The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2)

by Matt King

  When the cheering died down, she moved ahead slowly. Torchlight flickered ahead of her, a small orange haze in between rows of trees. She stopped before getting too close to the light. A large crowd stood huddled together, filling much of the space of their camp, all of them staring at a woman in white at the camp’s entrance. Her skin was like starlight, matching the shine of her robes. Her hair looked oddly artificial.

  Off to the left was a small rise. Aeris moved quickly through the snow, using the group’s chatter to hide the sound of her movements. She stopped behind a tree at the edge of the clearing and peeked around one side. The eagerness of the crowd was apparent. She could sense it. The woman introduced herself as “Polaris.” While she spoke, Aeris scanned faces in the crowd, eventually finding what she was looking for. There, standing at the back of the group, was August. His mask was off. He craned his neck to see over the heads of others.

  An image of a man appeared above the crowd. She didn’t recognize him, but the woman speaking hailed him as an enemy. He seemed older than August. The hair on his face was gray.

  “The Guardian protects this man,” Polaris said. It sounded like a chorus of voices when she spoke. “You know him as Gemini.”

  Another image came up, this time of August. Aeris tensed, swallowing a gasp. She looked at August, who backed away slowly from the crowd. A woman turned to him. Aeris could feel the fear coming off of her before the cries for help left her mouth. In a flash, the camp erupted into chaos.

  August ran into the cover of the forest with some of the men from the group on his trail. Polaris shouted for everyone to stay together, calling for the men to return to the group. She took off after August, leaving behind orders for the guards to stick close to the people. A purplish haze formed around her body, lighting her way as she ran through the trees.

  Aeris dashed into the camp to give chase, not thinking about the crowd as she rumbled into the clearing. She was surrounded before she made it through, standing with August’s sword staff in hand as a circle of strangers stared at her in horror. A woman started to cry.

  “Do not be afraid,” she said. “I am not your enemy.”

  Something hard, like metal, swatted her against the side of her head, knocking her to the ground momentarily. In an instant, the crowd was on top of her, throwing fists into her midsection and hurling kicks toward her head. She somehow managed to keep the fire out of her hands as she pushed them off one by one. She used too much strength on the last man, sending him flying back into his brothers.

  “She’s killing them!” a woman screamed.

  Aeris looked over her shoulder and saw Polaris’s armored guards charging toward the group. They each carried a rough-looking spear that glowed green from the tip. There were six guards in all, each protected by a full suit of white armor.

  She let the fire grow in her hands. The mist carried up her forearms, bringing with it the familiar warmth. Do not hurt them, she reminded herself as the onlookers cheered on her attackers.

  The first strike was clumsy. She grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled the guard toward her, sending him careening into the darkness with a quick shot from her palm. Another threw his weapon. She dodged it, then threw out a hand to catch the end of the spear before it hit one of the men standing behind her. A pain like wildfire hit her right side. August’s staff fell from her grip. The green tip of a spear stuck through the armor covering her shoulder.

  With the rest of the guards only a step away from filling her gut with more of their green fire, she reached behind her to wrench the spear free from the wound. Her right arm was too numb to use. She took hold of the weapon with her one good hand and swung it in an arc, taking two of the guards down to the ground. She rammed the spear through one and sent out a beam of fire toward the other, hollowing part of his neck.

  The last of Polaris’s men tried to run. She pulled the staff out of the fallen guard and launched it through the air. The green tip of the spear melted through the guard’s armor easily. He stumbled into the woods and collapsed by the base of a tree.

  At the sight of the dead soldiers around her feet, the camp scattered. People ran screaming into the night, some stepping through fire in their haste to escape. She picked August’s staff off the ground. His blades left a singing whine in her wake as she sprinted into the forest.

  The farther she got from the camp, the harder it was to keep her bearings. She stopped to listen, then changed directions when she heard a distant sound like someone running through the brush. It wasn’t long until she saw the purple glow of Polaris darting through the woods. August was nowhere to be seen in his dark armor.

