In her dream, Cain was standing in front of a bright blue building. The windows reached to the sky. He looked more handsome than she had ever seen anyone look before. He was looking into the distance, at a peak in the forest not too far from where the Kersh clan’s settlement was. He turned his stormy blue-green eyes onto her and smiled radiantly, a gesture that electrified every inch of her.
When she woke up, the lights of Kaldernon were shimmering oddly. Kyna peered up at them, confused. Why did they look so different? The hue was more orange than usual, and the lights seemed to be pulsing.
Suddenly, she knew, it was a message. The world above seemed to be organizing, working together to convey a message through the gap between worlds.
“What are you trying to say?” Kyna demanded, scrambling to her feet. She didn’t want to miss the chance to understand what the people of Kaldernon were trying to convey, but it didn’t make sense. There was no rhyme or reason to the way the lights were flashing. She squinted, concentrating hard on decoding the message.
“Kyna!”
A heavy hand on her shoulder broke her concentration and she gasped out loud, whipping around to see who had distracted her.
“Archer, what are you doing?”
Archer, son of the leader of the Kersh clan, was behind her. He was about ten years old, and had the same brooding dark looks as his father Clayton. But his eyes favored those of his Loni mother’s.
“What are you doing out here?” Archer asked, looking up at the sky skeptically. His eyes widened when he saw the pulsing lights of Kaldernon. “What’s going on?”
He seemed suddenly scared, and his round eyes looked to Kyna for guidance. She was already well-known around the clan for her insight and prophetic dreams, and if anybody could give Archer his answers, he seemed to know it was Kyna.
“I think that the people of Kaldernon are trying to send us a message.”
“Really? Cool!” Archer bounced beside her, barely able to contain his excitement. “What are they saying, Kyna?”
She looked back to the sky and sighed.
“I’m not sure, buddy.”
“Whatever it is, I bet it’s super important!” Archer said. “I’d better go tell my dad right away!”
“Yeah, you do that,” Kyna said as Archer turned on his heel and headed back to the settlement. “I’ll just wait here…”
Within a matter of minutes, Kyna became surrounded by the most important members of the Kersh clan’s council. Clayton had apparently kept the situation quiet and must have instructed Archer to do the same.
“What do you make of all this, Kyna?” he asked, making his way through the crowd. He stopped beside her and looked up at Kaldernon with a deep frown. “Do you think they are all right? Is it war?”
The thought hadn’t entered Kyna’s mind in the least, but it sent a jolt of panic through her. Still, she knew from years of experience to only speak the truth of her first impressions. Fear was a poison that got in the way of true progress.
“I didn’t get that impression,” she said, though she was now afraid of the worst. “I think I had a vision, and when I woke up, Kaldernon looked different.”
“Strange,” Clayton said, fingering his chin. “What was your vision.”
A beautiful man.
“The man I brought before. Cain. I think he’s involved in all of this somehow, but I can’t figure out what to do…”
“Cain?” Clayton asked, suddenly intrigued. “What do you know about him?”
“Not much…just that he’s important. I got the impression that he is going to help to liberate and help us return to Kaldernon.”
Clayton put his arm around Kyna and led her away from the bulk of the group as they stared at the strange lights of Kaldernon.
“A long time ago, I knew a man who looked just like Cain,” Clayton confided. “He was a mentor and close friend after my father had been killed.”
“Cain? But that’s impossible…”
“No, not Cain. His name was Kalden. He was a friend of my father’s who disappeared around thirty years ago. It happened when I was about Archer’s age. His disappearance has haunted me for years. I thought for sure he had been captured by the Guardians and killed, but when we raided their headquarters and found the records after Richard was killed, it said he had escaped almost immediately and taken a woman with him.”
“A woman?”
“Yes. A purebred Dragon Shifter woman.”
“Where did they go?” Kyna asked.
Clayton was equally mystified. “I guess they chose to run far from here. I can only imagine that once they stopped running, perhaps they gave birth to Cain…”
“He mentioned that he was found in the forest near here,” Kyna said, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
“Maybe they felt the coast was clear and were hoping to return back to the Kersh clan to raise their son properly. With his people,” Clayton said sadly. “Where did they end up?”
“I don’t know, but Cain has no ties to his parents. He was adopted not far from here. I think he feels abandoned.”
“I see,” Clayton sighed. “The elders of the clan, including myself, I suppose, all thought they had seen the second coming of Kalden. They look so much alike. He was one of the few pure-blooded dragon shifters in the clan. My father and his had that in common.”
Clayton seemed overcome with emotion and Kyna touched his shoulder comfortingly.
“Thank you,” he said, clearing his throat. “Anyway, if he has something to do with finding our way back to Kaldernon, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“No?”
“As the purest Loni oracle, I’m sure you understand how our genetics play a strong role in unlocking our hidden potentials. If he is a pure dragon shifter, he is one of the last. And perhaps he holds the key in unlocking whatever mystery surrounds the lights of Kaldernon. Find him and bring him back here. That’s an order.”
He said it kindly, but Clayton’s eyes were serious. Kyna nodded, understanding what she was meant to do. She would bring Cain back to the Kersh clan.
Their future depended on it.