Chapter 26
The awareness that Missea was firmly on their side put an extra spring in Falcon’s step when he woke in the morning. The bed he had slept on had been the most comfortable he had experienced in years, and he took solace in the fact that his brother was no longer a long-lost ghost. He was alive, and with the newly discovered corruptions committed by Mr. Nakatomi, it might even be possible that the charges against Albert could be dropped. Now he just wished he knew how he’d gotten to the Inn. He recalled taking a few drinks as Albert spoke to him about their father.
But beyond that, everything was a blank.
The scent of chicken broth fell upon him as he passed the small chicken noodle stand outside the inn. As he had expected, Sheridan was there. There were three empty deep bowls at the table where he sat. He was halfway through his fourth bowl. Hiromy sat beside him, working on a small roll of sushi.
“Hyatt.” Sheridan waved as he slurped a long noodle strand into his mouth. “Over here.”
“He eats so funny,” said Hiromy, before returning her attention to her own food.
“Have you two seen Aya and Faith?” asked Falcon. “They weren’t at the inn when I got up.”
“Some time to wake up, Hyatt. It’s nearly midday.”
Falcon looked up. Indeed the first sun was close to the center of the sky. “I had a busy night.”
“So I heard.” Sheridan smirked.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
Hiromy looked up, her eyes blissfully wide. “You have a gorgeous singing voice, by the way.”
Singing voice? What was she rambling about?
“Good, you’re all here.” Falcon turned to see his two missing friends walking through the door. Aya took a seat. Faith did as well. “We just got back from seeing Empress Latiha.”
“For what?” asked Falcon.
“We needed to inform her of the Suteckh’s movements. Well, it’s all speculation as of now. Nonetheless, Keira wanted to keep Latiha as well-informed as possible.”
“How come I wasn’t told?” complained Falcon.
“You were asleep,” said Faith.
Aya nodded. “You were out so late last night. I know that you’ve been through a lot. Your brother is back, and we lost Zoen, but seriously, Falcon. I don’t think this is the time to be getting intoxicated.”
“I got drunk?” Falcon couldn’t believe it. That would explain why he didn’t recall most of the night’s events. He felt an overwhelming sense of shame come over him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“I wouldn’t say you caused much trouble.” Faith smiled. “You’re more of a nice drunk, not those angry ones that get all violent and stuff.”
Aya and Faith shared a knowing look and he had the feeling they were withholding something from him. Whatever it was, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He was certain it had something to do making himself look the fool.
“I hate angry drunks,” said Hiromy quite suddenly. “We had this crazy man Father and I always visited. He was some type of diplomat, and he would started screaming and breaking things when things went bad—” The quiet evening turned rowdy really fast. Hiromy, who had been chirpy and smiling, clutched her head, complaining of a headache.
Sheridan leaned beside her, trying to comfort her, but she swatted him away, and her hands began to tremble. Everything was happening so fast that Falcon barely had time to register the blood coming out of her nose, squeezing through her fingertips, and pouring onto the table.
Faith jumped to action, resting her hand on Hiromy’s head. It took a moment, but the blood stopped flowing.
Falcon’s heart drummed in his chest as he noticed the blood was not the usual red. Instead, it was a dark shade of crimson mixed with green. Faith’s worried look told him everything he needed to know. Poison.
~~~
“So what happens now?” asked Falcon. He was sitting in the middle of the room with legs crossed.
Faith, who was sitting in front of him, opened her eyes. “Falcon. Meditation usually works with one sitting in absolute silence. It doesn’t do much if you keep on talking throughout it.”
“I know. It’s just that I can’t concentrate when I keep thinking about Hiromy.” After the incident at the food place, Faith had discovered that some of the poison that Hiromy had absorbed during her battle with Dokua was still affecting her. It had lain dormant inside her brain but had now begun to leak out, threatening to claim the princess’s life. Faith had managed to locate it, but Hiromy had not fully woken. Instead she lay in a dormant state. She would drift in and out of consciousness.
“Hiromy is doing her part, fighting through this. We have to do our best for her. Now close your eyes and concentrate.”
He did as he was told.
“Now,” began Faith. “I’m going to show you something. It’s about Shal-Volcseck.”
“Good.” Falcon liked where Faith was headed. Perhaps she had discovered a weakness in their last encounter.
“I wanted to show you a scene of his past.”
A scene of his past?
That seemed like a complete waste of time to Falcon. Why would he want to waste his time with something like that?
She must have noticed his apprehension because she quickly said, “In order to defeat him, it is important that you get to know him.”
“I’d really rather just kill him.”
“Knowledge can be a powerful weapon. Much stronger than a wielding stone, at times.”
“We already saw some of his past. Remember when Demetrius showed us Volcseck’s transformation into a criminal? And that knowledge didn’t do much to help us when we ran into him.”
“This is different. This scene is from some time before all that. I think you will find it invaluable.”
Falcon didn’t necessarily agree, but he bowed to Faith’s knowledge on the subject of meditation. “Go on.”
She took his hands, and his skin goose bumped as her soft touch caressed him. “Now. Holy wielders can’t show other people past memories like chaos and mind wielders can. However, I can pull knowledge and scenes from previous holy wielders. In this case I will tap into some scenes from my predecessor, Lunet.”
“You mean Demetrius’ wife?”
“Yes. After meeting with Demetrius I was able to form a much stronger bond with her.”
Now Falcon understood why they were holding hands. Faith would bring up the memory with their holy wielding, but she would need to tap into Falcon’s mind wielding to show the events of the past.
