Legacy of Death: Revenge (Legacy of Dreams Book 2)

by Thomas J. L. Green

  Is that really Astril?

  “Two seventy-one. You are on a roll, War Leader, keep going and you will soon make it to three hundred,” Astril mocked.

  “THAT’S ENOUGH!” Mathilde roared.

  “Oh, come on, matron, we just had a little fist fight. Those happen all the time, don’t they?” Astril turned to her with a grin.

  “A fist fight?! You just murdered seven of your sisters!” Allicia shouted.

  “Murdered? The first one was a challenge sanctioned by you; the other six attacked me with weapons, so it was self-defense. Plus, I haven’t even drawn my swords, so really, by our law, this was a fist fight gone wrong. Whoopsie,” Astril remarked sarcastically.

  Allicia was speechless.

  “Leave!” Matron commanded.

  “Before I go, a word,” Astril walked up to Allicia. “Now listen, you little shit. The only reason you are alive is that Zerae doesn’t let me kill you. Overdo it and she might stop. Then I will cut your shitty head off, put it under my toilet and start every day by taking a shit on your ugly face. Remember it the next time you go lying about your own fuck-ups.”

  “How dare you!” Allicia sneered.

  “All these titles, stars and trophies are just meaningless bullshit you give to each other. Do not mistake them for strength,” Astril added before she turned around to leave.

  Nobody dared stop her.

  “Sorry… couldn’t hold it anymore. I will be at the camp with Leena,” she whispered to Zerae as she passed her.

  What have you done?

  Alright, Zerae, think! I can analyze what happened later. Now I need to think of a way to get Astril out of the trial for murder and treason. I refuse to lose her!

  It was just five of them now. Mathilde, Allicia, Zerae, Chloe Voidwalker and Hilmeria Darkscream.

  “So, what do you have to say for yourself?” Mathilde spat at Zerae.

  Right. The only reason I’m here is to be judged. No matter Astril’s stunt, Allicia’s accusation still stands. I need to formulate my position very, very carefully else this might turn into a bloodshed. Astril didn’t look like she will let herself be trialed quietly.

  “I’m sorry, but what’s this all about? We have a grave emergency at our hands and you want to question a rank and file warrior for shouting something mid-battle? Where’s the problem with that? Everyone does that. All I see is the new War Leader being completely unable to handle her own force,” Hilmeria Darkscream said before Zerae formed her answer.

  “This is none of your concern,” Mathilde cut her off.

  “Hell, yea it is. I lost sixty-two warriors on this mission. If you think I can go back to Elaine and tell her ‘Sorry matron, I lost a third of my warriors because one of the Hellwind rank and file warriors fucked up’, you are dead fucking wrong. Someone needs to pay for this and it will not be a no-rank scapegoat,” Hilmeria didn’t let up.

  Mathilde’s eyes flared up at the defiance. Zerae needed to use every ounce of her strength to not start laughing out loud. It seems this might take care of itself. I can use this time for more fruitful efforts then. Zerae scanned the room. There were maps scattered all over it. Zerae stepped to the side slightly and used this opportunity to memorize every map, every note, every drawing she could see.

  “I have to agree with Hilmeria. As the representative of the Voidwalker clan at this campaign, I find such explanation utterly unacceptable. I cannot and will not return to Sibyl with a report like that,” Chloe Voidwalker concurred.

  “Zerae is not a common warrior,” Mathilde sneered.

  “Then what is she? As far our law goes, neither former positions nor family ties are officially acknowledged when the military is concerned,” Chloe contested.

  “You made a big show out of stripping her to a zero-star warrior. That’s the lowest rank we have for a warrior. Your War Leader using her as an excuse is downright pathetic,” Hilmeria added.

  Brilliant! While being branded as irrelevant does hurt me, it works. Right now, that’s what matters the most. My position and pride aren’t nearly as important as Astril.

  “I drop the accusation,” Allicia whispered. Mathilde looked like she wants to murder someone. No, like she wanted to murder all of them.

