Handing the baby to Uriel, Shauna did not take her eyes off the guards. The Hellstate barged in on her, and her already blackened eyes changed back to white. The spirits surfaced to the physical plane. She reached her hand out towards the savages. Her index finger pointed at them, and the rest of her fingers dangled down to the ground. The spirits crept towards the men, leaving spiritual footprints as they walked. Shauna could feel the Polarists' dread, and she welcomed it. Some of the guards wet themselves as death ensued them.
Uriel calmed the baby who had begun to cry again, but her disdain for the men was evident in her gaze. She brushed the boy’s thin hair to the side with her hand, and she looked at Shauna. Uriel pursed her lips together and walked away. From behind her, she could hear the screams of death and breaking bones mixed with the sound of dozens of bodies dropping to ground. Shauna had given in.
=====
Uriel walked out the entrance of the front gate and crossed the road to get to Aly. She found the woman sitting in the weeds and cradling her knees. The fear of loss covered her face through the thick clunks of matted hair. Her chapped lips trembled, and clean streaks from her tears cut through her dirt-smudged cheeks.
“Y-You found him?” Aly sprang to her feet and reached her hands out to her child, prying him out of Uriel’s arms. She kissed him all over, and he started crying again from the over-stimulation.
“There were others that we couldn’t save.”
“And Shauna? Where is she?” Aly asked, rocking her child in her arms.
Shauna drug her feet through the thicket. She had gone to change out of the Polarist clothes, back into her sari. “They won’t be killing anymore children.”
“Th-They were killing the babies?” The woman embraced her son even tighter. She had almost lost him, and these two women had saved his life. “I’m so grateful for what you did.”
“You should be fine if you keep off the roads and if you can keep that baby from crying.” Uriel nodded and started off, leaving Aly in the bushes. Shauna followed her. Uriel changed her clothes and they both headed north towards Glygen where Governor Rian lived. Stopping a few miles outside of Arenn, they set up camp for the night.
The moonlight rested on them even though they did not light a fire. The terrain was hard and dry, but the Polarist clothes that they brought with them made for soft cushions.
“You really killed them, huh?” Uriel asked, drawing her knees up to her chest as she sat.
“I wish.”
“What? I heard the screams.”
“I made them rough each other up pretty badly, but they’re still breathing, except two or three.” Shauna turned to look at Uriel. “They tried to fight back.”
“See, you can control yourself in the Hellstate.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I just have my ways of dealing with it.”
“Seems to be working. What kept you from killing the others? Even without a Hellstate, I would have loved to watch them all die.”
“Thinking about what you said, about how every kill makes the Hellstate stronger, made me fight against it. But I’m losing my grasp, like a dagger that’s being slowly pulled out my hand.”
“You’ll make it.” Uriel leaned back against a tree, still hugging her knees. “Shauna?”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you used to hate us so much, the Triage?”
Shauna sighed and lay back on the Polarist coat. “I used to love connecting with the spirits. But I had to work at it. I knew them, and they knew me. You three, and people like you, were evil and twisted.”
“Why though?”
“It seemed like a dark manipulation of spiritual power, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.” Shauna laughed a bit. “Now I see how hard it is to give it up once you’re in it.”
“You and I used to be such great friends until you found out about my Hellstate.”
“I was selfish, and I didn’t realize how terrible the Hellstate was, so I didn’t care what happened to any of you. But this Hellstate is darker than I thought. Seeing all those children in Arenn really showed me how evil people can be, with or without a Hellstate. I can’t be like that. I have to fight this.”
“That’s why we need to find Rian.”
“No need. Caleb’s already been, and from his emotions, I can tell that Rian can’t be persuaded. We need to find Caleb. That’s going to be the best chance the Spiritualists have to survive.”
“And you know where Caleb is?”
“Without a doubt. He’s in Juten right now, and it feels like they are planning to come back to Clydenholm for some kind of mission. What the mission is, I’m not sure.”
