She tore between a pair of trees and spotted a crouching archer before he heard her approach. She slashed through both his bow and his throat without slowing. She vaulted a fallen log and came upon a party of three more men hidden in low bushes. She let sail her daggers, and they caught two of the men off guard. The third whirled and fired an arrow at her. She brushed it aside and hurled herself at him. She grabbed both ends of his bow, snapping them, and leaped over him, twisting his bowstring around his neck as she went. She turned and garroted the man with his bowstring.
Instinct told her to duck, and an arrow buried itself in the tree where her head had just been. She spun the struggling man in front of her as a shield and two more arrows embedded themselves in his chest. She dropped him and pulled a second pair of daggers from behind her back. The two men facing her dropped their bows and pulled out wicked-looking swords. Have it your way, she thought and closed the distance. The men were skilled swordsmen, but their skill only made their path shine more clearly to her, and she followed it until her daggers dripped with their blood.
As the men around her fell, she looked up to see an archer standing perpendicular to her, drawing back an arrow. He smiled, and she recognized the look of a clear shot. She screamed and hurled her daggers as hard as she could, but not before he had loosed his arrow. She turned to follow the arrow’s path and watched it in slow motion as it flew toward Zara and buried itself in her left breast. She staggered, stunned, and dropped to one knee beside Kaia.
Kaia screamed, and Dhara turned to see her older sister slump to the ground. She let loose a sound of inhuman fury and tore apart the man she was fighting. She turned around to see Kaia cradling Zara. Zara was struggling to keep her eyes open, and Kaia stroked her hair.
“I’m sorry,” Zara whispered to Kaia and closed her eyes.
“Don’t go,” Kaia pleaded, shaking her sister’s limp body.
Dhara knelt and held her sister. A piteous moan escaped her lips as Kala rushed over.
“I’m sorry,” Kala repeated, over and over. “I tried. I really did.”
Forest, Jarom, and Nara arrived a moment later. Jarom surveyed the scene and snarled. “Nara, Forest, Kala – help Kaia back to camp, and bring Zara back with you.”
Nara hesitated, and Jarom yelled at her, “Do not make me ask again, girl! Dhara and I have some hunting to do.”
Nara hurried to Kaia’s side and tended to her wound. Forest knelt beside her and helped as best she could. Kala picked up one of the fallen men’s swords and began hacking down saplings to make a travois for Zara’s body.
Dhara rose with murder in her eyes.
“We don’t leave these woods until we’ve cleared it of vermin,” Jarom said to her.
Dhara picked up Zara’s spear and stalked past him. He turned and followed her.
It was late that night when Forest and Nara emerged from the treeline, holding Kaia between them, barely conscious from blood loss. Kala followed closely behind, pulling the travois that carried Zara’s body.
Calix had been watching for them and ran up, shooing Forest aside and taking her place under Kaia’s arm. “Jarom and Dhara?” he asked.
“Hunting survivors,” Nara spat.
“Forest, run ahead and get help for Kaia,” Kala ordered, but added, “Please.”
Forest ran as fast as she could, weary as she was. The rest of them followed slowly as they made their way toward the camp.
“What happened?” Calix asked.
“The sisters came upon one of Soren’s scouting parties. Kaia was wounded, and Zara didn’t survive,” Kala replied.
“So it’s begun,” Calix said.
“It has,” Kala replied grimly.
Dhara and Jarom emerged from the forest near dawn. Dhara was bloody but strode purposefully. Jarom walked at her side.
Nara ran to them and hugged her father.
“Kaia?” Dhara asked numbly.
“Alive and resting,” Nara replied.
“Take me to her,” Dhara commanded.
“Of course,” Nara replied, and Jarom released her to lead Dhara off. He went off to speak with Fayre and Emrys.
Nara guided Dhara to Kaia’s bedside. She was asleep, Nina sleeping soundly beside her. Her wound had been tended to, and she was breathing deeply and evenly.
Dhara collapsed onto the ground at her sister’s side. She picked up her hand and cradled it. “Leave us,” she told Nara, and Nara backed out of the tent, glancing back to see Dhara bury her head on Kaia’s chest and sob. She felt guilty for the intrusion and hurried abashedly back to her father’s side.
19
Kala
Zara’s body had been laid on a bed of dry timber. Dhara placed her spear on top of her, bent over, and kissed her eyelids. Kaia watched from a nearby chair with Nina on her lap. Dhara straightened, reached for the torch that Forest held out to her, and lit the pyre in several places. The flames quickly rose to surround Zara, and smoke billowed upward into the clear sky. Dhara walked over to Kaia’s side and placed a hand on her shoulder. Kaia reached up and held it. Together, they witnessed their sister cross over to the home of their ancestors.
Nina looked up at her mother, tears in her eyes. “Why?” she demanded to know.
How could she tell her daughter that there was no good reason? That the world was a terrible place? Instead, Kaia simply told her, “Your aunt died standing over me – protecting me. In this family, there is no greater honor.”
