Battle for the Valley

by C. R. Pugh

  Tallon cleared her throat, bringing the moment to an end. I felt my face heat up when I pulled away from Ravyn. Her eyes sparkled as she grinned up at me, color staining her own cheeks.

  “Sorry,” I murmured against her lips. Ravyn giggled. I ran the tips of my fingers down the side of her face and frowned. “Are you ready to sit up or do you need more time?”

  She paused for a moment and closed her eyes to consider how she felt. “I think I’m okay.”

  Camellia and I each held Ravyn’s hands and lifted her into a sitting position. Ravyn inspected her body, running her hands over her torso and neck. She turned her arms this way and that, searching for the wounds that had been present an hour ago.

  “How am I not dead?” Ravyn mumbled to herself, shaking her head in denial. “I couldn’t move anymore. My whole body had gone cold, and that Saber …” She closed her eyes again. “… the Saber was standing over me … ready to go for my throat.” Ravyn opened her eyes again and glanced back and forth between Camellia and me, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

  Camellia choked on another sob, unable to speak. Ravyn wrapped an arm around her sister.

  While Ravyn stroked her sister’s silvery blonde hair, I answered. “Tallon came to help and …” I ran my fingers through my hair, hesitant to admit the rest.

  While I was busy grappling with the right words to say, Ravyn’s gaze shifted to Tallon, who was still crouched beside me. Ravyn beamed at her and nodded. “I was right about her, wasn’t I, Thorne?”

  “Yes, well … Tallon was not the only one …” I paused again and rubbed the back of my neck.

  “Who else? The brothers?” Ravyn stared at me, impatient for an answer. She spun around to look for the siblings, still keeping an arm around Camellia. “Where are they, Thorne? Where’s Laelynn?”

  Ravyn froze. Kieron had positioned himself behind Ravyn so she couldn’t see him at first. He stood twenty feet away, shuffling his feet nervously.

  “Kieron?” she whispered.

  I nodded. “Tallon and Kieron got there in time. Pierce was battling two Sabers at once. I – I couldn’t leave him to die,” I stammered, hoping she would understand. “I wouldn’t have been able to reach you.” The image of Ravyn lying helpless beneath that beast had been burned into my memory. I would never forget it.

  Ravyn’s eyes stayed fixed on Kieron for a long, silent minute. I felt Brock and Tallon grow still to my right. Camellia, eyes still glittering with spent tears, watched her sister with raised eyebrows. Kieron’s fingers furled and unfurled, again and again, awaiting the verdict.

  “Ravyn, he saved you,” Camellia said, her voice gentle.

  Ravyn dropped her eyes and bit her lip, unable to even speak to him. Kieron took a step back and stared off into the trees. A mask of indifference fell over him, but I could see the pain of rejection in his eyes. He turned his back on all of us and strode away with his dagger, disappearing into the trees.

  “Ravyn,” Camellia whispered in a reprimanding tone.

  “Don’t look at me that way, Camellia,” she snapped. “I’m not like you.”

  “I know,” she said, wiping more tears from her face.

  “He killed our parents,” Ravyn reminded her. “I don’t think I can ever forgive him.”

  “I know,” Camellia agreed with a nod. She pulled Ravyn into another embrace. “I know, you’re right. I’m glad you didn’t die.”

  “Me too. We’re together and alive. That’s all that matters.” Ravyn stroked her sister’s hair for a moment and then her eyes met mine. “Where are Pierce and Archer? And Laelynn and her brothers? They didn’t …?”

  I raked my fingers through my hair and looked to the east, in the direction Pierce and Archer had gone. Since they had not returned, I worried that something dreadful had happened.

  “I don’t know yet. I sent Pierce and Archer to see what happened to them. I thought I heard Laelynn’s scream while we were running.”

  Ravyn’s face blanched. “I heard it too.”

  Camellia pulled out of Ravyn’s embrace and looked up at me. “Should we go and look for them?”

