by Thomas Green
Beatrice gulped. “Nothing… sir.”
“Then move.” He prodded the horse forward, taking another one by the reins to lead it. Zoey, Beatrice, and her soldiers followed, none of them capable of forming a word as the mountain collapsed upon itself behind them.
***
They rode through the night before stopping by a stream amidst the Central Plains to allow the horses to rest. Lucas walked downstream not to taint the water and started washing the dried blood off himself.
Zoey approached the riverbank, her step light, and her posture cautious. “What was that?”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“At the temple, I followed you. Those spells… what the hell was that?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t used my strength in a while, so I needed to flex it.”
She shook her head. “That wasn’t flexing. You used so much aether I can feel the difference by merely standing next to you. Wasting that much strength on something you could have done more easily is unlike you.”
He smiled. “I see you still take spying on me seriously.”
“And I’m not sure what to do with it. You may pretend it’s unrelated, but your teleportation is the same soulstep that pureblood Sil Haen use. Plus, I know the punch you used on the gate.”
Lucas’ heart sped up, forcing him to bite his tongue for his face not to twist into a stupid, happy grin. “Do you?”
“I saw Sibyl turn a small mountain into dust with it once. She called it the Starkiller Punch, and I’m sure Astril can also do it.”
“It’s a general technique, so anyone can learn it with enough practice. Did they tell you where it comes from?”
“Sibyl told me it’s named after an archangel who destroyed a star with a single punch. I thought that was bullshit, yet now I’m not so sure, especially when I see how hard you are trying to hide how happy hearing this makes you.”
She’s become good at reading me. Lucas sighed. “How about you go to be overly perceptive somewhere else?”
“Why waste time going elsewhere when I’m already here? Plus, I haven’t yet gotten to the part I couldn’t help but notice you used the same spell our Queen loved to cast, what was its name… Sphere of Annihilation?”
So they have learned my techniques… He didn’t bother to hide the happiness that soared through him. Perhaps, in the end, my art doesn’t have to die with me. “Now, what are you going to do with this knowledge?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know yet. But I’m sure I will one day find a use for it. Anyway, to the more interesting part.” Her face twisted into a devilish smile. “In the temple, you were beating out your emotions, weren’t you?”
She’s become far too good at this. He laughed, waving the idea off. “You are overanalyzing it.”
“Nice try to pivot, but it won’t work on me.” Zoey rubbed her chin. “I suppose this answers the question of why you made the truce with Kayleanne. You don’t care about your soldiers, not when the losses count few hundreds, so it must be something else. It’s the girl, isn’t it? The one you spoke to the next day… what was her name… Luna?”
He gave her a stern look, his expression hardening to a mask of steel.
Zoey stepped next to him, her knees disappearing into the river as she leaned onto his shoulder. “Oh, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What’s your point then?”
“I’m curious what it’s like to stand here, washing off the blood after a mission, knowing she’s probably getting shagged by Raven as we speak.”
He turned his gaze away from her, focusing on washing his tunic.
“Picture it.” Zoey leaned to his ear. “He would be on top, leaning onto her, his hips—”
His hand bolted to Zoey’s throat, grabbing it into a steel grip as he raised her up, her feet dangling above the water. She clawed at his hand, kicked at him, her boots bouncing off his strengthened body like legs of a mosquito from a stone wall. As his grip kept strangling the air out of her, Lucas turned his gaze to her, meeting her desperate look. “Weigh your words carefully, spy.”
He let her go. She fell into the river, gasping for breath, staring at him with her eyes full of terror. As he glared down at her, he heard the bellowing call of Beatrice’s alarm horn. Lucas spun to dash out of the river to return to the horses. Beatrice stood by the side with a bronze spyglass by her eye while the sailor next to her was putting a horn away from her lips.
Without a word, Lucas motioned her to hand over the spyglass. She did, and he gazed where she pointed. The horizon lay swallowed by a cloud of dust below which an army of horsemen rode. Their banners carried the blue crest of the crane.
