Borlosanti: Genesis

Part 15

Chapter 20

Dayja's perspective

Dayja and his wife were standing in their guest bedroom. He looked at the bed. Etheria was in a deep sleep, and her face was badly bruised. He listened, her breathing was erratic.

He wondered, how could Alizarin do such a thing to a woman? He had to be stopped. But who other than me is strong enough to do it... No one - And I don't want to confront Alizarin, just in case I am forced to kill him...

Dayja sighed.

Woz what I did selfish? Yes. Etheria and seven of my brothers paid the price for my inaction... But I was in-between a rock and a hard place... On one hand, I wanted to protect everyone in Borlosanti, but on the other I didn't want to harm Alizarin... Hopefully the prophesy I received from the oracle, a few days ago, was right — "the four children from Earth would bring an end to Alizarin's reign of terror" — After I heard this, I wanted to summon them straight away, but the oracle made it clear that before they could fulfil their destiny they had to find me... Why? It didn't make any sense; the longer Alizarin was left to his own vices, the more others would suffer — That was the way of the oracle though; always speaking in riddles, and never explaining why things had to be done...

He grasped the locket around his neck and looked at his wife. "What did the doctor say?"

"He said that she's lucky to be alive, because the torture and neglect she suffered left her on the brink of death," said Novelle.

"But will she be o.k.?"

"We can only hope and pray, Dayja... the doctor said that because of the nature of her magical injuries, it's best to treat her with natural medicine — rather than treating her with magic."

Dayja opened his locket, looked at the picture inside it and wondered, why Alizarin? Why? How did my sweet younger brother turn into such an evil tyrant? O.k., you hate me, because you believe I took Novelle away from you, but what do you have against everyone else? How could you help your father's arch enemy to defeat and kill your own father? How could you kill your own brothers and how could you torture your sister in-law? The young boy I once knew would never have done such things, so what changed? Are you really pass the point of no return? Hopefully not...

He looked at his wife. "It was dangerous for you to go and see Alizarin, alone."

Novelle frowned. "Well, one of us had to try and do something to bring an end to this madness."

He put his hand on his wife's shoulder; she shrugged it off and moved closer to the bed.

Chapter 21

Alizarin's Perspective

Alizarin was in his bird sanctuary. He looked. His hawk used its beak to feed a dead mouse to one of its young ones. He smiled and glanced, a red eyed minion walked up to him.

Alizarin turned to the minion and smiled. "Hi, Deerad, how are you today?"

Deerad said, "fine sire, word has come back from one of our spies that your brother met with the oracle and that she told him that four young boys from earth will help him bring an end to your reign —"

"Nobody can stop me, especially not four weak children, but it's better to be safe than sorry; so I'll eliminate them before they even reach my brother."

Chapter 22

Nathaniel's perspective

Nathaniel rubbed his eyes, opened them and looked. He and his friends were still lying in the forest. His friends and Potencia woke up; Potencia taught the boys more sword fighting and hand to hand combat techniques, for an hour.