Splintered Fate (3 page)

Your stressed, I
don’t know Lana. It has been ages since you even spoke of your time
at Ucu. Maybe it’s because you’re worried about the Rami people and
so your subconscious brought him into your dream? You should just
focus on what’s going on today, that is important. Your dream is
just a dream, nothing more.
Ardin's words
ran through her mind, bringing her back to the troubles of the
council meeting that dreadfully approached.

I hate politics,
especially when it involves the Dukrans.
She replied mentally, not wanting anyone to overhear her open
distaste for the day.

It’s a part of
your duty. We get to go home in a few days and then you can return
to your people in the Selvirian lands.
Ardin replied, keeping his eyes on hers.

Lana turned her
gaze out the window. How badly she wanted to be out there, in the
open, breathing fresh air instead of being within these walls. “We
both know what Arkhip wants from this gathering. He feeds off the
violence and destruction. Today will be long and grueling.”
He's a monster
she added
through thought.

Life is
difficult, especially for a leader who loves her people.

There is that
word.
Leader
.
Lana didn’t like being seen as a leader. Her parents had always
been leaders, but she had not. She loved doing her own things and
not having to worry about the meaning behind every little move or
choice that she had made. She wished to be free of the
title.

“
I am going for a walk, I need to
get some air,” Lana said as she turned to leave her lavish room in
the city of Abder. She walked through the winding white stone
castle’s many hallways before finally finding her way out of it.
The castle was the most beautiful and overly extravagant place she
had ever been. It was over sized, well crafted, and well
maintained. Once outside Lana paused, taking a moment to look at
the huge fortress.

The castle was built on a stone cliff, meeting
the ocean below. It had enormous white towers that grew out of the
sea cliff. The towers had sharp edges, matching the jagged cliffs
it was built upon, and from a distance the tower’s marble peaks
sparkled in the sun like the glistening ocean. Enormous windows
were built into the fortress, providing magnificent views of the
world around. Lana could see the ocean through the immense archways
in the center of the fortress, which divided the castle into two
sides. To one side the Sterlings lived in their private quarters
and to the other side were their guest rooms.

As beautiful as the marble castle
was, it was a cold dwelling and Lana felt out of place there. She
was used to her home in Olbi and missed the comfort of the woods
that surrounded her there. After she finished drinking in the
castles enormity, Lana turned towards the town. She needed to put
distance between herself and those within the castle. It was an
attempt to get away from the troubles of the day, if but for just a
moment.

Children and city folk passed Lana
while she strolled through the streets, brooding over her own
thoughts. Her mind was racing with the possibility of starting war
with the Rami. The thought of it made her feel sick. Arkhip Dukran
had yet to announce that this was what the meeting was for, but she
had her suspicions. There was not much that would cause Arkhip to
call a gathering. More than anything he wanted war with the Rami
race. He would paint pictures of the evil Rami who needed to be
stopped at all costs, but Lana knew the Rami were not all bad. A
long time ago she had even known one of them. They were people just
like the Madonians were. Just because some were evil it shouldn’t
condemn a whole race, if the Rami judged her race by the family of
Arkhip Dukran, then Madonians were no better.

As she walked the twisting cobble
streets of the city, a very familiar laugh broke through the
brewing storm of thoughts going on inside Lana’s head. Her eyes
snapped up in the direction of the voice, Kirill Dukran. She took a
few steps towards the sound and froze, staring at the man through
the large window.

Kirill sat at a grand wooden table next to an
open window with a long cloak that was proudly draped for display
over the back of his chair. The cloak’s original color was no
longer visible due to the excessive amount of Rami blood that had
seeped into its seams, and like Kirill it almost seemed to thirst
for more.

Of course he
would wear that ridiculous cloak to the gathering today,
Lana absently thought to herself before she was
aware of Ardin’s sudden presence beside her.

In front of Kirill sat two boys,
one older with dark hair and the younger with a light brown color.
The boys sat on the edge of their seats, listening to every word
their idol had to say.

Kirill took a large gulp of his
ale and sat the mug down with a thud, proceeding to run his hand
through his shoulder length blond hair. He twisted his angular face
into a thoughtful expression followed by a serious one. He leaned
forward towards the boys and the boys, with large unblinking eyes,
too leaned towards him, barely managing to not fall out of their
seats.

“
You are both still young but I
see greatness within you boys. A greatness I don’t think I have
ever seen before. Perhaps someday I myself will ask you to join me
in battle. However, you must truly become as great as I assume you
can be.” With a hint of a smile, Kirill took another large gulp of
ale, amused with how easy it was to influence the
youngsters.

The younger of the two boys shrank
back a touch, wisely frightened, but the older enthusiastically
responded, “What can we do to prove our greatness? I promise I will
not let you down. I will kill every Rami I ever encounter and will
defend my people and….”

Anger flared in Lana as she
listened to Kirill and the boys. It clawed at her from within,
trying to get out, yearning to imbed its claws deep into Kirill
Dukran. Her blood felt as if it were about to boil. Without even
meaning to, her hands balled up into fists at her sides. She was
about to take a step towards them when a voice spoke in her
head.

Perhaps it’s
best if we stay out of this.
Startled for
a moment by Ardin’s presence in her thoughts, Lana stilled and
peered down at him while he sat by her with a silent thoughtful
look in his eyes.

He does the same thing everywhere
he goes! In our own city of Olbi, through out our Selvirian lands,
he plunders our youth for his armies. He thinks he can just come
here and spread thoughts of glorious battle, molding the minds of
the easily influenced to his selfish will. Everyone knows that
joining his battles is a likely death sentence. He is farming for
future replacements and my people are not to be farmed like cattle,
nor are these boys in Abder! The person he has become is
disgusting.

