Storm Of War

by Ugo, Kachi

  “You aren’t the High Lady, not until the High Lady is dead or steps down. And until that happens, I’m in charge here. That means you answer to me.”

  Rose pushed Dublin out of the way, which probably wasn’t the best idea, and ran down the corridor. Dublin gave chase, yelling for her to stop, but Rose ignored her.

  Halfway to the High Lady’s chambers, Dublin threatened jail time, hard labor, and a host of other severe punishments. All fell on deaf ears.

  Rose barged into the High Lady’s chambers to find two Operations Sisters attempting to lift the High Lady’s unconscious form onto a floating stretcher made of softwood.

  Rose waved her hands, causing the wood to smash against the wall and break into pieces. She then threw her body over the High Lady’s body and yelled in a weeping voice.

  “She’s not leaving this place!”

  There were other Sisters in the room, who began to console her. When Dublin came in a few seconds later, they held their tongue.

  Rose glared at her. “You have no right here!”

  Dublin frowned. “I have all the right!” she turned to the two Operations Sisters. “What are you standing there for? Take the High Lady to the waiting trucks!”

  “Do no such thing!” Rose commanded.

  The two girls remained rooted to the ground, glancing between Rose and Dublin. They obviously didn’t know what to do. Follow the Mistress of Operations or the Right-Hand Maid.

  Dublin hissed. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”

  The moment she uttered those words, the very floor upon which they stood trembled under the grasp of Earth power. Rose tried to reverse this action with her own Earth power and failed. Dublin was a far stronger Earthling than she was.

  “Stand down, Rose,” Dublin warned. “I won’t say it again.”

  Rose shot to her feet, stretching her hands to the corner of the room where the stretcher had broken to pieces. The different splinters flew into the air, forming a long staff as it moved, and then landed in her waiting palm, which she twisted into a strong grip around the weapon.

  Rose took a deep breath, releasing the tension in her body and causing her power to form invisible yet potent defensive and attack folds around her body, then she balanced into a defensive stance.

  “Make me,” she uttered, feeling her massive power core pump unbridled, unrestrained, and unruffled energy into her body, then through her body into the air.

  Dublin roared and raised her hand to the ceiling. Rose immediately sensed spikes of Metal power searching the top for anything metallic. She was about to launch her staff at Dublin’s throat when a voice spoke.

  “Stand down, both of you!” Surprisingly, the voice was strong.

  Rose swiveled around on her feet, all her power vanishing in an instant. The High Lady had awoken, staring at them with disapproving eyes.

  Dublin fell at the bedside. “Forgive me, Madam, for my disrespect.”

  Rose knew she should also beg for forgiveness. Instead, she threw herself on the bed and hugged the frail-looking woman. It took a grasp of shock from the Sisters in the room for Rose to realize what she had done.

  She withdrew. “Sorry, High Lady.”

  The High Lady only smiled. Then she took a look around her chambers. “What’s this about?”

  Rose told her everything.

  For a moment, the High Lady remained silent. Though her eyes were barely open, her chest didn’t seem to be undulating. She looked so pale, shriveled, and in intense pain. Rose thought the High Lady might have just died on them.

  But after a while, she said, “A power grab?” She tilted her head at Dublin, who was still bent over by the bedside.

  Before Dublin could defend herself, the High Lady said, “I might not survive this affliction. So I will just make this easy for everyone. I cede my throne to Rose Hernandez.”

  Before everyone, she removed her ring and motioned for Rose to take it. As Rose reached to take the ring, the High Lady grabbed her hand and pointed outside her open window. Rose looked, saw the star, and recognized it immediately.

  The High Lady whispered to her as she pressed the signet ring into her palm, “Go find him. Only he can help us.” Then the High Lady collapsed again.

  “High Lady!” Rose tried to revive the woman, weeping as she did. Some other older Sister with Wood power came in to help but the woman remained placid.

