Threads That Bind (Havoc Chronicles Series Book 1) (21 page)

“I told no one about what had happened to me, not even my fiancé Anwyn.”

It was all I could do to not stop the story right there and ask a million questions. Rhys had been engaged - at age 15? That was a year younger than I was now. I know things were different back then, but... wow.

“My powers manifested a handful of other times after that, but I always felt it coming on and fled before anyone saw me. Anwyn knew something was wrong, but how could I tell her I had become a demon?” He looked away from me, but he continued talking. “I loved her more than life itself. We had grown up together and we had both known we would marry for as long as either of us could remember. I spent the next six months in my own private hell, torn because of the love I felt for her. I couldn’t imagine my life without her, but how could I let the woman I love marry a monster – a demon?

“Three months before the wedding, Scottie arrived and told me about my powers. At first I didn’t believe him. How could I believe that I was a protector of the world? How could I be chosen to defend the world from evil creatures when it was obvious that I was a demon myself?

“But Scottie was persuasive, and over the next few weeks I came to believe. Once I began to believe, he tried to convince me to come with him – to leave everything I had ever known and join the Berserker cause. But I couldn’t abandon Anwyn. No cause was great enough for me to leave her.”

Rhys stood and began to pace. “It was then that Scottie told me about the way Berserkers aged. That I would stay young while Anwyn grew old and died. I told him I didn’t care about that. I would love her no matter what. I would stay with her and take care of her until the day she died.

“But Scottie explained that I wasn’t looking at the big picture. Sure I could have a few years with her, ten maybe, before people started noticing that I hadn’t aged - before Anwyn noticed. ‘How will they react?’ he asked me. I wanted to deny what he was saying, but my own reactions to my power were proof enough. Sooner or later, people would conclude that witchcraft or dark magic was keeping me young. Perhaps they would even accuse me of selling my soul to the devil. Eventually, even Anwyn would come to believe I was evil.

“It was the thought of the pain and suffering I would put Anwyn through if I stayed that helped me make my decision. I would go with Scottie, but I had to make a clean break, one that didn’t make Anwyn think I had abandoned her, but one that also didn’t give her any hope that I’d return.

“A month before the wedding, I had my chance. Once again the sea was rough and the waves battered the boat. When we were several miles out to sea, I made sure my father watched me lose my footing during a crashing wave, falling overboard and into the deadly water. There were no life jackets back then. Being that far out to sea in rough weather was a certain death sentence - at least to one who wasn’t a Berserker. Once I was under the water, I ‘zerked and swam away from the boat. I made my way back to land and met up with Scottie at a prearranged location. As far as everyone I had ever known was concerned, I was dead. Just another fisherman swallowed up by the sea.”

Rhys sat down next to me. There were no tears in his eyes, but they looked hollow and empty, still haunted by memories of long ago. I reached out and put an arm around him. At first he stiffened, but then he relaxed and leaned into me. Together we sat in the cold under a clear sky full of stars, each of us absorbed by our thoughts.

“Did you ever go back?” I asked.

“I did,” he said. His voice held a note of resignation. “It was thirty years later. My parents had died by then. My younger brother was grown and had turned our tiny fishing boat into a fleet. He had a good life.”

“What about Anwyn?”

“She married my best friend. They had six children and over a dozen grandchildren. I hadn’t planned on seeing her. We had been chasing a Havoc across Wales, and the temptation was too great. I promised myself that I wouldn’t try to find her, but as I walked down by the quay I saw her. She looked older, but she was still beautiful. Her eyes still had that twinkle and her lips still looked like they were ready to smile at the least provocation.”

“Did she see you?”

Rhys frowned. “Yes, she did. For one moment our eyes locked, and then I turned away and walked behind a shop. She didn’t follow.”

“That must have been hard.” I said.

“It was hard,” Rhys said. “But it was good. It forced me to confront the fact that she was no longer mine. She was happy and her heart belonged to another now. There was no place for me in her life. Intellectually I had always known that, but seeing her for the last time made it real.”

I hesitated before asking my next question. I wasn’t sure if it was too personal, but Rhys seemed to be in a talkative mood and who knew when that was going to happen again?

“Do you regret your choice?”

 Rhys studied my face with his piercing eyes. I had no idea what he was looking for or whether he found it, but he did answer.

“I guess it depends on what you mean. Do I regret leaving Anwyn? Absolutely. Leaving her was the hardest thing I ever did. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t second-guessed my decision. I wish with my whole heart that it hadn’t been necessary. But I also know with that same sense of surety that I did the right thing. So, if by regret you mean ‘would I make a different choice knowing what I know now’, the answer is no. I’d make the same choice every time.”

I had always known that there was more to Rhys then met the eye, but it was nice to get a glimpse of it. Now I understood some of that pain I had seen that day when our eyes met in class.

“Thanks,” I said.

Rhys gave me a curious look. “What for?”

“For sharing with me,” I said. “Those are some very powerful memories. I’m sure that talking about them wasn’t easy. I feel like I know you a bit better now.” I laid my head on his shoulder.