  No longer masking her footsteps, Aeris sped toward the woman’s glow, priming the fire in her hands to deliver a death blow before the woman knew she was a target. August finally came into view. He broke a smaller tree in half and used it like a club to keep the woman at bay. The purple haze around her arm moved like water, melting down her limb to form a single glowing baton in one hand. She raised her weapon high.

  Aeris leapt over a fallen tree and shot out a quick burst of fire from her hand, putting nearly everything she had into the single shot.

  Before the blazing beam reached Polaris, an oval shield formed from what was left of the purple glow around the woman. Aeris’s blast struck the shield and spread out in a brilliant blast, briefly lighting the forest in day glow. Some of the nearby trees started to burn.

  Aeris stopped in place as the woman turned. Her blue eyes narrowed. She gave off no signs that she was human. There was no heartbeat, no rush of breath, no scent coming from her pores.

  She’s not human. This creature is not alive.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Aeris’s fire burned in the treetops, lighting the patch of woods where Polaris had August stumbling backward down a steep slope. He still had half a torn tree trunk in his hand. Behind him, the roar of rushing water filled the valley.

  Aeris stood with her mouth agape, staring at Polaris like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It took the cyborg moving toward her to break her out of the trance.

  His sword staff dangled in Aeris’s hands. “I could use that!”

  Polaris swung her weapon around, slicing through the towering pine beside her in one stroke. The flaming trunk came screaming toward him. He jumped back to avoid it, forgetting he was on a slope, and fell head first into another tree as the flaming pine came crashing down only a few inches from his face. Embers sparked against his armor. Smoke filled his mask, making his eyes cloud with tears. A hard shake set his head straight again. He got to his feet and vaulted over the fallen pine to join the fight.

  A white shaft of light went screaming past as Aeris fought off Polaris with his staff in one hand and her fire in the other. She tried to counter Polaris’s strikes with his blades. The cyborg was too fast. Whether it was because Aeris wasn’t used to his swords or what, he wasn’t sure, but Polaris kept her off balance with ease, stymying any attempts she made to use the fire in her hands.

  “My swords!” he yelled again.

  A vicious backhand sent Aeris to the ground. His staff fell to the side.

  Polaris went for the weapon. August launched himself at her, tackling her by the waist. Her skin was cold and slick like wet glass. He tried to reach past her for the swords but she was lightning fast, swinging around with an elbow, followed quickly by a heel shot aimed at his knee. He dodged the hobbling attempt, but only barely. She whirled to face him, her electric blue eyes cutting through the shadow on her face.

  “It feels like I’m fighting the Horsemen again,” he said through a pant. “Except you’re slightly more attractive, and metal.”

  She lunged forward, catching his throat in her grip. Her weight overwhelmed him, sending him flat on his back with her face only inches from his. The thin shield around her skin gave off a low, scratchy hum.

  “You’re still talking when you should be fighting,” she said.

  His mouth went dry. Memories of Cobu
rn came rushing back. “What did you say?”

  Polaris’s head suddenly whipped back. “Get away from him,” Aeris growled.

  She lifted the machine by a handful of her thin, cable-like hair and then crashed Polaris’s head into her knee, following it with a charged punch against the side of her face. Polaris crumbled to the ground. Aeris struck twice more until the machine stopped moving.

  The fire in her hands died away. She looked over at him. “Take this,” she said, reaching down to grab his staff. It was almost out of her hand when Polaris sank her foot into Aeris’s rib cage, sending her, and his swords, tumbling into the trees.

  Polaris turned her stare to him. Her eyes flitted down to his empty hands.

  “Aeris?” he said as he slowly got to his feet. “I could really use those swords.”

  Off to the side, Aeris groaned.

  “Now, please.”

  The energy staff formed in Polaris’s hands again. She crouched like a lion ready to pounce. Behind her, Aeris crawled to reach his blades.

  “Throw me the damn swords!”

