Her mouth became dry and she felt desperately hungry as she continued to wait for her mother to wake up, but gradually her quiet whimpers became softer and softer. Slowly the tears stopped coming, and she grew sleepy. Her stomach no longer seemed to growl for food, and she spent more and more time asleep, curled up in a ball.
She lost all track of time, until she finally heard her father’s voice downstairs. ‘They’ve taken the girls…’ he said.
‘Pappa?’ Sloane croaked, her voice sounded worn and paper-thin. ‘Pappa?’ she called out a little louder, when he didn’t hear her.
She heard the sound of footsteps, then finally the click on the bookcase door.
‘Cover her,’ her father said, though Sloane had no idea what he was talking about.
The door burst open, and her father swooped down to pick her up.
‘Where’s Momma? Where’s Rowe?’ Sloane cried, as he pulled her into his arms. He didn’t answer though as he carried her away from the secret room.
There were another two men in the bedroom, and Sloane saw the duvet from her parent’s bed had been thrown on the floor. Just at the edge of it, she saw her mother’s hand sticking out from underneath, blood covering her fingernails and the sapphire ring she always wore. Her skin was so incredibly white, and there was blood staining the floorboards beside the duvet.
‘What’s wrong with Momma?’ she asked her father. Again he didn’t respond. She tried to jump down from his arms, with what little energy she had, but he was too strong, and she was too weak from thirst and hunger.
He rushed her out of the house and she wailed, calling out for her sister and mother. She couldn’t understand why they weren’t there, but she knew it was something to do with what had happened while she was in the secret room.
Her father placed her in a waiting car, and as he did her seatbelt up Sloane turned to him. ‘Where were you?’ she asked between pitiful sobs. The colour drained from his face and he pulled away from her, slamming the car door shut in response.
‘Sloane?’ She heard Orelle’s voice attempting to pull her into wakefulness, but she resisted desperately.
‘Do you think she’s going to be okay?’ She was surprised to hear Rhyn’s voice. It was nearly enough to make her open one eye to double check she hadn’t imagined it.
‘She will be fine,’ Orelle responded. ‘We applied just enough Liftsal to the wound so that there won’t be any lasting damage.’
‘But you also used the Liftsal to heal her injury when she arrived,’ Rhyn said, his voice sounding panicked. ‘Has she had too much?’
‘What’s Liftsal?’ Sloane asked, groggily.
‘Ah, glad to see you’ve finally woken up,’ Orelle responded, quickly turning her attention to Sloane.
‘What happened?’ Sloane tried to remember how she’d ended up in bed.
‘What’s the last thing you remember?’ Rhyn asked.
‘I’d gone to the ravine,’ she said, somewhat meekly.
‘Yes…’ Rhyn prompted, a hint of annoyance flaring in his eyes. ‘Do you remember beyond that?’
She gave a small nod. ‘What were those things?’ she whispered, a shudder crawling up her spine.
‘I think it’s best if you explain,’ Orelle said to Rhyn, before she left the two of them alone in the bedroom.
Rhyn came closer to her bed. ‘That was one of the Brakys you saw last night.’
Sloane swallowed and nodded her head. ‘Yes, but what are they?’
‘Would you believe me if I said they were once human?’
Sloane’s eyes widened. ‘You’re joking, right?’ Her words were stronger than before, and she felt a little more of her spark returning. Those creatures were as close to being human as she was to being a glacie.
He lifted one eyebrow. ‘I do not joke, and you should not be so close minded.’
He came to sit at the end of her bed. She wanted to tell him to shove off but hesitated. He was making himself comfortable and looked like he was going to tell her more about the Brakys. She wasn’t about to ruin a chance to get more information, even if she was going to have to put up with Rhyn in her personal space.
‘Our people share a common ancestry with humans. In fact, our worlds were once connected by a rift; much like the one you came through. It’s how we know about human ways and languages.
Rhyn paused, and Sloane watched him in silence, waiting for him to go on. He looked like he was unsure if he should allow himself to continue.