Calix looked up at the flames from the defensive preparations he was readying at Hawke’s instruction. He led a small party in hammering stakes into the ground, then sharpening them. Another group was constructing low walls to shelter archers, and several farmers were digging a wide trench to hamper the advance of any war machines. Carpenters were reinforcing the gates to the city. Everywhere there was work to be done, and Calix hadn’t slept since the skirmish with Soren’s scouting party. His muscles ached, but he felt that he couldn’t yet afford to give them a rest.
Jarom, Fayre, and Emrys met in Jarom’s tent to discuss strategy. Fayre briefed them on the progress she’d made in preparing for the evacuation of the children and the elderly. Emrys tried again to advocate that they all flee, but Jarom argued him down, saying that the longer they ran, the stronger Soren would become and that this would continue until there was nowhere left to run. They had to start fighting back. Emrys wasn’t happy with the conclusion, but he had to accept Jarom’s logic. Waiting would never improve the situation.
Elsewhere, Kala sat surrounded by a pile of branches that she was transforming into arrows. She had tried to help Hawke with the training of the refugees earlier in the day but was reminded that she was a terrible team-player, especially when she was in a foul mood, which she definitely was as she brooded over Zara’s death. Had she been just a hair quicker, could she have saved her? Her self-recriminations gnawed at her and dragged her into a tight spiral of self-loathing. She and Skye had had a brief fight about it. He had tried to make her feel better by telling her that she had tried her best. It had the opposite effect.
“Did I?” she’d replied bitterly.
“Of course you did. I know you, and you know no other way.”
“Well, my best just isn’t good enough then,” she concluded grimly.
“Your best is more than the world deserves,” he’d said, but on that point, he was wrong. Lily and Cera were part of the world, and they deserved a quiet life together. Forest deserved to be a kid. Dhara deserved to terrorize the world or whatever she did, with both her sisters at her side. It wasn’t just about Zara – it was about all of them. Kala felt the weight of their futures on her shoulders. And what about her – what kind of life did she deserve? Would she and Skye ever have a normal life? Was she allowed to be happy? Was that what she bartered away with every death wrought by her hands?
Skye could tell that she’d descended into a profoundly dark place and gently raised his hands in surrender. “I’m going to go help Calix,” he told her and w
ithdrew. Kala didn’t notice his departure, she was so wrapped in her thoughts.
She stood up abruptly, scattering the branches. This is stupid, she thought. We need allies – we can’t do this alone. She marched toward the town gates. The guards had long since given up on restricting access to the people from the camp, or if their orders were to limit their access, they disregarded them entirely. Either way, they let Kala pass.
Kala sought out the temple that had to be located somewhere within the city walls. She stopped a delivery boy and asked him for directions. He pointed out the street to take and hurried off.
Kala walked in the direction he indicated and passed through an open-air market. She was amazed at the number of people just going about their day as though nothing were amiss. They drank wine, sipped kai, and sat chatting. It was surreal. Maybe denying the reality of their plight was the only way they could cope, Kala thought. She followed the boy’s instructions until she found herself at the closed gates of the temple. They would typically be open during the day, albeit guarded, so she looked around for the guards. Looking up at the walls, she spotted a man on the parapet and called up to him.
“Go away,” he called back down. “We’ve claimed the temple for ourselves.”
“What do you mean, ‘you’ve claimed it?’” Kala asked. “Where are the monks?”
“They left… now piss off,” he concluded and went back to whatever preparation he was up to.
Kala briefly considered skewering him, but the thought passed. He likely won’t live out the moon, she concluded and stalked back to camp. Where did you go? she asked herself about the monks’ disappearance.
Back at camp, she began packing. There was someone she needed to go see. She changed into clothing more suitable for a journey and went to tell Skye her plans. She found him helping dig the trench. Of course he had his shirt off, and Kala had to admit that while he wasn’t overly muscled, his lean body looked good glistening with sweat. She watched him appreciatively until he spotted her.
Taking in her outfit, he climbed out of the trench. “You look like you’re going somewhere,” he observed.
“We need allies,” she replied. “I’m going to ask for some.”
“I assume they’re nowhere near here.”
“Right. I need to hitch a ride.”
“And you know where to find an airship.”
“Yup – north and west of here – in the hills.”
“That direction isn’t safe.”
“No direction is safe anymore. I’ll keep a low profile.”
“I guess you wouldn’t listen to me if I told you I still weren’t comfortable with it,” he said.
She just looked at him apologetically.
“All right. I know you know how to look after yourself, but gods-damn it, I worry.”
“And that’s why I love you.”
“I thought it was because of my cooking.”
“Okay, mostly the cooking, but a teensy bit because of the worry.”
He sighed. “I guess you want me to let everyone know what you’re up to so they don’t worry.”
“Could you?”
“Of course – just give me a kiss before you leave,” he said and extended his arms.
“No way – you’re filthy,” she said, but leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips.
She strode toward the treeline, consulting her journal one more time as she headed across the fields, careful to weave around the defenses being constructed. She got her bearings from distant hills and proceeded into the woods.