  Just as I was about to suggest we wait a few more minutes, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Pierce marching toward us. We all rose to our feet as he came into view. He was alone and his dark brows were pinched, creating a worried crease between his eyes. Stopping about fifty feet away, Pierce gestured for us to follow him. “We found them, Thorne. It’s …” He sighed and glanced at Ravyn. “It’s not good.”

  I placed a hand on Ravyn’s shoulder to steady her. “We should go see.” I glanced back at Brock and Tallon. “All of us. No one needs to stay here alone.”

  Ravyn swallowed hard and nodded her head. Camellia kept a tight hold on her sister’s hand.

  “Come on,” I said, placing my hand on the small of Ravyn’s back, urging them on.

  Once we had all caught up with Pierce, I noticed his face was drawn and ashen, even in the dark.

  Sneaking a peek at Ravyn out of the corner of my eye as we hiked through the trees, I could see her bottom lip trembling. She was gripping Camellia’s hand so hard her knuckles had turned white.

  Pierce led us east for about a mile through the thick sequoias before he turned south again. We veered through clusters of smaller pine trees, moving slightly uphill. I pushed long branches of ferns and other bushes out of our path to keep them from snagging at our faces. Brock and Tallon followed behind Ravyn and Camellia, looking grim.

  “It took us a while to locate them,” Pierce said over his shoulder. “We think they were trying to get as far away from us as they could.”

  Up ahead, over Pierce’s shoulder, I caught a glimpse of Archer. He was kneeling at the top of the hill and staring down at something on the ground with a hand over his mouth.

  I quickened my pace. “Archer?”

  At the sound of my voice, Archer turned to face me and rose to his feet. His mouth was turned down in a despairing frown.

  “No,” Ravyn whispered. She dropped Camellia’s hand and sprinted past Pierce and me, up the hill toward Archer and whatever they were grieving over. Ravyn pushed through the last of the bushes with her arms and marched forward to stand next to Archer. She stood paralyzed for a moment, gaping down at the ground. I was still twenty feet behind Ravyn when she whirled around, turning her back on the sight. My own feet skidded to a halt. Ravyn pinched her eyes shut and slapped her hand over her mouth, muffling the sound of an anguished scream. Her face had turned a sickly shade of green.

  I moved toward Ravyn again. “What is it?”

  My hands reached out for her, but she strode off into the bushes away from me. She stumbled into the nearest tree, doubled over, and emptied her belly.

  Camellia gaped at me in confusion for a second and ran after her sister. Tallon and Brock jogged past me to join Archer at the top of the hill to see what was happening. Tallon shrieked, dropped her bow, and turned to bury her face in Brock’s chest. Brock swore and turned his own eyes away as he wrapped his arms around my sister.

  I raked my fingers through my hair. Whatever the Warriors had seen, it was something horrible.

  Pierce touched my shoulder and nudged me onward up the hill. It was only a few more feet. My brother walked by my side until we reached the other Warriors at the top of the rise. The ground sloped downward on the other side. Dirt and pine needles were churned up, evidence of a Saber ambush. Kaelem sat with his back against a tree, knees drawn to his chest, and face buried in his arms. He had only sustained a few minor cuts and abrasions. Either Hagan or Haldar – I could not tell which one – was crouched down over the shredded body of his twin brother about fifty feet away between two pines.

  “They told me three Sabers ran this way,” Pierce confirmed. “Haldar was the first to go down in the ambush – taken down from behind.”

  I swallowed back the bile that crept up my throat.

  Another bloody victim was sprawled at our feet. The body was completely unrecognizable fr
om the damage done by the Yellow-eyed Sabers. One of the legs had been ripped apart and there were deep teeth marks along the arm and shoulder. This death had been quick.

  Another sibling knelt over this poor soul, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable sobs.

  I took another step forward, snapping a small branch under my boot. The sibling, startled out of his grief, peered over his shoulder to face me. Nash looked up at me, tears and dirt streaking his face.

  I pressed both of my fists to my mouth.

  “Kaelem and Nash almost had her pulled up to safety,” Pierce explained, his words gruff. “Another Saber leapt up and ripped her right out of their hands.”

