Heart of Farellah: Book 3

by Brindi Quinn

  “It is almost time,” he whispered.

  I shivered. “Yes. Soon.”

  We could all feel it. Excited energy. The most powerful dosage of corras ever.

  The moon was enormous above us now, and the end of the coil was in sight. Very soon, I’d get to speak to my mother moon. Very soon, I’d get my answer.

  Oh, Creator. Creator, please. Let it have an answer to give. Let it know something useful. Let it lend us its aid. Please, Creator. A way to save Nyte. A way to save Farellah. A way to save everyone. Creator, let it be!

  When we were one level from the top, Darch said,

  “Aura, you go first.”

  “I . . .” I drew a long breath into my lungs. “Okay.” I braced myself and moved to the front of the group.

  This was it. I was shaking, like I always was in these moments, but I let go of Nyte’s hand and walked to the end of the top of the spiron.

  The moon hung before me, suspended in the sky, bright and intimidating . . . and captivating.

  What should I say? What could I say to a moon? Would it even bother answering? And even if it did, would it offer me the answer I was hoping for? It didn’t matter. I’d come too far to give up now.

  Creator, give me strength.

  I turned and nodded to Nyte, and he dropped the barrier. There were no angels nearby, though, so my speed remained consistent.

  “Western moon?” I said. My voice was meeker than I would have liked, so I tried again, and the second time, it was much, much stronger. “Mother moon?”

  There was no answer for only a few seconds, but each second ticked on like it was a lifetime. At long last, a powerful voice that was neither male nor female answered,

  “You have come, my daughter. You have finally come to free me.”

  At that moment, a glittering bird swooped from the sky and landed on Darch’s arm.

  Chapter 15: The Brother II

  “What are you looking at?! What do you want from me?!”

  “N-nothing,” said the woman. “It’s just that you’re standing in the way.”

  “What?! What the fuck are you-”

  “M-m-my-”

  “Well, get on with it! What?”

  “My home.” She pointed behind me.

  I looked, and she was right. I was leaning against a front door. Presumably hers.

  “Oh.”

  I was turning into a Creator damned paranoid!

  Get a grip, Gershaw.

  Yeah, okay – how the hell was I supposed to do that?! The last time that thing had sounded, I’d nearly gotten taken in by the guards. Naturally I had. I’d been screaming like a fucking lunatic!

  At least I was rid of it for now. My stupid little brother had been following the same pattern of using the whistle at the same time every day. If he kept on like that, I’d be free of that noise for at least a few more hours.

  Like that counted for anything. There was still the question of who the brat was sending after me. Was it some group of hired scum, or the little bastard himself? Either way, my only option was to get out of town before it happened again. If there was no one around to see it, there’d be no one to squeal to the scum when they came asking.

  If they came asking.

  Had they even caught my trail yet? There’d been witnesses those first three times, but since then, I’d been careful to be out of sight during the noise. Not that that was any consolation.

  Stupid Ardette. Who was he leading to me? Were they close? And most importantly, what the hell did they want?!

  “Watch it!” I shoved away a skinny kid who was walking too slowly.

  “What’s your problem?”

  “Don’t mess with me, kid.” He wasn’t an innocent. Just a stuck-up Daem brat. Not worth the fight.

  There was a tavern down the street. I’d grab lunch before moving out.

  The tavern stunk like unwashed traveler and burned stew. It would have to do, though. There was no sense backtracking through town now. There was no telling when Ardette would decide to switch up his pattern, and if I was going to move at all, it would be for the town’s exit.

  I took an oak chair at the back of the place, and looked around. There was nothing special about it. All of these podunk dives were the same. This one was busier there than I’d have liked, but at least I blended in. Most of the people here were Daems.

  But then I spotted something I hadn’t expected to find.

  Hell yes!

  It was a Squirrelean – a girl –and she was the first innocent I’d seen in days.

  At the sight of her, my blood started pumping harder. I could feel that rush in my neck and at the middle of my arms. They ached. Andap was one thing, but pure innocent? It had been too damn long!

