The Cumerian Unraveling Trilogy (Scars of Ambition, Vendetta Clause, Cycles of Power)

by Jason Letts

  Another wave rushed by in front of them. Even though she was several feet away from the channel, Tris felt like she might be somehow sucked in and dashed against the rocks.

  “Then you’ll pass through the tunnel. Why am I here?”

  The Defender turned to face her directly, his lips parted slightly. She was glad she could not see his eyes.

  “No human life can begin without the blood of the womb. This tunnel is the birth canal, and you must be there at the end to discharge me in a pool of your fluid of life.”

  “And how are you going to make that?” Tris said offhandedly, only to quickly rue her words when the Defender reached back for the Moan Soothsayer. She began backing up as it slid out of its long sheath.

  “I must cut you one last time, and Moa will decide if you are really capable of bringing me to life. Those other failures, they couldn’t survive long enough to complete the ritual. But death keeps such a loose hold on you that we may yet succeed. And if not, perhaps in another generation or two one will come along who will be even stronger.”

  He stalked toward her with the sword cocked high over his shoulder. It had a strange kind of writing on the sides of the blade that the Mind had said was full of the stories of its victims. Soon it would carry her story.

  Another wave swept through, and Tris barely had time to gasp before the Defender swung the sword from a few paces away with such strength that it might’ve hewn through solid stone. But Tris felt nothing and for an instant supposed that he’d missed, until she looked down and saw blood seeping from a deep cut in her lower abdomen and spilling onto her tan pants.

  The pain came an instant later, searing her mind and seeming to steam out of her gaping mouth. Her legs gave out from under her, but the Defender caught her before she fell and cradled her in his arms. He leapt from beside the channel onto the top of the smooth stone tunnel, placing her at the inner end, legs spread around the tunnel’s opening, for her blood to seep over the rock and into the crystal-blue pool.

  “Stay strong and breathe. You need only live for another minute,” the Defender said before leaving her to collapse back against the smooth stone and stare at the unforgiving sky. The pain was wrenching, but she found solace in it as punishment for her terrible deeds. Her heart was pounding like a hammer, and everywhere her skin felt raw and tingly. The seconds seemed to crawl by, and looking at the bright sky Tris wondered if this most chaotic part of the Still Sea had calmed like those glassy shores of Pover, where her inconceivable journey west had begun.

  But as the faint feelings took root, she spared a thought for the husband she’d twice lost and the children she had betrayed by sending them into harm’s way. Prominence was a worthy aspiration for a family, but was it worth it at such a dear cost?

  The sound of rushing blood in her veins seemed to drown out all sound, but then a deluge of gushing water enveloped her sides and threatened to pull her limp body into the bloody pool and against the rocks. Barely conscious, she heard a splash just in front of her. The Defender had cleared the tunnel and entered the pool, sweeping him up against the tall rocks into her field of vision, where he looked like a dark angel covered in her blood standing on red waves. When they fell, he dropped back into the pool. The water calmed. Sounds of his breathing and wading pricked her faint ears. The blood continued to spill from her wound.

  The Defender crawled onto the top of the tunnel until he was directly over her. He pulled his hood away, revealing eyes, as crystal blue as the water, that were jarring against his dark hair. He no longer had that haze and shadow about him, just blood that drizzled down his cheeks and jaw. His smile revealed white teeth and all of the joy of a newborn baby.

  “You’ve done it, Trissandra Bracken! This feeling is one I shall never forget. A true Madoran, what I was always meant to be, and I have you to thank for it.”

  Tris didn’t have the strength to respond, and he looked her over while furrowing his brow.

  “My sense of Moa is gone, and all I can detect is that this wound will take you. Spend your last moments in peace, Trissandra. The two-headed freak will be exterminated and I’ll take up the torch to lead Madora to prosperity. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

  Tris coughed as he left her alone in the hot sun and rushing surf. The next wave pulled at her legs, swirled under her head and back, and pushed her into the deep pool at the end of the channel. Tossed around, she couldn’t breathe and couldn’t muster the energy to move. She closed her eyes and waited for the end to come, but the waves pushed her to the surface, where her ears caught the sound of voices calling from the distance.

  They were too late, she thought. Regardless of if her heart was still beating, all the life in her had been extinguished.

  CHAPTER 15

  To Sierra, a family was like a house.

  She sat in the sand making a house of sticks by the side of a road between the compound and the docks, Razi and her raiders similarly lounging around with nothing to do nearby. Leaning one stick next to another, she formed a small structure and built it up until it was three stories high.

  Like each stick, every member had a role to play to keep the entire thing standing. Some of the sticks were taller or shorter, wider or thinner, crooked or sharp, but as long as they stood in place next to each other, all were secure. But what happened when one of the supports vanished? Flashes of anger became common for Sierra after the battle by the port and the loss of her father, and whenever one struck she snatched away a stick in the very middle and watched the entire house come tumbling down.

  “Sierra!” a voice called from down the road in now-familiarly deep tones, but the sound chilled her and she recoiled. It wasn’t until he was standing at her feet that she forced herself to look at Tommack.

