Heirs of Eternity (Euphoria Duology Book 1)

by Franc Ingram

  100101

  Travelling through Caledon was like traveling in an artist's representation of the perfect landscape. Dirt paths blended into graveled roads wide enough for two carts to pass each other safely. Gently rolling hills dotted the landscape, peppered with delicate blooming flowers.

  If it wasn’t for the weight of thick leather armor with its metal reinforcements dragging her shoulders down, and the tension of those around her, Daycia could have believed she was going on a leisurely stroll through the countryside.

  They passed several small villages with no incidents and Daycia started to hope that the yetis had retreated back into the hills where they belonged. Daycia started to believe she would reunite with Oleana, providing the support the Heirs needed. A panicked shriek cut through the air, dispelling all such hopes.

  “Yetis?” Zyair asked.

  Daycia nodded her head. What else could it be?

  “Do we fight?”

  Daycia looked back at the line of troops behind them. More than a hundred men and women were following. They had joined to fight, agreeing to leave their homes behind and throw in with the Heirs of Eternity, and a better future. They weren’t crossing the realm to put down a few yetis. They were there to change the future.

  “We split up. Ten come with us, Paley you lead the rest to Central City. We will catch up.”

  “I don’t want to leave you,” Paley objected, her eyes so stubborn.

  “This is more important. They need to get to Central City. I need you to do this.”

  Paley nodded. Zyair picked his men. Daycia gave Paley one last look before following Zyair and his group toward the noise. Daycia didn’t want to fight but one always seemed to find her.

  Over the first hill Daycia drew up short, not able to believe what her eyes were seeing. She saw a sea of red, but not in the way she had expected. Twenty men and women were rounding up a pack of the yetis that had invaded the farming town nestled in the valley. Daycia never thought she would see the day when ten yetis could be herded together like docile sheep.

  At the heart of the soldiers was a woman on horseback. Daycia smiled thinking it to be Oleana, then she saw the long dark hair spilling over the woman’s breastplate. She looked to be the same height as Oleana, and same lean build, but it was not Oleana.

  One of the yeti broke through the containment ring. Zyair charged forward, his built-up momentum nearly carrying him through the yeti. Instead, the beast got a face full of horseflesh. Daycia was quick on his heels. When the yeti found its feet, red streaming down its face, Daycia finished it off with a sharp blow to the head with her baton. The dull thud of metal against bone rattled Daycia down in her teeth. The yeti hit the ground like a felled tree.

  “Nice job,” the mystery woman said, pulling up beside them. Her horse snorted as if to say he wasn’t as impressed.

  “Looks like you have the situation under control,” Daycia replied looking around. The rest of the yetis were sufficiently corralled. A few of the villagers were brave enough to venture forth from the wooden building they had taken shelter in.

  The more she saw of the place, the more Daycia realized the little border town would look just as at home in Arismas. Caledon was supposed to be the land of glass and steel, yet most of the houses in front of her had thatched roofs and wooden siding. Seeing such familiar things let Daycia start to feel that the outside world wasn’t as strange and unknowable as she had feared.

  “This is the third group we’ve run into,” the woman said, sliding down of her mount with the grace of dancer. She flicked her hair out of her face, exposing her startlingly sharp green eyes. “They’re getting harder to control. Any help we can get is much appreciated.”

  “We are at your service my lady,” Zyair said. Daycia cut him a stern look. The yeti problem couldn’t distract them. Oleana needed them. “Where are my manners? Daycia of Solon, let me introduce you to Lady Lillian Starson, first lady of Caledon.”

  Daycia smiled. “We were actually on our way to see you and your husband. We brought some help.”

  Lillian looked past Daycia to the ten men lined up behind her. “Your communication said a contingent of troops. Thanks for the help, but ten men aren’t going to solve our problems.”

  “The rest are headed for Central City. We didn’t want them getting sidetracked,” Daycia explained.

  “Well you couldn’t have come at a better time. We are stretched thin. I’ve been doing my best to keep things under control, but with so many of our troops gone it's hard to keep up.”

  Daycia looked around. “I don’t understand, where is Nadir? Where’s Oleana? And the other Heirs?”

  “They’re on the march to Evermore.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: SPLIT

  “I haven’t been part of a squad in over thirty years,” Oleana said, trying to scratch her head through her new helmet.

  Lysander nodded, barely listening. His mind was on fire trying to sort through all his conflicting thoughts. The current crisis forced him into action without a moment to consider all that happened last week.

  Now on the slow march to the border, with the wild zone, was the first time he got to turn his thoughts inwards since he’d been cured. Even then he could still feel the tendrils of the others’ minds wrapped around his own, like some phantom limb. Lysander felt a faint melancholy when thinking about how big his world had been when joined to them, the power he tasted.

  The march to Evermore brought its own type of stress. Everyone tried to stay on high alert but after two days of inactivity, even the most seasoned soldier found it hard to remain tense. Lysander’s mind wandered, dreaming up future dangers and, mourning the life left behind.

