Guerani Hills
Much later during the night in a rare moment when Trynity thought that Camrin was actually sleeping, she tried to move away from him, but he slipped his arm around her waist and dragged her to him again. Struggling would only arouse him, so she forced herself to be still, and soon he relaxed against her. Trynity stayed awake staring into the dark for a long time wondering how she could get away from him. Too many people watched her movements, all of them probably afraid she would make a run for it and their dark god would punish them. They were sheep worshipping a wolf that would have no qualms about eating any one of them at any time.
"You are so right, my sweet," he murmured sleepily.
Trynity sighed. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you are not a sheep, Trynity." He rolled her on her back and propped himself on an elbow to look at her. "Since the moment you tried to hold off Dax's army with your bow and arrows, I have been fascinated by you. You remind me of another."
"Ulfyna," she guessed, remembering the story that Nazzar had told of Ulfyna protecting the wolf.
"She was stupidly brave also." He caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I know that you would like to study the organism that I am, but you would not understand, even with your extensive knowledge. Suffice to say that although only four of us remain, together we have enough power to destroy this entire system."
"You are right," she conceded. "I doubt that I could understand where such power can come from within the confines of the knowledge my people."
"We are not gods," he told her softly.
"There are no gods," she agreed. If there were, just once she wished they would have some mercy on her.
He drew her into his embrace. "Perhaps the gods will have mercy on you, Trynity."
"I have no privacy from you," she grumbled.
"Not even in your thoughts."
"What are my thoughts telling you now?" she asked with annoyance.
In the dim light of the moons, she saw him open an eye. "That perhaps you should take care of your personal needs now."
Trynity was glad he could read that thought because she didn't think she could wait until morning to relieve herself. Camrin made no move to follow her, probably because he knew from reading her mind that she had no plan for escape. Where would she go? The terrain was unfamiliar to Trynity, and to make matters worse, there were scorching tributaries from the lava flow. As she stepped from the tent, she had to wave away ash that floated on the air. Trynity could certainly now give an adequate definition of hell.
Although she expected it, Trynity was still annoyed that Macayl followed her to the small pond where she decided to wash herself after taking care of her most basic needs. Macayl shifted nervously but did not say anything as Trynity removed most of her clothing and slipped into the warm water. She could scrub forever and never remove the stench of that foul creature, so she didn't bother. Now she understood why the Calabrians had complained of the scent of the boreworm and she reeked of it having spent so much time now with that beast. In a few days, perhaps sooner, that would come to an end then Camrin would probably kill her because he no longer had a use for her, just as he had killed Naiya, and Dorothy before her. Trynity was just the flavor of the day.
Trynity hated this place. She had hated it the first time she had come to Calabria. The men did not respect women, and even now only pretended to feel otherwise toward a sex they considered weak and useful for only one purpose. Their honor was what counted most, and because of her, even if Duo did manage to escape whatever dire plan Camrin had for him, he would have no honor left in his house. The people of this world were primitive, still following the man who wielded the most power. They could travel amongst the stars but continued to live like the meanest creatures on their own planet. Calabria was not civilized and never would be. She wished she could be gone from here forever. Nothing was worth staying for.
Just as she was considering returning to her clothing where Macayl waited wringing her hands, she felt her ankle catch on something. Trynity tried to pull it free, but whatever it was began to sink taking her with it.
"Help!" she called out to Macayl. She struggled to keep her head above water. "I can't get out of here!"
"I cannot swim, my lady!" cried Macayl frantically before turning on her heel and dashing away for help.
Unfortunately, that didn't help Trynity. She didn't know what was pulling her in, but soon she couldn't keep her head up anymore. Descending deeper into the water, Trynity tried to hold her breath, ceasing struggle, which did nothing to help her anyway and only used up her energy. Some bizarre Calabrian water creature had trapped her and was dragging her to its underwater lair to devour her! Obviously lack of oxygen was making her delirious because she was certain there were no such creatures on Calabria.
Just when she decided to give up the struggle, she felt something on her mouth, and she realized it was another person's mouth. She blew the air from her lungs out her nose and just as quickly she received oxygen through her mouth from the other person. Strong arms pulled her against a hard body and they sunk even further in a seeming bottomless pond. Trynity was sure the man was a merman even though no evidence of their existence could be found. What was she thinking? Had she completely lost her mind to consider such possibilities?
