Page 9

9

Mountains Of Sorrow Without End

RIV

T he first time Kainan had jabbed Riv in his centre during kapo training, the silver-haired Rider almost purged his innards.

The pain had been so instant, so raw, and incandescent, it’d spread through his muscles in ripples of torment.

It’d taken months of Riv priming his centre with daily workouts. Taking punches and exercise balls to his core and getting pounded by his drill partners was how he’d conditioned his body to absorb a bare-knuckle body shot.

Now, on Devansi, Riv gasped for breath, feeling the same gut-punch torment as he glared at the silhouette before him.

He had no time to prepare, anticipate, or brace for the jolt through his entire existence.

The ghosts of his painful past rolled themselves into a gigantic fist that impacted his solar plexus.

His heart nigh on ruptured as shock waves rolled over him.

Somehow, he fought for control and forced himself to breathe, exhaling hard to help him take the unexpected hit of raw emotion.

A firm hand reached out and helped him to his feet.

He bucked as he stared into the profile of the man above him, willing his mind to comprehend.

He tracked his eyes over the face where a familiar stone sat on the younger man’s temple, between silver-lined, solid brows.

Lower still, to the proud aquiline nose, the lips that resembled his own. Then came the jutting chin and the long silver hair that fell to his back, interspersed with five long silver feathers.

Scrabbling for confirmation, Riv reached out to Mirage, who was hovering high above onboard Glimmer. You seeing this shit?’

The AI was quick to respond. I am. That man is an uncanny version of yourself, Riv. Albeit taller, which almost makes him a giant. He also has a higher percentage of muscle mass than you do. Well developed, meaning he puts it to work. I’d tread with care around him.

Riv’s mind was swirling. What the fokk? Can you get a bead on his exact physiology?

Scanning now. I’ve accessed your noids, and they’re sending me data from the cells deposited on your skin from his hand.

While the AI went to work, Riv tried to recover face, pulling his arm away from the stranger’s. ‘Apologies, the trek to this place was demanding.’

His voice was hoarse with feeling, which he hoped translated as exhaustion.

He sent out another urgent node comm. Can you confirm he is mine?

Scan complete. He is without doubt your kin, carrying fifty per cent of your DNA.

Riv reeled. Fokk! The other fifty?

After a short pause, Mirage continued. I can confirm it is K’élisa’s.

Riv’s internal world was almost ripped apart. What kind of DNA is it?

Give me time, Riv, and I’ll get back to you.

By now, élisa had descended the hill towards the pair and stepped beside the silver-haired man, placing her hand on his arm.

‘Ribau, this is Killen. My son.’

Even though Mirage had confirmed the fact, hearing it from his former lover was harrowing, and Riv stumbled back.

Killen surged forward and caught him before he buckled.

Which brought both men even closer, face to face.

Riv stared into the silver eyes, the irises milky white as if he was -

‘ Naam . I am blind. But my mind’s eye sees you.’

The voice, too, was uncanny. It was hoarse, deep, and rough, like coarse bark burning and booming thunder, yet contained and in control.

Riv raised a brow as the younger man righted him, and then he turned to élisa for corroboration.

She nodded. ‘Killen’s vision failed over two years ago. Mine is also deteriorating. One eye is all blind.’

Which explained the eye patch.

Riv jolted from another lurch of emotion, this time, one rooted in empathy.

He stared at her and then back at the young man, his son . ‘Is this the charitable mission you spoke of?’ he rasped.

‘‘Tis.’ élisa’s voice softened with a gentle nod.

Her manner had relaxed since her arrival at the hill house, and Riv sensed Killen had much to do with why her anxiety had dipped.

He, too, sensed a strange peace and calm emanating from the younger, taller man.

‘Come. You’re hungry and want to freshen up before you eat. Follow me.’

Killen spoke with such authority that Riv almost set after him, startled at how ready he was to obey.

He raised both brows at the strapping figure now climbing back the hill to the dust-colored home.

élisa noted Riv’s lingering stupefaction. ‘Killen has a way of discerning intention and compelling action. His statements are absolute, and his words captivate. He is never wrong.’

‘I see that.’

Riv had no idea why she had kept herself and the child whose DNA he shared away from him.

An unholy misery rushed through him, and he clenched his fists.

She narrowed her eyes at him as she sensed his affliction. ‘You OK, Ribau?’

He wanted to tear into her. Would you be, élisa, when you were kidnapped by your lover who disappeared over twenty-five years ago, and then met your adult son, all within a few days?

Instead, he ran a hand over his face and hair, clutching back despair and regret. ‘Just fighting off the tiredness,’ he growled.

