Arrival of the Prophecy (29 page)

“He’s hiding something,” Thomas said, pushing past
Dillan
and plucking Charles out of the cove of the stairs
so fast the man couldn’t even scream.

“Weapons.
Kill me and
you’ll never find them,” Charles spoke so fast the words jumbled together.

“Say that again and I’ll rip out that tongue myself,” Thomas
threatened, grabbing a handful of his hair and bending his neck back at a
painful angle.

“Put him in with my father and help me put the lid back on,”
Dillan
said sluggishly walking back to the crypt.

“He may get the lid back off,” Thomas replied as he pushed Charles
back down as he fought against his hands.

“Not if we remove his legs and break his arms.”
Dillan
turned glaring with eyes that now glowed with contempt. “You had all the time
in the world to come back through that passage and do right by your king.”

“No,” he squeezed through pursed lips. “I loved him.”

Thomas saw
Dillan’s
thightly
closed fist slam into the wall, and Thomas’s head flew back at the sound of the
bones breaking in his young king’s hand. He grabbed Charles around the throat
with one of his huge hands and dragged him over to the crypt with him doing his
best to kick at the big man’s legs. Thomas’s body began to jerk, his back bowed
forward and the flesh under his torn shirt split open. One loud massive grunt
and Thomas was shaking the treads from his now unimaginable stature. He looked
over to see that
Dillan
also stood in his
wereboar
form, holding his right arm in his cloven hand.
Thomas lifted Charles off the ground, and threw him down on top of
Kemon’s
mutilated remains.

“I swear. I feared coming down here, telling you anything. I’m a
weak man, my Lord,” Charles cried, trying to turn around, sticking his hand
through the ribcage of his long dead king, and screamed out.

Thomas never even looked
Dillan’s
way. He
reached in, grabbed Charles by the ankle, dragging him up and placed his knee
on the cement portion of the crypt. He then raised his enormous fist high in
the air, and came down with a bone breaking blow. Charles threw his head back
with his mouth open in a soundless scream, foam pouring out the sides of his
mouth. He had no idea that his other leg had been laid over the edge until the
sharp pain ran right into his brain, knocking him unconscious. With a single
swing, Thomas broke his legs over backwards, shearing pieces of bone right
through his flesh, soaking the pale brown slacks he was wearing. Thomas pulled
them back over, opening his wide mouth filled with razor shape teeth, and bit
down on the leg closest to him, right at the knee, severing the lower portion
of Charles’ leg from his body, repeating the process once more.

The convulsing man was in and out of semi-consciousness, eyes rolling
into the back of his head, while his mouth moved and moans escaped.
Dillan
walked over, his curled tusk gleaming in the torch
light. He reached in and took Charles by the arm and began to pull his limp
form up. “I will leave your head so you can watch yourself die in the hell that
you placed my father in,” he slurred in his boar tongue, then snapped his arm
back at the elbow. Charles yelled out once,
then
fell
silent.
Dillan
lifted Charles up by the front of his
shirt, tilted his misshapen head from side to side, then slammed him down in
the casket so hard the bottom gave way, and everything thing inside, including
Charles, slid into a dark abyss.

“Your father was wise beyond his years,” Thomas grunted, shaking his
head.

“Another room,”
Dillan
turned and took a
torch from the sconce on the wall.

Thomas held his beast like hand up, and then took his hooved feet
over the side, pushing his way into the opening, finding steps under the
hanging bottom of the casket. He reached up and took the torch from
Dillan
, who was watching his
ever
move intently, waiting his turn to go down. Thomas brought the flames around
and saw Charles crumpled up at the bottom with dried bones and bits of material
all around him. Thomas snorted, blowing air out of his large boar nose then
leapt off the steps, down into a much larger room than the death chamber.
Dillan
dropped down beside him, taking in the site of the
many long swords that graced the walls like huge unframed paintings. Narrow
tables ran the length of two of the
walls.There
was
no top showing, due to the many shorter blades that covered them.

“Under his own grave,”
Dillan
grinned with
his boar face and then leaned down calling on the change to return.

Thomas followed his action, reclaiming his human form. The two
explored the handmade cave in all their glory.

“We take these out the sealed entrance,”
Dillan
said, holding up a blade very much like the one he carried. “This must have
taken him years.”

“It was well known that your father would take his leave early, and
sometimes not return for days at a time. I think we now know what he was doing,
which answers another question.” Thomas took a sword off the wall.

“We have much to learn about this place. My mother could not have
known everything. She knew nothing of this, I assure you,”
Dillan
added, taking another sword down.

“No,” Thomas chuckled, swinging the sword over his head. “Our
enemies would have walked backwards at our approach had we had these.”

“Maybe I will leave them here for a time,”
Dillan
placed the sword he had back on the wall. “We have never fallen to the ways of
man. If other shifters thought our people broke the sacred word of the prophecies
then it could start the demise of our kind.”

“What has happened to you? I have said nothing, but I can hold my
tongue no more.”

“I’m tired, Thomas. I want to feel what my father felt for his
people, not the rage that my mother tried to beat into us. If these weapons
come out, then all will think we mean war. Seeing sisters my age being treated
so badly that they are nothing but mere children in body as well as their minds
has taken the rest of the malice from my heart. I can’t even remember why I
felt hate for Anthony and his people, only the one who pushed us to harm them.”

