Sowena found them upstairs in their bedroom. Harry Harstens was still in bed under the covers while Violet Harstens lay on the ground, her left foot tangled in the sheets.
On the slight chance that the creature had left Harry unharmed, Sowena ran over to him and shook his shoulders, trying to wake him. When he didn’t respond, she placed her fingers on his neck to check for a pulse. His skin was cold and clammy. Just when she thought he might be dead as well, she noticed a small rise and fall of his chest.
The blankets must have kept him warm enough, but he was weak and fading fast.
Sowena moved to Violet next, but a quick glance told her that, without the warmth of a fire or a blanket, she, too, had died in the night. A mixture of grief and guilt washed over Sowena.
This was her fault. She was a coward. She’d heard them dying and she had done nothing. The thoughts kept running through her mind that she could have done something, should have done something. Nobody else but her knew the creature hated light. No one else had seen it and lived.
If she just would have come, maybe she could have lit a torch and scared the creature away. This was all her fault. Their deaths were on her.
Sowena lifted her head and looked at Harry. He was still alive. She could still save him. Running down the stairs, she shoved open the door and raced back to the Pendley’s home.
Rowland opened the door as she drew near and recoiled as he saw Sowena coming toward him.
“Sowena?” he asked. “I thought you were asleep. I—what’s wrong?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but tears burst from her eyes instead as she collapsed into his arms.
“Shh, shh, shh,” Rowland said, patting her shoulder as he rocked her back and forth. “Tell me what’s happened.”
Sowena told him about the previous night. She told him about the monster and about her suspicions. Then she told him how she’d left them and how they were now dead. They were gone and she’d let it happen.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered into her ear. “None of this is your fault. That creature did this, not you.”
“But if I hadn’t been such a coward, maybe I could have saved them,” Sowena said in response.
“And you might have also ended up just like them. There’s nothing you could have done.”
“Harry!” Sowena exclaimed.
“What about him?” Rowland asked.
“He’s still alive. I found him—like Maggie, alive but… not,” she answered. “He’s cold. Really cold. He might not make it. Please, we have to help him. Let’s go.”
Sowena started to run back toward the Harstens’ home.
“No,” Rowland called out. “I’ll go. I need you to fetch a healer. Kieran knows them better, but lives too far away. You’ll have to find Lukas. Do you know where he lives?”
Sowena nodded and turned around, running into town. Lukas lived near the marketplace, in a small cottage above the alchemist’s shop. When she arrived, she climbed the stairs two at a time and began pounding on the healer’s door. Something like a teacup shattered on the other side.
“By the gods!” someone shouted.
When he didn’t immediately answer, Sowena knocked again.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” the voice said.
Still the door remained closed and Sowena began to fidget nervously. She had begun to raise her hand to knock again when the door swung wide.
“Can’t you all let an old man—” Lukas’s eyes lifted and met with Sowena’s. “Sowena?” he asked, shock registering on his face. “What is it?”
“It’s happened again!” she said frantically. “In the night! Two of them are dead!”
“Slow down, who’s dead? Where? What happened again?” the old man asked.
“The creature that killed my parents,” she nearly shouted. “It’s attacked again, and it killed Lizzy and Violet Harstens.”
A collective gasp from the street below caused Sowena to pause and glance down the steps. Merchants and townspeople on their way to the marketplace stopped and gaped up at her. Guilt once again surfaced as if each set of eyes was judging her. She shook her head and turned back to Lukas—there wasn’t time for her to feel sorry for herself.
“Harry Harstens is still alive, but barely,” Sowena said. “Please, can you help him?”
Without saying a word, Lukas grabbed his cloak, swung it around his shoulders, and began hobbling down the steps. Sowena followed after him.
Lukas turned around and said, “Stay here, Sowena. You’ve done enough. Thank you.” Then he spun once more and left, moving through the street as fast as his aging legs would take him.
Sowena ran his last few words again in her mind. ‘You’ve done enough,’ he had said. What was that supposed to mean? Did he know this was all her fault? All around her, eyes still watched her, judging her.
Flipping up the hood of her cloak, she pushed past the gawking citizens and into the marketplace, which was already starting to fill with business for the day.
If she wanted to redeem herself—if she wanted to set things straight—she needed to find a way to bring back Maggie and Harry. But where to start?
She’d heard that taverns could be a goldmine of information, but were also home to the seedier characters of a city. As her eyes settled on a traveler setting up a puppet booth and some chairs, she realized perhaps the marketplace was her best bet to find the answers she needed.
Luton and Derton had been founded along the trade routes. Traveling between Celesti and Shadowhold could take a tenday or more depending on the size of the caravan and speed of travel.
What once started as a simple camp to rest weary bones and share tales of the road had turned into a full-blown settlement, and eventually Luton was born. The tradition of story-telling still ran strong among the merchants and travelers.
Each week, new stalls would pop up in the marketplace—and with them, new stories. Sowena wondered if perhaps she might catch word of this black creature of death from someone who’d recently arrived from another town. It wasn’t much, but she didn’t have anything else to go on.
