The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (44 page)

“Hunters, I usher you into peace,” Tuyir said, waving his hand
towards them.

The sudden silence was startling, even if she had expected it.
Alexis watched as Tuyir paced slowly in front of the Elders, drawing the attention of her parents away from her stomach in the process.

Crossing his arms over his barreled chest, Tuyir said, “There was
so much promise at your creation. You had the wisdom of Vili, weapon
mastery of Jordis, my prowess for war, and life breathed in to your
fragile mortal bones by the goddess Lelah.”

“Now we stand here in the face of your failures. They live,” he
gestured to the Lycans, “and prosper, while your ranks dwindle into
obscurity. The Hunters have forgotten their makers, and they,” he
motioned to the other gods, “have forgotten you. They have wearied
of giving you their blessings when it is the objects of your purpose that
show them the greatest favor. In short, you have failed. But worry not
. A
Lycan
is here to save the day.” The last part was said with a sneer.
He turned away from them with a sigh that every child is loath to hear
from its parents.

The power of Tuyir’s stride exuded a level of command that had more to do with his prowess in war than his conceit as a god. He was
the type that even the mightiest warlords listened to, because his very
walk offered no other option. “When the creation of your species was
first exposed, I found myself awed by your potential. As one of the
long lived mortals, not unlike the dragons of Zombeir or giants of
Duringrie, I found your existence appealing. In you, I found a war with
the potential to be etched in the halls of this world
’
s violent history. Its
potential legacy was to be coveted. So much death, campaigns that
could span decades or more, but the end result would be the same. You
’
d
perish, because that was the way it was supposed to be.

“Ah, but you are more resilient than any of us believed. Here you
stand today, seeking to do the impossible. End a war, The Forever War,
with nothing more than the proverbial olive branch. How Greek of you.
I would say that you are owed limitless praise for all that you have
endured. That Kyran, as leader of you all,” he smiled at the growls this
earned, “should be bestowed our greatest honor. But you aren’t here for honors or praise, are you, Kyran? You seek a nobler path. A truth you have cloaked yourself in since you first learned Narn’s prophecy
and jumped to your mortal-brained conclusion. You want peace. Simple
, safe peace to raise your hybrid spawn in.”

He turned away and went to stand at Othion’s side.

Alexis placed her hand protectively on her stomach as her husband
went still in anticipation of a threat.

“The father of Narn, your beloved goddess, has summoned us all
here for that very reason. To fulfill the prophecy. But I wonder what
life holds for the remaining Hunters. I worry for their failed cause.
But the journey to this day wasn’t my making, therefore I must give honor to the god for which we have gathered.”

Othion managed to take a half step forward when a hand reached
out of a dense fog that appeared out of nowhere.

“Stay your place, Othion.”

The voice was booming, its depth resonating through the forest and
silencing its occupants. A few of the gods tried to back away, murmurs
of Nivar’s name leaving their lips, but despite their effort, they were held firmly in place.

Many words came to mind to describe the being that stepped free
of the fog, but all of them seemed inadequate. While it was obviously
male and humanoid, its species was unknown. It existed outside of
Alexis
’
realm of understanding, and nothing she did could get her around
her lack of words. He was devastatingly beautiful, but even that didn’t
encompass his presence.

She wished she was more poetic with words. That she could draw
on Shakespeare, Blake, or Frost for inspiration, but she was no poet.

All she could say that the being gave off waves of ULTIMATE in
a way that came with the wafting sense of otherness flowing from him.
The being brought her to literal tears and cultivated convoluted notions
that warred with each other for dominance. He was peace and war, love
and hate, acceptance and rebuke, courage and fear, and so much beyond
that. And yet none of it had a name, because all words ceased to have
relevance when
referring to the being that
stood in the center of them all.

He turned his attention to Narn and smiled. It hurt – in a physical,
chest constricting way – to behold, even as it brought her a feeling of
ultimate peace. Deep within her, she knew that she could die from his
smile alone and would die loving the harmony of the moment. She
stood at that precipice of death, but the mightiest of them all kept her from the edge.

“So long your punishment has endured, and you still have yet to
learn. Your growth is slow moving. I fear for your charges.” His attention
turned next to the creators of the Hunters. “Among the four of you,
there has been growth and regression. Three have climbed free of childish
whims and sought your forgotten knowledge. But one is left behind.
The violent one, who tempers fate at the edge of aggression
’
s blood
soaked blade. My efforts would be wasted on you, so I endeavor to
spend my unlimited time on more fruitful measures.”

The sheer agony that creased Tuyir
’
s features seared Alexis to her
core. She knew what having a person write you off meant, and for it to
be your creator, your parent, it hurt that much more.

Nivar stood in front of the Elders, who were nothing more than weeping versions of their heavily armed selves. They couldn’t stand
under his direct attention, and she doubted when he focused on her
she’d be any better off.

“You Hunters should earn your name. Therefore, I reclaim Vili’s gift of Sight.”

The words had barely left his mouth when she joined the chorus
of cries from the Elders. The pain didn't last long, but when she looked
at Kyran to reassure him that she was okay, she could no longer see
him in a way that marked him as Lycan. Her ability to Soul See him wa
s
still present, but the knowledge that had been a part of her for her
entire life was gone.

