Darklight 5: Darktide

by Forrest, Bella

  It hadn’t been a full soul-light cycle since the Coalition had started and ended the quickest bloodless coup in history, and already the Hive had drastically changed. We had their strongest warriors on our side, demonstrating to everyone that we held the power in this situation, and although the elders were furious, there was nothing they could do but agree to evacuation.

  Part of me wanted to celebrate, but I knew that our victory was hollow. Some vampires, like Brand, would never be won over. Forcing people to go along with our plans wouldn't erase the tension or what had happened in that screaming match. We would have to watch our backs now.

  Earlier that morning, I’d gone with Dorian and Kono to speak with the elders. Pyma had refused to see us, exiting the council chamber as soon as we entered, so we proceeded with only Mox, Glim, and Mandola. We tried to assure the elders that we meant no harm and that our intentions for the Hive were positive. It was Kono's idea to ask for their help with oversight and organization of the archives for travel, in order to illustrate that we valued their input.

  The meeting went better than I expected. Mox was polite but wary. Glim and Mandola were resentful that they had been forced into a decision they so adamantly didn’t agree with but gave us information that we requested. It didn’t escape me, however, that they found plenty of time to make passive-aggressive remarks about how the Coalition fight against the Immortal Council was doomed.

  Lost in thought as the conversation continued around me, my gaze drifted to the corner of the room, where strange brassy limbs poked out from beneath a large linen sheet. It was the complex machine the Coalition makers had been toiling over day and night. Whenever I asked about its purpose, Reshi never said much about the strange contraption, saying that she wanted to finish it and ensure it would be of use before she formally added it to our list of viable resources. Whatever it was, the machine was more complicated than any other magic in the workshop. Charrek, the other makers, and the harvesters were resting at the moment, but Reshi insisted on helping us plan where we would go next once the move out of the Hive was complete.

  "Once the Hive is evacuated, we need to make a move on the hunters’ training camp by the tear," Dorian said.

  "You speak with a lot of confidence," Arlonne muttered doubtfully. “Why don’t we disappear into the wilds, gather forces and strength, then start our assaults on Itzarriol?”

  "We have to take the training camp," Dorian argued. "If we’re planning to send the artifacts, vampires, and humans through the tear, we need to ensure the hunters at the training camp, which is closer to the tear than we had assumed, don’t attack the evacuees while they’re vulnerable.”

  The evacuating groups would be placed on redbills. We’d load up the birds with refugees and priceless bundles of important relics and ancient documents. Some of the humans were escorting the group evacuating via the tear, not only because it was the only way the humans and redbills with their precious, historical burden could leave the plane, but so they could make contact with the Bureau once the group reached the Mortal Plane.

  “So why not just stand guard?” Zach asked. “Why pour everything into taking over this training camp?”

  “Because, “Dorian said, leaning in, his eyes intense, “we know that camp is where hunters are trained to go out and capture the creatures used to terrorize the Mortal Plane at Irrikus’s behest. If we can conquer that location, it removes one of the Immortal Council's most important resources.”

  “It would stop the monster attacks on the Mortal Plane,” Gina said. “And we’ll be able to closely monitor the tear, which will make it much easier for us to move resources and people between the planes.”

  “Exactly,” Dorian said. “I’m also fairly confident that we might get access to the camp’s communications with the Immortal Council. I wouldn’t be surprised if the camp was connected to long-term plans with the revenants."

  “It’s very possible that whoever is in control of the revenants will already be operating from the camp, or will be in the near future,” Reshi said, carefully massaging her more dexterous set of hands with her larger pair. “The tethering magic they’re using to control the revenants is a delicate thing. Before I joined Juneau’s guild, my previous master often accepted commissions from hunters for the creation of a velek companion. The magic needed to tether the will of a lower-tier creature like a velek to a hunter via the focusing stone is incredibly complex. I can’t imagine how much more difficult it is to tether an intelligent being capable of higher, rational thought. If these revenants are in the Mortal Plane, I can practically guarantee that whoever they are tethered to will want to be where the barrier between the planes is weakest.”

