Book 4
Siha: Rise of Rakhana
Part II
They depart the cottus: Casnar getting the doors for Braith and Jenner, Ylyssus catching the doors with Jaspin as they are last out. "Escorts are here," Casnar says with a look to the nonintrusive skyrunners parked behind theirs in the idle lane outside their cottus.
Braith looks over his shoulder, "…As usual." She opens the skyrunner with a fob and Casnar hands her Jenner whom he's taken to hold. Braith inserts Jenner into a passenger harness pod. Ylyssus is at the opposite door, having opened this and settling Jaspin into his own twin seat.
She winks across at him as he snaps the clips into place, and looking back at her, Ylyssus gets an eyeful of cleavage. "Braith," Ylyssus flutters his eyelids, "…the memories I have of that dress now…" She glances at the opening of her dress and looks up at his finger.
"Tell me about them later."
"I look forward to it."
Braith goes up front after closing the door and tries to enter the driver's seat. Casnar ends that endeavor quick, pulling her out of the seat, "…No, Braith," he spins her to the back and inserts her with a deft opening of the door to sit among the twins, "…We've been over this—I prefer not to have to lose Ylyssus's stomach again to your driving skills, which have not improved as your dancing has…"
"I'm not a bad driver," she pouts.
"Save those pouty lips for later—when I have you upside-down in that dress," he lowers his voice to add and kisses her cheek, then shuts the door after securing her safety belt.
Ylyssus gets in the front passenger seat. Braith tucks blankets into the sides of the kids' pods. Casnar settles into the front driver seat. "Here we go." Their ride ascends from the parking spot. From along the lane before the blue cottus door's main entrance, two unmarked skyrunners rise to follow. Braith looks out the side window, seeing the distant curve of their biosphere's dome with its thinner clouds, drier compared to the environment outside the curve…Distant waters rise and fall under dark skies heavy with rain. Lightning flashes under these…
It's not Rakhana, which she misses.
The lonely nights with Casnar and Ylyssus in Clios aren't even that bad of memories for sun and sky could be glimpsed if one found a part in the canopies of those bogs.
She sees the turn of the skyrunner as Casnar guides the vessel to a portal that will outlet them into Kahje's rainy atmosphere, showing her the little blue cottus tucked away in the navy jungle and grasses, its quaint little gardens of more blue flowers and dark brown trails leading to the exterior grounds or the idle lane. She points out to herself the roof is old and will need to be replaced soon, its tiles are so streaked…
The children chirrup. Braith takes each of their little feet closest to her hands and squeezes these…Casnar and Ylyssus check the side mirrors to see the skyrunners are following safely at a distance.
"Maybe we should have asked who's inside those vehicles, Sered."
"I believe it's the standard strangers, Ylyssus," Casnar glances at the sideviews again and checks the display for the two "birds" taking up a flank each, slightly back a few meters, "…They were someone we'd have to worry about, wouldn't matter if they flashed a badge, ID at you or not up here…This isn't Rakhana…Anyone could be a threat, your acumen is basically to react and get out of their grasp, or attack before they move…Either way…"
"A maybe would have sufficed."
"Keep it down back there, you—in the middle I'm talking to," Casnar says to that quaint little smirk on his wife's lips.
"Pay attention…" she unbuttons the breast panel of her dress's bodice by one, then two buttons, "…to driving..."
"Damn her and that dress," Casnar grumbles as he looks to the dashboard and beyond.
She buttons up her breasts and coos at Jaspin.
The portal outlet for the outside realm—beyond the holo-dome—begins to open ahead for their exit, and Casnar decelerates as the skyrunners draw closer to this…The engine whines down...Braith feels the dip in speed, her hands going to squeeze her children's feet reassuringly.
Peering down from his window Ylyssus can see the openings of great vents helping to circulate the massive currents of air in their holo-dome. Fronds of trees weave their feathery ends towards the grilled mouths...
"Still feel like you're in captivity," Casnar asks, seeing Ylyssus's craning his neck, "…It has been a year."