Sowena sat down in one of the chairs and joined the gathering crowd.
“Scary times, eh?” a man asked as he sat beside her, indicating the pillar of smoke that still billowed to the north. “That and these reports of monsters eating people alive. Did you hear the latest report from that Restarick girl? Some say it could be the demon what’s caused the fires. Others think there’s no demon at all.”
Sowena pulled her cowl down lower and looked away, ignoring the man.
As she waited for the performance to begin, she scanned the market. She almost passed by a man heckling a spice merchant at a stall, but did a double take when she saw a second man swiping a few bags of the precious commodity while the shop owner was distracted.
“Excuse me, sir,” the thief said.
The shop owner turned to address him.
“I’ve got some spare ginger I can’t use,” the man said, holding up the bags he’d just swiped. “Might you be interested in purchasing them from me?”
The shop owner placed a finger on his chin in thought and then said, “I’ll give you three silvers for the lot.”
“Done!” the thief said.
The shop owner handed over some coin, buying back what the thief had just stolen. The thief turned, pocketing the coin with a grin on his face. That is, until he saw Sowena watching him.
Sowena stood to call the guards, but another man joined the thief, punching him on the shoulder. When the thief didn’t return his playful banter, he followed the man’s gaze and stared at Sowena. She recoiled at his single grotesque red eye that sagged a little lower than the other. The man snarled at her, and Sowena sat back down, turning her attention once more to the show that had just begun.
“…Princess Maya had had enough,” the storyteller said, “and attacked Shadowhold with her rebel forces.”
One of the puppets, a girl, took on a defiant posture. Then sh
e raised her right hand and pointed forward. Three more puppets joined her as they advanced toward the paper model of the royal palace.
“Maya and King Drygo fought, neither one gaining ground over the other,” the storyteller continued as the puppets began to duel. “Then, Maya killed her father and freed the people from the evil king’s clutches.”
The female puppet stood victorious as the king puppet overdramatized his death.
“Long live the queen!” the storyteller proclaimed.
“Off with her head!” shouted someone from the crowd.
The storyteller recoiled and looked around in shock, trying to find who had spoken. Sowena did the same.
One woman stood up from her chair and said, “She’s no queen of mine. Aralith was at peace before her Revenant started causing trouble.”
“She’s not even truly the queen,” a man said as he, too, stood. “I heard her father’s not really dead, but that he turned into a soulfiend when she killed him… might even be that demon that’s stalking around Luton.”
Alexander Drygo was the creature that had killed her parents? The man had called it a soulfiend. Sowena wanted to find out more.
“Word is that Celesti’s been completely destroyed,” the man continued.
“Hogwash,” the woman said. “Destroyed by what? That creature that’s been mucking about? Hardly. I heard it’s a ghost—an apparition and nothing more.”
“That apparition killed the Restaricks and burned their house to the ground, it did!” the man cried out, raising a finger into the air to prove his point.
Sowena cringed, sadness filling her heart. She looked away and took a deep breath.
“I heard tell that dreamer daughter of theirs knocked over a candle and that’s what killed them, but she’s gone and made up a story to cover her guilt,” the woman countered.
Sowena inhaled sharply and pulled the hood of her cloak up higher to cover her face. Is that what people really thought of her? That she was a waste? A klutz and a liar? Maybe it was time to leave Luton once and for all. There was nothing here for her anymore, and it was becoming ever more apparent that she wouldn’t be able to help Maggie if she stayed.
That man had blamed the creature on Queen Maya. If that were true, then her idol had just become the reason her parents were dead. She didn’t know what to think of that, but if she had created the soulfiend, then perhaps she knew how to kill it or save those who have been hurt by it.
Sowena now knew what she had to do to save Maggie and Harry. She had to find Maya Drygo and convince her to help.
15
Flinging the door open, Sowena marched through the Pendley’s small house to her room in the back. She pulled out a travel sack and began gathering her belongings: some clothes, a locket her mother had given her, flint, a water skin, and anything else she thought she might need for the road.
“Sowena?” Rowland asked from behind her. “What’s going on?”
Without slowing her pace, she said, “I’m leaving.”
“What do you mean? Where are you going? Why?” he asked, stepping into the room.
Sowena glanced over her shoulder, and then continued packing. “Maggie needs help, and she won’t find it here. I overheard someone in the market today say that the queen knows about these things.”
“So you’re just going to march up to the queen all by yourself and do what? Beg her to drop everything she’s doing and come here?” he asked, sitting on her bed and placing his hand on her arm. “You don’t even know where to find her.”
“Don’t try to stop me,” Sowena said. “I’ve made up my mind. I can’t sit here feeling helpless anymore. Plus, I’m tired of being the butt of everyone’s jokes and getting sneered at like I’m a spoiled brat.”
“Nobody thinks that,” Rowland said.
“Everybody thinks that,” she replied. “Well I’ll show them. I’ll bring the queen back with me and we’ll save Maggie.” After a brief pause, she asked, “Is Harry okay?”
