“Thank you for coming back.”
Kala breathed in deeply, turned slowly, and walked back to the clearing, with Skye following close behind. People watched her return and sit down by the fire, and they waited for her to speak.
“We failed,” she said quietly. “There’s no shame in admitting it. We did our best, but we failed. It was a lesson that cost us many loved ones.” She looked into everyone’s eyes, acknowledging their loss. She couldn’t hold Lily’s forlorn gaze. “We can’t fight Soren’s army without one of our own. We need allies to rival his. That’s our only hope.” She looked at Dhara, who was tending to Calix, and Nara, who was tending to Thorvyn. “We’ll tend to our wounded. Then, we’ll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and find allies.”
Everyone nodded their understanding. How exactly they would accomplish this task was unknown, but the logic was irrefutable. They nursed their injuries and looked after their comrades. Dhara and Kaia prepared a poultice for Calix’s wound and scrounged some fabric to bandage it. “He won’t die from infection, at least,” Dhara concluded and collapsed onto the ground beside him.
Forest wanted to go in search of water, but Jarom wouldn’t let her, telling her it was too dangerous. Soren had granted them a brief reprieve, but it wasn’t certain that his men patrolling the woods knew of it or would honor it if they did.
They rested fitfully at their makeshift camp until the early light of dawn began to chase away the dark. The smell of smoke permeated the air, and it was accepted, although never stated, that the city had fallen. It took little time to ready themselves to move out. Thorvyn had recovered enough vision to walk unaided, but a sled was constructed for Calix.
Skye handed Kala her journal, which he’d kept with him, refusing to leave it at the refugee camp. She thanked him and consulted hit. The closest place to hail an airship was northwest of where they were, but they were cut off from it by Soren’s forces. They could try to circle around to it, but that likely wasn’t a good idea. The next closest place was marked on her map to the southeast on the plains. That was where they’d head. She told Jarom what she was thinking, and he deferred to her in the matter, so she guided their party south.
They had no provisions, so Kala and Forest hunted game with borrowed bows every night when they paused to rest, and they were adept enough that the party did not starve. It didn’t seem that they were chased by Soren’s forces, mercifully, and with the slow progress they made, they assumed that if they were being pursued, they’d probably have been caught by now.
The forest gradually gave way to plains and Calix stubbornly clung to life, although he looked more gaunt every day. They kept up as steady a pace as their strength would allow and got closer to the airship beacon. Cross-referencing what Kala and Skye had learned on the volcanic island with Eden’s maps, it lay in the ruins of an ancient city located at what had once been the confluence of two great rivers that crossed the plains. They walked until they reached one of the rivers and then followed along it.
They rose to continue after a short break, but Lily refused. Forest walked back to her.
“Leave me here,” Lily told her despairingly. “I can’t keep this up. I’m not rugged like the rest of you. The farther I get from Cera, the more stretched I feel, and right now I’m stretched so thin that there’s nothing left of me. I belong here in the middle of nowhere.”
“Not an option,” Forest told her flatly and held out her hand to help her up. Lily ignored her, so Forest added, “Is that what Cera would want?”
“That’s not fair,” Lily complained.
“She gave you a chance at life, and I’ll be damned if you’re going to throw it away in a fit of self-pity. That’s disrespectful of Cera’s sacrifice.” She held her hand out firmly, and Lily reluctantly took it.
“I hate you,” Lily said.
“As long as you’re around to hate me, I’ll take it,” Forest replied and helped her sister to her feet. Then she added bitterly, “I know you love her, but you don’t exactly have a monopoly on that – we all do, and we’re hurting too.”
Lily had nothing to say but a quiet “sorry” under her breath. Forest didn’t need to hear it to know that her sister was aware that they all mourned Cera’s loss.
Nara kicked at a loose pile of dirt while they trudged along. “The earth here is fertile,” she noted, looking around. “So why has no one settled here?”
Kala replied over her shoulder. “No airships. If a settlement couldn’t be entirely self-sufficient here, they couldn’t survive without the ships. They dictate where and how we live.”
“You sound like Soren,” Lily accused her meanly.
“I don’t agree with his methods, but he has a point,” Kala replied. The wind picked up and blew her hair in her face. She tied it back, but it always found some way to get loose and bother her. Eventually, she gave and just squinted through the strands that flailed her face.
The tell-tale ruins of the Ancients’ buildings began to poke through the soil as they walked. They eventually stood before the confluence of the two rivers.
“Gods-damn it,” Kala cursed.
“What is it?” Skye asked. “We’re here.”
“You didn’t happen to see a circle of rocks pointing skyward?”
“I don’t think so,” he replied uncertainly.
“That’s what we’re looking for, and if it isn’t on this side of the river, it must be on the other side or one of four sides.”
Skye looked out over the wide expanse of the river. “Oh,” he said. “That’s not good.”
“You’ve got that right,” she replied unhappily, “and I didn’t see any easy way to cross back along the way we came, so we might as well continue and hope we come across one.”
No one was happy about it, but they accepted that no other option seemed to exist and resumed walking. As they proceeded away from the intersection of the rivers, the frequency and scale of the Ancients’ structures increased.
