“Yes, that’s my fault,” Lia laughed, raising her hand. “We had planned to leave earlier, but I was late coming back from the Mayaan markets this morning.”
The guard planted the butt of his spear in the dirt beside him and leaned lazily against it. “You know what’s been going on across the bridge there, don’t you?” he asked, cocking his head to one side. Judging by the curious look of his brown eyes behind his half helm and the relaxed tone of his voice, he was more curious about our travel plans than concerned for our wellbeing.
“Well, I’ve heard some stories,” she replied, “but you know how people talk. If I believed every story I heard floating around town, I’d never leave the house!”
“I don’t know if I believe that,” he countered, grinning. “I haven’t seen anybody pass through here with armor as fine as yours for a long while now.” He leaned his head forward and squinted his eyes. “Where’d you get that, anyway? No smiths in Mayaan could make armor like that.”
“Oh, this old thing?” she chuckled, poking at her chest. “I’ve had this forever; I think it came from—” She cut off suddenly as we both winced in pain. A familiar burning sensation rippled at the edge of our Detection, far off across the bridge beyond the Mountain Gate. Two individual circles of darkness advanced on the wall, giving us just enough time to watch the men manning the battlements begin to panic before they disappeared within the disrupting auras. Lia and I immediately sprinted forward in unison, disappearing from our conversation with the guard before he had a chance to react.
I felt the barriers around my consciousness fade away, and Lia’s presence flooded in, filling the empty corners of my body and mind. While the sensation was nothing less than euphoric, fear blossomed in my chest as I remembered the end result of our last merging. Lia instantly quelled the feeling as she surrounded me with warmth. We’re stronger together, no matter what. Despite my trepidation, I pushed the dark memory away and refocused on the task at hand. Our senses sharpened beyond our individual limits as we fully embraced our deepened bond, and our minds emptied of any extraneous thoughts.
The enormous stone bridge spanning the length of the Maw passed us by in a flash. Any guards that would have spotted our approach had abandoned their posts to face the monstrous threat on the Kaldanic side of the wall, and we reached the Mountain Gate unharassed. Although we were entering a country in which we were wanted criminals, we spared no attention for the soldiers on the far side of the gate; the only foes that could pose us any harm were the scythed beasts that burned at the forefront of our linked consciousness.
We slipped through the footpath beneath the massive, ruined portcullis and found ourselves at the center of a chaotic battlefield. Knee-deep snow covered everything but a few maintained walkways that ran around the base of the wall, stained in multiple places with dark splotches of blood. The makeshift barriers which had once been used to repel our assault on the gate stood repurposed as a pair of stockades on either side of the main road. Each battered structure stood as the only defense between the groups of terrified soldiers and their monstrous assailants. Archers stood on multi-tiered wooden scaffolding above our heads and rained arrows down onto the skirmish. The world around us echoed with a cacophony of battlecries, clashing steel, and agonized screams as the two forces met.
All of the information combined into a distilled, crystalline image in our shared consciousness, and we executed a counterattack in perfect harmony. Lia charged ahead of me, leveraging her natural speed to pursue the more distant of the two beasts. She leapt into the air, drawing her swords as she soared over the snowbanks towards her target. The monster was engaged with a half-dozen soldiers, hunched back onto its hind legs as it slashed its bladed arms at the group with impunity. Lia’s jump placed her perfectly between the closest soldiers and the beast just in time to redirect the falling scythes. They skittered along her paired swords as she deflected them outwards, allowing her to step inside the monster’s guard. In a flash, her swords combined into a massive, double-bladed axe, which she hammered down onto the beast’s body with a devastating crunch. Its midsection burst open in a fountain of dark ichor which splattered against the shocked faces of the soldiers behind her.
