Chapter Four

Mhavrych could feel the tension in the room around him. It felt like the air itself was heavy and thick, pressing in so that it was more difficult to breathe. He looked around at the gathering of people who filled Rey’s drawing room. He had been in this room before, but it looked different now that it was so crowded, filled not just with the trusted few in the village, but also all the Eteri men who had come to fulfill Creia’s request for assistance. They knew that things were reaching a boiling point and that action needed to be taken.

“Something needs to be done now,” Creia said pointedly. “We didn’t have the luxury of time like before, it has become far more serious now. We have been betrayed.”

“Someone was able to hand Malcolm back over to the Order,” Mhavrych confirmed. “He’s fortunate to be alive. I witnessed some of what he endured, and I can attest that he would not have survived much longer.”

“Where is he now?” Rey asked.

“That’s not something that I can reveal,” Mhavrych said. “He is safe, that’s all that I can tell you.”

Rey looked angry and he leaned toward Mhavrych.

“I have been kept out of enough of the developments within my own kingdom. It is disturbing enough to me that I did not even know about the existence of the Order when it was operating just beneath my feet. I will not tolerate being kept out of anything else. I am still King of this kingdom and I expect that when I ask something of you, it is given to me without question.”

“You are not my King,” Mhavrych answered calmly. “I don’t follow you or your commands.”

“You have to trust him, Rey. Listen to what he says,” Creia said, his tone sounding as if he was doing everything that he could to calm the situation and prevent all of the tension that was around them from igniting into conflict.

“I don’t know who he is, Creia. It seems that no one here does and that we are only expected to accept him and what he is doing because of the word of Athan, who I will point out, is also missing along with Malcolm and Icelyn.”

“They aren’t missing,” Mhavrych said. “I have already told you that they were brought somewhere safe and secure that is inaccessible to the Order. It will keep them protected until it’s time to travel back to Penthos.”

“You brought them somewhere to keep them safe from the threat that they faced here from the corrupt members of the Order, but you cannot even tell us where that is?” Rey asked. “We are the ones who have agreed to stand alongside those who are fighting, and you insist on keeping that type of information from us?”

“Yes,” Mhavrych said. “Frankly, as little as you know about me, I know nearly as little about you. I have no way of knowing who can truly be trusted. As Creia said, we have been betrayed. Someone we believed to be a member of the army that we are building, a person we entrusted with our training and our strategies, went against us and brought Malcolm back into the clutches of the Order. We have no idea who that was and until we do, I will be suspicious of anyone who I am not directly and personally familiar with, including you.”

Rey looked at him with eyes like burning embers. He could see the King shaking with the fury of his reaction to what Mhavrych said, but it didn’t impact him. He didn’t care what the Mikana leader thought of him or his decisions. He had a specific responsibility, a duty to fulfill on Uoria, and it was his decision whether he would do anything other than that explicit role. As long as he was doing what was expected of him by his father and those he had left behind at home, he didn’t need the affirmation or approval of anyone else.

“How are we to know that you aren’t the one who betrayed them?” Rey asked. “Like you just admitted, we know nothing about you or even why you are on this planet.”

“He rescued Malcolm from the dungeon,” Creia pointed out.

“Perhaps,” Rey said. “But perhaps not. What if he is only saying that he rescued them so that we will continue to trust him when he knows that they are still in the hands of the Order, or already dead? You are expecting us to blindly trust someone only on the word of someone he might have killed.”

Mhavrych stood from his seat and glared at Rey.

“You are permitted to believe anything that you want to. I am here by my own decision. I am not under the guidance or control of anyone in this room or anywhere else in the kingdom. I am willing to help you, but if you would rather assume that I am the one posing the threat to you, then I am happy to continue to the role that brought me here in the first place.”

He started toward the door, but he heard Creia behind him.

“Mhavrych, stop. Rey, I know that you’re angry about the Order. I know that you feel that you were disrespected by not being privy to its existence or its activities, but you need to understand that that was done for your own safety and for the safety of the Mikana.”