  But did I have time for her? I glanced around the tavern of dusty travelers and village hicks. I still had some time left before the noise started again, and this was pure, undiluted innocent up for grabs. Who knew when the next chance would be?

  So did I have time for her? Heh. It didn’t really matter if I had time or not. Hell, I’d make time!

  But she looked a little young. Still a teenager maybe? If that was the case, I didn’t know if I’d be able to coax her into donating. Plus, there were two guys with her, and one of them was huge. But it was safe to say that he was probably more brawn than brain. Yeah, on second thought, he was definitely the type I could talk my way around.

  Still, all I had was the cheap blade I’d gotten in Thellnold. If they put up a fight, would I be a match for all three of them? I was having second thoughts, but when the innocent gave her tail a shake, I knew: I had to at least give it a shot.

  It’ll be hard, but it shouldn’t be too hard.

  I grinned to myself. It was more fun when it was a challenge anyway.

  I kicked my feet out and started to size her up. What approach would work best with this one? Lost traveler? Injured guard? Or maybe she’d go for an older stranger that was ‘interested’ in her? I laughed to myself. Yeah, she would . . . but her companions sure as hell wouldn’t. So it would have to be something else.

  Watching her was making my wrists shake. She was so Creator damned chipper! That was a good sign that her spirit was healthy. Healthy and ripe! My veins were itching now. If I was getting a buzz just thinking about her, then I could just imagine what it would feel like to actually pull in some of her life! It would be –

  “How are we supposed to find him? None of us have ever seen him before! Do you think he’ll look like Ardetto?”

  The buzz immediately left when the innocent opened her mouth.

  WHAT?! Damn! Damn, damn, DAMN!

  These were the hired scum? That squirrel and those two men? The lanky one wouldn’t be a problem, but that big guy . . . DAMN! And he had a giant hammer resting against his chair. What the hell was that for?!

  I shifted in my seat. I’d make a move for the door. But then again, I’d just sat down! Would they notice if I left? If they were under orders to look for suspicious-looking Daems, then one walking in, sitting, ordering nothing, and then leaving immediately, would most likely catch their interest!

  Great. Just fucking great.

  So I’d have to wait a decent amount of time before leaving.

  Damn it, Ardette. You’d better not blow that fucking whistle right now!

  So he wasn’t with them. Was he waiting outside? Or somewhere else completely?

  And what the hell did he want with me, anyway?! That was the part that was so damn frustrating! If it was anything to do with the Heart of Salvation, I didn’t want any part in it. I’d kill them both before I’d let him help her.

  Her. The Pure Heart. The angel. Aura.

  I wanted to kill her. I wanted to put my hands around her skinny little neck and squeeze, but there was an even more tantalizing idea to all of it. What if I didn’t kill her? Then I could use her whenever I wanted. My own personal spirit tap. I could bring her with me to one of the Druelcan bases. Most of them had all but been abandoned by
now. I’d lock her up. Put her in chains. Watch her suffer. Drain her. I’d drain her over and over. An eternity of making her pay. Yeah, that would be great.

  I was daydreaming, and my wrists were shaking again, but the big man broke me out of it with a loud throat clear.

  “Welp, all I know’s that Ardette said we’d know when we found ‘im. Ya sure this is where ya think he was headed, Scardo?”

  Scardo? What kind of lame-ass name is that?

  The one unfortunate enough to be called ‘Scardo’ answered, “He’s been moving south, so following the path of sightings, I’d assume this town will be his next target.”

  “But how do we even know that this ‘crazed Daem’ guy is actually Sowpa?” asked the Squirrelean. “Couldn’t it just be another random crazy?”

  “It’s the best lead we got, Kantoo. Ardette did say he’d stick out, so . . .”

  “Yeah, you’re right. Wonder what his deal is, though. A Daem that randomly goes all spastic? That’s pretty scary!” The innocent, ‘Kantoo’, let out a weird squeaking noise that kind of sounded like a laugh. Or maybe a cry? “I miss Ardette. I miss all of them! Even that big, stinky, nasty meanie, Rend! But most of all, I miss Aura!”

