by Casey Eanes
The words shook Grift. For so long he regarded Adley as a child. Now, here he was learning about the resistance forces that were popping up all over Candor, much due to her influence. A harrowing thought pierced his mind. You thought of Kull in the same way. Grift’s face flickered with pain as Adley continued, “Lotte, if you can believe it, serves as a large base for the continent’s discontent. We’re lucky compared to the other Realms.”
“Because of the queen?”
“Exactly. Aleigha still holds a lot of power and sway within Lotte and even Zenith. And so far, she has kept Seam’s eyes occupied as we continue to build up our forces.”
Grift bristled at the sound of referring to King Camden’s wife so casually, but he let it go.
“What of the Groganlands? I haven’t had any connection these last few days.”
Adley paused, her face discontent. “We haven’t penetrated that Realm yet. Not in any official capacity. The Realm is in an uproar, and the Reds are less concerned with Seam as they are with Hosp. If Hosp can be overthrown, then perhaps we can turn the Reds’ attention toward the Jackal of Zenith.”
Grift’s eyebrows raised. “Jackal? Resistance word?”
Adley cocked her head as Grift explained. “Same word Rend Brinkley used when he picked me up in Cotswold.”
Adley nodded. “It’s our code word for Seam. Our way of testing who is our ally and who is not within mixed company. Of course, it works best when you’re not specific. Jackal of Zenith is not exactly covert.” She smiled and Grift nodded.
The truck bed exploded with a harrowing fit of shaking, causing Grift’s teeth to rattle in his skull. His eyes shot over to Eva sitting next to Rose, who lay strapped in her cot. Eva spoke calmly. “She’s still stable. Nothing’s changed. Couple bumps will be okay.”
Grift’s eyes lingered on the shell of what had been his wife. She’s still your Rose, Grift. All of it was almost too much to process. The sickness of his beloved seemed to overflow and seep into his soul. He had lost so much over the past few months, but it felt as if he had lost Rose years ago. Even during her best times, she was a shade of the woman he had married so many years ago during the summer solstice.
His love for her had never diminished, but when he was away on patrol, the reality of her sickness had been temporarily alleviated. A dark voice spoke in his mind. This is what you left Kull to deal with, you fool. You left your son to do your job.
Grift shifted in his seat, his eyes locked on Rose as the guilt constricted around him. Another voice fluttered in his mind, commanding his attention.
Stop. The one word fell over his mind and felt as audible as a cymbal crashing in his ears. He closed his eyes and did his best not to torture himself.
Okay, Rose. I’ll stop.
A voice crackled over the radios fixed in the trucks. “Approximately two hours to arrival. Check supplies and prioritize deployment.”
The voice continued on with a checklist of supplies, listing one item after another. As the instructor droned on, Grift allowed himself to tear his eyes away from Rose and drift off to sleep.
Grift’s dreams offered no solace. As he closed his eyes and the vision of his emaciated wife faded, it was replaced with the face of Kull. All Grift could see was Kull standing with a knife to Seam’s neck. The last vision of Kull is what had haunted Grift’s sleep ever since he left him to die in Zenith, but this dream was different.
Kull’s face was that of his childhood. He was a boy and he was scared. His eyes begged Grift to save him, but Grift could not move. He was frozen, forced to watch as Seam overtook his son, wetting his dark ebony blade with his son’s blood. Every night the dream played out with some new variation or change, but the end was always the same. Kull was dead and Grift was stuck, unable to move.
Stop.
Rose’s voice cut through the nightmare. Grift tried to spin around but was stuck in place. He could not see her but soon he felt her tender arms wrap around his waist and her cheek press into his back.
“He made his choice. His choice was to save you. Stop torturing yourself. Let him go, let him make the choice. It was for all of us.”
The warmth of Rose’s embrace melted the icy dreamscape and lifted the weight pressing on Grift’s chest. For the first time in years, Grift felt like he could breathe. He tried to turn but was still frozen in place.
