Chapter 30: Recovery
Creedon was not a bad being. He was not ignorant of the differences between good and evil. On the contrary. He was only too aware of that delicate balance.
How the balance had tipped out of his favor. How he had to work to get it back.
The powerful witch stared at the frazzled female village with curiosity. Currently he sat in a tree with the guise of a green bird. It hid him well against the trees. He began to see an order to the chaos. Women in shorter skirts were warriors, women in longer skirts caretakers, and in the sea of browns and blues the one woman clad in white was their ruler. She was called Kyzu, and the mother of the child who revitalized his power. He was grateful, almost to the point of feeling pity for the humans. Almost.
A stern warrior sparred with a brown-headed village girl who progressed at an infantile pace. But she was learning, just barely. He wondered if she would be the replacement for the one he had absorbed. He let out a soft melodic chirp to see if it would break their concentration. They didn't budge. Everyone was so serious all the time. Especially since, well...
Creedon had been in attendance to their farewell ceremony. They dressed her...Paj? In fine robes green robes. The huntresses carried her on a woven net of flowers down to the place where the river opened out into the sea. They placed her and the net onto a two-planked raft, and wearing black markings upon their faces, surrounded her. This same stern warrior swore upon her honor that she would do...damn...Pod...Raj...what was her—Paj! Right, she would do
Paj
justice.
Her family came forward, a little girl and an old woman and accepted the Chieftess' offering, a single white flower. The Chieftess spoke soft words that his ears could not hear, but brought tears into the eyes of her people. Then they all began to give her flowers. Before long everyone had given the body a flower tribute, and she was surrounded by hundreds of them, every color they could find, until the very air scented the trees with their aroma. Unknown to them Henna was in attendance. She was disguised as a small child. Since he had given her that earring that allowed her to change form, she'd been quite agreeable. No doubt her conquest of the ogre put her role into perspective. She could have anything she wanted, so long as she obeyed. With that message in place she didn't ask.
Didn't as why he wanted to know about the Rovian mourning practices, why after his inquiry he wanted her there at the funeral. She didn't even ask why he wanted her to take a flower of his own, making and drop it at Paj's feet. She wouldn't ask anything for quite some time, and that made him relieved. He could get some work done.
With tears welling in their eyes, they lifted the raft and placed it into the water. A blonde archer and an older one stepped forward with bows in hand, and one arrow with tips wrapped in cloth and green leaves. A village girl brought forth a torch and lit each. Ah, now this part he liked. Each archer showed remarkable skill as their arrows hit not the tiny raft, but the opening into the ocean on either side. Two plumes of thick black smoke rose up into two pillars and Paj's body passed through. Henna hadn't mentioned that.
Later that night in his lair he questioned her about it and she responded rather eloquently. "We call it the door of clouds, a doorway into the heavens. In this way her spirit can walk through and avoid the hardships of ascension, and should she lose her way, she can see the smoke and find her way back home."
"Back home? You mean to her body?"
"No. To the Rovian lands."
"Why?"
Henna looked uncomfortable, but only for a moment. "Well master, we want to arrive to the Maker's Paradise, but it is a difficult journey. Rovians believe it is better to return home to the smoke, to haunt and watch over the land, than lie in the nothingness between worlds."
"Do you believe this Henna?" he asked, very amused.
"I don't know, master," she replied softly. "I think I do."
He stroked her chin and smiled. "Sentimental. I can see you have be lonely in your self-imposed exile. Leaf's anguish was not a full charade, was it?"
"Yes master! I mean no master! I mean...I am content here." She hugged herself, eyes drifting.
"No one respected me in the village. Here with you, with your power, I am more than I have ever been."
"But still," Creedon said. "A girl your age ought to have a friend."
"You are my friend, master."
Creedon laughed. "Is that what you think? Dear girl you need a proper friend." He petted her hair and smiled. "I'll handle everything. Don't worry."
Now Creedon stood watching the huntresses train, wondering when the ogre would arrive. He had so many things to coordinate, so many pieces in his puzzle. Arranging his grand design would take time. He spent a year in the void. His son had been dead for a
year
, and they replaced him like a ripped cloak. A year was a long time to think though, to plan. It was his plan that had kept the void from ripping him apart thread by thread. Sure he had unraveled, but he'd lost nothing important.
Smiling he began planning for Henna's new friend. Creedon was not a bad guy, not at all.
--
"I'll kill her. I'll strangle the life out of her until she's blue. Then I'll blow the life back into her and start
again
."