“Wouldn’t you center the city around the intersection of the rivers?” Skye wondered out loud.
“Originally, they probably did,” Jarom replied.
“So what gives?” Skye pressed him.
“Rivers meander over time. I think that’s what we’re seeing here.”
“How long does that take?” Skye wondered, then added as it occurred to him, “What if the circle of stones we’re looking for has been washed away?”
Jarom placed a hand on his shoulder. “That’s always a possibility, so let’s hope that they built it on stable ground.”
Up ahead, they spotted the frame of one of the Ancients’ gigantic buildings that had toppled into the river, spanning it. It didn’t look particularly sturdy, but they looked farther downriver and saw no other way across.
“This is where we cross,” Kala decided.
“But we haven’t fully explored this side of the river for the circle of stones,” Skye countered.
“The bulk of the city seems to lie on the other side,” Kala replied. “I’d bet that what we seek is on that side as well.”
“We can’t carry Calix across that,” Skye declared, gesturing to the collapsed building.
“You’re right – we’re going to have to tow him across.”
“Gods-damn!”
“Got a better idea?”
“No.”
“Okay then – find a rope and let’s get going.”
Someone procured a rope, and they tied it to Calix’s sled, which they brought down to the riverbank.
Dhara began to strip down.
“What are you doing?” Skye asked her.
“Someone has to keep him upright in the water,” she replied.
The water was murky, and no one liked the idea of Dhara’s and Calix’s being in it, but carrying him across wasn’t an option, nor was leaving him behind. The current looked treacherous, but they just had to deal with it.
Forest moved to take the lead in guiding them across the fallen structure, but Ka
la challenged her.
“I’m the lightest,” Forest explained. “We don’t even know if this thing is stable. I should be the first to cross it.”
“Fair enough,” Kala relented. “We’ll wait for you to cross, then we’ll follow you.” She chose not to add, “unless it collapses under you, and you’re swept away.”
Forest clambered over the structure, and except for a few harrowing moments, made it across. Kala began leading the remainder of the party across, with Jarom and Hawke holding the rope attached to Calix’s sled. Dhara slipped into the water and held the sled steady as they towed it across. It was awkward, but they made slow and steady progress. Nara helped Lily with her footing on the uneven structure.
They made it halfway across when Forest began shouting from the far shore. Everyone swiveled their heads to see her pointing agitatedly downstream at the shore from which they had just crossed. Some massive creature had slid into the water and was bearing down on Calix.
“Hurry!” Jarom shouted, and he and Hawke moved faster and less cautiously across the bridge. Kaia jumped into the water and joined her sister in swimming with the sled.
“Get out of here!” Dhara barked at her sister.
“Fat chance,” she replied and kicked harder.
Skye shouted, “It’s getting closer,” and pointed to a spot halfway across. Kala whipped out her bow and buried an arrow in the back of the beast. If it noticed, it didn’t show it and kept moving toward Calix and the two girls.
“You’re not going to make it,” Skye shouted in warning.
Dhara released her grip on the sled and turned to face the monster that bore down on them. She pulled a dagger from the sheath secured to her leg.
“What are you doing?” Kaia called back to her.
“Debts need to be paid,” she replied. “Swim,” she ordered her sister and kicked off in the opposite direction toward the beast.
Kaia kicked harder, and Jarom and Hawke pulled the sled closer to the far shore. Skye and Kala watched as Dhara took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface. The creature swam through where she’d been, and the water roiled when they collided. Water sprayed into the air as they tangled, and the beast thrashed. Then the water went deathly still, and blood floated to the surface.
“It’s swimming off,” Skye reported after a moment.
“Come on,” Kaia prayed, looking over her shoulder as she swam.
An eternity passed before Dhara burst through the surface and took a deep breath.
“Damn it, Dhara, you had me worried,” Kaia called to her.
“You were worried? How do you think I felt?” Dhara replied between gulps of air.
“I don’t know… annoyed, inconvenienced… whatever it is you feel when you dive into the thick of things without thinking.”
Dhara laughed a rare laugh and swam back to her sister and continued helping guide Calix to the far shore.
They assembled on shore, and Jarom started getting a fire going. “We’ve got to warm Calix up, or he’ll catch his death of cold,” he explained.
Dhara looked at him like he’d made a terrible joke, but he kept a straight face, so she threw up her hands and looked around for firewood.
“I might as well have a look around before dusk,” Kala declared, observing that they seemed to be setting up camp for the night.
“I’ll join you,” Forest offered.
“I’m fine on my own,” Kala refused gently. “See if you can find any game. It’s been scarce on the plains.”
“Can I come?” Skye asked.
“Sure,” Kala replied.
Forest looked scandalized, so Skye stuck out his tongue and quipped, “It pays to be useless.”
Forest grabbed her bow and tramped off.
“I’ll keep watch in case that thing comes back,” Hawke told Kala. She nodded and gestured for Skye to follow her.
She headed toward the densest ruins, looking for signs of the rock formation from which they could hail an airship. Skye tapped her on the shoulder.
