The door closed with a thud. Seconds later, they heard muffled shouting and thumps on the other side as the Knives of Dwaycar vented their frustrations against it.
“Wrynric...” Kara whispered and slowly limped toward the stairs, leaning heavily on her staff. She looked dazed and confused, but she had just saved them. Minard put an arm around Erinie’s shoulders as she wiped her eyes with the hem of her cloak. Was she crying?
Then it hit Aemon. Wrynric might be dead or captured. The premonition he had at the highway came back to him. Perhaps it had come to pass.
With a heavy heart, he followed the others up the stairs to the second level, overlooking the antechamber. Kara slowed her pace, then came to an abrupt stop. “What is it?” Aemon asked. She stared forward in the direction of another door that seemed to be the only exit, and did not move. “Kara? Open it so we can get out of here.”
Her eyelids flickered and sweat poured down her face. There was no sign she had heard him. Aemon glanced at the other two. “What do we do?”
Kara suddenly spoke. “Give... me a moment.” Her voice was strained, like she was exerting herself. When he touched her, she shoved his hands away. “Let me focus.”
Aemon drew back. What is happening to her?
Minard took a step toward Kara, but then they heard angry voices coming from below and he stopped. Aemon considered risking a look over the short wall to see what was happening down there, but quickly thought the better of it. He would probably end up with a javelin lodged in his brain.
The monk, not as cautious, peered over the edge of the wall. “The knives are splitting up. Most are heading toward one of the other doors, and the four below us look like they’re up to something.”
He jerked backward as a javelin flew past his face, missing him by inches. With a harsh bark of laughter, he said, “You missed again, fool.”
The voice that shot up from below almost made Aemon drop his mace. “Half-blood,” it raged. “Look down upon me and see what I’ve done to your beloved friend.”
It was Herald, the insane knife who had almost killed Kara at the bridge before the temple and who had slaughtered the caravaners back in the Limestone Caves. Where was Kahan? Had he gone with the other group, or was he dead and another knife now led?
Kara had said a man followed them, but who was he?
Erinie covered her mouth with a trembling hand. “Oh no... No. Why? Why? He loved you like a daughter!”
“Half-blood, come see what I’ve done.”
Kara started walking toward the railing, but Aemon leapt forward and grabbed her. She shoved him away, almost sending him to the ground. Kara...
“Don’t look, scion,” Erinie pleaded. “She’ll kill you.”
Minard caught Kara before she made it to the wall and dragged her back. He gritted his teeth as Kara fought him. “Stop it, Scion. Hurry up and open the door so we can get going.”
“I know you’re up there, half-blood,” Herald said. “Come see what is left of him.”
Kara snarled at the monk. “Let me go; I need to see. I need to see.”
Minard shook her. “No, scion, I won’t let you. Open the bloody door!”
“Have it your way then, half-blood,” Herald roared.
Something flew over the railing and landed with a wet thud ten feet from them. It rolled until it came to rest against the outer wall.
Aemon backed away, his stomach clenching as bile came to his mouth. Wrynric’s eyes stared at them from a head, savagely hacked from his body. Blood pooled around it and had splattered up the wall.
The old warrior was gone. Dead at the hands of monsters as vile as the rotmen.
Kara’s face contorted into several different expressions, as if she did not know how to react. Aemon turned away, unable to look anymore.
“My dear friend...” Erinie moaned. “How could she do this to you? After all you did for her.”
Minard bowed his head. “I pledge to Lady Ibilirith that Wrynric’s death will be avenged. Though he wasn’t my brother, I’ll not rest until his killers are purged.”
“You see what happens to those who aid in their own destruction?” Herald screamed. “The half-blood means to kill us all. Why would anyone stand with her?”
Aemon watched Kara to see how she would react to Herald’s words. She looked detached again, seemingly focused on something in the distance.