He did a quick count, estimating them to number at least a thousand riders. Lucas returned the spyglass. “Everyone take a fresh horse, for we are heading east, now!”
They all obeyed and mounted their horses while he noticed Zoey returning to the company. Lucas sighed. Wrong choice. She was supposed to leave at this point.
He shook his head to clear it and led the unit east. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw the humongous griffin of Kayleanne flying high in the sky, watching them from a safe distance.
Their horses are fresher than ours so we won’t outrun them. Lucas calculated the distances. “Canter!”
Their entire company led the horses in a canter. He kept checking how Kayleanne’s force was approaching. When the blue banners reached the distance where he could see them clearly, he shouted, “switch horses!”
He grabbed the horse he led next to him and swung onto it. Around him, the entire company did the same. He glanced a soldier falling off the horse. He soulstepped to her, threw her onto the fresh horse and soulstepped back to his horse. Those who executed the maneuver picked up those who fell, leaving no one behind.
He kicked the horse. “Gallop!”
Their pursuers disappeared behind them while, in the slightly descended valley ahead of them, sat a river with a half-broken galleon anchored in the middle.
“Form a four-horse-wide column!” He ordered and took the front with Beatrice next to him. As the black-sailed galleon approached, everyone could now see the ramp built on its sides.
The wood creaked beneath the hoofs of their horses, but they ran up the ramp, onto the galleon, across its deck and down on similar ramps to the other bank of the fifty-foot-wide river.
Camped on the other shore, Lieutenant Redeye and his company awaited them, sitting around a large campfire, burning torches ready in their hands. When the last of their horses crossed, Lieutenant Redeye and his men rushed onto the galleon and broke the prepared barrels of oil, letting the liquid drench the ship.
Before their pursuers arrived, they threw the torches, setting the vessel ablaze. As Lucas watched the boat burn, he pulled a cigar out of his soul chamber and lit it by the fire.
Captain Hellwind, Lieutenant Redeye, and Luna stepped to his side, all performing crisp salutes. “Sir!”
Lucas blew out the smoke from his lungs. “Good work. Have your men get used to their horses. We take a four-hour rest here and then head northeast. They won’t catch up to us today.”
Beatrice clicked her tongue. “Isn’t there a bridge couple of miles north?”
“Follow me.” Lucas led them north. The bridge entered their view, yet as they approached closer, they saw the endless string of people crossing it from east to west, reaching from one horizon onto the other.
The cigar in his mouth never tasted as well as now when he watched the endless horde of refugees from the east marching across the bridge to Kayleanne’s lands. “They will be busy sorting this out. In the meantime, we circle through the east toward the dam that sits atop this river and destroy it. The flood will seal all bridges aside from this one, trapping Kayleanne’s and Ebilezerhar’s army on the other side of the river.”
Luna gulped while the lieutenant turned to Lucas. “I suppose that’s what the black orb you had us deliver is f
or, sir.”
He nodded. “Indeed. It has a massive amount of aether sealed within. When destabilized, it will create an equally large explosion, which should be more than sufficient to destroy the dam.”
“Roger, sir.” The lieutenant spun, returning to his men while the captain and Luna stared at the scene, pale and speechless.
Lucas found a quiet spot by a tree and sagged down, resting. Within moments, Zoey sat down next to him, throwing him a sour smile. “Out of all your attempts to get rid of me, this one was the best.”
“What do you mean?”
“That strangling was as fake as they get, but it still got me terrified for a moment.” She smiled. “I haven’t felt such intense fear in decades. It’s so strange how many feelings one forgets by living for too long. Anyway, what are you planning so bad you tried it?”
“That’s a military secret.”
24
Luna
After Luna left Lucas’ side, she returned to Nancy, who was sitting propped against a root, playing with a string of beads in her hand. Luna sat down next to her, offering her the most encouraging smile he managed.
Nancy sighed. “He gave me these beads.”