  The cyborg came for him in a flash. Aeris threw the staff, and he swung it as soon as his fingers wrapped around the handles. The whistling blades crashed into Polaris’s weapon, stopping it only a split-second before it cut through his throat.

  She reared back to try again, this time turning the point of her staff toward his chest. He fought off one hit after another, finally gaining enough room to push her back with a flurry of his own. Bursts of static shock filled the air with ozone as their weapons clashed.

  Polaris was relentless, never tiring as she constantly searched for his weak spots. He hit the switch on the handle to separate the blades, giving him more speed to counteract the onslaught. A pair of quick slices toward her head gave him a moment of separation to catch his breath.

  Aeris came rushing in, firing off quick bursts of fire. Polaris switched her staff to one hand and formed a shield to knock away the blasts. She dodged a punch and then whipped Aeris to the ground with a backhand across her face.

  August dove to tackle Polaris by the legs and then used the momentum to ram her against a tree. She was up instantly, brushing away each swing of his swords. He lunged forward too far with a shot aimed at her neck. She caught his hand. The pressure on his armor almost made him lose his grip on the sword. Arcs of purple lightning danced across her skin. They built into a cloud as a rush of electricity swept through his forearm. He grimaced through the searing heat pulsing through his muscles, fighting the urge to scream. Her eyes blazed as he fell to one knee.

  In a rush of relief, the pain vanished. He looked up to see Polaris dodging a flurry of blows from Aeris. They fought in silhouette in front of him, the fire from the fallen tree casting them in shadows. Aeris never landed a punch, missing with one swing after another. He knew what Polaris was about to do, even if he wasn’t sure how it was possible. She fought like Coburn had taught him, which meant she was looking for an opening to cripple Aeris before she took her head off with a final strike.

  Feeling returned to his hand. He jumped into the fight, catching her off guard while half of her attention was focused on Aeris. He peppered her raised forearm with his blades, finally cutting through her white plating. Small chips of armor fell away. The broken slivers hit the ground with a pop of electricity as the purple glow disappeared from their shell.

  Polaris recoiled with a hiss, knocking him and Aeris back with a swirling arc of her staff before she launched herself into the burning treetops. She jumped from one tree to the other until she was lost to the darkness.

  “Come on, before she gets away,” Aeris said. She went running into the black shadows of the forest, her skin pulsing with blue light.

  That’s exactly what she wants, he wanted to yell after her. Aeris was already out of earshot. “Shit,” he muttered. He sheathed his blades and took off after her.

  The closer they got to the river, the thicker the fog in the valley became. His sprint slowed to a hesitant walk until he saw Aeris standing still next to a group of boulders. Her eyes searched the treetops, which were hidden in low clouds.

  “Any sign of her?” he whispered.

  “Shh,” she hissed.

  “Is that a no?”

  “Quiet.”

  He stepped away, careful not to get too far outside the small aura of light her fiery hands gave off. The rapids were heavy with rushing water, probably from the constant supply of snow up in the mountains. He couldn’t see to the other side.

  He stepped to the edge of the river where a small whirlpool churned in between rocks next to the shore. The water was black as ink. He stuck his sword in to clean off some of the dirt and robot guts. As soon as he broke the surface, a glint of light appeared on the crests of the waves.

  “There!” Aeris cried out.

  August spun around with his swords ready. Polaris landed next to him from above. A quick flurry of punches to his ribs stole his breath. His arms dropped. She formed her staff in a flash and took aim at his head.

  Aeris looped her arm around the cyborg’s throat, pinning one of Polaris’s arms high to keep her from connecting. Polaris reached back and sent a shock into Aeris’s leg, then spun around to grab her by the arm and waist, digging her fingers into the depressions of Aeris’s armor. She lifted the Vontani up and launched her into the rushing whitewater.

  Aeris crashed into the side of a rock. Her head bent awkwardly backwards. She went limp, slowly slipping into the rushing current. A hint of blue light beneath her suit bobbed beneath the surface as she disappeared down the river.

