Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (13 page)

“Close. Aata. You repeat the ‘ah’ sound twice – Ah Ah Ta.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Aata. I’m Madison. Madison Montgomery.”

“Good to meet you,” said Aata. He grinned showing large white teeth. On someone that big a smile could have been frightening. But for Aata, it transformed his face from that of a massive scary man, to that of a goofy boy in a body much too large for him. In some ways, it reminded me of Eric’s grins.

Aata released my hand and returned to his seat.

Eric cleared his throat. “You probably would like an explanation about who we are and what’s been happening to you.”

I nodded and sat up straighter. I was going to finally get the answers I had been looking for since that day back at the DMV last summer.

“I’m sure you would,” Mallika said. “But I think it best if I explained.” She looked at Eric. “I believe after the last time Eric helped orient a new Berserker, we all agreed that he was perhaps not the ideal choice for this assignment.”

Eric put on an exaggerated wounded expression. “What-”

Mallika interrupted him. “It took almost a full year to help Pierce sort out the facts from fiction in your ‘enhanced’ version of the Berserker story. You wouldn’t want to inflict that on this poor girl, would you?”

Eric opened his mouth as if to protest, and then burst out laughing. When he finally stopped he said, “All right. You tell the story. I obviously wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face anyway.”

I made a mental note to disbelieve anything Eric said without getting confirmation from other sources.

“While the ultimate origins of the Berserkers are clouded in the past,” Mallika said, “we do know that they have existed for many thousands of years. They are guardians and warriors, protecting the world from a danger it does not even know exists.”

Talk about a cryptic beginning. A torrent of questions washed over me, threatening to burst out and spill into the room. I took in several deep breaths, doing my best to push the questions away and focus on what Mallika was telling me.

“Somehow, we don’t know how,” said Mallika, “six beings from another dimension – or possibly six separate dimensions - came to earth. The legends surrounding their arrival are not very detailed and I suspect have changed so much over the centuries that they actually contain very little truth.

“What we do know is that these six beings possess immense power and an insatiable appetite for destruction. Five of them are called the lesser Havocs. You saw one of them today - Osadyn.”

Immediately I knew she was referring to the large reptilian creature Rhys had fought. I nodded.

“The other Havocs are of similar power, although each one has unique abilities. Fortunately, all but Osadyn have been bound and are powerless... for now.”

“What do you mean bound?” I asked. “Are they tied up somewhere or in some sort of gross monster prison?”

Aata let out a snort of laughter. When I looked over, he grinned at me, and I couldn’t help smiling back.

Mallika held up a hand to silence him, not taking her eyes off of me.

“In a way, you have the right of it,” she said. “For each of these creatures, there exists one Berserker and one Binder. Rhys is Osadyn’s Berserker, and I am his Binder. Only his blood and my power can imprison Osadyn, no other Berserker or Binder could do it. Once a Havoc has been bound, it becomes insubstantial and powerless, tethered to the location of the binding. A bound Havoc has been pushed out of phase with our world so that, although it still exists, it is unable to be seen by mortals or affect anything in the physical plane.”

 “Why haven’t you bound Osadyn?” I asked. “If the Havocs are that bad, why let any of them be free?”

“It’s not that simple,” said Rhys, fixing me with his deep blue eyes. Immediately, I felt my breath catch, the beginnings of my senses sharpening. Remembering what I had seen when I had looked into those eyes before, I turned away. The thought of peering that deeply into his soul felt like a violation. It had been an accident before. I wouldn’t do it on purpose now.

“It’s extremely difficult to bind a Havoc,” continued Rhys. “The hardest part is keeping it from running away when it senses its Berserker and Binder together. You saw how Osadyn fled when Shing brought Mallika to the fight. They know which Binder and Berserker can affect them and don’t stay around long when there is danger of being bound.”

“What were those other creatures with it - the ones that turned to goo?”

“They are called Bringers,” said Mallika. “They are minions summoned by the Havocs to do their bidding. They use them as warriors and slaves. They are called Bringers because they are particularly suited to capturing Berserkers or Binders. They have the ability to swallow a person whole and bring them to the Havoc they serve.”

“Trust me, it’s not a pleasant experience,” said Kara. I remembered seeing her unconscious and covered in slime as Rhys and Eric ripped the Bringer apart to free her. Yeah, that didn’t look fun.

I took a deep breath. Even though Rhys and Mallika were doing all the talking, I felt exhausted. The mental effort to absorb and accept all this was draining.

Concern in his eyes, Rhys looked at me appraisingly. “Are you all right?” he asked. “This can wait if it’s too much for you right now.”

I shook my head. “No. I’ve had enough time in the dark. I want answers.”

With a quick glance toward Rhys, Mallika continued. “Those Berserkers here - Rhys, Eric, Shing, Aata, and you -” she said, gesturing at me, “are all connected to one of the lesser Havocs. One Binder to bind a Havoc, one Berserker to protect the blood and defend the binding.

“But there are seven other Berserkers as well. These seven are all bound to the sixth creature - Verenix, whom we call the Corrupter.” An involuntary shudder ran through the room at the mention of Verenix’s name – an unspoken tension that hadn’t been there when Mallika talked about the Havocs.