Suddenly they were ascending, and when they broke the surface, they were far from where she had originally gone into the water. Near the opposite bank, they were hidden beneath thick foliage hanging over the pond.
"She's here somewhere!" Trynity recognized Camrin's angry voice.
"My lord, she must have drowned!" cried Macayl. "I would do anything for you my lord, but I could not save her."
Through the foliage, Trynity could see Camrin looking around into the dark, over the shimmering dark waters, then he turned his attention back to Macayl. "One woman is as good as another in the dark. Go back to my tent and take her place in my bed."
Trynity heard Macayl whimper as if frightened, but she hurried to obey. Camrin stayed a moment longer, looking out over the now calm black waters of the pond and she could almost feel his gaze passing over them. But he did not say anything before turning on his heel and following Macayl back to the camp.
Trynity sighed with relief and turned to the man who was holding her. She half-expected Taeron, so she was mortified to realize that it was Duo. "How…how did you find me?!"
Shaking his head, he put his finger to her lips to warn her to silence, and then he helped her from the water. Trynity didn't even get a moment to catch her breath before he dashed away from the pond, dragging her with him. She found it very difficult to keep up with his long strides, but Trynity understood the necessity of putting as much distance between them and Camrin as they possibly could. Duo probably realized just as she had that Camrin wasn't fooled into believing she had drowned. Even now he might be tracking her with his psychic powers.
Her lungs were burning and her legs were aching before he finally came to stop. She knew it wasn't for him to rest, and she wondered what kind of training imperial guards were subjected to in order to make their bodies so inhumanly strong.
"Where are we going?" she asked breathlessly.
He didn't answer her right away, then he said, "I don't really know."
"We can run forever and we couldn't get away from him," she predicted tearfully, then dropped to her knees and covered her face with her hands. She didn't want Duo to see her, and she didn't want to see his face when he looked at her.
"Babe, I never thought that you were a quitter."
She spread her fingers to peek at him. He wasn't looking at her, but staring out toward the mountain whose top was glowing orange as it spilled its insides. "I quit a long time ago, Duo. I can't fight anymore. You don't know what…what…"
Duo turned around to look at her. "After I figured out that Ryana wasn't you, she was quite vocal about what you were doing. What I don't understand is how you managed to escape Taeron."
"I wasn't escaping," she argued lamely. "I wanted to find you, first to …to… well, I don't even know why I went looking for you. Then I realized that Orhan was the traitor and I thought I could help you by telling you…"
Duo knelt before her and pulled her hands away from her face. "I know why you were looking for me Trynity."
She dared to look at his face and the sweet expression made her heart turn over in her chest. "You do? Maybe you could tell me."
He caressed her cheek. "I found the peace I wanted, Trynity. The gods are merciful."
Trynity didn't know how to respond, except to say, "I have never stopped loving you, Duo."
There was a surprised look on his face, and she thought it was for what she had said until his hands went to his chest. Trynity looked down and saw a red stain spreading over his tunic, a blade protruding outward for a moment before it disappeared back into his body.
"I never did like him."
Duo fell on his back, and Trynity saw Orhan hovering over him, the blade of his sword dripping with blood as Camrin stood back watching with no expression. Trynity turned back to Duo, and she quickly crawled to him. The blood pumping out his wound was slowing, and she knew that if she didn't do something soon he would die.
"You'll be all right," she told Duo, her voice shaking. Her thoughts were whirling with medical impossibilities. Orhan had severed an artery, and there was no way Trynity could stop the blood. Not wanting to give up, she pushed her hands on the wound although she logically knew the futility of saving his life. Even in the high tech trauma center on L12, he wouldn't have a chance.
"I won't let you die," she insisted to Duo who was staring up at the sky, the light from the second moon reflecting in his darkening eyes as his pupils dilated. Trynity's heart seemed to stop in her own chest as she realized his chest no longer rose and fell, that the blood was seeping slowly from his body.
"No!" she sobbed as she threw herself against him. "Don't die on me!" She looked up at the sky and shouted to the merciless gods. "I won't let you take him! I won't!"
Despite Apolo's warning that she should be accept the will of the gods, Trynity couldn't let Duo die. She would rather be the one to die, and if she could give her life to save him, she would do it.
Concentrating as she did that day in the village, Trynity put her hands on his wound and closed her eyes. She would heal him! She would bring him back from the edge! She would not let the gods take him!
