The Gift of Volkeye (56 page)

Since the floor had been blown away so near the front doors, their footing would’ve been unsure. Jamese decided that they’d exit from where they stood. She ordered her friends back and then blew away a massive portion of the stone wall before them. Ignoring the smoke and the last few falling stones, they rushed to their freedom.

Jamese waited until they were all outdoors before following, as she wanted to be sure that no one was left behind. Upon entering the garden she looked about and found Zynathian to her far right, hidden in shadow amongst the trees. As the clouds slightly shifted, rays of moonlight illuminated him, and she noticed that he was waving her off. Clearly, they weren’t far enough away for his taste.

Overwhelmed at Zynathian’s kindness and bravery, Jamese couldn’t move another inch without expressing her gratitude. “Thank you, Zynathian! God bless you a thousand times!”

He nodded.

With this done, Jamese urged them all forward. They made it past the gate at a slight jog, and most of them were sprinting as the thickness of the trees lessened. However, Jamese stopped abruptly as she heard Zynathian use one of his bombs. This was quickly followed by the sound of something crashing. Though she was tempted to go check on Zynathian, Jamese knew better. She left to catch up with the others.

Upon passing the edge of the garden, they ran for a few minutes and made it out into an open field. When Jamese finally caught up, she found her friends pointing upward at a passing hover van, headed back to the castle. This was followed by the most mindboggling spectacle any of them had ever seen.

Just a moment ago, a gigantic bird of magnificent beauty had swept from the sky! It landed before them only to reveal another strange creature, which was upon its back. Laden with battle gear, the beast hopped from the bird’s saddle and addressed them.

“Bloody hell, there’s a great lot o’ ya! You’ve been cooped in that blasted place all ‘dis time?” Maugrimm asked, pointing to Castle Xyecah, which towered above the treetops.

“Yes, but listen. Two of us are terribly wounded!” Jamese said as she ran forward, motioning in the direction of the woman and Dorcey, the doctor.

Maugrimm winced, seeing Dorcey’s left arm, severed at the deltoid. His doctor friends had tied a belt around his wound to stop the blood flow. Now they stood at his sides as support. Although Dorcey was weak, he was still faring much better than the woman that had been stabbed in her midsection, for she was completely unconscious. Mawg was aghast at the sight of her pale skin, meaning that she’d lost much more than an acceptable amount of blood. At this, he raised the comlink.

“Zynathian, we gots ta’ be movin’! There’s two here that’ll die if they don’t get some medical attention! After all ya’ been through to get ‘em out of that place, me knows you don’t want any to die on ya’, so hurry!”

Maugrimm waited some time but got no response. Just as he was about to call again, Zynathian’s voice came echoing over the howling wind. His voice arrested their attention like a clap of thunder, angry and godlike.

4

When Jix heard the window break, he flew around the side of the castle to inspect the matter. Sure enough, it was Phyllamon going to the shed. Jix went to inform Zynathian, and together they went to a better hiding spot behind the trees in front of the shed.

Although he’d only just made it inside, Zynathian was startled at how fast Phyllamon’s hover darted from within. He hurled a bomb at the earth and had to duck out of the way as the explosion caused the hover to spin out of control. It flew above him, crashing into a tree several feet away. Zynathian knew he was lucky to be alive.

He got up and went over to Phyllamon, finding that he’d flown through the windshield. However, Phyllamon’s injuries meant nothing to Zynathian as he sat atop of him to bludgeon him into the next life. Though he realized that he could’ve easily killed Phyllamon with another bomb, there was something about this kill that he wanted to be
hands on
. He pummeled him without conscience, as he proceeded to commit a deed twenty years in the making.

However, assuming that Murlach and Helena had left without Phyllamon, Zynathian was unwary of his surroundings. Some twenty feet above, Murlach’s hover crept upon him in stealth mode. Helena, who hadn’t made an effort to exert herself in weeks, mustered the strength to squeeze herself into the back seat of the hover, arming herself.