“Imogen lives through you, half-blood, and she’ll try to complete what she started long ago. Her children have returned and lay waste to humanity, killing innocent men, women and children.” Herald’s voice reached a fever pitch. “Imogen means to fight them, but her solution will doom us all, like it came close to doing long ago. The only way to stop this madness is by killing you, half-blood—for when you’re dead, Imogen’s children will sleep once more.”
A red haze descended over Aemon and before he knew what he was doing, he was at the wall, gazing down upon the Knives of Dwaycar. They stared up at him, their eyes dark and implacable behind their masks. “Kara is here to save us. It is you who will doom us all. Go away and leave us alone.”
A knife with blood-soaked hands stepped forward and tore off her mask. A red-haired young woman peered up at him, her face covered in jagged scars. At first Aemon mistook her for Kara—the old Kara, before she had been poisoned—but her features were so twisted with hate and madness, he wondered how he had seen any similarity at all.
“She has no idea who I am, does she?” the knife asked. It was Herald, and Aemon had no answer for her.
Herald sneered. “Make the wretched husk Erinie tell the half-blood who I am. She knows my name, what I’ve done and what I’ll do to all of you once I reach you.”
One of the other knives aimed a javelin at Aemon and he quickly backed away. He spun to face Erinie. The librarian silently pleaded with him to leave her be, her tears running streaks through the dirt on her face.
“Tell me who she is,” Aemon demanded. “We need to know the truth.”
Minard grabbed Erinie by the arm. “He’s right. Tell us.”
Kara stared at Erinie, her face expressionless. The librarian continued to weep, but Aemon had no pity for her. “Tell us. Now!”
Erinie collapsed to her knees. “It’s Semira, Kara’s half-sister and a failed scion. I think she helped Kahan attack Sunholm and aided him as he murdered everyone who wasn’t fast enough to flee.”
“Why didn’t you tell us? Why all the secrecy?”
Erinie winced, as if struck. “Because Wrynric told me not to. We weren’t certain she was involved; it was only rumor. One sighting during the fighting, a few suspicions.” Erinie glanced at Wrynric’s head. “I think he knew she was with them, but he didn’t want to admit it. He loved her very much, and I thought she loved him back.”
They all looked at Kara to see how she would take the news, but her eyes still gazed unblinking into the distance. Minard waved a hand in front of her face. “Scion?”
Perspiration ran down Kara’s cheeks and lines of concentration marked her brow. The monk tried to get her attention by shaking her, but she did not react.
“Scion, I’m sorry,” Erinie sobbed. “I should have told you sooner.”
“I can hear you up there, Erinie, you sniveling husk,” Semira raged. “Show yourself so I can bury my javelin in your vile little face.”
“Go eat a jamalgana egg, Semira,” Erinie screamed back.
Semira laughed, “Trust me, I’ve eaten one already. I had to, when I joined the Knives of Dwaycar.” She paused a moment, then continued. “Half-blood, listen to me now. I want you to know—we will stop you. We’ll hunt you until you’re dead and we have ended your threat to humanity.”
Erinie grabbed hold of the pouch Aemon had seen her filling with black powder earlier and got back to her feet. “Go back to whatever darkness spawned you, Semira!”
The librarian threw the pouch over the railing, then spun around and opened her arms wide to drag Aemon, Minard and Kara to the ground. A second la
ter, an explosion ripped through the antechamber, bathing them in hot air and a shower of concrete.
The walls shuddered and the ground shook as tons of concrete cascaded downward from the roof, filling the lower level with a cloud of dust and debris.
When the tumult was over, Aemon raced to the wall with Erinie and Minard to find the chamber floor inundated with rubble. There were no signs of Semira or the other knives, though the expanding dust cloud made it hard to see. A chunk of roof fell and shattered on top of the rubble pile. They leapt back as another piece smashed on the wall beside them.
Before they could recover, Kara sprang to her feet and ran headlong toward the door at the far end of the level, leaving her walking staff behind. Reaching the door, she paused to use the passkey.
Aemon’s heart rate doubled. The door began to open and she was already preparing to enter.
“Hurry and stop her before she gets away,” Erinie said as she raced after Kara.
