Chaos Lives in Everything - 56. Chapter 56

Rebecca stared down at the Paladin’s castle-what was left of Paladin’s castle-in amazement. From the chopper she had a perfect view of it. All hell had broken loose. She bit her lip anxiously, bit it so hard that it split the skin. Blood gushed into her mouth but she was too exhausted to notice it much less care.

Somewhere Skold, Dominic, Candestine and Maeglin were down there. She found herself searching for their bodies, expecting the worst, but she was too far up to be able to see. Vlad’s head leaned against her shoulder. Almost as soon as they climbed on the chopper the boy had fallen asleep. She too wanted to giver her mind and body over to sleep but knew that she could not sleep yet.

Not until I’m away from this awful place, she thought. She decided that she never wanted to leave Roc City ever again. Not ever. Both times that she had traveled away from the city, whether it was just a few hours away, or in a completely different country, had brought her before the face of death itself.

And then she thought she spotted them-Skold and Dom. Even in her state of mind numbing exhaustion it was impossible to miss Skold with the way his hair shined. His face was all bloody and he was limping, which frightened Rebecca. She had seen him heal from wounds in seconds. If he was limping and had not regenerated yet then that must have meant that he was pretty injured.

Once the helicopter landed and the ramp opened Rebecca sprung to her feet. Before she could take a step an elf waved a hand, signaling for her to sit back down. “We don’t know if it’s safe yet,” he said.

She nodded reluctantly and sat back down.

Vlad looked around, wiping at his eyes sleepily. “Where are we?” he asked in Romanian.

“We are safe,” she replied. She kissed the top of his forehead. “Don’t worry.”

He smiled at her sweetly. “I’m not worried.”

Several minutes later she was informed that it was safe to get out of the helicopter.

“Stay here,” she told Vlad sternly. “Don’t roam.”

She ran down the ramp and staggered in Skold and Dom’s direction. She hurled herself at them, trying to wrap her arms around both of them. “You guys are okay! I was so worried about you!”

“Not so hard,” Skold said, pushing her back gently. “I’m so sore.”

She stepped back. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.” He smiled at her. “I’m glad to see that you’re okay too. How is the boy?”

“He’s alive. He’s on the helicopter asleep. Where are Candestine and Maeglin?”

“They’re around here somewhere,” Skold said. But he was no longer looking at her or Dom. He was looking somewhere to the right. His face had become distant and thoughtful. “Excuse me.” He started to walk away from them.

“Where is he going?” Rebecca asked Dom.

“I don’t know,” Dom said, just as puzzled as she.

The mountain dropped into a steep cliff. It was here that Skold stopped before the edge, looking down at the ghost village below.

Understanding dawned across Dom’s face. A light bulb went off in Rebecca’s head.

They both understood.

“You should go to him,” she said.

“I will,” the giant elf rumbled. “After a minute.”

Together they waited and watched.

The sun was rising, bringing with it the dawn of a new day.

Skold had never wanted to be back in Roc City, back in his apartment so bad. The thought of home tugged at his heart longingly. The feeling pleased him more than he could say. In between the years that he had been exiled and the days before he’d arrived to Roc City, Skold had been a nomad. He’d drifted through the world looking for a place where he felt he belonged only to find nothing.

Samhein had been defeated, his plan to destroy the world thwarted. Skold has been reunited with the few souls he cared about. Those two things should have been enough to satisfy him. But it wasn’t. There was still something missing. Something crucial.

He looked over his shoulder, hoping that no one would notice him standing over here and bother him. I need silence. I need to be alone. I need to be able to hear. Such luxeries were hard to find these days...especially when you needed them the most.

He turned back the other way and looked down over the precipice of the mountain. He had stood in this very spot so many times before in his dreams. But now he was really standing here for real. The warm beams of sunlight that he felt on his face was reals. So were the aches all over his body. Just to match the dream as closely as he could, he unsheathed his sword in his hand. The blade was covered in smears of black and red blood yet there was no blood drop that was gathering at the end.

In the dream Paladin’s castle had not stood behind him and the village hadn’t looked so modern. He couldn’t smell death or blood but he could smell the smoke and his cape was flapping along behind him and his hair was whipping across his face. He looked at the white washed world behind him and felt nothing, not evening a sense of familiarity. Not the sense that something was supposed to happen, that a revelation would be realized. Desperately he closed his eyes and listened. Nothing.

Suddenly Skold felt broken. Sad and angry. He wanted to scream. He wanted to scream so loud that it made the ground split at his feet and engulf him; he wanted to scream so loud that it made the world fall off of its axis. He fell to his knees and wept. He let his heart drop into his lap and wept like a child. The last time he could remember crying this was after his father had castrated him and that had merely been from physical pain. The pain he felt now came from somewhere deep inside of him.

What? a voice whispered cruelly in the back of your mind. Did you really think that if you saved the world once, after one good deed, that your precious memories of the war and learning Death Magic would come back to you?

He laid down on the ground and pressed his cheek into the cold snow. Seconds, or maybe minutes later, he heard the approach of footsteps. Someone sat down next to him. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know who it was. He raised himself enough to stretch across Dom’s lap. Dom began to run his fingers through Skold’s hair, but said nothing. Skold felt a great and insurmountable love for Dom in that moment.

“Did anything come to you?” Dom asked.

“No. Not a thing. I am doomed,” Skold said.

“No.” That was all Dom said.

“Yes. I am hollow.”

“We’ll find a way to get your memories back,” Dom said.

“We?”

“You already know what I mean, you just want me to say it, don’t you?”

“It would help.”

Dom laughed. “Skold you are truly despicable but I do love you so. I told you that wherever you go I will follow.”

“The things I did in those days...I wasn’t exactly a saint. I was cruel. Blood thirsty. What if I go back to my old ways?”

“I will love you all of the same. But whoever you are, you’re not Paladin. Or Bane for that matter. You’re not completely heartless.”

Skold had started to trace a finger along Dom’s hairy jaw line when one of Yaldon’s men cleared his throat. Skold looked up.

“We have been ordered to destroy the town,” the elf said. “There can be no traces left of the plague.”

“Burn it,” Skold said. “Burn it all to the ground.”