Second Skin Omnibus

by M Damon Baker

  Although I still counted the sub-chieftain as my enemy, he’d shown a certain amount of decency, and I felt that there was something in that which could be built upon. Maybe I was wrong about him, only time would tell, but of the three prisoners we’d taken, only he had shown even an inkling of anything worth saving. In contrast, the goblin had been nothing but vile, and even though Zeff had been helpful, his deceit at the end had revealed his true intentions.

  I knew from experience that the orcish people had it in them to coexist peacefully with us, but I wondered if the other so-called ‘dark races’ lacked that same potential. Perhaps some of those races were inherently evil, I pondered the thought as we left the prison behind and walked back upstairs—among the inhabitants of the dark lands, maybe only the orcs could be spared. I wasn’t quite ready to condemn all the rest to death, but my hopes certainly grew dim as I considered the possibilities.

  I still had some time before our morning conference, so I picked up a tray of food on my way back to the quarters Líann and I were sharing, surprising her with breakfast just as she was waking up. She smiled broadly as I set the tray down on the small bedside table and began pouring her a cup of tea.

  We were able to enjoy a fairly leisurely breakfast together, and I told Líann some of what I’d been doing while she’d been asleep, leaving out the more gruesome details of course. After our meal, I helped Líann into her armor and tightened the laces that held her weapons in place before we departed for our meeting.

  Our room and the rooms of my companions and advisors were on one of the keep’s upper floors. The large chamber where we’d be gathering for our debriefing was just one level below, so it took very little time for us to get there. Almost everyone was present when Líann and I entered the room, only the First Marshal had yet to arrive, but he’d insisted on camping outside the fortress with his troops, so it took a bit longer for him to make his way there. While we waited, I called out to Bane for the first time that day.

  ‘How are you?’ I resisted the impulse to stare up at the stone ceiling as I sent my thoughts to him. ‘Are you in position yet?”

  I am well Sintári, he sent back. I have been scouting the area beyond your camp for some time already. The region is heavily forested, but I have detected no movement.

  After resting for the night, Bane was back on the job, ensuring that nothing snuck up on us while our Army recovered, just as we’d planned. Although the dense cover might hide a small group moving towards us, such a tiny force presented no real threat to us, so I was relieved to hear Bane report that he’d seen nothing that might actually cause real harm. Evans walked into the chamber just as Bane relayed that information to me, so I quickly thanked him and reminded Bane to stay safe before bringing my full attention back to the room around me.

  Once Evans was seated, we immediately began our discussions. I opened things by relaying Bane’s report before laying out the maps that displayed the locations Logan and the other prisoners had marked for me. We then debated the merits of a number of potential targets for our next assault, with careful consideration on some of the logistical challenges.

  We’d been forced to leave the siege weapons behind when we made our sneak attack on the Dark Lands army, but those weapons were in our arsenal again now that we’d been rejoined with our supply wagons. The massive catapults and ballistae had been devastating weapons for us before and were even more so now. Dellon had been forced to rebuild the entire force after its destruction outside Kiva and had made many improvements to their design, adding to the fearsome weapons’ destructive power. Not only was the machinery better, but the crews that operated them were profoundly dedicated.

  The soldiers that had come from Ashton to replace our losses had insisted on taking up the positions of their fallen brethren, devoting themselves to honoring the sacrifice of those who’d come before them. Their sense of integrity led them to excel in their duties, and the batteries had become quite efficient at quickly destroying any target that was assigned to them. Between Bane raining fire from above and the hail of projectiles our siege weapons were able to unleash on any fortifications we came across, almost nothing would be able to withstand our assault. At least, that’s what we hoped.

  Based on the intelligence I’d gathered, we were able to put together a list of high-priority targets scattered throughout the Dark Lands. Taken on individually, the skeletal forces that had been left behind to protect those locations shouldn’t stand a chance of resisting our attacks. The real concern for us was that the Mistress of the Dark Lands might scrape together another large force to oppose us, but she’d have to abandon many of her fortifications in order to do so, leaving them completely unprotected.