  “Like a cell phone connection,” Zach muttered. “The stronger the connection, the better it works.”

  “I don’t know what a ‘cell phone’ is,” Reshi said wryly, “but in essence, yes.”

  It was a tempting target, but I was still wary about storming the hunters’ stronghold. During our last mission in Itzarriol, when Kane and Dorian had interrogated a guard to learn more about the hunters’ military structure, he’d told them that a large number of hunters were deployed near Vanim. They could have far greater numbers than we were anticipating, some high-ranking leaders, and possibly even monsters to defend the camp. On the other hand…

  "Taking it would give us a lot of control over the tear. Right now, it’s serving the hunters as both an offensive entry point to the Mortal Plane and the first line of defense when anyone comes through," I said.

  Kono, who was cleaning and checking one of the gauntlets, nodded. "If we can take the camp, we can establish our own Coalition territory for the warriors. We could use it as home base to house more vampires, wildlings, and any other castes who want to get involved, and even Bureau soldiers if your superiors would be willing to send reinforcements. We might have weapons and people interested in taking down Irrikus and the Immortal Council, but we don’t have anywhere to house them yet."

  Kane nodded. "It's close enough to Vanim that we can find good hiding places to retreat to. We know the wreckage of Vanim and the surrounding landscapes well enough. If we lose, we retreat there. More importantly, we'd be close enough to distract or fight off anyone trying to pursue the evacuees passing through the tear."

  My fellow Coalition members stared at the table. The air was somber. None of us wanted to do things this way, but there was no looking back now. We had to carry out the evacuation as soon as possible. The Immortal Council would send more hunters to find this place once they connected their missing hunters with the increased activity around Lake Siron.

  "I'm all for the plan to take the camp," Bryce said. “I only wish I could join you in the assault.”

  Arlonne gave him a look that appeared fierce on the surface but had a surprising level of tenderness to it. “You are going to help guard the archives and the most vulnerable vampires among us as they travel through the tear. There is no one I would rather have in charge of protecting the last remnants of my history.”

  Bryce grumbled brusquely in the way I knew meant he was trying to cover up how much her words had touched him. “Nonsense. You just want to keep all the glory for yourself.”

  She gave a sharp smile and tapped his sling gently with a fist. “You see through my plans.”

  After hours of talking, their good-natured wit was drawing our long discussion to a close. There were murmurs and rustlings around the table as others began to leave or start conversations in twos and threes. My body relaxed at the signs of the meeting’s conclusion. After everything, my head still ached, and there was a mental fog that I couldn't shake off. However, nobody had slept well after the dramatic events of the party, so we were all likely just running on not enough sleep.

  Kane stared ahead blankly, focused on something beyond us. He had refused to meet my eyes or speak to me throughout the meeting. A small, cowardly part of me was relieved that I didn’t have to discuss how yesterday had ended with him yet.

>   I knew that I’d badly mishandled the discovery of he and Roxy’s kiss, but given the chaos that had resulted from a simple dance, a stubborn voice insisted that my concerns had been justified. At the moment, though, it didn’t matter who was wrong or to what extent. Our battle-planning required full attention.

  With any luck, taking over the camp would give us the information we needed to hunt down the rulers controlling the revenants. We’d lost a lot of time in the Hive that we had to make up. Who knew what damage the mind-controlled vampires had caused already? My mind replayed a devastating loop of all the news programs we’d watched before heading to the Immortal Plane. Nearly a week had passed since then. I hoped the Bureau and local governments had fared all right in our absence. The sooner we found the revenant masters, the better. I only hoped Reshi’s theory that they would stick close to the tear to strengthen the connection to the revenants was correct.

  The metal bracelets on Reshi’s arm clattered together, stirring me out of my thoughts as she held up the latest version of a gem gauntlet. It was designed to fit a maker's larger set of arms. The design was much like the one the vampires wore during the battle, with a few updates to include more complicated structural details required for the makers’ anatomy.

