Mark of Kaius

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. The Valley wasn’t sacred, unlike the dragons. So, the priests have no idea why they would fly down from their lofty mountain peaks or lumber inland from their watery ocean depths to take up residence here. Yet here they were.

Fifteen-hundred years ago, this lush valley, the Guan Falls Valley, used to be all desert. In fact, legend states The Gatekeeper descended from the Kappan Mountains to face her nemesis, and the Kappan River flowed over her path after she defeated the hideous monster her nemesis had summoned. That river now nourished the ground, turning the desert into a green valley. Maybe this valley was blessed, after all, because of The Gatekeeper’s actions. The dragons, therefore, must be waiting here for something. Or someone.

I watched as my father, the High Priest of The Gatekeeper’s Temple (better known as 5th Sister’s Temple of the Gate), and my brother, Dad’s protege and successor, whispered between them about what the signs could be. Dragons in the Guan Falls Valley? I couldn’t really care less. The “religious” stuff was more of their thing, and–since “dragons are sacred”–the issue of dragons being in the Valley fell into their purview. I just tagged along so as to get out of my duties and studies at the monastery. Being part of the Soulistani royal family came with certain perks, especially when you carried the “mark.”

Ignoring their conversation, I studied the calluses on my charcoal blue hands with black fingernails. The discoloration of my skin–that made my hands and forearms look like I dyed cloth for a living–along with my feline-golden eyes marked me as a Child of Kaius. However, I snapped out of my musings when I heard my name being called, “Chessie!”

“Huh?” I stared stupidly at my brother, Cohen. While I had gold eyes and discolored hands, my brother’s mark were the two, bony protrusions on his forehead that resembled the stubs of deer antlers or horns. Because I had been looking at my hands, my eyes went automatically to his “horns,” as he called them.

“Hey, eyes here,” Cohen huffed, signaling to his nose. With a sigh, I pointedly looked him in the eyes. “Cyruk* crests the sky so the sun is setting.” Sure enough, the gigantic, third moon covered over a quarter of the horizon and I could see cloud patterns churning over its green, brown and blue surface. “We have an hour and a half to set up camp before dark; will you help?”

I looked at my dad standing beside Cohen, but he had his nose buried deep into whatever red-bound book he held. Since he wouldn’t be giving any directions any time soon, the responsibility of commanding the priests, scholars and guards fell to Cohen. Instead of giving my brother grief, I huffed out an exasperated sigh, “Fine.”

I stood up from where I was lounging against a tree trunk and looked over the edge of the bluff for one last glance at the milling dragons. As I did so, I swore one of the larger ones—who was a deep royal blue, almost midnight in color, and glistened like precious stones—met my gaze. I felt a gentle pulling, like something called to me, as glowing eyes seemed to see beyond what I could. Within my heart, I felt a seed of desire to see the dragon up close. Startled, I jumped back. What was that? I asked myself.

Shaking my head, I turned towards where the other priests, alchemists, engineers, mechanics, history professors, and whomever else came with the investigation team the Emperor sent for this month-long excursion. Most of the guards were lifting and moving the heavy items while the engineers and mechanics bustled about to set things up “properly.” The alchemists worked alongside the Emperor’s cooks to create our dinner. Now, where would I help? I wasn’t strong, but nimble. I could only cook a passing meal, nothing extravagant or to a large scale as needed for this group. No, all I had were speed, excellent perception of my surroundings and quick wits. Otherwise, I tried to do things efficiently just so I could be “lazy,” since that’s how the other monks saw me.

Just as I agonized over what I could do to help, I saw a young guard, Tomas, struggling with an unruly pack mule. Without giving a second thought, I called out to him, "Let me help you!" I jogged forward and approached the mule with as much gentleness as I could muster. "Hey, there...what's her name?"

Tomas yanked on the bridle of the mule before grunting out, "His name is Ferris."

I winced at seeing the harsh treatment, but I understood why Tomas showed his growing frustrations. "Ferris, right?" I kept my attention on the mule. "People don't get what it is like to lug around everyone else's weight and still be expected to give more of yourself." I gently nudged Tomas out of the way with my shoulder, ignoring the fact I stand at 5-feet and 3-inches compared to Tomas's height of six feet. To calm the mule down, I then took Ferris's muzzle into my hands.