Aemon and Minard sped after her. The door was only half open when Kara crawled under it and used the passkey to close it again. Erinie and Minard dove through just as it started to descend. Aemon, a few paces behind, leapt through the narrowing entrance, his feet less than an inch from being crushed.
Leaping to his feet, Aemon grabbed Kara before she could get away. “Hey, what are you doing?” he snapped. “Are you trying to leave us behind? What has gotten into you?”
The look Kara gave him made him back away and almost fall over Erinie. It was not Kara standing there... It was a stranger.
The passkey hung loosely around her neck, its light now sinister, bathing them all in blood red. Kara’s mouth twisted into a sneer, her eyes dark wells of ice, cold and fathomless.
“Get out of my way, scum,” she hissed. “I must get to the manufactory before my brother can stop me.”
Aemon jumped aside as she walked right at him. When she had gone by, she sprinted away from them.
Without checking on the other two, Aemon hurried after her.
Chapter 27
KARA
Kara had lost the battle for control. When she had seen what her sister had done to Wrynric, the presence had finally been given a chance to overwhelm her. Now it had snatched her body away and this time, she didn’t seem to be getting it back. She could still see and feel what happened to her physically, but few other senses remained. The sensation of watching the world go by with her own eyes, yet not being the one in control, terrified her.
The female presence controlling Kara used the passkey for light as she ran through the rubble-strewn corridors, leaping over deep craters blasted into the ground. Soon they entered a wider passage that looked familiar to Kara, for she’d trod it in her visiondreams.
They were close to the Metal Man.
“Wait up,” Aemon called from behind her. Kara couldn’t answer him, as much as she wanted to, for she was a passenger in her own body.
Who are you and what have you done to me? Kara asked.
You have become what you were born to be.
What was I born to be? Why have you taken my body from me?
It was never your body. It was made for me.
They rolled under a half-open door and almost fell into another crater. Once they were back on their feet, the woman said in Kara’s voice, “I want you to know this before you die. In this body, I shall right the wrongs I helped unleash and will save the human race.”
The woman’s presence felt vengeful, bitter and hostile. Kara knew her intentions were not good. I know who you are, Kara said. The ghost woman on the surface warned me of you.
The presence seemed surprised by her revelation as Kara felt her fingers clench around the passkey. Who was this woman?
She said she didn't remember her name, Kara replied. She called me Imogen, Mother of Steel Children. But I’m not Imogen. You are.
The presence laughed, Yes, I am Imogen, once called Mother of Steel Children.
Paralyzing fear gripped Kara. Maybe the prophecy was true. Kara, or at least Imogen using Kara’s body, would unleash something terrible upon the world.
You should not have been having visions of the surface. I thought Radashan told Ahnna to allow no one access to that part of the code. Kara could sense Imogen’s rage. Or perhaps that was another one of his lies. He was, after all, the one who went on to betray me.
Radashan? How did Imogen know of Radashan the Founder? Or was it another man with that name?
Imogen tightened her grip on the passkey. Regardless, the surface belongs to the enemy. To go there is to die.
The ghost woman had mentioned the code and wondered if it had become corrupted, but she had never mentioned anyone called Ahnna. Could that be the ghost woman’s forgotten name?
Kara decided to turn the conversation toward finding out what Imogen planned. This place is Annbar, isn’t it? You used to live here.
Did the ghost woman tell you that? No matter. Yes, this place is Annbar. Once, tens of thousands lived down here after they fled the surface.
Where are you taking me?
Imogen lifted her head high. We are going to the manufactory. An old friend waits for me there.
Your friend is the Metal Man, isn’t it? You were with me in my underground visiondreams.
Indeed. I guided you to him, for I will need his skills in the days ahead.
Kara felt a wave of exaltation coming from Imogen. With every step she took, Kara became more afraid. What do you intend to do when you get to him?
Have patience, dear, Imogen mocked. You will find out soon enough.
They reached another antechamber, this one almost twice as large as the one where Kara hoped Semira had died. Eight doors led from the room, and a square shaft some twenty feet wide cut through the floor at its center. Three of the doors stood open, one with a dark-green mat of moss growing out of it, the other five were closed.
