Page 35 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)
“There’s an old village half a day’s walk from here where you will find a limited amount of safety and supplies.” Holey instructed. “You and your hunters will go there. You will go and never return to this place.”
“What village?” He asked.
“Don’t!” Kahina begged. “Don’t tell them.”
“Our ancestor’s,” Holey promptly ignored the priestess.
“They didn’t come here through some miracle of the goddess.
They came here on a ship, just like the human’s did, and that ship is located in the first village they ever built on Valo Prime.
There you will find recordings of them explaining everything from why they left to how they ended up here. ”
“Liar!” Dameron looked as if someone had stabbed him in the gut.
Everything he’d ever known about his people and their history was a lie.
His whole life was a lie. His past and where his people came from, his present, and the fact that he’d hidden his shifter abilities, and now his future hung in the balance too.
Will he fight and risk losing absolution from the goddess, or will he go and try to pick up the pieces in the village his ancestor’s built?
“It’s true,” Kahina sighed. “Our elders did not want us to know about the ship, but what Holey says is all true.”
“Why did the elders come here?” Trivix asked.
“They wanted to start a new life away from technology,” Holey began.
“They believed technology had corrupted their people. So they left the first village they built in hopes that we’d never find the ship again.
But that culture of fear has made us not only afraid of technology, but of change in any form.
Is it that fear that drove you all to exile the shifters just because they were different.
They are not bad, and they did not cause the stiffness. ”
“Liar!” Dameron shouted then reached out to grab me. I wasn’t fast enough to stay out of his reach, and this time he pinned me against him so I wouldn’t be able to get free.
“Let Kahina go and recant everything you said!” He demanded.
Holey looked to me and then to Dameron. Pain filled her expression and she began to loosen her grip on the priestess.
“Don’t!” I shouted. “What Holey says is the truth! I’ve seen the village myself!”
I wouldn’t let Dameron get away without consequences on my behalf.
Holey tightened her grip on Kahina again and squared her shoulders. “What I say is the truth. No more hiding! No more lies!”
Dameron growled low in his throat and brought his knife closer to my skin. This was it for me. This was the end. Rhaz was dead and soon I would join him.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and readied myself for my final moments, when suddenly Dameron’s grip on me loosened. He dropped the knife he’d been holding, and when I turned to look at him, his mouth hung open in a silent scream.
What had happened? Who had saved me from this monster?
The Savrix collapsed to the ground and standing behind him with a bloody knife in his hand was Rhaz.
“Beatrice,” he breathed my name and dropped the knife to the ground. I rushed toward him and we collided in a tight embrace.
“How?” I asked. “I saw you die. You stopped breathing and everything.”
“I may have forgotten to mention what my true gift is,” Rhaz gave me a bashful look as if he were embarrassed by this slight oversight.
“What do you mean?”
“I might be a badger shifter,” he explained, “But my true gift is that I can’t die. I've been stabbed, crushed, drowned, and a number of other things, but each time I’ve come back to life.”
“You can’t die?” I could hardly believe it, which felt silly in a way. I was standing in the presence of aliens who could shift into animals among other things.
“Nope, not yet at least. Hopefully, as I age, my healing abilities will slow down too.”
“Why would you want that?”
“I don’t want to live forever,” Rhaz laughed. “I certainly don’t want to live a day without you.” He tucked my hair behind my ear and leaned in close. I met him halfway in a kiss that conveyed exactly how pleased I was that he was alive and well.
“Your leader is dead,” Holey interrupted our tender moment with her announcement.
Rhaz and I pulled away to see the acolyte release the priestess and address Dameron’s hunters.
Then we looked behind us and saw that Dameron was indeed dead.
Rhaz had slain his father, and now he wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
The Savrix’s eyes were wide open in an expression of shock and horror.
I didn’t believe in hell, but I did hope if there was a place for souls to be taught the error of their ways, that Dameron would end up there.
“Your leader is dead and I will not cast charms or use any divination to choose a new one, and neither will you,” Her last statement was directed to Kahina who looked more than defeated.
“Will you be our new leader then?” Scaron asked in an arrogant tone.
“No,” Holey shook her head. “He will be.”
Her out stretched finger pointed to Tarak who stood proudly with his fellow shifters.
Shocked gasps could be heard throughout the entire field and all eyes turned to the tanuki shifter.
“The shifters will move back to their rightful home,” she began again. “and you and your hunters will move to the old village. There is some natural protection there. You will survive as you rebuild.”
“I don’t-” Scaron tried to step up to Holey when a woman emerged from the crowd with a knife in her hand which she promptly pointed at his back.
The males from my dekes all shifted into their beast forms and surrounded Holey to protect her.
“Fine,” Scaron growled. “Let’s go.” Then he and his men hobbled out of the valley.
“It’s time for you to leave too,” she addressed the priestess.
Kahina had tears in her eyes, but there was understanding there too. She knew this was her fate and she’d need to accept it. “I just wanted to honor their legacy. After my mate died, this was all I had left.”
“I know,” Holey put a gentle hand on the elder’s shoulder.
“But your strong belief that nothing should change has done more harm than good. Go,” she commanded.
“Live out your final days in peace. Pack up your things. You will live in the mountain that the shifters have called home all these years. You’ll be safe there. ”
Kahina nodded her head and began to walk away when Holey said, “One more thing.”
The new Priestess took hold of the pendant that hung around Kahina’s neck and lifted it off her.
“I’ll be keeping this.”
With that Kahina was finally released to leave the valley.
Holey placed the pendant around her neck and became the new priestess of the dekes.
“Tarak, Savrix,” she bowed low. “With your permission I will host the offering tonight. We will bring forth our stores of food to be blessed by the goddess, and then we shall feast. For no one will starve this winter. We have more than enough for everyone.”
A tear streamed down Tarak’s face and he looked across the field to his mate and daughter.
“We’re going to be okay.” His voice was cracked with unshed tears, but his message was heard by all.
Gabby walked up to him holding their child and he hugged them both. “We’re going to be okay,” he repeated with a sigh of relief.
“Make it so,” he commanded. “Let us celebrate our new beginning.”
Everyone slowly filed out of the field. The shifters had taken on very little damage, and were able to greet their families openly for the first time in decades.
Drovo’s father and brothers embraced him with happy tears, Brexl’s grandfather held him and Taylor close, Drondia and Neelu hugged old friends they thought they’d lost forever. It was a happy reunion all around.