Heir to a Lost Sun: A Caverns of Stelemia Novel

by Riley Morrison

  Thirty feet above them was another level, but the torchlight did not carry far enough to reveal what was up there. Two of the four exits leading from the chamber were blocked by metal doors.

  Kara squirmed, so Minard put her down and she ran ahead, no longer using her walking staff for support. Aemon and the other two hurried after her as she made her way toward the metal door at the far end of the chamber. She took the passkey from her neck and held it before her. It shone a radiant red that illuminated the entire room.

  Aemon stared at the passkey in awe. Never had it been so bright. Perhaps it knew it was home.

  Kara got to the door and pounded her fist on a flat panel beside it. The panel slid open, revealing a row of small, colored bulbs and some sort of machine.

  Minard stopped beside Kara to get a closer look. “That terminal looks like the control panel for some of our sacred machines back at the temple.”

  Kara held the passkey up to the machine. “This terminal is an access point to the centralized computer system that controls everything in this city. Annbar is running on minimal power, so the system will take a moment to divert enough electrical resources to power this terminal so it can open the door.”

  After a brief white flash, the light bulbs beside the terminal began to glow red, then yellow, then green. Erinie leaned in to study Kara’s face. “Scion, how do you know so much about this city?”

  “Stop, half-blood!” a female voice screamed.

  As one, they spun around and watched as a group of black-clad figures sped down the passage on the other end of the chamber. The approaching torches swayed back and forth, making it hard to tell how many enemies were racing toward them.

  Kara backed against the door. “He is here; he has come to stop me.”

  So Kara had been right. Someone had been following them. As Aemon had suspected, it was Kahan and the other Knives of Dwaycar.

  Even though Aemon could not count them, he could tell they were outnumbered. If the door did not hurry up and open—they were doomed.

  Minard snatched up his staff and took position to Aemon’s left. Aemon hefted his mace and waited.

  “Scion, hurry up and open the door,” Erinie said as she started mixing reagents.

  Kara removed the passkey from the terminal when the bulbs turned blue. The ground shuddered, then a loud grating sound followed and the door started to rise.

  The knives were about to enter the chamber when Kara slid under the ascending door. Aemon shouted, “Come on,” to Minard and Erinie as he followed her under.

  When he was through, he got to his knees. “Wait for the other two, then shut it; the knives are right behind us!”

  Kara knocked on the wall, revealing another terminal. She jammed the passkey against it and the light bulbs blinked in the same colors they had outside.

  Minard and Erinie slid under the door. “Hurry up and close it; they’re halfway across the room,” the monk said as he got up off the floor.

  To Aemon’s relief, the door started to close. As Minard helped Aemon up, a javelin flew past him and clattered against the concrete stairs behind them.

  Minard put a hand to his heart. “I knew Ibilirith watched over me.”

  The door closed with a thud. Seconds later, they heard muffled shouting and thumps on the other side as the Knives of Dwaycar vented their frustrations against it.

  “Wrynric...” Kara whispered and slowly limped toward the stairs, leaning heavily on her staff. She looked dazed and confused, but she had just saved them. Minard put an arm around Erinie’s shoulders as she wiped her eyes with the hem of her cloak. Was she crying?

  Then it hit Aemon. Wrynric might be dead or captured. The premonition he had at the highway came back to him. Perhaps it had come to pass.

  With a heavy heart, he followed the others up the stairs to the second level, overlooking the antechamber. Kara slowed her pace, then came to an abrupt stop. “What is it?” Aemon asked. She stared forward in the direction of another door that seemed to be the only exit, and did not move. “Kara? Open it so we can get out of here.”

  Her eyelids flickered and sweat poured down her face. There was no sign she had heard him. Aemon glanced at the other two. “What do we do?”

  Kara suddenly spoke. “Give... me a moment.” Her voice was strained, like she was exerting herself. When he touched her, she shoved his hands away. “Let me focus.”

  Aemon drew back. What is happening to her?

