Another charge was forming up. James looked down at Shara, the fear welling up inside him. He had to get her away from here, but if she couldn’t move, he had no chance to carry her to safety. He looked back up at the Xenai and blinked back his surprise when Coilsen jumped in front of their charge. He held his arms out. He had no weapons. Shara snapped her head to look at him. James felt it, too. He couldn’t make out what he was sending, but it was clear he was trying to communicate to the Xenai via Intuition. His tall Illara form stood firm, and the Xenai charge slowed. They came to a stop just a foot away from Coilsen, looking down at him, then their heads turned in unison to look at Shara, still on the ground.
She pulled herself up, grasping onto James for support as she trembled and held out the black stone and closed her eyes.
The Xenai turned and ran.
71
Shara
Shara pushed the voices from her mind and found herself functional again as James was trying to pull her to the center wall. She smiled over at him and slid her arm around him to offer him support as her strength returned. She waved her men into the inner circle of fortifications, pausing next to the sentries as the men shuffled past her. They helped her push James ahead as she slid through the crack. They helped him hop sideways through; she grabbed onto him again once she was through. She passed the tents that remained; until she saw what was left. Maybe a hundred men, with no more than a few dozen still heading in. She helped James hobble toward a cot near the medics.
She was surprised when each cluster of men she passed smiled warmly. Several groups sang songs around small fires as the sun set over the mountains, creating a back-and-forth banter as one group picked up the line after the last one sang. She smiled as the song ended and the groups of men banged their metal cups on logs and tables in a cacophonous cheer.
She lowered James into the cot, pausing to consider helping heal the wound in his leg then help others, but she had to speak to Hafi. She kissed James’ forehead, “I’ll be back.”
As she reached the command tent, she kicked the pole a few times, calling in a singsong voice, “Gen-er-al?”
“Princess?” came the reply.
Shara felt her smile grow as she pushed her way into the tent and found herself greeted by a roomful of smiling faces.
“This isn’t quite what I expected to come back to, but I’m happy about it. Are they preparing for another assault?”
Hafi broke into a big grin. “The Xenai pushed us in, but it seems you have them scared. They retreated about a half mile in either direction, it seems.” He smirked, “We are using the LightTabs they stole to track you to track them.”
Shara laughed. “I wonder if they’ll figure that out. What are our options?”
“We’ve taken all the precautions we can. So we are enjoying the moment.” He raised a wooden cup. Shara could smell the whiskey in it.
Shara shrugged and walked to the cask, taking a metal cup from the chair next to it, and poured a splash out. Finding herself a seat at the war table, she took a look at the updated map with the new positions of the nearby Xenai army, but there were still scout patrols between them and the army. The more Shara stared at the map, the more it bothered her—their sudden retreat after that Illara communicated with them—but she couldn’t place her finger on why.
Shara was disappointed in Hafi’s disinterest in her Blight crystal observations. He had nearly immediately waved it off, stating that Prin had dozens of scientists working on that problem. Their problem was the Xenai, and the bulk of that problem was only a half mile away. He didn’t seem to care that their black implants were somehow part Blight crystal.
She thrust her anger down as she searched for James’ tent. They had forced him off the medical cot after healing the leg wound, so they could treat the next. His ridiculous tapestry of a cat in a top hat hung outside of his tent as usual. He had salvaged it as a twelve year old, and her amusement at it had prompted him to bring it when they deployed. It worked well to help her find him in a constantly changing camp.
She walked in unannounced, finding him on his cot reading by candlelight—the journal she had given him of her Blight Crystal observations. She smiled as he rolled onto his side so that she could sit next to him. She leaned against him as he continued to read, both of them enjoying the silence. After a few minutes, he placed his book down and placed his hand on her thigh. “Did you enjoy finding new and innovative ways to murder?”
Shara laughed. “It was pretty murder-y. I have to say, they kind of had it coming.” She sighed as she thought about the Xenai. “Something else is happening. Something more than this war. Hafi won’t even talk to me about what I found out there.”
“How could he not care after tonight?”
“I don’t know. It seems like it’s the key to a lot of things. Him and my mother want to keep me away from it. I guess it’s good they didn’t realize nearly the entire Xenai army is related to the stuff.”
James rubbed her arm, reaching up and pulling her to lay down next to him so he could wrap his arms around her. “We’ll figure it out.”
Shara nodded as the images played in her head.
Not long after returning to her own tent, Shara was surprised to be interrupted as she was getting ready to sleep. The young recruit that jumped in front of her during the battle came in after a knock on her tent pole, “Ms. Shae?”
“Come in.”
He was already through the tent flap before she had given her reply. “I—uh, received a message from Prin, miss. There is some data—important data. Your mother needs to send you the data immediately. She requested a troop of us escort you to the SatNet tower west of here so you can get the transfer.” He handed her his LightTab to show the message on it, a forward from his commanding officer, that was signed by Ayna Shae. She noted his name from the message. Coilsen.
She turned and checked her own Tab, to find a message from her mother, sent to the encrypted address of her Tab.