  He feared that the reset had changed him in some fundamental way. He waited for the new version of himself to seize control and banish him to some deep dark abyss where he became an observer of his own life. Oleana tried to assure him that it wasn’t a shift in personality, just a reset of his body. Lysander didn’t know if he could trust what she said. Their melding of personalities left its own shadows.

  When he looked at his mother, he loved her as his mother, the same as always, but he also held some jealousy toward her and the life she’d managed to secure for herself. He knew those alien feelings were Oleana talking, but knowing in his head didn’t make the emotion in his heart any less powerful. Separating his truth from the ghosts of the other Heirs clinging to his insides proved harder than Oleana once claimed it would be.

  Lysander had to admit the change in his body was significant. He’d always felt awkward in his own body. No matter how hard he trained, how disciplined he became, his body didn’t respond the way he wanted it to. Lysander couldn’t put words to what the change was in himself, but he felt different, whole for the first time.

  “Troops spotted eastward,” came the call down the ranks.

  Lysander panned right to confirm the sighting. The fire squad soldier had good eyes. Lysander caught the dim outline of movement downhill as heavy feet kicked up the dirt as they moved.

  “Tighten ranks. Shields on the eastward,” Lysander ordered. The command made it down the line and the members of his squad moved seamlessly into their new positions.

  “Looks like Ivar’s men,” Oleana said peering out her brass binoculars. She swung her gaze along the horizon. “No sign of the yetis.”

  “How many are we looking at?” Lysander asked. He needed to know whether it was more feasible to fight it out and eliminate the threat, or try to outrun his foe.

  “Ummm, crap. Incoming,” Oleana responded.

  Lysander looked up to see the mass of arrows hit the peak of their arch before heading back down toward them. The line of soldiers tightened around him, forcing him to rub shoulders with Oleana and others. The shielders lifted their namesakes high, blocking his view. Lysander flattened his body low over his mount and put his free hand over the back of his neck, hoping the dragon scale armor would protect him if anything got through.

  Arrows beat a
gainst the line of shields like pebbles against a brick wall. Lysander imagined himself being soothed by the rhythmic clacking if the circumstances were less deadly. He heard several cries of pain down the line but there was no room to look, or to attend the wounded until the onslaught was over. Lysander grit his teeth hoping whoever was hit could last until the break came.

  When the noise ebbed, the shields came down and the archers were ready to return fire. Ivar’s troops were in full retreat. Lysander staid his men knowing the enemy was out of lethal range. Letting arrows fly would be nothing more than a waste of ammo. Lysander cursed the cowardice of his enemy.

  “Report,” Nadir ordered from the head of the line.

  Lysander looked over his squad. One of his men suffered a small abrasion as an arrow slipped between the gap where the arm and chest piece met.

  “Moon reporting one minor,” Lysander yelled.

  The other squad leaders sounded off, “Two minor. No injuries. Three minor.” The attack seemed overall ineffective. Lysander questioned the purpose behind it.

  “Repair on the move,” Nadir ordered. The troops slid back into arrowhead configuration at a more cautious pace. Lysander pushed away his idle wondering and kept his eye on the horizon.

  100101

  The sun was waning, and with it Oleana’s patience. Five blitz attacks and the entire camp was feeling the strain. At first Oleana couldn’t see the reasoning behind the fight and run tactics. Now that her nerves were shot and her behind was chaffed from riding through the day without a break she saw the endgame, wear them down so they’d be easy to pick off when the real attack came.

  When Nadir finally called for a rest, Oleana collapsed against the fallen tree that she and the other members of her squad had made their seat. Every inch of her was sore and tired. They hadn’t eaten all day and she was starved, but didn’t feel up to expending the energy required to reach her saddle and search for what little food was left in her pack.

  The sun hung low in the sky throwing off bright orange and blue melting into a rich purple. The evening refused to die and all Oleana wanted was for night to fall so she could sleep. She didn’t even mind using the rotting bark as her pillow. All she needed was some quiet so she could curl up and drift off.

  “This isn’t working,” Leith said after plopping down in front of the fire. He pulled up his legs wrapping his arms around them and laid his head atop his knees.

  “Agreed,” Lysander said. He stood by his mount, tied to a nearby tree. He stripped his arm guards off and slung them over his horse. Red splotches dotted his olive skin. Oleana had areas she knew had the same chaffing but she chose not to examine them since there was nothing she could currently do for it.

  The smell of bitter sweat and desperation was thick enough to overcome the odor of damp mildew and rot that permeated the bank of trees. Trees, grass, and rounded hills stretched out around them in an endless teasing game, promising shelter was just over the next hill but never delivering.

  Oleana spent a lot of her life on the move, walking or riding from one place to another. Never before had she been so ready to find a comfortable place to just sit and stay. She didn’t care where it was, would have even agreed to live out the rest of her days in Solon with its bitter cold winters, as long as she didn’t have to keep running.

  “We present too big and slow a target,” Oleana said. “They attack and run before we have a chance to retaliate.”

  “What do you suggest we do about it?” Nadir asked coming up behind her.

  Oleana craned her head back to look him in the face and she heard her neck crack. It felt good, next she needed someone to walk on her back and relax the muscles there. Nadir’s face was taught and the big vein running through his forehead was throbbing. He took a long drag from his water canteen before looking down at Oleana. A drop of water splashed against her face which she quickly wiped away.

