The Girl with the Scar (Dark Connection Saga Book 1)

by Stadler, William

  He touched Eva’s cheek with his cool hand that still trembled from his umbrage. He spoke calmly, though his voice was uneven, shattered by his ferocity. Edward shrugged. “They killed my mother, and they nearly did the same to my sister. I’ll be a dead man before I let the Raiders live with these injustices.” Slithering strands of his hair protruded over his eyes from underneath the fox cap, hiding his sweetness behind the mask of his temper.

  Edward grabbed the shoulder of a soldier two heads higher than himself. “Commander Feleau,” Edward said. “If it be my Commander’s will, let me scout the Raider outpost south of here.”

  “It be not your Commander’s will,” Feleau replied. “The Strikers are headed north after we recuperate. The Haunt skinned us thin.”

  “We’ve been skinned thin since I’ve been a Striker, but we remain sharp and swift, just like our swords.” Edward stared at the edge of his spadroon, turning it to either side to examine it.

  “I suppose,” Feleau said. “But what if you’re killed.”

  “Then I died for the cause. Besides, whenever did death become a deterrent?”

  “When he beat on our doors with a falchion in his hand.”

  “Then I shall open it and run him through,” Edward replied, slicing his blade through the air again.

  “What has Lord Darnus said of your escapade?” asked. Feleau.

  “Nothing as of yet. Lord Darnus left late last night with a few men from the ranks in search for food and clothing for our men. But Darnus would never refuse the hunger of one of his troops.”

  “Right you are,” said Feleau, rubbing his chin with a thick leather glove. “Fine. You are to take Rufio with you.”

  “Two swords are indeed better than one,” Edward replied.

  He hurried into his quarters and gathered a few essentials. When he returned, he passed Eva and headed down the mountainside.

  Watching her brother walk out of her life again was as difficult as it was the first time. When he had left before, her mother had died. She would not let him go to be slain as well. “If you are going that I am coming with you,” she said. The fear of the Raiders was still within her, but the fear of losing her brother gnawed at her more.

  Edward hoisted his satchel over his shoulder and crunched through the snow back to his sister, wearing that same smile that had angered her so many times over the years, the one that preceded some demeaning comment or made light of a serious situation.

  “Do you hope to wear them down with your good looks?” he asked. “These men are killers, Eva. I will not let them take your life as they have done to our mother.” The final words seemed sour as was seen by Edward’s face of disgust, like he had tasted the juices of a lemon.

  Eva pushed her hair behind her ear. “Either you stay with me or I go with you.”

  Edward kissed her forehead with his soft lips and patted the side of her cheek. “Commander Feleau, please do not let this civilian get involved with Striker affairs,” he said, hiking back down the hill through the snow.

  At the flick of Commander Feleau’s wrist, two Strikers came to attention and stood between Eva and Edward. The tears that had stopped flowing now returned as she watched her brother walk off to his death.

  She had heard what the Haunt was capable of, and she had even seen the banshee herself. That spirit would tear him in half, and she did not have the courage watch him storm away.

  “Edward!” she called, bolting after him. Her voice scraped her throat. The soldiers caught her in their arms and constrained her. Edward continued down the stairs, not looking back, joking with Rufio.

  She snatched herself away, but the guards strafed to keep her away from her brother.

  “Edward!” she called. He did not respond.

  Her heart melted within her as he disappeared around the winding stairs. The soldiers kept their watch on her, waiting for her to make another move. But what could she do? They were more powerful, and Edward would be out of the town before she could catch him. This time, she knew that he would not come back.

  “Left. Move. Snow. Duck. Through.” The whispers returned.

  Her eyes darted to the side. She lunged forward and rolled through the snow. The soldiers swiped for her but missed. Eva sprang to her feet, glancing back as her legs chased after her brother.

  “Edward!” she yelled, chopping down the stairs. She winded the bend. The two Strikers followed closely behind.

  Edward turned back to her. The Strikers caught up to her and grabbed her. Edward waved them off, and they let her go. “Genevieve, what are you doing?”

