The Undying Champions (The Eternal War Book 1)

by Brennan C. Adams

  Nylion shrugged.

  “We are in our head, and I never liked those fairy tale stories.”

  Raimie rolled his eyes, exasperated that his subconscious had chosen such an intimidating enemy to guard their goal.

  “Great. Thanks me,” he mumbled under his breath.

  “I can hold the monster off for a time, but I require someone to unlock the chest while I do so. When you return to reality, attempt to learn lock picking from someone who knows the skill well,” Nylion instructed. “The woman named Ren seems like she may have the requisite knowledge. That is what I need from you.”

  He firmly gripped Raimie’s shoulders.

  “Because we will open that chest, we will discover the identities of every person who attempted to separate us, and we will PUNISH them.”

  His intensity scared Raimie. Of course, he wanted a measure of justice for being wronged so deeply, but he’d no desire for revenge.

  He covered his second half’s hand reassuringly with his own.

  “We will, Nyl,” he said. “Of course we will.”

  * * *

  He woke with a start to the quiet of the forest.

  How could it be this still? Back home, even when exploring with Nylion far from home, birdsong and leaves stirring in the fitful breeze broke the quiet. This forest had none of that, just an unnatural stillness.

  Wait, had he-? He’d remembered! The nightmares shrouded by spells revealed their contents, and for the first time in nine years, Raimie remembered who he was.

  One of two, a half of a whole, he and Nylion were the same person but different in personality. Raimie was… well, Raimie, and Nylion was the quiet protector, contentedly waiting behind their eyes to step in and save them.

  The epiphany was slightly disconcerting. On the one hand, he’d lived alone in his head for nine years and had learned to appreciate the solitude of that seemingly natural state. On the other, remembering Nylion was like coming home to warm companionship after a long winter out in the cold.

  Are you there? he thought apprehensively to himself.

  The warmth of camaraderie, empathy, and wholeness swept from his heart to his extremities, and he sprang to his feet and whooped.

  “I remember you!” he shouted as loudly as he could, smiling at the break in the silence.

  Ren glided in front of him, pressing a hand to his mouth, and shushing. She listened intently to the stillness falling once more before she removed her hand. Raimie let loose the shudder that had built with her hand on him.

  “Are you trying to alert every living thing in the area to our presence?” she hissed, glaring at him.

  Raimie flushed.

  “Please accept my apologies. I forgot myself in my excitement,” he mumbled.

  Ren shook her head and shoved Silverblade’s scabbard into his chest.

  “Kheled left this for you,” she told him before stalking off.

  Raimie scrambled to sheath his sword and trot after her.

  “Khel left?” he asked. “Where’d he go?”

  “Away,” Ren answered shortly.

  She retrieved a weapon from beside the ashes of the previous evening’s fire while Raimie crouched and ran a hand over the forest floor.

  “Was there a fight last night?” he asked. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  “We shouldn’t have needed to wake you,” Ren said bitingly. “Taking the watch includes a promise that you’ll stay awake long enough to keep it.”’

  “Was there a fight or not?”

  “Maybe you’re not as useless as I thought if you can read the forest floor, although anyone with eyes can see that some disturbance occurred here recently,” Ren said. “Yes, four Kiraak attacked near midnight, but you needn’t worry. Kheled and I dispatched them easily.”

  “But… where are the bodies?” Raimie asked, wrinkling his brow. “Or are Kiraak incorporeal?”

  “Incorpore- No! I wasn’t sure how squeamish you’d be around dead bodies so I dragged them away from camp,” Ren said. “Another reason we should be going. They’ll attract wolves soon enough.”

  Raimie didn’t know whether to be insulted or thankful that she thought so little of him when it came to viewing death. In the end, he decided on gratitude. It would do little good to harbor feelings of resentment toward the one native of Auden that he’d met.

  Ren removed another strip of dried meat from a pocket and offered it to him. He looked at it distastefully. It’s not that the food looked unappetizing, quite the opposite in fact! He simply wasn’t sure if the dry food would go down the scorched desert of his throat.

