by K. F. Breene
She found him, coming closer. Dead center to her position, though she couldn’t tell how far away. Not with the seething, foaming power lapping at her senses.
She turned toward the ship and met eyes with Burson, standing barely ten paces behind her. With a voice she barely recognized within a body blistering with power, she said, “Protect our own.”
A smile lit up his face as he looked toward the sky. She felt the minds of the boys, and then the rest of them, wink out. And then, thinking of her lost, hoping for a union with the few, she squeezed Cayan’s hand. Together, they RELEASED.
A bone-shaking rumble filled her ears as a torrent of power rolled from her and Cayan’s bodies. Like a tsunami, it first swelled, and then surged before them, crushing minds with a subsonic might so intense, the Graygual faces screwed up in fear and pain as they dropped their swords and clutched at their hearts. One by one they fell, gasping and panting, clawing at their chest.
“Go!” Cayan yelled at his men while still holding her hand. “Get to the ship.”
“What about you?” Sanders asked as he bent to a man on the ground with blood down the side of his face and staring eyes. Jaime.
Shanti felt a pang of sadness well up. She hadn’t been in time. She hadn’t saved him. She hadn’t saved them all.
“We’re right behind you,” she heard Cayan say.
The last of the power streamed from her and Cayan’s bodies. Still more Graygual bodies fell as the roar tore through the battlefield.
“C’mon, mesasha. We have to go,” Cayan said in a soft voice.
“Let’s go, Chosen. We have to go,” repeated Rohnan’s urging.
Shanti turned on wooden feet, the picture of Jaime replaced with that of Romie. Then the crowded landscape of her memory filled with blood and screaming—images from when she was a child, to those a year or so ago, to right now.
Would it never end? Would death by her hand of those she loved ever end?
“Now is not the time, Chosen. We will mourn later,” Rohnan said in a hard voice. “We must go, Chosen. You did not get them all.”
Shanti blinked past the memories clamoring for her attention and forced her mind into the present. She pushed away the sorrow for Jaime and focused instead on the thanks that the others had made it.
Still holding Cayan’s hand, she turned with him and ran up the docks, skirting by Daniels who was active with his bow. Their feet thumped off the wood planks as they made it to the ship. She jumped the small gap between the ship and the dock and jogged to the edge.
The battlefield was littered with bodies in black. Those in the front were not moving at all. Those toward the back, way up the slope, flopped back and forth, in obvious pain, but not dead.
One man pushed himself to his knees. His head hung for a moment. Even from the distance, Shanti could see his body moving as if he struggled with breath. His head lifted. His face pointed in their direction.
The Hunter.
She knew without being able to see that it was him.
The salt sea air bathed Shanti’s face as she stared at the man. She made a promise of his death as surely as he made a promise of her capture. She’d beaten him again. Escaped yet again. He would not take that lightly.
She turned away and looked out over the ocean. The ship was drifting into the harbor as the sails lowered. The calm breeze licked her sweat-stained face and for a brief moment, she was reminded of home, of setting out on their old and creaky fishing boat, looking up at the sky and letting the sun warm her face.
“That was close,” Rohnan said as he walked up beside her. Fatigue dragged at his movements.
“Yes, too close, but…that’s always been our life.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think we will see them again, Rohnan?” Shanti asked with a voice half-pleading, and half-hopeful. “The ones we saved?”
He sighed as he stared out over the water. “I hope so, Chosen. I hope so.”
* * *
They gave Jaime a sea burial, offering his body and soul to the Gods of the Sea. To the ship’s crew, who believed in the Gods of the Sea, he was going home. To Shanti and Rohnan, he died an honorable death in battle, and they said a blessing to speed his journey up to the Elders for their care.
The coming week or so would be harsh, fraught with storms, raging seas, and seasickness for those born landlocked. For Shanti and Rohnan, it would bring nightmares and constant fear. Their entire journey had always been to get to the Shadow Lands and secure the help of their distant kin. They’d beaten impossible odds already, getting farther than either thought they would, and all their toil would soon be put to the test. Burson had a plethora of choices ahead of them, but no answers. It was too early to tell.
* * *
As the vessel sped across the waters, only a few days into the journey, Shanti stood at the rail, looking out into the stinging, salty air. Cayan’s presence moved to her side before leaning on the railing and looking out with her.
