Chaos Lives in Everything - 11. Chapter 11

"Do you know what Cerbyendeuyng means?" Dom asked. He was sitting on the floor across from Rebecca. His bulky shoulders hovered several inches above the rickety wooden coffee table.

Rebecca took a few seconds to blow at her hot cocoa and took a sip. She relished the warmth of the hot chocolate. To her satisfaction Dominyc had made the hot cocoa with milk. She remembered how during the holidays her mother would make hot chocolate and spike it with tequila. Rebecca would watch her mother drink her hot chocolate feeling disgusted and sad, even as a little girl. She thought for a moment. "Doesn't it mean connection or something in the fae tongue."

"Yes, but it is more than just a word. It is what give us fae our magic, our lifeforce and even then it is more than that. It is destiny, it is the universe. It is the soul. Nothing is coincidence. Everything is preordained, cause and effect. You weren't just born because your parents had intercourse. You were born because you were meant to be born at the exact moment that you were supposed to be."

"What does this have to do with Skold?"

"I'm getting there. Be patient with me. In the Christian religion it is believed that there is a heaven and a hell. The fae believe in something similar, Vahalia and the underworld. In the Christian religion it is believed that everyone and everything was created by a single deity. The fae do not believe in such a thing. We were created by Cerbyendeuyng. I believe, that in a fashion, it was Cerbyendeuyng that led me to Skold."

Rebecca said nothing, listening intently, never breaking eye contact with Dom. Dom continued to talk.

"I was born there in Scotland," said Dom. "As you know Scotland is split in half, the people caught in a civil war, blocked off from the rest of the world. It isn't as bad as the Paladin Wars but it's bad enough. Many of its people are homeless with no resources to help them, no one to care. The war has been going on for the better part of three decades-not as long as the Paladin Wars, of course, but bad enough. The government is doing nothing. I could not stand to be there any longer. I decided to go on a long vacation, travel the world again on my Harley. First I started with South America and then Central. I traveled around the world in no particular direction and in no particular hurry. Sometimes I stayed in one place for several years and sometimes I passed through within a few days."

Having never left Roc City, Rebecca could not help but marvel at what it must be like to travel around the world on a Harley, doing whatever you wanted, staying however long you wanted; she imagine what it was like to try all of the different foods, to meet all of the different people, to talk to them and hear their stories. I could have traveled the world if I wanted to but instead I chose to stay here, she thought.

"I was in Europe, in Paris to be exact, standing on top of the Eiffel Tower, when the seer came to me in a vision."

"A Seer? I thought they were, like, extinct?"

"They are," said Dominyc. "Because of their gifts they have always been hunted, imprisoned, tortured. There are two left and no one knows where they are."

"But one came to you in a vision? That must have been strange for you."

"I will tell you that it was almost certainly a surprise."

"What did she tell you?"

"She told me that I had to find Skold, that had to warn him."

"Warn him? Warn him of what?"

Dom shook his head, looking guilty. "I've said to much. I don't want to frighten you any more than you already are."

Rebecca snorted. "C'mon, I'm a big girl. I can take it."

"The seer showed me a vision," Dominyc replied reluctantly after a long, silent moment of consideration. "She showed me a vision of a war far worse than the Paladin Wars. She showed me a world in which there was no human beings and the fae was enslaved and everything was on fire."

Rebecca shivered, her flesh breaking out in gooseflesh. Gone was Dominyc's seemingly gentle nature and teasing sense of humor, replaced by fear. He was afraid.

"When will this war happen?"

"I do not know. All I know is that it is on the horizion and it is coming like an approaching storm cloud. And when the storm hits the world will split in two."

"What does Skold have to do with it?"

"Skold will play a large role in the war to come, a role that could tip the scale either way."

"Meaning what exactly?" Rebecca's patience had reached its last straw. "Just tell me Dom, please! I can take it!"

"He will either be our salvation or our doom," said Dominyc. "In the end it will be up to him and him only. I do not know when this is going to happen or how it is going to happen, all I know is how it will end if he doesn't stop it. And I fear that whoever caused the troll attack could very well kick off the the chain events that would lead to our demise. For every cause has an effect, every action a consequence."

"Cerbyendeuyng," Rebecca murmered.

"Cerbyendeuyng," Dom agreed.

After another long work day Vanessa Holland was headed home for the evening. She sat in the back of her limousine, drinking her second martini. Once she got home she decided that she would have two more and then fall into bed. God forbid should anyone try to wake her up. She also decided that she would take a few days off. With the way that my caseload has been for the last six months I deserve it, she thought.

Her cell phone rang. She cursed, fishing through her purse for it. Whoever it is I'm going to tell them to fuck off, she thought. I'm going to tell them to smoke a turd in hell. Then she saw the name on the collar I.D. and felt her heart burst out of her chest.