Zyra stomped off into the forest toward the pool of Nymare. Or, at least where she remembered. The forest was dense, and for the most part all looked the same. She would have used her sense of smell to find her but she was tired. She had not been awake very long since her battle with Caligula, and furthermore she was hungry.
"Mind over body Zyra," she snapped at herself. "You won't be hungry if you're asleep."
And you can sleep when Nymare is dead.
As she passed a tree that looked suspiciously familiar and paused. Was she going in circles? Had Gray Son not pointed her in this direction? She grit her teeth. She was going to wring that centaur's neck! Frustrated she let out a guttural roar.
"How many things do I have to attack before something gets done around here?"
She heard a twig crack behind her and drew her dagger. The figure darted away. From the looks of its wavering shape it was a nymph. Glaring she charged after it.
"Get back here!"
It was going to take her to Nymare's pool whether it wanted to or not. Vine and vines be damned. She ran on and on until she was certain she heard the bastard giggling. Anger fueling her, Zyra let out a Rovian battle-cry. Launching herself into the figure she was surprised to find herself on top of a certain grinning lizard.
"Why ssZyra...if I knew you would missss...me ssso, I wouldn't have left you."
A thought occurred to her.
"You followed me?"
"Sssort of...I did ssome invessstigating...found you ssspeaking with a centaur."
"So you heard everything?"
Scallen sat up and she fell to the side. She glared at him and he laughed.
"Ssspare me the inquiries ssZyra. What isss it you wisssh to learn?"
"You knew about Nymare's pool didn't you?"
"Of course..."
"And you never told me."
Scallen tilted his head to the side.
"About what? The possssibility of sssomeone...ssspying on you? Or that there are pla...sss...ces where one can look up the valley's happeningsss?"
Zyra stood up and stared down at him. "Telling me my exploits were common knowledge open to anyone would have sufficed."
Scallen slid up, rising inches from her face. His air blew on her forehead. "I thought you would know that by now." He kissed her forehead and she swung out missing him as he hissed in amusement.
"Really sssZyra. I thought you'd learned patience or sssome other virtue while with the witch. It ssseems your fight with Caligula hasss you regressing back into upleasssant patternsss..."
"You dare call
me
the beast?" Zyra scoffed, shoving past him. "I have better things to do than hear you lecture me. I am an adult, as you
well
know."
He slid in front of her.
"I am aware."
Zyra could feel renewed rage bubbling up into her, and she tried to control it but found it running rampant through her veins. She didn't want to prove him wrong. She wasn't a beast.
"Get out of my way Scallen."
His lips split into a grin. "
Or what?"
Her fists clenched. She tried to step past him and he blocked her.
"I need to have a little talk with Nymare."
He didn't answer her, simply kept getting in her way. She could feel a lump in her throat now.
"Scallen...if you don't get out of my way..."
"You'll hurt me?"
he teased.
"How beastly. Oh wait..."
He leaned in to her ear.
"I mean...how human."
She couldn't control her body lurching forward more than she could hide her surprise when Scallen grabbed her arm and shoved her against a tree. His green eyes stared into hers and she squirmed, barking curses at him so foul spittle spewed from the corners of her mouth.
"Let me go!"
He laughed.
Zyra swung her other arm and knowing he would catch it launched her leg toward his groin, but the basilisk was faster. He trapped both her hands in one of his and pushed down her offending leg with little effort.
She dropped herself down, pushed at him, tried to bite, claw, scream, yet without yield Scallen held her. He kept staring into her eyes like he could see some secret inside her until finally he grinned.
"I ssseee."
He leaned his lean muscular frame against her.
"The ogre'sss power sssstill remains inssside you...Your naturally high aggression hasss been amplified due to hissss mark..."
Zyra's eyes widened. She knew she was angry, but she was always this aggressive. Wasn't she?
"It isss a sside effect of using ssuch raw power..."
Scallen said. "Unfortunately, one can take on the attributesss of whoever iss usssed...and...the usssser...can feel the effectss as well."
He observed her, her tussled hair and
yellow
eyes as she let that new information sink in. "So...Kail knows I used his power."
Scallen nodded.
"It is in your best inter...essst, and the interessst of othersss, for you to calm down."
Zyra stopped her struggling and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath.
"Okay, I am calm."
Scallen's hissing laugh filled the air.
"As if it was so eassy...you need release."
"I'm releasing," Zyra said letting out another long breath.
"I don't think you have."
