The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH WAITING IN THE FUTURE

Twelve thousand years in the future, over six months after the War Oracle and the last Mage vanished with the Relic of Time...

“King Karstien! We got a ping. The Oracle is coming back,” the excited Chief Tech Lara huffed as she rushed into the Royal Council room. Everyone turned to stare at her.

“Where?” the king demanded.

“The Southern Castle.”

It took less than twenty minutes to mobilize, everyone who was to aid those who were coming through time to escape the Great Cataclysm. Guardsmen and healers rushed around. King Karstien stood next to his pregnant half-sister, the master healer, High Lady Asha. She looked more tired than he had ever seen her, even during the war. He placed his hand over hers to stop her fingers from nervously drumming on her belly. Their younger brother had not yet arrived.

“He’ll be fine, Daisy wouldn’t have let anything happen to him,” Karstien assured her.

“I can’t imagine, how hard this was for him.” Asha smiled wanly up at him.

“Asha, why didn’t you tell me what Daisy was planning?” Karstien asked again as he looked down at her.

“She knew you would want to go, and she was worried it might be a one-way trip. The kingdom needs you, Kar. We are still recovering from the war, and Uncle Yurieth’s huntsmen are still chasing after Damien’s creatures. The kingdom needs stability, especially after all the humans went home to Terrearth or moved to Jura. Our people are just beginning to settle into who they are after the war, many are returning to the old agrarian ways. Our people are craving simplicity and stability. Those who want adventure can explore beyond our four worlds to the colonies the humans left behind or join the space fleet.”

“Except me,” he scowled looking up at the sky, clouds were starting to swirl.

“I know you’re bored, big brother, but soon you’ll be an uncle, and sooner than...“Asha was interrupted by a shout.

“They’re coming.” Their Uncle Abe called out to them.

There was a flash of light, four men and over a dozen children stood inside a dome of flickering shield glyphs. Asha was already running forward. The glyphs vanished and a red-headed Shadz managed two steps before dropping to his knees. Asha glowed gold as he hugged her belly and sobbed in a very uncharacteristic display of emotion.

“Father, Lord Odini, Lord Oren, what... why did you bring Oshay?” Abe’s voice trailed off as Shadz looked up at him, then he swore, “By the light, it was you who helped Daisy finish the Tear!”

As Asha helped her sealed one to his feet, Shadz glared at him, snapping viciously, “We had always suspected that you remembered. Does your brother remember the shameful way in which he treated the Oracle?”

“Yes, Shadz, I do,” Yuri said from behind him. Kalen looked confused at his side.

Karstien glanced between them, “Shadz, he told us what happened.”

“And you dared enter my home?” Shadz sneered.

Asha put her hand over his heart, “Mine, he made things right with her before she did the enchantment.”

“Why didn’t they just tell us after the war? Daisy would have gone back, she wouldn’t have hesitated,” Shadz demanded as his grandfather came to stand beside him.

“That would be my fault,” Adamos announced. “I have spent many nights soothing her sleep. I saw that you all believed that my sons did not remember and so I ordered them to say nothing to preserve the timeline.”

“You mean to keep the secrets of the Oracles,” Yuri said coldly to his father.

“Yurieth, I know that you did not approve of the deceit and the obscuring magic for you memories, but it needed to be done,” Adamos declared, he turned to look at Asha, “We did not expect you to discern the truth, granddaughter.”

“Lord Adamos, Lady Daisy will be very upset if she discovers this deceit in your time. She...” Shadz announced, when he hesitated Asha and Karstien looked at him with concern. “Lady Daisy believes that she will die in the past because she was told Lady Fleur did die in the past. ”

“Why would she think that?” Asha demanded.

“Lord Yurieth once accused Princess Demona of killing her,” Karstien said quietly.

“But Demona was only deceived and framed for killing her,” Abe blurted out. “Daisy didn’t die.”