In this moment Alexis realized just how little she understood the Sight. She had no words to accurately describe the knowledge taken
from her. The Sight had been instinctual knowledge; beholding a Lycan
with the Sight had allowed her to feel the otherness about them. As she
observed them now, the feeling was absent.

The being faced the Lycans, standing right in front of Kyran and gazing straight at her. Alexis had been right. She went to the ground
in a puddle of inexplicable tears. She would happily die, if only Nivar
would be her usher.

“You have long been punished for doings not of your own making,
and what you sought to do here today is noble but, in the end, useless
.
You plight is tied to Narn
’
s fate, and being that she has yet to seek the
waters of everlasting growth, you are doomed to incur the attention of those who are thirsty for your death. I can only offer you this as penance for a crime not your own. Seek not the waters of stagnation. To prosper, one must bathe in self-resiliency and determination. For
that I say, if it is war they wish to have, give them what they so easily
offer. But as I have taken from them, I take from you a crippling aspect
of your Othion’s curse. No longer are you bound to die by the poison
of silver. The Hunters will now have to end you in a way that uses
average conventions to kill those beyond the average scope.”

The God of Gods, Architect of the Universe, Gardas, and of Time
itself turned and looked at Othion. Sheer disappointment was the best
description for the way his features creased and the emotion it held.

“I have long thought that I have lived beyond knowing shame.
Yet I stand here awed by the depth of it. To think that you managed to
sway three of my children into your misguided attempt to save your
daughter leaves me…awed. For my awe, I offer it to you. You will know my shame three times over for the three of my children that
you have steered astray. I will levy that time unmeasured shall pass
before those three times over have been fulfilled. You should pray that
time doesn’t span too long before I have forgotten your inability to
remember who I am.”

With that Nivar, the god with no accurate description, who conjured
notions beyond understanding and cohesiveness, disappeared.

Alexis turned her attention to Kyran. At the moment, rage was
winning the battle for his train of thoughts. She reached up to turn him
to face her when a burst of rapid gunfire broke the forest’s silence.

ALEXIS STRUGGLED AGAINST
Kyran’s firm hold, trying to gain
access to her weapons. His grip was as unrelenting as her ponytail,
but it slowly eased as the silence stretched.

"Stand behind me,"
Kyran’s voice echoed in her head.

She nodded her understanding before he released her.

Across the field, her father stood with his gun pointed skyward, his gaze locked on the gods.

“We have questions, and I expect them to be answered.”

Tuyir pushed away from the tree he leaned against and stood in front of her father. “You feel you deserve more than we have already given you?”

“You’ve given us nothing. An abomination has nothing to offer the righteous.”

Tuyir laughed, with more malice than joy. “Ask your questions,
Elder Thomas.”

Alexis watched her father’s nose flare and his eyes narrow. “Who
and what are you?”

Alexis shuffled her feet. She was tired and emotionally over the
failed venture that this meeting had become. Standing here getting a mini-lesson on the gods didn't appeal to her in the least.

Tuyir crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her father for a
moment before he answered. “I am Tuyir, God of War.”

Tuyir introduced the other gods and their respective domains. By
the time the god finished, it was evident by the rubbing of his temples
and his glare that her father perceived every word to be a lie.

“If you are the gods you claim to be, why do the Hunters have no
knowledge of you? We searched our histories after your unconventional
visit and found nothing of note.”

Alexis peered around Kyran at Vili when he stepped away from Jordis’ side and joined Tuyir in front of the Elders.

“You have no knowledge of us, because many millenniums ago, I took that knowledge in an attempt to retract my blessing that I had
righteously given at your creation. In doing so, I retracted only the
knowledge of us, but not the Sight that allowed you to know the Lycans
upon beholding them. However, a blessing given can’t be retracted, only altered, and often not for the better.”

“So you failed,” one of the other Elders replied.

Tuyir shook his head in negation. “We fail at nothing. Our intentions
and the results may differ, but given the variable which he was working
with, the possibility of the current outcome was accepted. Understand
this, however. We don’t suffer your constraints of success or failure. The end results just are.”

“
And yet you call us failures for not eradicating a mess of your own
making. For not being able to succeed when important knowledge
has long been denied to us, and it was no fault of ours.”

Alexis’ body rippled with anticipation of violence just from the
tick of agitation in Tuyir’s jaw. Annoyance at her own time being wasted
,
threatened to make her do something to speed the process along. Namely
answering all the Elders questions with head-shot therapy.

Tuyir rolled his shoulders, the tension obvious in the set of his
strong shoulders. “You failed not from absence of knowledge but from
inherent arrogance. That Lycan,” Tuyir pointed to Kyran, “among others
of his kind, has been learning from Hunters for years. They know
where you live while you only hold general knowledge about them. They seek knowledge while you settle for quick kills. Honestly, your continued existence is due to their reluctance to eradicate you as you
seek to rid the planet of them. That is one flaw for which I am glad the
Hunters don’t suffer.”

Alexis glanced down the row of Lycans and noticed with detached
interest that some appeared just as agitated as she was. She rubbed her
hands on her pants, then together, and back against her pants. Kyran
glanced over his shoulder at her, but in his gaze was a lingering wildness,
much closer to feral than she would have thought possible for a Lycan
who wasn’t even rogue. She nodded her head at him to indicate that she was okay which prompted him to turn back around.