificent creatures.

Today was Samarra's seventh day on Kairuhan, and she was starting to feel settled in her new environment. At first she had found breathing difficult. Although the air was cleaner here than on Gaia, it was also thinner. She also discovered that the gravitational pull was not as strong. Samarra could jump twice as high as she could before. Getting used to the changes to her body and movement had been tricky. Learning about a new culture had been even trickier.

The Kairu way of life was much simpler than anything she had experienced on Gaia. Everyone here lived off local resources and treated the natural environment with the utmost care and respect. Perhaps the most interesting thing for Samarra was that there were no guns on Kairuhan. Merganser had said the Kairu had chosen not to make such leaps in technology for the good of the global ecosystem.

Samarra inhaled deeply and focused on the sound of her breath. She reached down to rub her ankle. The pain in her leg had almost disappeared. She touched her face. The scratches on her cheeks had almost healed. There were only a few small nicks left, nothing to worry about. Samarra was grateful that she hadn't been stuck in a room to recover like Cassian.

Since he had woken up three days ago, things between them had been different. Their relationship had been strained. Merganser had said it would take time for Cassian to return to his old self, but Samarra was running out of patience. When he looked at her there was no longer trust, no warmth when she stood beside him. They didn't laugh around each other anymore. Cassian had turned into a stranger.

Samarra sighed. The heaviness in her heart was unbearable. She would have to talk things through with him. She would have to make him listen to her side of the story. Maybe then things would go back to normal. Samarra turned off her monocle and checked her holowatch — a coming-home gift from Merganser. In two hours she would leave for Shieldwolf Proper, the biodome where the shamans lived and trained.

Samarra wasn't sure how she felt anymore. At first, the idea of joining the Shieldwolves had seemed like an exciting adventure, but as the days passed and Samarra learned more, she'd started to have doubts. What if Merganser had lied to her? What if the Shieldwolves were as bad as the cybots the Sairfangs had created? Cybots were heartless. Rumour had it they treated insects and gaians the same — if a gaian got in their way, they'd be squashed like an ant. Samarra didn't want to be like that. She would never be like that, no matter what. She promised herself that much. Besides, from what she had read, the Shieldwolves served and protected Kairuhan, so how bad could they be? She crossed her fingers for luck. Her stomach gurgled loudly. Samarra jumped up and wiped damp grass from the back of her jeans. After one more look at the Merfolk, she headed down the hill to the cottage.

It took her a few minutes to reach the building. The back door was wide open and the aroma of freshly baked bread wafted past her nose. Thick bunches of aromatic herbs hung drying from the vaulted ceiling: sage, parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, and basil. A pot of fresh mixed berries and sugar bubbled on the stove, thickening slowly into a delicious jam. Merganser was in the kitchen, slicing cheese. Cassian sat at a large wooden table and, with hands coated in honey, rammed food into his mouth.

"You're gross." Samarra grimaced when he licked the honey dripping off the bread and in between his fingers.

Cassian ignored her. His eyes were puffy and red from crying.

"Good morning." Samarra sat down next to him.

Merganser put down her knife. "Samarra, would you like something to eat?" She rinsed her hands and wiped them on a towel.

"Yes, please." Samarra turned to Cassian. "Sleep all right?"

"Same as I did the night before," he mumbled. His face was grim as he concentrated on his food.

"Merganser said it would take you a few more days to feel better."

Cassian glowered at her.

"Are you still angry with me?" She bit her lip nervously.

"I don't know. Should I be?"

Samarra was about to respond when Merganser brought over a plate piled high with buttered bread, cheese, and honey. "I will be in the garden if you need me," Merganser said.

Samarra waited until Merganser had left the kitchen before she spoke. "Cass, this is the first morning since you've woken up that we've had breakfast together. Are you going to be angry at me for the rest of your life? I didn't do anything wrong."

"You didn't do anything right, either."

"I was kind of thinking you would be okay with joining the Shieldwolves." Her eyes were downcast. "It'll be good for you."

"Are you crazy?" His voice cracked. "I might have been able to forgive you if I could live with them like a normal kid, but I'm never going to be a normal kid here, am I?" Cassian put down his food and wiped his hands on a napkin. "Merganser told me everything. She even told me about Aletheia's Vision. The Shieldwolves think I'm going to win them a war. Did you forget to tell me about that small detail because you knew I wouldn't have come?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know about
you
until the day we phased."

"You talked me into leaving Gaia to come here for what?" He clenched his jaw. "And you call
me
a dodo?"

Samarra's pulse quickened. "Would you have let me come alone? Wouldn't you miss me?"

"I don't want to join the Shieldwolves."

"But you would have died if you had stayed on Gaia. Nobody took the warning signs seriously; either that or they just didn't care."

"Nobody could prove when it would happen, Sammy. For all we know, Gaia could have kept going for billions of years."

"Just because you can't prove it with an equation doesn't mean it might not happen. That's such a weird way of looking at things. You sound like a cybot."

"Don't call me that!" he spat out. "Weird or not, the Sairfangs are dead because of your stupid decision to run away with a scary old woman. And I'm stuck in some kind of army."

"Are you kidding me? Coming here has nothing to do with them dying!"

"Really?" he said dryly.

"But… but the Sairfangs experimented on your head! Why would you want to live with people who treat you like a lab rat, huh?"

Cassian fell to brooding again.

Samarra went on. "They were supposed to care for us both on Kairuhan and they didn't. They might have loved you like their own son, but they sure didn't act like it when it came to their research. I won't even go into how they treated me. Cass, if I made a mistake by bringing you here, I'm really sorry, but I had to take my chances on finding a better place for us to live. We're here now and we can't leave — it is what it is. Let's at least give it enough time to see what it's like. Things won't be as bad as you think." She poured herself a glass of milk and convinced herself that her brother would be all right. "You should hurry up and eat. We have to go soon and we haven't started packing."

"I'm not going." Cassian was seething.

"I don't think we have a choice."

They ate in an uncomfortable silence until Merganser reappeared. Her face had gone pale. Her tall frame was unusually hunched. She made for the sink and rinsed the fruit she had just picked. Samarra went to help her, but Merganser shooed her away. "I will be escorting you both to Shieldwolf Proper in one hour," she said in clipped tones.

"I'm not going." Cassian rested his head in his hands. "I'm not joining the Shieldwolves."

"You will begin basic training tomorrow," she said calmly. "It is time for you to learn about your duty to Kairuhan."

Cassian slammed his hands on the table: "Didn't you hear me?" Samarra moved to comfort him, but he pushed her away. "I didn't want to come here in the first place. This isn't fair."

Merganser pointed at his heart. "Child, you were marked at birth." She held open the door to the living room and gestured for him to leave. "You are the key to Aletheia's Vision. In accordance with the Book of Living, you will enlist with the Shieldwolves, and you will lead a battlegroup one day. You are born of the Kairu and this is our tradition. It is not in your best interests to resist your fate. The Shieldwolves will take you regardless of what I say or do."