He spoke, his voice echoing in the dream. “I want to see you, Rose. Please just let me see you. It has been so long…”
Rose’s arms loosened and her fingers ran down Grift’s spine. “Not yet, beloved. But soon.”
A violent jolt rattled Grift from his dream. He looked down and realized he was holding the cold, thin hand of his dear wife. He kissed her frigid skin and whispered to her. “Soon. You will be well soon. I promise.”
The convoy began to slow. Grift peered out the side of the truck and jerked back into the bed of the truck.
“Adley.” Grift pulled close to Adley and looked back over his shoulder. “I thought this was a medical mission. This city has hardly been touched.”
Adley gathered her medical satchel and threw it over her shoulder as she responded. “This stop has multiple purposes. Medical support is only one of them.”
Grift climbed from the truck and stepped out as men and women started yanking crates from the truck beds and laying them out on the street. Grift knelt over one of the crates marked with a large red cross labeled ‘saline.’ Grift slipped the lid open and peered inside. There were no bags of fluid. Instead, lying inside were numerous rifles stacked on top of one another. Grift slammed the lid shut and looked over to Adley.
He nodded at the container and shot an inquisitive glance to Adley. His lips mouthed the word, “Why?”
Adley made her way to Grift’s side and leaned in close to his ear as she whispered, her eyes grave. “You can’t fight a jackal with words alone.”
Grift ran his fingers across the lid of the box and looked back over to the truck holding Rose. “We need to move soon.”
“I know.” Adley nodded in agreement. “The southern side of the city is a bit less occupied. Once we make this delivery we should be able to slip away without any notice.”
Grift squinted into the sun as it began its descent below the horizon. “How long until you are ready? We don’t have much daylight.”
“Give me an hour and I should be able to get these affairs settled. I need to meet with a few of the local leaders.”
Grift pulled himself up into the back of Rose’s truck. His face did little to hide his exhaustion. Despite finally being reunited with Rose, he couldn’t settle into his surroundings. Maybe it was the strangeness that accompanied being with Rose again, and not being with her all the same. Something doesn’t feel right. Grift held to his instincts, but hid them from Adley. “We’ll be ready as soon as you are, Adley.”
The truck bed was quiet. A restless energy hung in the air as Eva checked Rose’s vitals. She flashed Grift a quick smile. “She’s still stable, dear.” She patted Rose’s small hand. “She’s been a trooper.”
“Eva. I can’t ever say thank you enough for all you’ve done. I owe you more…”
Eva waved off the thanks. “You all are like family, Grift. Rose would’ve done as much or more for me. She helped me deal with my own mother’s sickness, remember?”
A flash of memory. Before Kull, before her own sickness. Images of an empty house and a lonely few weeks were all Grift could recall of the time Rose went to help Eva with her dying mother.
‘She’s on the threshold. She will pass very soon.’
Grift had been gruff with her then, muttering selfish statements under his breath in Rose’s presence; veiled selfishness that didn’t express his real longing for his home life to return to his version of normalcy. Rose had chosen not to engage with this attitude, making herself busy preparing a pot of beans for her husband so he could eat during her absence. Rose was always like that, good to know when to stand up to his stupidity and when to l
et him stew in it so he could eventually come around.
The memory made Grift shake his head, wincing at his own pride. “No, Eva, I had quite forgotten that. Rose was always the better part of me.” He shot a sidelong glance at her, the frame that somehow still carried her on this plane of existence. “I’d trade anything I had to make her well.” His eyes lingered on his wife, memories washing in and out like the tide. He laughed, a small whisper laugh, glancing into Eva’s eyes. “It’s a cruel joke that the better one of us is crippled and wasting away. I wish it were me...Aleph, I wish it were me.”
Eva’s crooked hands gently slipped over his. Her voice was firm but sincere. “Grift, we don’t get to choose what the journey holds when we join fates with one another.” Eva smiled and whispered, “You and Rose have something strong, even now.” Her light brown eyes stared deep into Grift’s. “Don’t give up now. She’s still counting on you.”