  Minard took a step toward Kara, but then they heard angry voices coming from below and he stopped. Aemon considered risking a look over the short wall to see what was happening down there, but quickly thought the better of it. He would probably end up with a javelin lodged in his brain.

  The monk, not as cautious, peered over the edge of the wall. “The knives are splitting up. Most are heading toward one of the other doors, and the four below us look like they’re up to something.”

  He jerked backward as a javelin flew past his face, missing him by inches. With a harsh bark of laughter, he said, “You missed again, fool.”

  The voice that shot up from below almost made Aemon drop his mace. “Half-blood,” it raged. “Look down upon me and see what I’ve done to your beloved friend.”

  It was Herald, the insane knife who had almost killed Kara at the bridge before the temple and who had slaughtered the caravaners back in the Limestone Caves. Where was Kahan? Had he gone with the other group, or was he dead and another knife now led?

  Kara had said a man followed them, but who was he?

  Erinie covered her mouth with a trembling hand. “Oh no... No. Why? Why? He loved you like a daughter!”

  “Half-blood, come see what I’ve done.”

  Kara started walking toward the railing, but Aemon leapt forward and grabbed her. She shoved him away, almost sending him to the ground. Kara...

  “Don’t look, scion,” Erinie pleaded. “She’ll kill you.”

  Minard caught Kara before she made it to the wall and dragged her back. He gritted his teeth as Kara fought him. “Stop it, Scion. Hurry up and open the door so we can get going.”

  “I know you’re up there, half-blood,” Herald said. “Come see what is left of him.”

  Kara snarled at the monk. “Let me go; I need to see. I need to see.”

  Minard shook her. “No, scion, I won’t let you. Open the bloody door!”

  “Have it your way then, half-blood,” Herald roared.

  Something flew over the railing and landed with a wet thud ten feet from them. It rolled until it came to rest against the outer wall.

  Aemon backed away, his stomach clenching as bile came to his mouth. Wrynric’s eyes stared at them from a head, savagely hacked from his body. Blood pooled around it and had splattered up the wall.

  The old warrior was gone. Dead at the hands of monsters as vile as the rotmen.

  Kara’s face contorted into several different expressions, as if she did not know how to react. Aemon turned away, unable to look anymore.

  “My dear friend...” Erinie moaned. “How could she do this to you? After all you did for her.”

  Minard bowed his head. “I pledge to Lady Ibilirith that Wrynric’s death will be avenged. Though he wasn’t my brother, I’ll not rest until his killers are purged.”

  “You see what happens to those who aid in their own destruction?” Herald screamed. “The half-blood means to kill us all. Why would anyone stand with her?”

  Aemon watched Kara to see how she would react to Herald’s words. She looked detached again, seemingly focused on something in the distance.

  “Imogen lives through you, half-blood, and she’ll try to complete what she started long ago. Her children have returned and lay waste to humanity, killing innocent men, women and children.” Herald’s voice reached a fever pitch. “Imogen means to fight them, but her solution will doom us all, like it came close to doing long ago. The only way to stop this madness is by killing you, half-blood—for when you’re dead, Imogen’s children wi
ll sleep once more.”

  A red haze descended over Aemon and before he knew what he was doing, he was at the wall, gazing down upon the Knives of Dwaycar. They stared up at him, their eyes dark and implacable behind their masks. “Kara is here to save us. It is you who will doom us all. Go away and leave us alone.”

  A knife with blood-soaked hands stepped forward and tore off her mask. A red-haired young woman peered up at him, her face covered in jagged scars. At first Aemon mistook her for Kara—the old Kara, before she had been poisoned—but her features were so twisted with hate and madness, he wondered how he had seen any similarity at all.

  “She has no idea who I am, does she?” the knife asked. It was Herald, and Aemon had no answer for her.

  Herald sneered. “Make the wretched husk Erinie tell the half-blood who I am. She knows my name, what I’ve done and what I’ll do to all of you once I reach you.”

  One of the other knives aimed a javelin at Aemon and he quickly backed away. He spun to face Erinie. The librarian silently pleaded with him to leave her be, her tears running streaks through the dirt on her face.