  “Why won’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want to have anything to do with you,” she said. This wasn’t the first time he’d come crawling back to her. He never stooped so low as to offer some pathetic begging and anguished apologies, choosing instead to say little of what happened and even less of what he felt. But at present his face conveyed much more emotion than previously. He was worried about something and crouched down to run his hands over the sand.

  “I don’t blame you for hating me, but you’ll hate yourself even more if you don’t listen to me. Something bad’s about to happen. I can feel it,” he said gravely.

  “What do you mean you can feel it?” Sierra asked, annoyed that she was giving him more of her attention than she wanted. It was still possible he was trying to angle into her good graces.

  “Can’t explain it, but I’ve always had this sense of the land that swelled when important things happen around me. You don’t have to believe me, but I’m telling you that whatever’s coming is going to change things here for a long time to come. I’m apprehensive about it, and I can’t get these thoughts of your mother out of my mind. I think she’s involved,” he explained.

  “My mother? What? What is it?” Sierra asked. At the moment Sierra’s mother was the only member of her family she had left, and it surprised her how quickly she got swept away by the suggestion that something was happening to her.

  Not waiting for an answer, Sierra got to her feet and turned for the compound. The raiders got up and followed as well. Somewhere behind her, Tommack struggled to catch up.

  “I don’t know for sure, except there’s this ill feeling I can’t shake. The land is leading me south,” he said.

  It sounded like nonsense, and Sierra knew that finding her mother was the only way to figure out if there was anything to it. After losing her father, even the hint of risk was enough for her to climb mountains to reach her mother, who had kept herself away from everyone since the battle. But now Sierra wouldn’t be refused.

  Blowing past the open gate, Sierra entered the compound, continued through the halls, and glanced in the various rooms until she found that every one of them was empty. Her pace turning to a jog, she went out the back and looked up to the bell tower, where he
r mother often sought solitude.

  “She’s gone. Damn it. I told her not to go anywhere without telling me,” Sierra said, turning to the one man she least wanted to be the guardian of her mother’s fate. “Tell me where we have to go to find her.”

  Tommack looked her square in the eyes. His directness and confidence were always impressive.

  “I’ve made some mistakes and haven’t been honest, but I’m not the fuck-up you think I am. Let me prove it to you now. We need to go south and we need to hurry.”

  The group didn’t linger a moment longer in the compound, quickly breaking for the gate and then the roads leading to the southern edge of town and the paths beyond. It was sunny and warm with the smell of ocean air filling each breath, but the sudden threat her mother faced formed a lump in Sierra’s throat that made it difficult to breathe at all.

  Sierra was oblivious to anything that existed south of Madora or any reason that her mother might have for going there. Tris had always kept a few things to herself, and Sierra worried that there was some part of this she’d left out in their conversations. There had to be if something was about to happen that would change everything for a long time to come, as Tommack had said.

  “There!” He pointed when they reached the top of a hill and looked down at a rocky section of the coastline where waves crashed against tall, sharp-looking slabs.

  “Sirra!” Razi shouted, drawing her sword and leaning forward to point to a figure coming toward them from the point. Sierra didn’t need more than an instant to identify the cloaked man as the Defender, and he came at them covered in blood and with sword drawn. Sierra gasped and drew Legacy, though she felt as clumsy with it as her father had. The sword was difficult to wield.

  But the raiders took to the fore as Sierra wondered where all that blood had come from. The Defender had an inferno of rage in his eyes as he stormed closer, but the raiders met him head on and gave cover to Sierra and Tommack as they raced down the hill toward a bloody pool in the inlet. Faint splashing gave them a clue something was in there, and they raced on even though Sierra could hardly breathe. Her entire being was stricken with fear that they’d find her mother’s body.

  A big wave crashed through the channel, disrupting the pool and momentarily revealing her mother’s limp body as it was jostled among the waves. Stricken, Sierra put her hands over her mouth.

  “It’s not too late,” Tommack said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

  When the worst of the tumult subsided, Tommack dove headfirst into the pool. He made it look easy when he came to the surface with her blood-soaked body and pulled her onto solid land. An instant later, Sierra was kneeling at her side.

  “Shit, Mom, what were you thinking?” Sierra gasped, but her mother wasn’t breathing and had a horrible gash along her lower stomach.

  “It doesn’t actually look that deep,” Tommack said. “But we do need to wrap it and put some pressure on it.” He used a small knife to slice off a strip of his shirt, which he tied around her waist. While he was doing that, Sierra pressed down on her chest repeatedly in an attempt to force out any ingested water. She’d never done anything like that before, but surprisingly it worked and her mother started coughing. It was like her body just refused to die.

  When her mother opened her groggy eyes, Sierra nearly passed out from the feeling of relief. Her eyes were welling up and she clenched her teeth, recoiling from how close she’d come to losing her mother.

  “Can you hear me?” Sierra pleaded, while Tris rolled onto her side and discharged water from her mouth. Eventually her eyes came around and displayed a glimmer of recognition.

  “He’s alive now, but he’s going to die. No one else will have to be his victim,” she said gurgling and gasping. Sierra furrowed her brows in disbelief.

