Battle for the Valley

by C. R. Pugh

  Tallon peered at Kieron out of the corner of her eye. “Because Ravyn knows, like the rest of us, that my brother is meticulous in his instructions. He was the commander of our people. He would never get his instructions mixed up like this.”

  I started pacing again and rubbing my forehead with my fingers.

  “Ravyn,” Camellia called out from behind me, concern etched in her soft voice. “What’s going on? What are you thinking about? You’ve been anxious about something for days. We’ve all noticed.”

  “Out with it.” Brock glared at Kaelem. “I don’t care who’s listening in.”

  I paused and faced them again. “Some of my memories are … clouded.”

  “Clouded?” Kieron asked.

  “It feels like … when Wolfe was torturing me and trying to brainwash me,” I said. “My mind feels like it’s coming out of a fog. Like someone …” Realization hit me like a sledgehammer. I twirled around and faced Kaelem. “… like someone messed with my mind.”

  Kaelem stared up at me with bewildered, wide eyes.

  Or did I see guilt?

  He scrambled to his feet, but I was faster. Tallon raced toward him as well. Kaelem ran ten feet before I’d caught up with him and tackled him to the ground.

  “Why are you running Kaelem?” I snarled, grabbing hold of his shirt and hauling him to his feet.

  Tallon clasped hold of his arm, and together we dragged him back to the camp and slammed his back against a tree. I slid my dagger from its sheath and placed it against his neck.

  “Please,” he whimpered, clamping his eyes shut. “I didn’t know, I didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know what?” Tallon snapped.

  “I – I didn’t know what was happening either,” he blubbered. “My mind was foggy too.”

  “How is that possible?” I barked. “You are the one with the mind-reading ability.”

  Camellia gasped behind us, and Kieron muttered, “He can do what?” I’d forgotten that neither of them knew.

  Tallon gripped Kaelem’s wrist, drew it up to eye-level, and pinned his hand against the tree trunk. “Maybe he needs some incentive to talk,” she said with venom lacing her voice. The ring of steel sounded as she drew her own dagger and placed the blade over his little finger.

  “No, no, no,” he pleaded. With his free hand he clasped my wrist and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing against my blade. “Please.”

  “Maybe I can shock the truth out of him, Ravyn,” Camellia said. She hovered over my shoulder and her voice had gone cold. “He must have tricked us back in Terran and at the compound when he left you in there.”

  “No!” he screamed. “I didn’t! I changed my mind about trading you, I swear!”

  I pressed my blade down harder against his throat. “Tell us the truth. What did happen?”

  Kaelem whimpered again and licked his lips. “Hagan … he was right when he said that I was the one banished from Ahern.” He swallowed and kept his eyes fixed on me. “It was Laelynn who talked everyone into leaving with me. I didn’t want them to come, but they insisted.”

  “Why?” I asked him.

  “Someone … found out about my gift and wanted to be rid of me. She was going to find a way to make me disappear one way or another. When she realized what I could do, she knew I could ruin her plans.”

  “Who found out?” Tallon inquired, narrowing her eyes. She was growing impatient, as I was.

  “Our Aunt Laela,” Kaelem replied. “She’s the governor. She … can control people with her mind. Not everyone at once. Just a few at a time … we think.”

  “You think?” Tallon snapped. She pressed her blade down harder on his finger.

  Kaelem squealed and replied, “It’s hard to know for sure. She’s sick and twisted. It’s because of her gift that she was even elected governor two years ago. Our mother was Laela’s sister. Mom and I figured out what Laela was doing to everyone, but Mom was too frightened to do anything. When Mother disappeared six months ago, I knew that it was only a matter of time before Laela came for me. So I decided to leave. I banished myself.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you wanted to turn me in to Wolfe the night I was in Linwood,” I accused. “Thorne said he heard you and Hagan discussing it.”

  Kaelem swallowed again. “I did turn you in … to my shame, I did, but I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  Tallon snorted. “I think he’s lying, Ravyn. He’s talking us in circles.” She lifted her elbow, ready to plunge her blade right through Kaelem’s finger.