  “Tell me who she is,” Aemon demanded. “We need to know the truth.”

  Minard grabbed Erinie by the arm. “He’s right. Tell us.”

  Kara stared at Erinie, her face expressionless. The librarian continued to weep, but Aemon had no pity for her. “Tell us. Now!”

  Erinie collapsed to her knees. “It’s Semira, Kara’s half-sister and a failed scion. I think she helped Kahan attack Sunholm and aided him as he murdered everyone who wasn’t fast enough to flee.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us? Why all the secrecy?”

  Erinie winced, as if struck. “Because Wrynric told me not to. We weren’t certain she was involved; it was only rumor. One sighting during the fighting, a few suspicions.” Erinie glanced at Wrynric’s head. “I think he knew she was with them, but he didn’t want to admit it. He loved her very much, and I thought she loved him back.”

  They all looked at Kara to see how she would take the news, but her eyes still gazed unblinking into the distance. Minard waved a hand in front of her face. “Scion?”

  Perspiration ran down Kara’s cheeks and lines of concentration marked her brow. The monk tried to get her attention by shaking her, but she did not react.

  “Scion, I’m sorry,” Erinie sobbed. “I should have told you sooner.”

  “I can hear you up there, Erinie, you sniveling husk,” Semira raged. “Show yourself so I can bury my javelin in your vile little face.”

  “Go eat a jamalgana egg, Semira,” Erinie screamed back.

  Semira laughed, “Trust me, I’ve eaten one already. I had to, when I joined the Knives of Dwaycar.” She paused a moment, then continued. “Half-blood, listen to me now. I want you to know—we will stop you. We’ll hunt you until you’re dead and we have ended your threat to humanity.”

  Erinie grabbed hold of the pouch Aemon had seen her filling with black powder earlier and got back to her feet. “Go back to whatever darkness spawned you, Semira!”

  The librarian threw the pouch over the railing, then spun around and opened her arms wide to drag Aemon, Minard and Kara to the ground. A second later, an explosion ripped through the antechamber, bathing them in hot air and a shower of concrete.

  The walls shuddered and the ground shook as tons of concrete cascaded downward from the roof, filling the lower level with a cloud of dust and debris.

  When the tumult was over, Aemon raced to the wall with Erinie and Minard to find the chamber floor inundated with rubble. There were no signs of Semira or the other knives, though the expanding dust cloud made it hard to see. A chunk of roof fell and shattered on top of the rubble pile. They leapt back as another piece smashed on the wall beside them.

  Before they could recover, Kara sprang to her feet and ran headlong toward the door at the far end of the level, leaving her walking staff behind. Reaching the door, she paused to use the passkey.

  Aemon’s heart rate doubled. The door began to open and she was already preparing to enter.

  “Hurry and stop her before she gets away,” Erinie said as she raced after Kara.

  Aemon and Minard sped after her. The door was only half open when Kara crawled under it and used the passkey to close it again. Erinie and Minard dove through just as it started to descend. Aemon, a few paces behind, leapt through the narrowing entrance, his feet less than an inch from being crushed.

  Leaping to his feet, Aemon grabbed Kara before she could get away. “Hey, what are you doing?” he snapped. “Are you trying to leave us behind? What has gotten into you?”

  The look Kara gave him made him back away and almost fall over Erinie. It was not Kara standing there... It was a stranger.

  The passkey hung loosely around her neck, its light now sinister, bathing them all in blood red. Kara’s mouth twisted into a sneer, her eyes dark wells of ice, cold and fathomless.

  “Get out of my way, scum,” she hissed. “I must get to the manufactory before my brother can stop me.”

  Aemon jumped aside as she walked right at him. When she had gone by, she sprinted away from them.

  Without checking on the other two, Aemon hurried after her.

  Chapter 27

  KARA

  Kara had lost the battle for control. When she had seen what her sister had done to Wrynric, the presence had finally been given a chance to overwhelm her. Now it had snatched her body away and this time, she didn’t seem to be getting it back. She could still see and feel what happened to her physically, but few other senses remained. The sensation of watching the world go by with her own eyes, yet not being the one in control, terrified her.