  “Kantoo, don’t worry. We’ll see ‘em again soon.”

  So these weren’t hired scum, after all. They were friends of his? My stupid brother’s friends. And he was lucky enough to get two innocents to play with? How the hell had he managed that!? But if given the choice between the squirrel and the Heart of Salvation, I’d have picked her every time. Not only for the taste, but to make her suffer. To make her pay for her treachery.

  Okay, how long had I been sitting here? Was it safe to leave yet? Ugh. I was like a caged Elf. How repulsive.

  There was a tapping on my shoulder. It startled the fuck out of me, and I jumped.

  “WHAT?!”

  The lanky scum looked over at me. Crap. That had been too obvious. I quickly diverted my eyes to the person that had just tapped on my shoulder and was given an even bigger surprise.

  Another innocent?! This one was a Sape with pink hair. Why pink?

  Oh. I get it. She was enchanted with Elven magic. It was some protection spell or something. If she was in cahoots with Elves, did I even want to go there?

  “Hi-ya!” she shouted.

  “What do you want?” I tried to act cold, but her hand was still on my shoulder. I couldn’t help thinking how easy it would be to just take some. My blood started up again.

  “I’ve got a question for you!” she said. She was so damn loud! And all three of the scum were looking over now. “Have you seen a crazy Daem around here?!”

  Wait, she was one of them?!

  “What do you mean, ‘crazy’? You must not be from around here. If you were, you’d know that there’s a lot of crazy in these parts.”

  “Okay, how about an addict? Have you seen an addict around?”

  I gestured to the full room. “Pick one. Now are you done bothering me? If you don’t mind-”

  “Hm,” she said. “What about you? Are you in need?”

  “In need?”

  “I’m a dealer! Can you tell?” She tapped again. And then she started to do something that made me grind my teeth. With that same tapping finger, she inched the collar of my shirt away from my neck.

  “What the hell!? What is this!?”

  She leaned forward and whispered, “Got any gold?” Even her whisper was louder than it should have been. The three scum were still watching us.

  This was a Creator damned set-up!

  “Back-off,” I said. “I don’t want what you’re selling.”

  Hopefully they wouldn’t notice the muscles in my arms that were flexing on their own at the thought of drawing in some.

  “Alrighty! Ground with me!” She released my collar. “My mistake.”

  She started forward, but caught her foot on the leg of my chair and stumbled.

  “Watch where you’re going, you clumsy whor-”

  But she caught herself by grabbing my head. More specifically, by grabbing one of my horns.

  Damn it! She’d done that on purpose!

  My aching veins forced me to pull in a little. With any luck, she wouldn’t be able to feel it.

  “Oops!” she said. “Sorry! My bad!”

  She wasn’t removing her hand, and she was studying my reaction. The three scum were still watching, too.

  They knew. Or at least suspected. There was only one thing I could do.

  “On second thought, I think I’d like to take you up on your offer, honey.” Jumping to my feet, I grabbed her wrist in one hand and grabbed the blade from Thellnold in the other. “Come on. Let’s take this outside. I’ve got plenty of gold.”

  “Yo-ho!” she said. “Let’s do it!”

  What? Why wasn’t she worried? And none of the scum looked concerned, either. None of them stood up. Was I really that damned paranoid that I was overanalyzing things? No. Something about this was still off. She’d asked for a ‘crazy Daem’. She had to be in on it.

  “Well,” she said. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” She started pulling me toward the front of the tavern.

  Wait, why was she so eager? Were there more hired scum outside waiting for me?! Was Ardette out there?!

  “No,” I said, tightening my grip on her wrist. “Let’s go out the back door. I’m sure you understand why.”

  “Oh!” She looked a little nervous. “Okay.”

  Good, her nervousness brought me comfort. Now they’d have to reconfigure their plan. It would give me time to get a little bit of a head start. Locking eyes with the big guy, I pulled the pink innocent to the back. He still didn’t stand. He only watched.