  “Please, no!” Kaelem shrieked. Tears began to roll down his cheeks. “It wasn’t me who decided to turn you in. He tricked me. He tricked all of us. Laelynn was the one who realized …”

  “Realized what?” I asked.

  “She realized that he had an ability like Aunt Laela.”

  My stomach dropped. “He? You mean one of your brothers. Which one?”

  Tallon glared at him. “You’d better tell us or Ravyn and I will make you wish you were never born.”

  He glanced at each of us and gulped. “Nash.”

  Tallon’s brows pinched together. “Nash? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  She was right. Nash was the quiet one and he’d been kind to me from the start.

  The perfect cover, Ravyn. No one would have ever suspected sweet Nash.

  Kaelem continued. “I didn’t realize what he was doing until we separated from him to go to Terran. You remember?”

  I nodded, still trying to piece it all together.

  “We were in Terran, away from the others for days. My mind cleared and I remembered my first impression of you before Nash started putting thoughts into my head. I remembered that you risked your life for Laelynn. I remembered that you didn’t even want to stay in Linwood to begin with. Do you remember?” Kaelem asked.

  My jaw dropped open. I did remember. I was about to flee when one of the brothers knocked me out and put me in that pit.

  “You were dead set on leaving when we found you with Laelynn,” Kaelem reminded me. “Why did you decide to stay that night in Linwood after all? Why trust us?”

  “I don’t remember now,” I whispered. “Laelynn, maybe?”

  He gave a short laugh. “All it took was a gentle nudge inside your mind, some thought that you could trust Laelynn, and you were under Nash’s spell.”

  I bit back a curse. “That’s why Laelynn helped me escape the soldiers. She was trying to keep me away from Nash.”

  “She started figuring it out before any of us,” Kaelem said, more tears spilling over onto his cheeks. “I think … I think that’s why Laelynn was out wandering the Valley by herself when you found her that morning.”

  “What?” I gasped. I recalled briefly wondering how and why the brothers had allowed their sister to roam the Valley alone, but once I was inside their village I never gave it another thought.

  “Nash was trying to silence her!” Kaelem cried. “Make her disappear like our mother, because he didn’t want anyone to know!”

  “But why kill her?” Tallon asked. “What was Laelynn trying to do?”

  “She was trying to warn us,” he said, shaking his head. “So was Raimond.”

  “Raimond,” I muttered. I had forgotten about their brother who had been shot. “But you told me that -” I almost said Kieron’s name out loud, but I didn’t want to add any more burdens to his soul. “- that a soldier killed Raimond.”

  “He was killed by a soldier, but I can’t be sure that Nash didn’t play some sick, twisted part in it. How can we know for certain? He was trying to get Laelynn out of the way, remember?”

  “What are you saying?” Camellia asked. “That Nash wanted you, Laelynn, and Ravyn to die inside the compound?”

  “It would have been the perfect outcome for him,” Brock said behind us. “Three birds with one stone.”

  “Except Wolfe and his soldiers had no use for you two,” I mumbled. “All he wanted was me.” I glared at him for a moment and t
hought of something else. “Wouldn’t you be the first one to know what Nash was doing with your mind-reading ability? Wouldn’t you have heard Laelynn’s or Raimond’s thoughts?”

  “I would know … and I think I did sometimes,” he agreed with a dry laugh. “But Nash knew about my gift and he was right there, putting new thoughts in my head until my memories of what really happened were altered. After we left Terran and joined them again, I tried to pretend that I was still with the plan to trade you to Wolfe, but I think Nash was trying to get into my head again. My mind didn’t start to clear until we were inside the compound.”

  “Whose idea was it to trade me?” I asked. “Wolfe’s or Nash’s?”

  “I don’t know that either,” Kaelem admitted. His eyes lowered in defeat. “He’s had my head so messed up, I’m not sure what happened with all of that. I remember meeting with him …” he nodded to Kieron. “… after that, I don’t remember. I can only vaguely recall Laelynn trying to warn me again after you were captured by Wolfe.”

  I lowered my blade and took a step back, my eyes wide with fear.

