The Last of the Ageless (62 page)

As best he could, he started at the beginning, showing them everything he could remember of what happened before he bonded with Saquey. About how he’d killed, assuming he was defending life according to the Ancient Teachings. About how he’d prevented justified vengeance. With those images and thoughts he sent out a tendril of questioning hope, but the elders let no opinions of his actions slip.

As Caetl had taught him, he submerged his fear that the very essence of the Ancient Teachings would be in doubt by the time he finished his tale. He showed them Nyr giving him the necklace and let his emotions about the necklace bleed through—confusion, concern, paranoia, anger, frustration, and finally, uncertainty. Then he went through his memories of how he’d freed the trapped Joey, but beneath the word
Joey,
he put the subtext
hybrid,
promising to explain more later.

Surely you see, that was a problem solved
, one of the elders pointed out.

Dalan showed his memory of the later conversation with Nyr and Ti’rros, letting them hear Nyr’s question and the Joey’s response—Ti’rros would rather have died than be saved by one of the inferior races. None of the elders spoke up after that, so Dalan continued, showing them as much as he could remember, as clearly as he could.

Soon he lost himself in the memories and no longer felt the grass beneath his paws. He let them experience his doubled surprise when Nyr’s clan appeared from nowhere, followed by the clan of Purebreeds. The brutal fight. How he’d fled with Ti’rros and even Nyr. Their first encounter with the Purebreeds, and then the mystic—his emotions overpowered him, and he paused there. No one urged him on, allowing him a moment of grief.

Next he showed them the Wizard’s town and the trees whose arms spun behind his hut. And then he showed a collage of memories about the cyborg, which elicited exclamations from his tribemates. The story went on and on, and by the time he finished, he was exhausted.

Dalan glanced around the clearing and was surprised to see that no one had left. Some of the youngsters were curled up, asleep. He’d created a disruption with the late hour—no schooling for the kids tomorrow. When he looked to the sky, he discovered it already
was
tomorrow.

Interesting
, the thoughts of the elders coalesced.
Need to confer and to rest and to think on what you’ve told us. Will question you more tonight. About what you’ve learned, or what you think you have learned, of the Ancients.

The elders’ dragonflies burst into motion at that pronouncement, their wings buzzing as they pushed off the trees to hover in the air. A soft rain began to fall.

Truly completed the trials?
Dalan swallowed his nervousness.

Bonded with a dragonfly, haven’t you?
Echoed the thoughts of a few of the elders.

Am considered an adult then, a tribemate? Solved no problems.

The warmth of their reassurances washed over him.
Of course. Solving a problem was never meant to be taken quite so far, Dalan.

Solved several problems, many of which you may not even be aware.

Have also created other problems, as you feared, but don’t worry about that now.

As the rain fell in earnest, their thoughts wrapped around him like a warm blanket, soothing him. A tension that had been building in him since he’d met Nyr finally relaxed. He was back where he belonged, and he’d passed his trials. Saquey circled around him, as though congratulating him.

He was now a true member of the Omdecu Tribe.

After sleeping through much of the day, Dalan returned to the clearing as the storm let up. His family and other tribemates gathered once more in the fading light, anxious to understand the implications of his news.

He’d left the tribe as a boy, hoping to return and be accepted as a man by his people. But he’d instead returned as a traveler, a storyteller who had seen things he wasn’t meant to have seen.

He’d grown familiar with Saquey’s presence while on his trials away from home, but now he needed to acclimate to the dragonfly’s constant presence in his tribelands. He smiled up at his companion.

He came out of his transmeld and stood before the elders in his birth form so he could hold up the necklace, bound in black cloth. Then he unwrapped it, letting everyone see the purple stone and the pink dots within. He paused, irrationally afraid he might hear the Wizard’s voice. Then he tied the black cloth around it once more and fell to the forest floor on all fours, returning as fast as he dared to his secondary form.

The elders began with the topic of the Ageless.

When Dalan told them—again—about one of his first conversations with the Wizard, Dalleka interrupted,
Go back. Said something about history and who started the war last night. Tell us more.

Dalan reminded them of the Wizard’s words about how technology had been misused during the Catastrophe.

No, something very specific. Try to remember exactly what he said.

Dalan closed his eyes and thought back to the day he’d met the Wizard. Recalling such a mundane part of the conversation was difficult when so much else had happened that seemed of greater consequence.
Said Zen was three times more powerful than any other Ageless… Asked if the Catastrophe was because of an invasion.

His eyes flew open as he remembered what the elders had sensed on the edge of his memory.
The Wizard said the aliens showed up, putting ships all around the Earth, and the Ancients thought they meant to invade. The Wizard’s opinion was that his fellow Ancients fired the first shot.

The thoughts and emotions coming from the elders jumbled together. He sensed them thinking,
The All-Seeing Eye. The Fragment. The Ancient Teachings.

Abruptly, their thoughts went silent and they conferred amongst themselves before continuing his interrogation. Throughout the night they interrupted him, sensing something at the edge of Dalan’s memory, or hearing discrepancies in what he told them versus the previous night. They asked him questions about the Ancients and made him repeat what he’d overheard the Ageless say, examining words Dalan hadn’t considered important at the time.

Over and over they had him show them the tanks in Kaia’s temple, the lab, and the strange bodies inside, though Dalan himself hadn’t seen them—Saquey had shown him. He repeated what the Ageless had said about the Joeys and the Catastrophe.

The elders’ opinions echoed his own—that the Ageless couldn’t be trusted to tell the whole truth about the Catastrophe. Regardless, the bodies of the K’inTesh spoke for themselves; there were too many similarities between them and the Joeys to be coincidence.