Ardin rose to stand next to Lana’s
side, knowing there was no talking her out of it. Once she found
herself a purpose she became willful and didn’t like to listen to
reason.

These are the
people of Sterlings, we are in their city. Maybe you should let
them deal with Dukran, if they wish to.
Ardin peered at Lana and sighed before continuing. He knew
there was no getting her out of her determination to talk to Kirill
right then and there.
At least be wise
with your words, you will see him soon in the gathering. Try to
remember that as children, you were once friends.

We have not been
friends for a very long time.
Lana shot
back at Ardin as she made her way towards Kirill.

“
Are there no people left in
Morgas that you must travel to Abder and pollute the minds of the
young here?” Lana said lightly when she approached the table Kirill
sat at. To a passerby it may have seemed as though she is merely
teasing an old friend, though that was far from it.

Kirill’s gray eyes flashed up at
Lana, they were akin with the steel of a blade, cold and powerful.
He leaned back against his chair, allowing for the sun to hit his
angular face. It was a very handsome face, framed by shoulder
length straight blond hair.

“
Oh Lana, I am simply grabbing a
drink before the gathering of the council and these two lads wanted
to know all about what battle is like. I don’t mind the company and
it would be unkind of me to just shoo them away. Wouldn’t you
agree?” He said smoothly while taking another gulp of
ale.

Kirill not only had a gift for
killing, but he was also very quick witted and charismatic,
constantly drawing people to him. It drove Lana crazy. A murderer
should not possess both charisma and authority. Of course children
would join his falsely glorified battles.

“
Of course not, but ---” Lana
replied through gritted teeth, only to be interrupted.

“
No buts! Of course I could not be
so rude to such respectable young men as these lads!” The two boys
beamed with such a compliment. “Besides I think you would approve
of my recent venture. I was helping to protect the good people of
Gorthyn from a Rami attack near their city. We wouldn’t want
history to repeat itself and have Gorthyn burn a second time.” His
steel blue eyes never left Lana. He knew exactly what he was doing,
the right words to say.

An uncomfortable
chill ran down Lana’s spine, coiling around her bones. The feeling
was quickly followed by fiery rage.
How
dare he?
Lana thought, squeezing her hands
into fists, burying her nails into her palms in an attempt to
prevent herself from acting too hastily. As she took in a deep
breath, Lana felt her rage being pulled away by Ardin. He was
attempting to calm her.

Lana, walk
away.
Ardin’s words pleaded, briefly
running through her mind, but it was too late. Kirill had brought
up the one thing Lana could not walk away from and Ardin knew this.
Kirill brought up Gorthyn, the town where her mother had lost her
life.

Smoothly Lana schooled her
features and turned to the two boys, addressing them as calmly as
possible. “You two, run along and go enjoy the day outside. Kirill
must get going soon.” The two boys nodded in understanding and ran
off, happy to have been called respectable young men by the great
Kirill himself. As soon as the boys were outside of ear shot Lana
turned to Kirill’s angular face. A slight amused smile played on
his lips and her blood began to boil.

“
Are you insinuating that we don’t
protect our own?” She said to him with fire in her green
eyes.

“
Of course not, after all we both
do what we can to protect each other against the Rami. I am simply
making an effort to make sure no more Madonian lives are lost due
to the cowardice and incompetence of others.”

Lana felt a jolt
in Ardin as he too began to anger.
He is
trying to get a reaction don’t give it to him. We should
leave.
Ardin’s words left Lana’s thoughts
just as quickly as they had entered.

“
And who’s incompetence are we
speaking of?” Lana quickly shot back, knowing exactly whom he was
referring to. She was daring him to say it, so that there would be
no mistaking his words.

A smile spread
across Kirill’s handsome face. “No one anymore. The woman
responsible for those lands at that time paid with her life. I am
just kindly making sure that history not repeat its self, by
looking out for
you
.”

Rage exploded within Lana. It
started in the pit of her stomach and radiated into every limb,
every muscle, and every cell of her being.

“
How dare you insinuate that my
mother was incompetent?” Her voice was threateningly low. Ardin dug
his nails into the soil underneath his large paws and released a
growl too low to hear but Lana knew it was there. There was a flash
of emotion on Kirill’s face. Remorse? No, Lana pushed that foolish
thought aside. He was not capable of empathy. Then he leaned back
in his chair, tilting his chin up, the mug casually resting in his
hand. He was a picture of calm.

“
Look at you, so threatening,
better stick to picking mushrooms and prancing through the woods,
leave the art of war and protection to me.” His words were as sharp
as the steel of his cold eyes.

His words slapped her across the
face. Sorrow washed over her at the memory of seeing her mother
lying on the ground. A satchel, with mushrooms spilling out of it,
lay in a red pool beside her. Lana was taken aback by Kirill’s
knowledge of such small intimate details of her mother’s last day.
Some things she must have mentioned to him during their last
moments of friendship.

Lana’s breath was caught in her
throat. There wasn’t enough room for her to breath, the muscles in
her chest constricted with aching pain. It was an emotional
assault. Kirill was using some of her most private memories against
her. Anger surged from within her. It was scorching hot,
evaporating her pain into nothing, till she felt nothing but a
pungent disgust towards Kirill.

For a moment Lana shut her eyes,
concentrating her anger in her core, controlling it, thinking. Her
green eyes opened steadily, looking at Kirill who sat in front of
her with a new smile on his face.