“What about Yael? She will have expected us to have spoken to Rian.”
“I’m going to send word back to her that we went to him, but he still refused.”
“And what about Caleb? You’re not going to kill him, but Yael will expect him to be dead.”
“I’m not concerned about that. I’m just going to make her think we did what we could.”
Uriel kicked her her legs out in front of her. “What did you think about Aly? She seemed to be like the other crazed Spiritualists that I’ve run into over the last few weeks.”
“The Hellstate really had a hold on her. When I pulled the spirits from her, I could hear what they were saying about her, and it me made me realize how evil this lifestyle is.”
“What kinds of things were they saying?”
“It wasn’t necessarily what they were saying. But I could tell that she wanted the Polarists to be killed more than she wanted her son back. You and I both saw how much she loved her son, but the spirits had so much control over her that they were making her think that she wanted the death of those guards more than she wanted her son. I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”
“Just keep fighting,” Uriel said.
=====
The morning came on the two ladies, and they slept longer than they had intended. The battle from the night before had worn them out. They traveled to the coast of Kyhelm and sailed east towards Juten. Shauna didn’t know exactly where the island was located, but she followed Caleb’s spirit.
It was already past the evening when they landed onshore. The stone gate lowered, and the archers kept their arrows pointed at the two ladies in the boat. A man raised his hand to the archers to call them off, and one by one they stepped back from the wall. The man’s smile was huge and it didn’t falter. Shauna smiled back, but she couldn’t hold a grin as long as this man could.
“I see you ladies made it back okay,” Ethan said.
“We did. But it’s been a hard few days,” Shauna replied.
Ethan kept smiling even after the pleasantries subsided. “Well hop on my wagon. We’ll take you to Caleb. I’m sure that’s where you’re headed anyway. Nara, slide over some so the ladies can have some room.”
Nara fixed her straight, pale blonde hair with her fingertips. “I can’t make any more room than I already have.”
Ethan looked at the two ladies and whispered. “You don’t mind riding in the back of the cart do you? You know how these pregnant women can be.”
Shauna and Uriel climbed into the back of the cart, but they faced the front so that they could talk with Nara and Ethan. “How long have you been pregnant?” Shauna asked blankly.
“Five months. I thought you’d be happy for me.” Nara fixed her dress rubbed her belly.
“I am. Can't you tell?” Shauna forced a fake smile, but she genuinely was glad for Nara.
“I’ll take that as your congratulations.”
Ethan talked over his shoulder to the two ladies. “Arthur said that we could live out The Exodus here so that I could go through it with her, since we lost Almira. You ladies look beat up,” Ethan said as he snapped the reigns.
“We just found out about the Polarists running experiments on the Spiritualist babies,” Uriel replied, holding onto the edge of the carriage.
“What kinds of exper
iments?” Nara asked.
“The kinds that kill.”
Nara fixed her clothes and stared straight ahead. “Raylen has no boundaries.”
“Valenheid is crying out for better leadership,” said Shauna.
After a few hours, they arrived at the Southern Sector and found Caleb. He was organizing the last squadron of people to take off for Clydenholm for the next day. He barked out orders to the soldiers and gripped his bow tightly as he directed them. When he saw Shauna, he stopped what he was doing and gave her his full attention.
“I’m glad you made it back alive,” he said.
Shauna shifted her neck a bit, smiling but only partly. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
“What brings you here?” he asked.
Nara rubbed her bulging belly as the child inside her moved around. “Shauna says that the Polarists are running experiments on the Spiritualists.”
Ethan helped Nara out of the carriage, and he tied the cart down so the horses wouldn’t leave. Shauna and Uriel stepped out of the carriage also.
“The Polarists were trying to infuse the infants with Spiritualist stones,” said Shauna.
“What! What happened to the babies?” Caleb asked.
Uriel shook her head slowly. “They’re all gone….”