  I would have done it in a heartbeat since the only other choice would be suffering an endless series of defeats as we inexorably conquered her undermanned strongholds one by one. With that in mind, we made the difficult decision to send out Khorim’s scouts ahead of our Army to look for any signs of a large force being assembled against us. It would be incredibly risky for them, and our decision was not made lightly; the people we were going to be sending forth would be at constant risk of capture and death, but we simply had no other choice. The alternative required us to put our entire Army at risk of an unexpected encounter with a superior force; something we couldn’t even consider. Bane would do his part as well, watching over us from high above, but the scouts were the ones who’d be in the greatest peril.

  “So,” I reluctantly turned to the final item on our agenda. “How many people did we wind up losing yesterday?”

  I’d seen the morgue, with its hundreds of bodies laid out across the cold ground; a relatively low number considering the overwhelming horde of enemies we’d faced. Still, I’d hoped that the trap we’d laid combined with our surprise attack and Bane’s devastating assaults would have resulted in far fewer casualties. Truthfully, if everything had gone well, I’d anticipated that we might escape with only suffering a few dozen losses—I’d actually been that hopeful—so I was completely unprepared for the answer I heard.

  Evans started to reply, but Venna placed her hand on his arm, silencing the First Marshal. I recognized the grim look on her face and Venna’s unmistakable hesitation when she glanced at me, clearly reluctant to relay the obviously bad news. I steeled myself in preparation for what she was about to reveal to me—even so, I practically recoiled in shock when she finally answered me.

  “One thousand and forty-two, Dreya,” Venna spoke slowly and with obvious pain in her voice.

  My mind reeled at the agonizingly high total, and I simply couldn’t understand it. While I hadn’t actually counted the number of bodies in the makeshift morgue, it didn’t seem that there were quite that many there. Our resurrection attempts would have had to fail on nearly every single one of them—plus many more in my estimation—for us to have suffered that many losses. It made no sense to me; none. I simply couldn’t grasp how we’d lost that many people after such a resounding victory.

  “What… happened?” I managed to ask as I hung my head in shame. The attack had been mostly my plan, and I was mortified by the loss of life it had incurred.

  “Many of the enemy’s weapons carried a subtle form of corruption,” Venna replied, still choosing her words cautiously. “We didn’t recognize it until it was too late. Our initial healings only served to hide the foul infection, and by the time we realized what was happening, most of those affected by it were beyond our ability to heal… or resurrect.”

  “Are you telling me,” my words came out as frozen blocks of ice. “That she poisoned her soldier’s weapons?”

  We’d discussed the Mistress of the Dark Lands at length, so there was no mistaking the ‘she’ that my rising fury was directed at. I felt my anger kindling before Venna could answer and caught the first glimmers of green tinting my vision as my outrage intensified.

  “Leave me,” I closed my eyes to hold back their glare and heard the sound of chairs scraping against the rou
gh stone floor as my advisors made a hasty exit. They knew me well enough to recognize that I needed a moment to rein in my anger, and even though they knew that it wasn’t directed at them, none were eager to experience it either.

  When the door finally shut and I was alone in the chamber, I let my rage flow freely, allowing my outrage at the dark Mistress’ reprehensible actions to fully blossom. My shadows rose within me, and I let them surge around me in the form of my Shadow Armor as I finally opened my eyes and took in the green-tinted room around me.

  My outrage flew to new heights as I contemplated the full meaning of my unseen adversary’s actions. Assembling an army sufficient to utterly destroy me hadn’t been enough for the fucking dark bitch—she sought to slaughter any who might have survived her assault with her corruption, rendering them beyond not only healing but resurrection as well. My mind began wandering into its own dark corners as I contemplated my revenge until I felt Líann wrap me up in a gentle embrace as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

  My rage had so consumed me that I hadn’t noticed that she’d stayed behind, yet feeling the warmth of her against me drained away the harshest edges of my anger. I pulled her into me, and the rising tide of my anger began to ebb against Líann’s softness, but as I looked at her through the dark rim of my green-tinted vision, I was startled by what I saw.