  My body went numb and I felt myself drop to my knees in the dirt.

  Their sister, Laelynn, was dead.

  ***

  Leaving the brothers and my Warriors to prepare Haldar and Laelynn for burial, I went in search of Ravyn. I found her and Camellia sitting at the edge of a peaceful brook beneath some large oak trees. The leaves on these trees were a radiant reddish-orange in the first light of dawn.

  Ravyn resembled Kaelem, with her knees drawn to her chest and her hands covering her face. Camellia had her arm wrapped around Ravyn’s shoulders. When Camellia heard me trudging through the brush to reach them, she rose to her feet and approached me.

  “Ravyn hasn’t said anything,” Camellia said in hushed words. “She’s just … sitting there, in shock. I didn’t get a chance to see what she was looking at -”

  “It was Laelynn,” I murmured, interrupting her. “Laelynn and Haldar were killed by the Sabers.”

  She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

  “Ravyn is probably blaming herself,” I said.

  Camellia’s brows furrowed. “Why?”

  I scratched the beard that was forming on my chin. “Ravyn feels she was the one that brought the General’s soldiers to their village in the first place.”

  Camellia’s lips turned down in a frown. “But Kaelem told me he was the one who sent for them.”

  I shook my head. “Ravyn will never see it that way.” I glanced at Ravyn over Camellia’s shoulder. She looked so defeated and alone. “She believes that if she had never come across their village in the first place, or stayed with them even that one night … none of this would have happened. She’ll probably blame herself for the rest of her life.”

  “But it’s not her fault.”

  “You don’t have to convince me.” I patted her shoulder and gave her a grim smile. “I’ll sit with her. Why don’t you go see if they need some help?”

  “Of course.”

  I watched Camellia disappear through the trees and then walked down to the edge of the brook. Ravyn did not bother to look up when I dropped down beside her on the layer of orange and brown leaves that had fallen from the oak trees above. The water sparkled in the morning sunshine bursting through the trees. This place might have cheered me up had our circumstances been different.

  “I’m so sorry,” I murmured.

  Ravyn finally lifted her head to stare at me. Her turquoise eyes had hardened and her face was a mask of indifference. I knew it was a lie. She was trying hard not to care. Deep down, Ravyn cared too much and it was tearing her apart inside.

  She cocked her head to the side. “Why her? Why not Hagan or Kaelem? They would have deserved it.”

  “Do you really believe that anyone deserves such a horrible death?”

  Ravyn lowered her eyes in shame. “I suppose not.” She chewed on her lip for a moment and then said, “It doesn’t make sense, Thorne. I risked everything to save Laelynn from the compound. She came out of there without a bruise, and then this …” Ravyn shook her head and whispered, “I don’t understand.”

  “No one is safe in the Old Sequoia Valley,” I reminded her. “Adding Wolfe, the soldiers, and those Sabers to the mix makes things more dangerous. The fault lies with him and those beasts he’s sending out to destroy us.”

  “To destroy me, you mean.”

  I stared at the water bubbling by. “I think this time he meant for them to destroy any of us.”

  Ravyn stared off into the forest for a moment and mumbled, “I need to get out of here.”

  “Leave everyone behind again? Run away?” I accused.

  “What else should I do? No one is safe with me!”

  I raised my eyebrows. “What about your sister? Are you going to abandon her?”

  Ravyn sighed, snatched some leaves off the ground, and started tearing them into tiny pieces. “She could go to Ahern with you.”

  “That’s ludicrous, Ravyn. We don’t know what we’ll face there,” I argued. “And after that, my Warriors and I are going back to Peton to free my family. She can’t go to Peton any more than you can and she can’t stay in Ahern alone.”

  She flicked the leaves away and peered at me out of the corner of her eye. “What do you suggest?”

  “I think …” I hesitated, but I knew this was the only plan that made sense to keep Ravyn and Camellia far away from the compound. “I think you should go north. Go to Murray.”

  “You don’t want my help in Peton?”

  “I think the safest thing for you and Camellia is to get out of the Valley, out of Wolfe’s reach.” I ran my hand through my curls. “I want you with me. But more than that, I want you safe.”