Please don't let him die, she silently begged whatever god would listen to her, but she felt nothing until a hand laid over hers and she heard Camrin's voice. "The gods can be merciful."
Her heart leapt with joy when she began to feel the same healing warmth flow through her that she had when she had been with that child. Then she felt herself drawn away from her surroundings.
For a moment she seemed to lose consciousness, and when she awoke, she was at first disoriented. No longer on Calabria, she was unsure where she was until she recognized the gundams lying dormant in a transport hanger. A movement rocked her and almost made her fall, but she caught her balance again.
Then she heard Heero's voice over an intercom. "Duo! Strap in! We are headed to a bumpy ride."
Trynity turned toward the gundam Deathscythe where she saw Duo as he was almost twenty years ago, folding a paper. He set it on the seat, then slipped out of the cockpit and scrambled to the floor. Trynity tried to move toward him, but she seemed to be paralyzed. She wanted to stop him from what he was about to do, but she realized she wasn't really here and when had happened could not be changed. As with the little girl, she had entered his mind and she was only an observer. He walked over to the escape pod and jerked it open. Then he glanced around, his gaze resting for a moment on his gundam before he turned back, hopped up and slid half-way into the escape pod. The power on the transport was draining into the wormhole, and the transport was rocking like a ship tossed in the waves of a storm at sea. Trynity knew what would happen next and her heart ached to witness it.
But suddenly Duo pulled himself out of the escape pod and quickly shut it. He slammed his fist against the door, then grabbed the handle to keep his balance as the ship was tossed again. After a few moments, the transport cleared the hole. Duo shook his head, wiped his hands on his pants, then scrambled back up into the Deathscythe. Once there, he took the paper and was tearing it into little pieces when the door to the hangar opened.
Trynity watched a younger version of herself walk in, her face white, and she knew exactly what that young woman was feeling as she prepared to give Duo the news that would change their lives forever.
Except this time Duo hopped out of the gundam and came to meet her. "Hey, babe, you okay? You don't look too good."
"I haven't been feeling too well lately." Trynity remembered rehearsing in her head what she would say to Duo, how she would tell him. Now this other self was saying to him the words she never could many years ago because in this surreal place he was still there! He hadn't escaped back to Calabria!
Duo put his hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. "Whatever it is, babe, we can handle it together. Don't doubt me, Miss Stryfe. I love you." Now Trynity was looking into his eyes, not standing back as an observer to something that could have happened seventeen years ago but didn't. "I'll always be with you, no matter what. No one could ever be as happy as you have made me. We are one, Trynity. Do you understand that? Nothing can separate us. Nothing."
He leaned down to kiss her, but before his lips touched hers, he faded away, just as the hangar faded away leaving her staring into darkness.
From far away she heard someone say, "Allow me the pleasure of finishing her, my lord." Then she felt a hand in her hair and a sharp blade against her throat before Orhan's face came into her line of vision. Trynity couldn't move even if she had any will to live.
So she closed her eyes and searched for Duo in the darkness.
But he was gone.
"Praise the gods you have found me!" Ryana was profuse in her gratitude as Taeron slit the cloth keeping her tied in the high branches of a tree. But when he cut through the last, he let her fall, making no attempt to catch her, and the princess screeched as she hit several branches on her rapid descent to hit the ground at Dagan's feet.
Taeron landed near her after swinging from branch to branch. "You can save your thanks, princess. You reek of Camrin, and this camp is my father's. What have you done to him?"
Ryana looked at Dagan with pleading eyes. "You cannot believe him! I came upon Lord Duo's camp…"
"Save you lies!" Dagan slapped his sister's face and she fell back at Taeron's feet.
Shamara came forward. "Tell us where Lord Duo has gone."
Ryana glanced warily at Taeron, inched away ever so slightly, then said, "I do not know. I was sent here to seduce him." Before their eyes, she transformed into the image of Trynity, then quickly back. "I…I …wasn't able to fool him."
Shamara wrinkled her nose. "I am sure Lord Duo could smell you when you were many miles away."
Ryana glared at Shamara, and then turned her most charming smile on Dagan. "You believe me, don't you?"
Dagan looked away. He could not believe this vile creature was his sister. "Did Nazzar send you to Mars Colony?"
