Books by Colin Lindsay
The Goddess’s Scythe Series
Raven’s Wings
Death’s Angel
Queen’s Sacrifice
for Katherine
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the author.
Text and cover art copyright © 2020 by Colin Lindsay
Cover art by Andra Moisescu
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-1-7772989-1-3
Preface
Soren leaned forward. “I won’t insult you by offering you a chance to switch sides, but I have a proposition for you.” He paused to let this register. “I will negotiate the terms of your survival – if you can best my champion.”
Kala looked at her loved ones and made the decision that any chance of their surviving was worth more than her pride. “I accept.”
Soren looked pleased and turned to Trax. “Do you think you can handle this little girl?” he asked.
Trax was infuriated by the insult but had to accept the challenge, framed as it was. He swallowed his curses and turned to face Kala. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, drawing an enormous broadsword and swinging it around him to loosen his muscles. Kala, beyond exhaustion, simply watched him. He approached her slowly like a predator playing with its prey. Without warning, he swung, blindingly fast for a man his size, and she barely managed to dive to the ground to avoid being cleft in two. She looked up at him, uncertain whether she had the strength to rise.
“Get up and die with some dignity,” he spat.
Table of Contents
1 Kala
2 Forest
3 Emrys
4 Kala
5 Dhara
6 Kala
7 Forest
8 Kala
9 Priestess
10 Kala
11 Soren
12 Kala
13 Kala
14 Forest
15 Kala
16 Forest
17 Kala
18 Kala
19 Kala
20 Forest
21 Soren
22 Kala
23 Kala
24 Soren
25 Kala
26 Dhara
27 Kala
28 Forest
29 Kala
30 Dhara
31 Cera
32 Lily
33 Skye
34 Kala
35 Soren
36 Forest
37 Priestess
Kala
Skye thought he must still be asleep, except that the vision was so vivid. The girl he’d dreamed about every night for the past two years had just stepped through the airship door. In his dreams, she’d always been frozen in time, but in this dream, she was older and even more beautiful than he remembered. She radiated a self-assurance that bordered on threatening. She still wore the leathers he remembered her wearing in the forest, but these were jet black and hugged her figure in a way that he found newly suggestive. Her hair had grown out, but she let it hang loose. She flipped it back, and it glinted darkly in the sunlight. He looked into her eyes and they bore back into his. He found himself speechless.
“You called. I came,” Kala said impatiently.
“How is this possible?” Skye asked, still in shock.
She placed a hand on her hip. “I’ve learned a thing or two about the airships,” she replied. The edges of her lips twitched upward. “Now, are you going to crouch there all day, or come give me a proper greeting?”
Skye hesitated while he scanned the airfield for guards. There were none in sight at the moment, but it didn’t tend to stay that way long, and it made him nervous. He rose to his feet slowly, staying vigilant.
Kala remarked to herself that their time apart didn’t seem to have changed him much. He wasn’t his usual cocky self at the moment, but he’d grown more handsome and muscled. She’d imagined their reunion a thousand times, and it always involved either their embracing passionately or her slugging him for leaving her. Now that it was actually happening, she wanted to do both, and the slowness with which the moment played out caused her emotions to war back and forth toward an uncertain victor.
He walked toward her cautiously so as not to dispel the dream. He didn’t yet dare accept the dawning hope that this could be real. He advanced until he was close enough to feel her breath on his neck. He reached out tentatively and touched her arm. It felt solid, and she was looking at him as though he’d lost his mind. “You’re real,” he concluded incredulously.
“Last time I checked, yes,” she replied and lifted her hands to hold him firmly by the shoulders. “We have unfinished business,” she declared.
He was just about to ask what that business was when she shut him up with a deep kiss. It was his turn to melt into her. He almost shook from relief that they had at last found each other.
Skye pulled away after a moment, still worried about the guards. Kala was utterly unconcerned about the precariousness of their surroundings, and more than a little nonplussed that the kiss she’d waited more than two years for was being interrupted. He didn’t see or hear any guards, but if the airship that she’d emerged from had just landed, they would appear at any moment. “We have to get out of the open,” He said, feeling exposed and vulnerable.
Kala rolled her eyes but relented at seeing him so nervous. “Fine,” she agreed. “Where to?”
“Anywhere but here,” he replied, took her hand, and led her briskly toward the fence that enclosed the airfield, weaving between the crates that littered it. Kala was maddeningly unhurried, and he almost had to drag her with him.
A group of guards finally emerged from a building across the yard, spotted them immediately, and shouted at them as they ran toward them. Skye prepared to run, but Kala wheeled around and started back toward them.
