Cythera Chronicles: The Shadow Prophecies, chapter 4

There was a collective intake of breath as the remaining Cytherans realized what had just happened. Katze stared at the spot where the ten Cytherans had originally been, startled. "Well, that was odd."

"It most certainly was," Kwon Chen said, frowning. "Although I suppose it was to be expected."

"At least we know who the ten people are now," Brianna added. "It’s really up to them to do their part now. However, strange as that was, we have a task to do here." She looked at the others pointedly.

"Well, what can we do?" Sya asked, confused. "I mean, they’re the ones searching for the chosen one."

"I’ll explain when we get inside," Brianna replied, shivering. "It’s awfully cold out now, and that rain might start up again anytime, you know."

Oddly, the rain, which had been falling so heavily earlier that night, had stopped. The sky was still dark, but of course, this was due to it being the middle of the night. They all trooped back into the Alraeican Tavern, glad for the warmth.

"So," Brianna began, once they were all seated again, "we have to remember that the reason the ten are gone is because of these shadows. They’re still around, and most likely still attacking. I know we’re all rather unnerved by a sudden disappearance of ten of our number, but we have work to do in the meantime."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Wolmark inquired.

"Well, for one thing, we need to find out how to protect ourselves against the shadows until Katerei and the others get back," Brianna explained. "Also, I think we should gather all of the people who have been injured together. We can take care of them here in Cademia. I’m thinking that could maybe we set up a sort of sanctuary in the Ronin’s barracks- is that okay with you?" She glanced over to where the Ronin were seated.

Flynn nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. I’m sure no one else would mind lending the barracks over for awhile...It won’t hold many people, considering the amount of attacks recently, but it’ll do for now. Unfortunately, three of our healers are gone- Leandra, Moonshadow, and Violet, but I suppose we’ll have to make do without them. There’s still a few here anyway."

"That’s right!" Sya piped up. "And Brianna has a point- by having the wounded here, we might be able to figure something out about how to fight these shadows."

"Right," Trinias said, "let’s go."

*

Lemni followed the others out of the Alraeican Tavern, but stopped Katze and Sideline as they exited. Nobody else noticed, fortunately. Lemni waited until the others were gone then drew the two off to the side of the building.

"I hear you two are good at stealth, secrecy, and such," she said, getting to the point quickly.

Katze glanced at Sideline warily and hesitated before answering. "Yes," she said finally, "we’re fairly skilled in those areas." She wasn’t really sure whether to trust the shadow-girl. Actually, neither was Sideline.

Lemni watched them closely, trying to determine what their expressions meant. She frowned slightly, then shrugged. "No worries about me. I can’t harm you anyway, you know. I want you to help me with something."

"With what?" Sideline said quickly.

"A mission," Lemni said, flashing a smile. "But of course, you’d want details. Well, I suspect you two are the best around here for what I want to do. These shadows, see- we need to find out more about them."

"You don’t know anything about them yourself?" Sideline queried. Considering who (and what) she was, he would have expected her to know more, yet she had claimed that she didn’t.

Lemni shook her head. "Nothing at all, unfortunately. That’s why I need your help. We’re going to get up close and personal."

*

Leandra and Katerei returned to the campground with their berries and a whole lot more knowledge. They quickly told the other eight what Kronos had told them.

"So," Talos said, "we’ve got to find somebody named Renae Martinson. How are we supposed to do that?"

Katerei shrugged. "No clue."

"Let’s worry about that in the morning, why don’t we," Violet said, looking up at the sky. "I think it’s going to rain soon."

"Right, let’s have our- uh- meal now, then we should get some sleep. We don’t really have anything for shelter but I guess the trees will have to do," Slayer said.

*

It rained heavily that night. Most of the group was already asleep by the time it started, but either way they all got soaked.

Brink sat leaning against a tree, thinking to himself. Katerei had been puzzling over what to do the next day, but exhaustion had given way and she had fallen asleep on Ferazel’s shoulder. Avatara had gone a little ways back into the woods to sleep; nobody had asked why. Talos was keeping watch and the others were all asleep.

Looking at the sputtering fire, Brink sighed. The rain didn’t look as if it would be letting up any time soon. Lying down on the ground, he tried to fall asleep and hoped something good would happen tomorrow.

