by T. C. Edge
The Endless Knight
The Seekers Trilogy, Book Three
T C Edge
Contents
1. A Changing World
2. Drake Awakes
3. A Broken Spell
4. State of Play
5. The Guardians of Liberty
6. A Fond Farewell
7. A Rare Perception
8. Seeking a Seeker
9. Volunteers
10. Searchers
11. Quarrels in the Heat
12. AK1
13. The Valleys Swell
14. Pawns in the Game
15. A Secret Shared
16. Allies Divided
17. The Road to War
18. Reunited
19. A Special Purpose
20. Diversion
21. A White Lie
22. The Drums of War
23. The Deep Breath
24. The Plunge
25. Rise of Evil
26. The Final Fight
27. Friend or Foe
28. Reawakening
29. Fallen Hero
30. Deja Vu
31. Brother
32. A New World
From the Author
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, places, events, and incidents that occur are entirely a result of the author's imagination and any resemblance to real people, events, and places is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2016 T. C. Edge
All right reserved.
First edition: November 2016
Cover Design by Laercio Messias
No part of this book may be scanned, reproduced, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
This is the third book in the Seekers Trilogy - the sequel to the bestselling Watchers Trilogy.
While it is possible to read this book without the others, it is advised that you check out the Watchers Trilogy first.
You can download the first book in the Watchers Trilogy for free on Amazon, or by clicking here.
THE WATCHERS SERIES:
The Watchers Trilogy:
The Watchers of Eden (Book One)
City of Stone (Book Two)
War at the Wall (Book Three)
The Watchers Trilogy Box Set
The Seekers Trilogy
The Watcher Wars (Book One)
The Seekers of Knight (Book Two)
The Endless Knight
This book is dedicated to my mother, Lesley, always unwavering in her love and support.
1
A Changing World
Wrapped up in a warm winter coat, a cool breeze hits the only exposed skin on my face and sends a shiver down my spine. I look down from the summit of the rooftop, watching the world shiver too. But it isn’t the cold mountain air that causes it. It’s a deep, collective shiver of fear.
Around me, the streets of the plateau of Petram bustle with activity. I sit on that rooftop and look out as people come shuffling through into the city, the gate and external walls heavily manned by over a hundred vigilant guards.
The mountain pass, too, has seen its security strengthened in the last day or two, beyond the levels of the preceding months. Because now, it’s not a secret enemy we’re dealing with. It’s not some small force looking to destabilise things and gain revenge for the past. Now, we’re looking at the reversal of power across the nation. If we aren’t able to stop this turning tide, we’ll all be washed away.
The landscape has changed abruptly. Not just politically, or militarily, but literally. Across the regions, and mainly along the coast, once prosperous cities have been partially decimated. For miles and miles, the lands burn, swarming with the enemy soldiers built up over many years in the shadows.
But above all of that, the great capital city of Eden has been destroyed.
Now, Petram is the only major safe haven we have. As with two decades before, when the regions were controlled by Augustus Knight, and the Deadlands were held by the rebels, the same structure is beginning to form. Here, in this great mountain fortress, we will figure out a plan to end this civil conflict before it consumes us all.
That, of course, is easier said than done. No one expected the Baron to destroy Eden, to rip it apart from within and send it sinking into the depths of the ocean. And if the Baron can manage that, then perhaps he truly is willing to bring the entire world to its knees, to spread the fire of destruction from coast to coast.
To fulfil the legacy of his long dead master. To burn it all down and then rebuild from the ashes…
I think, as I sit there, about the terrible sight that has been lingering in my thoughts ever since we witnessed it upon that boat. As the paltry few who managed to escape from the city drifted away on the waves, watching in horror as the great sea city twisted and crumbled into the churning surf.
It will remain like that now, an old relic filled with thousands, tens of thousands, of bodies, entombed within it as it sits like an iceberg, only its contorted tip peeking up above the water.
Right now, many may still be alive inside it, imprisoned within the metal walls with no way of escape. Waiting there in the darkness, praying for someone to come to their rescue, for an operation to begin that will see them cut free and saved.
It will never happen. Anyone still there will never leave that place. They will slowly die of thirst or drown as the water gradually rises, or see the air in their trap begin to run out, starving them of oxygen. I think of those who were caught in the explosions as my father and I escaped the city. Of those who were burned before my eyes, or crushed by some falling debris.
Perhaps, in the end, they were the lucky ones.
Their deaths were mostly quick, sending them to the next world in the blink of an eye. Those that remain will see their final days and hours pass by with the hope that they’ll be saved. A hope that, by now, will have faded and grown weak. They must know now that they’ll die where they are, sealed in darkness forever.
I’ve dwelt on the thought since we drifted away on the water. The idea of hope, helpless hope. These poor souls, locked in their metal prison, hoping until their last breath that someone will come and save them. Such a thing must be torture.