  Though Kaelem wasn’t fighting us, Tallon adjusted her hold on Kaelem to keep him secure against the tree. “What is it, Ravyn?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Laelynn tried to warn me too,” I confessed. “I was questioning her about her time in the compound. She came out of there without being damaged at all, in body or mind, and I wanted to know why.” I stared at Kaelem. “Laelynn was having trouble telling me … then Haldar showed up and interrupted us.”

  “Maybe you were mistaken,” Brock suggested. “Maybe it was Haldar that has the mind-gift and not Nash.”

  I shook my head. “No, it couldn’t be. Haldar’s dead now.”

  Kaelem shoved his hands under his armpits and nodded. “When he realized you and Laelynn were alone, Nash probably sent Haldar to fetch her back before she could tell you anything,” he mumbled.

  Brock swore under his breath. “They’re traveling with Commander Thorne, Pierce, and Archer.”

  “We have to go back,” I told them. “We need to track them down and warn them.”

  “Wait!” Camellia barked. “This doesn’t make sense. If you were under your brother’s mind-control, how were you able to go back to save Ravyn at the compound?”

  Kaelem shrugged. “I never got near enough to Nash after the fight with the soldiers.”

  “That’s right,” Brock interjected. “Two of your brothers were gravely injured during the fight.”

  “Hagan and Nash,” I murmured.

  “Laelynn and Haldar were the only ones who tended them,” Kaelem said. “Laelynn was furious with me for leaving you in the compound and wouldn’t let me up into our treehouse.”

  “That was for the best,” Brock remarked.

  “It doesn’t matter though,” Kaelem said. “Nash got his wish, and now there’s no one to stop him.”

  “His wish?” Tallon asked.

  “He finally got Laelynn out of the way,” Kaelem said, fresh tears forming in his eyes.

  I shook my head, my stomach roiling with sickness. “The Sabers killed Laelynn. It was a horrible accident.”

  “No,” Kaelem cried. “I remember it now. That’s why I haven’t been sleeping. Nash killed her.”

  I took a threatening step toward him again, tightening the grip on my blade. “The Sabers yanked her down out of the tree. That’s what you told Archer and Pierce.”

  Kaelem shook his head. “We had her out of their reach. I know we did. Nash lied to your Warriors – put a new story into all our minds. I was holding onto her and … I felt it,” he whispered. He tapped his temple. “My mind was telling me to let go of her.”

  Camellia covered her mouth with her hands and I heard someone mutter a curse behind me. Bile rose up in the back of my throat.

  Kaelem placed both hands on his head and pinched his eyes shut. “I kept wracking my brain these last few days, wondering why I would think that. I didn’t want to let go, Ravyn. You know how much I loved her,” he sobbed. “She was my little sister. You know I would never …” He paused and wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve. “I dropped my own sister into the mouths of those beasts. Nash knew I’d never want to face anyone from home after that.”

  My mind drifted back to that day, and the last of the clouds lifted. I could see clearly. Laelynn was lying on the ground, shredded by the Saber. Nash was kneeling beside her, crying. Hagan was holding his twin in his arms nearby. That had been real.

  But Kaelem – he’d been sitting against the tree, paralyzed by his own brother’s mind-control. Nash and Hagan had been the ones to retell the story of what had happened. Kaelem stood there, frozen and dazed, while Hagan and Nash railed against him. Kaelem hadn’t heard a word they’d said to him.

  I was going to be sick.

  “I didn’t remember any of it until we’d been away from them for a while,” Kaelem said. “I think Haldar jumped down to try and save her. I doubt he was meant to die.”

  “You let it happen,” I said, fresh anger boiling up inside me. “You should have told me as soon as your mind cleared in Terran.”

  “Nash is my brother.”

  “And he killed your sister!” I bellowed. I backed Kaelem up against the tree trunk again and touched my blade to his cheek. “Why did he send Hagan to kidnap and stab me? To send me back to Wolfe?”

  Kaelem wiped his eyes with the back of his fist. “I think so.”