  “Now that this bullshit is solved, time to move on to more pressing issues. Failure such as this must not be repeated. I hereby officially demand to be present at every single strategy meeting even loosely related to anyone from my clan. If there is a strategy meeting which I do not attend, not a single Darkscream Faye, be her warrior or not, shall attend a mission related to it,” Hilmeria stated.

  I will just shut the fuck up and pretend I’m not here. Hilmeria’s right, but I can’t say that. On top of it, Chloe looks like she ain’t planning to let this go either. To be fair, if Sibyl were the superior I reports to, I wouldn’t have let this go either.

  “That is not how the high council settled the leadership of this campaign!” Mathilde refused.

  “I don’t care. I shall not discuss this demand, meet it or not, I will not budge. Whether I overstepped my duty or not can only be judged by the high council. Until that happens, I will not negotiate about this,” Hilmeria retorted.

  “This is a treason,” Mathilde snarled.

  “That is not for you to decide, matron of the Hellwind clan. As far as the Voidwalker clan, all the members of our clan shall be leaving this campaign tomorrow. The only conditions under which I am willing to reconsider are the following. First, I will be granted position at the war council with full veto rights. If I don’t like the plan, not a single Voidwalker shall attend the mission. Second, all Voidwalkers shall fall under my command and mine alone. I command them on the battlefield; I set up the units, I choose the field commanders. At all levels. Thirdly, there shall be no charges or prosecution raised against Astril Hellwind. Today’s incident shall be fully and unconditionally forgiven. Yesterday, she pulled out twenty-eight Faye out of the water after we retreated. That’s twenty-eight warriors who would have died if Astril listened to Allicia and didn’t come in her swimming suit. I am also not willing to negotiate on this. By tomorrow morning, I will either have the fulfillment of my demands confirmed, in writing and signed by you and the current placeholder War Leader or the Voidwalker clan is leaving this campaign. I understand the high council has put searching for the Goddess as a top priority and will answer for my decisions before the High Council, should the need arise. Have I expressed myself clearly?” Chloe demanded in a stone-cold voice.

  I was wrong about Chloe. Very, very wrong.

  “Astril murdered seven of our warriors today. I cannot let that slide. The rest I shall consider,” Mathilde remarked.

  Chloe turned to the door. “Do you really think that Astril will just let you punish her? I guess wisdom doesn’t always come with age. By the way, if Sibyl was here instead of me, she would have killed Allicia straight after the battle, impaled her mangled remains on our standard and then put your head next to it,” she remarked over her shoulder.

  “To the topic of Astril Hellwind. If seven of your top warriors cannot as much as touch her when she’s unarmed and in her swimming suit, then I honestly don’t see how you plan to capture her if she decides to draw her blades. Either way, my clan shall take no part in it,” Himleria remarked before she turned to leave as well.

  “Where do you think you two are going?” Mathilda demanded.

  “Until my demands are met, I see nothing more to speak about,” Hilmeria returned and left.

  “Likewise,” Chloe concurred and left as well.

  “See what you’ve caused? Get out!” Mathilde shouted at Zerae.

  Zerae turned and left without a word.

  “How’s Leena?” Astril asked straight as she reached Oria’s tent.

  “Still in the Dream World,” Oria confirmed.

  “How long has she been in?”

  “Seven days,” Oria breathed.

  “If you see our warriors coming here, give me a head up pleas
e and deny knowing anything,” Astril told her coldly.

  “What happened?” she asked back, confused.

  “I fucked up.”

  Astril passed Oria without further words and went to Leena. She was pale, visibly weak.

  “What are you doing, Leena?” Astril knelt down to her, took off her armor and lifted her up, to hold her from behind.

  “I’m here… so come back… please. I really, really fucked up today and I need someone to tell me it’s gonna be alright. I know it won’t, but I need to hear it. Please. Fuck the mission, just come back, please. I know I don’t give you the time or attention you deserve. I know and I’m sorry. I just… really need you right now… so come back to me, please.”

