Arrival of the Prophecy (30 page)

 
Thomas came off the five foot
wide porch and down the nine steps in one huge leap, knocking the man to the
ground with the handle of the sword. “Have you heard nothing that your King has
said? There will be peace among his people.” The man made a move to kick out at
Thomas’s leg and Thomas swung the sword around in his hand and planted it deep
into the man’s chest.

“Our days of fighting are over!”
Dillan
yelled, stepping away from the elderly man. “Death will come just as quick to
any
wereboar
that goes against my rule.”

It was then that the growing crowd erupted into screams of adoration
and joy. Jumping into the air, and spinning around throwing earth into the
night sky, just as they had when confronting a challenge. Only this time, they
celebrated their new way of life, with a truly
honorable
King. One man called out. “They come” and everyone froze, watching the many
headlights make their way up the road that lead to the large home. No one
moved, too afraid of what they would see or feel when they saw what stepped out
of the vehicles. It was
Dillan
that took in the first
gasp of air when the door opened on the first car, and an elderly woman stepped
out. He dropped to the ground and began crying, with Thomas kneeling down
beside him with eyes filled with tears that threatened to overflow.

Dillan
had long
forgotten his grandmother, the only living relative to his father, other than
him and his siblings. A woman he was told died in her sleep long ago. It was
then that he began wondering what other lies, Charles and his mother had told. He
leaned over and kissed her feet when she limped to where he was down on his
knees. She placed her withered hand on the top of his head, smoothed out the
waves of his thick reddish blond hair, as she sniffled, trying to pull herself
together enough to speak. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his
head into her stomach.

“I knew you thought me dead,” she cried, kneeling down.

“No,
Mohee
. Come, let me take you into the
house,” he said standing up and putting his hand under her arm.

“The others, your brother and sisters?” she asked as he slowly
helped her up the steps. “Did she take their lives?” she stopped to look into
his eyes.

“I have a surprise for you. I found them in the basement, and need
all the help I can get.”

“Cara…Tara?” She gulped heavily.

“They’re alive, but not very well,” he replied, as she reached up
and wiped a tear from his cheek.

“Take me to them.”

Thomas handed
Dillan
the sword and lifted
Mohee
in his arms and carried her up the steps, with
Dillan’s
hand on his back. Joyful cries could be heard all
over the grounds outside, by men as well as women as they reunited with the
loved ones they had been so cruelly separated from.
Dillan
was as happy as he was nervous, not knowing how the girls would react with
their grandmother, when they wouldn’t let anyone else around them but himself.

 
Thomas set
Mohee
outside the door of
Kemon’s
room, her son, and stood back.
Dillan
leaned in and opened
the door, letting it swing open fully, so that she could see them sleeping in
the big bed. She grabbed her mouth, as her legs buckled.
Dillan
and Thomas caught her, and took her into the room, sitting her in one of the
high back chairs in front of the fire.

Dillan
nodded to
Thomas, who left the room to gather things to make
Mohee
more comfortable.
Dillan
watched as she grabbed the
handle of the chair and got to her feet, walking to the end of the bed to get a
better look. “She sent word that she had removed their heads the moment my son
had died,” she explained, gripping the foot-board of the bed.

“She took his life,
Mohee
. He did not die,
he was murdered.”
Dillan
lowered his head at the look
she gave him. “I know this to be true by opening his crypt and finding his
remains.” Keeping the fact to
himself
, that his body
had been horribly mutilated.

“They gave us word of
Harbra’s
death. I
know we would not be here if it were not true. Are you going to…” she paused,
shaking her head.

“I’m going to be the son, that my father wanted me to be,
Mohee
, I promise.” he nodded going to her.

“What of your brother, Parker? Where is he? I want to see him with
my own eyes,” she said, touching his face.

“He is not here,”
Dillan
swallowed. “He
has been captured by the wolves, but it was because
Harbra
sent him there.”

“I know the family well, they will not harm him. They are a peaceful
people,” she softly spoke walking around the bed.

“I don’t know,
Mohee
. The leader and I
have had a hatred for some time, and I’m not sure how to get past that.”

“You are
the leader of this pack now. You will think of something to get my Parker home.
You boy’s belong together with your sisters. They will need your guidance.”
  
 
About the time she finished her statement Cara
woke and sat up. She looked at the elderly woman. “You are from our dreams.” Tara
sat up beside her, and then both girls went right to their grandmother,
embracing her as if they had known her forever.
Mohee
lowered her head as she wrapped her arms around them and cried. She too had
dreamed of them, in some dark, deep, hell that she could never reach in far
enough to pull them out of.

“You were in my dreams as well. Together at last, thanks to your brother,”
Mohee
replied, looking back at
Dillan
.
“
Mohee
remembers when you were all little babies.”

“This is more than I could have ever hoped for.”
Dillian
leaned on the bedpost.

“Mother Earth is smiling on us, my son. We will grow now, as a
family,” she cried, squeezing the girls then stepping back to get a good look. “You’re
both amazingly beautiful.”

“They look like their grandmother,” a man said standing in the
doorway.

“Marcus?” she turned, fully in shock. “But…”

“How are you?” he asked taking a few steps into the room and then
looked over at
Dillan
, and was about to go down on
one knee.