*

The morning dawned grey and misty. The fire had long died from the rain; everyone was damp, tired and hungry; and no one was in the best of moods.

Violet stretched and wrung out her wet hair sleepily. "Oh, well, at least it didn’t snow."

Katerei yawned, too tired to comment that at least trees provided a decent amount of shelter from the snow. Talm and Leandra were busy debating whether to start another fire.

"What’s the point of it?" Talm said. "We’ll probably be going back to the town soon enough anyway."

"Yes, but don’t you agree that fire would be nice, just to dry off before we leave?" Leandra argued.

"We don’t have any dry wood to start one," Talm pointed out.

"No need," Avatara said, coming over to them. "I’ll light one where we had the fire last night...wood isn’t necessary..."

Soon he had a warm fire going. Everyone gathered around, soaking in the heat, except for Katerei who stood back nervously.

When they were all (comparatively) warm and dry, they turned to the problem of what they should do next.

"Well, we know who we’re looking for now," Ferazel said. "I guess a few people should go into the town and just look around, see what they can find out. The rest of us can stay here and attempt to set up some sort of a camp."

Moonshadow looked around wearily. "There’s not really much we can do to make a camp."

"Ferazel has a point though. How about four people go to the town and explore; we’ll stay here and figure out what we can do," Slayer said. "It should be humans that go. Sorry, Moonshadow, Avatara and Katerei, but you three will probably attract too much attention."

Katerei was about to protest, but Moonshadow cut her off. "Slayer’s right. We’ll stay back here; don’t worry, we’ll find something to do."

Katerei scowled, but didn’t press it.

"Right," Slayer said briskly, "any volunteers?"

They decided that Leandra, Violet, Talm, and Brink would go. They set off down the trail, and the other six remained at the "camp". Katerei watched them go, wondering what they might find, then turned back to the others.

"So, what are we going to do while we’re stuck here?" she questioned.

"We might as well explore around here," Talos said. "You never know; we might find something useful."

Violet watched an ant crawl over her foot. "But most likely we won’t. So in the meantime, let’s review what we know. We’re looking for somebody named Renae Martinson; she lives in the city over there; and, uh..."

"And we have absolutely no clue how to find out who or where she is," Avatara interjected.

Katerei looked at him, exasperated. ‘That’s why Violet’s going over what we know, so we can figure out a way to find Renae."

"We’re not getting anywhere," Moonshadow pointed out. "Come on...let’s just go explore like Talos said. At least we’ll be doing something"

*

Talm stood at the top of the hill, looking out over the city. "So, how are we supposed to find Renae in a city that size?"

Leandra turned to him, exasperated. "Do you think any of us know?" The futility of it all was getting to her. "I’d say our best bet is to just go into the city and explore for now."

"Well, let’s go, then," Brink said.

They walked down the hill and crossed the road again. This time, they had no experiences with metal monsters. However, they took a different route than before, not particularly wanting to make an appearance at the brick building again.

They found themselves among more houses. It seemed to be an awfully large city compared to Cademia, in order to have so many people living in one area. Unfortunately, it wasn’t helping them at all.

Violet looked around and sighed. "Well, Renae could be living in anyone of these houses, but it would take quite a long time to find her. Anybody have any ideas?"

Brink shook his head. "None at all."

They walked on in silence, each pondering the dilemma. However, this didn’t last long, as they soon found themselves at a road. A very busy road.

The metal monsters were zooming past at alarming speeds. They could catch glimpses of people inside, who seemed perfectly calm, aside from one thing- they seemed to find the Cytherans just as odd as the Cytherans found them.

Leandra looked around at all of them. "I suppose we don’t really blend in, do we?"

"Apparently not," Talm said. "Did you notice the looks that they were giving Moonshadow, Avatara and Katerei yesterday, though? They really stand out in a crowd here."

Violet watched the metal monsters nervously. She was having trouble getting used to this strange new place. Turning to the other three, she asked, "Er, can we go somewhere? I don’t think crossing this road will be particularly easy, and waiting doesn’t do us any good either."

Brink nodded in agreement. "Come on; we can walk down this road a ways and see what we find."

