Ethira

by J D Evergreen

  Ethira

  Katera Rising

  Book two

  J.D. Evergreen

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means. Including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Copyright © 2018 by J.D Evergreen. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN: 9781795151450

  Ethira

  J.D. Evergreen

  Published by J.D. Evergreen

  Copyright 2018 J.D. Evergreen

  Katera Rising Series

  Book One: Shadowsoul

  Book Two: Ethira

  Discover other titles by J.D. Evergreen:

  The world of Katera

  Katera: book one of the Celestia series

  Accidental Series:

  Accidental Time Travelers- book 1

  Accidental Adventures- book 2

  Accidental Animators book 3

  Accidental transporters book 4

  Non-fiction

  Our Planet is in your hands

  For Pa,

  Who called me an Authoress right from the start

  Chapter One

  The land of glowing mushrooms

  “We had to leave them,” I repeat to myself, attempting to justify the way we had left those poor people to fend for themselves against wave after wave of scarlet guards.

  I close my eyes, but the war cries and the groans of pain fill my ears. My eyes snap open, and I look at the group surrounding me, with everyone in varying states of distress. I shuffle my feet and avert my eyes from my blood-stained arms.

  We had to leave the people behind in the rebel camp. There is no way we could have saved them. We were lucky to save ourselves. The mission is too important for us to have perished in a battle where we were severely outnumbered and without any hope of winning.

  After Darkmor's scarlet army invaded, it took all the effort we had just to hold them off long enough to evacuate some of the more vulnerable rebels through a hole in the wall of the stronghold camp. Hopefully, they are well-protected from the horrors of the cavern by the few warriors we sent with them.

  I hold tight to the necklace hidden beneath my shirt. Over the last few weeks, Lexa and I had discovered some of the magical properties our necklaces possessed. The need for secrecy prevented this mysterious magic from saving those people.

  What good is it to have magical items that must be kept a secret? How does that help anyone? I think about the deep, painful magical wounds that appear when we use the necklaces. I would have worn thousands of those cuts to save the rebels from their fate.

  I glance over to Lexa, her cheeks tinged red, and her eyes glassy as she fights an internal battle between the woman who is our leader and the woman who has just lost her sister.

  Anne had used a crystal explosive to destroy the exit we used to escape from the scarlet forces. The power of the explosion had been immense, and a whole section of the tunnel collapsed, sending tons of rock crashing down around her. Anne was so close to it when it went off. When shards of rock flew in every direction… I swallow. I am not sure someone could have survived that blast.

  Lucas shuffles nearby and removes his glasses from his face, doing his best to clean the dust from them with his shirt. His blonde hair flops over his eyes as he only manages to smudge around the dust coating his spectacles.

  Tash flops to the ground beside him and hugs her knees, her pant leg ripped and revealing the blood and dirt covered skin beneath. She stares out at the glowing mushroom forest our escape tunnel had led us to as we fled from the guards and the collapsing tunnel. Tash looks so tiny in front of the enormous fungus, and if we were in any other situation it would almost be comical.

  The blue light of the mushrooms sets an eerie glow for our situation and adds a tinge of color to everything around us, from the tufts of stubborn grass to the moss clinging to rocks around the clearing. Melissa is currently perched on one such rock. Her black ringlets of hair stick to the sweat on her face as she checks her many knives, counting how many she lost in the battle with the scarlet guards

  Nathanial stomps past and inspects a wound on his right arm. His bulging muscles dwarf the size of the gash and make it seem less serious than it actually is.

  I eye the cut. “That will need stitches.”

  Tash looks up in concern. “Do we even have anything to stitch with?”

  I shrug. “At the very least it needs to be cleaned and something tied around it to keep the dirt out.”

  Material rips, and I twist to see Melissa cutting a strip of fabric from her long shirt. She holds it out. “Here, use this.”

  Tash pulls herself to her feet and takes the cloth. Slowly she approaches Nathanial, who is trying to pick a stone from his bleeding gash. “Let me help.”

  Nathanial lets out a big sigh and sits on the ground, so Tash can tend to his wound. Tash crouches beside him, and her nose crinkles as she gets her first up-close look at the gash and sets to work.

  I turn away. I don’t need to watch Tash pick stones from the cut on Nathanial's arm. I have seen enough blood today. My eyes land on Lexa, standing apart from the group and rubbing her face with her hands.

  I swallow. I lost my mother suddenly when she didn’t return from a review, so I know all too well the pain Lexa is feeling right now.

  She had to leave her people when they needed a leader most, and it is doubtful her sister survived that explosion or the resulting cave in.

  I approach Lexa slowly, unsure if offering comfort will be welcome. I stand, close enough for her to be aware of my presence, but not so close Lexa feels like she has to speak to me.

  Lexa drops her arms from her face and lets them hang limply by her sides, before meeting my gaze. She is barely keeping it together. Her emerald eyes shine with all the hurt and pain she would never say with words.

  My stomach twists. I venture a little closer and reach out, gently touching her arm. She looks at me, her green eyes sparkle with unshed tears. Almost pleading in her stare.