“No, please, finish,”
Dillan
interjected,
holding out one hand.

“How long?”
Mohee
whispered.

“Far too long.”
Marcus took her hand.

The older man raised her hand to his mouth and laid a gentle kiss on
the back, then leaned in and kissed her cheek in a loving manner. “I have
missed you so much, wife.” The moment the words left his mouth,
Dillan
stumbled back over the chair, startling the girls. All
this time he never knew that the old man that kept to himself, cleaning the
wild kill for the men’s camp, then disappearing into the night with the rest of
the other elderly men, was his grandfather. “Why?” he asked stunned that he
wasn’t told something— anything.

“It was forbidden under threat by your mother before your birth. She
warned that she would kill my wife if she ever heard that you or your brother
ever found out who I was.”

“But how?
You
weren’t there when I was a child, I would have known it,”
Dillan
said, coming closer, inspecting Marcus’s face. “How could I not see him in your
face?”

“I wanted to reach out to you more times than words can say,” he looked
down at
Mohee
. “I could not place you in
harms
way.”

“All this time, and no one spoke of you,”
Dillan
said, with a thousand things running threw his mind.

“She took the lives of all of those who she thought might speak,
leaving me to watch you and Parker grow as a punishment, knowing I would say
nothing. At least I had the
honor
of being close
enough to see that much, your poor grandmother,” he gripped her hand tighter. “What
have you been through?”

“Nothing that hasn’t been erased by this joining.
My tears are of pure joy, my Lord,” she wept leaning onto his chest.
“We’re home, we’re home.”
  
Harbra
had
moved into the home of her new husband and within three years taken control,
moving
Kemon’s
mother to the women’s camp and his father
to the men’s, with him never allowed to return after he handed over the crown,
so to speak. When she gave birth, his mother was allowed to return as a
mid-wife, and then taken away two months after the children’s birth.
Mohee
was forced to witness the death of the first three
girls born, and feared the other two had been killed shortly after she had been
removed from her own home. It was the dreams that gave her hope that she had
been wrong, and they had been correct, which she gave many thanks to Mother
Earth for revealing it in her dreams.

The opening to the cave was nothing more than a deserted mess. The
large fire pit had been filled with unwanted garbage and left to burn out on
its own. Carter sent two of his top men in first and waited out front with
Anthony, watching Parker sift through the
smoldering
remains of the fire. He was looking for anything that might be of importance. The
men came out, telling them that there was nothing but a few curtains left on
the cave walls, and a few cots and crates spread around.

“I’ll have to show you how they went into the tunnels,” Parker said
wiping his charred hands on his jeans.
“
Gotta
look behind the curtains.”

“Do you think they set traps?” Anthony asked, seeing Sky come up the
trail.

“Knowing my mother, I’m almost sure of it. But, knowing where or
what…I couldn’t say.”

“That’s a long climb, guess I should have gone to the bathroom
before we left.” Sky laughed as she walked up to the men.

“Why don’t you wait back at the car? I think it’s too dangerous for
you to go any further,” Anthony smiled, touching her stomach.

“It’s strange isn’t it? I could swear my stomachs already getting
bigger, but that’s just crazy,” she giggled.

“For a human.”
Carter winked, and then turned away when Anthony raised his eye brow.

“What does that mean, Carter?”

“Babe...” Anthony began saying.

“No! What did he just mean, for humans?” she demanded, grabbing the
front of his shirt.

“Wolves give birth in a few months, compared…” he replied in a
sheepish tone, blinking rapidly.

“I’m
gonna
be sick,” she squatted down,
pulling him down with her. “I can’t breathe.”

“It’s okay. It’s the same thing. You just have a baby in half the
time.”

“How in all Sam’s Hell is that the same thing, Anthony? I won’t even
have time to get used to being pregnant, before I’m stretched out to here,” she
yelled, making the shape of a huge belly with her other hand.

“
Adella
will show you how to oil yourself.
All the women do it.”

“Then you have the baby!” she said, pushing him backwards, then
stormed off to the car.

“Check it out, but be careful. I’ll join you as soon as I can.” he
blushed, looking over at Carter with a sour look on his face.

The men laughed amongst
themselves
as
Anthony called out her name, running after her. Parker took the lead lighting
one of the torches he found lying on the ground, as the others did the same
thing. He showed them where the tunnel was. Carter ripped down the curtain so
that Anthony could follow. The tunnel split up in several different directions,
one leading to
Harbra’s
room, one to
Dillan’s
, and another grove like cave that was just the
sleeping quarters for the lower workers. There were two tunnels that Parker had
not ventured into. He told them that he was told that they were for storage and
off limits to everyone, other than
Harbra’s
highest
enforcers.

Carter sent two of his men down one, and he and Parker took the
other. They were halfway in when they heard one of the other men scream out.

He and Parker rushed out of the tunnel and down the other to find
one of the men speared right through the mid-section by a long wooden rod, with
the other trying to free him from the wall. “It shot out of nowhere,” he panicked,
pulling on the thick piece of wood. Carter rushed in and snapped the wooden rod
with the strength he had in his hands, and told him to take the man back out.

“There must be something in there that they didn’t want anyone to
find,” Parker said, fixing to move in deeper.