  I pushed her out the door and into the back alleyway. There, I cupped her mouth and brought my blade to her throat. “All right, your friends are all inside. Spill it. Why are they after me?! What are you-”

  But I was hit in the side of the head by a blast of red.

  ~

  “Nicely done, Trib! How’d ya know?”

  “Simple! He looks just like Mr. Ardetto, and the way he was watching you kids . . . it was just so obvious!”

  Ugh. What the-? My head was reeling!

  I opened my eyes and shook my head to clear the reeling, but it only made it worse. Okay, where was I? On something moving. Something big. We were in a boat? And I was tied to something – a wooden pole. Those idiots! I could easily turn myself into shadow and escape! Heh! As was to be expected from friends of my stupid brother!

  There was no sign of the bastard himself. Just the three scum. But I’d heard the voice of the fourth, so that meant she was behind me too.

  These idiots were taking me somewhere? Yeah. Good luck with that. I’d slip to shadow and grab the Squirrelean. I’d be able to use her as leverage. This was so easy, it was laughable! I’d wait, though. I’d steal some information first.

  “What the hell’s going on?” I said.

  “H-he’s awake!” said Kantoo. She moved behind the big guy. She feared me. Good. Even better.

  “Who are you, little squirrely?” I asked.

  “Don’ ya dare talk to ‘er,” said the big guy.

  “Fine. Who are you?”

  “Not important.” Growing a smug grin, he pulled a knife out of his pocket and started walking toward me.

  This was too good! Now I’d be able to get a weapon too! Just how dumb were these idiots?! Flash to shadow. Wrestle the knife away. Grab the squirrel. This was getting better and better.

  The big guy thought he was in charge of the situation. He squatted low, grabbed a handful of my hair and pushed my head against the pole. He brought the knife to my throat. “Alrigh’,” he said. “Now, this is how it’s gonna go down. Yer gonna cooperate, real nice-like. Got it? Yer gonna tell us what we need ta know, and yer gonna do just what we say.”

  Okay, I’d play along.

  “Tell me what you want with me,” I said.

  “We’re here on beha
lf of yer dumble-brained brother. We need ya ta show us the star.”

  “The star?” What did they want with that? With the star they’d be able to-!

  So I’d been right. This did have something to do with the Heart of Salvation.

  The big guy nodded his head. “That’s right. Ya got it on ya? We looked through yer pack, but it wasn’t in there.”

  I couldn’t help snorting. They’d looked in my pack?! So they didn’t even know what the star was! These scum didn’t know anything!

  The big guy grabbed my hair tighter. Like that would intimidate me.

  “Why do you want it?” I asked.

  “I’m the one askin’ the questions! Now, where is it? Ya got it, or don’t ya?”

  “Give me a drink of her, and I’ll tell you.” I pointed to the squirrel. She inched closer to the lanky Scardo guy.

  “Ain’t a chance in Crystair that’s happenin’,” said the big guy. “Yer getting nowhere near her.”

  “Okay,” I said. “How about an exchange? Tell me what you plan to do with the star, and I’ll tell you where it is.”

  “Yer in no position ta be negotiatin’.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” With a blink, I turned my tied wrists and ankles to shadow and knocked the knife from the big guy’s hand. At the same time, I kicked the big guy in the stomach and sent him falling back. Kantoo let out another one of those squeals. This was great! I reached for the knife.

  But before I got a hold of it, a red blast like the one from the alley hit me in the arm, and I fell.

  I couldn’t fucking move!

  “Ugh,” said a woman’s cold voice. “Move him over there. We shall just have to find another way to make him talk.”

  The big guy stood over me, glared, and yanked me up by the shoulders. He propped me against the side of the boat thing. Now I could see the space behind the pole that had previously been out of view. There was the second innocent pulling on some strange string things and someone else. An ELF?! That’s what that blast had been?! Why was there an Elf onboard?! Ardette was associating with those kinds of people now? Disgusting!