Tears shot to Luna’s eyes when she heard her voice after the four days of silence. She wrapped her arm over Nancy’s shoulder and pulled her to herself.
Nancy’s face started twisting into a smile but didn’t make it halfway, slackening back to the depressed expression she had been wearing since Daniel died. She kept staring at the beads. “I want to put them on his grave.”
Luna rose and helped her to her feet. They walked to the patch of trees where the grave lay. On wobbly legs, Nancy knelt above it and put down the beaded bracelet. “It’s not right.”
Luna stepped next to her, catching her around the shoulders, seeing tears sparkle in Nancy’s eyes. “I know.”
“Then why aren’t you doing anything?” Nancy pierced her with a glare. “You were supposed to help him. To fight when he couldn’t. You said you would, but when it mattered, you didn’t, and he died. And you do nothing about it.”
Luna’s heart froze, staring at the endless sadness and hatred pouring out of Nancy’s eyes. She searched for words but found none.
Nancy collapsed into her arms, bursting into tears. “I’m sorry… I had no right to say that.”
Luna sat down by the tree, Nancy drenching her chest. Luna stroked her hair as Nancy cried herself to sleep. Hollow, she kissed Nancy’s forehead. “I will make it right.” She put her to the side and snuck away from the camp, heading for the flood of refugees.
The beast huffed into her mind. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
Avenging Daniel.
‘You cannot kill Kayleanne.’
Not in a straight fight. But like Lucas and Raven, she has to sleep and, as Raven said, strengthening the body with aether the way she does takes time.
‘You will get yourself killed.’
Luna ignored the beast, stepping into the stream of people. Starved and battered, they were a mixture of all genders and ages. She weaved among them, grabbing a long, stitched up cloak from a woman sleeping on a cart. Luna disappeared before anyone could stop her. As she advanced, she grabbed an old hat from a man and another torn cloak from a side of a wagon. She moved through the middle of the crowd, blending in.
The gate of Spalding stood open with the refugees flowing inside while Kayleanne flew on her griffin above them, returning to her home. Luna traced her with her eyes, seeing her heading to a high-towered palace. With rage swelling within her, Luna entered the city. The garrison was doing its best to organize the inflow of people, directing them into sections of the town not to overflow one and to distribute food. Tall, well-kept houses of stone and wood towered by the sides of the roads.
Were she to be sightseeing, Luna would have stopped at how beautiful the city was, but she was here with a different purpose. The guard passed her for a stranger, directing her toward the western district. Once she left their sight, she entered a side alley, aiming for the palace. She arrived at a large square.
Above the people flooding the square stood a statue of marble, a giant image of Kayleanne, towering victoriously above a monster of fur, fangs, and claws. Luna instantly recognized the creature the statue displayed. A werewolf.
Enthralled by the first depiction of someone of her own kind she had ever seen, Luna stepped to the statue. After long minutes of staring, she searched for a plaque. The one she found read, Lady Kayleanne, the Hero of Spalding. May her rule be eternal.
Luna gaped at the plaque. Hero? The demon princess is called a hero? Her eyes darted around the square. The guards wore well-arranged armor, the local people were dressed in clean clothes and trying to help the refugees. The houses stood unharmed, and the Palace was more a fortress than a decoration with crenellations atop each wall and tower. She saw not a single hint of abuse or tyranny.
The beast within her soul seeped into her mind. ‘Nobody will help you kill her.’
I need no help. Luna whirled from the statue, diving into the crowd, taking a trip by the palace walls. If they ever experienced a battle, they bore no sign. The old bricks forming the wall would have been easy to climb even if they weren’t covered by ivy. Luna observed the guards, mapping their patrol pattern within her mind.
The scarce watch proved to be easy to find holes in. As she figured it would be trivial to sneak through the palace when everyone was busy outside, she found a suitable spot by the wall and prepared to scale it.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted movement. Luna whirled, muscles clenched. A few feet away from her stood Nancy, covered by a tattered cloak, her eyes wide.