  28

  Leena

  Ugggghhh… this looks like someone who’s asleep in Xona inner palace. Finally.

  Leena stood at the edge of a man’s dream pocket. She was peering out from it to see what pockets are around. Her head was spinning, her vision blurry, her body felt weak. So, so weak. Time had lost meaning to her; she had no idea what day it was, what hour it was. She just knew she has to move. Leena sat down to rest for a few minutes. Then she got up and leaped out of the pocket.

  The darkness of the Void wrapped around her. Cold and endless. She was so, so cold.

  I can hear them again. Wings in the distance. Demons of the Void. I’ve made too many consecutive jumps. They are coming for me. I know it.

  The wings were getting louder and louder as she glided through the emptiness toward the next pocket.

  These defenses aren’t bad, but I can’t pass them easily.

  Leena attached herself to the border of the dream pocket and started searching for the way past the defenses. They were similar to the others around the Xona castle.

  The beating of wings is coming closer. I need to hurry.

  Finding a passage past the defenses was like making a tunnel. Leena’s magic was slowly creating a tunnel of stone that would let her get inside to the core.

  What?

  Something grabbed her. Strong and cold grip took her entire body. It looked like a root of a tree that extended somewhere from the void into a grabbing hand. It wrapped around her. It immobilized her. The roots started retracting, dragging her through the Boid.

  I am too weak to fight it off. I hope whoever is doing this isn’t planning to kill me… because I don’t think I have enough strength left to stop him.

  The roots dragged her through the Void among the dream pockets. She let it.

  The worst case is if it just drops me somewhere far from other dream pockets. Then I will freeze to death or be eaten by demons. Most likely both.

  It dragged her into a dream pocket which looked like a massive yarn of vines and roots.

  These are some impressive defenses. I guess that’s the guardian of the palace or something. Too bad I’m so tired. It would have been fun to pick it apart.

  Leena got dragged into the vines. They wrapper around her. She was completely immobilized. Then they stopped moving. Unable to do anything, Leena tried to rest as much as she could. The grip was strong and rough, but at least it wasn’t cold.

  Hours later, the vines moved her again. They took her through the plants into what looked like a cage. They sealed her inside of it in standing position. Leena looked around. Few meters in front of her sat a man. He looked young, had brown hair and dark green eyes. He donned luxurious brown and green robes and sat upon a wooden throne.

  “Well?” he opened in a strong authoritative tone.

  “Hi, I’m Leena,” Leena introduced herself.

  “Why are you sneaking among the dreams pockets at the castle?” he asked straight.

  “I am looking for someone,” Leena replied.

  “For who?”

  “It’s going to sound really bad,” Leena tried to avoid.

  “Do you feel like you are in a position to not answer me?” he pinned her down with a stare.

  “I’m looking for count Salazar. I don’t want to harm him or anything, I just really need to talk to him,” Leena revealed.

  “About what do you want to talk to me?” he replied.

  Oh… well, so much for making a good first impression.

  “I need to setup a meeting between you and Zerae Hellwind. That’s our War Leader. As soon as possible, in Alexandria or further west from there,” Leena stated.

  “What would our meeting be about?” Salazar pried.

  “We need you to help us to convince Alexander to set up a certain route into caverns,” Leena explained.

  “And why would I want to do that? That’s a lot of effort, what do I gain?” Salazar retorted.

  “Well, if we don’t succeed, a lot of Faye are going to die. Our sisters, but also Sibyl’s sisters. She will not be happy when she finds out her sisters could have lived if only you were a bit more cooperative,” Leena announced.

  “Are you threatening me?” Salazar thundered.

  “Mmhmm. I’m not happy about it, Sibyl isn’t happy about it, but we have nothing to offer you, so we don’t really have any other options,” Leena confirmed.

  “What the hell is happening? Sibyl wouldn’t just agree with me being blackmailed,” Salazar evaluated.

  “We got dragged into the war between Palai Order and the pirates and we are on the wrong side. Matrons aren’t budging, so we need to find some other way to survive this,” Leena replied.

