Salvation: Saving Setora Book Seven

by Dark, Raven

  “You aren’t doing this alone,” Yaela said. “You told us about his plan. I’m not letting my kids grow up in a world where Violets are some kind of sick, twisted master race, teaching hate and violence.”

  My heart broke. “Maker, you’re all nuts. I can’t let you do this.”

  “Try and stop us,” Tari said.

  “Shut up, Setora,” Gita added. “It’s happening. Deal with it.”

  “Six women traveling alone? On my own, I have a better chance, plus…You can’t fight, and you have no weapons.”

  “I will protect them,” Ali’san said. She drew her sword partway out, showing me.

  “And we won’t be women.” Kash said. She held out the length of the man’s cloak covering her large frame.

  I rolled my eyes. “Kash, that’ll never work.”

  “Yes, it will.” She grinned. “I used to do it all the time to get into the taverns. I’m big enough, and so is Ali’san. These three can be boys, and you can be someone’s slave.”

  “I do it every day, Liberator,” Ali’san said. “How do you think I get around alone? I will show them how.”

  Tears splashed my cheeks, fear and adoration for all of them squeezing my heart. Then I looked at Ali’san. “Wait a minute.” I traipsed over to her and examined the sword on her back. She’d lost hers. Gold and purple stones glittered on the hilt of a weapon not made for her.

  “That’s Ivek’s sword,” I hissed. “You took Ivek’s sword?”

  She shrugged.

  “He’s going to kill you.”

  “Let him try.” She walked back to the trees and led Ivek’s large black stallion out to us. A saddle bag and two large packs hung against the sides, bulging with supplies.

  “His horse, too?” I rolled my eyes, my stomach dropping.

  “He’ll get another one.”

  “This is insane.”

  “Well?” Kash said. “If they’re going to be angry, we might as well go all the way. You are not facing him alone. If we fail, we’re dead anyway.”

  “And if we succeed, you’ll have saved the world, and we’ll have helped. How mad can they be?” Gita shrugged.

  Oh, they’ll be mad as hornets, there was no getting out of that now. But they’d be alive.

  I sighed and hugged them all.

  “All right, let’s go before I change my mind,” I said.

  * * *

  The first thing we did was purchase mounts for us to ride. We needed as much of a head lead as we could get before the men discovered us gone, which meant avoiding traveling on foot as much as possible and fast. Ali’san had brought everything, including money and items for trade so we could buy what we needed.

  The woman really was an expert. Not only did she know how to survive alone in the wilderness, even in this inhospitable cold, but she knew how to get around the hundreds of laws we were breaking with every step we took.

  At the first trading post we found, she purchased six large caribou, their furry, white coats perfect for the climate. In addition, she bought us men’s clothes, teaching us how to roll and sew the clothes so they fit, how to layer them and bind our breasts to hide our shapes. We covered our faces with scarves most of the time, all but the eyes, easily explained away with the cold and blowing snow. We used Doc’s eye-drops to turn our eyes black.

  Other than when we had to purchase supplies, Gita, Tari, Yeala and I avoided interacting with anyone we saw, leaving that task for Ali’san and Kash.

  For the first few hours, we were lucky. No one was around. No men to catch us or to interact with. Our disguises were good enough for passersby not to notice six women traveling without a master or a male escort, and there were no settlements to figure out how to get through.

  That was the bright side about being in the middle of the frozen Orial Mountains. Hardly anyone lived out here, and the area was so massive, when we did come across someone, it was easy to avoid them.

  But on the downside, no settlements meant no food or water, except what you could catch, and finding either wasn’t easy. If you ran out of supplies, there was nowhere to buy more, often for days at a time.

  The first night passed, and with every hour, I missed my men more. Guilt gnawed at me often, but I reminded myself that this was the only way to keep them alive. I’d chosen my path. I had to follow it now and just hope they’d forgive me when it was all over.

