Shattering Dreams

2. The Killiam Order’s Recruit

2

The Killiam Order’s Recruit

Scholar Clements stood looking out the windows over the serene mountains. The sprawling old fort and village, protected by stone walls that surrounded Yalleska, had stood undefeated for hundreds of years. This fort and village were the stronghold of the Killiam Order, which had been granted autonomy from the Crown generations ago.

A scream of pain rang through the citadel. At the anguished pleading, a cold smile spread across the Scholar’s lips. It was always a pleasure when they had a victory over the monsters. The knowledge they gained, the endemic perversion of the healer ranks, caused great concern amongst the Order. Learning that the filth hiding in the healer ranks could be controlled with the medication gave them renewed hope.

If they survived under the medication’s influence, they used their healer’s gifts to gain a mental hold of their own kind. It had been a long laborious process of trial and error. In the early days, when they first discovered the medication, they thought they would win. Most of the monsters they dosed died, yet a few survived. Those that did, with mental manipulation from the healers, were being used to build a fighting force to use against the darkness. For the first time since the Order came into inception, they might just be on the brink of winning this war. How better to fight against the monsters than to pit their own kind against them?

He didn’t have long to wait—once the pleading started they never lasted long. He grinned as the door opened behind him.

“So, how is our latest recruit going?”

“You heard, I take it?”

There wasn’t a hint of emotion in Kevin’s voice or expression; he’d been one of their first success stories.

Clements nodded, his satisfaction evident. “She’s finally taking the medication willingly?”

“Yes. She is young and not resistant to the drug at all. As I predicted, she is an ideal candidate to enter the program.” Kevin smiled. “Even though she is a little older than we prefer to start treatment, she doesn’t possess the will to resist.”

Clements turned his head to look at Kevin as he stood next to him, looking out the large windows. Kevin had come to him, to the Order, almost fifteen years earlier, a broken man. A healer, he’d returned to his home after his rounds in the village, only to discover his young family dead. They were lying on the ground in the backyard to his small property. Broken, discarded, slaughtered by a monster. Kevin knew about the Killiam Order, revealing, after he turned to them, that the healers had been keeping track of their presence. It was Kevin who had admitted that the healing order had been protecting and hiding the monsters in society, that many healers used the Taint. He’d been their first success story, helping them to distil and perfect the medication.

Clements had felt no need at all to mention that the monster that had killed Kevin’s family had been one of the Order’s failed experiments.

“Will she be ready for her task?”

He saw a smile spread on the face of the man who, against all odds, had become his friend. “She will be; she is skilled and her target will be drawn to her. With my guidance, she will be powerful enough to control his mind.”

Scholar Clements laughed, clapping Kevin on the back. “Well done. I wish we had the time to instruct and train her properly. But we cannot wait, with these targets. We need to take them soon. Our friends will hopefully have achieved the first stage of the task before we get there.”

The two men lapsed into silence, watching the sun set across the mountains. The sky was lit with orange and a baleful deep red, with shadows casting darkness as the sun sank. The screams and cries of agony from the medication cells beyond were oddly soothing.