The captain had his helmet off and blood ran from his nose. He appeared to be attempting to seize the chair leg from the soldier who seemed to have caused all the carnage.
Imogen laughed. "So, this is what passes for a military command center these days? No wonder you brainless barbarians regressed as far as you did."
Aemon risked her wrath by dragging her down the ramp toward the lower level. Walking down the steep slope made his leg ache and he was thankful when they got to the bottom.
A grossly overweight man dressed in stunning polished armor hurried toward them from a crowd of onlookers who were watching the fighting. He removed his helmet as he got close, revealing a gray beard and a face with puffy cheeks and a flap of fat hanging under his jaw. He wiped sweat from his brow. "Lord Aemon of House Pulmard, I presume?"
Aemon bowed his head. "High Commander Yafa, I am honored to stand before you."
The man shook Aemon's hand, then turned his attention to Imogen. "My lady, your beauty is without—" He must have seen her eyes, for he stopped short. Rasping in a laborious breath, he took one of her hands and kissed it. "May I presume to have your name, my lady?"
She smiled at the high commander warmly. "My name is Imogen." She kissed him on each cheek, lingering a little longer than was necessary. The man's pudgy face reddened. A pang of jealousy made Aemon stiffen.
He chided himself. Why do I feel this way? It is not Kara.
Ten seconds later, Lord Yafa and Imogen were still holding hands, and Aemon's jealousy still burned. He fought the urge to wrench her away from the other man's grip.
It came as a relief when a loud crash followed by a man screaming broke Imogen and the high commander's attention from one another and onto the fighting.
"My bloody arm, you vile wench. You broke my bloody arm!"
"I spit on your arm," a woman raged.
Aemon's mouth fell open. The person wielding the table leg was a woman. Dressed in heavy chain armor, splattered with blood, she wielded the makeshift weapon like a true warrior, her arm muscles bulging. It was hard to tell how old she was as a savage scar ran down the left side of her face. Whatever had caused the horrible wound had taken her eye with it, leaving the socket a gaping black hole.
"Enough, Melody," Royce roared, carefully approaching her with raised arms.
"Stay back, Benton. I won't go so easy on you this time."
"Why are you doing this?" the captain pleaded. "I knew you were unruly—but this has gone too far."
One Eye pointed at the high commander and sent a long gob of spit his way. "That fat coward over there refused to send me reinforcements and supplies. I had taken over the defense of the barricade near Celestial Rest and sent for more men and explosives. But they never arrived. Then the enemy attacked and my company was driven back, and we lacked the explosives to destroy the tunnel behind us."
Lord Yafa looked down his nose at One Eye. "Remember your place, Captain Harven. You will address me by my noble name."
"You can call me captain, but don't bring my family name into this. My men know me as One Eye and that's what I prefer to be called."
He gave her an indignant scowl. "I will not lower myself to call you the name of a base cur. You are of noble blood, and though despicable, I will continue to honor your family name. Captain Harven."
One Eye laughed. "Noble names! What good are they? You don't have the respect of those you claim to lead, even with a family name as distinguished as yours."
"You dare speak to me like this? I am—"
Royce stepped between them. "Enough of this, please. Tell me what happened after you fled the barricade, Melody. Are we in danger here?"
"Yes, tell us calmly, and with our due respect," Lord Yafa said.
Captain One Eye gave the high commander a mock salute. "Yes, Sir Eatsalot. Just you remember who I am, and what the men I lead are capable of."
Lord Yafa seemed taken aback by the woman's rudeness and constant breaching of military protocol. Royce gently took the table leg from her. "Tell me what happened."
"With no reinforcements, we lost the ability to hold the barricade, and my contingent of Good Fellas fell back to Rylore Bellholes. The enemy gave us no time to regroup and we fell back again, this time fleeing with the remaining townsfolk and running for our lives. When we made it back here, this fat swine..." She pointed at the high commander. "Would not let my Good Fellas enter, and he tried to refuse my entry too. He knew I would come here to kick him in the stones for not sending me aid back at the barricade."
