Destiny's Kingdom: Legend of the Chosen (23 page)

"This is the spawn?" People tripped and fell over each other in the panic that raged around the auditorium. The black shadows seemed to have a mouth but nothing else but a ghostly shape, and as they attacked they latched onto their victim who screamed and writhed in agony, flailing their arms and kicking their legs helplessly at the thing that fed upon them. Their horror filled faces stared panicked at the demons before the bodies turned to dust and disappeared.
 

"The spawn can be seen by the living world, Quade." Echo and Mimic both hovered off to the side, and though Quade felt like he should try and flee from this horrendous scene of death and destruction, he more felt like he should watch, like it would somehow help him to experience this strange phenomena. "They are born into whatever world the SanFear seek to destroy. Where the SanFear still travel in their own realm as they move throughout each galaxy, their spawn are a force that can be felt and experienced by any living thing."

Within minutes, the auditorium lay in waste. The walls were gone, the ceiling gone, and all that once were people scattered as dust on the breeze that blew through now that the foundation of the structure was all that was left. The SanFear that had infected the woman still hovered where she had stood and now Quade noticed that all the spawn were returning to it.

"They serve one solitary purpose, and that is to bring sustenance to the SanFear. The act of spawning takes enormous energy and that is when the SanFear is at its weakest, just after it breeds and before the spawn return to nourish it. The spawn cannot inhabit a body, only feed upon it. They collect the energy from everything around them and return the energy to the SanFear and it in turn becomes enormously powerful again."

He watched as the spawn shot toward the SanFear, spilling back into where it had once spilt forth, and the SanFear became denser, larger.

"The spawn cannot live on their own though, Quade." He didn't even realize that he'd been so mesmerized by the overwhelming sight of the newly sated SanFear, he'd almost forgotten about the emissaries.
 

"How long?" he cleared his throat. "How long can they live without returning to the SanFear?"

Mimic shrugged. "'Tis different with each world. A few minutes. Not much longer than that."

"At first the SanFear only knew how to feed upon a host." Echo continued, her voice heavy with wisdom. "Systematically they would jump from body to body, world to world and feed on each individual until their were none left to feed upon. The creation of the spawn served to accelerate their destructive pursuit. From this they acquired strength enough to move into the next world." Echo spun quickly and Mimic followed, and from that Quade knew that soon he would be again changing scene. "After a time it learned that it could bring together a populous by infecting the right person."

"Thus, hastening their destruction even further."

Quade watched the pattern of the spawn, how they leached the life from each person, then darted away in the same direction from where it originally came.

"Where's it going?"

"Back to the SanFear
.
To deliver this energy."

"It takes much energy for the SanFear to spawn and inevitably it does so where there is an abundant source of food. It must be nourished immediately or it risks the possibility of starving itself into oblivion by spawning."

"It is the SanFear's most vulnerable time."

Nausea rose in Quade’s throat from the death that surrounded him, the helpless fleeing bodies turned to char and dust. His mind started adding elements that weren’t there; the smell of singed hair, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

"No more," he said quietly. "I can't bear to see anymore of this defeat."

"You shudder at this?" said Mimic who appeared in front of him. "You think this burden is too much to bear? No more, you ask? We shall surely show you more."

CHAPTER 16

C
lea reached up to the cable above her, pulled herself along the track and tripped the ceiling panel to open. She squirmed until her weight was balanced again, then she got to work on the task she'd chosen to pass the time. The ship's program memory needed to be deleted as soon as possible after any contract, so just in case the hidden system were discovered, there would be no trace of where Duplicity had actually been. The mechanism that held her suspended just below and parallel to the ceiling wasn't made for comfort but for easy concealment, and consisted of a retractable cable that spanned one end of the engine compartment to the other, and three wide straps that hung from it. The strap that wrapped around her midsection was beginning to pinch, but Clea was almost finished with the memory wipe so it didn't really matter. Besides, the discomfort helped to keep her mind on something other than the very thing she'd come here to avoid thinking about.
 

She reached up inside the opening and pointed a small hand lamp to the last connection of the navigational logs. Popping another panel, she plucked the memory pack that stored the coordinates from the orbit of the planet to the designated spot where Duplicity had landed on Tal-Min Vista. The pack that contained the journey from orbit to the outpost would stay…just in case.

The rest of her crew were quietly celebrating in the galley, or what served as a galley for it really wasn't big enough to deserve such a title. But there was food and a bottle or two of wine, and the happy crew had hoped she would join them, as she sometimes would after a successful run from somewhere like Tal-Min. Plus, it was their first ten-thousand chid contract. But Clea didn't feel like celebrating, didn't even feel like eating the modest bowl of food she'd brought into the cockpit then left behind when she decided to clear the ship's coordinate logs. Duplicity, like all ships, always traveled on autopilot when flying within the leylines, and the silent cockpit left too much room for the noise of her thoughts within her head. All she could think of now was the events of the previous day, all she kept hearing again and again in her mind was Quade's voice, all she kept seeing was the confused desperation that flashed in his eyes.

"P'cadia lost, P'cadia found…"

How could this be happening? And exactly how Avalon told her it would, that afternoon so many years ago. Clea could remember every detail of the day, the chill of the breeze on her face, the storm clouds that brewed overhead, above the thick forest trees.