“These seven are not connected one to one, like you five are to the Havocs. The Corrupter is so powerful that it requires the strength of seven Berserkers and Binders to bind it. To free the corrupter would require the blood of all seven of the other Berserkers at the same time – not an easy task, I assure you. One of the Berserkers remains in hiding at any given time, and all of the seven are never together in the same place under any circumstances.”

My mind worked furiously to process what Mallika was telling me – and what she was not telling me. These security measures were impressive, but they wouldn’t be necessary if there wasn’t a danger of someone trying to free the Corrupter.

“But who would want to free the Corrupter?” I asked.

A small frown pulled down the corners of Mallika’s mouth. She didn’t seem to like my question. After a moment’s hesitation, she sighed. “There are those who think they can control these creatures,” she said slowly. She seemed cautious and appeared to be carefully weighing her words. “They are under the mistaken delusion that if they can free the Corrupter, or any of the five Havocs, they will be able to harness its abilities. They are desperate people willing to do anything for power.”

Silence fell over the room. From the introspective expressions it seemed clear those present had all had dealings with these “desperate people”, and they weren’t the fluffy kitten kind of experiences.

Rhys spoke next. “That’s what we do, Mallika, but she needs to know
how
all this affects her.” He gave her a meaningful look, clearly trying to communicate something without using words. A sick sort of feeling crawled into my stomach. Whatever Rhys was hinting about, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be good news. With my luck it would turn out that Berserkers fed on puppies or turned into monsters after dark.

“What is it?” I asked, looking from Mallika to Rhys. “Whatever it is that you’re not telling me, I would rather know than not know. Unless not knowing will somehow change things?”

“It will not,” said Mallika.

“Then I want to know.”

Eric laughed, a sound completely out of place among all the serious looks. “Oh, get on with it and tell her all ready,” he said. “You’re all making it worse by dragging it out.”

Both Mallika and Rhys glared at Eric, who threw up his hands and walked out of the room, mumbling to himself.

“You have no doubt noticed certain changes in your body, since you came into your powers,” Mallika said. “The enhanced senses, strength, and balance you experience while in the Berserker state are quite noticeable, but they are only the beginning.”

I nodded, trying not to let my impatience show. I resisted the urge to tell her to get on with it because I figured that would only make this process longer.

“You also...” she trailed off, peering at me intensely. “Given the fact that you’re a girl we don’t even know if the same rules apply to you. The powers of a Berserker in a girl could manifest in a completely different way.”

My tension must have been obvious because Kara looked at me and said, “Please, Mallika, can’t you see you’re torturing the poor girl? Just spit it out and let’s get this over with.”

I wanted to hug Kara.

Mallika nodded, and then leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a long moment. “Keep in mind that what I tell you is true of all Berserkers as far as we know. For you, things may be different.

“Aside from the powers and abilities you have – some of which you still do not know – there is one other physical change that your body goes through as you become a Berserker. You age differently – more slowly. Thirty years from now, I will most assuredly be dead, while you and the other Berserkers will have aged only a single year.”

I let out a sigh of relief. That was the big secret – that I would age slower? Talk about an anti-climax.

“Is that it?” I asked. “You were worried about telling me that I would age more slowly?”

“It sounds cool at first,” said Aata. “But once everyone you know starts aging and you don’t, it becomes less fun. How do you explain to people at your twentieth high-school reunion why you look exactly the same as you did when you graduated?”

“It pulls you out of society,” said Mallika. “Out of the world of mortality. You have a few more years before anyone starts to notice, but eventually you will have to give up your family and friends.”

I was going to look like I was sixteen for the next thirty years? It would take me – let’s see, five times thirty - one hundred and fifty years to even look like a twenty-one-year-old? How could I give up my family and friends? What did they expect me to do – just pick up and leave? Aata was right, this wasn’t sounding as fun as it seemed at first.

Eric returned. “I see by the chipper looks that you told her about the aging. Don’t worry, Madison. It’s not as bad as they all make it seem.” For a moment, I saw a faraway look in Eric’s eyes as he spoke. A look that told me there was some old pain there. Pain he was trying to hide, or forget. But just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, replaced by that mischievous gleam. “Being a Berserker is a lot of fun if you just let go and enjoy the ride,” he said.

“But why me?” I asked. “Why now? What did I do to get these powers?”

“For the why, well, no one knows how people are chosen,” said Mallika. “As far as we can see, there are no factors that all Berserkers have in common. Not genetics, not personality, nor any kind of physical characteristic aside from being male. Now throw in you being a girl and the puzzle becomes even more complicated.

“As for why now, that is a bit easier, although not pleasant.” She threw a meaningful look at Eric, who gave an exaggerated sigh and walked back out of the room. “A new Berserker appears every time an old one dies. Berserkers live for an extremely long time – in fact there is no record of any of them dying of old age - but they do die.”

“Desperate people?” I asked. If they didn’t die of old age, that meant they had to be killed, and given the Berserker powers I had seen, that wasn’t likely to be an accident.