She took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound as perfectly pleasant as she could. "Skold, what can I do for you?"

"I met with Sinclaire this evening," Skold said from the other line. Everytime she heard his voice it chilled her blood.

"Oh, and how did it go? Did you get some good information out of him?"

"Some, but not enough to appease me. Before he could give me any valuable answers he tried to kill me as well as a business associate of mine."

Oh God, you have to be fucking kidding me, Vanessa thought. "I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea he was going to try and..."

"It does not matter if you knew he was going to try and kill me or not. I told you what would happen if I was unsatisfied and I am unsatisfied."

She gulped. It was nearly impossible to speak. "Surely we can talk about this rationally..."

"What is your driver's name?"

"How do you know about my...?"

"His name?" Skold repeated, almost impatiently.

"Chance."

"Chance." From the tone of his voice Vanessa could tell that he was smiling, being mocking. "That's the name most humans would give a dog. I'm going to kill Chance, Vanessa. And when I'm done with him I'm going to kill you next."

“Skold, where are you? Please, let’s talk about this. I’m sure we can come to some sort of an agreement.”

“I’m looking at you right now.”

Vanessa looked out the window. They were near the pier. In the distance she could see the black, glittering mass of the ocean. The street they were on was completely deserted, not a soul in sight. She had always hated this side of the city. There was nothing here, nothing but closed down shops, the ghost of a place that had once been but now did not exist. The souls that did remain were nothing but lost souls, junkies and prostitutes, people that were no longer people. This is where my sister came to die, Vanessa thought. Vanessa did not know that this too, was where she was going to die.

Skold was no where in sight,

“Chance, floor it,” she said.

“The light is red, ma’am.”

She snarled, gritting her teeth. Vanessa Holland did not look like the beautiful lawyer that appeared in court. Instead she looked like the woman that lived beneath her flesh, a woman that was capable of great evils.“I don’t give a fuck. Run it. There’s no cars in sight. Do you have a gun, Chance?”

“Yes, ma’am. I have a Scorpian. Are we expecting trouble, ma’am?”

“Yes. Keep a sharp eye out. This guy is very dangerous. Hand me the Scorpian.”

Without taking his eyes off the road, Chance reached into the seat behind him and carefully handed Vanessa the Scorpian. She checked the clip. It was fully loaded. Skold you are going to find out the hard way, she thought. I am not the woman that you want to fuck with.

Skold stood a top a Verizon Wireless bill board. He watched Vanessa’s turn the corner, coming into view; the limousine was heading in his direction. He knew that Vanessa was now armed with a Scorpian. He smiled. Such a foolish woman, he thought. As it’s going to do her any good.

“Lgingthi,” he whispered, focusing his gaze upon the approaching vehicle. Immediately after the word came out of his mouth the sky opened, hail the size of golf balls raining down from the sky, pelting the top of the limousine mercilessly. Skold leapt from the top of the bill board, arms spread like a bird’s. He landed in the middle of the street on his feet, before the limousine. Tiles squealed as the the limousine came to abrupt halt ten feet away. He could smell burnt rubber.

He could see the driver, staring at him wide-eyed and afraid. From where he stood Skold could smell his fear, smell it in his blood. Skold grinned and thought, I love the smell of fear and blood. Sitting behind the driver he could see Vanessa. He could hear her screaming.

“Hit him!” she shrieked. “Hit the son of a bitch!”

The driver names Chance slammed on the gas pedal and with a roar of the engine the limousine bore down on Skold for the kill.

Skold made no way to step out of the way. Insteadt he raised his arms at the sky and chanted, “Lgingthi! Lgingthi tyh eynme!”

The night sky exploded with blue light as lightning struck the limousine head on, pitching it onto its side in a hulk of twisted metal and shattered glass. Skold stepped calmly out of the way as the wreckage skidded past him and then came to a halt. He waited and listened. There was movement coming from inside of the ruined limousine. He strolled around the vehicle to the windshield. The windshield had fallen out and dusted the street with bits of glass that glimmered like crystal.

Chance’s limp body hung upside down, strapped to the seat upside down. A large shard of glass stuck out from the jellied remains of an eye. Blood dripped from a nasty slash that went from his forehead to his jawline. He could hear movement from inside. Vanessa was still alive. He watched patiently as she kicked out the remaining glass from her window and crawled onto the street, clutching the Scorpian in her hand. Aside from a split lip she was unharmed. She raised the Scorpian. “I’m going to kill you,” she snarled. “You have fucked with the wrong bitch, Skold!”

Skold grinned; he was enjoying himself immensely. “I will give you a ten second head start. Hit me, if you think you can.”