"It's time that I tell you something very important, my Clea," Avalon had said. Having just turned eleven, Clea had more important things on her mind than what, as her parents had called him, an imaginary man had to tell her. She had just spotted the nest of a glimmer finch and was very busy climbing her way up the knotted trunk of an adjoining tree to get a better look.

"You always call me that. 'My Clea.' It sounds strange. I don't think I could ever call you 'my Avalon.'"

"Perhaps not. But perhaps someday you might." Clea peered into the nest, her distance just far enough away that the parent birds felt no threat.
 

"Maybe," she replied, not really paying attention.

"Come down, Clea. I've a secret to share with you." This caught her interest. She looked over her shoulder to where Avalon sat on the thick patch of ferns below.
 

"What kind of secret?"

"It is a secret that only few in the entire universe know about. A secret so large and so very special that you are the only other person I have ever revealed it to."

Clea jumped from her high position in the tree, landing on the cushioning ferns right next to him, ignoring the stains that ground into her knees. She looked at him, her huge, bright eyes staring expectantly.

"Well?" she asked impatiently. "What's the secret?"

"This is a very important moment in your life, my Clea, one that will stay with you always. The things I tell you now must be things that you never forget, nor ever speak of again to anyone but me, until the time is right." Clea's mouth parted as she stared up in amazement, captivated by the weight carried on Avalon's words. "There is a magical place in your future my Clea. A magical place called P'cadia."

"What's P'cadia, Avalon?"

"P'cadia is where the Avè dwells, little one."

"The Avè!"

"Yes, my Clea. And someday the Avè will guide you and those you stand with on the grand quest that is your destiny, and it is a story you know well. It is the Legend of the Chosen."

"The Legend of the Chosen? I've read that story in school."

"It is a prophecy that masks itself in the guise of a legend, Clea. And within that prophecy lies your destiny. The key to its unfolding is the riddle I want to tell you." Avalon paused for a moment, and Clea was hardly breathing. "Would you like me to tell you the secret riddle, Clea?"

She was almost speechless. "Yes…yes!"

Avalon spoke, his words slow and perfectly clear:

"A place obscure and rediscovered

With shimmering oceans and liquid sun

P'cadia lost, P'cadia found

In desperate times, seek here the Avè"

Clea frowned. "I don't understand it, Avalon."

"In time you will, Clea. Someday you will use this secret knowledge, someday when you are ready, the knowledge will come to you perhaps when you least expect it. Perhaps when you haven't thought of it in so many years that you have almost forgotten, but then it will come back to you clear as how I'm explaining it right now."
 

"How will I know that day has come?"

"Events will begin to unfold, and the Seer will come questioning you about dreams of a mystical place, a place that he or she doesn't understand, a place called P'cadia. Only then can you ever repeat the riddle I just told you because it is the path to the Avè." Avalon watched her for a bit, trying to read the expression on her young face, trying not to doubt what the gods had assured him; that she wasn't too young to be told, that this one had to be informed early on. And that he would be forever destined to make sure that she did not run.

"Your destiny is a higher purpose than this simple life, my Clea." He wished that she were older, so that he could embrace her or stare deeply into her eyes and offer her charm and inspiration like he had so often done over the course of his existence. But not her; the most important one to him would be the one he could offer the least of his powers to comfort or enlighten. With Clea, he would be entirely left to mortal guises. "What I've told you today gives you the power to unlock the doors and make all things possible to save everything that you know. This knowledge is the key, and you must never reveal it to anyone until it is the right time. The knowledge cannot be lost on you, for you know that only very important people in the galaxy have access to the Avè."

"The Avè only comes forth when something disastrous is about to take place," she mumbled, not looking at Avalon. Of all the legends that weaved so intricately through the history of this universe, those that involved the Avè were the only ones that had remained intact, and stayed pure and unadulterated.
 

"That's right, Clea. And he will come forth again, for this will be a most desperate time. It will be stealth and it will be shrouded in normalcy, but brewing under the surface of all that we know will be a force more dangerous than there are words to explain. But with the secret riddle, you will set the path for all things to be saved."

"How does it end?" she asked suddenly, finally looking up. "How does it end, Avalon? You always tell me the legends that we hear nowadays are wrong. They always have a different ending when you were there to see them actually happen. So how does this story end?"

"How does it end in the version you know today?"

"The Chosen three battle an evil force and they band together to defeat it, saving everybody in the galaxy. They are almost as powerful as the gods themselves when united, and their strength saves their world. Saves…our world." She stopped for a minute, thinking. "How does this version end, Avalon?"

"I don’t know Clea. The difference between a legend and a prophecy is that in a prophecy, the events have yet to take place. " Avalon sighed, and chose to hold his tongue on some of the specifics. "There is more to the legend than you know now, little one. But we'll save that for another time. As for the ending of this version of the story, we'll make sure that it ends the same as the one that you know so well. All right?" Avalon leaned down, trying to catch her stare, but she would not look up at him. Clea was silent, and the air around them had become thick with the humidity of impending rain. She looked at the grass, toying with it idly, her young face malcontent.

"I should go home," she said, still looking at the ground. In the distance, the low rumble of thunder sounded, announcing the storm. "I told you it was going to rain today." Avalon knew that it had suddenly become a long day for this headstrong child, and he stood and offered her his hand.

"You did indeed." Avalon watched her pouted lips, the shadow of her long dark lashes on her cheeks. "It seems that intuition is your gift, my Clea." As he reached out to her she took his hand but watched the ground as they walked.