The Grey Ghost: Book Two of the Archaic Ring Series

by Reed R. Stevens

  Amy stared at the moonlit scenery in wonder. “This is beautiful.”

  Her words caused Jason to take a long and attentive stare at his surroundings. Towering mountains, giant trees covered in glowing fruit, serene rivers of glistening waters and countless grassy hills, with snow-topped peaks in the background. He appreciated the gorgeous view as the eagle began a hasty descent. He’d been too focused on keeping his guard up and hadn’t taken a moment to truly get a look at the fantastical setting that had somehow come to make up his backdrop. When he thought about it, not many people would ever have the luck to enjoy such a sight.

  “The energy is heavy here.” Aelia scanned the area directly below them as they followed a clear stretch of sky toward the group of giant trees. “A perfect breeding ground for profound medicine. However…”

  “What are you worrying over? Uncle Suna already killed all of the demonic beasts that he found here. Besides, aren’t starlight trees proof enough? It’s not unrealistic for there to be seven patches between the twelve of them.”

  Aelia closed her eyes for a few moments. “I see why the sect master rarely allows you to leave the island.”

  “Don’t forget who you’re talking to,” Lucia spat.

  “I wouldn’t dare to.”

  They landed near the valley’s centre, a couple hundred metres away from the giant trees that Lucia had just pointed out. As soon as they touched down, the young girl picked Amy up and tossed her over her shoulder as if she only weighed a few kilos, and then dismounted from the eagle’s back.

  Jason and Aelia followed after her, and then the three of them hurried over to the base of the treeline.

  Lucia placed a flustered Amy onto the ground and then glanced at Jason with a stern expression. “Take her and search around the bases of these trees for golden herbs.” She dashed toward the nearest tree, covering fifty metres in a split second. She wasted no time in ducking down and sifting through the grass, carefully walking along the circumference of the closest tree.

  Without turning to address them, Aelia spoke while adjusting her dark leathers. “The leaves are triangular and the size of a hand, their edges serrated. They escape all but the keenest of spiritual senses, so it goes without saying that you’ll have to rely on your eyes. Not that there was ever another option for you.”

  Jason glanced at Amy and frowned. The last thing he wanted to do was walk around with a brat like her and pick through the knee-high grass in search of some herb he’d never seen. Aelia vanished the instant he looked away. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed Amy’s hand and led her over to the easternmost tree of the bunch.

  “You heard her,” was all he said before he began sifting around for any signs of the so-called falling star herbs.

  “You know I can’t speak that language.”

  “I forgot. She said to look for small golden plants around the base of these trees.”

  He spent nearly an hour scouring the area for any signs of the herbs that he’d been tasked with finding. He kept tabs on Amy with his spiritual sense as she stumbled in his wake like a bored child, showing no dedication to the task at hand. Her vision poor and her mind constantly distracted by the glowing fruit from far above, it came as no surprise when she eventually gave up on looking around and simply left the searching to Jason.

  He finally found what he was looking for when he moved on to the fourth tree, a long strip of golden plants that followed a five metre curve around its base. The patch was at least a metre long and each plant emitted a dim glow as if they were made of phosphorescent material. Staring down at the hundreds of triangular leaves, their serrated edges reminded Jason of tiny, cartoonish pine trees.

  He bent down and snatched up a single leaf from the cluster of vines at his feet. Very carefully and very slowly, he directed his spiritual sense around its surface and gave it a thorough scanning. He’d overheard Aelia say that these particular plants contained a tremendous amount of Origin Energy, a very pure sort. How am I supposed to use it? Do I eat it? Is that even safe?

  “Hey Amy, you still hungry?”

  “No,” she said, coming up beside him with a shiver. “Are you not cold?”

  “Not really.”

  “How?”

  He ignored her. Maybe I can refine it like a spirit stone?

  Amy sniffled and then pulled her robes about her. “We should go tell them what we found.”

  “What I found. And in a minute.”