Caleb ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his forehead with his palm. “Raylen. Raylen. Raylen. He better hope that Shahrach kills him before I do.”
“Any idea why the children died from the infusion?” Shauna asked.
“Jensen was explaining to me earlier how the stones work,” Caleb replied sighing. “The body rejects other stones. The Spiritualist infants must have still been in the stage where they were young enough to accept a stone, but their bodies could only receive Spiritualist stones. Any other emblem would have made them react violently.”
“We can’t let Raylen keep doing this,” Shauna said.
“Several squadrons will be going to the mainland tomorrow to distribute the toxin to the Spiritualists. Could you come with us?”
“There’s no way to reason with the Spiritualists. Most of them are too far-gone from the Hellstate,” Shauna said.
“You think Yael will help?” Caleb asked.
Shauna looked away to keep from letting Caleb know what Yael had asked her to do. “I’m not sure how to find her.”
“Couldn’t we check Fairlow?”
“Yael moves around a lot.”
Caleb ordered a few more Pioneers to grab their gear as they bustled through the Housing Ward of the Southern Sector. “We’ll have to figure that out when we get there. Right now, this is our only solution. Ethan, you’re welcome to come too even though Nara can’t. We sure could use that bow of yours.”
“I don’t reckon I’ll go this time. I’ve got my own life to protect right here.” Ethan rubbed his wife’s stomach.
“I hoped you’d say that,” Nara replied. She kissed him, and he helped her back into the cart.
Caleb instructed the Pioneers to gather their last few items and head towards the stone gate. “Move out!”
Caleb headed towards the gate himself, directing the different squadrons from the Southern Sector. When he arrived at the gate, Uriel and Shauna rode along with him to Clydenholm. They set out for the southeastern most tip of Broughtonhaven, so that they could infiltrate the province from the south to the north, alerting the Spiritualists along the way telling them how to resist the Domination.
The moonlight navigated them through the night over the seas. This was the first armada that Caleb had been a part of, since he was not with the Pioneers when they sailed over to assist against the Voids.
The gentle sounds of oars raked through the waves as they toted hundreds of leathery flasks containing the first shipment of the toxins to the mainland. Sarai’s boat was several canoes away from his, but he could see the starlight illuminating her admirable features even from afar. He longed to be with her even more than before, but there seemed to be something that he was missing or something that he wasn’t doing right. Maybe she just didn’t like him at all. Whatever it was, he longed to know. But he felt like he already had his answer since she had alluded to her lack of interest in him.
Sitting in the back of the thick-hulled canoe, Caleb rowed without requesting that the ladies assist him with the rowing. Not one to forgo her responsibilities, Uriel grabbed the other oar and rowed along with him. Shauna sat at the front of the boat facing them with her head in her hands, hair draped over her fingers.
“What is it, Shauna?” Caleb asked, snapping out of his reverie.
She dragged her fingers down her face and brushed them over her legs within her golden sari. “My people,” she said solemnly. “These toxins will never work until we can get the Spiritualists to work together. Right now, they’re scattered about like seeds over a barren field.”
“We have the toxin, and we can distribute it to them,” Caleb replied, forcing his words out through each of his rowing efforts. “That's when the Spiritualists will work together, and then we can finally end the Polarists’ occupation of Broughtonhaven.”
“Are you listening? There is no Broughtonhaven without the Spiritualists. Most of them barely know their own names. The spirits are gaining control over my people the more that they feed into the Hellstate. This toxin can't do anything for them.”
“Well if we use the toxin around the Spiritualists, then they won’t be able to connect with the spirits. That’ll clear their minds just long enough for them to fight back.”
Shauna put her hands on her knees and shook her head slowly. “It’s not that simple. The spirits are a veil over their eyes that blinds them. The spirits are doing them a favor.”
“It’s the spirits that are killing them!” Caleb yelled, still rowing.