Now, the same feeling pervades the lands. That feeling of hope that spreads among the people, fading with the passing of the days. It’s a hope that the heroes will stand tall and rise again, that evil will be repelled. That the spreading darkness will once more be driven back.
I hold onto the same hope. Right now, there’s no alternative, no other option but to believe that we have the strength to defeat this evil. That the heroes of the past like Link and Athena, Cyra and Drake, will be able to muster their full power and take the fight back to those who work, night and day, to crush us.
I swivel my eyes back to the great wall of the mountain, at the arches that give passage into the main chamber. Inside, we’re all gathered now. All of us who escaped the terror of Eden are now safe. Drake is in there, still being treated for his many wounds. Vesuvia, injured during the defence of Mercator, has now re-joined her sister, her leg tightly fitted inside a cast. Many others from the regions have already begun to drift this way, the mountain beginning to swell once again with the infirm and injured, with those with no homes or lands remaining to defend after the Baron’s sudden and sickening assault across the regions.
The last couple of days have seen our concerns for extended family and friends grow too. My mother’s brother, Carson, and sister, Cassie, have safely joined us, along with their families. My father’s brothers and parents, however, remain in Agricola where the
y dwell, drawing up arms to defend their farms from any invaders.
Over the years, I’ve spent little time with my uncles and aunts and grandparents on my father’s side. However, the little I know of them tells me that they will muster their full strength where they live, and defend themselves from anyone foolish enough to come calling. Across those lands, many have tasted war before. They know exactly what’s coming their way.
Ajax has fewer worries to distract him, his own extended family limited to a sister on his father’s side who is on her way here with her husband and daughter. Velia and Vesuvia, meanwhile, tell me that their mother will stay where she is with her people. That far to the West, they’re safe enough from the fighting.
For now, at least…
The theme is the same across the country: the world is on high alert. Now, the cloak has been swiftly slung from the shoulders of the regions, and the chaos of war has descended. And this time, it may be even bloodier than the last.
As I sit on the rooftop on my own, contemplating the state of the world, I find my fingers drifting into the pocket of my thick winter jacket. They grasp a small notepad, and draw it out, and once more I open it up and read the words so clearly emblazoned in Professor Lane’s hand.
The other source comes from Cyra Drayton…
I’ve read those words so many times now in quiet, private moments. Trying to make sense of it all. Trying to reconcile their meaning for myself…for my mother.
Her genes, her DNA, her blood; all run through the veins of the most powerful of the Seekers. Half Knight, half Cyra, with his grey-blue eyes and black-blond hair, his complexion cold like Knight’s but carrying a reminiscence of my mother along with it.
I knew, the first time I saw him up close during battle, that there was something I recognised in his expression, something familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I read those words. Now, they make so much sense.
Further excavations into Professor Lane’s notepad have revealed a little more. Back before the War of the Regions, Augustus Knight always had a special interest in my mother, in her truly extraordinary powers of foresight. She always believed that his aim was to use those powers to extend his own rule and influence, to craft her into his most powerful servant.
And yet, his goal was even more nefarious: to use her DNA, and his own, to develop clones more powerful than either of them. His ultimate goal, perhaps, was to extend his grip beyond the boundaries of our nation, and to stretch his shadow far and wide over the entire world.
And these clones would be at the forefront of his conquest.
In the end, his death put paid to that, but he continues to live on through his unnatural progeny, the destruction of our way of life now the task. And yet, it appears that this unique clone, this mix of Knight and my mother, has been earmarked for a special purpose, Professor Lane discovering something else that she never had a chance to elaborate on.
Unfortunately, that’s where the clues end, the Professor’s good work cut short by the crumbling city that trapped her within its vice, ending her long life of service. She’ll never get a chance to conclude her work, to make any further discoveries. Now, it’s down to us to find out just what the Baron’s next plot will be.
As I sit there, thumbing through the notepad once more in search of more clues, I hear the sound of a door creaking open behind me. Instinctively, I shut the book and slip it back into my pocket, turning to see the face of my father emerge through the door to the rooftop.
I sigh a breath of relief at the sight of him. So far, he’s the only other person who knows about the notepad. The only other person who knows the true identity of the prime Seeker.
“I thought I might find you up here,” he says, pacing towards me. His eyes drift down to my hand, safely hidden inside my pocket as it clutches the book. “Found anything else?” he asks, clearly noting the distorted shape of the fabric.
I shake my head as he nears me.
“Not much. Just that this main Seeker has a special purpose of some kind.”
“A special purpose?” he asks, taking a seat beside me on the rooftop.
I shrug. “I don’t know what it means.”
“So, Professor Lane doesn’t explain it?”