While Lia carried out her attack, I dashed towards my own quarry. The closer of the two beasts had already slain most of the guards nearby and was closing on the remaining two that had turned to flee. It was bizarre to watch the scene from my accelerated viewpoint; while the monster skittering towards me appeared to move at a regular pace, the retreating men looked as though they were half-frozen in time, sluggishly pumping their arms to no avail. I saw the faintest hint of a reaction on their faces as I blazed by them, sprinting headlong towards the approaching beast. When I came within range, it predictably reared up on its haunches and readied its bloody scythes. A final burst of strength threw me forward into a slide along the ice, and I slipped beneath the falling blades, recalling my sword and cutting a quick arc to slice open the beast’s armored carapace. It managed to take a few staggering steps to turn and follow me before it toppled onto its side and quickly bled out.
As the beast died, my mana burst out in a fresh wave of Detection and found the surrounding fields empty of additional monsters. The information was comforting, but it wasn’t what gave me pause; I remained frozen in place with a deathgrip on my weapon as I waited for the dark presence to arrive again. After a painfully long second of hesitation, I breathed a sigh of relief when the world remained still, then joined Lia on the main road where she stood monitoring the remaining soldiers. Most of them stared in total awe from across the snowy fields, making no effort to hide their slack-jawed expressions of shock and confusion.
A trio of slightly more composed guards approached us with white-knuckled grips on their belted swords. They each wore fur-lined leather over chainmail and displayed the crescent moon of Yoria on their chests, but the gear was worn down and poorly maintained compared to what I had grown used to seeing on Virram’s men. “You’re...them, aren’t you?” the lead man asked in a thin, wavering voice.
I furrowed my brow at the strange question. “We’re who?”
The sound of my voice made him jump. “The ones from the attack on the throne,” he answered nervously. “The ones who...well, from the…” he trailed off, looking back at the ruined gate. He scanned the faces of his companions, looking for some sort of moral support, but they both stared unfalteringly into the dirt at our feet. He swallowed hard before he continued, his voice barely higher than a whisper. “The Umbral Flames.”
Anger flared in my chest at the name, but Lia calmed me through our mental link and responded before I could. “We saved you. That should tell you who we are,” she said calmly.
He nodded, seemingly heartened by her response. “We knew you were coming. Ever since we saw the fire—well, we didn’t see it, but Roberts saw it, and he got the rest of the Fourth up, and they saw it, and they told us about it when we came for night watch, saying that the fire was a sign that you would be back, and we needed to report it to King—” He clapped a hand over his mouth to interrupt his own babbling. “Sorry,” he whispered through his fingers.
“So, Virram already knows we’re coming?” I asked, annoyed. “I guess I don’t know what I expected; he would’ve heard about us coming through the Mountain Gate one way or another.”
The guard took a sudden step back and began to visibly shake. “Are you going to...to kill us?”
I raised an eyebrow at him and his silent companions. “That depends: Are you going to try to kill us?”
“No!” shouted the head guard. With slow, deliberate movements, he unfastened his sword belt and threw it into the snow. He hesitated for a moment, then snapped his head to one side to stare at his allies. “Do it,” he whispered.
The man on his right leaned forward and cupped a hand over his mouth to whisper in the lead man’s ear. The gesture made little difference; the Enhanced Senses from my shared bond with Lia were powerful enough to le
t us hear the man’s heartbeat, and his whispers were like shouts aimed directly into my own ear. “If Roberts finds out we let the Umbral Flames through without trying to stop them, he’ll send us north to the—”
“Just do it,” the first man begged. The two trailing guards shared a pained look before relenting to his wishes, and we soon had the trio’s weapons at our feet. “We’ve been under strict orders to kill you two on sight ever since the Gate fell,” the lead guard admitted, speaking directly to Lia. “But we’ve all heard the stories. You killed the Strength and the Sword, forced the Shield to betray the King, killed Savitz, and dismantled the Third all by yourselves. What are we supposed to do against people like that?”
Val did what? Lia and I were both taken aback by the claim. Our collective memories of Val flashed before us in rapid succession, from our first meeting in the throne room to our last encounter in the Lybesian forest. She wouldn’t betray Virram. Not for us. She already made that choice.