  "My latest models are working nicely," Reshi relayed. "Rulers prefer gems and precious metals, but there are lower-grade materials that require less energy to make. Since we only have access to a few harvesters, our group needs to focus primarily on function over form. I designed this based on the idea of my late friend, Azpai."

  Subconsciously, my hand fluttered to the stone in my lap, which Reshi had borrowed to study as she worked on the more advanced gauntlets. Azpai had done us all a great service by gifting the stone to Lanzon, who’d passed it on to Dorian. It now rested in a bracer similar to the others, to make it easier for me to use the stone in battle without burning my hand or dropping it. Reshi had returned it to me just before the meeting started.

  "The gloves can neutralize any spell," Reshi continued. "The more power our enemies wield against us, the more we will have. Unfortunately, there is a catch. We had limited energy to create them, so until I can get access to better materials and more energy, it’s still necessary that spells are siphoned into the glove before it can work. Our team has labored long and hard to make twenty weapons with the limited energy available to us. The advantage is that anyone can wield it, regardless of caste. The stone does the magic."

  I admired her handiwork. The gauntlet was well constructed. A red stone, duller than the gems used by the rulers, was embedded in the palm.

  "Twenty," Dorian said approvingly. "We can work with that."

  The corner of Reshi's mouth turned up. She was never one to show much emotion. "We're also working on stone knives that can store magic, using the same material that Azpai used from the mountains near Vanim. It’s a bit more difficult to craft the material into a blade, since it is less malleable than metal, but we'll manage. The energy is released into the wound of the enemy, causing the cut to tear more. It creates a big impact any time it makes contact. Our biggest project isn't quite finished, however."

  She stood up and made her way to the shelves on the far side of the workshop, coming back with an object wrapped in fabric. She unveiled an arm made of matte metal. Arlonne leaned forward with interest.

  "I've been tinkering with a prototype. It's different than the one Arlonne used in the last battle, but you'll find the fingers are operational. There's a spell absorber and energy weapon inside. The blast can be turned on and off to prevent injury to the user."

  I admired the arm. It wasn’t completely solid but made of interlocking metal rods and joints mimicking a skeletal frame and tendons. Reshi was insanely talented, as were her companions. I had to remember to compliment Charrek when I saw him next, knowing that he’d worked long hours on these projects.

  Reshi placed the arm in front of Arlonne. "With a few more modifications, we can get a mounting port onto your arm and make it permanent."

  Bryce whistled and clapped, causing the entire circle to break out into brief applause.

  "Incredible," I breathed.

  Reshi glowed with pride. Arlonne’s eyes filled with tears, but she wrapped her arm tightly around the maker in silent thanks. This was proof of what we could accomplish by working together.

  I smiled, appreciating the silent hand of Lanzon and Azpai in this matter. We faced an uphill battle, but at least we had good people fighting with us.

  Sike appeared in the doorway and gestured for me. I slipped away, since the meeting was nearly done anyway.

  "Ready?" he asked. His cheerful smile lit the room, though I knew he hadn’t slept any more than I had last night.

  I nodded. We’d planned to organize the evacuation of archives with a group of scholars. Echen would join us, but he wanted to chat with Reshi after her meeting first. As Sike discussed the contents of the archives, I tried to ignore the lethargic weight wracking my body. My joints ached, and there was a pressure on the back of my eyes, like the start of another migraine.

  As we left the hall, Roxy turned the corner into our new passageway. Our eyes locked for the first time since the argument, and I braced myself for a furious remark, but nothing came. We merely stared at one another in awkward silence. An uncomfortable guilt settled on my shoulders. Sike's gaze darted back and forth between us as he tried to work out what was happening.

  "I need to speak to Lyra," Roxy said. “Privately.”

  Sike shrugged, and Roxy gestured to the storeroom beside us. I followed her inside, with an apologetic frown at Sike.