  “She’s in some sort of deep coma,” one of the older Sisters said. “And she’s losing her life constantly. We give her twelve days before she dies. We’ve done all we can.”

  “Which is why we need to transport her to Maine,” Dublin said. “Chief Elder Crawford is a legendary Woodfolk. He may be able to help.”

  Joanna, the Mistress of War and the High Lady’s close confidante, said to Rose, “What did she whisper to you, Rose?”

  It was then Rose became aware of those around her. She gazed at the signet ring, raised it into the air for all to see, and then placed the ring on her finger.

  There was a silence.

  “As the new High Lady, I convene a town hall meeting.” To Dublin, Rose said, “Everyone must be assembled in thirty minutes, and get the trucks ready to move.”

  Rose began to leave the room when Dublin replied.

  “And what would they be transporting? The former High Lady?” The words came forced.

  “You’ll find out in the meeting,” Rose replied and walked out.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  R

  ose went straight to her room and began to pack a bag; it didn’t take too long. A sudden urgency had come upon her, taking hold of her mind and body.

  She finally had clarity of purpose. She finally had a solution. There was a way to save the High Lady. Even beyond death.

  The One could give life to the dead. All she had to do was find him before anyone else did.

  Rose was out the door minutes later, briskly striding toward the town hall amid the usual uproar that attended an assembly.

  Technically, the Ice Manor was a one-building city, where hallways passed for streets. At the very center of this feat of Wood, Earth, and Metal Levitating combined was the town hall.

  The term town hall was actually misleading. Built like a coliseum, the stands could seat up to five thousand Sisters, while the field at the epicenter could fit a thousand.

  Rose walked into the brightly lit town hall, and silence descended upon the gathered Sisters. Ladies of all ages filled the stands—ladies decked in the standard colors of their respective power houses as was their custom for town hall meetings.

  On the field, sitting on sturdy royal chairs with tall backrests, were the leaders of the Scarlet Sisters, including all Mistresses, their aides, instructors, mentors, and elders.

  Rose took her seat at the epicenter of the coliseum and called the session to order. Before she began, she shed her winter robe and exposed her uniform, which revealed what power house she belonged to.

  There were seven power houses. Each Scarlet Sister was placed in a power house based on her strongest power element. So Rose was an EarthWoodfolk because her strongest power element was Wood and her other element was Earth.

  A Sister whose strongest power element was Earth and whose other element was Wood would be assigned to the power house of WoodEarthling.

  This assignment would give rise to six power houses.

  The seventh power house was for special Omega Levitators, who were equally strong in their two elements. They were simply called Omegas and constituted the upper echelons of Ice Manor leadership.

  Sister Cole and her Operations cronies were all Omegas. Extremely powerful and extremely brash. Nevertheless, Rose respected them for their extreme loyalty to the signet ring.

  And guess who now wields the signet ring?

  Rose cleared her throat. “I have assembled this meeting to do two things. First, leave instructions concerning the former High Lady. Second, appoint an acting High Lady who
will possess the powers of the ring for as long as I am away, and should I die be fully installed as High Lady.”

  That alone should have caused pandemonium in the crowd, or at least the younglings. But these were highly disciplined people. Though confusion lit up half the pairs of eyes looking up at her, no one murmured.

  Rose went on to explain the situation. She told them how barely days after appointing Rose as acting High Lady the former High Lady had returned from a secret mission afflicted with a strange ailment.

  None of the medical professionals within the Manor could save her. Not even the specialists who were brought in from Iceland and Greenland could help her.

  Then they turned to Levitation. Rose was the Woodfolk of choice. She built a medical herb garden where she had grown some of the world’s most powerful natural drugs in one night. Yet, none had been able to revive or alleviate the High Lady’s condition.

  “And so, gradually, the High Lady became weak.”

  The darkness of these past events began to weigh heavily on Rose’s heart. As she looked from face to face, she saw that this same darkness weighed heavily on their hearts too.