“It was good to talk about them,” Rhys said. “There aren’t that many people on this earth who can relate. It was nice.”

“What about the fun stuff?” I asked. “Tell me about some of your fun experiences as a Berserker.”

For the next hour we talked about the places Rhys had gone. He had visited nearly every country in the world, some of them were so long ago that they’d had different names at the time. He had traveled to all seven continents and had climbed the ten highest mountains in the world. It made a nice diversion after the seriousness of our previous conversation.

Rhys was telling me about the time he and my dad had fought off a pack of Bringers in the Sahara desert when Dad came back to the camp.

He handed me a small GPS unit.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“I’ve programmed in the location of the drall,” he said. “It’s time.”

The plan was for Rhys and me to ‘zerk and sneak in to Goblin Valley through the back side where there were no roads and less chance of being spotted. The drall was on the far side from the main entrance and parking lot, so there was a good chance we could get in and out completely undetected. Plus, this late at night the main entrance was closed and there was very little security in the valley itself.

“Aren’t you coming?” I asked.

Dad shook his head. “I can’t run like you two can. I would just slow you down. Rhys knows what he’s doing. Besides, while you two are gone, I’m going to get everything ready for your bonding.”

Not that anyone had yet bothered to tell me how the bonding was going to work, but the large suspended cauldron did at least give me an idea of what I was going to have to do – a disgusting, creepy idea.

Given my nervousness about upcoming events, finding the emotion in me to ‘zerk was easy. Once we had begun glowing, Rhys and I both sprinted into the wilderness following the GPS to our destination. I was used to car GPS units that gave me turn-by-turn audio directions. This one just showed the distance between us and our destination and the direction we needed to go.

We dashed through the night, past rocks and scrub brush. The berserking heightened my awareness of the temperature around me, but because we were moving so quickly, my body was able to stay warm.

When we were only a few miles from our destination, Rhys reached out a hand and said “Stop”.

He pointed toward the sky. I had been so focused on following the GPS that I hadn’t looked up. With my enhanced Berserker vision, the stars were more clearly visible than I had ever dreamed possible. Blazing pinpricks of light filled the sky. Growing up in Washington, I had never seen the stars this bright before. I wasn’t sure if it was the clouds, the elevation, or the light pollution, but all I knew was this was beautiful.

We only stopped for a moment before turning back to the task at hand. We followed the GPS needle, now traveling slightly uphill. Up and up we went, our forward vision limited because of the rise, until we reached the top and looked out over Goblin Valley.

It was easy to guess how this place had gotten its name. A huge valley at least a mile deep and two miles wide stretched out before us. Dotting the landscape within were thousands of tiny rock formations. Well, they looked tiny from up here, but some of them were the size of small houses. The strange mushroom shaped formations were everywhere – like an army of goblins. It was beautiful in a strange alien-landscape sort of way. It almost looked like someone had taken a piece of mars – or at least how I pictured it – and transplanted it here. It seemed too strange to belong to earth.

But I knew there were no aliens or goblins here. Just a drall, and my job was to harvest an arm.

Lucky me.

We descended the rim of the valley and onto the floor. We ran through the goblins, weaving in and out of the strange formations. The GPS guided us to an open spot ringed by eight or nine small goblins – by small I mean they were the size of cars rather than houses.

“We’re here,” I said.

The air was still and quiet, without the loud calls of the frogs and other wildlife I was used to. My ears picked up plenty of sounds, but much softer than I had expected, and to me it felt almost eerily silent. 

“Is this the right place?” I asked. “I don’t see anything.”

Rhys smiled. “This is where your dad said it was, so I am sure it’s here. It’s just a matter of luring it out of its den.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“With this,” said Rhys. He pulled out his varé and handed it to me. “I don’t know if it’s the scent or some other method, but drall are attracted by the presence of a varé.”

I took the varé and opened it up. As if on cue, a creature seemingly made entirely of tentacles leaped out of a hole next to one of the rock formations. I dropped to my knees, barely managing to avoid it as it leapt past me. At least a hundred tentacles writhed on the creature’s round body. Some of the tentacles were long, clearly long enough to be harvested for a varé, but others were smaller, only a foot or less in length. I had imagined the skin of this creature to be slimy, like an octopus. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The drall’s skin was rough and cracked. Every inch of the creature was covered in rock. It looked as though it had been dipped in glue and then rolled in gravel.

As the drall leaped at me again, I caught sight of a wide mouth that instead of teeth seemed to be filled with sharp rocks. I pivoted and held up the varé for defense. This seemed to enrage the drall. It flattened its tentacles and propelled itself towards me, rolling like a tumbling boulder.

I leaped out of the drall’s path. How did I ever survive before without a Berserker’s speed and strength? I landed next to Rhys, who stood leaning against a rock formation, disturbingly unconcerned. “Are you going to help?” I yelled.

“I can’t,” he said. “You have to do this on your own to bond your varé.” He gave me an apologetic smile. Good thing for him it looked sincere.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“Cut off an arm.”

“Thanks. I figured that part out,” I said. “How? It won’t stay still.”