“How are the men?” she asked, not bothering to look away from the horizon.
“Most have gotten used to the sway, but Leilius and Xavier are still throwing up. Sanders checks on them often, losing his lunch every time he does.”
“They’ll get used to it.”
Cayan’s shoulder brushed Shanti’s, sending sparks of electricity into her body.
They’d gotten extremely intimate within a few heartbeats. She’d already known plenty of his secrets from their first mind-share, but now he knew the vulnerabilities she never shared. Delving so deeply into each other, even with a battle raging around them, was like a window into the most secret of places. Now he knew that she wanted to be a mother someday. Most embarrassing of all, he knew that she desperately missed the quiet moments by a fire in her lover’s arms, watching the stars.
It hurt, admitting to those things. Only a fool would assume she could finish her duty alive, which meant she could never live the normal life she had always wanted. She feared seeing the pity in the eyes of others, knowing that her lot in life was death and sorrow, and not much else.
Like the gentleman he was, though, he hadn’t said a word about it. He’d made one quick reference to their need to train, but other than that, he hadn’t mentioned the new knowledge.
She sighed as he shared the quiet moment staring ahead at their probable death, way across the open waters. They had another handful of days before they’d see land.
“Has Burson mentioned anything to you about what we can expect?” Cayan asked.
“No. He hasn’t smiled much, either, which means his Gift is silent. It’s a sad day when you wish Burson would start smiling like a madman again.”
Cayan huffed out a laugh. “It is, at that. And if the Inkna-Chosen is in the trials, do you plan to go in?”
“I have to.” Goosebumps spread across Shanti’s skin. “There is no other option.”
“And you have to go alone?”
“Yes.”
Cayan hung his head. “I feel like we’re headed right into Hell, and there isn’t a thing I can do to prevent it. In my gut I know we shouldn’t separate. I know it, Shanti. There’s a reason I need you to access the well of power, just as there’s a reason you appeared on my doorstep. Our feet are being guided toward one another. It doesn’t make sense to separate at the most perilous moment.”
Shanti straightened and threw up her hands. They’d only been at sea a few days, and already they’d had this argument half a dozen times. “Cayan, I don’t know what to tell you. If I’m the Chosen, I’ll see you at the end. If I’m not, well…”
Cayan straightened up, too, stubbornness lining his face. “Not good enough.”
“What do you want me to do? Beg them to change the rules?”
“Not beg, demand.”
Shanti rolled her eyes. “You are the leader of a small nation, Cayan. Your desires mean nothing to the Shadow People. This is how it’s done. When we arrive, I’ll go into the trials, and you will secure the surrounding
area. If I make it out, I’ll be relying on you to have everything safe within the city. Burson agrees. Daniels agrees. Rohnan, who has been assigned the duty of protecting me from childhood, agrees. Why can’t you get this through your thick head?”
Cayan stared down at her for one tense beat, his eyes on fire, his body looming over hers. The muscles in his arms flexed. Judging by the rage and desire both pulsing through his mind, he was fighting an impulse to both throw her overboard, and kiss her. It seemed he hadn’t yet decided which action he’d rather choose.
“Act on either of your thoughts, Cayan, and one of us is going swimming. I’ve survived stormy waters. Have you?”
His blue eyes flashed. With a rush of movement, he turned and stalked away.
Shanti let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding and sagged against the ship. She turned her gaze back toward the sea. If she could, she’d take them all with her. She did not want to walk into those trials alone. But what choice did she have? This was her duty. She could not back out now.
* * *
The End
Shadow Lands, Book 3, is coming Summer 2015!
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Check out the series page on my website: Warrior Chronicles (Fantasy)
About the Author
K.F. Breene is a USA TODAY BESTSELLING author of the Warrior Chronicles, Darkness Series, Jessica Brodie Diaries and Growing Pains Series. She lives right outside of San Francisco, braving the summer fog.
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Also by K.F. Breene
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Uneven Foundation, Book 2
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A Wild Ride, Book 3
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Braving the Elements, Novella 2
On a Razor’s Edge, Novella 3
Demons, Novella 4
The Council, Novella 5
Shadow Watcher, Novella 6
Jonas, Novella 7
Charles, Novella 8
* * *
Warrior Chronicles (Fantasy)
Chosen, Book 1
Hunted, Book 2
Shadow Lands, Book 3