‘A long time ago, some humans journeyed through the rift and found their way into our world. We welcomed them at first, and slowly built a relationship of trust. But as time went on they noticed there was something different about us. They saw that our people never grew older and never aged beyond our twenties.
‘They begged and pleaded for us to tell them how we managed it, but we refused to share our secret with them. The key to our long lives was closely guarded; until an Unfaih woman fell in love with one of the human men.’
‘She told him,’ Sloane guessed.
He nodded. ‘She thought she could help him to become like us. So she told him about the Liftsal, which is the key to our long lives. One sip of it and he was changed, yes, but not in the way she had hoped. They had believed it had worked at first but, over the following months, the darkness in his heart took hold and the evil within him grew.’
‘Did he tell the other humans about the Liftsal?’ Sloane asked.
‘Yes. He convinced them to steal the Liftsal and they drank it freely, and eventually turned into the creatures you saw. They got their extended lives, but became wraiths in the process—never feeling love or warmth or happiness, and always thirsting for more of the Liftsal, which we protect. They live in the darkest depths of the ravine, and our people have always stood guard against the evil that now lurks there.
‘They cannot be contained and they can barely be destroyed. We spend lifetimes training in the use of our swords, which are made from the only thing that can harm the Brakys. But, sometimes, not even that is enough. Some of the older ones are almost unstoppable.’
Sloane hated the sound of a creature that was unstoppable. It sent shivers down her spine, and she hoped she could get her hands on one of those swords.
‘Their eyes are sensitive to light so they usually come out at night. This is why you must always stay within the confines of the hut and never venture from it when it’s dark. Glacies guard the village. Their beaks and claws are coated in the same metal as our swords, and the Brakys rarely seek to fight them. But, if you are not inside, there is no protection for you out there.’
Sloane pursed her lips as she considered what he’d said. ‘How frequent are their attacks?’ she asked.
‘More often than we would like. They are cunning and smart. They chose their moments for attack carefully, usually striking when they sense weakness in our village.’
Sloane swallowed and hoped they didn’t sense her presence as a weakness. They’d attacked after seeing her last night, so perhaps they did. She tried not to concentrate on that fact.
‘Why would you tell me about the Liftsal?’ she asked. ‘You clearly took great lengths to protect it from the first humans.’
Rhyn’s eyes grew dark. ‘Because I highly doubt you wish to become one of those creatures. I don’t think we’re at risk of you trying to steal any.’
She paused as she considered this. There was no way in hell was she ever drinking that stuff. She’d rather spend a short life as a warrior, than have a long life as one of those hideous monsters she’d battled.
Her eyes suddenly darted up to his. ‘But I heard Orelle say you gave me some…’
Rhyn shook his head. ‘We applied some to your wound, which should heal it. It’s not the same as drinking it.’
She let out a relieved sigh. ‘And what happened to the rift to Earth? Is it still there?’
‘The Brakys were building their forces by bringing humans through the rift and turning them. We couldn’t defe
nd the rift, so destroying it was the only way to stop them. One of our magi found a way to disconnect our worlds and destroy the bond between them forever. But breaking the rift was not without consequences.
‘The rifts between our worlds create a sort of balance. It’s almost like they feed off each other. Our world needed elements of yours to survive, and when that rift was closed, our world was thrown into eternal winter.’
Sloane’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are the Brakys the reason you won’t let me return to Aeris?’
‘Part of it, yes,’ Rhyn replied. He stood again so he towered over her and looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.
She wasn’t ready to drop their conversation though, not when she was finally getting answers from him. ‘When I was sleeping I heard people said I was evil. Why?’
Rhyn looked down at her uneasily.
‘Why would they say that, Rhyn?’ she repeated.
‘Because you’ve been marked by a Braky.’
‘It was just a little scratch…’ Sloane knew perfectly well it was more than a little scratch; the damn thing had nearly tried to gouge a chunk out of her leg.