  Rose described how she had tried several novel Wood Levitating techniques to scan the High Lady’s vital organs and how she had found nothing fundamentally wrong with her. Until now, they still didn’t know why the former High Lady was dying.

  All they knew was that, in a few days, the former High Lady would breathe her last.

  Rose explained that she’d been installed as the new High Lady, showing her signet ring to prove it.

  “As the new High Lady of the Scarlet Sisters, my first proclamation is this. I and only I will go on a secret mission to find a very powerful Levitator who is able to save the former High Lady.”

  With a confused look, Dublin said, “High Lady Hernandez, this can’t be allowed to happen. The laws are clear.”

  Rose frowned. “What laws?”

  Dublin glanced at Sister Thea Mallony, the Mistress of Education, who was sitting on one of the chairs on the front line.

  Thea pulled out a book from her bag, flipped to a page, and spoke up. “As the new High Lady, you have a mandatory sixty days to devote to every unit and homely faction of the Ice Manor ‘that they may know who leads them…’”

  Thea looked up at Rose. “Except in times of war or by the express permission of the Mistress of Operations, which in this case is Sister Cole.”

  “And I’m not about to give you permission to run around the world looking for a secret power that may or may not exist,” Dublin added. “You’ll be putting the Ice Manor in jeopardy, and more importantly, you could get yourself hurt, or worse, killed.”

  Rose folded her arms, wondering how she was going to get out of this. “When did you suddenly begin to care about my wellbeing?”

  Dublin didn’t skip a heartbeat in replying. “The moment you were handed the ring and you took it. I’m sorry, High Lady, but you stay in the Manor.”

  Rose looked up at the other Sisters, who were keen on the happenings of the moment.

  “Sister Truth Anthony, please come up to the stage.

  A tall, dark, and hard-eyed Omega shot up to her feet in rigid shock and clunked her way up the raised dais at the center to Rose’s throne.

  “Yes, High Lady.”

  “I name you acting High Lady in my absence,” Rose announced.

  Truth’s response was to look up to Rose with a furious frown. “Are you fucking with me?”

  Rose felt an urge to laugh out loud at the legendary belligerence of Truth. She quenched it by flashing a frown.

  “I am not kidding, Truth. You are to execute the duties of the ring with all its powers as long as I am away. And your first mission is to bring the body of the former High Lady to Maine in three days.”

  “But you can’t leave the Manor,” Truth replied, no longer taking any reverential stance. “Mistress Dublin has forbidden it.”

  Truth stood head and shoulders taller than Rose, looking down on Rose as if she were a child. Rose should have punished her for this, but she didn’t have time for a disciplinary action. All she thought about was getting to Maine as soon as possible. High Lady had told her to look there when she finally began her journey to find The One.

  Rose glanced at Dublin. “I’ve given the order, Dublin. Isn’t that what you wanted? The High Lady is going to Maine to be with family for the last few days of her life. And all I want to do is go prepare a place for her. And to be with her in her final hours.”

  It was a well-planned maneuver. Rose waited for a few seconds for her words to sink in.

  Then, for effect, she added solemnly, “The High Lady is all the family I have.”

  Dublin had no choice but to accept. If she didn’t, she’d be preventing a Sister from being with family—a sacred law that must never be broken. If Dublin broke it, Rose would easily expel her from her position and appoint an ally as the new Mistress.

  Rose had no intention of going to prepare a place for the High Lady. She was going to find The One. With much hope, she’d have him in hand in three days.

  Dublin waved her hands and said, “I’ll grant you permission on one condition.”

  “Which is?”

  “You take a Sister as protection.”

  “Deal!”

  “Then you can go.”

  Rose beamed. She looked up at the stands. “As soon as I am beyond the walls of the Manor, Truth resumes duty.

  “Meeting dismissed.”

