The Key to the Warriors (completed)

Chapter 48

48Zirlic

I looked over my shoulder, ensuring I was alone as I sat in the middle of the woods. The clouds had finally cleared away to let moonlight creep through the gaps in the trees, and I looked up at it with a sigh. Charlie must have been calming down...

The clearing I sat in was shallow, with more broken boughs than grass, perhaps where Ceribus had landed, and I lowered to one such felled log as I pulled the communicator crystal from my pocket.

My hands were shaking as I held it up and whispered the name of the person I wanted to reach. "Jackal." For several minutes, I sat, watching the crystal glow, then with a deep breath, began to speak. "Jackal, I need to talk to you."

There was no answer at first, and I grumbled as I lowered to rest my elbows on my knees, my eyes on the purple glow between my cupped hands.

"I know you can hear me."

"Awfully dangerous for you to contact me directly, don't you think? What do you want, Zirlic?"

"I need to talk to you."

"And so you are."

"No, face to face."

"Are you inviting me to Divincia? Not sure your Creator would be too happy about that."

"Our  Creator is not too happy with a lot of things right now."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

I could hear the sarcasm in his tone, and it wore on my nerves as I held the crystal with one hand and scraped the other over my face. "I know your device can get you here. Can we meet or not?"

"Sure thing."

His voice sounded directly in front of me, and I looked up to see him standing just a few feet from me. With his hand still pressed to his ear, he met me with a sideways grin that was both amused and impatient before crossing his arms. The moonlight glowed down on him like a spotlight, and I frowned as I rose to stand and pocketed the crystal.

"Well, I'm here. What do you want?"

"Charlie knows about Xylem."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course he does... That dumb boy can't do nothing right. What of it?"

I licked my lips, nervous fear mixed with something else coursing through me as I met his eyes. "I want you to stop."

"Stop? Stop what?"

"Coming after Charlie. Or any of us. I want you to call off this whole war."

For several seconds, he stared at me, then he laughed, not bothering to keep his voice down as he did so. "And here I thought you had a serious request."

"I'm completely serious. Your greed and lust for power has gotten out of control. I did not raise you to be—"

"No." He cut me off, his expression suddenly hard. "You, sir, played no part in the man I grew to be. You abandoned me when I needed you most."

"You raped your own sister and fathered two children with her, and then you killed her. That was my daughter... I had no choice but to send you away! You were a danger, and I was disgusted with who you were becoming."

"That did not stop you from raising my ill-conceived children."

I let out a defeated breath as I crossed my arms. "The circumstances of their birth were not their fault. It was not easy to raise them without them knowing either of their parents, and it was not easy to cast you out, which is why I let you return."