  I gulp and search for words. I could offer her comforting lies and promises, but she would see right through them. I can’t bring myself to tell Lexa that her people and sister will be okay. Not when I don’t believe it myself.

  I move my hand down to hers and give it a gentle squeeze. “I am here.”

  A single tear runs down Lexa's cheek, and a small sob escapes her. Furiously she wipes her eyes, and I look away pretending I hadn’t noticed. A few seconds pass, and I feel a return squeeze on my hand.

  Lexa gives me a small, weak smile. “Thank you.”

  I turn back to the scattered and broken group. They look as lost as I feel. My heart clenches over all those people we left behind. I suppose I can add them to the growing toll of people I have failed to save.

  Lexa steps over the loose dirt and heads towards the center of the clearing, calling, “Let’s gather together and figure out what we have before we move on.”

  Everyone shuffles towards us, checking their pockets and belts for things of use. A quick assessment of all the items reveals everyone is armed, Tash has four more explosive balls on her belt, Lucas has a chunk of flint, and a small pouch of little silver pellets everyone seems to give a wide berth and I have the healing cream I had put in my pocket.

  I hold it up to Nathanial who shakes his head and gestures to his roughly bandaged arm. “This is just a scratch, save it for someone who needs it.”

  I nod at him and stuff the cream back into my pocket. “Not a great haul,” I say.

  Melissa lets out a sma
ll smile. “Our grand plans of packing.” She shakes her head and continues, “All that wasted time.”

  Lexa wipes her sword clean on the nearby moss. “I chose this team as everyone here is a highly capable warrior, skilled in a variety of fields and quick to think on your feet. I am certain we will get by.”

  Lucas rubs his head and lets out a small groan. “Did you plan for what would happen if we all left slightly drunk? Because I have lost all of the buzz, but I still maintain all of the fuzz.”

  A small smile escapes me.

  Lexa shakes her head and quirks her lip. “First thing is water. Once we find that, we will find somewhere to rest until your ‘fuzz’ has worn off.”

  Tash turns to Melissa. “So, Mel. Any idea which way? If anyone can find water in this crazy land of glowing mushrooms, it will be you.”

  Melissa strikes what is obviously meant to be a heroic pose and remarks in a deep, sophisticated voice, “I thought you would never ask.”

  Apparently, not everyone has lost their buzz.

  Tash offers Melissa a mock bow. “Lead the way, Oh mighty tracker.”

  Satisfied with the amount of worship she has received, Melissa turns and struts down the slight hill.

  With a sigh, everyone else trudges down the hill behind her. We wander through the giant mushrooms for a time, and I marvel at the beauty of the world around us. Well, in a kind of creepy but also aesthetically pleasing sort of way.

  I stare up in awe at the giant mushroom above me. Tiny holes pierce the stem and travel all the way along its length. A small white horned lizard pops out from one of the holes, skitters up the trunk of the mushroom and slips into a new gap.

  “Where are we?” I ask.

  Lucas waves his hand at the mushrooms around us. “We are in Ethira.”

  I glance around at the scenery and force back the images of Samuel losing his leg, as those pictures flash to the front of my mind. So much violence.

  I swallow and clasp my shaking hands, “That’s a pretty name.”

  Nathanial lets out a gruff laugh. “It is called Ethira for ethereal, as in spirits.” He speaks each word slowly as if I were a child.

  He doesn’t say any more. I stare at the back of his head as we wind our way around a large rock. Is he trying to be deliberately cryptic to get a rise from me?

  We walk in silence for a few more paces until Lexa takes pity on me and fills in the blanks. “Most people believe this place to be haunted, and as such, tend to give it a wide berth.”

  The group descends into an uncomfortable silence. Haunted? Like, by the dead? I glance up at the mushrooms, and the eerie blue light casts strange shadows amongst the short grass and rocks. Suddenly, the mushrooms don’t look quite so inviting.

  I step into the middle of the path, putting as much distance between me and the mushrooms as possible. “Do you guys think this place is haunted?”

  “Nah,” Lucas responds and waves his hand at the nearest mushroom. “The visions people see probably have something to do with a chemical released by the fungus.”

  At his words, Tash quickly steps away from the mushroom she had been inspecting and wipes the hand she had almost touched it with on her pants.

  I eye the closest glowing fungi with distaste. “So, don’t lick the mushrooms. Got it.”

  We trudge through the glowing mushroom forest for hours, and we pass increasingly frequent woody shrubs that pop up and battle the mushrooms for room.

  It is far too long before Melissa finally stops at the edge of a river. As thirsty as she must be, she doesn’t stoop to take a drink. I stumble up to her and look down at the fast-flowing water. Tiny sticks and particles travel along the surface, swirling in the swift current, but that isn’t why I hesitate to drink.

  The water glows a light, almost white—blue. The swirling liquid runs along the banks, lapping at the rocks and dirt along the edges, and everything it comes into contact with begins to glow.

  A few large flat rocks make a pathway from one side of the river to the other, but the space between them is too far for any human to jump. I glance at Nathanial…well, any normal sized human.