  Líann hadn’t hesitated to come to me even though I’d been shrouded in my Shadow Armor, and when I stared at her, I saw that the shadowy haze of my armor had enveloped her as well. The tendrils that protected me now encircled the two of us, guarding both my Táriel and me with their vaporous black projections. My Shadow Armor was a manifestation of my own darkness—it should not have been possible for it to encompass anyone else within its bounds, yet it had done just that. I held onto her hands as I pulled a half-step away and took in Líann’s form as my Shadow Armor surrounded her. She seemed puzzled by my sense of astonishment but then smiled knowingly as she spoke to me.

  “You didn’t realize, did you?” Líann drew me back in, wrapping her arms around me once more. “You’ve shared everything with me, Dreya. I’m more than just your Tári or even your Táriel. I’ve tasted not only your V’Ríel but the full depths of your darkness as well. You don’t just feed me your shadows anymore… the darkness we share is ours.”

  It took a moment for me to fully comprehend the meaning behind Líann’s words. I knew that something about her had changed after she’d absorbed the energy of all four of my V’Ríels but hadn’t realized just what it was until she told me. Sharing so much of myself with Líann had connected us so closely that even my shadows had embraced her. My anger faltered when the discordant thoughts caused me to lose focus, and the inky mist surrounding us vanished as my vision returned to its normal hues. But while the shadows surrounding us slowly dissipated, I finally experienced the subtle feeling that I’d missed before. The darkness that was once mine had indeed become ours—a single force that had once been two distinct entities—although the dynamic between us was still the same, with Líann absorbing the excess power that I generated.

  “Are you feeling a little better now?” Líann inquired when she saw my Shadow Armor dissipate.

  “Not really,” I confessed. “Actually, I think I feel worse. I should have noticed the change in you... in us, a long time ago.”

  “The burdens of leadership weigh heavily on you, Dreya,” Líann tried to comfort me. “Besides, I’m grateful to be able to tell you something you don’t already know from time to time.”

  I stayed there just holding Líann for a while, not only to let my anger finish running its course but also trying to take in the fullness of what had happened between us. Fusing our shadows together was an incredible thing; something I hadn’t even thought possible—and I knew that it had put us on a path to a kind of closeness that no Sintári or Táriel had ever experienced before. But only time would reveal the true extent of what had been created between us, and I soon gave up trying to unravel its mystery. It was enough for me to know that Líann was mine and would be for the rest of my life; anything else could wait.

  We parted ways as I left to track down Venna, and Líann set off on a few errands of her own. Once I was over the shock of the losses we’d suffered, I needed to understand what exactly had happened—and more importantly, how we were going to prevent it from occurring again. Although Venna was no longer officially counted among our healers, I knew that she’d have a firm grasp of the situation, and more importantly, wouldn’t hold back the truth from me despite how uncomfortable the facts might be.

  I finally found her seated with Stel in the shade of the overhang of one of the large storage buildings within the fort’s central courtyard. It was one of the few outdoor spaces not occupied by tents and the other temporary structures that had been erected to house our troops while they recovered from the battle. Stel seemed to anticipate my reason for seeking Venna out and began to get up, but I waved off his departure, and he sat back down as I joined them in the coolness of the shadows.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I began, apologizing for my display of anger. “I just wasn’t prepared for anything even close to that number.”

  “My despair was just as profound as your outrage,” Venna brushed off my apology. “You and I care about the same things; we just show it differently.”

  “No one runs away in fear when they see your despair, Venna.”

  “No, they don’t,” she smiled at my sarcastic reply.

  “Have we at least learned anything from this?” I asked her. “Can we prevent it from happening again?”

  “Not entirely, no,” Venna confessed with a distinct sense of exasperation. “Only you have the power to resurrect anyone who succumbs to such wounds, but now that we know what to look for, we can cure most of the wounded… if we manage to get to them in time.”