‘I know I pushed you hard, but I was eager to return to Killen. Come. Let’s rest inside.’

She turned and started up the hill after her, scratch that, their son.

He narrowed his eyes at the pair and then strode after them with a quick intake of breath, keen beyond words for the answers he craved.

The house stood resolute and open to the outside world, allowing light to shift in continuous shards throughout the place all day.

It was an organic structure that was both sublime and dramatic. The carved overlapping rocks sat like ovular discs on each other, making up the roof, while others were propped against each other to form the walls.

It was surrounded by an ominous fence of numerous chrome blades that arched to the sky.

Its front door, carved from some leviathan’s bones, looks like a medieval outer shell of a giant egg.

Inside, the house lacked traditional windows; light seeped in through the gaps in the ribbed dome overhead.

Bolts of cloth fell from a central dome and fanned out under the ceiling, giving the walls a tented appearance.

Boulders and segments of Devansi’s chrome rocks were integrated into the walls.

Most of it was an open free float between the interior and surrounding view, with the roofed-in spaces being the sleeping quarters and kitchen.

Outside, its vast terrace was connected to nature and featured rock lounges strewn with soft rugs.

élisa unpacked its history as she ushered him into her domain. ‘It was once a temple for the local monks until they gave it to us after abandoning it to move further south. Where they can worship the Ka’SH?rd in proximity.’

Riv entered the living space with some trepidation.

Its organic style was evident in its carved chairs, and counters melded into one continuous piece. All made of rock.

Soft furnishings were laid over carved stone chairs to soften them.

Animal skulls and chrome birds decorated the walls, while bronze statues adorned the floors.

He spied bedrooms along a stone corridor and, in the distance, a bathroom set into the hill where a natural waterfall trickled down the boulders.

It was organic, it was spirited, it was unusual and unique.

It was élisa.

It was the home he’d have shared with her all these years.

He sucked back bitterness. ‘It’s ambitious. How was it created?’

‘It was hewn out of the hill, sitting in and within it.’

Riv turned to see his progeny bearing on him with a tray of food and drink from the fluid rock-faced kitchen. ‘Its openness to the purity of nature helps bring us closer to u’Kweli .’

Riv shook his head, confused. ‘What’s that?’

‘The truth.’

Still reeling from the strange reality he was now immersed in, Riv huffed in disbelief. ‘Wouldn’t we all want to know the truth?’

Killen turned his strange silver eyes toward him. ‘You seek it, Ribau?’

Clenching his jaw, Riv tried to push out the younger man’s gentle probing of his mind and soul. ‘Always.’

‘You shall find it.’

Riv gave the young man a wry smile, turning away his pained eyes to immerse them in the wild outdoors that looked breathtaking from their protected vantage point.

How was he going to navigate this fokkin’ morass quagmire?

He’d occasionally envied his Rider brothers’ bond with their growing families for years. Now, he had an instant family and a son within arm’s reach. Yet he couldn’t let them in on his identity.

It was more than he could bear.

‘ u’Kweli is how I found you. I sought you.’

Killen’s words broke through Riv’s churlishness.

He glanced at both son and mother with a quizzical expression.

élisa sank onto one of the rock chairs in the dining area after washing her hands in the kitchen. ‘Killen knew about you and your ship long before I did. He sensed you searching for us and sent me to find you.’

Riv stared at his son. ‘How?’

The young man pointed to his temple. ‘My hawkstone. It represents the third eye of intuition and intellect. Its purpose is to enhance my inner sight. This allows me to view the world and interpret things in truth and without bias while forsaking all of my ego and ridding myself of any falsehood. It lets me access the unseen, the hereafter, the spiritual, and the divine. It is the essence of u’Kweli , the truth.’

Riv jolted. ‘First I’ve heard of it.’ It’s not the first I’ve seen of it, though.

‘It is what our people believe,’ élisa said.

‘Who are your people?’ As he spoke, Riv clenched his jaw to keep himself in check. The anticipation of hearing what had led to her disappearance was too much to handle.

élisa gave her son a piercing glance, and the pair launched into a telepathic conversation, which intrigued Riv even further.

Killen’s expression was set. ‘Mother. The hawkstone insists on our guest knowing our truth.’

He faced off with his mother until she closed her single eye and turned her face away with a stiff nod, consenting to what was a difficult disclosure.

He turned to face Riv. ‘My people,’ he paused, indicating élisa, ‘our people are the Katánē. As a collective, we are The Ka??m??r? of Katánē.’

Riv’s eyes narrowed. Fokk. The obscure apocalyptic conquest-drunk race?

‘Have you heard of them?’ Killen asked.