She raised her chin defiantly. "Lord Mordraeus sent me to Mars Colony to keep an eye on you."
"What does he want?" asked Shamara. She was looking forward to giving Taeron the order to kill Ryana. The woman was malicious, and the way she was looking Dagan made her flesh crawl.
Ryana glanced at Shamara as if she were a low creature who should not have dared to speak. "He needs to absorb Camridaeus in order to re-gain his strength."
"What?" Dagan was appalled. "He is going to destroy his own son?"
"I would gladly give my life to my father." She threw her head back in laughter when Dagan started in surprise. "That's right, Dagan! Seighen is not my real father! My mother was one of Mordraeus' followers, and when he realized where Dagmaeus was hiding, he sent her to seduce Seighen. She was already carrying me, and he was such a fool that he believed I was his child."
Dagan took a step toward her with his fists clenched, but Shamara stepped in front of him. "Camrin doesn't know about Mordraeus' plan, does he?" asked Shamara.
"Camrin is a fool!" Ryana laughed hysterically until Taeron backhanded her face. She fell back, still cackling to herself. "He has had a millennium to absorb Ulfynaeus, and yet he has failed. Even worse, when there were no Guerani at the mountain camp eighteen years ago, he made a connection with the human Quatre Winner. His utter stupidity caused him to be drawn away from Calabria, and so Mordraeus has to wait even longer to fulfill his destiny."
"What is his destiny?" demanded Dagan, grabbing a handful of her clothing and dragging her up until she was face to face with him.
"Once he has returned to his full power, he will exact his revenge on all those who killed his people." Ryana giggled uncontrollably. "He will destroy Calabria and Bayman with his power, a power you could not begin to imagine."
Dagan released her, but Ryana suddenly drew a knife and lunged at him. Her head was rolling several feet behind her before she even reached him. Dagan, shocked and trembling, looked at Taeron as her body fell forward still twitching. Taeron shrugged, then wiped the blade of his sword on Ryana's clothing.
Shamara frowned at him although she wasn't too sad at seeing Ryana of Bayman die. "I think we could have used her for a little more information, such as, where Camrin's camp is. We have to stop him from reaching Nazzar."
"My father left a trail," said Taeron. "I am sure it will lead us to Camrin's camp."
"We had better continue to the summit," Dagan told Shamara.
Taeron nodded. "My father is able to take care of himself. We cannot take the chance that Camrin will still be where my father will find him."
"I'm all for finding Camrin," said Quynn as she checked her gun to see that it was loaded. "Quatre Winner's body or not, I'm going to pop him several times for the hell he has put us through."
"That is his specialty," remarked Amyr.
Suddenly Shamara felt weak, and she reached out for Dagan, but he also seemed to lose his balance. Quynn rushed forward to catch Shamara and at the other woman's touch an intense, black void suddenly struck her. Before she could stop the outpouring of what had caused it, Quynn looked quickly at her eyes and they blurred with tears.
"It's not true!" Quynn gripped Shamara tighter. "They are not dead! They can't be!"
Shamara wasn't sure what she felt, but Quynn had apparently had a clearer vision. Amyr hurried to take Quynn into his arms as Apolo helped Shamara to her feet. The young woman was sobbing and Stryfe went to her also. Taeron looked at Shamara, and she could feel the emotion running through him as his eyes begged her to deny what Quynn had felt.
"I think I should find them," said Apolo calmly. Dagan came to take Shamara into his arms. "You must continue on your mission."
Shamara looked at Taeron. "You cannot make this trip with us, Taeron. You should be with them." His eyes misted and she knew he was fighting a public display of his grief, but he nodded with gratitude.
Dagan took Shamara's hand, and without looking back, they left the campsite. They didn't speak for a while as they ascended the mountain, but when they stopped to rest after what seemed to be several hours, Dagan said, "Your gift is a curse, Shamara."
She looked down at her hands. "I didn't mean for her to learn of their fate. I wasn't sure what I felt."
"I felt it too. Camridaeus used his powers."
"Do you think he killed them?"
Dagan knew that Shamara was almost as close to Lord Duo as she was to her own father. "I am sorry, Shamara." He put his arms around her and she wept on his shoulder.
When her tears had subsided, she said, "I think he was given a second chance at the end. The gods are merciful."