  By the second night, I’d started to notice two things. One, I was getting sick again. Most food turned my stomach, giving me horrible headaches and forcing me to stick to bland foods, broths, and bread. The other women often suffered the same symptoms. I hadn’t expected altitude sickness to be this bad

  And two, there was the pull. It had been there from the start, guiding me, but that, too, grew stronger. As it did, so did my certainty that it wasn’t only Julian guiding me anymore. The sense of being dragged onward by an unseen tether seemed to originate from something deeper, something in my blood. Something that had less to do with, not who I was, but what I was.

  I tried explaining it to the women the next day, and while I was surprised they were experiencing the same thing, they couldn’t begin to describe the pulling anymore than I could.

  Ali’san had remained thoughtful and quiet when I brought it up over lunch. We had stopped briefly for a bite to eat and to stretch.

  “It’s our connection,” she said. “Your mind’s power is synching with our own, I think. You are coming more into your Liberator role. This is a good thing. Try not to worry.” She took a bite out of a snow pear, then stood up, walking away from us, deep in thought.

  The ladies and I were used to Ali’san’s walking off to be alone with her thoughts, so we shrugged it off and finished eating. Much like Hawk, when the woman chose to keep to herself, there was no persuading her. Answers would just have to come when the time was right, I guessed.

  By that night, I was almost constantly aware of Julian’s presence. Not in my head, like it once used to be, but in the distance, untouched and there.

  The other women were feeling him too.

  Not only did that deeper pull—that other force compelling me—grow stronger, but so did my awareness of their thoughts in mine. It was as if, the longer we spent together, the more intensely I could sense them, feel their thoughts and emotions in my head as clearly as if they were mine.

  The landscape also began to change the further north we moved.

  In the day, the sun burned without warmth, brining no heat to melt the endless snow and doing nothing for the numbing cold that had now become our constant companion. We dressed in layer upon layer, and still couldn’t hold off the chill entirely. The mountains grew higher and darker, the snow deeper. Water had to be culled from snow melted over the fire and preserved whenever possible. Ali’san taught us to fish in the ice, how to clean and cook them, but it was getting harder to find any. Hunger often gnawed in bellies that remained empty when we slept.

  And then there was the sun itself. Gradually, the passage of time became more night than day as the sun became unreliable. It had started to obtain a black hue, like coal, the outer edge of it burning like a ring of flame.

  I stared at it one morning, pointing for the others to look.

  They swore and shivered and turned sheet white.

  “That’s the sun I saw in my dreams,” Gita said.

  “Me too.” Kash shivered, and not from the cold.

  “We’re getting close,” I said.

  I wished I knew how I knew that.

  The nights were no less ominous. Lights constantly flickered across the sky, a rainbow of luminescence in greens, yellows, red, blues. They danced like specters, casting a spell over all of us as deep as Julian’s now never ending pull.

  Ever onward we traveled. North, always north.

  By the fifth night, we’d started speaking less. Often we rode without having to tell each other where to go, or sat at the cookfires without a word. I’d pour tea for Gita and hand it to her, only to realize she ha
dn’t asked for it. Kash would be at Tari’s side, comforting her before she woke up from a dream, and Tari would give us all that now familiar shocked look that said she’d been having a nightmare.

  By the sixth morning since we’d left camp, I’d sat up in my bed to find that the women had all woken up at the same time, all of us looking at each other, stunned.

  We weren’t six women on a journey anymore. We were one individual who just happened to have six bodies.

  I shivered, loving the strange connection that ran through each of us, making us closer than friends could ever be. I also hated it, because I knew why it was happening. We were our own little Hive, one he was drawing closer, linking more tightly the closer we came to him.

  Sitting together around the fire on the sixth night, I looked at each of them, each of these women who had become so close to me.

  Is this strange to anyone else? It hit me that I didn’t have to say the words.

  The others nodded.