  “You were working for Wolfe all along.” I stared at him. His brown eyes were filled with sorrow. “No,” I said, seeing the whole story in a new light. “Not you. It was Nash. He was working for Wolfe. With your aunt.”

  Kaelem visibly swallowed and lowered his eyes.

  “Ahern’s governor is helping Wolfe, isn’t she?” I accused.

  “You don’t know that, Ravyn,” Kieron argued. “She might be trying to stop him.”

  I snorted. “I know because that’s just how things go for me.”

  “So, Nash delivers Ravyn to Wolfe,” said Tallon. “What does the governor of Ahern get?”

  “Unlimited supplies of the serum,” I replied, pacing back and forth in front of Kaelem. I shook my head. “Wolfe knew all along that his soldiers wouldn’t be enough to take over the continent. This was his plan from the beginning. He’s made a treaty with Ahern so that he has two armies to fight for him.”

  “Wolfe has his soldiers under mind-control,” Camellia pointed out.

  I stared at my sister. “And the governor of Ahern has a mind-control gift.”

  Brock raised an eyebrow. “Hawke always warned us … when power-hungry leaders build armies, they want to do one thing: invade another clan.”

  “Who would they invade?” Camellia asked.

  Tallon turned her cunning blue eyes to me. “The two closest clans to Ahern are Peton and Terran.”

  “They couldn’t breach the electric fences,” I said, shaking my head. “Besides, Wolfe already controls Terran. But Peton? Could they get in?” I asked Brock and Tallon.

  “There are ways around the walls …” Brock admitted. “… if they knew the way.”

  “Thorne would know, wouldn’t he?” I asked.

  Tallon swore. “That’s why Nash manipulated us into splitting up.”

  Kaelem shrank back against the tree trunk as Tallon raised her dagger to him. Brock gripped her upper arms, preventing her attack.

  “Let go, Brock! I’m going to kill him! If something’s happened to my brother -”

  “No, Tallon. We don’t have time for this,” Brock told her.

  “He’s right,” I agreed. “We need to get to Ahern.” Thorne could be in trouble already.

  I grabbed my pack and threw it over my shoulders. “Camellia, we’ll be moving at a fast pace -”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she snapped, picking up her crossbow. “I know I’m quiet and can’t shoot … and I’m not strong enough to bring down a Saber. But that doesn’t mean I can’t run.”

>   Kieron took a step toward me. “I’m coming with you.”

  Everyone paused and stared at him.

  “This isn’t your fight,” I muttered. “You need to stay far away from the compound. Away from Wolfe.”

  “And what about you?” he countered. “You need to stay away from him and you’re headed back to his territory.”

  “I know, but …”

  “You need help,” Kieron said, moving closer so only I could hear him. “You need me.”

  “What about going home?” I asked him. “What about your family?”

  “I still love you,” he said, his voice quiet but insistent. “You were my family at the compound. I’m going to do whatever it takes to earn your trust again.”

  I stared up at him for far longer than I should have. The warmth that I remembered was back in his dark eyes. I loved Thorne. Nothing had changed that, but Kieron wasn’t a monster anymore.

  Reluctantly, I nodded. I glanced at Camellia, Tallon, and Brock in turn. They all stood waiting for me. “Let’s go.”

  Behind us, Kaelem called out, “Wait! What about me? You’re … going to leave me here?” Kaelem’s shoulders sagged and tears stained his cheeks. I had never seen him look so defeated. “I – I can’t go back to Ahern,” he said. “My aunt … she’ll kill me.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Not if you kill her first.”

  Back to Map

  Table of Contents

  19

  Thorne

  The last four hours, I had been sitting alone in my cell. Ahern’s prison was deep underground beneath the dome the brothers had called the governor’s home. The walls were built of granite and the bars were made of iron. There were no windows and barely any light to see by.

  The guards had arrested the three of us, taken our blades, and thrown us into our own individual cells.

  The other cells were filled with other prisoners. I could hear them whispering and groaning to themselves nearby. My only concern was getting myself, Pierce, and Archer out of here alive.

  Sitting on the floor with my back to the stone wall, I knocked my head back against the granite. How could I have been so stupid?