‘You don’t understand. It doesn’t need to claw you; it could easily rip your head off with one bite. It was marking you.’
‘Why?’
He looked away, clearly not wanting to answer her question.
She swallowed. ‘Maybe it wasn’t marking me,’ she said. ‘I was actually kicking that Braky’s ass. It didn’t get a chance to rip my head off. There was even a dagger in its chest to prove it.’
Rhyn shook his head and looked at her. ‘A dagger wouldn’t slow it down. There’s only one reason a person is scratched by a Braky, and you’re not going to like it.’
Sloane sat up in her bed, Rhyn’s tone making her feel nervous. She knew he didn’t care about what happened to her, but he looked genuinely worried. Could being marked really be so bad?
He blew a breath out before he continued. ‘A Braky will bite or scratch a person with their claws to poison them. The poison fills the person with such darkness that they change.’
‘Change?’
Rhyn nodded. ‘Yes, they change. The Liftsal is not the only way to create a Braky. If you hadn’t made it back to the hut last night, and had the Liftsal applied to the wound, I fear you would be one of those creatures now too.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Of all the things Sloane wanted in her life, becoming an evil creature of darkness was not one of them. She was surprised to find that the scratches on her leg healed quickly and, within days, they were gone completely. She no longer had the nightmares induced by the Braky poisoning, but she did have a new creature on top of her list of monsters she wanted to destroy.
She gave the Brakys a lot of consideration whilst she was bed-bound. They were clearly very troubled creatures with some serious anger issues. Sloane had anger issues of her own, so she was probably a prime candidate to join their ranks. But, she decided that beady, red-tinged eyes just really wouldn’t go with her complexion, so becoming one of them was out of the question.
Kai came to visit her once she was out of bed and beginning to move around the house a little easier. He gave her a clean bill of health, though his examination was spiritual rather than physical. She wasn’t certain she believed him when he said, ‘your core has harmonised now, and the evil has gone.’ She merely nodded along with him; simply glad he had announced she was okay to leave the house.
Sloane had to wait for Rhyn’s approval, of course, but he surprisingly seemed okay with giving her the freedom to explore the village. He probably figured she had learnt her lesson about escaping when the Braky attacked her the other night. He was underestimating her ambition though—not that she was about to complain.
The suns were shining brightly on Sloane’s first solo trip to the village. She kept glancing over her shoulder to check if someone was following her, but she never saw any pursuit as she made her way along the main path. She smiled to herself as she walked. She appeared to be completely alone.
She didn’t quite know what to do with her freedom. She was anxious to find the rift, but she felt too conspicuous to skulk around searching for it. She didn’t want Unfaih eyes watching her every move, but she was still too much of a novelty. They needed to get used to seeing her around so they would lose interest in what she was doing.
Sloane decided to use this first outing as an opportunity to get her bearings in the village. She would obviously still keep her eye out for the rift, but for today she would start with getting to know the layout of the town better.
As she arrived at the main square, the Unfaih who were there all fell silent. Their wide eyes stared at her fearfully, and they whispered to each other in quiet hisses. The smile on Sloane’s face dropped, and she tried not to let it bother her as she passed through the square. She could feel their eyes on her the whole time though, and the looks they gave her weren’t encouraging.
The Unfaih in the square weren’t the only ones to react strangely around her that day. Everywhere she went the villagers would whisper, and they avoided her like she had some kind of contagious disease. She began to understand every nuance of the word for evil in Unfaih, and the way some of them pointed at her when she passed by made her feel like she was the devil. She ignored them the best that she could and kept her focus on getting to know the village.
Sloane was so distracted by the whispers that followed her, and the strange stares the villagers had given her, that it took her a while to notice that something was up with Orelle when she returned to the hut later that day.
While Orelle was normally always serene and composed, she actually seemed to be bubbling with happiness. She was humming as she went about her daily chores, and she had a beaming smile plastered across her face. It was almost unnerving.