“Lukas is tending him at their home. He’s stabilized, but Lukas doesn’t want to move him until his breathing returns to normal. He looks just like my Maggie, though: alive, but unresponsive,” Rowland said. “You don’t have to do this, Sowena. We’ll find a cure, just wait a little longer.”
“I’m done waiting,” she said, standing and slinging her pack and bedroll onto her back.
Sowena pushed past Rowland and headed for the door.
“At least let me pack you some food for the road,” he said as he walked into the kitchen.
He gave her some jerky, blueberry muffins, and a handful of vegetables. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she had previously.
“Thank you,” Sowena said with a smile as she stepped through the door. “For everything. I will find a way to save Maggie, I promise.”
Without looking back, she walked out of the little cottage and onto the main road leading out of Luton. She turned to the right, heading south.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, the forest began to thicken. The wider, open fields and pastures faded into the background as the trees grew more closely packed together.
If it weren’t for it being late fall, she wouldn’t have even been able to see the sun through the foliage. As it was, red and yellow leaves crunched beneath her feet with every step.
Sowena normally loved fall, but with the tragedy of the last few days, she hadn’t taken much mind of it. Only now that she would be sleeping out in the open air did she begin to think about what an incredibly foolish idea this was.
She didn’t know anything about surviving in the wild. She’d never even left Luton before. Sowena berated herself for yet another rash decision. But she purposed that she would see this one through.
As Sowena was just about to stop and try an attempt at making lunch, she heard some voices just on the main road up ahead. Leaving the trail, she crept as quietly as she could through the forest, hoping to avoid being seen. Every leaf that crunched beneath her shoe caused her to cringe and hold her breath.
Three people came into view, sitting around a campfire a few feet off the main road. They, too, were feasting on their lunch. One of them turned around to pick up a long stick and Sowena caught a glimpse of his face. It was the thief from the market. There were two others with him: the man she’d seen heckling the shop keeper while his comrade pilfered the stand and another individual Sowena didn’t recognize.
But where’s the ruffian with the red eye? she wondered. He wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Sowena thought it best if she backtracked and crossed to the other side of the road, hoping to remain hidden and well away from these ruffians. As she turned to leave, she ran straight into a fourth man.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said.
Before she could run, big, strong hands reached around her waist and lifted her up off the ground. Sowena kicked and struggled, but the man wouldn’t let go.
“What have you got there, Gren?” the thief asked as he twisted around to look at her. “Hey, I know you. You’re that girl from the market this morning. You like sticking your nose in other people’s business, do you?”
“N-no,” Sowena said, shaking her head. “Minding my own business, I was.”
“You call eavesdropping minding your own business?” the brute carrying her asked.
He took off her pack and bedroll and tossed her to the ground in front of his comrades. She looked up at her assailant to discover she’d found the man with the red eye—or, more appropriately, he had found her.
“Tie her up, Nicola,” Gren said, nodding at the thief.
“What are you going to do with her?” Nicola asked.
“Don’t know yet,” Gren replied. He opened her sack and began rifling through it.
Nicola sat Sowena up and bound her hands behind her back.
“Look what we have here, gents,” Gren announced, pulling out the jerky.
“Ooh, dibs,” one of the other men called out.
The man raised his hands and Gren tossed it over to him.
“And muffins,” Gren said as he plucked out the muffins and dropped the sack.
Gren bit into the muffin, held it up in the air toward Sowena, and said, “Thank you kindly.” Sitting down, Gren took another bite and added. “So, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll let you share your stuff with us, and in return, we won’t kill you. How’s that sound?”
Sowena said, “But, that sounds like—”
Nicola shifted and Sowena felt something sharp and pointy poking her back.
“—a mighty generous offer, sir,” Sowena finished.
Gulping, she took a deep breath and began to think about how she was going to get out of this. Her trip was not off to a great start.
Will held up the necklace as he watched the pendant spinning at the bottom. What was so important about this thing? It was a mystery he’d pondered frequently over the last day or two. After he finished up his meal, he grabbed the pendant with his other hand, let the band collapse, and pocketed it.
There was still a two-day journey to Celesti if he moved fast. Standing, he left the warmth of his fire and continued his trek north.
As he walked, he kept replaying his encounter with the elves over and over in his mind. Had he crossed the line? Was he being excessively brutal? They’d wanted to kill Maya and the others, he kept telling himself. He’d probably saved his friends’ lives by taking the elves’.
But a small, nagging part of him couldn’t let go of the fact that he felt absolutely no remorse for doing so. Since when had he become so comfortable and callous with taking people’s lives that he no longer thought about the consequences of it?
Just a few months ago, he’d wept for hours at taking Sebastian’s life, and now he played god without any thought of it.
What was happening to him?
Now you see why we locked away these powers, Lotess said. Now you understand what drove Iket mad.
“You don’t seem to have been corrupted by its power,” Will noted.
I am an elf, she said. The same thing that extends our life and slows our aging also reduces the corruption.
Soul Shade (Soul Stones Book 2) Page 10