by Kate Keir
Mara threw herself into the fighting, and I found a moment to appreciate her ferocity, considering her usually kind and caring nature. She took one Draugur in the face with her blade, blinding it as she embedded the length of her steel blade across its eye sockets. Without pausing she tugged her blade free and made a graceful pirouette before running another through the stomach. With an unexpected amount of strength, she yanked the sword up, gutting the monster in a heartbeat.
My attention was grabbed by a Draugur that placed its hand on my arm and started to pull me in the direction of the dais. I had been distracted, and I lost my footing before stumbling after it for a moment.
Pulling myself together, I found my feet and without hesitation swung the sword back behind my head before bringing it down in a deadly arc against the back of the creature’s skull. Warm blood spattered across my face and I curled my lip, revolted.
A soft, warm head suddenly nudged my hand, and I looked down to see wolf Lyall standing next to me during a brief respite in the fighting. His amber eyes burned into mine as I heard him speak inside my head.
Mara, get Flora across the border. I can handle the rest of them.
Mara’s breathing was heavy as she finished off another Draugur. “Flora, he’s right. This doesn’t stop until we get you out of the Endwood. As soon as you’re safe, the others can come back to the right side of the border too.” She looked up at the sky toward the eagle and raven as she shouted.
I couldn’t argue with that, I had never wanted any of them to risk their lives for me. I grabbed the hand she offered and followed after her in the direction of Pen.
Mara had just crossed the border ahead of me when I felt a tug on my plait, and I stumbled backward against the Draugur that had hold of my hair. I let go of Mara’s hand, but she spun around quickly, and grabbing my shoulders, she turned me with such speed, that as we traded places, the Draugur had no choice but to release my hair or tear it out.
Mara placed both of her hands against my chest and pushed me, sending me toppling back into the Everwood. As I stumbled backward, I witnessed an expression of surprise ripple across her beautiful face as the Draugur thrust a sword through her back. The monster had stabbed so hard the blade ripped through her body and burst through her chest in a spray of hot blood. For a moment, Mara’s lips bubbled with red liquid as she tried to speak. Then she collapsed to her knees before me, landing hard on her side.
The shriek of the eagle as I watched the life leaving Mara’s body was soul destroying. Landing on my back, I released the blade I had been clutching in a white, bloodless hand and wished with every part of me that I had died in her place. Pen’s arms were suddenly hooked underneath mine. She pulled me back until I was several feet away from the border. I was babbling incoherently.
Seeing me safely behind the line of the border, raven Freya flew back into the Everwood and settled in a tree behind us. Artair had shot back over the border like an arrow when Mara had fallen. We were now just waiting for a wolf to come back to us.
Come on, Lyall.
Wolf Lyall burst forth from the remaining group of Draugur and sped toward us. As he reached Mara’s body, he lifted her arm in his massive jaws and dragged her the extra few feet needed to bring her back into the Everwood and home.
Silence fell across both worlds. Until Sluag’s rasping laughter reached my ears.
“By my reckoning, that’s two down with four to go, Penthesilea.” His remaining Draugur had gathered around the base of the dais. They showed no concern for their fallen comrades, knowing they were not truly dead.
I cast my eyes back to where Mara lay. Artair had changed back into human form, and he was sobbing as he knelt beside her and cradled her head, keening loudly.
Finlay had reached the bottom of the dais, and he stood looking at Sluag. The scaly monster extended his hand benevolently in Finlay’s direction.
“Yes, yes. Come and take your place by my side, betrayer. We may not have succeeded today, but it is only a matter of time.” He looked at me as he spoke, his eyes shining with undisguised pleasure.
Finlay hesitated for a moment. I stumbled forward, still aware enough to be careful to keep back from the Endwood territory.
“Finlay?” I called.
He turned toward the sound of my voice, but his eyes were vacant of emotion.
I looked down at Mara and Artair. “Why?” This time my whisper could be heard in the silence.
He didn’t reply; instead, he turned his back on me and walked up the steps. He reached the top and crossed the dais to stand next to Sluag. He kept his eyes focused forward, and he made no reaction to my sob of desolation as I sank to my knees in the snow.
Lyall’s voice was strong and hard behind me. I hadn’t even noticed him change back. “I have no idea how long this sick partnership is going to last, but I want you to hear me now, Finlay Michaelson. If you ever think that you can come crawling back to us when that thing is done with you, then think twice. If I even see you within a thousand miles of Castle Dion or of Flora, I will tear you into a million pieces. I won’t stop until there is so little left of you, no one would know what it was you used to be.”
Sluag looked thoroughly delighted by the threat.
Finlay finally showed some emotion as he dropped his eyes to look at the floor.
You should be ashamed.
I vaguely felt the warmth of Lyall’s arms hook underneath my knees and my shoulders as he gently lifted me in his arms and rolled me against his chest. Our sorry-looking group turned their backs on the pale-haired Dion who had betrayed us and began to make their way back through the Everwood.
I heard Artair’s sobs of despair as he lifted Mara from the snow and turned to follow us, and my heart felt as though it would break in two.
As he walked, a beautiful spirit doe suddenly broke cover from the woods and reverently walked toward Mara’s limp form in Artair’s arms. The doe gently touched her nose to Mara’s hand and nodded her graceful head at Artair as though she were telling him how sorry she was for his loss.
The deer was followed by a steady stream of spirit animals of so many different kinds. They all approached us warily at first, but got braver and braver as they approached Artair and Mara to say goodbye to their good-hearted Soul Keeper.
Eventually, we reached a clearing and Artair knelt down to gently lay her in the centre of the grass. There was now a stream of hundreds of spirit animals following behind us, flooding into the clearing. Artair stepped back and nodded to them, allowing each and every creature to come and pay their respects.
