The Fractured Empire (The World Apart Series Book 1)

by Robin D. Mahle

  The masked man who had hung back came for me at the same time the robot went for the crypt. I had no doubt it could rip through the door without issue.

  I ran to intercept it. The glint of the setting sun on steel was the only warning I had to duck before the whoosh of a blade sounded over my head. I felt my hair tug as the sword swiped the highest tendrils. That had been too close.

  I pivoted and leapt backwards in an effort to put distance between my assailant and myself. He rushed toward me.

  He’s fast.

  I lifted my own blade just in time to counter the flurry of blows he directed my way. There was a familiarity in his strikes. The sound of his steel clashing against mine resonated within me. Though his face was hidden beneath the white mask with black snake eyes, I was immediately aware of who I was fighting.

  It was the man from the warehouse.

  “You,” I breathed.

  “Yes, me.” The voice was familiar, and not from the warehouse. I had heard it more recently than that, and I wondered now how I could have failed to recognize it all these years. I stumbled back several steps, and the man did not follow.

  Jayce tore off his mask. It was unnecessary. I had already figured out who he was, but my mind was still reeling with it. His face was triumphant, smug. He rested his blade on his shoulder, likely aware I was too frozen in shock to attack.

  “The Court of Yomi is never supposed to remove the mask, but it was worth it for that look on your face.”

  Yomi? The name tugged at something in my brain until it clicked. The Levelian legend Nell had mentioned. It didn’t seem to have any context here.

  "Didn't I tell you I'd be the one to give you what you deserved? I was sure you would recognize my voice, but once again, your own arrogance worked against you." He was right. It really had.

  Jayce took advantage of my distraction to advance again. He thrust his blade toward my head. I dodged to the side in a narrow escape, lowered my weight, and swung upward at his exposed torso.

  He jumped backward before my strike could land and countered with his own. I jumped backward as well, but not in time to avoid a shallow scrape to the side. We stood several feet apart from each other in a temporary pause.

  “All this time, you thought you were my father’s prodigy,” he sneered. “How does it feel to know the three of you were nothing more than potential scapegoats to him, the sons of the most hated man in the world.” Jayce laughed before he lunged again.

  My mind was reeling, but I blocked out the distraction of everything he had revealed. It didn’t matter now. What mattered was that he was trying to kill me, and I had no intentions of dying today.

  I managed to get the upper hand back, if only barely. Now it was his own face showing surprise.

  I turned slightly at the sound of stone grating against itself, louder than the door opening had been. One of the guardian statues on either side of the crypt was walking with lumbering steps toward the thing that Nell had managed to temporarily disable.

  Between that and the masked man being Jayce, I was starting to wonder if I was actually losing my mind. Everyone else was staring, too, though. Maybe I was still lying in bed on the boat next to Addie and none of this had happened. Jayce lunged for me, nicking my arm.

  The fighting around us resumed. Everyone here was a trained warrior, and even the sight of statues walking would not distract them for long. I needed to end this quickly.

  It was a nice sentiment, but just then, a woman's piercing scream rang across our makeshift battlefield. I turned toward the sound in time to see Nell's impaled body falling off a blade attached to one of the mechanical thing's arms. Apparently, it had been given an upgrade.

  Gunther was already running for her. She was on the ground between the moving guardian statue and the thing that had stabbed her. Gunther pulled her out of the way just in time for the two to meet. The statue put an enormous arm on either side of the mechanical thing, and slowly crushed it inward. The thing fought back, but it didn't have a chance.

  The sound of the metal screeching as it was compacted into nothing was eerily reminiscent of Nell's scream. It took only seconds.

  Jayce, sociopath that he was, hadn't reacted to the screaming at all, and had been far less distracted by the destruction of his pet killing machine than I had. I parried his lightning-fast blows as effectively as I could, but my shoulder was faltering.

  Merde. Not now, I pleaded with myself. My shoulder didn’t listen. Pain lanced through me with the ring of the next blow, and the resulting loss of speed cost me.

  His blade was whizzing toward my neck, and there was no way I could lift my sword in time to block it.

  Instead of the feeling of steel cutting into flesh, there was the sound of two swords forcefully clanging together. I turned in relief, expecting to see my older brother, but he hadn't been the one to save my life.

  Standing solidly, backing up the force of his sword with a two-handed stance, was Sebastian Kensington.

  The Heiress

  "This is the place!" Amelie exclaimed from behind the enormous book she held up. "It's called The Ever Falls. General Noble had to destroy the bridge, but you can still go to the old outpost and see the Falls. According to this book, there may even still be a secret way across."

  "Papa said that's dangerous, that the people across the world are vicious and the Falls are too close to them. They've already come there once," I commented.

  "He isn't wrong, exactly, but there are so few wonders in the world without danger, Addie. We can't live in a glass cage. Just behave for now and make sure you have Mama and Papa's trust. Then, they'll let us go when we're older. I'm sure of it. And if they don't, we'll find a way. Don't you want to see these things?" she said, a faraway look in her eyes.

  I gasped. Amelie and I broke small rules and conventions, but I had never heard her talk about intentionally going against Papa's wishes. I was the one they described as spirited, rebellious. She was agreeable and pleasant.

