Chapter 43 - Stories

A day had passed since Jude had killed Hylik. Tyra was badly burned from the explosion, but she was awake and recovering. Jude had talked with her some last night, which they hoped would give her more a will to live. She now fought for her life in her makeshift hospital bed.

Meanwhile, Jude, Relik, and Krynn had been talking to each other. Kysandra had spent some time near Jude as well, but generally she sat near Tyra, helping her recover. Jude was not spending an effort to meet the members of the Free Council, but instead cared more to find out what had transpired in his friend's lives since they were seperated.

"While you were hunting, Relik and I heard something in the middle of the night," Krynn explained. "We woke Tyra and told her to come with us. I don't know why we didn't wake the rest of the camp, but we did not. We now regret that decision.

"Someone attacked us. We still don't know who it was, but we suspect from the style of the attack and the ferocity that it was a kryon band, although a human band could easily have been responsible, simply trying to act like kryons. However, the weapon that destroyed was a kryon weapon.

"We fled. We walked for less than a week before there was one night in which we had to sleep in a truck. A storm came during the night, and we were woken surprisingly by a band of humans in black jumpsuits. They gathered us, handcuffed us, and led us down to the subway system.

"The band was the Order of Vengeance. We were enslaved by them, along with the people you see here. All of us were former slaves of the Order. They were headed by a kryon-human half-breed who went by the forename of Leader."

Jude interrupted. "Leader?" he asked, realizing that the name was the same as the one who had attacked him psychically, and was now directly responsible for his abilities.

"Yes, Leader, why?" asked Krynn.

"I met him on my journey here and we fought. I killed him."

"Praise be to the powers that be," said Relik.

"That is good to know, as he was the last man who was part of the Order who survived our rebellion. We rebelled under the command of a man named Pulse, who was about the age of Survivor. He died in the rebellion, along with many of our number.

"But we escaped, and we formed a group called the Free Council, of which you are now a part. The leader is a woman named Kysandra, who is now Relik's lover." Krynn was finished speaking.

Relik, however, had more to say. "One man turned on the Council, a man named Hylik. He was the one you saw beating us, and the one you killed. He captured Tyra, Kysandra, a woman named Sylva, and I, although he did not turn on Krynn. I don't know what happened, but no one here knows either. It is the greatest enigma of the Council."

Relik and Krynn then asked Jude what had taken place in his life since the attack.

"I returned the day after the attack to find our village in ruins. I left, and decided that I would cross the river of the City to the mainland. I did, and began travelling in the direction in which the sun sets, although I had no couse set in my mind.

"In the village I found a journal written by Survivor, and a message was written in the back pages. It was not in the human tongue, although I did learn recently what it meant. It said 'the answer lies in the Kryonomicon'.

"The Kryonomicon is a book. I discovered it some weeks ago in a house that had been infested with kryons. I killed the kryons and fled the house, though I was stopped by a group of kryons led by a half-breed called Lukäski. I shot at him and fled, and I know not whether he is alive or dead, however, the signs are ominous.

"I recieved visions from Survivor in my dreams, and they told me to return in the other direction and follow the Dancing of the Skies and the Dancing of Souls. I learned that these were terms for the aurora and fires, and I learned to follow them and found you.

"On the return journey I met Leader. He nearly killed me, however at the last moment I got lucky and he fell. Afterwords, I continued the journey, and so I found you again."

Jude sighed and looked back at his friends. Although they had been apart for so long, they still felt the bonds of friendship just as they had before.

Relik turned to Jude. "The people are wondering if you would make a better leader than Kysandra. It is not that Kysandra is a poor leader, however they are looking for a stronger one. Tyra, Krynn, and I all agree that you would make a better leader of the Council, and make wiser decisions. The meeting will take place sometime shortly."

The three split, and Jude went to talk to Kysandra. Nothing important was said, rather they were trying to learn more about each other.

And that night, he got an idea.