  “You don’t happen to have water, do you?” he asked hopefully while accepting his breakfast.

  Ren rolled her eyes and plopped a full skin into his waiting hand. He took two big swings, returning it to her once he’d finished.

  “Kheled told me you’re from across the ocean. Is that true?” Ren asked.

  “Indeed,” Raimie confirmed. “He and I were separated from the ships that brought us here. I need to get back to them as soon as possible.”

  Ren drew a dagger and scored a mark on a nearby tree.

  “We’re headed this way then,” she said, beginning her hike.

  Raimie remained rooted in place.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Khel?”

  “My brother has gone scouting for information for your war effort,” Ren said, not bothering to stop. “He’ll be a few days, and it’s suicide to wait in such an open camp by yourself for such a length of time. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure he knows where to find you.”

  Raimie scrambled to catch her before she disappeared into the trees.

  “Why this direction?” he asked once he’d caught up.

  Ren stopped and again made a small mark on a tree.

  “If your fleet came upon Auden along this shoreline, there’s only one place nearby where the ships can make safe landing, and it’s this way,” she muttered.

  Raimie trailed after her for a few more awkward moments.

  “You and Khel grew up together, right?” he said when it became clear she had no intention of saying anything more. “Do you have any embarrassing stories you’d be willing to share? I’d love to have something to match the host of my humiliations that he’s witnessed.”

  Ren whirled on him, her dagger brandished threateningly.

  “I’d prefer to travel in silence. Understood?” she hissed.

  Raimie gulped and nodded frantically.

  He’d faced a wrathful queen and a man bent on revenge, fearful storms at sea and Teron, but something about this woman both terrified and intrigued him. She carried herself with stunning confidence, and he had the feeling that what she presented to the world was truly her and not a mask.

  But the way she’d attacked before she knew he and Kheled weren’t Kiraak belied a mastery of both the blade, of instilling fear in those she hunted, and of a quick judgment that she thoroughly believed until definitively proven otherwise. He didn’t want to become her enemy.

  As he followed her through the forest, he discovered that what Kheled had said the day before was true. He did like what he saw of Auden in the light of day, even if it was only a sampling of forest on the shores of the continent. It wasn’t his forest-it was much too tropical-but it was nice regardless. Being surrounded by trees was comforting, something he’d thoroughly missed on the flat plains and ocean.

  When he paid close enough attention, even the stillness he found so unnerving wasn’t so bad and was even broken by occasional noises. A rare breeze did indeed rustle the leaves. It simply came less often and more irregularly. He didn’t hear birds, but if he pricked his ears hard enough, he could pick up on the buzz of insect wings.

  Ren set a backbreaking pace through the woods. She seemed surprised when Raimie kept up with her without breaking a sweat. She’d no way to know, but this terrain was what Raimie had grown up traversing. Picking his way over roots and around small rocks was second nature to him compared to the drag
of legs through grass that he’d encountered on the plains or the struggle against the swamp’s pull against his feet.

  When Ren called a halt, he wasn’t sure who it was for. He was only slightly out of breath, and she didn’t look the least bit tired.

  She made him wait while she checked their surroundings for danger. Once she’d returned, she sat cross-legged at the base of a tree and gestured for him to join her. Only when she handed him food did he realize it was time for the midday meal.

  Ren finished her food first. She couldn’t keep still for long while she waited on him. She paced back and forth to work off extra energy.

  Raimie watched her with amusement. He may have found something he was better at than her: waiting patiently.

  At least she made a nice distraction while he ate.

  She’d foregone traditional women’s garb, instead settling on short ankle boots, leggings, and a loose tunic that fell to mid-thigh. A belt bound the tunic high on her waist, and she had an odd assortment of weapons hanging from it. He knew the throwing knives well, and the sword was self-explanatory, but he’d never seen or heard of the curved blades hanging in sheathes from her sides.