  I mulled it over, then hugged her.

  "You're right. I want to see everything," I told her, looking at the illustration with her. Two waterfalls faced each other across a chasm with no bottom in sight. I shivered just thinking of it. I did want to go, but I was glad my big sister was going with me.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Adelaide

  The stone door opened with a groan. Xavier appeared in the opening with wild, panicked eyes. The clash of steel on steel rang out from behind him.

  "We have to go, now," Xavier said to me. "I'll take you somewhere safe."

  "I can't just leave them. Everyone I have left is out there fighting."

  "You and me both, but we have to leave." He sounded even more urgent now.

  "Why aren't you helping them?" I asked.

  "This is the best way to help them. Please, come with me." Hearing Xavier say the word ‘please’ was not something I had expected to happen in my lifetime, based on what little I knew about him. He held out his hand and I took it. I wasn't prepared for what I would see outside the crypt.

  Clark was engaged in what looked like a very close battle with a man wearing the same mask as those from the museum. There were bodies on the ground and Red Sons fighting more of those masked men. Even my father, who I had never seen actually use the sword he kept strapped at his side, was engaged in battle.

  Stranger still, there was a towering stone statue coming at the mechanical monster. I glanced back, and sure enough, the crypt now only had one guardian. A scream from Nell stopped me dead in my tracks.

  Xavier tried to pull me forward, but I slipped from his grip and ran toward my best friend. She was falling off the blade of the mechanical thing, tumbling gracelessly toward the ground. They were off to the side of the fighting, so no one was directly attacking them, but they were still on the other side of the chaos from me.

  I tried to cross the fighting men to get to Nell, but an arm jerked me back.

  "I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can
do for her." Xavier did sound sorry, but I didn't care.

  "Like hell. Let me go." We were on the edge of the clearing, still a good sixty feet from the fighting men, and even further from Nell. He heaved me toward the trees and pulled me behind one. Then, the world went black.

  My head was pounding. Whatever had knocked me out this time had not been as gentle as the ShutEye. I wondered what it said that I had gone my entire life without being knocked out, yet it had happened twice this week.

  Bloody stupid necklace.

  I tried to ease my eyes open, but blinding pain overtook me. Bad idea. I fought down a wave of nausea, hoping my world would stop swaying soon.

  Wait, swaying? I knew this feeling well, and it wasn't from a concussion. I was on a boat.

  Bile rose up in my throat, more from panic than the headache. I needed to figure out where I was. Again, I forced my eyelids open, blinking through tears. Finally, I cleared my vision enough to look around me.

  I was lying on a wooden deck, a blindingly bright sunset on the horizon. I hadn't been out more than about an hour. I turned my head the other direction. A typical crew walked about the deck, but in the corner, there was a group that made my blood run cold.

  Men in white masks with black slits for eyes huddled together around a large man whose back was to me. The masks were the same as the ones from the museum, the men who had been ready to kill me in cold blood for this necklace.

  This time, I could not keep what rose in my throat down. I shot up to expel the contents of my stomach, and the movement drew unwanted attention.

  "Master Yomi, the girl is awake," a voice called.

  Yomi? Like from Nell’s story? That makes no sense. The original Yomi would have been hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. A descendant, perhaps? My head hurt too badly to reason this out.

  I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, having no other option available, and forced myself to stand on shaking legs. The movement made my head throb harder and spots appear in my vision. I blinked them away, and immediately wished them back.

  The man before me, the one I assumed to be Master Yomi, was not wearing a mask. He was solidly built with iron gray hair and a matching short beard. His face was weathered from the years and wearing a hard expression. The look in his eyes would have terrified me if I weren't utterly consumed instead by his harrowing familiarity.

  It was General Noble, the man responsible for the deaths of thousands, including my own family. Yet, here he was, alive and well.

  What does he want with me? I tilted my chin up, letting every ounce of rage I felt for the man fester in my expression. My eyes burned and my knees shook with what I told myself was pure fury, certainly not fear.

  "Now, now, none of that," he said.

  I hated how normal his voice sounded. He didn't sound like a mass murderer, but then, what would that sound like? Trying to focus was like holding water in my hands right now, thoughts slipping through the cracks of my fingertips and landing in droplets where they pleased. He spoke again.

  "You're safe, as long you do what's expected of you." There was warning in his tone. "My son assured me we didn't need to tie you up, that you wouldn't be any trouble."

  His son? I had been so caught up in my recognition that I had failed to remember how I had gotten here. Xavier.

  He stepped out from behind the group of masked men, looking shamefaced. As well he should. My stomach burned with betrayal. I hadn't known him well, but I had trusted him to keep me safe. Then another thought occurred to me.

  "Does Clark know?" I asked.

  Both men looked confused. There was a shuffling through the masked men, most of whom had gathered in a semicircle to watch these proceedings.

  "Who you are," I clarified, looking right at Xav.

  The look that crossed his features could only be described as pity. Oh. This was their father, the one who Gunther had told me stories of, who Clark had clearly adored and respected. Before I could begin to process that, the man, Yomi, Noble, whoever he was, continued as though I had never asked.