Screaming in blind fury, Vanessa opened fire. In the blink of an eye Skold moved out of the way. Before Vanessa could fully realize that she was firing on an empty spot Skold wrenched the Scorpian from her hand hard enough to pull her arm out of its socket. Her cry of agony was cut short as his hand clamped hard around her throat; he lifted her off the ground, his eyes glowing with a petralnatural light.

“Because I did get some information out of Sinclaire I will make your death quick and painless,” said Skold. “Believe me, it is a mercy that I do not give most people.”

“Demon,” Vanessa rasped. “You’re a fucking demon and I hope you burn in Hell.”

“I believe in the underworld not Hell,” said Skold. “I probably will. I am sure that that the Frrey Mann will have a special place for me in his realm.”

With that he crushed her neck. Vanessa Holland’s eyes went wide; Skold waited patiently while she took her last final breaths. Her limp feet hovered several inches above the concrete. Skold threw her corpse to the ground and turned away from the wreckage.

I think it’s time I pay Reynolds a visit and give him my report on the investigation so far, Skold thought,

Reynolds nodded absentmindedly at the security guard on duty as he made his way towards the elevator of the parking garage. Another long, crazy night. More dead bodies. Was there a night that passed within this town where someone was not dying, not being hacked into bloody pieces? He sighed. His back ached and his eyes burned. He longed to be home in bed with Anne. He would talk her into making another mug of warm milk and honey. Anne always knew the exact trip to help him relax and to take his mind off of all of the awful things that he'd seen on the job.

Not three hours ago there the department had been flooded by a storm of horrified phone calls saying that Sinclaire's hotel had been evacuated. Roc City had offered another victim of homocide and that person was Draxis Sinclaire. Reynolds would not shed any tears over Sinclaire's death or the deaths of any of his lackeys.

Sinclaire had been just one of the many untouchable organized criminals that dwelled within the city's corrupt borders. It wasn't like Sinclaire had killed anyone-not that Reynolds was aware of anyway-but his money went to scummy people who did and could get away with it because of the money that Sinclaire was giving them. But still, Reynolds had stood in the middle of the room looking around at all of the dead bodies, at the corpse of the young dead woman lying underneath the coffee table as if she'd been hiding, and could think of only one person that could have done this. In fact he knew who'd done it.

When I told Skold to investigate the cause of the troll attack I didn't tell him that he could murder everyone in the town, Reynolds thought, pulling out his car keys, about to climb into his good old reliable Buick that he'd had for almost twenty-five years now. When I see him I'm going to ream him a new one. I don't care how much of a bad ass he is. If he wants to kill me because I've pissed him off so be it, it's not going to stop me from giving him a piece of my mind.

Now inside of the Buick with the door closed, Reynolds had just stuck the key into the ignition. Before he could turn it a voice from the seat behind him said, "Good evening, Reynolds."

Renyold screamed jumping so high in his seat that he banged his head on the ceiling of the Buick. His heart galloping in his heart, Reynolds turned to face the speaker, sure that he was in the middle of a heart attack. Sitting in the back seat, directly behind him, was Skold. Speak of the devil and the devil shows up, Reynolds thought.

"Jesus Christ," said Reynolds. "Don't scare me like that. What the fuck are you doing in my car? You know I could arrest you for tresspassing right? What you are doing is a criminal offense by the court of law?"

"I have never been one for following laws," said Skold.

Yeah, no shit, Reynolds added silently.

"Besides you're not going to arrest me," Skold said with one of those creepy smiles that always chilled Reynolds' blood.

"Well I damn well should after the fucking mess you left me at Sinclaire's hotel. You better have a damn good reason for killing him and all of those other people?"

"Or what you're going to throw me in one of those cheaply made jail cells?" Skold taunted. "A lot of good that would do you. I had no choice with Sinclaire. He tried to kill me."

"Jeeze, I wonder why. You must have done something to piss him off."

"He tried to kill me because his employer told him to. I met with him to see if I could get any information. He knew who was responsible for the troll attack. In fact he worked for him. I did not have the chance to get a name out of him, I'm sorry. But now we know that someone indeed brought the troll to this town to wreak havoc."

"And what about Sloan? Was he working for the same person?" Reynold asked pointedly, glaring at Skold. "Was he in on it too?"

"Yes."

Reynold cursed. "Is the whole town involved with it or what?"

"It seems that way. And this is just the beginning. It's only going to get worse."

"And you came to tell me this why?"

Skold hesitated before answering, considering what he was going to say. Something like an emotion passed over his face but Reynolds could not tell what it was; it was gone almost quickly as it appeared but Reynolds had seen it nonetheless. "Firstly I wanted to tell you what I found, let you know what I found out so far so that you are not in the dark. I'm trying to practice what you humans call communication. Secondly, I wanted to warn you. Make sure you keep an eye on Anne at all times."

Reynolds' eyes widened. How did Skold know about Anne? Reynolds could not remember mentioning Anne in Skold's company. He swallowed back the question. "I will, thank you for the warning."

