“My mother…” she repeated. She stood and turned to face Ethedra. “I’m going to tell you a story… and then you’ll understand…”
The words tumbled out of her. “My mother,Serenity, was awolvenCitlali, born with a starrenqua, and the ability to talk to Rhen. Three hundred years ago, this area…” She stumbled on her words, then righted herself. “… this area was called Blue Ford. Countless groups of people moved through, but core encampments ofshiftenstayed, kept in Blue Ford by Rhen’s body, which was protected underground. Plus, Khain was here. This is where the action was. Theshiften, or rather thewolven, bearen,andfelen,were clear as to their purpose in Blue Ford, which was to protect humans from Khain, and also to guard Rhen’s body. My mother was a clan leader until the day that Khain came to the Ula, found Serenity in the woods by herself, overpowered her, and…”
Abigail’s voice faltered. Ethedra looked down at her, hands folded, nodding at her, lending her silent strength. Abigail held onto the altar, willing herself to go on.
“Boe and I were the result. We were Primary Foxen, bound by the Tether, which Khain created centuries ago, the first time he violated awolvenCitlali and the first twin Primary Foxen were born, fated to serve the demon for 150 years each.”
Abigail took a moment to breathe and unscramble her thoughts.
“Your mother knew what you would be,” Ethedra said, when the silence had echoed through the cavern for too long.
“She did, and she was required bywolvenlaw to abort us. Instead, she took to the bluff, running in wolf form, crying out to Rhen, demanding to know why it had happened, and how she was supposed to kill her babies. She heard nothing fromRhen, and she ran all day long for so many months it was too late for her to abort us by any means known at the time. She birthed us on the bluff, a wolf giving birth to two fox pups, alone. We lived in the forest for four years, all throughout the woods and caves of Serenity. Thefoxenand the wild wolves respected my mother, and we always had shelter with them.”
“The night we were born, my mother had a dream that she met with Rhen in the Meadow. They walked and talked, two females strolling in a beautiful place like they were friends and life had been good to them. Rhen told my mother that although she had endured violation and hardship and long suffering, nothing was wasted. Her young, Boe and I, were special, and we signaled a new age of prosperity and equality for fox...”
Abigail’s voice gave out, and she coughed several times, her body threatening to break down on her. She rested, her head on the slab for a moment, then continued talking.
“Rhen told my mother that we were to be protected, and if thewolvenembraced us, Khain’s power overfoxenwould end. My mother had no one to tell, knowing that if the male Citlali saw us, they would kill us on sight. We lived at the top of the bluffs, where the wolven rarely went. Once we were two years old, Serenity left us with thefoxenand stealthily visited the other female Citlali, sharing Rhen’s message. She shared her message secretly for years. Once she had several Citlali, all females, on her side she went to the Council ofwolvenand demanded protection for us. The males chased her out of town, and that night, Khain came while we were sleeping and took us. We woke up in the Pravus with the monster. We were only four years old, tiny and weak, and unable to fight him in any way. He sliced off ourrenquaswith his dirty claws, then he marked our bare chests. We cried and screamed and suffered, and he smiled like it was fine music we were making.”
Abigail could not go on. Instead, she skipped over her entire childhood in the Pravus in her mind. If she could chop the memories out of her brain with a hatchet, she would.
“My name was Adil at that time,” she said quietly. Ethedra said nothing, only nodded and listened.
“I escaped the Pravus loads of times as a teenager,” Abigail said, her brain boiling. “And I could hide from Khain as long as I was awake, but as soon as I fell asleep…” Abigail trailed off, remembering waking up in the disgusting Pravus, with the horrible demon, being completely helpless to guard herself against him, his every act intended to torment her. She’d descended into madness constantly, playing mind games to distract herself, but always when she came around, she was still entrapped in the living hell.
She shook her head, then banged the heel of her hand against her forehead multiple times, making her neck hurt. She stopped and dropped her hands on the altar.
“I finally escaped for good,” she bit out, her eyes closed. “I’d woken in the middle of the night with a dream clear in my mind—a dream of my fox and I playing together as two separate beings. I recognized the meaning of the dream—myfoxenhalf and my human half should separate, and then the demon would not recognize me. I didn’t know how to do it, but I’d learned to work with the demon’s power, and I could form magic of all kinds easily usingvvyst. I was confident I would figure it out, and so I set to planning.”
Abigail mixed the salt with the water mindlessly as she spoke. “When the day finally came, I stole power from the demon while he slept—all I could absorb and carry—then escaped through a portal to the Ula.”
Abigail stopped stirring and her hand drooped. She stared into the cavern, her gaze falling on nothing, her head moving around on her neck like a marionette. Her right handlifted and hovered in the air. She fell into the memory like a portal through time.
11—Adil
Adil Saint Clair, at home with the demon, cleaned the stone hallway with a mop, spreading dirt streaks from one side of the place to the other. Not allowed any clothing, she worked naked, her bare feet standing in dirty suds. She thought as she worked, devising another plan to escape from the hellscape that was the Pravus and the monster who was her father.
She was 20 years old, or maybe 21. There were no celebrations, no clocks, calendars, or events, to mark the passage of time in the Pravus, only work and horror, drudgery and torment.
From somewhere nearby in the castle, Adil sensed the clank and whistle of a hefty mind-gate to the Ula opening and closing. She perked up, lightly gripping the mop handle with both hands, listening and sensing intently. The demon had gone to the Ula. Why? How long would he be gone? Could she escape? She took a few steps toward her secret room, then reconsidered and took a few steps in the other direction, toward the center of the labyrinth of rooms and caves of the demon’s home, where the mostvvystcollected. She would need plenty to make her own mind-gate and get far away.
Another mind-gate opened below her a floor or two. Adil froze, listening, sensing. Her father roared her name. She trembled and froze, adrenaline spurting through her body, ready to run and hide—but her Tether activated with a painful yank at the mark on her chest. It tugged her toward the demon, an invisible thread between them. She groaned in pain and curled her shoulders in, dropping the mop and crossing her wrists over her chest, feet shuffling along the ground to keepfrom falling, or she would be pulled headfirst along the ground down the stairs.
She shuffled to her feet and jogged through passageways, moving with the pull of the Tether, down two flights of stairs until she was outside a room with an archway. She planted her feet, not wanting to go in there, but the Tether yanked her along, until she was inside. A cathedral ceiling rose over the demon’s head, with brick-laid walls and no windows all around. The ceiling glowed, lighting the room from above. Khain stood 20 feet tall, his elongated skull devoid of skin and full of holes, and the flesh rotting from most of his skeletal body, like a creature from Algonquin myth. In his right claw, he held a live cow. It mooed pitifully, hooved feet pawing the air. The demon turned to Adil and passed a glamour of a handsome giant over his form, then let it wither. The monster opened its jaws wide and chomped on the cow, biting it in half.
Adil stared in horror, then cried out and ran as blood splattered in her direction.
Her father laughed, took another bite of the cow, quartering it, then splatted the rest on the floor, shouting, “Clean it up!”
Adil ran for the door and Khain blocked her with a giant claw.
“Where do you think you’re going, little girl?”
Adil froze in place, knowing what was coming, unable to run, knowing if she fought it would get worse for her. Her breath rasped in and out of her body and she squeezed her eyes shut, holding herself tightly.
“Useless!” he shouted, slamming her across the room with one sweep of his giant claw. She hit the wall, and dropped to the floor, broken, battered, crying, and raging inside. She couldn’t kill him, but she had to escape him. She couldn’t be used as a punching bag anymore.
Good for nothing,he told her inruhi,invading even her mind.