  "So, young lady, you have a choice. You willingly come with us, let us use that necklace, and no one gets hurt. Or, we will find another way to use the amulet." The threat was clear.

  "Go with you where?" I asked, mostly to stall while I tamed my thoughts from the torrent raging in my mind.

  "Now that is a longer story,” he answered. “But our first stop is the Ever Falls."

  The Renegade

  We were supposed to be sleeping in, but father nearly tore our cabin door off its rusty hinges in his hurry to enter our room.

  "Come up on deck, boys," he said, an excited spark in his eyes. "We're almost home." He went to shake Gunther, but the shaking of the cabin walls from the door banging against them had already awoken him. We dressed quickly, then filed out after him. We trudged up the stairs, still bleary-eyed.

  The waters were dark and choppy, and there was a warm drizzle. Through the rain, we could just barely see the outline of what looked like a four-tiered cake with a castle for a topper. I looked at father. He was beaming at the horizon.

  Home. The word had never had any real meaning beyond the ship we were on now, but I tried to soak up some of Father's joy and use it to ease the clenching in my own gut. My brothers and I shared a tentative smile. Home.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Clark

  I came to in a cell. After The Director had saved me from Jayce's blade, I had been knocked out from behind. I almost laughed at the insanity of the first part of that sentence. Instead, I assessed my situation through an aching head.

  This wasn't my first knockout, nor was it my worst. I seemed to be okay on that front, though my sandpaper mouth indicated I had been out for a while. My cell was not swelteringly warm, so I assumed I was in a basement on one of the upper sectors. There was a stone wall at my back and left side, and bars covering the other two sides of the cell.

  It looked like there was another cell next to mine, and possibly more beyond it. The bars in front of me had a locked door, and a solid wall lined the other side of the hallway. A camera was nailed to the wall, looking directly into the cell.

  My only amenities were a metal toilet and the bolted-down bed I had woken up on. Hopefully, I wouldn't be here for long.

  Movement from the corner of the dimly lit stone walls caught my eye. Someone was in the cell next to mine.

  "I recognize you," a deep voice said. The man it belonged to stepped forward into a lighter part of his cell. "You're one of the boys General Noble adopted," he said.

  I recognized him, also. He was the man whose uniform I had stolen at the museum. This must be Locke. How does he know who I am? But there were more pressing questions.

  "How did you wind up in here?" I asked him. "Addie was worried about you."

  "Addie?" He chuckled richly, not a sound I expected to hear in a dungeon. "No one has called her that in some time. Silly girl should know better than to worry about me, though. As for how I wound up in here, it was for failing to protect The Director's daughter. You?"

  Silly was not the word I would have used to describe Addie. I tucked away the information about her nickname and answered his question.

  "Hell if I know. Maybe for the same reason. Last I knew, I was fighting in a clearing. And now I'm here. How long have I been out?"

  "It's hard to tell down here, but I would estimate no longer than twelve hours."

  Footsteps echoed down the hall, and we stopped talking. The Director's form appeared on the other side of the door to my cell.

  "I see you’re finally awake, Mr. Noble,” he growled.

  Apparently, all of Redshaw knew who I was. Fantastic. I opened my mouth to lie.

  “Don’t bother,” he cut me off. Cold fury emanated from him in waves. “We have more important things to discuss than your origins. Thanks to the two of you,” he turned to include Locke in his glare, “the Court of Yomi has my daughter.”

  Whatever I had expected him to say, it wasn�
��t that. Locke was equally shocked if his sharp intake of breath was anything to go by. I thought Nell had taken Addie somewhere safe before the former had emerged from the crypt. I told him as much.

  "It certainly wouldn’t be the only mistake you made yesterday.” The Director’s eyes burned into me, reminding me that he had saved my life.

  I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge the act long enough to ask his reasoning.

  “This was taken yesterday." He shoved a photograph through the bars.

  I took the heavy picture from him. It was a sepia-toned image of Xavier carrying a clearly passed-out Addie across the gangplank of a docked ship.

  That can't be right. I stared at the photo, trying to make sense of it. I didn't recognize any of the crew, but the black-and-white snake-like masks were all too familiar.

  Had my brother been trying to get her to safety? That didn't make much sense, that he would leave me and Gunther to protect a girl he barely knew and didn't like.

  What made even less sense was why Xavier would be going toward the masked men, the Court of Yomi.

  Is Gunther safe? On the off-chance The Director didn’t know who he was, I couldn’t risk asking. So I said nothing.

  “This has gone on long enough, Sebastian. Let me go get her.” Locke’s tone was far more commanding than one might expect from someone who was both a subordinate and imprisoned.

  “You know I can’t do that,” The Director responded.

  I noted his word choice.

  Can’t, he said. Not won’t.

  Without another word, The Director turned on his heel and strode out of the room. The heavy steel door clanged shut behind him. I stared after him in bewilderment. I ran my hands over the back of the photograph, trying to pluck a coherent thought out of the maelstrom in my brain. My fingers traced the heavy metal key someone, presumably Sebastian Kensington, had taped to the back of it. First, he had saved my life, and now this.