“Far more than the Mikana,” Mhavrych said. “The Order, at its core, is not about the Mikana. It’s about the entirety of the Universe.”

“Rey,” Creia continued, “you need to understand that what was done is done. There is nothing that can be done to change what happened long before you were even born. If you love this kingdom and you want to do what needs to be done to protect it and the rest of existence, you will accept that Mhavrych is here to help us. You have to trust him.”

There was a long stretch of silence as if Rey was contemplating the situation and then he settled back into his chair, looking as though the anger was still simmering inside of him and he was unsure but knew that there was nothing that he could do.

“Fine,” he said. Mhavrych returned to his chair and sat down. “I apologize.”

Mhavrych nodded and then looked at Creia.

“We are in more danger than we even knew,” Creia said. “It is clear now that we are not as secure as we thought we were and that we don’t have any more time to spend on our preparations. With one betrayal already, there is little that will keep more threats from happening. We are going to have to speed up our plans to go to Penthos and reunite with the rest of the army. Only then will we be able to bring this situation to a resolution.”

“But we aren’t ready,” Kyven protested. “We haven’t completed our training and now that the Eteri are here, we need to integrate them into the strategies and maneuvers as well.”

Creia shook his head.

“There is nothing more that can be done. Even without the army fully trained, we need to get off Uoria. The Eteri are prepared. They are a strong and capable army and will be able to fight in their own way. The training that we have already completed will have to be enough.”

“You must remember that this is an ancient feud.”

Mhavrych turned to the Eteri man who had been introduced to him as Lucian, the leader of the army. He had been sitting silently, not saying anything since they had come into the room. Now he was looking out over everyone who had gathered in the space as if he didn’t think that they really understood what they were facing.

“What do you mean?” Kyven asked.

“This not a new fight. The Valdicians and the Mikana had been locked in conflict for many generations. When the Valdicians came to Uoria, they were prepared to take over the planet. They had been a nomadic species for many years, traveling through space and taking over smaller planets for short periods. They saw Uoria as a chance to establish their own planet, to take over the jewel of the galaxy and claim the power and control that they had wanted for so long. Their origins are in betrayal, blood, and hatred. They were once a part of a beautiful, peaceful kind, a people so influential that they say that the Universe itself will tell you the story of their kind if you are quiet enough to listen. But when the power over a kingdom was given to one brother over another, and a forbidden love was embraced, the cruel, power-hungry Valdicians were born.”

“What does that have to do with the Mikana?” Rey asked.

Mhavrych felt his heart pounding in his chest and his fingers were tingling as he listened to the story that the Eteri man was recounting. These were words that he hadn’t expected that he would hear, a story that was meant to be left untold.

“The Valdicians came and waged war against the Eteri. Allies then, the Eteri and the Denynso came together to fight against these intruders. That was long ago before the silver warriors were decimated. During the war, a Denynso woman named Aida fell in love with a Valdician. But he was not merely a Valdician. He was the second in command to the general of the Valdician army. Tethered to the general with a particularly cruel and vicious piece of Valdician technology, Fayat risked his very life just to be with the woman he loved. Upon discovering not just their relationship, but also that Aida carried Fayat’s child, a Denynso King brought them to the Order, leveraging their alliance and the sway that he had over them and all the Mikana to seek help for the desperate couple. They knew that if they were to stay on Uoria, even if they hid, it would only be a matter of time before the Valdicians found them and destroyed not just them, but everyone who had helped them. They made the decision that they would remove them from Uoria, send them away somewhere no one else would be able to find. The Order and the Denynso combined forces to end the ambitions of the Valdicians that day and they soon left Uoria, but they left devastation in their wake. The Irisa were destroyed. The Denynso and the Mikana were forced to dissolve their alliance. Changes had begun that would mean Uoria would never again be what it once was, or what it could have been.”