The talkative guard glanced at the nearby carcass of the beast Lia had slain. “I’d be dead if you hadn’t shown up,” he said, looking cautiously in my direction. “All of us would be, eventually. This is the fourth attack this month, and there were two of them this time. We lose a half-dozen men every time one of those Primes-damned things shows up.” He looked between the two of us and straightened his posture. “You killed them without a second thought. If you’re here to hunt Serathids, I’m not going to stop you. Even if you aren’t, you might kill a few while you’re here, and that’s enough reason for me to let you go.”
We noted the peculiar name he gave the beasts, but our curiosity was directed elsewhere. “We’re here to stop them,” I answered. “Is it true they’re coming from Shadowmine?”
His face lit up at my reply. “Yes! They just keep coming out of the mine, and nobody knows why. King Yorrell sent multiple scouting parties to find the source, but they all disappeared when they got near the mine, so he pulled all of our forces back to the capital and locked down the city.” A momentary scowl darkened his face, but he quickly wiped it away. “We’re running out of support here at the Gate. Most places already have. The only safe cities in Kaldan are Atsal and Yoria at this point.”
The unsurprising news of Virram’s abandonment of his people further fueled the resentment I held in my core, now freshly stoked after months of relative peace. “What about the King’s Shield? What did you mean when you said we forced her to betray the King?” Lia asked, taking a small step forward to lean her shoulder against mine.
The guard’s lips pursed as he looked into the snow. “Oh, I said that?” he murmured. After a long pause, he sighed, and his breath steamed in the winter air. “It’s just...stories, and conflicting official reports, and I’m sure it isn’t true, so don’t take it the wrong way because I don’t actually believe—”
“Tell us,” she interrupted him, not impolitely.
He looked between the two of us again, swallowed hard, and then continued. “Official reports state that the King’s Shield betrayed King Yorrell during the assassination attempt and allowed the two of you to leave in order to save her own life. When she was tried for her treason, she fled the capital in disgrace, stealing the Prime’s Shield in the process.” He gave a small shake of his head. “She’s considered an enemy of Kaldan, equal to the two of you.”
“None of that is true,” I snapped. “She was willing to give up her own life to defend your fucking King. She didn’t betray him; he betrayed her and this entire damned country.” My anger sent one of the soldiers running back towards the Gate, and the other two recoiled from the outburst.
Enough, Lux, Lia scolded me. These men are trying to help us. They aren’t Virram.
I clenched my jaw until I thought my teeth would shatter and closed my eyes, breathing out heavily through my nose. I know. I know, I repeated in my head, angry at both myself and the Kaldanic king. We’ve been here for three minutes, and I’m already—
“I believe you,” the head guard spoke up in a timid voice. “We’ve heard rumors that the Shield has been building an army to rout Shadowmine and stop the Serathids at their source. If I had to choose...I’d rather believe that.”
Regret for my outburst immediately turned my stomach as the man spoke. The feeling echoed through our shared consciousness, and I felt a flood of reassuring warmth surround me as Lia took control of the conversation. “What’s your name?” she asked the lead guard.
“Allen.”
“Allen,” she echoed gently, “thank you for your help.”
“My help?” he asked, confused. “You saved us.”
“And, despite your orders, you didn’t attack us. I’d say that makes us even.” She gave him a friendly smile. “Now, we should really be going. There’s a lot of ground to cover between here and Shadowmine.”
He blinked at us for a long moment in silence. “Right,” he said eventually. “Uhm...good luck.”
She bowed graciously. “Primes watch over you.”
“Oh, uhm, and you, together,” he replied, bowing his head in turn.
I lingered as Lia turned to go. Allen and I locked eyes, and he stiffened as I held his gaze. “Don’t die,” I said eventually, giving him a small nod before turning to follow along behind Lia.
“You...too?” he called out after me as we left. Through my Detection, I watched as he walked back to the wall with his remaining companion, passed through the gatehouse to a small barracks room, and immediately collapsed onto a cot, where he remained until he and the Mountain Gate disappeared from view.