  “You promised me, Edward,” she replied, presenting herself innocently to her brother with her arms down to her side, orange hair tossing in the wind. Her voice was shaky, and her fingers fidgeted at the side of her sleek. “You said that you would protect me, and twice you have chosen to leave me. Mother is gone, and there is no one else. I cannot bear what might happen to you.”

  Edward tilted his head to the side, relenting. He held out his hand to her with his other hand resting on his hilt. “Eve.” She stepped down to him. He embraced her with one arm and kissed her on her head. “You have come all this way looking for me, and I have let you down,” he said.

  “They’re going to kill me, Edward.” She sobbed into his shoulder as she had done when she had the seizure.

  “You will be safe in Winter Hills,” he said, cheeks pressed against the top of her head.

  “That’s what you said when I was in Green Planes. What if they find me? Then what will I do?”

  Edward loosened his hold on her. Something had struck him. His hardness seemed to soften for just a moment. “Stay close, and do as I say,” he replied.

  “Then you are taking me with you?”

  He rubbed the sides of his head. “Mother would have never approved.”

  CHAPTER 15

  THE RETURN

  Eva stayed close to Edward and Rufio as they descended to the entrance flat. Snow had begun to fall, shifting softly in the King’s Breath. Her brother was going on about something trivial with Rufio, but she paid neither of them any mind.

  As much as she loved her brother, he was doing it again, the guise where he cloaked heaviness in the gown of facetiousness. Was he not affected by Maria’s death? His quick laughs and his ongoing smile said that he wasn’t.

  Edward was telling some story about how he had encountered some beast from somewhere, but why was that so important? Did he not care that Eva’s heart was torn?

  “I can’t say I’ve ever crossed paths with a Helion,” Rufio said. His strong voice jumped when he spoke, each bellow pulling from the depths of his gut. “If I did, I wouldn’t be saying too much more.”

  “I barely survived,” Edward said, tilting his head towards Rufio, eyebrows arched and shaking his head a bit. “But the tip of my blade was swifter than the swipe of its flame.”

  “Seems that the gods are ever on your side,” Rufio said.

  With a half smile, Edward asked, “Can you blame them?”

  Edward led them through the center of the town. Off to the right, several carriages were stationed behind the first row of huts. Deep green fabric covered the backs. Edward leapt on the back of one. His foot slipped on the fresh snow, but he quickly caught his balance. He pulled the fabric back and jumped inside, opening a few chests and then closing the lids back.

  After opening one chest, he rested his hand on his hilt and grinned, nodding. “This will serve you well,” he said, talking to Eva but keeping his eyes inside the chest. Edward reached down, fumbled through a few items, and grabbed what he was looking for. “Here you are.”

  He tossed a leather case at Eva. She reached out to catch it, but when she saw that it was a dagger, she snapped her hands back. The sheathed blade landed in the snow.

  “You were supposed to catch it.”

  “It is a blade,” she replied.

  “The edge is covered.”

  “I don’t need a dagger.”

  “If yo
u’re coming with me, you do.” Edward jumped from the back of the carriage, both feet landing in the snow at the same time. Then he covered the chests with the fabric. “I won’t have my sister scouting with me without a blade.”

  “I don’t intend to be fighting,” she said.

  Edward picked up the dagger’s scabbard that looked more like an elongated, fancy pen rather than a sheath. He grabbed her hand and placed it in her palm. “Neither do I.”

  She closed her hand on the black leather sheath. Each end was plated with a silver covering, and the onyx, spiral-woven hilt of the dagger extended from the open end of the sheath. As she grabbed the leather, the snow melted from the heat of her hand. She jerked out the blade, and the dagger was comfortable and light. It was solid steel, with no blade edge, only a pointed tip that was sharp enough to pierce through armor, at least in her mind. “I have no idea how to use this,” she said.

  Rufio chuckled. His belly bounced. “You take the tip, and you push it forward ‘til it stops. If the man’s still a’jigglin’, repeat.”

  “I…I’ve never killed anyone before.”