Shara,
The BC project has shown us a lot. I think you need to see what we have found to use it against the Xenai. It’s too much to direct message, so I’m sending a group to escort you to do a data download at the nearest tower. It seems the Xenai have retreated enough to sneak you out there.
Shara nodded, “Let’s go see, Sergeant Coilsen.”
The squirrelly little Sergeant turned and led her away. She followed, despite the complaints from her sleep deprived body. She had been without sleep for twenty hours and was not looking forward to multi-mile hike to and from the tower.
Sergeant Coilsen approached four other men on the west side of the camp. She reached out and grabbed his shoulder, “Hang on—I was just wondering—What was it that you tried to say to the Xenai? How did you get them to turn away?”
He stopped and looked at her, “It was a crazy plan Kingston had. Your mother told him that they were after you, so he thought the reason they want you dead might be because you would find a way to use the Xenai’s implants against them. He told me if you did, tell them to stay back, that you would use that power to kill them all.”
Shara nodded, “I just don’t get why they would care. They sacrifice themselves all the time.”
“Would you risk all of Prin to fight a troop of Xenai that figured out how to use source to make your own bodies kill you?”
She chuckled, “I guess not.”
Coilsen smiled back and turned to continue towards the small group of men waiting for them. They all saluted as she approached. She returned the salute, kicking herself for not saluting first, wondering if she was that slow and tired or if he had been that enthusiastic.
“Sorry to get you up so early. We will get you back as quickly as we can,” one of the men said.
“Not your fault my mother likes to send messages with large attachments at 2 a.m. Let’s get going.”
Sergeant Coilsen gave the order to move out, and the company turned west. He led the way with one other and four men came up behind Shara.
&nb
sp; Shara admired the sun coming up in the east as they approached the tower. The army camp disappeared in the mountain terrain. Only a glimmer of the Nagata was distinguishable from up here to betray that any life that didn’t live in the forests had settled nearby. Shara sensed the impatience of the troop that brought her here, so she turned, climbing up the last forty feet to the tower base. The building was round and flat, with a tall metal spire that protruded from the center. South of the building, where the mountain curved, a series of solar panels were set up to power the station, enabling it to connect its powerful gear to the SatNet and download large data sets in minutes.
Shara stepped into the dark building ahead of the men and began to feel along the wall for a switch to turn on some lights. She flipped them on and screamed. Along the edge of the room crouched a Xenai patrol. The patrol on the war room map had come here. There was nothing for Shara to manipulate with Source in the old constructed building made with concrete slabs and metals, other than them. She noted that none of them were normal smokies. They all had implants, but of normal terrestrial elements. They were a mixture of Amber, Diamond, and Strom. She could still use it against them, but it would be little more than a painful annoyance to them. Shara called for the troop to join her, “Xenai!” She heard nothing but her call echoing up the stairs and dying out in silence.
The Xenai moved around the edge of the room around toward her. They kept their eyes on her, expecting her to do something as they closed the gap. She whipped up a wind inside the room, using the stromcasting stone in the one Xenai. It pushed them away from her. They fought against it, closing the distance. She began to step back up the stairs.
Her heart jumped as she heard a shuffle on the steps behind her. Sergeant Coilsen appeared in the room next to her, unarmed. He was perfectly composed.
“I’m sorry. You’re going to have to put this on.” He handed her an amulet that looked like a thick metal collar. It pulsed a dim red and purple. Some sort of wiring connected the two stones, like the purple stone was powering the Blight Crystal. Each link was square and heavy, with the back half of the links having larger openings and interlocking sections covered in grooves.
“Why?”
“The Xenai figured out that the two combined dampen powers. You have to wear it so they can transport you.”
“Transport me where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why are you doing this?”
His eyes dropped, “I’m just following orders.”
“From who?!”
“Your mother.”
A Xenai at the front of the pack lunged forward and grabbed the amulet from Coilsen before pinning Shara to the wall by her neck. “Wear or die.”
She grabbed it and lifted it to her throat. The Xenai jerked her forward from the neck then darted around her and began to tighten the strange necklace. It clicked with each link, making Shara sure it would not come off without some sort of release mechanism. Coilsen began to leave. “Why would my mother do this?”
It wasn’t Coilsen that answered, but the Xenai, “Xenai take Shara. Xenai no fight Prin. Peace.”
72
Hafi
Hafi had been up and ready for the next wave of the battle for hours. Everything around their encampment was still. The sun came up and yet the Xenai did not appear. With each minute that passed without incident, he grew more anxious. Something is going on. Had they found a way to circumvent Shara’s newfound power that had saved what was left of the army? He grabbed one of the runners he had pulled out of bed when he started his vigil.
“Get two scout teams together from Dragon. They need to head out, one west and one east, and figure out where the Xenai are and what they are doing.”
The child ran through the camp behind him, looking for the Dragon banner. She found it and started into tents to wake the sleeping troops. Hafi heard them behind him, the clank and banging of a breakfast, then the familiar clicks and shuffling of them armoring up. Dragon had some of his best riflemen, he hoped he wasn’t sending them into a death trap.
