The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH MOMENTS BETWEEN BROTHERS

Abrieth arrived at the winter home of the Adamos for the Winter Solstice Celebration. The snow had left the world pristine and white. It was so different from the desert wastelands, arid plains, and dry mountains of Xelusia. Next spring, they were going to make the final push to overcome the Xelusians in their mountain strongholds and their enemies knew it. He looked forward to the respite of home before the coming battles.

In his rooms, his mother had long since replaced his childhood bed with a writing desk and given him a larger bedroom suite. His brother had the same one floor above. Leaning on the desk, he half-smiled at the memory of finding a bear cub in his closet and the mother bear who had burst through the window. That was the day they found out the truth about his twin’s magic, the day everything changed. Abrieth realized that if Yurieth had not been changed by the pools of destiny from an oracle to a huntsman, that they would probably both be dead and Aetheriawould be under Xelusian rule. It had not been without cost though, and now that Yurieth had lost his family, Abrieth feared for his soul. His brother had become a weapon and a murderer.

Later that afternoon, Abrieth walked into the large library the family often gathered in and was shocked to see Yurieth hugging their mother. It was an unexpected surprise.

“Brother, I am so happy and relieved that you are home. It has been too long.” Abrieth hugged his brother.

“It is good to see you too, brother.” Yurieth’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. It never reached his eyes anymore. He had a new scar down the side of his face and his hair was darker as though he had recently removed dye from it.

“My sons are home for the Day of Light Returning. It has been too long since we celebrated the day of hope together.” Yllumina beamed. “How long will you be home?”

“A month, mother,” Abrieth answered first.

Yurieth shook his head. “I’m sorry. Only a week.” He hugged her to take the disappointment away. “I am sorry, brother, but Regulus sent me to get you. We believe the Xelusians are going to counter attack on the days of rest and celebration. He is very quietly recalling his defense forces commanders.”

“But they are sacred days,” His mother frowned as their father joined them.

“Is he certain of this assault? Are you certain?” Adamos asked.

“Yes Father, we are. The Xelusians are moving all their forces to the front lines and stretching them thin to have coverage. We do not know what they are up to, they do not have enough warriors and Mages to push us back and yet they gather, build blood altars, and prepare to make sacrifices.” Yurieth explained. “I will be going in with my huntsmen to save as many as we can.”

Their parents held a silent conversation, then Yllumina held out her hands to her sons. “Then we shall be grateful for the time we are given.”

Yurieth frowned as he as his brother stepped off the transport from Aetheria , he had hoped to spend the next few months with Regis, training their journeymen huntsmen. They were at a critical juncture; it was time to see who would become a Master Huntsman and who would be a normal Huntsman. Guardian Regulus and Guardian Ra-utath were waiting for them in the command building with a dozens of protectors. All of Yurieth’s huntsmen were there and so were Regis and Seamus much to his surprise. They greeted each other with a slight nod.

“The Xelusians will be attack in a few days, they know half of our forces have returned home to celebrate the holiday with their families. But we, the Guardians, have recalled our best warriors to hold the lines. Our mages are prepared to deal with whatever the Blood Mages attempt through magic. We will show them that even at half our numbers, our armies cannot be overcome,” Guardian Ra-utath boasted and many cheered.

Yurieth and Abrieth both noted the stoic mask the Guardian of the house of Remus wore. As the youngest of the surviving Guardians, Regulus had to defer to his elders regardless of who was the better field general. Regulus made a very slight gesture which had both sons of Adamos nodding once. Ra-utath called Yurieth forward, the Master Huntsman explained how his huntsmen would be infiltrating the lines to destroy the blood altars and blood fires and killing all Blood Mages they found to protect the protectors and warriors from magical attacks before acting as a flanking assault.

The discussion then turned to staging warriors and protectors across the foothills of the central mountains. The Aetherians had finally surrounded the central part of the Xelusian empire. Thousands of stones worth of arid mountains that was as rugged as it was beautiful, as deadly as it was majestic. They had already discovered that centuries of acid rain had weakened the faces of the mountains and rockslides were as commonplace as snowslides during the winters at home. It was a treacherous place with few paths through it. Most of the roads were through old mining tunnels where it was said the Xelusians had first found their god of blood, fire, and death buried. No one knew if it was truth or myth, but Yurieth had fought creatures under the mountains that defied the lexicon of zoology he had been taught as a child.

At the end of hours of discussion, Ra-utath dismissed them all with the boasting promise that this would be the last large battle they fought because the Xelusians would realize they only had two choices left to them; surrender or conquest. Nearly two-thirds of all Aetheria’s warriors were involved in the reclamation and rebuilding of Xelusia, by pure numbers and actions alone, the Aetherians already ruled this world. The longer Ra-utath boasted the more rigid Regulus became. Regulus and spent centuries leading the army while under the yoke of Aetherian politics. Now that the war’s end was in sight, another had come to claim what he had worked so hard for.

Without a word, Yurieth, Abrieth, Regis, and Seamus followed Regulus to a flyer. They flew towards the mountains where the heaviest fighting was expected to be.

“Tell us the truth, father, what is bothering you?” Regis finally demanded as his father stared down at the spread out troops below.