“Perhaps you should have been honest with Daisy and she wouldn’t be so willing to sacrifice herself,” Shadz snapped. “She will let Demona kill her if she believes that is what happened.”

“Grandson, we will find a way to save her,” Odini stated firmly.

“You don’t understand, my lords, once my mother is determined accomplish something, she will,” Asha replied softly. “She will stay behind to save just one more, if she believes it is her destiny to die Then.”

One hour later...

Karstien watched Shadz ordering crates piled around the Relic of Time. Chief Tech Lara and Guardsmen Admin Rheema had shown up with one last crate in the minutes before the Relic would return to the past.

Rheema grinned at Shadz, “That’s the last thing on the Oracle’s list. Are you sure I can’t go back to help her?”

Shadz grinned at her. “No, she said no one else was to be put at risk. She is going to try to force a double trip on the last shot before the Cataclysm but if it comes to soon, anyone who goes back will die when the Dark Nebulae is created.”

Yuri shook his head, in disagreement. “Father, she won’t come back, unless someone convinces her, she needs to come back.”

“The Huntsman is correct,” Shadz grudgingly agreed.

Adamos put his hand on Karstien’s shoulder. “I will do my best to send my grandson’s oracle back to him. Mina already has a plan to save her.”

Looking around at everything, Karstien asked Asha, “How did you know she wanted all this stuff?”

Asha grinned. “I would dream about Shadz writing me a note and the next morning it would be in Mina’s book.”

“Adamos, it’s time.” Odini interrupted.

Oren hugged Shadz. “I’ll see you soon, nephew.” Then he took his place as did Adamos and Odini. Everyone stepped back but just as the beacon fired, Karstien sprang forward and vanished.

Asha smirked up at her sealed one, “Looks like you are washing and brushing my hair, Mine.”

Shadz grinned down at his beautiful wife, “I only bet to lose to you, my golden one.”

Queen Allura laughed. “Is it really a bet when we all knew he was going to do it?”

Everyone laughed except Yuri. Abe chided him, “Yuri, have hope. You and Karstien will convince her to come home after mother saves her.”

“Abe, do you feel like your memories have changed?” Everyone grew silent at his question. “What world was mother on when she and Lady Naphtala died?”

Abe eyed him, “What would make you ask that?”

“Just answer.”

Serapha said, “Xelusia,” at the same moment Abrieth said, “Aetheria .”

They looked at each other alarmed.

“Do either of you remember Fleur standing on the steps of the Blood Temple dressed as the Dark Oracle?” When they didn’t answer, Yurieth continued, “Because I do now. I also remember Karstien was there when we rescued Serapha on Xelusia, even though none of us told him he would be. Last night, I dreamed or remembered watching Fleur holding his sword while fighting the Lord Of Shadows, she cut off one of his horns, a memory I did not have before but it wasn’t my memory, it was hers.”

Shadz scowled at them. “Something is still changing time.”

Folding her hands over her pregnancy belly, Asha scowled while her fingers drummed thoughtfully. “Then we need to be ready for the ripples. Uncle Yuri, I need you to stay here in case you have any more of these altered dream memories.”

“He’s not staying here,” Shadz growled.

“Enough, Mine,” Asha reprimanded quietly. “If Mom needs help, we will only have one more chance to get to her and only a thirteen-minute window for her to use it. I am not losing her before she holds my girls, and our future boys are not losing their grandmother. You don’t need to get revenge; his guilt has punished him enough. Come, Rheema, Lara, let’s start figuring out what Mom might need before she needs it.” Dragging Shadz with her, Asha walked away with her friends.

Allura watched them go. “I thought Lord Shadz hated you before, Lord Yurieth, what happened to make him so much more vengeful?”