Several buildings lined the road, but none were of interest to the four Cytherans. They passed several side roads that were mostly empty of metal monsters, but they decided to continue on the one they were on.

That is, until they hit another heavily trafficked road. At the point that the two crossed, some of the metal monsters were lined up waiting. Metal poles with three glowing lights each hanging from them were placed around the crossing.

Violet looked around in wonder. "This is one of the strangest things I’ve seen yet here."

"It’s all been strange!" Leandra snapped, her temper getting the best of her. "There’s something odd about this place. I think the sooner we get back to Cythera, the better, and you know what that means." She glared at the others impatiently.

"That’d we’d better get moving, and find this Renae person," Talm replied. "Come on...maybe we should try and cross here."

~~~~

Jake sighed and turned up the volume on his car radio as he waited for the light to turn green.

As he looked out the window, he noticed four people standing at the corner. Their clothes were unfamiliar and they looked slightly lost.

They began to cross the street hesitantly, alongside the flow of traffic, but they stopped suddenly as a car horn blasted. Jake saw one of them whirl around, a startled expression on her face. He quickly realized why as he saw a small figure dart out from the other side of the road.

"No!" he heard somebody scream. Wide-eyed, Jake looked out the window as another figure hurtled over the car next to him. It started out as a blue-skinned person, then it melded into an ice-blue wolf as it nearly flew across the road. Jake gaped at it. What on earth?

The wolf tumbled onto the ground, leaped back up, and grabbed the small figure in its teeth just as a green Chevrolet slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt, curving off the road. Jake watched in amazement as the wolf dropped the figure, which he realized was a young child, glanced back at the four people who had been crossing the road, and bounded away.

Jake stared at the intersection, stunned. The four people had run after the wolf, apparently chasing it. The child had stood up and was looking around, scared. The driver of the Chevy, a young woman, had climbed out and was looking around wildly.

All traffic had stopped, of course. Jake opened his car door and stepped out, wondering how on earth this was going to be explained to the police.

~~~~

Lisa glanced sharply at the place where the wolf and the four weird people had run away. She didn’t blame them for running; a stunt like that would get you hauled in to the police quickly. That wolf had saved the child, though. She had originally been jogging down the highway, but waiting at the intersection to cross and therefore she had had a first-hand view of what had happened.

She checked to see that the child was being taken care of, and then she quietly left the scene. Lisa looked down at the road. There weren’t any tracks in the gravel on the side of the road, but she knew which direction they had gone.