  “As long as the General lives, I won’t be safe,” Ravyn grumbled. “He needs to be stopped. Killed. But I’m not sure I can go back into the compound again.”

  Ravyn shivered, recalling the time she had spent there.

  “Without Kieron as his weapon, who else could stop you?”

  “Who knows how many he’ll have at his disposal in only a few weeks?” she said, shaking her head. “They would overwhelm us with numbers, like they did at the compound a week ago.”

  “Humph.”

  Ravyn glanced up at me again. “What? What are you thinking?”

  “If they are too many, then we need more fighters to stop them.”

  “What are you proposing, Thorne? Building an army?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.” I turned toward her, took her hands in mine, and stared down into her glittering turquoise eyes. “We need more allies.”

  Ravyn shook her head again. “Where would we find allies?”

  “The other clans. If there were people like Pierce and Hawke trying to quietly undermine the Elders and Wolfe in Peton, is it so hard to believe there aren’t others? Ahern, Terran, Murray … there must be others out there silently rebelling against Wolfe’s schemes. There has to be, Ravyn.”

  “Terran is out of the question,” Ravyn said with a defeated sigh. “The only dissenters there were Elder Dagan and my parents. Even if we could get back inside the fence to talk to them, they aren’t fighters. We don’t have time to train people before winter sets in.”

  “That still leaves Ahern, Murray, and Peton.” I jumped to my feet and began pacing along the edge of the brook. I was beginning to get excited with a new purpose. Running away from a fight had never been my style. I wanted to face it head on. “You go north to Murray. I will go south to Ahern. We must discover any rebels that might be willing to join our cause. After that, I will return to Peton for my family and any others that are loyal to Hawke and me.”

  Ravyn sat back on her haunches and frowned up at me. “That could take some time and winter will be here in weeks. We can’t possibly mount an attack during the winter months, Thorne. It’s suicide.”

  “Not if we plan carefully.”

  Ravyn stood up and folded her arms across her chest. “What does that mean? Thorne, the Old Sequoia Valley will be under a foot of snow in under a month.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Stop your pacing and tell me what you’re thinking!” Ravyn barked.

  I halted in my tracks and faced her. Black tendrils of hair had curled up around Ravyn’s unblemished face. Her blue-green eyes glimmered brightly between her dark lashes. When Ravyn caught me gawking, he
r face turned a rosy shade of pink.

  Ravyn covered her cheeks with her hands. “Stop it, Thorne. Focus.”

  I grinned at her embarrassment, but nodded and carried on. “Do you recall me telling you once that Hawke had showed me several places in the Valley where we could survive during the winter months?”

  “Like that cave we slept in a few weeks ago?”

  I nodded.

  “No, Thorne.”

  “It may give us an advantage,” I insisted.

  “How so? Wolfe won’t send his soldiers out to freeze in the cold. He’s too smart for that.”

  “I don’t know,” I drawled, wagging my finger. “This latest attack seemed to be more desperate than the ones before. Do you honestly think he’s going to wait till springtime to hunt you down again?”

  Ravyn chewed on her lower lip and then grudgingly shook her head.

  I then asked her another question that had been lurking in the back of my mind. “What will Wolfe do now that Kieron is no longer his faithful captain?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, Thorne. Kieron was his most trusted and most skilled soldier.”

  “There’s no one to replace him?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” she said, scratching her head. “He would need all winter to train a new captain if he wanted that soldier to be as lethal as Kieron.”

  “Or … he might hunt Kieron down.”

  The blood drained from Ravyn’s face. If Wolfe somehow managed to brainwash Kieron again, it would be her worst nightmare.

  “We won’t let that happen to him,” I pledged.

  “So, that’s what you want me to do?” Ravyn snapped, folding her arms over her chest. “You want me to let you waltz down to Ahern and Peton while I go find Kieron and be his bodyguard?”

  “Do you have a better plan?”

  Ravyn scowled and shook her head.

  “Then this is our best option,” I said.