The door that drew Imogen’s attention was the large one at the far end of the room at the top of a ramp. It was a formidable and imposing barrier, as if those who had built it had never wanted anyone to enter.
Or perhaps they hadn’t wanted something set free...
The words of the Prophecy of Ibilirith hung heavy in Kara’s thoughts.
“The Ancient Enemy shall return and with them the Scion who shall carry a glowing... and the Scion shall use it to unseal the wards and unleash that which must not... Harvesters the Scion will use to destroy... Human life... Forever.”
Was this door a ward?
A surge of joy filled Kara’s body. Ah, there it is. Containment Barrier One. My brother is too late.
“Kara, stop, please!” It was Aemon, and he was close.
Imogen ran through the chamber toward the door, holding the passkey before her, ready to jam into the console. The door was covered in ancient writing and to Kara’s surprise, she could read the ancient words and understand them.
They read: Warning. Biohazard containment. Level five clearance required.
Kara gasped, What’s in there?
The instruments of my revenge.
Imogen began to speak, her voice sounding like Kara’s but deeper, more commanding and tinged with a strange accent. “Omega, zeta, kappa, nu, sigma, alpha. Imogen Vrana: Clearance epsilon.”
“Containment protocol active,” a computerized voice said. “Exposure to containment measures: lethal.”
Kara knew Imogen had been expecting this. “Override system safeguards.”
“Confirmation code?”
“Beta, zeta, delta, niner.”
“Confirmation code confirmed: Overriding system safeguards.”
A panel slid open, revealing a computerized slot. Imogen inserted the passkey into it and a moment later, there was a hiss of pressurized air as the ground shuddered. She stepped back and waited. The motors driving the doors emitted heat as they struggled to turn gears corroded by eons of disuse.
Imogen stamped her foot. “The barrier better open, or I will—”
A hand fe
ll on her shoulder and Imogen was spun around to face Minard.
Sweat ran down his face, and his teeth were bared. He wrapped a hand around the hem of Kara’s robe, lifted her off the ground and slammed her against the door, his nose an inch from hers. “Scion, what are you doing?” he shouted over the grinding gears. “I ordered you to stop!”
Imogen seethed with hatred but her voice was as sweet as expensive ale. “I—I am sorry... I must get inside before he comes to kill me. Please put me down; you are hurting me.”
No... don’t fall for it, Kara wailed, hoping Minard could somehow hear her. Please kill me before she can open the ward! I’m the threat your patriarch thought I was. I am the Scion of the Prophecy!
Erinie and Aemon came to stand beside Minard, their chests heaving as they fought to catch their breaths. “What’s on the other side of the door?” Erinie asked between breaths.
Imogen placed her hands over Minard’s. “Please put me down. I am sorry I ran off. I was afraid.”
Please, Lydan, Roryur, Ibilirith, let them know Imogen is lying, Kara cried. They have to know. The Mother of Steel Children wanted to kill all three of them, when they had exceeded their use. Please...
Kara fought to regain control of her body, but the earlier battle with Imogen had sapped her of what little strength she had left. Her attempt at seizing it back was over before it began.
She felt powerless.
Minard slammed her against the door again. “What’s on the other side? Tell me or I’ll choke the life out of you.”
Do it, Kara screamed. Kill me! She means to kill you all.
“It is the library,” Imogen gasped, looking from Minard to Erinie with fake desperation. “I need to get in there and find out how I can stop the enemy.”
Aemon put his hand on Minard’s arm and made him lower Kara to the ground. The monk’s grip slowly eased and he backed away to let Aemon speak to her.
“Kara. Tell us what is happening to you, so we can find a way to help you.”
Oh, Aemon, please kill me! You promised you would if I became a threat.
“I am alright, but I need to get inside before he gets to me,” Imogen said.
The Lost Sun Series Box Set 1: Books 1 and 2 (Lost Sun Box Set) Page 39