  The blades nearly made a complete circuit, cutting off a little less than three-quarters of the way round. They looked as if they were meant to be held in such a way that the blade guarded its wielder’s knuckles. He’d have to ask her about them later.

  The tunic hid her figure well, enough so that he might have trouble telling she was a woman if not for her other feminine features. She had few curves to her name, to his disappointment and relief, but she made up for it with a litheness that made him wonder exactly what sort of situations she could wriggle her way out of.

  Her bow hung low on her shoulders, and she’d found a way to sling the quiver parallel to the ground from the small of her back. It bounced off of her hips with every step she took.

  Raimie was quite taken with her face when he didn’t feel the urge to flee from her reprimanding looks. She had full lips, wonderfully proportioned cheekbones, a cute nose, and beautifully large, gray eyes. He even liked her tiny ears. She’d pulled her hair away from her face, tying it back with the cloth she’d wrapped around her head last night. The mane flowed silkily to the base of her neck, a river of pure black with nothing to mar it…

  “You are Eselan, aren’t you?” he asked, curiosity forcing the question from his tongue even with sensibility screaming warnings. “I mean, you have to be since you’re Khel’s sister. What’s your second pigment? It must be incredibly dark if I can’t see it contrasting against the black.”

  Ren halted in her pacing, turning indignant eyes on him.

  “I’m a half on both counts, if you must know,” she said crossly. “Half Eselan: my father was human and my mother Eselan. Half-sister: I share only mothers with Kheled. His father died getting the two of them out when Mativon fell. She met my father years later.”

  “How much younger does that make you?” Raimie asked, oblivious to her growing ire.

  “Seven years,” she growled.

  “Which means you’re… twenty give or take. That’s around my age!” Raimie exclaimed with a smile. “Interesting! I would’ve guessed you were much older based off of how you act.”

  He stuffed the last of his lunch in his mouth and stared at her, unabashedly speculating, as he chewed.

  “Are you always this rude?” Ren asked coldly.

  Raimie’s mouth dropped open as he thought about what he’d said.

  “I… I’m so sorry! My mouth runs away from me sometimes. You have to understand, I was only curious. I wasn’t judging or trying to offend. I’m sorry,” he finished lamely, staring at his lap.

  He waited for her to reprimand him, to scream and yell, to slap and kick.

  “Let’s keep going,” she said. “Your people shouldn’t be too much farther.”

  A hand appeared in front of his face. Surprised, Raimie took it, and Ren helped him to his feet.

  The sun had sunk to the tree line, casting the world beneath the canopy into shadow, before she spoke again.

  “I wasn’t going to hit you, you know,” she said, focused on climbing over a fallen tree.

  “What?” Raimie asked.

  The statement caught him off guard, coming out of the blue like that.

  “You looked like you were expecting me to slap you for irritating me. I wouldn’t,” she clarified. “I might give you a whipping if you fell asleep on a watch you’re meant to keep, but I’d never lay a hand on you for something so trivial.”

  Raimie wordlessly followed her over the tree trunk, unsure how to respond.

  “Maybe your life hasn’t been as idealistic as I’d thought,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “There have been some rough patches lately, but I’ve learned a lot from them,” Raimie acknowledged, eager to steer to a new topic. “In fact, I’ve learned many new skills since I left home. I’ve studied how to fight, how to play with the life energy of primal forces, and even a little of sailing. I still have a lot to learn though. I’m quite terrible at diplomacy and politics, mostly because they’re awful skills that I hate.”

  Ren snickered at this.

  “At some point, I’d love to learn how to blend with the forest like you and how to pick locks. Maybe I’ll even learn how to play-”

  “Why on earth would a potential ruler ever need to know lock picking?” Ren asked, badly stifling her laughter.

  Raimie made a face.

  “Khel told you about that, did he?” he said distastefully. “I’ll have to yell at him when he gets back. He knows I don’t like the idea.”

  “He wouldn’t have kept it from me no matter how much you yelled. I’m his sister,” Ren reminded him. “Anyway, lock picking?”