Jix, having the extremely sensitive hearing that he did, noticed the hovercar above. As soon as its door opened, he darted above, talons at the ready. However, by the time he arrived, Helena had already kicked several bags of Arhyz and luggage from the back seat of the vehicle. They were spot on, all of them beating Zynathian over the head and down his back. He was nearly flattened, whilst Phyllamon lay protected beneath him.

When Jix made it to the hover, Helena was already closing the shield. Being as angry as he was, he underestimated the amount of speed he needed to beat the door closing. Consequently, a small piece of his left wing was clipped off, sending him flying to the earth in pain too terrible to imagine. He landed next to Zynathian, and both of them lay squirming.

Meanwhile, Murlach set the hover down next to them and got out, kicking Zynathian from atop Phyllamon. He pulled his master to the hover. Once he had him packed awkwardly within, he closed the shield and ran back to the pilot’s seat. This came not a moment too soon, as the next thing Murlach knew, the rest of the Volkeye family had arrived. As he rose into the air, darting away, they swept down from above in a large hover van.

Though Murlach was in mind to get their escape underway, he stopped midair, wondering whether or not he’d been seeing things. When the door to their ship opened, he could’ve sworn that he saw Felix!

Blast!
he swore to himself, knowing that it was impossible to leave until he’d confirmed this information. Their next course of action weighed heavily upon it.

“Murlach, are you mad? Why are you turning around?” Helena asked, panicking, for she knew it would be the end of them if they remained any longer.

“I think they’ve got Felix.”

“What?!”

“…And if they do, that means that Vlajdimir and Zephranie are both dead, and we no longer have any reason to rendezvous with them,” Murlach said, grabbing Felix’s binoculars.

Murlach gazed through the lenses of the binoculars and saw Felix held at gunpoint by a black male, who, of course, also had a weapon merged with his arm. The whole family appeared to have come along. Nauseated, Murlach observed a young girl with incredible strength, grab Zynathian up with one arm and stand him tall, pointing at them.

Helena watched in horror, hands over her mouth. Murlach shook Phyllamon awake as the Volkeyes’ hover rose into the air threatening to give chase. A large platform had just extended from the inside of their ship, upon which they all stood. Phyllamon urged Murlach to take them closer, as to be sure that it was Felix they held. He wouldn’t have believed such a thing through the lenses of binoculars.

As Murlach went closer, Phyllamon found that he hadn’t been deceived, and he gnashed his teeth with rage, contorting his lacerated face so that his wounds bled further.

Jix was in pain but was still able to fly. He’d positioned himself atop Zynathian’s vessel, awaiting the outcome of this event. He watched Zynathian pace about the platform. The man wanted to kill Phyllamon so badly that he was shaking!

Suddenly, Maugrimm’s voice came in on everyone’s comlinks. Zynathian got the message, and he realized that he was going to have to forgo his greatest desire, once again. Angered liked never before, he grabbed a round chrome object and began speaking into it. His voice was magnified one hundred times over, echoing throughout the distance.

“Phyllamon! From this point forward, you’ll have to run from me, every day of your life, as your antics will no longer be tolerated! If you so much as stop to breath, you’ll look behind you and see we—the Volkeyes—the smiting right hand of God, sent to deliver justice to you! Observe what is to, one day, become of you!”

At this, he turned to his children. “Do what you must! Think of all that has been done on account of Phyllamon and his family. Have no mercy!”

Though this family would never have dreamt of harming an individual unless their hand was forced, they realized that sometimes bloodshed was necessary in order to benefit the good of mankind. All too often in life were there people, who refused to do what was right, simply because what was right happened to be immoral. These people often forgot that the need to protect many was a much greater cause than protecting their own self-righteous, saintly images. However, the Volkeyes were no such family.

Bahzee, who decided to take her turn last, lifted Felix by his hair from behind. Sing stepped forward and shoved her knife deep in his stomach, twisted it and then yanked it loose. His blood sprayed sloppily, showering the environment like a split garden hose.