  “Lovely. You girls really need to discover the virtues of political assassinations,” Salazar shook his head.

  “We don’t really kill each other since we are all sisters,” Leena contested awkwardly.

  “You should. Every leader goes through three stages. At first, he is new to it and fucks up. Then he is a good ruler for a time and then he gets lazy and corrupt and thus needs to step down to make space for someone capable. Plenty rulers make it through the first two stages within the first week of their reign. But anyway, us humans have the third step handled by aging. Since you Faye don’t age, you need to explore other methods of making someone step down. Permanently,” Salazar summarized.

  “I guess we just believe we can do better,” Leena smiled.

  “Everyone thinks they can do better at first. What comes next is the realization that resources are scarce so not everyone can have all they want. Up next is the moment when people with pointy sticks use them to get the resources while people without pointy sticks get to suck it up. The fourth step is a civil war, fifth is politics,” Salazar laid out.

  “I’m starting to understand what Sibyl sees in you,” Leena chuckled.

  Salazar released Leena from the cage and caught her with a different plant. It made a bed that softly enveloped her.

  “This will help you recover. You need to get some rest; I will help you with the way back once you are able to go,” Salazar concluded.

  “Alright, thank you,” Leena breathed sadly.

  Salazar took a minute to think and narrowed his eyes, “Palai Order went to wage war on the Storm pirates and their bases are way beyond Alexandria. How many jumps did you use to get here?”

  “About three hundred ninety,” Leena replied.

  “How are you planning to get back? You seem to be too tired to make more than a dozen jumps,” Salazar remarked.

  “I will try to glide through the Void,” Leena revealed.

  “Have you ever done it before?”

  “A little,” Leena sighed.

  “When did you enter the Dream World?” Salazar inquired.

  “Almost seven days ago.”

  “Nobody can survive more than eight days in the Dream World. By then, the physical body fully disconnects from the soul and dies,” Salazar reminded himself, “and there is only one man in this world who can cover such distance in given time. You are not that man. You are going to die.”

  The realization really sets in once it’s said out loud. I just never imagined Xona would be so absurdly huge. It normally takes under ten jumps to get through a city. It
took two hundred to get from the edge of Xona to Salazar.

  “I know. I have a spell that can make letters appear on my body so I can deliver back the message. Then I will die here… or in the Void were you to mind,” Leena whispered and started crying..

  “Why do you want to die? There is no way a dreamwalker who can do four hundred jumps would misjudge distance. I mean, I can make barely thirty jumps and I have never done such a basic error,” Salazar’s gaze hardened.

  “I don’t want to die… but I also can’t find a reason to live… so I figured I might push it a bit and if it goes wrong, well… yeah,” Leena wept.

  “Why?”

  “I am old. I… know I will not have what I want. It’s just… so, so tiring to see it in front of me all the time.”

  “A woman?” Salazar pried.

  “To her, I’m her best friend. But I want to be more. I need to be more. But I can’t. I know it’s stupid, childish… but I can’t let it go. I’m just stuck looking at my dream while knowing I will never have it.”

  “When I met Sibyl, she was married and had two lovers. I staged one of her lovers with her partner to make it look like they are cheating on her. Afterwards, I intimidated the second lover to make a dramatic breakup. Then I picked up the shattered pieces of Sibyl’s heart and made it mine. Relationships and war are much closer than they look like,” Salazar grinned.

  “Why would you go so far?”

  “Ever since my youth, even to this day, one of the hottest topics among magicians has been immortality. Nobody wants to die. I found a way to recreate my body to a younger form and a way to stop my soul from withering. For as long as I don’t get killed in battle, I am effectively immortal. But my wife is not. She is over seventy years old now, even with the best care available, she is still an old lady who will die. I will stay with her until the end. But unlike her, I will not die. I have known that for a long time, which had put me into a dire need for a new… more permanent partner. Luckily, fortune took me by the hand and delivered me a Voidwalker warband, which thought it was smart to raid a village close to Xona. The rest, one might say, is history,” Salazar replied.