The sun had already begun to set by the time we left the wall, and we soon found ourselves walking under an overcast, moonless sky. Despite the snow, our path forward was easy to follow in the form of a well-plowed road that led east towards Atsal, where it would branch off to the north and south a few dozen miles away from the city.
Remaining in our merged consciousness as we traveled was a strange experience. Although it was the third time we had entered the unified state, we were still clueless as to what had initially caused the bonding of our minds in the Midlands or why it had continued to happen every time we were in danger since. When our combat enhancements were in full effect, we acted in perfect unison without hesitation, but we found ourselves feeling odd moments of confusion when the effects wore off. The shared sensation of our bodies caused us to stumble over our own feet, and seeing flashes of the other person’s vision was disorienting. Even though we could communicate solely through emotion and mental images, we often found ourselves speaking through sheer force of habit.
We continued to travel through the night after we passed the split in the road, walking along the northern path until we reached another fork that circled a long, narrow forest. Without any shelter in sight, we pushed into the trees until the towering ivory spires of Atsal were out of sight behind us, then stopped to assemble our makeshift camp. The tree cover had limited the depth of the snow within the forest, so it was easy enough to brush out a space to lay down our bedrolls and make a small fire.
Lia shivered as she warmed her hands over the flame and huddled closer to my side, mostly hidden beneath my voluminous cloak. “I guess I forgot it was winter,” she chuckled through chattering teeth. “Should’ve dressed warmer.”
“We’ll have to focus on figuring out how this cloak works when we get home,” I replied, holding her tightly. “Then you won’t be forced to share mine all the time.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said, leaning her head against my shoulder. “As long as you don’t.” I shook my head in response, then leaned it against hers and closed my eyes, appreciating her physical closeness alongside our mental bond. It helped to ease a bit of the tightness in my chest that had been growing ever since arriving at the Mountain Gate, though the feeling never fully dissipated.
“What’s wrong?” Lia asked, nudging me with her knee.
“Nothing,” I lied, nudging her back. “I’m fine. Just a bit tired.”
I’m in
your head, her voice echoed between my ears. She tugged on my tightly-wound anxiety, then waited expectantly. What’s wrong?
I...don’t know. It was an uncomfortable admission to make, especially with her fully tapped into my emotions. I feel off, and I don’t know why. After how well everything was going in Lybesa, I’m slipping right back to the way I was before.
Let me help you.
I don’t want you to carry my burdens for me. I’ll be f—
She turned to me and took my right hand tightly in hers. “One mind, one body, and one soul,” she said quietly. The words immediately whisked me back to the chapel in Mayaan, and I felt the ribbons binding our hands once more. “Your burdens are mine, too, now.”
The memory brought a smile to my face, despite my concern. “Okay,” I said with a sigh. Looking inward, I focused on the uncomfortable knots in my gut. I had to physically resist the urge to flinch and push the feelings down as I had learned to do during my decades in Hedaat, and I quickly felt overwhelmed by the tide of anger and fear I found locked within my psyche. Lia, I can’t...I need to— I felt a small spike of mana activate as our combined thoughts accelerated, and the tightly packed core burst open in a rush of emotions and mental images.
Virram’s face, sneering at us from his massive throne. The Strategist’s confident smirk as he explained his plot with the King. The broken, empty look of Val’s eyes as she pleaded for her liege’s life. Marin shrieking in pain in my arms as blood poured out from around the crossbow bolt in her chest. Roiling hatred.
The inability to pull away from my mental bond with Lia, and the incapacitating emptiness it left in its wake when it finally ended. Burning, disassembling pain from the void between worlds, creeping out from my body into hers. Layne’s mangled body, bloody and lifeless. Empty, unseeing amber eyes that stared up into the sky as their life faded away. Overwhelming fear.
My delight as I tore through the soldiers in the Attetsian plaza. My sword held against my own throat as I cursed Val in the forest. Marin’s fear as she looked into my eyes and saw my darkness. Black, jagged scars that ran down from my fingers to Lia’s chest, corrupting her perfect, innocent flesh. Burning shame.
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 44
