Chapter 11

Raleigh pressed forward. The three friends strode shoulder to shoulder into the camp. Raleigh didn’t see anyone she recognized. The people she saw gave her a casual glance, but no one reacted to the strangers’ presence in any way.

They got halfway through the camp, and Raleigh’s heart started to sink. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all. Out of nowhere, a wild shriek shattered the forest. Raleigh whirled around. A silver streak shot out of the trees and rushed at her in a blur of sparkling light.

The streak collided with Raleigh, and she spun around laughing. She lifted Petunia off her feet and gave her a hug. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you.”

Petunia’s skin sparkled with her laughter. “Raleigh! I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.” She looked around. “Where’s Bishop?”

Raleigh shrugged. “That’s what we’re trying to find out. Is everybody here that was with you last time?”

“Just about.” Petunia’s eyes widened when she looked at Angela’s outfit. “Who are your friends?”

Raleigh laid her hand on Dax’s shoulder. “This is Dax, Cassandra’s son. We’re here to see her. Is she in the camp with you?”

Petunia gaped at Dax so much he turned away in embarrassment. “She’s here,” Petunia replied. “I’ll take you to her.”

Raleigh held back. “Maybe we should…you know, announce ourselves so we’re not just showing up out of the clear blue sky.”

Petunia started away. “No, you better come now. If she knew that he was here and didn’t come to see her right away, she would be upset.”

Petunia marched away down the village without looking back to see if the others followed her. Raleigh exchanged glances with her friends. Then she shrugged again. “Well, this is it. Here we go.”

Dax caught her arm. “Do we really have to do this? I don’t know anything about this woman.”

“She doesn’t know anything about you, either,” Raleigh replied, “except who and what you are. Once we know that, we’ll leave. Don’t worry.”

She set off after Petunia, who ducked into one of the rush huts. She reemerged seconds later with the same ecstatic smile plastered across her face. “I told Cassandra someone is here to visit her. She’s waiting for you.”

Raleigh nodded to Dax and bent low to get through the doorway. She found herself in the small circular dwelling she remembered from her first visit to the hybrid camp. A shriveled old woman sat across the smoldering fire. She didn’t look up when Raleigh entered.

Dax pushed his way in, and finally, Angela took her place at his side. The hut barely contained them all.

Raleigh squatted down in front of the woman. “Cassandra, it’s me. It’s Raleigh Douglas. I’m Bishop’s apprentice. Do you remember me?”

Cassandra didn’t look up. She fiddled with the frayed edge of the mat she sat on.

Raleigh tried again. “This is Dax, your son. Bishop took him home to his house, and he’s been working for Bishop all these years. We brought him to see you.”

By degrees, Cassandra raised her tired eyes to his face. She studied his every feature, but her own expression remained stony and impassive. When she took in every facet of his face, she looked away.

Raleigh’s hopes flagged. Now what could she do? How could she get through to this woman if her own long-lost son couldn’t do it? She sat back on her heels. She searched for anything to say before she gave up and retreated.

All at once, Dax’s hand drifted forward. He laid his palm against Cassandra’s withered cheek and gave it a gentle caress. Raleigh herself understood that touch, and it sent a quiver of emotion through her insides.

“Please,” he murmured. “I never knew you were my mother. I never knew what I was until just a little while ago. I thought I was human. Now I’m turning into something…something demonic. I don’t know what to do. Please help me. You’re the only one who can explain what I’m turning into.”

His words worked their magic on her—or maybe it was his touch. Her eyes came to life, and she actually smiled at him. Her eyes glistened with moisture, and she leaned her cheek into his hand. “You’re Xaehm. That’s what you are.”

Dax smiled back at her, but her response didn’t satisfy Raleigh. “You are Xaehm. You’re a shapeshifter, but he’s something else besides. What is his father? What more is he besides Xaehm?”

Cassandra lowered her eyes, but she made no effort to break away from Dax’s touch. “I don’t know who his father was. I grew up south of the Phorjaboan River. Hundreds of Xaehm lived there until our whole village got captured by Griiq marauders. They sold us all to the Guild of Husbandry. They took us to a city…I don’t know where it was. They kept us there and worked on us in between working in the fields.”

The three friends listened in silence. This must be the most Cassandra talked about her past since Bishop rescued her.

“They hitched us to plows and wagons like oxen. We used to work all day hitched side by side in harness. Every few days, they used to come and take one of us away. They would keep us in a house and feed us special food. Then they would watch us for a few days to see what it did to us. Then they sent us back to the fields.”

Angela spoke up from her corner of the hut. “Did it do anything, or was it just food?”

“Sometimes it did,” Cassandra replied. “Sometimes it made us wretchedly sick. Sometimes it drained a person’s strength so they couldn’t work for weeks. Occasionally, someone died from it, but everybody still had to work.”

“How did you get pregnant?” Raleigh asked.

Cassandra sighed. Dax dropped his hand, but she kept talking only to him. Her eyes still sparkled with love and recognition for him. “I have no idea. They brought me to this house and fed me some stewed vegetables. That was the last time for me, and about four weeks later, I started feeling strange. I saw strange colors before my eyes. First I felt weak, then I sensed my body growing incredibly strong. That’s really all I can tell you. I have no idea what they did to me.”

Raleigh’s shoulders slumped. “Then there’s no way to know what Dax is.”

“Bishop knows,” Cassandra replied.

Raleigh’s head shot up. “Bishop? How does he know if you don’t know yourself?”