Again, Riv felt the young man’s electric pulse probe his soul, a gentle nudge deep in his heart.

This was new. This power differed from Zane’s psionic abilities, which worked on the mind.

His son’s abilities had the power to sift through emotion and go to the core of all meaning.

It was astounding. It was potent. It was scary as all fokk.

‘I have,’ Riv admitted. ‘Though I know little of them. What of your father?’

He cast an eye on élisa as he spoke, as she trembled and closed her single eye tight.

He glanced back at Killen, whose unseeing eyes were set in his direction as if cutting straight to his soul. ‘My father is someone I would love to meet.’

Riv’s breath hitched. ‘Where is he?’

élisa lifted a hand to sweep away the question. ‘Nowhere close. Now, Ribau, eat.’

Killen spread his hand over the generous platters as Riv tore his eyes away, his soul tumultuous. ‘Please. Knowing you were coming, I crafted a small feast for you.’

Riv slid onto a chair and stared with empty eyes at the table, not quite registering the meal.

élisa glanced at him and then, standing to her feet, fixed a plate for him.

The young man had prepared butter beans in a smoked oil, a rustic corn-based dough wrapped around an oozing soft cheese filling.

Delectable pickles and toppings, wild blossom pickled onions, a tangy salsa, pungent chili oil, and a zesty vegetable salad were also on offer.

Riv picked at the food before him as they ate in silence, punctuated only by murmurs to pass down a platter or pour a glass of water.

While he pretended to eat, Riv seethed under the veneer of Ribau’s calmer countenance.

He was beyond bewildered: the élisa he’d loved had never shied away from truth and caring for someone’s heart.

What had happened to wrench her away from her heartfelt promises to love him for eternity? Why had she kept her son from him?

However, after a few minutes of pretense and almost choking on his food, Riv couldn’t take it and snarled. ‘Where am I to take you both?’

élisa met his gaze. ‘To get Killen and me the medical help we need.’

‘Where?’

His question was harsh and insistent, driven by his angst and need to get down to the nitty-gritty.

‘To Kythnia, a moon in orbit of Katánē, on the other side of Pegasi.’

Riv flinched. ‘That’s on the opposite and forsaken end of the System.’

élisa nodded. ‘’Tis. You haven’t seen the true badlands until you reach the outer Southern rim.’

‘Can’t you summon your people to traverse the system and fetch you?’

élisa’s face fell into fear. ‘The trip needs to be anonymous. No one on the core planet must know of our visit to Kythnia.’

Riv pursed his lips as if contemplating the idea.

élisa bent forward. ‘Ribau, if it helps, I’ll give you where the man you seek can be found.’

‘Where’s that?’

‘He’s on the salt pan plains due south, where the nebula has touched down on Devansi. The location that all the faithful gather to worship the mist.’

Riv pursed his lips and reclined back in his chair. Did you get that Mirage?

I did, I’ll investigate.

As he comm’d the Sable AI, Riv’s silence must have rattled élisa because she leaned in even more, desperation in her face. ‘Look, Ribau, we’ll hire you and your ship for good tender.’

‘You’ll pay your hostage?’

She met his incredulous gaze with a narrowed one of her own. ‘I think you and I are aware you are no longer beholden to us. You can command your ship to land right this minute, and you’d be free to walk out that door without us.’

‘But I won’t?’

‘You won’t.’ The statement came from his son. ‘You’re tethered here by great emotion. You either have deep compassion for our plight, or something else compels you.’

The young man’s ability to cut through to the soul was almost too much to bear.

Riv gritted his teeth and sliced his eyes over them, deflecting Killen’s probes. ‘What exact medical aid do you need?’

Mother and son exchanged glances, and Riv suspected another linked telepathic conversation between the two before élisa expounded. ‘His hawkstone needs to be removed before it kills him. Only the sage-medics on Kythnia can attempt this, and they live on that moon.’

Riv absorbed this information with pursed lips. ‘How do you intend to remunerate me?’

élisa rose and stalked to a bone-sculpted safe set in the rock. She twisted the bronze dials on its surface so fast he didn’t catch the combination she used.

The bone door swung open, and she pulled out a small bag.

Striding back to the table, she placed it by his plate.

He raised a curious brow, took the bag, and untwisted its ties.

He upended the contents and poured chunks of gold, which fell to the table in soft thunks.

‘There’s plenty more where that came from,’ Killen murmured.

Riv glanced at the gold, wondering how they’d accumulated it.

Killen stirred. ‘We pan it from a stream at the back of this house. The monks showed us how.’

Riv glanced up at his son, whose hand pointed towards the back of the home, and tilted his head at the young man. ‘Are you sure you’re blind? You seem to see just fine.’