  Reaching someone injured by one of the infected weapons quickly was a real issue; battlefield healing could be a tricky thing. While we were in our normal combat formation, our healers could remain close to our front lines, but once we broke off into smaller units as we’d done the day before, the Curates were forced to retreat to safer ground, delaying any further healing until after the fighting was over. The threat of the dark Mistress’ tainted weapons made that a potentially deadly delay, but it seemed like Venna and the healers had done all they could, so I didn’t press the issue any further.

  The three of us spent a little time together before they joined me in touring the encampment outside the fort’s walls. Most of our Army had been forced to set up their tents there, but at least with our supply wagons back, they had more comfortable lodgings and better provisions. In addition to stopping to speak with some of the soldiers, making sure that they had everything they needed, I also looked over the hasty defenses that had been erected around the encampment. Although we’d almost completely destroyed the enemy’s army, small pockets of their soldiers had managed to escape. It wouldn’t do to allow one of those groups to sneak up on us and wreak additional havoc, and I had no illusions that the smattering of traps I’d placed the night before provided anything close to the level of protection that my Army required.

  The soldiers had obviously shared my concerns, and a wide barrier consisting of deep pits, sharpened stakes, and mounds of packed earth had been put in place around the entire perimeter. The area was also under constant surveillance, from both the troops on the ground and Bane who continued to circle high above. With my fears sufficiently put to rest, I was able to return to the keep within the fortress with a relative sense of ease.

  A sporadic stream of reports came in throughout the rest of the day, mostly from the scouts and pickets that had been sent out to survey the surrounding area. Although reviewing such mundane items was usually left to others, I insisted on reading them myself as well, as I was still anxious over the safety of my soldiers. But none of them noted anything even slightly suspicious, so I was able to fall asleep easily that night, certain that we w
ere safe from harm—I should have known better.

  The clashing of blades and shouts of alarm roused me from my deep state of slumber, and I hurried to slip into my Armor and strap my weapons in place. Thanks to how easy my God-forged gear went on, I was done in a matter of seconds and then helped Líann finish getting ready before we strode out of our quarters together. If the continued angry shouting hadn’t been enough to guide me to the source of all the trouble, the fact that one of my traps had been triggered was more than sufficient for me to locate the breach in our security.

  The large foyer that served as the entry to the floor we were staying on was packed with my guardians when I arrived, and Saibra stood menacingly over the prone form of a tightly bound individual. From where I stood, I could see that several gashes had been ripped through Saibra’s stout armor, but she seemed completely oblivious to her injuries as Tana pressed a healing crystal against her skin. Concerned for her safety, I took only a single step towards Saibra before an even more chilling sight brought me to an abrupt standstill.

  In the far corner, another one of my protectors lay face down on the cold stone. My heart froze when I saw the Khelduin spear that lay beside the body, identifying the fallen woman clearly even if I hadn’t instantly recognized the chestnut brown of her long hair.

  Her death took me completely by surprise. I should have felt her passing just as I’d experienced Tási’s, yet somehow, I’d missed it completely. I could only assume that she’d fallen while I was still sleeping, and with all that had been going on, I simply hadn’t recognized the hollowness inside me until I saw her lifeless form lying there.

  My halting steps drew me to Ella, and the guards who’d been hovering protectively around their Commander parted before me as I approached. I knelt down beside her, hesitating only a second before turning her over to face me, but her lifeless eyes didn’t meet my gaze—they only stared vacantly at the stone ceiling above. A thin red stripe creased the center of her throat, marking where her killer’s blade had pierced her spine and ended Ella’s life. Although the wound had been a mortal one, it was not the sort that required the use of more than a single charge from Death’s Embrace, so I didn’t hesitate to use the powerful Artifact. As the rod quivered in my trembling hands, I feared that I might fumble its magic in my distraught state, but I was eventually able to bring Ella back to me. She coughed and sputtered as the Artifact’s magic revived her, and I pulled Ella into a fierce hug the second her eyes began to flutter with life again.