“What are you doing?!” he asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and spinning her back around. She resisted, so he added, “Do we really need to pick a fight?”
“I guess we don’t need to, but does ‘want’ count for anything?” After having been cooped up for days in the airship, she was spoiling for a fight. Skye looked at her as if to say that it wasn’t the time for sarcasm, so she sighed and let him guide her toward the fence.
Skye never looked back to see how close the guards were, and when they reached the fence, he clambered over it immediately. Kala merely grabbed it and flipped over with effortless grace. She was waiting for him on the other side when he reached the ground.
The guards were almost at the fence, and more streamed out of the buildings that surrounded the airfield.
Kala stood rooted, reluctant to leave without a fight, so Skye took her hand again and pulled into a nearby alley. The guards didn’t pursue them beyond the fence, and before long, they slowed to walk hand in hand, with Skye looking back nervously until they were a safe distance away from the airfield.
“You left without saying goodbye,” Kala accused him without looking at him.
“Technically, I did say goodbye,” he replied.
Kala stopped and turned to face him. “You know what I mean.”
“What could I have said that wouldn’t have made things harder?”
“I don’t care. You could have said something.”
“I never got the chance. I didn’t know an airship would come while you were away from the village.”
“I
wasn’t ‘away.’ I was banished.”
“I know, but either way, I couldn’t reach you to talk to you.”
“You could have waited. You didn’t have to take the first ride out of town.”
“That’s not fair. I wasn’t itching to leave.”
“So why didn’t you wait for me?”
“They would have sent someone else, and it could have been one of your friends, Cera or Lily. I didn’t want that on my conscience. We could just as easily be having this conversation with you asking me why I did nothing to stop them from being sent away when I was sworn to leave anyway.”
Kala had no reply to that. She knew he was right, but it didn’t hurt any less.
Skye softened. “Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. It turned me inside out.”
“And yet you still left.”
“I had to. I promised my mother. She has no one.”
“What about me? Didn’t I count for something? What am I to you?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out since I first met you.”
Kala stared at him, not happy with his answer.
“All I can say is that you’re what I see when I close my eyes at night, and it breaks my heart to open them every morning.”
“That – is an acceptable answer,” she said and softened the stare that held him impaled. She reached out and took his hand. “You could have waited. We could have figured it out together.”
“I was afraid I’d lose myself in you and with it my resolve to get back to my mother – then what kind of person would I have become?”
“My person,” Kala protested.
“You are,” he countered, squeezing her hand.
She dropped his hand and looked away. “I’m not the person I was before. I’ve done things… dark things. I fear that the darkness has latched onto me and owns me.”
Skye couldn’t imagine how this could be the case and pulled her to him. She refused to meet his gaze, so he gently lifted her chin until she looked him in the eyes. “No amount of darkness can put out your light.”
She pulled away testily and crossed her arms. “You have no idea how deep the darkness runs in me.”
“You’re right that I don’t know you even a fraction as well as I’d like to, but I want to. If you have demons, we’ll face them together.”
She relaxed slightly and put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s sweet of you, but those guards scare you…”
“With good reason,” he interrupted, defending himself.
“What I am is far scarier,” she finished gently.
“You’ve always been scary. I’ll just have to get used to a new level of scary.” He held out his hand. “I’m willing to try if you are.”
She stared at his land, really wanting to try, but not believing she could. She finally took his hand. “Okay, I’m willing, but I can’t make any promises.”
He pulled her into an embrace and held her tightly. She nestled into him, and a glimmer of hope kindled in her heart. She clung to it.
After a time, they separated, and Kala looked around. “Shall we go to wherever you’re staying?” she asked.
“We could, but your old treehouse was more luxurious,” Skye admitted discouragedly.
“Right now, I’d be happy with anything.”
“Okay, then. Follow me,” he replied and led her down quiet streets. “We’d better keep a low profile.”
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“Well, for starters, It seems that I’m not very popular with the local clergy, but more importantly, you look like you’re ready to wage a one-person war.”
Kala’s hand unconsciously strayed to the dagger secured to her thigh.
“It’s more the swords strapped to your back,” Skye informed her. “Well, maybe it’s also the collection of daggers you’re wearing. How many do you have?”
“Eight,” she replied.
“Eight! Where?”
“Want to search me?”
“Forget I asked,” he muttered. A new level of scary, he reminded himself. He motioned in the direction they needed to head but kept them on the shadowed side of the street.
Kala shrugged and followed him. “Low profile it is, then.”
They encountered many town guards on their way to the building that Skye had been most recently calling home, but Kala had a knack for timing that let her pass by them without their noticing.
“How do you do that?” Skye asked.
“Do what?” she replied.