Luna stepped to her, staring. “What are you doing here?”
Nancy dashed to her, catching her in a hug. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
In disbelief, Luna wrapped her arms around her. “You weren’t—” A sharp burst of pain from her stomach stopped Luna’s words. She stumbled backward, watching blood drip from a dagger Nancy held in her hand. “What?”
Nancy shrugged. “Give it a moment.”
“Give what a moment?” Luna’s knees wobbled. She shifted her weight not to fall, but the poison was draining her strength at an incredible speed. She tried to stretch her fingers into claws but failed as her aether didn’t respond. The beast’s spirit offered no answer when she called. Luna collapsed to the ground, staring at Nancy’s calm face as the toxin robbed her of movement, of hearing, of sight, and of consciousness.
***
The senses returned to Luna. Her eyes flung open, seeing Kayleanne wrapped in thick furs lying on a bed placed five feet before her, reading a book. Luna’s eyes darted around. With her heartbeat hastening, she realized she stood in a wood-clad room with a simple table, a bed, a single chair, three wardrobes, and a fireplace. Her legs were caught in shackles and held apart by a metal bar. Her hands were fixed similarly, shackled and spread apart by a bar while her fingers were trapped in steel braces that forced them to remain closed into fists. A chain connected the upper bar to the ceiling, making Luna stand spread into an x shape while her toes barely touched the ground. She was naked.
As the heat of flames coming out of the nearby fireplace seeped into her body, she pierced Kayleanne with a glare. “Where is Nancy?”
Kayleanne raised her eyes from the book titled Temptation of Jade and met Luna’s stare. “You sure have a way to introduce yourself. I’m Kayleanne.”
Luna gritted her teeth and reached for her power. Nothing. Her aether lay sealed within her heart, outside her grasp. Rage flared through her, searing and bright. “Did you poison me?”
Kayleanne sighed. “This is going to be very tedious.” She grabbed the book to reopen it.
“Let me go!” Luna shouted, struggling against the binds. In vain. Kayleanne remained silent, reading the book. Luna fought against the irons for a good while longer, achieving nothing. “All right, what do you want from me? And why am
I naked?”
Kayleanne kept reading. “Could you give me a moment? Jade’s busy tearing the clothes off this hot boy who’s been chasing her for the whole book, and I want to know how that will go.”
Luna stared at her, mouth gaping. She examined Kayleanne and realized she was wrapped in a single, gargantuan fur while the huddled demon princess wore no visible clothes. “Are you naked?”
Kayleanne smiled. “Maybe.”
Luna blinked a few times and shook her head, finding no words.
Kayleanne frowned. “And so they got interrupted by the boy’s cousin, who has a secret crush on him.” She put the novel aside. “Since Jade’s not getting what she wanted, I wonder if you wouldn’t be more cooperative.”
“I will not tell you anything.”
Kayleanne shrugged. “I figured. Yet I feel obliged to point out that if you don’t tell me what Lucas’ next move is willingly, I will have it extracted from you.”
Luna’s cheeks reddened. “You can torture me all you want, but I will never betray my friends.”
Kayleanne shook her head. “So I thought myself, once, and yet I broke like a wine glass dropped from a balcony when they tortured me.” A flash of nostalgia flashed through her eyes. “Anyway, with that solved, we’ve got a moment to chat. How much can you shift?”
Luna blinked a few times. “Where does that come from?”
“Haven’t you seen the statue in the square? You aren’t the first werewolf I’ve met, and I’m curious if that was it when we fought or if you were just having a bad day.”
“A bad day?” Luna shouted. “Yeah, you murdering my friends in front of me was worse than a bad day!”
Kayleanne shrugged. “What? I was hoping you would shift more so we could have a good fight, but you didn’t. So I cut down the priest-boy to motivate you, but you still didn’t. That was disappointing.”
She killed him because of me. Tears shot to Luna’s eyes as her insides froze. She stared at her, mouth gaping. Because I wasn’t strong enough to as much as entertain her.