  “This is madness, Mom. Why did you do this? You could’ve died!” Sierra said, throwing her arms up. But her mother seemed remarkably content, even though she still appeared pale and had splotches of blood on her.

  “Now we can get back at the Mind for betraying us. The Defender said it told the Wozniaks they were coming to meet me, and now they’re taking my husband to the grave.”

  “What?” Sierra said, shaking her head. “That’s nonsense. The Mind wanted us to succeed so we could develop industry in Madora. Can’t you see? The Defender lied to you to get you to do this. As much as I wish it weren’t so, we have no one to blame for what happened but ourselves,” Sierra said.

  “What does it matter? The Defender was right that we never should’ve interfered in Madoran affairs, and now he’s going to take his case straight to the Mind. The spectral light can no longer keep him out now that he’s alive.”

  “No!” Sierra raved, looking back over her shoulder to discover that the Defender had gotten by her raiders and was making for the city. The sunlight gleaned off the sword as he pumped his arms in a dead run. The raiders, stuck on the hillside, appeared to be squabbling about whether they should follow the Defender or rejoin Sierra. “We need the Mind to help set up a system for transporting the iron ore and turning it into steel. It’s the only one who can organize everything in a way that actually helps the people instead of exploiting them.”

  Sierra cast a pained glance at her mother, who seemed unconcerned by the position they were now in. Her eyes then turned to Tommack, who’d been right that something vitally important to the Bracken family and the city of Madora was about to happen. And each passing second brought them closer to a brutal showdown between the Defender and the Mind over the fate of the city.

  “I failed the people here,” Tris murmured. “I never had a chance at helping them, much less myself. Sierra, we can’t help them.”

  Sierra’s mouth hung open as she watched the Defender disappear over the hill in the distance. She couldn’t blame her mother for being ready to give up, but she wasn’t about to abandon their family’s last hope, especially since they had paid so much for it.

  “Go,” Tommack said. “I’ll bring her back to the city.”

  “Thank you,” Sierra said, touching his shoulder before turning to run. Tommack might’ve cost them dearly, but her mother probably wouldn’t still be alive if it weren’t for him.

  “Why does it always come down to running?” Sierra said to herself as she huffed back to the hill. It was several miles back to the city, the Defender had a big head start, and Sierra’s legs were already tired. She waved at Razi to chase after the Defender, and with any luck they’d be able to tilt the outcome so that the Mind would win.

  Sierra was gasping for air by the time she got to the top of the first hill. Doubling over, she clasped the hilt of Legacy at her side, wondering how she could swing the sword with any force if her body were drained. Considering what she’d heard about the Mind’s underground bunker, there was no telling what might be flying around when the Defender pressed his attack.

  Trudging on, she ran and ran until her cheeks were flushed and sweat drenched her skin. The Defender and the raiders had already disappeared into the city, but when she reached the outskirts Maglum helped her pick up the trail. They turned through narrow alleys and abandoned buildings until they reached Hinkalo, who guided them farther into the city’s dense urban center. Finally they found Razi standing beside a small clay hut hidden inside a cluster of taller buildings that contained nothing but a stairway leading deep underground. Neither a sound nor flicker of light appeared from inside the stairway. Razi had an apprehensive look on her usually confident face.

  “I know the Defender is a feared man in Madora, but we can’t let him kill the Mind and stomp out the best opportunity this city has had in generations,” she said.

  When the others didn’t budge, Sierra knew she needed to lead the way in. With Legacy in her hands, she took deliberate steps into the dark depths. The raiders followed close behind, the sound of their breathing pushing Sierra forward. The Defender was likely still at home in the dark, and the possibility that he’d lured them in arrested her thoughts.

>   The next step surprised Sierra when her foot met the level floor, leaving her to continue straight on through a vacuum of light. Her own footsteps, beating heart, and breathing crowded her ears. Any second she expected a sudden confrontation that would leave her fighting for her life.

  Instead the only things that met her were curving walls and a labyrinth of passageways that might leave her stuck down here forever. How much she missed Nemi, who would’ve led her straight to where she needed to go. But, along with Tommack, she’d abused the trust of the dragons and had helped bring about the death of one of their larger, elder kin.

  Sierra’s next step reached a metal floor, the end of the bunker and a sign that they were getting closer to the Mind’s secret hideout. The Mind had a number of underlings in his subterranean hive, as well as an incredible amount of electronic equipment and weaponry, but at the moment there were no hints of anything. She stepped on shattered glass, perhaps a bulb that the Defender had broken to cover his tracks and frustrate his enemies.

  Farther on, a bright light with a purplish aura illuminated the way. The spectral light that the Mind used to keep the Defender out was still intact, and it shone so brightly that Sierra swore it went right through her skin, flesh, and bones. The Defender hadn’t been able to break this one, but he must’ve been able to get through it. The bunker hallway and its faded green metal paneling continued on and on past doors and other adjoining hallways. The light passed behind them, and although there were now shielded bulbs glowing intermittently along the ceiling, the shadows crept in and were everywhere.

  Then a voice, deep and mysterious, took to the cool air. Sierra froze.