“I still don’t understand what that has to do with what is happening now,” Rey said.

Lucian looked at the Mikana King with still, blue eyes that were like looking into a droplet of water.

“I believe that what is happening now is a direct result of what happened when the Valdicians first came to Uoria. They are coming after the Order in retaliation for them aiding Fayat and fueling the abortion of their plan to take the planet.”

“But the Order is an ancient group,” Creia pointed out. “They existed well before the situation with Aida and Fayat.”

“Yes,” Lucian said. “And I believe that the hatred of the Valdicians for the Order began well before they came to Uoria. Their aiding of Fayat was simply the breaking point for them.”

Mhavrych saw Creia shaking his head.

“No,” he said. “This is about the corruption within the Order. That corruption had nothing to do with the Valdicians. It began with the mutation.”

“The Klimnu,” Rey said. “They are the mutated form of the Mikana that allowed their greed take over.”

“Yes,” Lucian said, “the corruption with the hierarchy stemmed originally from the mutation, but what led to that mutation? In all of the history of the Mikana, there had never been such a mutation. Who led them to the flowers that contained the toxins, and ensured that they were exposed to enough of them that the mutation would take over completely?”

Mhavrych felt desperate to get out of the room. He didn’t want to listen to any more. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Creia said. “Why would they do it that way? If they wanted to hurt the Order, they could have just attacked. The Order has always been hidden. They would have been able to wage war against them without the rest of the Mikana being involved.”

“They could have,” Mhavrych said, feeling as though he couldn’t withhold the words even though he tried to. He shouldn’t be saying this, any of it, but he couldn’t stop himself. “They could have done it that way and had quick revenge, but that’s not what they wanted. The purpose was not just to cause difficulties immediately, but to plant the seeds of destruction for generations to come.”

“By the time the corruption was widespread, Nyx 23 had already come to Uoria,” Kyven said. “It doesn’t make sense that they are related.”

“Are you certain?” Lucian said, looking to Creia. “The day that they came to Uoria, their devastation began. Before they arrived, most of the species of Uoria lived peacefully. Even the Denynso, already known for the viciousness of their fighting and the fearsome way that they dealt with others, lived without conflict with the rest of those who called the planet home. That meant that the entire planet was strong, far stronger than other planets. The Valdicians sought to end that. Their interference separated the species even then, a division that would worsen the longer it lasted. They wanted it to go further, for the rift to deepen so that there was as little cooperation and trust among the species as possible. This would weaken the planet and make it more vulnerable to them so that they could eventually return and fulfill their goal of claiming Uoria for themselves.”

“But the Mikana who were undergoing the mutation came to me,” Creia said.

“And you think that that was a show of cooperation? Of peace?” Lucian asked. “What did you do when they came to you?”

Mhavrych saw darkness roll over the King’s face. His shoulders squared, and he pulled himself up slightly.

“I turned them away.”

Lucian nodded.

“The Valdicians knew that you were a powerful healer at the time.”

“A healer?” Kyven asked. “You were a healer?”

“Yes,” Creia said, his voice low and sad. “I was a healer before I was King. When the Mikana who had begun to mutate came to me, they asked if I would use my healing capabilities to reverse the mutation and bring them back to the beauty that they had had before.” He drew in a breath. “I said no. They had been causing such havoc on the planet and threatening the survival not just of my kind but of others on Uoria. I knew that they would continue to destroy, and I demanded that they promise they wouldn’t continue that way, that they would stop, but they wouldn’t. So, I turned them away. I wouldn’t help them. I lost my healing powers after that.”

“But that didn’t stop them,” Kyven said.

“That’s right,” Creia said. “I wouldn’t heal them, but the corruption only got worse after that. Besides, not all of the Mikana who came to me to ask for help were members of the Order.”