“I feel we are acting in haste, my son. We do not know what these new blood altars do or why they are attended by female blood mages. Ra-utath should not be so certain that the mages of his house can overcome them.” Regulus answered, the he turned to Yurieth, “In your explorations, Master Huntsman, have you ever found a use for the female mages beyond those of the male ones.”

Yurieth shook his head. “Nothing significant. They call the female blood mages sirens, like the signal to alert but I have no idea. Perhaps they are more efficient at relaying messages than the males?” Yurieth theorized.

“Why would they put women at the battle front?” Seamus asked.

“We know they have no value for life,” Abrieth answered. “Perhaps they are hoping that we will hesitate when faced with a female enemy.”

“Or maybe those pathetic princes and mages are too scared to face us now that we bring the war to their doorstep,” Seamus mocked.

“Do not get too comfortable in your victor’s crown just yet,” Regulus warned, “we still have to fight the battle.”

The black columns of smoke from the towns and cities located in the mountains billowed into the sky and made Abrieth shudder. He could feel the abominations hidden here, but there was something else, something like a soft voice calling to him and he wasn’t sure what it was.

“It looks like home,” Yurieth’s voice startled him from his musings. His brother was always catching him off-guard and it disturbed Abrieth that he could no longer sense his twin. “Why are you up here alone, little brother?” Yurieth demanded.

“I don’t know, big brother. Something is coming, and whether it is good or back I cannot say. I can feel the abominations hidden in these hills but... there is something else... I can’t explain it.” Abrieth shrugged with a frustrated sigh.

“The Blood Mages are prepared to spill a lot of innocent blood. They will use magic to push back against our forces in ways they haven’t before because they are becoming desperate. If the Aetherian lines fall, do not let them capture you. Get to the forest and the mountains and I will find you.” Yurieth promised.

“Yurieth, I am a protector, I do not fear to fight.”

“But against magic?” Yurieth knelt next to where his brother stood staring at the shifting light of the end of the day. He picked up a hand full of pebbles and began tossing them off one by one. “Something is different this time, brother. I can feel it. They will not be content to pick us off one by one. Please, Abrieth, you’re all I have left. All that stands between my soul and insanity.”

“You have Mother and Father...” Abrieth started but Yurieth cut him off.

“Abrieth, you know things with Father have always been difficult and Mother has not been the same toward me since my daughters... since they were b-born.” He fought against the regret that rose like bile in his throat.

“Mother knew you were at war, whatever happened then, she has forgiven you for not being there, just as Roserae did.”

“No, brother, she has not. And Roserae never forgave me, she hated me. I lied, I acted without honor and they both knew it,” Yurieth confessed.

Abrieth watched his brother scoop up another handful of pebbles and begin tossing them away one by one. “You and the Amazoni, the rumors were true. How could you? You were married.”

“Like you haven’t had your share of females, they practically fall over themselves to run their fingers through the red hair of the Yophriel,” Yurieth snapped at him.

“I have had far fewer than everyone thinks, you know that, and I wasn’t married to the Queen’s cousin.” Abrieth tossed it back in his face.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Yurieth was silent as he looked at the pebbles in his palm. “It didn’t even mean anything to me, it was like it is with the Xelusians, just purely physical desire and emotional emptiness afterwards. Roserae somehow knew so I lied to her rather than hurt her more, but she figured it out eventually and she hated me.”

Yurieth groaned as if in pain and then he threw all of the pebbles out into the void beyond the precipice. Together they listened to the stones falling and clicking on the rocks below. “All I ever did was hurt her. We even fought the day she died. A mere hour before the Berserkers abused her and drank her blood, she told me she hated me and threatened to take the girls a... away.” Abrieth listened quietly, he had never heard his brother speak of that day or negatively of his marriage.

Trembling with his emotions, blinking hard, he refused to let a single tear fall until this war was done. “I picked her up by the throat and threatened to give her to the Berserker warriors. And it was all because I wanted them to move out of the house I built for her and teach the girls to use the bows I made them for their birth anniversary. I killed them... I loved them so much... I would have given up everything to keep them safe... When I felt them die, my heart died with them. I killed them.”

“You did not kill them, the Xelusians sent a strike force to come after all the Huntsmen and Guardians. You’re lucky not to be dead, we both are,” Abrieth’s words sounded hollow to himself.

“Abrieth, my family was murdered because of who I am. The Master Assassin Regis killed told me so. King Apollyon put a price on my head specifically and I will not rest until I remove his heart as he did mine.” Yurieth vowed with such cold certainty that Abrieth knew it would happen. “I don’t care how long it takes; I will avenge my daughters.”

“And what about Roserae? Will you avenge her?” Abrieth asked carefully.

His brother stood up and laughed in a cold, self-deprecating way. “I never deserved her. She was a beautiful, gentle, peace-loving soul, who could be unbelievably naive at times and feisty at other. But she lived her life in compassion as a healer should, while I lived a life of carnage as... as what I am. I honestly don’t know what Mother was thinking when she paired us.”

“What are you, brother?” Abrieth inquired, he wondered if his brother saw himself the way he did.

“I am as much Assassin and Huntsman; I am both and neither. Perhaps if I had a heart, I would be able to answer you. Don’t die tomorrow.” Yurieth took three powerful steps and jumped from the cliff, falling into the shadows below. Abrieth didn’t even bother to look, there was nothing to see. His brother was a ghost.