“You go ahead. I’ll bring her when they are done.” His voice cracked in despair as he knelt beside the girl he would now never marry and bowed his head, completely giving way to his grief.
Epilogue
LYALL
“How is she?” Pen asked as Lyall entered the great hall and sat down quietly. His anger rolled off him in waves.
“The same,” he growled. “She won’t eat, sleep, speak. Nothing.” He smashed his fist against the table in frustration.
“She’s grieving, Lyall.” Pen spoke softly.
“Pen, we’re all grieving for Mara. But she hasn’t so much as moved in six days. It’s her birthday today, and she’s going to let it pass her by without speaking a single word?” He dropped his head into his hands.
“She grieves after Finlay as much as she grieves after Mara. She needs time, Lyall.” Pen placed a gentle hand on the back of his head.
He snarled, “Don’t say his name, Pen.”
“Why? It will likely be the first name on her lips when she finally chooses to speak again. He has broken her in ways that you cannot imagine, Lyall. But that doesn’t mean she loves him any less than she once did.”
Lyall grimaced. “I suppose we should be glad that you managed to complete the ritual. We can recruit a replacement for Mara and keep our numbers up.”
“Providing I am right and we can make Mara’s soul jump into an adult host.” Pen frow
ned.
“If we can’t?”
“Then we will have to wait for an animal Soul Keeper to be born in the traditional way.”
Lyall sighed. “I hope that’s not the case. There’s only four of us since he did what he did. How can so few protect her?”
Pen lowered her eyes. “I think we will probably need to recruit more than one replacement before much longer.”
“What do you mean?” He frowned.
“I’ve thought it over a thousand times since that night. Sluag can have no further use for Finlay, now that he has failed to deliver Flora to him. I’m pretty sure that he lives on borrowed time in the Endwood.”
“You think Sluag will kill him?” Lyall almost grinned.
“I do, and soon. But before you celebrate that fact. Know that this news could be the thing that sends Flora over the edge. I have already watched one Soul Keeper throw away any desire to live, Lyall. I don’t wish to watch it again.”
Lyall thought about it for a moment. “How can I help her, Pen?”
“You are doing everything you can for her right now. Keep doing exactly what you are. When the time comes, we need to keep Finlay’s death from her, at least until his soul has lost its memories.” Pen wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“She won’t have to send his soul back to the Endwood? Will she?” Lyall stood up.
“I’m afraid she will. Betrayal is not expected of Dion, and so their souls are expected to be pure. It has always fallen to the Soul Keeper to sort them into the Everwood. In Finlay’s case, he is now rogue and needs to be sent back to Sluag.”
“That’s the worst thing you could ever ask of her, Pen. It’ll be bad enough if she has to cope with his death. God knows, I can’t understand it, but I know she loves him still. She won’t survive sending him to the Endwood.”
“She can and she will. You don’t give Flora the credit she deserves, Lyall. However, I want to make sure she doesn’t encounter Finlay’s soul until after his memories fade. If he knows himself, he will lie and manipulate and twist her mind into believing he can be saved. A week after should be long enough to wait.” Pen’s voice was firm.
“What if she chooses to keep him in the Everwood?” Lyall felt sick at the thought.
Pen shook her head. “We can’t let that happen, Lyall. I’m already certain that Sluag will try and use Finlay’s blood for some abomination or other. We have no idea what we are going to come up against over the next few months. I’m studying the manuscripts, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I’m getting old,” she finished sadly.
“You think Sluag has big plans, don’t you?” He spoke grimly.
“I do,” she agreed.
“Can we truly win this war, Pen?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. There are a few discoveries I have made that have given me cause to hope Sluag may not be immortal, after all. If we can regroup, and if we can bring our Soul Keeper back from the precipice on which she now stands, then perhaps we have a shot.” Pen smiled weakly.
“Then there’s hope?” He spoke sadly.
“There is always hope, Lyall. For now, you must be the one who stands by her side. You tell me that she loves Finlay, but I know she loves you too. If anyone can bring Flora out from the darkness that consumes her, I believe it is you.” Pen embraced him warmly as she spoke.
“I’d do anything for her,” he admitted.
“Then love her and be patient with her. If she grieves a man whom you despise, then you must still support her. We almost lost her once, Lyall. We can’t let that happen again.”
“It will never happen again,” he spoke firmly.
“Then I would hope that with a little time and a little patience, our Soul Keeper will return to us.”
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To be continued…
Thank you…
A thousand thank yous’ to anybody who chose to pick up Soul Keeper, and read it. I am honoured that you gave me the opportunity to bring you along for the beginning of Flora’s journey. I hope you enjoyed it enough to want to follow the story through to its conclusion in Soul Reaper and Soul Eternal.
Reviews are the life-blood of any Indie author, and I remain eternally grateful to those who leave a review for Soul Keeper after reading. If you enjoyed the book, I’d be thrilled to know, and if not then please tell me what I could have done better. Feedback from readers is the best way for me to improve and grow as a writer.
Much love to you all. See you soon for Soul Reaper xxx
* * *
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Facebook & Twitter: @AuthorKateKeir
Website: www.katekeir.com
Acknowledgements
A huge thanks to Katrina at Crimson Phoenix Creations for designing my beautiful book cover for Soul Keeper and the other two books in the trilogy. You are so talented lady!
Thank you to my favourite ladies for reading the first draft of babble that I created, and telling me when I had got it right or wrong.
Thank you to my wonderful editor Lia. I can’t believe you came back to edit three more of my books after the lengthy job you had with my debut. I would like to think I’ve improved a little since then, but thank you for polishing my manuscript up to publication standard.
To my long-suffering hubby, who had to endure writer’s widowhood for six months while I wrote all three books, thank you for your unwavering support. This one’s for you.