“Exactly. You weren’t meant to stop them. The Valdicians knew that you weren’t going to heal the corrupt Mikana if they didn’t agree to control their behavior. As fearsome as the Denynso are, you are also predictable in your sense of loyalty and honor. You wouldn’t agree to help those who you believed were only going to bring the end to the planet that you love. You did exactly as they expected you to and got the result that they wanted. You fed into the corruption, making them angrier, more aggressive. You further parted two species that were once so close and strong together, and furthered the division within the Mikana itself.”

Creia shook his head.

“No. This was before the Valdicians had anything to do with the Klimnu. They hadn’t come together in the badlands yet.”

“But the Valdicians knew that it was going to happen,” Lucian said. “They orchestrated it. They were in control of it all and were there to meet the Klimnu when they arrived in the badlands. They knew that they would be angry and seeking more power. The Valdicians knew that they could use them to get control over the Order and to spread the corruption further so that they could continue to build on their own cause.”

“That was so many years ago,” Creia said. “What has taken so long?”

“Ryan’s father abandoned the experiments that his Valdician great-grandfather started many years before. Everything started to fall apart. The Klimnu fled to Ynn just as others had before them. The Mikana still in the kingdom on Uoria didn’t know the connection between themselves and the Klimnu. Like all others, they believed that the Klimnu were a separate species, something to fear and to avoid. Because the Denynso still hadn’t put up a fight against the Valdicians, they were able to sink back away from the situation, putting themselves back into hiding, waiting for the time when they would be able to start again.”

“The Denynso?” Creia said.

“The Denynso were the original focus of the ire of the Valdicians. Even before the Mikana. Even before the Order. First was the hatred for the Denynso.”

“What do you mean?”

Mhavrych drew in a breath. His hand gripped the chair beside him. He prepared himself for what Lucian would say.

“That’s all I know,” Lucian said.

“How do you know these things?” Rey asked.

Lucian turned to him with the hint of a smile on his lips.

“The rocks have a way of talking to you.” He stood and looked back at his army. “We should rest now. There is much to be done today.”

Lucian waited as the rest of the Eteri streamed out of the drawing room before he started toward the door. Just before leaving he turned and looked back at Creia.

“Did you ever learn what happened to the Denynso clan that disappeared?” he asked.

Creia shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I hadn’t been in their compound until when I was captured.”

Lucian nodded.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? An abandoned compound here and an empty prison colony on Penthos.”

The words sent a chill through Mhavrych and when he glanced at Creia he could see that the Denynso King held the same stunned expression. He didn’t want to be in the room any longer. He felt like all the air had been taken out of the room and his lungs were crushing in his chest. He needed to get out.

Not bothering to wait to hear if Creia or Rey had anything else to say, Mhavrych ran out of the drawing-room, through the palace, and out into the bright light of the morning that had come into full force since they were inside. He was starting toward Athan’s house, needing to be alone for a time when he heard a lilting, musical voice behind him.

“I know who you are.”

He turned around and saw a beautiful woman standing just a few feet away. Delicate, translucent wings hung down from her back, occasionally flickering to send a cascade of sparkling pale green light onto the ground below.

“Excuse me,” he said, turning away from her again.

As lovely as she was, he was dealing with too much to pay this woman much mind.

“I have something that you have been looking for.”

Mhavrych stopped and turned slowly toward her. A teasing smile on her lips, the woman reached into the neckline of the dress she wore and withdrew a necklace. For a moment it didn’t occur to him what he was looking at. Then he realized that the pendant hanging from the delicate chain was a star stone. His heart jumped, and he gasped, reaching out toward the stone. The woman wrapped her hand around it, holding it closer to her chest, and Mhavrych took a step toward her. Before he could reach for the stone again, however, he heard Creia calling to him from the palace. He glanced back and saw the King standing at the door, the expression on his face making it clear that he expected him to come back. Mhavrych nodded and then turned back to the woman. She smiled again and tucked the necklace back into her dress, running away lightly to disappear out of his view behind one of the village houses.