The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

064: Kara

The noises of people hurrying by never ceased, but no one even thought about entering the place where Kara lay. 

Korlon had not woken her when he left, but she knew he would not have gone far. Perhaps he was retrieving food or water, or checking on their escape route. 

Where was Rion?

The last thing she remembered was jumping in front of the Foeman that had slashed out at Rion. She must have been the one hit. Her hand wandered to her throat. She had the suspicion that she had perhaps.... 

She had a strange impression that she had died.

Her hand continued to massage the earth as she lay, feeling a connection she'd never felt before. The way dirt filtered through her fingers like silk. She stared up at the leafy temple overhead that didn't block out the clouds, the rain or the wind. The storm had begun, and she was drenched, but she didn't move. 

Korlon had been gone a long time. The storm had passed, it was dawn. 

Rion.

She sought the link she carried to his core, deeply ingrained and solidly in place. He didn't reply. Did he think she was dead?

He probably did, she turned to the wall and pressed her face into the cold wet stone. Rion? I'm alive!

He can't leave me now. We've been through too much!  She couldn't deny what she'd felt when he kissed her. 

She felt that deep melding moment, and wanted nothing more than to be with him... always. The feelings she had felt for Korlon seemed brotherly and sweetly naive. What she felt for Rion transcended that.

Rion! I must get back to you.

*******

General Wendar marched onto the training field on Aquaria and faced the local recruits. They'd been standing at attention for two hours. He let them stand.

He walked the length of the recruits until he came to a uniformed contingency.

"Who told you to wear a uniform? You are nothing! Strip out of those clothes, boy! You are a disgrace to the colors of Aquaria! I will not tolerate those who think they are better than everyone else. Not one of you here is worth the air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you consume! Strip! All of you. Down to your skivvies. Strip!"

"You there, take these clothes back to the washers and stay there till they are clean and shiny, pressed and hung. Then report to me here!" The two men stared at him in shock and when he grabbed them both by the hair and threw them forward to the pile of clothes they raced with alarm to do his bidding.

The General eyed the rest of the gathered group in disdain. "How many of you are there?" 

"Fifteen hundred sir!"

"What is your name, boy!"

"Kane, sir!"

"You show a slight modicum of respect Kane. Did you recruit these men yourself?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Don't you look at me, boy. You listen to me, but you haven't earned the right to look at me." He got into the boy's face, but now the boy would not move his eyes. "Can you run the shuttle craft, boy?"

"Yes, sir!" 

"You take the first 50 men on the field and leave immediately for Galantyne, do you hear me? You drop them there and you come back! I expect you on this field in four hours, boy. Do you hear me?"

Kane stood there staring over the top of Wendar's head. "I was assigned here, sir, I have a family here."

"Don't you ever tell me what you have or don't have again, young man! This is an army! We are at war! You say, yes sir, and you run... do you hear me? Run!!"

"Yes, sir!" Kane's eyes were full of tears. "The first 50 men on the field follow me!"

Wendar shook his head, glaring at the rest of them. "Drop and give me a hundred pushups!" he yelled and the men got to their knees. "You stupid pigs! Not worth air and water. I said drop, soldier! Give me energy, and plenty of it."

Wendar went to another of the previously uniformed men. "Son, is this the best you can do? These fifteen hundred? Take the rest of your contingency and get me fifteen hundred more. You beat them, you push them, you prod them. It will be like a spring picnic compared to what they will face if I have to do it myself."

******

Sossana felt the tremor as if from far away. She sat bolt upright in her bed, her heart racing in fear. Quickly throwing back the covers, she wrapped a robe around her bony shoulders. She raced out of the room and down the hallway connecting her to her sister's room.

"Pellanor! Wake up! Pellanor!" she screeched and activated the lights to full capacity.

"What is it, fool?" 

"I sense something! Nimiane is dead! I believe Nimiane has been killed! I cannot sense her at all." Sossana was tearfully twisting her hands. "Look! Look in the mirror!"

Pellanor swung her blue-veined legs out of the covers and her swollen bare feet hit the floor. "Nimiane?"

"I cannot sense her."

"Can you sense Belakane?" 

Sossana focused her thoughts inward and immediately felt Belakane's deeply confident waves wash over her. "Yes! Yes! I can sense Belakane!" she gripped the locket she always wore around her neck. Her gift, the gift of sensing life.

"What about Ondrea?"

"Yes! Yes! Ondrea and Mathilde are together like I told you before. But I can't feel Nimiane! Oh, sister! What shall we do without Nimiane?" Her voice cracked in misery and as she followed her sister down the metal stairs.

Pellanor went to the polished mirror the size of a large man's weaponry. It was kept behind glass, and Pellanor pressed her hand to a concealed release on the wall. The glass slid to the side and Pellanor lifted the heavy mirror off the wall as if it were the lightest feather. She brought it carefully to the table in the center of the room, and both sisters waited for it to stop vibrating.

Pellanor's eyes rose to meet her sister's. "I only get to look once, dear. Are you sure you sense death?"

"I am." Sossana cried.

"If the Council has been compromised the shield will show us the current members of the council, not what has happened..." Pellanor warned.

She saw first Ondrea sitting on a window ledge staring out at the night sky intently, a sad look on her face, but she was free, the wind blew her white unbound hair across her face and her beautiful slender fingers rose to contain it.

Now the image changed and she saw Belakane, her immense frame hurrying at breakneck pace down a long corridor toward a shuttle bay, where a large contingency of armed men were waiting to escort her.

"Belakane is on her way, Sossana. She must be aware." 

The image receded and Pellanor saw Mathilde asleep in her bed next to her husband as she would be at this hour. She was never connected to the workings of the Council, even though she was a member. Now she just needed to see Adara and Nimiane.

The next image was of a sleeping girl, in a softly lit lavender room. She gasped.

"Sossana! It's Avarona! Avarona is vowed in. Nimiane is dead! Oh, Nimiane!"

"What of Adara?"

The mirror now illuminated a night full of feathers and wind, lightning in the distance.

"I don't know." Sossana leaned close to look. "I think it is a Harpyiae! It's Jerrika! Adara must be dead!"

Pellanor fell across the shield in tearful grief, and both women howled in mourning for many minutes. When they finally got control of themselves Pellanor wiped the reddened eyes of her sister. "Darling, it is time to use the Locket. Call the Council."

******