Spring Changes, page 16
I moved through the line of guards, shocked at their levels. Not as high level as Xirob, but way above me. I looked back and they’d moved away. I guess I only had the one way to go.
I turned the corner and stood now on lush green grass. A body of water spread before me, surrounded by bushes and beautiful pink and orange flowers. A woman sat on the bench by the water.
The body of water inside this ship is fantastic. Mechanics to keep the water moving and clean, fascinating, Hiroto said. I’d love to dig in.
As would I, Xe answered, but I can see the place is shielded from nites. There’s a big neon sign that says enter and you will die. Pretty easy for me just not to go anywhere near it. I don’t really want to die just because I’m too nosey to not look.
I laughed. I would have loved to send her in, but not to risk her life.
Cautiously, I stepped forwards, feeling the grass bounce beneath my feet.
The lady’s light green dress flowed out underneath, embroidered gold crests adorning it. From the back, her hair, soft brown, shone in the fake sun above us.
I stopped behind her, looking out to the lake and the rippling waters. “Beautiful spot,” I said softly.
“Oh!” She jumped up, her hand to her mouth. The instant harnessing of her kenosi pressed down on me. My knees buckled, and she then fell before me. “Kyle, I’m so sorry. I was miles away.”
I noticed the sparkle of her eyes, flecks of gold and silver within the iris. Xirob’s memories flooded through my mind. Her beauty, her voice. Her kenosi probably could have killed me in an instant, but she let it drop.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said.
She seemed so young. Not a laugh line or wrinkle. She held her hands out and I took hers, she grasped me tightly.
“Come,” she said. “I have a boat. I’d like to show you something from the water.”
When she rushed off, practically dragging me, I couldn’t do anything but follow. Her excitement shone in her smile as she pointed to the boat. Maybe just being around someone like me was different for her?
“Did you expect me to be nothing but serious?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, did I project that?”
She shook her head and looked away, her cheeks flushed. “No, I’m the one who should apologise. I see and read much more than I should. Sometimes I don’t even know I’ve done it.”
“Ahh, no problem,” I said. “I guess you are curious about me?”
She nodded and stepped onto the little rowboat. When I was aboard, she cast us out with ease. “Yes, I am very curious. It’s not far.”
There was no need for her to row or do anything else; she just put her hand in the water and within a second there was a dolphin-like creature at the stern, pushing us where she directed.
We sped to the centre of the lake. It was nice to just be here. But there was a lot in this young denti’s eyes I couldn’t read.
Out here, a good breeze blew across my arms and the boat stilled. “You’re as curious about me, as I am you,” she said.
“I don’t mean to offend,” I replied and ran my hands down my uniform, suddenly sweating.
She laughed. “I never expected Xirob and you to meld together so well. I . . .” She paused. “I am very grateful you did, though.”
“He’s one of the strongest men I’ve ever met,” I said honestly.
“I wanted the best for him,” she said and her eyes misted. “I care for him a lot.”
“You care or you love him?” I asked. It was the one thing playing on my mind between them, his words, his story.
Kyle! Hiroto said inside me.
I’m not wrong here, I replied to him. He mentioned they had something.
“I did love him,” she said. “I still love him. He has another now, and a daughter. I would not deny him that, either.”
Fuck, Hiroto said. I saw the blood pooling in her eyes, a trait I knew only Royals did, and I reached forwards to wipe one away as it fell.
“Sending him to me was the hardest thing you ever did, wasn’t it?” I risked asking.
“I didn’t bring you here to bare my heart.” She sucked in a breath, straightening her back. “You’re just so pure. That’s why most are drawn to you, including the darkness that almost took you down.”
I smiled then. “You witnessed me take him down instead though, right?”
We took him down, Hiroto said.
“Yes, Hiroto deserves a life with Dylan, but there is another path for him.”
She . . . Hiroto said. Can you hear me, my queen?
Her gaze almost penetrated right through me, and I found it pretty eerie. “I can hear you, Hiroto. Without your sacrifices as well as Kyle’s, you wouldn’t have completed any of your missions. Together, you are what this universe needed. What this universe still needs.”
She had pretty tactfully changed the subject here.
“I admit, I’m still pretty mystified at everything.” I laughed at her shift in topic, but also didn’t pursue Xirob and her relationship anymore. “You know, Arndale, the rift, the darkness, the enemy in general.”
“Xirob told you what he knew of your past and some of ours. There is a lot of our history which was lost in some of the wars we’ve had.”
“Can you tell me?” I asked. “Tell me what all of this is about?”
“Power, greed, the usual. It sparked in another plane, a part of a universe we didn’t know existed till the darkness made itself known.”
I sat back, rolling my sleeves up a little. It was warm out here on the lake.
“Apologies,” she said. “I’m in a dress. I like the temperature warmer.”
With a wave of her hand, the sun dipped behind some clouds, and the temperature altered with it. “That was impressive. Thank you.”
She reached behind her and pulled a large scarf out that she wrapped around her shoulders. She looked back at me. “We had the first inkling something was wrong when I was very young and my mother and father were both in power.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
“You believed the Vrolsh are creatures with no direction, no order, correct?”
