Page 15 of The Dark Rising
I have to do what I must.
I raise the whip again and…
My blade slices through the rogure from jaw to neck, its dark blood leaking from the wound as its mouth drops open, its skin drooping. I bring my blade back up and aim it straight through the top off its head. It pierces its gray flesh, slicing through with ease, mindful of the black foam dripping from its gaping mouth. Not that it can do anything to me. Its black eyes turn clear before it collapses to the ground.
Dead. No essence released from it as it goes to the below.
“Heads up,” Leo shouts as an arrow flies past me to land in between the eyes of another rogure, dropping it dead before it reaches me.
I turn as another comes for me, and I lift my hand toward it. Black tendrils spear out of my palm, aiming directly for the rogure. They fly through the air and attack the rogure in different places before it forms together as one, then wraps itself around its neck. Thesnapsounds around us, and the head twists at an awkward angle before it drops to the floor like the others.
I spin and assess the situation. We’re in a small farming village just outside of the Nightshade pack. This village was overrun by rogures when we got here, the Highers’ witches notifying us of a power surge when they scryed. We got here too late though.
Dead bodies litter the floor, blood and organs scattered everywhere. Small children’s bodies lie close to half-eaten women, some have their child in their dead arms. Vultures circle the skies above, their squarks calling to others upon spotting the dead below to feast on. There will be none left, they will be burned to ash soon. A body convulses ahead of me, black foam coming out of the mouth as the rogures’s poison has taken hold of them. He can’t be saved, we have no cure for their poison, we have failed each time we have tried to save them. Screams can be heard around us as the rogures continue to claw and bite their way through anything and everything, causing rage to fill me.
What did we do to deserve this punishment of these beasts that only bring death?
An axe spins in the air before it lands in a rogures’s side, Jerrod soon upon it, taking the axe out of its flesh before he brings it down, cleaving it in two. Zaide takes on two rogures, both blades slice them as he dodges their attempt to attack him. Damian puts his blade through another’s legs before slicing its neck, quickly moving onto the next. The rest of my Elites make quick work with others, cutting every one of them down.
I let them deal with the rogures left as the last one drops. I step over to the male convulsing on the floor, my strike quick as I pierce the skin directly above his heart, sinking the blade in. His eyes hold mine for a second, before they go dull, dead,free. His essence starts to float from his body as I turn from him and make my way toward the larger storage building, where some villagers had managed to hide inside.
Banging on the door three times, I check over my shoulder to see no more rogures as the door creaks open. An older man peeks out, his body shaking with fear as he grips the door for dear life.
“They’re dead, you can come out now.” He doesn’t move, and I resist the urge to snarl. “Burn the rogures’s bodies and burn your dead.” I turn and walk away from them and gather with my brothers and some of my Elites.
“It’s strange seeing your Heir powers,” Leo says as he wipes his brow and puts his bow on his back. “Is it still strange for you?” I grunt. It’s not, it feels like the most natural thing in the lands. “Ready to go?”
I look around, knowing I won’t find her, but do it anyway. “Gather the others and go back to Vokheim Keep,” I tell Maverick, one of my higher ranking Elites. He nods before trudging off to do what I have ordered.
“To Wolvorn?” asks Damian, and I nod, rolling my shoulders as pain lances up my back. I welcome it.
Leo eyes me with concern. “Brother…” I ignore him and pull out the port stone, connecting with them all.
My body compresses, the pressure squeezing my chest until it feels like it’s caving in, then we’re standing inside the castle courtyard. We make our way forward toward the castle doors, once again, people steer clear of us. More so than ever now that it has been revealed that I’m an Heir to Cazier.
Something I didn’t truly remember but instinctively knew.
When Rhea had her hands on either side of my head two months ago in the great hall, I saw her. She was inside my mind, standing there, arms open as her power flowed from her into me. Drax held steady, waiting for her floating power to come forward. He was relaxed but eager and I had no idea why. Then he inhaled her power, and it was like a black fog was lifted from my mind.
It was unexpected, but everything became clear. Clearer than anything else in my entire life.
My father wasn’t an Heir, but somehow the role was passed on to me. I remember he was as shocked as I was when I showed signs at sixteen years old. I wasn’t born a pup like Heirs are usually said to be. Then Drax came soon after. My father seemed proud, even though the Heirs were deemed unsafe, he couldn’t believe the gift I had received from Cazier. It was the first time he was warmest toward me. After a month of hiding it under my father’s orders, I was being taken to an office at Wolvorn Castle. We stepped inside to find Aldus going over papers.
I remember sitting in a chair as my father and Aldus briefly spoke about the rogures. Then Aldus pressed a palm to my father’s forehead and his eyes clouded. I got up from the chair, asking him what he had done, when his palm connected with my head. I remember power running through me to my mind, wrapping it up in some sort of bubble, instinctively protecting myself and unknowingly making it so that only one person could clear it.
I don’t know how I knew to do that, I couldn’t control it, but Aldus seemed satisfied when he dropped his hand from my forehead and continued to speak to my father about the rogures. I sat back down in the chair and waited for them to be done so we could go home.
My memories from there are normal. I didn’t know I was an Heir, and it was never mentioned again by me or my father. My mom and my little sister, Isabell, never spoke about me being an Heir again before they died. Why didn’t they? My only answer is that Aldus must have done what he did to my father, and what he tried to do with me.
Now I know everything, and I remember why I hid my own mind, and why Rhea was the only one able to clear it.
It’s also the reason what Rhea said about Kade’s memories not being true is not sitting right with me. I have had time since she and her pack escaped to be at one with my thoughts and go over and over again in my mind with what happened to know I’m missing something.
Rhea hasn’t been seen since. We have been searching Vrohkaria for her, even going back to Eridian, but she wasn’t there. Charles had posters put up around towns and villages, declaring her dangerous, and has asked people to contact their closest authority if they ever caught a glimpse of her. Her picture is everywhere, so how is she still not within my grasp?
Heir of Zahariss. How can an Heir cause so much death and bring the rogures upon us when she is meant to be protector to the lands? It doesn’t make sense, I don’t think any of this makes sense, and I’ve spent the last two months trying to find out the truth, but no one will give me a straight answer. I even asked Charles to see the memory crystal again, just to make sure that what I saw was true, now that I can look at it more clearly and not be blinded by rage.
He refused, and I’m still not sure of anything anymore.