Grift nodded, allowing Eva’s words to sink in. There was nothing he could say. The darkness in Grift’s mind cracked and shook under her words, and for the first time he understood that Eva had more healing gifts than herbs and poultices.
The moment gave way as the crew rushed out of the truck, beginning their work around the convoy, setting up medical tents, escorting supplies to different areas of the small town, and gathering up the injured. With Rot following at his heels, Grift pulled out a long sled from beneath the truck. He examined the ropes tied to it and buckled them to a harness. He slipped it around his arms and let out some slack in the lines until he was satisfied that the ride would be as smooth as possible for Rose. It wouldn’t be the quickest way into Preost, but it would be the quietest.
He took a quilt and laid it out over the metal frame. Frustration fired in his mind at how paper-thin his plan was, but Grift focused on Eva’s words. She’s still counting on you. He dug into his pack and fished out the encrypted datalink provided by the queen. He skipped through several menus and opened a map of the surrounding area.
“Five miles.” The words tumbled from his lips. “Going to need to drag her five miles until we hit the edge of Preost.” Rot sat beside him, his head easily coming up toward his hip, and gave a thunderous bark as if to encourage him.
“Yes, at least I got you, big guy. You want to pull this thing?” Grift lovingly rubbed his hands around Rot’s scarred face and ears as tendrils of drool wetted the ground and the beast closed his one good eye.
As Grift strapped down the last of the supplies, Rot began to growl. The dog that had nuzzled him disappeared as the growling, teeth-baring monster revealed itself once more, his one good eye fixed on the horizon. Soon Grift heard what Rot sensed; the sound of another approaching convoy rumbling with life, its engines echoing over the horizon. The hills north of Henshaw were spotted with numerous approaching transports, but there was something different about them. They weren’t the same green government trucks used by the support teams from Vale. These convoys were jet black. Grift’s mouth went dry and he felt his instincts surge with adrenaline. Military transports. Barreling in like a black, polished tidal wave waiting to sweep away everything in its path.
Grift flipped the datalink back open and tried to open a connection with Adley, screaming over the booming barks coming from Rot. “Adley! We have company! Please tell me these are trucks you were expecting.”
Adley’s voice flashed back over the datalink with rapid precision. “Get to Rose. We’ve been compromised.”
The sound of approaching engines began to swell as Grift cut across several rows of tents. He leapt onto the tailgate and peered inside. Eva was oblivious to the new threat as she sat next to Rose, humming a soft song while holding her friend’s hand.
“Eva! We have to go! Now.” Eva jolted in her seat and Rot jumped into the back, growling like an engine, the hair on his back ridging up like a mountain range. Grift climbed on the back of the truck and peered out over the horizon. “Eva, strap her down. We aren’t taking the sled. We don’t have time. Make sure she is ready to move. We have to get out of here.”
Eva’s face clouded over with fright. “What is going on? Grift, I just got her unbuckled and ready for the sled.” Eva eased to the edge of the truck bed and looked out. “What’s going on?!”
Grift held his hands at Eva’s shoulders and whispered, his eyes wide. “Seam and his army, Eva. They’re here. We have to move. Now. Strap her in and hold on.”
Eva scrambled to Rose’s side and unwound several straps she had tucked under the cot. “Can you give me five minutes? I can make do, but she has to be secure.”
“Just hurry!”
Grift scrambled back over to the crates lining the road and kicked the top off. He pulled out an automatic assault rifle and checked the clip and chamber. Empty. Grift cursed under his breath and threw open a few more crates before his eyes landed on the shimmering brass shells he was looking for. Grift loaded the clip and shoved several handfuls of magazines into his pack.
The datalink on Grift’s wrist resounded with Adley’s voice again. “Grift. Did you make it to the truck?”
Grift climbed into the truck’s cockpit, hammering his hand over the ignition switch, the engine roaring to life. “Yes. I’m here. Where are you?!”
Adley shot back. “Don’t worry about me! Go! Go now! I’ll be fine, I have clearance, but you need to leave. They are pulling in now.”
Grift revved the engine and screamed back to the bed of the truck. “Eva. Are we ready to roll?”