"It's not as bad as Mohouni had been at times," Ylyssus replies nostalgically, sitting up and looking back over the shoulder of his seat to Braith who shifts a little in hers and settles again, smoothing her dress on her thighs. His jade-tiger eyes glance down at her freckled knees. Love those…His mind wanders to their shower together earlier…
"Much better than Mohouni," she whispers, guessing where Ylyssus's mind departs to…Hers, however, does not go to such a pleasant place…
Her last day she remembers alive in Mohouni, among the plethora of memories she now shares with her Morthwyl kindred, is of laying in Aspah's bed…
That is her final memory of that place…
As distant as it is, she still feels the uncomfortable moments of those grasping, struggling minutes in the bed with the overweight papir'aia…
…It makes her cringe. Her eyes move to Casnar's in the mirror over the dashboard and though at first she only sees him looking forward to the drive of the skyrunner, she next sees his eyes meet hers.
"Thank you for killing Aspah…Casnar." His face struggles with something, perhaps the memories of that night…Memories are strong in drell kindred…His face relaxes as he masters himself, glances down at the portal through the windshield and back to her face.
"Anything for you, Braith…Anything."
"I know now," she smiles. Gripping his steering handles, Casnar moves the skyrunner into an acceleration through the eyelet of the portal—and out into the slapping rain.
More chirrups call her attention back to the twins…Casnar's gift to her, and Braith's to him…She reaches for two toys of a rubberish nature with colorful hues, squishy appendages on these, and hands both from a basket to each twin.
"They're not so bad today as they usually are on these excursions," Casnar remarks.
"Quiet and content back there," Ylyssus nods distractedly, watching the view and keeping his eye out for any apparitions that may appear on their trip to the capitol, Sybilla.
Removing two waters from the chill compartment under her seat, Braith offers a drink to the twins.
Jaspin boxes the bottle away. Jenner accepts his with both hands. Thinking he may just be feeling playful, Braith offers Jaspin the bottle again, but Jaspin kicks it to fend it off again. "I don't think your brother wants his," Braith says to Jenner who looks up at her over his bottle with deep, dark, velvet eyes. She turns her face back to her eldest son and sees the twin staring out the window now…
Rain pelts heavily against the structure of the skyrunner, plowing through the air and its precipitation, the infrequent gusts of tempestuous winds…Streams of water run over the glass, reminding Braith of thousands of fingers clawing over them…
She bends to put the bottles away as well as to focus on something else that does not make her feel so discomfited…
The hands come back to her mind's imagery…And then an unexpected face turns towards her.
The eyes glow red, the tebris on fire, his back and neck of coiled black muscle reflecting blue flames…Blue flames rising around him as he removes his black, gleaming blades…
…Cemal…
She stills…It hasn't happened before, this sort of connection…Braith closes her eyes.
Cemal is alone…He's facing someone she nor the others have seen before…Where are you?…Are you in Bangal'roux still…Cemal…Where are…
"…Ngh," she utters. Casnar and Ylyssus both turn their heads sharply to the sound.
"What is it…What is it, Braith?" Ylyssus stretches his harness to lean over the seat and reach out to touch her back, checking the children with his eyes to see them fine, unaffected. "Braith?" Her body is bent over.
"What's going on?…Do I need to pull this skyrunner over," Casnar keeps his steering steady—His mind considers landing opportunities along the surface below, grassy fields of wet blue reeds and shrubs floating on tangled beds of roots that dip and float on the ocean beneath.
"I can feel them…I can feel…Cemal…" Braith whispers, "…They're dying…" Now the twins start to sense something wrong with their mother…They chirrup with agitation…
"Who's dying?" Casnar demands, glancing quickly to the mirror and seeing Braith missing from the reflection for she is halved over, "…Damn it, Braith, speak sense!"
"…They're alive," she gasps, partially moans outward, "…but they're dying…He's there!…"
The skyrunner is banking left now, Casnar guiding it to land for an emergency stop, the escorts following a few seconds later after making turns in the air ahead of them…Alerts ping the display as Casnar multitasks with landing, responding to both Braith and the escorts demanding answers for the sudden maneuver.
"What do you mean 'they're dying'…There was a truce!" Casnar exclaims.
"They're burning them alive, Cemal can't stop them…" Braith begins to hyperventilate, her face sweating, eyes wide but not seeing the floor mats in front of her…
The children start to cry…
"…They're burning them all—Alive!" she shrieks suddenly, Ylyssus undone of his harness to grab her shoulders and lift her back so he can see her face, "…I can see it, Oh gods!…Cemal!…No—Stop!…"
Through the eyes of her morthwyl husband, the flames of the last morthwyl female rise higher…In her mind, she sees what they all see…