  It’s insane. Gita sipped her tea, her face pale. I swore I felt the hot liquid’s warmth spread through me, felt her pleasure at the honeyed taste.

  He’s doing it. Kash’s dark eyes were clouded with a hint of fear that echoed my own. And hers.

  This is probably a trap. Yaela slowly shook her head.

  I disagree. It is us, our power. Ali’san. We have to go to him strong. People will die if we don’t. Lives will be lost. And Setora can’t do this alone.

  She was right. Whatever happened, we’d chosen the only path left. Thank you all for doing this. I met each of their eyes. You’re risking your lives. I’ll never forget this. I feel so close to all of you.

  Like best friends. Gita smiled.

  No, it’s stronger than that. Kash folded her hands.

  Yes. Much stronger. Tari sat up. It’s like…

  Like sisters, my thoughts whispered.

  Like sisters. Yaela nodded.

  Tari hummed, Six sisters.

  Six sisters. Come.

  My eyes went huge. So did theirs.

  Oh, shit. Gita slapped her forehead. She gestured to all of us. There’s six of us. Guys…

  How did we miss that? Yaela shook her head, her braids falling around her now white face.

  He made us miss it. I fisted my hands. The pull was so strong we didn’t put the pieces together.

  Heads nodded as one.

  It is a trap, I said. And we fell for it.

  Oh, Maker, please let us make it. Please, please let my Four be alright.

  Chapter 35

  Reasons

  The women were gone.

  Not just Setora, but Ali’san, Kash, and Lord Bain’s harem, too.

  We’d awakened to find Setora missing, and initially thought Tahmi had somehow managed to get past Ivek’s guards and into the camp. We thought she’d been kidnapped again.

  Until we tore through the camp and realized the others were gone too.

  Until Ivek had come barreling out of the cave, furious and growling that Ali’san had taken his sword.

  If the situation hadn’t been so serious—if the women weren’t all missing—I’d have laughed. Normally, such a concept would have been ridiculous, and not just because this was Ivek, one of the biggest, baddest men we knew. Women didn’t steal a man’s fucking weapon. Never mind that there were laws against it, ones that would have a woman beheaded. Women didn’t even consider such a thing.

  But women didn’t use swords, or fight in Yantu temples, either.

  Eventually, we had worked out the rest of what happened. Ivek’s cloak was missing, and so was his horse, several of his most valuable jewels from his money chest, and a small amount of his supplies. Setora’s clothes were missing. Coats were missing from some of the men’s bags.

  The very idea was insane, but eventually, we’d been forced to face the impossible. Setora hadn’t been kidnapped. She’d left. She’d left and taken the others with her. The question was, why?

  Then Hawk had found tracks in the snow, leading out of the camp. Tracks from six sets of slender, smaller feet that could only be female, and the tracks form a horse. Ivek’s horse. The tracks had been fresh, he’d said, no more than a few hours old.

  Those tracks also made something else clear. She hadn’t been dragged or coerced. She’d left on her own two feet, the others doing the same.

  I shook my head at the sky. “Fuck. Stupid, stupid woman. What the fuck does she think she’s doing?” My heart beating out of my chest with worry and the need to do something. Now.

  “But why would she do that?” Steel spat, straightening from studying the tracks along with the rest of us and Ivek. “Petal would never fucking leave like that.”

  Running my palms down my face, I went over all the reasons she wouldn’t. She’d never scare us like this. Leaving on her own like this was too dangerous. She was breaking a hundred fucking laws, most of which she’d have no way to get around. Ali’san, possibly even Kashaya, could take care of herself, but Setora was placing Gita, Tari’san, and Yaela in danger, something she would never do, just by leaving the camp. In danger from Tahmi, Julian himself, and any man who caught them. From any man who saw the value of six Violets on the market, or who might decide to take it to the law and have them killed. And in this cold? The climate alone could kill them!

  She was putting her friends in danger, something she simply would not do.