After making sure nobody was watching, Lisa followed the path they had taken, keeping an eye out for the five strange people. At least, four of them were people; she still wasn’t sure about that one that had changed into a wolf.

~~~~

"What on earth are you doing here?" Leandra snapped at Katerei.

Fighting back a grin, Katerei commented, "Actually...are we on earth anymore?" Leandra glared at her. "Sorry. Anyway, well, I was following you four...I didn’t really want to stay behind at the camp."

Talm looked at Katerei in disbelief. "And why did you have to go and turn into a wolf where everybody could see you?"

Katerei looked at him, shocked. "That little child- he could have been killed! Weren’t you watching?"

"I’ll admit, those metal monster things are terrible," Violet commented.

Katerei was about to say something, but she stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Shh...I think there’s somebody coming."

Within seconds, all five could hear footsteps behind them. Brink glanced at Katerei. "Hide!"

Startled, Katerei dove into some nearby bushes and curled up, hiding herself from view. She was just in time as a woman entered the clearing they were in. She looked around at the four.

Leandra grimaced. "Don’t you know anything about stealth?"

Lisa looked at the woman, confused. She looked around at the four. "Where did that wolf go?"

They glanced at each other, knowing that saying that they didn’t know wasn’t going to work. "Well," Talm hesitated, "it’s, uh, gone."

"Gone where?" Lisa demanded.

Violet pointed vaguely to the south. "That way."

Lisa narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I don’t believe you."

Brink frowned. "I’ll show you the tracks. Look." He led Lisa over to a muddy match about ten feet away. "See?"

"No."

"You can’t see them?" Brink said incredulously.

Katerei, still hiding in the bushes, tried to suppress a laugh.

"Can you just tell me where that wolf went?!" Lisa said angrily.

"No, we can’t," Leandra said suddenly. "Sorry. But we can lead you there." She looked pointedly at Brink.

Brink gave a hint of a nod and gestured to Lisa. "Come on...it’s hiding not far away from here." He began walking away to the south.

While Lisa was distracted, Leandra sunk back behind a tree and closed her eyes.

Ok, Moonshadow, I can talk to you for a moment now.

Katerei’s gone from the camp. Where are you right now, and what are you doing?

Leandra sighed at the mention of Katerei’s name. I don’t know where we are. The second question is best left for later. We’re coming back to the camp as soon as we can, ok?

Are you in trouble or something? Moonshadow asked instinctively.

Don’t ask, Leandra replied tersely. We’ll see you soon.

She ducked back out from the tree and looked around. Talm and Violet were waiting nervously. Brink was nowhere to be seen, and Katerei was standing in the shadow of a tree.

Brink returned shortly, panting. "I got her fairly lost and ran away when she wasn’t looking. Come on, I guess we’d better get back to the camp."

"But we can’t go back across the road," Violet objected.

"Never mind that," Katerei said, stepping forwards. "There’s a roundabout route- the way I went. We’ll have to cross the roads farther down, is all. Let’s go, before that person finds her way back."

*

Lemni kneeled down on the forest floor and looked through a spot in the bushes. She watched for a moment, then flopped on the ground and turned to Katze and Sideline.

"Ok," she said in a hushed voice, "I think I know what we’re going to do. We’ve found some of these shadows, so your first job is to go in and study them- listen, if they can talk; watch them; see what they do. One of you on each side of that clearing they’re in should work. That’s just the spying part. I want you to come back afterwards and tell me if you find anything out. Then I’m going to actually go in amongst them and try and lead one of them out. If you can capture it, then do so; if you don’t have an opportunity to try don’t bother. The most important thing is for you to not be seen. Do you understand?"

Katze frowned. "We generally try to follow that rule, you know, if we’re doing stealth."

"Yes, of course you would," Lemni replied absently. "I’m sorry if it sounds like I doubt your abilities. Oh- and if you think you’re going to be endangered in any way, run. Just get out of here." She grinned wryly. "I don’t want to tell your companions that I’m guilty of leading you into something dangerous."

"What about you?" Sideline asked. "Is it not just as dangerous for you as it is for us?"

Lemni looked at him, and Sideline thought he saw a flicker of sorrow in her eyes. Her voice sounded weary when she spoke again. "They can’t harm me."

Katze opened her mouth to speak, but Lemni shook her head. "Never mind about that. Come on- go do your first part of the mission."

Sideline narrowed his eyes, but didn’t comment. He glanced at Katze, then flicked a finger towards their left. She nodded and went off in that direction, skirting around the clearing until she found a good place. Sideline departed into the opposite direction. Lemni watched them go, sighing slightly.

Katze clambered up into a tree and sat on a branch, hidden from view. She looked down into the small clearing. Three of the shadows were milling around in no particular order.

They were mostly humanoid, but their shapes seemed to shift slightly as they moved, as if made from a liquid. They were translucent- a rather disturbing notion, Katze thought to herself. She could see right through them to the trees of the other edge of the clearing.