Dagan closed his eyes. Who were the gods? Did they actually exist? What he had believed his whole life was a lie! Even the powers that he had been so honored to have were not even his! What was he? Who was he? Who was Shamara? Did they even exist separately, or once they had done what they had been born to do, would they disappear into the swirling mists of the Guerani Mountains?
"We cannot worry about us," murmured Shamara as she raised her head. She held his head between her hands. "I believe in the gods. You must believe, too, Dagan. My…our people worshipped them long before the people of Bayman arrived. For a time they believed they had been gifted with the presence of the gods although they have proved to be quite false. That does not mean that the gods are not real."
Dagan looked at her with raised brows. "Are you telling me that I am not a god after all?"
Shamara managed to smile although she still felt heartsick. "In some ways, you most certainly are."
He grinned at her. "We will discuss this at some length when we have concluded the business with Mordraeus."
They continued on in silence in the night that was lit by the moons and the glowing top of the mountain. Shamara wasn't afraid as long as she was by Dagan's side. She still trusted in the gods and knew that they would not abandon them when they needed them most. And they did not make this trip alone. When she touched Dagan's hand, she felt the power of Dagmaeus, and he surely felt Ulfynaeus within her. This pursuit was not only theirs, but that of the two who had been wronged thousands of years ago.
The ascent became so steep that their progress was slowed. They struggled up the rocky incline, finding precarious hand and foot holds, clinging to roots of ancient unearthed trees long gone or recently scorched by the volcanic activity. They barely spoke to each other, but words were unnecessary between them at this juncture. Shamara expected them to be standing at the edge of the volcano rim when they finally reached the summit, but as they pulled themselves over the edge, they found themselves on a tilting plateau, the edge of which hovered over the mouth of the roiling molten opening.
Pausing to catch her breath, Shamara looked around, as did Dagan and both realized where they were at the same time. She recognized the crumbling stone ruins of the ancient palace of the gods.
"They were not gods."
Turning toward the voice, she saw Nazzar sitting on what had once been the throne of Dagmar's father. He sat with his hands folded on his lap, looking like an old man incapable of harming anyone. Shamara wondered how he would look in his real form.
"I have no form," Nazzar told her, staring straight at Shamara. There really was no need of speech between any of them, yet he spoke any way. "Just as you have no true form, Ulfynaeus. Together we could be the suns or the moons or the stars. We were there at the beginning of time and we will be here at the end of time."
"Why would you want to be immortal?" asked Shamara. She could feel Ulfynaeus' essence stirring restlessly within in her.
"You cannot even begin to understand, foolish, weak Guerani." Nazzar glared at Shamara and she felt his strong hatred. "We only wanted to live peacefully on Bayman, those few of us who remained, and we did so for thousands of generations. And then they discovered our existence and sought to wipe us out."
"They would have succeeded if it were not for Iator," Dagan pointed out.
Nazzar snorted with derisive laughter. "Iator was led about by his stinking whore of a wife! When she realized that I was in the body of her husband's brother, she had no qualms about seducing him so that she could extract me for herself."
"You are lying!" Glancing at Dagan, Shamara could see the form of Dagmaeus. "My mother tried to stop you!"
"Your mother wanted my power until she realized that she couldn't control me!"
"And when she realized that she couldn't..."
"She created Camrin by taking power away from me. But I will regain that power! Camridaeus will come to me and we will be united. Once we have done that, we will defeat the sacred shield, and I will take your power as well. I will destroy this entire system in retribution for what the people of these worlds have done to us."
"You will never succeed," stated Dagan boldly. "Your defeat was foretold by a Guerani woman thousands of years ago."
"From the Guerani will be born the sacred shield who will prevent the god of destruction from exacting vengeance on the people of the binary system," added Shamara.
"Do you think you can stop me?" Nazzar smirked. "You can try. And when you are unable, I will have my revenge by destroying this rotting planet, and then I will destroy Bayman." He gestured to the sky, and both Dagan and Shamara looked up to see that the suns were rising, but the moons remained in the sky.
"What is happening?" asked Shamara fearfully. In all her life she had never seen an eclipse. Such a thing hardly seemed possible in this binary star system.
"My son arrives," announced Mordraeus.
They turned to see a man approaching, and as he came closer, Shamara and Dagan recognized the form of Quatre Winner emerging from the darkness, bathed in the eerie red light from the volcano.
"It took you long enough," scolded Mordraeus. "And you are weak! You used your powers for selfish purposes."