  Something came to mind during the moment of silence that followed. It was really windy on the way up here. Why can’t I hear anything? He was over five kilometres above sea-level, after all. Shouldn’t the air currents in a place like this be pretty rough? He glanced up at the distant treetops, only now taking notice of the fact that none of the near-infinite leaves were moving, as if the air above them was completely still. To begin with, shouldn’t this place have been covered in snow?

  “You do what you want. I’m going to get their attention.”

  Jason let her go and knelt down to harvest a few handfuls of the golden herbs, hastily shoving them into his spatial bag. He buried a few barren vines to hide that he’d taken some, and then hurried after Amy.

  Aelia and Lucia were nowhere in sight as they walked along the entire breadth of trees. Don’t tell me they left us here? If that happened then he and Amy would probably wind up stranded in this valley forever. Stranded for life with a pretty girl in the only paradise on this world, but they give me this bitch?

  Just when he was wondering if he’d have to ditch her in the valley and chance a dangerous descent down, a petite figure appeared in front of him with a light tapping sound. Even though she stood right before him, he couldn’t sense Lucia’s aura. She was pretty high up. How far did she jump just now?

  “There’s been a change of plans.” Lucia scooped Amy up in the usual fashion and then ran for a distant field.

  Jason followed after her at his top speed, which he was quite impressed with these days. About half a kilometre away from the cluster of giant trees, they stopped at a grassy knoll. Aelia was waiting for them, though she didn’t turn to greet them. She stared ahead of her with a sharp gaze, lost in silent contemplation.

  Jason was surprised to see that a large sheet of dulled metal had been inlaid into the side of the little hill, its surface decorated in archaic engravings that were completely foreign to him. At the centre of the sheet were two rectangular handles made of a metal that resembled brass, both of them heavily corroded. Is that a door?

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Surprisingly, he got an answer, and it was from Aelia. “These are Ancient Vespasian characters. It’s likely that this is a Vespasian Tomb.”

  Lucia placed Amy on the ground. “Well then, shall we go in and take a look?”

  “No, we’re leaving.”

  “You can’t be serious. This is an ancient tomb, and a Vespasian one, no less! Even a thousand patches of falling star herbs couldn’t hold a candle to a discovery like this.”

  “You’re right. The value of this tomb far out-shadows that of a few patches of falling star herbs. That’s what bothers me. Surely the fourth elder would have found it. It wouldn’t be a surprise for him to have raided the tomb and kept the spoils for himself, but he couldn’t have, because even he isn’t capable of breaking the seal on these doors.”

  “It’s sealed?”

  “That’s not the issue. Why didn’t he report this tomb?” She held up a hand to stifle Lucia’s retort. “Because he knew that your father would have mobilized the entire sect in an attempt to shatter the seal and raid its treasures. Why did he still make the decision to report the herbs, though? Surely those who came to harvest them would find it.”

  “What are you accusing Uncle Suna of?”

  “You’re a stupid, naïve girl, and I suspect that he took that into account before he told your father about this valley in your presence. You can stay here, but I’m returning to the sect.”

  “I wonder what my fa
ther will say about you abandoning me here in this wilderness.”

  Aelia snorted and then leered at the young girl with unfettered dislike. “Whatever he thinks, your disappearance will have nothing to do with me. As far as anyone is concerned, we are just two of many that have entered closed-door training. The fact that you’re missing, nobody will know for quite some time, and it’ll be completely unrelated to me whenever it comes to light.”

  “You traitor!”

  “I’m giving you one last chance. Leave with me now, or rot here forever with your pitiful little pets.”

  Jason blinked and then turned to address the blonde girl. “Why are you even hesitating? She clearly thinks that something’s off about this place. Are you so greedy that you’ll die for something that might not even exist?”