  Roxy spoke first. "Look, hear me out first. I'm sorry and not sorry. My love life is none of your business, but I didn't mean those things I said about you. So, I am sorry about being out of line. I know you're under a lot of pressure right now… so if you need to talk about anything, uh, just let me know? I know you think I’m hotheaded and impulsive, but I basically raised most of my siblings. I'm a great listener." She sheepishly twisted her lips.

  I swallowed the lump of shame in my throat. "I'm sorry, too. For what I said." It was hard to admit that I was jealous that she appeared to handle the curse better, but maybe she deserved to know. “I was worried about you, honestly, but mostly I was jealous. You don’t seem to be suffering the effects of the curse like I did. I ended up in the hospital. Louise and Sike are over because of it.” I shrugged. “Maybe the curse works differently for everyone, but I suffered through incredible pain for months.”

  “I don’t know why it isn’t affecting me the same way,” she admitted. “I can’t explain it… but maybe it just hasn’t started yet. I know now isn’t the best time to talk about all this, with everything going on. Just remember that we can talk after this.”

  "Sure," I muttered, once again glad to be let off the hook, so I got a while longer to make sure I had full control of my emotions. "I need to go help Sike."

  "Okay," Roxy said. "Good luck. I’ve got things to do, too.” She left first.

  My heart lightened fractionally. For the first time today, things seemed to be looking up. It seemed like Roxy and I were okay with each other again. Surely I could work things out with Kane when I had a chance.

  Despite my conversation with Roxy, I still felt a deep-seated shame and confusion about my actions the night before. I didn’t understand my own body's reactions. Trying to shake off the emotional weight, I started to leave the storeroom, preparing myself for Sike and Echen’s chatter as we packed.

  Before I made it out of the room, Gate Maker's tiny lizard head poked out from behind a pile of boxes.

  "Have you been listening?" I asked, quickly ducking back into the storeroom. “Do you just lurk around crates waiting for juicy conversations?” I accused him, feeling scandalized.

  He blinked. "Yes. Do you usually beg your friends for their forgiveness?"

  His befuddled innocence made me smile, but I couldn’t explain complex human rituals in the span of a few seconds. "
It’s called an apology.”

  “It seems humiliating,” Gate Maker said flatly. “However, I assume that after some time to consider the matter, you’ve thought better of exchanging blood with your lover. So you shouldn’t need to repeat the experience and we can turn our minds to more important matters.”

  This again. I took a careful breath, putting a firm lock on my temper. Gate Maker was fragile; when I’d snapped at him for being cryptic the last time that he’d brought this up, he’d immediately shut down. In retrospect, I felt ashamed of that. He’d been through so much already. But given his stance on apologies, I suspected he would be thoroughly unimpressed if I told him that I was sorry.

  This time, I resolved to be careful with him no matter how patronizing he was. It helped that it sounded like he’d tried to be considerate, in his own way, by giving me time to think it over.

  I smiled at him, feeling a real warmth for him. “I meant to ask you about that, actually. How do you know so much about the exchange of blood? Have you seen it happen before?”

  “I know a great many things, about a great many practices, across many species.” Gate Maker eyed me. “I do not know what I can say to convince you that I didn’t before. This practice will bring you grief, Lyra. If you refuse to listen, then the consequences lie upon your own head. It is beneath my dignity to repeat myself.”

  I’d been ready for him to frustrate me, and I found the emotion easier to set aside when I was braced for it. But the important thing was, I had done it. I had proven to myself, if not to Gate Maker, that I could control the blood’s effects. That small victory swept through me. If it took more time to convince Gate Maker I could do it, that was all right. We had time.

  “I cannot wait forever for you to finish your war and work out these petty squabbles," Gate Maker said, as if he’d read my mind. "The sooner I get home, the sooner I can fix the tear."

  Oh. Right. The ticking bomb that could destroy the universe at any moment. I might have forgotten about that for ten seconds, but now my anxiety was back up to appropriate levels. Thank goodness Gate Maker had been here to remind me.