  The weight of her head soon strained tired muscles so she had to right herself. “We split.” Oleana said, more to herself than as an actual suggestion, but the volume control on her mouth wasn’t working. The others stared at her as if she were a stranger that wandered in. “What other choice do we have? We continue this way and wait for them to wear us down to the point that the next attack does serious damage, and they’ll come full force and wipe us out. Or, we change things up. Split into smaller groups. The change alone will slow them down. The next time they attack we can be just as quick with our own charge and make them think twice about coming after us.”

  “Coming after you,” Nadir corrected. “After you and Lysander, Leith and Lorn. That’s who they want. The rest of us are just getting in the way. We split up, what keeps them from barreling down on you with a massive force in the hopes that taking out one the Heirs is better than splitting up and trying to go after all of you?”

  “Let them come after me, then the rest of you will be safe to reach Evermore,” Oleana said. “I’ve been itching to fight since we started off, and moving in this giant convo is just stifling. They come after me and they’ll learn that I’m not to be messed with. They’ll regret getting in my way.”

  “And if they see Lorn as a more acceptable target, or Lysander, or Leith. What’ll you do then?”

  Oleana wanted something smart to reply to Nadir but she had nothing. Instead she looked at Lorn, Lysander, and Leith in turn. “If you have a better option now is the time to speak it.”

  Nadir sat next to her. He hung his head low, gazing into the fire as the tendrils of flame darted back and forth in the soft wind. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”

  Oleana caught the look of surprise that crossed Lysander’s face. Hearing those words from his father must have been hard but it was an important lesson for the future king to learn. “Being a good leader doesn’t always mean having all the answers. It means recognizing when someone else has a good idea and having the courage to acknowledge it,” Oleana said staring at Lysander.

  “Do you ever shut it off?” Nadir said.

  “What?”

  “That part of you that is the guardian. The part that can turn everything into a lesson to be learned. Watching you train my son in front of me is disconcerting.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep,” Oleana said. She rubbed at her face. “I’m tired and it just comes out.”

  “Thought it just me,” Leith said.

  “No, she does it to everyone. Try living with it for most of your life,” Lorn grumbled.

  “Try literally being her boss and getting lectured,” Nadir added. “Do you know how much of a pain it was to be her squad leader? My father tasked me with training her, and keeping an eye on her. This version may be a little mouthier than I remember Mira being, but the stubborn streak is just the same.”

  “You guys are amusing. I love the witty banter in the face of danger, but can we please get back on topic?” Oleana said.

  “Can’t we just sit here for two minutes and just enjoy the outdoors? Maybe eat something, and in the morning, we can make all the life and death decisions you want,” Lorn said.

  “Let's not worry ourselves with little things like reality. We can just sit here and joke while Ivar’s men move in to kill us. Or maybe the yetis will come and slaughter us in our sleep, make it quick and painless. Wouldn’t that be nice? Would you all be happy then?”

  “To answer your question,” Lorn said. “No, she never turns it off.”

  Oleana wanted to slap the smirk off her son. If he didn’t understand how important things were by now, he never would and she’d failed him. “Why do I even bother with any of you?”

  “I think we should split,” Lysander spoke suddenly, drawing everyone's attention. “Oleana has a point. We’re never going to be effective against them in our current state. The only way we have a chance is to split into smaller groups.” Lysander stared down at his feet. He picked at the scales on his chest plate, but no one spoke to interrupt him so he continued. “Look, there’s no good way for them to tell w
ho went in what direction, so they’ll be forced to come after all of us. There’s no way around it. Besides once we hit the marsh land it’s going to be impossible to keep this big a group together anyway.”

  “I don’t want you out of my sight,” Nadir insisted.

  “Dad, no offense, but my life was dangerous before it was confirmed that I’m the Master of Earth and all that entails. You’ve had to cope with it this long, there’s no reason to get jumpy now.”

  “You’re my son and I will always worry about you. There’s no stopping that. And having that title hanging over your head puts you in line for a level of danger that’s hard to even comprehend.” Nadir shook his head. “You have no idea. If it were up to me I would make you wear three layers of dragon scale from head to toe, and I would lock you up in a brick tower with a platoon of elites around you. But it's not up to me, so all I can do is worry.” He let out a ragged sigh that sounded like a piece of his soul had escaped.

  Oleana heard the hesitation in Nadir’s voice and she knew, before he did, that she’d won. “You can’t let that worry keep him from becoming what he needs to be,” Oleana said as an aside. She really couldn’t help herself.

  The hard look in Nadir’s eyes said he was wrestling with a decision. “Because you are my son, I trust you. We will split and meet up at Evermore.”

  “This way it should only take us about a day and a half to get there,” Oleana said.

  “Well then there’s no point in waiting to get started. We have a lot of things to get together before sunrise,” Nadir said.

  Oleana groaned. So much for getting sleep. She guessed she could sleep when she was dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: MARSH

  Oleana found herself looking out over a wide stretch of marsh too vast to see the end. She glanced up at the sky. It was well past the height of day. They had maybe three hours of good light left.