Found(137)

“Xairn?” The AllFather was looking at him uncertainly. “My ssson? How have you changed?”

“I told you before that I am your son no longer.” Xairn heard the coldness in his own voice as he got to his feet. He raised the cryo-knife. “You have only yourself to blame for that.”

“Ssstop!” The AllFather’s voice crackled with authority and Xairn felt him put out a tendril of power, but it had no effect on him. Instinctively, he grabbed the power, reaching out with a part of himself he had never known he possessed until now. The part was like a greedy, hungry hand. It pushed out from the center of his chest and grasped for life—any life—to feed its monstrous appetite. Once it latched on to the power coming from the AllFather, it began to grow, to suck in his energy and life force.

“How do you like it, Father?” Xairn asked coldly, as he felt the force inside him begin to grow, even as his father’s power diminished. “How does it feel to be the one who is drained?”

“No!” The AllFather’s eyes were red-on-black again but instead of crimson, his irises were a pale, rusty red. They looked faded somehow and his already pale skin began to grow ashen.

Because of me, Xairn thought coldly. Because I’m draining him, killing him. The thought didn’t cause any pain or remorse. The more power he drew from his father, the less he felt. The less he cared. And the more he wanted.

“Ssstop!” the AllFather wheezed, sinking to his knees. “It was a test, don’t you sssee? Only a test, my ssson. And you have passed it. You are fit to rule with me, by my ssside. Please…no…” He fell over, onto his side, his mouth open in soundless screams but still Xairn drained him. Still the hungry hand grasped for more…

“My son, stop!”

At first Xairn thought it was some trick his father was playing but the voice he heard now was soft and feminine and there was no hissing in its tone.

“Stop,” the voice cried again. “Do not take any more of his essence into yourself. Inhaling his evil will taint your soul!”

Looking up, he saw a feminine face pressed to the bars of the cage. It was the same face he remembered seeing over and over again in the visions his father had shown him. The sight of it—of her—nearly stopped his heart. It had begun to feel like a fist of solid ice in his chest but now it throbbed painfully inside him, as if to say that it wasn’t quite frozen yet.

“Mother?” he asked, stepping around the fallen body of the AllFather. “Is it you? Really you?”

“Oh Xairn. My baby.” She pressed her face to the bars of the cage and reached out to him with both arms.

Xairn came to her slowly, walking on legs that felt like dry sticks. Mother…my mother… Strangely, she looked exactly as he had seen her in the visions. Her long brownish-black hair wasn’t streaked with grey and her face was unlined—untouched by age.

“Mother,” he whispered again, falling to his knees beside her and taking her outstretched hands. “How…why…I thought you were dead. Why did I never see you? Where did he keep you?”

“Your father held me in stasis—never aging, never changing. He has a stasis tube in one of the emergency life pods—that was where he kept me.” Her eyes were bright with tears. “He wanted my pain to remain fresh—the pain of losing you. Oh Xairn, my baby, to me it was only yesterday that you were torn from my arms. And now you’re a fully grown male. I can hardly believe it.”

“Mother…” Suddenly he could stand to see her caged no longer. “Hold on,” he said, looking for the lock. “I’ll get you out of here. I’ve come to take you home.”

“Oh Xairn…” She let out a half sob as he found the locking mechanism and plunged the cryo-knife into it. The lock froze and shattered into a thousand pieces. Headless of the shrapnel, Xairn dragged open the door to the cage. “Come out.”

“My son. How I have longed to hold you just once more.” Stiffly, she made her way out of the cramped confines and fell into his arms. Xairn pulled her close at once, crushing her to him, pressing his face to her hair and breathing her in.

“Mother,” he whispered. “All my life I have longed for you.”

“I’m sorry. So sorry.” She sobbed against him and Xairn tried to hold her more gently. She felt fragile in his arms, as though she might break into a thousand pieces like the lock had.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm the painful throbbing of his heart. Not frozen now—his mother’s love had melted it completely. “It’s all right now,” he whispered. “I’ll take you someplace safe. You’ll never have to worry about anything again. I’ll provide for you, care for you—”