The man Shamara realized was Camridaeus, nodded to the old man. "I had some unfinished business."
"You bastard!" Shamara knew that he was responsible for killing Lord Duo and his wife. "How could you do such a thing?"
He looked at her. "My dear Ulfynaeus, after so many years of sharing our existence, you can still ask that question? Those humans were responsible for returning Trey to Calabria, and in doing so, allowed the Sacred Shield to form."
"You should have stopped it long before then," scolded Nazzar with annoyance. "You had many chances to kill the Guerani progeny, and yet you did not."
Camrin folded his arms over his chest. "I did the best I could. As Dax, I killed every Guerani I could get my hands on."
"You did not kill the right ones."
Shamara saw that Camrin was bothered by his father's rebuke, and her Guerani sense told her that Camrin had feelings contrary to Mordraeus' desires. "He did not kill Valerya because he loved me."
"Fool!" Camrin took a step toward her. His hands clenched and unclenched and the ground beneath them shook. "That is not true!"
She stepped toward him although Dagmaeus tried to hold her back. "You said yourself, Camrin, that we spent many years sharing our existence. Do you think I did not know of your feelings? You used your powers that night when I married Dagmar so that you could be with me, to know how it felt to be loved. Because you were never loved, not by your mother, not by your father."
Camrin put a hand to his chest. "You do not know how I felt when I learned of my own mother's treachery!" He looked at his father. "She was going to kill me! She wished to trap me forever within the very woman I wanted as my own!"
Mordraeus grasped the arms of the throne, his knuckles were white, clearly showing the anger he felt. "How dare you let these insipid mortals play you as a fool?!"
"You never tried to stop her! You never acknowledged me as your son!" Camrin was clearly overwhelmed by the emotions that were a legacy of the countless beings who had held his essence inside as well as the woman who had given him life in the first place.
"Shut up and come to me now!" Mordraeus rose to his feet and held out his hands. "Come to me, my son."
Camrin started to walk toward him, but Dagmaeus took a step toward him, stopping only when Shamara grabbed his hand. "Do not do this, brother!"
Camrin looked from his face to their hands, clasped. There was sadness his eyes. "I wanted love. I wanted to feel it just once." His gaze locked on Dagmaeus'. "You received everything I wanted."
"Do you think he can give you what you crave?" asked Ulfynaeus speaking through Shamara, and she felt the turmoil that the other woman felt. The healing essence of Ulfynaeus sensed the pain of the dark soul standing between them and the oblivion toward which he headed. She had a desperate need to soothe his aching spirit. "How can you forget the special bond that forged between Dax and Valerya? We were part of that bond, Camrin! You and I! Will you break it so that creature can have its revenge?"
When Camrin seemed confused by her words Mordraeus roared with anger. "Come to me now! Once you have taken your place, you can have anything or anyone you desire!" When his son didn't respond, Mordraeus turned his fury on Dagan and Shamara. Before their eyes, he transformed into a gigantic beast, snorting fire and breathing noxious fumes. He charged toward them, and Dagan clenched Shamara's hand tighter as the power flowed between them, throwing out the shield that protected them from his first assault.
The beast dropped back a few feet and stood over them, roaring so loudly that huge sections of the ancient palace dropped off into the roiling lava below them. He swung out at them with his colossal paw, knocking them over and back.
Shamara lost her hold on Dagan and he rolled several feet away. She tried to scramble back to them, but the beast swiped her away and she was barely able to seize a scraggly old tree to keep from falling over the edge of the steep mountain. She dangled precariously over the edge, many thousands of feet above the Guerani foothills. Shamara was more aware at this moment than any other that she was no immortal god, nor was Ulfynaeus or any other essence that made up her being. And she realized for the first time that she and Dagan had been wrong about their unusual power together. They could not defeat Mordraeus on their own! Even now he could be killing Dagan!
Suddenly she felt a strong hand around her arm, and she looked up to see that Camridaeus was hauling her back up. The energy that flowed between them was equal to what she had felt with Dagan. Their eyes met, and for a moment, she felt that he understood what must be done. But Camrin quickly released her and moved away.
The beast was snarling over Dagan as if he were a cat playing with a mouse. Dagan was only inches from the edge of the mouth of the volcano and Shamara gasped in horror as a huge plume of lava shot straight into the air behind him. She looked back at Camrin. "You must help us!"