“Is that what we’re looking for?” he asked, pointing to a low-flying airship in the distance.
“No,” she replied, then paused. “Wait a moment… what’s it doing here? Let’s follow it.”
“It’s heading right for us.”
“I meant intercept it,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, sure – we can do that,” he replied bashfully and joined her in running toward the airship.
It drifted lower, and Kala sped up to be there when it landed. Skye could barely keep up with her as she raced through the ruins. It drifted out of sight behind a massive structure that had toppled onto its side. Kala spotted an opening underneath it and ducked through it. She came to a sudden halt on the other side, facing the airship as it touched down in the middle of an enormous circle, surrounded by the familiar stone pillars. Skye skidded to a stop behind her and watched as the ship moored itself.
“There has to be someone on board,” Kala observed and walked toward it.
The door slid open, and a monk emerged, flanked by two priestesses carrying crossbows. The monk stared at Kala, disregarding Skye completely.
“Brother Grey?” she asked incredulously.
The monk smiled and drew his sword.
24
Soren
Soren paced among the ruins of the smoldering city, with Cera at his side and an entourage of guards surrounding them. Tendrils of smoke drifted skyward from all corners of the city as they stepped over the rubble that lay in the street. Soren strode through it, oblivious to the carnage. Soldiers rounded up survivors and pressed them into service, dragging the dead into huge piles to be burned. Cera did her best not to retch.
Lennox poked his head out a doorway and called Soren over. “This used to be the council hall,” he told Soren as they entered. The main room appeared to have been the scene of intense fighting. The council table was overturned and peppered with arrows. Mercifully for Cera, the bodies of the dead had been removed, although blood stained the carpets that littered the floor.
Soren strode over to an overturned chair, righted it, and sat down wearily. Cera stood near the overturned table and brushed her fingers along the feathers of the arrows protruding from it, wondering if each arrow counted for a life lost in this room.
“Leave us,” Soren ordered his men. “I wish to talk with my new companion.”
His men filed out dutifully and took up positions outside the room’s entrances and exits, still within hearing distance, but this was what served for privacy in Soren’s world.
Cera turned and stared at her captor, who sat casually in a city that lay burning by his hand. “Why me?” she asked.
“Easy,” he replied. “I’m surrounded by people who would sell their soul for the right price and then double-cross you to avoid paying the debt. When I first saw you outside the city gates, I can’t lie that it was your beauty that I first noticed, but on closer inspection, I saw you cradling a wounded man and shielding a young woman, both of whom you obviously care for deeply. Call me foolish, but it reminded me that there is still good in the world, and I intend to rebuild it on that.”
“But not before torching it,” she countered.
“Sometimes, you have to shit in the fields to make the plants grow.”
Cera looked appalled.
“So you’re not a farmer,” he mused. “And you’ve clearly never eked out an existence on the barren soil of the northlands.”
“So you had a hard life,” she challenged him. “That’s more than can be said for the people of this city, whose lives you took away entirely.”
“In my defense, it’s not easy to reign in the northerners when they get to sacking a city.”
“That’s no excuse,” she said flatly. She snapped the shaft of an arrow, pulled the arrowhead out of the wood, and slid it into her pocket. She emerged from behind the table and walked over to Soren.
“What if I refuse to keep your company as you set the world on fire?�
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“That’s your right, but I would be greatly pleased if you would. I don’t want to be your jailer.” He paused and thought. “You care about the girl at the gate, do you not? The blonde?”
Cera bristled. “Leave her out of this.”
“I intend to. Stay with me, and I will make sure that no harm befalls her. Refuse, and I won’t guarantee her safety. That’s the deal I’m offering you.”
“You can protect her?”
“You say that I’m the one she needs protection from, so yes.”
Cera thought about it a moment before deciding. “Okay, I’ll stay, but I will not give myself to you willingly.”
“It is enough that you brighten the darkness that surrounds me,” he replied, then called, “Guard.” One of his men returned to the room, and Soren instructed him to show Cera to his tent. “See to it that she has a cot and that she’s well fed.”
The guard nodded to Soren and gestured for Cera to follow him. As Cera was escorted out of the room, Soren called after her, “You can throw away the arrowhead. You’re not an assassin.”
She reached into her pocket, pulled it out, and handed it to the waiting guard. He tossed it aside and guided her away.
Lennox poked his head in the doorway.
“Gods-damn it, Lennox – you elevate lurking to an art form.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said.
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Lennox simply smiled through yellowed teeth. “I have a captive with information that might interest you.”
“I don’t have the stomach for one of your interrogations tonight. Can you just summarize the good parts?”
“Of course, sir,” Lennox replied, miffed not to be able to share his interrogation skills with someone who, while he might disapprove of them, at least appreciated them. “The man says that he comes from a city on the east coast. It’s called Bayre. He says that it has an airfield with a hundred airships. We might have found their source at last.”
“That is good news,” Soren replied, unaccustomed to it. “Can we reward the bearer of this good news with his life?”
Lennox looked uncertain. “I’ll see what I can do,” he replied hesitantly.
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