Yuri inhaled and exhaled slowly, “If Shadz was Oshay, then he witnessed my cruelty to Fleur when I was angry over the discovery of her ability to wield the darkness. One night she... she tried to take her own life after I had been particularly cruel. Oshay, Oren, and another found her lying in the snow. He vowed to me on that night that he would punish me for my cruelty, not in that lifetime but in another. I believed she was like the other siren sorceresses I had met. I refused to accept that she was special until it was almost too late.” His steel eyes held her turquoise ones. “Allura, how do I earn her forgiveness?”

Allura patted his arm. “Forgiveness can’t be earned, Uncle Yuri. It’s a gift. All these years you have spent as her friend will count for something. Count on the “you”, you are now being more important that who you were then. You started to make amends then, she will remember how much you love her here and now. But I... I would give the Mage some space.”

Two months later...

Yurieth jerked awake, struggling not to cry out. His heart was pounding in his chest. His memories were muddled; Aetheria and Xelusia were wastelands, the Devourer roamed both worlds, and Daisy, or Fleur as she was called then, wore the mantle of the Dark Oracle again as she led the last survivors against vast hordes of undead creatures. Every time was the same, she would stop in the middle of the battle and look at him with such hatred and betrayal. Each time she said the same thing, “It’s been four days, Huntsman. Bring me what I need when the Relic returns.” Only the number of days changed.

“Anything new, Uncle Yuri?” Asha’s voice and soothing glow calmed his terrified soul.

“No, Asha. It was the same. What does it mean? What does she need? I... I don’t remember any of what the dreams show me,” his voice vibrated with his frustration.

Asha blotted his forehead with a cool cloth. “We’ll figure it out.”

“We don’t have time...” he growled. “Make me sleep again.”

“No. You have had enough for today and obviously this isn’t working, none of the ones having these visions gets very far before they wake.” Asha’s voice was firm and final, just like her mother’s when her mind was made up. “Your scans are done. You can sit...”

She had just stepped away from his bed when Shadz stomped in and seized Yuri by the throat. “What did you remember?!?”

Yuri shoved him away violently, “Only what I told you before! We faked Fleur’s death, she did the enchantments, and returned to the future after we returned to Xelusia. We rescued Serapha, hid at Serapha’s family home outside the City of the Temples, and a month later, the sky tore open, the sun cracked like the surface of lava, and everything became still then I was in the dust.” Yurieth snarled back. “The only new memories are of Fleur standing at the blood temple and mother dying there instead of at the Towers of Xelusia.”

“Are you sure?” Shadz snapped. “Nothing altered from your original memories in your dreams?”

“Nothing more that Daisy fighting as the Dark Oracle, which she wasn’t after she finished the enchantment on me, then we returned to Xelusia through a... through a portal...” He paused confused. Blinking rapidly, he focused on the subtle change of his memories. It hurt, like lava being poured into his brain but he fought to see the altered memory. “Th-th-that-t-t’s h-h-how we-we were t-t-traveling after sh-sh-she w-was t-t-t-taken t-t-t-to th-th-the t-temple.”

Far away he heard Asha shouting for Cassandra to bring her a syringe of something and Shadz swearing.

Yuri woke to the low murmurs of Serapha and Asha. He swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “What happened?”

Asha squeezed his hand. “We think the temporal shift caused you to have a seizure. Neither Abe nor Serapha remember Mom using portals to get anywhere but to and from the Tear. You said there was one to Xelusia before you passed out.”

“Between the Manor of Odini and the Hall of Baalru, in the temple palace.” Yuri breathed out.

“I don’t remember that,” Serapha said softly.

“Why only me?”

“I don’t know, Uncle Yuri, unless it is because you are Mom’s sealed one and her soul is telegraphing the shift to you,” Asha theorized. “Rheema dreamed of the Huntsman with Daisy again, he was holding the Against Hope Device. Shadz and Lara both dreamed of Daisy holding one of the Chronos Energy Storage Crystals and standing in a strange chamber.”

“Have there been no more messages in my mother’s book?” Yuri asked hopefully.