‘Many have eyes, but they refuse to see. My sight comes from honing my other twenty-odd senses, and they more than compensate for my blindness.’

‘Twenty?’

élisa spoke up. ‘Killen is well versed in kinaesthesia, thermo, and chronoception. He also has precognition and prescience skills and electro and magnetoreception, and can combine all senses with multi-synesthesia.’

Riv raised a brow. ‘All due to his hawkstone?’

élisa nodded. ‘It gives its wearer certain abilities, like he said earlier. But only Killen has enhanced it to levels I’ve never seen. However, it is burrowing deeper into his brain, causing great pain. If it is not removed or adjusted, it will kill him.’

‘What’s causing this?’

‘We believe it’s the Ka’SH?rd. For many years, we’ve detected strange signals from it, waves of energy that pump out over the fissures and dunes and cause us great pain.’

Riv leaned forward, intrigued. ‘What is the Ka’SH?rd?’

The silver-haired woman filled him in. ‘It’s a mysterious phenomenon—an offshoot of the nebula to the planet’s south. We’ve only seen it once, which was more than enough. It almost rendered us unconscious. That’s how we knew it was affecting us. To continue our life here, we must get the necessary aid. To remove what is harming us.’

Killen interjected. ‘What you want, mother, may not be what’s needed.’

With that, the young man rose in a fluid motion to his feet and gathered up the used plates, lifting them with dexterity and prowling to the kitchen, where he cleaned them.

‘You can’t tell his sight is affected,’ Riv murmured, unconvinced.

‘ Nada . He’s a gifted young man.’

‘How old is he?’ Riv held his breath as he waited for her answer.

‘Twenty-six.’

Which meant she had indeed been pregnant when she left him. He squeezed the rock cup in his hand so hard it almost shattered. He gazed at it unseeing as a crack formed along its centre, where the blood-red wine seeped out.

Riv was desperate to rage, scream, and howl out his pain. He’d missed on so much, and for what?

He’d been ripped raw, his soul torn to its core, vacillating between ecstasy and wanting to reveal himself. The need to apologize profusely for not being in their life so far flooded him, as did his deep desire to maximize their time together moving forward.

‘I’ll take that.’

Riv jolted as Killen uncurled his rigid fingers from the cracked mug and took it, tossing a napkin into his lap.

Riv looked into the ghost-like, savage visage of his son.

At the same time, an unexpected calm washed over him as if a healing peace had been pushed through him.

Killen’s lips turned up at the ends before he turned and walked back to the kitchen, the damaged vessel in his hands.

Riv cleaned his bloodied hand with the napkin and rose to his feet.

‘May I be excused?’ he growled.

He needed to step away from her beauty, that pain inflicted each time he glanced at her . So, too, from his strapping adult son and his uncanny mysticism.

He was desperate to get his bearings, salvage his ragged soul, and breathe.

Without waiting for an answer, Riv loped to the bathroom he’d spied in the back, splashing the cold water running straight from the rock face over his heated face.

He stared into the mirror-like surface of the falling water at his reflection and brooded as long minutes ticked by.

Only when his metanoids took over to lower his temperature and calm his frazzled nerves did Riv feel safe to return to his hosts.

When he stalked back to the living space, he found the table cleared of food, plates, and cutlery.

élisa and Killen sat on the vast terrace in stone recliners, facing the stunning view, each cradling a stone tumbler of whiskey.

He spotted a third rock-hewn seat and sighed, taking his intended place.

He nabbed his cup and drank deeply, welcoming the fiery liquid that echoed the sun’s flames descending over the horizon.

The low-angle dying fireball lit distant mountains, contrasting the deep shadows and red hues of the rocks and sagebrush. The fading rays illuminated shrub-like trees and rocks, elongating them across fissures and boulders.

Riv turned to the woman who used to be his, relentless in his need to know everything about her. ‘How did you come to be in this forsaken place?’

She took her time replying as if choosing her words with care. ‘I spent a year running from Noab Hakim, a Falasian monster who was sent to hunt me. I’d been told of this nebula, and I scouted it for months before being forced to plunge inside after a close chase by my pursuers. I crash-landed on Devansi. The monks found me with a young son. Killen was three at the time.’

‘Damn.’

‘They helped me repair my ship and took us in. We lived in the basement of this place where we learned how to survive. When they left to travel south, they left it all to us.’

‘Why were you fleeing your people?’

élisa fell into silence, and her face fell into such sorrow he reached a hand to touch hers.

‘You don’t have to share.’

Killen stirred from his stillness, another of his exceptional qualities. ‘She will when she’s ready, Ribau.’

A heavy sadness fell in the place.