"Did you kick him?" Royce asked. "You know that is treason."
One Eye laughed bitterly. "He never let me get close. He sent his henchmen to detain me." She kicked one of the writhing men on the ground in the stomach. "Now look at em." She kicked him again for good measure.
"I think I like her," Imogen said.
Lord Yafa gave her a disapproving frown. Before she could react, Aemon stepped in front of her to block his view. She needed to keep pretending she was blind. If she reacted to the high commander's look, she might give the ruse away.
Thankfully, Imogen kept her mouth shut.
"So Rylore Bellholes has fallen too," Royce said, tossing the chair leg aside.
"Yes, but for some reason the metal beasts stopped there and didn't follow us back here. At least, not yet. But I'm sure they will." She glared at Lord Yafa. "The Good Fellas are locked outside the gates at the edge of town because Sir Rotund won't let them in. My men are all that stands between the Bellholes and Jalarfed."
The high commander bellowed, "Then we hold this town at all costs. We must send word to Ebon Shelf and the Temple of Sacred Lights to evacuate while the line of retreat to the Gate of Lydan is still open."
"Oh, so now you're listening." One Eye kicked the man on the ground yet again. "I could have told you that half an hour ago."
Lord Yafa met One Eye's glare. "As to your contingent of the Stelemian Royal Army, they may enter the gates. But know this, if any one of them causes trouble, it will be on your neck my blade of justice shall fall upon."
One Eye took a step toward him, but Royce held her back. "Melody, you have done enough damage already."
She let him hold her, but said, "Then you need to send word to Dere-Zor that Echo Hollow will need more troops to defend the line of retreat. There is nothing between the barricade at Celestial Rest and the hollow, except the bridge over the river Thanus."
"I am well aware of the situation, Captain," Lord Yafa replied. "Bring your men into town and have them empty the latrines. That is a task well suited to their kind." He turned his back to One Eye before she could curse him and smiled at Imogen. "My lady, show me these machines you brought with you from the Great Dark. I want to see how they can help us turn the tide of the war in our favor."
CHAPTER 23
KARA
The sides of the valley were lined with dead trees, some with jagged branches weighed down by snow. The light of the sun steadily dimmed as it sank toward the mountain peaks. Mist snaked its way down the valley. At first it only smothered their feet, but as their journey went on, it reached Kara's waist. The mist rose above Sasha's head, so Aisha carried him in her arms.
"We should move to higher ground," Kara said, afraid they would soon be unable to see where they were going.
Aisha didn't change her path, but continued through the rocky valley floor. "We keep going the way we are. The trees harbor things best avoided."
As if to reaffirm her warning, a lumbering, shadowy, cat-like creature darted along the ridge-line, eventually disappearing down the other side of the hill. Sasha squirmed. "Mommy, what was that?"
"Some form of shadow beast," Aisha said, watching the trees.
"Will it come and eat us?"
"Not if we hurry to the cabin, little one."
They increased their pace, Kara watching the surrounding hills for movement. If it was true they couldn't die, getting eaten by a shadow beast would be like a painful death that never ended. A ligh
t breeze blew down from the mountains, deepening the chill of the air and making the leafless branches of the dead trees creak and scratch at one another. A distant bestial howl drifted over to them and another answering one came from somewhere else moments after.
Kara hugged herself. "How far off is the cabin?"
"Another hour's walk," Aisha replied.
"If something comes for us, can you teleport us to safety?"
The ghost woman shook her head. "Not from here. Where I set us down was the closest I could move us to the Oracle. There are safety mechanisms here designed to protect this area. None of us can use our powers until we leave."
Kara's chest tightened. "What? So you mean if we're attacked we won't be able to defend ourselves?"
"No, we would be better off running or not being discovered at all."
Semira shoved Kara aside to confront the ghost woman. "Why didn't you tell us this before we left?"
Aisha stopped walking and stared at her, with her dark pits that passed for eyes. "We need to be here. There was no other way. If I had told you, would you have still come?"