Lyn Sha followed Sing, blowing off his arms at the shoulders. The limbs flew some many feet away, falling to the earth below. Next up was Teshunua, and he took his time, not wanting to be selfish. He spoke into his comlink.

“Khye…Khyeryn…can you hear me? I know you’re sleeping, but you have to wake up for this.”

For several seconds, there was nothing. Then finally, Khyeryn answered back, yawning.

“Tesh, I’m here…whatever it is that Khyetarah Vyx Mune has in his blood…it’s
extremely
special, because I can’t feel any pain! …It’s like I still have legs to walk on!”

Khyeryn yawned loudly once more, and then he was suddenly alert. “Wait, where are you all? What’s going on? Is everyone alright, Tesh?”

“Don’t panic, were fine. I just thought you should know that we’re about to kill Felix. Is there anything you wish to say to him?”

There was a long silence. On the other end, Khyeryn was trying to come to grips with what he’d just heard, unable to believe that he wasn’t there to partake of this event! Finally…

“Felix,” he said, as Teshunua placed his wrist next to Felix’s ear, “you reap what you sow! Rot in hell!”

“Well said, cousin.”

“Teshunua, do me a favour. His legs…take them…just like mine were.”

“All right…see you soon, Khye,” Teshunua said, ending the transmission.

Felix was still conscious and squirming, dangling about from Bahzee’s grip.

“Please don’t! I can’t take anymore!” Felix begged, choking on his blood from the stab wound.

They ignored his pleas.

Teshunua blew off each leg from the thigh down, and Felix’s cries echoed into the distance. Then he looked Felix directly in the eye, thinking of a horrid story that Lyn Sha had told him recently about seeing a recording of Felix and his father violating a young girl to the point of death. He addressed the issue.

“I hate rapists, Felix. You’re the lowest of human beings. Let me show you what you all deserve.”

Teshunua yanked off the remainder of Felix’s legless trousers and then his boxer shorts. Felix knew what was coming next, and he was howling.

“No, no, nooooooooo, please don’t!” he squealed, as Teshunua’s weapon transformed from gun to clawed, metal hand. Felix turned his head, unable to look anymore.

At this, Teshunua reached below and dug his claws into the groin area and ripped off Felix’s genitalia, tossing it into the trees. Had the areas not been deserted, everyone in Mashyuvah and the Trio would’ve heard Felix bawling. At first, his cries began as long, drawn out, masculine roars, but by the end of his wailing, they’d become soft, high pitched notes, giving one the impression that he might’ve been practicing for choir as a soprano.

Teshunua left Bahzee to her business.

“And this, Felix, is on behalf of my precious,
Nhad!”
Bahzee said with tears falling from her eyes.

She turned to face Phyllamon and Helena, suddenly pulling Felix’s head away from his body. As Felix’s torso fell to the earth, Bahzee held the head high in the air like a trophy. The spinal column swung back and forth.

“Have a last look at your son, Phyllamon!” she said, hurling the head through their windshield like a football.

Though Jix was intelligent like no other member of his species, his primitive feline characteristics rendered him a love or hate type of individual. There was no in-between with him. As a result, he was insensitive to those he disliked and had a twisted sense of humour. Herein laid his dismissal of the pain he was currently in, as he let out a series of piercing chirrups and yowls, laughing harder than ever before.

By the gods, this is absolute comedy!
Jix exclaimed.

Murlach lost control, nearly crashing the hover into the castle when Felix’s head landed in his lap. He was shouting with disgust like someone had wiped a booger on him. “Get it off me! Get it off me!” he cried.

Helena was hysterical, bawling and uttering a volley of incoherent phrases. Phyllamon was silent. He took his son’s head and emptied a bag of Arhyz, placing the head within. As they fled into the distance with the Arhyz-filled hover at their side (following by remote), he put the blood-soaked bag in his lap. Phyllamon then calmly sat back and closed his eyes. Despite Murlach and Helena’s hysterics, he himself wouldn’t utter another word for days to come.