  Tash sighs and cautiously toes the edge of the water with her boot. She draws the shoe away, and the tip glows brightly. “Well, that sucks. Do you think there is any way to purify it?”

  “Probably not,” comes Lucas’s swift reply.

  I glance at Tash’s still glowing boot. “You have to admit though, the way it glows is kinda awesome.”

  Tash grins at me and crouches beside the bank, carefully she pokes the tip of her knife into it. “Do you think if I drink this, I will get superpowers?”

  Lucas peers into the water. “Far more likely you would mutate from ingesting whatever it is that makes the water glow.”

  Melissa snorts and strides over to colonize one of the flatter rocks beside the river. “Well, drink some and let us know when you find out.”

  Tash looks back at the water. Is she actually considering it? Melissa grins, and Tash looks up at her.

  Lexa rubs her face with her hand. “No one is drinking the water.” To cement her statement, she gives Melissa and Tash a stern look.

  Both women deflate at her words and mumble out something that sounds like a yes.

  Satisfied with their response, Lexa glances around the small bank-side clearing. “We should stop here and get some rest.”

  Nathanial looks around the small clearing and places his hands on his hips. “It is a little out in the open, don’t you think?”

  Lexa considers his words. “It is as good a place as any, and as much as the mushrooms would offer cover for us, they would offer the same courtesy to anyone who wished us ill.”

  I peer into the mushroom trunks and stare into the eerie blue light. “Or any thing.”

  “And I don’t want to risk touching a mushroom in my sleep,” Tash adds in a hurry.

  Lucas cheers up considerably at the thought of resting. “We should build a fire. I saw plenty of dead bush scrub just a little back the way we came. A fire might be nice, and the mushrooms should help hide the light from anyone who may be tracking us.”

  Melissa scoffs. “With the way I led us here, anyone following our trail will find themselves on a long and winding journey.”

  I rub my aching legs. “Do you mean we could have got here earlier?

  Melissa nods. “It seemed like a good idea to bring us the long way around, and if I am correct, this river comes from underground and anyone following a direct path to it from the cave will find themselves on the opposite side of it.”

  It was a good idea, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about all the extra walking I forced my tired legs through. Lucas and Nathanial pair up and head back the way we came, presumably to get some wood for the fire.

  Tash looks about our small clearing. “I guess I will move some of these rocks, so we have somewhere to lay and build a fire.”

  I nod and move to help her. Just as we begin scouting the area for a good fire location, Melissa rolls her shoulders and announces, “I will see if I can find us anything to eat in this forsaken place.”

  Without another word, she spins on her heel and stalks off into the glowing mushrooms around us.

  “Should someone go with her?” I ask, watching Melissa disappear into the forest of fungus.

  Lexa shakes her head. “Melissa is an extremely proficient hunter. If anyone were to go with her, they would likely scare away whatever she is hunting.”

  Tash rolls a big rock away from our dedicated camp area and wipes her head. “And no one wants to be the reason Melissa's hunting expedition was ruined.”

  I nod and collect some fist-sized rocks and put them in a pile. Lexa crouches beside me and gently stops my hand from adding to the circle of rocks I was building around the fireplace. “We cannot use those rocks to ring the fire. They are river rocks, and these wet rocks can explode when they get hot. Small shards can fly everywhere injuring people.”

  I glance down
at the innocent-looking rock in my hand. “I have never seen a rock explode, but I have never built a fire either, so I guess I will take your word for it.”

  Lexa gives me a small smile. “It’s okay, you will learn.”

  The boys come back, arms laden with dead bushes that grow abundantly in between the mushrooms. Nathanial is easily holding twice as much as Lucas, who is currently peeping through the mound of twisted branches in his arms.

  They drop the brushwood near our fireplace and set about breaking the dead bush into sizable pieces. I watch intently as they stack the branches, hoping to learn something.

  They choose the two largest branches and lay them down parallel to one another before stacking another two slightly smaller branches on top, but in the opposite direction so it makes a square that rises from the ground.

  Lucas catches me watching. “We stack it like this so plenty of air can get to the wood. It needs oxygen to burn well.” He holds up a small stick. “Now grab some twigs like this for us; we will need it as kindling.”

  I nod and pull twigs off the dry bushes and then collect what I can find around the clearing. Once my hands are full, Lucas drags me over to the fire and has me fill the middle of the stacked branches with the small twigs.

  He points. “This is kindling, it will help spread the fire to the larger sticks.”

  Once this is done, he pulls two lumps of sharp rock from a pouch on his belt. “This is flint and it will create the spark that starts the fire. Watch now, next time we need to light a fire you will be doing it.”

  I nod and try my best to pay attention to the way he moves the rocks, but the action is so fast, I basically miss it. The kindling in the middle eagerly takes the flames, and they quickly consume the small twigs I collected. Little sparks flit along the thicker branches, and they grow into leaping flames.

  I sit back on my heels. “It never looked this hard when the guards did it.”

  Lucas lets out a small huff. “That’s because their braziers are branches wrapped in cloth and soaked in oil and grease. It is effortless to light something covered in either.”