“That thing you do where you know which way the guards are going to look or turn before they do? And not just the guards – everyone.”
“It’s a dance,” she replied cryptically.
He gave up asking, and they carried on under Kala’s bizarre form of invisibility until they arrived at his building.
“You’ll like this,” he said. “I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping on rooftops. The sunsets are wonderful. I’ll show you.” He led her inside and up a long stairwell. He was winded by the time they arrived at the top, but Kala seemed unbothered by the climb. He shook his head and reached for the door handle. “Welcome to my home,” he said and pushed open the door.
A party of eight monks lay in wait and drew their weapons the moment the door swung open. Skye had no time to react before the two closest monks grabbed him.
“Run!” he called to Kala.
She did no such thing. She merely stepped through the door, not even bothering to draw a weapon.
Great, Skye thought. She’s insane.
Kala stared patiently at the monks who were holding Skye.
They took a moment, then released their hold on him. “Sorry, milady,” they said in unison.
Skye shrugged away from them and took a step back, looking back and forth between Kala and the monks.
The monks sheathed their weapons and filed silently out the door, leaving Kala and Skye alone.
“Do you mind telling me what just happened?” Skye asked, frustrated and confused.
“I’m kind of a big deal in certain circles,” Kala replied.
“Death cult circles?” he asked incredulously.
She shrugged and tried to look innocent.
Skye gave up figuring out the puzzle that was Kala and went to investigate his belongings. Not surprisingly, they’d been rooted through and lay strewn across the far corner of the roof. “If I had known I was bringing home a girl, I would have cleaned up,” he joked.
“Do you bring a lot of girls home?” Kala asked.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he replied, but had a sense that he was walking into some sort of trap.
“Eden might disagree.”
Skye froze. He turned slowly and asked, “She’s all right, then?”
“Your concern is touching, lover-boy,” she said sarcastically. “When I left her, she was nursing a broken heart.”
Skye deflated. “I think I can safely conclude that I acted badly.”
“You think?”
“I was desperate for a way home. When I stumbled across her, she provided a way.”
“That’s no excuse. There’s always a way to do right by someone, especially an innocent like her.”
“I tried to make things right, but I was run out of town by your friends,” he said, gesturing at the doorway that the monks had just exited.
“How about not having things to set right in the first place?”
“I’m not good at these things. I’m just doing the best I can. I didn’t exactly set about to worm myself into the hearts of young ladies across the continent.”
“And yet you have.” Kala sighed resignedly. “Can you see how it makes it hard to trust you? Was I just a way home? Am I just that still?” she asked with more bitterness than she’d intended.
“You know you’re not. You’re special to me.”
“How can I believe you?”
“Because it’s not me, it’s you – you draw me like a moth to a flame.”
“You
know what happens to the moth?” she asked. “That appears to be my specialty.”
“I’ll take my chances,” he declared.
She still felt unsettled but accepted his offer. “Promise me, no more girls.”
“How can I refuse you when you’re sporting six daggers?”
“Eight.”
“Just checking.”
“You haven’t promised,” she reminded him.
“I promise that from now on, my sun rises and sets on you.”
“That’s a good start.”
Kala woke in his arms. She was stiff from a night of lying on the hard roof but felt content in a way that she hadn’t felt in years. She knew it was only the momentary calm before the inevitable storm, but she resolved to find happiness when and where she could – it was so fleeting.
Kala watched Skye as he slept. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. She worried that he wouldn’t be able to accept who she’d become once he really knew. The girl that she’d been when he fell in love with her was a distant memory. She was no longer a doe-eyed village girl, naïve to the evil of the world. She’d hurt people; she’d killed people. She’d become the evil in the world, and she hated herself for it.
It suddenly occurred to her - Could the same be true of her? When she fell in love with him, was it truly him she’d fallen in love with, or what it what he represented at the time – a world beyond the confines of her village? Now that she was out in that world, would she still feel the same about him?
Her worries made her restless, and she shifted to extricate herself from his embrace without waking him. She succeeded and rolled quietly away, then rose to her feet and made her way to the edge of the rooftop to distract herself by watching the sunrise. She hadn’t really noticed the day before just how sprawling the city was. As the sun rose over its distant walls, it illumined its various quarters and bathed them in a blanket of warm hues. The sounds of the city stirring rose by degrees. Far more people live here than all the people I’ve encountered in my entire life, she thought, amazed.
People began to move about in the city below, despite the early hour. Markets were being opened. The sides of tents were drawn back to reveal all manner of goods. Shop owners circulated, acquiring from each other the supplies they needed before the general populous rose and came to them for their services. The heartbeat of the city quickened.
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