“Almost!”
His heart in his throat, Grift eyed the rearview mirrors and scanned the dirt streets that ran through Henshaw. It was clear, but Grift knew he was wasting time. “Eva, we’ve got to go now!”
As the words slipped through his lips, one of the military transports turned a corner to the north, putting their vehicle in plain sight.
Grift’s foot hammered down on the gas as he screamed to the back. “Hold her down, Eva!”
The truck’s tires spit gravel and dust as Grift leveled the accelerator. The old transport lurched forward, out and away from the city, but the black truck rocketed behind them in chase. Grift’s teeth rattled in his head as his truck bounced over the rolling hills. Aleph, please.
The black military vehicle raced closer, chewing up the few precious meters between. Grift downshifted and punched the accelerator to the floor as he managed to pull up Adley on his datalink.
“Adley! Anything you all can do? This one’s tailing me!”
The line was silent.
“Adley! Come on!” Grift punched the steering wheel and slammed the datalink shut. He peered back into the rearview mirror and his pursuer was within one truck length. Grift rolled down the driver’s side window. A round of shots rang out and the windshield exploded into a thousand shards of glass. Holes ripped through the back of the truck’s cabin and the driver’s side door.
“No,” he whispered to the shadows of his mind. He spoke to both them and the Dominion soldiers chasing him. Cold rage pumped through Grift’s body, and without hesitation he moved. His rifle’s barrel swung free outside the truck’s cabin, and he unloaded several rounds in the direction of the truck behind him. The shots hit their mark, crimson clouds exploding over the shattered windshield, as the dark truck careened, crashing down the hillside.
Grift reloaded, and his eyes fell on the empty mirrors. “Eva!” he called out, praying for a response. None came, and he jerked the steering wheel, sending the truck swerving a full ninety-degree turn. He leapt out of the cabin and jumped into the back of the truck bed.
Eva was laid out over Rose, her chest a mottled patchwork of bright blood. Rot stood next to them barking madly. Grift’s hands shook and his mind reeled to comprehend the scene. Rose lay beneath Eva’s body and Grift’s consciousness flew away like a caged bird. He sprinted past the barking dog and rolled Eva off Rose, his hands racing to check his friend’s vitals. She was gone. Eva had died, protecting his precious Rose. Tears rolled down his cheeks as his eyes fell on Rose.
>
To his surprise, she met him with open eyes. Her face was transfigured in that moment. Her eyes were wide open, alert, and brimming with a life as wide as the horizon. He looked at her, lost and unbelieving at what he was seeing. Everything felt distant to him, as if all the world’s purpose, beauty, and power were located in this one horrible moment of space and time; a nexus of tragic purpose.
“Rose,” he stammered, his mind firing but unable to form the words.
“You have to keep fighting, Grift,” she whispered to him, her words a grim, titanic force.
His mouth went dry. He had no words for this.
“He’ll never stop, Grift. He’ll never stop,” she stammered, her voice looping with an unending mantra of delusion. The crisp white sheet covering her began to pool with her blood, and Grift grabbed her hand, stroking it softly as hot tears streamed down his face.
“I’ll stop him, Rose. I won’t let him win,” he said, trying to comfort her as best he knew how. She stopped and turned, her eyes as bright as dawn’s daylight.
“You can’t stop him, Grift. He can’t be stopped.” Her mouth closed and the bright light within her blew out, releasing her from her crippled, mortal frame.
Grift held her cooling hand and felt her presence disappear. She’s gone. He stood as a landslide of emotions threatened to buckle him. Trembling, his hand found the rifle strapped on his back.
Pressing the butt of the weapon against his shoulder, he stepped out from the cover of the green convoy, the war dog running point in front of him. They had both shed their civility for what would come next.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Willyn took in a ragged breath in the darkness, bracing herself for what was coming. A sickly sweet smell rose within the cold air permeating the gloom of the chamber. Her dizzy eyes swirled around in an effort to reorient herself. Her brain felt like it had been scrambled, but the pain of her fall was easing.