“I’m ready,” he said. And just like that, he seemed to be freefalling through the air. Black blotches whizzed past him at mesmerizing speeds. A while later, those formless masses of dark condensed into different-shaped creations. Some took the long forms of trees. Others became a soft white snow. Before he knew it, he was standing in the middle of a forest. The ground and pine trees were covered in sheets of snow. A thick misty fog rolled across the land, making it difficult to see beyond a few feet ahead.
“What am I supposed to be seeing?” asked Falcon.
She brought her finger to her lips. “Just watch.”
It wasn’t long until a pale, short woman who wore a ragged dress and a large straw hat came trudging around a family of trees and headed straight for him. Falcon didn’t notice at first, but after a few seconds he noticed the young boy that was struggling behind her. The boy wore ragged clothing as well except, unlike the woman, he donned a heavy coat that had to be at least five sizes too big.
“Follow them,” said Faith. “Don’t worry, they can’t see us.”
Falcon didn’t need this information. He had seen these types of visions before, and he knew that they were mere unseen ghosts to the people around them.
“I don’t trust him, Mother,” said the boy to the woman.
“Voly,” said the woman.
Voly?
Of course. He’d seen Volcseck as a child before in a vision Demetrius had showed him. On that occasion, however, Volcseck had been much skinnier, almost as if he had not eaten in days. In this place in time his cheeks were fuller, and he had a healthy pink to his skin. He couldn’t say the same for his mother, whose sharp cheekbones and hollowed sockets could be seen from a great distance away. No doubt she had been feeding most of their small portions of food to her son.
The woman continued. “We need to aid those less fortunate than ourselves. Compassion is the only way this world will become a better place.”
“Yes, Mother,” said Volcseck. He sounded apprehensive, but it was obvious he took her words seriously because he turned around and ran back, following his own footsteps. “Not much longer, sir. The cabin is a little up ahead.”
“That sounds just great.” A man Falcon hadn’t seen before turned the corner around the trees. He shook violently as he hugged himself in a futile attempt to fend off the cold.
“Take my coat,” said Volcseck, taking the thick robe off and handing it over.
The man held his hand up. “I couldn’t possibly.”
“Don’t you worry, sir. Mother and I have lived here our entire lives. We’re used to the cold of the high mountains.”
The heavily-bearded man took the coat and threw it over his shoulders. “Thanks.”
Despite his brave front, Falcon could tell that Volcseck was cold. The bumps on his skin and slight tremble in his voice made that clear. It was strange seeing the lord of chaos portray such kindness. He’d always been known only bad stories about him. But if Faith thought this small scene was going to change his mind about him, she was sorely mistaken. Volcseck might have been a sweet kid, but that didn’t excuse the atrocities he’d committed when he grew into a man.
The trio of man, woman, and child walked a few more steps up the cold mountain. Like Volcseck had said, in a short while they arrived at a small cabin. Seeing the miserable termite-hole building in the middle of practically nowhere brought back memories of his own time with K’ran in Wingdor Forest.
They went into the simple one-room cabin. The dark stove, small bed, and slab of rock made it slightly more welcoming than the outdoors. There was however, a tiny fireplace at the corner of the room that held the promise of warmth.
“This place will do just fine,” said the grinning man. “It’s not much, but it will get me through the winter.” Falcon noticed that the man’s voice had grown far more forceful, and much less timid.
The woman turned to the man. “You’re welcome for a few days to collect your spirits, but I’m afraid there is simply not enough room for you to stay the entire season. I can guide you to a nice family that owns a farm. They’re always in need of a helping hand. I’m sure they will take you in.”
“Shut your trap, you old bat. You and your son will get out now and leave or I will gut you both!”
The woman shuffled back a bit, the distress in her voice rising. “Sir, there is a storm coming. Surely you wouldn’t seriously throw me out of my own home.”
“I said out! There is hardly enough heat for one person.” The man produced a large knife he’d been hiding under his robe. “I’m serious. I will gut you both. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. Starting with him.”
The woman stood in front of her young child. “Not my Voly.”
“Out with the both of you.” Falcon could see that the man was on his last nerve. A thick vein was clearly visible, running down the length of his neck, and his stained teeth were bared like a wild animal’s.
This time, the rightful owners of the cabin did not argue. They quickly made their way out the door. The woman tried to reach for a nearby blanket, but an evil look from the man made her abandon her plan and leave empty-handed.
“I told you I didn’t trust him, Mom,” said Volcseck once they were outside, exposed to the elements. “But don’t you worry, Mom. I’ll take care of him.”
The boy reached for his pocket. When he brought it back out he held a shiny emblem with red cracks running through it.
The woman looked as if she’d seen a ghost. “Put that away! I told you to never bring that out in the open.”
“But, Mom–”
“No buts. You know full well what happened last time you tried to use it.”
“That was an accident. I can control it better now.”
“Put that dreaded thing away.” She reached for it but then seemed to think better of it. She retracted her hand, as if the simple act of touching it would contaminate her. “If it wasn’t that you needed that emblem to keep you alive, I would have destroyed it long ago.”
Volcseck would not give up. “Why do we have to suffer out in the cold? I can easily kill him. We don’t have to live like this. I have more than enough power—”
“Shhhh… I will
not
have my child turn into a murderous criminal.” Falcon couldn’t get over the irony of the statement. If she only knew that sweet boy would grow to become the most wanted criminal in history.
Dropping his shoulders, Volcseck finally said. “So what do we do now, Mom?”
“If we hurry, I think we can make it to the city before sundown.” But they did not make it in time. No sooner had they descended a mile down the mountain than the blizzard hit.
The woman huddled beside the paltry shelter a bush of leaves provided. She held Volcseck under her, as she took the brunt of the storm.