She was alert to the possibility of running into more of Soren’s scouts, but her attention only revealed that she wasn’t the first to follow the path she took. The monks likely also headed in this direction when they abandoned the city. They had taken pains to minimize the evidence of their passing, but Kala could see the signs nevertheless. It made reaching her destination that much easier.
The way became more uneven as she progressed until the forest yielded to rocky hills. She had to scramble up and down their steep sides to continue in the right direction. There were numerous caves, and some may have held shortcuts if she only knew the way or had time to explore them, but she didn’t have that luxury, so she continued clambering up the steep rock faces. The landscape was wholly uninviting.
She squeezed through a chimney in the rock and emerged facing a formation that was too regularly shaped to have occurred naturally, but too large to have been built. Its sheer unnaturalness marked it as her destination. She slid down a rockface, spraying stones in her path until she found herself at the base of the towering structure. She began to scale it, despite the lateness of the day. Something about the place warned her against spending the night exposed. She passed caves, but they radiated danger rather than shelter, and she climbed past them quickly. A rock pulled loose in her hand, and she swung to her other handhold to avoid falling after it. It made a terrible crashing sound as it tumbled down. That’ll wake the dead, Kala thought grimly.
The last rays of the sun were fading as she hauled herself up to the top of the structure. Her hands were scraped raw from the sharp rock, and she was exhausted. In the descending dusk, she could make out the familiar shape of a circle of pillared rocks pointing skyward. Its familiarity made it no less disturbing, and she hurried to find a stone to use to signal an airship. She found one that looked recently moved and rolled it close to one of the spires on the east side of the circle and waited.
She couldn’t shake the feeling of having been followed up the rock by something malevolent. She pulled her knees into a ball with her back to one of the stone spires and pulled out a pair of daggers. She felt she couldn’t risk a fire and hadn’t in any case seen fuel for one since she’d entered the rocky hills. She could do nothing other than wait for the airship to arrive, or whatever was stalking her in the dark, whichever appeared first.
She swore that she saw the faint reflection of the last remaining light shining in the eyes of some gigantic beast, and it chilled her to the bone. She pulled out her pack and decided to chance lighting a torch. She lit it and waved it in front of her. It wreaked havoc on her night vision, so she couldn’t see what was watching her from the inky blackness of the night. She sensed more than saw movement in the shadows created by the lit torch, and she prayed the fire would dissuade the creature from attacking. Over time, the torch consumed its fuel and began to gutter. She had one more in her pack and began to reach for it when she heard the thump of an airship making landfall.
She stumbled toward the ship in the failing light of her torch and felt oily tendrils touch her skin. She spun and waved the dying torch, which made it glow brighter but revealed nothing in the dark. She waved it back and forth as she backed toward the airship. Bumping into it, she knew that she’d have to expose her back to whatever was prowling in order to find the door. She spun and frantically searched for the wheel that opened the door. She found it, spun it madly, and dove through the door that opened. As she turned to close it, something wrenched the remains of her torch from her grasp, and she barely had time to slam the door shut before it grabbed her too.
She collapsed onto the floor of the ship, shaking uncontrollably with fear. Something began to hammer against the door, and the airship shook with each blow. She realized in a panic that she hadn’t rolled the stone away from the pillar to release the ship. To do so, she’d have to go back outside and face the monster, and she couldn’t bring herself to do that. She spun the dial on the amulet around her neck and prayed it would somehow override the signaling stone. She depressed the center of the amulet and nothing happened. She pushed it again and again and again, and still, nothing happened. The hammering grew louder and more insistent. She pressed and held the amulet, praying to any god that would listen.
The airship released itself from its mooring and began to rise. An unnatural wail split the night as the ship rose up and away.
When the light of the day peeked through the windows of the ship and Kala could final
ly see, she adjusted the settings on the amulet to the city where she’d met the High Priestess. If she wanted Soren stopped, then she’d better help, Kala thought. This was too much for her to accomplish on her own. The airship drifted toward its destination while Kala rested and readied herself.
The ship landed, and she stepped out, unsure of whether she’d find the temple occupied or deserted. She was greeted by the sight of monks, priestesses and workers going about their business, and breathed a sigh of relief. No one paid her any attention, and she relaxed further. She strode off in search of the Priestess.
She didn’t know too many places to check, so she started with the catacombs. A different woman was seated before the scintillating crystal. She turned to leave but felt a faint tug on her mind that made her shudder and hurry out. She checked the building with the auditorium, and then the dining hall, but came up empty-handed. She had no idea where the Priestess’s quarters were and finally accepted that she needed to ask someone. How do I ask where ‘the’ Priestess is when everyone is a priestess? she wondered but saw no other option. She stopped a young monk and asked, “Do you know where I can find the Priestess?”
“Try the gardens,” he replied and carried on when it was clear that Kala had no further questions for him.
She entered the flower gardens, assuming that the young monk hadn’t meant the vegetable gardens. She wandered along the paths that wound through the gardens until she spotted the Priestess sitting quietly on a bench before a calm pool. Kala sat down beside her but didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts, so she waited to be acknowledged.
The Priestess continued to stare out over the surface of the pool but greeted Kala amiably. “It’s nice to see you,” she said.
Death's Angel Page 17