  He sheathed his swords and dove in after her. The water was cold enough to make his lungs feel like they were going to shatter. He tried to keep an eye on Aeris’s light, which was quickly moving too far away for him to reach. He swam as best he could, dodging rocks when he saw them and brushing off the pain when they slammed into his arms and legs. He caught a glimpse of the shore. Polaris ran alongside the river, her eyes focused on Aeris. She veered toward the water and leapt, clearing nearly half the width of the river in a single bound. Her body disappeared beneath the surface.

  August swam as fast as his legs could pump, driven forward by the swift current. Aeris was nearly within reach, floating on her back as she drifted helplessly down the river. He stretched his arm out to grab her. His fingers were only inches away when her body doubled into a V and sank into the water. He dove down after her and saw Polaris’s purple glow. One arm was around Aeris’s neck. The other started to form her staff.

  He caught up to them and used both hands to pull her arm away before it sliced Aeris in two. Aeris’s body slipped free during the struggle. He fought to keep hold of the machine. She bucked like a bronco, even against the strength of the current. He eventually lost his grip, giving her an opening to push off the bottom. She went streaking past, but not before he threw out a hand to grab her by the foot. She pulled her leg up and sent a shock through his forearm that made him scream. His fingers fought to stay tense around her ankle. He glanced over and saw something that looked like white bubbles on the surface. Is that a rock? Please say that’s a rock.

  The bottom of her robe flowed behind her. He grabbed hold of it to pull her closer and then took her by the waist as he kicked forward. When he got close to the rock, he swung her around, driving her head into the stone. Her body crumpled, then sank.

  He swam to the surface and looked around for Aeris. Her head bobbed against the side of a fallen tree. This isn’t right. She should be healing by now. Maybe she’d drowned somewhere along the way and her body was stuck in a cycle of death and healing just like he’d gone through in Coburn’s swamp. The memory made him shudder.

  Waves sloshed over his arms as he swam. He eventually made it to the log and turned Aeris over until her face was above the surface. Water sloshed in her open mouth. With a heavy tug, he broke her free of the tree trunk and held her head above water as he reached down with his legs to get some footing. His toes couldn’
t touch. The current must have pulled them back into deep water. He glanced over his shoulder. “Oh shit.”

  A sickening pause of weightlessness hit right before they went shooting down a long slanted waterfall. He shielded Aeris’s head beneath his arm as they bounced from rock to rock down the cascades. A rough jump sent them airborne, tossing them against the side of a boulder jutting out over the river.

  When the pain stopped and the sound of rushing water subsided in his head, he opened his eyes and looked around. They were in a pool, drifting steadily toward the opposite bank. He coaxed his bruised arm through the water until he could stand. He dragged Aeris onto shore.

  “Come on, come on. Wake up.” He glanced up the waterfall as he turned her on her side, looking for Polaris’s purple light. Everything was black.

  After a few good claps on her back, Aeris came back to life with a violent jolt, spitting out water with each cough. Her fingers clawed into the loose stones along the shore. She turned away from him and slowly pushed herself up, stopping with a hand on one knee until she was strong enough to get back on her feet. Her breaths steadied.

  “I think I died,” she said softly.

  “Yeah. A little.”

  She was quiet as she took slow, deep breaths. Her purple eyes turned to him. “You’ve been through that more than once?”

  “A few times, I guess.”

  “I don’t understand how it hasn’t driven you mad.”

  “You get used to it.”

  Her hands trembled as she wiped the water from her face. “I don’t want to.”

  The sound of a tree limb snapping overhead triggered the fire in her hands. August whipped out his swords, staring wide-eyed at the darkness surrounding them.

  A rainfall of snow and ash drifted around them. Blood rushed in his ears.

  “Do you see anything?” he whispered.

  “She isn’t living. I can’t sense her.” Aeris searched through the fog with her eyes. The snow hissed as it struck the fire in her hands. “There!” she shouted.