Ferris fixed his eyes on me before beginning to settle. Sometimes I understood animals better than humans. Everyone expressed excitement to be here, but the pack animals portrayed a level of exhaustion that came from two-weeks of traveling north from the Soulistani capitol, Cholstrand, to the southern cliffs of the Kappan Mountains.

With a huff, Ferris the mule settled down, relaxing further as I rubbed small circles with my thumb on the bridge of his head, between his eyes. "How...how did you manage to calm him?" Tomas asked. He moved like a mouse to the side of the mule.

I answered Tomas as he unloaded the mule's bags, "Sometimes animals just want to be heard, like toddlers who throw tantrums." I rested my head against Ferris's head, continuing to stroke his cheeks, until Tomas completed his task.

"Thanks for the assist," Tomas said. He hefted a couple of the bags up and walked off. "Would you take that mule to the stable hand, please?"

He was gone before I could answer, so I mumbled, "Sure." Then I turned to Ferris, "Shall we get you some dinner?" Before I turned to go, I noticed a food ration sticking out from one of the bags Tomas failed to pick up in his first load. An idea and a plan popped into my head so I glanced around. Good. No one was watching.

With that and no hesitation, I quickly snatched two rations and an apple, hid the rations in the blankets on Ferris's back, and then grabbed the lead rope. I tugged on the rope while holding up the apple in front of Ferris's muzzle. He gave a huff of excitement before plodding forward. After a couple of steps, I gave him the apple and we merrily made our way to where we were keeping the other animals. Unfortunately, Cohen organized the camp in such a way that the animals were on the other side from where we were currently located by the cooking tents.

Ferris truly was tired, so we meandered our way to the back of the camp. While we walked, I noticed how many people were gossiping and sharing their own ideas of why the dragons were in the Valley. I tilted my ears towards every whisper I could catch because I realized I wanted to know, too. Those glowing and burning eyes of that one dragon had blazoned their image in my head.

One such whisper was "Maybe a god or goddess is walking amongst us."

Another person piped up, "Do you think they have a warning from the gods?"

One man quaked as he said, "I pray they aren't here to punish us."

From another group of people, an older woman muttered, "This is a sign of disaster about to come. We should all beware of what message they have for us. Dragons aren't tame, but they are messengers of the Divine. We should all beware!"

Admittedly, the elderly woman's message bemused me more instead of stoking fear within me.

After hearing plenty of whispers, I finally found the area where the animals were kept, and several mules were already tied up while munching on their dinner of some sort of grass. I had to wait for a couple of minutes before I saw at least one stable hand come out from a storage tent near by. I removed the rations from the blankets on Ferris's back, only to hide them behind my back and under my belt. "Hey, um, Mister..." I paused as I couldn't recall this man's name.

"Geoffry," the stable hand interrupted. "I'll take..." he glanced at the mule beside me, "...Ferris and get him fed."

"Ah, thank you. That's what I brought him here for."

The stable hand mumbled a "thanks" at me as he grabbed Ferris's lead rope, to which I gave a nod. As I turned around, I noticed an abandoned backpack left by someone after having unloaded another beast of burden. I waited for the stable hand to disappear with Ferris before grabbing that, too. My idea took on shape: I had the rations and the backpack. What's stopping me from seeing the dragons at a much closer distance? I was one of the better climbers in the group. Maybe I would see that blue dragon from earlier. My curiosity grasped tightly onto me so I turned in the direction of the edge of camp. From there, I could slip out without anyone noticing, right?

I jogged to the perimeter of the camp with the small backpack I had managed to grab and pretended to be on the evening watch. Because I frequently helped with night watch on our journey here, no one questioned my presence. So I kept walking the perimeter, keeping an eye out for an escape route out of the camp. I needed to satiate this desire to see the dragons. Well, I more specifically needed to see the blue dragon that had glistened like a polished sapphire. I heard a bleating to my right so I careened my head in that direction.

To my surprise, I saw a mountain goat grazing at the edge of the clearing we were camping in. It swiveled its head in my direction and bleated again. I cocked my head in puzzlement. Where did it come from? Suddenly, the goat turned around and bolted. Without hesitation, I chased after it. This goat could show me a good climbing path, after all.

I chased after the goat as it led me through various pines and aspens. Before I realized it, the goat bounded down a narrow path along the cliff wall that zigged and zagged but still clearly led downwards. I glanced down to see if I could see where it led. I smiled when I saw a large ledge that held trees and covered in grass. This path stopped right above that ledge. If I could reach the end, I could climb the rest of the way down.