"Yes," Semira snapped. "I want to know if the Oracle can help me find my father."
"I would have come too," Kara said. "If the Oracle can help me leave this place and take back my body, then I'd risk anything to get to get to it."
The ghost woman studied them. "Then I was wrong not to tell you. But I also did not want to scare my little one."
Sasha put on a brave face. "It takes more than shadow beasts to scare me, Mommy. I found Imogen who is Kara by myself and I even helped her rescue you."
She kissed him on the head and smiled, her semi-transparent lips as white as the snow around them. "You are a brave little warrior. I should have known you would not be afraid. But you still need to be careful. You have never not had your powers before. You cannot disappear here when danger is about."
His face became an almost comical mask of stern courage. "Then I will beat them with my fists and they will run away!"
With that, they continued on, saying nothing to one another as they picked their way through the eerily silent rocky valley. It grew steadily darker and colder as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains. The shadows of the trees became long and monstrous, as if reaching for them from their ancient stony graves.
By the time they reached the snow-covered cabin, perched on a hillside, the sun had disappeared behind the mountains and the mist had reached their shoulders. Nearing the cabin, Kara found it nothing more than a ramshackle old ruin with a work shed beside it. Beyond the structure rested the remains of a vehicle sitting on a flat concrete ledge. An image and a name came to Kara from Imogen's memories. The machine was a helicopter and people had once flown around in them.
The ancients seemed to possess technologies and skills undreamed of in Stelemia, even by those in the Order of Ibilirith. How had humanity lost so much knowledge in the years since they'd fled underground?
As they approached the cabin door, Kara scanned the ground for footprints or any other sign something had been here recently. But there was nothing except snow. Aisha stopped at the door and went invisible. Moments later, her footprints appeared on the roof. Sasha held Kara's hand and waited for his mother to return. She put her arm around him and drew him close, and he snuggled against her.
Semira leaned against the side of the cabin and folded her arms, her mouth set in a hard line. She avoided making eye contact with Kara and instead stared into the distance. Kara felt glad her sister rarely spoke. After all, what did they have to talk about? Semira's twisted and bitter past, or her brutal murder of Wrynric? I hope you pay for that one day, and pay for the deaths of all the others you killed.
A thud came from inside the cabin, making Sasha jump and pull free from Kara's grip. "Wait..." Kara went after him as he ran toward the door. "Sasha, stop, don't go in there."
Reaching the door, he was knocked backward as it burst open. Aisha stood in the doorway. "Sasha, I told you to stay with the others."
He looked up at her sheepishly. "I heard noises and I thought..."
The ghost woman helped him up. "The door was frozen shut and I had to force it open."
Kara headed inside the dim interior, glancing at the door as she did so. It was amazing Aisha hadn't had to break it down, as the hinges were rusted over. The same could be said for the rest of the cabin. While the walls and roof were still standing—the latter with a hole in it large enough for Sasha to squeeze through—they had warped and were barely holding together. Overall, the cabin contained little more than some broken furniture, an assortment of rusted metal tools and other nondescript old-world items. A second smaller room held the remains of a bed and an empty medical supply box.
The temperature inside was little better than outside, but Kara didn't think it wise they gather kindling to light a fire. Who knew what could be attracted to the light or smell of smoke?
"We should barricade the door," Aisha said as she lit a lamp she'd found amongst the refuse. "The windows already have metal bars on them and the walls... well, there is little we can do about them."
Kara began searching for something they could reinforce the entry with. She decided to use the broken table and placed it against the inside of the door. It wasn't much, but it was something.
"I do not think we were detected, but that does not mean we are safe." Aisha studied the room. "While you search for things to barricade the door, keep an eye out for something we can use as a weapon."
As the sisters searched the trash for useful material, Kara found a pitted metallic shovel. It seemed sturdy enough and could be used as a makeshift weapon. Semira snatched it away. Kara gaped at her. "Hey, why'd you do that?"
"I'm a trained fighter. I'll wield it."