Skold nodded. "I must go. You look tired."

Reynolds was tired, so tired that he wanted to weep.

"Get some sleep," said Skold. He climbed out of the car. "When I find another lead I will let you know."

Reynolds watched Skold until Skold disappeared around the corner his trench coat trailing behind him as if he was a cape crusader. Reynold blinked and wondered if he was going insane. He shook the thought from his head. It was time to go home to Anne.

Candestine stood in the middle of Skold's apartment and looked around at the redecorating that she'd done with satisfaction.

Both couches had been tipped over onto their sides, the cushions slashed open, the stuffing ripped out. The TV had been smashed in, the glass table top of the coffee table shattered in. She had vandalized his apartment with such joy, all of the years of anger and hurt for betraying her bubbling inside of her.

It had been an easy thing to pass through the wards that he'd placed over the threshhold of the apartment. It had been an even easier task to find his apartment. Skold apparently did not feel the need to go through the trouble of hiding his location. How typical of him, she thought. Skold had always been so arrogant. So much so that his arrogance surpassed the arrogance of their father, Kane. At times Candestine did not which of the two she hated more. But Kane was dead and Skold was dead. But Skold would not be alive for long. Soon she would cut his head from his shoulders and hold it in her hands. It will be my trophy, she thought.

She approached the window that took up the whole view and looked out at the city beyond the glass; it was a truly maginifcant view. She could understand why it was that Skold had picked this location of all things. She was about to lose herself to the view when Ananu called her name from down the hallway.

She turned into the first door where her team was waiting for her. Marcus, Sade, Focal, Seraph, and Guage stood cautiously around the large safe in the middle of the room. Candestine's eyes widened. She cared not about the weapons that lined both of the metal doors but the thing behind the glass. After all these years, after all of these centuries he kept the armor and the sword, Candestine thought.

"Can you get inside?" Candestine said.

"No," said Ananu. "There's a five digit access code."

Candestine cocked her rifle at the glass and fired. Shattered glass rained down onto the carpet. Skold's armor and sword remained in the safe.

Candestine smiled at Ananu. "See, that was simple wasn't it? Gather around boys and girls and take a good look. This is the armor he wore in the Paladin Wars and this is the sword that he used to cut Paladin's head from his shoulders. These are his most prized possessions, the only thing that he cares about. It is the only thing that he has that reminds him of who he is. He has no cock, no balls, and no memories of the wars, of the crime that he comitted. King Yaldon had them wiped away so that he can never use death magic again."

"So it's true?" Sade said. Her hair and eyes were a dark shade of purple. "He really learned how to do death magic?"

"Yes," Candestine said. "One winter day, after a long, bloody battle with Paladin and his army Skold disappeared for years. The war carried on for three winters in his absence. No one knew, what happened to him. I, among many others, assumed that he was a deserter or dead. By the then Paladin's plague had ravaged the world for so long that there was dead bodies everywhere you went. Back then, when we bothered to stop, we burned the bodies. But towards the end of the war we stopped burning the bodies. Then after all of that times of being missing, after all of that time of me thinking that he was dead, he came back for the final dead and he brought an army of the dead with him. Paladin did not stand a chance. After so many years of fighting, after so much death, the war was over."

"So how did he learn it?" Ananu asked. "Where did he go?"

"No one knows," Candestine said. "The only one who knew that answer was Skold and Yaldon had those memories wiped as I said. We all know that death magic is against our laws. It desecrates the way of life, of nature. It is an offense punishable by death but because of Skold's so-called 'heroic deeds', King Yaldon did not have Skold put to death." Candestine could feel the anger inside of her rising again. She needed to focus on the job at hand, the job that King Yaldon had sent her to do. Failure was not an option. "Anyway, enough chit chat. I'm going to destroy the only two things that he cares about. Has he put any wards around it?"

"Nothing that we can sense, commander," said Ananu.

She walked over to the safe, glass crunching beneath her boots. She reached for the armor...There was an explosion of bright blue light and the next thing Candestine knew, she was flying across the room. She slammed into the wall hard enough to shatter plaster and landed on the floor.

Candestine was so stunned that her entire body was paralyzed. She couldn't move a muscle. Her team was surrounding her, trying to help her to her feet but she could not hear what they were saying to her. Like an ice sculpture, she was frozen. The paralysis lasted for a full minute. Slowly the feeling returned to her eyelids, and then to her fingers and toes, spreading back through the other regions of her body.

Candestine was so enraged that she could not speak. She waved for everyone to step back and staggered to her feet. The armor and sword still sat perched in the safe, perfectly unharmed as did the rest of the room. Candestine gritted her teeth, barely suppressing a shriek of rage. "Let's go. We are going to wait for him to come home and when he does I am going to take great joy in killing him."