I shook my head. “Actually, I believe the opposite. They have so many different subspecies.”
“Yes, exactly. And how smart are they?”
I cringed. That was a very well-set-up question. “So they’re as smart if not smarter than us?”
She pulled up an image. “This is the Vrolsh homeworld.” A planet formed before us, barren, empty, dead. “The Vrolsh are the solid form of the ‘darkness’—or at least what manifests here around their essence.”
“It seemed their essence takes over anything it can, like a parasite. The lower intelligent critters are just easy prey?”
“Easy to take over, yes,” she said. “They operate in a possession capacity, one mature Vrolsh can command an army.”
I thought to the rift, what we’d seen trying to escape. “What tried to escape the rift was a Vrolsh commander?”
“Most likely.” The image faded. “It is not often they try to get through, but I do believe there’s a few in this side of the universe.”
“They’re here?” I was shocked.
“Before we discovered the rift. Before my mother and father took the mechs to the rift, they got through.”
“They’re after what from our world?”
“To create chaos, to harbour evil.”
I let out a sigh. “How can something so big get away with being unseen here?”
“Generals can take other forms. It was a general that killed my father.”
Blood pooled in her eyes once more, real Eekan tears. I just melted as soon as her eyes filled. I reached over gently and put a hand on hers.
“I’m sorry, Kyle,” she said. “I don’t talk often about anything like this, only ever to Xirob.” She paused, breathed in deeply, her small frame shook a little then she carried on. “A general infiltrated our ranks while we were in talks with the human race. I believe that’s one of the reasons we all went to war in the first place.”
I remembered the picture of Xirob and focused on their faces. It came into my mind and I passed over the people that were there, then I froze.
“The Vrolsh are on Earth,” I said with a heavy heart.
16
“What?” she asked. “How can you know that?”
“When I first landed on KronoS, the team there had to destroy a base, so information couldn’t get out of Arndale’s. Well, we downloaded most of it. There was a picture.”
Hiroto, can you recall it in any detail, maybe with the chip?
I’ll try my best.
There it was, in my mind. A picture of Xirob, and I thought of his family. “The picture is real. It was your mother and father, and the leads from Earth, wasn’t it?”
She nodded at me. “I think I still have access to that picture.” She reached behind her and into a compartment then she pulled out a data pad. Entering commands, she brought up a better-quality image.
The man standing with Borix and Xirob stuck with me. The man who had been with me when I went for the chip to be put in my head.
“Not only are the Vrolsh on Earth, one of their generals is,” I said. “We have to warn them, do something.”
The shiver which ran up my spine made me spasm.
“It could put them all at risk,” she said. “Who?”
I tapped his face on the picture. “This is he. He gave me my chip for my seventeenth birthday.”
Cassie frowned. “He killed my father. Xirob and Borix scoured everywhere for him.”
“It seems he skipped a ship and travelled to Earth.”
“Any of these there?” She then pulled up another picture.
I stared at it, almost not believing I recognised any of them. I tapped another one. “Wallace—he’s leader of Arndale’s main headquarters in my town. I never used to pay much attention to him.”
“So there’s a general at least, and maybe two others.”
I let out a sigh, sat back. “You wanted to meet me. Why? This wasn’t it?”
“I wanted to meet you earlier,” Cassie said. “There was never enough time. I’m glad you came. To meet the man who helped Xirob become the man he is. The father I knew he could be.”
“You’ve seen that?”
She nodded and sadness spread over her face though. Putting her hand back in the water, she called the dolphin creature forwards once more, and within seconds we were heading back to shore. I helped her out of the small boat.
“Thank you for the trip,” I said.
“Would you join me for dinner?” she asked.
I frowned; she surprised me at every turn. “You don’t want to get rid of me?”
“No,” she said. “Honestly, I’ve liked the difference in company.” I raised an eyebrow, and she linked her arm in mine. “I’m getting a lot of flak for not thinking about children.”
“Family. Nothing like them, hey?”
“They want the best for our people,” she said, only stopping to touch some of the pink flowers around us.
“What do you want?” I asked tentatively.
She looked up at me. Her face had seemed young. But with her eyes now this close, I noted tiny tell-tale lines. “Only Xirob has ever asked me that before.”
“What did you tell him?”
She turned away. “That there could be nothing between us that was more than it was, a fling.”
At least it matched what Xirob had said. But he had not told me the depth of their feelings. I could see how much it hurt her. To send the one you loved away. No wonder she had cried as much as she did. I wondered briefly if he knew to the extent of her deception. Or if he had to work through it like she did.
I’m struggling with this, Hiroto said. Knowing how he felt with Faith.
I agree. But what we experienced then was something he had no real choice in. Of course his feelings are real; we went through it as he did.
Are they though? he asked.
I fell silent and looked deep inside myself for the truth, any truth. Relationships were odd here, not just because of their dynamics, but because people just weren’t honest with each other.