  As if an iron rod were jabbing into his gut, the young girl’s little foot connected with his stomach with enough force to bend him into a ‘C’ shape and propel him backward over eight metres. He hit the ground at a roll and clawed his fingers into the earth, a large curtain of shock hanging over him as he finally slid to a stop. He tried to move but fell into a fit of spasms, eventually vomiting after a long struggle to pull in a breath.

  To think a little girl could be so strong… The kick had been so casual that he could tell that she hadn’t put any effort into it.

  “Fine, I will accompany you back to the sect!”

  The three girls left the area, not waiting for Jason to recover from the stomach-turning kick. He eventually caught up, though he hated himself for following after them, for relying on them to get out of this scenic, moonlit valley that sat above many of the drifting clouds.

  They returned to where they had left the great eagle, though it was nowhere in sight. Aelia closed her eyes and stood still for a few moments, no doubt summoning her mount once again.

  “Aren’t you going to tell them about those plants you found?”

  “I have no reason to,” Jason whispered to Amy in English. “These guys might kill us at any time, don’t forget that.”

  They waited patiently for the eagle to return.

  “Is he still not responding?” Lucia finally began to show signs of nervousness. She let out a cry of surprise as soon as she finished speaking. A dark silhouette materialized in front of her, followed by a heavy thud and a thin cloud of dust.

  Jason crept a few paces away from the others in an effort to be less conspicuous.

  Who’s this now? The dust cleared to reveal Aelia standing before Lucia with a steadfast expression, her right hand covered in a sleek layer of inner essence. A young man lay unmoving at her feet. The attacker was dressed in silk pants that were the same charcoal shade as his knee-length robes, a young man somewhere in his mid-twenties. Judging by the fist-sized hole in his chest, he wouldn’t be getting any older.

  “I’d heard that the Young Miss of the Crescent Moon Sect was widely disliked.” A middle-aged man dressed in dark robes appeared about thirty metres in front of them, his voice crisp in the night. “So you actually managed to convince a Protector to come along with you on a personal errand. Though this one I don’t recognize.”

  Over a hundred shadows suddenly materialized in a tight ring around them, all wearing the same charcoal robes as the dead man at Aelia’s feet.

  The man that addressed them wore a black sash from his left shoulder down to the right side of his waist, a signifier that he was in charge of the men who’d appeared so suddenly and silently in this desolate place. His hair was short and neatly trimmed, a thick goatee latched on to his pointy chin.

  “Nightshadow Sect?” Aelia withdrew a beautiful sword from her spatial bag, its blue surface catching a ray of moonlight and sending a gleam running along its length from the hilt to its curved tip. “Attacking this girl will spark a war. That would spell the end of your sect.”

  “It’s not my sect that you should be worried about.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  At their leader’s command, the surrounding men all stepped forward and punched out with their fists in unison. Desk-sized hazes of dark mass shot forth from their knuckles, scaring the daylights out of Jason as dozens of these unknown projectiles zipped toward their group like a heavy rain of ballista spears.

  Aelia had stepped forward at the same time that their attackers moved, unfazed as the tip of her weapon began to gleam with a silvery shine. For a moment her sword was more eye-catching than the great moons above them. She slashed out with great effort, the light leaving her sword as a crescent of whitish energy swept out to obstruct over thirty of the dark masses that the surrounding men had launched toward her.

  Though many had been blocked, over seventy of the projectiles were set to make imminent contact with Jason and the others.

  Aelia didn’t leave off after the first slash, immediately producing a rectangular slip of paper and tossing it out into the air in front of her. A strange energy left her pointy fingertips and rapidly engulfed the talisman, which instantly receded inward like water soaked up by a sponge. The slip of paper crumbled to dust and the spot where it had just been floating became the epicentre of a powerful gust of wind that billowed outward in an expanding circle.

  Not a second after Aelia had conjured that strange gust of wind, all the remaining shadows of energy suddenly exploded on the spot. Looking closely, they seemed to have hit an invisible barrier.

  It was then that Jason noticed a large gap that’d been created in the encirclement. It was exactly the area where Aelia had just counterattacked. At least thirty men lay in pieces along a curve that would connect north to east on a compass.