“I guess she didn’t get a chance,” I say.
He goes quiet for a moment, her death still so fresh, and spreads his eyes to the busy streets below.
“You haven’t told Ajax anything, have you?” he asks eventually.
“Nothing, dad,” I reply. “What about mum…doesn’t she deserve to know?”
He turns his eyes back to mine.
“It’s not about deserving, Theo. I’m afraid of how your mother will take it, and we need her at her strongest right now. If she comes face to face with this boy, it will be better if she doesn’t know what he really is to her.”
I turn my eyes back to the world below, but he draws them straight back to his.
“The same is true of you, Theo,” he says, fixing me with a steady stare. “This boy is a science experiment gone wrong, and nothing more. Don’t go thinking beyond that. There is nothing of your mother, of your real mother, in him…”
“But…there is,” I counter. “He’s half her, dad.”
“No, he’s not. All he has are her building blocks, but that isn’t who or what your mother is. Your mother has been shaped by her experiences, by the life she’s led. Those are things that go beyond DNA and genes.”
“But maybe…”
“No, no maybes, nothing. Maybes will only lead to weakness. If you encounter this boy again, you have to look at him as if you never read Professor Lane’s words. He is your enemy, Theo. And he needs to be destroyed. Do you understand?”
“I guess so,” I say.
“No,” he says firmly. “No guessing. In war, you don’t guess…you know. Now answer me again. Do you understand?”
I harden my eyes and look right into his, dull blue under the grey clouds above. “Yes,” I say. “I understand.”
“Good,” he says, patting his bionic hand on my shoulder. “Now, tell me how the others are feeling?”
He doesn’t need to explain to me who the others are. I know he’s talking about Ajax and Velia, in particular. Vesuvia, with her serious leg injury, is out of action for now. As a tightly knit group, and a powerful one, Jackson knows all too well that our mental state is crucial right now.
“Ajax is good,” I say. “He’s itching to get back into battle, as far as I can tell.” I see my father smiling at my words. They’re the sort he wants to hear.
“And Velia?”
“It’s harder for her,” I say. “She’s worried about her sister.”
“Shouldn’t that be the other way around,” asks Jackson, frowning. “Vesuvia is safe in the mountain…but when the time comes, it’ll be Velia going to battle.”
“Yeah, I know. But, she’s just like that I guess. It’s the twin thing. And I can tell she’s worried about her mother too, and her people.”
“Yes, I can understand that. But, if they want to stay where they are, that’s their right. People are passionate about their lands, and their homes. Many will give their lives to defend them.”
He knows that well enough. More than most, my father has people to worry about out there, his entire family unwilling to leave their farms over in Agricola. As yet, the war hasn’t reached the borders of the region. I’m sure that it will soon enough.
We talk for a little while longer, discussing the current lay of the land. Right now, however, I know that we’re in consolidation mode, everyone still just trying to get their bearings after the Baron’s recent and coordinated assaults. But one thing is most certainly clear: the fabric of the nation is changing fast, and the fight for power, and control, is going to be a brutal one.
As we talk, the streets below rumble with a bustle of activity. From the mountain pass, people continue to come, vetted as they enter through the grand gates of the outer wall. Soldiers remain highly vigilant,
always watching closely, trained to detect anything suspicious up here in the great mountain stronghold. City officials and administrators guide people to their correct abodes, the vast caverns within the high peaks once more beginning to fill with those looking to escape the war below.
Leeta, of course, has once more found her calling. Two decades ago she was here, helping go direct matters and organise things inside the city. Now, after twenty years of peace, she’s back, scurrying from place to place in service of Markus, the city Master.
It’s odd how fast everything can shift. Only weeks ago, when we escaped the Baron’s compound and the perils of the desert, Petram was quiet and subdued. Now, with the outbreak of war, it’s grown hurried and hectic, the people preparing again for the inevitable terrors that accompany such times.
Some will have come from the Deadlands, fearing perhaps that their lands are about to be besieged as they were before. Others, however, will have spread here from the regions, their towns and cities already subjected to the fighting, seeking refuge now in the only place they can think of. And with so many of the leaders from across the regions now lying entombed within the carcass of Eden, Petram is one of the only places left where proper leadership can be found.
Next to me, my father can’t linger too long. There’s too much to do, and not enough time to do it. He stands, and looks down at me, and extends out his bionic arm. I take the metal hand and feel him easily drag me to my feet.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” he says. “And you’ve got a meeting to get to…”
I frown. “What meeting?” I ask.
He smiles. “Your grandfather has asked to speak with you.”
2
Drake Awakes
As my father disappears away into the crowded streets, I turn my attention to the high arches leading into the central chamber of the city. Battling through the force of city residents, refugees, officials, and soldiers, I work my way through the cold and towards the entrance to the mountain.