Orelle’s bright mood didn’t spread to Sloane though as she couldn’t get the villagers’ strange behaviour out of her head. They had given her curious looks before, but they had never treated her like she was something to be feared. She had never felt more out of place in Ellysia than she had today.
When Orelle returned from feeding the glacies, Sloane decided to ask for her opinion about their behaviour. She worried that it was connected to the Braky scratch she had received, but it could just be because she was wandering the village alone. Her gut told her it was the Braky scratch, but there was only one way to be sure.
‘Orelle, why…’ her voice trailed off as Orelle turned and fixed her cheerful smile on Sloane. Seeing her so happy, Sloane couldn’t bring herself to dampen her mood.
‘Why do you seem so happy?’ she asked instead.
Orelle’s smile grew larger, and she clasped her hands together excitedly. ‘Because Kai has agreed to a choosing ceremony.’
‘Which is…’
‘Something very special and rarely held in our community,’ she beamed, clearly excited to explain the ceremony to Sloane.
‘Our people each have only one soul mate, and we host choosing ceremonies so that they can find their perfect match,’ she continued. ‘Some will wait many, many years hoping to find their match without one, but it rarely happens without a choosing ceremony. Our clans live so far apart and we rarely interact with each other. Without a choosing ceremony, perfect matches may never meet.’
‘So Kai’s allowed you to set him up on some blind dates?’ Sloane hazarded a guess.
Orelle smiled. ‘Not quite. Clans from all over will send eligible women to see if they might be paired with Kai. It is a great honour and a ceremony with much prestige among our people.’
‘And Kai wants this?’ Sloane asked.
Orelle hesitated. ‘When he finds his match, he’ll be glad he went through with the ceremony.’
‘But Kai can’t touch people. He won’t even touch you, and you’re his mother!’
Orelle looked down at her hands, and Sloane worried she’d hit a nerve. ‘Kai may be slightly zealous in his beliefs, but there are other m
agus who have been matched before, and they’ve been able to move past it. The lack of physical contact is only a requirement before certain rituals, and he’ll be able to purify himself before them. He will find a way to be happy. I feel certain of that.’
‘But he really seems freaked out by the whole touching thing. Do you honestly think he’ll change overnight?’
Orelle considered what Sloane said. ‘You may be right, but I think once he finds his one he will change his mind. I know I felt very differently about love before I met my one: Vas.’
‘Rhyn and Kai’s father?’
Orelle nodded. ‘Yes. It was such a long time ago now, but before I came here I lived in a village out on the frozen sea. I had never come close to finding love there and, since I had never experienced love, I didn’t know what I was missing. I wasn’t sure if it even existed.’
‘What was it like in your village?’ Sloane asked.
Orelle smiled, her eyes growing wistful. ‘It was a place where the horizon and the sky were one. When the suns would rise and set, the brilliant pink and purple hues that streaked across the sky would reflect over the frozen ground that surrounded us. In those moments between light and dark, we no longer lived in a frozen expanse. Rather, it felt as if the village was suspended in the sky and our small community became enclosed in a vibrant world of colour. I don’t think I ever really appreciated that until I left, but now it’s one of my fondest memories of home.’
Her eyes glowed with the memory, and Sloane found herself longing to see the beauty Orelle had just described. She could almost picture it in her mind and longed to see it for herself.
‘It sounds incredible,’ Sloane said.
‘It was.’
‘Did you meet Rhyn and Kai’s father there?’
Orelle shook her head. ‘No. I lived there for over a century,’ she continued. ‘Then a choosing ceremony was called here in the Whispering Cliffs. I thought it was crazy to journey such a long way and didn’t believe I could possibly find my one, but my parents insisted I try. When my eyes met Vas’ I didn’t need either of us to touch the choosing orb. I didn’t need to see it glow golden as it does when there’s a match, because I knew I’d found the one.’
In Ice We Burn (The Liftsal Guardians Book 1) Page 15