"Why should I help you?" he demanded. "You heard my father! I can have anyone if I join with him, and that includes you, Ulfynaeus!"
As Shamara took a step toward him, she knew that he wasn't seeing her, but he was seeing Ulfynaeus. "You can never have my love, Camrin! I could never love you! I love Dagmaeus! And I know that you love him too because he was the only person who cared about you! Despite everything you did to him, he cared about you! He loved you!"
Camrin put his hands to his eyes. "No! Do not do this to me! I know what I must do! I must obey my father!"
The beast snarled and seized Dagan in its jaws. He jerked him around, then tossed him in the air. Shamara had no more time to try to reason with Camridaeus. She used her imperial physical training and dashed toward the creature, but she did not attack. She leapt, then used its body to leap higher in the air and managed to grab a hold of Dagan's tunic. She held tightly, praying that the cloth would not rip, and she knew her reward when they hit the moss-covered flagstones of the old palace. The monster roared in anger and turned on them. Shamara threw herself over Dagan to protect him, fully expecting them to die on this final attack.
But Camrin came to stand between them and the beast. "I know my destiny, father."
"Do you?" The voice of Mordraeus was cold and evil. "Come to me, son."
Shamara thought Dagan was unconscious, but he stirred beneath her and she moved to allow him to rise to his knees. She took his hand although she knew they power wasn't strong enough to defeat Mordraeus.
"Wait," said Dagan weakly to Camrin.
The other man turned to look at him. "This is all I have, brother."
"You are mistaken." Dagan held out his hand to him. "You know in your heart that your destiny is not with him."
"Quite the dilemma," commented Mordraeus' chilling voice from within the beast. "Come with me and live forever, join with them and die."
"You will not die," said Shamara as she held out her hand. "Your destiny is with us."
"She is lying!" shouted Mordraeus furiously.
"You know that we tell the truth." Dagan did not take his eyes from Camrin. "All that you are to him is a key to his power."
"All you are to them is the final piece of the Sacred Shield!" retorted Nazzar.
Camrin's surprise clearly showed in his eyes and he turned his head to look at Nazzar. "What?"
"You are an idiot!" blurted Nazzar angrily. "You don't mean anything to them! You are my son. I created you!"
"Our mother created you," said Dagmaeus speaking through Dagan. "After taking some of Mordraeus' power for her child to weaken him, she asked Nazzar to hide the child from him. After Iator brought you back to the palace, she searched among the Guerani to find a vessel strong enough to contain the three of us. That vessel was not Ulfyna." He looked at Shamara. "She meant to seal the three of us inside of you."
"The foolish woman! She has failed! Come to me, Camrin! Together we will rule the universe!"
"He has no intention of sharing his power," Shamara told him. "He needs to reabsorb you."
Dagan walked close to Camrin. "Did I ever lie to you, Camrin? Even when I did not know you were my brother, I accepted you as I would any brother."
Camrin turned around to look at him. "That is true. Even when I resented you, even when I insulted you and ridiculed you, you never turned away from me."
"Don't listen to him! He only wants to use you! He took Ulfyna from you! She was meant to be yours!"
Dagan held his free hand out to Camrin. "You will know the truth."
When Camrin took Dagan's hand, Shamara learned that the truth was just as they suspected. Rahina had created Camrin as the final part of the Sacred Shield. Without him, they could not defeat Mordraeus, but with him they could stop Mordraeus from destroying the galaxy.
Camrin looked from Dagan's face to Shamara's, then he held out his hand to Shamara. When she took it, she was jolted by the overwhelming power that flowed between the three of them. For a moment they stood joined like this, then they were lifted from the ground, levitating as the even more power gathered between them. Shamara felt the power slipping away flowing upward from the three of them into the sky. Once she felt it released, she fell to her knees as did Dagan and Quatre Winner. They could do nothing but watch as three spheres of light swirled around each other over and over, closer and closer until they become one.
The creature rose up to face it, as it shot downward with blinding speed, burying deep within the shape-shifter. For a moment, the beast stood still, then the light began to shoot out from it until it was engulfed. The world shook as the mountain rumbled, and what remained of the form Mordraeus had taken exploded outward. Shards of light rained down upon them, lighting the sky around them for several minutes.
Then the world was dark as the light disappeared completely.