“Partly, but if it weren’t for the spirits, you’d see the true terror of my people. The Hellstate is their way of fighting back, even though it’s the wrong way. Taking away the Hellstate will do nothing but show the fear that they’re hiding. The spirits are their one weapon, and if you take that weapon from them, it has to be replaced with something.”
“Shauna, you should trust me. The toxin will work.”
“Caleb, how is it that you are both impressive and disappointing at once? The Spiritualists have been living with the spirits for centuries, even before the emblems were discovered. We've been communicating with the spirits for the past one hundred years. What you are saying is that we should remove their one hundred year-old weapon and give them some new piece of equipment that they have never used before. That’s insane. You sound almost as deranged as the Spiritualists themselves.”
Caleb slowed his rowing, water trickling against his oar and sloshing against the boat, but then he picked up the slack realizing that he needed to keep pace with the fleet. “Maybe that’s why your people are falling into the Hellstate.”
“Are you calling my people cowards?”
“I'm only saying what I see.”
“How dare you?” Shauna tossed her hands in the air in frustration, and then she crossed her arms. “My people have been fighting for their dignity ever since the discovery of the stones, the very stones that we discovered through our mining efforts, the stones that no other region, including the Pioneers, would have been able to use if it weren’t for our discovery. Yet somehow, ever since that discovery, we have been treated as the province that everyone hates. And for what?”
“It’s more than—”
“I’m not done!” she interrupted. “It is because our region is the one that is the most misunderstood. We are labeled the necropaths, amidst all the other foul names, just because we have the burden of talking with the spirits. And you have the nerve to call us cowards? I thought I knew you, Caleb. But maybe I was wrong.”
Caleb rowed harder, and Uriel sat by and listened, still rowing on pace with Caleb. “It’s more than what you’re saying. Your people aren’t the only cowards. So are the Polarists, and the Material
ists, and the Naturalists for that matter. Whenever someone from the mainland is in trouble, or whenever there is a decision to be made, what do you do? What does anyone do? You ask your emblem first. Sounds like a coward to me.”
The moonlight reflected off of Shauna’s teary eyes, and she pressed her finger into her chest. “This is all I have. What else is there? Yes, I ask my emblem. You want to know why? Because whenever I asked Wex or Arthur or my father or anyone else, this is what they pointed to. And look who I am because of it.”
“What would you do without that stone?” he asked harshly. “You’d probably do the same thing that I did when I was extracted. You’d ball up in a corner and wish for a death that would never come. And why? Because death would certainly have to be better than living without the emblem. Or at least I thought.”
“You’re no different. Sarai’s been trying to tell you how selfish you are, and you don’t listen. You just keep doing things your way, and you wonder why she doesn’t want to be with you.”
Caleb stopped rowing and sat up quickly, oars banging against the side of the canoe. “How did you know about that?” he asked, pointing at her. “Did Sarai tell you? You have no right meddling in my business.”
“Doesn’t matter how I know. It’s true isn’t it? You’re just as much of a coward as you say that my people are because you’re still hiding behind the stone that you don’t even have anymore.”
“Who do you think you are!” He jerked the oar back intensely, and Uriel had to pick up her pace to keep up. “I’m not a coward, and I’m not selfish. Everyone knows that it was because of me that the mainland was saved. I was the one who mobilized the Pioneers, I was the one who found out what Wex was doing with the extracted stones, and I was the one who killed Wex – the same Wex who nearly wiped out the entire Naturalist army. Don't talk to me about being a coward.”
Shauna crossed her legs and kicked her foot rapidly while still keeping her arms crossed. “Sounds like the pleas of a coward to me. What other kind of person talks about how he did all these magnificent things by himself except for a lonely, selfish, coward like yourself?” A sly grin eased onto her lips. “I think I know you a lot better than you’ll admit. You lost your green stone, and you decided to replace it with an invisible one…pride.”
Infused (Book 2 of The Pioneers Saga) Page 26