Dalan looked up through the break in the canopy to see dark clouds billowing overhead, blocking out the dawn. The elders’ questions grew further between, and they conferred more and more amongst themselves.

As the clouds moved in once more, he felt the mood in the clearing shift. The elders had come to an agreement. To Dalan’s surprise, the five of them transmelded, shifting into their birth forms. They addressed not only him, but the entire tribe, gathered in the trees bordering the clearing.

He sensed his tribemates’ consternation, most of them never having seen the elders in their birth forms.

“For far too long,” Dalleka began in her quavering voice, “the Omdecu Tribe has remained secluded from other tribes. The sound of hundreds of dragonfly wings is a warning our neighbors no longer ignore. Also no longer communicate with anyone outside ourselves. Trade, yes, but only with our most trustworthy neighbors. Rarely receive news of what lies beyond the forests. Youngsters like Dalan remind us about the world outside our lands, about how other peoples progress.”

Tarran took up the words next. “In the earliest days of our tribe, our ancestors learned of their remarkable gifts when the last omdecu spoke. Began collecting animals in danger of dying out, those creatures whose numbers dwindled months and years after the Catastrophe… when mutations edged out their more natural counterparts and new predators came into existence. Took them in, trying to preserve them for future generations, and
became
them, taking them into our blood.”

His grandmother was the next to speak. Gavainya gazed into Dalan’s eyes, though he remained in omdecu form. “But if invaded by outsiders, our ability to remain guardians of these lost animal spirits is in danger. Carry so many extinct species in our blood. If wiped out, so too are they. The powerful technologies Dalan encountered prove these artifacts are resurfacing, a fact we can no longer ignore. The Ageless woman, Soledad, escaped.”

Sinnach took up their explanation. “But these two things alone are like unaimed arrows, unlikely to strike at us directly. Is the stories the two Purebred men told of their enslavement that worry us. Helped train the Badlands Army deep to the south, where only small groups of nomads might encounter them. Wish to remain a secret. May prepare for another invasion, as the Rushore Nation tried to do in my parents’ time.”

Dalan felt the collective unease as his tribemates absorbed that news. Not many of them actually remembered the Rushore Nation, but they’d grown up with the stories.

A large bead of rain dropped from the sky and landed on Dalan’s nose. Soon more and more giant droplets fell, and the winds picked up, whistling through the trees.

Tarran turned in a full circle, his arms open, letting the rain wash over him. “Are questioning the virtues of the Ancients, but must hold fast to the true spirit of the Teachings. It may not be long before the outside world encroaches on us. Must be prepared when it does. Need to reaffirm our alliances with our neighbors and establish alliances with tribes beyond those tribes. Seek to understand forgotten technologies where we can. Dalan’s necklace puts him in contact with powerful potential allies. May be able to develop alliances with their clans and tribes as well.”

Heidhi addressed the crowd. “So it is our wish that Dalan and a group he chooses will go out and reunite with the Purebreed, the hybrid, and perhaps even the other Changelings. Learn what they learn, Dalan, and find out as much as you can about the Badlands Army. See how Ti’rros fares with her tribe. If they absorb her news, see if you can form an alliance with the hybrids. Try to ally with the Purebreed tribes and any others you can as well.”

His grandmother’s wise eyes fixed on him once more. “And most of all, we want you to learn whatever the Ageless man, Gryid, is willing to share. Will send out other small groups as emissaries in other directions, sharing our knowledge with other tribes in order to convince them to prepare. Are a powerful Changeling tribe, yet do not come to conquer. Believe many tribes will take up our call, in the spirit of sharing information and allying with a strong tribe like ours.”

Dalan was stunned. Saquey settled into the grass near him, sensing his distress. The dragonfly sent Dalan images of lakes and cool dark places, but the dragonfly’s attempts to reassure him were at odds with the rain. It settled in and became a steady downpour. All Dalan had wanted for so long was to return home and to be with his family.

Now they were sending him away.

In birth form, the elders couldn’t hear Dalan’s thoughts. Transmelding rapidly into birth form, the rain instantly chilled him. He crossed his arms. Gavainya raised her eyebrow.

He could’ve said so much, asked so many questions, but without the ability to project his emotions and thoughts, all he could think to say was, “Just got home again.”

His grandmother smiled at him as the other four elders transmelded back into omdecu form but did not return to their perches on the five dead trees. The audience had ended, then. She took his hands in her own. The rain poured down around them, between their linked arms.

Gavainya’s voice was lower now. “Being an adult means understanding your responsibilities and what you owe to the tribe, grandson.”

Dalan nodded mutely, noticing his siblings Shemir and Mishnir waiting with his best friends, Joktinn and Cahlae. The rest of the tribe faded into the forest to return to their duties.

His grandmother continued, “Am so proud of you, how you tried to uphold the Ancient Teachings even when your belief in them wavered. Even if the Ancients weren’t what we imagined, that doesn’t make the Teachings any less important. Are the teachings of
our
ancestors, principles wanted to instill in us. Am so proud of how you represented our tribe while away.”

She steered him toward his siblings and friends. “But now… as you did when you rescued the Joey, and when you tried to defend Searchtown… must understand that when there’s a task that only you can do, you must do it. Not because you’re the only one who can. But also because you’re the only one who will.”

“Of course, grandmother,” he bowed his head and untied the black cloth around his necklace. “Am being selfish.”

So Dalan did as his people required and stretched his thoughts toward Ti’rros.

Author's Note

Hello there!

I wanted to let you know that if you enjoyed
The Last of the Ageless,
you can get freebies, previews of upcoming works, and access to giveaways by
signing up
to my new releases newsletter. No spam—you decide what I email to you. Now through October 2015, subscribers can read
FREE
short stories set in the Ageless universe before anyone else.