When I looked back up, I missed the goat! I heard bleating above me. Slowly, I bent my neck back and saw "my" mountain goat staring down at me. It bleated again before bolting up the cliff we had both just clambered down. Well, it pointed me in the direction I needed to go! I walked forward, minding each step, and I continued on this mountain path until it ended.

With all of the training in martial arts I accomplished at the monastery, the height of the climb didn't scare me. I took off the backpack and took the time to create an inventory list of what was in the bag. Thankfully, I found climbing powder. What luck! I undid my belt and laced the chalk bag to the front of my hip. Happy with my find, I repacked the bag, fastened it back on, and mentally prepared myself for the climb.

Cyruk was still clearly in view so I had about forty-five minutes of light left. I estimated the climb could take up to an hour and a half. Hyping myself up, I mumbled, "I better start climbing!" So I did just that...I climbed.

After an hour had passed, the sun set and I saw the rise of Haylinn the Shattered Moon and her smaller sister, Lunmos, with a golden yellow tinge. Seeing Lunmos's color reminded me that we have passed the height of fruit season and were headed into deep fall. Now I wished I grabbed an apple for myself when I snatched that one for Ferris the Mule. I grunted, upset with myself for having skipped dinner, but I needed to hurry. I chose to climb down at a dangerous time in the growing darkness. My eyesight adjusted around the same time the stars began to sparkle in the night sky.

I looked down yet again and judged I had about thirty-minutes to an hour before I reached the large, forested ledge. Alright, climbing down for nearly two hours without equipment had been a bad idea. Forget how athletic I was! And with that thought, one of my foot holds slipped. My chin slammed hard into the cliff face. I bit back the yelp of pain. I need to keep moving! I've come this far to see the dragons! So I kept inching my way down.

What felt like ages, I eventually felt the brush of pine against my back. Nearly there! I took a moment to look down and realized I only needed to climb another twenty feet before I could make a safe jump. Hastily, I moved, excited to be nearly over with this climb. Jammed a finger here. Scraped the inside of my arm there. I didn't care, though, I was near to my goal. As soon as I felt I could safely land a jump, I jumped. Not knowing if I would land properly or if would I sprain an ankle in the process felt exhilarating. With a slight "oof" escaping my lips, I managed to land on my feet, bend my knees, and roll in such a way I didn't hurt myself.

Let me say it again: Thank goodness for all of my training at the monastery! Even though that mountain goat lead me to a winding path down the side of this cliff for a part of the journey, I don't think I would have survived the climb downwards without proper climbing gear if I wasn't a trained monk. In the morning, my arms would testify to the bruising I received from the risks I took to get here. And now that I was here, I took a moment to observe my surroundings.

I inched closer to the side of the cliff. Looks like I only made it half-way down, maybe less? If I continued any further, I wouldn't be returning to camp any time soon. With my father as Head Priest, people would eventually notice my missing presence. I needed to monitor the dragons from here for now so I had time to make the climb back to camp before sunrise. Everything seemed relatively still. Somewhere I heard the trill of a nightjar bird, the favored bird of Karinyx, the goddess of death. Otherwise, the only other sound making itself known was the wind dancing between the aspen trees. Since darkness had fallen, I relied on my superior sight.

One of the perks of having feline-like eyes, I inherited excellent sight, especially at night. I couldn't perceive colors without daylight, but I could detect motion well. Thankfully dragons emit a slight light, usually imperceptible to human eyes, so I could see them even at night. I moved as close as I could to the edge and sat down with my legs hanging over the ledge. From here, I could see a decent amount of dragons; some drifted to sleep in the open while the nocturnal ones began stirring from beneath the canopy of trees. I couldn't see the nocturnal dragons as well, but I heard them. Some of them sounded grumpy, similar to Cohen in the mornings. He hated waking up!

A green dragon the color of greed stepped out into the moonlight of the splintered moon, Haylinn, causing the dragon's skin to glisten like deep waters. Even at night, I could see the vibrant green of this dragon's scales. Wow, the dragons mesmerized anyone who looked upon them as much as they terrified other living creatures. From a young age, parents and priests drilled into us that all deities are dragons, but not all dragons are deities. Because they are the closest creatures to divinity, a part of each dragon reflects back the divine nature of the gods. Upon seeing this dragon that shone like an emerald in the moonlight, I realized why people dreamed of meeting a single dragon. I witnessed a whole herd of dragons tonight!