“I have witnessed my king, become a man. I am
honored
to stand by your side.” Thomas went down on one knee.

“You are my best friend, and the only real
father
that I’ve ever known, Thomas. Please, get up,”
Dillan
replied, taking the big man’s hand.

“Your people need a leader, not a friend,
Dillan
.
They have had no structure for a very long time. You will have to carry a heavy
hand to make them understand that change is in the air. Many have enjoyed the
ways of our late queen.” Thomas explained, standing up, admiring the sword
still clinched in his grip.

“Keep it. My top General should have a show of power. If they do not
listen to me, then you can play with your new toy.”

“Mine, you give me such a gift?” Thomas stood in awe, dropping back
down on one knee.

“Let’s get out of here,”
Dillan
smiled. “We’ll
break the seal when the time comes.”

“So back through the small tunnels, I gather?”

“Yep, and now you’re nude and carrying a three foot blade. Want to
leave it behind so you can protect other valuable parts?”
Dillan
raised his brow, glancing down then back up again.

“I would rather leave my manhood here, than this,” he laughed,
swinging it over his head again. “Made by the hands of the greatest man that I
have ever known, and used now to proudly protect his seed…I will take the
sword.”

“Then let’s lose a little hide.”

They left Charles laying there bleeding a slow painful death,
closing the top of the wooden casket, and then replacing the cement cover. Thomas
leaned down and picked up the lower part of Charles’s leg and pulled the shoe
and sock off. When
Dillan
asked what he was doing, he
simply replied.
“A snack!”
Dillan
turned down the offer to share and jumped up pulling himself up into the
passageway that would lead them back into basement. By the time they reached
it, Thomas was swearing under his breath, claiming he would never go through
another small area as long as he lived, grabbing his privates the moment he
stumbled out behind,
Dillan
. His back was a raw
bloody mess, and his chest wasn’t much better. “I will pay for that journey for
a few days.”

“The others are on the way. Maybe you can have one of the women take
a look for you,”
Dillan
snorted, doing his best not
to burst out laughing.

“That would be the death of me,” Thomas moaned, trying to stand
straight.

“We have company.”
Dillan
tilted his head back
and closed his eyes.

“You are coming into your own. The power grows inside you.”

“How so?”

“I cannot feel anything. Only a true leader can feel his people,”
Thomas explained, pushing off the wall. “I do, however, feel the sting as my
blood runs down the scrapes on my back.”

“Take a quick shower then meet me in the foyer.”
Dillan
laughed, as they made their way up the stairs.

Dillan
checked in
on the girls, finding them curled
together,
sound
asleep just as he had left them. He took a pair of black slacks from the
closet, being as quiet as he could,
then
opened the
drawer on the dresser, pulling out a tank top and a pair of socks. He then went
back into his mother’s old room, which he hated with a passion, and cleaned up
for the third time that evening. He walked down the stairs where he found
Thomas waiting.
Dillan
had to smile seeing how he
stood slightly bent at the waist holding his sword down by his side, wearing a
pair of pale
gray
sweats pants, no shirt, with bare
feet.

“How was your shower?”
Dillan
asked as he
took the last few steps.

“Excuse my words, but it hurt like a son of a bitch.”

“Teach
ya
to be crawling around nude in
small cramped places.”
Dillan
slapped the big man on
the back, getting a loud hiss in return.

“Should I open the door?” he asked through clenched teeth. “There
have been three knocks while I have been waiting on you and
your
primping.”

“Primping?”

“Yes, primping!”

“Thomas, now don’t be angry because your little twig got a booboo.
There is no need to be ugly to others,”
Dillan
laughed
walking up to the door.

“I take back what I said about you being a good leader,” he replied,
stiffly following.

As he started unlatching the door, voices outside could be heard. When
they opened it, several of his men were standing with frozen expressions on
their faces.
Dillan
stepped out and everyone took a
knee, without a doubt feeling the power roll off of him. Thomas stood at his
side, not watching the actions of the people that spread out onto the grounds,
but instead counting the vehicles that were sitting around.

“Half are here I would say, and none from the women’s camp,” Thomas spoke
in a low voice.

“So, you do need a bit of attention,” he smiled back then stepped
further out. “For the first time in over twenty five years, you stand on
Fortain
land. I welcome you all home!”

“May we speak?” one man asked, getting to his feet.

“Things will be changing drastically. You will no longer live like
wild animals. Those of
you
who knew my father, knew
what it was that he wanted for his people. I am here to see his dreams come
true. Those of
you
who harm another for the joy of
doing so, will answer to my General. What questions do you have?” he replied,
looking down at the men who stood closest to the steps of the porch.

“Is it true that the women will be here soon also, my Lord?” the
same man asked.

“It is true and if one of you steps out of line, I will personally
kill you myself. Why, do you ask?”
Dillan
asked,
making his way toward the older man.

“My woman, my Lord.
I have not seen her or my child, since the Queen sent them away fifteen— maybe
twenty years ago,” he knelt as tears coated his face.

“Is it this way with you all?” he yelled out to be heard.

“It is!” some yelled back, as others grunted their agreement.

“You will all have your families back this night. I cannot change
the things that have happened to us all, but I can give you my word that it
will never happen again.” He took the older man in his arms and held him.

The crowd fell silent as he comforted the man, when another man
yelled out. “What of the wolves, and the others we are going to stomp in the
ground?”