Kara didn't like the idea of her sister being the only one who had a weapon. "Give it back. I also trained with weapons back at the Temple of Sacred Light."
Semira smirked. "Then why did you always need others to protect you? I needed no one."
Scowling, Kara said, "You had dozens of Knives of Dwaycar fighting beside you. What chance did I have against you?" The rage Kara felt in saying that took her off guard.
Then things escalated quickly.
Semira got in her face. "You were always weak, half-blood, and out here you can't even use your power against me."
"Mommy, tell them to be quiet," Sasha cried.
Kara curled her fingers into claws. "Maybe I don't need my power to take the weapon back. I could scratch out your eyes and finish the job of whoever gave you all those ugly scars over your disgusting pinched-up face."
Semira raised the shovel and looked like she meant to pound Kara's head in with it. Aisha imposed herself between them. "Enough. We must stand together if we hope to reach the Oracle."
"Tell her to give me back the shovel then," Kara snapped. "She's a vile murderer, and the scum festering in a latrine. I don't trust her with it. She'll probably kill us in our sleep."
Semira backed away with a pained grimace. "I don't... trust you either, half-blood. I don't trust any of you." Her lip trembled, and she continued to stare at Kara.
Was Semira hurt by Kara's words? "What do you want from me?" Kara looked her sister up and down. "You're scum. Irredeemable, vile, wretched scum."
A pang of guilt came as she finished her angry tirade. Semira was clearly hurt by the insults. Had Kara been wrong to make them? No, I can't let myself feel sorry for her. My heart must remain ice, until Imogen is stopped. Semira is scum.
"I hate you, half-blood. I wish—"
Suddenly, a long, low howl sounded from outside. Even after it had died, the chill it brought seemed to linger in the air. Sasha watched the door. "What was that?"
The three women remained silent as they listened. Another howl came, and the silence that followed was so deep Kara felt like she could drown in it. The walls of the cabin seemed to close in around them. Semira crept over to the door, breath misting, shovel held in a tight grip. Kara ga
ve up trying to get the shovel back.
After a tense five minutes, they began to lower their guard. Perhaps the howl had nothing to do with them, and was just a creature calling to another in the night. The women cleared a space to sit and discussed who would take first watch. "You three sleep," Aisha said. "I do not need rest."
"Mother never sleeps." Sasha kissed the ghost woman goodnight. "She used to stay up watching over me."
Aisha gave him a faint smile. "Your father and I both did once. You were all that kept us whole." Her voice became almost too low to hear. "But it was not enough."
Something brushed against the cabin wall and all four of them went rigid. A sniffing sound, like that of an ox, came from outside. The sound worked its way around the cabin perimeter. Semira crept to the door and raised the shovel over her head. Aisha dimmed the lamp, then took Sasha and disappeared into the other room. Picking up a broken piece of brick from the floor, Kara went to stand on the other side of the door from Semira. Her sister never acknowledged her as they waited to see what would happen.
The sniffing was right outside. Kara glanced down at the makeshift barricade she'd made. Hopefully it would be enough to stop whatever was out there from breaking in.
From the size of the creature they'd seen running through the trees earlier—that was too much to hope for. The door and barricade would break, and they would need to fight hand-to-hand. Kara bit her lip. I should've let Semira keep the shovel rather than start an argument. Now look what I've done.
The sniffing stopped and a tense silence followed. Kara held her breath, listening, digging her nails into the broken brick.
But nothing happened.
Kara's guts started to cramp. She began to almost wish something would happen so the unbearable tension would end.
Then the door exploded inward and Kara was thrown backward, pummeled by shattered timbers and shards of brick. She slammed into the wall and went down in a heap. A huge black body landed in the center of the room, its saucer-sized eyes the color of the corruption. The eyes came to rest on her crumpled form. Winded, she tried to stand, but the creature leapt on top of her and pinned her down.
The Lost Sun Series Box Set 1: Books 1 and 2 (Lost Sun Box Set) Page 61