Riv’s eyes moved from mother to son. He sensed hidden secrets between them, so painful, so dark that they shrouded their souls.

‘I need that rest now,’ he declared. ‘To think on your offer.’

élisa turned her enticing eyes to him. ‘You’ll consider taking us?’

Her voice had softened into the husky tones he’d dreamed of all these years. He almost relented, remembering how he’d once vowed to move heaven and earth for her. He wasn’t sure he’d resist her, even now.

All logic fled, replaced with gnawing hunger for her, only her.

Riv had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself from calling for her, clenching his fists to stop from wrapping her in his arms.

For so long, his existence had been fokkin ’ hell that her sweet essence drifting toward him was as potent to him as offering life to a dying man.

‘ Naam . I need time to work out things.’ To navigate his sorrow and find a way through the storm churning inside him.

élisa gave Riv a pointed look. ‘If you decide to take us, perhaps we can discuss our departure tomorrow.’

‘You’re eager to leave.’

She nodded. ‘The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can return.’

Killen lifted a hand. ‘We won’t be returning, Mother, so leaving shouldn’t be undertaken in haste.’

élisa gave Killen a sharp glance. ‘We won’t be coming back?’

He shook his head. ‘ Nada .’

The younger man rose to his feet. ‘For that reason, I will leave this night for a walkabout. To farewell the only place I’ve ever called home.’

Killen turned to face Riv. ‘I may take a few days, so take your time, Ribau, and make the best decision that suits you. Also, take care of her in every way possible while I’m away.’

He kissed his mother on each cheek before stalking away, disappearing into the darkness of the stone structure.

Riv cursed. ‘What in the hell?’

Killen’s words had unnerved him.

Twas as if he were giving Riv permission. But for what exactly?

élisa also stared after her son.

In time, she turned to Riv, her expression wistful, her voice distracted. ‘He often goes on these walks to Devansi’s great never-never, where he says he can commune with the spirits better. I can’t fathom why he thinks we shall not return.’

‘Perhaps he knows what you do not.’

élisa faced Riv with a sad smile. ‘He always has. He perceives way more and deeper than I can. He sees the way where none is visible. Even when he has been shunned by so many.’

‘What do you mean?’ Riv rasped, leaning forward.

élisa gave him a wry smile. ‘He made friends with some local children on a ridge beyond when he was young. However, when he went blind, he was ostracized and still is to some degree. The Devansi are superstitious and consider blindness a result of some evil. Their parents told the kids to ignore him, breaking his heart. So he withdrew into himself and pursued a solo existence with just me for company. That’s when he began to take a walkabout into the deserts and fissured lands, where he taught himself to overcome his loneliness and become more self-sustaining.’

She looked away and dashed tears from her eyes as she spoke.

Sadness welled in Riv as the thought of the loneliness she must have endured raising a son alone and of the years he’d missed without these two. He struggled to dampen it rather than inflict the ugliness of his mood on élisa. ‘That’s freakin’ tragic.’

‘When isn’t life so?’

Her words stabbed right to the heart.

If only you had stayed with me, we’d have avoided so much tragedy and pain, my silver malaíka. We’d have figured it out.

Those words were what he wanted to say to her.

Instead, his heart was weak and worn, and he had no fathomable clue what he’d do if she rejected him ever again. It was part of why he was cautious to reveal himself.

If her life had been so full of sorrow because of something he’d done in the past, and she’d chosen to walk away from him because of his actions, he’d fall apart.

Suddenly, the weariness of it all slugged him; all he wanted was to escape it. ‘Please show me where I shall sleep,’ he muttered.

She gave him a long look and then rose to her feet.

He followed her as she wound through the house’s spine, arriving at a bone-carved door.

‘This is your room.’

She stepped aside to let him enter the bare, monastic space, which was occupied by a vast stone bed covered with rugs and pillows.

Another stream of water fell from rocks above in the far corner of the room, acting as the private bathroom. The effect was quiet and soothing.

Despite the presence of water, he picked up no hint of muskiness or mold in the room, meaning the place was well-ventilated.

‘Sleep well, Ribau.’

‘ Sante .’

Her farewell was simple, yet it conjured images of him fokkin g her so hard until she could take no more before whispering the same words into her neck.

A deep craving crashed into Riv’s core, and he bit back a groan. He wondered whether she slept at night or tossed and turned, thinking of him like he’d fantasized about her for years.

He ached as she left, eyes raking her lush body molded into the sleek jumpsuit she still wore from their flight and journey to her home.

Every enticing step away from him brought back memories of yearning for her for so long. It would be nothing short of a miracle if he managed to restrain himself before he had the answers he sought.