After a while, I pulled off my backpack and took out one of the rations I had nabbed earlier. I opened it to find some sort of dried meat, dried potato skins, raisins, various nuts, and a hunk of hard tack. With a sigh, I detached the water skin from my bag. As unsatisfactory as this meal was, I ate it anyway because I was hungry from skipping dinner. As I munched on the dry-upon-dry meal, I continued to survey the dragons.

Crick-CRACK! I started at the sound of splintering wood that came from a distance below and to the right of me. With trained agility, I spun on my palms and brought myself into a balancing crouch at the cliff's edge, forgetting in the moment about my half-eaten meal and backpack. If I had to, I readied myself to dodge in whatever direction I needed to. My eyes glanced to-and-fro to determine where the sound came from, but I couldn't concentrate as I started to feel the start of a headache. I shook my head in an attempt to get rid of the crawling-bees feeling. However, I heard crumbling rocks closer to me. That sounded too close!

I snapped my head to the right, only to meet the front of a very dark and very blue, scaly snout with rows of teeth coming above the ledge I occupied. Aye, too close! In reaction, I practically fell on my back and scrambled away. Even if I couldn't outrun a dragon this huge, I surely would try! With how big that snout was, I judged this dragon to be close to one-thousand years old. Not good...not good! After back-peddling almost forty-feet so I could keep an eye on the dragon, I turned to face forward and dodged behind a tree.

But before I could reach a hiding spot, the air around me grew electric and dead silent. The hairs on my arm stood up moments before my vision became white. A pang of searing heat hit my right shoulder blade and my ears filled with the sound of creaking metal, drowning out any other sounds. Then everything went black.

When I came back to consciousness, my ears rang and my muscles seized. I found myself lying in soft and cool grassy ground. Even though the grass felt cool against my skin, my whole body felt like molten lava was trying to flow out from my core. Once I recognized where I was and remembered what had just happened, I wanted to move. I screamed at my body to get up and run from whatever it was that had attacked me…but nothing would cooperate with me. My mind raced. I groaned and screamed in pain, even if I or others couldn’t hear, but my body refused to move. Worse still, all my senses were numb, the area around me devoid of anything. With my trained hyper awareness, this worried me the most because I knew I was under attack. And I was helpless, unable to defend myself. If only I hadn’t sneaked off… No one knew where I was. Oh, geez, what had I gotten myself into?

Then the ground began to shake. I felt that! There was a pause and then another tremor. Terrified that the source of the tremor came from whatever attacked me, I held my breath. The tremors stopped beside me and I felt something like warm rocks—arranged in a pattern—pushing against my side, effectively turning me over. Within my mind, I gave thanks for the help. Maybe whatever force this was would also help me to escape my attacker? I thought, being the optimist that I am. I forced my eyes open to see whom or what had helped me to roll onto my back.

Above me stood the sapphire-like dragon I had noticed earlier this evening! Our eyes locked, and I felt something snap into place in my head. The buzzing in my head stopped. I attempted to shake my head but my body was still in agony from this dragon’s lightning attack, I could only assume. All I did in that moment was stare into those glowing eyes as it lowered its snout towards me. My attacker and helper were one and the same!

I could feel the hot breath of the dragon, sending static sparks crawling across my skin, as it pushed its snout against my stomach and chest. The dark blue dragon attempted to pin me to the ground but my fear and still-seizing muscles kept me glued in place. My mind told me I should stay focused on the snout so I could be ready for death, but my eyes shifted to lock onto a masked figure sliding off of the dragon’s back. Even if I wanted to look away, I couldn’t. I felt compelled to look at this woman for her mere presence thickened the air, making it difficult to breathe. How had I not noticed this woman?

She was tall, probably about six feet like Tomas, and her body was a perfect blend of muscle and feminine softness. Her clothes seemed to be reminiscent of ancient Quin** monastic robes trimmed in gold with a high collar, but her back and arms were completely exposed, which was unusual. Her jet-black, wavy hair framed her face—falling to her waist—but a white porcelain mask with a carved lotus on the forehead covered her face. The mask should have provided enough warning and mystery; however, her arms startled me the most.