Cassie took us slightly left from the bench and down towards a waiting vehicle. A guard opened the door for us, and we got in. I sat opposite her and I couldn’t help myself.
“As much as I adore Faith and Finn,” I said, “you need to tell him.”
“What?” Her face paled.
“You need to tell Xirob,” I said. “Tell him how you really feel.”
“He’s my guard, Kyle. I can’t be with him.”
“The world is changing.” I didn’t need to think about my word choices here. “You can see that. Who you spend the rest of your life with matters now. If he matters to you. If you send him off to that war with me again and he doesn’t know and we don’t come back . . .” I paused. “Can you live with that?”
Blood tears came once more, and this time she didn’t hold them back. I moved in closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her small frame shook. When she looked at me, those red tears had stained her hands and her dress. “I can’t let anyone see me like this,” she sobbed. “Get rid of them for me.”
Hiroto, what can you do?
I’m not sure. Her security is higher than anything I’ve encountered.
Can you reach Xirob? I asked.
I think so, what do you want me to tell him?
Meet the vehicle at her private residence? Can you guess where we’re going, lead me?
I think so. It’s not that hard.
I moved to pull my shirt off, feeling the cool of the transport. I offered it to her. “I’m sorry, I don’t usually carry enough to mop up a bloodbath.”
She reached out to take it, her hand trembling. “I am not usually so emotional. I don’t know what’s come over me today.”
“You met the person who took over the body of the man you love and killed him.” I held her eyes with mine, judging her reactions. Her every twitch. She was in deep here, absolutely besotted with Xirob. “I’m not surprised your emotions are high. I’m sorry.”
“You did everything you could, Kyle. I don’t hold any of that against you.”
“I know.” She still took the shirt from me and wiped up the bloodstained tears as best she could. But they kept coming, her sobs light.
Xirob’s voice came through to me on direct comms. “What happened?”
“No one can see her,” I replied. I reached for her, not holding back my comfort. “Come for us. Get everyone else out the way.”
“Of course.” His voice sounded raspy. He was already running for us. “I’ll be right there.”
I tugged her closer. “Make the choice that’s right for you,” I whispered, and she sobbed more. “You can do this. We’re all here for you.”
I held her while the soft sobs she still tried to hold within eventually subsided.
The vehicle didn’t travel far. It slowed, then stopped. Ahead, Xirob paced back and forth, waiting, hand on his hip. The grounds were empty, no other guards around. I opened the door and exited without a shirt, covered in blood-red tear stains. She slammed the door closed behind me.
“What the hell?” I could see anger and emotion flare in Xirob’s eyes. He moved to step around me, and I placed a hand on his arm.
“I gave it to her. She looks bad.”
Xirob swallowed, nodded, and moved to the open door of the shuttle. “Cassie,” he said, offering her a hand. “Come out, it’s just me.”
“I told him to get rid of everyone,” she shouted out. “No one can see me!”
Cassie tried to shut the door, but like lightning, Xirob reached out and stopped her. “I’ve seen you worse than this. Come out.”
I stood and shivered slightly. Out here in the shade of the palace, the cold permeated through to my bones. When she eventually stepped out of the shuttle, he gently tugged her to him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t do this,” she said.
I looked to the main doors of the building before me. And decided this was my time exit. I adored Finn and Faith, but if she had rejected him, he was free to love again, right?
I don’t know, Hiroto said. He took her as a mate for life. I don’t know if they get to make that decision and back away from it without consequences.
The door opened for me, and I paused just in hearing range still. Xirob held onto the queen while she still cried in the open spot of sunlight. He didn’t seem to be rushing her at all. For that, I was grateful; they both needed this time.
“Please talk to me,” Xirob said. I was sure Hiroto enhanced their conversation.
I need to hear this, he said.
“You’re going out on the front line once more,” Cassie said.
“I’m always on the front line,” he said. “That’s my job.”
“I need you to know . . .” She paused and looked up into his eyes. “I never should have pushed you away and how much I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
Xirob didn’t react, and he didn’t speak for what seemed like an eternity to me.
Oh my god, please tell her! Hiroto screamed in my head.
Xirob’s eyes narrowed, and even I read his words. “I know.”
He leaned forwards, dipped his head and kissed her gently. Cassie melted against him.
I turned away, to Hiroto’s disappointment.
You can’t do that!
The smell of food, drifting my way, enticed my feet to follow it. I heard the door go, but no one came toward me. I looked over the spread of food before me. The door at the other end of the room opened. And Imehia and Miquel came in.
“Oh thankfully!” Imehia rushed to me where I stood, still half naked. She turned to the young guard who had let them in. “Would you grab us a washcloth and a shirt for Kyle?”
“Ma’am,” he replied.
Imehia rubbed my arms like a madwoman. “Is he okay?” she asked.
“Xirob?”
“You comm’d him and he rushed off like a crazy man,” she said and traced a line of blood tears down my torso. “We could only presume it was something to do with the queen.”
I nodded and started to make myself a plate of food. I took a bite of something that looked like a fish finger, and my mouth drooled.