  Raimie shrugged.

  “Before Auden can be free, I need to overthrow its current ruler. I thought lock picking might come in handy for that. Why? Do you know someone who could teach me?”

  “Perhaps. We’ll see,” she said thoughtfully.

  Raimie hoped Nylion was happy. At the very least, a seed had been planted.

  They unexpectedly broke from the trees, and he stumbled, unhappy to be in the wide open again. Ren showed no fear at the break in cover, so he gathered his bravado and stalked after her.

  They approached a sea of lights beating back the gathering dusk, the fleet anchored in the bay nearby. A single soldier stood sentry on the edge of camp. He sat on a crate, idly kicking one leg and looking as if he couldn’t care less for the task assigned him, but he was on his feet with an arrow nocked and bow drawn the instant he laid eyes on them.

  “Who goes there?” he called the age-old question of the sentry.

  “Friends,” Ren responded loudly.

  The sentry lowered his bow but kept the arrow nocked as he warily eyed them. He brightened when they drew near enough for the fire light to illuminate their features.

  “Your Majesty!” he exclaimed, and Raimie rolled his eyes. “Who’s your friend?”

  Ren smiled pleasantly at the man and chopped at his neck. When his hands dropped the bow to clutch his throat, she knocked his feet out from under him. He landed with a whumpf, and Ren stood over him with her hands on her hips.

  “Never, ever let anyone get that close to you on their own. They should stop when you call out to allow you to close the space between you. If they don’t, shoot them. Their intent is to kill you.”

  She offered him a hand to help him up.

  “Welcome to Auden,” she said with a smile and plunged into camp, ignoring a muffled protest.

  “What was that about?” Raimie asked as he hurried after her once he’d calmed the sentry.

  Ren glanced over her shoulder.

  “Keeping the watch is one of the most honored and important jobs one can have, and while your man was performing adequately, he has much room for improvement. I went out of my way to impart a lesson on him. Was it not acceptable?” she asked.

  “The l
esson wasn’t the problem. It was the method used to impart it.”

  “It was the best way to ensure the lesson was remembered. I don’t see the problem,” Ren said. “Is that where your family will be?”

  She pointed to the big tent they’d stumbled upon.

  “Eledis does like his tents,” Raimie said with a chuckle.

  “In that case, the favor for my brother is completed,” Ren said.

  She made to leave.

  “Wait!” Raimie exclaimed. “How will Khel find you when he gets back?”

  “I’ll return in a few days to check in on him, but I don’t see the point of waiting for him here,” she turned around again. “I’m going home.”

  “Let me come with you!” Raimie shouted before she could run off. “It would be good to learn how Audish citizens live. I won’t be very effective at leading a resistance if I don’t understand the people I hope to lead. Plus, I’d love to meet the people who’ve taken you in.”

  Ren considered for a moment.

  “You can come,” she decided. “At the very least, it should be amusing to watch you flounder in conversation with my family.”

  Raimie tried not to let her lack of confidence make him more uncertain than he already was.

  “Let me inform my family, and we can go,” he said. “Will you wait for me?”

  Once he’d gained her acquiescence, he circled the tent in search of an opening. Worry gnawed at him now that he’d found his way back. From how Kheled had described their escape from Teron, he knew the galleon he’d sailed on had sunk. Had everyone made it off safely? Had Teron turned around and attacked the helpless castaways in fury over losing his prey?

  “Halt!” the guard beside the tent flap commanded. “What’s your business?”

  Of course the soldier on duty would be one who’d never met him.

  “I’d like to see my family if they’re alive. And if that’s acceptable to you, of course.”

  Marcuset poked his head around the flap.

  “Your Majesty?” the commander said, eyes popping wide. “Thank Alouin you’re alive!”

  He closed the gap and clasped Raimie’s arms.

  “I told you he’d return soon,” Aramar’s voice drifted from inside the tent. “He likes to play a game where he makes us think he’s dead to incite panic.”