  Edward sighed and put his arm around his sister. “You never get used to it. Every time is like the first time, at least for me it is.”

  She felt a bit better that her brother wasn’t as soulless as the Raiders. Somehow he always seemed to know when he had pushed her too far with his overconfidence.

  “Edward’s right, you know. I still remember the first man I downed.”

  “What was it like?” Eva asked, shyly. She wasn’t sure why she asked. Maybe it was to prepare herself, if the time ever came. What am I thinking? I’m not going to kill anyone!

  Rufio dropped his head a bit, his voice growing hallow, his tone no longer reaching for words in his belly. “He was man, not a brute like those Raiders. I’d gladly kill a hundred of those savages just to bring this man back to life.”

  “How did you know him?”

  Rufio’s eyes widened, still looking at the ground. “He was my hip mate.”

  “Hip mate?” Eva asked.

  “The guy who we are to stick by, no matter what,” Edward replied in the same low tone as Rufio.

  “I had just joined the Strikers, some seven or eight years ago. A few years before your brother here. I was shakier than the fault lines in northern Broskaluh.” He leaned against the carriage and crossed his leg. “One night, Ganil and I, that was his name. Ganil and I were on watch at the perimeter of the camp. He went to drain himself, but he took longer than I thought was necessary. Then out of nowhere comes this dark shadow.”

  “Was it Ganil?” Eva asked.

  Rufio nodded. “But I didn’t know that then. The ole’ boy was quite the prankster, he was. I called to him several times, and he didn’t answer. Then he charged at me. Without thinking, I sank two arrows into his neck.” He pressed two thick fingers into his throat.

  “From the look of the wound,” Edward interjected, “Ganil didn’t suffer, at least not too much.”

  “Every time I kill someone, I always think of him.” Rufio pushed himself off the carriage, beginning to grab the words from his gut again. “But I can’t let that stop me from fighting the Raiders. Also doesn’t mean that I have to be a savage like them.”

  “We’re only scouting, Eva,” Edward replied, inviting the side grin to return to his face.

  He must have seen how her eyes had drooped.

  He took her thin dirk and attached it to her belt. “Let’s tie this right here,” he said.

  The dagger felt heavier on her side than it had in her hand, not because of the weight of the blade, but because of the thought of actually using it. She didn’t want to kill anyone. Living with blood on her hands for the rest of her life was something that she could never wash away. But I have killed people. She shook the thought away. That was the Beast, not me.

  “We’ll finish our preparations and head south tonight,” Edward said, nudging Eva forward with his hand on her back.

  “Edward.” She looked back at him, eyes laden with anticipation.

  “Yes, Eve?”

  “I’m not sure I want to go anymore.”

  He kissed the side of her head as he walked by her side. “I feel that way before every battle. The courageous are the ones who fight despite the fear.”

  This sounded like Striker jargon, but it managed to sneak in past her skepticism and remind her why she needed to go. She needed to stick with her brother no matter what. She couldn’t lose him like she had lost her mother, and if the time came, she would fight, especially if it meant that she had to save his life. He had said that two swords were better than one. Surely adding a dagger to that could have been just as good. “I need to find Stasis,” she said.

  “Don’t tarry too long. Rufio and I will not leave without you, sister.”

  Eva turned back and rushed past the carriage where she had seen Stasis and the others heading. The central flat connected with several other flats down the side of the mountain, all speckled with huts and fires and people.

  After crossing several flats, Eva spotted Wolf’s broad shoulders nestled near the flame beside Stasis and Jahn. Stasis beckoned her over, and Eva joined them by sitting on a log near the fire.

  “I take it by your eagerness that you found your brother,” Stasis said. She was leaning forward near the blaze.

  Eva noticed that she was getting colder, the sleek losing its resistance to the chill. She must not have noticed it before because of the excitement of seeing her brother. She hunkered close to the flame, almost shivering.

  “The Empyrean has worn off,” Stasis said. “Use the Essence that I gave you.”