She couldn’t tell if they had claws, or teeth, or anything. Katze hadn’t actually seen one of the victims yet, so she didn’t know if the shadows attacked like an animal would. They didn’t carry weapons, though, or at least not visible ones.

She’d heard rumours, however; that the victims weren’t cut, or bruised, or any such thing as one would expect after being attacked. Instead, according to the rumours, they seemed...less solid. And they looked sick all the time. Katze shuddered. What a terrible thought! She had seen some bad things in her life...but nobody had seen anything like this before.

Across the clearing, Sideline was thinking more or less along the same lines as Katze. Nothing was happening, but he decided to wait a little longer.

After a moment or two, though, the shadows stopped walking around aimlessly. They turned to face each other (if they even had a front and back side; it was impossible to tell the difference) and stayed there for a moment. They had kept their heads down, so Sideline couldn’t see their faces. But one brought its head up sharply, and Sideline unsuccessfully tried not to gasp.

Two, glowing, black orbs- those were its eyes. They could almost be described as iridescent, if that was possible for something black. They illuminated the area around it with a layer of darkness.

Sideline shook his head, confused. That completely defied the laws of light...how could something be illuminated by a shadow?

The shadow swept its gaze across the trees. It passed Sideline and he felt a wave of cold wash over him. He nearly collapsed, as it numbed his body. The only thing that kept him upright was the tree he had been leaning on, about five feet away from the edge of the clearing.

The shadow had not seemed to notice, though. Slightly dazed, Sideline wondered if it could even see. He tried to raise his head as he heard something near him. It was Lemni.

She paled when she saw him and ran over, speaking quietly. "I was watching from over there, and I saw that shadow look up. It did not look my way, fortunately, so I was not harmed-"

"But you said it couldn’t harm you," Sideline gasped, trying to draw a breath.

"I’m not sure anymore," Lemni said nervously. "Here...drink this..." She gave him a small bottle with a green cordial. Sideline weakly drank it and Lemni took the bottle back. She seemed distracted.

"I’m going to go check on Katze now. Sit down...stay here and don’t move. At all. Wait for me."

She slipped off into the cover of the bushes. Sideline watched as she went. Now he thought he understood. Maybe the shadows attacked not physically, but just by looking at somebody. Had he been reduced to the same state as the other victims?

Lemni returned in a few moments with Katze, who was pale but looked fine otherwise. Lemni turned to Sideline. "I am sorry. I should not have brought you here."

"It was our decision to come with you," Katze replied.

"True," Lemni murmured. She examined Sideline. "You look a bit better now. I don’t think that was all of the shadows’ attack; there must be something else they do. Katze escaped it, luckily." She looked at Katze. "Stay here with Sideline. I’ll be back soon."

"Where are you going?" Katze asked immediately.

Lemni gestured in the direction of the clearing. "There."

Sideline looked up. "Why?!"

"Just because," Lemni grimaced. She silenced them with a wave, then closed her eyes in concentration. Sideline and Katze watched, startled, as the young shadow-child faded in front of their eyes, until she completely disappeared.

"I’m still here," Lemni whispered. "Sort of. I was semi-solidified before and that’s why you could see me. Remember that I’m a shadow-child. I can manipulate light and shadows...so I disappear."

Katze and Sideline couldn’t see her at all- her voice seemed to be coming from nowhere- but they felt they air stir around them as Lemni moved, and heard the rustle of leaves as she walked through the bushes into the clearing.

Lemni glanced around. The three shadows were standing in a circle, heads bowed again. One was speaking in a harsh tone. So they can speak, after all, Lemni thought.

"Gimray, hesh ne’calros guin. Ni’rath." Then it began speaking quietly, so that Lemni could not hear what it said from where she stood.

Suddenly the three shadows stood up straight and turned away. Lemni darted towards them, and she crouched down less than three feet away, watching.

It was cold close to them and a shadow hung around each of them, darkening the air. Lemni peered up at them. Although they were translucent all over, some spots were darker than others were, and it shifted in no particular pattern. They did indeed seem to be made of a liquid of sorts. The way the darkness moved reminded Lemni of Trinias’ Opal Sting.

One of shadows turned back around suddenly and looked at the spot where Lemni was sitting. She looked up at it, wide-eyed.

The shadow opened its eyes and stared at her. Lemni shied away, not sure if it could see her, and if it would affect her or not. But nothing happened. The shadow-child hesitated for a second, then stood up and ran, invisible, back to Katze and Sideline.

Sideline was now almost fully recovered. True to Lemni’s words, he had not actually received the full attack. He felt something brush past his arm, and looked around. Nobody and nothing was there, but he saw a flicker of the light and understood.

He gave a hint of a nod to Katze and she nodded back. They both rose silently and quickly set off in the direction of Cademia, Lemni slowly appearing as she hurried in front of them.