From fingertips to just beyond her elbow, her skin ombréd from charcoal blue to pale skin as if she had been dying cloth for years and her fingernails were black, just like my arms. The only distinguishing difference of her arms compared to mine was that her hands and forearms held red tattoos. Some tattoos looked like honeycomb and firework chrysanthemums while others revealed ancient runes. I recognized some of those tattoos based on ancient paintings in the emperor’s vault collection and within the 5th Sister’s Temple of the Gate. If this was who I thought it was…

“Hello, Charlotte Cassius de’Sola,” her sensual voice called out. “I guess you prefer to be called ‘Chessie,’ having rejected being called ‘Char,’ ‘Charlie,’ ‘Lottie,’ and even ‘Cassie.’” My mind tried to wrap around how this mysterious figure could know my full name. As if she read my mind, she continued, “You don’t pray much, do you?”

I opened my mouth to give some sort of smart-mouth answer, but my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. It had suddenly gone dry. “Sorry, I forget how overwhelming my presence can be, even to a descendant of Kaius.”

She then walked towards me and removed her mask as she knelt down beside my pinned form. As she removed her mask, I focused on those charcoal blue hands with red tattoos so eerily similar to mine. How were her hands so smooth while mine were covered with calluses from practicing martial arts? Then, once her mask was removed, I met feline-golden eyes, which were also an identical feature compared to me. Could this truly be her?

“I think you already suspect who I am,” she said, once again answering my thoughts. My breath hitched as I noticed the fangs inside her mouth as she talked. “Oh, Chessie, the little girl who dreamed of meeting me but became cynical as she grew up, every action leading to this moment.” The dragon raised his head, releasing me, but I still didn’t dare to move as if my body obeyed some unspoken command left behind by the dragon. I recognized this woman from my father’s stories but I wouldn’t allow myself to believe.

"I'm glad you found the backpack I left for you and that you chased the mountain goat I sent to your camp's clearing." She cocked her head to one side as she studied my face. "I have been watching you for years." She shifted her crouch, and I heard the rustling of her clothes. Her eyes searched mine as she reached forward to touch my chest.

I felt a great pressure building on my chest, gathering to a single point at my sternum. Fearful my heart had been crushed, I managed to look down to see two of her fingers and thumb pinched at the spot the pain was gathering. Without warning, she pulled away from my chest and the pain dissipated. However, before my eyes, glistening strands of gold and silver weaved out between this woman’s fingers and my sternum. “You are exactly where you need to be, but are you willing?” she mused with a gentle yet low tone. A single strand seemed to detach from my sternum in response to her question and began to slowly float on its own, like gossamer. Both of our golden cat-like eyes seemed to follow this strand, as if it would lead to the answer for the mystery in this moment.

I managed only one word, and it came out like a whispered croak. “Gatekeeper.”



Footnotes:

*Cyruk: pronounced "SAI-rook;" third and largest moon for Teristre, also known as "the Living Moon," due to the observable weather patterns on its surface. The other two moons are Haylinn the Splintered and Lunmos, "She who illuminates." Lunmos's color reveals what month Teristre is in. For example, a golden yellow moon, as described in this chapter, is a month similar to September. Teristre experiences 13 months, each with 4 weeks of 7 days.

**Quin: pronounced “Keen;” of Quisa (koo-AI-sah), a continent west of Anuwin (the continent where this story takes place) and holds a lot of similarities with Eastern Asian countries, like Japan or China and even South Korea.



Book Synopsis for Mark of Kaius:

All deities are dragons, but not all dragons are deities. Charlotte “Chessie” de’Sola joined a team of investigators as a guard so as to get out of her daily responsibilities at the Monastery and to satisfy her curiosity concerning the dragons’ recent and strange behavior. However, she did not account for actually encountering an ancient sapphire dragon, bonding with said dragon, and meeting a goddess of fate and travel.

Appointing Chessie as her Right Hand, the goddess warns her of the appointed arrival of an unseen, unknown and other-worldly militia, whose only goal is to consume. Chessie and her new dragon companion, Admiralus, must now work together to stop these all-consuming entities from ever arriving, but there are forces at work even on this side of the "Veil."

Being labeled as “lazy” by her peers, can Chessie overcome her own shortcomings? Will the proud Admiralus be willing to humble himself to help the “mere mortals” who can’t see beyond themselves? And what person or persons dare call forth such alien entities with such desperation?

To stay updated on the progess of this novel (Mark of Kaius) and to learn more about the origination story of The Gatekeeper (Ruined Souls: Tracked), follow me on my facebook page: @hilaryashwood.