Asha shook her head. “If these messages are from after Karstien left then The Book of Prophecies is on the Tear of Heaven’s Hope with Grandfather.”

Serapha touched his hand, “Yuri, I know you hate all forms of siren and blood magic but... perhaps the Dreamshadow could bind the four of you together to be enough of a beacon that Daisy could tell us what she needs. We only have two months until Karstien returns.”

Yuri closed his eyes, “I’ll do it.”

Shadz, Rheema, Lara, and Yurieth each put their blood in the chalice Serapha held, she mixed it with wine and herbals before handing it back. They each took a drink, sat down and reclined. As Queen Allura watched in silent apprehension, Asha held out her hand and glowed golden, “Sleep.”

Instantly all four were standing in an underground cavern filled with sleeping or exhausted looking refugees.

“Where are we?” Lara whispered.

“The mines below the Fjord Fortress of the House of Odini.” Yurieth answered gruffly and loud.

“Shhh, you’ll wake them.” She harshly murmured.

“They can’t hear us, Lara. We need to find the oracle.” Shadz was already walking toward the place he had seen the strange chamber in his dreams.

Yuri could feel the pull of Daisy’s soul leading him in the same direction Shadz was walking. Rheema cried out and ran ahead when Regis came into view. Her astral body went through the large huntsman’s when she tried to hug him.

Laughing, Lara pulled her to her feet, “We’re ghosts, you nitwit!”

“Lara, don’t call Rhee a nitwit.” Daisy or Fleur sounded irritated. “It took you long enough to answer, it’s been five days for us.”

Yuri ground his teeth at the hostile look she gave him, accusing, “It’s been two months of you just standing in a battle field glaring at me, and memories that are different from the originals causing me to have seizures. What did you do to change the past?”

“I did nothing. Demona opened the Gate at the same moment Karstien left and there was a rebound of the time energy when the Against Hope detonated. I calculated Time for us is moving at the rate of a day per your minute. Shadz, I need you to build me a second Temporal Implosion Device but invert the harmonic matrix and double the power output. Lara, you can see what I am building. I am making a time chamber to bring forward nearly a thousand refugees. I need every charged C.E.S.C. we have in the vault. I also need one of the Biomass Bait Boxes we used to lure the nebulae away from the population centers on Jura. I need to lure the Devourer back to the Gate before we blow it.” Daisy/Fleur was cold and calculating as she stared at them through strange black eyes, her dark scars made her look beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

“What happened to you, Lady Daisy?” Lara asked shyly.

“The Lord of Shadows tried to kill me when I showed up on Xelusia to see why the Against Hope failed. I cut off one of his horns and stabbed him with it.” She smirked. “Oh Regis, I know you can’t see her, but this is Rheema, you’re sealed one. Rheema, the Huntsman Regis, son of Regulus of the House of Remus.”

Regis and Regulus were both looking at Fleur like she was insane.

She shrugged, “What? You said bring help.” The Dark Oracle turned back to the astral figures. “Remember when Karstien arrives you will only have thirteen minutes to get the children clear and the equipment loaded. Before the forced return, then thirteen minutes on this end and poof. Twenty-six minutes after Karstien arrives with the first batch, this chamber should appear and then the Relic of Time will probably explode so make sure all unnecessary personnel are as far away as possible and have emergency escape portals away from the area. Are we clear?”

Shadz bowed to her. “We understand, War Oracle. It is our honor and our duty to serve you.”

Fleur nodded, “Good. Shadz, have Asha wake you all.”

Yuri held out his hand, “Daisy, wait. Are you coming back?”

“No.” She stared at him with a completely blank expression as his consciousness was slammed back into his body.

“What did she say?” Queen Allura asked.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Shadz answered first.

“The Oracle built a chamber to bring nearly a thousand forward,” Lara added excitedly.

“And Mom?” Asha asked.

With a sick, sinking feeling, Yuri quietly revealed, “Daisy isn’t planning on coming back.”