*

Renae opened the screen door and dropped her schoolbag by the door. Her tabby cat, Ashaya, greeted her at the door. Renae picked up Ashaya and carried her into the kitchen.

"Aunt Sarah?" she called, looking around.

"Out here!" a faint voice called back.

Renae peered out the back door and saw Sarah outside working in her garden. Renae set Ashaya down and walked outside. "Hullo, Aunt Sarah."

"Hi," Sarah replied, taking off her gardening gloves and smiling at her adopted daughter. "How was school?"

"Oh...fine," Renae replied vaguely. "I’m going to take Kiera out for awhile, ok? Just out on the trails. She needs some exercise."

Sarah nodded. "That’s fine. Start supper when you get back, will you; I have to go over to Anne Donnis’ cottage for awhile this afternoon."

"Ok," Renae said, and set off towards the paddock. The advantage of living on the outskirts of town was that you could actually have a paddock, and near some great trails too.

Kiera, her Connemara horse, trotted over to the fence when she saw Renae and sniffed her eagerly. Renae patted the tall mare, smiling.

Her mind wandered as she saddled up Kiera. She had had a strange dream the previous night- there were people that she had never seen before, and she wasn’t sure how she knew, but they were looking for her. Then suddenly they weren’t in her city any more; it was somewhere that she didn’t recognize, but the people who had been looking for her needed her to do something.

Renae shrugged. Probably just a dream. She didn’t much believe in dreams foretelling things to come.

Kiera seemed particularly jumpy today. Renae mounted carefully, trying to calm the Connemara down as she did so. The mare seemed to feel that something was going to happen.

Renae guided Kiera out of the paddock, shutting the gate behind her, and turned towards the trails, wondering which one to take. There were two that branched off from their land, which criss-crossed other trails in the woods. She chose the left-hand trail, which headed to the northeast, and cantered off.

Since the trails spanned a large area of forest, other people were normally out on the trails, but not today. It was oddly quiet. Renae scanned the forest, but all she saw were a few birds nested in the trees. All she could hear was her breath, Kiera’s breath, and the clop-clop of horse hooves on the dirt trail.

Kiera had become even more edgy, though. She seemed ready to bolt at any moment- and when a squirrel darted across the path that’s exactly what the Connemara did.

Startled, Renae gripped with her legs, all the time trying to slow Kiera, but the mare refused to stop. Kiera galloped down the trails, surefooted yet unsure of where she was going. When the mare finally slowed to a walk, exhausted, Renae realized that she was more or less lost. The only time she had ever come out this far was with her Aunt Sarah.

She looked around warily. Kiera was standing still, seemingly embarrassed. It was still quiet- or was it?

Kiera pricked up her ears, and Renae thought she could hear something too. Faint voices...several of them. They were drawing nearer. Renae guided Kiera down the path, listening intently.

They became clearer and she could distinguish one particular voice, a female’s. "I still can’t believe you did that! Oh, Katerei, you’ve got a lot to explain to the others...everybody in that city is going to know about it, and there’ll be no way we can search for Renae now..."

Renae gave a start at the mention of her name. Of course, they might be talking about a different person entirely, but still...What about that dream where people had been looking for her? She headed down the trail in the direction of the voices. Unfortunately, they seemed to be getting farther away.

Urging the unwilling Connemara into a trot, Renae listened for the voices. They had blended together again and she couldn’t tell what they were saying.

Up ahead, the trail merged with another and forked off. Renae looked around, wondering which one to follow. She knew she was just getting herself further lost, but she didn’t care.

Kiera tossed her head and stepped in the direction of the northern path. Renae pulled back on the reins, hesitating, then decided to go with Kiera’s instincts.

Within seconds Kiera broke into a canter. Renae pulled her back into a trot, still listening. She didn’t have to go far before she heard more voices, talking to each other rapidly. She rounded a bend and found herself in a clearing, where ten people were seated.

Kiera snorted and tossed her head. Renae drew in a breath sharply as she gazed around at them, shocked. Not only humans, but even three elves. And something else.

They turned to look at Renae and Kiera. One of the humans jumped up and called out. "You there! Who are you?" He gestured to the elves worriedly and whispered something.

Renae hesitantly led her mare into the clearing and dismounted, gripping the reins. She tried to speak, but stumbled over the words.

A female human with long red hair stepped forward boldly. "Tell us your name."

Renae looked at her nervously. "Umm...my name is Renae Martinson..."

The ten people suddenly stopped and looked at each other, wide-eyed. A female elf with long, silver hair stood and gestured Renae forward. "Renae..." she said quietly. "The one we have been searching for."

(To be continued)

[This message has been edited by moderator (edited 07-02-2002).]

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