“He rescued me from that place. Some Guildsmen came and got me, and they told me I was going to have a child. They took me to a different house. They were all smiles and kindness. They said I could have anything I wanted, that I would have the best food. I was happy and I went to sleep. That night, Bishop came and got me and took me away. He said he was taking me somewhere I would be safe, that I wouldn’t be safe in that house or anywhere near the Guild. I was worried about my child, but he said my child would never be safe around the Guild, and he was taking me somewhere my child would be safe.”

Angela turned to Raleigh. “Well, we don’t have Bishop, so we won’t know. I guess we’ll just have to wonder until we find him. I don’t know where we’ll start looking, but….”

“I know where Bishop is,” Cassandra cut in.

Every head turned to stare at her. “You do?”

Cassandra nodded. “He’s in Solaris.”

Angela gasped. “No!”

Raleigh looked at her. “What’s Solaris?”

“It’s the city headquarters of the Guild of Epistemology.”

Raleigh brightened up. “If that’s the case, we can get him back.”

“You can’t get him back. You’d never get there. It’s a castle in the air. It would take….”

“A castle in the air?” Raleigh repeated. “How is that possible?”

“The whole city exists in the air,” Angela told her. “No one can come and go—not that way, anyway. I don’t know how Bishop got there, but…”

“The Guild of Martial Arts put him there,” Cassandra replied. “He’s a prisoner there.”

Raleigh turned to her. “How do you know?”

Cassandra turned away. “Ybak told me.”

“Who’s Ybak?”

“He’s Auhlulhu. He was with us when Bishop rescued me from the Guild. A bunch of Auhlulhu lived in the next field, and Bishop took Ybak at the same time.”

Raleigh shook her head. None of this made any sense to her, but Angela froze in her seat and stared at Cassandra. “Was the Guild working on them, too?”

“I don’t see how they could,” Cassandra replied. “They couldn’t get their hands on the Auhlulhu.”

Angela groaned and cradled her head in her hand. “Oh, no!”

“What’s wrong?” Raleigh asked

“They would find a way if they wanted to,” Angela replied. “The Guild would keep all their experimental subjects in the same place. They crossed you with an Auhlulhu. That’s how you got pregnant.”

Cassandra shook her head. “You know that’s impossible.”

“What are Auhlulhu?” Raleigh asked.

Angela shrugged. “I can’t explain it to you. You would have to see it for yourself.” She turned back to Cassandra. “Is this Ybak here in the camp?”

Cassandra burst out laughing, but the sound sent chills down Raleigh’s spine. “In the camp? You know no Auhlulhu would stay in the camp.”

“Then how did he tell you about Bishop being in Solaris?”

Cassandra waved her hand. “He comes to visit me every now and then. We’ve been friends ever since we left the fields together. He shows me where he’s been and what he’s seen. He showed me Bishop in Solaris. That’s how I know.”

Angela shot forward. “Don’t you see? He must be Dax’s father. He must have sensed you were carrying his child. That’s the only reason he would keep in touch with you like this.” She turned her wide eyes on Dax. “He’s Auhlulhu.”

Cassandra scowled at her son. “Impossible.”

“Excuse me,” Raleigh interrupted. “Could someone please explain to me what an Auhlulhu is?”

Angela waved both arms. “It’s a force so big no one can contain it. They can move at lightning speed. They have no real bodies. They’re pure energy, like thought. They can form and reform anytime, anywhere, in any shape they choose.”

Raleigh gazed at Dax. “Sounds familiar.”

Dax looked down at his fingernails. “I don’t like the sound of this.”

“The question is how they managed to contain them long enough to experiment on them,” Angela went on.

“What difference does it make?” Raleigh asked. “We know now what Dax is. Now we have to get Bishop back.”

“You can’t,” Angela countered. “You can’t get to Solaris.”

“You can’t.” Cassandra touched Dax’s cheek. “But you can.”

“What do you mean?” Angela asked.

Raleigh talked faster. “He could transport us there.”

“No, I couldn’t,” Dax interrupted. “I don’t know how.”

Raleigh laughed out loud. “Don’t you see what this means? You could zap us straight to Bishop in the blink of an eye. We wouldn’t have to fight our way in or out. We just grab him and you zap us back. Simple.”

“How can you laugh about this?” he asked. “I can’t zap you anywhere. If I tried, I might zap you ten miles into the center of the Earth.”

Raleigh got serious. “I know, but at least we know you have that power.”

“What power? I’m no better off than I was before.”

“It would help if we could see one of these Auhlulhu in the flesh—a nonhybridized one.”

“You can’t see them,” Angela remarked. “They have to choose to take a form you can see.”

Raleigh rubbed her chin. “Well, we’ll just have to wing it with what we’ve got. In the meantime, we have to get to Solaris and find Bishop. Come on, Angela. We’ll find a way if it’s the last thing we do.”

“I’m not going to Solaris,” Angela replied.

Raleigh’s head snapped around. “What?”

“I’m not going to Solaris. I’ll help Bishop any way I can down here, but I’m not going to Solaris.”

“Why not?” Raleigh asked.

Angela lowered her eyes. “I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” Raleigh insisted. “You’re not making any sense.”

Angela didn’t answer. She ducked under the doorway and out of the hut without a word. Raleigh started after her. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Just let her go,” Dax replied. “We can get Bishop back without her.”

Raleigh frowned. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

“She knows about Solaris,” Cassandra replied. “You don’t. If you knew what she knows, you wouldn’t want to go near the Guild of Epistemology, either.”