  “I’m betting Ali’san did this,” Ivek’s second in command snarled, joining us. “You give her too much latitude, Vol.”

  Ivek got in his face. “Say that again.”

  Ravik opened his mouth, then closed it, backing off.

  “She would not have done what he’s implying,” Ivek told us emphatically. “I won’t lie, it is like her to go off on her own if she thought she had to, but she would not place others in danger that way.”

  “No, she wouldn’t,” Hawk agreed. “A Yantu always values the lives of others before his—or her—own.”

  “There’s only one reason she would have left,” Doc said.

  “She went to face Julian alone. Fuck!” I kicked over the pot on the fire and it toppled with a splash.

  “But why?” Pretty Boy demanded. “She knows how dangerous that is. She can’t do that on her own. Even if she could get there alone, she couldn’t deal with him without help!”

  “But Ali’san...” Ivek’s voice was livid. “She could take them there. She’d know how to survive the journey.”

  Hawk massaged his forehead, his voice the only calm one among us. “She would not have done this unless she felt she had to. She wouldn’t have betrayed us this way unless Julian did something.” He met our eyes. “He must have gotten into her head.”

  Doc nodded. “He got into her head and told her to come alone. Without her men.”

  “But why wouldn’t she come to us?” I snapped. “If he threatened to kill her or destroy the world like he did in that vision she told us about, why wouldn’t she tell us?”

  Doc’s chest rose and fell hard. “Because she knew you’d never allow her to go, General.”

  “I think it’s more than that,” Hawk said quietly. “I think he threatened the one thing she loves most.”

  I sighed. “Us.”

  “Doesn’t change anything,” Steel said. “I’m still going to make her hurt for this.”

  “Get in line,” I growled.

  “But how in the hell are those women expecting to get there alone? And come on, Ali’san’s good, but she’s not that good,” Steel pointed out. “It’s fucking colder than the Maker’s tits outside…they won’t…Fucking dammit!”

  “The only way they could get that far without someone trying to sell them or having them hanged is if they…” He trailed off and his face lost color. “Oh, shit. Ivek, they took your cloak. A man’s cloak.”

  “Unbelievable,” Ivek said. “They’re going undercover.”

  Hawk nodded. “As men.”

  I kicked at the overturned pot. “They’re going to get thems
elves fucking hanged.”

  “They might not,” Xarq said. “Not if we stop them before they get very far. We have friends a little further north, ones who can stop them if they come across them.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Ivek grabbed his captain by the throat. “If you reveal those women, to anyone, they’ll be killed. You say nothing. Nothing, understand?”

  “Yes, Vol,” he choked.

  Ivek released him and turned to us. “A week ago, I never would have said this about a female.” He shook his head, as if to clear a fog. “But, Legion, I promise you, Ali’san knows what she’s doing. She’s spent most of her life as a warrior, breaking the law just by being what she is. She knows how to play the part. If anyone can get them to Julian alive, it’s her.”

  “Yes, and then Setora will do something incredibly stupid,” Pretty Boy said. “She’ll play hero, just like she always does, and face Julian by herself.”

  “No, dammit, she won’t,” I snarled. “They only have a few hours head start. She won’t face him at all, because we’re going to get to them first.”

  I stomped off to the cave without waiting for the men to agree or get moving. I could hear that they already were.

  “And when we do,” I added at a shout, “she won’t have to worry about Julian, because I’ll kill her myself.”

  Chapter 36

  Where the Light Stops

  The black burning sun was getting bigger. It rose above us like a shadow, a baleful eye that heralded our approach. The lights danced like sprites across the night in waves that called us onward.

  Julian’s pull had become a tether that yanked mercilessly, pressing us to ride faster, ride longer, sleep less. Like a demon, he was the cliff we were all headed for, a mountain we were all about to leap from, and yet we couldn’t stop.

  There weren’t six of us. There were seven, six guided by a master none of us wanted.

  We’re here. Gita’s voice rang out in my head without sound.