  “An arrayment practitioner?” The middle-aged man was taken aback. “You can’t have made those talisman’s yourself, right?”

  Aelia didn’t answer and instead took out two more slips of paper, pinching them between her right thumb and index finger. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a long, heavy breath.

  “How else could she become the youngest Protector in the Crescent Moon Sect’s over six hundred years of history?” A healthy-looking man somewhere in his late forties suddenly appeared amongst those that hadn’t been targeted by Aelia’s counterattack. He wore his hair back in a long ponytail, bound by black lace. His face was clean-shaven and his features strong, a sinister determination lingering beneath his serious black eyes.

  “Protector Daren!” Lucia called out in surprise.

  Aelia stowed away her sword and pulled out a third talisman, which reminded Jason of the strange energy that she’d just used. It had the same transparent yet colourful appearance as the sort of bubbles that kids blew for fun, similar to the reflection of light off a puddle of gasoline.

  “Lucia,” the dark-haired woman whispered, her lean features sharp as her voice grew sombre. “Escape through the gap I created. Those fellows might be some of the stronger disciples of their sect, but I should still manage able to protect you.”

  “And what of my Otherworlders?”

  “Leave them, unless you want to die alongside them. I’ll create an opportunity for you, now go!”

  “Minutes ago you were about to abandon me here.”

  Aelia threw out the slip of parchment that she’d held in her left hand and then cast out another small amount of the same peculiar energy from before, which quickly condensed around the slip. “In the end, I’m still a Protector of the sect!” She clenched her fist and the slip of paper combusted into nothingness. Her complexion instantly paled by several shades, her skin now pulled taut by a long layer of wrinkling. It was as if she’d just aged fifty years.

  What’d she just do? She looks like a corpse!

  Seeing this, the so called Protector Daren snapped out at the man wearing the black sash. “You and your men, attack with me.”

  As soon as the mass of charcoal-robed men began to close in on them, the majority froze in place and then fell to the ground. Only the Protector and man with the black sash remained on
their feet, though evidently with much struggle. Why are they kneeling? Are they being forced down by something? Only their enemies were affected by the strange force.

  “She can manage this and she’s not even at the Genesis stage. Since when was your sect hiding such a monster?”

  While the sashed man barked at him, an alert look flashed through Protector Daren’s eyes as he directed a sharp, cunning glare toward Aelia’s strained expression.

  Jason wondered what those strange pieces of paper were, since this was the first time that he had seen anyone fight so strangely.

  Despite his appreciation of her strength, he was keen on taking advantage of the escape route that she had vowed to create. He had no qualms with leaving her behind, a sentiment that the wide-eyed Lucia quickly came to share.

  Before they could make a break for it, a terrible screech echoed throughout the field and drew everyone’s attention skyward. The giant eagle had just descended, its body covered in dozens of gruesome wounds that ranged from the size of a finger to the length of an arm. On top of that, it was missing one of its thick, scaly legs.

  “Daren, kill the woman as soon as her life force wavers,” grated the man with the black sash, his face now flushed from the effort of remaining on his feet. “I’ll fell the beast!”

  Blood began to dribble out of Aelia’s nostrils as she gave a loud roar of indignation. Lucia was simultaneously lifted into the air by a thin platform of iridescent energy, and roughly dropped atop the eagle’s back. She’d been leading Amy along by the hand and hadn’t let go of her even after she was hoisted up into the air. Both of them managed to cling on to the bird as it took off into the sky without wasting a second.

  Lucia’s voice reverberated throughout the area. “Aelia, don’t die!”

  Jason’s stomach sank as he saw the great bird flying off into the moonlit distance, a black silhouette that shrunk gradually with the passing seconds. A dozen paces away from him, Aelia was panting heavily as if she’d just run a marathon, her winkled face beaded with sweat and her hair touched with thick threads of grey.