  Eva unhooked the leather pouch from her hip and untied the string. There was nothing inside the bag. “It’s empty.”

  “Put your finger inside,” Wolf said, rubbing his hands briskly together near the heat.

  Hesitantly, Eva placed her finger in the bag, keeping her eyes on Stasis. As the tip of her finger touched the Essence, the bag illuminated with a bright blue light, which lit up Eva’s face and sparkled across the snow.

  A few of the people turned to her and then went back to their duties.

  “It responds to your intentions,” Wolf said.

  Stasis watched Eva over the peak of the fire. “Dab a bit on your shoulder.”

  Eva nervously tapped her shoulders, and a sound like a gentle breeze slid by. Her shoulders warmed, and then the heat dispersed throughout the sleek. Her temperature settled, and she no longer needed the heat from flame to warm her. Cutting her eyes to each of them, Eva waited for an explanation.

  “The Essence is just like Empyrean, it has to trust you,” Stasis said.

  “How can magic trust? It’s not a person.”

  Jahn shook a finger at her. “Incorrect, Madam Genie. Empyrean is more of a person than either you or I. It has been, and it will be.”

  “Has been what?” she asked.

  “Around,” Wolf replied. “Empyrean will not submit itself to just anyone. That person has to have a passion inside.”

  “What if that passion is evil?” Eva asked.

  Jahn took a few drags from his pipe. “Empyrean cannot discern good from evil. When it comes to a person it looks for one thing – will it be used?”

  “That’s absurd,” Eva replied, confused. “Why would someone not want to use magic?”

  There was a silence that only the crackling fire interrupted. Eva could tell that she had asked a question that the others assumed she should already have known.

  Jahn blew out a cloud of smoke and held the bowl of his pipe between his two fingers. “We all have been granted many luxuries that we have squandered. Empyrean will not allow itself to be one of them.”

  “Then how can Empyrean be used for evil?”

  Wolf clamped his wolf pelt more tightly around his shoulders. “The same as that dagger that you wear on your hip. It can be used for justice…or for genocide.”

  Mindlessly, Eva ran her hand across the
length of the sheath, then she offered the Essence to Wolf who was still rubbing his hands together. “Please take some…to keep warm.”

  “If only I could,” he replied. “Quanearia leather is the only hide that can contain the Essence.”

  “What’s a Quanearia?”

  “A beast that only the best trackers have slain,” Stasis replied. “They bring it to us Water Walkers in exchange for Essence, and we make the sleeks from it so that we can travel more easily.”

  Eva felt the material of her sleek. She had come to appreciate it over the past few months, but knowing that the gift was such an expensive one made her more gracious. She would find a way to show Stasis her gratitude, if that time ever came. As for now, she was only the poor orphaned girl from Green Planes. Though she had found her brother, and that stood for something.

  Jahn finished his pipe and dumped the ashes in the fire, scraping the rest out with a tamper. His face seemed darker than before, and the lines on his cheeks looked harder. He stuffed his pipe into his pocket, and he fixed his beret. “I have caught wind of a darkness,” he said.

  “Is this about the eclipse?” Eva asked, holding her breath after the question.

  He nodded. “Its meaning has been revealed.” His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths that seemed forced. “The Raiders are going to destroy Winter Hills.”

  Wolf ceased rubbing his hands together and crossed his arms over his chest. Lips tight, he bit down, clenching the muscles in his jaw. Eva couldn’t tell if he was angry or afraid. “For what cause?” he asked.

  “When have the Raiders ever needed a cause?” Stasis asked.

  “But it makes no sense,” Wolf replied, now showing his anger. “The Raiders have come to Winter Hills dozens of times, and they’ve never found any evidence of the Girl with the Scar.”

  “It’s the eclipse,” Eva said, letting the words seep from her lips, followed by a cooling mist from the heat of her breath.

  “Madam Genie is correct. The Raiders have sought the Girl with the Scar for fifteen years, and they have nothing to show for it except disgruntled citizens and a path of destruction.” Jahn locked his fingers together over his lap. “The king is becoming impatient.”