It didn’t take long for them to be ready. They exited the fortified circle, slipping through the hole in the wall one by one, and Hafi watched from the tower that was now stairs as they split and made their way to the gaping holes in each wall. The Xenai bodies provided a bridge across the trenches Shara had made, but he still noticed the slow pace and careful steps, as if they were afraid a Xenai would grab them and pull them down into the pile. Soon, they were out of his field of vision.
Around him, the camp began to wake slowly. They had rested far longer than anyone had expected, and he could see the uncertainty in the soldiers as they wandered casually through the camp, getting water, breakfast and doing the normal morning routine. He wasn’t surprised that Shara was not up yet. She had always slept heavily after a rough day of practice. With her ordeal yesterday, he wouldn’t be surprised if she slept most of the day, if they had no reason to wake her. He hated not having a reason. Even though she would be as clueless as he was, he really wished she was beside him, offering guesses and suggestions to prepare for whatever the Xenai would bring next.
James wandered up to the stairway to nowhere first. Eventually, Jon and Dolores came up as well. Each asked after Shara and each was given the same response, “Let her sleep. The more rested she is when the Xenai come back, the better off we will all be.”
Hafi couldn’t shake the feeling that despite finding a weakness in the Xenai, they should still be coming. They threw their own troops into slaughter when it served their purpose. Why would they back off now that Shara could slaughter them more efficiently?
The sun rose higher, and the misty and crisp morning air burned away. The ground turning from white to orange stained mud as the snow melted away. The Eastern scouts returned. They shrugged at him as they got close. The Sergeant of the team strolled up the steps, “Nothing out there to the east at all. We didn’t see a single Xenai patrol. Went around north a mile, then looped around to the south. There was nothing.”
What are they doing? Amassing from one direction?
He pulled out his LightTab and sent a message to the other team.
Update?
He half expected to get no reply, but instead a message popped up in a few minutes.
Nothing out here. We did find a Pact straggler. He has an interesting story. Be there in five.
As soon as he saw the western team gingerly crossing the Xenai bodies into the encampment, he started down the stairs to meet them. He found James, Jon, and Dolores waiting by the inner wall’s exit. They slipped out behind him, keeping close enough to get the update but trying to keep their distance so Hafi wouldn’t send them away.
As they approached the scouts, Hafi recognized the Pact man they had found: one of the new recruits. Sergeant Thyne gave Hafi a salute, then pushed the other man forward, “Tell him.”
“We got a message last night, after the Xenai retreated. It requested that we take Shara to the tower since the Xenai moved back. Stateswoman Shae wanted to give her a large data package about the Blight crystals. I don’t know how the Xenai knew, but they did. They were waiting for us at the tower. My team was killed. I ran and hid. I saw them drag Shara out of the tower. She was practically asleep on her feet. They had put something around her neck that seemed to be causing her to be unable to fight. It was heavy dark metal with purple and red gems in it.” He handed Hafi his LightTab, showing the orders from Ayna.
God fucking damn it. They got what they wanted. Why wouldn’t Ayna go through me on this?
Hafi controlled his shaking hands, the sorrow and anger boiling up inside him as he read over the message multiple times. He said nothing. It’s so wrong—so strange. Shoving the LightTab back to the private, he turned and stalked back toward the command tent, only stopping at Shara’s tent long enough to throw the flap aside and confirm it was empty. He ignored the shocked looks from James, Jon, and Dolores. They didn’t dare stop him or say anything, but they followed him a
ll the way to the command tent, clearly unsure of what else to do.
Everyone else that started to approach him on the way received such a dark scowl that they backed away. He grabbed a mug and poured himself some whiskey. The guard outside had gotten a deep glare as Hafi walked in and he heard him turn someone away from the tent. At least some of these fuckers aren’t useless.
He raged internally. What were they planning to do with her? I’ll hunt them all down and slaughter their entire fucking species.
He was through three glasses of whiskey before he had yelled enough in his mind to compose a message to Ayna. They had won and lost. He knew they could all head home—but he didn’t want to. Ayna would need him, but so did Shara. What can one old man do to save her? He poured another glass of whiskey.
What does it matter what I can or can’t do?
He had to go after Shara. He had to find her. Out of respect, he asked Ayna for her orders, but his mind was already decided. He would not be going home to Prin until Shara was with him. He started humming to himself, which turned into a racous shout in a partial melody.
“Muuuuuuurder their whole fucking specieeeeees. Childrennnnn! Adults! Mass genociiiiiiiiiide, here I come!”
73
Tani
Rat-livier was a happy little beast. Tani swung off her cot and leaned over and glared at him through the glass, as if his tranquil existence proved she was not all that Vin thought of her. Delilah had started doting on him, checking in and giving him more treats than their food supplies under self-imposed quarantine called for. Tani let it slide, because she knew the real threat to their food was Vin.
Maybe you’ll be dead or transformed into a murderous beast, so I have reason to kill you when I get back.
Song of Sundering Page 41