  Rose walked out of the town hall and made her way back to her room. As she expected, Dublin, Thea, and a lot of the other Mistresses were soon at her door, waiting to see her. Rose grabbed her bag and walked out of her chambers to meet them.

  “I don’t know what you’re up to, High Lady, but I must say I don’t like it,” Dublin said. “At least take a hundred guards.”

  Rose sniggered at this. “A hundred? You must think me weak.”

  “The other High Lady was strong and look where it got her,” Thea said.

  Rose looked at the other fifteen Mistresses clogging the hallway. They all meant well for her and didn’t want her to leave on such a rash mission. It might have helped them to know that it wasn’t a rash mission, that it was only a hit-and-grab mission.

  However, Rose wasn’t about to tell them about the prophecy of The One. Everyone who knew about the prophecy thought it was all a hoax.

  The High Lady had believed it. So, naturally, Rose had believed it, too.

  “Look, guys,” Rose said, making her way through the press of bodies. “I know you are concerned about my wellbeing and I appreciate that. But this has to be done. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.”

  “Then let me go in your stead, High Lady,” Truth said from behind. “I will defend you until my dying breath.”

  Rose didn’t bother turning back. “You’re the acting High Lady,” she replied. “You can’t go.”

  Truth’s reply was epic. “That doesn’t fucking make any sense, Rose.”

  Rose laughed heartily this time, while several of the Mistresses harshly scolded Truth for talking to Rose in such a manner.

  Rose first made her way to the EarthWoodfolks unit, where she found Emily and asked if she would be her guard. Emily was ecstatic about it and dashed to her room to get packed.

  The group of Mistresses huddled around Rose in the courtyard as they awaited Emily.

  Dublin began complaining again. “You know, when I said to take someone, I meant a skilled and powerful fighter, not a youngling.”

  “I know, Dublin,” Rose said. “But I don’t need protection. I’m well capable of protecting myself. Besides, I’ve grown close to the little girl. She’s stronger than she looks.”

  “She’s barely twelve, High Lady,” Mistress Tabitha, the thirty-seven-year-old Mistress of Food and Sustenance, said.

  “She’ll do,” Rose replied.

  Emily came right dow
n, dressed in her woolen robe and carrying a backpack.

  The entourage followed them as far as the southern main gates, where a fleet of thirty SUVs awaited them. In these trucks were Omegas, probably over a hundred of them. They were all Operations.

  Rose gave Dublin a scolding look.

  “They’ll only follow you as far as the airport. They’ll wait there until you return, whenever you return. And should you need backup, they are only a call away.”

  Rose only nodded. She bade goodbye to the Mistresses and every other Sister who had come out to see her off. Then she walked out of the black grounds of Ice Manor onto the solid ice of the Arctic, down the line of SUVs to the one marked with the Sigil of the Ice Manor’s High Lady, and entered the vehicle.

  Emily got into the backseat with her, a wide smile on her face. Rose smiled back at the little girl, ruffled her hair some, and then nodded at the driver.

  The driver nodded back, spoke into a small walkie-talkie, and the motorcade was underway.

  Hold on, High Lady, Rose thought to herself, I’m going to find The One.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  P

  eaceful. The Tree House was finally peaceful and silent. Although the open field was littered with red cups, bottles, pizza boxes—all of which were vestiges of the high-spirited victory party the Woodland League had thrown last night after their victory against the Metallics, still it was…finally quiet.

  Now, a sense of calmness and accomplishment rested upon the Tree House. And with only a few hours until dawn, Grey Crawford had assembled the Council to address them. Anyone could attend, anyone who wasn’t too wasted to attend, that is, which turned out to be the Leaguers and a few other Woodfolks.

  The Elders were seated around the large table. This left two seats, which were occupied by Peter and Julian. The rest hung around the table, looking and listening on. The porch was softly lit up by the hanging chandelier, although the light was subdued.

  Now and then, they heard the groan of a wasted party goer coming from within the Tree House. Other than that, the silence soothed Peter.