  The female presence controlling Kara used the passkey for light as she ran through the rubble-strewn corridors, leaping over deep craters blasted into the ground. Soon they entered a wider passage that looked familiar to Kara, for she’d trod it in her visiondreams.

  They were close to the Metal Man.

  “Wait up,” Aemon called from behind her. Kara couldn’t answer him, as much as she wanted to, for she was a passenger in her own body.

  Who are you and what have you done to me? Kara asked.

  You have become what you were born to be.

  What was I born to be? Why have you taken my body from me?

  It was never your body. It was made for me.

  They rolled under a half-open door and almost fell into another crater. Once they were back on their feet, the woman said in Kara’s voice, “I want you to know this before you die. In this body, I shall right the wrongs I helped unleash and will save the human race.”

  The woman’s presence felt vengeful, bitter and hostile. Kara knew her intentions were not good. I know who you are, Kara said. The ghost woman on the surface warned me of you.

  The presence seemed surprised by her revelation as Kara felt her fingers clench around the passkey. Who was this woman?

  She said she didn't remember her name, Kara replied. She called me Imogen, Mother of Steel Children. But I’m not Imogen. You are.

  The presence laughed, Yes, I am Imogen, once called Mother of Steel Children.

  Paralyzing fear gripped Kara. Maybe the prophecy was true. Kara, or at least Imogen using Kara’s body, would unleash something terrible upon the world.

  You should not have been having visions of the surface. I thought Radashan told Ahnna to allow no one access to that part of the code. Kara could sense Imogen’s rage. Or perhaps that was another one of his lies. He was, after all, the one who went on to betray me.

  Radashan? How did Imogen know of Radashan the Founder? Or was it another man with that name?

  Imogen tightened her grip on the passkey. Regardless, the surface belongs to the enemy. To go there is to die.

  The ghost woman had mentioned the code and wondered if it had become corrupted, but she had never mentioned anyone called Ahnna. Could that be the ghost woman’s forgotten name?

  Kara decided to turn the conversation toward fi
nding out what Imogen planned. This place is Annbar, isn’t it? You used to live here.

  Did the ghost woman tell you that? No matter. Yes, this place is Annbar. Once, tens of thousands lived down here after they fled the surface.

  Where are you taking me?

  Imogen lifted her head high. We are going to the manufactory. An old friend waits for me there.

  Your friend is the Metal Man, isn’t it? You were with me in my underground visiondreams.

  Indeed. I guided you to him, for I will need his skills in the days ahead.

  Kara felt a wave of exaltation coming from Imogen. With every step she took, Kara became more afraid. What do you intend to do when you get to him?

  Have patience, dear, Imogen mocked. You will find out soon enough.

  They reached another antechamber, this one almost twice as large as the one where Kara hoped Semira had died. Eight doors led from the room, and a square shaft some twenty feet wide cut through the floor at its center. Three of the doors stood open, one with a dark-green mat of moss growing out of it, the other five were closed.

  The door that drew Imogen’s attention was the large one at the far end of the room at the top of a ramp. It was a formidable and imposing barrier, as if those who had built it had never wanted anyone to enter.

  Or perhaps they hadn’t wanted something set free...

  The words of the Prophecy of Ibilirith hung heavy in Kara’s thoughts.

  “The Ancient Enemy shall return and with them the Scion who shall carry a glowing... and the Scion shall use it to unseal the wards and unleash that which must not... Harvesters the Scion will use to destroy... Human life... Forever.”

  Was this door a ward?

  A surge of joy filled Kara’s body. Ah, there it is. Containment Barrier One. My brother is too late.

  “Kara, stop, please!” It was Aemon, and he was close.

  Imogen ran through the chamber toward the door, holding the passkey before her, ready to jam into the console. The door was covered in ancient writing and to Kara’s surprise, she could read the ancient words and understand them.